MSM REPORTS THE CONSISTORY - OR DOES NOT
:
The Pope creates 23 new cardinals
VATICAN CITY - You should act with fortitude, uo the shedding of blood." With the solemn formula pronounced yesterday by BenedictXVI at St. Peters, the consistory concluded with 23 new cardinals, of which 18 are 'electors'.
So I checked the New York Times and the Washington Post, which did report on the consistory, but both used the AP wire-service story, evidently not thinking it an event important enough for a correspondent of theirs to write about.
The other major Italian daiies did report the consistory. The Times of London did not report it yesterday, but its Rome correspondent filed an omnibus report today, leading off with the Pope's appeal to pray for the success of the Annapolis conference before leading teh Angelus prayers at St. Peter's Square today..
Pope offers prayers for Middle East summit
By Richard Owen in Rome
From Times (of London) Online
November 25, 2007
Pope Benedict XVI today offered prayers for this week's Middle East summit at Annapolis, saying he hoped the participants would find the "wisdom and courage" needed to bring peace to the Holy Land.
He said he hoped the meeting would relaunch negotiations "to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict which for 60 years has bloodied the Holy Land and provoked so many tears and suffering among two peoples".
Pope Benedict was speaking at a ceremony at St Peter's at which he gave 23 new cardinals their rings of office and urged them to work for "peace and unity", a day after he had given the new 'Princes of the Church' their red hats. The Pope last held a consistory to create new cardinals in March last year, when he installed fifteen.
The new cardinals come from Italy, Ireland, Germany, the United States, Spain, India, Argentina, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Senegal, Brazil and France, and also included Iraq's first cardinal, Emmanuel III Delly, the Baghdad-based Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, who was applauded by the congregation as he knelt before the Pope.
The pontiff appealed for an end to the war in Iraq and deplored the plight of Iraq's Christian minority. "Our brothers and sisters in faith are experiencing in the flesh the dramatic consequences of an ongoing conflict and are living in an extremely fragile and delicate political situation," the pontiff said.
Eighteen of the new cardinals are under 80 and so eligible to enter a secret conclave to elect the next Pope. The other five, including Patriarch Delly, are over 80.
The new cardinal electors include Sean Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop John Patrick Foley, former head of Vatican Social Communications, Daniel N. DiNardo, Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, and Archbishops Andre Vingt-Trois of Paris, Oswald Gracias of Bombay, Francisco Robles Ortega of Monterrey in Mexico, and John Njue of Nairobi.
Cardinal Brady asked for prayers for peace in Northern Ireland, saying "I take this opportunity to ask people to pray that the peace process in Northern Ireland will continue to be a source of pride and joy and inspiration to peacemakers across the world".
Before the ceremonies the Pope presided over a debate on ecumenism at which the main report was delivered by Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the pontifical council for Christian unity. He said an historic encounter between Pope Benedict and the Alexiy, the Russian Orthodox Patriarch, would "help improve relations" but did not say when or where such a meeting might take place.
On relations with the Anglicans Communion, Cardinal Kasper told The Times during a recess that dialogue was "complicated" by its internal crisis over the ordination of women and homosexual clergy. "We hope they make a decision very soon. They cannot postpone all this crisis. There must be a decision made. But it is in their hands, not ours."
Relations with Protestant Churches generally were more difficult because of "an inner fragmentation", he said. "Some of them have turned to liberal positions, and there are now new ethical problems dividing them," he said.
Cardinal Kasper warned the gathering that the Catholic Church was losing members to Pentecostal and other charismatic and evangelical Protestant sects, and said it must "ask itself why". He said the Church needed a "self-critical pastoral examination of conscience" to confront the rise of such groups, which had 400 million followers worldwide, notably in Africa and Latin America.
"We shouldn't begin by asking ourselves what is wrong with the Pentecostals, but what our pastoral shortcomings are" Cardinal Kasper said. In Brazil alone the number of Roman Catholics is down from 90 percent half a century ago to 67 percent.
He gave the consistory details of a new document approved by a Vatican-Orthodox theological commission to heal the 1,000-year schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. In the document, Catholic and Orthodox representatives both agreed that the Pope has primacy over all bishops, but did not agree what authority that gives him.
Cardinal Kasper said the document marked the first time Orthodox churches had agreed that there was a "universal level" of the church, and that the chief primate was the Pope as Bishop of Rome. But he warned that the road to full unity would be "very long and difficult".
The document was agreed at a meeting at Ravenna last month (October) at which Russian Orthodox Church representatives walked out after a dispute with representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul), Bartholomew I.
The cardinals also discussed Christian relations with Islam and Judaism.
The wire services reported today's event only in the context of the Mideast appeal:
Pope prays for Annapolis summit,
urges prayers of wisdom, courage among participants
VATICAN CITY:, Nov. 25 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday urged the faithful to pray that the participants at this week's Mideast summit find the "wisdom and courage" necessary to bring peace to the Holy Land.
During his traditional Sunday blessing, Benedict noted that the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had called for a day of prayer before the U.S.-sponsored summit to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that opens Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.
He asked the faithful to join in the prayer for "peace in a region so dear to us and for the gifts of wisdom and courage for all the protagonists of this important meeting."
He said the meeting hoped to relaunch negotiations "to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict which for 60 years has bloodied the Holy Land and provoked so many tears and suffering among two peoples."
The United States is hoping that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will declare a formal resumption of peace talks, in the presence of a large international audience, at the two-day summit. Talks broke down amid violence seven years ago.
'
Pope calls for prayer
ahead of Annapolis summit
VATICAN CITY, Nov. 25 (AFP) - During his traditional Sunday blessing, Pope Benedict XVI said the US Conference of Catholic Bishops had called for a day of prayer before the US-sponsored summit to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that opens Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.
He asked the faithful to join in the prayer for "peace in a region so dear to us and for the gifts of wisdom and courage for all the protagonists of this important meeting." He said the meeting hoped to restart negotiations "to find a just and definitive solution to the conflict which for 60 years has bloodied the Holy Land and provoked so many tears and suffering among two peoples."
The United States is hoping that Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will declare a formal resumption of peace talks, in the presence of a large international audience, at the two-day summit. Talks broke down amid violence seven years ago.
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Sidebar from the Houston Chronicle team that covered Cardinal DiNardo in Rome - Tara Dolley (writer) and Smiley Pool (photos):
The rains in Rome
For the second day in a row the skies opened up as services inside St. Peter's concluded. Today's downpour was stronger than the previous day and caught thousands out in the open square.
Umbrellas were going for five euros each from hawkers in the streets. I'm told that one can be had for three euros away from the square, but business near the basilica was brisk at whatever price the hawkers asked due to the huge crowd of people streaming out of the Mass.
Those unfortunate enough to be without cover found themselves quickly drenched. That turns out to be a particular hardship for anyone wearing a cassock - of which there are plenty around the Vatican. A wet cassock "weights about 400 pounds" one unlucky clergyman quipped.
A little rain however did nothing to deter fifteen women who came 6,000 miles to perform the traditional religious dances of Mexico in honor of new Cardinal Francisco Robles Ortega. As most people fled in the rain, the dancers of Matachines de Monterrey were as hard to miss as they were exuberant.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 27/11/2007 01:37]