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28/12/2008 15:53
 
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ANGELUS TODAY




On the Feast of the Holy Family today, the Holy Father led noontime Angelus prayers at St. Peter's Square and addressed part of his message to a Family Day gathering in Madrid organized by the Spanish bishops conference.

After the prayers, he delivered an impassioned appeal about the new violence in Gaza, calling for an immediate truce.

He also recalled the Christmas Eve Mass celebrated by Pope Paul VI in Taranto, southern Italy, in 1968, commemorated today in that city by Mons. Benigno Papa; and the centenary of the devastating earthquake that levelled the city of Messina, and how St. Pius X led the nation in assisting the victims.

In English, he said:

Today we recall how Mary and Joseph, after presenting Jesus in the temple, took the child to Nazareth and began their life as a family.

May all families strive to imitate their faith, hope and charity, so as to bear greater witness to the singular importance of the "domestic church" for the life of the universal Church and for society.

God bless you all!






Pope calls for truce in Gaza Strip




VATICAN CITY, Dec. 28 (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday decried the "endless" bloodshed in the Holy Land and urged all sides to end violence as Israel continued its deadly assault on Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

Benedict told pilgrims in St. Peter's Square he feels deep sorrow for "the dead, wounded, property damage, suffering and tears of the populations who are victims of this tragic succession of attacks and retaliation."

The Pontiff condemned the attacks and renewed his Christmas Day appeal that negotiations replace "the perverse logic of clashes and violence."

Israeli warplanes dropped bombs and missiles Sunday on dozens of targets across the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in continuing attacks that a Gaza health official says have killed 280 Palestinians and wounded 600 others.

"The homeland of Jesus cannot continue to be witness to so much bloodshed, which repeats itself endlessly," Benedict said from his studio window overlooking the square.

"I implore an end to that violence, which must be condemned in all its manifestations, and the restoration of the truce in the Gaza Strip," the Pontiff said.

He also called for a show of "humanity and wisdom in all those who wield responsibility in the situation" and called on the international community "not to leave anything untried to help the Israelis and Palestinians exit from this dead end" of violence.

On Saturday, Benedict's spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, told Vatican Radio that while Israel's offensive could deal a "very serious blow" to the Islamic militant group Hamas it could also damage peace prospects in the Holy Land.

Benedict is expected to visit the Holy Land in May. It would be the first papal pilgrimage to Israel and the Palestinian territories since his predecessor, John Paul II, traveled to the Holy Land in 2000.


Here's an initial story about the pro-family Mass and rally in Madrid that the Pope addressed by satellite broadcast today. A preliminary story about this was posted by Benefan yesterday in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH:


Big pro-family rally in Madrid
By DANIEL WOOLLS



MADRID, Spain, Dec. 28 (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people attended a Mass in central Madrid on Sunday designed to promote traditional family values in a predominantly Roman Catholic country that has legalized gay marriage and made it easier for people to divorce.

The service started with a message from Pope Benedict XVI, who urged Spanish Catholics to keep their families strong.

"Dear families, do not let love, openness to life and the incomparable links that join your homes weaken," the pope said in a message read out in Madrid. "The Pope is by your side," the Pontiff added.

The archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, added: "the future of humanity depends on the family, the Christian family."

"It is possible to conceive, organize and live marriage and family in a very different way from what is in fashion in so many areas of our society," he said in a homily.

Neither police nor city officials would give an estimate of how many people attended, but the crowd appeared to number in the hundreds of thousands. In chilly, overcast weather, the faithful packed downtown Plaza de Colon and spilled out into streets running off from it in four directions.

Maria Rosa de la Cierva, leader of a church association representing Catholics in Madrid province, predicted before the Mass began that up to a million people would attend.

Spain's Socialist government has angered the church by legalizing gay marriage, making it easy for people to divorce and instituting a public school course in which children learn about homosexuality and same-sex marriages. It is also considering easing Spain's restrictive abortion law.

Rouco Varela called abortion one of the worst "scourges" of modern times. He concelebrated the Mass along with five other archbishops, 22 bishops and more than 300 priests.


Plaza Colon rally on 12/31/07.

A similar Mass and rally were held at this time last year in the same square, and organizers put attendance at well over a million. Then, bishops criticized the Spanish government over its social policies but this time there were no such remarks.



Huge Catholic mass in Madrid
seeks to promote family values





AFP so far has filed the only two photos (above) of today's rally. Cardinal Rouco Varela is shown in the left photo.

MADRID, Dec. 28 (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of people Sunday attended an open-air Catholic mass in Madrid designed to promote family values in a country where the Socialist government has undertaken sweeping social reforms.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed the faithful from Rome on giant screens set up in the Plaza Colon.

"Dear families, don't allow love, the opening to life and the incomparable links that unite our family to become distorted," the Pope said in his Sunday Angelus prayer.

The Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, issued an appeal against "the shocking cruelty" of abortion, calling on families to overcome the "culture of death."

Spain's Socialist government has said it plans to introduce a new law that would offer greater legal protection for women who wish to have an abortion and doctors who carry out the procedure.

Since first coming to office in 2004, the government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has moved to transform Spanish society with a series of liberal social reforms, including same-sex marriages and fast-track divorce, which have enraged the Roman Catholic Church.

The bishop of Bilbao, Ricardo Blazquez, Sunday condemned any move "to call marriage the union of two people of the same sex" when a "normal family" is made up of "a stable union... between a man and a woman."

A huge Catholic mass in Madrid a year ago provoked tensions between the Church and the government after bishops criticised Zapatero's social policies, less than three months before general elections in which the Socialists were re-elected.




Here is how Vatican Radio's English service introduced its report today on the Pope's Angelus messages:

Artic winds gripped St Peter’s Square this Sunday, the first Sunday after Christmas, but the winds of war took pride of place in the Pope Benedict’s concerns as he greeted hundreds of fathers and mothers huddled with their children beneath scarves and umbrellas to pray the Angelus with the Pope and hear his address.

Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's words at the Angelus today:

ANGELUS OF 12/28/08
FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY




The Holy Family, N. Poussin, 1641. Oil on canvas.
The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, USA
.



Dear brothers and sisters!

On this Sunday after the Nativity of the Lord, we celebrate the joy of the Holy Family of Nazareth.

The context is most appropriate because Christmas is, par excellence, the feast of the family. This is shown by so many social customs and traditions, especially that of family reunions for festive meals and the exchange of gifts and best wishes.

But how can we not also highlight that these circumstances amplify the inconveniences and the pain caused by certain family wounds?

Jesus was born and grew up in a human family: The Virgin Mary was his mother, and Joseph became a father to him. They raised and educated him with immense love.

The family of Jesus truly deserves to be called 'holy' because it was entirely gripped by the desire to do the will of God, incarnated in the adorable presence of Jesus.

On the one hand, it was a family like any other, and as such, is a model of conjugal love, of collaboration, of sacrifice, of trust in divine Providence, of industry and solidarity - in short, of all those values that a family protects and promotes, contributing in a primary way to forming the fabric of every society.

At the same time, the Family of Nazareth is unique, different from all other families, because of its singular calling linked to the mission of the Son of God.

Precisely because of this uniqueness, it shows to every family, primarily Christian families, the horizon of God, the kind but demanding primacy of his will, the prospect of heaven for which we are destined.

For all this, let us give thanks to God, but also to the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, who, with such faith and willingness, cooperated in the Lord's plan of salvation.

In order to express the beauty and the value of the family, thousands of families have gathered in Madrid today, and I wish to address them now in Spanish:


I extend a heartfelt greeting to the participants gathered together in Madrid on this intimate holiday, in order to pray for the family and to commit yourselves to work for its sake with fortitude and hope.

The family is certainly a grace from God which allows what he is - Love - to shine through. A love that is completely free, which supports fidelity without limits, even in moments of difficulty or dejection.

These qualities are embodied eminently in the Holy Family, through which Jesus came to the world and 'grew in wisdom', under the exquisite care of Mary and the fathful protection of St. Joseph.

Dear families, do not allow that love, openness to life, and the incomparable links that hold your homes together, be devalued.

Ask the Lord constantly, praying together, so that your plans may be illumined by faith and exalted by divine grace on the path to holiness.

In this way, with the joy of sharing everything in love, you will be giving the world a beautiful testimonial of how important the family is to the human being and to society.

The Pope is by your side, imploring the Lord especially for those who most need health, employment, comfort and companionship. At this Angelus prayer, I commend you all to our Mother in heaven, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.


He concluded in Italian:

Dear brothers and sisters, in speaking of the family, I cannot fail to remind you that from January 14-18, 2009, the VI World Encounter of Families will take place in Mexico City.

Let us pray for this important Church event, and entrust every family to the Lord, especially those who are most tried by the difficulties of life and by the wounds of imcomprehension and divisions.

May the Redeemer, born in Bethlehem, give everyone the serenity and the strength to walk together on the path of goodness.


After the prayers, he said:

Dear brothers and sisters,

The Holy Land, which in this Christmas season is at the center of the thoughts and affections of all the faithful in every part of the world, is once again enveloped in an explosion of unprecedented violence.

I am profoundly pained by the deaths, the injuries, the material damage, the sufferings and the tears of the peoples who have been victims of this tragic sequence of attacks and reprisals.

The earthly homeland of Jesus cannot continue to witness such bloodshed repeated endlessly! I implore for an end to such violence, which is to be condemned in every manifestation, and for the resumption of the truce in the Gaza Strip.

I ask for an impulse of humanity and wisdom from all those who have a responsibility for this situation, and I ask the international community to leave nothing undone to help Israelis and Palestinians come out of this dead end, and not to be resigned, as I said two days ago in the message Urbi et Orbi - to the perverse logic of encounter and violence but to take the road of dialog and negotiation.

Let us entrust to Jesus, Prince of Peace, our fervent prayer for these intentions, and to him, to Mary and Joseph, we pray: "Holy Family of Nazareth, trained to suffer, give peace to the world". And give it today, above all, to the Holy Land.

On Christmas Eve in 1968, Pope Paul VI celebrated Holy Mass at the (steel) plant of Italsider, now ILVA, in Taranto. To commemorate that event, the Archbishop of Taranto, Mons. Benigno Papa, presided this morning at a Eucharistic Celebration in that same place.

To him and to all the workers, I address a warm greeting. I take the occasion to express my concern for the increase in the forms of dangerous working conditions, and I make an appeal that working conditions should always be worthy for all.


Finally, in his greeting to Italians, he said:

Today is the centenary of the tragic earthquake that struck Messina, razing it almost completely to the ground and reaping thousands of victims. But the people of Messina did not allow themselves to be defeated and, sustained by extraordinary solidarity, raised themselves again.

My predecessor, St. Pius X, who would have wanted to go to Messina himself, sent the people of Messina enormous amounts of aid and took in their seminarians in Rome.

At a distance of a hundred years, I wish to send all the people of Messina an affectionate thought with the wish that Christian hope may always burn in their hearts.






[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/12/2008 23:08]
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