BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI

Quite a number of revelations in the past few days that even mega-=Vaticanistas like John Allen and Andrea Tornielli, who are in Rio, not to mention Sandro Magister, who is not in Rio, have not allowed all the gloss and hype of Rio to drown out some unsettling facts about the direction of Pope Francis's moves so far toward reforming the central government of the Church - the common thread behind such matters being that Pope Francis may not have been getting the best advice on many the persons he has named to study these reforms, especially the eight-man overwhelmingly lay group supposed to ercommend the overhaul and streamlining of the Vatican/Holy See's econmic administrative structures. Rather like the Mons. Riccaproblem multiplied eight times, even if the issues attached to each of the nominees are not necessarily as scandalous as Mons. Ricca's not-too-secret life when he was a Vatican diplomat [which Magister claims has now been confirmed by the current Nuncio to Uruguay]. But that's getting ahead.

Me, I am taking great umbrage, on behalf of Benedict XVI and of truth in general (as opposed to unsubstantiated perception) at one particular statement attributed to Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga of Honduras, the onetime papabile named by Francis to coordinate his advisory council of eight cardinals.

Cardinal Maradiaga sounds out
about reforming the Curia
by Andrea Tornielli
Translated from the Italian service of

July 25, 2013

RIO DE JANEIRO - Last Tuesday, July 23, on the designated jetlag adjustment rest day for Pope Francis after arriving in Nrazil, the Pope turned his attention to the reform of the Roman Curia.

This was revealed to the Spanish newspaper El Razon by Honduran Cardinal Oscar Maradiaga who is coordinating the group of eight cardinals named to assist the Pope in restructiring the Vatican offices.

Maradiaga met with the Pope on Tuesday afternoon at the diocesan residence of Sumare, and said the Pope suggested that the cardinals prepare an instrumentum laboris - working instrument - on Curial reform in which they would systematically compile all the proposals coming from the bishops in various regions of the world - in the interests of facilitating the group's work and making it more fruitful. [DUH! No matter what they call it, such a document would obviously have to be the basis of the cardinals' proposals! That is why I thought from the start that their preliminary werk alone would require enormous paperwork and coordination, because the eight 'primus inter pares' cardinals cannot possibly make their suggestions based on their own individual perceptions alone of what needs to be done but must consult the hundreds of bishops, not to mention the episcopal conferences as well as ordinary priests and religious, in the geographical regions they represent. Much of the suggestions may well be the pot calling the kettle black, because I did not read of any prelate in the pre-Conclave furor of denouncing Benedict's governance who said anything aboutg the mini-Curias and elaborate bureaucracies in many dioceses around the world resulting from a misreading of Vatican II directives! On the other hand, the parties concerned would know firsthand whereof they speak when they propose changes in the Roman curia - i.e., "Yeah, these they should do and should not do, but leave us alone with our own mini-Vaticans!"[

'The intention is that the ideas should come from the bottom," Maradiaga explained, "and there is great enthusiasm among the bishops, there's a great desire to reinforce collegiality, and to have an insturmentumlaboris with definite proposals will certainly help the Pope in his decision making.

"There is a great desire that the Pope ought to be better informed, in order not to repeat what happened with Benedict XVI and Vatileaks". [EXCUSE ME!!!!! What 'happened with Benedict XVI', exactly - he was ill-informed? What does Vatileaks have to do with it? Is Maradiaga buying into Paolo Gabriele's preposterous charge that Benedict XVI was most uninformed of what was happening in the Church? All of a sudden, the Church man who for more than 20 years was universally recognized as the one person in Rome that all bishops could run to vent their problems became overnight the most uninformed man in Rome? The levels at which one must expostulate vehemently against Maradiaga's condescending and totally unfair statement are manifold and mortifying!]

Information should get to the Pope without being filtered, Maradiaga saidFor instance, [What substantial information did not get to Benedict XVI because it was 'filtered'? Name one! For instance, he learned enough of Bertone's various machinations to prevent him from carrying out initiatives that would have been disastrous for Benedict, to name just the most obvious things he blocked. Did Georg Gaenswein, for instance, keep Cardinal Tettamanzi from meeting with the Pope as soon as he complained of the letter faxed to him by Bertone dismissing him from the Toniolo Institute? Why is Benedict not even credit!]ed for these things (other than by Sandro Magister, that I am aware of). I hgpe I am wrong and am just too hyper-touchy about all these injustices to Benedict, but I somehow get the impression that Maradiaga reflects Bergoglio's thinking exactly about the 'failings' of Benedict - after all, this seems to be the consensus of all the cardinals before the Conclave and they elected him precisely as their idea of the 'anti-Benedict', or at the very least, 'the antidote' to the poison Benedict had left behind!...And speaking of 'filtered' information getting to the Pope, we will soon get to that in the case of Mons. Ricca and now the lay board of 'administrrative reformers'!]

The cardinal reiterated the expected redimensioning of the Secretariat of State and the need to avoid redundancies such as that, he believes, with the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples and the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization. [It was incumbent on Tornielli at this point that there is no redundancy between the two - Propaganda Fide will continue to deal with the world's traditional mission lands and conventional missionary work in the poorest regions of the world, where the thrust is evangelization da novo, while the Council is to concentrate on 're-evangelizing' formerly traditional Christian lands in the West. Surely, Maradiaga is intelligent enough to see the difference - and why Propaganda Fide cannot divide its attention from the half of the Catholic world that it is now tending to!

Finally, Maradiaga gets on to the subject of the IOR: "It would be a good idea to transform it into an ethical bank. Evey state has a right to have an ethical bank - why not the Vatican?" [But no one is contesting that the Vatican is entitled to have a bank! And what is an 'ethical bank'? In Christian doctrine, every bank should be ethical! The IOR is unique by virtue of the law that created it - it can undertake some banking functions but it does not provide all regular banking services, such as loans or mortgages. Basically, it receives client deposits and handles transactions on those deposits - and that is where the supposed 'scandals' lie, It has been widely believed that many IOR depositors are laymen laundering dirty money through IOR. Mother Teresa and John Paul II apparenrly did not think the source of funds was significant as long as they could fund their causes through IOR - her manifold charities in the case of one, and the political fortunes of the labor union Solidarity in Communist Poland, for the second. Like ordinary banks, IOR invests a considerable part of those deposits to grow the funds. It has been donating at least 50 million euros a year from its profits on those investments to 'religious works' (charitable and social causes) undertaken by the Pope - the purpose for which it was created.]

He recalled that in the pre-Conclave meetings last March, "We asked the question and we were told thst IOR is not a bank but a foundation. why then does it act like a bank?" {That is the tendentious question of someone who is inherently biased against the IOR, which acts 'like a bank' only in those functions that are banking functions but are no means the full array of tasks undertaken by a regular bank. And all those who are so censorious of IOR knowing only the smelly parts of the elephant are playing holier than Mother Teresa or John Paul II.]

Now we come to what seems to be an obvious weakness in the manner whereby Pope Francis appoints his proliferating study groups for reform. Where does the Pope pick this people from, who foisted them on him, and who can he trust to vet them for him since even a wonder-Pope cannot do everything Here is John Allen on the issue.

Allen opens with the breathless wonder of all those who are feeling "How lucky I am to be alive just now - a god has descemded among us mortals", and then goes on to hint that perhaps the adored deity is not absolutely flawless, but nonetheless, he must stick to a flawed decision?!??....

The pot still boils in Rome
while Francis is away
By Jihn Allen

July 26, 2013

...The mere fact Francis is out of town, however, doesn't mean his problems in Rome have taken a vacation. [Ah so! This Pope has problems, too? And here we have been led to believe that all problems at the Vatican retired along with Benedict XVI, source and agent of all things wrong at the Vatican and in the Church!

In fact, while Francis is making his triumphant homecoming to Latin America, there are three fires burning back in Rome, one of which he learned of just before he left and two more that have erupted while he's been away.

Taken together, these three situations illustrate that Francis will have his work cut out for him when he gets back. If nothing else, his decision not to head out for the traditional summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo during August and to stay on the job instead is starting to look like a good call. [What a hoot! This business of where the Pope is and how it affects his work is getting more and more ridiculous. You'd think none of the Popes who summered in Castel Gandolfo ever got anything done - or did anything - while they were there. It's not like the task they have to do is, ay, to tend to a rosebed in the Vatican Gardens whicm requires their actual presence there!]

Msgr. Battista Ricca
I wrote last week about the explosive piece published by veteran Italian journalist Sandro Magister concerning the pope's hand-picked choice to serve as his prelate, or papal delegate, for the Vatican bank, an Italian clergyman named Msgr. Battista Ricca.

Magister's story appeared July 19, three days before Francis left for Brazil.

In a nutshell, Magister charged that when Ricca was a Vatican diplomat in Uruguay from roughly 1999 to 2001, he had a live-in male lover; that he cruised gay bars, and once was beaten up; and that another time, he brought a young man back to the Vatican embassy in Montevideo and ended up trapped in an elevator with him overnight.

For Magister, the fact that Ricca was able to return to Rome, take over as director of several residences, and eventually win the trust of the new pope -- without his history in Uruguay surfacing until now -- is proof positive that there's a "gay lobby" in the Vatican that takes care of its own.

There's nothing new to report, except that people who have seen the pope since the Magister piece appeared report he still has confidence in Ricca and that for now, at least, Ricca's keeping his job.

It may be that Francis knows more about Ricca's personal story and has reasons at that level for resisting a rush to judgment. [Rationalizing for the pluperfect Pope, Mr. Allen??? One would think he does not need it, wen everyone is bending over backward to give him the full benefit of any doubt whatsoever. As in "He's so driven by the Holy Spirit at every moment that he could not possibly have made a mistake!"] Without any direct insight into the mind of the pope, I can think of one other motive he might have for shrinking from sending Ricca packing, at least anytime soon. [Yada, yada, yada - if it had been Benedict who had made such a dubious appointment, and decided to stick with it, oh my!, the general fury that would have descended on him like an avalanche of hostility would have far outdone the worst of Hell's furies!]

Francis might be concerned that if did so, he'd create the precedent that anyone who wants to stop his reform can do so by digging up dirt on the people he tasks with carrying it out. For the leader of any institution, especially one that claims moral leadership, [Is that not precisely why that's an awfully dangerous red flag to wave. [Even if the dirt does exit???? Is that not precisely why the very appearance of dubiousness should cause the appoinbtmenet to be withdrawn? Magister's latest development is that the current Nuncio in Uruguay has cinfirmed the reported facts about Ricca's conduct when he was in Uruguay.]

Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui
Also July 19, Francis announced the creation of a new pontifical commission to study reform in the economic and administrative structures of the Vatican, appointing eight people to run it -- all but one laymen, with most drawn from the worlds of banking, finance and law.

The early reaction was to see the move as another positive step toward reform, but Tuesday -- allegedly a day of rest for Francis here in Brazil -- a controversy broke out in the Italian press over one of his appointments, a laywoman named Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, the lone Italian in the group.

A 30-year-old devoted Catholic who's worked, among other places, at Ernst and Young, Chaouqui is the child of an Italian mother and an Egyptian father. She could also be a candidate for another distinction: The first papal nominee in history to lose a job because of use of social media.

Chaouqui, as it turns out, has a very active Twitter account. [But what exactly qualified her to be on the Pope's reform board???? Does she have any particular expertise in finance and administration? Is that not the most relevant fact that ought to be brought out about her CV? Perhaps she has none, which is why everyone has focused on her dubious erporting and commentary on her Twitter account.]]

Enterprising journalists followed her digital paper trail, and here's what they found:
- Back in February, she tweeted that Benedict XVI had leukemia, although the Vatican has repeatedly denied that any specific health concern led to his decision to resign the papacy. [That alone ought to have disqualified her from even being suggested to Pope Francis! Should someone who has spread a lie about the Pope even deserve to have heer name brought up to be part of a papal commission???]

- Chaouqui has sent out several seemingly friendly tweets about journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi, who was the one who received stolen documents from the pope's butler and gave rise to the Vatican leaks affair. At one stage, Chaouqui told Nuzzi he was "bleeding right."

= At another point, Chaouqui tweeted: "Syrian children are dying, and the church is fighting against the butler. How can a Catholic stay Christian like this?"

= Chaouqui also doesn't seem well-disposed to the Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. On Feb. 11, the day Benedict announced his resignation, she tweeted: "Bertone has won ... as a believer, I'm depressed."

Among other things, that last tweet suggests Chaouqui may have something to learn about the Vatican. If anything was clear about Benedict's resignation, it was that it also meant the imminent end of Bertone's run.

To round out the presentation, Chaouqui also sent a tweet the evening of March 13, when Francis was elected, saying "they tell me he's French." (Presumably, she got confused between "Francesco" and francese, the Italian word for "French.")

Granted, none of these tweets are really scandalous. If anything, they illustrate a bit of poor judgment and the lack of a good internal editor before hitting the "send" button. [Such tweets reveal the traits of an inveterate gossip, that's what!]

Nonetheless, they've caused some commentators to wonder if Chaouqui really belongs on a commission charged with drafting the blueprint of Francis' reform. [What, in fact, are her qualifications to be a member of such a committee? Is she a finance and administrative expert? Apparently not! Allen omits one much more 'disturbing' fact about the woman: She is said to be one of the most active providers of material for Italy's most notorious muck-raker, a gossip columnist who goes by the name of DAGOSPIA. Imagine the implications, considering that, as a member of Francis's committee, she will have full access to any and all Vatican documents the committee may choose to look at...]

To the question of whether Francis will be inclined to dump her, at least any time soon, my answer is "probably not." As for why not, see the last point made above about Ricca. [i.e., This Pope cannot possibly back out of any appointment he makes, no matter how dubious it turns out to be, because that would mean 'caving in to pressure' - regardless of objective fact??????... Another well-respected Vatican commentator, Francesco Collafemmina, has written an extensive blog about the questionable backgrounds of the seven other laymen chosen to be part of the committee that Chaoqui is on - it seems each of them is actively involved in national and/or multinational firms in ways that represent a conflict of interest for anyone 'investigating' the Vatican. More of that later, because the artivle needs to betranslated.]

Msgr. Nunzio Scarano
Finally, Msgr. Nunzio Scarano was back in the news Thursday. For those who don't recall, he's the former Vatican accountant who was recently arrested for involvement in a plot to smuggle $26 million in cash into Italy on a private plane. He also faces an investigation for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder funds.

Italian media outlets Thursday featured a leaked letter Scarano reportedly wrote to Pope Francis on July 20 protesting his innocence. If so, it had to be penned from Rome's Queen of Heaven (Regina Coeli) prison, where Scarano is currently behind bars.

According to the text presented in media reports, Scarano insisted he never acted for his own benefit, rather only "to help those who asked for my help."

In itself, the fact that someone facing criminal charges has reportedly claimed innocence probably isn't any shocker. Slightly juicer is what else Scarano allegedly told the pope about his situation at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, the Vatican's main financial department, known by its Italian acronym APSA.

According to the reports, Scarano told Francis he was the only priest in APSA and "I wasn't allowed to do very much." He says he waged a constant battle against "the abuses of my lay superiors," abuses he says were "cover up by some cardinals ... with skeletons in the closest, who were well blackmailed."He does not name who he believes these "blackmailed cardinals" were.

Scarano claims in the letter to have sought help in bringing these abuses to light from Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz of Cracow, the former secretary of John Paul II, and Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan.
[Allen has it wrong - the reports refer not Scola, who had nothing to do with Vatican administration at any time, but to Sodano, who was Secretary of State! Not a word then to note how whatever Scarano claims dates back to the John Paul II Pontificate, and that presumably, during Benedict's time, Scarano dropped the matter????]

"My banking operations at the Vatican bank were always done under the counsel and direction of the superiors, and I never abused the courtesy," Scarano reportedly wrote the pope.

He is supposed to have added: "Your Holiness, I've always served the church, with a true and priestly spirit. I hope to be able to send you secretly my envelope of documents so they might strongly reinforce your great and courageous effort to finally bring order to the sad administrative, economic and financial realities of the Holy See, and all the abuses annexed and connected to them."

There are at least two layers of doubt about all this that have to be attached.

First, the letter has been reported as genuine, but so far, no one's officially confirmed it. Second, even if it is, one has to take the protestations of an accused criminal with a grain of salt, even if the principle of innocent until proven guilty still applies.

That said, the situation is a reminder of how much work Francis still has to do on the financial front, beginning with the Vatican bank -- both to foster transparency and, perhaps just as importantly, the perception of transparency.

POPE FRANCIS IN BRAZIL:
Day 5 of the visit
July 26, 2013

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Angelus remarks
Archbishop’s Residence, Rio de Janeiro
Friday, 26 July 2013

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Friends, Good day!

I give thanks to Divine Providence for bringing me here to the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. I offer heartfelt thanks to Archbishop Orani Tempesta and to each of you for your warm welcome, which demonstrates your affection for the Successor of Peter.

I would be happy if my visit to this city were to renew, in each one of you, your love for Christ and his Church and your joy in being one with him, belonging to the Church and being committed to offering a living witness to the faith.

The Angelus prayer is a beautiful popular expression of the faith. It is a simple prayer, recited at three specific times during the day. It thus punctuates the rhythm of our daily activities: in the morning, at midday, and at sunset. But it is an important prayer. I encourage each of you to recite it, along with the Hail Mary. It reminds us of a luminous event which transformed history: the Incarnation, the moment when the Son of God became man in Jesus of Nazareth.

Today the Church celebrates the parents of the Virgin Mary, the grandparents of Jesus, Saints Joachim and Anne. In their home, Mary came into the world, accompanied by the extraordinary mystery of the Immaculate Conception.

Mary grew up in the home of Joachim and Anne; she was surrounded by their love and faith: in their home she learned to listen to the Lord and to follow his will. Saints Joachim and Anne were part of a long chain of people who had transmitted their faith and love for God, expressed in the warmth and love of family life, down to Mary, who received the Son of God in her womb and who gave him to the world, to us.

How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith! Speaking about family life, I would like to say one thing: today, as Brazil and the Church around the world celebrate this feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, Grandparents Day is also being celebrated.

How important grandparents are for family life, for passing on the human and religious heritage which is so essential for each and every society! How important it is to have intergenerational exchanges and dialogue, especially within the context of the family.

The Aparecida Document says, “Children and the elderly build the future of peoples: children because they lead history forward, the elderly because they transmit the experience and wisdom of their lives” (No. 447).

This relationship and this dialogue between generations is a treasure to be preserved and strengthened! In this World Youth Day, young people wish to acknowledge and honour their grandparents. They salute them with great affection and they thank them for the ongoing witness of their wisdom.

And now, in this Square, in all the surrounding streets, and in those homes that are experiencing this moment of prayer with us, we feel like one big family, and we turn to Mary, that she may protect our families and make them places of faith and love in which the presence of Jesus her Son is felt.

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ADDRESS BEFORE THE VIA CRUCIS
Copacabana Beach
Friday, 26 July 2013

Dear Young Friends,

We have come here today to accompany Jesus on his journey of sorrow and love, the Way of the Cross, which is one of the most intense moments of World Youth Day.

At the end of the Holy Year of Redemption, Blessed John Paul II chose to entrust the Cross to you, young people, asking you “to carry it throughout the world as a symbol of Christ’s love for humanity, and announce to everyone that only in the death and resurrection of Christ can we find salvation and redemption” (Address to Young People, 22 April 1984).

Since then, the World Youth Day Cross has travelled to every continent and through a variety of human situations. It is, as it were, almost “steeped” in the life experiences of the countless young people who have seen it and carried it.

Dear brothers and sisters, no one can approach and touch the Cross of Jesus without leaving something of himself or herself there, and without bringing something of the Cross of Jesus into his or her own life.

I have three questions that I hope will echo in your hearts this evening as you walk beside Jesus: What have you left on the Cross, dear young people of Brazil, during these two years that it has been crisscrossing your great country? What has the Cross of Jesus left for you, in each one of you? Finally, what does this Cross teach us?

1. According to an ancient Roman tradition, while fleeing the city during the persecutions of Nero, Saint Peter saw Jesus who was travelling in the opposite direction, that is, toward the city, and asked him in amazement: “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus’sresponse was: “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.”

At that moment, Peter understood that he had to follow the Lord with courage, to the very end. But he also realized that he would never be alone on the journey; Jesus, who had loved him even unto death, would always be with him.

Jesus, with his Cross, walks with us and takes upon himself our fears, our problems, and our sufferings, even those which are deepest and most painful.

With the Cross, Jesus unites himself to the silence of the victims of violence, those who can no longer cry out, especially the innocent and the defenceless; with the Cross, he is united to families in trouble, and those who mourn the tragic loss of their children, as in the case of the 242 young victims of the fire in the City of Santa Maria at the beginning of this year. We pray for them.

On the Cross, Jesus is united with every person who suffers from hunger in a world which, on the other hand, permits itself the luxury of throwing away tons of food every day; on the Cross, Jesus is united to the many mothers and fathers who suffer as they see their children become victims of drug-induced euphoria; on the Cross, Jesus is united with those who are persecuted for their religion, for their beliefs or simply for the colour of their skin; on the Cross, Jesus is united with so many young people who have lost faith in political institutions, because they see in them only selfishness and corruption; he unites himself with those young people who have lost faith in the Church, or even in God because of the counter-witness of Christians and ministers of the Gospel.

How our inconsistencies make Jesus suffer! The Cross of Christ bears the suffering and the sin of mankind, including our own. Jesus accepts all this with open arms, bearing on his shoulders our crosses and saying to us: “Have courage! You do not carry your cross alone! I carry it with you. I have overcome death and I have come to give you hope, to give you life” (cf. Jn 3:16).

2. Now we can answer the second question: What has the Cross given to those who have gazed upon it and to those who have touched it? What has the Cross left in each one of us?

You see, it gives us a treasure that no one else can give: the certainty of the faithful love which God has for us. A love so great that it enters into our sin and forgives it, enters into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it. It is a love which enters into death to conquer it and to save us.

The Cross of Christ contains all the love of God; there we find his immeasurable mercy. This is a love in which we can place all our trust, in which we can believe. Dear young people, let us entrust ourselves to Jesus, let us give ourselves over to him (cf. Lumen Fidei, 16), because he never disappoints anyone!

Only in Christ crucified and risen can we find salvation and redemption. With him, evil, suffering, and death do not have the last word, because he gives us hope and life: he has transformed the Cross from being an instrument of hate, defeat and death to being a sign of love, victory, triumph and life.

The first name given to Brazil was “The Land of the Holy Cross”. The Cross of Christ was planted five centuries ago not only on the shores of this country, but also in the history, the hearts and the lives of the people of Brazil and elsewhere. The suffering Christ is keenly felt here, as one of us who shares our journey even to the end. There is no cross, big or small, in our life, which the Lord does not share with us.

3. But the Cross of Christ invites us also to allow ourselves to be smitten by his love, teaching us always to look upon others with mercy and tenderness, especially those who suffer, who are in need of help, who need a word or a concrete action; the Cross invites us to step outside ourselves to meet them and to extend a hand to them.

How many times have we seen them in the Way of the Cross, how many times have they accompanied Jesus on the way to Calvary: Pilate, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, the women…

Today I ask you: which of them do you want to be? Do you want to be like Pilate, who did not have the courage to go against the tide to save Jesus’s life, and instead washed his hands? Tell me: are you one of those who wash their hands, who feign ignorance and look the other way?

Or are you like Simon of Cyrene, who helped Jesus to carry that heavy wood, or like Mary and the other women, who were not afraid to accompany Jesus all the way to the end, with love and tenderness?

And you, who do you want to be? Like Pilate? Like Simon? Like Mary? Jesus is looking at you now and is asking you: do you want to help me carry the Cross? Brothers and sisters, with all the strength of your youth, how will you respond to him?

Dear friends, let us bring to Christ’s Cross our joys, our sufferings and our failures. There we will find a Heart that is open to us and understands us, forgives us, loves us and calls us to bear this love in our lives, to love each person, each brother and sister, with the same love.

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Saturday, July 27, 17th Week in Ordinary Time

BLESSED ANTONIO LUCCI (Italy, 1683-1752), Franciscan and Bishop
Educated by Franciscans, he became a Franciscan himself and went on to teach theology
in Franciscan seminaries. In 1717, he became provincial-general of the Franciscans, and
the following year, was named a professor at St. Bonaventure College in Rome. In 1729,
Pope Benedict XII named him Bishop of Bovino (east central Italy) calling him "an
eminent theologian and a great saint". He was bishop for 23 years, renewing his diocese
in living according to the gospel, and giving up his personal income to works of education
and charity. He also wrote a book about the conventual Franciscans who were canonized
and beatified in the first 200 years of the order. He was beatified in 1989.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072713.cfm

POPE FRANCIS'S APOSTOLIC VISIT TO BRAZIL

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Day 6
Saturday, 27 July 2013

09:00 Holy Mass with the Bishops of the 28th WYD and with Priests, Religious and Seminarians
Cathedral of St Sebastian, Rio de Janeiro
Homily of the Holy Father.

11:30 Meeting with leaders of Brazilian society
Municipal Theatre of Rio
Address of the Holy Father.

13:30 Luncheon with the Cardinals of Brazil, the Presidency of the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil,
the Bishops from the Region, and the Papal Entourage
Refectory of the Sumaré Study Centre
Address of the Holy Father.

19:30 Prayer Vigil with WYD pilgrims
Copacabana Beach
Address of the Holy Father

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APOSTOLIC VISIT TO BRAZIL
Day 6, July 27, 2013

Mass at Rio Cathedral:
Pope urges clergy to promote
a culture of encounter


Pope Francis on Saturday urged clergy, seminarians and religious to respond to the call of God, proclaim the Gospel and promote a culture of encounter in their lives and ministry.

In his homily at Mass in Rio de Janeiro’s Cathedral of Saint Sebastian, the Pope cited these three aspects of their vocation as essential to evangelization.

The Holy Father is in Brazil for a week long visit to celebrate World Youth Day with young people from around the world.

Here is the English translation of the homily:

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Seeing this Cathedral full of Bishops, priests, seminarians, and men and women religious from the whole world, I think of the Psalmist’s words from today’s Mass: “Let the peoples praise you, O God” (Ps 66).

We are indeed here to praise the Lord, and we do so reaffirming our desire to be his instruments so that not only some peoples may praise God, but all. With the same parrhesia of Paul and Barnabas, we proclaim the Gospel to our young people, so that they may encounter Christ, the light for our path, and build a more fraternal world.

I wish to reflect with you on three aspects of our vocation: we are called by God, called to proclaim the Gospel, and called to promote the culture of encounter.

1. Called by God – It is important to rekindle an awareness of our divine vocation, which we often take for granted in the midst of our many daily responsibilities: as Jesus says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16).

This means returning to the source of our calling. At the beginning of our vocational journey, there is a divine election. For this reason, a bishop, a priest, a consecrated man or woman, a seminarian cannot have a bad memory. He or she must safeguard that grace and never forget his or her first calling.

We were called by God and we were called to be with Jesus (cf. Mk 3:14), united with him in a way so profound that we are able to say with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20).

This living in Christ, in fact, marks all that we are and all that we do. And this “life in Christ” is precisely what ensures the effectiveness of our apostolate, that our service is fruitful: “I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15:16).

It is not pastoral creativity, or meetings or planning that ensure our fruitfulness, but our being faithful to Jesus, who says insistently: “Abide in me and I in you” (Jn 15:4). And we know well what that means: to contemplate him, to worship him, to embrace him, especially through our faithfulness to a life of prayer, and in our daily encounter with him, present in the Eucharist and in those most in need.

“Being with” Christ does not isolate us from others. Rather, it is a “being with” in order to go forth and encounter others. This brings to mind some words of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “We must be very proud of our vocation because it gives us the opportunity to serve Christ in the poor. It is in the favelas, in the cantegriles, in the villas miseria, that one must go to seek and to serve Christ. We must go to them as the priest presents himself at the altar, with joy” (Mother’s Instructions, I, p. 80).

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is our true treasure. Let us try to unite our hearts ever more closely to his (cf. Lk 12:34).

2. Called to proclaim the Gospel – dear Bishops and priests, many of you, if not all, have accompanied your young people to World Youth Day. They too have heard the mandate of Jesus: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (cf. Mt 28:19).

It is our responsibility to help kindle within their hearts the desire to be missionary disciples of Jesus. Certainly, this invitation could cause many to feel somewhat afraid, thinking that to be missionaries requires leaving their own homes and countries, family and friends.

God asks us to be missionaries where we are, where He puts us! Let us help our young people to realize that the call to be missionary disciples flows from our baptism and is an essential part of what it means to be a Christian.

We must also help them to realize that we are called first to evangelize in our own homes and our places of study and work, to evangelize our family and friends. Let us help our young people, let us open our ears to their questions, they need to be listened to when in difficulty; of course patience is needed to listen, in confession and in spiritual direction. We need to know how best to spend time with them.

Let us spare no effort in the formation of our young people! Saint Paul uses a beautiful expression that he embodied in his own life, when he addressed the Christian community: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you” (Gal 4:19).

Let us embody this also in our own ministry! Let us help our young people to discover the courage and joy of faith, the joy of being loved personally by God, who gave his Son Jesus for our salvation. Let us form them in mission, in going out and going forth.

Jesus did this with his own disciples: he did not keep them under his wing like a hen with her chicks. He sent them out! We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities, when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!

It is not enough simply to open the door in welcome, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the people! Let us courageously look to pastoral needs, beginning on the outskirts, with those who are farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church. They are the V.I.P.s invited to the table of the Lord... go and look for them in the nooks and crannies of the streets.

3. Called to promote the culture of encounter – Unfortunately, in many places, generally in this economic humanism that prevails in the world, the culture of exclusion, of rejection, is spreading. There is no place for the elderly or for the unwanted child; there is no time for that poor person on the edge of the street.

At times, it seems that for some people, human relations are regulated by two modern “dogmas”: efficiency and pragmatism. Dear Bishops, priests, religious and you, seminarians who are preparing for ministry: have the courage to go against the tide.

Let us not reject this gift of God which is the one family of his children. Encountering and welcoming everyone, solidarity... this is a word that in this culture is being hidden away, as if it was a swear word... solidarity and fraternity: these are what make our society truly human.

Be servants of communion and of the culture of encounter! Permit me to say that we must be almost obsessive in this matter. We do not want to be presumptuous, imposing “our truths”.

What must guide us is the humble yet joyful certainty of those who have been found, touched and transformed by the Truth who is Christ, ever to be proclaimed (cf. Lk 24:13-35).

Dear brothers and sisters, we are called by God, called to proclaim the Gospel and called to promote with courage the culture of encounter. May the Virgin Mary be our exemplar. In her life she was “a model of that motherly love with which all who join in the Church’s apostolic mission for the regeneration of humanity should be animated” (Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 65).

Let us ask her to teach us to meet Jesus every day, let us ask her to encourage us to go out to meet our many brothers and sisters who are on the edges and are thirsty for God but do not have anyone to announce Him; let us ask her not to throw us out of home, but to encourage us to leave home; in this way we will be disciples of the Lord.

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Pope Francis tells the Bishops of Brazil
about 'the Church we need today'


Pope Francis had a joyful but challenging message for the Bishops of Brazil on Saturday.

As part of World Youth Day festivities, the Holy Father took the opportunity to meet with the world’s largest episcopate. Pope Francis thanked the Bishops for allowing him to speak as “one among friends”. For that reason, he said, he spoke in his native Spanish, in order “to better express what I carry in my heart.”

Here is the English translation of his address:

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Address of the Holy Father
to the Bishops of Brazil
Archbishop's Residence
Rui de Janeiro
July 27, 2013

Dear Brothers,

How good it is to be here with you, the Bishops of Brazil! Thank you for coming, and please allow me to speak with you as one among friends. That’s why I prefer to speak to you in Spanish, so as to express better what I carry in my heart. I ask you to forgive me.

We are meeting somewhat apart, in this place prepared by our brother, Archbishop Orani Tempesta, so that we can be alone and speak to one another from the heart, as pastors to whom God has entrusted his flock.

On the streets of Rio, young people from all over the world and countless others await us, needing to be reached by the merciful gaze of Christ the Good Shepherd, whom we are called to make present. So let us enjoy this moment of repose, exchange of ideas and authentic fraternity.

Beginning with the President of the Episcopal Conference and the Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, I want to embrace each and every one of you, and in a particular way the Emeritus Bishops.

More than a formal address, I would like to share some reflections with you.

The first came to mind when I visited the shrine of Aparecida. There, at the foot of the statue of the Immaculate Conception, I prayed for you, your Churches, your priests, men and women religious, seminarians, laity and their families and, in a particular way, the young people and the elderly: these last are the hope of a nation; the young, because they bring strength, idealism and hope for the future; the elderly because they represent the memory, the wisdom of the people.

1. Aparecida: a key for interpreting the Church’s mission
In Aparecida God gave Brazil his own Mother. But in Aparecida God also offered a lesson about himself, about his way of being and acting. A lesson about the humility which is one of God’s essential features, part of God’s DNA.

Aparecida offers us a perennial teaching about God and about the Church; a teaching which neither the Church in Brazil nor the nation itself must forget.

At the beginning of the Aparecida event, there were poor fishermen looking for food. So much hunger and so few resources. People always need bread. People always start with their needs, even today.

They have a dilapidated, ill-fitted boat; their nets are old and perhaps torn, insufficient.

First comes the effort, perhaps the weariness, of the catch, yet the results are negligible: a failure, time wasted. For all their work, the nets are empty.

Then, when God wills it, he mysteriously enters the scene. The waters are deep and yet they always conceal the possibility of a revelation of God. He appeared out of the blue, perhaps when he was no longer expected. The patience of those who await him is always tested.

And God arrived in a novel fashion, since he can always reinvent himself: as a fragile clay statue, darkened by the waters of the river and aged by the passage of time. God always enters clothed in poverty, littleness.

Then there is the statue itself of the Immaculate Conception. First, the body appeared, then the head, then the head was joined to the body: unity. What had been broken is restored and becomes one. Colonial Brazil had been divided by the shameful wall of slavery. Our Lady of Aparecida appears with a black face, first separated, and then united in the hands of the fishermen.

Here there is an enduring message which God wants to teach us. His own beauty, reflected in his Mother conceived without original sin, emerges from the darkness of the river. In Aparecida, from the beginning, God’s message was one of restoring what was broken, reuniting what had been divided. Walls, chasms, differences which still exist today are destined to disappear. The Church cannot neglect this lesson: she is called to be a means of reconciliation.

The fishermen do not dismiss the mystery encountered in the river, even if it is a mystery which seems incomplete. They do not throw away the pieces of the mystery. They await its completion. And this does not take long to come. There is a wisdom here that we need to learn. There are pieces of the mystery, like the stones of a mosaic, which we encounter, which we see. We are impatient, anxious to see the whole picture, but God lets us see things slowly, quietly. The Church also has to learn how to wait.

Then the fishermen bring the mystery home. Ordinary people always have room to take in the mystery. Perhaps we have reduced our way of speaking about mystery to rational explanations; but for ordinary people the mystery enters through the heart. In the homes of the poor, God always finds a place.

The fishermen “bundle up” the mystery, they clothe the Virgin drawn from the waters as if she were cold and needed to be warmed. God asks for shelter in the warmest part of ourselves: our heart. God himself releases the heat we need, but first he enters like a shrewd beggar.

The fishermen wrap the mystery of the Virgin with the lowly mantle of their faith. They call their neighbours to see its rediscovered beauty; they all gather around and relate their troubles in its presence and they entrust their causes to it. In this way they enable God’s plan to be accomplished: first comes one grace, then another; one grace leads to another; one grace prepares for another. God gradually unfolds the mysterious humility of his power.

There is much we can learn from the approach of the fishermen. About a Church which makes room for God’s mystery; a Church which harbours that mystery in such a way that it can entice people, attract them. Only the beauty of God can attract.

God’s way is through enticement, allure. God lets himself be brought home. He awakens in us a desire to keep him and his life in our homes, in our hearts. He reawakens in us a desire to call our neighbours in order to make known his beauty.

Mission is born precisely from this divine allure, by this amazement born of encounter. We speak about mission, about a missionary Church. I think of those fishermen calling their neighbours to see the mystery of the Virgin. Without the simplicity of their approach, our mission is doomed to failure.

The Church needs constantly to relearn the lesson of Aparecida; she must not lose sight of it. The Church’s nets are weak, perhaps patched; the Church’s barque is not as powerful as the great transatlantic liners which cross the ocean. And yet God wants to be seen precisely through our resources, scanty resources, because he is always the one who acts.

Dear brothers, the results of our pastoral work do not depend on a wealth of resources, but on the creativity of love. To be sure, perseverance, effort, hard work, planning and organization all have their place, but first and foremost we need to realize that the Church’s power does not reside in herself; it is hidden in the deep waters of God, into which she is called to cast her nets.

Another lesson which the Church must constantly recall is that she cannot leave simplicity behind; otherwise she forgets how to speak the language of Mystery. Not only does she herself remain outside the door of the mystery, but she proves incapable of approaching those who look to the Church for something which they themselves cannot provide, namely, God himself.

At times we lose people because they don’t understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people. Without the grammar of simplicity, the Church loses the very conditions which make it possible “to fish” for God in the deep waters of his Mystery.

A final thought: Aparecida took place at a crossroads. The road which linked Rio, the capital, with São Paulo, the resourceful province then being born, and Minas Gerais, the mines coveted by the courts of Europe, was a major intersection in colonial Brazil. God appears at the crossroads. The Church in Brazil cannot forget this calling which was present from the moment of her birth: to be a beating heart, to gather and to spread.

2. Appreciation for the path taken by the Church in Brazil
The Bishops of Rome have always had a special place in their heart for Brazil and its Church. A marvellous journey has been accomplished. From twelve dioceses during the First Vatican Council, it now numbers 275 circumscriptions.

This was not the expansion of an organization or a business enterprise, but rather the dynamism of the Gospel story of the “five loaves and two fish” which, through the bounty of the Father and through tireless labour, bore abundant fruit.

Today I would like to acknowledge your unsparing work as pastors in your local Churches. I think of Bishops in the forests, travelling up and down rivers, in semiarid places, in the Pantanal, in the pampas, in the urban jungles of your sprawling cities. Always love your flock with complete devotion! I also think of all those names and faces which have indelibly marked the journey of the Church in Brazil, making palpable the Lord’s immense bounty towards this Church.

The Bishops of Rome were never distant; they followed, encouraged and supported this journey. In recent decades, Blessed John XXIII urged the Brazilian Bishops to draw up their first pastoral plan and, from that beginning a genuine pastoral tradition arose in Brazil, one which prevented the Church from drifting and provided it with a sure compass.

The Servant of God Paul VI encouraged the reception of the Second Vatican Council not only in fidelity but also in creativity (cf. the CELAM General Assembly in Medellin), and decisively influenced the self-identity of the Church in Brazil through the Synod on evangelization and that basic point of reference which is the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi.

Blessed John Paul II visited Brazil three times, going up and down the country, from north to south, emphasizing the Church’s pastoral mission, communion and participation, preparation for the Great Jubilee and the new evangelization.

Benedict XVI chose Aparecida as the site of the Fifth CELAM General Assembly and this left a profound mark on the Church of the whole continent.

The Church in Brazil welcomed and creatively applied the Second Vatican Council, and the course it has taken, though needing to overcome some teething problems, has led to a Church gradually more mature, open, generous and missionary.

Today, times have changed. As the Aparecida document nicely put it: ours is not an age of change, but a change of age. So today we urgently need to keep putting the question: what is it that God is asking of us? I would now like to sketch a few ideas by way of a response.

3. The icon of Emmaus as a key for interpreting the present and the future
Before all else, we must not yield to the fear once expressed by Blessed John Henry Newman: “… the Christian world is gradually becoming barren and effete, as land which has been worked out and is become sand”.

We must not yield to disillusionment, discouragement and complaint. We have laboured greatly and, at times, we see what appear to be failures. We feel like those who must tally up a losing season as we consider those who have left us or no longer consider us credible or relevant.

Let us read once again, in this light, the story of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-15). The two disciples have left Jerusalem. They are leaving behind the “nakedness” of God. They are scandalized by the failure of the Messiah in whom they had hoped and who now appeared utterly vanquished, humiliated, even after the third day (vv. 17-21).

Here we have to face the difficult mystery of those people who leave the Church, who, under the illusion of alternative ideas, now think that the Church – their Jerusalem – can no longer offer them anything meaningful and important.

So they set off on the road alone, with their disappointment. Perhaps the Church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas, perhaps the world seems to have made the Church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions; perhaps the Church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age.

It is a fact that nowadays there are many people like the two disciples of Emmaus; not only those looking for answers in the new religious groups that are sprouting up, but also those who already seem godless, both in theory and in practice.

Faced with this situation, what are we to do?

We need a Church unafraid of going forth into their night. We need a Church capable of meeting them on their way. We need a Church capable of entering into their conversation. We need a Church able to dialogue with those disciples who, having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointment, disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren, fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning.

A relentless process of globalization, an often uncontrolled process of urbanization, have promised great things. Many people have been captivated by the potential of globalization, which of course does contain positive elements. But many also completely overlook its darker side: the loss of a sense of life’s meaning, personal dissolution, a loss of the experience of belonging to any “nest” whatsoever, subtle but relentless violence, the inner fragmentation and breakup of families, loneliness and abandonment, divisions, and the inability to love, to forgive, to understand, the inner poison which makes life a hell, the need for affection because of feelings of inadequacy and unhappiness, the failed attempt to find an answer in drugs, alcohol, and sex, which only become further prisons.

Many, too, have sought shortcuts, for the standards set by Mother Church seem to be asking too much. Many people think: “the Church’s idea of man is too lofty for me, the ideal of life which she proposes is beyond my abilities, the goal she sets is unattainable, beyond my reach. Nonetheless – they continue – I cannot live without having at least something, even a poor imitation, of what is too lofty for me, what I cannot afford. With disappointed hearts, they then go off in search of someone who will lead them even further astray.

The great sense of abandonment and solitude, of not even belonging to oneself, which often results from this situation, is too painful to hide. Some kind of release is necessary. There is always the option of complaining: however did we get to this point? But even complaint acts like a boomerang; it comes back and ends up increasing one’s unhappiness. Few people are still capable of hearing the voice of pain; the best we can do is to anaesthetize it.

Today, we need a Church capable of walking at people’s side, of doing more than simply listening to them; a Church which accompanies them on their journey; a Church able to make sense of the “night” contained in the flight of so many of our brothers and sisters from Jerusalem; a Church which realizes that the reasons why people leave also contain reasons why they can eventually return. But we need to know how to interpret, with courage, the larger picture.

I would like all of us to ask ourselves today: are we still a Church capable of warming hearts? A Church capable of leading people back to Jerusalem? Of bringing them home? Jerusalem is where our roots are: Scripture, catechesis, sacraments, community, friendship with the Lord, Mary and the apostles… Are we still able to speak of these roots in a way that will revive a sense of wonder at their beauty?

Many people have left because they were promised something more lofty, more powerful, and faster.

But what is more lofty than the love revealed in Jerusalem? Nothing is more lofty than the abasement of the Cross, since there we truly approach the height of love! Are we still capable of demonstrating this truth to those who think that the apex of life is to be found elsewhere?

Do we know anything more powerful than the strength hidden within the weakness of love, goodness, truth and beauty?

People today are attracted by things that are faster and faster: rapid Internet connections, speedy cars and planes, instant relationships. But at the same time we see a desperate need for calmness, I would even say slowness.

Is the Church still able to move slowly: to take the time to listen, to have the patience to mend and reassemble? Or is the Church herself caught up in the frantic pursuit of efficiency?

Dear brothers, let us recover the calm to be able to walk at the same pace as our pilgrims, keeping alongside them, remaining close to them, enabling them to speak of the disappointments present in their hearts and to let us address them. They want to forget Jerusalem, where they have their sources, but eventually they will experience thirst.

We need a Church capable of accompanying them on the road back to Jerusalem! A Church capable of helping them to rediscover the glorious and joyful things that are spoken of Jerusalem, and to understand that she is my Mother, our Mother, and that we are not orphans! We were born in her. Where is our Jerusalem, where were we born? In Baptism, in the first encounter of love, in our calling, in vocation.

We need a Church capable of restoring citizenship to her many children who are journeying, as it were, in an exodus.

4. Challenges facing the Church in Brazil
In the light of what I have said above, I would like to emphasize several challenges facing the beloved Church in Brazil.

Formation as a priority:
Bishops, priests, religious, laity
Dear brothers, unless we train ministers capable of warming people’s hearts, of walking with them in the night, of dialoguing with their hopes and disappointments, of mending their brokenness, what hope can we have for our present and future journey? It isn’t true that God’s presence has been dimmed in them. Let us learn to look at things more deeply. What is missing is someone to warm their heart, as was the case with the disciples of Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:32).

That is why it is important to devise and ensure a suitable formation, one which will provide persons able to step into the night without being overcome by the darkness and losing their bearings; able to listen to people’s dreams without being seduced and to share their disappointments without losing hope and becoming bitter; able to sympathize with the brokenness of others without losing their own strength and identity.

What is needed is a solid human, cultural, effective, spiritual and doctrinal formation. Dear brother Bishops, courage is needed to undertake a profound review of the structures in place for the formation and preparation of the clergy and the laity of the Church in Brazil.

It is not enough that formation be considered a vague priority, either in documents or at meetings. What is needed is the practical wisdom to set up lasting educational structures on the local, regional and national levels and to take them to heart as Bishops, without sparing energy, concern and personal interest.

The present situation calls for quality formation at every level. Bishops may not delegate this task. You cannot delegate this task, but must embrace it as something fundamental for the journey of your Churches.

Collegiality and solidarity
in the Episcopal Conference
The Church in Brazil needs more than a national leader; it needs a network of regional “testimonies” which speak the same language and in every place ensure not unanimity, but true unity in the richness of diversity.

Communion is a fabric to be woven with patience and perseverance, one which gradually “draws together the stitches” to make a more extensive and thick cover. A threadbare cover will not provide warmth.

It is important to remember Aparecida, the method of gathering diversity together. Not so much a diversity of ideas in order to produce a document, but a variety of experiences of God, in order to set a vital process in motion.

The disciples of Emmaus returned to Jerusalem, recounting their experience of meeting the risen Christ. There they came to know other manifestations of the Lord and the experiences of their brothers and sisters.

The Episcopal Conference is precisely a vital space for enabling such an exchange of testimonies about encounters with the Risen One, in the north, in the south, in the west… There is need, then, for a greater appreciation of local and regional elements. Central bureaucracy is not sufficient; there is also a need for increased collegiality and solidarity. This will be a source of true enrichment for all.

Permanent state of mission
and pastoral conversion
Aparecida spoke about a permanent state of mission and of the need for pastoral conversion. These are two important results of that Assembly for the entire Church in the area, and the progress made in Brazil on these two points has been significant.

Concerning mission, we need to remember that its urgency derives from its inner motivation; in other words, it is about handing on a legacy. As for method, it is essential to realize that a legacy is about witness, it is like the baton in a relay race: you don’t throw it up in the air for whoever is able to catch it, so that anyone who doesn’t catch it has to manage without. In order to transmit a legacy, one needs to hand it over personally, to touch the one to whom one wants to give, to relay, this inheritance.

Concerning pastoral conversion, I would like to recall that “pastoral care” is nothing other than the exercise of the Church’s motherhood. She gives birth, suckles, gives growth, corrects, nourishes and leads by the hand … So we need a Church capable of rediscovering the maternal womb of mercy. Without mercy we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of “wounded” persons in need of understanding, forgiveness, love.

In mission, also on a continental level, it is very important to reaffirm the family, which remains the essential cell of society and the Church; young people, who are the face of the Church’s future; women, who play a fundamental role in passing on the faith. Let us not reduce the involvement of women in the Church, but instead promote their active role in the ecclesial community. By losing women, the Church risks becoming sterile.

The task of the Church in society
In the context of society, there is only one thing which the Church quite clearly demands: the freedom to proclaim the Gospel in its entirety, even when it runs counter to the world, even when it goes against the tide. In so doing, she defends treasures of which she is merely the custodian, and values which she does not create but rather receives, to which she must remain faithful.

The Church claims the right to serve man in his wholeness, and to speak of what God has revealed about human beings and their fulfilment. The Church wants to make present that spiritual patrimony without which society falls apart and cities are overwhelmed by their own walls, pits, barriers. The Church has the right and the duty to keep alive the flame of human freedom and unity.

Education, health, social harmony are pressing concerns in Brazil. The Church has a word to say on these issues, because any adequate response to these challenges calls for more than merely technical solutions; there has to be an underlying view of man, his freedom, his value, his openness to the transcendent. Dear brother Bishops, do not be afraid to offer this contribution of the Church, which benefits society as a whole.

The Amazon Basin as a litmus test
for Church and society in Brazil
There is one final point on which I would like to dwell, which I consider relevant for the present and future journey not only of the Brazilian Church but of the whole society, namely, the Amazon Basin.

The Church’s presence in the Amazon Basin is not that of someone with bags packed and ready to leave after having exploited everything possible. The Church has been present in the Amazon Basin from the beginning, in her missionaries and religious congregations, and she is still present and critical to the area’s future.

I think of the welcome which the Church in the Amazon Basin is offering even today to Haitian immigrants following the terrible earthquake which shook their country.

I would like to invite everyone to reflect on what Aparecida said about the Amazon Basin, its forceful appeal for respect and protection of the entire creation which God has entrusted to man, not so that it be indiscriminately exploited, but rather made into a garden.

In considering the pastoral challenge represented by the Amazon Basin, I have to express my thanks for all that the Church in Brazil is doing: the Episcopal Commission for the Amazon Basin established in 1997 has already proved its effectiveness and many dioceses have responded readily and generously to the appeal for solidarity by sending lay and priestly missionaries.

I think Archbishop Jaime Chemelo, a pioneer in this effort, and Cardinal Hummes, the current President of the Commission. But I would add that the Church’s work needs to be further encouraged and launched afresh.

There is a need for quality formators, especially professors of theology, for consolidating the results achieved in the area of training a native clergy and providing priests suited to local conditions and committed to consolidating, as it were, the Church’s “Amazonian face”.

Dear brother Bishops, I have attempted to offer you in a fraternal spirit some reflections and approaches for a Church like that of Brazil, which is a great mosaic made up of different pieces, images, forms, problems and challenges, but which for this very reason is an enormous treasure. The Church is never uniformity, but diversities harmonized in unity, and this is true for every ecclesial reality.

May the Virgin of Aparecida be the star which illumines your task and your journey of bringing Christ, as she did, to all the men and women of your immense country. Just as he did for the two lost and disillusioned disciples of Emmaus, he will warm your hearts and give you new and certain hope.

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APOSTOLIC VISIT TO BRAZIL
Day 6, July 27, 2013

Prayer vigil with the Pope


Two million young people carpeted Rio de Janeiro’s Copacobana beach on Saturday, joining Pope Francis in a huge outdoor evening prayer vigil as part of World Youth Day celebrations in Brazil.

The centerpiece of the vigil was a Eucharistic procession. The event featured litanies and hymns, as well as the testimonies of four different young people.

In his remarks to the WYD pilgrims, Pope Francis focused on the image of the field of faith – the name of the venue at which the vigil was originally to have taken place, before the week’s inclement weather rendered it unusable: the field as a place to sow seed and raise crops; the field as a place of training; the field as construction site.

Here is the English translation of the Pope's discourse:

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Dear Young Friends,

We have just recalled the story of Saint Francis of Assisi. In front of the crucifix he heard the voice of Jesus saying to him: “Francis, go, rebuild my house”. The young Francis responded readily and generously to the Lord’s call to rebuild his house. But which house?

Slowly but surely, Francis came to realize that it was not a question of repairing a stone building, but about doing his part for the life of the Church. It was a matter of being at the service of the Church, loving her and working to make the countenance of Christ shine ever more brightly in her.

Today too, as always, the Lord needs you, young people, for his Church. Today too, he is calling each of you to follow him in his Church and to be missionaries. How? In what way?

Well, I think we can learn something from what happened in these days: as we had to cancel due to bad weather, the realization of this vigil on the Campus Fidei, in Guaratiba. Lord willing might we say that the real area of ​​faith, the true campus fidei, is not a geographical place - but we, ourselves? Yes!

Each of us, each one of you. And missionary discipleship means to recognize that we are God’s campus fidei, His “field of faith”! Therefore, from the image of the field of faith, starting with the name of the place, Campus Fidei, the field of faith, I have thought of three images that can help us understand better what it means to be a disciple and a missionary. First, a field is a place for sowing seeds; second, a field is a training ground; and third, a field is a construction site.

1. A field is a place for sowing seeds. We all know the parable where Jesus speaks of a sower who went out to sow seeds in the field; some seed fell on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, and could not grow; other seed fell on good soil and brought forth much fruit (cf. Mt 13:1-9).

Jesus himself explains the meaning of the parable: the seed is the word of God sown in our hearts (cf. Mt 13:18-23). This, dear young people, means that the real Campus Fidei, the field of faith, is your own heart, it is your life. It is your life that Jesus wants to enter with his word, with his presence. Please, let Christ and his word enter your life, blossom and grow.

Jesus tells us that the seed which fell on the path or on the rocky ground or among the thorns bore no fruit. What kind of ground are we? What kind of terrain do we want to be? Maybe sometimes we are like the path: we hear the Lord’s word but it changes nothing in our lives because we let ourselves be numbed by all the superficial voices competing for our attention; or we are like the rocky ground: we receive Jesus with enthusiasm, but we falter and, faced with difficulties, we don’t have the courage to swim against the tide; or we are like the thorny ground: negativity, negative feelings choke the Lord’s word in us (cf. Mt 13:18-22).

But today I am sure that the seed is falling on good soil, that you want to be good soil, not part-time Christians, not “starchy” and superficial, but real. I am sure that you don’t want to be duped by a false freedom, always at the beck and call of momentary fashions and fads.

I know that you are aiming high, at long-lasting decisions which will make your lives meaningful. Jesus is capable of letting you do this: he is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). Let’s trust in him. Let’s make him our guide!

2. A field is a training ground. Jesus asks us to follow him for life, he asks us to be his disciples, to “play on his team”. I think that most of you love sports! Here in Brazil, as in other countries, football is a national passion.

Now, what do players do when they are asked to join a team? They have to train, and to train a lot! The same is true of our lives as the Lord’s disciples. Saint Paul tells us: “athletes deny themselves all sorts of things; they do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we a crown that is imperishable” (1 Cor 9:25).

Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup! He offers us the possibility of a fulfilled and fruitful life; he also offers us a future with him, an endless future, eternal life. But he asks us to train, “to get in shape”, so that we can face every situation in life undaunted, bearing witness to our faith.

How do we get in shape? By talking with him: by prayer, which is our daily conversation with God, who always listens to us. By the sacraments, which make his life grow within us and conform us to Christ. By loving one another, learning to listen, to understand, to forgive, to be accepting and to help others, everybody, with no one excluded or ostracized. Dear young people, be true “athletes of Christ”!

3. A field is a construction site. When our heart is good soil which receives the word of God, when “we build up a sweat” in trying to live as Christians, we experience something tremendous: we are never alone, we are part of a family of brothers and sisters, all journeying on the same path: we are part of the Church; indeed, we are building up the Church and we are making history.

Saint Peter tells us that we are living stones, which form a spiritual edifice (cf. 1 Pet 2:5). Looking at this platform, we see that it is in the shape of a church, built up with stones and bricks. In the Church of Jesus, we ourselves are the living stones.

Jesus is asking us to build up his Church, but not as a little chapel which holds only a small group of persons. He asks us to make his living Church so large that it can hold all of humanity, that it can be a home for everyone! To me, to you, to each of us he says: “Go and make disciples of all nations”.

Tonight, let us answer him: Yes, I too want to be a living stone; together we want to build up the Church of Jesus! Let us all say together: I want to go forth and build up the Church of Christ!

In your young hearts, you have a desire to build a better world. I have been closely following the news reports of the many young people who throughout the world have taken to the streets in order to express their desire for a more just and fraternal society - (and here in Brazil), they have gone out into the streets to express a desire for a more just and fraternal civilization. These are young people who want to be agents of change.

I encourage them, in an orderly, peaceful and responsible manner, motivated by the values of the Gospel, to continue overcoming apathy and offering a Christian response to social and political concerns present in their countries.

But the question remains: Where do we start? What are the criteria for building a more just society? Mother Teresa of Calcutta was once asked what needed to change in the Church. Her answer was: you and I!

Dear friends, never forget that you are the field of faith! You are Christ’s athletes! You are called to build a more beautiful Church and a better world. Let us lift our gaze to Our Lady. Mary helps us to follow Jesus, she gives us the example by her own “yes” to God: “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say” (Lk 1:38). All together, let us join Mary in saying to God: let it be done to me as you say. Amen!

---

It is almost mandatory to look back on the Prayer Vigil led by Benedict XVI at the last WYD in Madrid in 2011. It was an extraordinary experience in more ways than one for all who were there and those of us who watched on TV...

A sudden thunderstorm with strong winds broke just as the Pope was starting his homily at the prayer vigil, resulting in a suspension of the ceremonies while waiting for the wind to abate. The gusts were so strong that the rain was blowing right into the Pope and an umbrella had to be held directly in front of him to keep him - and the text of his homily - from getting soaked!... Already delayed by half an hour, the Pope finally resumed speaking around 10 p.m., Madrid time, when the wind and rain did stop, but he limited himself to the plurilingual greetings. Then he left the stage as security and engineers checked out the scaffolding holding up the protective 'tree' directly above the Pope's chair, apparently deciding whether it would be safer to take it down in case more winds come... Well, they obviously thought it could stay up, and the Pope came back dressed in cope and miter for the Eucharistic Adoration ... The event has since become iconic for a WYD Prayer Vigil with Eucharistic Adoration...



THE POPE AT WYD 2011: Day 3
Eucharistic adoration and prayer vigil
Cuatro Vientos Airbase
August 20, 2011


Illustratio: The monstrance of Arfe, a 9-foot-tall monstrance from the Cathedral of Toledo, used for tonight's Eucharistic Adoration.

The Italian news agency SIR reports that Spanish TV's estimate of the attendance at Cuatro Vientos is TWO MILLION!...That is a record for WYD prayer vigils!


The stage is so wide one can hardly make out the Pope in the view above.



Pope thanks the youth
for 'resisting' the storm

August 20, 2011

Pope Benedict listened to young people at World Youth Day expressing their concerns about the future and urged them all to find their true vocation in society.

But a sudden storm and high winds prevented the Pope from delivering his homily to the some two million young people gathered in Madrid's Cuatro Vientos airbase for a mega prayer vigil on Saturday evening. Our correspondant Emer McCarthy reports:

“Es-ta es/la joventud del Papa! This is the Pope’s youth!”, the chant erupted spontaneously from the multitudes as the winds and rain beat down upon them in the aptly named Cuatro Vientos (Four Winds) airport.

After days of incessant and stifling heat, not even the tempest that interrupted the Holy Father mid-homily could quench the enthusiasm of Benedict XVI’s generation, an estimatedtwo million strong on Saturday night.

“We know you were all out in the sun this afternoon and asking for more water...well, here it is!”, the young presenter announced from the stage.

And as the Pope waited patiently for the storm to pass - [protected behind giant umbrellas from being drenched, it must be said] - organisers invited the jubilant pilgrims to pray for the rain to cease.

Instead, their voices rose as one in a continuous chorus “This is the Pope’s youth!” and that chorus rang out across Madrid.

They had begun arriving mid-morning, many travelling the 8 kms to the airport on foot under a searing sun with temperatures hitting 40° Celsius. Madrid’s bomberos (firemen), on top of fire trucks, directed water hoses to spray the crowds with water mist, as they have done since the events began on Tuesday.

The liturgy of the Word had just begun, following the procession of the World Youth Day Cross and icon. Five young people, from the UK, Kenya, the USA, the Philippines, and Germany had only just posed their questions to Pope Benedict when the storm begun, ripping the zucchetto from the Pope’s head.

Michael from the UK, a convert to Catholicism, had asked the Pope who Christ really is and whether he was for all of humanity or only for Christians.

Roselyne from Kenya, spoke of her work on behalf of the victims of famine in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia and asked the Pope how can she help the poor and suffering understand that God has not forgotten about them.

Robert from the USA, spoke of how he will marry in a month’s time and asked Pope Benedict for advice on how to faithfully live the vocation to marriage.

Kirtzia from the Philippines spoke of how it was difficult at times to witness her faith in society, ande the young German Kathleen, a non-believer attracted by the figure of Christ, asked for guidance.

Pope Benedict never got to delivering his his homily. Instead when the winds and rain had calmed, the Holy Father proceeded to pronounce his greetings to pilgrims in diverse languages and then left the raised altar to change vestments for the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

As he left the stage, firemen clambered onto the stage scaffolding to ensure the safety of overhanging scaffolding, while the young people continued to chant.

The Pope emerged shortly afterwards, and once the crowds had quietened, invited the millions who had answered his call to join him in a night of Eucharistic adoration.

As he knelt before the altar, the XVth century monstrance “Custodia di Arfe” from the Toledo Cathedral rose from centre of the stage to the clamour of two million voices.

Then, silence descended on Cuatro Ventos as the Pope knelt to lead the Adoration.

Before taking his leave, Pope Benedict greeted once more the representatives who had joined him at the start, adding the following words to the crowd:

“Dear young people we have lived an adventure together; firm in our faith in Christ we have resisted the rain! Before I go I would like to wish you all a good night. Thank you for your joy and your resistance! Thank you for the incredible example you have given. Like this night with Christ. you can always overcome life’s trials, never forget this!”

Here is the official Vatican translation of the homily that the Pope would have delIVered:

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Dear Young Friends,

I greet all of you, especially the young people who have asked me their questions, and I thank them for the sincerity with which they set forth their concerns, that express the longing which all of you have to achieve something great in life, something which can bring you fulfilment and happiness.

How can a young person be true to the faith and yet continue to aspire to high ideals in today’s society? In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus gives us an answer to this urgent question: “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love” (Jn 15:9).

Yes, dear friends, God loves us. This is the great truth of our life; it is what makes everything else meaningful. We are not the product of blind chance or absurdity; instead our life originates as part of a loving plan of God.

To abide in his love, then, means living a life rooted in faith, since faith is more than the mere acceptance of certain abstract truths: it is an intimate relationship with Christ, who enables us to open our hearts to this mystery of love and to live as men and women conscious of being loved by God.

If you abide in the love of Christ, rooted in the faith, you will encounter, even amid setbacks and suffering, the source of true happiness and joy.

Faith does not run counter to your highest ideals; on the contrary, it elevates and perfects those ideals. Dear young people, do not be satisfied with anything less than Truth and Love, do not be content with anything less than Christ.

Nowadays, although the dominant culture of relativism all around us has given up on the search for truth, even if it is the highest aspiration of the human spirit, we need to speak with courage and humility of the universal significance of Christ as the Saviour of humanity and the source of hope for our lives.

He who took upon himself our afflictions, is well acquainted with the mystery of human suffering and manifests his loving presence in those who suffer. They in their turn, united to the passion of Christ, share closely in his work of redemption.

Furthermore, our disinterested attention towards the sick and the forgotten will always be a humble and warm testimony of God’s compassionate regard.

Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world.

During this prayer vigil, I urge you to ask God to help you find your vocation in society and in the Church, and to persevere in that vocation with joy and fidelity. It is a good thing to open our hearts to Christ’s call and to follow with courage and generosity the path he maps out for us.

The Lord calls many people to marriage, in which a man and a woman, in becoming one flesh (cf. Gen 2:24), find fulfilment in a profound life of communion.

It is a prospect that is both bright and demanding. It is a project for true love which is daily renewed and deepened by sharing joys and sorrows, one marked by complete self-giving.

For this reason, to acknowledge the beauty and goodness of marriage is to realize that only a setting of fidelity and indissolubility, along with openness to God’s gift of life, is adequate to the grandeur and dignity of marital love.

Christ calls others to follow him more closely in the priesthood or in consecrated life. It is hard to put into words the happiness you feel when you know that Jesus seeks you, trusts in you, and with his unmistakable voice also says to you: “Follow me!” (cf. Mk 2:14).

Dear young people, if you wish to discover and to live faithfully the form of life to which the Lord is calling each of you, you must remain in his love as his friends.

And how do we preserve friendship except through frequent contact, conversation, being together in good times and bad? Saint Teresa of Avila used to say that prayer is just such “friendly contact, often spending time alone with the one who we know loves us” (cf. Autobiography, 8).

And so I now ask you to “abide” in the adoration of Christ, truly present in the Eucharist. I ask you to enter into conversation with him, to bring before him your questions and to listen to his voice.

Dear friends, I pray for you with all my heart. And I ask you to pray for me. Tonight let us ask the Lord to grant that, attracted by the beauty of his love, we may always live faithfully as his disciples. Amen.

He then proceeded to address various groups in their neative languages:

[French] Dear young French-speakers, be proud of the gift of faith which you have received, as it will illumine your life at every moment.

Draw strength from the faith of your neighbours, from the faith of the Church! Through faith we are grounded in Christ. Gather with others to deepen it, be faithful to the celebration of the Eucharist, the mystery of faith par excellence.

Christ alone can respond to your aspirations. Let yourselves be seized by God, so that your presence in the Church will give her new life!

[English] Dear young people, in these moments of silence before the Blessed Sacrament, let us raise our minds and hearts to Jesus Christ, the Lord of our lives and of the future.

May he pour out his Spirit upon us and upon the whole Church, that we may be a beacon of freedom, reconciliation and peace for the whole world.

[German] Dear young Christians from the German-speaking countries! Deep in our hearts we yearn for what is grand and beautiful in life.

Do not let your desires and aspirations dissipate, but ground them in Jesus Christ. He himself is the sure foundation, the point of reference, for building up your life.

[Italian] I now turn to the Italian-speaking young people. Dear friends, this vigil will remain as an unforgettable experience in your lives. Guard the flame which God has lit in your hearts tonight. Never let it go out, renew it each day, share it with your contemporaries who live in darkness and who are seeking a light for their way. Thank you! Until tomorrow morning!

[Portuguese] My dear friends, I invite each of you to enter into a personal dialogue with Christ, sharing with him your hesitations and above all listening to his voice. The Lord is here and he is calling you!

Young friends, it is good to hear within us the word of Jesus and to follow in his footsteps. Ask the Lord to help you to discover your vocation in life and in the Church, and to persevere in it with joy and fidelity, knowing that he never abandons you or betrays you! He remains with us until the end of the world.

[Polish] Dear young friends from Poland! This prayer vigil is filled with the presence of Christ. Grounded in his love, draw near to him with the flame of your faith. He will fill your hearts with his life. Build your lives on Christ and on his Gospel. I willingly bless all of you.

---

Some scenes of the crowd before the arrival of the Pope:

The crowd at mid-day...


BTW, if you were unable to watch the coverage, one of the early surprises of the event was the attendance of Crown Prince Felipe and his wife Leticia who greeted the Pope when he arrived at the foot of the stage.


P.S. 2013 Although Benedict XVI only spent 4 days in Madrid - the duration of is participation in WYD 2011 - his schedule was crammed with non-WYD events. The day before the prayer vigil, Day 2 of his visit, he travelled outside Madrid to El Escorial, the great medieval monastery-palace complex that was built for Charles V when he was Holy Roman Emperor. There, he addressed young professors and students, as well as young religious. Before the prayer vigil, he met with the leader of what was then the Spanish opposition party, since when Mariano Rajoy led his Partido Popular to electoral victory over the Socialists and is now the Prime Minister of Spain. But the more interesting encounter, though it received little coverage, not even from Vatican Radio, was is visit to a diocesan hospital for disabled youth. VATICAN INSIDER provided a good background and context story before the event...

THE POPE AT WYD 2011: Day 3
Visit to the Fundacion San Jose
Hospital for Disabled Youth

The Pope is just now giving his address at the hospital... VATICAN INSiDER had this advance story about the event...

WYD and the gospel of suffering:
Pope ensures festive WYD does
not forget the mystery of pain
by Giacomo Galeazzi


MADRID, Aug. 20 - This evening the Pope will visit a centre for people with disabilities, preceding the great Prayer Vigil with the youth at Cuatro Vientos airbase.

The more human and touching side of the World Youth Day can be seen when it comes into contact with pain. The meditation that took place during the Stations of the Cross yesterday, with texts written by the Sisters of the Poor, the unscheduled dialogue that took place between the Pope and a child suffering from cancer [NB: This is thei first time I am reading about this - have to research it!] and Benedict XVI’s visit to the “Spanish Cottolengo” [Cottolengo is a similar institution in Turin founded by one of the great 19th-century social saints of that Italian city,] in the heart of Madrid, depict the gospel of suffering, the other side of the “fiesta” of faith. It is a visit scheduled at the express wish of Benedict XVI.

The Fundación Instituto San José, run by the Hospitaliers of san Juan de Dios, is a center for the disabled and people with serious neuro-degenerative diseases.

Benedict XVI sees such centers as a useful stimulus for the continued improvement of care administered to the suffering, especially ahead of the solemn celebration of a special World Day of the Sick which will be celebrated in 2013 in the Marian sanctuary of Altötting, the Bavarian shrine which Joseph Ratzinger and his family frequented in the years of his childhood and youth.

Benedict XVI has often said that science’s efforts to cure the sick must never be separated from faith in the merciful God. The theologian Popoe says faith in a merciful God can bring a sense to the experience of pain.

In his work as an intellectual and as the guide of the Church, Joseph Ratzinger has often contemplated the worrying questions raised constantly by the mystery of sickness and pain, aware that most of the time it is humanly impossible to find an answer.

Since suffering is part of our humanity, the Pope points out the deep connection between Jesus’s Cross - as the supreme symbol of pain and the price of our true freedom - and human pain which is transformed and exalted when it is experienced in the awareness of God’s solidarity and closeness.

Even amidst the festivities of World Youth Day, Benedict XVI asked for the inclusion of moments of reflection on the mystery of suffering, and above all, for Christian communities and civil society towards the sick and the handicapped.

At the core of Joseph Ratzinger’s Christianity is the belief that if every human being is a brother, it is especially important that the weak, the suffering and those in need of care, be at the centre of our attention, so that none of these individuals feels neglected or marginalised.

According to Papa Ratzinger, a person’s humanity is measured necessarily by his or her relationship with suffering and the suffering. And this is as true about individuals as it is about society. A society that is unable to accept the suffering is a cruel and inhumane society. A conscience that follows in the footsteps of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who is commemorated by the Church in today's liturgy, who said “God cannot suffer but he is compassionate.”
[2013 P.S. Reading and hearing the media these days, and the prepondreance of Catholic commentators well, one would think Pope Francis invented the idea of being 'compassionate and merciful', that no Pope before him had ever been compassionate and merciful, or preached compassion and mercy!]

Here is the Vatican translation of the Pope's remarks at the Fundacion San Jose:

REMARKS OF THE HOLY fATHER
AT THE SAN JOSE HOSPITAL

---

Your Eminence,
Dear Brother Bishops,
Dear Priests and Religious of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God,
Distinguished Authorities,
Dear Young People, Family Members and Volunteers,

I thank you most sincerely for your kind greeting and heartfelt welcome.

This evening, just before the Prayer Vigil with the young people from throughout the world gathered in Madrid for this World Youth Day, we have this chance to spend time together as a way of showing the Pope’s closeness and esteem for each of you, for your families and for all those who help and care for you in this Instituto Fundacion San Jose.

Youth, as I have said more than once, is the age when life discloses itself to us with all its rich possibilities, inspiring us to seek the lofty goals which give it meaning.

So when suffering appears on the horizon of a young life, we are shaken; perhaps we ask ourselves: “Can life still be something grand, even when suffering unexpectedly enters it?”

In my Encyclical on Christian hope, I observed that “the true measure of humanity is essentially determined in relationship to suffering and to the sufferer … A society unable to accept its suffering members and incapable of helping to share their suffering and to bear it inwardly through ‘com-passion’ is a cruel and inhuman society” (Spe Salvi, 38).

These words reflect a long tradition of humanity which arises from Christ’s own self-offering on the Cross for us and for our redemption. Jesus and, in his footsteps, his Sorrowful Mother and the saints, are witnesses who shows us how to experience the tragedy of suffering for our own good and for the salvation of the world.

These witnesses speak to us, first and foremost, of the dignity of all human life, created in the image of God. No suffering can efface this divine image imprinted in the depths of our humanity.

But there is more: because the Son of God wanted freely to embrace suffering and death, we are also capable of seeing God’s image in the face of those who suffer.

This preferential love of the Lord for the suffering helps us to see others more clearly and to give them, above and beyond their material demands, the look of love which they need. But this can only happen as the fruit of a personal encounter with Christ.

You yourselves – as religious, family members, health care professionals and volunteers who daily live and work with these young people – know this well.

Your lives and your committed service proclaim the greatness to which every human being is called: to show compassion and loving concern to the suffering, just as God himself did. In your noble work we hear an echo of the words found in the Gospel: “just as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40).

At the same time, you are also witnesses of the immense goodness which the lives of these young people represent for those who love them, and for humanity as a whole. In a mysterious yet real way, their presence awakens in our often hardened hearts a tenderness which opens us to salvation. The lives of these young people surely touch human hearts and for that reason we are grateful to the Lord for having known them.

Dear friends, our society, which all too often questions the inestimable value of life, of every life, needs you: in a decisive way you help to build the civilization of love.

What is more, you play a leading role in that civilization. As sons and daughters of the Church, you offer the Lord your lives, with all their ups and downs, cooperating with him and somehow becoming “part of the treasury of compassion so greatly needed by the human race” (Spe Salvi, 40).

With great affection, and through the intercession of Saint Joseph, Saint John of God and Saint Benito Menni, I commend you to God our Lord: may he be your strength and your reward.

As a pledge of his love, I cordially impart to you, and to your families and friends, my Apostolic Blessing. Thank you very much.

---

7/31/13
P.S.I must apologize - I thought I had posted this promptly in this space the night I posted about Pope Francis's Prayer Vigil in Rio. Because the Madrid Prayer Vigil was so epochal it was mandatory to post it here! I could not figure out what happened to the post until just now - It turns out I mistakenly re-posted it in the August 2011 box - over-writing my original post with my 2013 update... The repost is certainly well worth the while...

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 08/08/2013 01:18]

July 28, 2013, 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

ST. LEOPOLD MANDIC (b Montenegro 1887, d Italy 1942), Capuchin, Apostle of the Confessional
Baptized Bogdan, the saint was born to a family of noble Croatian origin. At 16, he entered the Franciscan seminary in Udine, northern Italy, took the name Leopold, and was ordained a Capuchin at age 24. He lived in Italy for the rest of his life, eventually settling in Padua. Suffering from physical deformity (he was only 4'4"), stuttering and a variety of ailments all his life, Leopold taught patrology (the study of the Church Fathers) in Franciscan seminaries, But he was best known for his zeal in promoting confession, often spending 13-16 hours a day hearing confessions. His dream was to preach to the Orthodox Christians and promote reunification of the Church, but his poor health never allowed him to be a missionary. He died of esophageal cancer in Padua in 1942, and was canonized in 1982.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072813.cfm

POPE FRANCIS'S APOSTOLIC VISIT TO BRAZIL

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Final Day
Sunday, 28 July 2013

10:00 Holy Mass to conclude the 28th World Youth Day
- Homily of the Holy Father
Recitaltion of the Angelus
- Address of the Holy Father

14:00 Luncheon with the Papal Entourage
Refectory of the Sumaré Study Centre

16:00 Meeting with the Coordinating Committee of CELAM
Sumaré Study Center
- Address of the Holy Father

16:40 Farewell from the Sumaré Residence

17:30 Meeting with the Volunteers of the 28th WYD
Pavillon 5, Rio Convention Center
- Address of the Holy Father

18:30 Farewell Ceremony at the Galeão/Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport
- Address of the Holy Father

19:00 Departure by plane for Rome

Arrival in Rome's Ciampino airport on Monday, July 29, around 11:30 a.m.

---

Having been AWOL for two days, I'm catching up again, beginning with the final day of WYD 2013. O fwhich for now, I will post AP's wrap-up story for the record and the Pope's homily - even if that news was soon overshadowed by the Pope's impromptu and lengthy news conference on the flight home from Rio, and what he said about 'gays'. But much more on that later. An Italian blogsite has published the complete transcript of that news conference, and it is strewn with a number of significant nuggets...

Pope Francis's final Mass
draws three million
By NICOLE WINFIELD and JENNY BARCHFIELD


RIO DE JANEIRO. July 28, 2013 (AP) - Pope Francis's historic trip to his home continent ended Sunday after a marathon weeklong visit to Brazil that drew millions of people onto the sands of Rio de Janeiro's iconic Copacabana beach and appeared to reinvigorate the clergy and faithful alike in the world's largest Catholic country.

Dignitaries including Brazilian Vice President Michel Temer turned out at Rio's Antonio Carlos Jobim international airport to bid farewell to the Argentine-born pontiff after a visit marked by big moments. They included a visit to a vast church dedicated to Brazil's patron saint, a rainy walk through one of Rio's dangerous slums and a papal Mass that was one of the biggest in recent history.

Speaking from a white stage on the sands of Copacabana on Sunday, Francis urged a crowd estimated at 3 million people to go out and spread their faith "to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent."

"The church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you!" he said to applause in his final homily of World Youth Day festivities.

Later Sunday, he issued a more pointed message to the region's bishops, telling them to better look out for their flocks and put an end to the "clerical" culture that places priests on pedestals – often with what Francis called the "sinful complicity" of lay Catholics who hold the clergy in such high esteem. [But didn't this attitude disappear after Vatican II! And, in the public eye, the waves of negative media that periodically inundated the Church since the sex abuse cases by priests became worldwide headlines at the start of the millennium certainly topple4 any pedestals still left in the Church!]

Despite a series of organizational snafus, including a subway breakdown Wednesday that stranded hundreds of thousands of people for hours, Francis' visit was widely hailed as a success by the Vatican, pilgrims and everyday Brazilians alike.

His nonstop agenda was followed live on television for all seven days, his good nature and modesty charming a country has seen the phenomenal rise of Protestant and evangelical Pentecostal churches in the past decades.

"You came to see the young people but you ended up enchanting all Brazilians," Temer said on the tarmac of Rio's main airport minutes before the pope's takeoff. He added that the country's door would be permanently open to the pontiff and called on him to "just enter without knocking, because there will always be a place for Your Holiness in Brazilians' hearts."

Nearly the entire 4-kilometer-long (2.5 mile) Copacabana beach overflowed Sunday with flag-waving faithful, some of them taking an early morning dip in the Atlantic and others tossing T-shirts, flags and soccer jerseys into the pontiff's open-sided car as he drove by.

Even the normally stern-faced Vatican bodyguards let smiles slip as they jogged alongside Francis' car, caught up in the enthusiasm of the crowd.

The numbers clearly overwhelmed the area's services: The stench of garbage and human waste hung in Rio's humid air, and the beach and adjoining chic Atlantic Avenue looked like an improvised refugee camp plunked down in the middle of one of the world's most beautiful cities.

Copacabana's famous mosaic sidewalks were strewn with trampled cardboard, plastic bags, empty water bottles and cookie wrappers as trash collectors in orange uniforms tried to restore order.

"You'd think they could at least put their garbage in all the bins," said Jose da Silva, a 75-year-old retired farm worker who supplements his meager income by collecting empty cans for recycling. "I'm also pretty surprised that people who call themselves Christians would throw away all this food."

Many of the youngsters on hand for the Mass spent the night on the beach, joining an all-night slumber party to end the Catholic youth fest, with pilgrims wrapped in flags and sleeping bags to ward off the cold.

"We were dying of cold but it was worth it," said Lucrecia Grillera, an 18-year-old from Cordoba, Argentina, where Francis lived for a time before becoming pope. "It was a tiring day, but it was a great experience."

The Vatican said more than 3 million people were on hand for the Mass, based on information from World Youth Day organizers and local authorities who estimated two-thirds were from outside Rio. That was far higher than the 1 million at the last World Youth Day in Madrid in 2011 [And here I thought all along that the number reported for Madrid was 2 million - 1.5 million came for the prayer vigil, and many more came for the Mass] or the 850,000 at Toronto's 2002 concluding Mass.

Only Pope John Paul II's Mass during his 1995 visit to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, topped Rio's numbers, with an estimated 5 million people taking part. Third place among papal Masses now goes to Rome's World Youth Day in the 2000 Jubilee year, when 2 million people participated. A similar number attended John Paul's final Mass in Krakow, his Polish hometown, in 1979, during his first visit to his homeland as Pope. [Is this a deliberate downplaying of Benedict XVI's final WYD????]

As if recalling that historic Mass, Francis announced Sunday that the next World Youth Day would be held in Krakow in 2016.

The presidents of Brazil, Francis's native Argentina, Bolivia and Suriname were on hand for the Mass, as were the vice presidents of Uruguay and Panama. Receiving a special honor was a couple Francis met on Saturday after Mass at Rio's cathedral; they had brought him their anencephalic baby daughter to be blessed. Francis invited them to participate in the offertory procession Sunday, at which the father wore a T-shirt that read "Stop abortion."

Later, the pope thanked some of the 60,000 volunteers who organized the youth festival before flying to Rome. He called on the thousands of young people packed into a vast hall to "be revolutionaries" and "swim against the tide."

Francis spent much of the week emphasizing that core message: of the need for Catholics, lay and religious, to shake up the status quo, get out of their stuffy sacristies and reach the faithful on the margins of society or risk losing them to rival churches.

According to census data, the number of Catholics in Brazil dipped from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the church's share of the total population dropping from 74 percent to 65 percent. During the same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals jumped from 26 million to 42 million, increasing from 15 percent to 22 percent of the population.

While speaking to the young volunteers, Francis urged those thinking of dedicating their lives to the church to follow the urge, recalling the day he felt the calling.

"I will never forget that day, 21 September – I was 17 years old – when, after stopping in the Church of San Jose de Floresto to go to confession, I first heard God calling me," he said. "Do not be afraid of what God asks of you! It is worth saying `yes' to God. In him we find joy."

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

---

THE POPE'S HOMILY
Closing Mass of WYD 2013
Copacabana Beach, Rio de Janeiro

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Dear Young Friends,

“Go and make disciples of all nations”. With these words, Jesus is speaking to each one of us, saying: “It was wonderful to take part in World Youth Day, to live the faith together with young people from the four corners of the earth, but now you must go, now you must pass on this experience to others.”

Jesus is calling you to be a disciple with a mission! Today, in the light of the word of God that we have heard, what is the Lord saying to us? What is the Lord saying to us? Three simple ideas: Go, do not be afraid, and serve.

1. Go. During these days here in Rio, you have been able to enjoy the wonderful experience of meeting Jesus, meeting him together with others, and you have sensed the joy of faith.

But the experience of this encounter must not remain locked up in your life or in the small group of your parish, your movement, or your community. That would be like withholding oxygen from a flame that was burning strongly.

Faith is a flame that grows stronger the more it is shared and passed on, so that everyone may know, love and confess Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history (cf. Rom 10:9).

Careful, though! Jesus did not say: “go, if you would like to, if you have the time”, but he said: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Sharing the experience of faith, bearing witness to the faith, proclaiming the Gospel: this is a command that the Lord entrusts to the whole Church, and that includes you; but it is a command that is born not from a desire for domination, from the desire for power, but from the force of love, from the fact that Jesus first came into our midst and did not give us just a part of himself, but he gave us the whole of himself, he gave his life in order to save us and to show us the love and mercy of God.

Jesus does not treat us as slaves, but as people who are free, as friends, as brothers and sisters; and he not only sends us, he accompanies us, he is always beside us in our mission of love.

Where does Jesus send us? There are no borders, no limits: he sends us to everyone. The Gospel is for everyone, not just for some. It is not only for those who seem closer to us, more receptive, more welcoming. It is for everyone.

Do not be afraid to go and to bring Christ into every area of life, to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent. The Lord seeks all, he wants everyone to feel the warmth of his mercy and his love.

In particular, I would like Christ’s command: “Go” to resonate in you young people from the Church in Latin America, engaged in the continental mission promoted by the Bishops. Brazil, Latin America, the whole world needs Christ! Saint Paul says: “Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16).

This continent has received the proclamation of the Gospel which has marked its history and borne much fruit. Now this proclamation is entrusted also to you, that it may resound with fresh power. The Church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you.

A great Apostle of Brazil, Blessed José de Anchieta, set off on the mission when he was only nineteen years old. Do you know what the best tool is for evangelizing the young? Another young person. This is the path for all of you to follow!

2. Do not be afraid. Some people might think: “I have no particular preparation, how can I go and proclaim the Gospel?” My dear friend, your fear is not so very different from that of Jeremiah, as we have just heard in the reading, when he was called by God to be a prophet. “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth”.

God says the same thing to you as he said to Jeremiah: “Be not afraid ... for I am with you to deliver you” (Jer 1:7,8). He is with us!

“Do not be afraid!” When we go to proclaim Christ, it is he himself who goes before us and guides us. When he sent his disciples on mission, he promised: “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). And this is also true for us! Jesus never leaves anyone alone! He always accompanies us .

And then, Jesus did not say: “One of you go”, but “All of you go”: we are sent together. Dear young friends, be aware of the companionship of the whole Church and also the communion of the saints on this mission. When we face challenges together, then we are strong, we discover resources we did not know we had.

Jesus did not call the Apostles to live in isolation, he called them to form a group, a community. I would like to address you, dear priests concelebrating with me at this Eucharist: you have come to accompany your young people, and this is wonderful, to share this experience of faith with them! Certainly he has rejuvenated all of you. The young make everyone feel young.

But this experience is only a stage on the journey. Please, continue to accompany them with generosity and joy, help them to become actively engaged in the Church; never let them feel alone! And here I wish to thank from the heart the youth ministry teams from the movements and new communities that are accompanying the young people in their experience of being Church, in such a creative and bold way. Go forth and don’t be afraid!

3. The final word: serve. The opening words of the psalm that we proclaimed are: “Sing to the Lord a new song” (Psalm 95:1). What is this new song? It does not consist of words, it is not a melody, it is the song of your life, it is allowing our life to be identified with that of Jesus, it is sharing his sentiments, his thoughts, his actions. And the life of Jesus is a life for others. The life of Jesus is a life for others. It is a life of service.

In our Second Reading today, Saint Paul says: “I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more” (1 Cor 9:19). In order to proclaim Jesus, Paul made himself “a slave to all”.

Evangelizing means bearing personal witness to the love of God, it is overcoming our selfishness, it is serving by bending down to wash the feet of our brethren, as Jesus did.

Three ideas: Go, do not be afraid, and serve. Go, do not be afraid, and serve. If you follow these three ideas, you will experience that the one who evangelizes is evangelized, the one who transmits the joy of faith receives more joy.

Dear young friends, as you return to your homes, do not be afraid to be generous with Christ, to bear witness to his Gospel. In the first Reading, when God sends the prophet Jeremiah, he gives him the power to “pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant” (1:10). It is the same for you.

Bringing the Gospel is bringing God’s power to pluck up and break down evil and violence, to destroy and overthrow the barriers of selfishness, intolerance and hatred, so as to build a new world.

Dear young friends, Jesus Christ is counting on you! The Church is counting on you! The Pope is counting on you! May Mary, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, always accompany you with her tenderness: “Go and make disciples of all nations”. Amen.

---

Judging from his words when he announced that WYD 2013 would be held in Rio de Janeiro, even Benedict XVI himself did not think Madrid 2011 was to be the last WYD he would preside over as Pope... And so, Madrid WYD has acquired yet another historic dimension... Here's the inevitable lookback to the closing day Mass - Benedict XVI.s third and final WYD Mass as Pope... NB: The photo and news reportage on the lookback features are necessarily more extensive than that of the current event to which it corresponds because they are already readymade posts that I do not have to start from scratch as with a current event, and unforetunately, I have not had the time to do even a representative selection of phohographs from the Rio events. Not that I expect anyone followed te Rio WYD through my postings that were often belated, but still, I do want the Forum to have a respectable record of important Church events under Pope Francis...

BENEDICT XVI AT WYD 2011: Final Day
Closing Mass and consigning
WYD 2013 to Rio de Janeiro



Above, right, an older generation of Spaniards who have obviously kept the faith through Spain's radical secularization after President Franco's death in 1975 ended his long ultra-conservative rule.


King Juan Carlos and Queen Sophia came to the papal Mass, as they did in Barcelona last November, and in Valencia in july 2006.






Pope calls on young people to be
'apostles of the 21st century'

August 21, 2011

Pope Benedict presided over the World Youth Day closing Mass in Madrid’s Cuatro Vientos military airport Sunday morning, inviting the young people to be “the apostles of the twenty-first century” and to join him again for the next World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2013. Emer McCarthy is in Madrid and sends this report:

“You are now about to go back home. Your friends will want to know how you have changed after being in this lovely city with the Pope and with hundreds of thousands of other young people from around the world. What are you going to tell them? I invite you to give a bold witness of Christian living to them. In this way you will give birth to new Christians and will help the Church grow strongly in the hearts of many others”.

This was Pope Benedict XVI’s mandate to the estimated 2 million young people – the ‘disciples of the new evangelization - who had braved a stormy night at Cuatro Vientos aiport and were impatient to hear the Holy Father’s words.

The tent city had withstood the battering winds and driving rains that cut short Saturday’s prayer vigil but the young people, though tired, still had enough energy reserves to welcome Pope Benedict enthusiastically as the Popemobile entered the vast military compound, for the closing Mass of this 26th World Youth Day.

His first words to them after a welcoming address by the Archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Ruoco Varela, were “I hope you were able to sleep a little last night”, to the young people’s applause.

Then with the procession of bishops and priests to the sweeping white stage, upon which a simple altar was shaded by the outstretched branches of an artificial golden tree, the closing ceremony of this week of prayer, song, meditation and encounter begun.

“We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others.” Pope Benedict told them in his homily. “So do not keep Christ to yourselves!”.

The entire homily was drawn from the Sunday Gospel, in which Christ asks the apostles: “But who do you say that I am?”.

“Faith is more than just empirical or historical facts; it is an ability to grasp the mystery of Christ’s person in all its depth”, he said.

And then looking out on the sea of young men and women, religious and lay, that extended before his gaze, the Pope said to them, “Tday Christ is asking you the same question... Respond to him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own”.

His homily was followed by a profound silence that echoed around the arena, and as a gentle breeze lifted the flags of the nations of the world the intercessory prayers were read: The first prayer in Italian, for the Church; the second prayer for the Pope, read in Chinese; the third prayer, in Arabic, is for all young people who don´t know Christ; the fourth prayer, in Polish, for the poor of this earth; the fifth prayer, read in German, for all the young people gathered at the Mass.

Then as the choir sang 'Antigua Eterna Danza', the liturgy of the Eucharist began. It was the moment that millions of young people had saved, worked and prayed for. However during Saturday’s storm some makeshift chapels set up on the field's perimeter were also damaged, forcing organizers to announce Sunday morning over loudspeakers that not everyone would be able to receive Communion during the Mass.

Nonetheless the pilgrims took this news with the same calm and good nature with which they have conquered the hearts of Madrid residents. Pope Benedict gave communion to a selection of pilgrims to the notes of 'Here I am Lord', while 2 million young people dropped to their knees in prayer. A very different wind was blowing Sunday morning across Cuatro Vientos.

Pilgrims then raised the crosses that had been placed in each backpack for the Apostolic Benediction.

But the Pope’s thoughts and prayers went well beyond the Madrid airport and those immediately present: “During these days, how often I have thought of the young people at home who are waiting for your return!”, he said to them during his address before the midday Angelus. “Take my affectionate greetings to them, to those less fortunate, to your families and to the Christian communities that you come from”.

And then the 'party' began anew as Pope Benedict officially announced that the next World Youth Day will be held in 2013, in Rio de Janeiro.

“Before we say good-bye," he said. "and while the young people of Spain pass on the World Youth Day cross to the young people of Brazil, as Successor of Peter I entrust all of you present with this task: make the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ known to the whole world! He wants you to be the apostles of the twenty-first century and the messengers of his joy. Do not let him down!"

Here is the official Vatican translation of the homily:

---

Dear Young People,

In this celebration of the Eucharist we have reached the high point of this World Youth Day. Seeing you here, gathered in such great numbers from all parts of the world, fills my heart with joy.

I think of the special love with which Jesus is looking upon you. Yes, the Lord loves you and calls you his friends (cf. Jn 15:15). He goes out to meet you and he wants to accompany you on your journey, to open the door to a life of fulfilment and to give you a share in his own closeness to the Father.

For our part, we have come to know the immensity of his love and we want to respond generously to his love by sharing with others the joy we have received.

Certainly, there are many people today who feel attracted by the figure of Christ and want to know him better. They realize that he is the answer to so many of our deepest concerns. But who is he really? How can someone who lived on this earth so long ago have anything in common with me today?

The Gospel we have just heard (cf. Mt 16:13-20) suggests two different ways of knowing Christ. The first is an impersonal knowledge, one based on current opinion.

When Jesus asks: “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”, the disciples answer: “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets”. In other words, Christ is seen as yet another religious figure, like those who came before him.

Then Jesus turns to the disciples and asks them: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responds with what is the first confession of faith: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”.

Faith is more than just empirical or historical facts; it is an ability to grasp the mystery of Christ’s person in all its depth.
Yet faith is not the result of human effort, of human reasoning, but rather a gift of God: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven”.

Faith starts with God, who opens his heart to us and invites us to share in his own divine life. Faith does not simply provide information about who Christ is; rather, it entails a personal relationship with Christ, a surrender of our whole person, with all our understanding, will and feelings, to God’s self-revelation.

So Jesus’s question: “But who do you say that I am?”, is ultimately a challenge to the disciples to make a personal decision in his regard. Faith in Christ and discipleship are strictly interconnected.

And, since faith involves following the Master, it must become constantly stronger, deeper and more mature, to the extent that it leads to a closer and more intense relationship with Jesus. Peter and the other disciples also had to grow in this way, until their encounter with the Risen Lord opened their eyes to the fullness of faith.

Dear young people, today Christ is asking you the same question which he asked the Apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” Respond to him with generosity and courage, as befits young hearts like your own.

Say to him: “Jesus, I know that you are the Son of God, who have given your life for me. I want to follow you faithfully and to be led by your word. You know me and you love me. I place my trust in you and I put my whole life into your hands. I want you to be the power that strengthens me and the joy which never leaves me”.

Jesus responds to Peter’s confession by speaking of the Church: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church”. What do these words mean? Jesus builds the Church on the rock of the faith of Peter, who confesses that Christ is God.

The Church, then, is not simply a human institution, like any other. Rather, she is closely joined to God. Christ himself speaks of her as “his” Church. Christ cannot be separated from the Church any more than the head can be separated from the body (cf. 1 Cor 12:12). The Church does not draw her life from herself, but from the Lord.

Dear young friends, as the Successor of Peter, let me urge you to strengthen this faith which has been handed down to us from the time of the Apostles.

Make Christ, the Son of God, the centre of your life. But let me also remind you that following Jesus in faith means walking at his side in the communion of the Church. We cannot follow Jesus on our own.

Anyone who would be tempted to do so “on his own”, or to approach the life of faith with kind of individualism so prevalent today, will risk never truly encountering Jesus, or will end up following a counterfeit Jesus.

Having faith means drawing support from the faith of your brothers and sisters, even as your own faith serves as a support for the faith of others.

I ask you, dear friends, to love the Church which brought you to birth in the faith, which helped you to grow in the knowledge of Christ and which led you to discover the beauty of his love.

Growing in friendship with Christ necessarily means recognizing the importance of joyful participation in the life of your parishes, communities and movements, as well as the celebration of Sunday Mass, frequent reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation, and the cultivation of personal prayer and meditation on God’s word.

Friendship with Jesus will also lead you to bear witness to the faith wherever you are, even when it meets with rejection or indifference. We cannot encounter Christ and not want to make him known to others.

So do not keep Christ to yourselves! Share with others the joy of your faith. The world needs the witness of your faith, it surely needs God.

I think that the presence here of so many young people, coming from all over the world, is a wonderful proof of the fruitfulness of Christ’s command to the Church: “Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel to the whole creation” (Mk 16:15).

You too have been given the extraordinary task of being disciples and missionaries of Christ in other lands and countries filled with young people who are looking for something greater and, because their heart tells them that more authentic values do exist, they do not let themselves be seduced by the empty promises of a lifestyle which has no room for God.

Dear young people, I pray for you with heartfelt affection. I commend all of you to the Virgin Mary and I ask her to accompany you always by her maternal intercession and to teach you how to remain faithful to God’s word.

I ask you to pray for the Pope, so that, as the Successor of Peter, he may always confirm his brothers and sisters in the faith.

May all of us in the Church, pastors and faithful alike, draw closer to the Lord each day.

May we grow in holiness of life and be effective witnesses to the truth that Jesus Christ is indeed the Son of God, the Saviour of all mankind and the living source of our hope. Amen.

---

And here is the translation of his remarks before and after the Angelus prayers at midday:

---

Dear Friends,

You are now about to go back home. Your friends will want to know how you have changed after being in this lovely city with the Pope and with hundreds of thousands of other young people from around the world. What are you going to tell them?

I invite you to give a bold witness of Christian living to them. In this way you will give birth to new Christians and will help the Church grow strongly in the hearts of many others.

During these days, how often I have thought of the young people at home who are waiting for your return! Take my affectionate greetings to them, to those less fortunate, to your families and to the Christian communities that you come from.

Let me also express my gratitude to the Bishops and priests who are present in such great numbers at this Day. To them all I extend my deepest thanks, encouraging them to continue to work pastorally among young people with enthusiasm and dedication.

I greet the Archbishop of the [Spanish armed] Forces affectionately and I warmly thank the Spanish Air Force, which very generously permitted Cuatro Vientos Air Base on this, the centenary of the foundation of the Spanish Air Force. I place all Spanish Air Force personnel and their families under the maternal protection of Our Lady of Loreto.

In this context, I recall that yesterday marked the third anniversary of the grave accident at Barajas Airport which caused many deaths and injuries, and I express my spiritual closeness and my deep affection for all those touched by that unfortunate event, and well as for the families of the victims, whose souls we commend to the mercy of God.

I am pleased now to announce that the next World Youth Day will be held in 2013, in Rio de Janeiro. Even now, let us ask the Lord to assist all those who will organize it, and to ease the journey there of young people from all over the world, so that they will be able to join me in that beautiful city of Brazil.

Dear friends, before we say good-bye, and while the young people of Spain pass on the World Youth Day cross to the young people of Brazil, as Successor of Peter I entrust all of you present with this task: make the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ known to the whole world! He wants you to be the apostles of the twenty-first century and the messengers of his joy. Do not let him down! Thank you very much.

He went on to give greetings in other languages:

[French] My dear young people of the French-speaking world, today Christ asks you to be rooted in him and with him, to build your lives upon him who is our rock. He sends you out to be his witnesses, courageous and without anxiety, authentic and credible! Do not be afraid to be Catholic, and to be witnesses to those around you in simplicity and sincerity! Let the Church find in you and in your youthfulness joyful missionaries of the Good News of salvation!

[English] I greet all the English-speaking young people present here today! As you return home, take back with you the good news of Christ’s love which we have experienced in these unforgettable days. Fix your eyes upon him, deepen your knowledge of the Gospel and bring forth abundant fruit! God bless all of you until we meet again!
[German] My dear friends! Faith is not a theory. To believe is to enter into a personal relationship with Jesus and to live in friendship with him in fellowship with others, in the communion of the Church. Entrust the whole of your lives to Christ and bring your friends to find their way to the source of life, to God. May the Lord make you happy and joy-filled witnesses of his love.

[Italian] My dear young Italians! Greetings to all of you. The Eucharist that we have celebrated is the risen Christ present and living in our midst: through him, your lives are rooted and built upon Christ, strong in faith. With this confidence, depart from Madrid and tell everyone what you have seen and heard. Respond with joy to the Lord’s call, follow him and remain always united to him: you will bear much fruit!

[Portuguese] Dear Portuguese-speaking young people and friends, you have met Jesus Christ! You will be swimming against the tide in a society with a relativistic culture which wishes neither to seek nor hold on to the truth. But it was for this moment in history, with its great challenges and opportunities, that the Lord sent you, so that, through your faith, the Good News of Jesus might continue to resound throughout the earth. I hope to see you again in two years’ time at the nest World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Till then, let us pray for each other, witnessing to the joy that brings forth life, rooted in and built upon Christ. Until we meet again, my dear young people! God bless you all!

[Polish] Dear young Poles, strong in the faith, rooted in Christ! May the gifts you have received from God during these days bear in you abundant fruit. Be his witnesses. Take to others the message of the Gospel. With your prayers and example of life, help Europe to rediscover its Christian roots.

---

I don't onow about you, but I always reread Benedict XVI's words on any occasion with the same pleasure as I did the first time he said or wrote them, and in my brain, I can even hear him saying them in his sweet, gentle and molodious voice, in a way that makes me miss him even more, even while, paradoxically, his texts make him such a vivid and comforting presence...Truly, Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini..

I don't think I can ever 'make up' for the days I have missed on the Forum - which I consider not a great loss in the context of this being the Benedetto XVI Forum, so I will just make do for now with a trasnlation of Pope Francis's 90-minute in-flight news conference on the way back from Rio de Janeiro - after he had pointedly said in brief remarks on the way to Rio that he rarely gives interviews because he finds them 'tiresome' - at which time I felt all my prickles rising because it would seem to have been an unintended but still caustic criticism of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI who famously did three book-length interviews before he became Pope and one as Pope. But let that be!....Those interview books - each of them very well-received (despite the polarizing controversy caused by the first one which angered all the Vatican-II progressivists) are in the public domain and obviously not found 'tiresome' by readers...

The following is interesting not just for what Pope Francis says but also for capturing his speaking style and thereby his thought process considered as a stream of consciousness, that was always most captivating and fascinating in Benedict XVI for all his logical linearity, innate prudence and economy of words [i.e., he was always 'print-ready', never has to be 'edited'!]. It also reflects how very much 'self-referential' Pope Francis is, in a way none of the previous Popes in our time ever were. And he does tend to fill up his answers with much small talk and repetition (and even puffy pleasantries that one does not usually associate with Popes)...

The in-flight news conference
given by Pope Francis after Rio - Part I
Translated from the Vatican Radio transcript
posted on the IUtalian blogsite
IL SISMOGRAFO
July 30, 2013

FR. LOMBARDI: Now then, dear friends, we have the joy of having with us on this return tip the Holy Father Francis, who has been so kind as to give us rather ample time to make with us an assessment of the trip and to reply with total freedom to your questions. [Would he have replied in less than total freedom???? He is the Pope. He can set his own rules!]]

I will give him the first words for a little introduction and then, we shall start with the list of those who have asked to speak, taking {representatives) from each of the different national and linguistic groups.

Therefore, Holiness, it's for you to begin...

POPE FRANCIS: Good evening and many thanks. I am happy - i was a beautiful trip. Spiritually it did me good. I am rather tired but my heart is happy - and I am well, very well. It has done me good spiritually. To encounter people is good because the Lord works in each of us, he works on the heart, and the wealth of the Lord is such that we can always receive many good things from others. And this is good for me. This, as a first assessment.

Then I must say that the goodness, the heart of the Brazilian people is large - that is true, it is large. They are such a lovable people, who love feasting, who even in suffering always find a way to see good in every occasion. And this is good - they are a happy people though they have suffered much. It is contagious, this merriment of the Brazilians - it is contagious. They have a large heart, this people...

Then I must say of the organizers, both on our part and on the part of the Brazilians - that I felt as if I was in front of a computer, an incarnate computer... Really, everything was precisely timed ['cronometrata' - chronomeasured], was it not? But beautifully.

Then we had problems with hypotheses about security. But with security here, security there - there was not a single incident in all of Rio de Janeiro these days, and everything was spontaneous. With less security, I was able to be with the people, embrace them, without being in a bulletproof car. [With all due respect, Yor Holiness, John Paul II and Benedict XVI managed to do all that too even with the bulletproof Popemobile. How many more people did you touch, how many more babies did you kiss, than they did, because you rode in an open-sided car than they did in the Popemobile? A few dozen more, perhaps. Certainly not hundreds more. much less thousands!]

It is the security of trusting the people [Previous Popes did not trust the people?]. Of course, there is always the danger that there might be some madman - well, yes, that there could be a madman who will do something. But the Lord is also there, yes? [He is fond of interjecting 'Eh?', which I have translated as '..yes?"] But to create a bulletproof space between a bishop and the people is madness too, and I prefer this madness. To be 'out of touch' [he uses the word 'fuori - which means outside] is to risk another madness - this madness of being out of touch. [Why must being 'in touch' be literal? After all, he can only be 'touched' by a very insignificant few compared to the crowds - and everyone knows that! I know I am a Biblical near-illiterate, but I don't think Jesus set an example in this respect! Even if to many, he was the Messiah, the people were content to acclaim him with hosannahs on that last entry into Jerusalem, not mob him as he rode the humble donkey into the city! There is this element of very self-conscious vanity in the Pope's 'populist' gestures that has bothered me from the beginning as being the antithesis of humility. Closeness is good for everyone. [i.e., John {aul II and Benedict XVI were wrong to have agreed to use the bulletproof Popemobile on their travels because that meant they did not want 'closeness' with the people??? They used the open jeep in St. Peter's Square and reached out spontaneously at St. Peter's or elsewhere - whenever the occasion presented itself, though not without the deliberate ostentation of 'making a statement' with which Pope Francis reaches out! How many times during WYD did the sycophant press trumpet the word that with Pope Francis, he himself has become the message, without any reservations or conditions to the statement. Really? Shouldn't Christ alone be the message? The justification would be: "It cannot be wrong if I can call attention to Christ by calling attention to myself", which is not exactly a contemporary restatement of St. Paul's "Not I but Christ lives in me!"...Because no one points it out, a narcissism is being abetted in which Francis implies a criticism of his predecessors with every gesture and statement he makes that underscores implicitly how 'different' he is from them]

The organization of WYD, not just this precisely, but eveything - the artistic part, the religious part, the catechetical part, the lituirgical part - it was all most beautiful. They all had a capacity to express themeselves in art, right? They did things which were very beautiful, most beautiful,

Then, Aprecida. For me, it was a strong religious experience. I remember the Fith Cofnerence [V General Cofnerence of the Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops, held there in 2007[. I went thre to pray, to pray. I wanted to be there by nyself, hidden - but there was a most impressive crowd. So it was not possible [to be alone] - I knew that before arriving, yes? And we prayed - we all did.

I don't know... one thing, also with you, right? I am told that your work has been very good - I have not read the newspapers these days, I did not have time, I did not watch TV, nothing - but they tell me that you have done a good job - good, good, good. Thank you, thank you for the collaboration you have given us in this.

Then, the numbers! The number of the young people present, yes? I could not believe it, but today, the Governatorate spoke of three million, right? I could not believe it. But from the altar - this is true (I do not know if you, some of you, were at the altar - but from the altar, the entire beach was filled, to the very end, four kilometers of it, yes? So many young people! Mons. Tempesta [Archbishop of Rio] told me they came from 178 countries. 178! Even the Vice President gave me this number, so it is true. This is important! Quite a strong statement!

FR. LOMBARDI: Thank you. Now, let us give the floor first to Juan de Lara, from EFE [the Spanish news agency] - He is a Spaniard and this is the last trip he will make with us, so we are happy to give hin this chance...

][he question and answer are in Spanish. Most of the news conference is held in Italian, except for the questions by the Spanish and Poertuguese-speaking journalists. The Pope's answers were all in italian, except he would start answering a Spanish question in Spanish then switch to Italian.]
JUAN DE LARA: Holiness, good evening. In the name of all my companions, we want to thank you for these days that you have gifted us, the work that you have done, and the effort you put into it. In the name of the Spanish media, we wish to thank you for the prayers offered for the victims of the train accident in Santiago de Compsotela. Many thanks.

The first question has little to do with the trip, but we will take advantage of this opportunity so I wish to ask you: Holiness, in these four months that you have been Pope, we have seen that you have created various commissions to reform the Vatican Curia. I wish to ask you - what kind of reform do you have in mind, are you contemplating to suppress IOR, the so-called Vatican bank? Thank you.
THE POPE: The steps that I have been taking these past four months and a half come from two sources: The content of what has to be done, all of it, comes from the general congregations that we cardinals held. There were things that we cardinals decided we would ask of the new Pope. I remember I asked for many things, thinking it would be from someone else [Laughter]...So we said, this must be done. etc. For example, the commission of eight cardinals - we know it is important to have consultants who are 'outsiders' [he uses the English term], not the consultants who are already there, but outsiders. And this goes along the line - here I make somewhat of an abstraction in order to explain it -of increasingly maturing the relationship between Synodality and Primacy. In effect, these eight cardinals represent synodality, helping so that the various episcopates around the world can eexress themselves in the governance of the Church.

Many proposals have been made that have yet to be put into practice.[But don't they have to be studied first?], such as the reform of the Synod Secretariat, in its methodology: Such as, the Post-Synodal Commission should have a permanent consultative character; such as, cardinal's consistories with themes that are not just formal, as for canonizations, but also thematic....In any case, the aspect of content [of the reform] comes from that [the pre-Conclave congregations].

The other aspect is opportunity. I must admit that it cost me nothing after a month of the Pontificate to set up the commission of eight cardinals... The economic part I had thought of dealing with next year, because it is not the most important thing to be done. However, the agenda changed because of circumstances that you are familiar with, which are in the public domain - problems cropped up and they had to be faced.

The first, the problem of IOR - how to channel it, how to delineate it, how to re-formulate it, how to cure what needs to be cured. So, we have the first reference commission. You are familiar with the chirograph, what it requires the commission to do, who the members are, etc.

Then there was a meeting of the 15 cardinals who are involved with the economic aspects of the Holy See. They come from all parts of the world. And while preparing for that meeting, the necessity emerged for naming a reference commission regarding the entire economy of the Holy See. And so, the economic problem came up ahead of schedule, but these things happen in the exercise of government, right? One is going in this direction, but they kick the ball towards another goal and you have to block it. But that's how life is, and that is what makes it beautiful. I will repeat the answer to the question he asked about IOR - forgive me, I was speaking Castilian... [He switches to Italian.]

About that question regarding IOR, I do not know how it will end up - some say it would be better if it was a bank, others that it should be an assistance fund, others say to close it down. These opinions are being heard. I do not know. I trust in the work of the IOR personnel whp are working on this, and also in the Commission [which one?]

The president of IOR stays, but the director and vice-director have resigned. I do not know how this story will end, but it is good that one seeks, one tries to find a solution. [To what? It seems, even from Moneyval's investigations, that the one single problem is to screen all IOr depositors carefully so that no depositor could possibly use IOR to launder money. The problem is that the pre-Conclave congregations, including the cardinal who became Pope, have adapted the MSM's general anathematizing of IOR since the 1980s, seeing only its bad points and refusing to see the changes that have taken place during Benedict XVI's Pontificate] We are human this way. We must find out what is best. But one thing sure - the characteristics of IOR, whether it is a bank, an assistance fund, or whatever - must be transparency and honesty. That's the way it ought to be. [No acknowledgment of what was done in the previous Pontificate - and of the historical step towards transparency in the law of December 2010 and opening up the Vatican to Moneyval inspection!]

FR. LOMBARDI: Thanks a lot, Holiness. Now we come to a representative of the Italian media, whom you know every well, Andrea Tornielli, who will ask you a question in the name of the Italian group.

TORNIELLI: Holy Father, my question is perhaps indiscreet, The photograph of you, when we left Rome, going up the airplane steps carrying a black bag, was instantly seen round the world, and there have been articles everywhere that have commented on this novelty. It has never happened, let us say, that a Pope boards a plane with his hand luggage. And there is also speculation on what the black bag contained. My questions are - 1) why did you carry the bag yourself and not by one of your aides, and two, can you tell us what was inside? Thank you. [So the primary papal biographer sets up a question to further 'humanize' the Pope!]
THE POPE: It didn't have the key to set off an atomic bomb! I carried it because I have always done so when I travel... What was inside it? A razor, the breviary, my appointment book, something to read - I brought one about St. Therese of Lisieux to whom I am devoted ... I always carried my briefcase when I travelled, it's normal... I don't know, it seems rather strange to me, what you said, that the photograph went round the world, yes? But we must get used to it, to being normal, yes? To the normalcy of life. I do not know, Andrea, if I have answered you... [But to be consistent, he should have carried it with him getting off the plane in Rio, getting on and off the plane to and from Aparecida, getting back on again for the trip home, and getting off the plane in Ciampino. Maybe he did - I didn't see the coverage. Yet, normal - and practical - is also for VIPs like Popes to go up and down plane steps unencumbered. Not normal is for no one among the papal aides to have insisted "No, Holiness, let us carry it for you", as they apparently did on the subsequent opportunities, with the Pope's acquiescence... Rather disingenuous to be surprised the photograph would be gobbled up by the world media...

I digress, but Tornielli's Introduction to the insta-book he wrote about Benedict XVI when he became Pope was his anecdote of how he first met Cardinal Ratzinger being on the same plane with him on an flight inside Italy - and how the cardinal carried his own luggage (not just hand luggage), lined up dutifully like any other passenger, and did not use the VIP waiting room. The same cardinal who, for more than 20 years, crossed St. Peter's Square daily six days a week to go to work, carrying a well-worn briefcase...

FR LOMBARDI: Now let us hear from a Portuguese-speaking representative - Aura Miguel of Radio Renascenxca.

AURA MIGUEL: Holiness, I wanted to ask - why do you ask so insistently that people pray for you? It is not normal or habitual to hear a Pope ask so much for people to pray for him... [Yes, it is normal and habitual, except that in the case of Benedict XVI, he usually said, "Pray for the Successor of Peter that he may...." or "Pray for the success of this trip..." Only in his installation Mass did he say, "Pray for me that I may not flee from the wolves..."]
THE POPE: I have always asked this. When I was a priest, I did so, but not as often. I began to ask it with some frequency when I became a bishop, because I felt that if the Lord does not help us in the work of going ahead of the People of God, one cannot do so... I truly feel I have so many limitations, yes?, with so many problems, and that I am a sinner, you know... so I must ask for prayers. But it comes from within me, yes? I ask even Our Lady to pray for me to the Lord. It's a habit, but one that comes from the heart, and also the need that I have for prayers in my work. I feel that I must ask for it... I do not know, it's just that way...

FR LOMBARDI: Now we go to the English-speaking group, first, our colleague from Reuters...

PHILLIP PULLELLA: Holiness, in the name of the English-speaking group, thank you for your availability. Our colleague De Lara already asked the question we had wanted to ask, so I will continue along that line. In your attempts to make changes, I remember you told a group from Latin America that there are so many holy people who work in the Vatican, along with those who are 'less saintly'. Have you found any resistance to your desire to change things at the Vatican? And the second question is: You live in a very austere way, you have remained in Santa Marta, etc. Do you want your co-workers, including the cardinals, to follow your example and perhaps, live in community, or is this just a personal thing for you?
THE POPE: These changes ... They come also from two aspects: that which we cardinals had requested, and that which comes from my own personality. You point out that I have remained in Santa Marta. Because I could not live by myself in the Apostolic Palace, which is not luxurious, yes? It is large but not luxurious. But I cannot live by myself [DIDN'T HE, ALL THE TIME HE WAS ARCHBISHOP OF BUENOS AIRES IN A 2-ROOM APARTMENT, AND WAS HE NOT WIDELY PRAISED FOR THAT???] or with just a small group of people. I need people, I need to meet people, to talk with them. [How much of his typical day is spent socializing with his fellow hotel guests in Santa Marta?]

That is why when the boys from the Jesuit schools asked me, "Why [are you living in Santa Marta]? Is it for austerity, as a sign of poverty, why?" No, no, I said, it is simply for psychiatric motivations [He obviously meant' psychological'] - it is simply that psychologically, I cannot be by myself.

Each one must carry on with his life in his own way, his own lifestyle, his own way of being. The cardinals who work in the Curia, for instance - they do not live in wealth and luxury. They live in ordinary apartments, which are austere. They are austere -those that I know of, who have these apartments assigned to them by the APSA [the Vatican agency in charge of Holy See properties], right?

But there is one other thing I wish to say. Each one ought to live as the Lord asks him to. But I believe that austerity - austerity in general - is necessary for all of us who work in the service of the Church. There are so many nuances in austerity - each one must find his own way.

Regarding saints in the Curia - this is true, yes? -there are saints there: cardinals, priests, bishops, nuns, laymen - people who pray, people who work hard, even people who work with the poor but do so without fanfare. I know of some who are involved in feeding the poor and who, in their free time, go to minister in some church or other. There are saints in the Curia.

But there are also some who are not so saintly, no?, and they are the ones who make the most news. You all know that a tree which falls in the forest makes more noise than the whole forest which is growing. And this is painful to me, when such things happen. There are some who create scandal - some. We have this monsignor who is in jail, I think he is still in jail. But he did not go to prison because he was 'like the Blessed Imelda' [apparently an Argentine saying to indicate someone is holy] He was no Blessed One! These are scandals which are bad for the Church.

One thing which I have never said but which I have come to realize: I think that the Curia has fallen a bit below the level it had at one time, the time of the old Curial figures - the profile was of persons who were faithful, who did their work. We need such persons. [Isn't this the usual evocation of an imagined Golden Age that never was? The Roman Curia has always had all the inherent faults of a bureaucracy, even if it also always had more than its share of holy men compared to secular bureaucracies. But there have been powerful and influential curial heads in the past who were not exactly all benign - Cardinal Ratzinger was a luminous exception. And as Vittorio Messori has pointed out, the Curial bureaucracy - middle level management downward - suffered considerable loss of quality after Vatican II because, in the wake of the priest shortage and formational deficiencies, the world's dioceses could no longer afford to send their 'best and brightest' to serve the Curia in Rome but kept them home, with the result that those recruited to serve in the Curia are necessarily second-rank personnel. But second rank does not necessarily mean incompetent or corrupt. Now, Pope Francis concedes there are holy men and even saints in the Curia. But during the pre-Conclave congregations and the Vatileaks furor that preceded it, all the cardinals, Cardinal Bergoglio among them, seemed maniacally happy to paint the entire Curia black indiscriminately. I felt then that the Curial heads should have stood up and defended their respective offices and personnel from being all tarred with the broad brush of sanctimonious castigation by their fellow cardinals. Maybe they did, and we just weren't told about it. (They should have taken their case to the media, to begin with, not just sit back and be punching bags!])Because the narrative etched in stone before the Conclave was that no Curia had ever been as evil and corrupt as the Curia in Benedict XVI's Pontificate - despite an absolute lack of evidence. andnot even anecdotal tidbits, to support this view!]

The profile of the Curial figure of old - I would say that there are some who fit it today, but not as many as in the past. We should have more of them.

Do I find resistance in the Curia? If there is, I still have to see it. It's true I have not yet done very much, but I can say that yes, I have found help, and I have even found loyal people. For example, I like it when someone tells me, "I don't agree with you", and I have met some who said so, who sa
y, "I don't see it your way, and I disagree - but that's just me, and you will do what you think is right". That is a genuine co-worker, yes? And I have found such persons in the Curia. Which is good.

But if there are those who can say, "Oh, that is good, that is good, that is good" when speaking to me but then say the contrary to others, I have not met them yet. Resistance? In four months, how much resistance can you find?

FR LOMBARDI: Then let us go on to a Brazilian, Patricia Zorzan, and afterwards Monsiuer Izoard, so we will have a Frenchman...

PATRICIA ZORZAN (at 28 mins 08 secs of the newscon) (Her question is in Portuguese): Speaking in behalf of Brazilians - society has changed, young people have changed, and in Brazil, we see a lot of young people. You did not speak at all about abortion nor about same-sex unions. In Brazil, they have just approved a law that broadens the right to abort and another one that allows 'marriage' between persons of the same sex. Why did you not speak about these issues?
THE POPE (replying in Spanish): The Church has already expressed herself perfectly on those matters. It was not necessary to go back to them. In the same way that I did not speak about swindling or about lying or other offenses about which Church doctrine is clear.

ZORZAN: But these are matters that are of interest to young people...
THE POPE: Yes, but it was not necessary to speak to them about that but about positive things that can open the way for them, am I right? Besides, the young people know quite well what the position of the Church is.

ZORZAN: And what is the position of Your Holiness. Could you tell us? [Man, she is militant!]
THE POPE: [My position is] that of the Church. I am a son of the Church. {No, you won't get him to elaborate on that - he has yet to do so, and if at all, he would not do so on an inflight news conference. We can all imagine how differently Benedict XVI would have answered Ms. Zorzan.]

FR LOMBARDI: Now let us return to the Spanish-speaking group. Dario Menor Torres... Oh, excuse me, first there is Monsieur Izoard whom we called on earlier, so someone from the French group. And then, Dario Menor...

ANTOINE MARIE IZOARD (of I-Media): Good day, Holiness. In behalf of my French colleagues on this flight - there are nine of us: From a Pope who has said he does not like to do interviews, we are truly grateful for this opportunity. Since March 13, you have presented yourself as the Bishop of Rome, with great and strong insistence. We would like to understand the profound meaning of this insistence - if perhaps, more than collegiality, it speaks more to ecumenism, of being 'primus inter pares' in the Church?
THE POPE: Yes, about this... one should not go too far ahead of what is said. The Pope is a bishop - the Bishop of Rome, and because he is the Bishop of Rome, he is the Successor of Peter, Vicar of Christ, right? And there are other titles, too. But the first title is 'Bishop of Rome', and everything comes from there.

To say or think that this means being 'primus inter pares', no! - that is not a consequence of being Bishop of Rome. Very simply, this is the first title of the Pope, yes? - Bishop of Rome. Of course, there are also the others...

I think you said something about ecumenism - and I think that this may play a little bit into ecumenism, yes. But nothing more than that...

FR. LOMBARDI; Now, Dario Menor of La Razon, in Spain.

DARIO MENOR TORRES (at 27 mins 44 secs): I have one question about your feelings. You said something a week ago about a boy who asked you how you felt, if it was possible for someone to imagine how it would be to become Pope, and if one can desire that - the inference being that one has to be mad to want it. After your first experience with multitudes this week in Rio, could you tell us how it feels being the Pope, is it very difficult, are you happy being Pope, has your faith grown because you are Pope, or perhaps on the contrary, have you had doubts? Thank you.
THE POPE: To do the work of a bishop is a beautiful thing. The problem is when one seeks the job - that is not so beautiful, and it does not come from the Lord. But when the Lord calls a priest to become a bishop, then that is beautiful. There is always the danger of thinking that one is superior to others, one is not like the others, one feels a bit like a prince... These are dangers and sins, yes? But the work of a bishop is beautiful, because he helps his brothers to move forward.

The bishop leading the faithful, to show them the way. The bishop among the faithful, to help foster communion. The bishop behind the faithful, because many times the faithful have the scent of the track. That is what the bishop should be.

I was asked whether I like being bishop. I like being a bishop. I like it. In Buenos Aires, I was so happy, so happy! I was happy, it is true. The Lord helped me there. But I was happy as a priest, and I am happy as a bishop. So yes, I like it.

[Someone asks]: What about being Pope?
THE POPE: That too, that too! When the Lord places you there, if you do what the Lord wants, you are happy. But, this is my feeling, yes? This is how I feel.

FR LOBARDI: Now, another Italian - Salvatore Mazza of Avvenire.

SALVATORE MAZZA: I cannot even get up. Excuse me - I cannot get up because of all the files I have around my feet... We saw you these days in Rio - full of energy even in the late evening, and we see you now, on an airplane that is not quite steady, serenely standing without a moment of hesitation. We want to ask you - much is being said about your future trips - to Asia, to Jerusalem, to Argentina... Do you already have a calendar that is more or less fixed for your travels next year, or is everything still pending?
THE POPE: For sure, for sure? Nothing yet. But I can say something of what is being considered. But first, September 22, to Cagliari, is definite. Then October 4, to Assisi. Still within Italy, I would like to be able to go visit my folks [his parents' relatives in the Piedmont region] for a day, because, poor things, they have been asking me, and we have such good relations! But just one day.

Outside Italy, Patriarch Bartholomew I wants a meeting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the meeting between Paul VI and Athenagoras in Jerusalem. The Israeli government has issued a special invitation for me to visit Israel. I think there is also one from the Palestinian Authority. We are thinking about this - we don't know yet whether to go or not to go...

To Latin America, I don't think there is a possibility of returning [soon], because the Latin American Pope has just made his first trip to Latin America - well, arrivederci! We have to wait a bit.

I think I may go to Asia, but this is all up in the air. I have an invitation to visit Sri Lanka and also the Philippines... But one must go to Asia, right? Because Pope Benedict did not have time to go to Asia, and it is important. [Oh yes, he did - The Middle East is in Asia, right?, and he visited Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.]

To go to Argentina - I think that at this time, one can wait, because all these trips have a certain priority. I wanted to go to Constantinople (Istanbul) this September 30 to visit Bartholomew I, but it is not possible, It could bot be fitted on my agenda. So if we meet each other, it will be in Jerusalem.

[Someone asks about Fatima] Fatima? Yes, that's true, there's also an invitation from Fatima. That's true, that's true. There's an invitation to go to Fatima.

[Someone asks] Did you say September 30 or November 30?
THE POPE: November, November - the feast of St. Andrew.

FR. LOMBARDI: Well now, let us go to the United States - we call on Ada Messia of CNN...

ADA MESSIA: Salve! You are holding up better than me.... No, I'm fine. I'm fine. My question is: when you met with the young people from Argentina, you told them, perhaps in jest, perhaps half-seriously, that you sometimes feel you are 'caged' - We would like to know what you were referring to exactly...
THE POPE: You know how often I have wanted to walk the streets of Rome... Because in Buenos Aires, I liked to walk the streets, I liked it very much! In this sense, I feel rather caged. But I must say this - of the good people of the Vatican police - they are good, good, good, and I am grateful to them. Now they are allowing me to do something more. I believe... but it is their duty to look after security, right? I feel caged in that sense. I would love to walk the streets, but I understand that it is not possible. I understand - and that is the sense in which I meant being caged. Since it was habitual for me - as we would say in Buenos Aires, I was a street priest ('padre callejero').

FR LOMBARDI: Now we call on another Portuguese, Marcio Campos. I also ask Mr. Guenois of Le Figaro to come nearer for he will be next....

THE POPE: I asked about the time because they should be serving dinner now. Are you all hungry?

[Everyone] No, no!

MARCIO CAMPOS: Your Holiness, Holy Father...To hear the greetings of the people of Brazil, their merriment, their embrace ... We wish to thank you, my colleagues from the Brazilian newspapers, whom I represent with this question. Holy Father, it is difficult to accompany a Pope, very difficult. We are all very tired - you seem very well, but we are all tired... In Brazil, the Catholic Church has lost faithful in these last years. Is the Movement of Charismatic Renewal a possibility to avoid that the Catholic faithful move over to the Pentecostal Church or other pentecostal churches? Many thanks for your presence, and many thanks for being here with us....
THE POPE: It is very true what you said about the decline in the number of our faithful. It is true, it is true. But there are statistics... We spoke of this problem with the Brazilian bishops at the meeting we had yesterday. You asked about the Movement of Charismatic Renewal. I will tell you one thing. At the end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s, I could not see what they were. Once, speaking of them, I said, "They seem to confuse a liturgical celebration with a samba school!" That is what I said. I regretted it. I came to know better. It is also true that the movement, with good advisers, has embarked on a beautiful path. And now I think that this movement has done much good for the Church in general. In Buenos Aires, I often convened them, and once a year, I said Mass with all of them in the Cathedral. After I was 'converted' and I saw how much good they were doing, I always favored them. Because at this time in the history of the Church - and here, I shall broaden my response - I think the movements are necessary. They are a grace of the Spirit. But, some ask, how does one govern a movement which is so free? But even the Church is free, yes? The Holy Spirit does as he wills. He then does the work of harmonizing. Movements are a grace - those movements which embody the spirit of the Church.

That is why I believe that the Movement for Charismatic Renewal does not just serve to prevent some faithful from passing over to the Pentecostal confessions. They serve the Church herself. And each one seeks his own movement according to his own charism - wherever the Spirit leads....

[I must say I find it most admirable that Pope Francis clearly admits to mistakes he has made in perception this about the Movement for Charismatic Renewal, and later, in what he says about the many good and holy men he has found in the Roman Curia to whom he wishes to 'render justice'.]

[Off-field question - not transcribed]
THE POPE (in Spanish): I am tired.

FR LOMBARDI: Now then, Jean Guenois of Le Figaro for the French group...

JEAN MARIE GUENOIS: Holy Father, I have a question along with my colleague from La Croix: You said that the Church without women loses her fecundity. What concrete measures will you take about women? for example [will there be] a female diaconate, or a woman head of a Curial dicastery? And a very tiny technical question. You said you are tired. Is there any special feature installed for the return trip? Thank you, Holiness.
THE POPE: Let's start with the last question. This plane has no special installations. Up front, I have a beautiful seat, but it's ordinary, it's what everyone has. I asked that a letter be sent, as well as a telephone call, to make clear that I did not want any special installations on the plane. Is that clear? [But the letter and telephone call were unnecessary - since according to Fr. Lombardi, Alitalia had made no special installations for Benedict XVI. fr. Lombardi, BTW, also denied that any such letter had been written to Alitalia. And now, he's been shown to be wrong again. (As he was when he denied that Benedict XVI had anything to do with the then yet-unreleased encyclical on faith, after the Pope had told some Italian bishops that his first encyclical would be 'the work of four hands'.) I think everyone understands: If Popes take ordinary bedrooms without any frills in monasteries or nunciatures instead of taking a five-star hotel suite as other VIPs of far lesser rank do, why would they even think of asking for frills during a flight?]
Secondly, women. A Church without women would be like the Apostolic College without Mary. The role of women in the Church is not only that of motherhood, being the mother of the family, but it is stronger: it is the icon of the Virgin herself, of Our lady, she who helps the Church to grow. Just think about it - that Our Lady is more important than the Apostles, right? She is more important. The Church is feminine - she is the Church, the Spouse, the mother.

But that women in the Church must only be...I don't know how this is said in Italian - the role of women in the Church should not just be limited to being mother. worker, a limited role. No, it is another thing altogether.

The Popes - Paul VI wrote something very beautiful about women - but I think that one must go farther in the explicitation of the role and charism of women. One cnanot understand the Church without women, those women who are active in the Church, who can carry it forward. I am thinking of an example which has nothing to do with the Church but it is a historical example - in Latin America, in Paqraguay. I consider the women of Paraguay the most glorious women of Latin America. Are you from Paraguay? After the war, that country was left with eight women for every man, and the women made a rather difficult choice: to bear children in order to save the nation, the culture, the faith and the language.

In the Church, ne must think of women in this perspective, of making risky choices as women. This must be explained better. I think that we still have to make a profound theology on women in the Church. She can only do this or that, now she can be an altar server, now she can be a lector, or be president of Caritas... But there is much more to women. We need to have a profound theology of women. So this is what I think, yes?

FR. LOMBARDI: For the Spanish group, we now have Pablo Ordaz of El Pais.

PABLO ORDAS: We wish to know about your working relationship - not so much the friendship - but the collaboration with Benedict XVI. There has been no similar circumstance before. Do you have frequent contacts and is he helping you in your responsibilities? Many thanks.
THE POPE: I think the last time there were two Popes, or three, they didn't talk to each other. [Laughter.] - they were fighting to see who was the true Pope. There were as many as three in the Western Schism... [He began the answer in Spanish but continues in Italian at 47 mins 06 secs]

There is something that distinguishes my relationship with Benedict XVI: I love him and wish him the best. I have always wished him well. For me, he is a man of God, a humble man, a man who prays... I was very happy when he was elected Pope. And even when he decided to resign. He has been an example for me - a great one! A great one. Only a great man can do what he did. A man of God and a man of prayer.

Now he lives in the Vatican, and some have asked me, "How can this be - to have two Popes in the Vatican? Doesn't he encumber you? Will he not lead a revolution against you?" All these things are being said, right? But I have found a way to answer this: "It is like having Grandpa at home", but a wise Grandpa. When a grnadfather lives with a family, he is venerated, he is loved, he is listened to. He is a man of prudence and would not get mixed up [in what is none of his business].

I have told him many times. "But, Holiness, you receive guests, you have your own life now, but come be with us..." He came, for the inauguration and blessing of the statue of St. Michael...

So, the statement says everything for me: It is like having Grandpa at home, or my own father. If I had any difficulty or something I do not understand, I would call him. But, some may well ask, "Can you do that?"

When I went to speak to him about that great problem opened up by Vatileaks, he told me everything he knew with simplicity, in the spirit of service. There is one thing that I am not sure you know, I think you do, but I am not sure. When he spoke to us [cardinals] in what was his farewell address to us on FebruaRY 28, he said to us: "Among you is the future Pope. I promise him my obedience". He is great! This is a great man!

FR LOMBARDI: Now, we shall hear from another Brazilian, Ana Fereira, to be followed by Gian Guido Vecchi, for the Italians.

ANA FEREIRA: Holy Father, good evening. And thank you. I wish to say Thank you so many times. Thank you for having brought such joy to Brazil, and thanks also for answering our questions. We journalists love to ask questions... I wish to know why yesterday, you spoke to the bishops of Brazil about the participation of women in our Church. I wish to understand better: What should our participation be in the Church? And what do you think about the ordination of women as priests? What should be our position in the Church?
THE POPE: I would like to explain a bit more about what I said on the participation of women in the Church. It cannot be limited to their being altar girls or president of Caritas or catechists. They ought to be much more, profoundly more, even mystically so, as in what I said about a theology of women.

With reference to ordination of women priests, the Church has spoken and said NO. John Paul II said so, with a definitive formulation. That is closed, that door, but I also want to tell you one thing about this. I have said it, but I repeat: Our Lady, Mary, was more important than all the Apostle bishops and deacon priests. [I am obviously no theologian, but on the level of common sense, that is comparing apples and oranges. Mary was on a plane completely different and above that of the Apostles - Mary was a truly unique being, there will never be another, one who was predestined to be the 'Mother of God', the only human being after the Fall to have been untainted by original sin. The only thing all other women have in common with her is that we are female.]

Women in the Church, are more important than bishops and priests. [That is the sort of sweeoing generalization that I cannot imagine any other contemporary Pope doing!] How? That is what we must seek to explain better, because I believe that there is a theological deficiency on this matter. Thank you.

[I have been given a warning I have not seen before - that the text is too long at this point, so I will break off now, and resume the rest later...]

The in-flight news conference
given by Pope Francis after Rio - Part II
Translated from the Vatican Radio transcript
posted on the Italian blogsite
IL SISMOGRAFO
July 30, 2013

FR LOMBARDI: Gianguido Vecchi, of Corriere della Sera, I ask you to come forward, then Madmae Pigozzi and after, Nicole Winfield.

GUIANGUIDO VECCHI: Holy Father, even during this trip, you spoke often about mercy. With regard to remarried divorcees having access to the Sacraments, is there a possibility that the Church will change its discipline on this? That these Sacraments can be an opportunity to bring these persons closer to the Church rather than a barrier that separates them from other faithful? [But he is asking from a wrong premise: Sacraments are denied to remarried divorcees whose Church marriage has not been annulled, because they knowingly entered into a second marriage despite that. Their offense against the sacrament of Matrimony is a continuing one unless the first marriage is annulled. They, not the Church, have separated themselves from other faithful who are not in such a state of continued offense. Why should the Church make an exception to the rule about the sanctity of marriage just to make them feel better? ]
THE POPE: This is something that is always asked. Mercy is greater than the case you raise. I think this ought to be the time of mercy. [Shouldn't any time be a time of mercy???] These epochal changes, even so many problems in the Church - such as the deeds of some priests who are not good - problems of corruption in the Church, the problem of clericalism, to cite an example, have left so many wounded, so many wounded.

The Church is a Mother - she must go and heal the wounded, right? With mercy. If the Lord never tires of pardoning us, we can have no other choice but first of all, to heal the wounded, right? The Church is a Mother, and she should follow this path of mercy. And find mercy for all, right?

I am thinking, when the Prodigal Son came home, his father didn't say to him: "Sit down, make yourself comfortable. Now, tell me, what did you do with all the money?" No, he ordered a feast. Later perhaps, when the son wished to speak, he spoke. The Church should do the same. When someone is hurt, we should not just wait for him to come to us, we should go out and seek him. This is mercy. And I think that this is a kairos, the right time - this time is a kairos of mercy.

This is an intuition that John Paul II had when he instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy, following St. Faustina Kowalska. He sensed that mercy was a necessity in our time. [I think most Catholics know God is merciful, that he is ready to forgive us again and again, but to preach mercy without emphasizing the immense responsibility that the individual must take to avail of divine mercy is like simply telling everyone, "Go ahead, you may sin again and again up to the very last minute, as long as you repent and ask for God's mercy each time you sim, but especially before you die!" Since we are human, we all tend to commit the same venial sins over and over, but mortal sins are something else. If you abort a child, and then repent and seek God's mercy, it means you will not abort again or encourage others to do so. It is not so easy to rectify ending a marriage and starting a new one while the first is still valid in the eyes of God. ]

With respect to Communion for persons in a second marriage - because there is no problem for divorcees to receive communion - but when they are in a second marriage, they cannot [if the first one has not been annulled].

I think one must look at this in the totality of matrimonial ministry. Because it is a problem. But [I also offer] a parenthesis. The Orthodox have a different practice. They follow the theology of economy, as they call it, and allow a second possibility. [For what? for a second marriage??? Must research!!!] But, and I close the parenthesis, I think this problem must be studied within the context of matrimonial ministry.

And in this case, two things: One of the things that will be discussed with the Council of 8 when I meet with them on October 1-3, is how to make progress in matrimonial ministry, and this problem will come up. The second thing: fifteen days ago, I met with the secretary of the Bishops' Synod to discuss the theme of the next Synodal Assembly. It is an anthropological theme. But going back and forth about the theme - how does faith help in personal planning? - we saw that it must start in the family, and this, too, gets into the area of matrimonial ministry.

We are going toward a more profound pastoral approach to matrimony. . But this [communion for remarried divorcees] is a problem for everyone, because there are many who have this problem, right? [Of course, the other issue that seems to be overlooked in all this talk about mercy or consideration for these remarried divorcees who 'suffer' because they cannot receive communion, is the fact that they underwent divorce itself, which is not allowed by the Church. If being 'merciful' to them means allowing them not to suffer any consequences for getting divorced and remarrying, is that not exempting them from the universal rule on the sanctity of marriage? As for how many really have this 'problem' in the Church, I wish someone would do some informed estimates. However significant or insignificant that figure may be in the context of the overall number of Catholics does not justify bending the rules for them. Moreover, among such remarried divorced Catholics, how many are truly 'suffering' because they cannot receive Communion? The fact that they did go through divorce already means that practical considerations far outweighed any compunctions they might have felt as Catholics in deciding to violate the sanctity of marriage, to begin with. That is why I have always thought that there can be no one-size-fits-all rule on this issue. Every remarried Catholic divorcee who truly suffers from not receiving communion must be counselled individually by his pastor or confessor. Meanwhile, since it seems inconceivable that the Church would promulgate a law making it easy to annul the Church marriage of a divorced Catholic who wishes to remarry, nothing stops these 'suffering' remarried divorcees from having spiritual communion, as Benedict XVI has pointed out.]

For example, my predecedssor in Buenos Aires, Cardinal Quarracino, often said that for him, half of all Catholic marriages are invalid. Why did he say that? Because many get married immaturely, without realizing that marriage is for life, or they are only getting married because it is the socially acceptable thing to do.

This too is part of what must be considered in matrimonial ministry. Even the judicial problem of annulling marriages - that too must be reviewed. Because the ecclesiastic tribunals do not suffice for this. It is complex - them problem of matrimonial ministry. Thank you.

FR. LOMBARDI: Now we have Madame Caroline Pigozzi of Paris Match...

CAROLINE PIGOZZI: Good evening, Holy Father. I would like to know if you, since you became Pope, still feel Jesuit...
THE POPE: That is a theological question because Jesuits make a vow to obey the Pope. But if the Pope himself is Jesuit, perhaps I should vow to obey the Superior General of the Jesuits... I don't know if that resolves it...

I feel Jesuit in my spirituality, the spirituality of the exercises [St. Ignatius Loyola famously prescribed Spiritual Exercises for the members of the order he founded], in the spirituality that I have at heart. I feel so Jesuit that in three days, I shall go and celebrate with the Jesuits the feast of St. Ignatius - I will say Mass in the morning [at the Church of Gesu which is the seat of the Jesuits in Rome]. I have not changed my spirituality, No.

Being Francis, and be Franciscan, no. I feel I am a Jesuit and I think like a Jesuit. Not hypocritically. But I think like a Jesuit. Thank you.

FR LOMBARDI: Now, Nicole Winfield of the Associated Press... Then, I had a list, and now... Then, all right, Elisabetta, put yourself on the list...

NICOLE WINFIELD: Holiness, thanks again for having come 'into the lions' den'. Holiness, after four months of your Pontificate, I wished to ask you to make a small assessment - can you tell us what has been the best thing about being Pope, the worst thing, and what surprised you the msot during this time?
THE POPE: I don't know how to answer this, really. Big things, big things - there have not been. Beautiful things, yes. For example, my meeting with the Italian bishops was so beautiful, so beasutiful. As Bishop of the Italian capital [Also Primate of Italy!], I felt at home with them, yes? That was beautiful, but I do not know if it was 'the best'.

But a painful event, and one that has considerably entered my heart was the visit to Lampedusa. It is something to weep for, and it was good for me to make the trip. When they [refugees from North Africa] arrive in these boats, they leave them a few miles offshore, and then come on land singly. I find this painful because these persons are victims of a worldwide socio-economic system...

But the worst thing that has happened to me, excuse me for saying so, was an attack of sciatica, really, which I had during the first month. To talk to people, I had to sit in a special chair and I felt bad about this. It is a most painful sciatica, most painful! Not something I would wish on anyone!

But things like speaking to people... The meeting with seminarians and religious was very beautiful. It was very beautiful. Also the meeting with the students of Jesuit schools in Italy was most beautiful. These are the good things... {Not a single liturgy stood out????]

And what surprised you most?
People, people. The good persons that I found, I have found so many good people in the Vatican. [So, you see, it's not as Mons. Vigano, Paolo Gabriele and the media make it out to be! Nut how could anyone have thought otherwise? There are good people everywhere among the bad.] I have thought what to say .... but that is true. I am rendering justice, saying this. So many good persons, so many. But truly good, good, good! [Quod erat demonstrandum! Now, if only all the sanctimonious souls could be magnanimous enough to share the Pope's 'rendering of justice' to all the good people maligned daily by blanket denunciations of the Curia as 'corrupt and evil'!

But what about all those touchy-feely moments with individuals picked out of the crowds that have been showing up for him? It is significant that to illustrate what he means by 'people. people' as being among the 'beautiful' things about being Pope, he illustrates it by the 'good, good, good' people he has met at the Vatican = that most-vilified den of hell - (or his meeting with Italian bishops and Jesuit schoolchildren) rather than any of the mega-celebrated moments of his interaction with the faithful!]

FR LOMBARDI: Elisabetta, you know her, and also Sergio Rubini - the Argentinians...

ELISABETTA PIQUE (La Nacion, asks her question in Spanish): Pope Francis, before everything, in the name of the 50,000 Argentines who came to Rio who told me, "You will travel with the Pope - please tell him that he was fantastic, stupendous, and ask him when will he come to Argentina", but already you have said that it is not the time... So I will ask a more difficult question. Were you horrified when you saw the report on Vatileaks?
THE POPE: No. I will tell you an anecdote about the report. When I went to see Pope Benedict the first time, after we prayed in the chapel, we went to the Pope's study and I saw a big box with a thick envelop on top of it. {He shifts from Spanish to Italian]

Benedict told me , "In this big box, you will find all the declarations, the testimonies frpm the witnesses (persons interrogated). Everything is there. But the summary and the final conclusions are in the envelope. There, it says ta-ta-ta...." He had everything in his head. What intelligence! He had committed everything to memory - everything. But no, I was not horrified. No, no, no. It is a serious problem, but I was not horrified. [I don't believe a single news story reported this part of the interview at all. It goes against their narrative that Vatileaks represented the utmost in horrifying events at the Vatican!...I am glad this interview gives me something concrete to quote from Pope Francis about 1) the Roman Curia and how there are really good people in it; and 2) that he was not horrified by anything he saw in the Vatileaks files turned over to him by Benedict XVI.]

SERGIO RUBIN (also speaking in Spanish . He is the author of the pre-Conclave book La Jesuita, about Cardinal Bergoglio, which was based a great deal on interviews he did with the future Pope, who says he finds inrterviews 'etiresome'): Holiness, two small things: You have insisted a great deal on stemming the loss of the faithful. It has been very strong in Brazil. Are you hopeful that this trip will contribute so that many will come back to the Church or feel closer? The second question is more familiar: You loved Argentina, you had Buenos Aires very much in your heart. The Argentines want to know if you miss that Buenos Aires, which you trvelled by bus, by metro, walking the streets...Many thanks.
THE POPE: I think that a papal trip always does some good. And I think that this trip will be good for Brazil, not just for the presence of the Pope, but that what they did during this World Youth Day, when they mobilized and did everything so well, perhaps this will help the Church, too, yes?

About the faithful who have left, many of them are not really happy because they still feel they belong to the Church. I think there will be a positive outcome, not just for the trip, but above all for WYD itself, It was marvelous.

About Buenos Aires, yes. Sometimes I miss it. And I feel that. But it is a calm nostalgia, a calm nostalgia. But I think, you, Sergio, know more about me than all the rest - you can answer your own question, yes? With the book you wrote?

FR LOMBARDI: Now, we shall hear from a Russian journalist, and then Valentina, who was the dean of the Vatican press corps...

RUSSIAN JOURNALIST: Good evening, Holy Father. Returning to ecumenism - today, the Orthodox world celebrate the 1025th anniversary of the Christianization of Russia - there is great feasting in many capitals. If you wish to comment ont his, I would be very happ7y. Thank you.
THE POPE: In the Orthodox Churches, they have conserved their pristine liturgy, no?, so beautiful! We have somewhat lost the sense of adoration, while they conserve it - they praise God, they adore God, they sing, time does not matter. The center is God, and that is a treasure that I wish to emphasize on this occasion when you have brought it up.

Once, when speaking to someone about the Western Church, of Western Europe, and of the Church that has grown the most, no?, I was told this saying, "Lux ex oriente, ex occidente luxus'. (Light from the oast, luxury from the west), Consumerism, the idea of wellbeing, has been bad for us. Whereas you [the Orthodox) have kept the beauty of God in the center... When one reads Dostoevsky - I think he is an author whom we must all read and reread - he has the wisdom to perceive the Russian soul. The soul of the east. It is something that would do us a lot of good.

We need this renewal, this fresh air from the east, this light from the east. John Paul II wrote so in his Letter, o? But so many times the 'luxus' of the West has made us lose sight of the horizon...I don't know ...This is what occurs to me to say. Thank you. [For someone reputed to be particularly 'with it' regarding the Orthodox churches, the statements are surprisingly vague and unfocused. Note he does not refer at all to the historic anniversary that was the peg for the journalist's question. Perhaps his aides failed to alert him about it - they should have, press conference or not - but clearly he was not prepared to talk about it at all.]

FR LOMBARDI: Now we shall close with Valentina who spoke first on our trip going to Rio and will now ask the last question on this return trip.

VALENTINA ALASKAZI (Speaking in Spanish, at 1 hour 10 secs]: Thanks for having kept your promise to answer questions during this return trip.
THE POPE: I have delayed your dinner...

ALASKAZI: It does not matter... My question would be, on behalf of all Mexicans, when will you visit Guadalupe? But that's for all Mexicans. My own question is - You will be canonizing two great Popes, John XXIII and John Paul II. I would like to know what, in your opinion, is the model of saintliness represented by each of them, and the impact they have had on the Church and on yourself...
THE POPE: John XXIII is somewhat the figure of 'the country priest', the priest who loves each of his parishioners, who knows how to care for the faithful, which he did even as bishop, as Nuncio. He also approved a lot of false baptismal certificates for Jews in Turkey [to save them from Nazi persecution]. He was a courageous priest, a good 'country priest', with a sense iof humor that was so great, so great, and great holiness.

When he was a Nuncio, some people in tehe Vatican did not look on him well, and when he arrived to visit or to ask things from some offices, they would make him wait. He never complained - he prayed the rosary, he read his breviary, but complain, never... He was a gentle person, a humble man, and also one who was concerned for the poor.

When Cardinal Casaroli [Vatican Secretary of State for much of the Cold War era] came back from one of his missions - I think to Hungary or what was then Czechoslovakia, I don't recall which of the two - he reported to him about the mission and the Vatican diplomacy of 'small steps' [in relation to the Communist countries]. They had an audience - and 20 days later, the Pope died. As Casaroli was leaving, John XXIII stopped him and said, "Ah. Eminence - no, he didn't say 'Eminence', he said 'Excellency' - do you still visit those young people?" - because it was known that Casaroli often visited the juvenile prison in Casal del Marmo to play with the young people. Casaroli answered: "Yes, of course". And the Pope said, "Never abandon them..." This, to a diplomat who had just returned from a diplomatic mission, one that was quite demanding. And John XXIII says, "Never abandon the young people!"- He was great, a great man!

Then there was Vatican II. He was a man obedient to the voice of God, because that inspiration came to him from the Holy Spirit - it came to him, and he obeyed it. Pius XII had thought of it, but the circumstances were not ripe for it. I think John XXIII did not think about the 'circumstances'. He felt what he did, and he did it. [Was this 'comparison' of the two Popes necessary, especially since it sounds critical of Pius XII?] He was a man who allowed himself to be led by the Lord.

Of John Paul II, I would say he was the great missionary of the Church - he was a missionary, a missionary, who preached the Gospel everywhere, you know that better than I do. How many trips did he make? He really travelled, didn't he? He felt this fire to bring forth the Gospel of the Lord, yes? He was a Paul, a Saint Paul - and for me, a man like that is great.

To canonize both Popes together is, I believe, a message to the Church: These were brilliant men, brilliant, two brilliant men. But the causes for Paul VI and John Paul I are also on track. [Also that of Pius XII!]

One more thing that I believe I have said before, but I don't know if it was here or somewhere else: the date of those canonizations. December 8 this year was considered. But there was a great problem with this - those pilgrims coming from Poland, the poor ones. Those who can afford it will come by plane, but the poor pilgrims will travel by bus, and in December, the roads will be icy, so I think that date has to be reconsidered.

I spoke about this with Cardinal Dsiwiwz, and he suggested two possibilities: either the feast of Christ the King this year, or Divine Mercy Sunday next year, I think that Christ the King is too soon, because the consistory on the canonizations will take place September 30, and there is little time between that and the end of October to make all the preparations. I spoke to Cardinal Amato about this, too... But I think that it will not take place on December 8...

ALAZKAZI: But they will be canonized together?
THE POPE: Together yes, Both of them.

FR LOMBARDI: Thank you, Holiness.... Who else is thre? Ilse? Then we will have accommodated everyone, even more than those who had asked to be listed earlier...

ILSE: May I be permitted to ask a rather indelicate question? Another 'image' has also made the rounds of the globe - that of Mons. Ricca and the news about his private life...I want to know, Holiness, what do you intend to do about this issue? How will you face this problem, and how does Your Holiness intend to face the entire issue of a 'gay lobby'?
THE POPE: About Mons. Ricca - I did what Canon Law requires, which is 'investigatio previa' (prior investigation). And this investigation showed nothing of what he is accused of, we found nothing of that. That is my answer.

I would like to add one other thing about this: I see that many times, in the Church, outside this case and even in this case, there is a tendency to seek out 'the sins of youth', for example, right?, and these are then published. I am not referring to crimes - crime is something else, as for instance, abuse of minors is a crime. I am talking about sins [that are not crimes, because abuse of minors is also first a sin!]

But if a person - layman or priest - committed a sin and has since then repented, the Lord forgives, and when the Lord forgives, he forgets - and this is very important in life. When we go to confession and we sincerely say, "I have sinned in this...", the Lord forgets, and we do not have the right not to forget, because then we risk that the Lord does not forget our own sins, yes? [?????] This is a danger.

That is important - a theology of sin. So many times I think of St. Peter: he committed one of the worst sins, which was to deny Christ, but even with this sin, he was made Pope. We have a lot to think about.

[Probably, Pope Francis will develop a theology of sin, as well as a theology of women, in his future encyclicals, in which he can explain what he said above much better. But I have two practical problems with his statements: 1) He only referred to an 'investigatio previa' of Mons. Ricca. Was no investigation done after the revelations of what he did in Uruguay back in 2000-2001? 2) Those accusations cannot be considered 'sins of youth' - the actions took place while he was serving as a Vatican diplomat, and although they may not be crimes, they certainly fell at least under the category of 'conduct unbecoming a priest', the main burden of it being that he lived in the Nunciature with a male lover he brought with him from Switzerland.

Even assuming that Mons. Ricca has since then 'repented' and 'converted' and has given up his alleged homosexual lifestyle, the very existence of these accusations ought to have been seriously investigated by the Vatican - and from the Pope's words, obviously it was not. And if the Pope is saying he is acting like the Lord in picking out the hated tax collector Matthew, say, to be an Apostle [I don't think the the citation of Peter's denial is a valid analogy to Mons. Ricca's possible offenses], then that is his personal act of mercy towards Mons. Ricca. But was Mons. Wielgus's collaboration with the Communist secret police of Poland any worse than the accusations against Ricca??? - and yet, Benedict XVI was castigated roundly and universally in the media for the Wielgus nomination, that he withdrew as soon as the facts were made known, whereas the media has given Pope Francis a total pass on his decision to stick with Mons. Ricca, who is now acting no less as his 'moral watchdog' at IOR - a watchdog who will be prey to all kinds of blackmail arising from his past.]

But returning to your concrete question: In this case, I carried out the investigatio previa, and we found nothing [wrong]. This was your first question. [If this had been a news conference by any other than the Pope, someone would have asked the obvious follow-up question, :"But what about afterwards, when the apparently well-documented stories emerged about Ricca?"] That was your first question.

Then, you spoke of the gay lobby: But, so much has been said about the gay lobby. I still have not found anyone with a Vatican identity card that says gay. They say there are. [But, Your Holiness, you yourself told the Bishops of Puglia freely and voluntarily, "As for the gay lobby, it is true, there is a gay lobby in the Vatican", though you did not elaborate. Now, you seem to say otherwise..]

I think that if one comes across a person who is like that ['una persona cosi'], one must distinguish the fact of being a gay person from that of lobbying [as a gay person], because all lobbies are not good. Lobbying is the evil.

But if a gay person seeks the Lord in good faith, who am I to judge him? [This is, of course, the single line from the entire 90-minute news conference that made such headlines it promptly overshadowed all the reporting on the closing Mass of WYD which reportedly drew three million persons. Compare, on the other hand, the flood of positive commentary that followed Benedict XVI's closing day Mass in Madrid, where the crowd was estimated 'only' at two million.

But with this answer, the Pope deflected the focus from the supposed 'gay lobby' to his own personal atittude towards homosexuals. 'Who am I to judge' has been taken universally as a most admirable expression of humility and openness, as though that were not the attitude of any thinking Catholic who must 'judge' the actions people do, not the persons themselves.]

The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this so beuatifully... It says One must not marginalize these persons for this [being homosexual], they must be integrated into society. [A more precise quotation of the Catechism, rather than this broad approximation, would have been welcome.]

The problem is not about having this tendency, no. In this, we must be brothers, and this one [the homosexual] is a brother. But if there is another, then another - the problem is making a lobby out of this tendency, like the lobbies of greed, of politics, of masons, so many lobbies. That is the more serious problem as far as I am concerned... And I thank you so much for having posed this question. I thank you so much! [If any Catholic bishop other than the Pope had said the above, the statements would promptly have been taken apart and micro-dissected for every nuance and lack thereof. And it would have been made obvious that while he points out that the problem is not the homosexual tendency, he also should have pointed out that what the Church opposes is the expression of this tendency in sexual actions that contradict natural law, actions that are considered sinful by the Church. Even in the interests of promoting 'good will among all', the Church cannot gloss over the very foundation of her objection to homosexual practice.]

FR LOMBARDI: Thank you, I think that more than this we could not do. We have even abused the Pope who has told us he is tired, and we now we hope that he can rest a bit.

And that completes the translation... i may have to go over it for typographical errors I have been unable to detect...I wish I had the transcript of something similar from John Paul II - I still have to look for it... Perhaps Pope Francis will make a habit of these news conferences, and he will not need a Peter Seewald (or Sergio Rubin, or maybe Andrea Tornielli in his case) to come out soon with a LIGHT OF THE WORLD type book, and will have a whole series of them...

THE POPE: Thanks to you, and good night. I wish you a good trip and a good rest.

I am sorry I have not yet managed to get back in the groove of my Forum routine after having been AWOL for a couple of days... But I will not delay posting this unsigned story from the AP yesterday because it gives some answers to my own unspoken questions (unspoken out of prudence and respect, until trhe figure was shown to be otherwise) about the crowd estimates for the WYD events in Rio, especially the Prayer Vigil and Closing Mass... Any bets on whether this story will ever be passed on by the MSM, or even by the Catholic media??? P.S. I must say I am surprised that the AP even ran such a story - the ideal media story would have been that Pope Francis's Rio Mass outdrew even John Paul II's Mass in Manila, but even the MSM would not have dared to inflate 3.7 million to 5 million (much less, from 1.7 million, as the real figure seems to be, from this story)...

Numbers don't add up for
crowd count at papal Mass in Rio
Professionals say it was half the size claimed by the Vatican - -
3 million people on Copacabana Beach would have meant
a crowd density of seven people per square meter


RIO DE JANEIRO, August 2, 2013 (AP) — If measured in spirit, there is hardly a soul who would question the success of Pope Francis's Mass on giant Copacabana beach last weekend. The count when it comes to the flesh-and-blood numbers of faithful who actually attended is an entirely different matter.

The Vatican said an historic 3.7 million people were at the Sunday event, an eye-popping number that would have made it the second largest papal Mass ever. But number crunchers were splashing cold water on those jubilant estimates Friday, saying the real figure was not even half as big.

The problem was, the count released by Vatican and Brazilian officials was a guesstimate that statisticians say grossly inflated the crowd figures. The research director of Datafolha, one of Brazil's top polling and statistic firms, said that based on the size of the crowd area and reasonable density estimates, he would put Sunday's turnout at between 1.2 million and 1.5 million people.

Vatican officials and organizers of World Youth Day, an event held every three years that draws young Catholics from across the globe, weren't bashful about telling the press how many people turned out to see Francis.

"It's an old, old story that organizations, whether political radicals or the Vatican, always over-guesstimate the size of turnout, they want their event to look as good as possible," said Clark McPhail, an emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Illinois who has studied crowd counts for four decades.

McPhail first chuckled when he heard the Vatican's crowd estimate in an area of Copacabana beach and adjoining streets that encompassed about 497,000 square meters (594,400 square yards).

By the Vatican's count, the crowd density throughout the entire area would have been 7.4 people per square meter, which wouldn't allow for movement of any kind, let alone the jumping, arm waving, singing and dancing seen at the papal events. Video and photos of the crowd also showed that while it was packed close to the gigantic altar built on Copacabana beach, the faithful thinned out along the 4-kilometer long beach.

A big crowd estimate would surely be a boon to the pontiff's supporters, who would argue that the multitudes gave him a popular mandate to battle entrenched Vatican officials who don't look kindly upon Francis's drive to reform the church's opaque and scandal-ridden bureaucracy. [Never mind what Pope Francis himself says about the many good people he has found at the Vatican who have not shown any 'resistance' so far, at least not in the past four months, this stereotype is a permanent template that AP and the rest of MSM will attach to any story about the Vatican. And what popular manadte does the Pope need? He is not a politician who depends on a perceived 'vox populi' tp do what is right. He will do right whether what he does is popular or not. As he has 'done justice', to use his own words at the news conference, to the good people in the Curia. He is 'battling' the media nar4rative here, and they won't brook that at all, so they'll just ignore what he has said!]

The bloated crowd figure also provided cover for city officials in Rio, where logistical problems seen during the papal visit brought into question the city's ability to host 2014 World Cup group stage and championship matches, not to mention the 2016 Olympics.

Those attending the papal events complained about the city's woeful public transport system, a lack of affordable hotel rooms, the need for public toilets and a local services industry not able to meet demands for things as simple as lunch. A miraculously high crowd count would make all that more understandable and give local officials breathing room.

Perhaps not by coincidence, Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes was the first to float last weekend that 3 million faithful attended a Saturday night prayer vigil with Pope Francis, and that even more were expected for the Sunday Mass.

"We got that number from the organizers of the event and the mayor repeated it. How they arrived at that number, you'll have to ask them," said Nara Franco, a spokeswoman for the mayor.

The Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said in an email on Friday that the Vatican also received the 3.7 million figure from local church organizers of the World Youth Day.

When asked, those organizers acknowledged that the figure of who attended the pope's Mass wasn't built upon anything resembling a scientific crowd count.

"We came up with the number based on previous events held at Copacabana beach, like New Years, Carnival and concerts," said Carol Castro, a Youth Day spokeswoman. "We then looked at the videos of the pope's Mass and estimated the size based on estimates of those previous events."

The international press ran with the official estimates. [Because it suited their narrative! How many events with Benedict XVI that counted with hundreds of thousands were only reported by AP and its herd followers as being merely 'tens of thousands'???? On the other hand, MSM did report the crowd estimate goven by the Vatican, the organizers, and by Spanish police for Madrid WYD, which was never contested.]

But Brazilian experts say crowd counts in the country, like in many nations, are wildly inaccurate.

"Nobody will be able to tell you how they came up with there being 3.7 million people attending the Mass because it's impossible," said Alessandro Janoni, research director for Datafolha. "The crowd wasn't even using the entire beach. It's simply impossible."

Datafolha did not make an official estimate for the Sunday Mass.

But based on Datafolha's crowd count earlier in the papal visit, which examined the size of Copacabana beach and the surrounding streets a crowd could spill into, Janoni said there were a maximum of 1.5 million people, no more, at the Mass.

The firm estimated a crowd density of three people per square meter in the 497,000 square meters where people gathered on Copacabana beach, a high-end estimate given what McPhail and other researchers say is a good rule of thumb of two people per square meter in a packed event.

Datafolha officially estimated one of the pontiff's crowds, a Thursday meeting with young Catholics on Copacabana beach, at 865,000. The Vatican's estimate was 1.2 million for that event.

A 2007 concert by the rock group the Rolling Stones drew what authorities at that time estimated to be 1.5 million people to the same beach, but the crowd visually covered only about a third of the beach's length, bringing that number into doubt. Sunday's Mass stretched down almost the entire length of Copacabana.

If the church's estimate for Sunday's Mass had held, it would have only been bested by a 1995 Mass given only by Pope John Paul II in Manila, Philippines, for a World Youth Day event there. But the Datafolha estimate knocks Rio's event below the 2 million who turned out in Rome in 2000 for a Youth Day Mass and also a 1979 Mass in Krakow, John Paul's Polish hometown, during his first visit as pope. [This is the seond time during the WYD 2013 timeframe that the AP completely ignores the 2-million official Spanish estimate for the WYD Madrid Closing Mass with Benedict XVI.]

Janoni and his team at Datafolha have deflated crowd estimates at other big events in Brazil, to the chagrin of organizers.

Those in charge of Sao Paulo's Gay Pride parade in recent years claimed it drew upward of 4 million people, making it the world's largest. Datafolha put the count during the event this June at 220,000.

An annual "March for Jesus" in Sao Paulo held by Pentecostal evangelical churches has billed itself as the "largest Christian event in the world" for many years, claiming well over 1 million people turn out for the event. Datafolha focused its attention on the June event this year and put the crowd at 200,000.

A few days before he stepped down us Pope, Benedict XVI famously remarked in a 45-minute extemporaneous account of Vatican II to the priests of Rome - from his firsthand view as a theological consultant to that Council from 1963-1965 - that the real Vatican-II had been submerged in the public perception by what he called 'The Council of the Media' - which the Vatican-II progressivists and all their allies in the predominantly liberal/secular media of the Western world insisted had created an open-ended, anything-goes Protestantized Catholic Church in place of the Church Christ had instituted.

This viewpoint quickly gained ascendancy through most of the Church and remained entrenched over the next four decades until Benedict XVI finally said, in effect: "Stop it - Vatican II can only be interpreted as a renewal of the Church in continuity with her tradition, not as a rupture with what had gone before."

The rupture theorists coined a catchphrase to justify their misleading claims about Vatican II - they claimed to represent 'the spirit of Vatican II', which basically meant overlooking if not completely ignoring the texts of Vatican-II to perpetrate their own zealously militant and necessarily tendentious interpretation of what Vatican II had decided and even of what Vatican II had 'ordered' in open contradiction of the corresponding Vatican II text.

[This has been most apparent with regard to the Vatican II constitution on liturgy, which never abolished the traditional Mass, never directed that the entire Mass be said in the local vernacular, never forbade the use of Latin in the Mass but encouraged it in the appropriate places, never said sacred music as we knew it was to be replaced by popular inventions, never said the new Mass had to be celebrated facing the people, never said that traditional altars had to be replaced by tables appropriate for celebrating Mass ad populum rather than ad orientem, never said Communion rails had to be torn out, nor that Communion should be received in the hands and that the communicant did not have to kneel to receive the Sacred Host, etc - And yet, all the abovementioned 'changes' were institutionalized almost overnight as soon as the Novus Ordo went into effect, with no objections other than from a relative handful of groups and individuals thereafter labelled 'traditionalist' as if it meant 'apostate' or 'traitor to Vatican II', or if the objector was someone like Cardinal Ratzinger, 'reactionary' and 'restorationist'. The abiding and inexplicable wonder is that the world's bishops all fell in with the false 'spirit' - as if they could not (or did not) read the Vatican-II texts themselves.]

When I first got 'into' Church matters after Benedict XVI became Pope, my first reaction to the much-bandied 'spirit of Vatican II' was that it seemed to have replaced, in the minds of those who advocated it, the Holy Spirit himself. There was now this amorphous undefined but presumably secular 'spirit' that supposedly represented Vatican II, without any reference to the Holy Spirit that presides over the Church...

A similar 'spirit' was conjured after the first inter-religious World Day of Prayer for Peace convened by John Paul II in Assisi in 1958 - as much invoked since then as the 'Spirit of Vatican II'. Now it was 'the spirit of Assisi', which referred to an open-ended, vaguely defined wave of general goodwill and good intentions among men of different faiths, whose aim seemed to be primarily dialog for the sake of dialog and kumbaya cheer all around. One might have been less dubious about this new 'spirit' if its users had said 'the spirit of Assisi' was really the 'the spirit of St. Francis and his teachings', but no, it had to be 'the spirit of Assisi' meaning the 1958 meeting in Assisi.

Father Schall, diverging from his usual contextual re-statement of major points made by the Pope in recent discourses, now refers to a new and equally dangerous 'spirit', in this critical commentary on how the media have been popping champagne corks to celebrate statements Pope Francis made about 'gays' on his inflight news conference returning from Rio. The media have conjured this 'spirit' like a white-hot succubus over Pope Francis, in their determined, concerted and deviant effort to report and interpret the Pope's pronouncements to show that 'he is one of us', meaning he favors and will therefore promote their ultra-liberal pet causes, never mind that as Pope, he is dutybound to uphold, conserve and defend the deposit of faith that has been handed down to him...

The 'spirit' of the Pope's
return from Rio
Reminiscent of the immediate post-conciliar era,
we are seeing a battle between the presumed 'spirit'
of Pope Francis and his actual words
by James V. Schall, S.J.

August 3, 2013

Pope Francis speaks to the media aboard the papal flight from Rio de Janeiro to Rome July 28. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

---

“Pope Adopts a Milder Tone toward Gays and Women”
— Headline, San Francisco Chronicle July 30, 2013.

“Shift in Tone on Gays Thrills Local Catholics”
— Headline, San Francisco Chronicle, July 31, 2013.

“Stunning Remarks on Gays: Pope: ‘Who Am I to Judge?’”
— Headline, San Jose Mercury-News, July 30, 2013.

---

I.

In the struggle between illusion and reality, illusion (even delusion) often gains the upper hand. Images can overshadow an idea thought to be fixed. The above three headlines are taken from local papers suddenly paying careful attention to remarks of the Holy Father.

Though none of the editorials or news columns actually said that the Church had changed its teaching on homosexuality, the unavoidable impression from the headlines and the articles was that finally the stubborn old Church was on its way to doing so. This reaction was what these varied writers made of the Pope’s remarks on homosexuality, the ones that they thought most important from the papal trip to Brazil.

Judging by the local press, very little went on at World Youth Day in Rio until the Pope’s interview with the Press on his return flight to Rome. Then, like a clap of thunder, the news arrived that the Church had suddenly changed. Instead of opposing gays, the Pope was welcoming them. A new day had dawned.

The San Jose Mercury-News editorial affirmed: “What a heartening declaration from the Roman Catholic pontiff. We hope it helps open the minds of some vocal Christians opposed to gay rights.”

The Chronicle editorial, entitled “Reboot for Catholicism,” continued: “While he (the Pope) hasn’t gone as far as many liberal-minded Catholics would like, he’s clearly aiming to move the church in the direction of both modernity and radical empathy—the very direction it needs to go after so many years of scandal and turmoil.”

We have little doubt about “how far liberal-minded Catholics” and others would like to see the Church go in this area—to full-scale acceptance of the gay life and all it implies.

All the things that the Holy Father said to the millions of youth in Rio about belief, prayer, concern for the poor, humility, and other basic Catholic themes paled by contrast to the remarks about gays. The casual reader of these newspaper accounts could not help but thinking that some radical change of Church doctrine had taken place on the flight back to Rome, one almost the equivalent of denying the validity of the Incarnation.

In context, as even the headlines in Huffpost Gay Voices (July 31) noticed: “Pope Francis Against Gay Marriage, Gay Adoption.” What changed, evidently, was not the doctrine but the “mood” or perception of it.

The Pope specifically said: “No overt homosexual activities” are possible or moral. [I had hoped he did, but I did not see it - perhaps the transcript I translated did not contain this line!]

From now on, however, as a friend suggested, we are in for a period not unlike the post-Vatican II era. We then saw a war of words between “the spirit” and the “meaning” of the Council. Now it will be between the “spirit” and the wording of WYD Rio, Return Flight.

Those bishops and others who hold the basic teaching of the Catechism will be up against the “spirit” of Pope Francis’s Rio Flight. After all, he told the youth to protest and to “mess” things up. Everyone will know, or think he knows, that this “spirit” means something different from what the doctrine says.

As Father Mark Pilon wrote on The Catholic Thing site: “This is the danger in off-the-record interviews today. What the press is interested in are simply sound bites and controversy. Complex issues like homosexuality and homosexuals in the priesthood cannot be discussed with the media…in this manner without constantly having to correct their misinterpretations and reportorial sensationalism.”

Many writers have quickly pointed out that Pope Francis did not really say anything different from what we can read in the General Catechism or the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith’s 1986 Document, “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons,” a document signed by Joseph Ratzinger and approved by John Paul II.

What is ironic in this whole scene is that the Pope’s sympathy, if we might call it that, leads the homosexual, if it is followed, back to a moral life that he can live in good conscience. This means no homosexual activity and no homosexual lobby or propaganda.

The secular world evidently sees the Pope’s words as a move in the direction of accepting homosexual activity as itself a good and normal thing. This is what the Chronicle's editorial means when it spoke of “modernity”.

The equivocation on the use of the word “gay” on both sides is striking. It enables the Pope to use the word “gay” to mean someone striving not to practice activities associated with that way of life, while the media and certainly the gay organizations themselves take the word to mean a “right” to do what homosexuals “normally” do. This “right” includes all the benefits of marriage in addition to the things unique to gay relationships.

No gay lobby, as the Pope called it, or no reasonable person would think that the gay movement is about returning to celibacy those who, either by nature or by choice, claim to be “gay”. It is almost ludicrous to think that they do.

A gay person who was trying to live such a celibate life was, however, the context of the Pope’s remarks. He had been asked to judge of the case of a Vatican priest who may once have been involved in a homosexual life but no longer [supposedly]. It is one thing to judge about the eternal status of someone before God and another to judge the nature of certain acts that are proposed to be done or to be avoided.

We might say, for instance, of a man who committed murder that we do not know how he stands before God, we do not “judge” him. But we are obliged to repeat the fifth commandment.

Several writers have also pointed out that the homosexual community should be leery of overpraising this Pope on these matters. He may be shrewder than they are prepared to admit. If they begin to read him, they will soon find him telling them that they should live celibate lives and that they can do so. It will not be easy, but more is involved, including their own salvation.

The homosexual experience no doubt often leaves the individual wondering if what he or she is doing is right. But today, there are few who tell them of another way.

Pope Francis’s use of empathy and sentiment to call our attention to suffering and injustice has its dangers. As Theodore Dalrymple wrote after the Pope’s recent visit to the Island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean: “By elevating feeling over thought, by making compassion the measure of all things, the Pope was able to evade the complexities of the situation, in effect indulging in one of the characteristic views of our time - moral exhibitionism, which is the espousal of a generous sentiment, without the pain of having to think of the costs to other people of the implied (but unstated) morally-appropriate policy.” [THANK YOU, Mr. Dalrymple, for articulating excellently the basic and profound reservations I had about the Lampedusa trip and the Pope's one-sided remarks about the entire forced-migration issue!... I am also 'relieved', in a sense, that Fr. Schall, a Jesuit, obviously does not think the Pope is above criticism at all. After all, disagreeing with some aspects of papal style and tone is not a repudiation of the Pope - he is the Pope, our Pope, regardless...As an inconsequential iota of criticism in the universal deluge of acclamation for Pope Francis, my reservations about him, I would like to think, are like the expressions of a 'loyal opposition', so to speak...]]

This comment can also pretty well describe the sort of reaction the Holy Father’s remarks made in the local press here.

II.
In rereading the 1986 “Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons” from the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, I was struck by two passages that reinforce the human dignity that Catholics see in all men, including those claiming homosexual tendencies.

The first one emphasizes the freedom that the Church seeks to protect in us from theories that would reduce us to determined beings. It reads:

---

What is at all costs to be avoided is the unfounded and demeaning assumption that the sexual behaviour of homosexual persons is always and totally compulsive and therefore inculpable. What is essential is that the fundamental liberty, which characterizes the human person and gives him his dignity, be recognized as belonging to the homosexual person as well. As in every conversion from evil, the abandonment of homosexual activity will require a profound collaboration of the individual with God’s liberating grace (#11).

---

At bottom, the Church stands for the essential freedom that each person bears in his soul, a freedom that always, with grace, enables him to be and live as he ought, not as he must.

The second citation reminds us that the Church does not consider a homosexual person as some sort of alien kind of being who belongs to some species unknown to the rest of mankind:

---

The human person, made in the image and likeness of God, can hardly be adequately described by a reductionist reference to his or her sexual orientation. Every one living on the face of the earth has personal problems and difficulties, but challenges to growth, strengths, talents, and gifts as well.

Today, the Church provides a badly needed context for the care of the human person when she refuses to consider the person as a ‘heterosexual’ or a ‘homosexual’ and insists that every person has a fundamental identity, the creature of God, and by grace, his child and heir to eternal life (#15).

---

This is a wise reflection. We are responsible for how we live because we are free. We are not free to determine how it is we ought to live, but free to live as we ought.

Did the Pope change Catholic teaching? The following remarks of Jennifer Roback Morse seem to sum up the essence of what the Pope said: “The Holy Father did not say anything new in his off-the-cuff remarks to reporters on the Papal flight home from World Youth Day. Everything he said is perfectly consistent with the timeless teaching of the Catholic Church, which holds that there is an important moral distinction between sexual desire and sexual acts.” [Except, of course, that a careful reading of the transcript shows he made no such explicit distinctions. Because I wish he had - How difficult would it have been for a Pope like Francis who has a mastery of simple direct talking to say, "The Church does not condemn homosexuals in any way. What it condemns is the commission of homosexual acts which are sins contrary to nature and contrary to the procreative reason that explains why God created two sexes".

Being fortunate to have natural sexual tendencies, I cannot hypothesize what it might be like for a conscientious Catholic homosexual to avoid homosexual practice, but the testimony of not a few such homosexuals proves it can be done (or even the lives of those saints or Church prelates who may have had homosexual tendencies - and who knows how many of them there were and are - but managed to sublimate these unnatural tendencies in their service and devotion to the Church). It must certainly be difficult - some will say it is contra-natural and therefore 'inhuman' to demand this of Catholic homosexuals - but that does not mean that sublimation of contra-natural tendencies is impossible.]

Most of the articles and editorials in the local papers, to their credit, mentioned this distinction. None of them thought that it did not mean a radical change in the Church’s teaching on homosexual life and practice.

The Pope has not changed the Church’s teaching, but the fact is, many think, on the basis of the “spirit” of the Rio Return comments, that he has or will. What else can headlines that tell us of a “milder tone,” "thrilling shift,” or “stunning remarks” mean?

An appropriate companion piece to this is by a writer for National Catholic Reporter whose world view I generally despise and do not share, but in this case, she is more honest about her main point than most of her colleagues are:


When does our hope
in Pope Francis
become denial?
by Jamie Manson

July 31, 2013

Full disclosure: I do not feel excited or hopeful about what Pope Francis said about women and gay priests during his epic press conference on the way home to Rome.

Now, wait. Before you click me off as a hater or an incorrigible pessimist or an angry feminist lesbian or another choice label, please understand this: I don't dislike Pope Francis.

I think he has an authentic warmth. I appreciate his desire to be among the people. I laugh at some of his jokes, and there are themes in his sermons that genuinely move me. I share his desire to break down clericalism and the injustices of capitalism, and I believe wholeheartedly in his vision of ecological justice.

More substantively than even all of this, I share with him a deep passion for the poor and marginalized. Like Francis, I, too, have my most vivid encounters with Jesus among those who are homeless, mentally ill, incarcerated or suffering with addictions.

But Francis and I part ways on the topics of women's equality and the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people in the church. The pope's statements on the plane only reinforced the depth of my disagreement with him.

An excessive amount of commentary has been launched into cyberspace since the news of the pope's comments on women and gay priests hit the Internet, so I'll attempt to give the short, bullet-point version of why I do not share in the hope or excitement of some of my colleagues and friends.

In terms of his much-touted use of the word "gay," I believe he used it not so much as a sign of respect but because the word was being used in the context of the rumored "gay lobby." Few people still know what this mysterious lobby inside the Curia is or what precisely they are advocating for (clearly it isn't LGBT rights), but Francis was again clear he was not pleased with this lobby, saying he needed to distinguish whether a person was gay or part of the gay lobby.

After Francis delivered his now-legendary "Who am I to judge?" line, he immediately reaffirmed the teaching of the catechism. He may not have used the "intrinsically disordered" phrase, but he did make it clear that "the tendency isn't the problem." Obviously, same-sex acts and same-sex marriage still are the problem. The real question I think he was asking was, "Who am I to judge a celibate gay person who seeks the Lord and is of goodwill?" [That is really the context of what he said, but of course, MSM - and even many in the Catholic media - chose to cite only his actual words, which can be misinterpreted as a general statement applied to all homosexuals, practising or not. From my own viewpoint, I also regret the fact that, as textually said, it sounds like bare-faced sanctimony which Popes should never display, as well as an implicit judgment on other Popes, as though they had 'judged' homosexuals unfairly!]

While his words about a new approach to divorced and remarried Catholics were encouraging, they were couched in his mentioning that a new "pastoral care of marriage" was being developed. [But what new approach can there be that will not exempt remarried divorcees with a Church marriage that has not been annulled from the universal rule about the sanctity and inviolability of marriage? The reason this is a complex issue is that it does not lend itself to a one-size-fits-all solution. It requires a pastoral case-by-case consideration, not a sweeping general rule.]

My sense is the main thrust of initiative will be to make the boldest Roman Catholic declaration yet that marriage is between one man and one woman.

Remember that just two years ago, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, he called same-sex marriage an "anthropological setback," and on the plane, he affirmed the Church's opposition to marriage equality. [He did??? Where??? How could I have missed it? It is such statements I look out for!]

Pope Francis's words about women were spirit-breaking. The idea that we need a "deeper theology of women" is remarkable only because, for the past half-century, Catholic women theologians, many of them women religious, have been developing, writing and teaching a profound theology of women. [I have not read any of it, nor even about any of it, because feminist rants have never interested me, but let me guess what the thrust of their 'theology' is: There is no way the Church can justify not allowing women to become priests, and who cares what John Paul II wrote about it (or that Pope Francis has now bluntly said, "That door is closed"].

Just because the hierarchy has not cared to read it doesn't mean it doesn't already exist. I shudder to think whom Francis would ask to formulate this "deeper theology."

As a woman who has discerned a calling to the priesthood for more than 20 years, Francis's hiding behind John Paul II's theology and claiming that the "door is closed" on the ordination issue was profoundly painful. [What exactly is the 'calling to priesthood' that the writer has discerned? She wants to be a priest - that does not necessarily translate into a 'calling', as in 'God wants you to be a priest'. God wants each of us to serve him in the way we can do best. Woemn cannot be priests. Yet it would be far easier for women wanting to be priests to sublimate their ambition in many other ways of serving the Church than it is for homosexuals to sublimate their sexual desires.] Hearing these words, I felt the same kind of humiliation I would have experienced if a door had literally been slammed in my face. [To feel 'humiliated' by being told some home truths is a form of arrogance. Besides, was she not already 'humiliated' when John Paul II made his definitive statement saying No to women priests? her new 'humiliation' must be frustrated rage that Francis has now unequivocally restated the Church position on women priests when she was obviously hoping he would not.]

Francis got some positive attention for saying women are more important than priests and bishops, even if they have no chance of being ordained. In essence, he said even though women will never have ecclesial decision-making power or the opportunity to exercise sacramental ministry, they are so much more special than the men who get to run and lead the Church. [Of course they are. In the sense that only women can procreate, only women can be mothers, and in catholic families, mothers are usually the first teachers of the faith to the children. Mothers provide and nurture the environment in which vocations can sprout and young people can discern their calling. Mothers give birth to the men who will become priests and eventualky have a hand in the decision-making and governance of the Church at various levels.]

This last point raises an important question about the laity's response to Pope Francis: Who among progressive Catholics of the last two decades would have ever abided by such patronizing rhetoric? In previous papacies, this kind of a statement about women would have raised the ire of all progressive Catholics. [Manson hits the nail on the spot here. Pope Francis gets a pass - "Let's pretend he didn't say it, let's ignore what he says on this - it doesn't fit into our narrative" - for saying something that would have called down hellfire and damnation n Benedict XVI from all the usual suspects!]

Francis locked the deadbolt on John Paul II's closed door to women, and he reaffirmed the Church's woefully inadequate teaching on gays and lesbians as well as its ban on marriage equality. Yet we still hear that many progressive Catholics "cannot get enough" of the new Pope.

I have even heard Catholic women who have been fierce fighters for the full inclusion of women in the Church claim that they still feel hope and are excited about this Pope and his proposed deeper theology of women.

Yes, Pope Francis is a warm pope of the people with a deep passion for many marginalized communities. But he is still advocating some very unjust, harmful doctrinal positions. [These are not just positions, lady! This is immutable Catholic doctrine itself that you happen to think is 'very unjust and harmful' - your opinion does not make it so!]

So why do Catholics, especially many progressive Catholics, continue to give him a pass?

Francis is changing the tone in the hope that the church will be perceived in a better light, but there is little evidence to suggest he will or wants to make doctrinal changes on women's equality, same-sex relationships or contraception, and his response to the issue of clergy sex abuse has been underwhelming at best. [Excuse me? What else can he add to the array of practical instructions already in place - on the level of the universal Church, and in dioceses and parishes - for dealing with this issue? Oh I know! Perhaps you expect him to discipline Cardinal Mahony, for example, for all the misdeeds he has admitted to, in this respect (all done under the Pontificate of John Paul II, not under Benedict's]? Or Cardinal Law? Or Mons. Magee? Or Cardinal Keith O'Brien [to whom the Pope's example of 'sins of youth' would directly apply]? But wouldn't the same mercy he applied to Mons. Ricca be applicable to these bishops as well? Surely, they too must have repented of their misdeeds and are desrving of mercy! Ah, but SNAP types will say - "Mercy shmercy! These are devils and must be sent back to hell - or whatever the equivalent is in modern punishment!"]

Have we gotten to the point where our desire to realize the church of our dreams and our insistence that Francis will be the man to make our dreams come true is clouding our perception of what Francis is really saying?

Recently, when I criticized the pope's words about the existence of a gay lobby, a friend chastised me, saying I had already decided I didn't like the pope, so there was nothing he could do that would please me.

I took the comment to heart, and I continue to use it as a litmus test for my own reactions to Francis. But I also turned the tables on my friend. Couldn't it also be argued that there are progressive Catholics who have decided they like this pope so much that they have practically given him immunity from any criticism?

Are we truly listening to the full context of what Francis is saying, or are we just hearing what our hearts most deeply want to hear? It is important to be people of hope, but at what point does being hopeful and optimistic slip into avoidance and denial of what this man truly believes?

I realize Catholics are starving for inspiring, authentic pastoral leadership, but honesty and solidarity demand that we speak out against unjust, spiritually harmful words, even if they are coming from a charismatic figure in whom we desperately want to believe and trust.

I want to be hopeful that Francis might have a transformation. Personally, my heart has a deep investment in it: I would love to be able to return to active Catholic ministry again, and I want all of the exceptional women and LGBT Catholics who have the ability to spiritually lead and inspire to be able to answer God's calling.

I want to believe real reforms are in the imminent future. Again, my heart is invested in this: I would love to have the opportunity to marry my partner in the church of my childhood, the church with the "sacramental view of the world" and the finest social justice teachings on the books. [Fine words, but the Church will not change her teaching in order to accommodate the individual preferences of her members!] I want all LGBT couples to have the chance to marry in the church with which their hearts identify. [Yes, but faith is not a sentiment - it is committed belief in a set of doctrines from which you may not pick and choose only what you want to believe.]

But there was nothing Francis said on that plane that leads me to think we are any closer to either of these possibilities. I remain hopeful justice will come someday, but I think it is important to accept the reality that the residual effects of a patriarchal, homophobic, clerical formation can still dwell within a man who is otherwise committed to justice and deeply pastoral. [It is certainly to be hoped that the deposit of faith Pope Francis is dutybound to uphold is not just 'the residual effects of a patriarchal, homophobic, clerical formation' but core convictions that he sincerely and profoundly professes himself!]

For many progressive Catholics, the Benedict years were painful and divisive. But the upside of having a pope that was less pastoral and more rigidly orthodox was that it helped some Catholics break out of some of the trappings of our tradition: the passivity, the clericalism, the adulation of the papacy. [And what is it that we have now but absolute and a-critical adulation, not of the Papacy, but of a person to a degree one had not imagined possible - like Obamamania on mega-steroids!]

Laypeople began to embrace the idea that God has infused all of God's people with deep sacramental power. [If that is so, then why, Ms. Manson, insist you must be a priest to have sacramental power? But you implied earlier in this article that women wanting to be priests want to have a hand in 'ecclesial decision-making power', not just in the sacramental ministry. Is this not careerism a priori - the priesthood as a way to power, not as service to the Church and the People of God?]

Since our new pope is so likeable and so obviously committed to justice for many marginalized groups, it appears that even some of the most liberal Catholics are gradually being lulled back into an odd, filial submission to Francis. [How exactly is he 'committed to justice' in ways that his predecessors were not? Just because he invokes 'the poor' more frequently than vote-seeking politicians on the stump? Did anyone credit Benedict XVI for his constant efforts to get the G8 nations to condone the international debt of the poorer nations? Or his repeated insistence that the richest nations adhere conscientiously to the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations? What was Caritas in veritate but an impassioned argument for authentic social justice in the world? Has the Church in the past 100 years ever relented in its universal efforts to provide emergency assistance, health and education services to the neediest around the world? It is most unfair to perpetrate the myth that only with Pope Francis has the Church begun to 'care' about the poor, and it totally ignores the Social Doctrine of the Church that has evolved since Leo XII's encyclical Rerum Novarum.]]

Hearing so many English-speaking folk refer to him as "Papa" suggests this pope may even be fulfilling the need for a benevolent, spiritual father. [It's simply the banal enthusiasm of new 'converts' who previously had no use for any Pope, suddenly employing a term of intimacy such as come wives do who call their husbands 'Papa'!] I'm not sure how healthy this is spiritually or how helpful it is for the future of badly needed reforms in our church. [Lighten up! Calling someone 'Papa' who is an actual 'Papa' as in pope, and therefore, spiritual father, cannot be unhealthy and cannot possibly hamper any reform in the Church!]

The response to the papal plane ride has set up an interesting challenge. How do we remain people of hope with a deep admiration for much of what the pope says and does while also not losing our prophetic edge in fighting for true justice for women, LGBT people, sexual abuse survivors and those suffering from lack of access to contraception? [Simple! Get real! Stop pinningyour hopes on lost causes in the Church! You may all think Pope Francis is talking your talk - don't think he will walk your walk.]

If we cannot be honest about what this pope believes, and if we refuse to criticize him when criticism is justified, we could run the risk of giving the Vatican public relations machine exactly what it wants: a return to the days when the pope was an object of affection, adulation and unequivocal goodwill -- no questions asked. [Which is exactly what we have had since March 13, 2013, right?]

I must not forget to post about the flap created by a recent decree from the Congregation for the Religious, with the explciit approval of Pope Francis, prohibiting the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate (FFI) from celebrating the Extraordinary Form of the Mass unless with explicit permission from their bishop - in direct contradiction of Benedict XVI's Summorum Pontificum and its implementing instructions, Universa Ecclesiae. At the same time, the Vatican appointed a progressivist apostolic administrator to take over the leadership of the FFI from its tradition-oriented leaders. This seems to be a replay 50 years later of the immediate post-Vatican II us-against-them triumphalism of the progressivists.

But since the guillotine blade in this case has fallen on some traditionalist necks, no one is really paying attention to this episode except the traditionalist websites and Sandro Magister who calls it 'Francis's first direct contradiction of Benedict XVI', a charge hotly denied by the FFI spokesman who, under new management, claims the FFI deserved to be deprived of the right to say the EF. Like the heads of the Congregation for the Religious who issued the ban and administrative discipline on the FFI, who is he to countermand a papal motu proprio????

As for Pope Francis, was he aware exactly what it was he signed off on? His predecessor's Motu Proprio can only be amended or abrogated by a Motu Proprio from him that will supersede it... Meanwhile I have to look for the appropriate posts that will give the full picture without getting into the weeds..

A strange move at the Vatican:
Mons. Pozzo named back to his old job,
Mons. Krajewski is the new Papal Almoner

Pope Francis has named Mons Guido Pozzo, till now Almoner to the Pope, as secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, which is in charge of liaison with traditionalist groups like the FSSPX.

Mons. Pozzo had been secretary of Ecclesia Dei since July 2009 when Benedict XVI appointed him the day after the publication of Summorum Pontificum, which had also placed Ecclesia Dei under the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

But in November 2012, Benedict XVI named him Almoner of His Holiness (and titular Archbishop of Bagnoregio) - the Almoner is in charge of the Office of Papal Charities - leaving the post of secretary to Ecclesia Dei vacant. He later named him a consultor to the CDF.

Mons. Pozzo, a distinguished theologian, worked at the CDF with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger starting in 1987. He is currently adjunct secretary of the International Theological Commission under the CDF.

The surprise nominee as the new Papal Almoner (and titular Archbishop of Benevento) is Polish Mons. Konrad Krajewski, well-known to followers of the papal liturgies, as one of the papal cerimonieri under Mons. Guido Marini. He began as a cerimoniere under John Paul II.

COMMEMORATIVE POSTSCRIPTS

Two men, each in his own way special in the affections of emeritus Pope Benedict XVI, recently passed away. And while I do not now have time to put together a proper tribute to them from posts in the past about them, let me at least acknowledge them with heartfelt prayers and ask that you do, too.

First, Mons. Alfred Laepple, who died at his home in Gilching, suburb of Munich, on July 21 at age 95. Laepple was the Prefect of Studies at the Freising seminary when Joseph Ratzinger began studying for the priesthood after the war. They soon became friends, sharing a passion for reading, and in particular, John Henry Newman's writings. Laepple got Joseph at age 17 to translate a work by Thomas Aquinas De caritatis from Latin to German. When Laepple celebrated his first Mass (he was ordained in 1947), the young Joseph was his acolyte. Their friendship lasted through the years, mostly by correspondence, even after Ratzinger became Pope. In 2011, Laepple attended the celebration in Freising to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Joseph and Georg Ratzinger's ordination as priests.

In 2009, Mons. Laepple wrote a book about Joseph Ratzinger that was subsequently published in Italian.


Left photo shows seminarian Ratzinger serving as acolyte to Fr. Laepple at this first Mass.

Laepple was a professor of philosophy and author of many books on religion. Readers of the PAPA RATZINGER FORUM will remember him for the fascinating and very informative interview he gave 30 GIORNI back in 2006 in which he recalls the early postwar years when he first met the Ratzinger brothers at the seminary in Freising where he was the prefect of studies. See translated article in Page 1 of ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FUTURE POPE
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354530&p=1
Here is a translation of his Preface to his book on Benedict XVI.

---

Benedetto XVI e le sue radici.
Ciò che ha segnato
la sua vita e la sua fede
[Benedict XVI and his roots:
What shaped his life and his faith]
Alfred Laepple. Marcianum Press, 2008.
177 pp

Why I wrote this book
by Mons. Alfred Laepple

"Strength is not in the branches but in the roots. Only he who is profoundly rooted will overcome tempests and rests storms... The tree stays upright and us supported by its roots. It is said that a tree has as many roots beneath as the branches it has above. The diameter of the crown corresponds to that of the roots."
- Hermann Hesse(1877-1962)

This book would never have been written if something happened that was very personal for me but relevant to the history of the world and the Church.

"There are often events," wrote the Bishop of Innsbruck Reinhold Stecher, "which have for the persons involved a significance that is emblematic, charged with symbolic value."

What was my event? On the late afternoon of April 19, 2005 (it was a Tuesday), I was in front of my TV as millions all over the world were. I was in my village in upper Bavaria, in Gllching [A SUBURB OF mUNICH].

That Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had been a papabile for years was known to many observers of the Vatican scene around the world, but he turned 78 on April 16, 2005. The oldest elected Pope in modern history was Angelo Roncalli who was 77 when he became Pope in 1958, and so he was initially thought to be nothing more than a 'transitional Pope'.

When, on that April 19 of 2005, from the central loggia of St. Peter's Basilica, the announcement came, 'Habemus papam', one then heard, above the understandable commotion, the name 'Josephum'. And it flashed through my mind that it could only be Ratzinger. I would not have wanted to be in his place!

Shortly after, when the new Pope Benedict XVI appeared at the Loggia, he came out with arms raised and he looked radiant and happy. I have been linked to this man for more than half a century.

On March 19, 1997, in a letter on his name day, I wrote the Cardinal: "I thank God for having met you! I thank you for having given me a friendship that has lasted more than 60 years. And I thank God for having called you to the position, difficult and full of responsibility, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith."

In his goodness, truthfulness and humanity, Pope Benedict XVI, with his theology of the heart, is a rock who gives support and orientation for many. Because, as Goethe said, the man who in times of fluctuation is also disposed to fluctuate simply multiplies evil and spreads it, but he who firmly perseveres in his ideas can shape the world.

Following multiple solicitations, verbal and written appeals - and even because of false statements and inexcusably erroneous interpretations - and urged on by friends, ecclesiastics and publishers, the consideration of a book grew in me, the consideration solidified into a sense of responsibility, and the responsibility into duty, to write this book.

This work is not a biography nor a sketch of one. While writing it, I was always conscious of the sensitive question of citing from letters containing many personal matters without first asking permission from the addressee.

On the other hand, should not some events and experiences known only to me be better cited at this time for the use of future biographers? Thus, I have in this book indicated these events and experiences, dating to 1946 when we first met, for the record.

Here I have tried to describe and document the roots from which developed his life and his thought, his faith and his prayer - a sketch, if you will, of his biography and theology imprinted in those early years. This text was written and is intended to be read as an obligation of the heart, or better still, as the grateful impulse of the heart.

While writing it, my guiding axiom was the heraldic motto chosen by John Henry Newman when he was made a cardinal in 1879: “Cor ad cor loquitur” (The heart speaks to the heart).

Written in Gilching,
where in 1943 Joseph Ratzinger served
as a Flak* auxiliary.

*FLAK, from the German term Flugzeug-abwehr-kanone, anti-aircraft cannon

The book contains previously unpublished excerpts written by Joseph Ratzinger, such as his letters to the auhtor, his pastoral letter of October 1978, an important speech he gave in December 1978 at Unterwössen, and ample citations from German newspaper articles that have not previously been published in Italy.

---

The second great loss is Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, who died of old age at 99 in the retirement home in Ravenna where he spent his final years. He was the oldest living cardinal and emeritus Archbishop of Ravenna. He had great affection and esteem for Benedict XVI, immortalized in photos and video taken during an encounter they had after a General Audience in St. Peter's Square in 2005.


Left photo: Shortly after the 2005 Conclave, Cardinal Tonini was photographed giving Benedict XVI a very affectionate greeting. Center and right, the cardinal at the Ravenna residence where he lives, taken on the eve of his 96th birthday.

In an interview he gave on his 96th birthday in 2010, Cardinal Tonini was asked about Benedict ZVI:

---

He is one of the most learned men in the world, one of the best prepared, even if he almost dissimulates his immense competencies. It is a great virtue. I first met him in Rome when I gave the Lenten exercises for bishops and cardinals, and he was a bishop. I am very proud of his commitment. He is a great man, like John Paul II was. He is attentive, reserved, with a very quick and acute intelligence - he is a saint, who has always given his neighbor primacy.

---

And here is an interview that Cardinal Tonini gave on the occasion of Benedict XVI's double gala in Aprill 2012- his 85th birthday and the seventh anniversary of his election to the Papacy.



Seven years of Papa Ratzinger:
'The simple faith of a very fine theologian'
by Marina Corradi
Translated from the 4/19/12 issue of


He knew him long before he became Pope. But in the 1980s, Joseph Ratzinger was, to Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, 98 this year and the world's oldest living cardinal, not just the Prefect of the Vatican's premier dicastery, but also "the German cardinal with a kind face who was never absent at any important meeting or seminar at the Vatican".

"He was always attentive and kind, but a man of few words - someone who preferred to listen instead of putting in his word," he adds.



At one of the first General Audineces held by Benedict XVI in 2005, Cardinal Tonini famously showed his affection for the Pope. It reminded me of a Chinese patriarch giving his blessing to a younger though more eminent man....

For the emeritus Archbishop of Ravenna-Cervia, who marks his 98th birthday on July 20, the Pope is almost like a younger brother. Listening to him speak about Benedict XVI, one senses not just a great sympathy but almost an affinity between them - Tonini, born to peasant parents in Piacentina, and Joseph Ratzinger, born to lower middle-class parents in rural Bavaria.

"I liked his gentleness and his south German amiability," he continues. "And his spontaneous way of drawing people to him. The year I was asked to preach the Lenten spiritual exercises to the Roman Curia, I would use German expressions once in a while, since I know the language. He would smile at me from his seat, as if to encourage me or perhaps just happy to hear his native tongue spoken in an unlikely setting.".

Or perhaps the two already shared another common language - the popular piety that both had inherited from their parents , a faith that is profound and is tenacious even through crisis and testing.

In 2005, Tonini did not take part in the Conclave because he was 11 years over voting age. [In fact, John Paul II only made him a cardinal in 1994, after his 80th birthday]. But he attended the general congregations of the cardinals who met daily in the two weeks preceding the Conclave, with Cardinal Ratzinger presiding as Dean of Cardinals.

"He synthesized for us the overall situation of the universal Church and the challenges that the new Pope would have to confront. As I listened to him, I considered how competent and measured and lucid his interventions were. And i said to myself, 'The new Pope could very well be him'."

As he is. Seven years have passed. Yesterday (April 18), Tonini celebrated his 75th year as a priest. He was ordained in 1937 when the future Pope was just 10 years old. (One feels light-headed to hear the words of someone who is among the very few in the Church hierarchy older than the Pope, who at 85 almost seems young.]

In the relative quiet of the Istituto Santa Teresa [the retirement home in Ravenna where Tonini lives], the cardinal goes on: "He is a gentle person, the Pope, but courageous. Not one to speak in thunderous tones, but when he has to say something, he says it clearly. As he demonstrated in the way he confronted the pedophile-priest scandal. With clear unequivocal words, but never accusatory, rather, with a tone of sorrow."

"In the 1980s, I read one of his first books, Introduction to Christianity, and was struck by his limpid logic and writing, devoid of any rhetorical artifice. It is the same style I find in JESUS OF NAZARETH - a simplicity that goes with great theological depth".

One says to him: "Eminence, those two volumes on Jesus seem to find their ideal incipit [opening statement] in one of the first lines in Benedict XVI's first encyclical, Deus caritas est: 'Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction'. One hears the urgency to bear witness to men all over about the concrete historicity of Jesus and what is narrated in the Gospels".

"Yes, it is the foundation of Christianity itself, for all time, but every generation needs to see it being testified to all over. The more so with our generation, with its experience of positivism, rationalism/ That is why, in 2005, the Church needed not just a pious man [to be Pope] but someone who also had the pulse, the precise perception of the historical situation, of the challenges of the third millennium, so that Christianity can be embodied, as it must, always and ever anew, in human history".

That professor and theologian of few words, that cardinal who was "much listened to and favored by John Paul II", has reminded men once again of ancient truths, Tonini observed.

"First of all, a Pope from Germany is better able to judge the level of secularization which has been growing in Europe, of the need to repropose the faith in words that are comprehensible today - and that has been the great objective in everything he does.

"That passionate conjugation of faith and reason that he taught us in Regensburg; the splendid discourse to the secular intelligentsia of France in the College des Bernardins, when he compared our time to that in Greece when St. Paul spoke at the Areopagus - that even if the streets today are no longer filled with images of multiple gods, it is even worse that for many, God is unknown. Or, as the Pope said then, 'The actual absence of God is tacitly beset by the questions raised about him'."

"Thus, quaerere Deum - seek God - as the Pope reiterated in Paris, invoking an existential urgency in that medieval convent which goes back to the roots of Western Christianity. To seek God with faith and reason, while warning, us in a common thread that goes on to Caritas in veritate, that reason without faith is destined to lose itself in the illusion of its own omnipotence"

And this seems to be a theme dear to Tonini, who is a passionate follower of developments in bioethics and assisted reproduction, in which he sees a hubris, a defiance of man's own nature, namely, the fact that he is God's creature.

He points out that there is here "an echo of our similar provenance, which is popularly rooted but profoundly Christian, which is why Cardinal Ratzinger, though he is not Italian, always seemed very familiar to me".

It's a Christian matrix inherited from centuries of tradition, which, for Tonini, also explains a fundamental trait of this Pope: "He is a man who fears nothing - he trusts God and the Church, he has firm confidence in Providence."

He sees the basic origins of the Pope's faith illustrated also in his choice of the Curate of Ars as the inspiration and model for the Year for Priests: "Consider that parish priest, that humble country priest - what an enlightened and profound conscience he had! So, you see how Ratzinger's roots keep flowering forth during his Pontificate."

But he also notes that this Pope who has centuries of tradition and popular faith behind him, also wrote Spe salvi in which he asks himself and us, almost provocatively, "whether Christian hope truly works in us today, if that hope is concrete enough to begin to transform the present".

"The urgency that this man feels to announce today that everything is true: the birth, the death, the resurrection of Jesus. The urgency of impressing those truths on us... You see, the Spirit truly breathed on the Conclave. We needed a Christian like him - a theologian but a simple one, a professor but a son of the people. One of those, I am convinced, who is particularly dear to God, because they trust in him and are fearless because of this".

About himself, this is what Cardinal Tonini told 30 GIORNI when he turned 90 in 2004:

---

Today I am born again, I celebrate my birth. But to tell the truth, every morning I am always born again. And the wish that I make for myself is to hold on to this serenity until the end, because I’m happy to be in the world…

I’ve had the good luck because my mother taught me to wake up full of astonishment. I’m very happy to be in the world, it’s a great miracle. I wish that the people I meet had the same joy I do.

---

BTW, between Cardinal Tonini, soon to be 98, and Mons. Loris Capovilla (John XXIII's private secretary) who is 96, a shoutout to all nonagenarians who remain as sharp-minded as they are, and the perennial wish that Benedict XVI too will be blessed with 'multos annos' more!

Just went through several days of preparing for the dreaded biennial inspection of physician's laboratories by the state of New York (the amount of paperwork required is phenomenal), and cleared the hurdle today, so I hope I can resume regular activity on the Forum soon... But meanwhile, more fallout from the Pope's post-Rio presser, specifically his generic statements on homosexuals, though the following item is one week old...

The Pope's inflight interview after Rio:
Casting pearls before swine
By Rev. Mark A. Pilon, S.T.D.

August 1, 2013

At the recent World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis encouraged Catholic youths to “Go out into the whole world and make a mess!” He said he wants to shake up the Church, “to stir things up.”

Of course, he wants to make this mess by proclaiming an unadulterated Gospel of Jesus Christ. The revolution the pope is calling for is a spiritual revolution, a countercultural movement to combat contemporary materialism and secularism. [Everyone, not just in the media, seems to forget that on every occasion that he could, Benedict XVI urged the faithful, not just the youth, to 'go against the current' in living their lives the Christian way, and thereby proclaiming Christ to the world through their witness - and if I had the software to generate a 'concordance' of everything B16 said about this just during his years as Pope, it would make for quite a compendium. A good beginning would be provided by his various WYD addresses and other discourses to young people which were a part of his apostolic travels within Italy and abroad. But I suppose media only has an appetite for the resonating soundbite ef a statement like Pope Francis's "Make a mess!"]

Unfortunately, this vibrant papacy is already running into problems. So I want to make a little mess by suggesting that it might not be the most fruitful approach to the world for the pope to constantly have these off-the-cuff interviews with the media. In fact, he might borrow a strategy from Benedict. More on that below.

For instance, on his trip home the pope had an extended conversation with reporters in which he stated very briefly his position regarding the problem of homosexuality and homosexual priests.

Nothing the pope said was new or different from what his predecessors have said on this issue. He distinguished clearly between orientation and homosexual acts [I don't know why even the most educated commentators, including someone like Fr. Schall, keep saying this, because he did not say any such thing (unless they are citing from a translation that puts words into the Pope's mouth that he never said)- I certainly wish the Pope had made that distinction, which is the fundamental distinction made by the Church and so stated in the Catechism. He never referred to homosexual acts in the plane interview - and the very parsimoniousness of his response left everyone free to interpret the few words he did say as they please - the orthodox CAtholics to interpret it as Fr. Pilon does, extrapolating generously to make it seem as if the Pope said more than he actually did, and the enemies of the Church and her teachings, to claim that the Pope is on their side and that 'finally' the Church may be coming to its senses in this matter.

In fact, the 'homosexual acts' cited by the Pope and referred to by Fr, Pilon had nothing to do with the practice of homosexuality but of taking part in any lobby that would promote homosexual causes. The secular and non-Catholic world don't have to be told that lobbying of any sort can often be nefarious business, but the world needs to be reminded by the Pope that it is not homosexuality per se - 'the tendency' as Pope Francis referred to it - that is objectionable but the practice of it. But oy veh!, the media itself have not a few active homosexuals - and homosexual activists who ratchet up the offense even more - who are quite influential and strident about their homosexual lifestyles. So was he really going to rile them up with any explicit denunciation of homosexual practices?]

He spoke of confession and repentance, and he repeated the Church's teaching that homosexuals not be marginalized because of their sexual orientation. None of this is revolutionary.

But the press picked up and focused on a single sentence, "Who am I to judge them?” Taken in the context of everything else the pope said in that interview or elsewhere many times, there is absolutely nothing new or surprising.

The press, however, in large part, especially in the United States, chose to interpret that statement not in the context of the pope’s broader comments but in the context of the “non-judgmentalism” and relativistic morality in our society.

In the contemporary world, not judging people translates as not judging their actions, and the press took this as an opening for the Church to reconsider its moral condemnation of homosexual relationships and activity. It doesn't matter what the pope said before or after this statement; the press chose to portray him as opening the door to a new moral attitude.

This is the danger in off-the-cuff interviews today. What the press is interested in are simply sound bites and controversy. Complex issues like homosexuality and homosexuals in the priesthood cannot be discussed with the media “swine” in this manner without constantly having to correct their misinterpretations and reportorial sensationalism. [That is an obvious fact about which Cardinal Bergoglio, in a caustic interview given in 2010 to his now number-one cheerleader, Andrea Tornielli, castigated the media, going so far as to call them 'coprophilic and coprophagic' (shit-loving and shit-eating, to use the coloquial). Yet no one reacted to that - possibly because at the time no one in the media outside Argentina, other than Tornielli, was interested in Bergoglio. Nor is anyone likely to ever bring that up now! Imagine if Cardinal Ratzinger had said any such thing about the media in his time! After March 13, 2013, of course, everything changed in the mutual perception between the now-Pope and the once-indifferent (and worse, hostile to Benedict) media, and the Pope has not stopped thanking them on every occasion for 'doing their job well' - even if in the plane interview, he indirectly reproves them for even referring at all to Mons. Ricca's 'sins of youth'!]

By and large the press is not interested in the Church or her true mission, but only in the scandals and controversies surrounding the hot issues of contemporary culture and how the Church fits into these issues.

No one who has followed this pope and understands his deep faith and the weight of Church teaching and tradition in his approach to any of these hot issues could really think that he is going to make any substantial changes.

But most media types couldn’t care less about the Church and know even less about the binding character of her moral teaching on sexual matters and the definitiveness of her teaching on things like the ordination of women. When the pope stated in this interview that the ordination of women had been “definitively” excluded, he meant absolutely.

But they do not understand the meaning of definitive or absolute in anything. They will not stop pressing for any hint of change.

When the pope spoke of homosexuals seeking forgiveness from sin, it meant he definitively holds that homosexual acts are seriously sinful, but I doubt reporters understand that. [They would not, or choose not to, because the soundbites he gave them could be easily used, as they were used, to flaunt their wishful thinking that this Pope will not stand by the Church and uphold her teachings - Christ's teachings - thereby abdicating his primary duty as Pope.]

They focused on his words that he would not be their (ultimate?) judge, which can mean a lot of things, but it does not mean that he does not judge their acts to be sinful and seriously disordered.

It also tells us nothing concerning his position on homosexuals in the priesthood. [Ah, but volumes have since been written that 'Who am I to judge?' meant that the Church would, under Francis, turn a blind eye to homosexuals in the clergy and in seminaries regardless of whether they are practising homosexuals or not, as long as they are not part of any 'gay lobby'!] Does he differ from his immediate predecessor as to whether homosexuals should be admitted to seminaries, or is he simply speaking about homosexuals already in the priesthood?

I don’t believe Pope Benedict ever called for such priests to be removed when they were not practicing homosexuals or dissenting from Church teaching on homosexual actions. Pope Francis was speaking along this line about the so-called gay lobby. If a priest begins to lobby for change to justify his own behavior, I doubt that the pope would be nonjudgmental about that.

Likewise I am fairly certain that the pope, a prelate who has lived out in the world could be naïve about the problem of such individuals in seminaries. A chaste homosexual would not likely be a man who comes out and asserts his homosexuality as a badge of honor. Such men have an agenda, and when seminaries tolerated this kind of conduct in the last century, they soon became havens for homosexual activists. [But the secular world - and many Catholis doubtless - cannot even begin to grasp the concept of a 'chaste homosexual'. For them, the Church is thereby simply denying homosexuals the right to have sex with partners of the same sex, and therefore violating their individual human rights!]

I suspect the pope knows this and would not differ from Benedict on this matter. Neither pope would want that situation again. So when he said who was he to judge, he was talking about the closeness of any man to God who is trying to live a life of chastity. He would not judge that this was impossible for a man with a homosexual tendency, but that would hardly carry over to a homosexual activist. [But nothing stopped him from saying so explicitly, and he chose not to. Francis is very media-savvy, as his 2010 interview with Tornielli shows, and he was not about to give the media any reason to drown his entire WYD success in Rio - or in any way prick the rose-colored bubble in which the media have enclosed him - by saying anything they could use to turn against him. Instead of which he gave them new reason to celebrate him - except, of course, that in doing so, he did dim out the afterglow of Rio as the media set off in an entirely new direction. He may have cast pearls before swine, but journalists are also adept at making purses out of pig's ears when it suits them.]

In today’s over-sexed, relativistic culture, it is certainly a lot harder for any man to embrace a chaste life, but even harder for a homosexual man living among other men all the time, as in a seminary or rectory.

These kinds of complex issues are surely not the proper subjects for impromptu news interviews. Let’s hope the pope will reformulate his natural generosity and openness to dialogue. And here’s a positive alternative: he could follow Benedict’s example in the lengthy interviews he granted an educated and intelligent interviewer and then published in book form. [Be in no doubt about it, though. We shall get books galore of the Pope-Francis-lets-it-all-hang-out type, in which his informal and colloquial statements will be milked dry of every demagogic possibility that MSM can use to advance their ideological causes in the guise of unconditional hosannas to the Pope.]

It would help avoid misunderstandings – just a suggestion from an old mess maker.


Fr. Mark A. Pilon, a priest of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, received a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from Santa Croce University in Rome. He is a former Chair of Systematic Theology at Mount St. Mary Seminary, a former contributing editor of Triumph magazine, and a retired and visiting professor at the Notre Dame Graduate School of Christendom College.

For the record, here is everything Pope Francis said at that inflight presser about the homosexual issue, which came up in his definitive response to a question posed about his personal nominee for 'prelate' of the IOR. BTW, in itself, this deserved a headline of its own, "Pope sticking by his nominee despite claims he led a homosexual lifestyle" - but because he is Francis, not Benedict XVI, no one in the media thought it was any big deal at all! Or rather, everyone just seemed to gloss over it, because why call attention to anything even remotely 'questionable' about the wonder-Pope's actions! And certainly, because Francis is not Benedict XVI, no one is making a Wielgus or a Williamson out of Mons. Ricca, who it seems, is pure as the driven snow because the Pope has vouched for him, never mind what documented facts there are outside of the official Vatican dossiers on Mons. Ricca.

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May I be permitted to ask a rather indelicate question? Another 'image' has also made the rounds of the globe - that of Mons. Ricca and the news about his private life...I want to know, Holiness, what do you intend to do about this issue? How will you face this problem, and how does Your Holiness intend to face the entire issue of a 'gay lobby'?
THE POPE: About Mons. Ricca - I did what Canon Law requires, which is 'investigatio previa' (prior investigation). And this investigation showed nothing of what he is accused of, we found nothing of that. That is my answer.

I would like to add one other thing about this: I see that many times, in the Church, outside this case and even in this case, there is a tendency to seek out 'the sins of youth', for example, right?, and these are then published. I am not referring to crimes - crime is something else, as for instance, abuse of minors is a crime. I am talking about sins.

But if a person - layman or priest - committed a sin and has since then repented, the Lord forgives, and when the Lord forgives, he forgets - and this is very important in life. When we go to confession and we sincerely say, "I have sinned in this...", the Lord forgets, and we do not have the right not to forget, because then we risk that the Lord does not forget our own sins, yes? [?????] This is a danger.

That is important - a theology of sin. So many times I think of St. Peter: he committed one of the worst sins, which was to deny Christ, but even with this sin, he was made Pope. We have a lot to think about.

But returning to your concrete question: In this case, I carried out the investigatio previa, and we found nothing [wrong]. This was your first question. That was your first question.

Then, you spoke of the gay lobby: But, so much has been said about the gay lobby. I still have not found anyone with a Vatican identity card that says gay. They say there are.

I think that if one comes across a person who is like that ['una persona cosi'], one must distinguish the fact of being a gay person from that of lobbying [as a gay person], because all lobbies are not good. Lobbying is the evil.

But if a gay person seeks the Lord in good faith, who am I to judge him? The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this so beaUtifully... It says One must not marginalize these persons for this, they must be integrated into society.

The problem is not about having this tendency, no. In this, we must be brothers, and this one [the homosexual] is a brother. But if there is another, then another - the problem is making a lobby out of this tendency, like the lobbies of greed, of politics, of masons, so many lobbies. That is the more serious problem as far as I am concerned... And I thank you so much for having posed this question. I thank you so much!

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[I have obviously omitted all my previous commentary to the statements made by the Pope, but I will re-post my rejoinder to the last statements: If any Catholic bishop other than the Pope had said the above, the statements would promptly have been taken apart and micro-dissected for every nuance and lack thereof. And it would have been made obvious that while he points out that the problem is not the homosexual tendency, he also should have pointed out that what the Church opposes is the expression of this tendency in sexual actions that contradict natural law, actions that are considered sinful by the Church. Even in the interests of promoting 'good will among all', the Church cannot gloss over the very foundation of her objection to homosexual practice.]

So the question remains, where in all of that did the Pope refer to homosexual practices as sinful - he only referred to lobbying for the gay cause as evil! I do not doubt where he stands about the sinfulness of homosexual acts, but for the commentators to ascribe statements explicitly to him that he never said is a bit presumptuous. There is a reason he did not go beyond what he said, and yes, referring to the Catechism (without actually citing anything in it) gives him an omnibus out, but that's still a copout from a silver-platter opportunity for a Pope to explicitly restate Catholic teaching on homosexuality, but he obviously does not wish to stir up any hornet's nest and bring an end in any way to the sweetness and light in which this Pontificate has basked so far!

I am using a 'banner' from the previous Pontificate because the legal case in this story began before this Pontificate...

Holy See's US lawyer says
a dismissed lawsuit against the Vatican
'never should have been filed'

August 7, 2013

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed the Plaintiff’s appeal in the Oregon federal case of John V. Doe v Holy See on Monday, bringing to an end the litigation which began in 2002. The case involved an alleged case of the sexual abuse of a minor by a priest in Oregon in 1965.

Jeffrey S. Lena, Counsel for the Holy See, published the entire documentation held by the Vatican concerning the case in 2011. This showed that the Holy See was only informed of the misconduct a year after the abuse was reported, and the priest was then laicized within weeks.

In response to the latest development, Lena pointed out “the dismissal – which was not the result of any settlement or other payment by the Holy See – was entered at the voluntary request of the Plaintiff’s own lawyers, who were faced with an impending deadline to reply to the Holy See’s appellate briefing in the case,” and said the lawsuit “never should have been filed in the first place.”

Lena issued a statement on the latest developments, and later conducted a short interview via email with Vatican Radio about the case. Both are reproduced in full below.

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STATEMENT OF JEFFREY S. LENA,
COUNSEL FOR THE HOLY SEE
REGARDING THE WITHDRAWAL OF PLAINTIFF’S APPEAL IN
JOHN V. DOE v. HOLY SEE

On August 5, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit dismissed Plaintiff’s appeal in the Oregon federal case of John V. Doe v Holy See, thereby definitively drawing to a close litigation commenced with media fanfare in 2002.

The dismissal – which was not the result of any settlement or other payment by the Holy See – was entered at the voluntary request of the Plaintiff’s own lawyers, who were faced with an impending deadline to reply to the Holy See’s appellate briefing in the case.

John V. Doe is the third case of its kind against the Holy See to disintegrate in the face of legal and factual challenge. O’Bryan v. Holy See, filed in a Kentucky federal court in 2004, was withdrawn by the plaintiffs’ counsel in 2010 in the face of the Holy See’s pending motion to dismiss.

John Doe 16 v. Holy See – a case filed in a Wisconsin federal court in 2010 in a circus-like media atmosphere – was withdrawn under similar circumstances.

Like O’Bryan and John Doe 16, the John V. Doe case was based on factual misstatements and fallacious syllogisms that misled the public for years. But it has ended with the unceremonious withdrawal of a lawsuit against the Holy See that never should have been filed in the first place.

Interview via email
by Lena with Vatican Radio

What has happened in the current case, in layman’s terms?
This case was based on a couple of simple and erroneous ideas about the Catholic Church. First, that all priests are controlled by the Holy See, and second, that the Holy See receives information about the activities of all priests and makes specific decisions, either directly or “by and through” dioceses and religious orders, about them.

Plaintiff’s basic theory of the case was that if this control existed it would show that the Holy See should be held responsible for the sexual abuse committed by priests.

The problem with the plaintiff’s theory is fairly straightforward: this is not how the Catholic Church works. In reality, priests are under the control of their local superiors, who make decisions about their worthiness to serve in any particular position; priests are not “employees” of the Holy See by virtue of their clerical status, and the Holy See does not receive and maintain information on all the world’s priests or on all the sexual abuse cases relating to priests throughout the world.

There is another aspect of the case important to recall. The attorneys for the plaintiff wanted to try to show that the United States federal court could assert jurisdiction over the Holy See on the theory that the Holy See engaged in “commercial activity” by virtue of the fact that some contributions to the Peter’s Pence fund are made by the faithful every year and that priests “solicit” these contributions.

Under this theory, the Church would have been treated effectively as a large corporation with the Pope aS sort of Chief Executive Officer. This idea was strongly rejected by the court, and every court to have examined the issue.

One other notable feature of this case is that the judge had the opportunity to closely examine the facts. Normally in these cases, the issues are decided on a purely legal basis. But in this case, all the parties and witnesses exchanged documents and provided all those documents to the judge.

This permitted the judge to examine very closely the actual facts related to the priest involved and whether there were any connections to the Holy See. What the documents show, very clearly, is that the Holy See did not have any knowledge of this priest’s propensity for abuse until after the abuse occurred, when it was notified by the petition for laicization that arrived from the Priest’s religious Order. And when that petition arrived, it was granted by the Holy See without delay.

Thus, as soon as the judge understood these facts – the real facts rather than the allegations stated in the plaintiff’s complaint – he dismissed the case.

There have been several similar cases. What happened with them, and are there any still outstanding?
As noted in my Statement, there have been two other cases of particular significance – the O’Bryan case in Kentucky and the John Doe 16 (“Murphy”) case in Wisconsin.

These cases proposed similar theories and met a similar fate: they began with very strong complaints stating what appeared to be facts showing the involvement of the Holy See in local Church affairs specifically relating to the conduct of priests. But when the cases were carefully analyzed and examined by a judge, it became clear that that were not sustainable.

There have been several other cases that were not litigated because the attorneys for the plaintiffs involved abandoned them in the very early stages.

Currently there are no cases “outstanding.” It is always possible that another case could arise. When it does, it will be examined and defended as necessary on its individual merits.

What concrete steps has the Holy See taken to combat cases of sexual abuse?
In these last several years, Benedict XVI, and now Francis, have provided moral leadership in the area by acknowledging not only the problem, but also setting expectations that the Bishop’s Conferences of the world must create solid frameworks for abuse awareness and prevention. And this, clearly, is the future.

We have seen the widespread damage that abuse has done to bodies and souls. The harm has been great. In some areas, pews have been abandoned over this issue. And yet there is much room for hope and renewal.

In dioceses where aggressive programs of abuse awareness and prevention have been put into place – and I mean not just by the fine and careful words of Bishops, but by the dedication of time, resources, and the commitment of parishioners and working parish priests – real change can be effected quickly.

The simple lesson to be learned is that once the problem is openly acknowledged and confronted, it can be constructively addressed. My hope and expectation is that the Catholic Church will come to fully embrace the view that abuse awareness and prevention is one of the highest pastoral values, and that the Church itself will come to be looked upon by all other institutions in society as having provided models of prevention and never again sources of scandal.

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