PALM SUNDAY AND THE PASSION OF OUR LORD
25th World Youth Day
At 9:30 Sunday morning, March 28, the Holy Father Benedict XVI presided in St. Peter's Square at the solemn liturgical celebration of Pal Sunday and the Passion of our Lord.
The Pope blessed the palm and olive branches and after the procession of teh Palms, celebrated Mass.
Taking part in the celebration were the young people of Rome and other dioceses for the 25th World Youth Day on the theme, "Good teacher, what should I do to inerhit eternal life?" (Mk 10,17)
There's a Schoenborn surprise somewhere in this convenient wrap-up story....
Pope opens solemn Holy Week
amid sex abuse crisis
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY. March 28 (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI opened Holy Week on Sunday amid one of the most serious crises facing the church in decades, with protesters in London demanding he resign and calls in Switzerland for a central registry for pedophile priests.
Benedict made no direct mention of the scandal in his Palm Sunday homily. But one of the prayers, recited in Portuguese during Mass, was "for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them."
Jesus Christ, Benedict said in his homily, guides the faithful "toward the courage that doesn't let us be intimidated by the chatting of dominant opinions, towards patience that supports others."
Palm Sunday commemorates Christ's triumphant entry into Jerusalem, and is the start of the church's Holy Week, which includes the Good Friday re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion and death and his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
This year, the most solemn week on the Catholic Church's liturgical calendar has been stained by a clerical abuse scandal that has spread across Europe to the pope's native Germany.
In London on Sunday, a few dozen people gathered outside Westminster Cathedral to demand the Pope resign. Demonstrators carried placards saying "Pope? Nope!" and "Don't Turn a Blind Eye."
The Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols insisted the pope wouldn't - and shouldn't - quit. "In fact, it is the other way around," he told BBC television. "He is the one above all else in Rome that has tackled this thing head on."
In Austria, where several cases have come out in recent weeks, the archbishop of Vienna announced the creation of a church-funded but clergy-free and independent commission to look into Austrian abuse claims.
It will be run by a woman, the former governor of Styria province, and is not meant to take the place of a possible state-run investigative commission, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn told public broadcaster ORF on Sunday.
And in Switzerland, Swiss President Doris Leuthard told the weekly SonntagsZeitung that Switzerland should consider creating a central registry of pedophile priests to prevent them from coming into contact with more children.
Church leaders say about 60 people have reported to be victims of priest abuse in Switzerland.
"It doesn't make any difference if the perpetrators are from the secular or spiritual world. Both violate Swiss law," she said. "It's important that pedophile priests, like teachers and other guardians, don't come into contact with children."
The Vatican has been on the defensive amid mounting questions about the pope's handling of sex abuse cases both when he was archbishop of Munich and when he headed the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was Munich archbishop when a priest was allowed to resume pastoral work with children even while receiving therapy for pedophilia. He was subsequently convicted of abusing minors. In addition, a case has come to light in which Ratzinger's deputy at the Congregation told Wisconsin bishops to quash a church trial for a priest alleged to have abused up to 200 deaf boys.
The Vatican insists Ratzinger was unaware of the Munich priest's move to the pastoral job and has defended its handling of the Wisconsin case.
Schoenborn, a close Benedict confidante, defended the pope against suggestions that he was behind church cover-ups, including for the late Cardinal Hans Hermann Groer. The Austrian church was rocked by allegations in 1995 that Groer molested youths at a monastery in the 1970s.
Schoenborn replaced Groer as archbishop in 1995; but it wasn't until 1998 that, on Vatican orders, Groer relinquished all religious duties and sought exile in Germany. He died in Austria in 2003.
At the time, the Vatican drew sharp criticism from many Austrians for taking three years to act against Groer. Disgust over how the case was handled has been cited as contributing to the exodus of disaffected Austrians from the church.
Schoenborn said Ratzinger had immediately pushed for an investigative commission when abuse allegations against Groer arose. However, others in the Vatican - described by Schoenborn as the "diplomatic track" - did not let this happen.
"I can still very clearly remember the moment when Cardinal Ratzinger sadly told me that the other camp had asserted itself," Schoenborn told ORF.
"To accuse him of being someone who covers things up - having known the Pope for many years, I can say that is certainly not true," he added.
Benedict has only publicly spoken about the scandal in Ireland, writing a letter to the Irish faithful last week in which he chastised Irish bishops for leadership shortcomings and errors in judgment for failing to apply church law to stop abusive priests.
On Saturday, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, acknowledged that the way the Church responds to the abuse scandal is "crucial for its moral credibility."
His comments indicated that the Vatican is now looking at the scandal as a way to purify itself so that it can emerge renewed and strengthened. He pointed to the action taken by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops after the clerical abuse scandal erupted there in 2002, instituting tough norms to protect children.
Separately Sunday, a retired Italian cardinal and one-time candidate for the papacy said in comments published in the Austrian newspaper Die Presse that celibacy for priests should be reconsidered.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, former archbishop of Milan and considered one of the more liberal-leaning princes of the Church, was quoted as saying that mandatory chastity for churchmen should be thought over to prevent further abuse cases by clergy and help the Church regain lost trust.
The Vatican has rejected suggestions that celibacy caused the abuse and Benedict has reaffirmed it as a gift to God as recently as this month.
{I'm sorry to have to diss an 83-year-old cardinal, but he is speaking completely from Hans Kueng's illogical playbook! They both ignore objective fact to blame celibacy as the cause of sexual perversion. Has it led Kueng and Cardinal Martini then to become pedophiles? If they have been able to observe celibacy, what makes them think others can't?
How dare they dismiss the heroic renunciation made by the 400,000 (less 3,000 accused ones) Catholic priests of the world, when they chose to become priests, knowing full well they would have to try and live up to their vow of chastity all their life! If all those hundreds of thousands of priests can keep their chastity as did all the good priests who preceded them through the centuries, why should the Church lower its standards to accommodate what the world today thinks? Why are 'Catholics' like Kueng and Martini so eager to lower these standards?
Kueng and Martini should read Benedict XVI's beautiful explanation the other night of the need for renunciation in the life of every man when he spoke to the young people of Rome - and St. Paul's analogy of the athlete who knows he must give up certain things and discipline himself severely if he wants to win the crown of excellence, if not perfection!
I just saw a portion of Archbishop Dolan's homily on TV and, silly me!, I can't stop crying....
Archbishop Dolan defends the Pope
in homily at St. Patrick's -
and gets an ovation
Sunday, 28 Mar 2010
New York’s Archbishop Timothy Dolan came to the Vatican’s defense Sunday, saying embattled Pope Benedict XVI -- recently under fire for a decades-old sex abuse scandal -- is suffering the same slings and arrows as Jesus did before his crucifixion.
In a Palm Sunday service at a packed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dolan gave a spirited defense of the pontiff’s leadership and received a standing ovation.
“Sunday Mass is hardly the place to document the inaccuracy, bias and hyperbole of such aspersions,” Dolan told parishioners.
“But Sunday Mass is indeed the time for Catholics to pray for Benedict, our Pope, and Palm Sunday Mass is surely a fitting place for us to express our love for and solidarity for our earthly shepherd now suffering from the same unjust accusation and shouts of the mob as Jesus did.”
Dolan praised the Pope, calling him “the leader in purification reform.” At the same time, Dolan called the transgressions of pedophile priests a “vicious sin and nauseating crime.”
The head of the Catholic Church is under increasing pressure following claims that he covered up incidents of sexual abuse by priests when he was serving in Germany as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.
A week before Easter, the holiest day on the Christian calendar, Benedict made no direct mention of the scandal in his own Palm Sunday homily but indicated that his faith would give him the courage not to be intimidated by critics.
The Pontiff said faith in God helps lead one “towards the courage of not allowing oneself to be intimidated by the petty gossip of dominant opinion.”
And one of the prayers, recited in Portuguese during the Mass, was “for the young and for those charged with educating them and protecting them.”
The 82-year-old Pope used the Popemobile for the first time on a Palm Sunday for his traditional outing in St Peter's Square.
Security concerns may have prompted the decision to use the white bulletproof vehicle. As the Pope was about to celebrate Christmas Eve mass last year, a young woman assaulted him and knocked him to the floor, but he quickly recovered.
Illustrations in libretto: Murals by Gaudenzio Ferrari, 1513. Santa Maria delle Grazie, Varallo.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 29/03/2010 06:30]