maandag 19 september 2011
Pope calls on all to participate in new evangelization
Castel Gandolfo, Italy, September 18 (CNA/EWTN News) .-
Pope Benedict XVI called upon all Catholics Sept. 18 to participate in a new evangelization of the world.
"Today's liturgy reminds us that we are all called to work in the vineyard of the Lord," he told pilgrims gathered to pray the midday Angelus at his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome.
"He has given us diverse gifts, has assigned diverse tasks and determined diverse times for their performance. However, if we assume the work of our life with full dedication, we can expect the same pay: the joy of eternal participation the goodness of the Lord," he said.
The Pope based his comments on today's gospel reading in which Jesus recounts the parable of the vineyard owner who paid each of his workers the same wage regardless of how long they worked.
He also drew upon St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, written while the apostle was imprisoned and awaiting his death, in which he states that "for to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
This "new sense of life" comes from communion with Jesus Christ who, said the Pope, is "not just a historical figure, a master of wisdom, a religious leader," but is "a man in whom God dwells personally."
"His death and resurrection is the good news that, starting from Jerusalem, is intended to reach all individuals and peoples," said Pope Benedict. Thus all cultures are changed by being open to the truth that "God is love, he became man in Jesus and his sacrifice has redeemed humanity from the slavery of evil, making it a trustworthy hope."
"Today we live in an era of new evangelization," Pope Benedict said, drawing a parallel between the era of St. Paul and today. New evangelization is also a favored theme of his pontificate – the call to re-evangelize traditionally Christian parts of the world or, as the Pope put it today, the need for "regions of ancient Christian tradition" to "rediscover the beauty of faith."
"The protagonists of this mission are men and women who, like St. Paul can say: 'For me to live is Christ.' People, families and communities that agree to work in the vineyard of the Lord."
These are people who are "humble and generous" and who do not "ask for any reward other than to participate in the mission of Jesus and the Church."
"Dear friends," concluded the Pope, "the Gospel has transformed the world, and still is turning, like a river that irrigates a huge field."
After the Angelus, Pope Benedict addressed various language groups, including German pilgrims. He said he looked forward to his four-day visit to Germany later this week and hoped the people of his native land will "respond generously to the offer of the boundless love of God and work for the good that is in the world."
woensdag 14 september 2011
God is never far from the persecuted, says Pope Benedict
By David Kerr
Vatican City, Sep 14, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
Pope Benedict XVI said Sept. 14 that Christians should continue to call upon God even in times of trial, when he may seem distant.
“The shadow of the Cross gives way to the bright hope of the Resurrection,” the Pope told pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall for his weekly audience.
“We too, when we call upon him in times of trial, must place our trust in the God who brings salvation, who conquers death with the gift of eternal life.”
The Pope drew his observations from Psalm 22, which he described as “a heartfelt prayer of lamentation from one who feels abandoned by God.”
The writer of the psalm is “surrounded by enemies who are persecuting him,” and so he “cries out by day and by night for help, and yet God seems to remain silent.”
“My God , my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” is the cry of the psalmist to the Almighty.
Pope Benedict explained how the writer is despairing of the Lord rescuing him even though “the people of Israel called trustingly upon the Lord in times of trial, and he answered their prayer,” and in his own life “the Lord cared for him personally in his earlier life, as a child in his mother’s womb, as an infant in his mother’s arms.”
“Despite such adverse circumstances, though,” observed the Pope, “the psalmist’s faith and trust in the Lord remains.” So much so that he “ends on a note of confidence, as God’s name is praised before all the nations.”
The Pope said this is also the attitude all Christians should learn to have in times of near despair.
The best example of this trust in God the Father, said the Pope, is Jesus Christ himself, who also utters the words of Psalm 22 as he hangs on the cross of Calvary.
“He too seems to have been abandoned to a cruel fate,” noted the Pope, “while his enemies mock him, attacking him like ravenous and roaring lions, dividing his clothing among them as if he were already dead.”
Yet in his passion on Good Friday “in obedience the Father, the Lord Jesus, through abandonment and death, comes to give life and give it to all believers.”
Thus, by praying the “heartfelt and touching” Psalm 22, the individual Christian is brought to the foot of the Cross of Christ “to live out his passion and share the fruitful joy of the resurrection.”
Pope Benedict concluded the audience by imparting his apostolic blessing, before returning by helicopter to his summer residence of Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles south of Rome.
maandag 12 september 2011
zaterdag 10 september 2011
Pope speaks of God's presence during 'times of darkness'
Vatican City, September 7 (CNA/EWTN News) .-
Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square that they should look to the Bible's third psalm to recall that God is near "even in times of difficulty, problems, and darkness."
"In the Psalmist's lament," Pope Benedict observed in his September 7 general audience, "each of us may recognize those feelings of pain and bitterness, accompanied by faith in God, which, according the biblical narrative, David experienced as he fled from his city."
Pope Benedict presided over the Wednesday general audience at the Vatican before returning to Castel Gandolfo, his summer vacation residence.
His discussion of Psalm 3 served as the beginning of his treatment of the Psalms – which he called "the book of prayer par excellence" – as part of his continuing series of lessons on "the school of prayer."
Psalm 3, Pope Benedict recalled, comes from "one of the most dramatic episodes" in the life of King David, to whom the Church has traditionally ascribed the entire book of Psalms. It represents David's cry for help after his son Absalom usurped his throne, forcing David to flee from Jerusalem in fear.
The incident prompts David to exlaim: "How many are my foes, Lord! How many rise against me! How many say of me, 'God will not save that one.'"
David's persecutors, Pope Benedict noted, not only threaten his life, but "also seek to break his bond with God and to undermine the faith of their victim by insinuating that the Lord cannot intervene."
Their aggression against "the central core of the Psalmist's being" subjects David to one of the most serious temptations a believer can suffer, "the temptation of losing faith and trust in the closeness of God."
But the author of Psalm 3 also recalls that God is "a shield around me," and declares: "Whenever I cried out to the Lord, I was answered from the holy mountain … I do not fear, then, thousands of people arrayed against me on every side."
"By praying this Psalm," Pope Benedict told the crowd of pilgrims, "we share the sentiments of the Psalmist: a just but persecuted figure which would later be fulfilled in Jesus. In pain, danger and the bitterness of misunderstanding and offense, the words of this Psalm open our hearts to the comforting certainty of faith."
"God is always close, even in times of difficulty, problems and darkness," the Pope taught. "He listens, responds and saves." David's cry of desperation, then, is also "an act of faith in God's closeness and His willingness to listen."
Pope Benedict explained that the third psalm, like the entirety of the Old Testament, points to Jesus' experience of suffering, death, and final deliverance.
Through the words of this psalm, Christians can learn to "recognize (God's) presence and accept his ways, like David during his humiliating flight from his son Absalom … and, finally and fully, like the Lord Jesus on Golgotha."
When darkness and pain arrive, the ability to recognize God's presence makes an immense difference, as it did when Christ died in circumstances that seemed to have no redeeming value.
"In the eyes of the unrighteous it appeared that God did not intervene and that his son died," the Pope said. "But for believers it was at that precise moment that true glory was manifested and definitive salvation achieved."
"May the Lord give us faith," Pope Benedict concluded. "May he come in aid of our weakness and help us to pray in moments of anguish, in the painful nights of doubt and the long days of pain, abandoning ourselves trustingly to him – our shield and our glory."
donderdag 25 augustus 2011
Pope Benedict commissions millions of Young Missionaries in Madrid
BY MIKE JAMES
“Young people readily respond when in sincerity and truth, they are invited to an encounter with Jesus Christ”, declared Pope Benedict XVI as he bade farewell to World Youth Day (WYD) at Madrid airport last Sunday. Referring specifically to the two million young people whom the Vatican estimates participated in WYD he declared. “Now those young people are returning home as missionaries of the Gospel”…and – he added, speaking to the 800 bishops and 14,000 of priests and 20,000 women religious who had accompanied the young people on this pilgrimage – “they will need to be helped on their way”.
The Pope hailed as “Apostles of the 21st century” the young people from 195 nations around the world, who prayed and meditated, who sang God’s praises and celebrated undeterred even as they were buffeted first by heavy winds and dust and then drenched by a powerful thunderstorm at the Cuatro Vientos aerodrome where the final vigil and Mass took place.
The final week of WYD 2011 began on August 15 with thousands of them beginning to arrive in Madrid by bus, train, air and even hitch hiking from their Days in the Dioceses (DiD), enthusiastic but cautious, well aware that in Spain facing serious economic crisis, 21% unemployment rising to 35% among young adults, there were some vocal critics against any special treatment for the visitors at the public expense. But following a massive opening Mass in the Madrid city centre in which some 70 young Spaniards gave the warmest of welcomes to the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims, caution about public expression of their faith disappeared. Packed metro stations became spontaneous chapels of prayer and hymns of praise.
At one huge parish church of the Santa Trinidad that served as one of the many catechetical centres for English, standing-room only groups of young people from South Africa, the English-speaking Caribbean, India and Australia heard Archbishop Robert Rivas of Castries, Chairman of the AEC Youth Commission preach what he told pilgrims was his first sermon on the “Name of Jesus” as he invited them to deepen their personal commitment to Christ.
The next day Cardinal Wilfred Napier of Durban South Africa reminded them that they can be absolutely sure that “God will never let you waste your life if you commit yourself completely to him.” Jesus says to you,“Follow me and I will be right behind you.” He added that in an interesting initiative, the Vatican Pontifical Council for Evangelization is encouraging young people to devote a year of their lives to missionary work with 3 months of intensive training followed by the rest of the year in intensive service.
South Africans of all races joined together to lead powerful hymns and liturgical dance which symbolised the spirit of unity and fellowship transcending all differences of language, race and class that characterised WYD.
The traditional processions of statues and composite scenarios of scenes from Holy Week were combined with the Stations of the Cross on Friday 19, attended by more than a million pilgrims. Among groups who carried the cross from station to station were groups of disabled young people, groups working with victims of HIV/AIDS, and a group composed jointly of young pilgrims from Haiti and Japan, countries that have recently faced national disasters. The prayers invited all to solidarity and service of Jesus, suffering in all these and other groups around the world.
As part of his packed schedule Pope Benedict visited a home for disabled run by young religious at which an 18 year old young man, deaf from birth, gave the welcoming speech in which he testified that his faith gave him great courage in long periods of silence and solitude. His words brought tears to the Pope’s eyes.
The Pope’s schedule ran late when he spent half an hour listening and talking to a religious sister, 103 years old who entered the convent on the same day that Pope Benedict was born 83 years ago, and who had for the first time in those 83 years come out of her contemplative cloistered convent in order to meet with him.
Not all went perfectly well in WYD 2011. Central organisation was overwhelmed with the huge number of pilgrims who descended on Madrid. While security took the decision to close the main entrance to the vast aerodrome long before the scheduled beginning of the final mass as space was completely oversubscribed. This resulted in many tens of thousands of registered pilgrims having to trek many additional kilometres to reach other general public access areas. On the other hand well-stocked picnic packages containing 4 meals for the same tens of thousands could not be distributed. Limited access to public sports and other facilities (strictly only from 9 p.m to 9 a.m. and not at all from the morning after WYD ended) meant that groups found it difficult to find enough opportunities for planning and praying together outside the official programme. The massive thunderstorm and winds during the vigil caused the collapse of 2 of the tents where hosts were being stored for consecration the next day with the result that many pilgrims were unable to receive Communion at the final mass.
None of this, however, dampened the spirits and the tremendous witness of the millions of young people, challenging the conventional wisdom in Europe that young people have no time for Christ or serious commitment to eternal values. The day after the final Mass, three young women from Trinidad were at the entrance of a metro station looking for a homeless person they had befriended earlier to share their breakfast with him. And as Vatican radio reported of the enthusiasm and commitment of the young people at WYD, “This is the BXVI generation, they came, they heard and they understood, the apostles of the 21st century.” They return home to Syria and Sri Lanka, to China and the Caribbean, determined to witness fearlessly and to seek the help to do so that Pope Benedict has called Bishops, Priests, Religious and other church leaders to provide.
woensdag 17 augustus 2011
dinsdag 16 augustus 2011
vrijdag 12 augustus 2011
The acts we perform; the people we become
By father Robert Barron
From the 1950’s through the late 1970’s Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) was a professor of moral philosophy at the Catholic University of Lublin in Poland, specializing in sexual ethics and what we call today “marriage and family life.” He produced two important books touching on these matters, The Acting Person, a rigorously philosophical exploration of Christian anthropology, and Love and Responsibility, a much more accessible analysis of love, sex, and marriage. These texts provided the foundation for the richly textured teaching of Pope John Paul II that now goes by the name “theology of the body.” As was evident throughout his papacy, John Paul had a deep devotion to young people, and he wanted them to see the teaching of the church in regard to sex, not as a burden, but as an invitation to fuller life. In the context of this brief article, I would like to develop just one insight from John Paul’s rich magisterium on sex and marriage, for I share the perennial concern of older people that too many young people are treating sex in a morally casual way.
Karol Wojtyla taught that in making an ethical decision, a moral agent does not only give rise to a particular act, but he also contributes to the person he is becoming. Every time I perform a moral act, I am building up my character, and every time I perform an unethical act, I am compromising my character. A sufficient number of virtuous acts, in time, shapes me in such a way that I can predictably and reliably perform virtuously in the future, and a sufficient number of vicious acts can misshape me in such a way that I am typically incapable of choosing rightly in the future. This is not judgmentalism; it is a kind of spiritual/moral physics, an articulation of a basic law. We see the same principle at work in sports. If you swing the golf club the wrong way enough times, you become a bad golfer, that is to say, someone habitually incapable of hitting the ball straight and far. And if you swing the club correctly enough times, you become a good golfer, someone habitually given to hitting the ball straight and far.
John Paul put his finger on a problem typical of our time, namely, that people think that they can do lots of bad things while still remaining, deep down, “good persons,” as though their characters are separable from the particular things that they do. In point of fact, a person who habitually engages in self-absorbed, self-destructive, and manipulative behavior is slowly but surely warping her character, turning herself into a self-absorbed, self-destructive, and manipulative person. Viewed from a slightly different angle, this is the problem of separating “self” from the body, as though the “real person” hides under or behind the concrete moves of the body. Catholic philosophy and theology have battled this kind of dualism for centuries, insisting that the self is a composite of spirit and matter. In fact, it is fascinating to note how often this gnostic conception of the person (to give it its proper name) asserts itself and how often the Church has risen up to oppose it.
Now apply this principle to sexual behavior. Study after study has shown that teen-agers and college students are participating more and more in a “hook-up” culture, an environment in which the most casual and impersonal forms of sexual behavior are accepted as a matter of course. As recently as 25 or 30 years ago, there was still, even among teen-agers, a sense that sexual contact belonged at least in the context of a “loving” or “committed” relationship, but today it appears as though even this modicum of moral responsibility has disappeared. And this is doing terrible damage to young people. Dr. Leonard Sax, a physician and psychiatrist, explored the phenomenon of the hook-up culture in his book Why Gender Matters, a text I would warmly recommend to teen-agers and their parents. He described that tawdry moral universe in some detail, and then he remarked that his psychiatrist’s office is filled with young people—especially young women—who have fallen into debilitating depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Dr. Sax theorized that these psychological symptoms are a function of a kind of cognitive dissonance. The wider society is telling teen-agers that they can behave in any way they like and still be “good people,” but the consciences of these young people are telling a different story. Deep down, they know that selfish and irresponsible behavior is turning them into selfish and irresponsible people—and their souls are crying out. Their presence, in Dr. Sax’s waiting room, witnesses to the truth of John Paul’s understanding of the moral act.
I might sum up John Paul’s insight by saying that moral acts matter, both in the short run and in the long run. For weal or for woe, they produce immediate consequences, and they form characters. And so I might venture to say to a young person, tempted to engage in irresponsible sexual behavior: please realize that, though you may not immediately appreciate it, the particular things you choose to do are inevitably shaping the person you are becoming.
* Father Robert Barron is the founder of the global ministry, Word on Fire, and the Francis Cardinal George Professor of Faith and Culture at University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein. He is the creator and host of a new 10 episode documentary series called "Catholicism" and also hosts programs on Relevant Radio, EWTN and at www.WordOnFire.org.
vrijdag 22 juli 2011
By Louie Verrechino
To wit, I would submit that the changes that have taken place in the sacred liturgy since the Council closed find their impetus in but one of two places; either the guiding hand of the Holy Spirit or the deceptions of the Devil. That’s just the milk.
The solid food that relatively few can digest is this – many of the changes foist upon the sacred liturgy over the last 40 years fall into the latter category.
To be very clear, the ever evolving state of the Pilgrim Church, and likewise Her liturgy, is evidenced by a deepened understanding of Divine revelation and an increasing awareness of Sacred Mystery as She and Her members grow in holiness; i.e. Her progression toward heavenly perfection.
When there is evidence, however, that the Church has allowed Herself and Her members in any given age or circumstance to become infected by worldliness, we must be willing to identify it for what it is – a sign of regression.
The former, of course, is the work of the Holy Spirit who leads the Church into all truth along the way of salvation. The latter, quite obviously, is the work of His adversary who even now seeks to deceive men into joining him in destroying all that is good and holy. Of this there can be no doubt.
As Jesus said, “One is either with me or against me” (Mt. 5:30), and with the parameters so set let’s turn our attention toward the state of the sacred liturgy as it currently exists at this point in the ongoing process of reform.
While drawing direct point-by-point comparisons to the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite is not my ultimate intention, it is useful to do so in some measure. Consider for instance, this most basic observation:
Even a disinterested observer can see that in simple appearance alone (i.e. as evidenced by the liturgy’s visible signs) the Ordinary Form as it is commonly celebrated bears far greater resemblance to any number of Protestant praise and worship services than its traditional counterpart.
Can anyone sincerely deny that the attention of God’s people has drifted away from Sacred Mystery in the newly configured celebration, away from the sacrificial character of the Mass, and away from the Redemptive work carried out by Christ therein?
This more “Protestantized” form of the liturgy has clearly fallen short (in its outward signs) to communicate the unique presence and operations of Christ in the Catholic liturgy; for who in their right mind would ever consider trading the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass for a community prayer meeting as so many have since the Council closed?
More importantly as it relates to the topic at hand we must ask ourselves to whom shall we attribute the impetus for this phenomenon - the guiding hand of the Spirit or the influence (albeit frequently unknown even to those who comply) of the Enemy? It’s not a difficult choice.
Let’s continue by examining some of the specific changes in the Mass by the light of “Sacrosanctum Concilium;” the supposed blueprint for the reform.
Though the Council neither suggested nor encouraged as much, the altar of Sacrifice has been replaced by a structure that by no mere coincidence resembles a “table” upon which a “meal” is prepared, allowing for the priest to approach as contemporary man now commonly does in the ordinary course of secular life; facing his guests as he invites them to partake in a communal event.
Of course, this is the only arrangement that most Catholics today have ever known, but if we simply shake off the dust of familiarity to view this remarkable liturgical change within the context of the Church’s great liturgical tradition, this is a breathtakingly bold innovation that most people simply accept without question.
Those who crave solid food, however, cannot help but wonder how, given the Council’s utter and complete silence on the subject, such a drastic change ever came to be? To rephrase the question in accordance with the current exercise; if the “reformers” who pushed forward this innovation were not following the voice of the Council, whose voice were they following? Stated yet another way, who were they serving?
In most places where the Ordinary Form is celebrated, another stunning change without conciliar foundation can be witnessed as laymen and women (in numbers far exceeding priests) hand out Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament to other laity who come forward to take Him in their hands to place in their mouths like common food.
Further observation reveals how often, thanks to these innovations, the Blessed Sacrament is approached in the most ordinary, casual and even sacrilegious of ways!
Only the willfully deluded, it seems, can deny the degree to which the Real Presence is routinely profaned in the process, most often in subtle ways such as the brushing of one’s hands free of “crumbs” after consuming, taking the Lord in hands that are unwashed, or by approaching the Lord in so nonchalant a manner that it would invite ridicule if one were to so enter the chamber of a judge at the local courthouse.
That said more ghastly offenses do indeed take place; like people of ill intent walking out of the church building with the Eucharist in their pocket, the Sacred Host being accidentally dropped or left in the pew, etc.
Add to this the fact that our current practice (which is carried out only by indult) has produced a class of “ministers” both ordinary and otherwise who are visibly uncomfortable (and in my own personal experience even hostile) toward the venerable and normative practice of dispensing and receiving Holy Communion on the tongue.
Acknowledging this situation for what it plainly is renders all appeals to antiquity as an excuse for continuing this abomination (the favored argument of progressives) utterly hollow.
Don’t be afraid to ask the simple question: Can anyone really be so naïve as to believe for even a fleeting moment that Satan does not delight in witnessing what has taken place with respect to our treatment of the Blessed Sacrament?
One cannot help but conclude that the Devil, who has already convinced many (clergy included) that he himself does not even exist, now in no small measure thanks to the changes that most just mindlessly accept in the way Holy Communion is given and received, is also making remarkable inroads in his attempt to lure foolish men into denying that the Lord is truly present in the Most Holy Eucharist!
En route to promoting that outright denial, Satan has successfully tempted men to practice idolatry-of-self specifically during the Rite of Holy Communion!
Information offered by the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions, which is relied upon as a resource by many dioceses, illustrates the problem very well.
The Last Supper was a ritual meal following the customs of the time. Communion in the hand was the universal practice then... Communion in the hand can deepen our faith in the dignity of every Christian as a member of the body of Christ, including our own personal dignity.
Setting aside the glaring error of omission in categorizing the institution of the Eucharist as a “ritual meal” apart from its sacrificial nature, note that this attention to “personal dignity” comes at the expense of recognizing the Divinity uniquely made present. This irresponsible treatment has, not surprisingly, been extrapolated to validate the rather ordinary use of “extraordinary” ministers as evidenced in the liturgical guidelines published by one U.S. diocese, for example:
This ministry (Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion) is more than one of convenience; affirming the dignity and holiness of all the baptized, the extraordinary minister of Holy Communion is a sign that all are called to share the life and sustenance of Christ with each other.
It is noteworthy that where the Council speaks of Sacrifice, the contemporary liturgist stresses “ritual meal,” where the Council focuses on the unique presence of Christ in the most Holy Eucharist, the progressive seeks a venue for calling attention to the dignity of man, where the Council Fathers highlight the unique role of the priest who acts in persona Christi, “extraordinary ministry” is stressed as a tool for diluting distinctions; where the Council promotes a liturgy that turns the hearts and minds of men toward God, the modern day liturgist seeks to draw man’s attention toward his own personal holiness.
Yet another common example of man’s self-focus in the liturgy lies in the fact that sacred music as Holy Mother Church has defined it throughout the centuries – including at Vatican Council II - has all but disappeared in most places. Enter into a conversation on this topic with those whose faith can only handle milk and the conversation very quickly devolves into a debate about personal taste.
We could go on, but at this let’s consider the Lord’s own words, “So, every sound tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears evil fruit. A sound tree cannot bear evil fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt. 7:17-19).
Make no mistake about it; Holy Mass is a work of the Lord. It is, in a sense, our fore-entrance into Eden restored. It is here where we are granted access to the Tree of Life in the form of the Cross and its most precious fruit, the Most Holy Eucharist, wherever it is validly celebrated.
We must not, however, allow this manifestation of God’s mercy to pacify us into ignoring the plain truth that human beings are still being seduced by the Evil One in this new garden as well. The Master Deceiver is constantly, and with some obvious success, enticing man to eat the bad fruit of the bad trees that we ourselves, if not at his urging his utter delight, planted in the liturgy with our very own hands.
Why is it so important for us to acknowledge this and to patiently yet diligently share it with others?
It is high time for the axe to be taken to our bad liturgical trees, but God help the faithful pastor who is determined to do just that! Nothing guarantees howls of protest and letters to the bishop like tinkering with the “me-centered” goodies that have infiltrated the Mass!
Knowing this, many a good shepherd is reluctant to do what is necessary lest the sheep turn into ravenous wolves. We need to pray for our pastors’ courage, yes, but we also need to take responsibility and have their backs.
After four-plus decades of liturgical madness otherwise misnamed as “reform,” there’s not a one of us who can still legitimately claim recourse to the innocence and ignorance of children in the matter.
The bad liturgical trees have matured, their rotten fruit are now plainly known, and the heady post-conciliar days of milk are over. It’s time for solid food.
Belarus’ Cardinal Swiatek, gulag survivor, dies
Minsk, Belarus, Jul 22, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
Cardinal Kazimierz Swiatek, the former Archbishop of Minsk who survived nearly a decade in the Soviet Gulag, died on July 21 at the age of 96. He witnessed the persecution of the Catholic faith and its revival in Belarus.
The Catholic Church in Belarus gave thanks to God for the gift of the cardinal as a pastor.
“God summoned his faithful servant, a witness of faith and a symbolic figure of the Catholic Church of our time, who lived a long, difficult and even miserable life,” Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz of Minsk said in an announcement on the Church in Belarus’ website.
The cardinal was born in 1914 in a part of the Russian Empire which is now in Estonia. With his entire family, he was deported in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. His family settled in Poland in 1922. In 1932 he entered a seminary in the city of Pinsk and he was ordained just before World War II.
He was imprisoned by the invading Soviets but escaped when Hitler attacked in 1941, Polish Radio reports.
After the Soviets returned, the future cardinal was deported to Siberia in 1945. He spent nine years of hard labor in the brutal Gulag system until his release in 1954.
He returned to Pinsk, now part of the Belarusian Socialist Soviet Republic, where repression of the Catholic Church would remain strong until the late 1980s.
When freedom of worship began to return, then-Fr. Swiatek helped organize the restoration of the cathedral in Pinsk. He also became active in working with nascent Polish associations.
Pope John Paul II appointed him bishop in 1989, and then the Archbishop of Minsk-Mohilev in 1991.
In 1994 he was made a cardinal as a result of his work on the revival of the Church in Eastern Europe. Though he retired in 2006, he remained active and respected.
Cardinal Swiatek suffered from poor health towards the end of his life and underwent several operations which Archbishop Kondrusiewicz characterized as a “new Golgotha.”
“From my heart I thank all those who were close to the cardinal in the difficult moments of his life and prayed for his intentions,” Archbishop Kondrusiewicz continued.
“I appeal to all of you, dear pastors, nuns and faithful people to pray for the eternal peace of our beloved pastor, that he be happy in heaven, living in the light of God's glory.
Funeral Masses for the cardinal will be held in the Archdiocese of Minsk and in Pinsk from July 23 to 25.
World Youth Day Madrid to counter secularized culture
By Kevin J. Jones
Madrid, Spain, Jul 22, 2011 / (CNA).-
In August Pope Benedict XVI will visit a Spain that faces aggressive secularism and controversies concerning abortion, sexual ethics and marriage. But World Youth Day organizers hope the event can trigger a revival of faith.
In May Archbishop Jose Ignacio Munilla Aguirre of San Sebastian, Spain said he hopes Bl. John Paul II will inspire the young people of Spain to attend the global youth gathering this August.
“In recent years they have endured years of secularization,” he said of Spain’s youth. “We are praying to John Paul II for his intercession, that he touch the hearts of those who need to be touched so that they will come.”
Pope Benedict XVI, during his two-day November 2010 pilgrimage to Spain, drew on the country’s Christian roots and noted the need “to hear God once again under the skies of Europe.”
That need could be met at the upcoming World Youth Day, where over 420,000 young people from around the world have registered.
But the event will take place during a time of tension caused by a secularizing government and society. Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela of Madrid in November 2010 said that here has been a “revival of radical secularism” that has prompted laws aimed at the basic institutions of society such as marriage, the family and the right to life.
In October 2009, more than two million people took part in a pro-life march in Madrid to oppose an abortion law that allows abortion on demand up to 14 weeks into pregnancy and for limited abortions up to 22 weeks. However, opponents failed to stop the law.
The country has recognized “gay marriage” since 2005, and the Socialist government has implemented a compulsory school curriculum which has come under many legal challenges. Critics say that the curriculum promotes secularism and sexual immorality, imposes an official view of gender ideology, incites 12-year-olds to engage in sexual activity, and violates the rights of parents and their children.
In a population of over 46 million Spaniards, 42.5 million are Catholic. However, less than 15 percent of the total population participates in Church life.
Even so, the Church still has a significant presence and influence.
There are 22,890 parishes, 126 bishops, and almost 25,000 priests in the country, and over 54,000 vowed religious, 2,800 lay members of secular institutes, and almost 100,000 catechists. There are 1,258 minor seminarians and 1,866 major seminarians.
Over 1.4 million students attend 5,535 institutions of Catholic education, from kindergartens to universities. Church-run institutions include 77 hospitals, 54 clinics, one leper colony, 803 homes for the elderly or disabled, and 391 orphanages and nurseries. The Church also runs 293 family counseling centers and other pro-life centers.
Pope Benedict’s visit will take place from August 18 to 21.
Why God lets bad things happen
By Russel Shaw
Why did God let that happen?
For centuries that question has been asked about items in the endless catalogue of human misery. About the Holocaust, Midwestern tornadoes, the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. And about intimate personal tragedies: a teenager killed in an auto crash, an old person dying unwanted and alone, a marriage that collapses amid bitter recriminations.
Why does God permit such things?
Start with the fact that whoever claims to have the definitive answer is either talking through his hat or doesn’t understand the depth and complexity of the problem.
In the Old Testament, God’s response to Job is blunt: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?...Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty?” Here and now that’s about as much of an answer as we can expect.
In the New Testament, moreover, Jesus, speaking of a man born blind and of people killed when a tower fell, dismisses out of hand the idle speculation of bystanders that these unhappy events were God’s way of punishing somebody’s sins.
All the same, it sheds a glimmer of light on the mystery to realize that the very same question—why does God let that happen?—applies as much to good things as to bad ones. Why does God permit happy marriages? A promotion at work? Satisfaction in a vocation? These happy things are as real as the unhappy ones, and God’s hand is at much in operation in the good as in the bad. Why does he permit them?
About the good things, of course, we suppose we know the answer: God permits them because he wants us to be happy. But that’s too superficial an explanation. God also wants people who suffer to be happy. So why does he allow their suffering?
Fully to understand why God permits anything, good or bad, we’d need to know the whole of his providential plan. But that is something we can’t know until we see God face to face in heaven. Then, presumably, it will become clear how everything fits together in the final fulfillment of God’s will. For now, we can only guess.
But we do have some hints to lend a hand in our efforts to cope. In a 1984 document called “Salvifici Doloris,” Pope John Paul II, following St. Paul, finds the “Christian meaning” of suffering in participation in the redemptive suffering of Christ. Suffering offers people a way to become co-redeemers with Christ, share in his redemptive activity, expiate their sins, and contribute to the process by which the merits of the redemption are extended to others.
So three cheers for suffering? Not at all. This explanation doesn’t attempt to say why God permits suffering. And it doesn’t pretend that suffering is pleasant. All it does—and it’s a lot—is invest the experience with meaning. For people who grasp it, that can have, in John Paul’s words, “the value of a final discovery, which is accompanied by joy.”
The redemptive value of Jesus’ life doesn’t lie only in suffering. It’s present in his life as a whole. From that perspective, it makes sense to think of the happy things in our lives as participations in the happy moments in Christ’s redemptive life: family affection in the house at Nazareth, productive labor in Joseph’s workshop, get-togethers with the apostles when things were going well. All of it had redemptive value along with the cross. Just as all that happens in our lives, both suffering and joy, can have redemptive value too.
donderdag 14 juli 2011
Father Anthony Jansen died at the age of 89
With sadness but thankful to God for all the pastoral work he did for the church and for our diocese, we announced that father Anthony Jansen died at the age of 89.
After recalling that 63 years ago he was ordained as a priest on July 11, 1948, our Lord God has taken him into his kingdom.
Father Jansen was born on December 1, 1921 in Holland and was ordained as priest on July 11, 1948.
He belonged to the religious congress Mill Hill Missionary.
He worked from 1949 till 1984 in Cameroon, Africa and from 1984 until 2011 in Saba
He died on July 12, 2011 in Saba.
The funeral Mass for father Antony Jansen will be celebrated Monday July 18 in Saba.
May he rest in peace.
_________________________
Mgr. Luis A. Secco
Bishop of Willemstad
THE IMPOSITION OF THE PALLIUM MASS
On June 29, 2011 at 10 a.m. over 40 Archbishops including Most Rev. Charles H. Dufour newly installed Archbishop of Kingston, Jamaica attended the Imposition of the Pallium Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City.
It was a most colorful and majestic ceremony with a delegation of 85 persons who came to witness Archbishop Dufour receiving the pallium from His Holiness Pope Benedict XV1.
The delegation came from Poland, England, France, United States of America and Jamaica which included 10 Priests, Sisters and Lay persons.
The highlight of the visit was the private audience with Archbishop Dufour and the delegation after the ceremony. His Grace was able to present to the Holy Father two of his guests namely his brother Anthony Dufour and Mr. Robin Mahfood, President of Food for the Poor International.
maandag 4 juli 2011
Vatican City State and Holy See back in the financial black
By David Kerr
Vatican City, Jul 2, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
The Vatican City State ran up a surplus of $30 million over the past year, after three years of deficit. The figure was revealed in financial results published July 2.
“Both the excellent performance of the Vatican Museums – thanks especially to the increase in visitors, which runs against the current worldwide trend in the tourism industry – and the upswing in financial markets contributed to this positive result,” the report noted.
The figures show that in the last financial year the revenue of the Vatican City State was $371 million, while expenditure was $341 million.
The annual results have been published by the Council of Cardinals for the Study of Organizational and Financial Problems of the Holy See. It’s a committee of senior cardinals drawn from around the world, who have responsibility for financial oversight within the Vatican City State and the Holy See.
The cardinals met in Rome on July 1 and 2 for a meeting chaired by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State. Today’s report was issued in the name of Cardinal Velasio de Paolis, President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs.
According to the report, there has also been a slight decrease in the number of staff working in the Vatican City State. The figure has gone down from 1891 in 2009 to 1876 in 2010.
The Vatican City State is a sovereign territory created in 1929. It is distinct from the Holy See, which has been in existence from early Christian times. It is the Holy See, and not the Vatican City State, which represents the Pope diplomatically across the world. The financial results for both were published on July 2.
They show that the revenue of the Holy See was $356 million in 2010 while its expenditure was $342 million, resulting in a surplus of $14 million.
The past year’s balance review for the Holy See would, in its own words, “seem to confirm the positive tendency of 2009, notwithstanding the elements of uncertainty and instability still present in the world economic and financial situation.”
It also showed an increase in the number of people working for the Holy See, up from 2762 in 2009 to 2806 in 2010.
The balance sheet of the Holy See got a boost of over $67 million from the annual collection held among Catholics around the world for the Pope’s charitable works, a tradition known as “Peter’s Pence.” That number is down from last year, however.
“The Members of the Council express their wholehearted gratitude to all those who contributed, recognizing that their generosity is a real and vital support for and participation in the pastoral and charitable work of the Holy Father, especially in situations of calamity and emergency in various parts of the world,” concluded the report.
Pope appeals for an end to arrogance and violence
Vatican City, Jul 3, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
A “rule of life based on love” is needed if we are to receive the “rest” offered by Jesus Christ to “all who labor and are over-burdened,” Pope Benedict XVI said during his brief Sunday Angelus address July 3.
“For this, we must abandon the path of arrogance and violence used to obtain positions of greater power, to ensure success at any cost,” the Pope told over 40,000 pilgrims in Rome’s St. Peter’s Square.
Pope Benedict said the offer of Jesus, recounted in today’s Gospel reading, testifies to his “compassion for the burdened masses, for they were like a flock without a shepherd.”
“That look of Jesus seems to continue to the present day, to our present world. His kind eyes gaze on the masses burdened by difficult living condition, but also those still searching for a valid reference point, for meaning and for a goal in life,” said the Pope.
He observed that such people are to be found “in the world's poorest countries, tried by poverty” but also “in the richest countries” where “there are many dissatisfied men and women, some even given to depression.” And he gave special mention to “the many displaced persons and refugees, those who risk their lives emigrating.”
“The true remedy for the wounds of humanity,” both material and spiritual, said the Pope, “is a rule of life based on love, brotherly love, which has its source in the love of God.”
This will result in a new attitude towards the natural environment, giving up “the aggressive style that has dominated in recent centuries," and also towards other people - where “the force of truth against every injustice, is one that can ensure a future worthy of man.”
After the Angelus, the Pope’s thoughts turned to the topic of vacations. He is departing the Vatican this week for his July break at Castel Gandolfo, 15 miles outside Rome. He encouraged pilgrims to live the summer holiday period “orientated towards rest and serenity,” and reminded them to take the Gospel with them wherever they go.
vrijdag 1 juli 2011
Pope Benedict launches new Vatican News website
Vatican City, Jun 29, 2011 (CNA/EWTN News).-
Pope Benedict XVI has launched a new Vatican News website with his first Tweet. The site officially went live on June 29.
The Pope got things underway with a message posted on Twitter: “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”
The new site brings together all the Vatican’s communication outlets into one online location for the first time ever. The list of agencies includes Fides News Agency, the newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, the Holy See’s Press Office, the Vatican Information Service, Vatican Radio and the Vatican television service, CTV. Each will also retain their own independent website.
“The new portal is giving you the possibility of having a direct, immediate approach to the most important pieces of news from the Holy See,” said the President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Celli, in his first interview with Vatican Radio on the new website.
The new site also has a multimedia format, offering live-streaming of papal events, photographs from L’Osservatore Romano, audio from Vatican Radio and video footage that will also be available on the Vatican’s YouTube channel. It also links to other social communication sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.
Initially only two languages will be on offer, Italian and English, but that could soon change.
“After summer we need to have a restyling of the site and we hope to start immediately with another language – probably Spanish,” said Archbishop Celli.
“But our idea is to then offer the portal in other languages, such as French or German or Portuguese.”
The initial reaction from the online Catholic community today seemed to be overwhelmingly positive.
“Along with other Catholic bloggers, I have been heartened by the news.va website which makes news from the various agencies available easily in one place,” said Fr. Tim Finigan, the London-based creator of The Hermeneutic of Continuity blog.
“The Holy Father has repeatedly encouraged us to use the Internet in the service of the Church and is demonstrating publicly his support for our apostolate,” he told CNA.
“Although the Vatican website itself is still in need of improvement, the news.va website shows what can be done.”
Signs elsewhere also look positive. After only a few hours of going live, the new Vatican site already had over 3,000 “friends” on Facebook and over 36,000 people following it on Twitter.
On his 60th anniversary, Pope reflects on his vocation
Vatican City, Jun 29, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
“Thanks to the Lord for the friendship that he has bestowed upon me,” Pope Benedict said to a packed St. Peter’s Basilica as he celebrated his 60th anniversary of becoming a priest, a day that is also the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul.
“Thanks to the people who have formed and accompanied me. And all this includes the prayer that the Lord will one day welcome us in his goodness and invite us to contemplate his joy,” the Pope said.
Pope Benedict was ordained to the priesthood, along with his brother Georg, in the Bavarian town of Freising on June 29, 1951. Georg is with him in Rome today.
Appropriately, the music throughout today’s ceremonies seemed to have a distinctly Germanic feel, with pieces by Mozart, Bach and Handel included.
In his homily, the Pope repeatedly drew upon the words of Christ that were quoted to him by the bishop ordaining him 60 years ago: “I no longer call you servants, but friends.”
“Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice.”
“At that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way.”
At today’s Mass, Pope Benedict was wearing red vestments in remembrance of Saints Peter and Paul shedding their blood when they were martyred in Rome during the 1st century. He said that the life of the Christian – and particularly the life of the priest - is one that grows through joys and hardship. He drew upon another analogy of Christ’s – the vine and the branches – noting that for grapes to ripen and produce good wine “sun is needed, but so too is rain, by day and by night.”
“Is this not already an image of human life, and especially of our lives as priests?” asked the Pope as he looked back on his own experiences over the past 60 years.
“We need both sun and rain, festivity and adversity, times of purification and testing, as well as times of joyful journeying with the Gospel.”
“In hindsight,” he said, “we can thank God for both: for the challenges and the joys, for the dark times and the glad times. In both, we can recognize the constant presence of his love, which unfailingly supports and sustains us.”
The Pope said it is a close friendship with Christ that sustains the Christian – priests included – during such moments of darkness.
“What is friendship?” Benedict XVI asked, answering with an ancient Latin maxim.
“Idem velle, idem nolle – wanting the same things, rejecting the same things: this was how it was expressed in antiquity. Friendship is a communion of thinking and willing.”
The Pope then gave advice as to how to deepen that friendship with Jesus.
“The friendship that he bestows upon me can only mean that I too try to know him better; that in the Scriptures, in the Sacraments, in prayer, in the communion of saints, in the people who come to me, sent by him, I try to come to know the Lord himself more and more.”
Today’s papal ceremonies at St. Peter’s also included the bestowal of the pallium upon 41 new metropolitan archbishops from around the world.
The pallium is a white woolen liturgical vestment emblazoned with six black crosses. It symbolizes an archbishop’s pastoral authority and his unity the Pope.
Among the U.S. bishops present were Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, Archbishop Paul Coakley of Oklahoma City, Archbishop J. Peter Sartain of Seattle and Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio.
At the end of the Mass the Pope processed out to the applause of the congregation and the strains of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah.
zondag 26 juni 2011
Pope Benedict calls Eucharist ‘antidote’ to modern ills
By David Kerr
Vatican City, Jun 26, 2011 /(CNA/EWTN News).-
The Eucharist is the medicine which can heal our individualist society, Pope Benedict XVI said in his midday Angelus address on Corpus Christi Sunday.
“In an increasingly individualistic culture in which Western societies are immersed - and which is tending to spread throughout the world - the Eucharist is a kind of ‘antidote’ which operates in the minds and hearts of believers and is continually sowing in them the logic of communion, of service, of sharing - in other words, the logic of the Gospel,” said Pope Benedict to pilgrims in St. Peters Square on June 26.
Catholics believe that the bread and wine offered by Christ at the Last Supper literally became his body and blood - and that this same miracle is repeated by priests at every Mass since. Hence the name of today’s festivity – ‘Corpus Christi’ Sunday or ‘Body of Christ’ Sunday.
“From the Eucharist,” observed the Pope, “the Risen Christ is truly present among his disciples and working with the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the following generations through the centuries, the Church, despite the limitations and human errors, has continued to be a force for communion throughout the world.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the Eucharist as the “source and summit” of Christian life. As the Pope bluntly put it today, “without the Eucharist, the Church simply does not exist.”
The Pope noted this belief in the centrality of the Eucharist has manifested itself throughout the history of the Church, beginning with the earliest Christian communities in Jerusalem who shared all possessions in common.
“From what came all this? From the Eucharist that is the Risen Christ, truly present among his disciples and working with the power of the Holy Spirit.”
He then drew upon the example of the fourth century Abitene martyrs from North Africa who chose to die rather than deprive themselves of Sunday Mass in the face of Roman persecution. They proclaimed “Sine Dominico non possumus’ - without the ‘Dominicum’ - without the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live.”
Pope Benedict concluded by urging all pilgrims to turn to the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus, who was described by Pope John Paul II as the “Woman of the Eucharist.”
“At her school, our lives become fully ‘Eucharistic’, open to God and others, capable of transforming evil into good with the power of love, striving to promote unity, fellowship, brotherhood.”
woensdag 22 juni 2011
dinsdag 21 juni 2011
Deacons should preach less at Mass, Michigan bishop says
Marquette, Mich., Jun 21, 2011 / (CNA).-
Permanent deacons should not preach at Mass often. Rather, they should preach at other services and serve the Church in the course of their daily witness to Christ, Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Mich. has said in a new pastoral letter on the deacon’s role in the Catholic Church.
Bishop Sample’s 19-page letter, titled “The Deacon: Icon of Jesus Christ the Servant,” cited the principle that the one who presides at a liturgical service or who is the principal celebrant at Mass should also give the homily.
“This should be the ordinary practice,” he said.
Deacons should preach the homily at Mass “for some identifiable advantage for the faithful in the congregation, but not on a regular basis,” the bishop wrote.
He said deacons have the opportunity to preach in other contexts, such as at wake services, funeral and wedding liturgies outside of Mass, baptisms, liturgies of the Word, during the Liturgy of the Hours and during Sunday celebrations in the absence of a priest.
Bishop Sample noted that a deacon also “preaches” through “the witness of his life, especially in his marriage and family life,” as well as in his secular work and his role as a teacher.
The deacon’s ministry in the liturgy is not the “heart” of his service. Rather, he is called especially to serve the bishop by caring for the many works of charity “especially suited” to him, most often under the direction of his local pastor.
Although the deacon is ordained to teach and preach the Word of God, “the most effective preaching he does is through the witness of his life in loving service to the most needy among us,” Bishop Sample wrote in a column summarizing the pastoral letter.
The Bishop of Marquette had stopped accepting new deacon candidates until a study of their role had been completed.
In his letter, he announced that a man will not be ordained simply to “be the deacon” at a particular parish or mission. Instead, there must be “a specifically identified need in the community” recognized by the bishop in consultation with the local pastor. This follows the scriptural example of the early Church, where the Apostles chose deacons to minister to the needs of widows so that the Apostles would be free to pray and preach the Word of God.
In the Diocese of Marquette the prospective deacon will now need to have “a particular service ministry” for which he will be ordained, such as service as a catechist or in care for the poor, the sick, the elderly or the imprisoned.
This change will reflect the fact that a deacon’s primary ministry is “not in the sanctuary but in the service of charity.”
“I express my deep gratitude to my deacon brothers for their selfless service to God’s people in the image of Christ the Servant,” Bishop Sample said. “Let us pray for them and support them as they care for the special children of God among us.”
maandag 20 juni 2011
zondag 19 juni 2011
Installation Mass for Most Rev. Charles H. Dufour: A most wonderful occasion.
By Msgr. Kenneth Richards
In an atmosphere that was charged with expectation as with electricity, the presence of the Holy Spirit was truly felt as approximately two thousand four hundred (2400) persons gathered at Holy Trinity Cathedral for the Installation Mass for the Sixth Metropolitan Archbishop of Kingston, Most Rev. Charles H. Dufour, DD, CD. The Most Rev. Thomas Gullickson, the Papal Delegate presided over the Rite of Installation, and he was assisted by Archbishop Emeritus Most Rev. Donald J. Reece, DD, GCM., in seating the new Archbishop in his Cathedra.
Dignitaries present for the occasion included His Excellency the Most Hon. Patrick Allen and Lady Allen; the President of the Antilles Episcopal Conference, Most Rev. Patrick Pinder, Metropolitan Archbishop of Nassau Bahamas; Most Rev. Neil Tiedeman, Bishop Mandeville; Most Rev. Robert Kurtz, DD., Bishop of Hamilton Bermuda; Archbishop Emeritus of Kingston, Most Rev. Edgerton R. Clarke, DD.; Hon. Dr. Horace Chang, MP (representing our Prime Minister, Hon. Bruce Golding); Hon. Dr. Peter Phillips, MP (representing Leader of the Opposition, Most Hon. Portia Simpson-Miller); President of the Senate, Hon. Oswald Harding; Rev. Gary Harriott, General Secretary of the Jamaica Council of Churches; Rt. Rev. Alfred Reid, Anglican Bishop of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands; Rt. Rev. Howard Gregory, Suffragan Bishop of Montego Bay; Rt. Rev. Robert Thompson, Suffagan Bishop of Kingston; Members of Parliament; Members of the Diplomatic Corps; other Dignitaries; over one hundred & fifty (150) local and visiting Priests and Deacons; Religious Sisters and Brothers; Archbishop Dufour’s Family Members and overseas guests; the laity of the local church; well wisher; and members of the local media.
In a stirring homily that elicited periodic applause from the congregation, Archbishop Dufour, pledged to build on the legacy of his predecessors. His charge to the Archdiocese included the call for a recommitment in the following areas: to safeguard the dignity and sanctity of life from conception to natural death; to build on the efforts of his predecessors to restore Catholic presence and values in our Catholic Schools; to renew the value of family life as central to societal transformation and advancement. Archbishop Dufour also highlighted the importance of wholesome family life in facilitating the mission of the Church in building the Kingdom.
May the clergy, religious, and laity of the Archdiocese of Kingston respond to the charge of our Archbishop in making his charge to the Archdiocese a reality! All for the Glory of God!
Cardinal encourages 60 hours of adoration to celebrate Pope’s anniversary
Rome, Italy, Jun 17, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
Bishops around the world are encouraged to promote 60 hours of Eucharistic adoration for the sanctification of all priests, for new vocations, and for Pope Benedict XVI, who will celebrate 60 years as a priest on June 29.
Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Vatican’s Congregation of the Clergy, said this would be an ideal time to “gather around the pontiff and show him our gratitude, our affection and our communion for the service he offers to God and the Church.” Above all, he continued, it will show the commitment to “making the truth shine out in the world,” which characterizes his pontificate.
In his statement published June 16 by L’Osservatore Romano, the cardinal said the 60 hours of Eucharist adoration could be continuous or spread out over the month of June and should be embraced “particularly by priests.”
The statement was also signed by the congregation’s secretary, Archbishop Celso Morga Iruzubieta.
The Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (the Day for Priestly Sanctification) would be an ideal day to conclude the Eucharist adoration, Cardinal Piacenza added.
Through this special initiative, the cardinal continued, “We could offer homage to the pontiff with an extraordinary crown of prayers and supernatural unity, that shows the real center of our lives, from which all missionary and pastoral effort springs forth, as well as the authentic face of the Church and her priests.”
The Congregation for the Clergy recommended meditating on biblical passages featuring the Apostle Peter, the first Pope. It specifically mentioned chapters 20 and 21 of the Gospel of John, in which the Lord asks Peter if he loves him more than the rest, and chapter 16 of the Gospel of Matthew, in which Christ tells him, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church.”
Pope Benedict was ordained on June 29, 1951, together with his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, at the Cathedral of Freising in Germany, on the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul.
Love within Trinity overflows into forgiveness for man, Pope says
Vatican City, Jun 19, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
The love that exists within the Holy Trinity overflows into the love and forgiveness for man which is manifested by Christ’s death on the cross. That was the message of Pope Benedict XVI in his Trinity Sunday sermon during his visit to the tiny European state of San Marino June 19.
“So, in the mystery of the cross, there are three Divine Persons,” he told the 25,000 strong congregation at the country’s Serravalle Stadium.
“The Father, who gave his only begotten Son for the salvation of the world, the Son, who carries out the will of the Father to the very end and the Holy Spirit - poured out by Jesus at the moment of his death - who comes to render us participants in divine life, to transform our lives, so that our lives are animated by divine love.”
San Marino is situated in the north-eastern part of the Italian peninsula and is one of just three independent states in the world to be completely surrounded by another country, in this case Italy. It has a population of only 30,000. Pope John Paul II also visited San Marino back in 1982. That visit was for just one day, as is Pope Benedict’s today.
“The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one, because God is love: the Father gives everything to the Son, the Son receives everything from the Father with gratitude, and the Holy Spirit is like the fruit of this mutual love between the Father and Son,” said the Pope describing the Holy Trinity – the Christian proposition that God is three persons but one divine nature - as the “first and greatest mystery of our faith.”
To illustrate the Holy Trinity’s mercy for man, the Pope drew upon the first Bible passage read at today’s Mass. It recounted the disobedience of the Jewish people who, after being led out of slavery in Egypt by Moses, wanted a golden idol instead of God.
“All seems lost, all friendship broken,” said the Pope.
“Yet, despite having committed the gravest of sins, God, through the intercession of Moses, decides to forgive His people and calls Moses to ascend the mountain once more to receive His law, the Ten Commandments.”
God then describes himself to Moses as “a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” In these words, said the Pope, “there can be no clearer revelation” of the Trinity’s benevolence towards man.
“We have a God who renounces the destruction of the sinner and wants to show His love in an even more profound and surprising way right in front of the sinner in order to always offer the possibility of conversion and forgiveness.”
The culmination of this divine offer said the Pope, drawing upon today’s Gospel reading, is the incarnation of God-made-man in the person of Jesus Christ.
“The evangelist John refers to this statement of Jesus: ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life’.”
So while some may presume a God who would “come to judge the world, to destroy evil, to punish those who work in darkness” instead, said the Pope, “He shows He loves the world, He loves man, despite his sinfulness, and sends what is His most precious possession: His only begotten Son.”
San Marino claims to be the oldest surviving sovereign state and constitutional republic in the world. It was founded in the early 4th century by two missionaries, Marino and Leo, who were fleeing anti-Christian persecution in what is now Croatia.
The Pope noted how “Marino and Leo with their faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ, brought new perspectives and values to the local context, resulting in the birth of a culture and a civilization centered on the human person.”
And he urged the people of St. Marino to stay true to the ancient Christian faith of Marion and Leo.
“The temptation has crept in to believe that the wealth of man is not the faith, but his personal and social power, his intelligence, his culture and his ability to manipulate scientific, technological and social realities.”
“Thus, in these lands, the Christian faith and values have begun to be replaced with a presumed wealth, which in the end reveals itself inconsistent and incapable of containing the great promise of truth, goodness, of beauty and justice, which for centuries your ancestors identified with the experience of faith.”
Later on today the Pope will venerate the relics of St. Marino at the local cathedral before travelling back into Italy for a meeting with young people in the nearby town of Pennabili. He’ll then return to the Vatican by helicopter tonight.
maandag 6 juni 2011
Vatican to publish Irish Church abuse report in 2012
Vatican City, Jun 6, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
The first phase of the apostolic visitation investigating clergy abuse in Ireland has concluded with the announcement that an overall synthesis of its results and recommendations will be published by early 2012.
The report will focus on the nationwide mission of renewal announced by Pope Benedict XVI in his March 2010 pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland, the Vatican said June 6.
The investigators, known as “visitators,” had set out to examine the effectiveness of the present response to cases of abuse and the current forms of assistance provided to abuse victims.
They also considered the prospects of the “profound spiritual renewal” presently being pursued by the Church in Ireland.
Because of the initial evaluation, the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Catholic Education do not envisage further apostolic visitations. The visitors meetings with various organizations and individuals, including the local bishops, provided “a sufficiently complete picture of the situation of the Irish Church” concerning the areas under investigation.
The relevant Vatican dicasteries, or departments, will give indications to the bishops for the “spiritual renewal” of the dioceses and seminaries. The Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will provide similar recommendations for the religious institutes.
The congregation has analyzed responses to the visitation’s questionnaires sent to all institutes with religious houses in Ireland. Visits to some religious communities will follow.
The Vatican said that the visitation to the four metropolitan archdioceses of Ireland, the seminaries and the religious institutes was “very useful” because of the cooperation of everyone who took part.
“The Holy Father's sincere thanks goes to them, especially to the four Metropolitan Archbishops,” the Vatican said.
In April media reports speculated that the visitors would recommend the closure of the national seminary at Maynooth in county Kildare. The seminary authorities dismissed the reports as “without foundation.”
The four-man team heading the investigation into four of the key dioceses of Ireland consisted of Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, Archbishop Thomas Collins of Toronto, Archbishop Terence Prendergast, S.J., of Ottawa and Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, the former Archbishop of Westminster, England.
A parallel investigation has examined religious institutes.
The apostolic visitors have conducted penitential services in Ireland seeking forgiveness for the abuse of hundreds of children by priests and religious over several decades.
In February, Cardinal O’Malley spoke of a “window of opportunity” to build a “holier church” in response to the abuse crisis.
And a spokesman for Archbishop Dolan told CNA that after his interviews with 113 Irish seminarians he sees “much hope for the renewal of the faith in Ireland.”
Pope Benedict’s 2010 pastoral letter to Ireland asked victims’ forgiveness and expressed “shame and remorse” over the abuse.
Thirty years after AIDS discovery, appreciation growing for Catholic approach
Rome, Italy, Jun 5, 2011 / (CNA/EWTN News).-
The Vatican’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva says that 30 years after the discovery of AIDS, international relief agencies and faith-based groups are beginning to show an openness to the Catholic solution for the illness.
“We are at the beginning of a convergence in the sense that functionaries of international institutions and organizations and people from faith-based groups are talking across the lines and coming to respect each other a bit more,” Archbishop Silvano Tomasi told CNA.
Archbishop Tomasi’s comments come three decades after the first medical paper recognizing the illness was published in the U.S.
Based on a study of homosexual men in California and New York, the new ailment was initially labelled GRID, or Gay-related Immune Deficiency. Since then, the U.N. estimates that 65 million people worldwide have been infected by HIV/AIDS, with over 25 million killed.
The most significant point of departure between the Catholic Church and many other bodies involved in the fight against AIDS is over the use of condoms as a preventative measure.
“It has been proven and even documented now that the really effective way is to change your behaviour. And so, this has been our insistence,” Archbishop Tomasi said, stressing the Catholic Church’s emphasis on behavioral change over condom-distribution.
His comments also come in the week that a new report suggests millions of people are dying from AIDS because Western governments are refusing to accept that condoms are ineffective in curbing the spread of the disease.
The report, entitled “The Catholic Church and the Global AIDS Crisis,” is the work of the American public health expert Matthew Hanley.
“We are always told that condoms are the best known ‘technical’ means for preventing HIV transmission, but we are never told that condom promotion has failed to reverse those most severe African epidemics; behavioral modification, on the other hand, has brought them down,” says Hanley.
Hanley estimates that six million infections would have been averted in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade if the Catholic approach of fidelity and abstinence had been promoted instead of widespread condom use.
“That this is not common knowledge should give us pause. Public health leaders may increasingly recognize this reality – but remain, by and large, reluctant to emphasize behavioral approaches to AIDS control over technical solutions.”
Hanley’s report also claims that in east Africa, Uganda saw a 10 percent drop in the number of people with AIDS between 1991 and 2001 after investing in abstinence programs. The rates of infection only began to climb again when foreign donor agencies insisted on the increased use of condoms in the fight against AIDS.
Last month the Vatican held a two-day conference on how best to tackle the AIDS epidemic. It was aimed at finding common ground on the issue and included contributions from those who disagree with the Catholic Church.
vrijdag 3 juni 2011
donderdag 2 juni 2011
In the world, not of it: Facebook & Catholic Evangelism
By Andrew Haines
I spend too much time on Facebook. I’m working to fix that. Recently, I’ve gotten a little help from an unexpected place.
About 90% of my Catholic “friends” on Facebook drive me up a wall. Up. A. Wall. The newsfeed wall of my Facebook account, to be more specific.
I’ve got 700-and-some connections on the site — a pretty conservative number, all things considered. But lately I’ve found that I can’t log onto Facebook without being bombarded by pious images of (pastel colored) saints, public requests (and offers) to remember certain intentions during the rosary, and comment after comment linking the word “hugs” with “prayer warrior.”
All three together is enough to force my cursor back to the URL bar for an emergency trip to another site. Anywhere.
At first, I thought maybe my selection (or acceptance, really) of Facebook friends tended toward the zealously devout. But I began to realize, more and more, that being Catholic in a 2.0 world has become almost indistinguishable from emotivism. Social media is new soil for building up the Church. But many Catholics — “traditional” and “progressive,” alike — are failing to grasp the true meaning of Pope Benedict’s call to evangelize the “digital continent.”
The maxim to “be in the world, not of it” seems especially apropos, here. New media and web-2.0 apps are, quite definitely, a product of the world. And Catholics should be conscious and prudent when it comes to appropriating into personal life elements that can, quite easily, become vehicles for some very unholy content. There’s a hesitancy about social media — Facebook, Twitter, and the like — that causes believers to wonder just how such tools can (or ever could) serve the greater glory of God.
On the other hand, the potential of the interactive universe is too much to pass up. Where once we were limited to effecting Christian conversion in the hearts of our physical neighbors, now we can reach out to those around the globe and from entirely different walks of life. Catholics, as historical proselytizers, naturally desire to seize on such an opportunity.
What is happening though, I fear, is that caution is overtaking the evangelical spirit. Rather than pervading the world of the digital continent, we’ve begun setting up camp within it. In essence, we’ve begun to create our own digital continent. Instead of establishing beachheads and outposts with an eye to leading others toward Rome, we’ve begun to transport the comforts of the City into an electronic wilderness.
In short, many Catholics view the internet as a suitable place to grow in faith and virtue. But that view couldn’t be more wrong, or more destructive.
When Julius Caesar famously ventured across the Alps to meet the Helvetii and Belgae tribes, he never aimed to make Gaul his home. As a proud son of Rome, he sought to conquer the northern lands and their peoples, winning them for the glory of the Republic. The ultimate goal though was to expand Roman power, not to recentralize it in a foreign land. Caesar knew the value of preserving the patria; and in 49 BC, he returned there to inhabit it — and to rule it — himself.
The same thing is true for Catholics in the digital continent: there is a great deal to be won for the sake of the patria (the heavenly one more than the earthly). But the primary goal is not to inhabit a foreign land forever, but to introduce those who live there to the beauty of civilization.
Moreover, just as no good commander sets up a permanent outpost on foreign soil — for fear of becoming weak and indefensible — Catholics shouldn’t become too comfortable on the digital continent. They should be excellent navigators and explorers; but not inhabitants. Social media and web-2.0-based interaction are wonderful tools for sparking dialogue and conversion. But they don’t substitute for the human-to-human interaction that lies at the foundation of evangelical kerygma. Total conversion requires an encounter with a total person (i.e., the total Christ), and Christ is not incarnate in a digital body.
That Catholics seek to ‘conquer’ new media for the sake of the kingdom is laudable. But the longer we continue to relax in our surroundings — to make social media and the internet our home — the more at risk we become of losing what it is that makes us Christians: namely, our full participation in the living, breathing, human Christ, who is only truly present in the Eucharist.
Evangelism in a foreign land is fruitful only insofar as we can make an authentic call to discipleship to those who claim it as their home. That’s the goal of our progress in the digital continent — and it is helpful to recall that from time to time.
