REFLECTIONS ON OUR FAITH AND ITS PRACTICES

Mission to the Pope

Spanish Youth Visit Castel Gandolfo


BY FATHER ALFONSO AGUILAR, LC
National Catholic Register
September 2-8, 2007 Issue | Posted 8/29/07 at 11:58 AM

Nowadays, everything seems to be going wrong with Western — especially European — youth.

Among them we find few marriages and much rebellion, lots of drugs and alcohol, religious indifference and moral relativism.

Yet we see hundreds of thousands of young people from all over Europe and the Americas cheering the Vicar of Christ at every World Youth Day.

On Aug. 9, I took part in a sort of a small-scale World Youth Day. The Archdiocese of Madrid, Spain, brought 5,000 young men and women to meet Pope Benedict XVI at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

The pilgrimage was the result of a youth mission organized by the three dioceses in the state of Madrid. For months, young people visited homes and schools to speak about the faith and invite them to the 10-day bus pilgrimage to Gerona, Spain, and to Genoa, Pisa, Assisi and Rome.

Every summer, the Pope stays in the little town of Castel Gandolfo, located on top of a hill about 30 miles south of Rome. He returns to the Vatican only on Wednesdays for his weekly general audience.

The Spanish youth didn’t mind waking up at 5 a.m. to take a bus ride to get to Castel Gandolfo. They weren’t bothered by having to walk up the slope toward the town center for a couple of miles and line up for three hours in the sun before the orange, Renaissance-style facade of the papal palace.

They sang and talked enthusiastically. They expressed joy as if they were graduating from high school or college, and behaved as if they were in a sacred place.

They came from Spain to see the Pope — their pope.

“Esta es la juventud del Papa” (“This is the Pope’s youth”) they chanted as soon as Benedict appeared on the courtyard balcony of the palace at 11 a.m. With a big smile, the Holy Father waved at them energetically.

“Muchas gracias (Many thanks),” he said repeatedly. “In this way, you show your love for the Pope, successor of the Apostle Peter, and your commitment to give yourselves and to serve the Church of Jesus Christ.”


Mission Possible
About 3,000 youth fit in the courtyard of the palace. The remaining 2,000 stayed outside in the town’s square and followed the event on a large screen. Two Swiss Guards faced them from the arched bronze door.

At the end of the 40-minute audience, Benedict went to the outside balcony of the papal palace to greet the pilgrims that could not fit in the courtyard.

After the greeting from Archbishop of Madrid Cardinal Antonio María Rouco, the Holy Father and the youth listened to four testimonies. One of them came from Jesús, a 25-year-old man who, working on the youth mission, decided to become a priest.

“Never stop cultivating your personal encounter with Christ,” the Pope said. “Hold Christ in the center of your heart. In this way, all your life will become a mission. You will be able to show the Christ that lives within you.”

The youth listened attentively. Italian police and carabinieri were at ease — an unusual calm reigned over the crowded courtyard and square.

“Being young, you will soon discern about your future,” the Holy Father said. “Discern it in the light of Christ. Ask him, ‘What do you want of me?’ Generously and trustfully, follow the path he will show you, knowing that by baptism each of us — with no exception — is called to be holy and a living member of the Church in whatever way of life we are called to.”

At these words, the youth clapped cheerfully, as if they enjoyed being challenged to reach holiness.

The words were counter-cultural, indeed. Young people are usually invited to enjoy themselves, rebel against authority and do whatever they want without taking any responsibility.

By their numbers and behavior, the pilgrims from Madrid demonstrated that “the Gospel deeply draws the youth,” as Benedict said in his address.

Yes, it is possible to pass on the faith to Generation Y. They, like all youth from all ages, thirst for love and truth. They look for high, noble and lasting ideals.

They want Christ.

The Holy Father knows this well. That’s why he teaches them about Christ and encourages them to join “the fascinating adventure of bringing to others the ineffable joy of finding oneself being loved by God — the only love that never fails and never ends.”

A deep crisis of faith and values lingers over the West. But the Pope’s youth in Castel Gandolfo proved once more that the West is far from dying.

A wonderful article about the Pope's encounter with Spanish young people. Thanks for posting, benefan.

Notre Dame to offer Latin Mass in the fall


South Bend, Sep 4, 2007 / 10:36 am (CNA).- The University of Notre Dame has announced it will offer the Mass in its extraordinary form, that is in Latin, on campus as soon as the necessary requirements, outlined in Pope Benedict’s motu proprio July 7, are fulfilled.

The requirement specified in an announcement from the university’s campus ministry department is a celebrant who is familiar with Latin and the rubrics of the Roman Missal of Blessed John XXIII.

This Mass is tentatively scheduled for Sunday mornings at 8 a.m. in the chapel of Alumni Hall.

Celebrants for these liturgies will be appointed by the director of campus ministry or the rector of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart, who each have jurisdiction over the celebration of some of the sacraments on campus.

The current form of the Mass, known as the ordinary for of the Roman Rite, will continue to be celebrated at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart as well as in the residence halls.

This fall, campus ministry will provide a catechesis on the Eucharist. It will provide students with a deeper understanding of the Eucharist, the ordinary and extraordinary forms of the Mass, and the Pope’s motu proprio.

Carbon-14 dating casts doubt on relic of St. Francis

Florence, Sep. 5, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Carbon-14 tests have cast doubt on the authenticity of a relic of St. Francis of Assisi, Italy's ANSA news agency reports.

Researchers from Florence's Nuclear Technology for the Cultural Heritage (LABEC) lab tested a tunic that is kept in the church of Santa Croce, and venerated as a relic of the great saint. The test results showed that the material dated to the end of the 13th century: more than 70 years after St. Francis died, they reported.

However another tunic, and a pillow on which the beloved saint reportedly rested his head as he died, were found to date back to the lifetime of St. Francis (1181- 1226). Those relics are preserved in a church in the Tuscan town of Cortona.

I hope I can put together something appropriate by tomorrow to prepare for the big day on Friday, FEAST OF THE EXALTATION OF THE HOLY CROSS, and the official 'restoration' of the traditional Mass to full liturgical rights in the Roman Catholic Church.

Meanwhile, Argent by the Tiber shares with us this beautiful situationer from Florida.



A Cause For Celebration
By MICHELLE BEARDEN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: Sep 8, 2007


The moment Cardinal Ratzinger emerged on the balcony at St. Peter's Square as successor to the late Pope John Paul II, Mary Kraychy knew her long wait was over.

"The Latin Mass is free again!" she thought that spring day in 2005.

Kraychy had reason to celebrate. As executive director of the Chicago-based Coalition in Support of Ecclesia Dei, she leads a national organization of Latin Mass enthusiasts.

She knew that Ratzinger - Pope Benedict XVI - favored making the mostly obsolete traditional Latin Mass accessible again. He would likely make that a priority during his tenure as spiritual leader to the world's 1 billion Catholics.

The new pope did not disappoint.

On Friday, Benedict's Motu Proprio, Summorum Pontificum, launches a new era, borrowed from an old one. The letter directs that, as of that day, clergy will no longer need special permission to celebrate the Trindentine Mass. The thoroughly Latin Roman rite reigned from the mid-1500s until the 1960s.

The directive does not spell the end of the Norvus Ordo (New Order) Mass commonly celebrated by Catholics in the vernacular, or language of the local people. That wasn't the intention of Latin Mass supporters, who felt alienated when the rite was essentially replaced by the Second Vatican Council with a common-language liturgy and a new Roman Catholic missal.

"It won't be forced down anyone's throat, the way the English Mass was," Kraychy says. "We know the feeling, and we don't wish that upon anyone.

"Let the two versions peacefully co-exist. That's all we ever really wanted."

On Sunday mornings, Don and Kristen Beard get an early start to feed and dress their four children - ages 6, 4, 3 and 1. The couple load up their Chevy Tahoe, securing each child in a car seat, for the hourlong drive from Zephyrhills to St. Petersburg.

Although they pass several Catholic churches along the way, none will do. They are headed for the Latin Mass in the Chapel of Our Lady at the Cathedral of St. Jude the Apostle, which draws about 200 people a week.

"It's so worth it," says Kristen, 41. "It's so beautiful, so holy and so sacred."

And so different from how they worshipped most of their lives.

Don was raised Methodist; Kristen, Lutheran. After lots of long talks with a Catholic friend, they began exploring the faith through classes and study. In April 2000, they converted.

That same friend introduced them to the Latin Mass, where the priest faces east on the altar, his back to the people. He follows a rite that for centuries bound together millions of Catholics around the world.

Such a Mass has been hard to find in recent decades. The Second Vatican's New Order rules also required that the traditional Mass be celebrated only with the diocesan bishop's permission and only by clergy ordained before 1970. That so limited options that a group of traditionalists broke with the Vatican in 1988 and formed the Society of St. Pius X. Its estimated 600,000 members have attended Latin services ever since.

At this sacred celebration of the Eucharist, only men can serve at the altar, and female congregants must cover their heads. It was all the Beards imagined.

"It resonated with me," says Don, 39, director of packaging for Vitality Food Service. "As newcomers to Catholicism, we spent a lot of time studying the early church. This seemed to be the way it's supposed to be."

It doesn't matter that they don't speak the language. The missal has the English version on one side, the Latin on the other, and it includes illustrations so worshipers can visually follow along.

The Beards are among a growing number of young families who choose this service - though they never experienced it during its heyday. With restrictions lifting Friday, some observers predict the experience won't be sought just by old-school Catholics yearning for the old days. They foresee a surge in attendance by a new generation.

"I didn't even know it existed growing up," says lifelong Catholic Phil Eastman, 34, a pilot for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration. He and his wife, Amy, 34, bring their children - ages 5, 4, 3 and 1 - from south Tampa to St. Jude the Apostle every Sunday.

Eastman goes to Latin Masses whenever he's on the road, and he says the young congregants always far outnumber the older ones. Although the services are filled with small children and babies, it's a reverent experience, he says.

His wife agrees. "I think the Mass speaks to the children as well. They're much quieter here," she says. "People dress more modestly, and there are fewer distractions. It's just a holier atmosphere."

It's a distinct contrast to the contemporary Masses offered today, some of which include rock music, casual attire, liturgical dance and clergy telling folksy stories from the altar.

Michael Brennan, 64, says Pope Benedict's decision to bring "legitimacy" to an ages-old church tradition was the right one. It allows the pope to re-emphasize that Vatican II and the new Mass were not a break with the past but rather another form of worship more suited to some believers.

He's not among them, though.

"The other Masses seem like a pop fest to me now," says Brennan, a retired nurse.

Only six dioceses nationwide offered a traditional Mass in 1988, according to the Coalition in Support of Ecclesia Dei. That number grew to about 240 churches in a majority of the dioceses by this summer. But it never reached widespread support. Bishops had to give permission for the Mass, and some just didn't want to be bothered, Kraychy says, or they were afraid it would signal a return to the old days.

Bishops serving the Diocese of St. Petersburg were among those who granted permission for the traditional Mass. It began with one service in 1984, then a few years later, twice a month. Under Bishop Robert Lynch, the Latin Mass is now celebrated every week - 12:30 p.m. at the St. Jude chapel and 6:30 a.m. at St. Theresa Parish in Spring Hill.

Getting permission from a bishop was half the battle. Finding a priest qualified to celebrate this old Mass was another. Now it will be open to any priest properly trained in both the language and the old liturgy.

"That's a good thing. We were all dying off," says the Rev. Raymond Vega, a member of the Sacred Heart religious order. At 83, he is way past retirement age, but his services as a traditional Mass celebrant are in demand. He is one of just three priests in this five-county diocese either qualified or willing.

"I grew up with it. If you grow up with something, you get to love it," Vega says. "Of course, I enjoy offering Mass in any language. But there's no doubt there's an awesome, profound spirituality with this particular Mass."

He says he is most pleased with the pope's directive.

"We need to bring it out more in the open," he says. "People have been under the erroneous idea that the Latin Mass wasn't valid, that we were doing something under the table. I'm expecting more people will come out of curiosity - and some will stay."

There's no way of knowing how many priests will come forward to serve as celebrants. This diocese has only 49 priests old enough to have been trained to lead the old rite, according to the Rev. Robert Morris, vicar general. How many of them are confident enough to lead one today is anybody's guess. He also doesn't know how many younger priests or seminarians will make the effort to become trained.

The important thing, he says, is that no one needs to feel excluded anymore.

"I think it's a matter of respecting how we can best provide everyone's sacramental needs," he says.

For Clearwater attorney Jan Halisky, 59, the traditional Mass has always been his liturgy of choice. He speaks the language fluently and has taught it to most of his 11 home-schooled children.

"For nearly 2,000 years, it was the language of the Roman Catholic Church," he says. "When it comes to addressing God, it seems more appropriate to have a more noble and somber language. We can speak in the vernacular when we're among ourselves, like when we're eating dinner."

Halisky so loves Latin that he serves as secretary of the local chapter of the Family of St. Jerome, an international group dedicated to the advancement of the Latin heritage of the Catholic Church. The association has instruction tapes for those who want to learn the language and weeklong immersion programs.

He frets about statistics that indicate a drop-off in church attendance since the Second Vatican Council. He blames some of the changes in the Mass.

"The pope didn't understand how one of the church's holiest possessions could be replaced. Neither did we," Halisky says.

Like the Beards and Eastmans, Randy and Teresa Galante gather up their five children - ages 9, 7, 5, 4 and 3 - on Sundays to make the trek to St. Petersburg from Clearwater. They both feel drawn to what they describe as a "quiet interior" of the traditional Mass, and they appreciate how it takes them away from the outside world, if only for an hour.

"My life is loud and chaotic during the week," says Teresa, 35. "I know I can count on this for inner peace and time to commune quietly with God. Even before the children came along, I needed that."

The couple, both lifelong Catholics, say the Second Vatican Council had good intentions in changing the Mass to make it more accessible, but in doing so, it removed much of the mystery.

Randy, 44, a courier for Federal Express, thinks a little mystery - along with substance and ancient symbolism - is a good thing.

"What is not accessible to the ears can be accessible to the soul," he says. "I don't think the church should relinquish that for modernity."

====================================================================

TAKE PART IN EWTN'S
FIRST TRADITIONAL MASS
ON FRIDAY MORNING

Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network will broadcast a live Tridentine Solemn High Mass at 8 a.m. Friday. It will be the first time in the network's 26-year history that a Latin Mass will be aired. It takes place at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Ala.

The televised Mass coincides with a papal document issued by Pope Benedict XVI that encourages and confirms the right of all Latin Rite priests to use this most ancient version of the Mass, which dates to the 1500s.

The decree, issued on July 7, takes effect Friday.

For centuries, the Tridentine Mass was the church's liturgy for Catholics worldwide. With the reforms called by the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, the Latin liturgy was replaced with a new rite that uses the vernacular, or common language of the people. It also relaxes certain restrictions, changes the reading cycles on prayers and simplifies the Communion rite.

The pope refers to this Mass as the "extraordinary" form, compared to the New Mass, considered the "ordinary" form.

- Michelle Bearden

QUOTES

"This is the Mass of the saints." - Michael Brennan, 64, St. Petersburg

"I appreciate the Latin Mass for the atmosphere. It's a beautiful and majestic Mass that speaks to my soul." - Phil Eastman, 34, Tampa

"It was an affront to me when the Latin Mass went away. I stopped going to church after that. Now I'm back and it overwhelms me. This is the way it is meant to be." - David Reale, 60, Pinellas Park

"We're so inundated with noise in this world. I want to be lifted out of this world, to find stillness and a union with God. I feel a reverence here that I don't feel in the new Mass." - Theresa Galante, 35, Clearwater

"Coming here was just like coming home, even though we weren't brought up with this experience. It was just like everything we had read and imagined." - Kristin Beard, 41, Zephyrhills

"It connects Catholics all over the world, no matter their language or culture. Wherever you go, the Latin Mass is the same, as it has been for centuries." - The Rev. Raymond Vega, 83, Pinellas Park

"Latin is a very noble and beautiful language. When you speak it, it takes away the element of the ordinary. There is nothing ordinary about the Latin Mass." - Jan Halisky, 59, Clearwater

"What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us, too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful. It behooves all of us to preserve the riches which have developed in the Church's faith and prayer, and to give them their proper place." - Pope Benedict XVI, head of the Roman Catholic Church

Chicago Parish Already Living
"Summorum Pontificum"


CHICAGO, SEPT. 13, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's vision that old and new liturgical forms harmoniously coexist had already been a reality for years at St. John Cantius Parish in Chicago, said Father Scott Haynes.

Father Haynes, a priest of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius, said his parish has balanced the traditional Latin Mass and the Novus Ordo in Latin and English on a daily basis for 18 years.

This Friday is the first day to implement "Summorum Pontificum," Benedict XVI's apostolic letter issued "motu proprio" (on his own initiative).

ZENIT asked Father Haynes what will look different in his parish after Friday.

"Nothing will be noticeably different, since this is what we've been doing for 18 years," he said. "We have been living what the Pope's 'motu proprio' envisioned."

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, said in July, "The Pope wishes that the coexistence of the two forms of the rite will lead both, not to oppose each other, but to mutually enrich each other."

"In most places," Father Haynes said, "it has been either one rite or the other."

"What the 'motu proprio' does is allow for possibility that both could be offered in any parish, and this is what we've already been doing, so it will affect us very little," he added.

Nine years ago, Cardinal Francis George, then in his second year as archbishop of Chicago, worked together with Father Frank Phillips to form a new religious community, the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius. The group is based on a unique approach to liturgy and has the community motto of "Restoring the Sacred."

"Today," Father Haynes said, "we have 25 priests and brothers and will have three new priests next year."

He affirmed: "Rather than division between the different rites, the balance has been successful in parish life, very fruitful and beneficial. It has actually been very unifying.

"We have drawn all sorts of people to our parish that would normally not go into a Catholic Church.

"Our daily Gregorian chant, nine choirs and two orchestras have drawn all sorts of non-Catholics and non-Christians to us, including many musicians who respect what we are doing with sacred music."

Online instructive

The Canons Regular of St. John Cantius have also launched SanctaMissa.org, an online tutorial for priests and altar servers learning to celebrate the Roman Rite according to the 1962 Roman Missal.

Cardinal George has asked the Canons Regular to serve the pastoral needs of the faithful during this transition.

For those who never learned the Traditional Mass, modern technology is providing a new way to learn the old liturgy.

In addition to an online multimedia tutorial, SanctaMissa.org provides the rubrics of the 1962 Roman Missal in English, a ceremonial for altar servers, articles on the spirituality of the Tridentine Latin Mass, and a ceremonial for liturgical music.

The Tutorial for Altar Servers provides a video demonstrating a Low Mass with one server, as well as a printable "cheat sheet" for altar servers learning the Mass.

Irreconcilable Differences in Bible’s Interpretations

By PETER STEINFELS
New York Times
Sept. 15, 2007

“How to Read the Bible” is a most unusual how-to book. For one thing, it is more than 800 pages long and has 971 endnotes. It is true that all the familiar figures and events of the Hebrew Scriptures or Old Testament are here: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets.

But the book, written by James L. Kugel and just published by the Free Press, also propounds a stark and challenging thesis, namely that contemporary Bible readers are confronted with two radically different ways of approaching Scripture and that both approaches are impressive and admirable — and fundamentally incompatible.

Professor Kugel, it should be noted, is a rare master of both approaches. Now teaching in Israel, he was for years one of the most popular teachers at Harvard. When attendance at his introductory Bible course (often running more than 900 students) finally edged ahead of a similarly popular course in economics, The Harvard Crimson headlined “God Beats Mammon.”

A decade ago, he published “The Bible as It Was,” a provocative and much-lauded study of early biblical interpretation.

Professor Kugel is also an Orthodox Jew who found himself “hooked” on modern biblical studies despite the fact, as he said in a recent lecture in Manhattan, that much about those studies seemed calculated “to destroy the whole fabric of traditional Jewish piety.”

“How to Read the Bible” incorporates the fruits of his university teaching, his research and his years of personal reflection on his faith and scholarship.

The book highlights not only the familiar dramatis personae of the Bible, but also two groups who have struggled mightily with biblical texts. He calls them the “ancient interpreters” and the “modern scholars.”

Over the last 150 years, modern biblical scholars have revealed the Bible as an amalgam of often conflicting texts composed from different sources by different authors and with different agendas often far from the spiritual and moral concerns of traditional Judaism and Christianity or of today’s believers.

Are the first chapters of Genesis the powerful story of God’s creation and of humankind’s tragic fall? Or are they, as much modern scholarship suggests, a tissue of inconsistencies, some serving to promote the priestly class’s case for keeping the Sabbath on the seventh day, others reflecting the transition from a society of hunters and gatherers to one based on agriculture?

Was the story of God’s destruction of the Tower of Babel really an ancient lesson about human hubris? Or, as modern scholarship would have it, was it a critical jab at Babylonian city dwellers by Israelite country folk, plus a kind of “just-so” story to explain the multiplicity of local languages? Modern scholars have questioned the authenticity of many biblical episodes. Pointing to parallel passages in the writings of other Near Eastern peoples, scholars have cast doubt on the Bible’s uniqueness.

Fundamentalists try to discredit this scholarship. Apologists try to mold and squeeze it to fit traditional understandings of the Bible. Professor Kugel does neither. Instead, he explores exactly where those traditional understandings came from. Writing between about 300 B.C. and A.D. 200, these sages, scribes and teachers effectively recast the Bible’s meaning in terms that came to dominate the way it was read by both Jews and Christians right up to recent times.

The names of most are unknown. Others, like the historian Josephus, Philo of Alexandria and the New Testament writers (who were obviously reinterpreting Hebrew Scriptures) are well known. Other ancient interpretations are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, many apocryphal books and rabbinic midrash.

These interpreters differed wildly in their efforts, sometimes highly fanciful, to resolve inconsistencies or apparent contradictions in the Bible’s texts, to offer moral justifications for biblical behavior and draw lessons for their contemporaries. That was most obvious, of course, in the differences between Jews and Christians.

But Professor Kugel argues that they all converged on four assumptions about the Bible.

They believed, first, that deeper meanings lay behind biblical texts, that the Bible was a book of instruction about the world and how to serve God in it, that it was somehow “seamless” and harmonious despite surface conflicts and, finally, that it was of divine origin.

On the basis of these assumptions, these early interpreters engaged in nothing less than “a massive act of rewriting,” Professor Kugel writes: “The raw material that made up the Bible was written anew not by changing its words but by changing the way in which those words were approached and understood.” It was the Bible of these interpreters that, in his view, actually constituted the Bible for Jews and Christians for two millennia.

Charles Augustine Briggs, a 19th-century pioneer of modern biblical scholarship, declared that by sweeping away the “rubbish” of centuries of biblical interpretation, modern scholars would finally “recover the real Bible.” Professor Kugel admires the audacity and genius of scholars like Briggs, but he believes that in their contempt for the “rubbish” of ancient interpretation, modern scholars have let the “real Bible” elude them. They have been left, instead, with “the raw material that made up the Bible.”

“How to Read the Bible” runs through the entire Hebrew Scriptures, matching modern scholarship and ancient interpretation. The journey is fascinating enough to render frustrating the author’s conclusion. Although he admired both approaches, Professor Kugel writes, they are “quite irreconcilable.”

Is this conclusion as unavoidable as he makes it sound? Modern minds still seek deeper meanings and still want relevant instructions for living. As for the ancient worry about seamlessness, modern minds, sensitized to multiple perspectives, often find more coherence in contrasting accounts than perfectly harmonized ones.

The ancient interpreters’ boldness in rewriting was motivated and justified, Professor Kugel writes, by a fresh apprehension of God and the corresponding need to flesh out the command, found in the Book of Deuteronomy and elsewhere, “to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul.” Is it so impossible that modern scholarship, too, could be put to that service?

=====================================================================

I am wondering whether the author of this article, Peter Steinfels, has read Benedict XVI's Jesus of Nazareth, and if he has, would he be as appreciative of it as he is with Mr. Kugel's effort. But where Mr. Kugel recognizes two approaches - the scholarly and the faith-based, one might say - and thinks they are irreconcilable, Benedict XVI shows how both approaches can be integrated if one applies the scholarship starting with the premise of faith. Which answers the question Steinfels asks at the end.

TERESA

P.S. I must apologize - Peter Steinfels has indeed read JON and wrote a review of it for Commonweal, which Benefan posted in BOOKS ON BENEDICT some time in August. It was one of these reviews I meant to comment on but didn't get around to doing. Rereading it now, I see whay I wanted to comment because he does make a number of statements that I find questionable, some of which had to do with the Pope's attitude towards the value of modern Biblical research.

However, his overall conclusion was this:

---

Its central case ultimately rests on the coherence and power of its portrait of Jesus as a person for whom “communion with the Father” was “the true center of his personality.” It is a case built not on psychological speculation or devotional fervor but on an imposing web of Old and New Testament texts. It is a case I find persuasive and deeply helpful.

---

In view of this, I still wonder why Steinfels didn't tie in somehow his review of Kugel's book about Biblical research and interpretation, with the illustrative example of hoe=w Benedict manages to integrate scholarship and faith, which Steinfels himself appears to acknowledge in his review of JON.

For those who follow inexplicable events connected to the saints, here is an item translated from PETRUS today. An ample post about San Gennaro and the miracle of his blood, including scientific arguments about it, is found much earlier in this thread on
freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=354746&p=16





NAPLES, Sept. 19 - The blood liquefied. The miracle has recurred. As it does every year.

At 9:31 a.m., Duke Riccardo Carafa of the confraternity of San Gennaro, the city's patron saint, waved the white handkerchief signalling to the faithful that the miracle had recurred.

At the Cathedral of Naples, Cardinal Cresencio Sepe, Archbishop of Naples, was visibly moved as he held up the vial containing the liquefied blood for the faithful (in photo above, he kisses the vial).

Shortly afterwards, he walked down the central aisle of the cathedral with the vial to show it as well to the crowd gathered outside the Church, many of whom wished to kiss the sacred relic.

Pope Benedict XVI will pay his respects before the relic when he visits Naples on October 21.

[There is much more in the article, but I don't have the time to translate just now, as I am on my way to work. Will add it on later.]


Just found a Reuters article on it -

Naples hails annual miracle
of liquefying blood


NAPLES, Italy, Sept. 19 (Reuters Life!) - Roman Catholics in Naples crowded the city's cathedral on Wednesday to witness the annual miracle of Saint Gennaro, who died in the 4th century but whose dried blood is said to turn liquid on his feast day.

In a ritual first recorded in 1389 - more than 1,000 years after the martyrdom of Gennaro, also known in English as Saint Januarius - a church official waved a white handkerchief to the crowds to signal that the dried blood had liquefied on schedule when brought close to relics which are said to be his body.

Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, archbishop of Naples, then showed the glass phial of blood to the congregation and paraded it to the crowds outside, where fireworks were lit in celebration.

"It is a prodigious sign that shows the Lord's closeness and predilection for our beloved and long-suffering city," he said.

The "miracle of the blood" is also celebrated in May to mark the relocation of the saint's mortal remains to Naples.

Legend has it that when Gennaro was beheaded by pagan Romans in 305 A.D., a Neapolitan woman soaked up his blood with a sponge and preserved it in a glass phial.

Sometimes it liquefies immediately, other times it takes hours. Locals pray to the saint to protect them from earthquakes or the volcano Vesuvius and believe that if the blood should fail to liquefy, something terrible will happen to Naples.

More scientifically minded sceptics say the "miracle" is due to chemicals present in the phial whose viscosity changes when it is stirred or moved.

5 years of illumination – John Paul II’s gift of Luminous Mysteries personal, infused new life in praying of Rosary

By Barry Michaels
9/19/2007
Our Sunday Visitor

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Our Sunday Visitor) – Baptism in the Jordan. Wedding at Cana. Proclamation of the kingdom. Transfiguration. Institution of the Eucharist. Pope John Paul II brought these major events in Jesus’ life to the beloved Rosary, and catechized millions of Catholics at the same time.

In October 2002 — five years ago — he published his apostolic letter “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” (“On the Most Holy Rosary”) and launched a Year of the Rosary for Catholics around the world to pay special notice to this important devotion.

With this document, Pope John Paul, like many popes before him, proposed the Rosary as a rich source of spiritual nourishment and prayer. “With the Rosary,” he wrote, “the Christian people sit at the school of Mary and are led to contemplate the beauty on the face of Christ and to experience the depths of his love.”

It’s personal

But he also added his own personal stamp on how the Rosary is prayed in a way his predecessors never did. Set in a pontificate loaded with important teaching documents, “Rosarium Virginis Mariae” remains among the most dramatic, most personal and most accessible of them all.

“This letter is one of the most accessible things that he wrote. It’s a wonderful introduction to the Rosary,” said Amy Welborn, co-author of Praying the Rosary (OSV, $6.95). “It situates the Rosary within the whole spiritual life in a very helpful way.”

To sense that this apostolic letter was a personal matter for the pope, one need look no further than its date of publication: Oct. 16, 2002, the 24th anniversary of his election to the papacy.

He chose to make the letter public on this day, despite that just a few days earlier, on Oct. 6, the church celebrated the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary — a seemingly perfect day for such an event.

“How many graces have I received in these years from the blessed virgin through the Rosary,” Pope John Paul wrote. Of course, his devotion to Mary was widely known and an intense personal matter. When ordained an auxiliary bishop of Krakow, Poland, in 1958, he took the motto “Totus Tuus” (“totally yours”) — words taken from a prayer to Mary penned by St. Louis de Montfort. He also strayed from episcopal tradition and included the letter M, for Mary, in his coat of arms.

Five new ones

In addition to writing about the rich meaning of this prayer, Pope John Paul proposed the addition of five new mysteries to the 15 that already had made up the traditional Rosary for many centuries.

For generations, Christians prayed the Joyful Mysteries, which highlight events from the early life of Christ; the Sorrowful Mysteries, which highlight the suffering he endured at the end of his life; and the Glorious Mysteries, which focus on the heavenly glory of the Lord and his mother.

To these, the pope added the Luminous Mysteries (sometimes called the Mysteries of Light), five significant events from the public ministry of Jesus as it is presented in the gospels.

In this way, Pope John Paul filled the significant and centuries-old “gap” in the Rosary between the beginning and the end of Jesus’ life on earth.

“The addition of these new mysteries,” he wrote, “is meant to give it fresh life and to enkindle renewed interest in the Rosary’s place within Christian spirituality as a true doorway to the depths of the heart of Christ, ocean of joy and light, of suffering and of glory.” He added that the new mysteries would help the Rosary “become more fully ‘a compendium of the gospel.’”

Renewed interest

“When it [the addition of the five new mysteries] first happened, I thought, ‘Of course! Why didn’t somebody else think of that?’ ” said Mitch Finley, author of The Rosary Handbook: A Guide for Newcomers, Old-Timers and Those in Between (Word Among Us, $11.95).

Many others apparently agreed because Welborn’s and Finley’s books are among a slew of new ones published in the past five years to help Catholics better pray the Rosary.

“Each of the new mysteries is almost bottomless in terms of reflection that could be done about the Christian faith and being Catholic,” Finley told Our Sunday Visitor. “They used to say that if the New Testament somehow disappeared, you could find the whole Gospel contained in the Rosary. Well, that’s even more true now.”

Advice for prayer

Pope John Paul’s letter provides more than a list of new mysteries.

He also offers concrete advice to Christians about prayer in general, and praying the Rosary in particular.

He suggested that people look at a picture that depicts the events of each mystery and read passages from the gospels about those events while praying. “It is not a matter of recalling information but of allowing God to speak,” he wrote.

The pope also reflects on the words of the three main prayers of the Rosary: the “Hail Mary,” the “Our Father” and the “Glory Be.”

He emphasizes that there are no magic words to any form of praying and that, in the end, all prayer is about love. The Rosary, he says, can and should be “an exquisitely contemplative prayer.”

The result is a rich spiritual resource meant for every Catholic. “Catholics would benefit from taking a look at the letter,” Welborn said, “both those who are still skeptical of the Rosary and those who enjoy praying the Rosary and are seeking to go deeper still.”

====================================================================

What a welcome article! And I do urge everyone again, if they have not yet read it, to read John Paul's Apostolic Letter on the Rosary. Back in July 2006, I posted this on this thread:

---

Several weeks back, I took part in a lively discussion on the main forum about the Rosary, writing as one who has found out in the past several years that I can best spend my commuting time (subway or bus) daily praying all twenty decades (five each for the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries) of it.

Besides being the wonderfully simple but very satisfying spiritual exercise that it is, I find that praying the rosary is also a most beautiful way to insulate oneself from the cacophony that usually surrounds one during the generally unproductive time of commuting.

Today, thanks to Curt Jester, I finally looked up Pope John Paul II's Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae of October 16, 2002 -

www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/apost_letters/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20021016_rosarium-virginis-mariae...

to discover an extraordinary document that tells us all we need to know about the rosary in simple, readable and sublimely inspired manner - the meditation of a holy man whose spiritual life was constantly nourished by the Rosary. If you have not read it yet, please do so right away!

[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 28/07/2006 20.42]

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Latin Mass Missal Sales Double

LONDON, SEPT. 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Since Benedict XVI's letter on the Latin Mass was released this summer, sales of the missal for the extraordinary rite have doubled, reported one publisher.

The London-based Baronius Press is reprinting an edition of the missal, which includes the full text of the papal letter "Summorum Pontificum."

John Newton, editor of Baronius Press, commented, "It would seem that 'Summorum Pontificum,' has generated a considerable amount of interest and excitement in the traditional Latin liturgy among the Catholic laity."

Reorienting the Mass:
An interview with Fr. Lang



LONDON, SEPT. 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The statement asserting that the priest celebrating the older form of the Mass has "his back to the people" misses the point, says Father Uwe Michael Lang.

The posture "ad orientem," or "facing east," is about having a common direction of liturgical prayer, he adds.

Father Lang of the London Oratory, and recently appointed to work for the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, is the author of Turning Toward the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer. The book was first published in German by Johannes Verlag and then in English by Ignatius Press. The book has also appeared in Italian, French, Hungarian and Spanish.

In this interview with ZENIT, Father Lang speaks about the "ad orientem" posture and the possibilities for a rediscovery of the ancient liturgical practice.


How did the practice of celebrating the liturgy "ad orientem," or "facing east," develop in the early Church? What is its theological significance?

In most major religions, the position taken in prayer and the layout of holy places is determined by a "sacred direction." The sacred direction in Judaism is toward Jerusalem or, more precisely, toward the presence of the transcendent God - "shekinah" - in the Holy of Holies of the Temple, as seen in Daniel 6:10.

Even after the destruction of the Temple, the custom of turning toward Jerusalem was kept in the liturgy of the synagogue. This is how the Jews have expressed their eschatological hope for the coming of the Messiah, the rebuilding of the Temple, and the gathering of God's people from the diaspora.

The early Christians no longer turned toward the earthly Jerusalem, but toward the new, heavenly Jerusalem. It was their firm belief that when the Risen Christ would come again in glory, he would gather his faithful to make up this heavenly city.

They saw in the rising sun a symbol of the Resurrection and of the Second Coming, and it was a matter of course for them to pray facing this direction. There is strong evidence of eastward prayer in most parts of the Christian world from the second century onward.

In the New Testament, the special significance of the eastward direction for worship is not explicit.

Even so, tradition has found many biblical references for this symbolism, for instance: the "sun of righteousness" in Malachi 4:2; the "day dawning from on high" in Luke 1:78; the angel ascending from the rising of the sun with the seal of the living God in Revelation 7:2; and the imagery of light in St John's Gospel.

In Matthew 24:27-30, the sign of the coming of the Son of Man with power and great glory, which appears as the lightning from the east and shines as far as the west, is the cross.

There is a close connection between eastward prayer and the cross; this is evident by the fourth century, if not earlier. In synagogues of this period, the corner with the receptacle for the Torah scrolls indicated the direction of prayer -- "qibla" -- toward Jerusalem.

Among Christians, it became a general custom to mark the direction of prayer with a cross on the east wall in the apses of basilicas as well as in private rooms, for example, of monks and solitaries.

Toward the end of the first millennium, we find theologians of different traditions noting that prayer facing east is one of the practices distinguishing Christianity from the other religions of the Near East: Jews pray toward Jerusalem, Muslims pray toward Mecca, but Christians pray toward the east.


Do any of the other rites of the Catholic Church employ the "ad orientem" liturgical posture?

"Facing east" in liturgical prayer is part of the Byzantine, Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Ethiopian traditions. It is still the custom in most of the Eastern rites, at least during the Eucharistic prayer.

A few Eastern Catholic Churches - for example, the Maronite and the Syro-Malabar - have lately adopted "Mass facing the people," but this is owing to modern Western influence and not in keeping with their authentic traditions.

For this reason, the Vatican Congregation for Eastern Churches declared in 1996 that the ancient tradition of praying toward the east has a profound liturgical and spiritual value and must be preserved in the Eastern rites.


We often hear that "facing east" means the priest is celebrating "with his back to the people." What is really going on when the priest celebrates Mass "ad orientem"?

That catchphrase often heard nowadays, that the priest "is turning his back on the people," misses the crucial point that the Mass is a common act of worship in which priest and people together - representing the pilgrim Church - reach out for the transcendent God.

What is at issue here is not the celebration "toward the people" or "away from the people," but rather the common direction of liturgical prayer. This is maintained whether or not the altar is literally facing east; in the West, many churches built since the 16th century are no longer "oriented" in the strict sense.

By facing the same direction as the faithful when he stands at the altar, the priest leads the people of God on their journey of faith. This movement toward the Lord has found sublime expression in the sanctuaries of many churches of the first millennium, where representations of the cross or of the glorified Christ illustrate the goal of the assembly's earthly pilgrimage.

Looking out for the Lord keeps the eschatological character of the Eucharist alive and reminds us that the celebration of the sacrament is a participation in the heavenly liturgy and a pledge of future glory in the presence of the living God.

This gives the Eucharist its greatness, saving the individual community from closing in upon itself and opening it toward the assembly of the angels and saints in the heavenly city.


In what ways does "facing east" during the liturgy foster a dialogue with the Lord?

The paramount principle of Christian worship is the dialogue between the people of God as a whole, including the celebrant, and God, to whom their prayer is addressed.

This is why the French liturgist Marcel Metzger argues that the phrases "facing the people" and "back to the people" exclude the one to whom all prayer is directed, namely God.

The priest does not celebrate the Eucharist "facing the people," whatever direction he faces; rather, the whole congregation celebrates facing God, through Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit.


In the foreword to your book, then Cardinal Ratzinger notes that none of the documents of the Second Vatican Council asked for the altar to be turned toward the people. How did this change come about? What was the basis for such a major reorientation of the liturgy?

Two main arguments in favor of the celebrant's position facing the people are usually presented.

First, it is often said that this was the practice of the early Church, which should be the norm for our age; however, a close study of the sources shows that this claim does not hold.

Second, it is maintained that the "active participation" of the faithful, a principle that was introduced by Pope Pius X and is central to Sacrosanctum Concilium, demanded celebration toward the people.

Recent critical reflection on the concept of "active participation" has revealed the need for a theological reappraisal of this important principle.

In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, then Cardinal Ratzinger draws a useful distinction between participation in the Liturgy of the Word, which includes external actions, and participation in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, where external actions are quite secondary, since the interior participation of prayer is the heart of the matter.

The Holy Father's recent postsynodal apostolic exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis has an important discussion of this topic in Paragraph 52.


Is a priest forbidden from "facing east" in the new order of the Mass promulgated by Pope Paul VI in 1970? Is there any juridical obstacle prohibiting wider use of this ancient practice?

A combination of priest and people facing each other during the Liturgy of the Word and turning jointly toward the altar during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, especially for the Canon, is a legitimate option in the Missal of Pope Paul VI.

The revised General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which was first published for study purposes in 2000, addresses the altar question in Paragraph 299; it seems to declare the position of the celebrant "ad orientem" undesirable or even prohibited.

However, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments rejected this interpretation in a response to a question submitted by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna. Obviously, the relevant paragraph of the General Instruction must be read in light of this response, which was dated Sept. 25, 2000.


Will Pope Benedict's recent apostolic letter liberalizing the use of the Missal of John XXIII, Summorum Pontificum, foster a deeper appreciation for "turning toward the Lord" during the Mass?

I think many reservations or even fears about Mass "ad orientem" come from lack of familiarity with it, and the spread of the "extraordinary use" of the Roman rite will help many people to discover and appreciate this form of celebration.

Shawn Tribe on thenewliturgicalmovement.blogspot.com/
reported this yesterday. I love the picture:


The Una Voce society in Seville, Spain have news about their Mass in the usus antiquior following the motu proprio.

The Mass took place in the parish of San Bernardo in Seville, and apparently will be offered there each Sunday morning from henceforth. A news story was featured about them.





Unfortunately, he does not provide a link, and I've googled and searched Una Voce International for the original item to no avail.

Shawn has another one from Lithuania:


Continuing some further photos from Mass celebrations around September 14th come these photos, video and music from Lithuania (Parish website) where a priest celebrated the usus antiquior for, he tells me, the very first time in his life, and after 20 years within priesthood.



[I still don't know how to get the URL for a You-Tube but if you click on the TNM link above, you can find the video.)

Vatican dismisses English woman's claims of Marian apparitions

By Simon Caldwell

Catholic News Service

LONDON (CNS) -- The Vatican has dismissed the claims of a woman in England who says Mary has visited her outside her home for more than 20 years.

Ruling that her claims are "highly questionable," the Vatican also has refused to approve the statutes of the community she founded.

Patricia De Menezes said the apparition has been appearing to her beneath a pine tree at her home in Surbiton, a London suburb, since 1984. She claimed she has received a divine message that the Catholic Church must proclaim aborted babies to be martyrs.

She also founded the Community of Divine Innocence, which has about 3,000 members in 43 countries, many coming from the pro-life movement. Community members "strive for holiness and innocence within God's own family," according to the community's Web site.

Archbishop Angelo Amato, secretary of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, announced the decision in a letter to Archbishop Kevin McDonald of Southwark, the archdiocese in which De Menezes lives. The letter from Archbishop Amato was dated July 16; it was released by the Southwark Archdiocese Sept. 21.

Archbishop Amato said the doctrinal congregation found De Menezes' claims to be exaggerated and hysterical. He said inappropriate words and phrases were attributed to Jesus, problematic demands were made over the status of aborted children, and "unusually violent and threatening language" was used in attacks on church authorities.

"Given the supposed revelations which ground the spirituality of the Community of Divine Innocence are highly questionable, it follows that the community's spirituality is flawed at its root," said Archbishop Amato.

"Because this spirituality thoroughly animates the community's proposed constitution, it cannot be approved," he said.

The archbishop specifically took issue with the message that De Menezes claims to have received about the "martyrdom of all the innocent children deliberately killed before birth."

"A martyr is someone who bears witness to Christ," he said. "If the victims of abortion were to qualify for martyrdom, it would then seem that all victims of any moral evil should be likewise deemed martyrs."

Archbishop McDonald said in a Sept. 21 statement that the ruling meant there is "no ecclesiastical approbation for Catholics to meet as the group known as Divine Innocence."

"I am aware that many devout people, deeply committed to the pro-life movement, have become involved with the Divine Innocence," he said. "I wish to encourage them in their work and prayer, but in view of the observations of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this must no longer be in the context of the organization or spirituality of the Divine Innocence."

De Menezes, 67, a freelance jewelry designer, declined to comment on the Vatican ruling.

She has said that her supernatural experiences began when she heard the words "I am the bread of life" while cycling near her home. She said she later saw visions of Mary, Jesus and St. Joseph in her garden and was catechized by them.

She claims that Mary continues to appear to her on a daily basis.

Following the Archdiocese of Southwark's examination and rejection of her claims in 2001, De Menezes sought Vatican approval of the community's statutes.

No More Fatima Secrets, Says Cardinal

Book Quotes Sister Lucia

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 24, 2007 (Zenit.org).- There is no fourth secret of Fatima and the third secret in its entirety has already been revealed, says Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

This was confirmed Friday at the official presentation of Cardinal Bertone's book, "L'Ultima Veggente di Fatima," (The Last Fatima Visionary). The Pope's secretary of state wrote the book, released in Italian last May, with the collaboration of journalist Guiseppe De Carli.

Benedict XVI wrote the volume's introduction, saying, "Through the experience of this humble nun one can see the role of the Virgin Mary who accompanies the Christian with a maternal hand."

During the presentation, Archbishop Loris Capovilla, Pope John XXIII's private secretary, said that there is no fourth secret. He is the only living witness who was present when John XXIII opened and read the third secret in 1959 at Castel Gandolfo.

The 91-year-old prelate said: "It never even entered my mind that there could be a fourth secret. No one ever said such a thing to me nor did I ever claim any such thing."

History

The third secret is the part of the Virgin Mary's message given on July 13, 1917, to Lucia dos Santos and her cousins Jacinta and Francisco Marto.

The first and second parts of the messages given to Lucia by the Blessed Virgin were written down in 1941. In 1944, the third part was written down. In 1957, it was given to the Holy See for the Pope to read at his discretion.

In 2000, Pope John Paul II, who read the third secret for the first time after his assassination attempt in 1981, decided to publish its contents to end growing speculation.

Cardinal Bertone, now secretary of state, was John Paul II's envoy to Sister Lucia, and at that Pope's request, he collected the definitive testimony of the Carmelite nun.

Published

Cardinal Bertone and Sister Lucia met three times from 2000 to 2003. The nun died two years later, Feb. 13, 2005, at age 97.

Their conversations -- the subject of the book -- deal with the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin, the prophecies of war and the future of Russia, the enigma of the third secret, and theories about an alleged fourth secret about the end of the world and supposed guilt in the Vatican.

In the book, the chronological reconstruction of the events is accompanied by a rigorous examination of the documents, including the handwritten pages of Sister Lucia, the integral text of the three parts of the message, and the theological interpretation of then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Monsignor Ambrogio Spreafico, who accompanied Cardinal Bertone to Fatima for one of his meetings with Sister Lucia, spoke at the presentation of the book.

"On April 27, 2000," he said, "I personally accompanied him to the Carmelite convent in Coimbra and he gave Sister Lucia the four handwritten pages regarding the third secret. She attentively verified them, recognizing the pages written in her own hand 56 years earlier, and she recognized the paper as well."

Mariology

During the presentation of his book, Cardinal Bertone reflected on the role of Mariology and the caution used by the Church in analyzing reportedly supernatural occurrences.

"The criterion for discernment of the truth of private revelation is its orientation to Christ and the Gospel,” he explained. He added that once this has been established, one can then look to other important elements such as popular piety and religious practice.

Cardinal Bertone noted that sometimes there is a notable "spreading of supposedly supernatural messages," often with apocalyptic undertones.

"We need to avoid the danger of a 'Church of apparitions,' distrustful of the Church’s hierarchy," he said.

Speaking about the message of Fatima, the Pope's secretary of state said: "The profitable meeting of charisma and institution, of the Trinitarian mystery and the Christological mystery, is realized in the message. Mary, sign of God’s mercy, does not leave Christians alone.

"She gives us indications like a road sign to fight the battle between good and evil. Mary is the icon of God’s tenderness for us.

"It is something that taps into and impregnates contemporary history like no other Marian apparition, and the density of its message touches the hearts of mankind, inviting to conversion and the shared responsibility for the salvation of the world."

"The Last Fatima Visionary" is being translated into six languages and will soon be released in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Here is something from a Catholic blog called The Creative Minority Report. A reader of Father Z's blog called his attention to it.
www.creativeminorityreport.com/2007/10/bishop-murphy-no-one-knows-wh...


No one knows
where the Blessed Sacrament is!

As I reported last week, my Pastor informed us that at the request of Bishop Murphy (Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York) that the church would be moving the tabernacle back to the center of the church. I wasn't sure at the time if this was a general request or something limited to my parish. If it was limited to my parish, what provoked this request? Well, now I know. The Bishop visited at confirmation time and was not pleased with what he saw.

My Pastor, Father Joe, printed the request of the Bishop this week in the bulletin for all to read along with his response. I will print the Bishop's letter here along with my recap of Father Joe's response. My emphases and [comments].


Dear Father Coschignano:

Recently I had the pleasure and the privilege of confirming young men and women in your parish. It was a beautiful moment and one that I very much appreciated. I thank you for the warm welcome that you gave to me and also for the way that you and all those who work with you strive so much to make the experience of worshiping the Lord such a fulfilling and fruitful one.

As I mentioned to you during that day, I am very concerned about the comportment of the faithful in your parish church prior to the celebration of the Eucharist. I am not blaming anyone. I am not trying to say that anyone is at fault. I am simply saying that the comportment is not compatible with proper preparation for the celebration of Mass. This interferes with the ability of the people to enter into the liturgy and have the kind of active participation that the Second Vatican Council calls for.

In my judgment, a major reason for this is the fact that the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in a separate chapel that is so removed from the main body of the church that no one knows where the Blessed Sacrament is.

I don’t mean that literally but I mean that conscious awareness of’ the presence of the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is lacking to those who enter the main body of your parish church. This is further hampered by the fact that the music ministry is set up in front of the doors into that chapel where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved. That means that anyone who wishes to go and pray needs to go through the paraphernalia of those who provide music. I find this problematic.

In the document of the United States Bishops “Built of Living Stones - Art, Architecture, and Worship” which is the normative document of the Bishops Conference in the United States on liturgical matters § 74 §, it is clear that the Blessed Sacrament is to be placed in such a way in the body of the Church that whether it is in the chapel or not, it must be visible to those who come to worship. This is consistent with the documents of the Second Vatican Council as well as with the most recent documents of the Holy See including Redemptionis Sacramentum.

Therefore, I am directing you to begin a process of locating the tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament in the main body of the ‘church. The most simple thing would be to place it in the center of the reredos in the place which clearly set up to have a tabernacle, and where at the last liturgy I celebrated there was a bouquet of flowers.


The altar with the flowers where the Tabernacle should be.

However you do this, I would like to have you give me by September of this your plan for the relocation of the tabernacle.

Relocating the tabernacle in and of itself will not be sufficient. Therefore, I am asking to begin a process of educating your people about the reverence that is due to the Blessed Sacrament when they enter church and so long as they are in church. [Father Joe has started this. More on that in a bit.]

If over summertime and into the Fall you can do a series of articles in the bulletin announcements from the pulpit or a combination of these and other things, I believe you would do a great service to the People of God in Saint John the Evangelist Parish you would have a parish that would become ever more closely united to the Lord and bear much fruit not only in terms of the spiritual life of your parishioners but also in other important elements for the life of the Church such as vocations to the priesthood.

Please do net see this as anything but an act of support for you and for the good work you do as pastor. You and I share the pastoral responsibility for Center Moriches. I would be remiss if I did not say this to you. I say it to you as my brother and as my collaborator with full confidence that you have both the love of your people and the pastoral skills good and holy priest to bring this about for the present and future good of the Body Christ in Center Moriches.

Please know that The Office Worship is at your disposal to help you in this process. If I can be of any help, you know that wish so to be.


With my prayers and best wishes, I am
Fraternally yours in Christ,
William Murphy
Bishop of Rockville Centre

In Holland, They're Inventing Their Own Mass –
Copyrighted by the Dominicans

The experimentation is already underway.
In place of the priest are men and women selected by the faithful. And all together pronounce the words of consecration, which are varied as desired.
In the view of the Dutch Dominicans, this is what Vatican Council II wanted.

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, October 3, 2007 – In restoring full citizenship to the ancient rite of the Mass, with the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, Benedict XVI said that he wanted in part to react to the excess of "creativity" that in the new rite "frequently led to deformations of the liturgy which were hard to bear."

In view of what happens in some areas of the Church, this creativity affects not only the liturgy, but also the very foundations of Catholic doctrine.

In Nijmegen, Holland, in the church of the Augustinian friars, each Sunday the Mass is concelebrated by a Protestant and a Catholic, with one presiding over the liturgy of the Word and the sermon, and the other over the liturgy of the Eucharist, in alternation.

The Catholic is almost always a layperson, and is often a woman. For the Eucharistic prayer, the texts of the missal are passed over in favor of texts composed by the former Jesuit Huub Oosterhuis. The bread and wine are shared by all.

No bishop has ever authorized this form of celebration. But Fr. Lambert van Gelder, one of the Augustinians who promote it, is sure that he is in the right: "In the Church there are different forms of participation, we are full-fledged members of the ecclesial community. I don't consider myself a schismatic at all."

Also in Holland, the Dominicans have gone even farther, with the consent of the provincials of the order. Two weeks before the motu proprio Summorum Pontificum went into effect, they distributed in all the 1,300 Catholic parishes a 9,500-word booklet entitled Kerk en Ambt (The Church and the Ministry), in which they propose to make into a general rule what is already practiced spontaneously in various places.



The proposal of the Dominican fathers is that, in the absence of a priest, a person chosen from the community should preside over the celebration of the Mass: "Whether they be men or women, homo or heterosexual, married or unmarried is irrelevant."

The person selected and the community are exhorted to pronounce together the words of the institution of the Eucharist: "Pronouncing these words is not thought to be the sole prerogative of the priest. The words constitute a conscious declaration of faith by the whole community."

The booklet opens with the explicit approval of the superiors of the Dutch province of the Order of Preachers, and its first pages are dedicated to a description of what happens on Sundays in the churches of Holland.

Because of a shortage of priests, the Mass is not celebrated in all the churches. From 2002 to 2004, the overall number of Sunday Masses in Holland fell from 2,200 to 1,900. At the same time, there was a rise from 550 to 630 in the number of "services of Word and communion," meaning substitute liturgies, without a priest and therefore without sacramental celebration, in which communion is distributed using hosts that were consecrated earlier.

In some churches, the faithful clearly understand the distinction between the Mass and the substitute rite. But in others they don't, and the two ceremonies are thought to be equal in value, entirely interchangeable.

Even more, the fact that it is a group of the faithful that selects the man or woman who leads the celebration of the substitute liturgy reinforces among the faithful the idea that their selection "from below" is more important than the sending of a priest from outside of the community, and "from above."

The same is true of the formulation of the prayers and the arrangement of the rite. It's preferred to give creativity free rein. The words of consecration are often replaced during the Mass by "expressions easier to understand and more in tune with modern faith experience." In the substitute rite, it often happens that non-consecrated hosts are added among the consecrated hosts, and all of them are distributed together for communion.

Within these practices, the Dutch Dominicans distinguish three widespread expectations:

– that men and women be selected "from below" to preside over the Eucharistic celebration;

– that, ideally, "this choice would be followed by a confirmation or blessing or ordination by Church authority";

– that the words of consecration "could be pronounced both by those who preside in the Eucharist and by the community from which they take their origin."

In the view of the Dutch Dominicans, these three expectations are well grounded in Vatican Council II.

The decisive action by the Council, in their judgment, was that of placing the chapter on the "people of God" before the one on the "hierarchical organisation built up from top downwards by the pope and the bishops" within the constitution on the Church.

This implies the replacement of a "pyramidal" Church with an "organic" Church, with the initiative belonging to the laity.

And this also implies a different vision of the Eucharist.

The idea that the Mass is a "sacrifice" – the Dutch Dominicans maintain – is also connected to a "vertical," hierarchical model in which only the priest may validly pronounce the words of consecration. A male and celibate priest, as prescribed by "an antiquated view of sexuality."

But the model of the Church as the "people of God" produces a more liberal and egalitarian vision of the Eucharist, as a simple "sharing of bread and wine by brothers and sisters, in which Jesus is in our midst," as "a table which is open also for people from different religious traditions."

The booklet from the Dutch Dominicans ends by exhorting the parishes to choose "from below" the persons who are to preside over the Eucharist. If, for disciplinary reasons, the bishop does not confirm such persons – because they are married, or because they are women – the parishes should continue along their way regardless: "They should know that in any case they are able to celebrate a real and genuine Eucharist whenever they come together in prayer and share the bread and wine."

The authors of the booklet are fathers Harrie Salemans, a pastor in Utrecht; Jan Nieuwenhuis, the former director of the ecumenical center of the Dominicans in Amsterdam; and André Lascaris and Ad Willems, former professor of theology at the university of Nijmegen.

In the bibliography that they cite, another more famous Dutch Dominican theologian stands out – Edward Schillebeeckx, 93, who during the 1980's came under the scrutiny of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith for ideas similar to the ones included in the booklet.

The Dutch bishops' conference is refraining from making an official reply. But it has already let it be known that the Dominicans' proposal appears to be "in conflict with the doctrine of the Catholic Church."

From Rome, the general curia of the Order of Preachers reacted feebly. In a press release on September 18 – which was not posted on the order's website – it described the booklet as a "surprise" and took its distance from the proposed "solution."

But it said it shared the "concern" of its Dutch confreres on the shortage of priests: "It may be that they feel as if the Church authorities have not dealt adequately with this question, and as a result they are pushing for a more open dialogue. [...] We believe that this concern must be answered with theological reflection and a prudent pastoral approach between the entire Church and the Dominican order."

From Holland, the Dominicans have announced that the booklet will be reprinted soon, after the first 2,500 copies quickly ran out.

__________


The complete text of the booklet, in an English translation:

> The Church and the Ministry
ncronline.org/mainpage/specialdocuments/The_Church_and_the_Mini...
__________


WHAT THE BISHOPS' SYNOD OF 2005
DECIDED ABOUT 'SUNDAY ASSEMBLIES
IN THE ABSENCE OF A PRIEST'


The synod of bishops on the Eucharist in 2005 dealt with the questions raised by the Dutch Dominicans, reaching radically different conclusions.

Benedict XVI dedicated paragraph 75 of the post-synodal exhortation Sacramentum caritatis to "Sunday assemblies in absence of a priest." Here it is:

---

Rediscovering the significance of the Sunday celebration for the life of Christians naturally leads to a consideration of the problem of those Christian communities which lack priests and where, consequently, it is not possible to celebrate Mass on the Lord's Day. Here it should be stated that a wide variety of situations exists.

The Synod recommended first that the faithful should go to one of the churches in their Diocese where the presence of a priest is assured, even when this demands a certain sacrifice.

Wherever great distances make it practically impossible to take part in the Sunday Eucharist, it is still important for Christian communities to gather together to praise the Lord and to commemorate the Day set apart for him.

This needs, however, to be accompanied by an adequate instruction about the difference between Mass and Sunday assemblies in the absence of a priest.

The Church's pastoral care must be expressed in the latter case by ensuring that the liturgy of the word – led by a deacon or a community leader to whom this ministry has been duly entrusted by competent authority – is carried out according to a specific ritual prepared and approved for this purpose by the Bishops' Conferences.

I reiterate that only Ordinaries may grant the faculty of distributing holy communion in such liturgies, taking account of the need for a certain selectiveness.

Furthermore, care should be taken that these assemblies do not create confusion about the central role of the priest and the sacraments in the life of the Church.

The importance of the role given to the laity, who should rightly be thanked for their generosity in the service of their communities, must never obscure the indispensable ministry of priests for the life of the Church.

Hence care must be taken to ensure that such assemblies in the absence of a priest do not encourage ecclesiological visions incompatible with the truth of the Gospel and the Church's tradition.

Rather, they should be privileged moments of prayer for God to send holy priests after his own heart. It is touching, in this regard, to read the words of Pope John Paul II in his Letter to Priests for Holy Thursday 1979 about those places where the faithful, deprived of a priest by a dictatorial regime, would meet in a church or shrine, place on the altar a stole which they still kept and recite the prayers of the eucharistic liturgy, halting in silence'at the moment that corresponds to the transubstantiation,' as a sign of how 'ardently they desire to hear the words that only the lips of a priest can efficaciously utter.'

With this in mind, and considering the incomparable good which comes from the celebration of the Eucharist, I ask all priests to visit willingly and as often as possible the communities entrusted to their pastoral care, lest they remain too long without the sacrament of love.

---

=====================================================================

I do not know how many priests there are belonging to the religious orders in the Netherlands, but perhaps, these dissenting Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits would do much better to get together and see whether they could help the situation by offering to say the Sunday Masses themselves in places that do not have a diocesan priest - instead of 'inventing' their own 'Church'! And they could begin by disseminating Sacramentum caritatis instead of Kerk en Ambt, but I bet they didn't even bother to read that! Nor Sacramentum conciliarium for that matter!

Dear Saints Dominic and Augustine and Ignatius, please invoke the grace of the Holy Spirit on your erring sons!

An appropriate Sunday post, courtesy of Father Z, from the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Atlanta - a letter to the editor published on September 20.


To the Editor:

I am 16 years old, and for the past 11 months I have attended the traditional Latin Mass weekly, while still attending the Novus Ordo Mass during the week. Because of this, I decided to address certain points made by Carroll Sterne in the Sept. 6 edition of The Georgia Bulletin. Mr. Sterne speaks about the type of Mass that someone of a younger generation is drawn to, and I thought that a teenager’s point of view might be helpful.

Mr. Sterne in his letter gives voice to the opinion of many of today’s liturgists when he says that no one from a younger generation would be drawn to the Latin Mass (many take this even further and assume that we would not like a reverent Novus Ordo Mass either).

This opinion causes many of those who plan modern liturgies to do veritable back flips in an attempt to draw teenagers and young adults in. Sometimes this works, but it has a side effect: by doing these things, liturgists show that they have absolutely no faith in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass to change the lives of those in my generation.

My generation knows about this lack of faith, we are able to see it every time we go to a “teen Mass” and experience priests ad-libbing prayers in an attempt to make them more relevant to us.

This lack of faith backfires; it sends us the message that we also should distrust the power of the liturgy, and it also can turn the Mass into something of a joke.

After experiencing this for months, I attended a Traditional Latin Mass and experienced something that I’d never seen before: Here was a priest who expected my life to be changed without adding anything to the Mass in an attempt to bring this change about. This priest had perfect faith in the power of the liturgy, and it showed. It was beautiful. The traditional Mass did more to change my life then any “relevant” teen Mass ever did.

Ethan Milukas, Peachtree City

OK, ok, I must sound very sad... I joined Facebook because my children are often posting their photos and forgetting to mail them to me as well. However, although most members are young people, it's worth us older ones giving the site a look if only because it has a very good 'Catholic Resources' site which lists all the Catholic groups - there's one for those Loyal to Benedict XVI and of course I joined it!!!!

You might be hardcore Catholic if...

-you've accidentally genuflected at a place other than church ex. the movie theatre, school auditorium

-you're sick of being asked why priests can't be married

-you have a "favorite" religious order

-you say the meal prayer no matter where you are

-you have a nativity set at your house during christmas, and have also played with it.

-you've accidently made the sign of the cross when leaving regular buildings

-whenever anyone says "JPII" in your head you think "We love you"

-you know that Father Stan could take on Eminem anyday

-you looove the book Captivating and/or Wild at Heart (Even though they were written by non-Catholics)

-you know that advent is the beginning of the new church year.

-you have a special place in your heart for Mother Teresa

-you're more than willing to come forth with a valid miracle to help Mother Teresa become a saint

-You know at least five people named Mary

-You want to name one of your sons John Paul

-you have a Mary statue in your front yard.

-You can name off all the Joyful, Glorious, Sorrowful, and Luminous mysteries.

-you consider your rosary to be your spiritual weapon

-You've memorized the St. Michael the Archangel prayer and recite it when you feel tempted by sin

-one or more of your friends entered the seminary or the convent

-you have 20+ cousins.

-your mom is currently pregnant

-you and your spouse practice NFP

-you believe in Purgatory and know it's important to pray for the souls who are currently in Purgatory

-you get excited whenever Matt Maher releases a new album! Yea "Overflow"!!

-you think Scott Hahn writes the coolest books.

-you live chastity and are saving yourself for your future spouse.

-you're able to sit still for a full hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament

-your idea of a great date is mass followed by good conversation at Panera

-You refer to John Paul II as John Paul the Great

-you never leave home without your scapular.

-you are discerning the religious life

-you often end disputes with, "Let's look it up in the Catechism." (Thanks to Amanda Powers)

-you and your friends have shown up at Adoration at 4:00 in the morning (Thanks to Amanda Powers)

-when watching star wars and hear "may the force be with you" you respond with "and also with you" (Haha, thanks to Josh Donohue)

-your mom always says "4 kids, Catholic" (Thanks to Jim Benedick)

-you have participated in sword fights using Palms on Passion Sunday (Thanks to Jim Benedick)

-you've run into your Parish Nuns at a Cardinal's game (Thanks to Jim Benedick)

-XLT is the big event of the month in which you invite everyone you know (in St. Louis that is) (Thanks to Bridget Atwood, shameless plug)

-you and friend friends ever played "Mass" instead of House, or Cops and Bad Guys (Thanks to Jamie Klemmer)

-You have your own designated seat at Mass (Thanks to Nikki Reinky)

-they know you at every Catholic bookstore in the area, and ask you where you’ve been if you haven’t stopped by in a while. (Thanks to Nikki Reinky)

-on the night before the first Sunday of Advent you and your friends have a Liturgical New Year's Eve party, and count down to the new Liturgical Year!! (Thanks to Kristie Ritter)

-you're named after a saint, not a family member. (Thanks to KC DuFrain)

-you know at least three awesome stories about Padre Pio (Thanks to Jimmy Puglis)

-you get excited about going to mass (Thanks to Jimmy Puglis)

-you arrive at Mass half an hour early to get a good seat and talk to Jesus (Thanks to Jimmy Puglis)

-Redemptive Suffering gets you through sports (Thanks to Jimmy Puglis)

-your mom always makes sure to celebrate your feast day (Thanks to Matt Hadro)

-altar serving was the cool thing to do (Thanks to Matt Hadro)

-You associate the smell of incense with major feast days (Thanks to Kathleen Warrington)

-You attend multiple retreats per year (Thanks to Kathleen Warrington)

-you point at your friends in line for confession calling them sinners and everyone laughs as you get to the end of line (Haha Thanks to Rick Hoines-Brumback)

-Your teachers grade you down when you write papers about moral issues and papers involving God (Thanks to Rebecca Lawson)

-you've ever referred to yourself and your significant other as "a couple discerning a vocation to marriage" (Thanks to David Asher)

-You and your many siblings went trick-or-treating dressed as popes and martyrs (Thanks to Sarah LaVigne)

-you feel compelled to make the sign of the cross after reciting ANYTHING... (happens to me after the pledge of allegiance almost every morning!) and then you catch yourself and have to remind yourself that it wasn't a prayer (Thanks to Lara Van Driel)

-If you have a priest come bless your house with holy water before you move in. (Thanks to Larry Perez)

-You never eat before church, and brunch afterwards is always the best! (Thanks to Larry Perez)

-Your first serious conversation you have with a potential girl/boyfriend involves your conversion story (Thanks to Chris Whooley)

-You lie awake at night wondering why the St. Michael Prayer was removed from the end of Mass(Thanks to Chris Whooley)

-The word "vocation" to you does not simply mean "job"(Thanks to Chris Whooley)

-People tend you look in your direction in class whenever anything involving religion comes up(Thanks to Chris Whooley)

-You always have one or more saints on some part of your body.(Thanks to Liz Conte)

-You have a Rosary or Saint Christopher pin in your car(Thanks to Liz Conte)

-One of your Crucifixes has five years worth of dried out palms stuck behind it.(Thanks to Liz Conte)

-You would rather get your picture with the pope then with a huge celebrity(Thanks to Liz Conte)

-You have more than one Rosary hanging from your bed. (Thanks Michael Perea)

-You have contemplated being in a religous order at least once. (Thanks Michael Perea)

-Your one wish is to be able to ride in the Popemobile (Thanks to Kathleen Tarrant)

-you have a small family because most of your uncles and aunts are priests and nuns (Thanks to Georgia Gaydos)

-you say "God bless you" anytime anyone sneezes, out of habit (Thanks to Francine Wolfe)

-You know the greatest way to start a date is with The Mass, because you'll have the greatest meal, Christ in the Eucharist (Thanks to Nathan Lambert)

-You know more about St. Francis of Assisi than "he was some guy who could talk to animals" (Thanks to Nathan Lambert)

-you have had multiple meetings with the priest at your own will (Thanks to Maria Rose)

-all your pens and post-its say "Discover the Priesthood"
(Haha Thanks to Maria Rose)


-You had competitions with your friends on Ash Wednesday to see who could keep their ashes on the longest (Thanks to Mel McLaughlin)

-You still write "Your Kingdom Come!" or "JMJ" at the top of your page/letter/report/test (Thanks to Corinna Lansangan)

-You find yourself asking all the cute boys whether or not they've ever considered becoming a priest instead of asking them for their number (Thanks to Corrina Lansangan)

-You spend your Thursday nights at choir practice hanging out with people at least thirty-five years older than you in preparation for Sunday Mass (Thanks to Corrina Lansangan)

-You mentally correct every textbook use of "BCE" and CE" with "Before Christ" and "Anno Domini". You also mentally capitalize every written use of the word "God' and "Mass" (Thanks to Kristin Mullarkey)

-You know that some Catholics don't eat meat on Wednesdays or Fridays, even not during Lent. (Thanks to Kristin Mullarkey)

-you live in the Vatican. (Thanks to Josh Stevens)

-you find that praying the rosary is a good way to pass the time(espesially at work) (Thanks to Calvin Jensen)

-you get really excited over a holy day of obligation (Thanks to Ashley Lopez)

-if you are tired of people refering to the birth of Jesus the immaculate conception (Thanks to Ashley Lopez)

-you've ever been told my your mom, "Offer it up", and then felt very obliged to do so (Thanks to Emily Anne)

-when discussing possible names for your future children with friends or your future spouse, you start ruling out names that aren't virtues, saints, or biblical (Thanks to Daniel Buttig)

-youve ever thought it would be fun to read the CCC as if it were a novel (Thanks to Daniel Buttig)

-you instinctively grab the person's hand next to you when it's time to pray (Thanks to Daniel Buttig)

-you hug strangers at Mass during the sign of peace (Thanks to Daniel Buttig)

-when you hear someone's name read off, you think in your head "pray for us" (Thanks to Daniel Buttig)

-you've ever ruled out dating someone because they weren't Catholic (Thanks to Brendon Walsh)

-you tell other people your last name, they begin spouting off names of people that you are probably related too. (Thanks to Kelsey Ott)

-You plan what to wear based on the liturgical color of the day (Thanks to Brandon Kraft)

-You hold office hours at the Catholic Center/Catholic Student Center/Newman Center. (Thanks to Brandon Kraft)

-You and your roommates have scheduled "spiritual nights" to discuss whatever issues of faith that are on your mind that week. (Thanks to Brandon Kraft)

-You think getting a S.T.D. is cool... (Thanks to Brandon Kraft) (S.T.D.= Doctorate of Sacred Theology)

-you held a pope party (complete with papal flag, and german beer) for the election of the B XVI (it was a tuesday night). (Thanks to Nathan Erikson).

-you were disappointed when you couldnt find a catholic version of trivia pursuit (Thanks to Nathan Erikson).

-When you tell the someone who your favorite musical artists are they have NO IDEA who you are talking about (Thanks to CA McCauley)

-When you hear the word Madonna, you think of the Blessed Virgin, not the song "Like a Virgin." (Thanks to CA McCauley)

-You know that "prostrate" is not a place where men develop cancer (Thanks to CA McCauley)

-you convince your roommate that Jesus loves Him/Her no matter what religion they are (Thanks to Stephen Dolenc)

-Instead of change, you find a rosary under your couch cushions.(Thanks to Casey Karbowski)

-when you've said the rosary outside a Planned Parenthood in protest with a Respect Life group (Thanks to Sean McCarthy).

-You look at this list and laugh really hard, b/c you know it's so true

-you have at one point had to stop a younger sibling from playing in the holy water font. (Thanks to Devin K.T. McIntyre)

lol Wulfrune, I have seen this group on facebook before. These are funny. You don't sound sad. It's understandable why you have joined and joining facebook is not viewed in the same way as joining myspace.

There are also groups for local cell groups & one for young adults from South Florida going to WYD. There are also one's for SQPN podcasts- "The Rosary Army" and "SaintCast Souls" for example.

What Use Are Miracles?



By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
Zenit News Agency

ROME, OCT. 12, 2007 - While Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, 10 lepers met him at the entrance to a village. Staying at a distance they call out to him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Jesus has pity on them and says to them: "Go and show yourselves to the priests."

Along the way the 10 lepers discover themselves to be miraculously cured. The first reading also tells of a miraculous healing of a leper: that of Naaman the Syrian by the prophet Elisha. The liturgy's intention is clearly to invite us to reflect on the meaning of miracles and in particular of miracles that bring about the cure of a sickness.

Let us say that prerogative to do miracles is one of the most attested in Jesus' life. Perhaps the most dominant idea that the people had of Jesus during his life, more dominant than that of a prophet, was that of a miracle worker. Jesus himself presents this fact as proof of the Messianic authenticity of his mission: "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised" (cf. Matthew 11:5). Miracles cannot be eliminated from Jesus' life without destroying the plot of the whole Gospel.

Together with accounts of the miracles, Scripture offers us criteria for judging their authenticity and purpose. In the Bible, miracles are never ends in themselves; much less are they supposed to elevate the person who does them and show off his extraordinary powers, as is almost always the case with healers and wonder workers who advertise themselves. Miracles are rather an incentive for and a reward of faith. It is a sign and it must serve to draw attention to what it signifies. This is why Jesus is saddened when, after having multiplied the loaves of bread, he sees that they did not understand what this was a sign of (cf. Mark 6:51).

In the Gospel itself, miracles are ambiguous. Sometimes they are regarded positively and sometimes negatively -- positively, when they are welcomed with gratitude and joy, when they awaken faith in Christ and hope in a future world without sickness and death; negatively, when they are asked for or demanded for faith. "What sign do you do that we might believe in you?" (John 6:30). This ambiguity continues in a different form in today's world. On the one hand, there are those who seek out miracles at all costs; it is always a hunt for the extraordinary, and people stop at their immediate utility. On the other hand, their are those who deny miracles altogether; indeed they look upon miracles with a certain irritation, as if it were a manifestation of degenerate religiosity, without recognizing that in doing so they are pretending to teach God himself what is true religiosity and what isn't.

Some recent debates that have arisen around the Padre Pio phenomenon have shown how much confusion is still around today about miracles. It is not true, for example, that the Church considers every unexplainable event a miracle (we know that even the medical world is full of this!). It considers as miracles only those unexplainable facts that, because of the circumstances in which they take place (which are rigorously ascertained), have the character of a divine sign, that is, they give confirmation to someone or an answer to a prayer. If a woman, who is without pupils from birth begins to see at a certain point while still being without pupils, this can be cataloged as an unexplainable fact. But if this happens while she is confessing to Padre Pio, as did in fact happen, then it is no longer possible to speak simply of an unexplainable fact.

Our atheist friends with their critical attitude in regard to miracles make a contribution to faith itself because they make us attentive to easy falsifications in this area. But they too must guard against an uncritical attitude. It is just as mistaken always to believe whatever is claimed as a miracle as it is always to refuse to believe without looking at the evidence. It is possible to be credulous but it is also possible to be ... incredulous, which is not very different.

* * *

Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher.