Friday, May 18, Sixth Week of Easter
ST. POPE JOHN I (Italy 470?-526, Pope (523-526) and Martyr
Very little is known about this Pope who was born near Siena. He was only an archdeacon when he was elected Pope
within seven days of his predecessor's death. At the time, Italy had been under the Visigoth king Theodoric the Great
for 30 years. He espoused Arianism, the heresy which denied the divinity of Christ, but tolerated the orthodox Christians.
He asked the new Pope to lead a Roman delegation to Constantinople to ask the Eastern Emperor Justin I, the first non-Arian
on the throne in 50 years, to recall his new decree punishing Arians for their heresy. John I received a tumultuous welcome
from the court and the people, and the patriarchs of the East came to pledge their loyalty to him. Justin I stood by his
anti-Arian decree, and John I returned to Italy. Because of the billiant reception he got in Constantinople, Theodoric had
him arrested when he landed in Ravenna and thrown into prison on charges he was part of a plot against him. The Pope quickly
died in prison of ill treatment and privation. His body was eentually taken to Rome and is buried in St. Peter's Basilica.
Readings for today's Mass:
usccb.org/bible/readings/051812.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
The Holy Father met with
- H.E. Bruno Joubert, Ambassador of France, who presented his credentials
- Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, and president of the Italian bishops' conference (CEI)
- Bishops of the United States (Region XIV and XV) on ad limina visit. Addresses in English.
And in the afternoon with
- Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
BLESSED JOHN PAUL II
would be 92 today
Küng declines to take part in Mannheim
celebration of Vatican II - says
its funeral must be observed instead
17 May 2012
Theologian Hans Küng has turned down an invitation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council at the German Katholikentag at Mannheim May 18- held from tomorrow until Sunday.
The Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), Germany's largest Catholic lay organisation which is organising the Congress and has more than 12 million members, invited Fr Küng and the former President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper, to participate in their "Council Gala". But four days before the congress was due to begin, Fr Küng declined.
"I was honoured to receive the invitation but is one really in the mood to celebrate at a time when the Church is in such sore distress?" Fr Küng asked in his four-page reply.
"In my opinion there is no reason for a festive Council Gala but rather for an honest service of penance or a funeral service," he said.
That Kueng uses the words 'funeral service' in a public statement about Vatican II - whether he used it deliberately, or it came out as a Freudian slip - seems to be one of the strongest signs so far of the literal dying away of the 'spirit of Vatican II' generation of heterodox Catholics of whom Kueng has become the universal icon! ('Spiritist' standard bearers who were in their 20s or 30s at the time of Vatican II are in their 70s and 80s now).
Many American Catholic commentators have written lately about this eventual disappearance of that dissident generation, and consequent weakening of the progressivist cause, but it hasn't been taken up by their counterparts in Europe, because the new organized dissident groups of priests in Austria, Germany and Ireland are proving to be the equally contentious, and perhaps even more militant, heirs of that generation.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/05/2012 21:06]