17/08/2007 15:46 |
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DOESN'T HURT TO MAKE THINGS CLEAR !
NB: On preceding page, new story about the trad-Mass celebrated in Vermont for the first time in 30 years.
The next issue of National Catholic Register
ncregister.com/site/article/3449/
carries an interview by Tim Drake with Father Z himself intended to clarify the Mass MP in simplest terms:
What Does the Motu Proprio Really Say?
By Tim Drake
National Catholic Register
August 19-25, 2007 Issue
FATHER JOHN ZUHLSDORF’s blog has been the go-to point for people seeking insight into the Pope’s new document extending permission to say the Old Mass. Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum was released July 7, and its changes take effect Sept. 14.
Father Zuhlsdorf worked as a collaborator for some years with the Vatican department charged with the pastoral care of those devoted to the older form of the Latin Mass, the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. He was incardinated in Rome’s Suburbicarian Diocese of Velletri-Segni, and is pursuing a doctorate at the Patristic Institute “Augustinianum.” He spoke with Register senior writer Tim Drake.
Is there anything surprising in the motu proprio?
Not really. A lot of the things were in place already. For example, it was already possible for a priest to say Mass privately with the old Missal. This was a disputed question. The motu proprio just resolves the issue. In addition, bishops were already able to set up parishes or oratories exclusively for the use of the older Mass.
Also, it had already been made plain by the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei that the new lectionary could be used with the older Mass; at the same time, it wasn’t obligatory.
Is there anything new in it?
There are some new things. For example, for a long time people have debated about whether or not the artificially created Novus Ordo constituted such a deep break in the natural, organic development of liturgy that it actually constituted a different rite. People can make good arguments on both sides.
With this document, the Pope talks about one rite of Mass in two different expressions or uses. We already have this description of a rite of Mass as a use with the Anglican use, where the Book of Common Prayer was adapted for those Anglicans who came into union with the Church with their priests under the Pastoral Provision.
What do you expect critics will say?
Critics will say that this will create division in parishes or dioceses and that the Second Vatican Council will be undermined.
What the Pope is trying to do is create unity.
All of the theory aside, the main concern of some bishops was that this would limit their own authority. That was worrisome to some bishops — that they wouldn’t be able to control this use. The bishops were right to be concerned about this, but at the same time it was perhaps too easy not to respect the rights and aspirations of laypeople and priests.
To a certain extent this document safeguards the authority of bishops while also stressing in a unique way the rights and aspirations of laypeople and priests.
It demonstrates Pope Benedict’s great confidence in laypeople and priests very much in union with Pope John Paul II’s 1988 motu proprio where he called for respect and generosity for those who are traditionally minded.
So, while this document doesn’t have much that is new, it changes the whole playing field. It bumps the needle toward the priests and laypeople in a way that simply was not present before.
So, what are this document’s aims within the Church?
One of the things this document aims to do is heal hearts that were broken after the conciliar reforms and the divisions that happened within families, parishes, dioceses, and even more formally with the break of unity with the Society of St. Pius X.
This document is really about healing different things — ecclesial unity, people’s hearts and the rupture in the Church’s life that came about after the end of the Council.
The Novus Ordo constituted a break with the way that liturgy had always developed — slowly, patiently, organically over long periods of time. Because the Eucharist is the source and summit of Christian life, to make such a huge change had profound ramifications for Catholic identity.
In 2005, during his Christmas address to the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict spoke of a hermeneutic — a lens through which we view a question — of discontinuity and rupture. Many people in places of influence adopted a false hermeneutic. Pope Benedict is calling for a hermeneutic of reform or continuity.
He’s calling for a reintegration of our traditions and past, not in an uncritical way, but in a good and holistic way. He is trying to reinvigorate, rediscover and re-propose a Catholic identity.
We’ve had ruptures in every institution of our Church — schools, universities, seminaries, parishes, chanceries, hospitals, Catholic media and publishing. There are wounds and breaks in our Catholic identity that are definitely in need of healing.
When you want to nourish Catholics, you have to nourish them on the Eucharist — both in the Blessed Sacrament and its celebration. This move on Pope Benedict’s part has as its aim to re-propose our Catholic identity.
The secular press will report that the Church is turning back the clock or that the priests are “turning their backs on the people.” What does this document tell the world?
We know that for a long time the Church as a whole, and Catholics as individuals, have been marginalized, pushed to the edges of the public square and denied a voice. There has been a massive effort to try to reduce faith to the private sphere and keep it there, and not let it be expressed publicly in any legitimate way.
The Pope believes that Catholics have a right to their own symbols, language, doctrines, forms of expression and prayer, and that they have a right to express themselves as Catholics in the public square. They have something to contribute and offer that the world needs.
In order for Catholics to contribute to the public square, we need to re-propose to ourselves what it means to be Catholic. Who are we now? Where are we from? Where are we going?
We have to have an identity that we can grasp and we need to know how to express ourselves.
This is profound, and it goes far beyond who gets to say what Mass where. This is one dimension of a much larger project of Pope Benedict’s.
The Pope is very gently pressing forward his proposition that Catholics have a right to be Catholic and express themselves as Catholics.
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17/08/2007 17:07 |
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Catholic-Jewish relations: Bumps in the road should not slow journey
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
August 17, 2007
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Summer brought a few bumps in the road of generally good Catholic-Jewish relations, bumps almost certainly caused inadvertently.
In a further example of how internal church matters can negatively impact the church's external relations, Pope Benedict XVI's July decision to widen access to the Tridentine Mass and his brief encounter Aug. 5 with Redemptorist Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, a Polish priest accused of anti-Semitism, led to expressions of concern by several Jewish groups.
On both occasions, the Vatican responded with statements reaffirming the Catholic Church's commitment to the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the completely new chapter the council opened in Jewish-Catholic relations.
Despite the hiccups, Oded Ben-Hur, the Israeli ambassador to the Vatican, said, "Officially and institutionally, relations are constantly improving."
In an Aug. 16 interview, the ambassador said: "Sometimes the mishaps, which look terrible at the beginning, can strengthen us by forcing us to clarify them. Trial and error is a form of education."
More than 40 years after the Second Vatican Council, "given the long and difficult history between Christians and Jews, we may expect bumps along our common road, but if the commitment of those who decided to walk this road together is strong, the bumps won't stop them."
At the same time, he said, "brothers should always bear in mind the need to be sensitive and to remember the reciprocal responsibility of brothers and to be more aware of the implications the moves they make have on our relationship."
More than a month after Pope Benedict XVI published his document granting wider use of the 1962 Roman Missal, often referred to as the Tridentine rite, concern continued over the text of a Good Friday prayer in the missal. Ben-Hur said the chief rabbis of Israel sent a letter of concern about the prayer to Pope Benedict in early July and were expecting a response.
The controversy demonstrated how even the most carefully studied papal document is open to interpretation and further fine-tuning.
According to most observers, the papal permission to use the old rite on Good Friday would be limited to parishes that always celebrate the liturgy only according to the 1962 Roman Missal, which is expected to be only a small portion of the Catholic faithful.
Even so, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, told reporters in late July that the problem of the Good Friday prayer would be studied at the Vatican and might be resolved by deciding that even those who use the 1962 missal would use the 1970 text of the prayer.
Ben-Hur said members of the Jewish community expect the Vatican to fulfill promises to correct the situation.
After the Second Vatican Council, the 1962 missal's prayer "for the conversion of the Jews" was replaced with a prayer that the Jews would continue to grow in love for God and in fidelity to the covenant he made with them.
By praying for the conversion of the Jews, the older prayer appears to contradict the Second Vatican Council's teaching that "God holds the Jews most dear for the sake of their fathers; he does not repent of the gifts he makes or of the calls he issues."
Writing in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, in December 2000, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote, "As Christians we are the inheritors of their faith in the one God."
"Our gratitude," the future pope wrote, "must be extended to our Jewish brothers and sisters who, despite the hardships of their own history, have held on to faith in this God right up to the present, and who witness to it in the sight of those peoples who, lacking knowledge of the one God, 'dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.'"
Two years later, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Commission for Relations With the Jews, told a U.S. conference that Christians cannot ignore their core belief in the universality of salvation in Christ.
However, he said, "this does not mean that Jews, in order to be saved, have to become Christians; if they follow their own conscience and believe in God's promises as they understand them in their religious tradition, they are in line with God's plan, which for us comes to historical completion in Jesus Christ."
Because Jews believe in the one God, creator of all and source of salvation, "mission understood as a call to conversion from idolatry to the living and true God does not apply and cannot be applied to Jews," the cardinal said.
While Christians acknowledge that all believers -- themselves first of all -- are called to ongoing conversion, the history of Catholics who forcibly tried to convert Jews and of Christian attacks on Jews during Holy Week have made the 1962 prayer a symbol of an attitude definitively rejected by the Second Vatican Council and the popes who have followed.
The council's presentation of the official Catholic attitude toward the Jews and Judaism "is still a small plant that still needs time to grow," Ben-Hur said. "Our main mission is one of teaching to overcome the abyss of ignorance" of one another.
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17/08/2007 17:52 |
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First cloistered Benedictine monastery inaugurated in Indonesia
Jakarta, Aug 14, 2007 / 10:36 am (CNA).- The first cloistered Benedictine monastery has been inaugurated in Indonesia, in the western city of Kupang. The monastery is the result of ten years of work by Indonesians and some Italian young people from the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Orte, in Viterbo, Italy.
Father Mauro Pace, pastor of the Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Orte, Italy, who also participated in the project, explained that in Orte, “We have had a Benedictine monastery for 300 years. A nun from this monastery visited Indonesia and saw there was great interest there.”
“There were many young girls who wanted to experience religious life,” he went on. “Therefore, this collaboration began between the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie di Orte and Indonesia.”
“In the last twelve or thirteen years,” the Italian priest said, “some thirty girls have come and the Bishop of Kupang suggested the idea of having a Benedictine presence in Indonesia, where this type of spirituality does not exist.”
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17/08/2007 23:04 |
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CHURCH MOBILIZES TO AID PERU EARTHQUAKE VICTIMS
VATICAN CITY, Aug. 17 - Vatican Radio today broadcast an appeal to Catholics all over the world to "put into practice the distinctive trait of all Christians, which is solidarity and generous charity to support the victims of the earthquake in Peru."
The Apostolic Nuncio to Lima, Mons. Rino Passigato, said: "The Church in Peru was present from the moment the earthquake hit on Wednesday night - priests, bishops, religious and church organizations have been in close contact with the victims since then."
He said that Caritas, the international Catholic charitable organization, has been active in first aid services through its parochial organizations in Peru, with priority to providing rinking water and blankets, "since it is wintr in Peru, and the nights are very cold."
Mons. Passigato said that when the earthquake hit, services were being held at two churches, and it claimed 20 dead annd some 200 injured at the parish of Luren* in Ica diocese, and another 30 dead in Pisco.
He said Caritas Italy immediately linked up to Caritas International and Caritas Peru to help in assistance to the first refugees, including a network to help the homeless persons, but especially to send aid to the more isolated rural areas who are suffering most because of the catastrophe.
Caritas mobilized to send water and food, field hospitals and pwoer generators to these aqreas.
In Italy, Caritas has started a fund-raising campaign for the Peru victims.
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*P.S. ON LUREN
Peruvians see miracle
in famous crucifix spared
during earthquake
Luren Church before it was destroyed
in the recent earthquake
Lima, Aug 17, 2007(CNA)- Peruvians are calling it a miracle that despite the massive destruction to the ShRine of Luren — located in the province of Ica - in the August 15 earthquake in Peru, the huge crucifix venerated for centuries by Peruvians was unscathed.
The image of the Crucified Christ, which has been venerated in the city of Ica since the 16th century, suffered no damage even though half of the shrine was destroyed by the 8.0 magnitude quake that shook the Peruvian coastline and took the lives of more than 600, leaving thousands wounded.
Officials said the shrine suffered severe damage and that there may still be victims buried beneath the rubble, as the church was almost full when the earthquake struck during a Mass for the Feast of the Assumption.
The Shrine of Luren, which dates to the 16th century, has been destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions due to earthquakes and fires. However, the famous image of the Crucified Christ has always remained intact.
The pastor of the shrine has left the lectionary that was used during the Mass open in an accessible part of the church, as rescue workers dig to find more victims.
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American CRS mobilized
Baltimore, MD, August 16, 2007 - Catholic Relief Services (CRS) staff in Peru are rushing to assist survivors of the country's worst earthquake in more than 30 years. More than 450 people are reported dead, and over 1,500 others injured.
Last night's powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake toppled homes, churches and buildings from the temblor's epicenter in the Department of Ica to the capitol city Lima, over 100 miles away. Powerful aftershocks, registering as high as 6.0 are expected to continue, putting people already affected by extreme winter weather at even greater risk.
Initial reports from Ica say bodies remain buried in the rubble, and hospitals are struggling to provide care. Thousands of victims, now homeless, are seeking shelter.
The Pan American Highway, the only thoroughfare on the coast of Peru, is severely damaged, making what is normally a 2.5-hour journey into one of more than 8 hours. And the destruction of phone lines and cellular towers has further hampered relief efforts.
CRS field staff are identifying critical needs and coordinating the delivery of life-saving supplies. Based on past CRS disaster relief efforts, medical equipment, food, shelter, blankets and other life-saving supplies will be critical over the next several days.
The government of Peru has declared a state of emergency, and countries such as Mexico and Panama have pledged aid.
CRS staff on the ground in Peru available for interviews. Please contact Robyn Fieser at 410-951-7341 or e-mail her at Rfieser@crs.org. Biographical material is available upon request.
How to Help: Donate online: www.crs.org Donate via phone: 1-877-HELP-CRS Mail a check: Catholic Relief Services P.O. Box 17090 Baltimore, Maryland 21203-7090 Memo section of check: Peru Earthquake Fund
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency provides assistance to people in 98 countries and territories based on need, regardless of race, nationality or creed.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 18/08/2007 07:45] |
18/08/2007 00:17 |
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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE MASS MP Here's Part 2 of John Allen's column for today. Part 1 is about Shi'a Islam, posted in REFLECTIONS ON ISLAM.
Questions about the trad-Mass
All Things Catholic
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Friday, Aug. 17, 2007
Last week I addressed Pope Benedict XVI's early July motu proprio authorizing wider use of the pre-Vatican Latin Mass, and specifically ongoing debate about the prayer for the conversion of the Jews in the Good Friday liturgy.
Some readers wrote in to argue that the debate is academic, because the motu proprio prohibits celebration of the old rite, often called the 1962 Missal, during Holy Week. If that were true, no one would ever hear the disputed prayers.
In fact, it's not true, though it's easy to see how one might get that impression.
Article 2 of the motu proprio deals with private celebration. It authorizes priests to use the '62 Missal whenever they like, except during the Sacred Triduum, meaning Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
Article 5, however, deals with public celebration of the '62 Missal in a parish with a "stable group" of people who request it. This section places no restriction on celebration during Holy Week; the only limit is that on Sundays and feast days there's to be only one such Mass. In other words, the ban during Holy Week applies only to private celebrations. Public liturgies are permitted.
"There is no doubt that the motu proprio permits public celebration of the '62 Missal during Holy Week in parishes with a stable group of faithful," said Msgr. James Moroney, executive director of the Secretariat for the Liturgy for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The bottom line is that the prayer for the conversion of Jews, whatever one makes of it, will be heard during Holy Week in parishes that use the '62 Missal under Benedict's motu proprio, just as it has been since the more limited permission given by Pope John Paul II in 1984.*
This is not to say, however, that all questions about the motu proprio have been answered. Members of the Bishops' Committee for the Liturgy in the United States recently met to discuss matters that are still up in the air, and sometime soon Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, Pennsylvania, the committee chair, will send a letter to American bishops summarizing where things stand.
One outstanding question being raised by some bishops and canon lawyers is whether rulings over the years that apply to post-Vatican II liturgies should apply to the '62 Missal as well. The pope's motu proprio says the '62 Missal was never abrogated, but it doesn't spell out the status of subsequent disciplinary law.
For example, can a vigil Mass be celebrated according to the '62 Missal on Saturday evening? Can communion be administered under both species? (In the old rite, only the consecrated Host is distributed, and only on the tongue.) Can altar girls as well as boys serve Mass?
What about scripture readings in the vernacular? Some communities that celebrate the older Mass have adopted the custom of proclaiming the reading first in Latin toward the altar, then turning around and reading it in the vernacular for the congregation prior to the homily -- an option not technically given in the Missal. Will that practice, or something like it, be sanctioned?
In general, sources say, these are not issues that can be resolved on the local level. Instead, they will probably be submitted in the form of dubia, meaning "doubts," to the Vatican for clarification.
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On the day the MP came out, the USCCB - which obviously received a copy of the MP and the Pope's explanatory letter ahead of the public release - promptly came out with this relevant and, I thought, very sensible, answer in its 20 Questions on the Motu Proprio:
14. Does the wider use of the extraordinary form of the rites of Holy Week reflect a change in the Church's teaching on anti-Semitism?
No. The 1962 Missale Romanum already reflected Blessed John XXIII's revision of liturgical language often construed as anti-Semitic. In 1965, the watershed statement Nostra Aetate, of the Second Vatican Council then repudiated all forms of anti-Semitism as having no place within Christian life.
When Pope Paul VI issued the Missale Romanum of 1969, the only prayer for the Jewish people in the Roman liturgy was completely revised for Good Friday to reflect a renewed understanding of the Jews as God's chosen people, "first to hear the word of God".
Throughout his papacy, John Paul II worked effectively to reconcile the Church with the Jewish people and to strengthen new bonds of friendship. In 1988, Pope John Paul II gave permission for the Mass to be celebrated according the Missale Romanum of 1962 only as a pastoral provision to assist Catholics who remained attached to
the previous rites, thereby hoping to develop closer bonds with the family of the Church.
By this new Apostolic Letter, Pope Benedict XVI is merely extending such permission for wider pastoral application, but remains committed to "the need to overcome past prejudices, misunderstandings, indifference and the language of contempt and hostility [and to continue] the Jewish-Christian dialogue ... to enrich and deepen the bonds of friendship which have developed".
Now, why doesn't someone just ask, once and for all, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos of Ecclesia Dei - which is supposed to rule on such ambiguities - exactly what the Mass MP means in relation to the prayers for the Jews?
I have a real problem about Allen's and Bishop Monroney's literal reading of the MP to interpret authorization of the 1962 Missal means authorizing it in toto for public celebrations, though not for private ones - that's absurd on the face of it, it doesn't make any sense at all, and I cannot imagine that is what Pope Benedict XVI meant in any way!
Another point is that bishops who had publicly expressed great concern about the prayers for the Jews before the MP came out were among those invited to the Vatican the Wednesday before its public release. Is it really possible that Cardinals Kasper and Murphy-O'Connor - the two most vocal about their concern - did not take the oppportunity to clear this up with either Cardinal Castrillon or the Pope himself on that occasion? I am not aware that they have subsequently repeated their concerns, so I imagine they had their doubts answered to their satisfaction.
Still, a straightforward statement from Ecclesia Dei about this issue would really help clear the air once and for all. As mentioned in the other item about this today in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT, Cardinal Bertone and Fr. Lombardi - by saying in effect that the Vatican still has to study the question, though it should not be a problem at all - have just helped muddle it up even more.
P.S. I knew I had a reliable reference somewhere which specifically addresses this entire issue. Shortly after the MP was released, Fr. John Zuhlsdorf - who has an interview about the MP at the top of this page - wrote a very good clarification of predictable questions about the MP shortly after it came out, and I'm lifting the ff excerot from that piece posted in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT immediately cfollowing the first English translation of the MP:
Third, private Masses/liturgies in the old form can't be celebrated in private in the Triduum][the rites of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday].That is normal and reasonable. that is the way it is in the Novus Ordo.
In places where the older form is established in a parish for the older use, the Triduum CAN be celebrated with the older books. However, in parishes where the newer forms are the usual fare, and there is a regularly scheduled Mass with the older form, when the Triduum arrives, the older, extraordinary liturgy must give way to the ordinary. That is logical.
In the Novus Ordo, as in the older days, there cannot be two Masses of the Last Supper on Holy Thursday, two Good Friday liturgies, or two Vigils. So, in this case, the ordinary takes precedence.
Fourth, the issue of the Triduum and this reasonable restriction has nothing to do with the prayer about the Jews on Good Friday. This is simply a matter of what the Church's logical practice is based on the sacred nature of those Triduum liturgies. The Jews were not part of the equation.
Remember also that the 1962 Missale Romanum is used for the Triduum in those places where it will be permitted to use the older form at that time. The 1962 edition and not some earlier edition before the changes to those Good Friday petitions.
Fifth, as stated above, the 1962 Missale, the Missal of Bl. John XXIII is to be used, and NOT some earlier edition. Priests who are not adhering to the 1962 rubrics should be now ready and willing to adjust what they are doing. Lay people must be ready and willing to adjust their expectations.
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18/08/2007 02:01 |
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Venezuelan cardinal: Bishops might meet to discuss Chavez proposal
August 16, 2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)
CARACAS, Venezuela (CNS) - Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino of Caracas said the Venezuelan bishops' conference might have a special meeting to discuss Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's proposed constitutional reform.
The proposal "concerns the life of the Venezuelan people, of the Catholics of Venezuela and the rights of everybody," he said. The cardinal said Venezuelan Catholics should participate in the reform process, to make it "a peace treaty for all Venezuelans and not a declaration of war."
The reform proposal is to be debated in the National Assembly, but it is not clear whether the assembly or the people as a whole will vote on it.
Most controversially, the reform proposal presented by Chavez Aug. 15 would remove term limits for the president and concentrate more power in the presidency. Chavez, who made his name by leading a 1994 coup attempt, was first elected president in 1998, and his current term is to expire in 2012, but he has said he expects to hold office until 2021.
His proposal also would weaken regional governments, some of which are headed by Chavez opponents, according to reports in the Venezuelan press. Chavez said the reform would shift more power to the Venezuelan people.
Church leaders have been among the fiercest critics of what they see as Chavez's efforts to concentrate his power, as well as his government's violations of human rights and restrictions on press freedoms.
For example, Venezuelan Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara, a retired Vatican official living in Caracas, said recently his country was governed by "a paranoid despot." Chavez, in turn, called the cardinal a "bandit" and has accused the bishops of lying and politicizing the church.
The existing Venezuelan Constitution was written in 1999 by a Constituent Assembly convened by Chavez.
Chavez already dominates nearly all parts of government. Every single member of the National Assembly is pro-Chavez, and he expanded the Supreme Court by adding justices who back him. The National Assembly has given Chavez broad powers to rule by decree for 18 months.
Government officials promised that the proposed constitutional reform would be broadly debated within Venezuelan society. Vice President Jorge Rodriguez said Chavez already had demonstrated "the immense capacity he has and the permanent intention to consult about the great issues of Venezuelan society."
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...
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18/08/2007 02:14 |
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EWTN to Televise Live Tridentine Mass
Celebrated by the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
DENTON, Nebraska, AUGUST 17, 2007 – For the first time in its 26 year history, Mother Angelica’s Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) will be broadcasting a live Solemn High Mass at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama on September 14, 2007 at 8:00AM EST.
EWTN has asked for the assistance of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, an international Society of Apostolic Life of Pontifical Right, to help celebrate this "extraordinary" form.
This past July 7th, Pope Benedict XVI affirmed the beauty and importance of the Tridentine Mass by issuing Summorum Pontificum, a papal document encouraging and confirming the right of all Latin Rite priests to use this more ancient use of the Mass starting September 14th. The Tridentine Mass was the normative liturgy experienced by Latin Rite Catholics prior to the Second Vatican Council.
"Most Catholics have not seen this heavenly celebration in over 40 years," said Father Calvin Goodwin, a professor at the Society’s international English-speaking seminary located in Denton, Nebraska. "We are very excited to help EWTN and to support the Holy Father’s call for a wider presence of this form of the Mass. This is a cause for great joy."
Priests and seminarians from Denton, Nebraska will travel to Alabama and provide the celebrant, deacon, subdeacon, preacher, master of ceremonies and altar servers.
About the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter
Established in 1988 by Pope John Paul II, the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter is an international society of Catholic priests entrusted with the preservation and administration of the Catholic Church’s ancient Latin liturgical traditions. Over 120 seminarians are preparing for the priesthood in the Fraternity’s two seminaries in Bavaria, Germany and Denton, Nebraska.
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Another news release from the FSSP today:
WORKSHOP ON TRAD-MASS
The Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter in collaboration with Una Voce America will be offering another training workshop for priests interested in learning how to celebrate the “extraordinary form” of the Roman Rite.
The workshop will take place the first week of September 2007 from the 3rd (Monday) through 7th (Friday) hosted by Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary in Lincoln, Nebraska.
All the fundamentals involved in learning the Traditional Latin Mass will be covered. Priests will receive a complete explanation with hands-on practice of the rubrics of the 1962 Missale Romanum as well as an introduction to Latin, traditional liturgical principles, and Gregorian Chant.
A comprehensive materials packet will also be provided. The course will follow the same method used successfully in the workshops conducted this past June when the Fraternity trained diocesan and religious priests in the Older Use during three different sessions.Further workshops are being planned for the late fall.
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19/08/2007 14:52 |
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SRI LANKA
In the midst of war, 25,000 pray
to Our Lady of Madhu for peace
by Melani Manel Perera
Colombo, Aug. 17 (AsiaNews) – Nearly 25,000 pilgrims gathered the country’s most popular Marian shrine, dedicated to Our Lady of Madhu, August 15th, on the feast of Assumption, and to the sound of heavy shelling, pilgrims from across the country prayed “that peace may soon come to Sri Lanka”.
The Mannar diocese, where the shrine lies, organised a nine-day novena, rosary processions and adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. On the eve of the feast, Bishop Harold Anthony Perera of Galle diocese celebrated the vespers.
The following day, the Bishop of Mannar, Bishop Rayappu Joseph celebrated the mass together with Bishops Norbert Andradi of Anuradhapura diocese and Msgr. Perera. About 75 priests and nuns from South and North also attended mass which was celebrated in two languages – Tamil and Sinhala.
Father Jude Cross, director of the co-ordinating centre of Mannara, reported that “according to the Uylankulam check point, 400 vehicles of pilgrims had arrived at the Madhu shrine by August 15th, and we could see that pilgrims had put up their tents around the shrine in the jungle”.
According to both Msgr. Perera and Fr.Cross, between some 10,000 and 10 thousand Sinhalese pilgrims - from the dioceses of Anuradhapura, Chilaw and Colombo – made their way this year to the sanctuary.
Speaking via phone to AsiaNews the priest said that “the tension was there, and shelling from nearby areas – Pandivirichchanai and Mullikkulam….. could be heard”.
Msgr. Perera adds, “I could hear across the shelling sounds that both Singhalese and Tamil pilgrims were crying and invoking Our Lady of Madhu for peace when the procession going around the shrine and during the final blessing..”.
“I could see the tears of joy and pain…" continues the bishop, "and I realised that these pilgrims, devoted to the Virgin of Madhu, had travelled far and at great personal risk in order to come to the shrine, through various checkpoints along the road, I was deeply sad for their difficulties”.
The area where the church of Our Lady of Madhu lies, 220 km north of Colombo, is under the control of Tamil Tigers. One month ago the Sri Lankan Military and rebels signed an accord on a “No war Zone” around the sanctuary in order to guarantee the pilgrims safety during the main religious feasts.
On August 10th the authorities re-opened the main road leading to the shrine, a year after it had been closed due to the worsening civil conflict in the area.
Despite the ceasefire signed in 2002, for that last year and half the Country has once again collapsed into a state of civil war. The Tamil tigers are fighting for an independent state in the North and East. The conflict has been ongoing for over 20 years now and has so far claimed over 60,000 lives, 5,000 in the last 20 months alone.
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20/08/2007 22:04 |
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Ireland experiencing erosion of social cohesion, primate says, attacking secular project
August 20, 2007
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
MILWAUKEE, Wis. (Catholic Online) – Ireland is experiencing a gradual breakdown of social cohesion, said the primate of all Ireland, calling these "'the best of times and the worst of times'" in the Irish Catholic Church.
In a wide-ranging Aug. 17 address at the Milwaukee "Irish Fest" delivered at the Marcus Amphitheater here on contemporary challenges facing the church, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh stressed that "the secular project in Ireland" has failed to bring the happiness it promised.
"Ireland is in the throws of a rapid transition between old and new at so many levels: economic, cultural, political, social and, of course, religious," the archbishop said, noting to "the erosion of external authority" as Irish society's "first major axis of transition."
"The best way to summarize the overall situation of the church in Ireland at this moment is in the words of Charles Dickens: 'It was the best of times and the worst of times,'" he said. "The fundamental challenge in my view is for modern Ireland to retain the balance between the best of the old and the best of the new."
This includes taking steps to build community and support for marriage and the family, the archbishop said, noting that there must develop "a new maturity in public and media debate, where the importance of faith in the lives of so many Irish people, including many of the new Irish, is given due recognition and respect by the new forces of Irish culture."
He pointed to "evidence of a gradual breakdown in social cohesion."
"This comes from a cultural shift from emphasis on community and family to an emphasis on the happiness of the individual, particularly of the individual as a consumer," he said. "It is also tied up with a notion of freedom of the individual without reference to our responsibility to the common good that is so prevalent in Western culture at the moment."
Such an attitude has had dramatic repercussions on how Irish citizenry has viewed politicians, financial institutions, civil authorities and the Catholic Church, he said, adding that "multitude of investigations" has also added to the mistrust of "traditional sources of social and moral authority."
As well, the archbishop said the dramatic increases in violent crime, illegal drug usage, alcohol addiction and, especially among young people, binge drinking.
"Nothing has yet emerged to replace the cohesion and stability that these institutions once brought," he stressed, though adding its influence has been "partially replaced by the authority and influence of the 'mass media' – the commentariat."
Concerning the church, Archbishop Brady said, "the impact of the last 30 years has been particularly dramatic."
"The seeds of it were already evident in the challenges to the position of the church in key public votes on social and moral issues in the 70s and 80s. The slow decline in the very high rates of weekly Mass attendance, the trauma and scandal around revelations of clerical child sexual-abuse accelerated this process dramatically in the 1990s," he said.
He noted that Mass attendance as high as 90 percent three decades ago has shrunk to about 50 percent, with vocations to the priestly life "fallen dramatically in the same period" and parish restructuring in many Irish dioceses imminent.
And yet, he said, that this "time of great challenge for the church" is "also a time of great opportunity for the church."
"There are also many signs of hope!"
The archbishop pointed to the Northern Ireland power-sharing and "how well former adversaries ... are working together in the common interest." His meeting with Democratic Union Party and controversial Protestant leader Ian Paisley showed "how much is to be gained from simply meeting with others." "Patient dialogue, developing mutual understanding was one of the keys to finding peace in Northern Ireland," he added."
Today, Ireland needs to "build on the peace," Archbishop Brady said, addressing its "legacy of the past," particularly poverty in the North. "Northern Ireland remains one of the most deprived parts of Europe because of the legacy of conflict. Yet it has one of the most highly qualified workforces and one of the best infrastructures to support development of any part of Ireland or the UK" (United Kingdom).
He called upon U.S. companies to consider investment in Northern Ireland and the British Government to provide further incentives to such investment.
The "growth of prosperity" in the Irish Republic "has certainly lifted the burden of hopeless impoverishment from many families," he said.
The archbishop also noted the impact of more than 300,000 Polish migrating workers have had on Ireland over the last 10 years, stating that this wave of immigration has brought "a very strong faith commitment" to the Irish church. "In many of our inner city parishes," he said, "it is the new migrant communities who have brought new life to the faith of these parishes."
Archbishop Brady highlighted other "signs of hope for the new millennium," including: the peace process moving beyond political agreement into the deeper and more Christian concepts of reconciliation and the healing of memory; increasing the level of joint work between Christian churches; and, greater level of lay involvement in the church.
Yet in the face of prosperity, Ireland is challenged by the undermining of the values of family and community by "time poverty," Archbishop Brady said.
"To keep up with the consumer demands associated with our new levels of prosperity, people now have to have two incomes in the home, have to travel further and for longer to get to work and have less time to spend with family or doing 'community' based activities. All of this is adding to the stress and pressure of life," he said.
He said that unprecedented levels of suicide, murder rates and drug abuse are all warning signs that "any cozy assumption that our wealth will bring us a better quality of life is unfounded."
The Catholic Church may be smaller in the future, but one that "may also be a more authentic one," Archbishop Brady said, noting that "ironically, a smaller but more authentic church may have more influence, more impact because of the integrity of its witness."
On the last day of the four-day event, Aug. 19, Archbishop Brady was the principal celebrant and delivered the homily at an open-air morning Mass for Justice and Peace on the festival grounds. Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee and priests of the archdiocese concelebrated.
The Aug. 16 – 19 Irish Fest seeks to promote Gaelic heritage and Irish culture through music, dance, cultural exhibits, drama and sports. The first such annual event in Milwaukee was held in 1981.
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=2509...
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20/08/2007 23:38 |
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Archbishop says there is no 'cure' for priest with child
August 20, 2007
UCANews (www.ucanews.com)
MANILA, Philippines (UCAN) – The head of the Philippine church's marriage-appeals court disapproves of priests continuing in the ministry after fathering children and rejects efforts to "cure" these priests instead of "disciplining" them.
According to Archbishop Oscar Cruz of Lingayen-Dagupan, head of the National Appellate Matrimonial Tribunal, a priest who sired a child cannot be rehabilitated. "No matter how you assist this priest, that child remains and he has a natural obligation towards the child."
He stressed that parenting was "not only giving food, shelter or clothing, as people do with pets, but teaching, formation, education" as well. He believes "impaired personality constructs" cannot be "cured."
In Archbishop Cruz's view, bishops who "overlook" or "just forgive" misconduct by their clergy face problems. If one priest is "allowed to misbehave" and continue in the ministry, "there will be more," the prelate warned, expressing concern about tolerance sending a "wrong signal" to seminarians.
In the northern Philippine archdiocese he has led for 16 years, "about 17 priests have left because there's a woman, there's a child or there's a boyfriend," the prelate said Aug. 3 at the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) headquarters in Manila.
The former secretary general of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) spoke with UCA News as Asian bishops prepared for an Aug. 27-Sept. 1 seminar in Thailand on "Caring for Priests - Especially Those in Difficult Situations," sponsored by the FABC Office of Clergy.
"Caring for priests, for me, is seeing to it that my priests live their priestly commitment," he said. Priests who are "fooling around" should "just leave."
His tribunal reviews all decisions of lower church tribunals on cases related to matrimony. In 2000, he opened a section to help dioceses process dispensation cases for priests with children or partners.
Archbishop Cruz, however, said he could "only guess" the total number of priests with children. In the Catholic Directory of the Philippines, the former CBCP president noted, most dioceses list inactive priests who have fathered children among priests "on leave," "with no assignment" and other categories.
The 2006-2007 directory lists six priests as having "left the ministry," five with "no assignment," and two "on renewal." Another 685 are listed as being on leave for studies, on "sabbatical," "abroad" or away with no specified reason. It has 5,834 diocesan priests listed in 85 geographical church jurisdictions and 122 in the military ordinariate.
One priest spoke with UCA News before leaving to serve in a parish in the United States. His bishop disallowed him from saying Mass and administering sacraments upon learning he had children. However, he did not file papers for dispensation.
When he was "reduced" to selling "all sorts of things door to door," he applied for incardination in another diocese. He said the bishop asked him to "break off" relations with his children's mother, set up a system of financial support for his offspring and "re-enter active ministry far" from his family.
He served as "guest priest" in Manila in 2000 and took part-time jobs to earn extra money for his children until his acceptance in the United States. He is not listed in the latest directory.
Archbishop Cruz stressed "most" Philippine priests are "good priests."
Meanwhile, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales of Manila, chairman of the Episcopal Commission on Clergy, has acknowledged most bishops are "not of the punitive school of thought."
At the Aug. 15 inauguration of John Mary Vianney-Galilee Development and Retreat Center southeast of Manila, he told UCA News: "Thank God the bishops of the Philippines did not advocate the 'one-strike-you're out' policy." Instead, the CBCP "accepted" the position that the church should give "fallen" priests "help" to "repair the man (and) help him repent."
The commission maintains a priest with one child can undergo "curative measures," the cardinal said. "Singular events" may spell a "weakness" that can be treated "pastorally," and which can be healed through "a program that encourages a person to be better rather than just punishing him," he elaborated.
However, he stressed, a priest with more than one child is helped to leave the ministry. Moreover, "the church is very strict about those who have abused, who repeatedly hurt or take advantage of people."
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...
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21/08/2007 04:54 |
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More Thoughts on Tiny's Proposal
August 20, 2007
Maybe we'll all be praying to Allah
Kathleen Parker
IndyStar.com
August 20, 2007
It was bound to happen -- and it seems fitting that a cleric named Tiny would think of it.
Roman Catholic Bishop Tiny Muskens of the Netherlands has decided that the way to ease Muslim-Everybody Else tensions is to start using "Allah" instead of "God." Noting that God does not care what we call him, Muskens thought, why not yield a little to Muslim ways?
Or would that be submit, the literal meaning of "Islam"?
"Allah is a very beautiful word for God," Muskens said on Dutch television a few days ago. "Shouldn't we all say that from now on we will name God Allah?"
Muskens pointed out that in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country where he spent eight years, priests use the word "Allah" in Catholic Mass.
For the sake of peace, prosperity and clarity in the shire, let the record reflect that Muslims did not ask for this, though some in the Netherlands embraced the idea as a conciliatory gesture and in the U.S., some Muslims greeted the suggestion with enthusiasm.
Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told FoxNews.com that calling God "Allah" wouldn't require a theological leap for Christians. "It reinforces the fact that Muslims, Christians and Jews all worship the same God," Hooper said. It's not hard to understand why Muskens would tilt toward compromise. The Netherlands, which is now home to 1 million Muslims, hasn't been quite the peace 'n' love axis of the multicultural world, despite clouds of Silver Blue cannabis wafting from the city's famously mellow coffee houses.
Between the 2004 murder of Theo van Gogh, guilty of making a documentary film critical of Islam, death threats against fellow documentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and the recent Muslim attack of the head of a Dutch group for "ex-Muslims," one could begin to think of invoking Allah as a savvy survival technique.
Besides, as Muskens pointed out, Allah is a lovely sounding word. Thus, in the spirit of Christian charity and Western tolerance, I've been trying it out with mixed results.
The Doxology of my Protestant childhood is problematic with the two-syllable Allah instead of the monosyllabic God, but not impossible: Praise Allah, from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Not perfect, but workable.
America's familiar childhood blessing is downright euphonious: Allah is great, Allah is good, let us thank him for our food. But the Apostle's Creed is a mess: I believe in Allah the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only son . . . . Oops.
Contrary to Hooper's one-God claim, Christians and Muslims don't really worship the same God. Although both religions are monotheistic -- and if there's just one God, there's just one God -- Christians believe Jesus was the Son of God and Muslims think otherwise.
That's not a small doctrinal difference. In fact, at the risk of exhausting the obvious, Christianity doesn't exist without, um, Christ. Of course we could rewrite the Apostle's Creed to include Muhammad: "I believe in Allah the Father Almighty . . . and in Muhammad, his favorite prophet . . . "
The possibilities are infinite, really. Alternatively, we could pretend to be sane and suggest that everybody go to his or her own house of worship, pray to his or her own version of the Creator, and otherwise get a grip.
Changing Western language, symbols and making other accommodations to ease relations between old Europe and new isn't only a conciliatory gesture or even mere appeasement. It is submission by any other name.
Language may be a manmade limitation, as Janaan Hashim said, speaking for the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, which endorses Muskens' idea. But language is not meaningless. The words we use to define and express ourselves are the fundaments of cultural and social identity. John Stuart Mill put it this way: "Language is the light of the mind."
Muskens, who retires in a few weeks, conceded that his idea likely wouldn't catch on right away. We might need another 100 years or so, but he predicted that, eventually, Allah will be the word.
Given that European Muslims are procreating at three times the rate of non-Muslims -- and given the "logarithmic rate" of growth of jihadist ideology in the U.S., according to a new report by the New York Police Department's Intelligence Division -- it may be sooner than that.
Peace be upon us.
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Don't you just despise all these 'tiny' minds who seem to be all over the place and entertaining, even encouraging, one of the most stupid suggestions ever made? Yet the original TINY mind himself said, "God doesn't care what we call him", so why does he, TINY , choose one preferential name for God? He does not even follow his own logic.
Everyone thinks of God and refers to him in the way one is used to - GOD, DIOS, DIEU, GOTT, DEUS, etc... and if one is Muslim, then Allah [which, by the way, they pronounce AL-LAH! - two L's, pronounced separately, with the accent on the second syllable, and the final H sounded, with an aspirate].
Also, the habitually dissident Dutch bishop's delirious fantasy is such an isolated idiosyncratic aberration that I think it 'elevates' his cuckoo craziness to even consider it news about the church at all.
As a matter of curiosity, for some reason, in my country, among the Christian population, 'Al-lah!'[or Hal-lah!] is an expression of ominous warning, as in "Al-lah! You better not do that or you'll be sorry."
TERESA
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/08/2007 10:35] |
21/08/2007 16:50 |
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GREAT RESPONSE TO TRAD-MASS IN VERMONT
Here's the happy outcome of Vermont's first trad-Mass in 30 years about which we posted last week, thanks to Fr. Z for leading us to the article.
A sense of the sacred
By Gail Callahan
Burlington Free Times
Correspondent
August 19, 2007
For the first time in more than 30 years, Roman Catholics in Vermont had a chance to attend a traditional Latin Mass last week, and the overwhelmingly positive response means there likely will be more to come.
About 1,000 Catholics from across Vermont, New York, Massachusetts and New Hampshire packed the pews at Burlington's St. Joseph Co-Cathedral on Wednesday, spilling out into the vestibule for the 90-minute ceremony.
[Photo by ALISON REDLICH, Burlington Free Press]
The Mass, celebrated by the Most Rev. Salvatore Matano, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington, was filled with tradition: Incense billowed toward the ceiling; worshipers brought black leather-bound missals containing prayers in Latin and English; women donned lace mantillas, or veils, as a sign of respect; and a 14-member choir sang Gregorian chants.
Gloria Gibson, director of the diocese's office of communications, said the bishop and church officials will study response to the Mass and decide how often the celebration will be offered in Latin.
"This is wonderful," Gibson said. "I'm just delighted."
This form of the Mass was common from the late 1500s to the mid-1960s, when the Second Vatican Council called for reform.
When the Latin Mass was celebrated, the priest faced the altar rather than the congregation and worshipers knelt for Communion and received the host on their tongues instead of having the option of receiving it in their hands.
A Latin Mass has been on the drawing board since early July. Matano decided to celebrate it on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary - a holy day of obligation for Catholics - because of the significant role the mother of Jesus plays in the diocese.
During his 15-minute homily, Matano reminded the congregation about the importance of faith and prayer in daily life. "The Mother of God was faithful and a woman of compassion," he said. "She was there to experience the important events in her son's life. We can turn to her and ask for help. People call out in prayer to Mary from all corners of the world."
Looking out on the overflowing congregation, Matano promised to invest time in similar ceremonies. "If this is what it takes to fill our churches, then so be it," he said. "I will do whatever I can to fill our churches."
For Mary Alexander, 41, of Townsend, Mass., worshiping at the Old North End church was a homecoming. Alexander and her husband were married in St. Joseph's and their oldest daughter was baptized there. After Communion, the mother of eight stood on the front steps, watching two of her sons assist at Mass.
"I think this is reverent," she said. "It's a sense of the sacred. We're here to worship God."
For David Allbee, 34, of Winooski, who came with his wife, Kim, and their 14-month-old daughter, Gabriella, the celebration underscored the importance of community.
"This experience is part of the church's legacy and tradition," he said. "It's important to remember we're here for Jesus."
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21/08/2007 18:27 |
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ITALIAN BISHOPS TO DONATE 1-MILLION EUROS FOR PERU QUAKE VICTIMS
PETRUS reports today that the Italian bishops conference is donating one million euros for first aid to victims of the earthquake in Peru, particularly the residents of Pisco, a city which suffered more than 80% destruction and more than 600 dead.
The funds come from the 0.008% share of Italian taxes that the Italian church gets from the Italian government, under the terms of
the Lateran pacts. [This share was agreed on as a practical way of recompensing teh church for all the properties seized by the Italian state since Italian nationalization in the second half of the 19th century, although leftist politicians today forget that, and seem to think it is simply an unmerited concession from the Italian government.]
Earlier, the Vatican announced a $200,000 donation from the Pope's own funds for charity, But the PETRUS item today says the amount is $2 million, not $200,000.
Also from PETRUS, the program for Cardinal Bertone's trip to Peru from August 23-30. The trip was programmed far in advance, on the occasion of Peru's national eucharistic congress, but Pope Benedict XVI announced Sunday that Bertone would have the opportunity to convey his sympathy directly to the people of Peru.
Bertone will be visiting the cities of Pisco and Ica, the most hard hit by the Assumption Day earthquake.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/08/2007 18:27] |
21/08/2007 19:53 |
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More yet on Tiny's proposal
"Don't you just despise all these 'tiny' minds who seem to be all over the place and entertaining, even encouraging, one of the most stupid suggestions ever made? Yet the original TINY mind himself said, "God doesn't care what we call him", so why does he, TINY , choose one preferential name for God? He does not even follow his own logic." Teresa
Can’t We Allah Just Get Along?
by Mac Johnson
Human Events.com
Posted 08/21/2007 ET
In case you had any doubt that Western Civilization is mired in a crisis of suicidal self-loathing and pre-emptive surrender, a Catholic Bishop in the Netherlands has publicly commented that Christians should begin to refer to God as “Allah” so as to make Muslims like us better -- or at least bomb us less.
Unused to having their demands met before actually making any, a Muslim group responded that it had made no such request -- although now that it’s known to be within the realm of possibility, I’m sure it will be considered as a future point for increased “tolerance.”
The bishop in question is Tiny Muskens (“Muskens” apparently being the Dutch word for “cojones”), who professes to believe that he is fostering understanding between religions with his spiritual version of “Would you like me better if I were blonde -- or at least less obviously Christian?”
Perhaps rather than trying to increase understanding between religions, the Bishop (as a Christian priest and all) might want to focus on increasing understanding of, you know, Christianity. Oh wait, I might have just committed a hate crime with that thought. Please forgive me. The Bishop’s appeal for appeasement is said to come at a time of rising tensions between Islam and Christianity in Holland --“rising tensions” apparently being the Dutch words for “violence by Muslims.” Oops, hate crime.
One wonders where Christianity would be today had Christ had apostles of the same bent as Muskens. A concise history of the faith might read: and then, after Christ died on the cross rather than yield to demands that the message of his faith be corrupted, the apostles carried his message to Rome -- but nobody noticed since they decided to call God “Jupiter” and just tried to get along. Who needs the blood of the martyrs when compromise and groveling work so well?
Thankfully, the Bishop’s grand idea has been overwhelmingly rejected by the Dutch public, but it comes on the heels of other disturbing efforts to hide the horrible Christian nature of Christianity from Muslim sensibilities. As reported last year by the Brussels Journal, the bishops of Brussels opened up their churches as sanctuaries for Muslim Illegal aliens hiding from law enforcement in Belgium. To make them feel more at home, the altar was removed, the statue of the Virgin Mary was hidden under a cloth (burkhas -- not just for living females anymore!) and the churches were festooned inside and out with Green banners bearing the name “Allah” in Arabic script. Doubtless, this made the churches less offensive to the fugitive Muslims within. In unrelated news, church attendance by actual Christians in Europe is down for some reason.
At the risk of committing yet another hate crime by bringing up the obscene subject of proselytizing the gospel, I would remind the bishops that the Muslims in Europe represent a special opportunity for them -- unlike Muslims in Muslim countries, the bishops can try to convert these to Christianity without fear of prosecution by the government. They’ll probably get killed for trying, but then I guess that’s why bishops such as these seek to promote understanding between religions, rather than the spread of their own religion. Again, the apostles burned with the passion of the faith. Muskens and friends smolder weakly in the spirit of compromise.
Also, issues of core principle aside, does anyone really believe that Muskens’ gesture of subservient compliance would reduce tension with Islam one mite? Suppose we did call God “Allah,” there’s still the minor source of conflict that Islam is aimed in large part at co-opting Christians and that the Koran specifically denies the divinity of Jesus Christ, or that he was crucified or resurrected. And oh yeah, because the teachings of Jesus are thus considered invalid, there’s about a thousand other differences too. Lack of a shared vocabulary is not really our central problem.
And to be blunt, we could all covert to Islam tomorrow and it would not reduce Islamist violence in the slightest, since the only folks more likely to be killed by Islamists than us infidels are other Muslims. Would we become Sunni or Shia, by the way? Personally I’m shopping the Alawite sect just to maintain my reputation for being a bit different. Of course being a bit different is a capital offense to Islamists.
Conflict is always unpleasant and burdensome -- but it is not always wrong or to be avoided. If you believe in something transformative and significant, that carries consequences and can entail suffering. If your faith is deemed offensive, it is your duty to offend; and if your identity as a Christian divides you from others, this division is acceptable. If such thoughts sound too deep to have come from me, they didn’t.
“Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.
From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." -Luke 12:51-53
There are worse things than conflict. Loss of one’s core identity is surely among these. More and more, Western Christianity seems embarrassed by its own existence.
I am uncomfortable talking about religion, both because I think it is a very personal thing and because I believe I make a poor choice of spokesman for anything Holy (hint: my beatification is not exactly pending). But when church leaders themselves seem embarrassed by their own faith and so eager to compromise its ancient traditions, something has gone very, very wrong.
Let us pray that, when necessary, God will save the Faith from the Church.
Mr. Johnson, a writer and medical researcher in Cambridge, Mass., is a regular contributor to HUMAN EVENTS. His column generally appears on Tuesdays.
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21/08/2007 20:08 |
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Another Surrender
Stuff like this just makes me furious!
Complaining residents told that church bell should "remind them they're being prayed for"
Tilburg, Aug 21, 2007 / 11:06 am (CNA).- A Roman Catholic priest is being fined 5,000 euros by municipal officials each time he rings his church bell for early morning Mass.
Municipal officials of Tilburg, 115 km south of Amsterdam, are responding to the complaints of residents about the bells ringing at 7:15 a.m. each day. [ Is that considered early?]
According to municipality spokesman Thomas Heesters, city officials urged Fr. Harm Schilder for months to stop ringing the early morning bell of the Holy Margarita Maria Church. But when the priest did not comply, the city warned that starting Aug. 16, he would be fined for every morning the bell sounds, reported The Associated Press.
Despite the threat, the bells rang out again Thursday and Friday.
''The council does not want to get involved in this - it's a house of prayer - but we have to take into account the feelings of local residents,'' Heesters was quoted as saying.
The first fine was to be delivered on Friday. If the priest refuses to pay, Heesters reportedly said, the municipality could send bailiffs to the church.
The Diocese of Den Bosch has asked the priest to stop the ringing the bell or take measures to make it quieter ''to prevent further escalation in the case.''
The parish website posted a statement, saying it is taking the complaint seriously and looking into whether it could install a smaller bell. “Legally, the parish has a right to ring the bell,” the statement said.
“People who are bothered by the bell should know that we pray for them in the Mass,” the message concluded.
The bells did not sound on Monday morning.
[Modificato da benefan 21/08/2007 20:12] |
21/08/2007 20:16 |
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TRAD-MASS RESTORATION IN ITALY: A PRELIMINARY SURVEY
Many older priests are hostile,
some bishops wish to prevent it,
but young people are enthusiastic
By Caterina Maniaci
Surprise: restoration to full 'legitimacy' of the traditional rite in Latin, with Gregorian chant, not only does not appear to 'bother' the faithful in Italy. It seems to be attracting at least the curiosity of many young people and so-called intellectuals.
On the other hand, many Italian prelates and dioceses appear bent on discouraging its use - in some cases, even threatening those who would think of carrying out the provisions of Summorum Pontificum!
Thus we have heard from the Archbishop of Pisa, Mons. Alessandro, Pisoti, or the Bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, Mons Luca Brandolini, or the lay monk Enzo Bianchi, prior of Bose, who have not minced words in expressing their opposition to Pope Benedict's decision.
Meanwhile, here are some observations made 'in the field' about what is taking place a few weeks since the Motu Proprio and before it comes into full force on September 14.
The Church of San Carlo on via del Corso, one of Rome's busiest commercial streets. Despite the torrid morning heat of August, the Church is crowded, mostly with tourists, the usual attendance in this church.
We ask a young priest if this church will be celebrating the John XXIII Mass following the Motu Proprio. "We intend to study the question, perhaps by inviting the faithful, especially the young, to first learn about the differences between the two rites."
At San Lorenzo in Lucina, the answer was: "No, no one has requested it. The faithful are not interested."
But at the Gesu e Maria church, here is no question at all "because we have always celebrated the Mass in Latin here and will continue doing so." The priest points out that even when Latin is sued for the ordinary rite, many faithful find it more attractive.
At Santa Susanna, still in central Rome, Cistercian monks perform the traditional Mass with Gregorian chant. "Gregorian music has a lot of passionate admirers. Professors newsmen, young people - they often go out of their way to be here," a nun explained.
"The pre-conciliar Mass is not a return to the past. It's just a way of recovering what is good in tradition and to make us pray better."
In Turin, Don Emanuele du Chalard, superior of the Priory of Montalenghe, which is the northern Italian headquarters of the Fraternity of st. Pius X (the Lefebvrians), said "Some priests in Milan have called wanting to know how to say the Ambrosian rite in Latin, but they claim that the first reaction of the Milan curia was negative." [Since, as I understand it, the Archdiocese of Milan has traditionally followed the Ambrosian rite - which was not affected by either the John XXIII Mass or Paul VI Mass, which are Roman rites - why should they mind, one way or the other?]
About bishops in other dioceses who have been so hostile to the Motu Proprio, Chalard said: "I think it's because, after Vatican-II, the bishops took on a lot of power over the liturgy practised in their respective dioceses, and they think this restoration will diminish their influence. Then, at the same time, they claim that they have no problem with liturgy at all. That's not true. Attendance at Mass has continued to fall off during the post-Vatican II years. And they refuse to admit that many young people are not only curious about the traditional rite but prefer it once they are exposed to it. In our church (St. Nicholas) in Paris, we get about 4,000 Massgoers every Sunday, mostly families, students and young people."
"This was very surprising to us," he adds. "But if the post-Vatican II priests seem to have little interest, young people are very open. In the past several weeks, more than 90 percent of people I have spoken to - seminarians, young priests, students, even children - have been very much in favor of the traditional Mass. Often, their reason is they have been disappointed with the new liturgy, that there is more spirituality in the traditional observance."
The SSPX has prepared a DVD on how to celebrate the Tridentine Mass which has been ordered so far by 500 priests and seminarians (90% from priests).
After the Motu proprio was released, he said, "we spent one week 'rehearsing' before recording it. It comes with an explanation of the meaning represented by this liturgy and the role of the priest in celebrating it."
As for the priests of Milan, Chalard said, "The Motu Proprio is about the Roman rite, but canonists have said that there is nothing to keep them from celebrating an older form of the Ambrosian rite if they want to."
Libero, 21 agosto 2007
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 21/08/2007 20:19] |
22/08/2007 02:14 |
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Aussie Catholic college, Brit bishop resign from Amnesty International over abortion policy
August 21, 2007
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
SYDNEY, Australia (Catholic Online) – A Catholic college in Australia and an English bishop have resigned from Amnesty International within days after the human-rights organization approved a policy to support efforts to decriminalize abortion throughout the world.
The organization's International Council approved the change in its long-standing abortion-neutral position at a meeting in Cocoyoc, Mexico, Aug. 11-17 as part of its Stop Violence Against Women campaign.
The council passed the measure to "support the decriminalization of abortion, to ensure women have access to health care when complications arise from abortion, and to defend women's access to abortion, within reasonable gestational limits, when their health or human rights are in danger."
Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia, England, announced in an Aug. 18 statement that he was leaving Amnesty after 31 years of active membership, while in an Aug. 20 statement, the Jesuit headmaster of St. Aloysius College here confirmed that the school will sever its ties with Amnesty International, noting the rights group new policy "explicitly excludes some of the most vulnerable members of society – the 'unborn human.'"
While "many people will argue that we should remain inside Amnesty because of the overwhelming good that it does," Jesuit Father Chris Middleton said the college leadership believes that “we have no choice but to leave Amnesty."
"This policy explicitly excludes some of the most vulnerable members of society – the 'unborn human' – from its campaigns for human rights. To my mind this goes right to the core of Amnesty as a human-rights organization and as a body that gives primacy to conscience," he said. "It strikes against the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child which states that every child "needs special safeguards and care, including legal protection, before as well as after birth."
Father Middleton pointed to the 1961 religious foundations of Amnesty International and its Catholic founder Peter Benenson being "influenced by his religious experience."
"It is striking how many of the key early figures of Amnesty had strong religious connections – Quaker, Jewish, Protestant and Catholic. Far from being a secular project one could argue that Amnesty itself has its origins in the religious commitment to justice," the Jesuit priest said. "It seems that increasingly our society is developing collective amnesia about the influence people of faith have had in shaping much of our modern world."
Amnesty International "had an almost unique position in the depth of its membership in being able to attract conservative and liberal, religious and secular support, for issues around freedom of conscience and political rights," Father Middleton said, noting that its policy decision "means that for many people of faith, membership will no longer be possible."
"The big tent that is Amnesty has become smaller and it runs the risk of becoming just another secular left voice," he added.
He announced that St. Aloysius College will establish a new organization – the Beneson Society, after the Amnesty founder – which will continue the school's involvement in "the promotion of human rights through the raising of awareness of violations of these rights and through lobbying of governments for prisoners of conscience, the end of torture and the death penalty and the rights of all to basic freedoms."
It will not be "specifically religious or Catholic," he said, and "will maintain a policy of neutrality on abortion," as had Amnesty International.
Bishop Evans said that Amnesty International's "regrettable decision" will likely divide its membership and "thereby undermine its vital work."
"Among all human rights, the right to life is fundamental," the bishop said, adding that he "very regretfully … will be ending my 31-year-membership" in the group. He noted his participation in the rights organization's British Section Council and its Religious Bodies Liaison Panel.
He said he remains "deeply committed to Amnesty's original mandate: to work for freedom for prisoners of conscience, an end to torture and the death penalty, and fair trials for all."
But, he added, "commitment to work to protect the human can only be deeply compromised by any support for access to abortion."
While the "Catholic Church has no desire for women who have been through the trauma of abortion to be punished," he stressed that "our proper indignation regarding pervasive violence against women should not cloud our judgment about our duty to protect the most vulnerable and defenseless form of human life."
"The Catholic Church shares Amnesty's strong commitment to oppose violence against women (for example, rape, sexual assault and incest), but such appalling violence must not be answered by violence against the most vulnerable and defenseless form of human life in a woman's womb," he said. "But there is no human right to access to abortion, and Amnesty should not involve itself even in such extreme cases."
"Amnesty opposes torture and the death penalty under all circumstances, however dire the situation; the same should be true for Amnesty's mandate to 'protect the human' - before as well as after birth," the bishop said. "To allow for the use of torture in just one extreme situation (e.g. a terrorist threat) would compromise Amnesty's absolute rejection of torture. To support access to abortion even in dire situations compromises Amnesty's mandate to 'protect the human.'"
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...
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22/08/2007 02:19 |
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Polish prosecutors decide not to investigate alleged anti-Semitic comments by priest
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
WARSAW, Poland: Polish prosecutors have ruled out investigating a powerful priest who allegedly made anti-Semitic remarks and called the president's wife a "witch," a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Prosecutors in the central city of Torun said there was no legal case for launching a criminal investigation into the comments reportedly made by Rev. Tadeusz Rydzyk during an April lecture, prosecutors' spokeswoman Ewa Janczur told a news conference.
Torun prosecutors had received more than a dozen complaints alleging Rydzyk had slandered the Polish president, potentially illegal under Polish law, and insulted Jews, Janczur said.
Janczur declined to provide the reasoning behind the decision, saying it would be made public once the prosecutors' decision becomes formally binding.
On recordings of the lecture that surfaced this summer, a speaker purported to be Rydzyk suggests that Jews are greedy and that Polish President Lech Kaczynski is subservient to Jewish lobbyists. The speaker also appeared to criticize the first lady's support for abortion rights, calling her a "witch" and suggesting she should kill herself.
Rydzyk has not denied giving the speech, but suggested the tapes were doctored — without specifying which parts of his speech might have been altered. He also rejected accusations of anti-Semitism and said he "didn't intend to offend anyone."
Rydzyk runs a conservative media empire that includes Radio Maryja, a station that has broadcast anti-Semitic programming in the past.
The prosecutors spent the past two weeks analyzing the tapes after receiving them from the weekly magazine Wprost earlier this month, Janczur said.
In early July, Wprost published excerpts and posted audio clips on its Web site from the lecture, given to students this spring at the journalism school in Torun, which Rydzyk himself founded and where Radio Maryja is headquartered.
His purported comments have sparked outrage among Israelis and Jewish groups. The Israeli ambassador to Poland, David Peleg, called them the worst case of anti-Jewish language Poland has seen since an anti-Semitic campaign in 1968 that drove thousands of Jews to flee the country. He also urged Polish and Roman Catholic authorities to condemn Rydzyk.
In early August, Pope Benedict XVI met briefly with Rydzyk and two other Polish priests after the pontiff's weekly public blessing Sunday in Castel Gandolfo, his summer home.
The Vatican later issued assurances that the Pope's meeting with Rydzyk, which drew protests from Jewish organizations, did not imply any change in the church's desire for good relations with Jews.
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22/08/2007 06:20 |
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'Knock of death' – Pakistani churches, minority communities receive threatening letters urging conversion August 21, 2007
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (UCAN) – Threats to minorities continue in North West Frontier Province, where church leaders and Christian communities have received letters warning them to convert to Islam or face suicide bombings.
Seven churches and five Christian settlements in Peshawar received threatening letters on Aug. 7 inviting them either to become Muslims or face death. The letters were sent to the pastors of three Church of Pakistan churches, two Catholic churches, an Assemblies of God church, a Seventh-day Adventist Church and another church, as well as to elders in poor Christian areas.
The city, capital of North West Frontier Province, lies close to the Afghan border, 150 kilometers (about 95 miles) west of Islamabad.
The letters, written in Urdu, are titled "Knock of Death." They read: "Allahu Akbar, Long live Islam, Long live Jihad, Down with Infidelity, Down with America. All residents are given an open invitation to leave Isaiyat (Christianity), the religion of infidelity, and embrace Islam. Become Muslims and reserve a home for yourself in heaven. Or else your community will be ruined after Aug. 10, the blessed Friday, and you will be responsible for the destruction of your life and property. This is not a mere threat; our suicide bombers will exterminate you. Consider it a knock of death."
Following the example of the fundamentalist Taliban, which ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 until U.S.-led forces ousted them in 2001, a militant form of Islam is being imposed in tribal areas along the border. The pace of this "Talibanization" is accelerating, with some local mullah, or Islamic teachers, recently declaring mobile phone shops and Internet cafes "un-Islamic business" after banning music and barber shops.
At least four girls' schools have been bombed over the past 12 months in towns across the province, and the recent incident is not the first time Christians have received threatening letters. Similar letters appeared at the homes of Christians in Charsadda and Shantinagar in May and June.
Church leaders and community elders reported the receipt of the latest letters to local police stations the next day. About 150 Christians held a demonstration in the compound of St. John Vianney Church on Aug. 9 and blocked the road in front of the church for half an hour. The protesters carried banners saying "We are not infidels" and pointing out that Islam considers the Bible a holy book. They urged the government to find the culprits.
A group of church leaders, including two Protestant pastors and a Catholic priest, held a meeting with police officials on Aug. 11 at which they urged authorities to protect the minorities and apprehend the "fundamentalists" for causing unrest. According to Father Yousaf Amanat, parish priest of St. Michael's Church, the officials assured their cooperation.
Father Amanat told UCA News the threats have terrorized churchgoers. "The attendance at Sunday Mass was 40 percent less after the incident," he said, adding that a vocation day for college students was postponed indefinitely. About 1,000 college students of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Diocese had been scheduled to attend the Aug. 16 event at St. Michael's Parish.
"It was organized to invite youth to join religious life before the commencement of the new academic year in seminaries starting in September," the priest explained.
Some residents of Chorasi colony, home to about 20 Hindu and 60 Christian families, received the threatening letters. Talking to UCA News, Ram Lal, 55, a Hindu sanitation worker, described the letters as just another instance of prejudice against minorities. "Locals usually hurl stones at our mandir (worship place) during prayers," he told UCA News, adding that Hindus also face discrimination when they look for work. The residents of this area are mostly poor and earn their living as sanitation or domestic workers.
Meanwhile, a jirga, a consultative process traditionally used for conflict resolution, at a mosque in Swat on Aug. 19 declared that suicide attacks are haram (forbidden). The local peace committee, which organized the meeting, urged prayer leaders to utilize their respective mosques as platforms to promote peace in the district.
Following the government crackdown in July on Lal Masjid (red mosque) in Islamabad, militant Muslims have attacked army targets and made suicide attacks in North West Frontier Province and in Islamabad.
SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...
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Here's a related story from ZENIT:
Priest: Pakistan Short on Religious Freedom
LAHORE, Pakistan, AUG. 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Christians in Pakistan still face persecution for their faith, despite the Pakistani founding father's dream of religious freedom, said Father Emmanuel Asi.
Pakistan celebrated 60 years as an independent republic Aug. 14.
Father Asi, the chairman of the Theological Institute for Laity in Lahore and secretary of the Catholic Bible Commission of Pakistan, spoke with the group Aid to the Church in Need on that day.
Christians make up only 1.5% of the 167 million Pakistanis. According to Father Asi, they are often treated as second-class citizens, denied basic human rights and victimized by social discrimination and political oppression.
Father Asi contended that the vision of Ali Jinnah, the "father of the Pakistani nation" has been "darkened." Jinnah dreamed of a country in which all citizens were equal and, regardless of their religious faith, lived above all as free Pakistani citizens, the priest stated.
In reality, Father Asi said, religiously motivated aggression can "at any time" bring about "every imaginable kind of problem" for Christians.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 22/08/2007 22:19] |
22/08/2007 16:34 |
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DON'T LET THE HEADLINE DECEIVE YOU: IT'S A TECHNICAL PROTEST
One would think this story was worse than it actually is, but read on:
Brazilian bishops protest changes
to CELAM text on base communities
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York
Posted on Aug 21, 2007
Some Brazilian bishops are charging that behind-closed-doors revisions to the final document from last May’s General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean (CELAM) have softened its support for base communities, a pastoral approach associated with liberation theology, according to reports in the Brazilian media.
The Brazilian newspaper Estado broke the story last week, reporting variations between the text approved by the Latin American bishops at the close of their May 13-31 assembly in Aparecida, Brazil, and the version sent to Pope Benedict XVI for his approval in mid-June. Cardinal Francisco Javier Errázuriz of Chile, the president of CELAM, later acknowledged that changes were made by himself and the body’s secretary general, Argentinean bishop Andrés Stanovnik.
At least in Brazil, some bishops are crying foul.
“We consider the alteration of the text to be disrespectful to the participants of the Aparecida conference,” said Bishop Pedro Luiz Stringhini, president of the Brazilian conference’s Pastoral Commission for the Service of Charity, Justice, and Peace.
According to the Estado report, several bishops said they intended to raise the issue at an upcoming meeting of the executive body of the Brazilian bishops’ conference.
Other observers argue, however, that the changes are largely cosmetic, and that the overall positive treatment of base communities remains intact.
“There is no backpedalling,” said Monsignor Carlos Quintana Puente, a former CELAM official and currently the executive director of the Secretariat for the Church in Latin America for the U.S. bishops. Quintana spoke to NCR August 21.
The term “base community” refers to small groups of believers in various parts of Latin America who come together for Bible study, faith formation, and reflection on social and political topics. They became controversial in the 1970s and 1980s because of their link with liberation theology, a movement which sought to place the Catholic church on the side of the poor in struggles for social change. Critics accused liberation theology of over-reliance on Marxist analysis and politicizing the faith. Famed liberation theologian Leonardo Boff saw base communities as the model of a "church from below," as distinct from the hierarchy.
The positive treatment given to the base communities in Aparecida was therefore considered a victory for a moderate form of liberation theology, suggesting that after decades of debate it had stood the test of time.
According to side-by-side comparisons provided by Estado, however, some language endorsing the base communities in the final document was deleted before it was approved by the pope, including this passage: “We want to decisively reaffirm and to give a new impulse to the life, prophetic mission and holiness of the base ecclesial communities and their discipleship of Jesus. They are one of the great manifestations of the Spirit in the Church of Latin America and the Caribbean after the Second Vatican Council.”
Additions to the text include:
• A reference to base communities as a positive experience in Latin America and the Caribbean has been changed to read “for some churches” in Latin America and the Caribbean;
• Cautionary language about base communities from the Puebla meeting of the Latin American bishops in 1979 was added, warning against “members of communities or whole communities which, attracted by entirely secular institutions or radicalized ideologically, were losing the ecclesial sense”;
• A positive reference to “parochial groups, associations and ecclesial movements” in addition to base communities was inserted;
• Base communities are warned “to take care not to alter the precious treasure of the Tradition and of the Teaching of the Church.”
While some Brazilian bishops are inclined to protest, according to Estado, others believe that Aparecida was less important for precise verbal formulae than for its overall positive spirit.
“The interference with CELAM was a mistake that should not have occurred, but I think that Aparecida is more important for its context, and that’s why we have to assimilate the blow in order to not lose the positive climate that the conference brought,” said Bishop Luiz Demétrio Valentini of the Jales diocese in Brazil.
In his August 17 comments to the media, Errázuriz described the revisions as “minimal” and said “they don’t have the importance that’s being attributed to them.”
In support of that point, Quintana noted that the prelate largely responsible for the positive language about the base communities in Aparecida, Auxiliary Bishop Alfredo Gualberti Calandrina of the Santa Cruz de la Sierra archdiocese in Bolivia, was recently elected to head the CELAM commission responsible for working with base communities.
“That means there’s no change in the line of CELAM,” Quintana said.
The May 13-31 assembly in Aparecida was formally opened by Pope Benedict XVI. It brought together almost 270 participants over 19 days, and ended with the approval of the final document, intended as a pastoral blueprint for Catholicism in the region. Unlike a Synod of Bishops in Rome, the pope does not issue the final document from the assembly in his own name. Instead, he approves the text, but it remains a document of the Latin American bishops.
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