BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

AS YOU BEGIN THE EIGHTH YEAR

OF YOUR BLESSED PONTIFICATE...

AD MULTOS ANNOS, SANCTE PATER!

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU ARE

TO THE CHURCH, TO THE WORLD, TO ALL OF US.

WE COULD NEVER LOVE YOU ENOUGH.

Thursday, April 19, Second Week of Easter

Today's saints:

BLESSED LUCHESIO AND BUONADONNA (Italy, d 1260), Husband and Wife, First Lay Franciscans
Luchesio was said to have been a ‘greedy merchant’ who lived in Poggibonzi near Siena and was probably born in the late 12th century since he met Francis of Assisi in 1213, an event that changed his life. He began to perform acts of charity. This troubled his wife Buonadonna who thought he was giving away too much. One day she answered the door to another stranger in need, and her husband told her to give him bread. Unhappy about this, she went to the pantry anyway, where she found more bread than there had been. This changed her own outlook. They sold their business, turned to farming to provide for their needs and to help others. At that time, some pious couples, with the Church’s consent, separated to become religious, or to join a group like Francis’s, if they were childless or if their children were grown up. Francis set up the secular Franciscan order (the so-called third Order) to accommodate couples like Luchesio and Buonadonna who wanted to share religious life but outside the cloister. The couple from Poggibonzi became the first lay Franciscans. Pope Honorius approved their Rule in 1221. As with many other saints, the couple never seemed to lack for resources to help those who came to them. They died on the same day in 1260, and he was beatified in 1273. She was never formally beatified but she has been venerated as Blessed like her husband.
Readings for today's Mass: usccb.org/bible/readings/041912.cfm


No events announced for the Holy Father today.





- I do not know what mindless people at the CDF or the Vatican Press Office decided that today was the day to release the report on the apostolic visitation of women religious orders in the United States - since all the headlines read 'VATICAN CRACKS DOWN ON U.S. NUNS' and the main target group that was found to habitually disseminate anti-Catholic ideas immediately took the occasion to say the 'crackdown' was because of the nuns' support for Obamacare and his attempts to violate freedom of conscience in the implementation that law!... Good intentions and charitable work do not excuse lying, as in this absurd statement, much less the habitual violation of the sisters' vows of obedience to the Magisterium which apparently they never intended to observe. Perhaps worse than disobedience is their overriding sin of pride and ego-above-all.

As for the usual media hamhands at the Vatican, could they not have left this week at least free of any occasions that could possibly bring new hurt (I mean the media reaction) to our beloved Pope? As for the dissident nuns, I have to remind (force) myself to pray for them as I must do for Schoenborn and his dissidents.... I hope the FSSPX also pray for these truly wayward Catholics in their massive community prayer initiatives.

- On a happy note, those who may want to relive the days that led to the election of Benedict XVI {with pictures and news accounts of the day-to-day events, all the way to the Mass to inaugurate his Petrine Ministry), along with how various individuals experienced it and reacted to it, may want to check out, if they have not seen it before, a special section entitled THE EXPERIENCE OF APRIL 19, 2005 in the PAPA RATZINGER FORUM at this link:
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354517&p=1
It never fails to bring back all the emotions - and floods of joyous and sentimental tears!

- And herewith, my favorite personal recollection about Benedict XVI:



Perhaps of all the words that the Holy Father said during his never-to-be-forgotten visit to the United States and to the United Nations - and every word was precious and significant - what will remain etched in my brain are the spontaneous words he spoke to thank the congregation at St. Patrick's for remembering the third anniversary of his Pontificate. All the more since I heard the words 'directly' as he spoke them, through the front-door speakers of the cathedral's audio system. These were his extemporaneous words delivered in English:

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At this moment I can only thank you for your love of the Church and Our Lord, and for the love which you show to this poor Successor of Saint Peter.

I will try to do all that is possible to be a worthy successor of the great Apostle, who also was a man with faults and sins, but remained in the end the rock for the Church.

And so I too, with all my spiritual poverty, can be for this time, by virtue of the Lord’s grace, the Successor of Peter.

It is also your prayers and your love which give me the certainty that the Lord will help me in this my ministry. I am therefore deeply grateful for your love and for your prayers.

And my answer to all that you have given to me in this moment and this visit is my blessing at the end of the Holy Mass.

- BENEDICT XVI
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York
April 19, 2008.

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