BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Can't wait to find out how this 'production' turned out.... I don't feel very comfortable about the way the record company is hyping it, somehow sounds misleading, but this preview sounds like it could be quite a creative mix....


New CD with Pope's voice
previewed in Rome
By Cindy Wooden



ROME, Nov. 11 (CNS) -- Under the gilded ceiling of a Roman basilica, a choir performed while the taped voice of Pope Benedict XVI sang the Marian hymn "Regina Coeli" ("Queen of Heaven").

The performance marked the press launch of "Alma Mater," a CD featuring the recording of the Pope leading the "Regina Coeli" prayer in St. Peter's Square on May 1, 2005, the first time he had led the hymn as pope.

The CD features eight pieces. They each begin with six lines from the Marian Litany of Loreto and then segue into a new composition of classical music with the Pope's voice overlaid, usually reciting a Marian prayer or talking about Marian devotion.

The disc was co-produced by the Pauline Fathers' Multimedia San Paolo and Geffen Records, which is part of Universal Music Group. It was scheduled for worldwide release Nov. 30.

Pauline Father Vito Fracchiolla, general director of the order's publishing companies in Italy, said the disc "is the fruit of the convergence of many artists and of many business and church entities, a result of teamwork aimed principally at making a gift to Pope Benedict XVI" by spreading his Marian devotion and a message of hope".

Colin Barlow, president of Geffen Records UK, said, "The beauty of this record is that it celebrates the beauty of music."

The disc features the choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome singing in St. Peter's Basilica under the direction of Msgr. Pablo Colino and London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra playing under the direction of Charles Dutoit.

Geffen and the Paulines held a press conference in Rome's City Hall Nov. 10 before inviting the media to listen to the Rome choir sing selections from the album in the Basilica of St. Mary Ara Coeli.

The recordings of the Pope's voice are the property of Vatican Radio, which for a fee of 25,000 euros (about $37,600) gave the Paulines permission to use 9 minutes and 49 seconds of the pope's voice, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, head of Vatican Radio.

The Jesuit, who also directs the Vatican Television Center, said the Vatican also made six of its video clips of the Pope available to the project for a fee of 6,580 euros (about $9,900) for use during "Alma Mater" concerts and in publicity material.

Father Lombardi said the disc is an affirmation "that art is the natural ally of the spirit in a way that goes beyond religious affiliation," as seen in the fact that the composers, producers and musicians include Christians of various denominations, a Muslim and nonbelievers.

The Jesuit, who also serves as Vatican spokesman, said he believed Pope Benedict had received a copy of the CD and had listened to it, but he had not heard the Pope's reaction.

The decision of Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center to allow the Paulines to use the pope's voice and image was approved by the Vatican Secretariat of State, Father Lombardi said.

The approval came because of Pope Benedict's interest in "finding and experimenting with new ways and means for transmitting a religious, spiritual message in this world that needs it so badly. And also to find new ways to bring the voice and the person of the pope closer to a wider public," he said.

"Music is an effective language for communicating today with a vast public of young people, and not only with them," he said. "And the creative effort of allying both traditional and modern music with wise and spiritual words is certainly worthy of respect and encouragement," Father Lombardi said.

Even after agreeing to the project, the Vatican reserved the right to approve how the pope's voice and image were used and stipulated that Geffen was to donate a portion of its profits to charity, he said.

Asked why Vatican Radio would allow a commercial enterprise to use the pope's voice for such a modest fee, Father Lombardi said the radio is a service aimed at spreading the pope's message, not making money. "But if Universal and the Paulines make colossal profits and want to make a donation out of gratitude to the Pope or to Vatican Radio, I wouldn't refuse it," he said.



Trivia: A similar album with John Paul II's participation was apparenrly titled ABBA PATER, for the Jewish and Latin terms meaning 'father' Rather clever of the Geffen REcord boys to come up with the new CD's name...



The OR has a brief factual item about the CD presentation in today's issue (11/12/09):


'Alma Mater' CD is presented
Translated from
the 11/2/09 issue of



On November, 10, the CD Alma Mater: Music from the Vatican was presented in Rome.

It is a co-production of Geffen UK and Multimedia San Paolo, with the voice of Benedict XVI taken from recordings provided by Vatican Radio.

The disc contains eight new compositions executed by the Choir of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, under Pablo Colino, and by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

The music was composed by Simon Boswell, Nour Eddine and Stefano Mainetti, at the request of the man who came up with the concept for the CD, Fr. Giulio Neroni.

The music was added to the voice of Benedict XVI who chants and prays in different languages, similar to what was done for John Paul II in the CD Abba Pater.

The CD will be released internationally on November 30.


A really beautiful promotional video on
www.musicfromthevatican.com/
allows us to hear the excerpt with the Pope
intoning the 'Regina caeli' from one of his
first Angelus-hour prayers as Pope.

Thursday, Nov. 12

St. Josaphat (b Lithuania 1584, d Russia, 1623
Bishop and Martyr, Patron Saint of the Ukraine
Born around the time that the Church of Ruthenia split, with some
Orthodox returning to communion with Rome (Uniates), he grew up
a Uniate, with a reputation for holiness even as a boy. He became
a Basilian priest, well-schooled and ardent in preaching the Catholic
faith. After heading many monasteries, he became Bishop of Vitebsk
at age 38. His preaching converted many orthodox to Catholicism,
including Ignatius, Patriarch of Moscow, and a descendant of the
Paleologue emperors. He was murdered by a mob in Vitebsk who
supported a dissident hierarchy that had developed against him.
Lying in state, his body had the odor of sanctity and was incorrupt
when it was exhumed five years later. His remains were later taken
to Rome where he is buried in St. Peter's Basilica. Hos body was
exposed intact in 1797. In 1867, he became the first Eastern saint
to be canonized in the Latin rite.



OR today.

At the General Audience, the Pope describes the monastic experience of Cluny:
Humanism and the future of Europe
He also appeals for rapid pacification and humanitarian help to victims of Sri Lanka's long civil war
Other Page 1 stories: The FAO reports that food prices are too high in the poor countries; and President Obama considering
four options for moving forward in Afghanistan. Inside, there are excerpts from lectures given by two leading Curial prelates
at a seminar revisiting John Paul II's encyclical Fides et ratio.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Stjepan Mesić, President of the Republic of Croatia, and his delegation

- Bishops of Brazil on ad-limina visit (Group 3 of the second batch; the first batch were seen in September
before the Pope's visit to the Czech Republic)

- Professors and students of the Universita Libera Maria Santissima Assunta (LUMSA) in Rome on the 70th
anniversary of its foundation. Address in Italian.

Yesterday, after the General Audience, the Pope met with

- Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum

How a financial magazine rates
Benedict XVI on its power scale

The latest of those periodic 'Top 100' lists that some Western magazines put out as a guaranteed attention-getter comes
from Forbes, a US-based international financial journal.






The brief profile is of course written from the secular point of view. The Church is described as a 'multinational', and the Pope as 'unbending on reproductive matters' - as though the Pope decides what Catholic doctrine is on 'reproductive matters' or anything else!

Obviously, Christ's Vicar on earth is sui generis and should not be classified in any comparative manner with others, much less, ranked on a scale of power that is completely conceived in temporal terms.

But once a year, we must brace ourselves for these 'lists' on which the Holy Father may not even appear (consider Time's '100 most influential' in 2008) - out of curiosity and for the record, and not because it matters.

You may find the whole article and the factors by which the Forbes editors graded their choices on
www.forbes.com/2009/11/11/worlds-most-powerful-leadership-power-09-people_l...

Perhaps no other living personality today, or even in the decades since the end of World War II, has commented more often, more analytically and more consistently about the crisis of Europe - in its cultural identity, in its demographic reality, in standing up to the overt challenge of Islam and the risk of becoming 'Eurabia' - than Joseph Ratzinger before and since becoming Pope.

His passionate personal concern, as well as the Church's own institutional concern, on this issue, has virtually made him the Prophet of Europe, and unquestionably had to do with his choice of his papal name in homage to St. Benedict who saved Christian Europe in the Middle Ages. He may well be Europe's 'new Benedict' - and once again, it is remarkable that it takes a man of God, and not any one of the world's self-trumpeting intellectuals and political leaders, to defend a way of life that is primarily 'temporal' after all, to the secular mind.

This article comes from Avanti, the official daily newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party since 1896.


The successes of Benedict XVI
and the 'blindness' of Europe
by ANDREA CAMAIORA
Translated from

November 11, 2009

Do religion and spirituality have any political fallout? Are they somehow related to political reasoning? The late don Gianni Baget Bozzo thought so, and his entire life and thinking demonstrated that.

On the other hand, all who believed - and one thinks especially of the defeated Communist regimes of eastern Europe - that they could simply cast out God and man's tendency to seek the Infinite, have been proven wrong by the irresistible power of Catholicism, embodied by the unique figure of John Paul II.

But there are those on the left who, even if they do not advocate the materialistic culture, pre-and post-Communist era, continually see a political content in anything that the Church of Rome does under the Pontificate of Benedict XVI.

That is the case with Massimo Faggioli, a scholar of religious history, who had an article on oct. 28 in the Partito Democratico's newspaper Europa, entitled "The PD and Benedict's Latin". [The PD is a political party formed earlier this year by leading Catholic leftists under the former mayor of Rome, Walter Veltroni, and was soundly defeated by Silvio Berlusconi's center-right coalition in the April parliamentary elections.]

For Faggioli, "the theological debate over the Second Vatican Council directly affects 'democratic Catholicism' and its culture as an important and not simply residual part of the political scenario".

In effect, Faggioli has noted how Benedict XVI's Magisterium is demolishing the cultural assumptions of that 'democratic Catholicism' [i.e., leftist Christian Democrats, in the term more commonly used] , which flourished under the Pontificate of John XXIII and then through part of Paul VI's.

Naturally, Faggioli - who also writes editorials for the PD organ - defends the artifices resulting from Vatican-II and condemns the present Pope because "even if the Vatican-II fathers had no political objectives in mind when they debated the documents that 'updated' the Catholic Church, every step back taken by the church of Benedict XVI from the acquisitions of Vatican-II launches, in fact, a political message".

It looks like ultimately, Europa and the PD have not learned their lesson. They are concerned for the 'democratic Catholicism' of the politicians who describe themselves as 'adult Catholics' because the Pope 'has put them aside' [when it was the voters who did], and therefore, it is the Pope who has erred.

The truth is that spirituality, culture, politics are all inter-related. Baget Bozzo's lesson has still not been learned by the left, which continues unperturbed to make mistakes.

However, the issue raised by Europa deserves to be pursued, looking at Benedict XVI's Pontificate and how it has progressed so far.

Within the space of a few months, Joseph Ratzinger has been able to cross over the threshold of Hope: for a Christianity that may once more be united around the primacy of Peter.

In this respect, only a theologian like Hans Kueng, who calls himself 'Catholic', could criticize Benedict XVI as harshly as he did upon the announcement of a rapprochement between traditional Anglicans and Rome.

Kueng claims that the Pope's only intention is to 'restore the Roman empire", or to maintain 'Rome's medieval centrality'.

It is sad to note the biased attitude of the Swiss theologian, though his article has been published integrally so far only in La Repubblica and The Guardian [also Le Monde], which perhaps says something.

How can Kueng not see reality? In a few months, Benedict XVI - with his openings to the Lefebvrians and the Anglicans - has made different signals that point to only one direction. As L'Osservatore Romano said in an editorial: it is "to reconstitute the unity desired by Christ and to acknowledge the long and effortful ecumenical journey that has been achieved so far for this end".

Of course, the Pope's work does not end here. He has other thresholds to cross. One is in the north, the other east.

The German evangelicals have chosen a woman to continue dialog with the Catholics from a strong common platform: a value-driven intransigence on bioethical issues.

And in the east, the theological dialog with the Orthodox Churches is on track [having now arrived at discussing the role of the Pope in a reunified Church]. Even in this, how can one miss the hand of Benedict XVI?

The recent theological session in Cyprus marked an important step, looking to an extraordinary resumption in Vienna next year [the sessions have always been biennial, every two years, since they began in 1980]. where their host will be Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn who is closely associated with Benedict XVI.

It is incumbent on the Italian government - which is doing fairly well in its European relationships [except for Brussels and Strasbourg constantly trying to oppose Italian practices and laws based on the country's Catholic traditions, which date to the beginnings of the Church] and its relations with Russia - to take note of Benedict XVI's successes.

[Perhaps an unnecessary suggestion, since both President Napolitano and Prime Minister Berlusconi have certainly been very attentive to what the Pope says and does. Perhaps the writer meant Italian politicians in general, such as the obstinate PD.]


Now, how serendipitous is it that having commented in my introduction to the above article on Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI as the 'Prophet of Europe' and 'the new Benedict for Europe', there was this article today that developed that very theme!


A ‘different Benedict is here’:
Benedict XVI and the new missionary age

The voices of those who wanted to place him in a terminological box have receded.
This is a prophetic Pope with an inspired and historic mission that has only just begun.

By Deacon Keith Fournier

11/12/2009
Catholic Online


History shows that the earliest days of a Papacy often send a signal for the watchful observer. We are told by some to pay attention to the name chosen by the new Pope and the content of their first messages. I vividly recall the first days of our current Pope’s service to the Church and the world. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger chose the name Benedict.

One of the young priests who commentated on this choice during the televised coverage of those extraordinary days noted that the new Pope had visited Subiaco before all the events even began. Subiaco is the home of the Benedictine monastic movement. It symbolizes the Christianization of Europe during the First Millennium.

Saint Benedict was born around the year 480 in Umbria, Italy. He is the father of Western Monasticism and co-patron of Europe (along with Saints Cyril and Methodius).

As a young man, Benedict fled a decadent and declining Rome for further studies and deep prayer and reflection. He gave his life entirely to God as a son of the united Catholic Church. He traveled to Subiaco. That cave became his dwelling, the place where he communed deeply with God.

It is now a shrine called "Sacro Speco" (The Holy Cave). It is still a sanctuary for pilgrims, including Pope Benedict XVI, who visited that very same place of prayer right before his election to the Chair of Peter.

St. Benedict lived a life of prayer and solitude for three years and studied under a monk named Romanus. His holiness drew other men and women and soon, twelve small monasteries were founded. He later traveled to Monte Cassino, where he completed his "Rule for Monks." From those Benedictine monasteries, an entire monastic movement, a lay movement in its day, was birthed and the world was changed through it.

It was this movement which led to the evangelization of Europe and the emergence of an authentically Christian culture. This Culture was the fertile soil for the birth and flourishing of the academy, the arts and the emergence of what later became known as Christendom.

In April of 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, a man of letters, professor and ardent student of Church history assumed the Chair of Peter as Pope Benedict XVI. Shortly after this momentous event, I wrote a lengthier article on the possible implications of his election containing a quotation from the philosopher Alisdair MacIntyre, taken from his book After Virtue:

---

It is always dangerous to draw too precise parallels between one historical period and another; and among the most misleading of such parallels are those which have been drawn between our own age in Europe and North America and the Epoch in which the Roman Empire declined into the Dark Ages.

Nonetheless, certain parallels there are. A crucial turning point in that earlier history occurred when men and women of good will turned aside from the task of shoring up the Roman Imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of the Imperium.

What they set themselves to achieve instead - often not recognizing fully what they were doing - was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness.

If my account of our moral condition is correct, we ought also to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point. What matters at this stage is the construction of local forms of community within which civility and the intellectual and moral life can be sustained through the new dark ages which are already upon us.

And if the tradition of the virtues was able to survive the horrors of the last dark ages, we are not entirely without grounds for hope. This time however, the barbarians are not waiting beyond the frontiers; they have already been governing us for quite some time. And it is our lack of consciousness of this that constitutes part of our predicament.

We are waiting not for a Godot, but for another - doubtless very different - St. Benedict.”

---

I speculated that Pope Benedict XVI - who has since reminded us that the Church is a “creative minority” - was a response to the need expressed by MacIntyre for a “different Benedict”. I am even more convinced of it now.

In an age which has witnessed a decline in Christianity on the European continent, Pope Benedict XVI boldly calls for a rebirth of Christianity in Europe.

In an age which has been beset by disunity in the ranks of those who bear the name Christian, he has undertaken an extraordinary mission of Church Unity.

His prophetic and pastoral response to Anglicans seeking full communion in the safe harbor of the Catholic Church is one among several courageous and prophetic actions taken by this quiet, diminutive, and humble “servant of the servants of God”.

Others include his offer of reconciliation with the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre; his encouragement of the lay movements and ecclesial communities, the “monastic movement” of this Third Millennium; and his extended hand of communion toward the Orthodox Church which has as its goal the full restoration of ecclesial and Eucharistic communion which recognizes legitimate diversity within such a renewed communion.

This is a prophetic Pope who understands that there is no “Plan B”, the Church is the only hope for the recovery of a devastated West. Indeed she is the only hope for the whole world because she continues the redemptive mission of her head, Jesus Christ. She is His Body.

He will soon visit Europe [What on earth does Fournier mean?] in a series of near non-stop apostolic visitations [????] during his short tenure in office.

St. Augustine of Canterbury was sent to what became England by another great Pope St. Gregory, in 669, to bring freedom to the inhabitants of that beautiful land through the proclamation of the full Gospel of Jesus Christ as found within the Catholic Church.

Now, in the Third Millennium, the successor of Gregory is making the trip himself. The timing of the release of Anglicanorum Coetibus, the Apostolic Constitution establishing Personal Ordinariates for returning groups of Anglican Christians, is no accident. Nor is it the only historic overture toward authentic unity which this Pope of Unity will offer during his service.

The voices of those who wanted to place him in a terminological box have receded. This is a prophetic Pope with an inspired and historic mission that has only just begun.

Pope Benedict XVI participated in the Second Vatican Council. He not only understands the authentic teaching of that Council but has led the way in its proper implementation in many areas of life, both within the Church and in her mission to the contemporary age.

He also understands the way that the Council was hijacked in some circles, disregarded in others and misinterpreted in still others. However, his is a voice calling for a dynamically orthodox and faithful Catholic Christian faith, practice, worship and life that does not want to move us back but forward and toward.

In his homily prior to the convening of the conclave where he was chosen to fill the Chair of Peter, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger gave a prophetic insight into the challenges of the age:

---

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking...

The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves - thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth.

Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error (cf Eph 4, 14). Having a clear faith, based on the Creed of the Church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. Whereas, relativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and "swept along by every wind of teaching," looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today’s standards.

We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.

---

Some attempted to misuse this prophetic insight to paint him as rejecting the modern world and somehow seeking to “turn the clock back”. That was nonsense.

What he rejects is the emptiness of what is called “modernity” and “post modernity”. What he proposes is a path to authentic progress; a road leading not to the past, but to a future of hope.

Authentic liberation can only be brought about through a new missionary age and a Rebirth of the Church. The Gospel - as taught by and lived in its fullness within the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church - is the only saving truth that redeems and brings about human flourishing, true freedom and authentic cultural recovery.

To proclaim this Gospel in its fullness to this Third Christian Millennium requires that the Church breathe with both of her lungs, East and West.

That is why Benedict is unqualifiedly dedicated to such a full communion of the Church, East and West. He calls it his “impelling duty”. He is the “Pope of Christian Unity” and he is the Pope of a new Missionary Age.

He knows that the "two lungs" on the One Body of Christ must breathe together again in order to animate this new missionary age with the full breath of the Holy Spirit which is needed to renew the Church and reform the world again in Christ.

Pope Benedict, like his namesake St. Benedict, has a vision for the Evangelization of Europe and the West. A “different Benedict” is here and a new missionary age has begun.

Papal audience for
the President of Croatia





This morning Stjepan Mesic, President of the Republic of Croatia, was received in audience by the Holy Father Benedict XVI. The president subsequently went on to meet Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

During the cordial discussions, attention focused on the situation in the region, the principal challenges it is facing, and the factors that favour its stability and promote peace.

The ancient and living Catholic tradition of Croatia was also mentioned, as was the importance of respecting this identity and of promoting the common good through constructive dialogue between the government authorities and the episcopate, and with all components of society.

How much is B16
wired into IT?

Here's what CNA claims in a headline today:




Vatican City, Nov 12, 2009 (CNA).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, shared this week that the Holy Father has an appreciation for new developments in technology and is comfortable surfing the internet and using e-mail.

During an interview with the program “Studio Aperto” on the Italia 1 TV network, Archbishop Celli added, while the Pope doesn't have a personal email address, he “sends his own personal emails. He does! He has great appreciation for new technology.”

The archbishop explained that while the Pope “cannot respond to the millions of messages that arrive in his inbox,” he is committed to “offering his prayers for all who write to him.”

“The Internet is an excellent means of communication,” he continued. “We are seeking to be present where the people are, especially the youth.”



Facebook, Wikipedia execs
brief Vatican on Web
By NICOLE WINFIELD


VATICAN CITY. Nov. 12 (AP) - Vatican officials and Catholic bishops are getting a lesson on the Internet from Facebook, Wikipedia and Google executives as the Church struggles to get its message out in the digital age.

A four-day symposium in the Vatican which opened Thursday also will address Internet copyright issues and hacking — including testimony from a young Swiss hacker and an Interpol cyber-crime official.

The meeting is being hosted by the European bishops'smedia commission and is designed to delve into questions about what Internet culture means for the Church's mission and how the church communicates that mission to others.

Pope Benedict XVI has tried to bring the Vatican into the Internet age and launched a YouTube channel earlier this year. Officials say he also e-mails and surfs the Web.

But the Vatican's online shortcomings have been woefully apparent.

Earlier this year, Benedict made clear he was disappointed that Vatican officials hadn't done a simple Internet search to discover the Holocaust-denying comments of an ultraconservative bishop before the Pontiff lifted his excommunication.

The outrage over the rehabilitation of Bishop Richard Williamson, of the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, prompted Benedict to write a letter to his bishops admitting mistakes and saying that he had "learned the lesson" and that the Vatican would in the future pay greater attention to the Internet as a source of news.

French Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Leandri, president of the European Episcopal Conference's media committee, cited the Williamson affair in his remarks to the opening session, saying it exposed the institutional Church's communications problems.

He also cited the outcry over the Pope's own controversial comments that condoms are not the answer to Africa's AIDS epidemic and could make it worse. He said the Catholic Church must learn how to communicate in a more effective, instantaneous way — recognizing how its pronouncements are taken in different cultures — if it wants to engage the faithful to spread its mission.

[I think the French bishop is oer-simplifying the problem. Much of the miscommunication is because the secular media on which 'the world' depends for its information often miscommunicate and misrepresent news about the Church, especially news about the Pope.

The Vatican provides the primary sources - radio and TV coverage and recordings, as well as text postings . But secular media ourlets never use this material as is: they need it pre-processed and pre-digested to the bare minimum that they wish to accommodate, and so they simply pass on the reports that they can get from the international news agencies and some of the major media that have their own correspondents, which necessarily reflect all of the secular (usually liberal) biases and assumptions of their reporters.]

"You either know how to communicate or you don't; you are either credible or not," he said, according to his prepared remarks. "You are either alive, or a fossil; you either know the language of the Internet or you don't, in which case you can't communicate." [With these statements, the bishop is also being quite condescending! Did he never stop to think how that might sound specifically addressed to the Pope??? - as I imagine he directed his remarks to the Church as a whole, from which you cannot dissociate the Pope!]

The stakes are high, he said, noting that Evangelical Web sites in France attract far more users than Catholic ones, even though there are far fewer Evangelicals than Catholics in the country.

The reason? Unlike Catholic sites, which are merely extensions of parish bulletins, Evangelical sites "seek to reach Internet surfers, using the Internet as a tool and a vehicle for evangelization," he said, tapping into a widespread concern at the Vatican about the competition for souls that Evangelical churches represent.

During the symposium, panels will discuss social networks, the Web generation, the church's communication strategies, and whether the Internet is changing religious practices.

In many ways, the Internet is just the latest means that the Vatican has used to spread its message, starting with parchment, printing press, radio and television.

Pope John Paul II used mass media and information technology to get out his message, overseeing the 1995 launch of the Vatican's Web site, www.vatican.va, which today includes virtual tours of the Vatican Museums and audio feeds from Vatican Radio.

Pope commemorates 70th anniversary
of Rome's LUMSA University







Vatican City, Nov 12, 2009 (CNA).- In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Rome’s LUMSA university (Libera Universita Maria Santissima Assunta). the Holy Father received 7,000 members of the institution at the Aula Polo VI today.

Acknowledging the university's well-defined Catholic identity, he called them on to a further “dialogue between faith and reason, in an ideal attempt to integrate knowledge and values.”

The Pope noted that the university came into being as a result of Pope Pius XI's Encyclical Divini illius Magistri and began its activities in the climate of commitment to education inspired by the encyclical. He told his audience that their university began “with a well-defined Catholic identity, also with the encouragement of the Holy See with which it maintains very close ties.”

Pope Benedict also told the members of the university that the LUMSA’s dual focus, that of “remaining faithful to the original idea of [foundress] Mother Luigia Tincani and, at the same time, responding to the new challenges of society” is still necessary today.

The Pontiff added that the task of teaching is of critical importance, since “any profession can become an occasion to bear witness to values that were absorbed during the academic period, and to translate them into practice."

Then Pope Benedict emphasized the transcendent nature of universities and their studies, which don’t have their end simply in the acquisition of knowledge. “Today, as yesterday, the university needs true masters capable of transmitting, alongside academic information and knowledge, rigorous research methods and profound motivations.”

Commending the university itself for its dedication to the ideals upon which it was founded, The Holy Father said, “LUMSA is a Catholic university which has this Christian inspiration as a specific element of its identity… it aims to undertake academic activity oriented towards the search for truth, in a dialogue between faith and reason, in an ideal attempt to integrate knowledge and values.”

The Holy Father concluded by calling on the students to maintain their “hearts and minds open to the truth” in order to become “builders of a more just and united society.”


[The story does not mention that LUMSA's Faculty of Jurisprudence honored Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in November 1999 with a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. I know I have at least one picture of that event but I can't find it.]



Here is a translation of the Holy Father's address:

---

Eminent Cardinals,
Mr. Senate President and distinguished officials,
Rector Magnificus and dear Professors,
Dear Missionaries 'della Scuola' [a congregation of teaching sisters],
Dear students and friends:

I am very happy to meet you on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta.

I greet the rector of your university, Prof. Giuseppe Della Torre, and I thank him for his kind words.

It is my pleasure to greet the President of the Senate, the Hon. Renato Schifani, and the other Italian civilian and military authorities, as well as all the many personalities, rectors and administrative directors who are present.

To all of you who make up the great family of LUMSA, I extend my warm welcome.

Your university, which began in 1939 through the initiative of the Servant of God Mother Luigia Tincani, founder of the Unione Santa Caterina da Siena delle Missionarie della Scuola, and of Cardinal Giuseppe Pizzardo, who was then Prefect of the Congregation for Seminaries and Universities, was founded for the purpose of promoting an adequate university formation for religious sisters destined to teach in Catholic schools.

Your university was therefore born with a well-defined Catholic identity, also in conjunction with the intentions of the Holy See, with which it keeps a close connection.

In the past 70 years, LUMSA has prepared ranks of teachers, and has developed remarkably, especially after 1989, when it became a Free University, with the creation of new faculties and the widening of its student base.

I know that today it has some 9,000 students in its four locations in Italy and that it represents an important reference in the educational field.

As the cultural and legislative situation in Italy and Europe has been undergoing profound changes, LUMSA has continued its growth attentive to two things: to remain faithful to the original intuition of Mother Tincani and, at the same time, to respond to new challenges in society.

The context today is characterized by a worrisome educational emergency, on which I have dwelt on several occasions, to which the task of those who are called to teach has a very specific relevance.

Especially so with university professors, but also with the formative itinerary itself of those who are preparing to be teachers in the various academic levels, or professionals in other sectors of society.

In fact, every profession is an occasion to testify to and translate into practice the values that are personally internalized during the academic years.

The profound economic crisis throughout the world, and the causes of its origin, have shown the need for a more decisive and courageous investment in the field of knowledge and education as a way to respond to the numerous open challenges and to prepare the young generations to build a better feature (cfr Enc. Caritas in veritate, 30-31; 61).

Here then is where one notes the need to create in the educational field thought linkages, with collaboration among disciplines so they can learn from each other.

In the face of the great changes that are under way, it is therefore increasingly urgent to call on those fundamental values that must be transmitted as an indispensable patrimony to the new generations, and therefore to ask ourselves what these values are. Thus, academic institutions are faced with pressing questions of an ethical character.

In this context, Catholic universities are entrusted with a relevant role, one that is faithful to their specific identity and to the effort to render qualified service to the Church and to society.

In this sense, the indications offered by my venerated predecessor John Paul II in his Apostolic Constitution Ex corde ecclesiae are even more relevant, exhorting the Catholic university to institutionally guarantee the Christian presence in the academic world.

In the overall social and cultural reality, the Catholic university is called on to act with Christian inspiration both by individuals and by the university community as such; with incessant knowledgeable reflection, illuminated by faith, and scientific research; with fidelity to the Christian message as the Church presents it; and with institutional commitment to serving the people of God and the human family in their journey towards the final goal (cfr No, 13).

Dear friends, LUMSA is a Catholic university which has Christian inspiration as a specific element of its identity. As its Magna Carta says, it offers scientific work oriented to a search for the truth in the dialog between faith and reason, in an ideal tension towards the integration of knowledge and values.

At the same time, it envisions formative activities to be conducted with constant ethical attention, while elaborating positive syntheses between faith and culture, and between knowledge and wisdom, for the full and harmonious growth of the human being.

This imposition is for you, dear professors, stimulating and demanding. Indeed, as you work to be even more qualified for teaching and research, you must also cultivate the educational mission itself.

Today, as in the past, the University needs true teachers, who transmit, along with scientific facts and knowledge, a rigorous method of research, with profound values and motivations.

Immersed in a fragmented and relativistic society, you, dear students, must always keep your minds and hearts open to the truth. Dedicate yourselves to acquiring, in a profound way, all the knowledge that goes into the integral formation of your personality, to refine your capacity for searching out truth and goodness during your whole life, and to prepare you professionally to become builders of a more just and brotherly society.

May the example of Mother Tincani foment in everyone the commitment to accompany rigorous academic work with an intense interior life sustained by prayer.

May the Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, guide your journey with the true wisdom that comes from God.

I thank you for this most welcome encounter, and from the heart, I bless each of you and your work.

---

In the pictures above, the Pope greets Senator-for-life Giulio Andreotti, who is also publisher-editor of the magazine 30 GIORNI.

A stale secularism and
a contemporary Pope
Translated from

Nov. 12, 2009


A comparison between the work of Benedict XVI and the verdict of the Strasbourg court on the Crucifix ia a critical reference point for the current vulgate that secularism is the correct expression of the secularity and freedom of thought that liberated the West from confessionalism and the alleged mental closedness of the Church.

Indeed, the judgment reveals the serious disconnect between the dominant culture and the real life of people - and that is why protests against it have arisen from all sides like a wave of iressistible common sense.

Above all, it shows that the dominant culture, now reduced to taking offense at religious symbols in the name of principle, is no longer capable of responding to the challenges of the contempoary world.

This is a world in which the anti-clerical and libertarian battles seem to have exhausted their momentum, because although they have disseminated, as Benedict XVI noted last Sunday, "a mentality which leads to doubting the value of the person and the goodness of life", they have also created a situation in which "one forcefully notes a widespread thirst for certainties and values".

The verdict on the Crucifix, beyond being illogical, is outdated: while the secularists are still dedicated to removing every religious sign from public spaces, the world has far more demanding issues.

Papa Ratzinger, with his continuous invitations to widen the perspectives of reason and to be open to the spiritual dimension with confidence in the truth, knows this - and shows how Christianity is capable of grasping the aspirations of contemporary man.

Friday, Nov. 13

ST. FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI (b Italy 1850, d USA 1917)
Missionary and Founder, Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Patron Saint of Immigrants
Born to a modest family in Lombardy, she became a nun and soon rose
to be the Mother Superior of an orphanage in Codogno where she taught.
When the orphanage closed, she and seven of her colleagues set up
the Missionary Sisters order. Her work brought her to the attention
of Leo XIII who asked her to go the United States as a missionary
instead of China which she would have preferred. With Chicago as
her base, she and her order established dozens of schools, hospitals
and orphanages for poor people, as well as assistance and adult
education for Italian immigrants. In 1946, she became the first US
citizen to be canonized.



OR today.

The Pope to professors and students of Rome's LUMSA university:
'A decisive and courageous investment in knowledge and education'
Other Page 1 stories: The Holy Father's audience with the President of Croatia; an essay by the FAO director-general on world hunger anticipates the world summit on food security next week in Rome, to be opened by the Pope; the International Red Cross reports on millions of refugees who are not getting any aid; President Obama tells Afghan President Karzai that the US will not stay in Afghanistan 'forever'; and Israel PM Netanyahu opens a dialog with Syria.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Gordon Bajnai, Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary and his delegation

- Bishops of Brazil (South Sector-1, Group 4) on ad limina visit

- Members of the full Pontifical Council Cor Unum. Address in Italian.

- Cardinal William Joseph Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

I generally ignore the standard anti-Pope, anti-Rome rantings of the known 'liberal Catholic' mouthpieces like the National Catholic Reporter and America in the USA, and The Tablet in the UK, leaving it to other commentators to point out their most egregious fits of perversion and just plain wrong thinking. Damian Thompson does that now...


The Tablet launches bitter
and ignorant attack on the Pope's
Apostolic Constitution

Nov. 13, 2009


The Tablet’s editorial this week is a wretched attack on the Pope’s Apostolic Constitution, arguing that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (read: the Pope) doesn’t understand Anglo-Catholicism.

The article is a bitter and partisan piece of work, reflecting the wounded pride of English bishops who were not consulted about the Apostolic Constitution for the very good reason that they would have tried to sabotage it. The editorial says:

"Perhaps because of lack of consultation with both Catholic and Anglican authorities in England, the CDF seems to have failed to grasp what Anglo-Catholicism is really all about".

What about the CDF’s years of consultation with the bishops who lead the Anglo-Catholic conservatives in England? Do you think that Bishops John Broadhurst and Andrew Burnham failed to communicate what Anglo-Catholicism is “really all about”? The Tablet continues:

---

[Anglo-Catholicism's] fundamental aim was to reassert the Catholic credentials of the Church of England as the “ancient Catholic Church of these lands” identical in essence to the medieval English Church.

It is from this foundation that derive all those characteristics of its style that the CDF is keen to preserve – the interiors of its churches almost indistinguishable from Catholic churches, the use of “Father” as the title for its clergy, and devotion to a Catholic type of spirituality including honouring the Virgin Mary.

But unless one counts use of the Roman missal in some of their churches, there is no distinctive Anglo-Catholic liturgy.

Anglo-Catholicism is going through a profound crisis precisely because it is losing faith in its central principle.

Anglicanorum coetibus is offering to let incoming Anglo-Catholics hang on to the incidental symbols of that principle, while relinquishing what lies behind it. Does that make sense?

---

Well, no, it doesn’t make sense – if you accept the Tablet’s ignorant account of Anglo-Catholicism, a phenomenon it has never remotely understood.

There isn’t space to go into detail here, but the Anglo-Papal strand within the movement was not chiefly interested in recreating medieval English Catholicism (as some other Anglo-Catholics were) and made sure that its liturgy reflected post-Reformation (and post-Vatican II) developments in Roman Catholicism.

Then we get the old argument that, because English Anglo-Catholics use the Roman liturgy, they would be just “hanging on to incidentals”, even that “there is no distinctive Anglo-Catholic liturgy”.

Can you imagine the Bitter Pill – and it really is bitter this week – insulting any other religious tradition in this fashion? The distinctiveness of the English Anglo-Catholic liturgy arises partly from its ethos, which reflects a solemnity that has been lost by so many Roman Catholic parishes in this country.

There is nothing “incidental” about this ethos. In Anglo-Catholicism at its best you find a way of celebrating ancient feasts in an English manner that draws authentically on the medieval Church: it is one of the “treasures” that the Holy Father wishes to see reincorporated into Catholicism.

And it is he, not the CDF, who is the author of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. So let us be very clear about this. The Tablet is attacking the Pope, rubbishing a project that is very dear to his heart and central to his ecumenical mission.

The magazine also contains a sour, biased analysis of the Constitution by ex-priest Nicholas Lash, criticising it for the way it cites The Catechism of The Catholic Church – “a useful if uneven compendium of Catholic teaching. It has little or no authority in itself…” [Excuse me???? Since it is derived from specific magisterial acts (each referrence duly noted in the Catechism), it is part of the Magisterium, so how can it not have any authority???? Lash is not just sour and biased, he too is showing his ignorance. We must be thankful he is an ex-priest!]

And yet still The Tablet has the nerve to call itself Catholic. [Just as Notre Dame and NCReporter and America and countless others we can name still do - because in fact they claim to 'be the Church' ['We are Church'!], as though the faithful alone make up the Church and there is no structure and leadership that have guided her and kept her together for 2000 years!]


I liked the following commentary by the missionary priest Fr. Scalese whose views I generall find congenial:


On 'Anglicanorum coetibus'
Translated from

Nov. 10, 2009

I have read the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus with the Complementary Norms issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. We knew beforehand the main lines of these documents, so there were no great surprises. But one cannot remain indifferent when reading the official texts,

My first feeling was of amazement at how the Catholic Church has known from time to time how to adapt itself to various situations. This new juridical institution of 'personal ordinariates' is not provided for in the Code of Canon Law. There already exist the 'military ordinariates' - not in the Code of Canon Law, either, but also created through Apostolic Constitution - but this model had not been previously applied to any other type of congregation.

But a new situation had presented itself: Groups of Anglican faithful, with their pastors, had asked to be received 'corporatively' into the Catholic Church. And what does tehChurch do? It creates a new personal church circumscription especially for them, in order to respond to their request and their legitimate aspirations.

The only condition asked of them is this: "Do you accept the Catechism of the Catholic Church?" Nothing more.

Once the same faith is shared, everything is possible, and a solution can be found to any problem.

Do you wish to continue following your own traditions? Not a problem!

Do your married priests wish to continue being priests? OK. They must be re-ordained as Catholic priests but they can stay married.

Do your bishops want to continue being your pastors? It is possible. If they are unmarried, they can be reordained bishops and become 'ordinaries' [bishop]. If they are married, they can be re-ordained as priests, and they may continue to use their episcopal insignia on request and be part of bishops' conferences as emeritus bishops.

I told myself, this leaves little to the imagination! And all this, coming from the Catholic Church, which is usually perceived as conservative, traditionalist, and slow to adapt to changes.

But in this case, the conservatives seem to be the Anglican Church itself. Listen to Bishop John Broadhurst, of the 'Forward in Faith' federation of traditional Anglican churches: “I have been horrified that the Church of England, while trying to accommodate us, has consistently said we cannot have the jurisdiction and independent life that most of us feel we need to continue on our Christian pilgrimage. What Rome has done is offer exactly what the Church of England has refused.”

Did you hear that? These Anglicans, who do not accept the novelties itnroduced into their church, before turning to the Catholic Church, first asked the Church of England itself for legitimate autonomy [no room for them in a church where, moreover, there has always been room for the most diverse positions, even contradictory at times].

No, they were told, "Put up or do what you will!" What the liberal Church of England could not give to them has been granted by the backward Catholic Church!

This is a sign of the Church's great vitality. Those 'churches' that cnsider themselves 'open' and modern simply because they allow women priests and practising homosexuals as bishops or sanction same-sex marriage, are actually 'dead' churches.

We must wait and see what happens next, but if enough Anglican groups decide to join the Catholic church, then thexAnglican Communion risks being reduced to an aggrupation of nostalgic practitioners.

Of course, we cannot ignore the difficulties that await the Catholic Church itself. Not eveything will be easy. Just reading the Apostolic Constitution and its complementary norms, one can see a certain inevitable confusion which will result when the new ordinariates are superimposed on existing dioceses.

There are also situations which will not be easy to normalize, like priests who are in irregular matrimonial situations, as well as the Catholic priests who had converted to Anglicanism in order be able to get married. [The norms make it slear they cannot be readmitted as priests into the Catholic Church, which makes sense, I think, in terms of principle.]

We can also add the difficulties that priests and communities will have with their Anglican parishes, especially in practicale conomic terms.

And we must not forget that although the converting Anglicans may consider themselves 'traditionalists', they also come from ultra-liberal surroundings and may carry a certain mentality that finds itself at war with Catholic practices. [I think if the convering Anglicans are traditionalist enough to oppose women priests, gay priests and same-sex marriages, then they would be unlikely to advocate abortion, euthanasia, and artificial reproduction which are more 'fundamental' to the faith.]

These are real difficulties which we cannot hide but which should not hinder us - they are difficulties characteristic of the living reality.

Meanwhile, let us enjoy this moment of grace. Let us thank the Lord who shows us, even through this episode, that the Catholic Church - that Church considered by many as broken apart and often critivized by we ourselves for her limitations and her errors) is the true Church of which - unworthily but with great pride - we are part.

For the record, the latest swing in Moscow's apparently deliberate 'blow-hot-blow-cold' tactics in dealing with the prospects of a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch of Moscow. This has been going on since Benedict became Pope, and it's tiresome already....

The source this time is the same Archbishop Hilarion who, in Cyprus, last month, said very bluntly, "It's not going to happen...Too many practical problems. Starting with the Ukrainians who decided to recognize the primacy of the Pope", or words to that effect.

They have made it clear, in every way they can, that this is simply not a priority for them.


Hilarion says meeting between Pope
and Patriarch Kirill 'on the cards'



Moscow, November 12 (Interfax) - Relations between the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches are improving and a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, may be on the cards, a Russian Orthodox bishop said.

"Today it can be said that we are moving to a moment when it becomes possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch of Moscow," Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Department for External Church Relations, told reporters in Moscow.

"There are no specific plans for the venue or timing of such a meeting but on both sides there is a desire to prepare it," the Archbishop said.

Preparations for such a meeting must involve finding "a common platform on all remaining points of dispute," the Archbishop said.

One such issue are relations between the Uniate community and Orthodox believers in Ukraine. In the early 1990s, "the fragile interdenominational balance was upset and a serious situation took shape that still exists," Archbishop Hilarion said.

At the same time, conversion of Orthodox believers into Catholicism is less of a problem today than it was a decade ago, he said.

Benedict XVI is "a very reserved, traditional man who does not seek the expansion of the Catholic Church to traditionally Orthodox regions," the Archbishop said.

When Benedict XVI, shortly after being elected Pope, met with Metropolitan Kirill (the present Russian Patriarch, then head of the DECR, a papal visit to Russia "was taken off the agenda as now it appears to us to be impossible," the bishop said.

After Metropolitan Kirill has been elected Patriarch, "one can hope for further steps" in Orthodox-Catholic dialogue because the Patriarch "will continue the line on relations with Christians of other denominations that he pursued as part of his former activities," the Archbishop said.



I deduce from the Telegraph's treatment of this story - which lifts the Interfax report, without acknowledging the source and then interprets it so extravagantly - that the journalist who put it together has not been following Moscow's yo-yo play in the past four years, and particularly Archbishop Hilarion's since he was named to his present post, which is virtually #2 in the Patriarchate (the very same post occupied by Patriarch Kyrill before he succeeded the late Alexei II).

The Telegraph headline is almost downright laughable, and the lead sentence is clearly false! Moscow has always been clear it will not even begin to discuss a meeting until its moveable/mutable list of conditions are first met!


Russian Orthodox and Catholic Church
may end 950-year rift
By Rachel Cooper

Nov. 13, 2009


Talks have been held to discuss a meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church have been tense for centuries, but in a sign that relations are finally thawing, Archbishop Ilarion, who heads the Russian Orthodox Church’s foreign relations department, said that both sides wanted a meeting, although he emphasised that problems remained.

[Of course, both sides have always said they 'want a meeting', and Rome has been serious about this, even under John Paul II whom the Russians treated shabbily, almost insultingly, in this respect! But it's not a priority for the Russians, who cannot stand their 'third Rome' status, for all that it is historic reality, and would much rather go on being big fish in the Orthodox pond which they easily dominate in numbers, than be a minnow in the Catholic ocean as they would necessarily be in a reunified Church!]

Ilarion spoke of a rapprochement under Pope Benedict XVI that would allow for a meeting with the new Russian Orthodox Patriarch, Kiril, who took up his office in February after the death of the previous patriarch.

“There have been visits at a high level,” said Illarion. “We are moving towards the moment when it will become possible to prepare a meeting between the Pope and the Moscow patriarch.”

He added that in recent years there had been “noticeable improvements” in relations between the two churches.

“The progress in relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church began after Benedict XVI became pope. He is…a person who does not aim to grow the Catholic Church in traditional Orthodox regions.”

Some observers had hinted a meeting between the two Church leaders was forthcoming, but many issues still stand in the way of bridging the split, which dates from 1054 when Patriarch of Constantinople was excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The breach heralded the Great Schism that finally divided the Christian churches of East and West – which had long had political and theological differences, including the wording of the Nicene Creed – and led to the creation of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.

Relations have been tense ever since, and were strained again in recent years by Orthodox accusations of Catholics proselytising in Russia - although historians have cast doubt on such claims.

Mark Nash of the Agency for Evangelisation, who has studied the relationship between the Russian Orthodox and Catholic Church, said a "a lot of the instances of 'proselytising' were in orphanages and children's programmes.

"The chancellor of the Russian Bishops' Conference, Father Igor Kovalevsky, who was on the joint committee tasked with investigating the allegations, said they were 'misunderstandings'."

Dr Jeremy Smith, senior lecturer in Russian history at the University of Birmingham, added that his impression was that the Catholic Church "had not really engaged in proselytising".

"Consequently, [the Catholic church] has remained on relatively good terms with the Orthodox clergy, especially at a local level," he said.

He added that the Russian authorities aimed anti-proselytising laws "more strongly against organisations like the Moonies".

Such legislation, he added, marked an attempt by the government to establish the Russian Orthodox Church as "a centrepiece of Russian identity, albeit as a pillar of the state, after the fall of Communism".

Portugal trip shapes up
as a 4-day event May 11-14
to Lisbon, Fatima and Oporto
Translated from

News agency of the Portuguese Bishops' Conference


The proposed program for Pope Benedict XVI's trip to Portugal next year is now in his hands for approval, with a May 11-14 itinerary that will cover Lisbon, Fatima and Oporto.

This was disclosed by the Portuguese bishops' conference (CEP) which said that the Pope would definitely arrive in Lisbon on May 11 and depart back for Rome on May 14.

Mons. Jose Ortiga, president of the CEP and Archbishop of Braga said that the bishops have sent the Pope a proposed program with 'a choice of various initiatives'.

Dom Ortiga said there will be liturgical celebrations and meetings in various places, to include meetings with the world of culture, of social-charitable work, and with priests and pastoral workers.

In Fatima, where the Pope is expected to be on May 13, the anniversary of the 1917 Marian apparitions, he said that the Pope's program would follow the 'usual schedule' of the annual celebration.

He said that Mons. Manuel Clemente, Bishop of Oporto, had formally requested the Holy Father to 'allow some room' on his program for a visit to Oporto.

He also said that the 'civilian' part of the program, which would include official meetings with the President of Portugal and other government leaders, still has to be defined.

In their final statement following their plenary assembly this week, the Portuguese bishops expressed their joy at the coming papal visit. and called on the faithful for "a renewal of faith and of bearing witness to justice and charity at a time when so many of our brothers and sisters are undergoing great difficulties".

They expressed the hope that the visit would "not be a fleeting event" but that initiatives in preparations for the visit should look to a continuation after it "to concretize the messages that the Pope will give us".

The bishops have named the Auxiliary Bishop of Lisbon, Mons. Carlos Azevedo, as general coordinator for the papal visit. The liturgical director for the Diocese of Leiria-Fatima, Fr. Carlos Cabecinhas, will be in charge of liturgies, and communications will be under the direction of Fr. Manuel Morujao, secretary and spokesman of the CEP.

WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF HUNGARY

Nov. 13, 2009





This morning the Holy Father received in audience Gordon Bajnai, Prime Minister of the Republic of Hungary.

The Prime Minister subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

In the course of the cordial discussions - having recalled how the bilateral agreements signed over recent years have ratified reciprocal relations - attention turned to certain questions concerning the rapport between the ecclesial and civil communities, and the importance was underlined of continuing dialogue through the appropriate bodies.

An exchange of opinions also took place on the current international situation, including the financial crisis in the light of Caritas in veritate, and mention was made of the Hungarian presidency of the European Union, due for the first six months of 2011.

'COR UNUM':
ANNOUNCING THE GOSPEL
AND SERVING MANKIND

Nov. 13, 2009





VATICAN CITY, 13 NOV 2009 (VIS) - Participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum", with their President, Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, were received in audience this morning by the Holy Father, who thanked them for their "valuable service to the charitable activities of the Church".

In his address the Pope explained how the mission of Cor Unum involves "a constant tension between two poles: announcement of the Gospel and concern for the heart of man in the environments in which he lives".

He recalled how this year two ecclesial events had highlighted these aspects, "the publication of the Encyclical Caritas in vritate, and the celebration of the Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops on reconciliation, justice and peace.

"From different but converging points of view, these events underlined how the Church, in her announcement of salvation, cannot overlook the real living conditions of the human beings to whom she has been sent", the Holy Father added.

"It was precisely through such an awareness that, over the centuries, many ecclesial structures and activities came into being with the aim of promoting individuals and peoples. They have made, and continue to make, an irreplaceable contribution to the growth and the harmonious and integral development of human beings".

"It is in this light that we must consider the Church's commitment to the development of a more just society, one in which the rights of individuals and peoples are recognised and respected. ... It is certainly not the Church's task to intervene directly in the political life of States, but the Christian community cannot and must not remain at the margins when it comes to defending human rights and promoting justice".

Benedict XVI went on:
"Faith is a spiritual force that purifies reason in the search for a just [social] order, freeing it from the ever-present risk of being 'blinded' by egoism, by interest and by power. The truth is, as experience shows even in the most socially developed societies, that caritas remains necessary.

"The service of love is never superfluous because situations of suffering, solitude and need still persist, which require dedicated people and tangible aid.

"Thus, anyone who serves within the ecclesial organisations that concern themselves with charitable initiatives and works cannot but have this main objective: bringing people to know and experience the merciful Face of the heavenly Father, because in the heart of God-Love is the true answer to the most intimate hopes of every human heart".

"It is important that the Church, inserted into the events of history and of the life of man", the Pope concluded, "become a channel for the goodness and love of God".

Saturday, Nov. 14

ST. GERTRUDE OF HELFTA (Germany, 1256-1302)
Benedictine nun, Mystic and Writer
As a nun, she dedicated herself to the study
of philosophy and literature before she developed
a spiritual life that led to mystical visions.
Best known for prayers interceding for the souls
in purgatory.



OR today.

Speaking to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, the Pope says
charity is never superfluous even in the most evolved societies:
The power of the Christian message for human rights and justice
The other papal story on Page 1 is the audience for the Prime Minister of Hungary (center photo). International stories: Obama's trip to Asia
as the new global center of gravity; African Union discussions to resolve water distribution problems on the continent; and new tensions between
the two Koreas.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- H.E. Boris Tadić, President of the Republic of Serbia, and delegation

- Bishops of Brazil (South Sector-1) on ad limina visit, addressing them altogether after meeting them
in three separate groups earlier in the week. Address in Portuguese.

- H.E. Jan Fischer, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, his wife and delegation.

MALTA BISHOPS ANNOUNCE
APRIL 17-18 DATES
FOR PAPAL VISIT NEXT YEAR





Pope Benedict XVI will visit Malta on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th April 2010, on the occasion of the 1950th anniversary of St Paul’s shipwreck.

The Pope will arrive in Malta on Saturday afternoon and return to Rome Sunday evening. On arrival, His Holiness will hold meetings with the highest Civil Authorities and then visit St. Paul’s Grotto in Rabat.



On Sunday morning the Pope will celebrate Mass on the Granaries, in Floriana and he will then meet youths at the Valletta Waterfront in the afternoon.

The possibility of Pope Benedict’s visit was announced on September 12th when it was communicated that His Holiness might visit Malta in April next year. The Bishops of Malta and the President of the Republic had previously invited His Holiness to visit Malta.

Further details of the Pope’s visit will be announced in due course.







CYPRUS DATE PENDING

With the announcement by the Portuguese bishops yesterday that the Holy Father's visit to Portugal will take place May 11-14, 2010, the date still has to be announced for the third papal trip abroad in 2010 known so far - Cyprus.

The announcement of the trip made Oct. 1 mentioned a probable June date. Cyprus is part of the Jerusalem diocese, and the Custody of the Holy Land is responsible for the pastoral care of three cities (Larnaca, Limassol, Nicosia) as well as several chapels there.

A birthday/anniversary/Easter gift for the Pope of Christian unity?


Primate hopes all TAC synods
will approve joining Church by Easter
By Deborah Gyapong

P11/13/2009

OTAWA, Australia (CNS) -- The primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion said he hopes churches take action to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church before Easter.

Archbishop John Hepworth said he reacted "with overwhelming joy" to the apostolic constitution published Nov. 9 establishing the structure for Anglicans to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.

The archbishop described the constitution as "generous at every turn" in its description of the Anglican heritage, its dogmatic provisions and its pastoral language.

"We've been asked to show the rich heritage to the whole church, not just to ourselves," he said in an interview from Australia.

The Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) includes Anglican churches that have left the much larger Anglican Communion over the ordination of women and sexually active homosexuals as priests.

TAC is among the largest group of Anglicans likely to embrace the Vatican's action to welcome them into full communion with the Church.

Archbishop Hepworth expects a positive response from Traditional Anglican Communion member churches around the world. Already, the United Kingdom's Traditional Anglican Communion synod voted to accept the document prior to its publication.

He said he has heard from churches around the world, describing their comments as "powerful messages that 'we want it and we want it as soon as we can get it.'"

Archbishop Hepworth has delivered a timetable to Traditional Anglican Communion bishops involving a series of regional and national synods starting early in 2010.

"I want all the votes in by Lent," Archbishop Hepworth said. "Then I'm hoping in fact our bishops can meet in Rome after Easter and present the 'yes' votes and take advice on what to do next."

While Archbishop Hepworth wants to move fast, he said the structure outlined in the apostolic constitution does not require anyone to rush headlong into it. "There's no deadline; it's available way into the future," he said.

"If (the Pope) deals with other groups as creatively and as warmly and pastorally as he has dealt with us, he is the Pope of (Christian) unity," Archbishop Hepworth said.

The primate described the personal ordinariate structure established in the apostolic constitution -- which offers the jurisdiction of a diocese without being tied to a geographical area -- as "radical."

"It's a modern church structure that the rest of the Church in fact will have to consider," he said. It also paves the way for other groups to come into communion corporately.

The two issues likely to draw the most media attention in the document are the provisions for married priests and for married bishops to potentially serve in the new structure.

The norm is clerical celibacy, he said, but there is a provision for married men to be ordained on a case-by-case basis approved by the Holy See, Archbishop Hepworth said.

"It will be done according to the norms developed by the ordinariate and the bishops' conferences and submitted to the Holy See for approval," he said.

"Without married priesthood into the future, it would be very difficult at this stage to sustain the Anglican ordinariate into the future," he added. "We Anglicans going into communion with the Holy See are going to have to deepen our understanding of the celibate priesthood."




Here is an excellent report on Anglicanorum coetibus in this weeks issue of the UK's Catholic Herald. It includes several reactions not previously reported:


Rome opens arms to world's Anglicans
by Anna Arco

13 November 2009


The Vatican has released an eagerly awaited document outlining the Pope's provision for Anglican groups wishing to enter into full communion with Rome.

The Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus ("On groups of Anglicans") was published on Monday, two weeks after the Vatican announced a new provision for Anglican communities that wish to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their Anglican identity.

The document, which introduces a new legal structure called a Personal Ordinariate, was accompanied by a set of complementary norms, clarifying some of the points outlined.

As expected, Anglicanorum coetibus did not revise the discipline of priestly celibacy - an issue that was hotly debated when the Apostolic Constitution was first announced.

Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith clarified last week that priestly celibacy would be observed in an ordinariate, but that married men could be ordained on a case-by-case basis.

A day before the document's publication, Pope Benedict XVI strongly affirmed the Church's commitment to priestly celibacy during a Mass in Brescia, Pope Paul VI's birthplace.

Surprising aspects of the document include the provision that married former Anglican bishops can serve as the ordinary, or head of an ordinariate, take part in bishops' conference meetings and be able to keep the episcopal insignia - for example, their crosier and mitre.

Former Anglican clergymen entering the Catholic priesthood in the ordinariate would be allowed to take secular jobs, providing them with a means of supporting themselves.

Cardinal Levada said the provision "opens a new avenue for the promotion of Christian unity while, at the same time, granting legitimate diversity in the expression of our common faith".

Speaking on the day the document was published, the Rt Rev Andrew Burnham, Bishop of Ebbsfleet, who is one of the Church of England's "flying bishops" who minister to Anglicans who do not accept women priests, said that traditionalists have been given what they asked for "handsomely". He said that any transition would be difficult and it was a time for prayer and discernment.

"If we're open-hearted and imaginative enough to accept the offer and realise that it will be an untidy transition, but that the ministry is not about that, then the difficulties can be overcome," he said.

Bishop Burnham has chosen February 22 as the day for his priests and faithful to make their "initial" decision about the offer. The day falls after the Church of England's General Synod session.

He said: "If Catholics could throw open the doors of their churches on that day and pray together with Anglicans in front of the Blessed Sacrament or have Forty Hours, I think we could see some amazing things."

In a statement on Monday, Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster said: "I welcome the publication of the Apostolic Constitution and the complementary norms. This now makes clear the provision made by the Holy See and enables those who have made requests to the Holy See to study it in detail.

"It is important to remember that this is a response to requests made to the Holy See by Anglicans and former Anglicans from across the world. It is not a provision specifically for England and Wales and clearly there is much reflection to be done by all concerned."

The Rt Rev Christopher Hill, Bishop of Guildford and chairman of the Church of England's Council for Christian Unity, said: "It will now be for those who have requested and at this point feel impelled to seek full communion with the Roman Catholic Church to study the Apostolic Constitution carefully in the near future and to consider their options."

He stressed that the Apostolic Constitution did not deflect from the Church of England's "longstanding commitment to seeking the unity of all the churches, including the Roman Catholic Church".

Canon Robin Ward, the principal of St Stephen's House, an Anglican theological college and a Permanent Private Hall at Oxford University, said: "The Apostolic Constitution establishes just the sort of jurisdiction which traditionalist Anglicans have asked of the Church of England and not received, and in doing so it has also resolved the ecumenical aspiration to complete the work of ARCIC in visible unity which those who asked for the jurisdiction said they wanted.

"It is difficult to see how a refusal to accept this could leave traditionalist Anglicans with any ecumenical aspirations at all in the future. The respect given to the idea of Anglican patrimony, and the resolve to preserve it in the future for those who value it as a contribution to the whole Catholic Church, is a remarkable endorsement of the real value of the Catholic Movement in the Church of England, which could not have happened without the ecumenical imperative laid down by the Second Vatican Council."

The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham and chairman of Forward in Faith International, the main organisation for conservative Anglo-Catholics, said Anglicanorum coetibus was "extremely impressive".

He added that Rome had offered "exactly what the Church of England has refused".

He said: "For some of us I suspect our bluff is called! This is both an exciting and dangerous time for Christianity in this country. Those who take up this offer will need to enter into negotiation with the Church of England about access to parish churches and many other matters."

Personal ordinariates will be led by an ordinary, who can be a celibate bishop or a priest who may be married. The ordinary may also be a former Anglican bishop who is married and has been ordained a Catholic priest.

Fr Benjamin Earl OP, a canon lawyer, explained the role of the ordinary.

He said: "The ordinary has 'vicarious' authority rather than 'proper' authority, which means he won't govern in his own name (as a diocesan bishop or military ordinary would), but in the name of the Holy Father. The ordinary is appointed ad nutum Sanctae sedis (literally 'on the nod of the Holy See'): unsurprisingly, there will be close supervision of these new structures."

A personal ordinariate can cover an area as large as the territory covered by a bishops' conference, though some bishops' conferences might have more than one ordinariate. The document establishes that an ordinariate will have a governing council which will take the place of the council of priests and the college of consulters, which is the cathedral chapter in many dioceses in England and Wales. The governing council would consist of at least six priests.

Stephen Parkinson, director of Forward in Faith UK, said he had not expected the clause which allows former Anglican clergy to take up secular work as well as being ordained in the Catholic Church. He said this aspect of the provision could solve problems for Anglican clergy considering taking up the offer.

He said: "Priests of the ordinariate might be ministering to a congregation that is not large enough to support them. They might be starting from scratch, without a church building and would have to find a way to beg, buy, borrow a building. But this might open a number of doors for people."

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is due to meet Pope Benedict at the Vatican on November 21.

I think the newspaper's headline is too sweeping. The Church does not have to 'win over the art world' in toto. But Pope Benedict XVI can and will inspire some among them to express their sense of God and the transcendent in ways worthy to be a genuine act of worship, i.e., a liturgy of art. The artists interviewed in his article apper to be have that sense already.


British artists speak out




JAMES MACMILLAN, Composer

There has certainly been a breach in the official relationship between artists and the Church. No longer, or so it seems, do the great artists of our time have a close relationship with ecclesial figures who might commission new work from them, as in ancient times.

However, the spiritual quality of the arts has never left the wider consciousness, and it is entirely understandable that the Pope is keen to establish a dialogue.

As his predecessor said famously in his Letter to Artists of 1999: "Even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience." Only the most prejudiced of secular minds would shrug this off as meaningless and irrelevant.


STEPHEN HOUGH, Pianist

Artists are traditionally loose cannons. Asking them to paint a ceiling, write a motet or sculpt a statue has always been a risk for the churchmen who labour long and hard to keep the theological borders neat and free from weeds. Yet art can elevate the heart and mind above, if not beyond, the cleverest sermon or the clearest catechesis, and, at its best, is a companion to doctrine, not an enemy of it.


MARTIN O'BRIEN, Artistic Director
Ten Ten Theatre, a Catholic theatre-in-education company
based in London.

It seems to me that, here in the UK, a rift has developed between the Church and art not through a lack of inspiration but through a lack of confidence. Like so much of contemporary life, art has been secularised. Given this, it can be difficult for Catholic artists to create and deliver deeply personal pieces of work because they often stand to be ridiculed and rejected. However, I don't believe that we Christian artists should be too militant.

John Paul II called us to "look to the future with commitment to a New Evangelisation, one that is new in ardour, new in methods, and new in its means of expression".

For me, this means getting under the radar of what is commissioned and disseminated. We do this by creating works of quality, by being in the secular world (though not of it) and by being brave in the truth we wish to portray. At times we may fail and we may be ridiculed, but we may also inspire and challenge the norm.


DAVID CLAYTON, Icon writer
Artist-in-Residence.Thomas More College of Liberal Arts
Merrimack, New Hampshire

It goes back to John Paul II's Letter to Artists calling for a dialogue. There are two approaches to the regeneration of culture. One is to look at popular culture and Christianise it; the other is to look at Christian culture and make it good enough so that it becomes popular.

Christianising popular culture immediately creates a conflict. You have to think in terms of the content and the form and the style of it is intrinsically secular. Attempting to Christianise popular culture can only go so far, and to ultimately bring that into Mass is flawed.

If you ask me ultimately how I think this is going to happen, what you need is to once again root Catholic culture in the liturgy and devotional prayer that is ordered to the liturgy.

If you look at all the great traditional art movements, the Baroque grew out of the Counter-Reformation, the Council of Trent. It started as the sacred form but then became the form for everything; the sacred and the profane all pointed to the Mass. If we are going to have a Catholic culture again it has to start as a liturgical culture.

It also needs a three-way dialogue between artists, patrons and the Church.

I wonder how many patrons have been invited [to the Sistine Chapel]. If you ask me who I'd go for first, it would be the patrons, not the artists. The artists do what the patrons want them to do.


PATRICK REYNTIENS, Stained-glass artist

The 1980s and 1990s were absolutely frightful for the Catholic Church and the arts. They went in for plumbing instead.

All Church art from the beginning was local art. The whole of the Italian Renaissance was local art. People in Florence did Florentine things; people in Naples did Neapolitan things.

Albrecht Dürer changed things. He invented self-promotion and put woodcuts and etchings before paintings. He could get 5,000 woodcuts distributed throughout Europe. Everybody became interested in Albrecht Dürer.

The trouble is the Holy See is a victim of publicity: it has only invited people who have a public profile.


MICHAEL NOAKES, Painter
Did a portrait of Benedict XVI in 2007

At the time of the Renaissance the arts were in the forefront of knowledge. It was an exciting time, when it was still possible to have read every book that had ever been written.

Painters understood linear perspective and had learned a great deal about anatomy. This growing understanding and confidence led to some wonderful commissions, with the Church as one of the leading patrons.

This patronage coincided with such painters and sculptors as Michelangelo and Leonardo and architects like Palladio. Without Church support they could not have flourished and Christendom would be robbed of some of its finest works of art.

Now, there are so many calls on the Church throughout the world and the art world is in such turmoil that it is hardly surprising that little money is set aside for art projects. It is a sad vacuum. If only it could once again be filled.


AUSTIN WINKLEY, Church architect

Young artists tend to feel alienated by the Church - especially with that one yardstick that to be a Catholic you have to go to Mass on Sunday. And in England we are a pretty obedient lot and if somebody sets out a rule like that we take it quite literally. Yet our churches and galleries are full of paintings and sculptures of saints and the presence of God in symbolic ways.

Young people have a strong link with spirituality, and I think the arts are very closely linked to the message of Christ and the Church, whether artists know it or not, because of the natural desire for the spiritual.

The dialogue between Romano Guardini [the Italian-born German theologian] and Rudolf Schwartz [the German architect] was inspiring for me. It's that kind of dialogue that we have to encourage.

There are relatively few priests at the moment who are inspiring young artists - though I think we are at the beginning of a new wave. Fr Bruno Healey, Fr Peter Newby [organising the] architects' Mass -_they are examples of the Church reaching out to architects and artists.


LAWRENCE LEW, O.P., Photographer

The fine arts point to and participate in beauty, which, as St Thomas Aquinas reminds us, is most properly appropriated to Christ. Sadly, modern art is seldom orientated towards beauty, which is an objective truth extrinsic to oneself, but is rather directed inwards as a kind of subjective self-expression.

This rift can be healed by a contemplation of beauty, and ultimately of truth, revealed by the light of faith. For without faith one remains blind to God, and therefore one's art can only reflect oneself, which does have a natural goodness but it is not opened to the infinite truth, goodness and beauty of the Divine.

I find that the art of photography requires us to seek and contemplate the beauty of God's work in creation, and to share that beauty with others using the photographer's talent and skill. So, photography can be put to the service of the Church, to lead others to a contemplation of beauty, which is the noble and proper end of the arts.


JOSEPH CAMPO , Executive Producer
Grassroots Films, a Catholic company based in New York.
Its latest feature is The Human Experience

There is not necessarily a rift between art and the Church. The shift is in culture. Culture directly affects art, and art directly affects culture. Since culture is characterised by its art, all you have to do is look at what is being created today to know what the state of affairs really is.

The Catholic Church has produced some of the finest works in the history of the world. The Holy Father is asking artists to use today's new technologies to reflect on the spiritual and physical. This is the job of the artists, to uplift souls with their God-given talents.

As the Holy Father said, a revolution is taking place in the realm of social communications. It is up to us artists to set this revolution into motion. By applying the highest quality available to each work of art - be it music, film, performance or words - only then will truth, beauty and goodness be made manifest, thus reflecting the Divine.


PETER FUDAKOWSKI, Film Producer
His film Tsotsi won the Best Foreign Language Oscar in 2005


I think [the Pope's meeting with artists] is a very good initiative, although I would not really agree with the criticism of artists that they have abandoned "the idea that artwork embodies a transcendent vision of being".

My own experience with the film Tsotsi is that it has been enthusiastically used by Church groups worldwide. The redemptive theme has been used to speak to London homeless, street children in South Africa and countless college groups in the US. It has very often been shown as a fundraiser by parish groups.

To my mind, this proves that, given the right material, film-makers and the Church can co-operate very effectively. I am very often asked to advise on films suitable for Church groups and find that there are plenty, but they are very often films which are not multiplex fare. Sadly the sort of films which are made especially for pastoral use are often very poor quality because they are too earnest.


FRANK COTTRELL BOYCE, Novelist and screenwriter

Holding the symposium in the Sistine Chapel reminds us that Catholics have an astounding artistic heritage to draw on. We tend to idealise art and artists nowadays but the Sistine setting also underlines the fact that great art is parasitic on great power.

The field of modern art in Britain, for instance, is sustained by money from banks and advertisers. And it expresses all the things they want to say - that the individual comes first and that life is meaningless (but you can give it meaning by buying stuff).

I think as a Catholic writer I feel my mission is to do what St Paul said and "think on what is good", to remind people that life, even in the worst circumstances, contains the possibility of joy. In a world which is dominated by governments and corporations that feed on fear and misery, this is a profoundly subversive message.

I used to feel anxious about pushing my Catholicism but in fact the two things I've done that have been most warmly received - Millions and God on Trial - are the things in which I was most upfront and honest about my faith.



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The first extended commentary from Cardinal Kasper about the Pope's opening towards Anglicans wishing to convert is featured in the Sunday issue (11/15/09) of L'Osservatore Romano.


'Anglicanorum coetibus':
A concrete possibility
not contrary to ecumenism
by Giampaolo Mattei
Translated from the
11/15/09 issue of



The Archbishop of Canterbury , Rowan Williams, Primate of the Anglican Communion, will be in Rome from Nov. 19-22 to participate in a colloquium dedicated to the late Cardinal Johannes Willebrand on the centenary of his birth, to take place Nov, 19 at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Willebrand was the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 1969-1989.

Williams will contribute an ecumenical testimony, and will most likely "speak about the indisputably positive development of relations between Anglicans and Catholics after Vatican-II", as well as an occasion to take note of the new Apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus.




Cardinal Walter Kasper,who succeeded Cardinal Willebrand as Council President, said in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano, that it will also be an occasion to discuss with Williams the new canonical structure devised by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican communities desiring to convert en masse to the Catholic Church.

"The Archbishop's coming visit to the Vatican", said Kasper, "shows that there is no break at all in Anglican-Catholic relations, and will in fact relaunch the cause of ecumenical dialog at a historic moment".

In this spirit, he said, "the Archbishop of Canterbury will be meeting with members of the Roman Curia, and will meet the Holy Father on November 21. We have the opportunity to open a new phase in the ecumenical dialog which will continue to be a priority of the Catholic Church and of Benedict XVI's Pontificate".

The cardinal said this has been an intense period on the ecumenical front. He recalls getting a late-night telephone call from Archbishop Williams when he was in Cyprus for the 12th meeting of the Mixed International Commission for Theological Dialog between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

"We discussed the significance of the new Apostolic Constitution, and I assured him that our direct dialog would continue, as Vatican-II envisioned and as Pope Benedict desires. He said that this confirmation was very important to him".

Kasper said "The Archbishop has kept a balanced attitude since he was informed of the Apostolic Constitution. Our personal relations are cordial and transparent. He is a spiritual man and a theologian. Actually, the only possible obstacles to the ecumenical dialog now could come from internal tensions within the Anglican Communion."

He also pointed out that "The Apostolic Constitution must be understood in the light of Vatican-II and the direct ecumenical dialogs which it led to".

Thus he said, "there were always great hopes for the possibilities of rapprochement because in our dialog, it was evident that we have a common tradition spanning 15 centuries."

He admitted that the expectations were somewhat dampened in recent years because of developments within the Anglican Communion:

"They have allowed women to be ordained as priests, and the consecration of a practising homosexual as bishop, as well as same-sex marriage. These are choices that provoked serious tensions within the Anglican Communion, and also widened the gap with the Catholic Church.

"But the critical response to these developments did not come only from Catholic-leaning Anglicans. Not all those who disagree with the liberal changes want to become Catholics. There are also a significant number of Anglicans who have evangelical [Protestant] inspiration".

Kasper explained the genesis and significance of the new Apostolic Constitution.

"Let us keep to the facts. Groups of Anglicans requested freely and legitimately to enter the Catholic Church. It was not through any initiative of ours. The requests originally came to our Council, and as President, I referred them to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith which has the competence for such matters".

Kasper said he wanted to clear up any equivocations once and for all, "because I have been reading so many unlikely journalistic 'reconstructions' [of the events that led to the AC}".

"Our Council was always kept informed by the CDF, and it is not true that we were kept out of the picture. We did not take part directly in the conversations and correspondence that followed, but we were kept informed, and rightly so. The text of the Apostolic Constitution was prepared by the CDF. We were shown the draft and we made our suggestions."

What prospects are opened by the Apostolic Constitution?

"Of course, we cannot possibly oppose it if an Anglican or a group of Anglicans wishes to enter into full and visible communion with the Catholic Church. The Pope has opened the door for this with benevolence. He has shown a way. He has offered a concrete possiblity which is certainly not contrary to ecumenism.

"Even the Vatican-II decree Unitatis redintegratio made clear that ecumenism and conversion are different matters but are not contradictory. Moreover, the possibility of 'corporate' conversion, as provided for by Anglicanorum coetibus, was always present from the time we began ecumenical dialog with the Anglicans.

"The very fact that ecumenical dialog has gone on with great patience shows that there already is a bridge that unites us, and a closeness that enabled taking such a significant step".

He added [with an apparent reference to Hans Kueng]: "To think as some commentator has said that the Pope with this decision simply wished 'to enlarge his empire' is ridiculous".

But now the difficult part comes. "It is physiological that there will be none-too-easy problems to resolve in a matter that is as sensitive as this. To begin with, there has been quite some confusion about it in the media. And then, it will not be easy to get everyone concerned into immediate accord on particulars. We have to listen to the reasons given by everyone. Then we can evaluate how things are and proceed together, from there".

Kasper warns against 'speaking of abstractions' and suggests that it is best to await developments: "First, we have to know who and how many Anglicans will decided to avail of the opportunity. Only then can we plan more concretely, with dates and places".

He calls for a realistic attitude: "We have to see case by case who these persons and groups are. First of all, one does not become Catholic only because one disagrees with decisions made by your confession. Nor is it just a question of agreeing to sign on officially to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That is why, it is important not to generalize, and to wait and see."

Based on his experience in long years of dialog with the Anglicans, Kasper anticipates "there are some questions that will not be easy to resolve, problems that have not been specifically considered and which may require complicated solutions."

"Keeping our feet firmly on the ground, one obvious fact is that it will not be an easy decision to make for many Anglican bishops and pastors, from the social and economic aspects. "

Among the practical problems, Kasper cites the problem of breaking up a parish or diocese, when a significant part of it decides to become Catholic. Starting with the church buildings. "Who will decide whether it belongs to the State, the region or the community, or to the Church as institution, and if so, which Church?"

Kasper expresses some perplexity about the Traditional Anglican Communion: "Two years ago, their representatives asked for the group to enter the Catholic Church as a whole. But they have not taken part in conversations since then. Now, they have stepped aboard a train that is already running. That's OK. If they are sincere, the doors are open. But we should not forget that since 1992, they have considered themselves no longer in communion with Canterbury".

[If Kasper refers to conversations that have taken place as ecumenical talks with the Anglican Church, then he is right that the TAC have not taken part, precisely because they have taken themselves apart from the rest of the Anglican Communion. But it was TAC that publicized in July 2008 a letter from Cardinal Levada informing them that the CDF was seriously studying their request to join the Catholic Church en bloc, so it does not seem fair to say that the TAC is simply jumping on board now that the 'train' is under way!]

However, he adds: "One must respect freedom of conscience. Conversion is a personal matter, which avails of the freedom to choose, the freedom of human decision-making. In this respect, one cannot enter that space, one cannot push, one cannot organize".

Kasper also thinks there is nothing to clarify on the question of priestly celibacy since nothing changes in the Church's discipline about this.

"It is obvious that only Anglicans who are already ordained bishops and priests are allowed to remain married, and that this will not be the norm in the future, starting with seminarians who begin studies after they have converted to the Catholic Church".

He said he had also explained the situationw ith the Anglicans to the Orthodox: "In Cyprus, in order to avoid misunderstanding, I immediately told our Orthodox partners that this case was neither proselytism nor a new Uniatism. I also discussed this with the Archbishop of Canterbury, who agreed that there cannot be an Anglican uniatism.

"Uniatism is a historical phenomenon that concerns the Eastern Churches, whereas the Anglicans come from the Latin tradition. On uniatism, the 1993 Ballamand document remains valid, which states that it was a historical phenomenon that is not repeatable, and cannot apply to the present nor in the future".

He said the Orthodox were most interested to understand the nature of the personal ordinariates that the Pope has devised for the Anglicans.

"I made clear," he said, "that the Apostolic Constitution does not create a Church sui iuris [a local Church] and therefore, there will not be a Church leader, but an ordinary [bishop] with vicarial powers".

Finally, Kasper says there will not be any 'negative repercussions' from the Protestants about the Apostolic Constitution. "All Christian leaders understand that the Pope wishes to continue the ecumenical dialog as intended by Vatican-II".

Pope addresses bishops
from southern Brazil




The Holy Father met with the bishops of Brazil from Southern Sector-1 of the world's largest Catholic country in three separate groups earlier this week, and addressed them altogether at the Vatican today.

Here is a translation of the Pope's address, delivered in Portuguese:

---

Eminent Cardinals,
beloved Archbishops and Bishops of Brazil:

During the visit which you have been making ad limina Apostolorum, you are gathered together today in the home of the Successor to Peter, who welcomes you all with open arms, beloved Pastors of Region South-1, in the state of Sao Paolo.

Located there is that important center of welcome and evangelization that is the shrine of Our Lady Aparecida. which I had the joy of visiting in May 2007 for the opening of the Fifth Conference of Latin American and Caribbean Bishops.

I hope that the seed we sowed at that time may bring valid fruits for the spiritual and even social wellbeing of the populations of your promising continent, of the beloved nation of Brazil and of your Federal State - they who "have the right to a full life befitting children of God, with conditions that should be more humane: free of the menace of hunger and every form of violence" (Address, Aparecida, May 13, 2006, No. 4).

Once again, I wish to thank you for all that has been realized with great generosity, as I renew my heartfelt greeting to you and your respective dioceses, with a particular thought for your priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful who help you in the work of evangelization and Christian inspiration of society.

Your people keep in their hearts a great religious sentiment and noble traditions, rooted in Christianity, which are expressed in deeply felt religious and civilian manifestations.

It is a patrimony rich in values that you - as your accounts have shown, and as Mons. Nelson Wastrupp referred to in his kind words expressed in your behalf - have been seeking to maintain, defend, disseminate, know deeper, and continuously enliven.

As I rejoice sincerely for all this, I call on you to continue your work of constant and methodical evangelization, ever aware that authentically Christian formation of consciences is decisive for a profound life of faith, and even for social maturation and for the genuine, balanced wellbeing of the human community.

Indeed, to merit the title of community, a human group should correspond, in its organization and its objectives, to the fundamental aspirations of the human being. For this, it is not exaggerated to say that an authentic social life begins in the consciousness of every person.

The teaching of the Church - for its origin, God; for its content, the truth; and its point of support, the conscience - finds a profound and persuasive echo in the heart of every person, believer or not.

Concretely, "the question of life, and its defense and promotion, is not a prerogative of Christians alone. Although it receives light and extraordinary force from the faith, the task belongs to every human conscience that aspires to the truth and is attentive and thoughtful about the future of humanity... The 'people of life' rejoice to be able to share their task with so many others, so that there may ever be more 'people of life', and that the new culture of love and of solidarity may grow for the true good of the city of man" (Enc. Evangelium vitae, March 25, 1995, n. 101).

Venerated Brothers, speak to the heart of your people, awaken their consciences, reunite their wills in a commonn action against the growing wave of violence and scorn for the human being.

The latter, from being a gift of God welcomed in the loving intimacy of matrimony between a man and a woman, has come to be seen as a mere human product.

"A particularly crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics, where the very possibility of integral human development is radically called into question.

"In this most delicate and critical area, the fundamental question asserts itself forcefully: is man the product of his own labours or does he depend on God?

"Scientific discoveries in this field and the possibilities of technological intervention seem so advanced as to force a choice" between two types of reasoning: reason open to transcendence or reason closed within immanence. (Caritas in veritate, 74).

Job, in a provocative way, invites irrational beings to give their own testimony: "But now ask the beasts to teach you, and the birds of the air to tell you; Or the reptiles on earth to instruct you, and the fish of the sea to inform you. Which of all these does not know that the hand of God has done this? In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind" (Job 12,7-10).

The conviction of right reason and the certainty of the faith - for which the life of the human being, from conception to natural death, belongs to God and not to man - confers on him that sacred character and personal dignity that inspire the only legally and morally correct attitude, namely, profound respect.

The Lord of life has said: "I will demand an accounting of the life of man from man, and from each of his brothers... because man was made in the image of God" (Jn 9,5-6).

My beloved and venerated brothers, we can never be discouraged in our appeal to consciences. We will not be faithful followers of our Divine Master if on all occasions, even the most difficult, we do not know how to remain firm "in the hope against all hope" (Rom 4,18).

Continue to work for the triumph of the cause of God, not with the sad spirit of one who notes only deficiencies and dangers, but with the firm confidence of one who knows he can count on the victory of
Christ.

United to the Lord in an ineffable way is Mary, fully conformed to her Son, victor over sin and death.

Through the intercession of Our Lady of Aparecida, I implore God for light, comfort, strength, intensity of plans and their realization for you and your direct co-workers, while at the same time, I impart from the heart a special Apostolic blessing which I extend to all the faithful in each of your diocesan communities.

---

Brazil is so large, both in physical land areas, as well as in population, that a quick review of its Catholic statistics is in order:



The blue-shaded area on the map, left, represents the South Sector-1 from which this week's visiting bishops come from. The map on the right shows the various regions of Brazil, which has a total of 267 dioceses.

For more Catholic statistics on Brazil, see
www.catholic-hierarchy.org/country/scbr1.html

See preceding page for all other 11/14/09 stories.





Two state visitors today at the Vatican:


WITH THE PRESIDENT OF SERBIA



This morning the Holy Father received in audience Boris Tadic, president of the Republic of Serbia.

The president subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

During the meetings, which took place in a very cordial atmosphere, the positive state of bilateral relations was highlighted. Particular attention was given to the main regional challenges and to Serbia's journey towards full integration into the European Union.

The contribution the Catholic Church wishes to make to Serbian society was underlined, with mention being made of the factors appropriate to ensuring her presence and activities therein.

Furthermore, the positive dialogue with the Orthodox Church was noted, also with a view to the 2013 commemoration of the Edict of Milan, the work of the emperor Constantine who was born in Nis.







WITH THE PRIME MINISTER
OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC



This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience Jan Fischer, prime minister of the Czech Republic.

The Prime Minister subsequently went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States.

The cordial discussions provided an opportunity to continue conversations that had begun during His Holiness Benedict XVI's recent apostolic trip to the Czech Republic.

The good relations that exist between the Holy See and the Czech Republic were highlighted, and the mutual desire confirmed to continue constructive dialogue on bilateral themes concerning relations between the ecclesial and civil communities.

Finally, an exchange of opinions took place on questions concerning current international relations, in particular the coming into effect of the Treaty of Lisbon.

Sunday, Nov. 15

ST. ALBERTUS MAGNUS (ALBERT THE GREAT) (Germany, 1193-1280)
Dominican, Philosopher, Bishop, Doctor of the Church
Considered the greatest German scholar, theologian and philosopher of the Middle Ages, Albert the Great advocated the peaceful coexistence of science
and religion. In his writings, Albert commented on all of Aristotle's works and tried to explain as much as was known of the world at the time. He became
a mentor to Thomas Aquinas, whom he outlived. After serving as Provincial in Germany for the Dominican order, he was made Bishop of Regensburg
but gave it up after three years, preferring to return to teaching in Cologne where he died at age 87. He was canonized by Pius XI in 1931 and named
a Doctor of the Church ['Doctor of Science'].



OR today.

The Pope addresses the bishops of southern Brazil on ad limina visit:
'An authentic social life begins with well-formed consciences'

Other papal stories on Page 1: the audiences with President Boris Tadic of Serbia (left photo) and Prime Minister Jan Fischer
of the Czech Republic (right). Other Page 1 stories: Cardinal Kasper's first extended commentary on Anglicanorum coetibus
[translated and posted on this thread yesterday - see preceding page]; Obama's foreign policy in Asia looks to pragmatic
cooperation with China; the European Union warns that economic recovery is doubtful without new jobs. The inside pages
contain two articles on recently found documentary films showing the work Pius XII did during World War II to help persecuted
Jews; and an essay by art historian Timothy Verdon on the Pope's coming encounter with contemporary artists.



THE POPE'S DAY
Sunday Angelus - The Holy Father spoke about Jesus's words from today's Gospel on his words
'which will not pass away'. After the prayers, he acknowledged the work last week of the European
Bishops' Commission for the Media on how the Church can best avail of the new information technologies.


NB: I find the resemblance to Benedict XVI of the Albertus Magnus iconography in the first portrait above and the medal quite striking.

ANGELUS TODAY



The Holy Father spoke about Jesus's words from today's Gospel on his words 'which will not pass away'. After the prayers, he acknowledged the work last week of the European Bishops' Commission for the Media on how the Church can best avail of the new information technologies.

However, his emphasis was different in his greeting to English-speaking pilgrims:

---

During this month of November, we remember especially the Holy Souls in Purgatory. In recent days we prayed for those who lost their lives in war, and on this World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, we pray for all who have been killed or injured in road accidents.

As we commend their souls to the loving mercy of Almighty God, we also invoke his consolation upon their families and loved ones.

For those of you who have travelled long distances to be here today, I pray that you may have a safe homeward journey. May God bless all of you, and your families and friends.

---

Here is a translation of the Pope's words at Angelus today:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

We have reached the last two weeks of the liturgical year. Let us thank the Lord that he has allowed us to complete once more this path of faith - ancient and ever new - in the Church's great spiritual family.

It is an invaluable gift that allows us to live in history the mystery of Christ, receiving into the furrows of our personal and communitarian life the seed of the Word of God, the seed of eternity which transforms this world from within and opens it to the Kingdom of the heavens.

In our itinerary through Sunday Biblical readings, we have been accompanied by the Gospel of St. Mark, which presents us today with part of Jesus's discourse on the end of times.

There is a sentence in it that strikes us for its synthesizing clarity: "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mk 13,31). Let us stop to reflect on this prophecy of Christ.

The expression 'heaven and earth' is used often in the Bible to indicate all of the universe, the entire cosmos. Jesus says that all this is destined to 'pass away'. Not just the earth, but also heaven, which is understood here in the cosmic sense and not as a synonym for God.

Sacred Scripture does not have ambiguities: all creation is marked by finitude, including elements that were divinized in ancient mythologies. There is no confusion whatsoever between Creation and the Creator, but a clear difference.

With such clear distinction, Jesus states that his words 'will not pass away", that is, they are from God and therefore are eternal. Although pronounced in the concreteness of his human existence, they are words of prophecy par excellence, as Jesus says elsewhere when addressing the heavenly Father: "The words you gave to me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me" (Jn 17,8).

In a famous parable, Christ likens himself to a sower and explains that the seed is the Word of God (cfr Mk 4,14): those who heed it, accept it and bear fruit (cfr Mk 4,20), are part of the Kingdom of God, that is, they live under his lordship. They remain in the world but are no longer of the world - they carry in themselves a seed of eternity, a principle of transformation that is manifested even today in a good life, inspired by charity, and will in the end result in the resurrection of teh body. And that is the power of the Word of Christ.

Dear friends, the Virgin Mary is the living sign of this truth. Her heart was 'good earth' which received the Word of God with full disposition, so that her whole existence, transformed by the image of the Son, was introduced to eternity, body and soul, anticipating the eternal calling of every human being.

How, in prayer, let us make ours her response to the Angel: "Be it done to me according to your Word" (Lk 1,38), so that in following Christ on the Way of the Cross, we too may reach the glory of resurrection.


After the prayers, he had these special messages:

I wish first of all to address a special greeting to the participants of the Plenary Assembly of the European Bishops' Commission for Media, who met this week at the Vatican.

Dearest ones, you confronted the culture of the Internet and communications within the Church. I thank you for your well-qualified contribution to this topic of great relevance.

I also wish to point out that today, Ivrea in the Piedmont region is observing Thanksgiving Day. I gladly join spiritually all those who are grateful to the Lord for the fruits of the earth and man's labor, renewing my urgent appeal for respect of the natural environment, a precious resource that is entrusted to our responsibility.


To Polish pilgrims, he said:

Today is the World Day in memory of victims of road accidents. I entrust the victims to God's mercy, and I encourage all who drive around the world to prudence, to a sense of responsibility for the gift of good health and of one's own life and that of others.

May the Lord protect all who travel and bless them all.


At the end, he said this in Italian:

Also present today in St. Peter's Square are Cardinal Adrianus Simonis with some prelates, civilian authorities and faithful from the Netherlands, who, in celebrating these days their Patron Saint Willibrord, have marked their visit to Rome in the national church of Saints Michael and Magnus of the Frisians.

I call on everyone to always be the living stones of the Church of Christ, and to intensify the bonds of communion with the See of Peter.

---

Pope to open World Food Security summit
tomorrow - but G8 leaders won't be there
by GINA DOGGETT



ROME, Nov. 15 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers but the leaders of the world's wealthiest nations will be conspicuous by their absence as more than 60 heads of state and government gather in Rome this week for a UN summit on the plight of the planet's billion hungry.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to attend the "Hunger Summit" from Monday through to Wednesday, at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FGAP)

Also expected at the summit are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of arrived on Saturday with an entourage of about 60. His human rights record has seen him barred from travelling to the European Union, except for international gatherings, since 2002.

Humanitarian groups warned last week that the summit could be a "waste of time", calling for the commitment of new resources to fight hunger.

"It's a tragedy that the world leaders are not going to attend the summit," said Daniel Berman of Medecins sans Frontieres.

A draft declaration already circulating ahead of the meeting is "just a rehash of old platitudes", said Francisco Sarmento, ActionAid's food rights coordinator.

Oxfam spokesman Frederic Moussea said: "Rich countries are failing to show enough interest and urgency.

"At the G8 in Italy this summer they pledged $US20 billion ($A21.7 billion) for agriculture over three years, so they believe they have done enough. They haven't - and the $US20 billion ($A21.7 billion) is a mirage," he said.

Even the Italian Catholic Church warned of a possible "flop" unless the summit produces concrete commitments.

The Italian bishops' newspaper Avvenire lamented that the draft final declaration makes no mention of the $US44 billion ($A47.7 billion) a year that FAO chief Jacques Diouf is seeking for agriculture in poor countries.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will prod world leaders to step up the fight against global warming as well as hunger during his stop at the summit.

"Given the close inter-relationship between food security and climate change, the secretary-general will engage world leaders to advance both agendas together," a spokeswoman said last week.



To help create a sense of urgency ahead of the summit, Diouf undertook a 24-hour fast on Saturday.

Diouf spent Friday night at FAO headquarters, sleeping on a makeshift mattress of foam blocks, the UN agency said in a statement.

"I hope that through these gestures we will raise awareness, and build pressure from public opinion," Diouf said.

"Every six seconds a child dies of hunger," Diouf said last week. "This enormous tragedy is not only a moral outrage and an economic absurdity, but also it presents a serious threat to our collective peace and security."

Agricultural production must increase 70 per cent if the world is to feed the population of nine billion by 2050, according to the FAO.

Non-governmental organisations plan a parallel forum with the slogan "People's Food Sovereignty Now!" to be attended by Diouf and Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno.

More than 400 delegates from about 70 countries will attend the forum.

On Sunday evening, the international anti-poverty agency ActionAid plans a "Stop Hunger!" vigil at Rome's Colosseum, which will be lit up for the occasion.






I believe it is a genuine scandal and a crying shame that the leaders of the world's richest nations appear to be far more concerned about global climate change - a 'cause' that continues to be questionably founded from the scientific point of view and appears to be more political hype than objective fact - and the coming Copenhagen conference about this in December, than they are about global hunger which has been growing alarmingly [see above 'fact bite'].

UN Secretary-General Ban Kim-moon, who is completely sold on the idea that there is now a 'world climate crisis' that cannot wait, has not helped matters by his apparent lack of a balanced view and a failure to prioritize the world's problems properly.

Yes, every individual and nation must do what they can - and right now - to safeguard the environment and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which could be a contributing factor to climate modification [but not as much as natural atmospheric cycles and patterns that have been observed and recorded historically].

But not with Draconian and greatly unaffordable measures that will bring immediate negative fallout on the very populations that can least afford more economic drawbacks at this time.

Meanwhile, what about the pledges made by the G8 to the FAO?

Why don't the rich liberal governments more interested in radically chic political correctness than in actual relevance - pay up for the world food fund first before spending on their various climate-change causes?

Thanks to Lella and her invaluable blog

for this item which was provided to her way ahead of the scheduled Dec. 21 presentation of the new book in question.



'BENEDICT XVI:
BEYOND FASHIONS IN THOUGHT'
by Cardinal Michele Giordano
Emeritus Archbishop of Naples
Preface to the new book by Francesco Antonio Grana



Left, Grana's new book on Benedict XVI; right, his first B16 book in 2007, 'Compromettiti con Dio' [Commit yourself to God: The revolution of Benedict XVI].


It is with joy that I present this book by Francesco Antonio Grana which puts together the interventions of Benedict XVI in the past two years.

The Holy Father's intense and farsighted Petrine ministry represents a singular way of expressing the charism unique to the Successors of the Apostle Peter, which is 'to confirm their brothers in their faith'.

It does not only mean reproposing revealed truths with clarity and fullness, but helping the faithful understand coherently, with the eyes of faith, the events and figures of contemporary history which would otherwise lose their genuine sense.

That is what our dearest Francesco Antonio has done, in reviewing the elevated Magisterium of the Pontiff, with the prophetic actions that complement his words, never tiring in exemplary fashion of repeating that our God is not remote but dwells in the heart of man.

Acknowledging the primacy of God carries with it the urgency of communicating it to the world and, wiht it, the need of living our charity, which must be universal as well as concrete, towards our neighbor.

Benedict XVI's apostolic trips, with his gentle and clear preaching, are sowing that universal connotation of love which begins the divinization of man.

The author faithfully conveys the thinking of the Pope, who underscores the absolute importance of the divine design expressed in the creation of man, and exhorts, beyond the spiritual atrophy of today, to overcoming the practical materialism that weighs on Western societies and the religious fundamentalism which uses the divine name to wreak intolerance and violence.

Believers and non-believers alike have responded to the Pope's openness, with joy and visible emotion, and always with exemplary respect, made aware that the urgency of truth defeats every form of dictatorship over the body and the spirit.

Even Pope Benedict XVI's liturgies demonstrate that the Christian faith is not an ideology, but the encounter with the person of Jesus.

The author presents the Pope's travels under its external signs of his smiling face and his open arms, with the discourses always focused on the concept of truth - a word which Christians identify with the name of God and that must be addressed to all the nations of the earth.

The book elicits, in a clear and correct way, those questions raised by religion, faith and ethics that Benedict XVI himself addresses, in order that the Christian message may continue to be one of the pillars on which to build European society and lay down the peace.

To the world, but especially to Europe, Christianity offers much, provided reason does not close its ears to the message of faith, and as long as Christians do not yield to the temptation of closing in on themselves, but rather, open up to dialog with other cultures and religions.

With the passion of a fervent believer, Francesco Antonio Grana hopes for a great intellectual, ethical and human dialog that will open new ways of reciprocal understanding, working together in concord and for the progress of the common good, in the service of consolidating the family of peoples.

Benedict XVI helps us to evaluate as protagonists the phenomenon of globalization - understood not only as a socio-economic process, but as an ethical criterion for relatedness, communion and sharing among peoples and persons (cfr. Benedetto XVI, Caritas in veritate, 42).

Proceeding rationally and guided by charity and truth, the world will develop global responsibility and brotherliness, rooted in natural law as the basis for the unity of the human species.

This work becomes a service to man with a view to a society that is more equitable and wise - service that makes the human and Christian riches of our nation more credible and authoritative.

The world of the third millennium has extreme need of a new humanism, which finds its most fertile roots in the coherence of ecclesial communion.

To repair the damage in the net of Christ that the Church is: that, too, is the purpose of many initiatives by Benedict XVI, cited in the text ,towards reconciliation and unity among Catholics and Christians.

This is how one must read the Pope's liberalization of the use of the Roman rite as practised before the liturgical reform by Paul VI, and the recall of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained without papal authority by Mons. Marcel Lefebvre.

The book makes evident the current Pontiff's incessant impulse towards ecumenism and patient intercultural and inter-religious dialog, which must resist yielding to relativism and syncretism if such efforts are to be authentic.

Benedict XVI faces his challenges with confidence in reason as a common principle and in responsibility as something stronger than any selfishness.

Like Francesco Antonio, we make this our hope as well, knowing that it will be possible with the help of prayer and the witness of our charity.

The reflections contained in this book will give more and better to anyone who reads it with love.


Michele Card. Giordano





The introduction to the Grana's book, by Ermanno Corsi, says:

---

With this new book, Francesco Antonio Grana presents Benedict XVI to the reader in his authenticity, minus the cliches which are customarily applied to him - from the statement on AIDS and condoms to the excommunication recall for the Lefebvrians, from the scandal of pedohpile priests to the encyclical Caritas in veritate.

Grana clearly highlights the limits of journalism today, too often prejudicially lined up in favor of a readymade thesis to the detriment of anything differentnand too often schematic, imprisoned in commonplaces and facile categorizations.

---

Mr. Grana obviously has close ties with Cardinal Giordano, who also wrote the preface for his first book. I first came across Grana's name because of a short vignette he contributed to Petrus early in 2008, and which I translated in the PRF. It was based on an exceptional firsthand narrative from Mons. Giordano and it very much bears re-posting:


HOW JOSEPH RATZINGER SAID 'YES'
ON APRIL 19, 2005
By Francesco Antonio Grana
Translated from

January 18, 2008


In his first encyclical, Redemptor hominis, John Paul II revealed, one year after his election as Pope, the answer he gave when he accepted his election in the sealed Sistine Chapel.

Benedict XVI has not done so, but Cardinal Michele Giordano, emeritus Archbishop of Naples, recounted how Cardinal Ratzinger accepted his election, at the recent presentation of my book Compromettiti con Dio. La rivoluzione di Benedetto XVI (Commit yourself to God: the rev0lution of Benedict XVI), L’Orientale Editrice.

"Before he was elected", Giordano recalled, "since I already thought he would be the next Pope, I approached him and said, full of confidence, even though like me, he was already past 75: 'If something happens in your favor, I hope you don't surprise us!' His face showed disturbance and he answered, 'Eminence, I cannot, I could not accept. Please, don't think of me! Don't think of me!"

"Then, after he was elected, he answered, 'Propter voluntatem Dei accepto' [Because it is the will of God, I accept], with the serenity that came with knowing that God had now chosen him."

The two cardinals are linked by a long friendship. Every time Cardinal Ratzinger came to Naples or passed through on his way to Capri or Ischia, he never failed to visit his brother cardinal, of whom he was a house guest many times.

Similarly, Benedict XVI has high esteem for two bishops who were auxiliaries to Cardinal Giordano in Naples: Mons. Vincenzo Pelvi, whom he recently named Military Archbishop Chaplain for Italy (his predecessor was Cardinal Bagnasco), and Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Segnatura, who is said to be most likely to be named the Pope's Vicar in Rome, to succeed Cardinal Camillo Ruini when he retires in February or March. [And indeed, Vallini is now Vicar in Rome.]



I have been unable to find any online biodata of Grana, but if he is the person on the Facebook entry with his name, it appears he graduated from the Catholic University of Milan and works for an international bank in London. He contributes to Avanti, the daily newspaper of the Italian Socialist Party, and last Sept. 28, I translated an article by him on "Benedict XVI: the teacher Pope" on Page 32 of this thread -
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527207&p=32&#idm...

Normally, I might have posted this in NOTABLES, but since I am not translating the entire interview but using the pertinent excerpt lifted by Sandro Magister for his blog, it does belong here - sort of a companion piece to the Catholic Herald item in the preceding page on various UK-based artists speaking out on the Vatican initiative to enlist contemporary artists 'ad majorem Dei gloriam', as in pre-modern times.



Ennio Morricone speaks out
on music and liturgy
Translated from

November 14, 2009



"The history of music sprang from liturgical experiences. Opera came from sacred representations at Mass. Let us just think of most of the great composers, and the chapel choirmasters - all came from experience with sacred music and Gregorian chant.

"But the Church, after Vatican-II, has been losing the great tradition of the Gregorian chant. It's similar to what it was like just before the Council of Trent, when profane elements had been introduced to Church music.

"Benedict XVI is right to devote attention to this. Today, in churches, we are subjected to a mishmash in which for instance, the text of the Ave Maria is composed into country music".

Thus speaks Ennio Morricone, 81, Italy's great contemporary composer, with more than 50 million records sold from the 400 soundtracks to his name, many of them genuine masterpieces.

Someone who reveals that, in order to compose the soundtrack for the film 'Mission" about 18th century Jesuit missionaries in South America, he was inspired by "three widely diverse sources, such as the instrumental music of the Renaissance, the melodies of the reform period following the Council of Trent, and native American music - I worked very hard, but at the end, something like a miracle emerged that almost did not depend on me".

Morricone was interviewed for the 11/14/09 issue of Avvenire, from which the above excerpts come. He will be among the 262 artists who have accepted the Vatican invitation to meet Benedict XVI at the Sistine Chapel on Nov. 21.

And it is striking how much of what he says about sacred music coincides with the appeal for a rebirth of Christian arts recently addressed to the Pope by a group of artists and intellectuals.



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Monday, November 16

ST. MARGARET OF SCOTLAND (1050-1093)
Queen of Scots
A niece of Edward Confessor, she married the Scottish King Malcolm with
whom she had eight children. While maintaining her personal holiness with
rigorous private devotions, she was an exemplar of the 'just ruler'. Promoting
arts and education among her people and practising legendary charity,
she was also known for her efforts to reform religious abuses by priests
and lay people.



No OR today.



THE POPE'S DAY

Keynote address to World Food Security Summit at the Rome headquarters of the UN
Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Address in French.

In the afternoon, the Holy Father met at the Vatican with

- Bishops of Brazil on ad-limina visit



The Vatican released the text of the Holy Father's message to the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation
for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Benedict XVI keynotes summit
on world food security

Nov. 16, 2009







This morning, the Holy Father visited the headquarters of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for the opening of the World Summit on Food Security taking place Nov. 16-18.

The Pope arrived at the FAO at 11:30 a.m., and was welcomed by the Director-General, Jacques Diouf and by the vice directors of FAO.

On the third floor, before entering the Assembly Hall, the Pope was greeted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the UN General Assembly president Sli Triki, and Italian prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in his capacity as presiding officer of this summit.






The Holy Father addressed the Assembly in French, but the Vatican also released translations in English, Italian and Spanish.

---

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen!

1. I was very pleased to receive an invitation from Mr Jacques Diouf, Director General of FAO, to speak at the opening session of this World Summit on Food Security. I greet him warmly and I thank him for his kind words of welcome. I greet the distinguished authorities present and all the participants.

Echoing the sentiments of my venerable predecessors Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II, I should like once more to express my esteem for the work of FAO, which the Catholic Church and the Holy See follow attentively, taking a keen interest in the day-to-day work that is carried out there.

Thanks to your generous engagement, aptly expressed in your motto Fiat Panis, the development of agriculture and food security remain among the key priorities of international political action.

I am confident that this same spirit will inform the decisions taken at the present Summit, and those that will follow later, in the common desire to win the battle against hunger and malnutrition in the world as quickly as possible.

2. The international community is currently facing a grave economic and financial crisis. Statistics bear witness to the dramatic growth in the number of people suffering from hunger, made worse by the rise in price of foodstuffs, the reduction in economic resources available to the poorest peoples, and their limited access to markets and to food – notwithstanding the known fact that the world has enough food for all its inhabitants. Indeed, while low levels of agricultural production persist in some regions, partly owing to climate change, sufficient food is produced on a global scale to satisfy both current demands and those in the foreseeable future.

From these data we may deduce that there is no cause-and-effect relationship between population growth and hunger, and this is further demonstrated by the lamentable destruction of foodstuffs for economic gain.

In the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate I pointed out that, "Hunger is not so much dependent on lack of material things as on shortage of social resources, the most important of which are institutional.

What is missing, in other words, is a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water … and also capable of addressing the primary needs and necessities ensuing from genuine food crises …"

I added, "The problem of food insecurity needs to be addressed within a long-term perspective, eliminating the structural causes that give rise to it and promoting the agricultural development of poorer countries. This can be done by investing in rural infrastructures, irrigation systems, transport, organization of markets, and in the development and dissemination of agricultural technology that can make the best use of the human, natural and socio-economic resources that are more readily available at the local level, while guaranteeing their sustainability over the long term as well" (no. 27).

Hence the need to oppose those forms of aid that do grave damage to the agricultural sector, those approaches to food production that are geared solely towards consumption and lack a wider perspective, and especially greed, which causes speculation to rear its head even in the marketing of cereals, as if food were to be treated just like any other commodity.

3. The weakness of current mechanisms for food security and the need to re-examine them are confirmed, one might say, by the mere fact that this Summit has been convoked.

Even though the poorest countries are more fully integrated into the world economy than in the past, movements in international markets make them more vulnerable and force them to seek the aid of intergovernmental institutions, which no doubt do valuable and indispensable work.

The concept of cooperation, though, must be consistent with the principle of subsidiarity: it is necessary to involve "local communities in choices and decisions that affect the use of agricultural land" (ibid.).

This is because integral human development requires responsible choices on the part of everyone and it demands an attitude of solidarity – meaning that aid or disaster relief should not be seen as opportunities to promote the interests of those who make resources available or of elite groups among the beneficiaries.

With regard to countries that are in need of external support, the international community has the duty to assist with the instruments of cooperation, assuming collective responsibility for their development, "through the solidarity of … presence, supervision, training and respect" (ibid., 47).

Within this overall context of responsibility, every country has the right to define its own economic model, taking steps to secure its freedom to choose its own objectives. In this way, cooperation must become an effective instrument, unbeholden to interests that can absorb a not insignificant part of the resources destined for development.

Moreover, it is important to emphasize that an attitude of solidarity regarding the development of poor countries also has the potential to contribute to a solution of the current global crisis.

Support given to these nations through financial plans inspired by solidarity, enabling them to provide for their own requirements of consumption and development, not only favours their internal economic growth, but can have a positive impact on integral human development in other countries (cf. ibid., 27).

4. In the current situation there is a continuing disparity in the level of development within and among nations that leads to instability in many parts of the world, accentuating the contrast between poverty and wealth.

This no longer applies only to models of development, but also to an increasingly widespread perception concerning food insecurity, namely the tendency to view hunger as structural, an integral part of the socio-political situation of the weakest countries, a matter of resigned regret, if not downright indifference. It is not so, and it must never be so!

To fight and conquer hunger it is essential to start redefining the concepts and principles that have hitherto governed international relations, in such a way as to answer the question: what can direct the attention and the consequent conduct of States towards the needs of the poorest?

The response must be sought not in the technical aspects of cooperation, but in the principles that lie behind it: only in the name of common membership of the worldwide human family can every people and therefore every country be asked to practise solidarity, that is, to shoulder the burden of concrete responsibilities in meeting the needs of others, so as to favour the genuine sharing of goods, founded on love.

5. Nevertheless, while it is true that human solidarity inspired by love goes beyond justice – because to love is to give, to offer what is "mine" to the other – it is never without justice, which leads us to give the other what is "his", what belongs to him by virtue of his being and acting. Indeed, I cannot "give" the other what is "mine", without first giving him what belongs to him in justice (cf. ibid., 6).

If the aim is to eliminate hunger, international action is needed not only to promote balanced and sustainable economic growth and political stability, but also to seek out new parameters – primarily ethical but also juridical and economic ones – capable of inspiring the degree of cooperation required to build a relationship of parity between countries at different stages of development.

This, as well as closing the existing gap, could favour the capacity of each people to consider itself an active player, thereby confirming that the fundamental equality of all peoples is rooted in the common origin of the human family, the source of those principles of "natural law" that should inspire political, juridical and economic choices and approaches in international life (cf. ibid., 59).

Saint Paul speaks eloquently on this subject: "I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want, that there may be equality. As it is written, ‘He who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack’" (2 Cor 8:13-15).

6. Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, in order to combat hunger and promote integral human development, it is necessary to understand the needs of the rural world, and likewise to ensure that any decline in donor support does not create uncertainties in the financing of activities of cooperation: any tendency towards a short-sighted view of the rural world as a thing of secondary importance must be avoided.

At the same time, access to international markets must be favoured for those products coming from the poorest areas, which today are often relegated to the margins.

In order to achieve these objectives, it is necessary to separate the rules of international trade from the logic of profit viewed as an end in itself, directing them towards the support of economic initiative in countries with greater need of development; once they have greater income at their disposal, these countries will be able to advance towards the self-sufficiency that leads to food security.

7. Nor must the fundamental rights of the individual be forgotten, which include, of course, the right to sufficient, healthy and nutritious food, and likewise water; these rights take on an important role in the realization of others, beginning with the primary one, the right to life.

It is necessary, then, to cultivate "a public conscience that considers food and access to water as universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination" (Caritas in Veritate, 27).

Much has been patiently accomplished in recent years by FAO in this regard: on the one hand it has favoured an enlargement of the objectives of this right over and above the mere guarantee of satisfying primary needs, and on the other it has emphasized the need for its adequate regulation.

8. Methods of food production likewise demand attentive analysis of the relationship between development and protection of the environment.

The desire to possess and to exploit the resources of the planet in an excessive and disordered manner is the primary cause of all environmental degradation. Protection of the environment challenges the modern world to guarantee a harmonious form of development, respectful of the design of God’s creation and therefore capable of safeguarding the planet (cf. ibid., 48-51).

While the entire human race is called to acknowledge its obligations to future generations, it is also true that States and international organizations have a duty to protect the environment as a shared good. In this context, the links between environmental security and the disturbing phenomenon of climate change need to be explored further, focusing on the central importance of the human person, and especially of the populations most at risk from both phenomena.

Norms, legislation, development plans and investments are not enough, however: what is needed is a change in the lifestyles of individuals and communities, in habits of consumption and in perceptions of what is genuinely needed. Most of all, there is a moral duty to distinguish between good and evil in human action, so as to rediscover the bond of communion that unites the human person and creation.

9. As I pointed out in the Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, it is important to remember that "the deterioration of nature is … closely connected to the culture that shapes human coexistence: when ‘human ecology’ is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits."

Indeed, "the ecological system is based on respect for a plan that affects both the health of society and its good relationship with nature." And "the decisive issue is the overall moral tenor of society."

Therefore, "our duties towards the environment are linked to our duties towards the human person, considered in himself and in relation to others. It would be wrong to uphold one set of duties while trampling on the other. Herein lies a grave contradiction in our mentality and practice today: one which demeans the person, disrupts the environment and damages society"(ibid., 51).

10. Hunger is the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty. Opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions.

Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Catholic Church will always be concerned for efforts to defeat hunger; the Church is committed to support, by word and deed, the action taken in solidarity – planned, responsible and regulated – to which all members of the international community are called to contribute.

The Church does not wish to interfere in political decisions: she respects the knowledge gained through scientific study, and decisions arrived at through reason responsibly enlightened by authentically human values, and she supports the effort to eliminate hunger. This is the most immediate and concrete sign of solidarity inspired by charity, and it brooks neither delay nor compromise.

Such solidarity relies on technology, laws and institutions to meet the aspirations of individuals, communities and entire peoples, yet it must not exclude the religious dimension, with all the spiritual energy that it brings, and its promotion of the human person.

Acknowledgment of the transcendental worth of every man and every woman is still the first step towards the conversion of heart that underpins the commitment to eradicate deprivation, hunger and poverty in all their forms.

I thank you for your gracious attention and, as I conclude, I offer greetings and good wishes in the official languages of FAO, to all the Member States of the Organization:

God bless your efforts to ensure that everyone is given their daily bread.

Que Dieu bénisse vos efforts pour assurer le pain quotidien à chaque personne.

Dios bendiga sus esfuerzos para garantizar el pan de cada día para cada persona.

[He also said it in Arabic, Chinese and Russian.]

Thank you.

---

I hate to profane this post with this snippet, which comes from an interview with Hans Kueng published in today's issue of Il Fatto Quotidiano, a new Italian daily, and brought to attention by Euge in Lella's blog. Here is the last question in the interview and Hans Kueng's answer.

Hans Kueng says the answer
to world hunger is the pill
Excerpted from an interview in

Nov. 16, 2009

---

Pope Benedict XVI is opening the FAO summit on food security. What do you expect the Pontiff to say?

Something about the unacceptable demographic explosion. The problem of hunger is to be fought with a policy of birth control. The pill is an efficient instrument to avoid population explosion. The Church cannot continue to demonize contraceptive methods.

---

Frankly, I was unaware of Kueng's attitude towards contraception before this, but I would not be surprised if he had been among the most vocal critics of Paul VI's Humanae Vitae.

Also, Kueng simply overlooks that the Church does not demonize all contraceptive methods - only artificial methods. Catholics who advocate the pill opt for convenience - since natural birth control based on knowledge of the woman's ovulatory pattern does involve the responsibility of abstaining from sex during her fertile period, whih generally means at most three days of the month. Is that such a big sacrifice? Generations of Catholic women did it before the pill was contrived!

Four hours since the Pope's address - and despite the fact that the English text was immediately made Available - the only English report so far comes from the German agency dpa, whose English translators generally are able to file papal stories before the Anglophone news agencies do.


Benedict XVI says:
Greed and speculation, not population growth,
are main causes of world hunger





Rome, Nov. 16 (dpa) - Pope Benedict XVI on Monday implored rich nations to do more to eradicate world hunger, stressing that greed and speculation, and not population growth, are the main causes of hunger and poverty.

Benedict delivered the keynote speech at a three-day United Nations food summit in Rome which is being attended by some 60 heads of state and government.

Speaking in French, the German-born pontiff noted that statistics indicate the "earth can produce enough to feed all its inhabitants."

The absence of a cause-and-effect relation between hunger and population growth is proven by the "deplorable destruction of food for economic gain," the pontiff said.

He was apparently referring to the practice by some countries or agricultural sectors, mostly in developed nations, to eliminate their surplus production of food to keep prices up.

Benedict urged a reform of international economic relations and denounced the "greed which allows speculation, even in the cereal market, in which food is placed on an equal footing with other products.

"To combat and achieve victory over hunger it is essential to redefine the principles that to date have defined international relations," he said.

These should be based on human solidarity and its defining principle of "love," which cannot exist without the concept of "justice," the pontiff said.

Earlier UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the summit with a stark reminder of the plight affecting the world's hungry, and a warning that the situation will worsen unless harmful climate change is curbed.

"This day, more than 17,000 children will die of hunger. One every five seconds. Six million children a year," Ban told the gathering hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) at its Rome headquarters.

Ban also referred to a symbolic, personal fast he made Sunday ahead of he summit in an effort to draw attention to global hunger.

"It was not easy. But, for too many people, going without food is a daily reality," he said.

Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi - who condemned the legacy of colonialism in Africa - and Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak were among participants who spoke on the opening day of the summit which ends Wednesday.

However, some critics, including development activists, are denouncing the absence from the summit of many leaders from the world's richest nations.

US President Barack Obama who is on an Asian tour is not scheduled to attend.

Indeed, the only government leader from the Group of Eight most- industrialized nations present on Monday was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. [As the host country's head of government, he is also presiding at the summit.]

A 70-per-cent increase in food production will be required by 2050 when the world's population which is forecast to top 9 billion, Ban told delegates.

He also stressed the connection between food security an climate change ahead of the international environment conference in Copenhagen in December, when world leaders will attempt to forge a new agreement to curb rising global temperature.

"If the glaciers of the Himalaya melt, it will affect the livelihoods and survival of 300 million people in China and up to a billion people throughout Asia," Ban warned.

Africa's small-scale farmers who produce most of the continent's food and depend mostly on rain could see their harvests cut by more than half by 2020 because of climate-change induced drought, Ban said.

The FAO says some 44 billion dollars - or 17 per cent of official development aid - needs to be directed annually towards agriculture and food production, if hunger is to be eradicated in developing countries.

In 2009 agriculture is expected to receive only 5 per cent of development aid, according to FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf who also addressed summit delegates on Monday.

The FAO hopes the summit will also secure urgent aid to some 31 poor countries particularly stricken by the global economic crisis and in a context where food prices remain high despite good world cereal production this year.

Especially hard hit is East Africa, where drought and conflict have left an estimated 20 million people in need of emergency food aid.

The FAO also advocates longer-term strategies that would allow millions of small-scale farmers to earn a livelihood again, including extending irrigation services, fertilizer supplies, and improved transport infrastructure such as roads, to allow agriculture products to reach markets.


Also, as usual, John Allen is able to file his report ahead of the Anglophone news agencies:


Facing hunger, Pope demands
an end to 'opulence and waste'

Nov. 16, 2009




Calling hunger “the most cruel and concrete sign of poverty,” Pope Benedict XVI today told a special summit of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization that “opulence and waste are no longer acceptable when the tragedy of hunger is assuming ever greater proportions.”

The Pontiff called for urgent action to combat world hunger, to protect the global environment and to rethink lifestyle choices in the West in his address to the Food and Agriculture Organization, which is based in Rome.

Benedict’s decision to visit the Rome headquarters of FAO, rather than to insist that participants in the summit travel across town to the Vatican to be received in audience, was seen as a sign of the importance the Pontiff attaches both to the issue of hunger and to the institution of the United Nations.

According to statistics collected by FAO, the global economic crisis and a spike in food prices in parts of the developing world have driven the number of hungry people in the world from 800,000 five years ago to more than one billion today.

In his address to the FAO summit this morning, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon said that some 17,000 children die of hunger every day.

Speaking in French, Benedict XVI said the underlying problem isn’t a lack of food, echoing a point frequently made by development experts and anti-hunger activists.

“Sufficient food is produced on a global scale to satisfy both current demands and those in the foreseeable future,” the pope said. What’s missing, the Pope said, is instead “a network of economic institutions capable of guaranteeing regular access to sufficient food and water.”

In particular, Benedict insisted “there is no cause-and-effect relationship between population growth and hunger” – an indirect reply to critics of the church’s ban on contraception, which is sometimes blamed for impeding efforts to limit population growth.

The Pontiff asserted that “food and access to water” [are] “universal rights of all human beings, without distinction or discrimination.” Those rights, the Pope argued, take on meaning as part of a network of rights “beginning with the primary one, the right to life.”

Benedict asserted a clear link between hunger and environmental degradation.

“Protection of the environment challenges the modern world to guarantee a harmonious form of development, respectful of the design of God’s creation and therefore capable of safeguarding the planet,” the pope said.

“The links between environmental security and the disturbing phenomenon of climate change need to be explored further,” Benedict said, “focusing on the central importance of the human person, and especially of the populations most at risk from both phenomena.”

The Pope also called for a change in lifestyles in rich countries, in the direction of greater simplicity, less conspicuous consumption, and more solidarity with the poor.

“Norms, legislation, development plans and investments are not enough,” he said. “What is needed is a change in the lifestyles of individuals and communities, in habits of consumption and in perceptions of what is genuinely needed.”

Insisting that feeding hungry people is a moral imperative that “brooks neither delay nor compromise,” the Pontiff pledged that “the Catholic Church will always be concerned for efforts to defeat hunger.”

Despite the Pope’s strong words, the FAO summit does not appear likely to approve any new financial commitment from developed nations to attack hunger. Instead, the summit endorsed a five-point program this morning calling for greater “national, regional and global coordination” of anti-hunger resources.

Given that hunger tends to be especially acute in the global South, it’s an issue destined to attract a growing share of Catholic interest. Of the roughly 1.2 billion Catholics in the world today, some 720 million, or two-thirds, live in the southern hemisphere, making hunger a top-shelf pastoral priority for Catholic bishops, clergy and lay activists in those regions of the world.



If only all the climate-change breastbeaters paid a fraction of their lip service - and investment - in meaningful ways to combat world hunger as they do to bringing down greenhouse gases RIGHT NOW, without the cooperation of the world's two most populous nations!



The AP report includes an important substantive vote taken by the summit before the Pope even spoke:


Food summit turns down
UN funding appeal
By FRANCES D'EMILIO





ROME, Nov. 16 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI decried the worsening plight of the world's 1 billion hungry on Monday, as a United Nations food summit rallied around a strategy of more help to farmers in poor nations but rebuffed a U.N. appeal to commit billions to the plan.

In a show of broad consensus, some 60 heads of state and dozens of ministers from other nations pledged to substantially increase aid to agriculture in developing nations to help them become more self-sufficient in food production.

The world's wealthiest nations put forward the strategy at the Group of Eight summit this summer in L'Aquila, Italy.

Despite endorsing the strategy in the first hours of Monday's meeting, the 192 participating countries did not commit to the $44 billion a year for agricultural aid that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says will be necessary in the coming decades.

Soon after the delegates approved the declaration, Pope Benedict took the floor to decry "opulence and waste" in a world where the "tragedy" of hunger has been steadily worsening.

Benedict's speech marked the first time a Pontiff attended such a gathering since Pope John Paul II took part in a 1996 food summit.

The Pontiff, lending his moral authority as head of the world's 1 billion Catholics, also called for access to international markets for products coming from the poorest countries, which he said are often relegated to the sidelines.

The Pope urged delegates to keep the "fundamental rights of the individual" in mind when shaping new agricultural strategy. People are entitled to "sufficient, health and nutritious food" as well as water, he said.

Heads of state in attendance include Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. The U.S. delegation is headed by the acting administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development Alonzo Fulgham.

The U.N. agency, which is hosting the three-day summit at its Rome headquarters, had also hoped countries would adopt 2025 as a deadline to eradicate hunger. But the declaration instead focused on a pledge set nine years ago to halve the number of hungry people by 2015.

As the conference opened, the United Nations' chief urged rich and powerful countries to tackle "unacceptable" global hunger.

"The world has more than enough food," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates. "Yet, today, more than 1 billion people are hungry. This is unacceptable."

So far, helping the world's hungry has largely entailed wealthy nations sending food assistance rather than technology, irrigation help, fertilizer or high-yield seed that could assist local farmers, livestock herders and fishermen. Much of this food assistance is purchased from the wealthy nations' own farmers.

But the Food and Agriculture Organization says the best way to stop hunger is to help the needy help themselves, and the final declaration agreed to do that.

This approach "lies at the core of food security," Ban said. "Our job is not just to feed the hungry, but to empower the hungry to feed themselves."

The summit is being held at a time "when the international community recognizes it has neglected agriculture for many years," the organization said Sunday. "Sustained investment in agriculture — especially small-holder agriculture — is acknowledged as the key to food security."

The gathering hopes to build momentum on a shift toward more aid to agriculture that was first laid out at the G-8 summit in July, during which leaders of the developed nations pledged to spend $20 billion in the next three years to help farmers in poor countries.

Papal and Church communications:
How effective are they?
by Salvatore Izzo



VATICAN CITY, Nov. 16 (Translated from AGI) - "Those engaged in religious information and communications must have a solid cultural background [not to mention some solid preparation for covering the beat]", says Don Giuseppe Costa, director of the Vatican publishing house LEV and professor of journalism at the Pontifical Salesian University in Rome, in the new book Editoria, media e religione(Publishing, media and religion) on the great publishing success registered by Pope Benedict XVI, without ignoring the media difficulties that have been encountered by his Pontificate.

Thirty international editions with more than 3 million copies sold to date of the Pope's JESUS OF NAZARTH (Vol. 1) would appear to show that the public does not share the secular media's under-estimation of the Pope's communicative abilities, Fr. Costa says.

The new book, published by LEV, contains essays by a dozen communications specialists who describe, explain and analyze the relationship between mass communications today and 'the religious fact'.

Among the essayists is Angelo Paoluzi, former editor of Avvenire and the news agency Fides, who explains the role and task of Vatican correspondents. He recalls with nostalgia Corriere della Sera's correspondent Silvio Negro, who distinguished himself by great balance in reporting the news and resisting the temptation to indulge in 'behind-the-scenes' speculation, and was guided only by "public interest in the life of the Church as an institution".

Sr. Maria Trigilia, a Salesian media expert, confirms the renewed public interest in the Church, in a report on the boom in
Catholic web sites and following.

Since June 1997, more than 500,000 Catholic web pages are now consulted every month in Italy alone, where there are 2391 parish pages, followed by associations (2067), religious orders and missionary institutes (1222).

There are now 627 institutional sites (CEI, dioceses and diocesan pastoral work), 589 blogs, 403 sites linked to cultural centers and universities, and 353 media sites for print information. All these sites for Catholic information have registered a 25% increase yearly in the past two years.

Even faster however is the growth in sites dedicated to Christian music *33.6%), Catholic TV and radio sites (32.8%), and sacred art (31.5%).

"The Internet," says Sr. Trigilia, "does not just meet the 'spiritual' demands of the cyberfaithful, but also the demands of a growing market with increasingly greater customer turnout and specialized interests. For instance, one can now study sacred texts online, along with the necessary philological and theological references. There are now numerous sites offering resources for such study of the Bible, the Koran, Buddhist and Hindu texts".

She also points out the presence of 'church locator' sites which can enable anyone to locate the nearest church or place of worship for his/her needs. There are even Christian 'churches' that only operate online, so-called 'Internet churches', that one can attend by the mere click of the mouse.

The LEV book also has an essay about the Innernet (www.innernet.it) - a non-profit initiative devoted to "disseminating profound and useful knowledge for all those who are engaged in researching a richer interior life".

The site, which gets millions of hits, now has 418 ongoing active topics with some 19,000 presentations, quite apart from users' comments (845,460 so far). The presentations consist of articles, essays, interviews and book reviews on topics ranging from techniques of meditation and interior exploration, to teachings by 'consciousness masters', to the relationship between psychology and the spirit, passing through discussions on conscience and its conscious application to social and political issues (human rights, peace, ecology, etc).

['Innernet'? I'll pass. Thank God I do not have to search out or visit any site other than those that I need to consult immediately (and for the least time possible) for basic information, fact check or images. So far, I've only had to seek out specialized information on medical topics on which I need to draft specific lectures - and oh yes, on Joseph Ratzinger. I don't expect to have the time nor the inclination to do more than that.]