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BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

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Friday, March 22, Fifth Week of Lent

Center: Engraving, St. Nicholas's torture.
ST. NICHOLAS OWEN (England, 1550-1606), Carpenter/Mason, Lay Jesuit, Reformation Martyr
Owen was one of the 40 Martyrs of England and Wales canonized by Paul VI in 1970. They died for
the faith during anti-Catholic persecutions from 1535-1679. Called 'Little John' because he was born
a dwarf, he made his reputation by building so-called priest holes, or hiding places for Catholics that
were undetectable to raiders. He was arrested three times himself, the first time in 1582 for having
defended St. Edmund Campion, once a favorite of Elizabeth I, but who eventually refused to renounce
his faith and was 'hanged, drawn and quartered' on a trumped up conspiracy charge. Little John was
released, went back to building priest-holes and caught again when he was betrayed in 1594. His last
capture was in 1606 when he was subjected to great torture - hung by his hands with a weight on his
feet while he was beaten, and stretched on the rack, from which he eventually died.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032213.cfm



AT THE VATICAN TODAY

This morning, the Holy Father met with

- The Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Vatican. Address in Italian.

And in the afternoon, with
- Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches [An Argentinian of Italian ancestry
like the Pope
]




One year ago today...
The Holy Father Benedict XVI had no scheduled events on the eve of his departure for Mexico and Cuba.

Two years ago today...
The Congregation for Catholic Education presented a new Decree on the Reform of Ecclesiastical Studies in Philosophy to restore the 'original vocation' of philosophy; which is the search for truth and its sapiential and metaphysical dimension". It prescribed three years of philosophy for seminarians instead of the usual two, with great emphasis on logic and metaphysics. It was the first major reform in seminary studies since 1979, and reflected in many ways an observation made by Benedict XVI in 2007:

The crisis in post-conciliar theology is in large measure the crisis in its philosophical foundations.... When these foundations are not clear, then theology lacks solid ground under its feet, because then, it is not clear to what degree man truly knows reality, and the bases from which he can think and speak.



[In connection with Benedict XVI's trip - to Mexico, particularly - the following items are instructive as well as 'typical' of the media fate of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI - an exceptionally superior human being, blessed with an abundance of divine graces and gifted with sterling human virtues, yet since becoming Pope in 2005, repeatedly, endlessly, almost infinitely made to appear very inferior compared to his predecessor, and now with his successor. The items have to do with the truly malicious media drumbeat before he arrived in Mexico to the effect that John Paul II was so idolized by the Mexicans that they are completely 'underwhelmed' by Benedict XVI's visit, and would probably not come out to greet him in any number that could even approach the crowds for John Paul II on each of his three visits to Mexico. Once again, of course, reality - well covered by television - resoundingly repudiated all the Cassandras, who, in eight years of covering Benedict XVI's Pontificate, never learned from their gargantuan mistakes.



In the following story, for the first time, to my knowledge, a high-ranking prelate has brought up a topic no one else in the Church has dared to speak aloud. It is particularly important - as I remarked on an earlier story highlighting the overt bias, almost a hostility, expressed by some Mexican Catholics against Benedict XVI because he is not John Paul II - to educate Catholics that the current living Pope is the one and only Vicar of Christ on earth, that Benedict XVI would be the last person on earth to 'compare' himself to John Paul II, much less to a Pope he has beatified and whom he may even canonize in his own lifetime! I don't believe any such papal partisanship among the faithful has been evident in the modern era (or perhaps, ever!), and it is a degradation of the faith, somehow, that it ever developed. P.S, 2013 A degradation that is worsening with new vigor in media reporting about the recent change of Pontificate.

Bishop of Leon calls on Mexicans
to stop comparing BXVI to JPII



Leon, Mexico, Mar 20, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News) - A local archbishop encouraged Catholics in Mexico as they prepare to welcome Pope Benedict for his March 23-25 visit to the country not to compare him to Blessed John Paul II.

In an interview with CNN Mexico, Archbishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago of Leon said: “All of the Popes are equal and deserve our respect and adherence, regardless of whatever their personal charism might be.”

“I think we need to say this to everyone, so that they don’t expect to see Pope Benedict as a repeat, or crudely put, as a clone of Pope John Paul II,” he said.

The archbishop expressed his hope, however, that just as with the apostolic visits of Blessed John Paul II, Pope Benedict's trip would also inspire many vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

Archbishop Rabago said the papal trip is an honor for the state of Guanajuato, which, “together with Aguascalientes and Jalisco, has the highest percentage of Catholics in Mexico (around 94% of their residents are Catholic).”




Mexico awaits the Pope
Interview with Cardinal Lozano
by Andres Beltramo Alvarez
Translated from the Spanish service of

March 18, 2012

VATICAN CITY - The Pope is travelling to Mexico with a mission supra partes - above and beyond parties - and his words cannot be coopted into the 'trivialities' of any political party, according to Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, who will be the only Mexican cardinal in the Pope'e delegation from the Vatican for the coming trip.

[I will re-post only the part of the interview that has to do with the unkind comparisons to John Paul II.]


This trip takes place in the midst of a year that has already started turbulently for the Holy See with the so-called Vatileaks. Will the trip be a breath of fresh air for the Pope? [It's such a banal assumption for the interviewer to assume that the turbulence in the media over those leaks necessarily mean 'turbulence' within the Vatican! Concern and annoyance, obviously (and even embarrassment) that confidential documents could be leaked to the media, but since no major scandals were exposed other than normal bureaucratic rivalries, the disturbance it caused was certainly far less than the publicly perceived effects of earlier media-generated crises like Regensburg and the Williamson case.]
With all respect to the media, this was one of those occasional flare-ups that throw light on some events that end up slipping away like rosary beads do as we pray. There have always been attacks against the Church, and journalists will always find something to exploit.

First it was pedophilia by some priests, now it is a supposed corruption in the IOR or a plot to kill the Pope. Once those have been exhausted as news, the media will find something else, and they can have great imagination. That ought not to frighten us in the Church - that's the way it has always been, and that's the way it will continue to be. But we have the certainty that the Church has lasted 2000 years and it will last to the end of time.


With this visit, is the Bishop of Rome settling something he owes Latin America? [Another mindless journalistic assumption! Did anyone ever say John XXIII 'owed' any place of the world anything because he did not travel abroad?]
It is important to distinguish between Popes. John Paul II is being made the reference point for Benedict XVI. Just because Karol Wojtyla began his foreign travels as Pope with Mexico, thus launching his course as a 'missionary to the world' throughout his Pontificate, does not mean he should be the model for Benedict XVI.

To be Pope is to become the principle of unity within the Church, which each Pope carries out according to his personality and the circumstances of his time. You cannot compare becoming Pope at 58, as John Paul II did, to becoming Pope when you are 78 as Benedict XVI did. For him to travel to Mexico at the age of 85 is something extraordinary and very special.



[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/03/2013 20:01]
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