Saturday, March 23. Fifth Week of Lent
ST. TORIBIO DE MOGROVEJO (b Spain 1538, d Peru 1606)
Missionary, Bishop, Patron Saint of Latin American Bishops
In 2012, a most appropriate saint of the day as Benedict XVI begins an apostolic visit to Latin America, and
in 2013, because the new Pope was a bishop in Latin America. St. Toribio was a brilliant professor of canon
law at the University of Salamanca when Phillip II named him Grand Inquisitor in Granada. He was scrupulous in
rendering justice to all who came before him to the point that some accused him of being heretical. When he was 40,
the King named him to be Bishop of Lima, Peru, where the colonial administration had serious problems with
a corrupt clergy. In vain
he argued that he was not qualified for such a position, but he left for Peru in 1579, serving as missionary
and administrator for the next 27 years until his death. In Lima, he confirmed the girl who would become Santa
Rosa de Lima, and was a confessor to the priest who would become San
Martin de Porres. After 1590, he also had
the assistance of the priest who would become St. Francis Solano. Toribio was beatified in 1679 and canonized in 1726.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032313.cfm
WITH THE HOLY FATHER TODAY
In the morning, Pope Francis met with
- His Beatitude Ibrahim Isaac Sidrak, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, who was recently elected to succeed
Cardinal Antonios Naguib, who retired for health reasons.
At 11:45 a.m., he flew to Castel Gandolfo for a meeting and lunch with Pope Emertus Benedict XVI, returning
to the Vatican shortly after 3 pm.
One year ago today...
Pope Benedict XVI began his apostolic visit to Mexico (March 23-26), after which he would proceed to visit Cuba (March 26-28).
The narrative that has been peddled by the Anglophone MSM about the Pope's trip to Mexico and Cuba is openly negative and quite sickening. What could possibly generate this kind of animus that the reports specifically make Benedict XVI the scapegoat no matter how far-fetched the association is?
In Mexico, the main party-pooping claim is that Mexicans are so enamored of John Paul II that they couldn't care less - or even look down upon - the current Vicar of Christ; and secondarily, that he is not meeting at all with any of the victims of Fr. Marcial Maciel, Mexico's most notorious prelate of the 20th century and the only founder of a modern ecclesial movement to have been found to be an outright unholy man and a criminal! [Not that there have been any demands at all for such a meeting by Maciel's victims, who are well aware that Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI had nothing to do at all with their misfortune or with coddling Fr. Maciel; and who do not seem to associate him at all with John Paul II.]
In Cuba, the rap is that the local Church has been conniving with the Communist government - never mind that such 'connivance' has resulted in thousands of political prisoners having been released by the government through the Church's mediation, and that media considered the rapprochement between that government and the local Church as the object of hosannahs at the time the breakthrough was marked by John Paul II's visit to Cuba. Why the rapprochement is now seen as blameworthy and nefarious - as Benedict somehow giving his unqualified blessing to the Cuban government - can only be explained by irrational bias against Benedict.
Of course, the assault on the head of the Roman Catholic Church is an assault on the Church itself - and maybe, it is a measure of what the secular media think of Benedict XVI's leadership that they feel they can best strike at the Church by running him down. With all that in mind, consider this report from a major newspaper chain in the Americas.
Benedict's visit to Mexico
brings ache for John Paul II
by Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers
MEXICO CITY —
The imminent visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico is drawing little excitement, underscoring the stark differences between this Pontiff and his predecessor, John Paul II, a figure beloved to Mexicans.
Since the moment John Paul II descended from a jetliner in 1979 and kissed Mexican soil, on the first of five visits, Mexicans felt he held their nation close to his heart.
In contrast, Pope Benedict, who arrives Friday in Mexico, is "the antithesis of John Paul II. He is not very charismatic," said Maria de las Heras, head of the Demotecnia public opinion firm.
An opinion survey by her company earlier this month found that 77 percent of Mexican Catholics feel indifferent to the pontiff's visit or are less enthusiastic about it than they were to John Paul's......
etc. ad nauseam...You get the idea...
News agency stories on the day of the Pope's departure:
Pope in Latin America
in shadow of John Paul
Mexico City, March 23 (Reuters) -
A ghost will be following Pope Benedict at every step of his trip to Mexico and Cuba -- that of his predecessor John Paul.
John Paul, who died in 2005, was a huge draw in many places. But, apart from his native Poland, nowhere was he a more towering figure than in Latin America, visiting every one of the region's countries at least once.
He drew oceanic, throbbing crowds, sloshed through swampy slums in Ecuador, challenged Maoist guerrillas in the Peruvian highlands and defended miners' rights in Bolivia... etc ad nauseam... [In short, a superman far above and beyond the humble and meager gifts of his successor to ever hope to even approach in stature! How much more insulting can they be to Benedict XVI. The distressing part is that MSM does not think there's anything wrong at all with their eternal comparison games, even if they have been proven wrong time and again!]...
The headline as the Pope left Rome:
Pope uses cane at airport
at start of trip
By FRANCES D'EMILIO
Then Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti saw the Holy Father off at the airport.
Inflight, he talks to newsmen about
On sharing Mexico's griefs and difficulties, and
on Marxist ideology no longer responding to reality
March 23, 2012
Papal inflight Q&A:
On sharing Mexico's griefs and difficulties, and
on Marxist ideology no longer responding to reality
March 23, 2012
En route to Mexico, Pope Benedict XVI spoke with journalists travelling with him aboard the Papal plane.
Responding to a question about how he felt at the outset of the six-day visit to Latin America, especially in view of the first leg of the visit, to Mexico, the Holy Father said,
It is for me a great joy, one that responds to a desire I have had for a long time...The words of the Second Vatican Council come to mind: gaudium et spes, luctus et angor – joy and hope, but also grief and anguish. I share the joys and the hopes, and I also share the griefs and the difficulties of the great nation [of Mexico....I go there to encourage and to learn, to comfort in faith, in hope and in charity, to comfort with the commitment for good and the commitment to fight evil. Let us hope that the Lord helps us.
Asked what role the Church has in combating the scourge of drug trafficking and drug-related violence in Mexico, Pope Benedict said,
We know well the beauties of Mexico, but also this enormous problem of narcotics trafficking and violence. It is certainly a great responsibility for the Catholic Church, in a country in which 80 percent of the people are Catholic. We must work against this evil, which is destructive of mankind and [especially] of our youth...
The first task is to proclaim God: God the judge, God who loves us, but loves us [in order to pull us] toward the good, toward truth, and away from evil. The Church's great responsibility, therefore, is to educate consciences, to educate in the moral responsibility and to unmask evil, to unmask this idolatry of money that enslaves men; to expose these false promises, lies, deceits – we must see that humanity needs the Infinite.
If there is no God, then the infinite creates its own paradises, an appearance of infinities which is only a lie. So, it is very important that God is present and accessible - that is a great responsibility. To have God our judge who leads us, draws us towards the truth and to faith. The Church unmasks evil by rendering present the goodness of God, his truth, the true infinite. It is the great duty of the Church...But we must all do it together, more and more...
Asked about whether the Church is doing enough in Latin America, "a region of strong social contrasts, where the very rich live alongside the very poor", he answered:
Of course, the Church must always ask herself whether she is doing enough for social justice on this great continent. It is a question of conscience that we must always ask ourselves - what should the Church do, what can she not do, what should she not do?
The Church is not a political power, it is not a party - it is a moral entity, a moral power. In fact, politics should fundamentally be a moral reality. The Church must act along that fundamental track. So I will repeat what I said earlier: the first thought of the Church is to educate consciences and thus create the necessary responsibility. It must educate consciences in individual ethics as well as public ethics.
In this perhaps, there may well be a lack. One sees in Latin America and elsewhere, among not a few Catholics, a certain schizophrenia between individual and public morality... In the private sphere, they are believers, but in their public life, they follow other paths that do not correspond to the great evangelical values that are necessary for the foundation of a just society.
So the Church must educate to overcome this schizophrenia, educate not only towards an individual morality but towards a public morality, and we must seek to do this with the Social Doctrine of the Church. This public morality must be reasonable, shared and able to be shared even by non-believers, a morality of reason.
Of course, we, in the light of faith, can see many things better with reason. But faith also serves to liberate us from false interests. With the social doctrine, we can create substantial models that will help overcome these social divisions. It is for this that we must work hard. The important thing is a common rationality towards which the Church offers a fundamental contribution, and which must always help in educating consciences for individual responsibility as well as for public life.
The arrival and welcome:
At least 600,000 greet
the Pope in Leon
Translated from
March 24, 2012
LEON, Mexico - The welcome by the people of Leon for Benedict XVI at his arrival in Mexico yesterday constituted a truly unexpected start for his current visit to Latin America.
Record crowds - such as those that turn up only for truly great occasions - welcomed the Pope, starting from the festive and most lively welcome ceremony at the airport of Leon-Guanajuato and along the 34 kms of highway traversed by the Popemobile on the way to the city of Leon.
Semi-official numbers cited by Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, at a briefing for journalists estimated the crowds at 600,000-700,000.
The panorama of people who did not want to miss the occasion of seeing the first Pope to visit this part of Mexico was unusually warm and celebratory, acclaiming the Pope with happy cheering and chanting, waving yellow-and-white Vatican flaglets as well as balloons in the colors of the Vatican.
[Those who are familiar with the enthusiastic participation of Mexican pilgrims at the General Audiences and Angelus gatherings at the Vatican can well imagine that enthusiasm multiplied a hundred-thousandfold.]
At the airport, there was the inevitable Mexican mariachi music, and during the entire welcome ceremony, the crowds never tired chanting the Pope's name or the slogan, 'Benedicto, hermano, ya eres Mexicano" (Benedict, brother, you are now Mexican').
The youth presence was overwhelming. And there was a whole variety of signs along the route with the photo of the Pope, and the slogan 'Mexico siempre fiel' (Ever faithful Mexico).
As the papal motorcade entered the city of Leon, people clambered on rooftops, perched on billboards and climbed trees the better to see the Popemobile.
"The Pope was very pleased and impressed with the welcome," Fr. Lombardi said. He added that the Pope was 'in good health, in fantastic condition".
Papa Ratzinger's self-assuredness was evident even in the fluidity with which he answered the questions during the inflight Q&A towards the start of the 14-hour flight from Rome to Leon, during which he touched the major points of this papal visit to Mexico and Cuba....
And once again, the MSM got it all wrong, DEO GRATIAS! Reading their pre-visit stories, one would have thought only the proverbial 'four cats' would show up for this Pope. God provides! Even for simple humble workers in his vineyard.... And I am infinitely reassured that the Mexican pilgrims with an always-enthusiastic presence at the Vatican audiences are more typical of Mexican Catholics than all those diehard John Paul II fans who reject Benedict XVI offhand but who seem to be the only Mexicans ever quoted in the MSM stories leading up to Benedict XVI's visit.
The AP, in its story, did not provide any numbers - for Benedict XVI, they usually don't, especially if the crowds are much larger than they had predicted or even imagined...Nevertheless, the reporters had to report what they saw:
Pope arrives in Mexico,
denounces violence
GUANAJUATO, Mexico, March 23 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has begun a pilgrimage to the New World by calling on Mexicans to conquer an "idolatry of money" that feeds drug violence and urging Cuba to leave behind a Marxism that "no longer responds to reality".
The Pope's plane set down on Friday afternoon in Guanajuato, a deeply conservative state in sun-baked central Mexico, and his route into the city of Leon was thronged with thousands of people eager to get a glimpse of the Pontiff.
Mexican President Felipe Calderon and first lady Margarita Zavala greeted the Pope and escorted him along a red carpet amid clanging church bells and cheers from a crowd waving Vatican flags. A swelling throng gathered to cheer him along his path from the airport on his first visit to Spanish-speaking Latin America.
"Benedict, brother, you are now Mexican," people shouted. ['BENEDICTO, HERMANO - YA TU ERES MEXICANO']
Volunteers led the crowds in chants of "Benedicto! Benedicto!" as passing drivers pounded their horns in encouragement. Vendors sold Benedict buttons, T-shirts, Vatican flags and key chains with the image of the Pope and the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The pontiff, who turns 85 next month, descended the stairs without the cane he had used when he walked to the plane in Rome, the first time he had walked with it in public.
Upon his arrival, Benedict referred again to the everyday violence that ordinary Mexicans confront, saying he was praying for all in need "particularly those who suffer because of old and new rivalries, resentments and all forms of violence".
He said he was coming to Mexico as a pilgrim of hope, to encourage Mexicans to "transform the present structures and events which are less than satisfactory and seem immovable or insurmountable while also helping those who do not see meaning or a future in life".
After the Alitalia plane carrying the Pope landed, the streets of Leon took on a carnival atmosphere. Police blocked traffic on the central boulevard the Pope would travel, and people lined up three and four deep on both sides of the avenue. Everyone stopped to watch the arrival on restaurant and shop televisions.
"Mexico is standing because we're a country that perseveres with hope and solidarity, we're a people with values and principals that believe in family, liberty, justice and democracy," Calderon said in a speech on the tarmac to cheers of "Viva!" from the crowd. "Your visit fills us with joy in moments of great tribulation."
Benedict acknowledged the historic nature of John Paul's first trip to Mexico - the first by any Pope. The 1979 visit, just months after being elected Pope and his first foreign trip, came at a time when Mexico's anti-religion laws were so restrictive that John Paul II was technically breaking the law by wearing clerical garb in public...
The week-long trip to Mexico and Cuba, Benedict's first to both countries, will be a test of stamina for the Pope, who is due to arrive in Cuba on Monday.
Many businesses and schools closed for the day in Leon, and thousands of people were travelling in on buses from across the country.
Benedict XVI himself would have 24 hours to rest at the nuns' convent in the Colegio de Miraflores of Leon, where he stayed, before his next public event on the program.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 25/03/2013 23:07]