Wednesday, August 22, 20th Week in Ordinary Time
MEMORIAL OF THE QUEENSHIP OF MARY
Pius XII established this feast in 1954 as a logical follow-up to the Assumption - thus it is celebrated in the octave of the Assumption. Mary's queenship has roots in Scripture where the Archangel Gabriel announces that her Son would receive the throne of David and rule forever. Her queenship is a share in Jesus's kingship. The Fathers of the Church, starting with St. Ephrem in the 4th century, called Mary 'Lady' and Queen'. In the Middle Ages, hymns and devotional prayers (particularly by the Dominicans and Franciscans) addressed her invariably as Queen.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082212.cfm
WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY
General Audience - The Holy Father dedicated the catechesis today to a reflection on the Queenship of Mary
which the Church commemorates today.
Pope's condolences on the death
of Ethiopian Prime Minister
The Vatican released the text of a telegram of condolence sent in the name of Benedict XVI by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone to President Girma Wolde Giorgis of Ethiopia for the unexpected death of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi:
HIS EXCELLENCY
GIRMA WOLDE GIORGIS
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF ETHIOPIA
ADDIS ABABA
HAVING LEARNED OF THE UNTIMELY DEATH OF PRIME MINISTER MELES ZENAWI, HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI SENDS HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES TO YOUR EXCELLENCY, TO THE FAMILY OF MR. ZENAWI AND TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF ETHIOPIA.
RECALLING HIS MANY YEARS OF LEADERSHIP, THE HOLY FATHER OFFERS THE ASSURANCE OF PRAYERS FOR HIS ETERNAL REST. UPON THE LATE PRIME MINISTER'S FAMILY AND ALL WHO MOURN HIS LOSS, HIS HOLINESS INVOKES ALMIGHTY GOD'S BLESSINGS AS A PLEDGE OF CONSOLATION AND HOPE.
CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE
Popemobile arrives in Beirut
Lebanon Daily Star
August 22, 2012
BEIRUT - Pope Benedict XVI’s “popemobile” arrived Tuesday in Beirut’s port in preparation for his visit next month.
According to (Lebanon's) National News Agency, the Pope’s car was transported to the Presidential Palace in the presence of papal ambassador Gabriel Caccia (Apostolic Nuncio).
Meanwhile, the head of the committee preparing for the Pope’s visit, Bishop Camille Zeidan, will hold a news conference today at the Lebanese Missionaries Association’s headquarters in Jounieh to announce the latest preparations for the visit.
Vatican media asleep on the job:
But will they ever learn - and can they????
I could understand it when the August 20-21 issue of OR came out that it did not carry a single line on the landmark ruling by an Oregon federal judge that the Vatican cannot be considered the 'employer' of local priests, because the news came out - at least the AP item did - around 4 pm New York time on August 20, sevenhours after the 3 pm Rome time daily press run of OR. But there was not a line about it either in the August 22 issue nor in the issue coming out tomorrow August 23, that came online much earlier than usual.
And yet, it was a major legal victory against the anti-Church elements in the USA and their shyster attorneys who have been salivating long and hard at the thought of getting their pincer claws onto the 'fabled wealth of the Vatican' in the name of victims abused by sex-offender priests.
However:
- Vatican Radio's English service, which I had expected to run the report ASAP, has not had a single line about it at all. Nor has the Italian service.
- To repeat, neither the OR issue of August 22, which went to press at least 48 hours since the Oregon ruling was first reported, carry a single line about it at all. Nor does the August 23 issue.
- news.va which is supposed to be the one-stop address for all things Vatican does not carry a single line about it.
I can even understand that the Vatican Press Office itself has not come out with a news bulletin about it. because they only issue bulletins about news originating from the Vatican or being simultaneously announced with a local Church.
But could they have not made an exception in this case because of the inherent and major significance of the ruling simply to call attention to it? Or better yet, issue a statement by Jeffrey Lena, as Vatican Radio did last February when another US federal court made another major ruling in favor of the Vatican, but one of far less public interest because it had to do with insurance fraud?
(The court ruled that the Vatican or the IOR could not be sued by the insurance commissioners of five states because of crimes committed by a crooked local businessman who alleged a non-existent connection with the Vatican, which the states accused of being part of the man's fraud conspiracy. That ruling was given immediate and ample publicity at the time by Vatican Radio (see Feb. 2. 2012 post on this thread)
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=85272...
with a statement from Vatican lawyer Jeffrey Lena explaining the background of the entire case and ending with these words:
That inflammatory allegations against the Holy See and the IOR are easily disseminated and make good fodder for conspiracy theorists cannot be doubted. But it would inure to the public’s benefit if those same journalists who enthusiastically disseminated such allegations when the cases were filed would pick up their pens to write with equal vigor upon the cases’ demise. To do so would responsibly reflect the public record that each of the cases died the undignified death it deserved.
The words apply with even greater power to the new ruling, especially since it concerns a sex-abuse case which is of far greater interest (more 'titillating', to be more precise) to the general public than an insurance fraud case few people were even aware of.
The Press Office could have taken a great precedent-setting initiative for a change, especially since, as expected, MSM - even in Italy where most newspapers reported on it only the following day, August 21 - deliberately underplayed the news (AP's account that I posted earlier on this page was only 7 paragraphs long in its first version) for the simple reason that the Vatican won. On the other hand, imagine the worldwide headlines if the Oregon court had ruled - against all tradition, fact and commonsense - that the Vatican is the 'employer' of every local priest!
And where is Greg Burke when he ought to do something urgently needed? He is supposed to advise the Secretariat of State directly about communications strategy and measures, since that Secretariat has direct control and supervision over the organs of Vatican communication. His role should also include shaking up bureaucratic inertia and taking the lead on something as important as this.There has to be a first time for the Vatican Press Office to 'trumpet' a legitimate victory that takes place on an external playing field in a way that calls attention to the victory without being triumphalistic about it.
A statement from Lena would have met all the requirements for a Vatican press bulletin about the issue, since it would have stated the facts and provided the appropriate context, while originating from the Vatican itself.
It is not possible that Father Lombardi, being head of Vatican Radio as well, nor any of his lieutenants there or at the Press Office, nor the editor of OR or any of his subordinates, nor the person running news.va or any of his associates, were all completely unaware of the ruling and its significance, to the point of not reporting on it at all. And yet, that is the situation we have. HELLO, IS ANYBODY HOME???? You cannot use Ferragosto [the annual August vacation that brings all of Italy to functional hibernation fora whole month] as an excuse!
I was going to say that perhaps Lena himself was on his annual summer vacation and couldn't ne reached, but no, he spoke to CNA about the case, and the agency reported on it 24 hours after the ruling, even if its headline failed to acknowledge the real issue that was decided. [That's still much better than CNS, the news agency of the US bishops' conference, based in Washington, which has not reported the story at all. Nor has ZENIT. And definitely not the National Catholic Fishwrap. Nor, wonder of wonders, the American media guru of all things Catholic, John Allen! But we can't very well remonstrate with all these laggards, can we, when the Vatican media themselves have committed the most gargantuan and appalling lapses?]
Federal judge dismisses
abuse lawsuit against Vatican
By Kevin J. Jones
Portland, Ore., Aug 21, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News) - A federal judge dismissed a sex abuse lawsuit against the Holy See on grounds that the Vatican was not an employer of the accused ex-priest and cannot be held financially liable for the abuse.
Jeffrey Lena, counsel for the Holy See, told CNA on Aug. 21 that the ruling is “particularly important.”
It follows a years-long legal examination of whether the Vatican has sovereign immunity protecting it from such lawsuits.
On Monday U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman in Portland, Ore. ruled that the laicized Servite priest Andrew Ronan, who allegedly molested the plaintiff as a teenager in 1965 and 1966, did not have an employee-employer relationship with the Vatican.
Such a relationship was the only remaining legal justification for the lawsuit against the Vatican, Lena said.
He added that the federal court examined documents related to the case and found “no evidence that the Holy See was the employer of Ronan, or that it transferred Ronan, or that it knew of the abuse in question until after the abuse had taken place in 1965.”
He said that only the Servite order knew of the abuse until it petitioned for the laicization of Fr. Ronan in 1966.
When the Holy See learned of the abuse, Lena said, “it dismissed Ronan from the clerical state very quickly, in just five weeks.”
Judge Mosman compared the Vatican’s control over a priest to the Oregon legal bar’s control of lawyers through sanctions and disbarment but not through direct firing. He said the plaintiff’s argument that the Vatican has absolute control over all priests could mean that all Catholics could be considered Vatican employees, the Associated Press reports.
The plaintiff, named in the suit as John V. Doe, filed his case in 2002. He is represented by Minnesota attorney Jeff Anderson.
Anderson said that Ronan, who died in 1992, sexually abused children in Ireland and Chicago before being transferred to Portland, Ore. He said the abuse was kept secret from parishioners and authorities to avoid scandal.
“We believe all of the responsibility lies with the Vatican,” he said. He plans to appeal the decision.
Doe’s lawsuit against the Friar Servants of Mary is still active. His suits against the Diocese of Portland and the Archdiocese of Chicago were dismissed several years ago.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/08/2012 23:43]