Wednesday, July 21, 16th Week in Ordinary Time
Center photo: A painting of the Christian-Ottoman battle of Szekesfehervar led by the saint.
ST. LORENZO DA BRINDISI (b Italy 1559, d Lisbon 1619)
Capuchin, Biblical Scholar, Imperial Chaplain, Superior General of the Capuchins, Diplomat, Doctor of the Church
Born Giulio Cesare Russo in Brindisi to a family of Venetian merchants, he took the name Lorenzo upon joining the Capuchins at age 16. Educated in Venice and Padua, he was a remarkable linguist whose mastery of Latin. Greek and Hebrew helped him to become an outstanding Biblical scholar. Assigned to Rome in 1596, Pope Clement VII asked him preach to the Jews and impressed the rabbis so much they thought he was a Jew who had turned Christian. Starting in 1599, he set up Capuchin monasteries in Germany and Austria, bringing back many Protestants to the Catholic faith. In 1601, as imperial chaplain for the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, he led an army during a battle to take back a key Hungarian city from the Ottoman Turks. He was elected superior general of the Capuchins in 1601 and instituted major reforms, but refused re-election 3 years later. He served as Nuncio to Bavaria and to Spain, retired to a monastery in 1618, then was recalled for a special mission to the King of Spain and died in Lisbon after completing his mission. In 1956, the Capuchins completed a 15-volume edition of his writings - 11 of the volumes contained his sermons, each based on a scriptural quotation to illustrate his teaching. He was beatified in 1783, canonized in 1881, and declared a Doctor of the Church by John XXIII in 1959.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/072110.shtml
The only papal story in today's OR is about a new children's book in Italian based on Benedict XVI's catecheses on the Apostles and St. Paul. Page 1 stories: Donors' conference on Afghanistan approves plan for eventual transfer of security responsibility from NATO to local forces; new UK Prime Minister David Cameron holds first meeting with President Obama with a focus on the BP oil disaster off the US Gulf Coast and BP's possible involvement in Scotland's decision to free the Libyan terrorist convicted of bringing down a passenger jet over Lockerbie; more civilian dead in the Somali capital of Mogadishu from continuing civil war; and Pope Paul VI's personal collection of contemporary art in the Paul VI Center in his birthplace in Concesio.
Pope creates
new diocese for Malawi
Rome, Italy, Jul 21, 2010 (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI officially erected a new diocese in the African nation of Malawi today. According to the bishop who has overseen the area until now, the announcement represents a "moment of grace."
The Diocese of Karonga, in northern Malawi, was created from a third of the land previously contained within borders of the Diocese of Mzuzu. It separates 61,000 people in five parishes from what was the Diocese of Mzuzu's Catholic population of 400,000.
Along with the announcement of the new diocese came the appointment of its bishop. Fr. Martin Anwel Mtumbuka, who will soon be ordained to lead the faithful of the diocese.
Bishop Joseph Mukasa Zuza, who currently heads the Diocese of Mzuzu, told CNA on Wednesday that creation of the new diocese and the appointment of the bishop-elect "means quite a lot" to the area.
He explained that the addition was "necessary, because it is quite taxing to travel to some places from headquarters." The bishop described difficult travel on poor roads in all-terrain vehicles to parishes as far as 250 miles (400 kilometers) away.
This announcement, he said, "is a moment of grace," adding that "the care of the parishioners will be easier because the bishops will not have to move as far.
"We will be more available," he said in the phone interview.
Details of the new diocese will take some time to come into place, Bishop Zuza explained, but things should be ironed out within the next two to four months, depending on when Church leaders, such as the Apostolic Nuncio to Malawi and the new bishop, can meet to discuss the details. At that point, he added, they will also decide which priests will serve in the new diocese and set a date for the ordination of the bishop-elect.
Bishop-elect Mtumbuka has been the serving as the Vice Chancellor for academics at the Catholic University of Malawi.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/07/2010 13:05]