Thursday, Sept. 13, 23rd Week in Ordinary Time
A few historical images of Chrysostomos, one of the most depicted saints throughout history. From left: 13th-cent Russian illumination; 16th-cent Greek-Byzantine icon, between Archangels; 10th-cent apse mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul; 10th-cent apse mosaic, Antioch; apse mosaic, San Paolo fuori le Mure, Rome; late 16-cent icon, Corfu; 1430 icon attributed to Andrei Rublev.
ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (b Antioch [in present Syria], d Armenia 407), Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI dedicated two catecheses in Sept. 2006 to this great saint starting on 9/19/07:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2007/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20070919...
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
No events announced for the Holy Father.
The Press Office posted Fr. Lombardi's statement yesterday [posted on this page from a Vatican Radio online report] about the killing of the American ambassador and three other American embassy staff in Benghazi.
However, the statement was issued before the facts of the Libya assassinations were known. It now appears to be a well-planned Al-Qaeda retaliation for the drone killing of their #2 man last June in Pakistan, a retaliation deliberately carried out on the anniversary of the 9/11/01 terrorist attacks in the USA. Fr. Lombardi's sentiments about respect for all religions does not apply to the Libya killings, because it refers to the immediate cause of the mob attack on the US embassy in Cairo hours before the Libya killings, namely, outrage over a YouTube video produced by an Israeli American that allegedly mocks Islam and blasphemes Mohammed. This video is now used as a blanket pretext for the other attacks or demonstrations that have taken place against US embassies in Yemen and Tunisia, as if any government anywhere - or any agency, for that matter - had the means and the ability to completely control what anyone places online. Not even Communist China can do it.
P.S. The Press Office did release a second statement today, Sept. 13, by Fr. Lombardi which clears up the equivocation about the motive for the Libyan attack implied in the first statement:
The very serious attack organised against the United States diplomatic mission in Libya, which led to the death of the ambassador and of other functionaries, calls for the firmest possible condemnation on the part of the Holy See. Nothing, in fact, can justify the activity of terrorist organisations and homicidal violence.
Along with our sadness, mourning and prayers for the victims, we again express the hope that, despite this latest tragedy, the international community may discover the most favourable ways to continue its commitment in favour of peace in Libya and the entire Middle East.
One year ago today...
Two rabidly anti-Church victim advocacy groups in the United States, including the in famous SNAP, in a move
dutifully reported by Laurie Goodstein in the New York Times, filed a complaint urging the International Criminal
Court in The Hague to investigate and prosecute Pope Benedict XVI and three top Vatican officials for crimes
against humanity, for what they described as abetting and covering up the rape and sexual assault of children
by priests.
It was not the first time such a complaint was filed with the ICC, which has, however, never accepted any, simply because it does not fall within its mandate to to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity [genuine ones!] and genocide. Moreover, the complaints' legal basis for accusing the Pope and top Vatican officials was the position that local priests are employees of the Vatican, an opinion that was recently thrown out by a US federal judge.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 13/09/2012 20:56]