BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

SEVEN YEARS AGO TODAY -

THE INAUGURAL MASS OF BENEDICT XVI'S PONTIFICATE

NB: Last year, the anniversary fell on Easter Sunday.


Tuesday, April 24, Third Week of Easter

ST. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN (b Prussia 1777, d Switzerland 1622), Capuchin Friar and Martyr
He was born Mark Rey and his father was Burgermeister (mayor) of Sigmaringen. Always known for his charity,
when he became a lawyer, he dedicated his services to defending poor people. Eventually, he decided to become
a Capuchin like his brother George, and divided his ealth between poor seminarians and the poor. He was sent
as part of a missionary team by the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to the Calvinists and
Zwinglians of Switzerland. Not an easy task, for he was immediately accused of opposing a peasant movement
for independence from Austria. Despite warnings, he continued to preach but had a strong presentiment of
death. He started signing his letters 'Pater Fidelis, prope diem esca vermium' ('soon to be food for worms').
He escaped a gunshot fired on him while preaching but eventually he was ambushed and killed. He was canonized
in 1746 as the first martyr of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/042412.cfm


No bulletins posted so far from the Vatican.

OR today.
The only papal news is the Holy Father's message to the VII International Congress on Pastoral Care in Tourism (posted on this thread in the preceding page. But it also calls attention to the ff:

Gift book on B16 today
to all readers of OR and
Italy's 'Il Sole 24 Ore'



The book is BENEDETTO XVI: TEOLOGO & PONTEFICE, about which I posted a translation of Il Sole's news release about it on Sunday, April 22, in the preceding page, along with the Foreword to the 88-page book by OR editor, Giovanni Maria Vian. OR reproduces the original in Italian on its Page 1 today.

The additional information is that all told, 300,000 copies of the book are being given out today by OR and Il Sole, (which is Italy's equivalent of the US Wall Street Journal and the UK Financial Times). In addition, 200,000 copies will be given out in Spanish to readers of Spain's La Razon, which has carried the OR in Spanish as a Sunday supplement since 2010. The book can also be downloaded from the Il sole site in Italian, Spanish or English if you susbcribe to the newspaper.