Friday, January 21
Third photo from left, St Agnes by El Greco.
ST. AGNES [Agnese] OF ROME (291-304), Virgin and Martyr
Born to a Christian family of the Roman nobility in the time of Diocletian, she is said
to have refused, at age 12-13, to marry the son of a Roman Prefect, who punished her
by having her dragged through the streets to a brothel. Legend has it that her hair
grew to cover her nakedness, and that those who tried to rape her were struck blind.
Finally, she was led to be burned at the stake, but the wood would not burn. She died
either by being beheaded or stabbed in the throat. She was buried in the catacomb that
bears her name. She is depicted with a lamb because her name resembles Agnus, the
Latin word for lamb, but it really comes from the Greek word that means 'chaste'. Every
year on her feast day, two lambs are brought from the Trappist abbey of Tre Fontane in
Rome to the Vatican, to be blessed by the Pope. Their wool is used to weave the palliums
that will be conferred by the Pope on the new metropolitan bishops named during the year.
The teenage saint is one of only seven women saints named in the Canon of the Mass.
Readings for today's Mass:http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/012111.shtml
No papal stories or photos on Page 1 of today's OR, but there is a long excerpt in the inside pages from the reflection offered by Prof. Giorgio Israel on the Holy Father's Rrgensburg lecture, in the first of 3 Rome diocesan seminars last night on Benedict XVI's three great secular discourses. Also, an essay on the progress of relations between the Catholic Church and the Slavic Orthodox churches. on the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. On page 1, an essay on the new evangelization by the president of the new Pontifical Council; and in international news 1 news: the China-US summit in Washington was conciliatory despite differences, and wny China and the US must dialog more often now that they are the world's leading economic powers; the UN will undertake an inquiry into the status of Tunisia after 23 years of dictatorship by a president ousted through popular uprising last week; South Sudan set to secede after referendum favoring independence from the Khartoum government; and the European Parliament passes a resolution against anti-Christian persecutions.
PAPAL EVENTS TODAY
The Holy Father was presented this morning with two lambs from the Basilica of St. Agnes in Rome on
the saint's feast day in a traditional event at the Apostolic Palace's Pope Urban VIII Chapel. Wool from
the lambs is used to weave the palliums conferred by the Pope on the metropolitan archbishops named by
the Pope in the 12 months preceding the Feast of Sanits Peter and Paul in June.
Later he met with the officials and personnel of the Rome policee assignesd to the Vatican in one
of the last of the Pope's traditional New Year audiences. Address in Italian.
- Cardinal Bertone's general comments yesterday on the responsibility of politicians towards fmailies and the young have been blown up not just in the Anglophone media as "Vatican pressure on Berlusconi' but also in the Italian media, who now, strangely, are saying the Pope himself must condemn the Italian prime minister's loose private morals.
Like MSM everywhere, Italian MSM do not seem to realize - or care about - their obvious self-contradiction in many ways: Whenever the Pope speaks about Catholic morals applied to public issues, they cry out and protest Vatican 'interference!' in public affairs. But now, against a politician they no longer support, they would want the Pope to make a personal condemnation and not think that it would be interference in any way!
Obviously the Church in modern times - particularly not the Pope - does not and has never publicly condemned specific individuals for their private sins, but because it is convenient for their cause, the 'anti-Papist interference' legion now call on him to fight their self-interested battles with Berlusconi.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/01/2011 16:47]