Friday, April 13, Octave of Easter
ST. MARTIN I (b Italy ?, d Crimea, 655), Pope and Martyr
The last of the martyr Popes, he had been the papal legate to Constantinople before he was elected Pope in 649 at a time when the Patriarch of Constantinople was more powerful than the Bishop of Rome. However, he was elected without the approval of the Byzantine court. He immediately called a Council at the Lateran to affirm orthodox Catholic teaching against the heretical Monothelites who claimed Christ only had a divine will. This angered the Byzantine emperor who had ordered that the subject not be discussed at all. He sent his soldiers to Rome to bring Martin to Constantinople, where he was jailed and subjected to all sorts of indignities. He was condemned for treason without being allowed to defend himself, then exiled to the Crimea where he spent at least two years of extreme deprivation and isolation until he died. He is remembered for having asserted the right of the Church to proclaim its doctrine in the face of imperial opposition.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/041312.cfm
No bulletins so far from the Vatican.
The Holy Father is expected to return to the Vatican today from Castel Gandolfo.
Here's the item I could find about the Viennese parish priest who has resigned because Cardinal Schoenborn overruled him over the election of a practising homosexual to his parish's pastoral council. The resignation was referred to in an earlier post about this page, reporting one of the dissident priest leaders praising Schoenborn in an open letter for his 'disobedience' to the Church in upholding Stangl's election:
Viennese parish priest asks to be reassigned
after Schoenborn takes the side of
a practising homosexual in parish issue
Translated from
A Catholic priest in Vienna left his parish after Cardinal Christoph Schönborn decided to overrule his decision to exclude an active homosexual from a parish council. Father Gerhard Swierzek decided not to accept Florian Stangl in the parish council because the man is openly engaged in a same-sex union. Cardinal Schönborn met with Stangl and his partner, and subsequently upheld his election the pastoral council.
Father Swierzek thereupon asked his superiors to give him a different pastoral assignment. He said that he could not remain in a parish where the people “wanted to do what they want at any price.”
The pastor expressed dismay that Cardinal Schönborn had met with Stangl and his partner, but not with Father Swierzek himself, to discuss the matter.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/04/2012 16:04]