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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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Tuesday, November 24

ST. ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND COMPANIONS (Vietnam), Martyrs
Born in 1795, Andrew was a priest beheaded in Hanoi in 1839 for teaching the faith.
He is one of 117 martyrs who met death in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members
of this group were beatified on four different occasions between 1900 and 1951, and
canonized by John Paul II in 1988. Andrew was beatified on May 27, 1900 by Leo XIII.



OR for 11/23-11/24/09.

At the Sunday Angelus, Benedict XVI on the significance of Christ's kingliness:
'The power of love that does not impose itself
but respects freedom and brings peace'


Other Page 1 stories: The Pope also speaks of the beatification in Nazareth (center photo, above) of Palestinian nun Marie-Alphonsine Danil Ghattas (1843-1927); and his meeting with the Prime Minister of Kuwait yesterday. International news: Israeli President Shimon Peres goes to Cairo to relaunch dialog with Palestinians; and Iran starts massive war games designed to defend its nuclear facilities.



No events scheduled for the Holy Father today.


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This is the first extended commentary-cum-reportage I have come across from an artist who was present at the November 21 event with the Holy Father. A few reaction snippets have come out in the Italian media but mostly standard expressions of approval, and none from anyone bound to be familiar to anyone who does not live in Italy.

The writer of this article is a name that I am unfamiliar with, but his biography in Italian Novelists since World War II
www.ferdinandocamon.it/lavitaeng.htm
is impressive, which does not necessarily mean that his impressions of the event were uniformly felicitous! Born in 1935, he is a novelist, poet, literary critic, and essayist who also contributes to newspapers and magazines
.



We artists before the Pope
by FERDINANDO CAMON
Translated from

11/22/09


There must have been at least 250 of us, certainly more, in the Sistine Chapel, guests of the Pope. Writers, directors, painters, sculptors...artists from around the world.

Everyone, Catholic or not, must have waited a lifetime to meet the Pope. And now, here we were. Not at our request, but at his.

A courteous e-mail came, informing us that "it is the desire of the Holy Father to meet you" to speak about our work, of how much of art today seems closed in on itself and has no concern for the ethical purpose that mankind needs art.

I read the e-mail, and it seemed to me euphemistic, that in fact, things are worse. And that it is not so much distinguishing between self-referential art and 'moral' art, as that too much art today, especially in the world of spectacle, films, above all, are aimed at profit: making a film is a business. And so the artist does business - not just in film but in TV, in books, in the theater - if he plays to public instincts, gratifies them, and often, worsens them.

Was this what Benedict XVI wished to speak to us about? Would he speak to us of mankind's need for an art that makes man better, an art in which beauty leads man to transcendence? What a great theme!

I do not agree with the invited artists who refused to come. (For instance) Yehoshua, Oz and Grossman [apparently, three prominent Israeli writers - I have to Google them later] said they approved fully of the meeting, but since they did not show up, I have some reservations.

Each of us was given a 'pass' hanging by a lanyard on our chest, with our full name. The back side of the pass had a number indicating our seating position in the Chapel. There was great curiosity and even some malice over the numbers. That they could not have been assigned casually. That they must correspond to some hierarchy. That we had been weighed and evaluated as to who deserved to be in the front row, and so on.

What's worse is that a third of the attendance ended up behind the chapel's transenna [the open grillwork that separates the actual liturgical space from the 'vestibule' of the Chapel], from where one cannot even see the Pope. [Obviously, because of the physical layout of the Chapel. They could not very well take out the grill just for this occasion.]

Viviana Lamarque came to me, complaining. And we all asked ourselves: On what scoring were numbers and seating arrangment based? Artistry? Catholicity? Nanni Moretti was three rows in front of me, like Carlo Lizzani. Andrea Bocelli was up front. I had number 123, Pamela Villoresi had 125. Tornatore and the Taviani brothers [all film directors] were among those in the front rows.


Fron left: writer Camon; film directors Liliana Cavani, Giuseppe Trovatore, and the Taviani brothers, arriving for the event. Below, from left: tenor Andrea Boccelli and family; American sculptor John David Mooney; Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid; and actor Franco Nero.


Someone joked it must be in the order of our eternal salvation - who are most easily saved and who would have to work more. But shortly afterwards, we realized the truth of the Gospel words "Blessed are those who come last".

At exactly 11 a.m., all the lights went on, the place became doubly brilliant, and we all looked towards the door. The Pope walked forward down the aisle, smiling kindly, looking right and left, impartially.

Bu suddenly, he does something unexplainable. Two rows ahead of me, right by the aisle, is Lino Banfi with his full-moon face. The Pope moves right towards him and holds out his hand. Banfi bows lithely and kisses the hand.



At that point, I think to myself: the scoring had to do with 'mediaticity'. [Camon should know that the Pope's gesture was one of familiarity. Those of us who follow the Pope know that Banfi, a popular TV and movie character actor, was one of the persons who gave public testimony at the world Encounter for Families in Valencia in 2006, introducing Benedict XVI to the crowd as 'the grandfather of the world'.]

The Pope mounts some steps to his seat just in front of Michelangelo's Last Judgment. A hymn rises on our right from a children's choir, then Archbishop Ravasi greets the Pope, who then addresses us.

And this is where the Biblical observation came in. Those of us seated in front could not hear anything. Afterwards, I had to ask for the written text.

The Pope has a Manzonian vision of art. The artist has power, but the artist whose art is also ethical has twice the power. He encourages towards such a redoubled power.

The artist works on mystery, he said, but mystery is the realm of the divine - in which the artistic and the divine meet.

The Pope's system revolves around the idea that the artist cannot separate himself from a scale of values, that he must ultimately touch it, and that the value of moral good will prevail.

The relationship between art and transcendence, art and mystery, is close. Faith and art both dig into mystery, and are therefore sisters. Beauty saves from despair. Beauty which takes on the faces of obscenity, transgression and provocation are 'hypocritical'. that true art, "even when it scrutinizes the most disturbing aspects of evil, gives voice to the universal expectation of redemption".

Would there be, in this, the possibility of rehabilitating writers who have previously been called immoral. like Alberto Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini? The suggestion that one can be oriented towards hope by describing desperation?

And that therefore, the suffering of the artist - since each work requires suffering (sometimes even to death) - can become redemption. That it is possible an artist can be saved because he is an artist. It has been written, for instance, in La Civilta Cattolica that Moravia and Pasolini are certainly in Paradise.

I thought the Pope came close to such concepts, that they can be inferred from his discourse.

He ends tenderly, and he puts down his text. From us, who remained seated, a long applause. He rose to thank us.

Later, Archbishop Ravasi greets each of us before we leave, to hand out a commemorative medallion coined for the occasion. On the back side is Christ looming over St. Paul, from Michelangelo's painting in the Pauline Chapel. A traumatic conversion. [A trauma that was certainly not negative, in this case!]

I would have preferred something different. Seeing that the Pope's entire discourse was Manzonian, the medallion could have borne Manzoni's advice: "Never offer a word that applauds vice or derides virtue". Which really means - Do not place your gifts in the service of money. Or of partisan interests.

The preceding encounter of artists with a Pope took place 45 years ago. Too long ago.

I was thinking (and I discussed this with others present) - It would be good if the artists of the world could meet in the Sistine Chapel every 10 years, but for two days - the first, to listen to the Pope, and the second, to talk among themselves.

And it would be better if it was limited to Christian artists - someone modified that to 'artists from the Christian world' - with a minimum agenda of premises and common problems.

It would cost the Vatican nothing. We would pay for our fare and lodging (as we did this time). Martini&Rossi would provide the refreshments.

I hear the objection right away: What? A Catholic lay synod of artists?

Wny not?


While Camon sounds inappropriately flippant in part - a flippancy that betrays the narcissism that generally marks artists - he obviously appreciates the Pope's message and raises interesting inferences. And perhaps he intended the flippancy to 'balance out' his sympathy with the Pope's position, so that he is not dismissed outright by Stampa readers as flakking for the Vatican. [And BTW, didn't anyone test the sound system earlier to make sure the sound could be properly heard in the entire chapel?]

It would be nice to know the list of 500 artists drawn up by Mons. Ravasi to invite, and what had been his criteria of inclusion and exclusion. The invitees should know that the list was Mons. Ravasi's, not that of the Pope, who would trust the judgment of his 'Minister of Culture' in this matter.

Certainly, it was disappointing that only half of those invited considered it worth their while to come, and that of these, only about 40 were from countries other than Italy, which appears to have a preponderance of representatives from the performing arts and the entertainment world.

Also, I think it was not right for Ravasi's office to 'prioritize' or 'rank' the guests in any way. If any distinctions had to be made, then perhaps a section with all the non-Italian invitees (they had to know this by the RSVPs), and special attention to any handicapped guests. Otherwise, seating should have been 'first come, first served'.

It would be good if Ravasi's Council, in their follow-up, besides e-mailing thank-you notes to those who care, also e-mailed a copy of the Pope's text to those who declined.

Additionally, there are reports that some Catholic artists who were invited - like the German writer Martin Mosebach, a champion of traditional Catholic culture and liturgy - chose not to attend because they felt the occasion was too broadly secular and would not provide the occasion to make a particular appeal to Catholic artists to engage themselves in producing 'authentically Catholic sacred art'. I disagree with those who decided to boycott the meeting for this reason. The appeal for authentic Catholic sacred art requires a different forum altogether, and maybe they should work on Mons. Ravasi to arrange for a meeting for this purpose.

It also seems that among the absentees - because not invited - were Prof. Bartolucci and Prof. Miserach-Grau, the two men most involved today in the defense and promotion of traditional sacred music. If that is so, it's very troubling as it would indicate that Mons. Ravasi perhaps did not consult enough people about his list.



P.S. Camon's article elicited two rejoinders from his peers who were also at the event, as well as Camon's response to their rejoinders.

The first is in the form of a letter to the editor of La Stampa from an Italian writer of Jewish descent: Alain Elkann has co-authored books with persons as diverse as the former Chief Rabbi of Rome Elio Toaff (who hosted John Paul II at the Rome Synagogue), Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini and King Abdullah II of Jordan.



Beauty has no labels nor religion
Letter to the Editor
by ALAIN ELKANN
Translated from

11/24/09

I read the article by Ferdinando Camon published in La Stampa on Sunday, Nov. 22.

I wish to tell the author that I found in his account of the ceremony some jesting and ironical poetic license that made the solemn day seem like a fashion show.

I would never allow myself to write such things given the solemnity and symbolism of such a day, and given the personalities present and the sacredness of the site chosen by Benedict XVI: the Sistine Chapel.

I would have written that I thank Mons. Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Assets of the Church, for having organized such a significant event.

Indeed, I wish to thank the Holy Father for having chosen such an important site, a unique icon for conjoining beauty - which was the focus of the Pope's discourse - with religion, spirituality, talent and the Church, since in the very same Sistine Chapel, as Benedict XVI recalled weith emotion, papal Concalves are held and he himself was elected to the Chair of Peter.

I must say that it seemed strange to see who came to the Chapel that day - famous architects, poets, thinkers, singers, directors, novelists, amazed to find together laymen who are Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, believers and nonbelievers, all together to await the Pope.

All curious to know or try to understand what criteria the Vatican used to have chosen each of them to represent the world of culture and art. The director Maselli, speaking about the Pope and why he accepted the invitation, said: "After all, it isn't every day one gets invited by a Chief of State". [And isn't this a flippant comment to cite?]

At a certain point, we were all requested, in Italian and in English, to turn off our cell phones, to observe some silence, because the Pope was about to arrive.

That respectful silence while waiting was beautiful because it placed everyone on a level of parity and respect towards the Pope and his much-awaited address.

And when he arrived, he was greeted with applause. After he finished speaking, long applause, which confirmed the wide consensus about his words, but even more for his initiative.

In the last part of Camon's article, I read, with surprise, to say the least, certain statements attributed to some people I know well and whom I know think otherwise - namely, my friend Lorenzo Mondo, biographer of Cesare Pavese, and my friend Ernesto Ferrero, biographer of Primo Levi.

Camon wrote: "It would be good if the artists of the world could meet in the Sistine Chapel every 10 years, but for two days - the first, to listen to the Pope, and the second, to talk among themselves. And it would be better if it was limited to Christian artists".

I don't believe that persons like Zaha Hadid, Arnoldo Foà, Daniel Libeskind (architect of the Holocaust Museum in Berlin)or others were invited at random, and If I remember well, the Pope addressed us as "dear and illustrious artists, from different countries, cultures and religions, some of you perhaps remote from the practice of religion, but interested nevertheless in maintaining communication with the Catholic Church..."

I believe I was invited to that event as an Italian writer. I am Jewish and have always worked for inter-religious dialog. And therefore when I read "only Christian artists' I get an unpleasant shiver, and I realize that Mr. Camon and myself have interpreted quite diversely a great day to which I am grateful and proud to have been invited with so many men and women of talent, who shared this event in common, wherever we were seated, above all equally - in that Sistine Chapel which Michelangelo and other great masters like Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Botticelli had elevated into a masterwork of art and the common patrimony of mankind above and beyond race or religion.

On Saturday, in the Sistine Chapel and later along the corridors and within the halls of the Vatican Museums, I breathed in the air of satisfaction and consensus. The Church had decided solemnly to say to us: We need you - to gratify art and artists. A message that came from the Pope, the cardinals and bishops, and even the Swiss Guard who clicked their heels and saluted smartly - to the poet Conte, the poet Rondoni, the architect Botta, the writer La Capria, all the rest.

On that Saturday, November 21, at the Vatican, art found its place and the respect it merits yet again. We understood that three great Popes - Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI - were linked together by the subtle sense that in the spiritual history of the Church, artists had a central role. And that moreover, the inspiration for art and faith are indeed very very close to each other.

But the true lesson that I came away with from the Sistine Chapel is that beauty has no labels. It is simply beautiful.


Here is the third first-person article about the Sistine Chapel event:


A caress for culture
from the Pontiff

by LORENZO MONDO
Translated from

11/24/09


The evening before our audience with the Pope in the Sistine Chapel, Ferdinando Camon, who was in the mood for theological discussion, enticed me and a group of friends to talk about the crisis of Christianity and of the difficulties that the Church has in making itself understood by the faithful themselves, whether it was about the Trinity or the last judgment.

And from there came the suggestion of a propitious meeting with the Pope to be followed by a conference of artists from Christian areas of the world in order to discuss certain problems.

It was a chat among friends, in the Vatican Museums, over cakes and wine. Too sketchy to assume, as Camon does in his article, that I or my friends had any aversion to the invitation made by Benedict XVI (through Mons. Ravasi) to agnostics and members of other religious faiths. One cannot mix up times, contexts and diverse talks.

As far as I am concerned, I am profoundly grateful for having been welcomed alongside so many talented persons in the Sistine Chapel which, as Alain Elkann remarks, is "the common patrimony of mankind above and beyond race and religion".

And I appreciated the Pope's discourse, limpid and elevated, something that places many of his critics in an embarrassing position. [It seems to me the writer has no prior acquaintance with Benedict XVI's thinking and cultural breadth - certainly not with his lecture at the College des Bernardins, nor even his catechesis last Wednesday on the medieval cathedrals. And I suspect this is true of the overwhelming majority of those invited to the Sistine Chapel.]

Benedict XVI expressed, in tones of affectionate courtesy, the friendship of the Church - evidence by a bimillenial history and symbolized by that powerful Michelangelo Last Judgment - for those who work to create beauty and plumb its depths.

This, beyond any superficial appeasement or esthetic nuances, should be understood in its vertical projection, as an open window towards the absolute, on the mystery of man, on his noble origin.

And the analogy that he drew, citing Simone Weil, Dostoyevsky, Hermann Hesse, and Von Balthasar, between artistic and religious inspiration, was very suggestive: "An essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasized by Plato, is that it gives man a healthy 'shock', it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum - it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing, it 'reawakens' him..."

As the director Giuseppe Tornatore commented with epigrammatic efficiency, one felt, in those words, addressed inclusively to all who were present, "a caress for culture from the Pope". [Which confirms what I thought - that these people speak as though this was the first time Benedict XVI has ever spoken about culture and art, beauty and faith, in this manner! Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who knows his Plato, constantly affirms the classic ideal of 'the true, the good and the beautiful' as the definition of God himself. A caress for culture? This Pope does it all the time!]


Finally, Camon's response to Elkann:

'I was not happy about those
who refused the invitation'

by FERDINANDO CAMON
Translated from

11/24/09


On Sunday, in this newspaper, I recounted the Pope's meeting with artists.

Monday, the newspaper published a letter comment by Alain Elkann. which was substantially an article in itself. Elkann reproaches me for having made light of the encounter.

But I had written that all of us who were there, Catholic or not, had waited all our lives for such a meeting. It would have been hard for me to say we had waited it even before we were born!

Elkann dwells on the amount of art of the highest quality that surrounded the event. True, it was a grand setting. But if the program had been about music or painting, few of us would have come. We came to hear the Pope.

After 45 years, a Pope would speak of art to artists - that was the event. For me as for everyone.

Even all the articles have written only about the speech. An elevated and complex speech, but also a risky one. Not all of it left me tranquil.

About Michelangelo's Last Judgment, I ask Elkann to understand: No Catholic artist can contemplate it with untrammelled joy, as Elkann can, for a serious reason, even with respect to the theme of the Pope's discourse: the Church erred intially about that work by Michelangelo.

When Michelangelo opened the doors and invited the Pope and cardinals to see his finished work, they expressed consternation. A cardinal murmured, "What a useless display of anatomical knowledge!", and another, "This is no papal hall - it's a thermal chamber!"

[I think Camon is making too much of that initial 'consternation'. The Pope did not order the fresco scraped away and obliterated, nor modified to show less 'anatomical knowledge'. Indeed, the Church has conserved it for five centuries now. But first impressions of art that eventually becomes recognized as 'great' are hardly ever positive, and Camon should know that.]

Every time I see the Sistine Chapel, these views come to mind, and they are painful and irrepressible. The relationship of the Chirch with artists, up to Fellini, Pasolini, Testori and Tondelli has been problematic. [I do not know who Testori and Tondelli are, but it is one thing to express beauty [even the beauty of suffering, as participation in Christ's sacrifice] through art; another thing altogether to mock the Church and its practices openly - there is never any beauty in mockery and scorn.]

About the Pope's speech and on problems of morality and art, I would have loved to stay one day more in order to discuss these among us, the guests.

If the Pope, who chose to say 'Arrivederci' [literal meaning, "Till we meet again"], will repeat such a meeting, I would hope that a post-speech discussion can take place.

And what is the extent of 'Christian areas', anyway? Anywhere the words of the Pope are heeded. The Pope said so himself. They include anyone who, when the Pope calls and invites them to him, recognize his authority and come. Elkann has been among those in the forefront.

But Israel's leading writers - Yehoshua, Oz and Grossman - refused en bloc. Did they think that the topic, or the speaker, did not merit listening to? If so, they have every right. But Elkann glosses over the fact that they refused the invitation, as if it didn't matter. It disappointed me, and I did not like it.

But let us not make this a religious dispute. The Pope said to us 'Arrivederci'. We should simply answer, 'Soon!'

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Although he is no longer a Vaticanista, Luigi Accattoli is the first among professional Vatican 'observers' to comment on the Pope's Nov. 21 address to artists.


The strategy of beauty
by Luigi Accattoli
Translated from

Nov. 24, 2009


We are perhaps entering a creative season in the relationship between the Churches and the world of art, after so many reciprocal disappointments.

For the Holy See, the time has been interpreted with broad vision by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

And the Pope, who met 260 artists in the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, demonstrated this confidence. In appealing to his guests, the Pope did not present any partisan requests, but asked them in general "to communicate beauty" and thus become "bearers of hope for mankind".


Some of the non-Italian artists who attended. From left: Dutch sculptor and multimedia artist Caspar Berger; Japanese sculptor Kenjiro Azuma; American painter Bob Wilson; British film director Peter Greenaway.

This broad view was also reflected in the fact that the guests included non-Christians and agnostics. From our own film directors Nanno Moretti and Giuseppe Tornatore, to the Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid and the Iranian writer Kder Abdolah; from our pop singer-writers Venditti and Vecchioni to Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and Israeli director Samul Maoz.

Therefore, not just Catholics or believers were invited. The artists were invited as artists and not because of their religious affiliations or lack thereof.

In the same spirit, Ravasi nannounced that the Vatican would be present at the 2011 Venice Biennal of art with its own pavilion.

"I wish to address artists from around the world, starting with Africa, to consider the first eleven chapters of Genesis which contain all of the fundamental themes: creation, evil, man and woman, domestic and social violence, ecology, the universal deluge, the imperialism of Babel," he said in this respect.

Ravasi was seen conversing in the Sistine with Nanni Moretti who sent him the script of his next film about a Pope who goes into psychoanalysis.

Ravasi spoke about this confidently: "Some will probably see it as a provocation. It does not seem so from the script, but let us see what the film will be." [At any rate, no one in his right mind would be tempted to see the proposed film as a roman a clef for any of the Popes since Freud devised psychoanalysis!

He adds that it was in such a spirit that the Pope spoke to the artists, who certainly recalled what Paul VI said in that place 45 years ago to another group of artists: "We need you. Our ministry needs you". And what John Paul II - "who was himself an artist' - wrote to artists in 1999.

Benedict XVI cited the theological aesthetics of Hans urs von Balthasar and Dostoyevsky's statement: "Man can live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty, he could no longer live because there would no longer be anything to do in the world".

He recalled that art "calls out to Mystery" and that the Bible has always been "an immense repository of figures" for every art.

But when it came to making an appeal, he did not give out moral counsel, he did not ask special treatment for religion, he did not dictate rules for the construction and adornment of sacred places.

He simply asked them to be themselves, reiterating Paul VI's words: "If you are friends of true art, then you are our friends".

He called on them to be 'grateful for the gifts you have received and to be fully aware of your great responsibility to communicate beauty".

He warned them against 'illusory and decitful' beauty, reminding them that authentic beauty confronts man: "It touches him intimately, it wounds him, it opens his eyes".

Thus, the artist's great mission, who must not consider himself in the service of 'transgression or grautitous provocation' as ends in themselves, but should know he is called on to a fully human purpose: "Through your art, you yourselves are to be heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity".

As for religion, he did not ask for other than their availability to "dialog with believers, those who like yourselves consider that they are pligrims in this world towards infinite beauty".

Assuring them that "faith takes nothing away from your genius or your art. On the contrary, it exalts them and nourishes them".

The sincerity of these words - aimed at 'renewing the friendship of the Church with the world of art' - was felt by the audience to whom they were addressed, an audience not limited to 'the faithful' but open to every contribution.

Perhaps a new season is truly possible, at a time when we are all tired of 'cabin-churches'. Perhaps it is possible that the tradition of icons and mosaics can be revived in vsious communites, and that artists will return gladly to the 'great code' of the Bible to provide appropriate representations in our places of worship.



Fresh palette: Artists say
they're ready to support Church mission

By Carol Glatz



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 23 (CNS) -- Ask and you shall receive. The art world is ready to collaborate with the Church in creating inspirational modern art, said some artists who took part in a landmark meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

After decades of disinterest or suspicion, the rapport between art and religion is ready to be restored. If the Church wants art to support its mission, all it has to do is call.

"The artist is really at the service of society, but to serve you have to be asked," said John David Mooney, a sculptor and installation artist from Chicago.

Polish film director Krzysztof Zanussi told Vatican Radio that the Church has to take the first step in approaching artists and getting to know their work "because for sure, artists will never take that step."

Mooney and Zanussi were among the more than 250 international artists invited by the Vatican in an effort to revitalize dialogue and collaboration between the worlds of faith and art.

For decades the Church has expressed a need for beautiful, inspiring modern art for places of worship. It has also lamented society's overload of superficial, indecent or provocative art that fails to speak to the human soul.

In his address in the Sistine Chapel Nov. 21, Pope Benedict said his meeting with artists was "my invitation to friendship, dialogue and cooperation." He urged them to think of themselves as "custodians of beauty."

"Thanks to your talent, you have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons of knowledge and of human engagement," the Pope said, surrounded by Michelangelo's stunning frescoes.

Asking artists to be "heralds and witnesses of hope for humanity," the Pope told them not to be afraid to "enter into dialogue with believers" who also see themselves as pilgrims on a journey toward infinite beauty and glory.

In an interview with Catholic News Service Nov. 23, Mooney said the reason why there is so much secular art in the world today is "because the secular world is asking for it."

Artists are asked by clients, foundations, governments and corporations "to celebrate their mission or at least their presence" all the time, "so we are used to trying to bring a level of transcendence even to the retail world," he said.

"There's no problem with the artists between faith and their work at all," he said, and money is not an obstacle since many artists are not interested in a lucrative deal, but in creating new art and showcasing their unique vision, he said.

"I think that there has just been no communication between the Church and the artists, that's the problem."

Museums and art collectors have insatiable appetites for new art, he said. "Where is the Church asking the artist ... to glorify God in new and challenging ways that relate to this culture?" he asked.

"All great art comes from the top," from the patron commissioning the piece, he said. Patrons need imagination and courage to take the risk of asking an artist to do something without knowing what the end result will be, said Mooney.

When both patron and artist take risks "success can happen and success can be the great moments we look at," he said, citing Michelangelo's dome on St. Peter's Basilica.

Pope Benedict, in his address to artists, said the wrong kind of beauty "thrust upon us (by art) is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him depriving him of hope and joy."

Zanussi told Vatican Radio that art today has reached new lows "because there are no limits."

The Church doesn't aim to restrict freedom, he said, but it wants to see art be inspired by something great and bigger than itself. "Art, even sacred art, is often very low quality because it wasn't really spiritually inspired," he said.

The Pope said real beauty touches the soul, it wounds, it startles, "it opens our eyes, (and) then we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our existence, the mystery of which we are part; from this mystery we can draw fullness, happiness, the passion to engage with it every day."

Mooney said he and many artists at the papal audience felt inspired by the Pope's message and his encouragement to "focus our work upon and be aware of the eternal truth that the Church stands for and the message of the Gospel."

He said has a special relationship with the world of science and, in fact, he created temporary installations on the roof of the Vatican Observatory when it was atop the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo.

"Physicists and astrophysicists love the unknown, they love to observe and they love to ask the artist to join them in this quest," he said, "and that's the same relationship that should exist between the Church and art."

"It's a leadership moment," he said referring to how the Church and art can come together once again.

Church leaders should follow up the Pope's message with seminars, discussions, symposiums and "actually start creating exciting places to bring art in."

One way to do this is to work outside church buildings and bring art directly to the people. "All you have to have is space. A building is the last thing you need." he suggested.

He said, "You don't have a living culture unless you have the artists as part of that culture and that's the bottom line."



Artists laud Pope's step
toward 'their world'




VATICAN CITY, NOV. 23, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's Saturday audience with some 250 internationally renowned artists drew various reactions from the participants, most of them expressing appreciation for the Pope's steps toward dialogue.

In general, all agreed that this audience was a first step, as Polish film director and producer Krzysztof Zanussi acknowledged.

"This is our expectation: a bit more action on the part of the Church to take a step toward the world of entertainment, toward artists," said Zanussi.

The film director affirmed that the "very beautiful" words of the Holy Father introduced "more dialogue, more openness, more knowledge," to the world of art and the Church.

He added that the Pontiff is at the same time realistic, as "today's art is in decadence because there are no limits."

Zanussi said, "I don't think the Church will limit liberty, but inspiration is necessary, as art, including sacred art, is often of very low quality, it isn't inspired in the spiritual dimension."

Mexican actor and producer Eduardo Verástegui, who is currently living in Los Angeles and is known for his role in the film "Bella," said that this meeting with the Pope was "a dream come true."

He said: "The Church has created in history summits of art, and to be in the Sistine Chapel, with the Holy Father, surrounded by all that art, accompanied by artists of all expressions, was something historic. And all this in silence, prayer and reflection. It is something that has greatly enriched all of us who heard him."

The reason that led the Holy Father to call this meeting is the same that inspired Pope Paul VI when he organized a similar meeting in the same setting 45 years ago: the divorce between the Church and the artistic world.

Inspired by the words of his predecessor, Benedict XVI affirmed "the Church's friendship with the world of art, a friendship that has been strengthened over time."

He invited the artists to "make a similar, shared commitment, analyzing seriously and objectively the factors that disturbed this relationship, and assuming individual responsibility, courageously and passionately, for a newer and deeper journey in mutual acquaintance and dialogue in order to arrive at an authentic 'renaissance' of art in the context of a new humanism."

Italian film director and producer Pupi Avati made this evaluation of the meeting: "I think this meeting has had a totally extraordinary result. And that comes from someone like me, who expected to see many colleagues from different artistic fields, but more or less with the same religion.

"But what was 'miraculous' was that there were colleagues from more 'distant' origins. They accepted the - not for collaboration, not yet, that seems too much for now - but to dialogue. I think it was an extraordinary idea that goes far beyond what was anticipated."

Similar comments were made by Zaha Hadid, an architect of Iraqi origin, who sat in the first row. She said she hoped this was the beginning of a dialogue "as it is timely to address the topics posed by the Pope."

Italian writer Susanna Tamaro stressed the importance of the transcendent dimension of beauty that Benedict XVI emphasized, because "for those who do not have faith, it is difficult to speak of hope at this time."

Israeli film director Samuel Maoz, who won an award in the last Venice International Film Festival for his film "Lebanon," said "I think the Pope has said a great 'no' to hatred and war and a great 'yes' to love and art."

The Pope pleased teh artists by suggesting that this meeting was a beginning, and would not be the last.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, who organized the event, explained that this meeting "must be understood as the beginning of a new dialogue, based on fraternity between faith and art."

He added, "We will try to organize another meeting, perhaps again with the Pope."


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Wednesday, November 25

ST. COLUMBAN (b Ireland 540, d Italy 615)
Missionary, Abbot, Writer
Considered the greatest of the Irish missionaries, he suffered temptations of the flesh as a youth and decided
to become a hermit then a monk after seeking the advice of a nun. With 12 companions, he set forth for Gaul in 950
to spread the Gospel. He set up many monasteries, championed Catholic orthodoxy against heresies like Arianism,
professed fierce loyalty to the Pope and wrote a monastic rule. Ordered into exile back to Ireland by the Queen
Mother whom he displeased by his moral strictures, he was shipwrecked and landed back in Europe, proceeding
to Italy where he befriended the King of the Lombards. He set up the famous monastery of Bobbio where he would
eventually die. He left behind many writings, including poetry, treatises and his famous Rule.




OR today.


No papal stories on Page 1. International news: Obama's continuing 'councils of war' over Afghanistan;
Iranian president visiting Venezuela pays new lip service to concluding an agreement with IAEA over Iran's
nuclear program; a UN report says 1.5 billion people still do not have the benefits of electricity; an editorial
commentary on the continuing financial crisis. The only papal story in this issue is Archbishop Piero Marini's
acceptance speech of an honorary doctorate in Freiburg on the topic of 'Papal liturgy under Benedict XVI'.
Photo above shows the band of the Vatican Gendarmerie serenading the Pope Monday evening on the feast
of St. Cecilia.




THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience - The Holy Father resumed his catecheses on great Christian writers
of the Middle Ages, with Hugh and Richard, 12th-century theologians of the Abbey
of St. Victor in Paris.

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GENERAL AUDIENCE TODAY




At the General Audience held today in the Aula Paolo VI, the Holy Father continued with his catecheses on great Christian thinkers of the Middle Ages, speaking about the 12th-century theologians Hugh and Richard of St. Victor.

Hers is how he synthesized the lesson in English:

In our continuing catechesis on the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, we now turn to two outstanding twelfth-century theologians associated with the monastery of Saint Victor in Paris.

Hugh of Saint Victor stressed the importance of the literal or historical sense of sacred Scripture as the basis of theology’s effort to unite faith and reason in understanding God’s saving plan.

His treatise On the Sacraments of the Christian Faith offered an influential definition of a sacrament, stressing not only its institution by Christ and its communication of grace, but also its value as an outward sign.

Richard of Saint Victor, a disciple of Hugh, stressed the allegorical sense of the Scriptures in order to present a spiritual paedagogy aimed at human maturity and contemplative wisdom.

Richard’s work On the Trinity sought to understand the mystery of the triune God by analyzing the mystery of love, which entails a giving and receiving between two persons and finds its perfection in being bestowed upon a third person.

These great Victorines, Hugh and Richard, remind us that theology is grounded in the contemplation born of faith and the pursuit of understanding, and brings with it the immense joy of experiencing the eternal love of the Blessed Trinity.





Here is a full translation of the catechesis today:



Dear brothers and sisters,

In these Wednesday audiences, I have been presenting some exemplary figures of believers who were committed to showing the concordance between reason and the faith, and to bear witness to the Gospel with their life.

Today I will speak to you of Hugh and Richard of St. Victor - two great philosophers and theologians famously known as the Victorines, because they lived and taught at the (Augustinian) abbey of St. Victor in Paris, which had been founded at the start of the 12th century by William (Guillaume) of Champeaux.

William himself was a renowned teacher, who had given his abbey a solid cultural identity. In fact, at St. Victor, a school was founded for the formation of monks which was also open to outside students, and where a happy synthesis was reached of the two ways of practising theology which I spoke about in previous catecheses: monastic theology, which was mainly oriented towards contemplating the mysteries of the faith in Scripture; and scholastic theology, which used reason to scrutinize these mysteries with innnovative methods, creating a theological system.

We have litte information about the life of Hugh of St. Victor. The date and place of his birth are uncertain: he was probably born in Saxony or in Flanders. It is known that once he came to Paris - the European center of culture at that time - he spent the rest of his life in the Abbey of St. Victor, where he was first a student then a teacher.

Before he died in 1141, he had already acquired great fame and esteem, to the point of being called a 'second St. Augustine'. Like Augustine, in fact, he meditated a great deal on the relationship between faith and reason, between the profane sciences and theology.

According to Hugh of St. Victor, all the sciences, besides being useful for understanding Scriptures, have value in themselves and must be cultivated to widen man's knowledge, and to respond to his yearning to know the truth.

This healthy intellectual curiosity led him to advise his students never to restrict their desire to learn, and in his treatise on the methodology of knowledge and pedagogy, significantly entitled Didascalion (On Teaching), he advised: "Learn gladly from everyone that which you do not know. You will be wiser than all those who want to learn something from everyone. He who gets something from everyone up becoming richer than everyone" (Eruditiones Didascalicae, 3,14: PL 176,774).

The science which occupied the Victorine philosophians and theologians in particular was theology, which requires above all the loving study of Sacreed Scripture.

To know God, in fact, one cannot but start from what God himself has revealed of himself through Scriptures. In this sense, Hugh of St. Victor was a typical representative of monastic theology, based entirely on Biblical exegesis.

To interpret Scripture, he proposed the traditiounal patristic medieval articulation, namely, the historico-literary sense first, then the allegorical or anagogic, and finally the moral.

This involved the four dimensions of Scriptural sense, which are being rediscovered today, in which one sees that a more profound sense is hidden in the text and narration offered: the thread of faith that leads us upward and guides us on this earth, teaching us how to live.

Nonetheless, while respecting these four dimensions of Scriptural sense, one must know and learn deeper the significance of the story narrated in Scriptures. Otherwise, Hugh warns, in an effective comparison, one risks being like students of grammar who ignore the alphabet.

To him who knows the meaning of the story described in the Bible, human events appear marked by Divine Providence according to a well-ordered design.

Thus, for Hugh of St. Victor, history is not the outcome of blind destiny or absurd chance, as it might appear. On the contrary, the Holy Spirit works within human history, giving rise to a wondrous dialog between men and God, their friend.

This theological vision of history brings to light the surprising and salvific intervention of God, who truly enters and acts in history - almost part of our history - but always safeguarding and respcting man's freedom and responsibility.

For Hugh, the study of Sacred Scripture and its historico-literary meaning makes true theology possible - the systematic illustration of truths, knowing their structure, illustrating the dogmas of the faith whgich he presented in solid synthesis in the treatise De Sacramentis christianae fidei (Sacraments of the Christian Faith).

In this, one finds, among other things, a definition of 'sacrament' which, perfected by later theologians, contains salient points that are still very interesting today.

"The sacrament", he wrote, "is a corporeal or material element proposed in an external and sensible manner, which represents in its image an invisible spiritual grace - which it represents because it was instituted for that purpose, and contains it (grace) because it is capable of sanctifying" (9,2: PL 176,317).

On the one hand, the visibility of the symbol, the 'corporeality' of the gift of God, in which nonetheless, is hidden the divine grace that comes from one source: Jesus Christ himself who created these fundamental symbols.

Therefore, there are three elements that come together to define a sacrament, according to Hugh of St. Victor: its institution by Christ, the communication of grace, and the analogy between the visible element - the material - and the invisible, which are the divine gifts.

It is a vision very close to contemporary sensibility, because the sacraments are presented with a language woven from symbols and images
that can speak immediately to the heart of man.

It is important even today that liturgical animators, particularly priests, should be able to appreciate with pastoral wisdom the very signs of the sacramental rites - the visibility and tangibleness of Grace - by attentive care in catechesis, so that every sacramental celebration is experienced by all the faithful with devotion, intensity and spiritual joy.

A worthy disciple of Hugh of St. Victor, was Richard, who came from Scotland. He was prior of the Abbey of St. Victor from 1162-1173 when he died. Of course, Richard too gave a fundamental role to the study of the Bible, but unlike his teacher, he favored the allegorical sense, the symbolic meaning of Scripture, through which, for instance, he interpreted the Old Testament figure of Benjamin, son of Jacob, as a symbol of contemplation and the peak of spiritual life.

Richard treats this subject in two texts, Benjamin Minor and Benjamin Major, in which he proposes to the faithful a spiritual path that calls above all for the exercise of various virtues, learning with reason to discipline and put order into one's sentiments and one's interior motives, both affective and emotive.

Only when man achieves equilibrium and human maturation in this sense will he be ready to proceed to contemplation, which Richard defines as "a profound and pure spiritual look at the wonders of wisdom, associated with an ecstatic sense of awe and admiration" (Benjamin Maior 1,4: PL 196,67).

Thus contemplation is a point of arrival, the result of an arduous path, which involves dialog between faith and reason, and therefore, once more, theological discourse.

Theology starts from the truths which are the object of the faith, but it seeks a more profound knowledge of such truths with the use of reason availing of the gift of faith.

This application of reason to the understanding of the faith is presented convincingly in Richard's masterpiece, one of the great books of history, De Trinitate (Of the Trinity). In the six books that make it up, he reflects acutely on the Mystery of the one and triune God.

According to him, since God is Love, the single divine substance consists of communication, oblation and 'dilezione' ['spiritual love' is the closest English equivalent] between two persons, the Father and the Son, who are in an eternal exchange of love.

But the perfection of happiness and goodness does not allow exclusivism and closure: it requires the eternal presence of a third Person, the Holy Spirit. Trinitarian love is participative, a concordance that consists of a superabundance of delight, an experience of incessant joy.

Richard thus assumes that God is love, he analyzes the essence of love, what the reality of love involves, thus arriving at the Trinity of Persons, which is the logical expression of the fact that God is Love.

Nonetheless, he is aware that love, although it reveals to us the essence of God, that it makes us 'understand' the mystery of the Trinity, is still just an analogy to speak of a Mystery that surpasses the human mind, and, being a mystic poet as well, he makes use of other images.

For instance, he likens divinity to a river, to a wave of love that gushes from the Father, then flows and reflows in the Son, to be joyously diffused by the Holy Spirit.

Dear friends, authors like Hugh and Richard of St. Victor lift up our spirits to the contemplation of divine realities. At the same time, the immense joy we derive from thinking about, admiring and praising the Most Holy Trinity, establishes and sustains our concrete commitment to be inspired by such a perfect model of communion in love, in order to construct our everyday human relationships.

The Trinity is truly the perfect communion! How the world would change if, in families, in parishes and in every community, relationships were lived always following the example of the three divine Persons, in which each one lives not only with the other, but for the other and in the other!

Some months ago, I said at the Angelus: "Only love makes us happy, because we live in relationships - we live to love and be loved" (June 7, 2009).

It is love which accomplishes this unending miracle: as in the life of the Most Holy Trinity, plurality is recomposed in unity, where everything is complaisance and joy.

With St. Augustine, who was held in high honor by the Victorines, we too can exclaim: "Vides Trinitatem, si caritatem vides" - You contemplate the Trinity if you see love" (De Trinitate VIII, 8,12).



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More commentary on the Sistine Chapel event last Saturday.


Impelled by higher things:
Artists moved by Benedict's
discourse on beauty

by Giuseppe Frangi

November 25, 2009


The first thing that leapt to mind after the Pope's encounter with a large representation of artists last Saturday at the Vatican, was that of sincere and shared satisfaction. There was not a single one of the participants who did not say so.

The assembly, put together by Mons. Gianfranco Ravasi with his usual ability, was truly one without labels nor cultural exclusions. In short, without any fences.

And so, the outcome could not be taken for granted, if only because the occasion called for the artists to step back for once and be the audience.

Moreover, they were asked to do so by a great institution, the Church, which many men of culture have regarded for some time with suspicion and wariness.

So we must ask what brought on this unanimous and shared feeling of contentment about the meeting and the words they heard. I think this was due to two factors which were decisive and probably unforeseen.

The first is that the meeting was promptly understood as a great gesture of esteem, particularly on the part of the Pope, for the work of those who make culture. And the choice of such an extraordinarily beautiful and moving location for the meeting immediately confirmed this to everyone who came.

These days, esteem for the world of culture either does not exist at all or is conditioned by political and ideological alignments.

But n the contrary, the Pope signalled his openness and trust, which seemed the start of something new to everyone present. Thus, it is significant that someone so unlikely to be considerate towards the Church and its positions as film director Nanni Moretti was among those who came, and also thought it useful and constructive to get Mons. Ravasi's opinion on the script for his next film [about a Pope who goes into psychoanalysis].

The second factor emerged clearly from Benedict XVI's address to the artists. One word recurred 36 times in the Pope's test - beauty. As much esteem as there is for the work done by men and women of culture, there is still greater esteem for what they do - which is to give form to beauty.

Beauty is not preconstituted, nor is it a canon that one must live up to. Beauty is an actual experience, an activity that also introduces some uneasiness - in that it opens up man's eyes to questions about his ultimate end; it provokes struggle towards something higher, beyond, towards the infinite.

Beauty, said the Pope, "draws man out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation and from being content with the humdrum - it even makes him suffer, piercing him like a dart, but in so doing, it 'reawakens him', opening afresh the eyes of his heart and mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft."

To reinforce this concept, he used a beautiful statement by Georges Braque, the painter who founded Cubism with Picasso at the start of the 20th century: "Art is meant to disturb, science reassures".

To generate beauty which is capable of 'setting us back on our path': how can one not be content to have such a mission? How can one not grasp with new impetus the historical and concrete importance of such a task?

At the Sistine Chapel on Saturday, something was definitely triggered which can set so many things in motion, leaving behind all conservationism of any type.

In a certain sense. it means an end to 'veltronism' and its idea of a coddled navel-gazing culture. But it also means filing away the culture of endless recrimination against modernity.

The challenge has been launched, and concretely. The Church has even undertaken the first risk: the idea of opening a Vatican pavilion at the next Biennial of Art in Venice will be the first fascinating evidence of the path that has opened.

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Not an anniversary day today, but Reuters has just chosen its 100 'Photos of the Decade" (2000-2009)
and they chose this to mark Benedict XVI's election:




And this to mark John Paul II's death:

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ADDENDUM TO
GA TODAY



More pictures, and OR's sidebar from the 11/26/09 issue:







Sidelights after the GA
Translated from
the 11/26/09 issue of






A Shoah survivor
Handshakes and come small talk in German between two compatriots and contemporaries. Cäcilie Peiser from Frankfurt, 84, and a Jewish survivor of the Shoah, was presented to Benedict XVI by Salesian Fr. Norbert Hofmann, secretary of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Judaism. And she gave the Pope a copy of her biography.

"After Kristallnacht in 1938," she recalled, "at the age of 13, I was forced to escape with my younger sister Jutta and other children to Holland."

It was only after the liberation of the Netherlands, while caring for survivors of the extermination camps who were afflicted with tuberculosis that she learned her mother and younger brother and been deported and killed in a lager (her father died earlier), while her older sister Hannah was able to escape to Haifa.

"I, too, in 1946, decided to go to Palestine, where I worked for the cause of peaceful coexistence of peoples, but I returned to Germany in 1957 to care for handicapped children."

Cäcilie is the founder and current honorary president of the association 'Child Survivors' which cares for children - now aged people - who survived the Shoah but psychologically crippled by their traumatic experiences.

Pilgrims from Nagasaki
A delegation of 300 Japanese pilgrims, led by ten bishops, came from Nagasaki to personally thank the Pope for the beatification last year in Nagasaki of 187 Japanese martyrs.

They gave the Pope a reliquary with relics of Blessed Peter Kibe, a Jesuit, who was martyred with his companions in the early 17th century.

Catholic TV staff from Lebanon
From Lebanon, a delegation from TeleLumiere-Noursat, which is planning to set up a media city' just outside Beirut to 'transmit a message of peace to the nations of the Middle East'. The project has the support of all the Christian patriarchs of the East, Catholic adn Orthodox.

Support for the Amazon Indians
From Perugia, volunteers of the Associazione insieme fratelli indios (AIFI) [Association of brothers together with the Indians], dedicated to assistance and promotion of the native peoples of Brazil's Amazon region.

AIFI works with the Capuchin missionaries of Umbria, who are celebrating this year the centenary of their presence in Brazil.

Other Italian groups
From Cervia, an Adriatic seaside town of Romagna, a delegation brought the city's annual donation of salt from their saltbeds to the Vatican, in a tradition that dates back to 1455.

From the shrine of San Francesco di Paola (a Tyrrhenian seaside town in Calabria, the region that makes up the 'toe' of the Italian boot), friars of the saint's Order of Minims and a youth delegation came to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Paul II's visit to the shrine, and to invite Benedict XVI.

"We hope to see him in Calabria", said their Father Provincial, Rocco Benvenuto.

From Gravina, in Puglia, a delegation from the Centro Studi Benedetto XIII, who was born in Gravina (1649-1730). They were joined by members of other Italian dioceses - Benevento, Manfredonia and Vieste - that are linked to Papa Orsini's episcopate.

Benedict XIII's biography, published in 1731, a year after his death, was written in German and printed in Gothic lettering - 2000 pages recently translated to Italian, a copy of which was presented to Benedict XVI today.


And finally, a picture without a story ...

The caption simply says these are two clothing executives presenting the Pope with some custom-made jackets.


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Papal liturgy under Benedict XVI
by Mons. Piero Marini
Translated from
the 11/26/09 issue of



Editor's Note: The Faculty of Theology of the University of Freiburg conferred an honorary doctorate on Archbishop Piero Marini, president of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, in recognition of his contributions to the execution of the liturgical reforms after the Second Vatican Council during his service as the master of Pontifical Liturgical Ceremonies.

This is the text of the lecture given by Mons. Marini on the occasion.



From the first years of my service in the Roman Curia I learned to consider the activity of the offices of the Holy See as putting into practice the actions indicated by two verbs: to protect and to promote.

This was the principle of the liturgical reform decreed by the Second Vatican Council: "To preserve healthy tradition and to open the way for a legitimate progress" (Sacrosanctum concilium, 23).

Liturgical reform is the basis for the other reforms. The reform of the Church, ecumenism, mission, dialog with the contemporary world - all depend on liturgical reform. One can reasoanbly affirm that Sacrosanctum concilium was the first Conciliar Constitution not only in the temporal sense, but also as the matrix of the other constitutions and all the feforms promised by the Council.

As the person responsible for papal liturgical celebrations since February 1987, my service with Benedict XVI lasted from April 19, 2005, to October 16, 2007.

Of that experience - brief in time but rich with so many celebrations in Rome, five trips in Italy, and seven abroad - I wish to refer only to two reforms approved by the Pope which have a great impact in the life of the Church and which concern the rites pertaining to papal liturgy: the celebration of beatification rites in the local churches and the approval of the 'nuovo Ordo rituum pro ministerii Petrini initio Romae episcopi' [the rite for the start of the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome).

Everyone knows about the Pope's sensibility and preparation in matters of liturgy. Soon after he became Pope, Benedict XVI wished that beatification rites be carried out, no longer in Rome, but in the local Churches of the persons honored.

The decision involved some important changes:
- The rites and the Mass of Beatification would no longer be presided over by the Pope;
- The local Churches would be much more visibly involved;
- The new practice would show the substantial difference between beatification and canonization.

[He fails to mention the rationale for Benedict's decision: in beatification, the Church proposes the beatified person primarily for veneration by his local church and its jurisdiction, whereas a canonized saint is offered to the universal Church for universal veneration.]

The text of the new procedures for the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood provided for the realization of a new Ordo, as Cardinal Saraiva Martins underscored in L'Osservatore Romano on September 29, 2005: "It is therefore hoped that as soon as possible the Office of Liturgical Celebrations by the Supreme Pontiff, in consultation with the Congregation for the Cause of Sainthood and the Coingregation for Divine Worship, will prepare an Ordo beatificationis et canonizationis".

Following this instruction, the Office for Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, in 2006-2007, elaborated, with the help of some experts and consultants, a complete scheme of celebration.

Entrusting to this office the task of editing an official liturgical text to be used by local Churches constituted farther confirmation that its autonomy within the Roman Curia was officially recognized.

But it was the Ordo rituum pro ministerii Petrini initio Romae episcopi that was the first official document approved by Benedict XVI. And it was approved the day after his election as attested by his rescript [official answer] at an audience with the Supreme Pontiff, dated April 20, 2005.

In the book Inizio del ministero petrino del Vescovo di Roma Benedetto XVI (Città del Vaticano, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2006, 565 pp.), I wrote:

I remember with emotion the first audience granted to me by His Holiness during which I brought the new rite to his attention. The Pope reviewed the entire liturgy, appreciating and confirming the choices made with respect to the new Ordo.

Indeed, in examining the document, the Pope repeatedly underscored the beauty of the texts, the gestures indicated, and the ritual sequences proposed, appreciating the work that had been done in such a short time.

He himself observed the strong Biblical inspiration of the rite, its uninterrrupted continuity with the great tradition of the Catholic Church - identifying particularly the Patristic citations in the texts, recognizing statements by Ignatius of Antioch, Gregory the Great and Leo the Great.

His Holiness expressed the wish to keep the book in order to prepare himself for the liturgy, to meditate on the texts and the rites of the imposition of the Pallium and the Fisherman's Ring.

One result of such meditation was the evocative mystagogic comment on the Pallium and the Ring in his homily at the inaugural Mass of his ministry.


The approval of that Ordo was therefore, above all else, proof of Benedict XVI's liturgical sensibility.

The Ordo started with the solemn announcement of the election of the Roman Pontiff and his first Urbi et Orbi blessing. That rite "takes its origin from the practice of the early Church to elect the Bishop with the concurrence of the people and the clergy" (Prænotanda, n. 3).

It is followed by the Eucharistic celebration "for the start of the Petrine ministry of the Bishop of Rome", which underscores the close linkage of the Bishop of Rome to the Apostle Peter [visit to the Apostle's Confessio before the Mass] and the Petrine office of the Pastor of the Catholic Church [imposition of the Pastor's Pallium and the Fisherman's Ring] (cfr. Prænotanda, n. 4).

"To express physically the inseparable link of the Church of Rome with the Apostle of the Gentiles along with the fisherman from Galilee", the Ordo also specified that the new Pope would visit as soon as possible the Basilica of St. Paul to venerate the Apostle (cfr. Ibidem, n. 17).

Then 'taking possession' of the Cathedra in the Lateran Basilica, which underscores the primacy of the Bishop of Rome with pastoral power over all the faithful (cfr. Ibidem, n. 20).

As the last act of the itinerarium and the different stationes that constitute the rites at the start of the Petrine ministry, the Ordo also provided, that shortly after taking possession of the Cathedra, the Pope would visit the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore to pay homage to the icon of Santa Maria 'Salus populi romani'(cfr. Ibidem, nn. 27, 28).

Thus, the contribution made by the places and the celebratory actions to the sense of the Petrine ministry, is augmented by the major symbols of the start of the ministry - the Pallium, the Fisherman's Ring, and the Lateran Cathedra.

In its texts and its rites, that Ordo was a clear and well-defined expression of Conciliar ecclesiology. When the rites for the start of the Pontificates for both John Paul I and John Paul II were being drafted, the incongruency of a rite of coronation was noted [and omitted]. At the time, the rite was limited to the imposition of the Pallium, but without as yet maturing the gestures and signs appropriate to post-conciliar ecclesiology.

So, the Ordo [for Benedict XVI], in its texts and rites, is 'a documented testimonial to the liturgical reception of Vatican-II, and therefore, of the understanding that the Council had of liturgy, of the Church, and within the Church, of the Petrine ministry".

The criteria used for its preparation were those that were followed for the revision of the Paul Vi's Missale Romanum and which the Institutio Generalis describes as "testimony of an unchanging faith, proof of uninterrupted tradition and adaptation to new conditions" (ivi, pp. 8-9).

[Mons. Marini is being extremely disingenuous and self-serving here. Onwe cannot compare the unique rites specific to the installation of a new Pope, to the regular Mass of the Novus Ordo by itself (even if it is the only Mass form followed so far in the Benedict XVI's liturgies).

Marini is clearly using the esceptional and singular papal inauguration rites to try and present the Novus Ordo Mass itself to as equally worthy as the inaugural Ordo, and that its 'adaptation to new conditions' was 'proof of uninterrupted tradition' when it clearly is not.]


Finally the Ordo has a particular ecumenical value and can be 'a meeting place and starting point for a renewed dialog among sister Churches, in the search for visible communion and in recognition of the mnistry placed by the Lord in the service of such communion" ivi, p. 10).

[It is clear the Ordo he is referring to in this statement was not the inaugural Ordo but the routine Ordo - the ordinary form as it is now called. Which proves that he is disingenuously - and dishonestly - seeking to conflate the iangural Ordo with the routine Ordo. Because obviously, the unique rites of the inaugural Ordo which all have to do with the primacy of Peter, can hardly be the starting point for 'renewed ecumenical dialog' as it is considered by all the non-Catholic Christians as the principal obstacle to reunification.]

These are some of the reasons why I can affirm that among the many liturgical experiences I had during my long service to the Successors of Peter, that which I experienced in the preparation, and particularly, in the celebration of the [inaugural] Ordo was one of the most beautiful and gratifying.

I gladly conclude these references to the renewal of Pontifical liturgical celebrations that I experienced in service to teh Supreme Pontiffs John Paul II and Benedict XVI, by renewing my gratitude to them as I expressed in the book Cérémoniaire des papes (Paris, Bayard, 2007, 199 pp):

I wish to thank the two Supreme Pontiffs whom I had the grace to serve as master of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations. Above all, the Servant of God John Paul II, who named me at age 43 as undersecretary for the Congregation of Divine Worship and after two years, entrusted me with the responsibility for pontifical liturgical celebrations, and in 1998, imposed hands on me for my episcopal ordination.

I thank him for always having favored the development of that Office: he established its juridical autonomy, he promoted and approved the updating of the papal liturgy, and finally, in Rome, and above all in the countless communities that he visited throughout the world, he approved with conviction the proposals of adaptation to diverse cultures according to the spirit of Vatican II. [Self-serving!]

During his Pontificate, papal celebrations thus became for local Churches a sure reference point for recognizing the face of liturgy as Vatican II wanted it. [Self-serving and ideological!]

In truth, John Paul II was not a liturgical expert in the technical sense, but trusted in his liturgical master, and with his pastoral enthusiasm for evangelization, he became the most authoritative interpreter and the most tenacious executor of the liturgy of Vatican II.

Because of this, I feel dutybound to say thanks to him who now celebrates in the communion of saints the liturgy of eternal Jerusalem.

I also address a filial and special thanks to Pope Benedict XVI, who, after his election, confirmed me as master of pontifical liturgical celebrations. Actually, it was not a new experience for me, because I had acted as his 'cerimoniere' at the start of his cardinalate.[Really? When and where and how?]

Because of this, from the very beginning, Pope Benedict welcomed me like a son. In him, I came to know, to my great satifaction, not just a professor but a Pope who is an expert in liturgy.

I can never forget the the emotion I felt when I found myself alone with him in the Sistine Chapel right after his election, and the emotion I felt during the celebration of the rites that began his Petrine ministry.

They remain fixed in my mind and heart because I believe that they constitute the most complete and most successful icon that liturgy has given the Church after Vatican-II. thank you, Pope Benedict, for having approved those rites and for having celebrated them with the holy People of God.




As he has done in his previous writings since he left the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations, Mons. Marini goes to great pains not to miss any occasion to justify and defend the Novus Ordo, and to make sure no one can fail to note his role in the liturgies of the Popes he served. He is, of course, entitled to do both, but it is rather tacky to be so relentlessly self-serving.

One would have thought from the title of his lecture/acceptance address in Freiburg that the focus would be Benedict XVI, but in choosing to highlight the two examples that he does, it was more about Mons. Marini taking full credit for the inaugural Ordo [and a sincere Bravo! to him if he did devise it all and merely had the new Pope approve his work] and all the liturgies under John Paul 'who trusted his Master [of liturgical ceremonies]' apparently to do as he, Marini, thought best.

And although this idea may have been articulated elsewhere, the best 'defense' for the Novus Ordo is Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's obedient compliance with it from the very beginning.

Notwithstanding his personal preferences, and even as he adocated these preferences in his writings, he has always celebrated the Novus Ordo in full compliance with Sacrosanctum concilium - including its injunctions about the use of Latin and Gregorian chant - and Paul VI's Missal, but unfailingly infused with the sacredness of the Mass and its significance as a constant renewal of Christ's Sacrifice, in the very spirit of Gregory the Great's Mass.

His docile faithful compliance with the Novus Ordo, even as Archbishop Ratzinger and Cardinal Ratzinger, should serve as an example for all the arrogant bishops and priests who disdain the Extraordinary Form of the Mass to the point of openly defying Summorum Pontificum.

During his visit to Brescia, and his passionate tributes to Paul VI, I kept thinking to myself that, to my knowledge, he has never spoken or written about his predecessor directly in connection with his liturgical reform, even if he has crtiticized the suddenness of the changes imposed and some of its more 'protestantizing' chacteristics (not to mention the abuses committed in its name, which obviously even Paul VI came to be appalled about.).

Perhaps because he was aware of the agonies Paul VI was to experience as early as 1972 when he made his famous remark about the fumes of Satan having seeped into the Church - and saw in that torment some form of remorse for, in effect, having provided the fissure for those fumes to seep in.

But Cardinal Ratzinger was also always clear: The reform is in place universally, it cannot be withdrawn arbitrarily, and any 'reform of the reform' must take place gradually, organically, over time, in the way that liturgy had developed all the centuries before 1969-70.

Summorum Pontificum was not just the rightful corrrection of the unlegislated suppression of the traditional rite, but also a most intelligent first and fundamental step in that organic 'reform of the reform'.


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Thursday, November 26, 2009

Portraits at left by Carlo Crivelli and Caravaggio; center panel shows scenes from the saint's martyrdom. Other images are uncredited.
ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA (Egypt, 4th century), Virgin and Martyr
Another early saint whose known biography rests on legend. She is said to have converted to Christianity at age 18 after receiving a vision.
Under the Emperor Maximinus, she reportedly debated 50 pagan philosophers, who were so impressed by her wisdom that they became
Christians, as did about 200 soldiers and members of the emperor’s family. All of them were martyred. Sentenced to be executed on
a spiked wheel [which came to be known as the Catherine-wheel], it shattered at her touch. She was beheaded. Centuries later, angels
were said to have carried her body to the monastery built by Emperor Justinian at the foot of Mt. Sinai.



OR today.

Illustration: Abbey of St, Victor in Paris, 17th-cent print.
At the General Audience, Benedict XVI talks about Hugo and Richard of St. Victor:
Trinitarian love as the model for human relations

Other Page 1 stories: 'War and peace' is the tile of a commentary on Russian president Medvedev's recent announcement that
he may run for reelection in 2012, although it was understood originally that he was merely a stand-in for Vladimir Putin until he
could legally run again for the presidency; and the British defense minister calls on President Obama not to procrastinate farther
on Afghanistan.




THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Bishops of Brazil (South Sector-1, Group 7?) on ad limina visit


The Vatican released the Pope's message to the president of the Vietnam bishops' conference
on the 350th anniversary of the first apostolic vicariates in Vietnam and the 50th anniversary of
the Vietnamese episcopal conference. Message in French.


A Press Office note says the International Theological Commission will hold its annual plenary session
at the Vatican on Nov. 30-Dec. 5, and that during that week, they will attend a Mass celebrated by
the Holy Father.




A BLESSED THANKSGIVING TO ALL!



We thank God for the gift of life and all the graces
he makes available to us,
and we thank Him for BENEDICT XVI - AD MULTOS ANNOS!
I thank Gloria for this blessed space,
I thank everyone who follows the Holy Father in some way
through this Forum, in particular, and
Thank you to everyone who loves and prays for Benedict XVI.


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It isn't Thanksgiving Day in Italy, but Bruno Mastroianni's 'Ratzinger reflection' for the day could not be more appropriate!


Benedict XVI prevails
through the fog of controversy

Translated from

26.11.09


First, he was the Panzerkardinal ever poised to rap knuckles.

Then, as soon as he was elected Pope, the leitmotiv was struck that he lacks the charisma of his predecessor.

After which came the dominion of the analysts (stale and gloomy, as usual) who paint him as a represent of a throwback Church, incapable of grasping the spirit of the times. [So-called 'analysts', that is, who do not have the ability and intellect that Joseph Ratzinger has in his little finger, even as he remains the only serious consistent analyst of today's culture and society.]

They have tried to depict him as anti-Semitic, they placed him in conflict with Islam in Regensburg, they have undermined him because of the Lefebvrians, they have ridiculed him for what he said about condoms and AIDS as yet another instance that he is out of touch with reality.

But Papa Ratzinger goes on calmly: he dialogs with the other monotheistic faiths, he wrote a personal letter to the bishops of the world to make himself clear to them, he demonstrated yet again with Caritas in veritate how lucid his vision is.

Others, subjected to such pressures, might have given signs of yielding by now. But Benedict XVI proceeds in tranquillity, with the determination of someone who has direction.

In the process, he has shown that controversy is like a fog: No matter how thick and threatening it is, nonetheless it is a superficial transient phenomenon that is destined to clear up.

What matters is what the fog hides temporarily. Benedict XVI is one of the few persons in the world today who is still capable of offering mankind a solid and unified vision of the sense of life.

Even if in the mediatic wars, the screaming critics seem to be the only voices in play, they cannot extinguish the healthy human yearning for genuine significance.

Benedict XVI is giving a lesson in communications: You can block your hearing, look the other way, distract with all sorts of noises, but it is impossible to ignore a message that is consistent. [And right. And rational. And inspired. And unperturbed.]



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POPE'S MESSAGE
FOR VIETNAM JUBILEE YEAR

Translated from



The Vatican released the message that the Holy Father sent the Bishop of Dalat, Mons. Pierre Nguyên Văn Nhon, president of the Vietnam bishops' conference, for the opening of the Jubilee Year celebrating the 350th anniversary of the first two Apostolic Vicariates in Vietnam and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam's Catholic hierarchy.

Here is a translation of the message, written in French:







To His Excellency Mons. Pierre NGUYÊN-VĂN-NHON
Bishop of Dalat
President of the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam


With the start of the jubilee celebration marking the 350th anniversary of the creation of the Apostolic Vicariates of Tonkin and Cochin-China, and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Vietnam's Catholic hierarchy, I join with all my heart in the joy and thanksgiving of the bishops of your country whom I had the joy of meeting last June, and all of their diocesan faithful.

You wanted the start of this celebration to coincide with the Feast of the glorious 107 martyr saints of your country. The memory of their noble testimony will help all the People of God in Vietnam to activate their charity, grow their hope and consolidate their faith which is often tried day to day.

Among these martyrs emerges the singular figure of Andre Dung-Lac whose priestly virtues are luminous models for the priests and seminarians, seculars and regulars, of your country. In this Year for Priests, may they draw from his example and that of his companions, a renewed spiritual energy which will help them to live their priesthood with greater fidelity to their vocation, in fraternal communion, in the worthy celebration of the Sacraments of the Church and in dynamic and intense apostolate.

For the opening of your celebration, you chose So-kIen in the Archdiocese of Hanoi, en emblematic place that speaks particularly to your heart. It was the seat of the first Apostolic Vicariate of Vietnam and still retains precious vestiges of your martyr saints as well as their noble relics.

In rhis Jubilee Year, may this place which is so dear to you be the heart of a more profound evangelization which will bring to all of Vietnamese society the evangelical values of charity, truth, justice and rectitude. These values, lived according to the example of Christ, take on a new dimension which surpasses their traditional moral sense, since they are anchored in God who wants only the good of every man and his happiness.

The Jubilee Year is a time of grace propitious for reconciliation with God and one's neighbor. To this end, one must acknowledge the deficiencies of the past and the present against your brothers in the faith and against your brother compatriots, and to seek forgiveness.

At the same time, it is an occasion to resolve to make more profound and to enrich ecclesial communion, and to build a society that is just, fraternal and equitable for authentic dialog, mutual respect and healthy collaboration.

The Jubilee is also a special time to renew the announcement of the Gospel to your fellow citizens, and to become even more a Church of communion and mission.

The entire Church of Vietnam prepared for this celebration with a novena of prayer that this exceptional event may find grace in the eyes of God, contribute to the spiritual progress of all the faithful, and consolidate the mission of the Church.

My thoughts go quite naturally towards the religious orders whose life bears witness to evangelical radicalness through the charism of their respective founders. May they continue to grow in God through the deepening of their spiritual life in faithfulness to their vocation, and through a fruitful apostolate in the footsteps of Christ.

My paternal affection goes to all the Vietnamese lay faithful. They are present in my remembrance and daily prayers. May they be engaged more deeply and actively in the life and mission of the Church.

Dear brothers in the Episcopate, I ask God to enlighten your way and guide you so that you may, following the example of our Lord and Master, be good shepherds (Cf. Jn 10, 11-16) consecrated to pasture your flocks, to encourage and care for them because you must, as bishops who bear witness with courage and perseverance to the greatness of God and the beauty of life in Christ.

May Our Lady of La Vang, dear to the Christians of your nation, be with you in her maternal kindness during this Jubilee Year. I invoke on you, Monseigneur, my affectionate Apostolic Blessing which I gladly extend to the bishops, priests and seminarians, religious orders and all the faithful of Vietnam and to all those associated, near or far, with the joy of your celebration.


From the Vatican
17 November 12009






Right photo, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, with Archbishop Van Nhon, at the opening Mass of the Jubilee.
The French cardinal led the Vatican delegation representing the Holy Father.


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Friday, November 27

ST. FRANCESCO ANTONIO FASANI (Italy, 1681-1747)
Franciscan friar, Mystic, Theologian
One of the many Franciscan saints (more than any other order),
Fr. Fasani was a teacher, master of novices, provincial of
his order, and parish priest, known for his holiness and gifts
of communication. When he died, children ran through the town
shouting "The saint is dead! The saint is dead!". He was
canonized in 1986.



OR today.


The only papal story in the issue is the Holy Father's message to the Vietnamese on the occasion
of an important double Jubilee Year [letter translated and posted in the preceding post; photo shows
procession at the opening of the Jubilee Year in Sokien, near Hanoi, site of the first Apostolic
Vicariate established in Vietnam 350 years ago). Other Page 1 news: Obama and Chinese Premier
will both attend climate-change UN conference in Copenhagen next week; a new terrorist attack
on churches in Mosul, Iraq; Taliban turn down proposal to sit down with Afghan government; and
Israel announces 10-month freeze on new settlements in the West Bank but not in East Jerusalem.
In the inside pages, three articles related to the 20th anniversary of the Pontifical Council for
Culture, and an essay by Archbishop Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Cause
of Sainthood on 'Benedict XIII and the saintliness of Popes'.




THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (weekly meeting)

- His Beatitude Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans

- Bishops of Brazil (South Sector-1, Group 8) on ad limina visit

and in the afternoon with

- Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (weekly meeting)


The Vatican released the text (in all its official languages) of the Holy Father's Message for the 96th World Day
for Migrants and Refugees on Jan. 17, 2010. A news conference was held in this connection.

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One of the many items I didn't get to see yesterday on account of holiday chores:


Pope to meet Russian President
on December 3




ROME, Nov. 26 (Translated from Apcom) - President Dimitri Medvedev of the Russian Federation will meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican on the 'evening' of Thursday, December 3 =in the course of a visit to Italy, according to Russian diplomatic sources.

Sources said among the issues to be discussed is a possible meeting between the Pope and the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow.

Medvedev, a practising Orthodox, is known to be an advocate of inter-religious dialog. Hie was prominently present at the funeral of Alexei II last year and the subsequent enthronement of Kirill as the new patriarch.

Medvedev meets earlier Thursday with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.


Last July, I posted an AP item in the CHURCH&VATICAN thread in which Medvedev talked about wanting closer ties with the Vatican, including formal diplomatic relations.
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/newpost.aspx?a=edit&c=169318&f=169318&idc=657879&idd=8593821&idm=9535...
It was on the eve of the G8 summit in Italy which he attended, but at the time, he did not seek to meet the Pope, as President Obama and many of the other G8 heads of government did.

Also, if Medvedev indeed gets an evening audience with the Pope, it's yet another indication that the Vatican did not bend over backwards last July to give Obama 'special' treatment when he had a similar evening audience with the Pope.




Confirmation from the Kremlin



Moscow, Nov. 26 (dpa) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is to meet Pope Benedict XVI for the first time next week while on his politcal visit to Italy, the Kremlin disclosed.

The presidential office said Medvedev would meet the pope in the Vatican on December 3, Interfax reported. There were no details give about their possible topics of discussion.

Former president Vladimir Putin met Benedict in the Vatican in March 2007.

Relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church have been tense for some time. Moscow as a result has yet to invite a Pope to visit Russia, arguing among other reasons that it was feared the Pontiff could try to lure faithful away from the Russian church. [Well, it has not been argued that way, but the Church itself has been accused of proselytizing in Russia.]


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Human mobility as
'a sign of the times'




VATICAN CITY, 27 NOV 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father's Message for the ninety-sixth World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 2010 was presented today at a news conference in the Holy See Press Office.

The Holy Fahter chose the theme "Under-age migrants and refugees".

Participating in the press conference were Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, Archbishop Agostino Marchetto and Msgr. Novatus Rugambwa - president, secretary and under secretary, respectively, of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples.

Archbishop Veglio said minors migrate for same reasons adultys do: "armed conflict of an ethnic or religious nature, economic and social crises, lack of future prospects".

However, under-age minors have a distinct advantage under the law: "An unaccompanied minor cannot be repatriated".

Consequently there are cases in which "parents, sometimes entire families, place all their hopes in the success of a minor who emigrates. This then becomes a powerful psychological pressure for the youth, who does not wish to disappoint them".

Thus, such minors "are ready to suffer injustices, violence and mistreatment in order to obtain a residency permit, perhaps a school education, and above all a job with which to help the families who have 'invested' so much in them".

For his part, Archbishop Marchetto observed that "mobility is a macro- phenomenon of our time, one which simultaneously involves the elderly, adults and children all over the world. It is, as we say in evangelical language, a 'sign of the times'.

He underscored how "the Church is particularly close to refugees and forced migrants, not only through her pastoral presence and material support for those in need, but also through her commitment to defend their human dignity".

On refugees, the prelate noted how "there are many minors who ... cross frontiers alone. ... This is, in the final analysis, a survival strategy. ... The reasons for the forced abandonment of their homes are linked to war, adverse political situations, the killing of a member of the family or the persecution of the child itself. ... These reasons are more than sufficient to request asylum, a situation for which provision is made in long-standing international humanitarian law, at least in principle".

Nonetheless "it must be recognised with great sadness that members of civil society act and react to the arrival of refugees on the basis of stereotypes, preconceptions and prejudices. ... Such discrimination, ... even racism, must be met with policies appropriate for safeguarding ... the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons".

"Our Christian communities", Archbishop Marchetto concluded, "have the 'duty to welcome whoever comes knocking out of need', to show solidarity, hospitality, and a pastoral commitment aimed at the needs of minors, especially unaccompanied minors and other refugees separated from their families. We must give them hope, courage and love".

Referring to the problems faced by migrant and refugee children, Msgr. Rugambwa pointed out that "language in particular is an important variable linked to their suffering. ... Education and the development of new skills, especially that of speaking the new language in order to be able to communicate adequately in the host country, enable [migrants] to play an active role in integration and to take their proper place in the host society.

"Unfortunately", he added, "a large number of these migrants and refugees often encounter obstacles on their educational itinerary, and in their subsequent professional training or higher education".

Msgr. Rugambwa concluded by underlining the need for commitment "to counter the tendency towards scholastic segregation; ... the absence of equal- opportunity policies, and ... the lack of financial resources to resolve these difficulties".


Here is the English text of the Holy Father's message:








Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees once again gives me the opportunity to express the Church's constant concern for those who, in different ways, experience a life of emigration.

This is a phenomenon which, as I wrote in the Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, upsets us due to the number of people involved and the social, economic, political, cultural and religious problems it raises on account of the dramatic challenges it poses to both national and international communities. The migrant is a human person who possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance (cf. n. 62).

This year's theme – “Minor (under-age) migrants and refugees” – touches an aspect that Christians view with great attention, remembering the warning of Christ who at the Last Judgement will consider as directed to himself everything that has been done or denied “to one of the least of these” (cf. Mt 25:40, 45).

And how can one fail to consider migrant and refugee minors as also being among the “least”? As a child, Jesus himself experienced migration for, as the Gospel recounts, in order to flee the threats of Herod, he had to seek refuge in Egypt together with Joseph and Mary (cf. Mt 2:14).

While the Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states that the best interests of the minor shall always be safeguarded (cf. Art. 3, 1), recognizing his or her fundamental human rights as equal to the rights of adults, unfortunately this does not always happen in practice.

Although there is increasing public awareness of the need for immediate and incisive action to protect minors, nevertheless, many are left to themselves and, in various ways, face the risk of exploitation.

My venerable Predecessor, John Paul II, voiced the dramatic situation in which they live in the Message he addressed to the Secretary General of the United Nations on 22 September 1990, on the occasion of the World Summit for Children.

“I am a witness of the heart-breaking plight of millions of children on every continent. They are most vulnerable, because they are least able to make their voice heard” (L’Osservatore Romano, English edition, 1 October 1990, p. 13).

I warmly hope that proper attention will be given to minor migrants who need a social environment that permits and fosters their physical, cultural, spiritual and moral development.

Living in a foreign land without effective points of reference generates countless and sometimes serious hardships and difficulties for them, especially those deprived of the support of their family.

A typical aspect of the migration of minors is the situation of children born in the host country or of those who do not live with their parents, who emigrated after their birth, but join them later. These adolescents belong to two cultures with all the advantages and problems attached to their dual background, a condition that can nevertheless offer them the opportunity to experience the wealth of an encounter between different cultural traditions.

It is important that these young people be given the possibility of attending school and subsequently of being integrated into the world of work, and that their social integration be facilitated by appropriate educational and social structures. It should never be forgotten that adolescence constitutes a fundamental phase for the formation of human beings.

A particular category of minors is that of refugees seeking asylum, who, for various reasons, are fleeing their own country, where they are not given adequate protection. Statistics show that their numbers are increasing.

This is therefore a phenomenon that calls for careful evaluation and coordinated action by implementing appropriate measures of prevention, protection and welcome, as set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (cf. Art. 22).

I now turn in particular to parishes and to the many Catholic associations which, imbued with a spirit of faith and charity, take pains to meet the needs of these brothers and sisters of ours.

While I express gratitude for all that is being done with great generosity, I would like to invite all Christians to become aware of the social and pastoral challenges posed by migrant and refugee minors.

Jesus's words resound in our hearts: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35), as, likewise, the central commandment he left us: to love God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind, but together with love of neighbour (cf. Mt 22:37-39).

This leads us to consider that any of our concrete interventions must first be nurtured by faith in the action of grace and divine Providence. In this way also hospitality and solidarity to strangers, especially if they are children, become a proclamation of the Gospel of solidarity.

The Church proclaims this when she opens her arms and strives to have the rights of migrants and refugees respected, moving the leaders of Nations, and those in charge of international organizations and institutions to promote opportune initiatives for their support.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary watch over us all and help us to understand the difficulties faced by those who are far from their homeland. I assure all those who are involved in the vast world of migrants and refugees of my prayers and cordially impart to them the Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican
16 October 2009



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Pope Benedict plans to beatify
Newman during visit to Britain

By Simon Caldwell

27 November 2009


The Pope is to waive his own rules so he can preside in person over the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman during a papal visit to Britain next year, according to sources close to the Vatican.

Pope Benedict XVI will personally take charge of the ceremony to declare the Victorian convert Blessed when he visits England in early September at the invitation of Gordon Brown.

The Pope has previously insisted that all beatifications are carried out by a Vatican official in the diocese in which the candidate died, which in Newman's case is Birmingham.

But because the Pope has such a strong devotion to Cardinal Newman and his theological writings he has decided to break his own rules and beatify the cardinal himself.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster refused to either confirm or deny the report: "The details of the Pope's visit are far from clear," he said. "What is clear is that the Holy Father has a great and long-standing devotion to Cardinal Newman and the beatification of Cardinal Newman is due."

Fr Ian Ker, author of the definitive biography of Cardinal Newman, said: "By breaking his own rules Pope Benedict clearly shows he regards Newman as a completely exceptional case, one of the great theologians of the Catholic Church. Many of the popes have been anxious to canonise Newman. They look to him as a man who welcomed modernisation but in fidelity to Church authority and in continuity with the traditions of the Church."

Pope Benedict announced the beatification in July after Vatican theologians ruled that the inexplicable healing of Jack Sullivan, an American with a severe spinal condition, was a miracle brought about by praying for help to Cardinal Newman.



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A new pastoral staff for the Pope
and some ritual innovations
at Vespers of Advent tomorrow

by Gianluca Bicciini
Translated from
the 11/28/09 issue of




"On Saturday evening, during the First Vespers of Advent at St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope will be using a new pastoral staff", according to Mons. Guido Marini, master of pontifical liturgical celebrations, on the eve of the rite that will open the new liturgical year.


From left, the new staff; the Holy Father with the Pius IX staff; and with the Paul VI-John Paul II staff.

"It is similar to the ferule of Pius IX which he has been using till now, but this can be considered Benedict XVI's own staff," Mons. Marini continued.

The new staff was donated by the Circolo San Pietro. It is 184 cms tall (a little over 6 feet), weighs two kilograms and 530 grams (about 5.6 lbs). According to Mons. Marini, it is more manageable than that of Papa Mastai-Ferretti, because the dimensions of both the staff and the Cross part are less.

It weighs 140 grams less than the Pius IX staff, and 590 less than the staff used by Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II.

In the first two and a half years of the Pontificate, Benedict XVI used the modern Crucifix staff sculptured by Lello Scorzelli for Paul VI and used by both John Paul I and John Paul II after him. On Palm Sunday 2008, he then started using Pius IX's staff which is hollow and lighter than the Scorzelli staff.

Pius IX's pastoral was also a donation of the Circolo San Pietro in 1877, eight years after the association was formed. [It was founded by young men from Rome's nobility to express their fidelity to the Pope and to defend him against anticlerical attacks during a difficult moment in the history of the papacy. With the motto 'Prayer, action, sacrifice', it has a continuing history of charitable works in the name of the Pope.]

The front side of the new staff features designs in bas relief: in the center, the Paschal Lamb, and on the four corners of the Cross, the four Evangelists.

The arms of the Cross are adorned with a net-like pattern to recall Peter's fishing net.

On the back side, the center of the Cross is engraved with the Greek monogram for Christ, the intertwined X and R (for 'chi' and 'rho'). On the four ends are reliefs of the Four Fathers of the Western and Eastern Churches - Augustine and Ambrose, Athanasius and John Chrysostom.

"The Lamb and Christ's monogram in the center reflect the unity of the Paschal mystery -" said Mons. Marini, "the Cross adn the Resurrection.

The knob at the top of the Cross carries the name of Benedict XVI, and below it, that of the Circolo San Pietro. Benedict XVI's coat of arms is engraved on the upper part of the stem.

Mons. Marini also announced an innovation at the Saturday Vespers: The wooden polychrome image of the Virgin Mary, seated in a throne with the Baby Jesus making a Benediction, will be installed at the foot of the main altar for Advent.

In the past, the image was displayed to the side of the altar during celebrations marking a Marian feast. Last year, it was introduced at the Midnight Mass of the Nativity and was retained until the Feast of the Epiphany.

Mons. Marini points out that Advent is also a Marian season, during which Mary's example serves to anticipate the Lord's Nativity, which is underscored by the Marian antiphon 'Alma redemptoris mater' sung at the conclusion of the First Vespers of Advent.

Benedict XVI introduced the observance at St. Peter's Basilica of the First Vespers of Advent to mark the opening of a new annual liturgical cycle during which the Church relives all the mysteries of Christ: from the Incarnation to Pentecost and Advent.

For this reason, the floral arrangements for Advent are subdued, in keeping with the liturgical and spiritual specificity of this season of waiting for the Lord, who will come in joy but also in the sign of repentance and vigilance, as indicated in the refrain sung in the intercessions: 'Veni, Domine, et noli tardare.' (Come Lord without delay).

This is also the sense in which purple is the liturgical color of Advent.

Vespers will be preceded by a preparation for the assembly, which will include prayers, hymns and sacred music, as well as readings from Benedict XVI's homily at the Advent Vespers in 2008. As in the pre-Mass preparation introduced before the Midnight Mass last year, it allows the congregation to leave behind the noise and distractions of the day and be better prepared for the solemn rites.

During the Vespers itself, which begin at 5 p.m.., there will be brief silences at the end of each psalm and reading, to allow personal prayer and meditation.

The main reading will be from St. Paul's first Letter to the Thessalonians, which has a specific significance this year, because Benedict XVI's first international trip in 2010 will be to Malta, to mark the 1950th anniversary of the Apostle's shipwreck on the island.

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The homilies of Benedict XVI:
Model for a confused Church


Now out in Italy, a book with the preaching of Papa Ratzinger in the past liturgical year.
An increased intensity seems to indicate he wants to set a model for other bishops and priests.








Magister edited both the new volume (left) and the first collection from the liturgical year 2007-2008.


ROME, November 27, 2009 – On the eve of Advent, a new book released in Italy contains the homilies by Benedict XVI in the liturgical year that just ended.

Each liturgical year runs from Advent to Advent - and comprises a grand sacramental narration of the mysteries of Christ.

The protagonist of the narrative, Jesus, is not simply remembered in the Mass - he is present and he acts. Homilies can provide a key to understanding his presence and his actions. They say who he is and what he is doing today, "according to the Scriptures."

This, at least, is what one learnsy listening to Papa Ratzinger, an extraordinary homilist.

The homilies have become a distinguishing feature of the pontificate of Benedict XVI. They may be the least known and understood feature, but they are certainly the most revealing. He writes many of them himself, and improvises them at times; they are the most genuine manifestation of his mind.

He is dedicating himself to them to a great and growing extent. In the liturgical year 2007-2008, he delivered 26 homilies, collected in the first volume of this series. This second volume has 40.

To these must be added the "little homilies" on the readings of the Mass of the day that the Pope delivers on Sundays at the noon Angelus, all of them unmistakably his own creation, also reproduced in an appendix to this volume.

To facilitate the reading, each homily in the volume is followed by the texts of the biblical readings of the respective Mass. Benedict XVI, in fact, systematically refers to these texts.

When necessary, the reader will also find other liturgical texts commented on by the Pope in the homily: from the "Magnificat" of vespers to the "Te Deum" of the end of the year, from the "Victimae Pascali Laudes" of Easter to the "Veni Sancte Spiritus" of Pentecost.

Last Holy Thursday, Benedict XVI had a long commentary on the Canon – the central prayer of the Mass – for that day in the liturgy of the Roman rite. This canon is also transcribed in the book, both in Latin and in Italian.

The papal homilies are arranged according to the chronology of the liturgical year, Sunday by Sunday, feast by feast, from Advent to Christmas, to Lent, to Easter, to Pentecost and beyond. For each homily, the time and place of the Mass os specified: for example, in the Sistine Chapel, baptizing a few children, or in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, in Cameroon, in Angola.

In each homily, in fact, Benedict XVI "situates" his preaching, applying it to the community to which he is speaking, and taking from the context a lesson for all.

One shining example is the homily reproduced below, which is not in the book because it was given after the book had been finished for printing.

Benedict XVI read it during the Mass celebrated last November 8 in Brescia, the diocese that was the birthplace of Giovanni Battista Montini, later Paul VI. And he therefore refers to this pope, in addition to the biblical readings of the Mass of the day.

A second recent example of his preaching that was delivered after the book was printed is the "little homily" from the Angelus on November 15.

If it is increasingly evident that Bjust as enedict XVI, with his "style" of celebrating the Mass, intends to offer a model to a liturgically confused Church, the same can be said of his homiletic art.

Magister then posts an English translation of both -
chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1341190?eng=y
already translated on this thread the day they were delivered.




A related volume is the Benedict XVI book published this month by the Vatican publishing house LEV, Pensieri sull'Eucaristia (Thoughts on the Eucharist).

Lella on her blog

carries the Introduction to the book by Prof. Lucio Coco, a scholar of early Christian literature in Greek and Latin, who edits the LEV series 'Pensieri di Benedetto XVI' (Thoughts of Benedict XVI) . Here is a translation of the Introduction:






Benedict XVI:
'In the Eucharist
Christ gives us His Body
and makes us His Body'

by LUCIO COCO


This new volume in the series on the 'Thoughts..' of Pope Benedict XVI puts together the reflections and meditations of the Holy Father on the Eucharist, the mystery that brings to completion the Christian initation in identifying with and conforming to Christ that "represents the centre and goal of all sacramental life" (cfr Sacramentum Caritatis 17).

The Eucharist is the sacrament of love: the love of Christ who chooses to offer himself, who sacrifices himself for us; and the love of man who through this Sacrament allows himself to continually receive His gift, let himself be transformed by the sacrament of His Body and Blood which thus makes him capable of giving himself for others.

The Eucharist is the center of an exchange between God and man which did not take place just once in history but is renewed in thousands of altars everyday when the Lord is present as bread and wine, when his Body is broken anew and he gives himself to men again and again.

Again and again, men partake of this Bread and Wine, to nourish themselves from this mystery, and become themselves "bread that is broken for other men" (Homily, 10/23/05), thus sharing themselves in the commitment of faith and life.

"The Body and Blood of Christ," says Pope Benedict XVI, "are given to us so that we in turn may be transformed" (Homily, 8/231/05). We ourselves should become the Body of Christ to make ourselves a great offering which, like Christ's on the altar, makes us victims and sacrificial lambs daily, particles with which we nourish others to that the mystery of his sacrifice and ours may be realized continually.

The Eucharist is the sacrament of union with the living God: "God is no longer just in front of us as the Totally Other. He is inside us, and we are in Him. His dynamic penetrates us and through us to be propagated to others and extend throughout the world, so that his love may trulty become the dominant measure in the world" (Homily, 8/21/05).

The Eucharist makes us participants in the action of Christ, who draws us to him and "makes us go out of ourselves to make us one with him" (Homily, 5/29/05).

The Eucharist is the sacrament of union as St. Paul writes: "Because the loaf of bread is one, we, though many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf" (1 Cor 10,17). Because we receive the same Lord and He welcomes each of us and draws us within him, so too are we one among ourselves.

But Pope Benedict also underscores the existential and practical reflection of what it means to be nourished by Jesus, by the act of feeding on him, which leads to the assimilation of man to Christ and which "should manifest itself in life - it should manifest itself in the act of forgiving, in the sensitivity to the needs of others, in the readiness to share, in commitment for one's neighbor, he who must always concern us closely no matter how externally remote" (Homily, 8/21/05).

We can receive these 'Eucharistic thoughts' of the Holy Father as a guide for coming close to the Eucharist and its mystery in order to to believe, to love and to adore God.

In this regard, Pope Benedict never tires of stressing the importance of adoration, and to help towards understanding this, he often refers to the Greek and Latin etymology of the word.

The Greek word is proskynesis which implies a gesture of submission, whereas the Latin term ad-oratio indicates physical contact, an embrace, a kiss - evoking a loving context in which the relationship of union with the Lord, he who is Love, is already implicit (Address, 3/13/09).

In adoration, we can grow and mature in the awareness that the heart of the Church itself, the heart of every Christian life, is essentially Eucharistic insofar as Christ is within.

Just as Mary with child hastened to Elizabeth, herself in the sixth month of her pregnancy, was loving and attentive, so too the Eucharist makes us solicitous for others and opens us to experiences of charity at work to make others feel Christ.

The heart expresses gratitude for the encounter with his grace, and therefore we call the event Eucharist, which means thanksgiving.


Books published so far in the 'Pensieri di Benedetto XVI' series:

Prof. Coco has also written so far nine books of his own, including one on the sermons of St. John Chrysostom.
His first book was on the sermons of the 'desert Fathers'.




Yet another related 'development' on our multi-media Pope -
the CD 'Alma Mater' is now out in the stores:



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On Thursday, I posted this snippet from the OR sidebar on the Wednesday GA:

From the shrine of San Francesco di Paola (a Tyrrhenian seaside town in Calabria, the region that makes up the 'toe' of the Italian boot), friars of the saint's Order of Minims and a youth delegation came to commemorate the 25th anniversary of John Paul II's visit to the shrine, and to invite Benedict XVI.

"We hope to see him in Calabria", said their Father Provincial, Rocco Benvenuto.


There's a follow-up story, posted in Lella's blog



Pope may visit the shrine
of St. Francis of Paola in 2011-2012
for Jubilee celebration

by Gaetano Vena
Translated from

Nov. 27, 2009


PAOLA - Pope Benedict XVI has promised to visit the Shrine of San Francesco - news that is certainly exceptional and will be greeted with enthusiasm by the faithful followers of the Patron Saint of Paola and Calabria.

His Holiness may visit Calabria between 2011-2012, on the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the Great Thaumaturge as the Protector Saint of the region.

A papal visit would mobilize all the bishops and archbishops of the Calabrian dioceses, the administrative machinery at the local level and all the various political personages, to prepare for a visit which was promised by the Pope earlier this week.


San Francesco di Paola (1416-1507) founded the Order of Minims in 1436 and built the church and monastery in Paola in 1454. He was renowned as a miracle worker in his lifetime.

More than 25 years ago, John Paul II stayed overnight in Paola at the 'spiritual fortress' of Calabria. The anticipated visit of Benedict XVI would be motivated by the proclamation in 1962 of San Francesco as Patron of Calabria.

Last Tuesday around midnight, a large group of pilgrims left the Shrine at Paola to take part in the Pope's General Audience the following day in Rome. The pilgrims were back in Paola in the night between Wednesday and Thursday.

They were led by the Provincial of the Minim Friars [the order , Fr. Rocco Benvenuto, and on the part of the commune administration, Ivan Ollio, head of the local Socialist Party, as well as the parish priest of Santa Maria di Porto Salvo.

On Thursday morning, Fr. Benvenuto recounted their audience with the Pope. The group from Calabria numbered about 300, including some students of the Liceo di Catanzaro and from the Pizzini of Paola.

In his greetings, the Holy Father mentioned the group twice. Later on, at the 'baciamano' [when special guests are presented to the Holy Father and have a chance to kiss his ring], Padre Rocco explained the reason for the pilgrimage and took the occasion to invite the Pope for the Franciscan anniversary.

Before the group left, Padre Rocco spoke to representatives of the Prefecture for the Pontifical Household which arranges Italian trips by the Pope, and he was promised a date between 2011-2012.

"We must get to work right away to make the most of this occasion," Padre Rocco said.

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I waited all day for a story and photographs on the Holy Father's meeting with the Patriarch of Chaldea on Friday - and finally found the story in Zenit's Italian service - focused necessarily on what's happening to Christians in Iraq - and have lifted some images from a Rome Reports video.


Pope meets Iraqi cardinal
as terrorists strike Mosul churches

Translated from
the Italian service of






VATICAN CITY, Nov. 27 (ZENIT.org) - Benedict XVI today received in audience His Beatitude Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylonia of the Chaldeans, at a time when there have been new terrorist attacks on Christian establishments in Mosul, northern Iraq.

[The Vatican released no statement or pictures on Cardinal Delly's audience.]

On Thursday, two explosions in the Al-Jadida district, a poor neighborhood of Mosul, completely destroyed the church of St. Efrem and caused damages to a Dominican nuns' convent. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured.

An AFP report says that a systematic campaign of violence against Christians in Mosul since 2008 [in February 2008, the Archbishop of Mosul was kidnapped and later found murdered; three deacons accompanying him were killed during the kidnapping] has caused more than 40 deaths in the Christian community and 12,000 Christians to leave Mosul.

The organization Human Rights Watch has deplored the fact that the minorities of northern Iraq, especially Christians, have been collateral victims of conflicts between Iraqi Muslims and the Kurds for control of the area.

Last Nov. 13, Benedict XVI approved the canonical election by the Bishops' Synod of the Chaldean Church, of Fr. Emil Shimoun Nona, of the Eparchy of Alqosh, to be the new Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, succeeding to the martyred Archbishop Rahho.

After the Thursday attacks, the Archbishop-elect said, "They have struck at a symbol of the Christian and Catholic presence not just in Mosul but in all of Iraq... Now fear has returned, and the flight of Christians will resume."

He noted that it would be more difficult to "rebuild faith in persons who are fear-struck and are losing hope and confidence. We need prayers, assistance, moral and material support".

Speaking to L'Osservatore Romano, the Archbishop of Mosul of the Syrians, Mons. Basile Georges Camoussa, said "It is imperative to put an end to this wave of violence against the Christian communities of Iraq. The attacks on Thursday morning prove yet again that there is a strategy under way to obliterate our cultural patrimony and more than 2000 years of history."

"The strategy is clear, he said. "As soon as the situation appears to have settled, and there is a possibility for displaced Christians to return to their homes and villages, then new attacks are launched... Extremist groups are seeking to destabilize the climate of confidence in the nation. We should oppose this hatred with prayers."

The archbishop pointed out that there will be national elections in January 2010, and "extremist factions are seeking to impose their politics by violence, and unfortunately, Christians today only have five seats in Parliament - two from Baghdad, and one each from Mosul, Kirkuk and Erbil.

"The only way to placate violence is dialog, to be able to isolate the extremists, so Iraq can become a tolerant nation once again," he added.




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