I won't even begin to explain the bizarre circumstances that have kept me shut up for the past 48 hours, but let me just try to make up. I had just begin my Forum day on April 24, but at least I got in the anniversary pieces on the Pope... So let me just enumerate the more significant news items that I must make up on:
On April 24, the Pope had no public events, and the Vatican only issued a reminder that the Holy Father will preside at Holy Mass on Sunday, April 29,in St. Peter's Basilica to ordain new priests for the Diocese of Rome.
In Germany, the German bishops published the text of a five-page letter written by Benedict XVI to explain why the correct wording of Jesus's Eucharistic prayer ending with 'pro multis' - for many - not the translation that was used for the German Missal that translates into 'for all', as did the English translation which served for close to 40 years before the new translation went into effect last fall.
April 25 had a lot of important news reports:
- The Holy Father's General Audience in St. Peter's Square. He continued his catecheses on Christian prayer, specifically focusing on the prayers of the first Christian community. He noted how the Apostles concentrated on announcing the Word of God and leading the faithful in prayers, but appointed trusted deacons to take care of serving the needy.
- The official program was announced for the Holy Father's pastoral visit to Arezzo, Laverna and Sansepolcro on May 13.
- The Vatican announced that the Pope has named Cardinal Julian Herranz to head a cardinals' commission to look into the Vatileaks episode and report to him. The other cardinals working with Herranz are Cardinal Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi.
- Marco Roncalli, the journalist-nephew of Pope John XXIII, has published the first complete biography of Albino Luciani, 'the Pope of smiles' John Paul I, while a German author Bernhard Müller-Hülsebusch. former Vatican correspondent for
Der Spiegel, has written the book
Ein Münchner in Rom with tales and anecdotes about the person rather than the Pope.
Today, April 26, the Holy Father met with yet another group of US bishops from the United States Northwest, and
- The Pope's Commission on China ended a three-day plenary meeting with a statement about the situation of the Church in China today, saying, among other things, that the Holy Father has forgiven some bishops who have taken part in illegitimate ordinations in China who wrote to explain their action and sought forgiveness, but that some have still not done so.
So, with that brief overview of all the items I must make up for, I shall post what I can by way of making up and to make sure that these are on record in this Forum, while looking out for other interesting articles in the past two days that I have not yet had time to research.