BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

See preceding page for earlier entries today, 6/26/10.




Saturday, June 26, 12th Week in Ordinary Time

Fourth, fifth and sixth from left: Statue of Llull at the University of Barcelona; 14th century 'Life of Ramon Lull'; and cover of a medieval print of Llull's masterpiece Ars Magna.
BLESSED RAMON LLULL (Raymond Lull) (Mallorca, 1232-1316), Troubadour and Poet, Mystic, Writer-Philosopher-Scientist, Missionary
One of the towering figures in Catalan history, a 'Renaissance man' born more than two centuries before that era, Llull was born in Palma where he became administrator to King Jaime II of Mallorca, son of Jaime I of Aragon. He married and had two sons, and indulged his talents as a poet and songwriter. At age 30, he had a vision of the crucified Christ which led him to seek the religious life. Counselled by the future St. James of Penafort, he retired to a hermitage where for nine years he also gave rein to his talent for writing - on an encyclopedic scale and on a variety of subjects including the sciences. He also mastered Arabic from one of his family servants and wrote the first-ever Catalan novel. His use of the language was such that it came to be known as 'the language of Llull' much as Castilian Spanish was called 'the language of Cervantes'. He emerged from his solitude to dedicate himself to the cause of mission to the Muslims. He became a lay Franciscan and set up a college where missionaries could learn Arabic. He undertook trips throughout Europe to interest popes, kings and princes in establishing similar colleges for missionaries. On one of his trips, he met Duns Scotus. In 1311, the Council of Vienna ordered the creation of chairs in Hebrew, Arabic and Chaldean in the leading universities of the day - Bologna, Paris, Salamanca and Oxford. when he was 79, he went to North Africa himself to preach. But in Algeria, he was stoned by Muslims. Genoese merchants rescued him and took him back to Mallorca where he died shortly. Llull's encyclopedic writings earned him the title Doctor Illuminatus in his lifetime, and his intellectual endeavors included alchemy experiments without the occult element, as well as mathematical formulas later adopted by Leibniz. Having devised a primitive 'automatic' calculator, he is now recognized as the pioneer of computational science. He was beatified in 1514. [Why have the Catalans and Mallorcans not pushed to have him canonized all this time?]
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/062610.shtml


OR today.

Addressing the agency that raises funds to finance the Churches of the Middle East, the Pope calls for
'A stable peace and religious freedom for all'
Other Page 1 news: The statements from the Vatican and from the Belgian bishops protesting aspects of the police raids Thursday on properties of the Archdiocese of Marines-Brussels where diocesan files were confiscated, two cardinals' tombs were drilled to allow a camera search for any hidden files within, and the Belgian bishops were detained for ten hours until the raids were completed. In secular news: A backgrounder on the G8-G20 summits in Toronto this weekend and the conflicting strategies of Europe, the USA and China for dealing with the global crisis; a new report on the worsening chaos in Somalia; and a Latin American study for 2008-2009 says 69% of children on the continent are deprived of primary needs.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and of the Governatorate

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

- Rev. Ishmael Noko, Secretary General of the World Lutheran Federation

- Delegation from the Circolo San Pietro. Address in Italian.



Vatican-Vietnam relations

The Vatican released a communique on the second meeting of the Vietnam–Holy See Joint Working Group that took place in the Vatican on June 23-24, to follow up the first meeting held in Hanoi last year. The two states are working towards establishing formal diplomatic relations. At this meeting, the Vatican said the Holy Father will soon name a non-resident representative of the Holy See to Vietnam. The Pope met with the President of Vietnam last December.


JPII beatification
hits a snag

Andrea Tornielli writes in Il Giornale today that John Paul II's beatification process has stalled because the miracle cure presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood failed to pass medixal scrutiny and a new miracle will have to be presented. (I'll translate ASAP).