ALWAYS AND EVER OUR MOST BELOVED BENEDICTUS XVI
March 27, Wednesday in Holy Week
BLESSED FRANCESCO FAA DI BRUNO (Italy, 1825-1888), Soldier, Mathematician, Priest
He was one of the many sainted figures like Don Bosco who emerged in late 19th century
Turin. Son of a marquis, he was well educated and a trained officer in the Sardinian Army
around the time of Italian reunification. He caught the attention of King Vittorio Emanuele
who wanted him to tutor his two young sons. However, the King withdrew the offer because
of strong anti-Catholic feeling at that time. Francesco went to Paris to study astronomy and
mathematics, which was to be his lifelong passion. He studied with the two French scientists
who discovered the planet Neptune. Returning to Italy, he taught math at the University of
Turin but did significant charitable work on the side. Notably, he founded the Society of
St. Zita, originally to assist domestic servants and later, unwed ,others as well. He set up
a hostel for the aged and raised funds for a church to honor soldiers who died in the wars
of reunification. He obtained an age dispensation from Pius IX to study for the priesthood
and was ordained at age 51. He continued to teach but he also shared his inheritance with
the poor and set up a hostel for prostitutes. He published numerous articles on mathematical
theory for leading scientific journals and developed the Faa di Bruno mathematical formula
for the derivative of composite functions in calculus. He was beatified in 1988.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/bible/readings/032713.cfm
AT THE VATICAN TODAY
Pope Francis held his first General Audience in St. Peter's Square, with about 25,000 in attendance. He spoke on
the significance of Holy Week for Christians saying it is a time of grace that allows us to get out of ourselves
and go towards our less fortunate brothers to bring the love of Christ. He continued to speak only in Italian.
The synthesis of his catechesis in the different languages was read out by the monsignors who introduce each
language group.
[For someone who was elected in part because he represents 40% of the world's Catholics, it is strange that Pope Francis has not used Spanish at all, except for a brief remark at the end of his meeting with the international media the Saturday after his election.]
The Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations announced that Pope Francis will take possession of his 'cathedra'
at the Basilica of San Giovanni in laterano, the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, on the afternoon of Sunday, April 7.
At a news conference at noon today, the Vatican communications group presented a documentary on Pope Francis that
begins with the resignation of Benedict XVI and ends with the visit of the new Pope to the emeritus Pope in
Castel Gandolfo last Saturday.
One year ago today...
Day 2 of Benedict XVI's apostolic visit to Cuba. It started in Santiago, where he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Charity in El Cobre, presented the image with the Golden Rose that he has given to each of the Marian shrines he has visited as Pope. His visit to Cuba came on the 400th anniversary of the finding of the miraculous image off the shore near El Cobre.
The occasion was also serendipitous because one of the Missionaries of Charity sisters, Sor Teresa Kereketa, working in Santiago. was finally able to meet the priest, then Cardinal Ratzinger, she had been assigned to pray for specially as her 'spiritual godchild' when she made her vows 20 years ago...
From Santiago, the Holy Father flew to Havana where he paid a courtesy call on President Raul Castro in the afternoon, and then met with the bishops of Cuba at the Apostolic Nunciature.
MEXICO POST-SCRIPT:
3.4 million turned out for the Pope
From El Universal on March 26:
The governor of Guanajuato state, Juan Manuel Oliva, has reported that the total number of persons who took part in the events of Pope Benedict XVI's visit reached 3.4 milluion, and that the state came off the visit with a 'clearn balance'.
"The event has given us indisputable recognition. It was an organizational success that met its goals, with satisfactory results, and a clear operational balance", Oliva said at a news conference....
The sidebar captioning the photo reads:
The gates opened, and Pope Benedict XVI came out with an enormous smile to thank the mariachi who had been singing for him outside the Colegio Miraflores.
Two years ago today....
Benedict XVI paid tribute to more than 300 Italian civilians of Rome who were massacred by the Germans at the Fosse Ardeatine in 1943 to retaliate for a partisan attack on Nazi troops.
And three years ago....
The New York Times launched its scurrilous story accusing Cardinal Ratzinger of having failed to discipline a Milwaukee priest, Fr. Lawrence Murphy, accused of committing hundreds of sex abuses against deaf children in his care in the 1960s and 1970s, and whom the diocese forced into retirement in 1972. When the diocese decided to place him on canonical trial in 1996, more than 20 years later - for supposed violations of the sacrament of confession in some of the abuses he was accused of - the CDF through its then-secretary, Mons Tarcisio Bertone, approved the canonical trial but also mentioned the priest's request to be spared the trial because the charges had been previously investigated by the police before his retirement and were found not to be sustainable, and also because he was dying. In fact he died two months after Bertone's letter to the diocese.
The hue and cry falsely raised by the Times was particularly and deliberately malicious because all this happened long before the CDF was given specific jurisdiction over sex abuses, and because the diocese never informed the CDF about the case until 24 years after the priest's retirement, and only because it wanted to try Murphy for violating the sacrament of confession. It was made even more outrageous because the facts themselves from the documents that the Times posted online clearly contradicted the narrative put forward by their news report. (The Times actually believed no one would bother to check out the documents they posted so ostentatiously to 'prove' their good faith - in a shameless act of bad faith!)
The day after they broke the Milwaukee story, the Times followed with a report from Munich alleging that Cardinal Ratzinger, as Archbishop of Munich-Freising, had known - though no proof was offered for this - that a priest from another diocese who was undergoing therapy in Munich for sexual misconduct was given a pastoral assignment not long after he got to Munich in 1981. The cardinal's Munich vicar at the time had previously stated that he alone had been responsible for making the assignment.
Despite the hue and cry over both stories, they proved to be fleeting media sensations, collapsing into dust from the weight of truth against the media attempt to slander the Holy Father.
The New York Times used documents from Vatican-baiting lawyer Jeffrey Anderson who had filed a suit on behalf of one alleged victim of Fr. Murphy, naming the Holy Father, along with Cardinals Sodano and Bertone, as responsible for Fr. Murphy's actions. Anderson withdrew the suit earlier this year, after being unable to reply to the Vatican brief disclaiming any responsibility by Vatican officials for the individual actions of diocesan priests.
2013 P.S. At the time, Fr. Lombardi did send a brief written statement to the New York Times to protest the misrepresentations made in the article, and if he did not deliver it at a news briefing as he did the defense of Pope Francis from unjust criticisms by the Argentine left last week, it cannot be because it was Lent, because we are also in Lent this time. Needless to say, we didn't hear a word from Cardinal Bertone, who was personally involved in the episode and could have issued a word of clarification. It was Cardinal William Levada, writing both as an American and a member of Benedict XVI's Curia, who presented a factual rebuttal of the charges. Both statements can be found on the Vatican's site 'Abuse of Minors: The Church's Response'.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/03/2013 22:16]