See preceding page for earlier posts today, 12/15/11.
Thursday, December 15, Third Week of Advent
BLESSED MARIA FRANZISKA [Mary Frances] SCHERVIER (Germany, 1819-1875)
Born to a wealth family in Aachen, she was cured of asthma after a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
As a teenager, she ran the household when her mother died, and after losing two sisters to
tuberculosis, she became a lay Franciscan renowned for her generosity to the poor. In 1851,
she founded the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis, which set up hospitals and homes for
the aged to serve the indigent. By 1858, the order had a branch in the United States, and
in 1863, Mother Mary Frances herself went to the US to help nurse Civil War wounded, making
a second trip to the order in 1868. By the time she died, her order had 2500 members in many
countries. She was beatified by Paul VI in 1974.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/121511.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy father received the credentials today of the new ambassadors to the Holy See from the governments of
Trinidad-Tobago, Guinea Bissau, Switzerland, Burundi, Thailand, Pakistan, Mozambique, Kyrgyzstan, Andorra,
Sri Lanka, and Burkina Faso.
He then met with
- Mons, James Patrick Green, Apostolic Nuncio to Peru
- Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, and president of the French bishops' conference, with
the conference's two vice-presidents and secretary-general.
- H.E. Yves Gazzo, chief of the European Community Commission delegation to the Holy See, on farewell visit.
This evening, the Holy Father presides at Vespers with university students of Rome, a traditional pre-Christmas
event at the Vatican.
THE POPE'S 2011 CHRISTMAS CARD
Left, not a good reproduction at all, but the only one I can find online so far, from BILD, whose page layout person was so sloppy that he/she cropped the bottom of the card that usually shows the year of the card, e.g., Weihnachte 2011, in the Pope's script, only the top of which we can see, followed by a fine-print caption about the illustration used. Anyway, the brief BILD item with the card says that the illustration is the Nativity scene from a bas-relief on the Fountain of St. Joseph in the Vatican Gardens, while the quotation "Komm und erlöse uns!“ (Come and save us) is taken from the Liturgy of the Hours. Last year (right photo), the illustration was a detail from the Nativity facade of the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
I really don't know why the Vatican Press Office does not provide the public with photos of the Pope's Christmas and Easter cards which, after all, belong to the annals of his Pontificate .
OR today.
The Pope views this year's Nativity scene prepared for the main audience hall of Aula Paolo VI by the Mexican state of Puebla.
At the General Audience, the Pope continues his reflections on Jesus at prayer:
'With heart open to the needs of those around'
Other Page 1 news: A calm after the storm for Europe, as global markets drop on news of reduced economic indicators for Germany in the last quarter of 2011 and the first half of 2012; and South Kordofan in Sudan near recently independent South Sudan shapes up as the next war-and-hunger crisis area, as Sudanese armed forces battle South Sudan guerrillas. In the inside pages, an excellent essay on the universal cultural patronage of Pius IX that led to restorations and commissioned art works all over Italy after the loss of the papal states in 1861.
- Remember the item in the preceding page about the 87 orthodox Jews arrested by the Brooklyn police for sexual abuse against minors? One newspaper that has not reported any of it so far is America's supposed 'newspaper of record'... And yet, it was hardly a minor scandal as child sex abuse stories go. This is how the Brooklyn district attorney's office reports the numbers busted in the past three years:
* 85 accused predators arrested since January 2009, two female
* 117 victims: 89 under age 17, the rest up to age 23, when the statute of limitations expires
* 47 cases pending; 38 closed
* 14 offenders sentenced to jail, from a month to 10-to-20 years
* 24 free—on probation, after pleading to lesser charges or after cases were dismissed
Curiously, none of the few news items I've seen so far about this mention whether, and if so, how many, Jewish religious were included in the bust. This is not to disparage the Jewish religious in any way, but only to point out how differently the media treat a child sex abuse story when the accused persons are not Catholic priests! And of course, that the New York Times chooses not even to report the news - which by any measure, is a major local news story for New York - is more proof, if anyone needed it, of that newspaper's blatant double standard against Catholics.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 16/12/2011 00:42]