BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Please see preceding page for earlier posts today, 1/7/09.





Very nice!

I must say, the letter of the Priests to our Holy Father is very touching.


I'm sure it will make him very happy. He deserves every fragment of affection and happiness in this world.




No comment on the Swiss lunatic!!! What a fruit cake!
Maybe somebody should direct her attention to a compatriot of hers - Mr. soft washed, overly arrogant and ever so politically correct Hans Küng.
It would give him a fresh opporunity to get some badly needed attention!


My favorite smiley:







Dear Heike,

I hope you don't mind that I placed my usual page starter into your post!

You are so right about that other Siwss fruitcake who has been around much longer! One had hoped aging might have made him less sour but all those grapes he's had to swallow all these years since his glory days seem to have given him a lifetime supply of acid and bile!

TERESA

On her site

http://benoit-et-moi.fr/
Beatrice has flagged at least three articles from the French media that deserve dissemination,
I will translate one at a time.



The Pope kisses a child who was plucked from an aisle and taken to him by Inspector Giani after the Mass of the Epiphany.


2010 in the school of Benedict XVI:
Courage, lucidity, serenity
Editorial
by Philippe Oswald
Translated from

Issue for 1/9/2010


The Church and the Pope were very much in the news in 2009. Less, alas, to greet the essential text for our time that the encyclical Caritas in veritate is, or to underscore the importance of the Year for Priests, than to fashion a crown of thorns for the head of the Church.

That was the work of those who raised the loudest hue and cry against the Pope after episodes as different as the lifting of the ecommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops and the disclosures about Bishop Williamson, the abortion of a nine-year-old girl's rape pregnancy in Brazil, or the Pope's statements about condoms and AIDS.

And no holiday reprieve for him, either! He continued to be the target of convergent attacks in the final days of the year, after he signed the decree proclaiming the heroic virtues of Pius XII which opens the way towards the beatification of this great Pope.

Finally, the physical aggression on Christmas Eve by a deranged woman seemed to be a symbolic of all the outrageous affronts that the Holy Father has had to bear.

All the more reason to underscore the courage and serenity that the Pope has always shown, even after this last event.

"It's not the end of the world," he is quoted to have said after he got back on his feet, still with his usual smile.

Physical courage, because he refuses to give up, for security reasons, opportunities to get close to the faithful during his public appearances.

Intellectual and moral courage, for having banished doublespeak and stonewalling from the Magisterium as well as from his governance of teh Church: the severity of his condemnation for the sexual crimes committed by some priests in Ireland was followed by the resignation of the bishops who had thought it preferable to cover up the offenses.

Let us not look any farther for an example to follow in 2010. Catholics of France, we are faced by an unheard-of spiritual and moral crisis best testified to by the vertiginous fall of attendance at Sunday Mass - barely 4% of potential Massgoers according to the latest survey by La Croix (published 12/28/09).

Let us have the courage to face this collapse and to faithfully seek out its causes. How do we live our faith? Are we cultivating it through prayer and study, to spread it through our life, to bear witness to it by our joyous hope?

Finally, the single most important thing. Leon Bloy once wrote, "There is only one sorrow - that we are not saints".


Given Mr. Oswald's final sentence, I am surprised that he did not include holiness among the traits that one can learn in 'the school of Benedict XVI'.

I was always very moved, reading about reactions to his election as Pope in April 2005, whenever the respondent - from cardinal electors to shopkeepers who saw him casually - said that one of the most obvious traits about Joseph Ratzinger was his holiness. Something not even his detractors - except the malicious - have disputed or can dispute.

His Magisterium has consistently and insistently been about the quest for God for those who do not have faith, and the quest for holiness - to live in imitation of Christ - for those who are already in the faith, especially priests and bishops who should set the example as the saints do. And as the Vicar of Christ does in everything that we see, read or hear about him.

BENEDICTUS QUI VENIT IN NOMINE DOMINI.


From the Mass on January 1, 2010.


The following article is by Chantal Delsol (born 1947), a French philosopher who describes herself as a liberal neo-conservative. She was elected in 2007 to the Academie des Sciences Morales et Politique of the Institut de France, the same academy to which Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected in 1991 to the seat of Andrei Sakharov, when the Russian physicist died. Delsol is an editorialist for both le Figaro and Valeurs Actuelles.

The following is her commentary on a recent book by Bernard Lecomte, a prominent journalist (he has been editor-in-chief of Le Figaro) and author of several books - including 3 on John Paul II, and one on Benedict XVI [Benoit XVi, le dernier pape europeen, 2006]: Why the Pope has a bad press.



What struck me about this was Lecomte's conceit in using an interview format for the book - a la Vittorio Messori with Cardinal Ratzinger and John Paul II, and Peter Seewald (twice) with Cardinal Ratzinger. His interviewer is Marc Leboucher, about whom I cannot find a complete biodata online, not even in French, but who apparently won a 2008 Prize for Religious Literature for co-authoring a book entitled La théologie au XXe siècle et l'avenir de la foi (Theology in the 20th century and the future of faith). Leboucher previously collaborated with Lecomte for a 2004 book on John Paul II.

It still perplexes me why an 'important' writer would devote 264 pages to why the Pope has a bad press. It may have sociological value, but it's can't be anything other than morbid. If the book had been about why the press is so generally bad today, he could produce an endlessly encycopledic work just citing the deluge of examples every day!



The courage to displease
by Chantal Delsol
Translated from

January 7, 2010


Valeurs actuelles is a weekly journal of culture and politics and is considered generally conservative.


The Pope has a bad press - yes, the whole world knows that. But what's behind it?

Is it that the Church, through him, gets a bad press? Or is it a problem with the Pope aa an authority figure>? This is the question that the author of a book attempts to answer in in the form of interviews with his editor Marc Laboucher.

Popes in our day live in a world of the media. They must think of their 'image'. John Paul II had the gift of seduction. Which is nonetheless not essential: Does fatih have anything to do with seduction?

Even if some form of charisma can play a role in pastoral care, so much more is needed. However, whether he wants to or not, a Pope in our day has, in some way, an image to defend.

Pope Benedict's image in the media depends on several facts. Before he became Pope, Joseph Ratzinger was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, successor to the Office of the Inquisition. Which gives journalists a perverse thrill.

His discourses against nihilism and relativism confirm their image of him: because he is conservative, the media also describe him as a fundamentalist ['integriste' is the French term] .

When he was elected Pope, the media had a nauseating feast. As he is German, he was conscripted at age 14 into the Hitler Youth. His teenage photo in uniform was used endlessly, as in a loop, as if to say the Holy Spirit had elected a Nazi Pope.

The reductio ad Hitlerum is the final argument of so many imbeciles, and the media Guignols ['les Guignols de l'info' also happens to be a satirical puppet show on French TV) have even called him Adolf II.

In other words, because he is conservative, Benedict XVI is a Nazi - that's the refrain. But, as Bernarde Lecomte asks, can a Pope be anything but conservative? In the sense that he must be the guardian of the Church's dogma, for after all, the Church is an institution.

But it is more than that, I would say, because the Church must defend, against all odds, after Christ, the image of man that modernity wishes to discard in favor of the new artificial man, constructed by our own rormethean will - and perhaps worthy of the monstrous whims of a Frankenstein.

The fact is that the media animus against the present Pope is particularly lively in France, where the religious culture has practically dropped below zero, and where the anti-religious culture has acquired its letters of nobility.

When a Pope comes to France, the media unleash their reproval of the authorities for the cost of the visit. There is a strong anti-Crhistianity in our land, born from militant secularism, to which a conservative Pope is more exposed.

Contemporary society, which has no use for religion except for human rights, nonetheless understands such rights as exclusively individualist. To respect rights means to respect the desires of each individual, without regard to whether such desires are aberrant, unnatural, or even criminal.

And that is why the Church's discourse on morality is considered a slap, a major provocation. Morality is imposed from the outside by laws or commandments that we have not made, and this impugns contemporary man's sense of omnipotence.

And yet, when the Pope, to all-around indignation in the media, spoke about condoms and AIDS in Africa, the African governments who know their business [about fighting AIDS] confirmed what the Pope said.

Then there's the fact that this Pope is an intellectual, and in this respect, is not reticent at all about expressing his reflections, seeking objectivity rather than conensual acquiescence.

And when he speaks of Islam, he knows he may displease some but he also must speak the truth. Forgetting perhaps, that as Pope, he would be challenged by bellicose interpretations of his statements.

Bernard Lecomte rightly points out that the Pope's bad press comes from the fact that, in general, he does not say the things the media expect him to say. But it is comical to see Marc Leboucher strike
a high note against sheeplike political correctness, when in his own life, he manifests pure panic at not thinking like the rest of the world.

In the era of Communist, we had Jean Paul II, a soldier [?], when it was a soldier we needed most. Now, the challenge is no longer to fight a totalitarianism that was venerated even my many of our peers, but to repel a nihilism that threatens to sweep oru own children into its dragnets.

Benedict XVI is providential for facing that challenge. He will be criticized relentlessly, and we Catholics as well. Let us hope this ongoing blame will develop our sense of humor rather than bitterness. That's the best one can hope for.


From the January 6 Angelus. For some reason, there were no close shots taken of the Pope - these are cropped from the 'long shot' pictures and enlarged, hence the poor resolution, particularly the one on the left.

Friday, January 8

BLESSED ANGELA OF FOLIGNO (Italy, 1248-1309)
Widow, Franciscan Tertiary, Mystic, Author
Born to a wealthy family in Foligno, near Assisi, she married early and had children
but lived a life described as 'wild, adulterous and sacrilegious'. She reportedly
converted after praying to St. Francis who came to her in a dream. Shortly afterwards,
her husband and children died and she joined the Franciscan Third Order for lay people.
She wrote an account of her conversion and the temptations she met with afterwards:
The Book of Visions and Instructions continues to be published in modern editions), and
for this, she has been called 'mistress of theologians'. She organized a community of
Third Order Franciscan sisters who worked for the poor. Her increasing fame for sanctity
attracted many women to the order. After she died, many miracles were attributed to her.
Her incorrupt body lies in the Church of St. Francis in Foligno.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/010810.shtml



OR for 1/7-1/8/10:

At he Angelus, the Pope indicates the Magi as models for authentic searchers after truth:
'Intelligence open to faith is true wisdom'

This double issue also includes coverage of the Pope's Epiphany Mass, and his meetings yesterday with the new Turkish ambassador
and with the Italian state police assigned to Vatican security. Page 1 international news: Six Christians and 1 Muslim killed by armed
men who shot Copts leaving Midnight Mass Jan. 7 (Christmas Day in the Oriental Churches) in a village near Luxor; and new statistics
show China is now the world's leading exporter of manufactured goods. the inside pages feature an interview with the Bishop of
Compostela about the Holy Year of St. James; and two essays on the depictions of the Baby Jesus in art, and Leonardo's 'Giovanni
Bttista' (John the Baptist) - one of the masterpieces of Christian art in the ongoing 'Potere e Gloria' exhibit in Rome.





THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Camillo Ruini, emeritus Vicar General of His Holiness in the Diocese of Rome
- Mons. Luis Francisco Ladaria Ferrer, Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Officials and agents of the Vatican's Public Security Inspectorate (traditional annual greeting)
Address in Italian.


The Vatican released the text of the letter of solidarity sent by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president
of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to His Holiness Shenouda III, Coptic Pope
of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark (Cairo), for the Christmas night killing of 8 Copts in
northern Egypt.

The Catholic blogosphere is picking up a suggestion apparently advocated by the Catholic Herald, the British weekly Catholic newspaper, and quite a few, including Father John Zuhlsdorf, endorse the idea.

Somehow, I cannot imagine Benedict XVI acquiescing to a return to this particular tradition - he likes getting close to the faithful - but he knows best and no doubt will decide appropriately. It didn't seem to come up at all in the post-Christmas Eve security meeting at the Vatican.

Besides, if the reason is for 'better security', it's hard to imagine using the sedia for events outside the Vatican, as when he makes his pastoral visits in Rome and walks up to the crowds - occasions where there is certainly far more unpredictable danger than from an unarmed madwoman inside St. Peter's. (There's a picture online of John XXIII in a sedia on a Rome street).



The 'sedia gestatoria'
would protect the Pope
by Dominic Scarborough

8 January 2010


Many years ago there was a joke doing the rounds of the pubs and clubs about two Irishmen on pilgrimage in Rome who ask at a bar near the Vatican what the Pope likes to drink. Upon being told he likes Crème de Menthe the two intrepid drinkers order two pints of the stuff.

Several hours and a lot of pints later both are lying comatose in the street. When they eventually come around one says to the other: "No wonder they carry him around in a chair!"

On a more serious note, the attack on Pope Benedict during the entrance procession of Midnight Mass by Susanna Maiolo, a mentally ill woman who once again, as she did last year, vaulted over the barriers before lunging at the Pope, poses serious questions about the Holy Father's safety.

Since 1970 alone there have been three documented attempted assassinations of the Pope. In 1970 Pope Paul VI was attacked by a man with a knife at Manila Airport, in 1981 there was the shooting of Pope John Paul II in St Peter's Square and only a year later, when the same Pope visited Fatima to give thanks for his survival, he was attacked yet again by a deranged knife-wielding priest.

Aside from Pope Benedict's annual Christmas encounters with Miss Maiolo there was the attempt by a German man to get into his Popemobile during an audience in 2007. After these incidents and the rise of Islamic terrorism since 9/11 there have been many noticeable changes to the security surrounding the Pontiff.

Long gone are the days when it was deemed enough for Archbishop Marcinkus to stand next to the Pope as a kind of clerical "heavy".

On all his travels around the world now the Pope is accompanied by armed close-protection officers from the 130-strong Vatican Corps of Gendarmes who accompany him and work with the close-protection teams afforded by the Italian state and the particular host country.

His Popemobile is fitted with bullet-resistant glass and his movements by limousine are handled in exactly the same way as any head of state, with armed officers travelling with him and in a support vehicle. When the Pope visited Turkey he was even asked to wear body armour under his overcoat.

At every papal ceremony in St Peter's when the Pope is required to walk through the crowded basilica to reach the sanctuary it is possible to see not only his personal protection officer Domenico Giani, (who has been Inspector General of the Corpo della Gendarmeria since 2006), walking nearby but also other black-suited, close-protection officers walking at the sides of the procession.

Indeed, the Pope's close-protection team are to be congratulated that one of their number [Inspector Giani himself] seized Miss Maiolo as she leapt the barrier but the distance between the barrier and the Pope was so small that, ironically, it was the force of this officer tackling her at the very moment she grabbed at the Pope's vestments that actually brought the Pontiff crashing to the floor.

For these protection officers the security of their principal can never be guaranteed particularly when, like the Pope, he wants to be visible to the crowds who have turned out to see him and a degree of compromise is always required.

Unlike a president or prime minister whose close-protection officers are usually found within an arm's reach of their principal, as any press photograph taken during a walkabout will show, the Pope is frequently engaged in liturgical acts which have no rubrical provision for an armed suited man wearing an ear-piece to be in the midst of things.

That said, as with much of this pontificate the answer to this particular problem might just be found from recovering something from the past.

One only has to look at old black and white footage of pontiffs prior to Paul VI to see how Popes always used to enter the basilica being carried shoulder high in the sedia gestatoria.

Not only that, but there was always a throng of people around the chair, not only the actual bearers but numerous chamberlains and nobility and a large number of guards: Swiss Guards, uniformed Gendarmes, the Palatine Guard and Noble Guard.

[But the Cappella Papale - the formal term for the attendants accompanying the Pope in these processionals and recessionals - has long been reduced to the clergy and prelates participating in the particular celebration.]

These comprised the old papal court which Pope Paul VI abolished and which formed a kind of buffer zone between the Pope and the crowds, no doubt as much a practical defence measure as a piece of ceremony.

The use of the sedia continued until very recently and many are unaware that the last Pope to use the sedia was actually Pope John Paul I.

While the abolition of this ancient form of transport may have since been considered appropriate in the context of the late 20th century and the need to democratise the appearance of papal ceremonies, the reality has left the Pope an isolated and vulnerable figure separated from the deacons ahead and the MCs behind, one who appears all too often like the figure in the Third Secret of Fatima: a victim walking alone simply waiting to be attacked.

[Inside St. Peter's Basilica, his seat as the Successor of Peter, that is not at all the impression one gets!]

While there are bound to be some who would see the return of the sedia as yet another example of this Pope "turning the clock back", in fact not only would it save an elderly man's tired legs but it would allow more of the crowd to see him.

[For an 82-year-old who has walked for exercise at least once a day for the past two decades at least - and whose normal walk is a brisk athletic gait - walking the length of St. Peter's Basilica is hardly a challenge to this particular 'elderly man', who I doubt would describe his legs as 'tired'!]

Most importantly, it would actually insulate him from the kind of physical assault we saw at Christmas by virtue of the mob of people surrounding it (who could these days be swelled by Swiss Guards and the gendarme officers in suitably formal garb) to work alongside the suited officers at the perimeter.

Naturally, the risk of attack from a gunman or explosive device would still be present and indeed potentially magnified by the sedia but the use of X-ray machines at the entrance to the basilica and physical searches of congregants should by now be mandatory at such events to confront these risks which are no more heightened by the Pope presiding at Mass from an elevated platform, as he does, than from being carried in a chair.

It was being reported earlier in the year on several Catholic blogs that the Vatican was actively considering a return for the sedia gestatoria for ceremonies in St Peter's, more because of the Pope's age than as a protection against attack.

Perhaps the latest incident will persuade them that what tradition hands down frequently has a practical origin beyond merely the visually impressive spectacle that to sceptical modern eyes it had appeared to have become.

The last Popes to use the sedia: Top panel: John Paul I and Paul VI; bottom, John XXIII and Pius XII.


Dominic Scarborough is a regular commentator in the press and Internet on Catholic affairs. His company, Proteus Risk, advises companies on security issues

Angela Ambrogetti reports the kind of news that other Vaticanistas seem to think too trivial to report on. But she does not once refer to the news Sandro Magister broke late last year that Salesian Fr. Marco Palombella will be named soon to replace the current director of the Sistine Chapel Choir.


The Pope and the Sistine choir:
A traditional New Year's meeting
but no mention of a new director
Translated from

Jan. 5, 2009



The Pope greets Mons. Liberto.


For the fifth year in a row, Pope Benedict XVI gave a New Year audience to the members and director of the Sistine Chapel Choir.

it was like a family gathering, with a theological reflection in music offered to the Holy Father by the choir under Mons. Giuseppe Liberto.

'In simplicitate cordis et in simplicitate artis', according to Liberto in his greeting to the Pope, observing that "Every Christmas, the Church is re-evangelized".

It was a concept picked up by the Holy Father in his impromptu remarks after the performance, commenting on the choice of the musical numbers as a triple reading of Advent - historically, eschatologically and as mystery.

As Mons. Liberto introduced it: ""The historical Advent is depicted by Tomas Luis de Victoria's motet O magnum mysterium. The eschatological is portrayted by the counterpoint in Pierluigi Palstrina's Quando veneris iudicare, while the mystery of Advent is evoked by the motet that I composed for the concert held in Brescia before your pastoral visit last November - Unus panis, unum corpus, based on the beautiful text of St. Paul in the first Letter to the Corinthians, which sings of the mystery of the sacramental Church".

In addition, a new motet composed by Liberto, Bonum est confiteri Domino, taken from Psalm 92, was performed by a boy soloist in dialog with the choir. To end the concert, traditional Christmas carols.

Mons. Liberto also presented the Pope with a working CD, Vivere in Cristo, a sort of ecumenical itinerary through liturgical songs. It includes 5 songs from teh orthodox liturgy and 5 motets by Liberto as performed by the Blagovest Choir of Moscow at the Catholic Cathedral in Moscow at an international festival of Musica Sacra sponsored by the archbishop of Moscow last year.

The audience ended with the Pope greeting each of the choir members and exchanging small talk with them.

To a boy who had one hand in a cast, the Pope asked what happened. The boy said, "I fell". Mons. Liberto commented, "But the important thing is to get up again", And the Pope remarked, "That's true. Like did on Christmas Eve!" In simplicate cordis!

Int eh afternoon, the Pope's brother, Mons. Georg Ratzinger, visited the Choir at their headquarters behind the Church of Sant'Andrea della Valle, where their classrooms and rehearsal rooms are located.

This, too, was marked by a familial atmosphere and the simplicity of an encounter between the young musicians and a master of their art with a special 'musical ear for God', to use an expression from Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily.




Jan. 10, 2009

P.S. Sandro Magister's blog entry today concedes it looks as if Mons. Palombella is not going to be named any time soon to be director of the Sistine Chapel choir. Magister cites the episodes described by Ambrogetti on her blog five days earlier, and then says bluntly - "Palombella's ascendancy has collapsed".

But he still faults Benedict XVI - despite his musical taste and knowledge - for tolerating the deficiencies of Mons. Liberto and the Sistine Chapel Choir.

Malta archdiocese launches
papal visit logo and banner;
more details on visit



VALLETTA, Jan. 8 - The logo for Pope Benedict's visit to Malta on April 17 and 18 was launched this morning, along with the official banner for the visit.



Mgr Charles Cordina told a news conference the logo used a lot of blue reflecting Malta's characteristic of being surrounded by sea, it included a boat, which represented St Paul's shipwreck, and the boat's mast was the cross.

The colours of the boat and the mast were yellow and white, the colours of the Pope. The logo was very simple but catching and appropriate, he said.

A total of 17 people submitted 24 designs in a competition with 26-year-old Gozitan Mario Abela, a teacher at the St Theresa College in Birkirkara, emerging as the winner.

The theme chosen is "Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island". It was chosen because it was closely related to the shipwreck of St Paul which was to be the focal point of the Pope's visit to Malta.

Pope Benedict shall be arriving in Malta on April 17 at 5 p.m., leaving the day after at 7 p.m.

He will be met at the airport by the President and will then be taken to the Palace in Valletta. A ceremony at St Paul's Grotto will be held.

The Pope's second major activity will be his meeting with young people at the Waterfront. Pope Benedict is expected to arrive at the Waterfront on a boat from Kalkara, Fr Savio Vella said.

Fr Vella said that the gates at the Waterfront will open at 1 p.m. on April 18. The meeting will be at 5.15 p.m. but it will be preceded by a programme of activites.

Even though open to the public, the event was aimed specifically at youths and a number of places were to be especially reserved for young people, who will eventually be able to register and book a place online.

Fr Jesmond Manicaro said the Mass chosen for the Pope's visit was that composed and written by John Galea for the 25th anniversary celebration of the ordination of Gozo bishop Mario Grech. Six masses were submitted for consideration and the winner was picked up by a committee in Rome.

He said that two choirs - one made up of adults and another one with children were to be set up. The adult choir was to have 120 people, the children's choir 100. Auditions are being held at the Curia on January 29 and 30 for adults and on February 6 for children.

The St Monica Choir, led by St Benjamina Portelli, was chosen for the St Paul's Grotto celebrations.

Fr Anton Portelli said that a DVD and a book about the Pope's visit would be issued following the visit. Two medals, one silver plated and one silver, would also be availabe and people would be able to preorder.

The detailed programme of events will be made public on February 10.




Pope's travel dates in 2010

Malta is the Pope's first trip outside Rome in 2010.

April 17-18 MALTA (Valletta)

May 2 TURIN (Piedmont - Northern Italy)

May 11-14 PORTUGAL (Lisbon, Fatima, Porto)

June 4-6? CYPRUS
The Church in Cyprus is under the jurisdiction of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.

July 4 SULMONA (Abruzzo - central Italy)

Sept. 5 CARPINETO (Lazio - central Italy)

Sept. 16-19 ENGLAND & SCOTLAND (London, Coventry, Balmoral)

Oct. 3 PALERMO (Sicily - southern Italy)

Pope thanks agents of Vatican's
public security inspectorate





VATICAN CITY, 8 JAN 2010 (VIS) - In a traditional meeting that takes place every year in January, Benedict XVI today received members of the General Inspectorate for Public Security in the Vatican.

In his remarks the Pope thanked the agents for the work they do to maintain public order in St. Peter's Square and the area around the Vatican, highlighting how their task "is particularly important for the mission of the Roman Pontiff".

"Your efforts", he went on, "favour a climate of serenity and tranquillity which gives those who come to the centre of Christianity the chance to enjoy an authentic religious experience, in contact with the fundamental monuments of the Christian faith such as the tomb of the Apostle Peter, the relics of many saints and the tombs of numerous Pontiffs, loved and venerated by Christian people".

Recalling then the "commitment and great responsibility" required of the agents in the performance of their duties, the Pope told them that their work should be "a special way to serve the Lord, almost as if to 'prepare the way for Him', so that each pilgrim's and each visitor's experience at the centre of Christianity may represent a special occasion to encounter the Lord Who changes lives".

The Holy Father concluded by expressing the hope that the work undertaken by the agents of the General Inspectorate for Public Security "may make you ever stronger and more coherent in your faith", and he encouraged them "not to be afraid or ashamed to express that faith in your own families, in the workplace and wherever you may find yourselves".

NB: The English service of ZENIT today posted an interview with Mons. Mauro Gagliardi entitled "Benedict XVI's 'Novel' Traditions". It is the same interview I translated from ZENIT's Italian service on Dec. 21 and poster on Page 53 of this thread:
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8527...
I am surprised ZENIT'S English service took more than two weeks to get around to translating it.

Saturday, January 9

Left, St. Augustine's Abbey today, a World Heritage site along with Canterbury Cathedral.
ST. ADRIAN (HADRIAN) OF CANTERBURY (b North Africa ca. 635, d England 710)
Benedictine Abbot and Scholar
A Berber like St. Augustine, his family left Africa for Italy where he became a Benedictine
monk and abbot of a monastery near Naples. Pope St. Vitalian twice offered to make him
Archbishop of Canterbury but he declined. The second time, he recommended his friend
Theodore of Tarsus (who would become St. Theodore of Canterbury), then already 67.
The Pope agreed provided Adrian accompanied him to Canterbury, where Theodore made
him abbot of the abbey founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in the 6th century. Adrian,
a gifted scholar, made the abbey one of the great centers of learning in his time. To this
day, the 'books of Theodore and Hadrian', including their commentaries on the Bible, are still
issued in modern editions as source material for Anglo-Saxon England. He died peacefully
in the abbey. The Normans completely rebuilt the Anglo-Saxon abbey, and during the work,
St. Adrian's remains were unearthed in 1091 and found to be incorrupt. His tomb became
an object of pilgrimage where many miracles were said to take place.
NB: I could only find one image online of St. Adrian.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/010910.shtml



OR today.

Illustration: Bernini's Baldachin in St. Peter's - sketch by sculptor Lello Scorzelli.
No papal stories on Page 1, but an editorial commentary linking to the Holy Father's Angelus message on the feast of the Epiphany that men today should not put their trust in seers or even economic forecasters, and in the inside pages, the Pope's prayer intentions for 2011, and his address to the Inspectorate for Vatican Security. Other Page 1 stories: Sudan's civil war continues five years since a truce agreement signed by the government and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army who last week killed 139 members of a hostile tribe in South Sudan and 5000 heads of cattle belonging to them; likewise, new civilian killings in Mogadishu, in Somalia's ongoing civil war; and President Obama's admission of a secular system failure that allowed a Nigerian suicide bomber to board a plane to the United States and attempt to blow up an airliner with 300 passengers over Detroit. Inside, there are three stories on Gian Lorenzo Bernini following discovery of documents showing his original contract to design the baldachin over St. Peter's tomb with its distinctive 'licorice-stick' columns. Bernini was commissioned by Pope Urban VIII, a Barberini, to renovate the central altar of St. Peter's.


THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father met today with

- Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops

- Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, emeritus Arch-Priest of the Basilica of
St. Paul outside the Walls

- Cardinal William Wakefield Baum, emeritus Major Penitentiary

- Mons. Joseph Augustine Di Noia, O.P., Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and
the Discipline of Sacraments

- Superiors, students and alumni of the Pontifical North American College (seminary for Americans
in Rome), on the college's 150th anniversary. Address in English.


The Vatican released a brief communique on the latest Vatican-Israeli meeting towards implementation
of a 14-year-old treaty which has been the subject of bi-annual talks for just as long.

If we cited all the times Pope Benedict XVI has been described as walking some tightrope or other, one might say the media see him as a highwire circus performer perpetually trying to juggle balls while trying to stay on the tightrope.

After all the metaphors for tightropes, land mines, arctic ice gaps, etc. preceding his pilgrimage to the Holy Land last May, the tightrope has been strung out for him once again, this time with regard to his visit to the Rome Synagogue next Sunday. CNS joins the circus watchers.



A tightrope act? Pope prepares
to visit Rome synagogue
By Cindy Wooden




Some of the signs read: 'Stop the negationists', 'Enough with the Good Friday prayer!', 'Remember the Shoah!, and 'Respect diversity'.


VATICAN CITY, Jan. 8 (CNS) -- A cartoon in the January edition of an Italian Jewish newspaper showed Pope Benedict XVI crossing the Tiber River on a tightrope, trying to balance himself using a pole labeled "dialogue" on one end and "conversion" on the other.

As he prepared to cross the river and travel from the Vatican to Rome's main synagogue Jan. 17 no one pretended the journey was going to be easy.

There is continuing unease in the global Jewish community over Pope Benedict's decisions to advance the possible beatification of Pope Pius XII, to lift the excommunication of a Holocaust-minimizing traditionalist bishop and to issue a revised prayer for the Jews in the Tridentine-rite Good Friday liturgy. The sensitivity to these actions is heightened in Rome.

Jews lived in Rome before Christ was born, and centuries of interaction between the city's Jewish community and the popes means Jewish-Vatican relations in the city have a unique history, much of it sad.

The staff of the Jewish Museum of Rome, located in the synagogue complex, is planning a special exhibit that will illustrate part of that history for Pope Benedict and for other visitors in the coming months.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is comprised of 14 decorative panels made by Jewish artists to mark the inauguration of the pontificates of Popes Clement XII, Clement XIII, Clement XIV and Pius VI in the 1700s.

For hundreds of years, the Jewish community was obliged to participate in the ceremonies surrounding the enthronement of new popes -- often in a humiliating manner.

Various groups in the city were assigned to decorate different sections of the Pope's route between the Vatican and the Basilica of St. John Lateran. The Jewish community was responsible for the stretch of road between the Colosseum and the Arch of Titus, which celebrates the Roman Empire's victory over the Jews of Jerusalem in the first century.

The Roman victory included the destruction of the Temple, Judaism's holiest site, and the triumphal arch depicts Roman soldiers carrying off the menorah and other Jewish liturgical items.



Rome's main synagogue is located less than two miles from the Vatican in the neighborhood that was once the city's Jewish "ghetto," a word originally coined by the Italians and used to describe a section of a city where Jews were forced to live.

In 1555 -- when Jews already had been expelled from Spain and Portugal, England and France -- Pope Paul IV issued a formal edict ordering that Jews in Rome and throughout the Papal States "should reside entirely side by side in designated streets and be thoroughly separate from the residences of Christians."

He said that it was "completely absurd and improper" that the Jews should prosper in a Christian land when they were "condemned by God to eternal servitude" because of their lack of belief in Jesus.

Rome's Jews were forced to live in the ghetto until the fall of the Papal States in 1870. The population inside the four square blocks of the ghetto fluctuated between 1,750 and 5,000 people.

The Pope's visit to the synagogue was scheduled to coincide with the Italian Catholic Church's celebration each Jan. 17 of a day for Catholic-Jewish dialogue. This year, the date also coincides with Shevat 2 on the Jewish calendar, which is the day Rome's Jewish community commemorates a miracle in the old ghetto.

Convinced that members of the Jewish community were working to import the ideals and freedoms espoused by the French Revolution -- including separation of church and state -- a mob set fire in 1793 to one of the gates of the ghetto, apparently planning to burn all the houses down as well. But the skies suddenly grew dark and a heavy downpour put out the flames and sent the mob home.

Most of the buildings were torn down after the ghetto gates were opened in 1870; a new major synagogue -- the one the Pope will visit -- was constructed in the area between 1901 and 1904.

Just a few yards away from the synagogue stands a church whose history is closely tied with that of the ghetto. A plaque above the entrance bears a quote -- in Latin and in Hebrew -- from Isaiah: "I have stretched out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in evil paths and follow their own thoughts."

The Church of St. Gregory faced the entrance to the ghetto and the plaque reflected an attitude held by Catholics for centuries that despite all that God had done for them, the Jews rejected the savior.

Between 1572 and 1848, churches next to the ghetto also were used for the "forced sermons" aimed at convincing the Jews to convert to Christianity.

Each Saturday evening, a specified portion of the Jewish community was obliged by papal edict to listen to a priest preach about Christ using the same Scripture readings the congregation had heard that morning in the synagogue.

Legend has it that many of the Jews plugged their ears with wax during the sermons.

While Catholic-Jewish relations have improved enormously over the past century -- especially because of the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the outreach of Pope John Paul II -- the cartoon of the tightrope-walking pope in the Pagine Ebraiche newspaper made it clear the unique history of Rome's Jewish community and the popes has not been forgotten.


While there is a long history of Christian and specifically Catholic maltreatment of the Jews, there is also a history of Jewish persecution of Christians (especially with the early Church).

Perhaps, the only reason that this anti-Christian history is not as long and as event-filled as Christian anti-Jewish practices, the difference is a function of the fact that Christianity went on to expand and become the world's leading religion, whereas the exclusiveness inherent in the Jewish religion (and in some way, killings during periods of persecution) kept their numbers low - culminating in the Nazi genocide last century that killed 6 million of them. For a comparison scale, consider that the total Jewish population in the world today is about 13.5 million.

The whole point of Nostra aetate - and John Paul II's specific and much-publicized apologies to the Jews - was that this historical enmity between the two religions was a catastrophic and collective human error that should never occur again, and that people of both religions should start anew with mutual forgiving and what the Church calls 'purification of memory'.

Obviously, it has been far easier for contemporary Catholics to discard prejudices in this regard than it has been for the Jews. Perhaps what saddens me most about the apparently prevailing anti-Christian resentment, if not hostility, among militant Jews, is that it makes them dwell needlessly and uselessly in the past rather than look ahead - worse, it makes them mean and nasty to the Pope and the Church.

It is the same resentment pushed to the ultimate 'victim complex' that drives what has become for some of them a morbid cult of the Shoah. Yes, the Jews lost 6 million during the Holocaust - and the world must never be allowed to forget this - but they were not the only victims of Hitler.

Most recent estimates of World War II dead range from 62-78 million.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
If we subtract the estimated 20-25 million military dead, that still leaves, using the lower estimates, 42 million civilian dead, of which six million were Jews.

Hitler was just as intent on killing all those non-Jews to achieve his ends, even if he did not have a specific Final Solution for them. He perpetrated an even bigger Aryan Holocaust.

Germany itself lost 5.5 million in military deaths alone - almost as many as the Jews Hitler killed. The Soviet Union alone lost 24 million in the war.

I do not understand why most reporters and commentators - and of course, the Jews themselves - do not take a more objective look at the casualties of Hitler's war - not to diminish the Jewish loss in any way, but to emphasize that the Nazis unleashed their blood lust equally and far more on their fellow 'Aryans'.


P.S. I must add that I have no animus towards the Jews at all - except against the militants who irrationally attack Benedict XVI, Pius XII and the Church. I became a World War II/Holocaust buff after reading the Diary of Anne Frank at age 10, and in my late teens, during a year when I was assigned to Washington, D.C., I was accepted to join a kibbutz in the Negev at a time when I was not averse to the idea of conversion to Judaism. The only reason I did not go through with it was that Pope Paul VI was to visit Manila, and i chose to go home for that occasion - and that was the end of my 'Jewish' phase.


Here's a contribution by Austin Ivereigh, who takes it for granted that Jewish-Catholic relations are 'set to chill' - though I doubt they were ever genuinely warm ('The Deputy' came out two years before Nostra aetate, after all, so a toxin had been introduced into the Jewish bloodstream, so to speak).


Jewish-Catholic relations
set to chill in 2010
by Austen Ivereigh

January 9, 2010

An online petition has been launched to protest the beatification of Pope Pius XII, expected next October together with that of Pope John Paul II. [How can someone like Austin Ivereigh make that assumption???? And BTW, I read somewhere that the online petition was targeting 15,000 signatures, but after three days when they had only about 1% of that quota. they lowered it to 10,000. I don't know what they expect the petition to produce!]

The decision by Pope Benedict XVI to proceed with the beatification, made just before Christmas, has led to a spate of Jews spitting at Christians in Jerusalem. [As I understand the news reports, the spitting has been chronic, not brouhgt on by Benedict's decision!]

The evidence is, in fact, considerable that Pius XII did an enormous amount to assist Jews facing Nazi persecution, both practically and prophetically -- but Jewish sceptics insist that only when the relevant Vatican archives are made available can that conclusion be reached.

Their case rests on the myth that Vatican archives are being kept "secret". The new petition for example calls on the Pope "to suspend the beatification process for Pope Pius XII until still-secret Vatican archives from World War II are declassified and made fully accessible".

But they are not secret, and they do not need to be declassified. The problem is that they have not yet been catalogued -- a massive exercise which has only recently been completed for the pontificate of Pius XI.

In spite of this, and in order to satisfy Jewish demands, the Vatican [Pope Paul VI, in particular] fast-tracked the cataloguing of 12 volumes of Pius XII archives [in the 1960s] and made them available to a joint Catholic-Jewish panel of six historians to study. But the panel fell apart after its Jewish members complained that they weren't being given access to the "full" records.

(See the statement in Osservatore Romano, 8/1/2001, by the Pius XII relator, Fr Peter Gumpel SJ,
www.ewtn.com/library/ISSUES/P12HISTO.HTM

Pope Benedict has not been rushed into the decision to beatify Pius XII: he has studied the evidence and taken advice for two years. He knows that the archives, when they are finally catalogued and studied, will not contradict the evidence that Pius XII assisted the Jews.

But that won't stop Jewish-Catholic relations becoming more tense in 2010, with likely repercussions (because everything here is interrelated) on Vatican-Israeli relations. That may make it harder for Rome to speak out more forcefully against the Israeli strangulation of Bethlehem and the annexation of Palestinian Christian lands.

On the other hand, a little tough talking on both sides may make it easier to name a few uncomfortable truths.

The Pope's deep concern over
anti-Christian persecutions
by ORAZIO LA ROCCA
Translated from

Jan. 8, 2010



Coptic Bishop Anba Kirollos of the diocese of Nag Hammadi believes he was the real target of the drive-by killing, but they missed him because he left the church by the back door after the Mass.


VATICAN CITY - "The Pope is very concerned with what happened in Egypt. He is saddened and anguished, he prays for the victims, and for all those who are persecuted for their faith in other parts of the world," sources close to Benedict XVI tell La Repubblica.

Prayer is Benedict XVI's only 'weapon' in facing a new anti-Christian wave in the Middle East, culminating in the drive-by killing of Copts leaving Christmas Midnight Mass on January 7 [date of the Nativity for Orthodox Christians who follow the Julian calendar in dating the moveable feasts].

Clinging to St. Paul's 'hope against hope', the Pope's prayer is that "God may open the hearts of all men to peace, and that every form of violence and injustice may be avoided everywhere".

The sources noted that yesterday, the Pope touched on the sensitive issue of inter-religious dialog and religious freedom in the Muslim countries, in his address to the new ambasssdor from Turkey. Kenan Gursoy.

Giovanni Maria Vian, editor of the Vatican newspaper, told La Repubblica: "These tragic incidents bring great sorrow and uneasiness to Christians in ancient communities that date back to apostolic times, as the Copts of Egypt, the Chaldeans of Iraq, and so many other small communities in the Middle East who have been persecuted by extremism and violence in various forms - which often also strike at followers of other religions, and even Muslims themselves."

Vian points out that his newspaper reported the Egyptian attack on Page 1 of the newspaper under the headline "Six Christians and a Muslim killed in Egypt ambush".

"The Holy See always pays great attention to these events," he continues. "The Pope has never failed to deplore such episodes, as he did in his New Year's Day Angelus message when he made a special appeal to all armed groups to lay down their arms."

The climate of "hate and aversion (against Christians) in Upper Egypt has become even worse lately," says Fr. Rafic Greiche, information officer for the Catholics in Nag Hammadi, the village near Luxor that was the site of the Christmas Day killings.

"We Catholics, like all the other Christians," he says, "are deeply concerned. The attacks always arise from a mixture of religious hatred with opportunistic pretexts".

Last Easter, he recalls, a Christian was murdered in Hegaza in exactly the same way. "The killings two nights ago are just the latest stage in a long trail of violence and abuse that is oppressing almost all the Christian communities in the Near East to the Far East (China)".

"We are increasingly concerned for the persecuted Christians and for the missionaries who work with these suffering communities", says Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which oversees the Church's missionaries. "As the Pope says, we must keep on praying".

According to Fr. Bernardo Cervellera, editor of AsiaNews, "Such violence is the poisonous fruit of a fundamentalism which is increasingly hateful towards the Christian faith - not just in Egypt, but in other places like Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq (where half the Christian population has fled to Syria or Jordan)." AsiaNews is the news agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions.

In addition, he says, "We must not under-estimate the anti-Christian persecution going on in Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, and India - especially in Orissa and five other states where the law prohibits Hindus from converting to any other religion.


Paradoxically, there appears to be 'less' anti-Christian persecution in China, where there have been no reports of non-Catholics committing offenses against ordinary Christians. From AsiaNews and UCAN reports, the Chinese persecution appears limited to the arbitrary actions of some local officials - unorchestrated and without orders from the central government - who have vented their hostility on bishops of the 'underground' Church who are arrested for no legitimate cause, imprisoned indefinitely, or kept under house arrest. There do not seem to be any reports of regular priests or Catholic laymen subjected to the same.

Pope greets American seminary
in Rome on its 150th anniversary





At noon today, the Holy Father had an audience in the Hall of Benediction with the officers, students and alumni of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, to whom he delivered the following address in English:

---

Your Eminences,
Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

I am pleased to welcome the alumni of the Pontifical North American College, together with the Rector, faculty and students of the seminary on the Janiculum hill, and the student priests of the Casa Santa Maria dell’Umiltà.

Our meeting comes at the conclusion of the celebrations marking the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the College’s establishment by my predecessor, Blessed Pius IX.

On this happy occasion I willingly join you in thanking the Lord for the many ways in which the College has remained faithful to its founding vision by training generations of worthy preachers of the Gospel and ministers of the sacraments, devoted to the Successor of Peter and committed to the building up of the Church in the United States of America.

It is appropriate, in this Year for Priests, that you have returned to the College and this Eternal City in order to give thanks for the academic and spiritual formation which has nourished your priestly ministry over the years.

The present Reunion is an opportunity not only to remember with gratitude the time of your studies, but also to reaffirm your filial affection for the Church of Rome, to recall the apostolic labors of the countless alumni who have gone before you, and to recommit yourselves to the high ideals of holiness, fidelity and pastoral zeal which you embraced on the day of your ordination.

It is likewise an occasion to renew your love for the College and your appreciation of its distinctive mission to the Church in your country.

During my Pastoral Visit to the United States, I expressed my conviction that the Church in America is called to cultivate "an intellectual ‘culture’ which is genuinely Catholic, confident in the profound harmony of faith and reason, and prepared to bring the richness of faith’s vision to bear on the pressing issues which affect the future of American society" (Homily at Nationals Stadium, Washington, 17 April 2008).

As Blessed Pius IX rightly foresaw, the Pontifical North American College in Rome is uniquely prepared to help meet this perennial challenge.

In the century and a half since its foundation, the College has offered its students an exceptional experience of the universality of the Church, the breadth of her intellectual and spiritual tradition, and the urgency of her mandate to bring Christ’s saving truth to the men and women of every time and place.

I am confident that, by emphasizing these hallmarks of a Roman education in every aspect of its program of formation, the College will continue to produce wise and generous pastors capable of transmitting the Catholic faith in its integrity, bringing Christ’s infinite mercy to the weak and the lost, and enabling America’s Catholics to be a leaven of the Gospel in the social, political and cultural life of their nation.

Dear brothers, I pray that in these days you will be renewed in the gift of the Holy Spirit which you received on the day of your ordination.

In the College chapel, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady is portrayed in the company of four outstanding models and patrons of priestly life and ministry: Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Pius X, Saint John Mary Vianney and Saint Vincent de Paul.

During this Year for Priests, may these great saints continue to watch over the students who daily pray in their midst; may they guide and sustain your own ministry, and intercede for the priests of the United States.

With cordial good wishes for the spiritual fruitfulness of the coming days, and with great affection in the Lord, I impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I willingly extend to all the alumni and friends of the Pontifical North American College.

---

Do not be taken in by the deceptive title! This is an article I find completely gratuitous and insulting to the Pope and the Church, for all its feigned ‘gratitude’ which hardly masks its obvious sarcasm.

Because what the writer is really saying is “Thank whatever-it-is that the Pope and the Vatican did not over-react to the Christmas Eve attack on the Pope, and that they exercised common sense! ” Which is saying that one does not normally expect common sense from the Pope and the Vatican!

It comes from La Repubblica, so it figures…. But once again, all logic is thrown to the winds when it is the Church and the Pope at issue – a Benedict derangement syndrome, if one must borrow from the American political lexicon.

I took the effort to translate it because it is indicative of the irrational mentality that pervades those who oppose the Church and the Pope, even in - or perhaps, especially in - persons who consider themselves to be 'intellectual'. It is a prime example of utterly distorted thinking.


From the Pope who was attacked -
a lesson in style
by Curzio Maltese
Translated from

January 8, 2009


It has never happened before and perhaps it won’t again. So I must take the occasion to publicly thank, albeit late, the Holy Father because after having been assailed by a deranged woman on Christmas Eve, he behaved as a dignified and responsible adult.

[How else did he expect the Holy Father to behave? Like a child who would use the occasion to call attention to himself by wailing as hard as he can? As though Joseph Ratzinger had ever deliberately called attention to himself in his long career, much less as Pope! Others took and take attention of him, for good or bad, but that’s an entirely different matter.]

He did not blame the mad act on Repubblica, or on leftists who are far too secular, or on those who accepted the European court ruling on the display of the Crucifix in schools as something obvious, or on those who have recently investigated the relationship between Church and State.

[He means in Italy, of course, where his newspaper has been crusading against the 0.008% share of Italian tax revenues that goes to the Catholic Church, which is a legitimate arrangement set up by the Lateran Pact amendments, and which the Italian government extended to benefit other religions as well. Except they get much less because they are far outnumbered by Italian Catholics, and every taxpayer must indicate which church he wants to benefit….

And as for all those entities the Pope did not blame, he’s neither senile nor out of his mind to ever think of assigning blame to anyone for what was clearly an act of individual insanity.]

I wish to thank everyone in the Vatican for not having sent squads of cardinals, bishops, opinionated priests, or priest-leaning opinionists to the TV talk shows to explain that the aggression was the result of all the criticisms against the Church in recent years by all those who do not think like them – and who are therefore armed with a profound and violent hate against the Pope, the Church and even of the Baby Jesus.

[When did the Vatican ever do anything as ridiculous as that? On the contrary, Curial prelates must be faulted continually for hardly ever rising to the defense – rational and devoid of blame-mongering - of Benedict XVI all these years when he is buffeted by unfair and vicious blows from all sides!]

One must thank the Church for not having written editors and TV news directors that they must underscore how the attack should not be considered an isolated event but rather the fruit of a poisoned atmosphere. Obviously a demented idea, but one that the media would have gladly disseminated, thus truly poisoning the air.

[If anyone has been spewing poison at all, it has been Repubblica and its like-minded pathological haters of the Church and anyone connected with it – at the slightest pretext, or needing no pretext at all. The fact is that Repubblica and its writers cannot abide the thought that the Pope and the Vatican have failed to take their multiform and various baits over the past five years in any way.

Even Repubblica’s series of alleged exposes accusing the Vatican – which their writers cannot seem to distinguish from the Church in Italy, represented by the Italian bishops conference – of misusing and failing to disclose how the 0.008% tax share is used every year, became a big embarrassment when the CEI showed that for the past several years, it has been paying Repubblica itself advertising costs to carry its annual financial statement doing exactly that!]

And one must thank the Church for not offering as proof of this poison the messages of rejoicing over the Christmas Even attack by imbeciles on the Internet, who were there all right. Though few have bothered with them.

I wish to thank Joseph Ratzinger for not having used the episode in order to promptly demand of the government new laws favorable to Church entities and accusing opponents of the Church of being accomplices to violence. [But what a mean and malicious mind! When did the Vatican or the Pope – this or other Popes - ever do this ?]

And finally, for not having transformed a sad and painful event – fortunately without grave consequences [Do not forget the hapless Cardinal Etchegaray!] - into the nth colossal clown show, Italian-style!

I am grateful to the Pope and the Vatican for not having led us into temptation – the temptation of further lowering the level of civility in the public discourse. At the price of making Italy look ridiculous to the rest of the world. [But when has the Vatican or the Church engaged in less than civil discourse, even against the most vicious and unfounded attacks?]



All that huffing and puffing just to indirectly portray the real attitude of the Church- and Pope-bashers in the feeble rhetorical guise of caustic sarcasm that does not even have a trace of wit – that is, in fact, all nonsense.

And through all that, ignoring the most obvious fact about all this – Benedict XVI has never once referred to the incident in public, relegating it to the occupational hazard that it is, and not calling more attention to himself or to his aggressor. That shows both common sense and class – neither of which the writer of the above article appears to have.

And it was entirely in keeping with the Pope’s December 8 homily, when he spoke about the city’s usually nameless people, whom the media pluck out of anonymity when they can be exploited for having committed a crime or other deed that can be sensationalized into circulation-boosting headlines.

Pope visits cardinal hurt
in Christmas Eve incident







ROME, Jan. 9 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI paid a call Saturday on a hospitalized cardinal who broke a hip when a mentally disturbed woman knocked the Pontiff down in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Eve.

Benedict embraced 87-year-old French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who wore a gray dressing gown during the early evening visit by the pontiff at Rome's Gemelli Polyclinic.

The Vatican said the Pope and Etchegaray chatted cordially in French during the 30-minute visit, which hadn't been announced in advance.

"The Pope expressed his interest and spiritual closeness" to Etchegaray, whose recovery was going well following surgery shortly after the injury, the Vatican said.

Benedict was shaken but unhurt Dec. 24 when a young Italian-Swiss woman climbed over a barrier during his procession to the altar. The woman, who is being treated at a psychiatric clinic, grabbed at the Pope's vestments, bringing the 82-year-old Benedict to the ground. The cardinal fell during the commotion as security guards rushed to Benedict's aid.

Etchegaray is expected to be discharged next week, the Vatican said.

After he visited the cardinal, Benedict greeted patients, a brief Vatican statement said. Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, was treated several times during his papacy at the Catholic teaching hospital.

Vatican magistrates are investigating the Christmas Eve breach of security, which raised concern over the Pope's protection while in public.




The photographs of the visit are particularly sweet - a beautiful illustration of the Holy Fahter's naturally joyful disposition, well reciproated by the cardinal in these photos.


Here is the text of the Vatican press communique on the Pope's visit to the cardinal, translated from the Italian:

---

This evening the Holy Father went to the Policlinico Gemelli to pay a visit to Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who has been hospitalized for a hip fracture sustained during the incident before the Christmas Eve Mass and a subsequent surgical operation.

The Pope was welcomed by Prof. Ornaghi, Rector Magnificus of the Catholic University, and by Prof. Catananti, driector of the Polyclinic.

The visit took place around 7 p.m. and lasted about half an hour. It was characterized by a very cordial conversation in French between the Pope and the cardinal.

The Pope expressed his solicitude and spiritual closeness, and was able to observe personally the favorable course of the convalescence and post-operative rehabilitation of the cardinal, whose clinical condition is excellent.

Though they were both seated for the conversation, at the end, the Cardinal walked the Pope to the door. He is expected to be discharged from the hospital by the middle of next week.

Before leaving, the Holy Father also greeted other patients.

---

Earlier yesterday, the Italian news agency ANSA reported that Susanna Maiolo, the Pope's aggressor on Christmas Eve, was to be released from her obligatory two-week confinement in the psychiatric ward of a hospital in Subiaco. She was expected to be brought home to Switzerland by an uncle.


Also related:

Bertone appears to rule out
Vatican clemency for Maiolo



ROME, Jan. 9 (Translated from AGI) - Benedict XVI reoresents "a universal moral authority who announces the Biblical message abd who is working for the common good and the peaceful coexistence of everyone".

This was affirmed by Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone when asked by newsmen Saturday about the woman who attacked Pope Benedict XVI on Christmas Eve.

Thus, the cardinal appeared to rule out an eventual act of clemency that would put an end to the penal proceeding under way in the Vatican before the investigation reaches a conclusion.

Bertone celebrated Mass in the chapel of the Office of the Vatican Governatorate to mark the start of the Vatican judicial year.

[A brief item in today's OR about the Mass and Bertone's statements - he was also asked about other things like a recent problem with the explotation of illegal immigrants in Calabria, southern Italy - says that Bertone declined to comment directly on the Maiolo case because it is still under investigation.]

Sunday, January 10
SOLEMNITY OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

Illustrations, from left: Medieval Russian icon; Bellini, 1426; Fra Angelico, 1441; Verrochio/Da Vinci, 1472; El Greco, 1608; Murillo, 1655.
Readings for today's Mass:
www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011010.shtml

Today's saint:

Extreme right: Icon of the three Cappadocian Fathers- Basil the Great Gregory Nazianzene and Gregory of Nyssa.
ST. GREGORY OF NISSA (Cappadocia [in present Turkey],330-395) - Bishop, Theologian, one of the Church Fathers
Gregory was the younger brother of St. Basil the Great. Their family is distinguished by having seven canonized saints - grandmother,
mother, and five of 9 siblings. Gregory was a brilliant student who got married early and was a professor of rhetoric before he was
persuaded to devote himself to the Church. He studied for the priesthood and in 372 as named Bishop of Nyssa. He was at the forefront
in the battle against the Arian heresy that denied the divinity of Jesus. He came into his own after Basil died in 379. He took part in the
Councils of Antioch and of Constantinople, where he vigorously defended the Nicene Creed. Along with St. Basil and his great friend
St. Gregory Nazianzene, he is one of the three Cappadocian Fathers known as 'the triad who glorified the Trinity". Gregory is
considered one of the great contributors to the mystical tradition and to early monasticism. Benedict XVI devoted two lessons to him
in his catechetical cycle on the Church Fathers in 2007.


OR today.

The papal story in this issue is the Holy Father's address to the officials, alumni and students of
the Pontifical North American College in Rome on the occasion of the institution's 150th anniversary.
Page 1 items: A commentary on the hidden epidemic of premature births throughout the world;
China says it will start trading in futures, a step towards full integration into the world market,
as it is poised to become the world's top economic power; US says it will try to get Israelis and
Palestinians to resume peace talks without pre-conditions; and new unemployment increase in
the USA. The inside pages contain three commentaries on the movie Avatar as a vehicle
promoting neo-pagan pantheism.


THE POPE'S DAY
Mass of the Baptism of the Lord at the Sistine Chapel, with the Holy Father
baptizing 14 babies.

Sunday Angelus.

MASS OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD


Illustration: Baptism of Christ, Giotto, 1304.
Today's libretto posted on line contains no illustrations. For some reason, the libretti posted do not include the cover illustration, which
I have generally taken from the earlier Notification of the event, or sought online from the illustration credit given on the back cover of the libretto.
Libretto on www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/libretti/2010/2010...




Thanks to Caterina for her montages today, and to Gregor Kollmorgen at New Liturgical Movement for the other videocaps.


At 10 a.m. today, Feast of the Baptism of our Lord, the Holy Father presided at Holy Mass in the Sistine Chapel, at which he baptized 14 babies after the Gospel reading.




Here is a full translation of the Holy Father's homily:

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

On the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, this year once again, I have the joy of administering the sacrament of Baptism to some newborn children whom their parents are presenting to the Church.

Welcome, dear fathers and mothers of these babies, and you, the godfathers and godmothers, who are part of this day. Let us give thanks to God that today he is calling these seven little boys and seven little girls to become his children in Christ.

Let us surround them with prayer and affection, and welcome them with joy into the Christian community, which today also becomes their family.

The feast of the Baptism of Jesus continues the cycle of the Lord's manifestations, which began at Christmas with the birth of the Word Incarnate in Bethlehem, contemplated by Mary, Joseph and the shepherds in the humility of the manger; and which had an important stage at Epiphany, when the Messiah, through the Magi, manifested himself to all peoples.

Today, Jesus reveals himself, on the banks of the Jordan, to John and to the people of Israel. It is the first occasion on which he, as a mature man, enters the public scene after having left Nazareth.

We find him with John the Baptist, to whom a great number of people had been coming, in an unusual scene. In the Gospel passage that was just proclaimed to us, St. Luke observes first of all that the people were "filled with expectation" (3.15).

Thus he underscores the expectation of Israel; he sees, in those persons who had left their homes and usual tasks, the profound desire for a different world and for new words, and who seem to find an answer in the severe, demanding words - nonetheless full of hope - of the Precursor=.

He (John) provided a Baptism of penance, a sign that calls for conversion, for a change of life because he who will "baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire" (3,16) was coming. Indeed, one cannot aspire to a new world while remaining immersed in selfishness and habits connected to sin.

Even Jesus had left home and his usual occupations to come to the Jordan. He arrives to a crowd that is listening to the Baptist, and he falls in line like everyone, waiting to be baptized.

John, upon seeing him approach, senses that there is something unique in this man, that he is the mysterious Other he has been waiting for and towards whom all his life had been leading to. He understood that he was in front of someone far greater than he, of whom he was unworthy even to unlace his shoes.

At the Jordan, Jesus manifests himself with extraordinary humility, which recalls the poverty and simplicity of the Baby laying in the manger, and anticipates the sentiments with which, at the end of his earthly days, he would wash the feet of his disciples and undergo the terrible humiliation of the Cross.

The Son of God, he who is without sin, places himself among sinners, shows the closeness of God to man's path of conversion. Jesus takes on his shoulders the weight of the sins of all mankind, begins his mission by placing himself in our place, in the place of sinners, in the perspective of the Cross.

When, after his baptism, he emerges from the water, deep in prayer, the heavens open. It is the moment that had been foreseen by ranks of prophets. "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down", Isaiah had invoked (63,19).

At this moment, St. Luke seems to suggest, that prayer was to be fulfilled. "Heaven was opened and the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove" (3,21-22).

And words were heard that had never been heard before: "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased" (v 22).

Jesus, emerging from the waters, as St. Gregory Nazianzene said, "sees the heaven split and open up, the heaven that Adam had closed for himself and all his descendants" (Discourse 39 for the Baptism of the Lord, PG 36).

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have come down among men to reveal their love which saves. Just as the angels came to announce to the shepherds the birth of the Savior, and the Star to the Magi from the East, now it is the voice of the Father himself who indicates the presence of his Son in the world, and who invites to us to look towards the resurrection, to Christ's victory over sin and death.

The glad news of the Gospel is the echo of this voice that comes from on high. Therefore, rightly, Paul, as we heard in the Second Reading, writes Titus: "For the grace of God has appeared, saving all" (2,11).

Indeed, the Gospel is, for us, a grace which gives joy and meaning to life. The apostle continues: that grace teaches us "to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age" (v. 12). That is, it leads us to a life that is happier, more beautiful, more fraternal - to a life in accordance with God.

We can say that even for these babies today, the heavens open. They will receive the grace of Baptism, and the Holy Spirit will dwell in them as in a temple, transforming their hearts profoundly.

From this moment, the voice of the Father will call on them, too, to be his children in Christ, and in his family which is the Church, he will give each one the sublime gift of faith.

This gift, which they are not able to understand now, will be deposited in their heart like a seed full of life, which awaits to germinate and bear fruit.

Today, they are baptized in the faith of the Church, professed by their parents and godparents, and by all the Christians present, who will then lead them by the hand in the footsteps of Christ.

The rite of Baptism insistently points to the subject of faith from the start, when the celebrant reminds the parents that in asking Baptism for their children, they take on the task of "educating them in the faith".

This task is recalled even more strongly to the parents and godparents in the third part of the celebration, which begins with words addressed to them:

"Yours is the task to educate them in the faith so that the divine life that they receive as a gift may be preserved from sin and grow from day to day. Therefore, if by virtue of your faith, you are ready to take this task upon yourselves... make your profession in Christ Jesus. It is the faith of the Church in which your children have been baptized".

These ritual words suggest that, in some way, the profession of faith and renunciation of sin by the parents and godparents, represent the necessary premise for the Church to confer Baptism on their children.

Immediately before pouring water on the head of the newborn, there is another call to faith. The celebrant poses the last question: "Do you want your child to receive Baptism in the faith of the Church that we, all together, have professed?" Only after their affirmative answer is the Sacrament administered.

Even in the explicative rites - anointing with chrism, receiving the white garments and lighted candle, the gesture of 'Effata!' (Open up!) - faith is the central theme.

"Take good care," says the rite of receiving the candle - "that your children... may always live as children of the light, and, persevering in the faith, they may go forth to meet the Lord who comes".

"May the Lord Jesus," affirms the celebrant in the rite of 'Effata', "grant that you may soon hear his Word, and profess your faith, to the praise and glory of God the Father".

Everything is crowned by the final blessing which once again reminds the parents of their task to be, for their children, "the first witnesses to the faith".

Dear friends, today is a great day for these babies. With Baptism, having become participants in the death and resurrection of Christ, they begin with him the joyous and exalting adventure of the disciple.

In fact, by giving to each one a candle lit from the Paschal candle, the Church says, "Receive the light of Christ!" Baptism illuminates with the light of Christ, opens the eyes to his splendor, and introduces the mystery of God through the divine light of faith.

In this light, the babies who are to be baptized today should walk all their life, helped along by the word and example of their parents and godparents. The letter must nourish, with the words and testimony of their own life, the torch of faith in their children, so that it may shine forth in our world - which too often gropes about, in the shadows of doubt - and carry the light of the Gospel which is life and hope.

Only that way, when they grow up, will they be able to say with full awareness the words said at the end of the profession of faith in the baptismal rite: "This is our faith. This is the faith of the Church. And we glory in professing it, in Jesus Christ our Lord".

Even in our time, the faith is a gift to be rediscovered, to cultivate and to bear witness to. With this celebration of Baptism, may the Lord grant each of us to live the beauty and joy of being Christian, so that we may introduce the baptized children to the fullness of adherence to Christ.

Let us entrust these little ones to the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary. Let us ask her that, in the white garments that signify their new dignity as children of God, they may be, all their life, faithful disciples of Christ and courageous witnesses to the Gospel. Amen!

---

That is so beautiful! The Holy Father has the gift of really making the Word of God - and in this case, the sacrament of Baptism - always fresh, as though one were discovering the rite and its infinite significances for the first time.










There were inexplicably no photos taken of the Msss at all in the newsphotos, but several pictures of the Pope leaving the Sistine Chapel.

The address given last week by Mons. Guido Marini, master of pontifical liturgical ceremonies, to an international Clergy Conference in Rome continues to draw comments for his direct language in referring to the incomplete and often distorted execution of the Second Vatican Council's indications for liturgical reform. Full text posted in the CHURCH&VATICAN THREAD:
benedettoxviforum.freeforumzone.leonardo.it/discussione.aspx?idd=8593...

---

There is an urgent need to reaffirm the “authentic” spirit of the liturgy, such as it is present in the uninterrupted tradition of the Church, and attested, in continuity with the past, in the most recent Magisterial teachings: starting from the Second Vatican Council up to the present pontificate.

I purposefully used the word continuity, a word very dear to our present Holy Father. He has made it the only authoritative criterion whereby one can correctly interpret the life of the Church, and more specifically, the conciliar documents, including all the proposed reforms contained in them.

How could it be any different? Can one truly speak of a Church of the past and a Church of the future as if some historical break in the body of the Church had occurred? Could anyone say that the Bride of Christ had lived without the assistance of the Holy Spirit in a particular period of the past, so that its memory should be erased, purposefully forgotten?

Nevertheless at times it seems that some individuals are truly partisan to a way of thinking that is justly and properly defined as an ideology, or rather a preconceived notion applied to the history of the Church which has nothing to do with the true faith.

An example of the fruit produced by that misleading ideology is the recurrent distinction between the pre-conciliar and the post conciliar Church. Such a manner of speaking can be legitimate, but only on condition that two Churches are not understood by it: one, the pre- Conciliar Church, that has nothing more to say or to give because it has been surpassed, and a second, the post-conciliar church, a new reality born from the Council and, by its presumed spirit, not in continuity with its past....

The authentic spirit of the liturgy does not abide when it is not approached with serenity, leaving aside all polemics with respect to the recent or remote past. The liturgy cannot and must not be an opportunity for conflict between those who find good only in that which came before us, and those who, on the contrary, almost always find wrong in what came before.

The only disposition which permits us to attain the authentic spirit of the liturgy, with joy and true spiritual relish, is to regard both the present and the past liturgy of the Church as one patrimony in continuous development.

A spirit, accordingly, which we must receive from the Church and is not a fruit of our own making. A spirit, I add, which leads to what is essential in the liturgy, or, more precisely, to prayer inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, in whom Christ continues to become present for us today, to burst forth into our lives. Truly, the spirit of the liturgy is the liturgy of the Holy Spirit.

- Mons, Guido Marini
The Vatican, 1/7/09

---

Mons. Marini often cited Cardinal Ratzinger/ Benedict XVI in the address which once again placed into context the liturgical modifications gradually re-introduced by the Holy Father to the papal liturgies by way of example. Two Catholic writers reacted this way:


Messori and Melloni on
Benedict XVI's liturgical reforms
Translated from

January 9, 2009


Vittorio Messori tells Il Foglio that Joseph Ratzinger "has at heart the problem of the faith - how to live it and how to safeguard it".

He points out that he made this clear to the bishops of the world in his letter accompanying the Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum: "Even as we hold conference, the faith is dying out like a lamp that has run out of oil".

And that is why, Messori says, the liturgy is important to the Pope: 'Because the liturgy is the expression of the faith in prayer. Lex orandi, lex credendi - one prays as one believes. And the faith, in liturgy, becomes worship."

Therefore, because the liturgy expresses the faith of the Church, "the Pope wants the liturgy to express orthodox faith". And that is why the post-Conciliar liturgical reform effected by a committee has not convinced him: "Moreover, it has never happened before that liturgical reform [in the universal Church] did not originate with the faithful."

[Which is the reason any liturgical innovations took decades to be incorporated into the Church's liturgy. And why the last great liturgical reform , that carried out by the Council of Trent in the 16th century, stipulated that local liturgies could only be valid if they had been followed for at least 200 years.]

According to Msssori, Benedict XVI will arrive at "reforming the et-et of liturgy". [Et-et (and-and) in religious language refers to the additive, selectively inclusive nature of the Church.]

Which means, he is not returning all the way back to tradition but will work so that old and new can live together: "The canon [standard and fixed prayers] of the Mass will return to being said in Latin, while the parts shared by the priest and the congregation will continue to be said in the vernacular. And Mass will be celebrated with certain parts ad orientem and others ad populum".

A dissenting opinion comes from Alberto Melloni, an ultra-liberal Catholic who is one of the leading ideological advocates of Vatican-II having created a 'new' Church.

He claims it is not correct to speak of a liturgical reform in the Ratzinger Pontificate.

He told Il Foglio: "The changes that the Pope has made in the liturgy are those of a pastor who intends to use all the liberty that the Missal allows in order to re-interpret it in a restoration sense". [That's willfully blind ideology speaking! How can it be 'restoration' when he continues to employ the structure of the Novus Ordo?]

He believes that "what the Pope is doing is not to reform the liturgy that Vatican-II handed down but a legitimate attempt to adapt the liturgy to his own taste".

{What an outrageous statement! As if Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI had ever considered liturgy a matter of the celebrant's personal tastes! All the contrary. It would be more correct to say that his liturgical changes represent his interpretation of the letter and spirit of Sacrosanctum concilium, the liturgical constitution of Vatican-II.

Can Melloni point to a single change introduced by Benedict XVI that is not in full compliance with Sacrosanctum concilium? The problem is that Melloni and his fellow-traveler bishops and priests seem not to have read that document at all, because many of the practices they introduced into the Novus Ordo openly violate it.]

He claims that many priests are erroneously trying to interpret Benedict XVI's changes as they please. [But there is nothing to interpret - the Holy Father is setting the example. All they have to do is follow it, if they wish to achieve the holiness and spirituality that pervade the Pope's liturgies.]

"If the Pope intends a reform of the reform, he would say so openly. He is not someone who masks his actions. He has always been clear and explicit in his decisions. It is true we have seen him celebrate Mass ad orientem - but he does so in his private chapel, not in public".

Everything is wrong with that statement. First, if Melloni ever bothered to read Sacramentum caritatis, the Pope's post-Synodal Exhortation on the Eucharist, his references to the provisions in Sacrosanctum concilium that have been ignored or violated are quite explicit and forceful.

And how many discourses has Benedict XVI given on the liturgy that reiterate the ideas he expressed as cardinal on the proper liturgy as worship and expression of the faith, not some sort of 'performance art' cum Sunday get-together that is open to any participant's creativity!

The changes the Pope has introduced into the liturgies he celebrates do not require a separate papal document to promulgate because they are already inherent in what Sacrosdanctum concilium decreed.

Finally, the Masses said in the Sistine Chapel - which are televised worldwide - are certainly public. And of course, the Sistine Chapel is not now the Pope's private chapel in any way!

Perhaps because it is also the 'piece de resistance' of the Vatican Museums, as well as the site for various secular gatherings and, of course, of papal, conclaves, it is not included in the list of 'Papal Basilicas and Chapels' as are the Redemptoris Mater chapel, for instance, and the newly restored Pauline Chapel (no subsite has been created for it yet, but the Pope celebrated Mass there recently with the members of the International Theological Commission).

ANGELUS TODAY


The demonstrators are seeking the Pope's help for something they are protesting to the Berlusconi government.


At the noon Angelus today, the Holy Father spoke before the prayers about the meaning of Baptism to a Christian. Afterwards, before greeting the various language groups, he spoke in behalf of more humane treatment of immigrants, and in behalf of the persecuted Christian communities in various parts of the world.

This was his greeting in English:

---

Today, on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Church invites us to contemplate Jesus as the Messiah, the beloved Son of the Father, who gives us a share in the divine life through the gift of the Holy Spirit in the waters of Baptism.

May all of us be renewed in the grace of our own Baptism and strengthened in faithful witness to the Gospel and its promises! Upon you and your families I invoke the Lord’s blessings of joy and peace.

---

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

---

Dear brothers and sisters:

This morning, at Holy Mass celebrated in the Sistine Chapel, I administered the Sacrament of Baptism to some newborn babies. This custom is linked to the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which concludes the liturgical season of Christmas.

Baptism evokes very well the global significance of the Christmas festivities, in which a dominant element is the subject of becoming children of God thanks to the assumption of our humanity by his only-begotten Son.

He became man so that we may become children of God. God was born so that we can be reborn. These concepts continually return in the liturgical texts for Christmastide and constitute a fascinating reason for reflection and hope.

Let us think of what St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption" (Gal 4,4-5); or St. John in the Prologue to his Gospel: "But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God" (Jn 1,12).

This stupendous mystery of our 'second birth' - the rebirth of a human being from 'on high', from God (cfr Jn 3,1-8) - is realized and epitomized in the sacramental sign of Baptism.

With this sacrament, man becomes truly a son of God. From then on, the goal of his existence is to reach, freely and consciously, that which has always been man's destiny from the beginning.

"Become what you are" is the basic educational principle for the human being who has been redeemed by grace. This principal has many analogies with human growth, where the relationship of parents with their children passes - through detachments and crises - from total dependence to the awareness of being children, acknowledging the gift of life received, of maturity, and the capacity to give one's life.

Generated by Baptism into a new life, the Christian begins his journey of growth in the faith, which will lead him to consciously invoke God as 'Abba' - Father, to address him with gratitude and to live the joy of being his child.

Baptism also gives rise to a model of society: that of brotherhood. This cannot be established through an ideology, much less by decree of any constituted power. We recognize each other as brothers from the humble but profound consciousness that we are children of the one heavenly God.

As Christians, thanks to the Holy Spirit whom we receive at Baptism, our destiny is the gift and task of living as children of God and as brothers, so that we may be 'yeast' to a new humanity that is solidly fraternal and rich with peace and hope.

In this, we are helped by the awareness that we have, besides our Father in heaven, a mother, the Church, of which the Virgin Mary is the perennial model.

Let us entrust to her the newly baptized children and their families, and let us ask for the joy of being reborn every day 'from on high', from God's love who makes us his children and brothers among ourselves.


After the prayers, he said:

Two things have particularly called my attention in the past few days: the condition of migrants who seek a better life in countries which, for different reasons, need their presence; and the situations of conflict in various parts of the world where Christians are targets of attacks, including violent ones.

One must begin at the heart of the problem, One must begin with the meaning of the person. An immigrant is a human being - different in origin, culture adn traditions, but a person to be respected, with rights and duties, especially in the area of employment, where the temptation to exploit them is easy, but also in their concrete living conditions.

Violence should never be - for anyone - the way to resolve difficulties. The problem is human above all! I call on everyone to look at the face of the other and to discover that he has a soul, a history and a life - he is a person, and God loves him as he loves me.

I wish to make the same considerations for men as it concerns their religious diversity. Violence aginst Christians in some countries has aroused the contempt of many, especially because it has been manifested on the holiest days of the Christian tradition.

Institutions, political and religious, must not fail, I repeat, to carry out their own responsibilities. There cannot be violence in the name of God, nor can one think of honoring him by offending the dignity and freedom of one's own peers

---

.





Jan. 11, 2009
P.S. Here is the AP report on the Pope's Angelus message regarding the migrant problem that erupted in southern Italy. It provides good background material:


Pope denounces clashes with immigrants
in southern Italian town
By NICOLE WINFIELD



VATICAN CITY, Jan. 10 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI denounced the riots last week between immigrants and Italians in southern Italy, saying Sunday that migrants have rights, must be respected, and are equally loved by God.

Benedict made the unusual commentary on current events during his weekly noon blessing, clearly coming down on the side of the migrants in exhorting Italians to see them as human beings and not just labor to be exploited.

"I invite everyone to look in the face of the other and discover that there is a soul, a history, a life, a person whom God loves as he loves me," Benedict said.

The riots by hundreds of African migrant workers erupted Thursday night in Rosarno, a town in the underdeveloped agricultural region of Calabria, after two migrants were wounded in a shooting.

Dozens were injured in the two days of clashes, which officials say may have been provoked by the region's powerful organized crime group - the 'ndrangheta.

The violence underscored the simmering tensions between immigrants and Italians, many of whom resent the foreigners yet rely on their labor to do the agricultural, domestic or factory work that many Italians refuse to do.

"Every migrant is a human being - different because of provenance, culture and tradition - but a person to be respected and having rights, particularly in work, where the temptation to exploit is easy," Benedict said.

Interior Minister Roberto Maroni concurred Sunday with the hypothesis that the 'ndrangheta may have provoked the riots, either in reaction to anti-mob crackdown efforts or to show the mafia's strength in the region.

Earlier this month, a bomb exploded in front of the regional courthouse in what was seen as the 'ndrangheta response to the recent arrests of major bosses and efforts to shore up Calabrian law enforcement.

Newspaper analysts have suggested that Rosarno residents, who have long lived peacefully with the seasonal migrants, turned to their local 'ndrangheta bosses when the migrants' numbers increased yet field work dried up.

"It's one of the possible (hypotheses), the investigations are under way," Maroni told Sky TG24.

The U.N. refugee agency has said many of Rosarno's migrants came recently from Italy's north after factory jobs dried up last year because of the economic crisis. That influx added to the town's existing migrant population.

Maroni faulted local authorities for not having intervened sooner, particularly considering the wretched conditions in which the migrants were living in an abandoned cheese factory. He also blamed local businessmen for paying migrants low wages under the table.

According to Italian law, migrants must have a job lined up before stepping foot on Italian soil.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservative government has taken a hard line on illegal migration, sending back migrants found at sea even before screening them for possible asylum and repatriating those who reach Italy if they don't have a job or fail to qualify for asylum.

Maroni, a leading member of the anti-immigrant Northern League party and the enforcer of the get-tough strategy, said Italy had forcibly repatriated 40,000 people in the last two years, and that the numbers of foreigners trying to reach Italy had fallen as a result. In 2008, 30,000 illegal migrants arrived in Italy; in 2009 only 3,000, he said.

In the wake of the Rosarno riots, several hundred of the town's migrants were bused out of the region to shelters in other parts of Italy. Maroni said those who didn't have valid work documents or asylum applications would be expelled.

The Pope said immigrants to Italy were looking for a better life in a country that needs them, yet he also denounced the recourse to riot, saying: "Violence must never, for anyone, be the way to resolve differences."

Pope speaks up for immigrants

ROSARNO, Italy, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on Italians to respect the rights of immigrants in the wake of violence against African farmworkers in which 70 people were injured.

Police have moved hundreds of African farmworkers by bus from Rosarno, a town in Calabria in southern Italy, after clashes with police, the BBC reported Monday.

"An immigrant is a human being, different only in where he comes from, his culture and tradition," he told pilgrims in St Peter's Square at the Vatican. "I invite everyone to look in the face of those nearby and see their soul."

Many of the migrants from North and West Africa work as fruit and vegetable pickers in an area the BBC said is controlled by a local crime family.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni drew criticism from the opposition by saying the violence resulted from failure to address the issue of illegal workers in the country.

"There's a difficult situation in Rosarno, like in other places, because, for years, illegal immigration -- which feeds criminal activities -- has been tolerated and nothing effective has ever been done about it," Italy's La Repubblica quoted Maroni as saying.

Opposition leader Pierluigi Bersani dismissed Maroni's comments, saying, "We have to go to the root of the problem: Mafia, exploitation, xenophobia and racism."

Teresa, I wonder if this article is not rather a backhanded way of getting back at Berlusconi, his party and news media who, after the attack on him apparently made a big Spiel about the attack being the result of leftist poisoning of the atmosphere in Italy, etc. etc.

One can perhaps read this piece on the Pope's style as a very pointed and sarcastic dig at, and a lesson in style for, Berlusconi and co.?





Dear Mags - I can very well see the article as a lesson in style aimed at Berlusconi, indeed. But Repubblica hates Berlusconi perhaps just as much as it is hostile to Benedict XVI, so I can imagine they must have done quite a few commentaries and editorials earlier directly attacking and naming Berlusconi for his rash and imprudent generalizations.

The main target of the article's insulting sarcasm is still Benedict XVI - and the Church - because you do not go out of your way to 'thank' someone for doing or not doing the simple things that anyone with common sense would do or not do in the circumstances. So the net effect is really to say, 'Well, finally someone showed common sense and did the right thing for a change!"

Which, at the very least, is condescending, and a great example of the utterly inexplicable phenomenon of relative morons in the media habitually treating the world's leading intellectual public figure - and living saint - like an imbecile or a schoolboy who does not know better! It's what I detest about commentators like Jeff Israely and John Allen, for example.


TERESA

The true reform of the Ratzinger Papacy:
Cardinal Canizares explains how to restore
to divine worship the sense and vigor lost
by liturgy in its post-conciliar banalization
Interview by PAOLO RODARI
Translated from

January 9, 2009




The ex-Archbishop of Toledo and Primate of Spain, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, has headed the Vatican 'ministry for the liturgy' for just over a year now.

It is a sensitive assignment in a Pontificate like that of Benedict XVI in which the liturgy - and its 'restructuring' after 40 years of post-conciliar drift - has a central role. Just as the liturgy should be central to the life of the faithful.

The Pope re-stated this once again on Christmas Eve: As it was for the monks, so it should be for every man that "Liturgy is the first priority. Everything else will follow... Other concerns, no matter how important, must be placed second, in order to come closer to God, to allow him to enter our life and our time".



Last January 7, Cardinal Canizares celebrated a Solemn Pontifical Mass in the extraordinary form at the Basilica of St. John :ateran for the international Clergy conference sponsored by the Clergy Confraternities of the US and Australia.


Cardinal Canizares has given Il Foglio more than just a balance sheet of his first year in the Roman Curia.


What was your mission when you were named to this position?
I received the mission to fully carry out, with the indispensable help of my co-workers, the tasks assigned to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments by the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus of John Paul II, with regard to setting order in sacred liturgy and promoting it, particularly through the sacraments.

In the religious and cultural situation we are living, and for the priority that liturgy occupies in the life of the Church, I think that my primary assignment is to promote, with total dedication and commitment, the renewal and development of the spirit and true sense of liturgy in the consciousness and in the life of the faithful; that the liturgy may be the center and heart of life in Christian communities; that everyone - priests and faithful - consider the liturgy as substantially inseparable from our life; that we live the litrugy in full truth, and that we can live from it; that it may be, in all its ample breadth, as Vatican-II calls for, "the source and the peak' of Christian life".

After a year in the Congregation, I feel daily even more greatly the need to promote within the Church, in all the continents, a strong and rigorous liturgical force that can revive the very rich legacy of the Council and that great liturgical movement of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th - with men like Guardini, Jungmann and so many others whose ideas contributed to enrich the Church in Vatican-II.

I have no doubt that the future of the Church - and of the world - depends on it. I say this because the future of the Church and of mankind rests with God, on living in God and what comes from him. And this is what happens in the liturgy and through the liturgy.

Only a Church that lives in the truth of liturgy will be capable of evoking the only thing that can renew, transform and re-create the world: God - only God and his grace.

Liturgy, in its purest essence, is the presence of God; it is God's salvific and regenerative work, communication and participation in his merciful love, adoration, acknowledgement of God. It is the only thing that can save men.


Guardini and Jungmann - two pillars of the liturgical renewal in past decades. Figures who inspired Joseph Ratzinger in his Introduction to the spirit of liturgy. Figures who probably inspired him even in his Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. It has been said that the Motu Proprio represented (above everything, some would say) a hand extended to the Lefebvrians by the Pope. Is it?
It is. But the Motu proprio has a very great value in itself, for the Church and for the liturgy. Although it is not welcomed by everyone, judging from reactions that we have received and continue to receive, it is right and necessary to say that it is not a step backward nor a return to the past.

It simply acknowledges and welcomes, in all its amplitude, the treasures and the legacy of the Church's great Tradition, which has its most genuine and profound expression in liturgy.

The Church cannot allow herself to discard, forget or renounce the treasures and rich legacy of the Tradition contained in the Roman rite. It would be a betrayal and negation of herself. She cannot abandon the historical legacy of ecclesiastic liturgy, nor think of starting everything ex novo, as some would presume to do, without amputating fundamental parts of the Church herself.

Sone have chosen to understand the post-conciliar liturgical reform as a rupture, not as an organic development of tradition. In the immediate post-conciliar years, the word 'change' became almost a 'magical' word - some thought it was neceesary to change everything to the point of forgetting what was, or what is essential. Everything had to be new - new things must be introduced - things which were basically human inventions.

We cannot forget that the liturgical reform and the post-Conciliar years coincided with a cultural climate that was distinguished or dominated intensely by a concept of man as 'creator', which is difficult to reconcile with liturgy which is, above all, an act that recognizes God's priority - he has a right to it: adoration of God is a tradition that we have received and is given to us once and for always.

It is not we who 'create' the liturgy, it is not our work but God's. This idea of man as creator, leads to a secularized view of everything, in which, often, God has no place. This passion for change and discarding tradition has not been fully overcome. And that is why I think, among other things, some look at Summorum Pontificum with distrust, and why there are those who cannot even bear to accept it.

They refuse to rediscover the great riches of the traditional Roman liturgy that we certainly cannot dismantle, nor can they even try to accept the possibility of reciprocal enrichment of the one Roman rite through its ordinary and extraordinary forms.

Summorum Pontificum has very great value that we should all appreciate. It has to do not only with the liturgy but the Church in its entirety, with what she is and what her Tradition means, without being transformed into a human institution that is constantly changing.

Obviously, it also has to do with the reading or interpretation one has of the Second Vatican Council. When it is read or interpreted as a rupture or discontinuity, then nothing can be understood about the Council, and everything will be distorted.

That is why, as the Pope has indicated, only a 'hermeneutic of continuity' can give us a right and correct reading of the Council, to see the truth of what it says and teaches on the whole, as well as specifically for the liturgy, in the constitution Sacrosanctum concilium on the divine liturgy, which in itself, is inseparable from the whole.

And that is why Summorum Pontificum has the greatest value for the communion of the Church.


The Pope is fully behind a gradual but necessary process of bringing the Church closer to an authentic liturgical spirit. But he does not lack for opposition and divisions.
The Pope's great contribution, in my opinion, is that he is leading towards the truth of liturgy. With wise pedagogy, he is introducing us to the genuine 'spirit' of the liturgy, as in one of the books he wrote before he became Pope.

First of all, he is following a simple educational process that spurs getting into this 'spirit' or genuine sense of the liturgy in order to overcome the reductive concept of liturgy that has become rooted in general.

His rich and abundant teachings in this field, as Pope and before becoming Pope, like the evocative gestures and symbols that come with the liturgies he personally presides at, all tend to this objective.

To accept these gestures and teachings is our duty if we are disposed to live the liturgy in a way that corresponds to its nature, and if we do not want to lose the liturgical treasures and legacy of Tradition. Moreover, they constitute a real gift for the formation - so urgent and necessary - of the Christian population.

In such a perspective, one must look at the Motu proprio as confirming the possiblity of celebrating and participating in the rite of the Roman Missal approved by John XXIII, and which, with its modifications over the centuries, goes back to St. Gregory the Great and before him.

It is true that there are continuing difficulties for those who, in exercising something to which they have a right, celebrate or participate in the Holy Mass offered in the 'traditional' or 'extraordinary' form.

There is no reason to oppose it, much less to look at it with distrust, or label it 'pre-conciliar', or worse, 'anti-conciliar'. The reasons for such atttiudes are many and varied, but basically, they are the same reasons that have resulted in liturgical reform understood as a clean break with the past, rather than in the perspective of Tradition and the hermeneutic of continuity - which is what Vatican II meant in terms of litugical renewal.

Additionally, we cannot forget that in liturgy, we touch what is most essential in the faith and the Church, and therefore, in her history, every time liturgical changes were called for, tensions and divisions were not uncommon.


Benedict XVI's December 2005 address to the Roman Curia made it clear that the need to read Vatican II not as a discontinuity with the past but as a renewal in continuity is central to his Pontificate. What does this mean from the liturgical perspective?
It means, among other things, that we cannot fulfill the renewal of liturgy and place it at the center of Christian life if we set ourselves before it, in a clear break with Tradition that preceded us and carries this rich spring of life as a gift of God that has nourished and given life to the Christian people.

The teachings, the instructions, the gestures of Benedict XVI are all fundamental in this sense. That is why it is necessary to promote a calm and profound acquaintance with what he says - including before he became Pope - and which, in terms of liturgy, is so clearly expressed, for instance, in his apostolic exhortation Sacramentum caritatis.


The congregation held its plenary assembly last March and presented 'propositions' to the Pope.
The assembly concerned itself primarily with Eucharistic Adoration - the Eucharist as an act of adoration and not as part of Holy Mass. We approved some conclusions that we presented to the Holy Father - they constitute a plan of action for the Congregation in the next few years, which the Holy Fahter approved and encouraged.

Everything has to do with promoting a sort of new liturgical movement which, faithful to the teachings of the Council as Benedict XVI teaches us, places liturgy in the rightful center that it merits in the life of the Church.

The 'propositions' have to do with encouraging and promoting adoration of the Lord, as the basis of the worship that we owe God, through Christian liturgy. It is inseparable from the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrament and absolutely necessary for a living Church.

Now, to put an end to liturgical abuses - which are many, unfortunately - and to correct them is not something that can come from our plenary assembly alone - it involves the liturgy itself, the life and future of the Church, and the communion of the faithful with her.

But to this end - concerning liturgical abuses and how to correct them - the CDW some years ago published a most important Instruction,
Redemptionis Sacramentum, which we must all refer to and heed. It is a most urgent duty to put an end to individualistic creativity, but rather to encourage, favor and revive the truth of liturgy, its most authentic sense, its most genuine spirit.

Nor can we forget that liturgical 'creativity' as it is often practised and understood, is a brake on liturgy itself and the cause of its secularization because it contradicts the organic nature of liturgy.


Do the propositions deal with the use of Latin?
No. They do not deal with the question of making more room for Latin in the ordinary rite, nor with publishing bilingual missals, whcih was promptly done in many places soon after Vatican II.

However, it must be remembered that the liturgical constitution Sacrosanctum concilium does not 'repeal' Latin at all since it is the language to which the Roman rite is most linked.


What about other things like the priest's orientation...
No. We did not bring up the question of ad Orientem, nor of communion on the tongue, or other aspects that are sometimes described as 'steps backward', or conservatism, or involution.

These things - the direction the priest faces, the Crucifix in the center of the altar, receiving communion kneeling and on the tongue, the use of Gregorian chant - are important points that cannot be treated in a frivolous or superficial way, and in any case, they should be adressed with knowledge of their basis and reasons, as the Holy Father does.

These details correspond more - and are even favaorable - to the authenticity of a celebration, just like 'active participation' but only in the sense that the Council meant it, and not as popularly understood.

The important thing is that liturgy is celebrated in its truth, and with truth, in a way that favors and intensely promotes the sense and the spirit of the liturgy in the People of God so that they can live off it.

It is truly most important that Masses have and promote the sense of the sacred, of Mystery, that they can revive faith in the real presence of the Lord and in the gift of God that underlies the Mass, along with adoration, respect, veneration, contemplation, prayer, praise, thanksgiving and many other properties of genuine liturgy that have been much diluted.

When I take part or watch the Pope's liturgies which already incorporate these elements, I am increasingly convinced that they are not casual aspects but that they have an expressive and educational power in themselves and in the truth of the celebration, the lack of which is otherwise quite obvious,


[For years, Canizares was a leading figure in the Church of Spain. He still is, even if he now lives in Rome.]
Recently, the secretary of the Spanish bishops conference, Mons. Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, declared that politicians who are public pro-abortion cannot receive communion. Do you share Camino's position? Why has Spain become the vanguard for so-called secularist policies? How should bishops react to positions that are anti-life?
Bishops, as pastors who guide and defend the people entrusted to their care, have the unavoidable duty of charity to teach and transmit, faithfully, to their flock - with wisdom, knowledge and prudence - what the faith of the Church teaches and professes, even if at some cost, even if it is against popular opinion.

The proposed new abortion legislation in Spain, when all of the regulatory measures are promulgated, is a very serious and decisive matter, about which we can neither keep silent nor hide the truth. This is what, in accordance with the Lord's command, the Church says and orders its faithful, what it demands and expects of them.

We should serve and orient the faithful with the light of truth received, which we cannot do without in moral questions that are, at times, sensitive. And we should help Catholics in public life to make decisions responsibly before God and before men, corresponding rationally to their status as children of the Church and believers in Jesus Christ.

We cannot, and must not, at the risk of being bad pastors, act on such questions with relativism, with political calculations, or with facile and subtle 'diplomacies'. The good exercise of our ministry is not, after all, at odds with - but must include - prudence, proportion, mercy, kindness and the hand held out, which must always accompany everything we do.

We are going through a difficult time in Spain - and it's not easy at all for the bishops. But I do not think that Spain is the standard-bearer nor the vanguard of secularist policies. Secularism, evident or hidden, and secularist policies are widespread almost everywhere, in some countries more than others, and even with great power.

There is obviously a force, apparently unstoppable, that is committed to introducing secularism throughout the world, or - which amounts to the same thing - to wipe out God, revealed in the human face of Jesus Christ, his only Son, from man's consciousness.

It is true that in Spain, this secularism has special connotations for its history and its very identity. Spain has been undergoing a very radical transformation of its mentality, its thinking, its criteria for judgment, even its customs and behavior, in its culture - in short, in its very character and identity.

This is manifested in a great and profound moral crisis or rupture of values, which hides a religious and social crisis, the fragmentation of the human being.

But at the same time, the roots and foundations that sustain Spain and her most genuine part come from the Christian faith - and these roots have not disappeared nor will they.

A series of laws, like those on abortion which Parliament has already passed, and other factors, are doubtless the signs of the transformation in Spain. I have always thought that we bishops, obeying God rather than men, must announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ - we cannot place anything else before him and his work - constantly and courageously announce the living God, whose glory is man himself, in everything that he gives to him - his inviolable dignity, his fundamental rights, everything that makes him human.

To announce and bear witness to him who is love, acting with charity in everything, and with charity for all, which is God's passion for man, especially for the weak, the defenseless, those who are unjustly treated. And all directed towards conversion, so that a new humanity may emerge of men made new by the novelty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by the way of being, thinking and doing that we see in him, who is the truth of God and man.

It means carrying out a new and decisive evangelization. And this has been the situation for some time of the Church and bishops of Spain. The work is slow and arduous, but it is bearing fruit.

I think that the bishops of Spain, precisely in affirming God and faith in Jesus Christ, are engaged in a great battle in behalf of man, of the right to life, of freedom, of those things that are indispensable to man such as family - the truth and beauty of the family based on matrimony between a man and a woman who are open to life and to love. They are fighting for the right to education of every person, for freedom of teaching, for religious freedom.


The January 7 traditional Mass at St. John Lateran.

Benedict XVI offers middle ground
on the environment -
but is anyone listening?
By Archbishop Giampaolo Crepaldi
Secretary, Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace


Mons. Crepaldi is also the president of the Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory for the Social Doctrine of the Church.


VERONA, Italy, JAN. 10, 2010 (Zenit.org) - The 2010 edition of the traditional Papal message for the World Day of Peace, presented last December 15 was much anticipated.

In the countries of north-central Europe, and especially in Germany, Benedict XVI's encyclical Caritas in Veritate was the object of severe criticism, precisely in regard to the question of the environment, and particularly with regard to climate change.

So it was logical to look forward to the message for this year's World Day of Peace dedicated to the theme "If You Want to Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation."

Benedict XVI did not miss the opportunity to restate his teaching and, thus, probably upsetting once again all those who tend to weigh down ideological themes with excessive ideological burdens.

The central point of the message is, in my opinion, a passage from paragraph 13, where the Pope says that "a correct understanding of the relationship between man and the environment will not end by absolutizing nature or by considering it more important than the human person."

The Church, he continues, expresses misgivings "about notions of the environment inspired by ecocentrism and biocentrism," because it eliminates the difference between man and other living things, favoring an "egalitarian vision of the 'dignity' of all living creatures."

This thus gives rise to a new pantheism with neo-pagan accents which "would see the source of man's salvation in nature alone, understood in purely naturalistic terms."

According to the Church, man has "the role of a steward and administrator," a role which he must not abuse nor abdicate. "In the same way, the opposite position, which would absolutize technology and human power, results in a grave assault not only on nature, but also on human dignity itself."

Benedict XVI does not deny that environmental questions have an impact on poverty, nor that they demand a profound rethinking of the model of development, nor that they imply a consideration of the importance of a greater moderation.

But he re-proposes the conviction that if there is not a rethinking of humanity about itself, and if it does not return to see in nature a discourse about us (it is precisely "creation" and not a pile of stones) it will not succeed in acquiring a new moral responsibility even before it works out a new politics.

Both those who do not value material nature and those who respect it more than man as if it were something divine in itself, in the end do not read the message and do not gain wisdom. Fundamentally, both are narrowly technical attitudes.


The problem with the papal messages written for some major world observances, such as the World Day for Peace, is that they are issued weeks, or sometimes months, in advance, so by the time the actual observance comes around, the message is no longer 'news' and hardly even referred to.

That was the case with the World Day for Peace message, which had an ecological theme. It got a few days notice when it was released before Christmas, but on the day itself - zip, nil, nada!

And the main problem with the standard MSM reaction to the Pope's Peace message is that they mostly ignore its explicit central statements as Mons. Crepaldi underscored above. The kneejerk reaction has been to lump Benedict XVI with the politically correct and dominant ideologues of environmentalism by the mere shorthand of labelling him 'green'.

Which is one huge reason to object to MSM calling him 'the green Pope'. It lumps him by connotation with the unthinking one-sided fanatics of the various 'green' movements and the political parties that have formed around them, whose platform would sacrifice legitimate development goals to preserving nature above everything else, including man!

The Pope's window to the world
by ANGELO SCELZO
Translated from

January 10, 2009


The rhythm of transformation in the new media is accelerating. Cyberspace continues to open new frontiers even as it discards anything that does not point to the future...

And yet, in the first days of this new year, the 'means of communication' that has been most reported on [in both old and new media] has nothing to do with new information technologies.

It is something that has been around a while and has seen much history - the signs of weathering are evident to all.

It is a window on the world, a literal window, that every week captures media attention and strikes a completely different note from the media concert playing the same old stale and predictable scores [In the parlance of IT, one might perhaps call it Window 1.0, the prototype as well as the 'ne plus ultra' of communication windows!]

It is the Pope's third-floor study window in the Apostolic Palace, the window of the Pope's Angelus homilies and messages.

When, every Sunday and major religious feast day, it opens on St. Peter's Square, never take the occasion for granted.

Especially, not with Benedict XVI, who has continued to show, since the first Angelus of this new year, that this rather extraordinary pulpit - which opens equally to the piazza and to the world urbi et orbi, in fact, as Pope's messages go] - will never lack for news, and even surprises.

The Holy Father started 2010 by warning against 'improbable prognostications' and even of 'economic forecasts, as important as they may be' to reiterate that man has to look elsewhere for true hope.

To blot out the 'truth' that can come from some crystal ball or ponderous expert analysis goes against the grain of New Year practices - and so those words from the window were not likely to fall on deaf ears.

And as if to carry on the theme, from one Angelus to the next, Pope Benedict then cites the example of the Magi - those wise men who, for all their expertise in reading the stars as well as their familiarity with the history of peoples, still needed to stop and ask instructions from learned Jews on how best to get to where they would find the newborn 'king of the Jews'.

And from the Pope's window, the message was that true wisdom is intelligence that is open to faith.

Theologians may make dissertations over the separation between faith and culture. Nonetheless, in some way, the Pope's window is also an open book to the world, because in the form of prayer and reflection, the Pope's weekly 'chat' with the faithful is also a chronicle of our day, whose pages are not limited to a religious or ecclesiastical nature.

Among the various forms of communication used by modern Popes, the Angelus is at the same time the most solemn and the most familiar, and its central physical element, the window, has become in some way, the most famous image of the Popes communicating with the faithful and with the rest of the world.

From that opening that directly lies above the majestic embrace of Bernini's colonnade, even silence has spoken, and most sublimely: when John Paul II, a month before he died, tried unsuccessfully to say something to the crowd after he had returned from what would be his last hospitalization.

Somewhat a hearth [an image that recalls Franklin Roosevelt's 'fireside chats'], somewhat a book on world events, the Angelus window always represents the perspective of hope for all mankind.

From the Pope's window, mankind is not a blurred panorama. The faces of men are like an infinite plurality of the one Face of Christ.

Therefore, the view from that window goes far beyond physical space and geography - the Pope's vision is acute, made more so by profundity of spirit.

From that window, the Pope looks across the globe - and this is the perspective that opens not only to those who may find themselves one day in St. Peter's Square looking up to that window, but to all men who, in so many public squares around the world, find it difficult to look upwards at all. Perhaps because they are discouraged in looking for a window that they have been unable to find.


I have been hoping that someone would write a substantial essay on "the Pope's window" - though someone may well have done so already, in all the years I wasn't following papal news at all outside of what I saw on TV or in the newspapers.

The above is not a bad start and is an excellent initiative, but it barely skims the possibilities... BTW, I wasted some time just now unsuccessfully trying to find out online how the practice of the Pope's public Angelus from the window started.

Monday, January 11
Blessed William Carter (England, 1548-1684)
Printer and Martyr
This was a man who was tortured for months, while his wife was hounded to death,
for printing Catholic books and possessing Catholic literature, and then was sentenced
summarily to be hung, drawn and quartered, literally, in the fiercely anti-Catholic
period that followed the establishment of the Church of England. He was specifically
condemnded for publishing a book with a paragraph that expressed confidence
'Catholic hope' would triumph, and a line that 'pious Judith would slay Holofernes',
for which he was accused of incitement to slay the Queen. He was beatified in 1987.
NB: Ironically, for someone who was a printer, I cannot find, through my usual Googling, any image
online for Carter.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011110.shtml


No OR today.



THE POPE'S DAY

The Holy Father's annual state-of-the-world address to the Vatican diplomatic corps.
Delivered in French, the address has been released in the other official languages of
the Vatican. Mainly, he elaborated on the theme of his Message for World Peace Day -
"To cultivate peace, safeguard Creation".

THE POPE'S ANNUAL ADDRESS
TO THE VATICAN DIPLOMATIC CORPS





At 11 a.m. today, at the Sala Regia (Throne Room) of the Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Benedict XVI received the members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See, for an exchange of New Year greetings.





After opening remarks by H.E. Alejandro Emilio Valladares Lanza of Honduras, the Pope delivered the following address in French:

---

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

This traditional meeting at the beginning of the year, two weeks after the celebration of the birth of the Incarnate Word, is a very joyful occasion for me.

As we proclaimed in the liturgy: "We recognize in Christ the revelation of your love. No eye can see his glory as our God, yet now he is seen as one like us. Christ is your Son before all ages, yet now he is born in time. He has come to lift up all things to himself, to restore unity to creation" (Preface of Christmas II).

At Christmas we contemplated the mystery of God and the mystery of creation: by the message of the angels to the shepherds, we received the good news of man’s salvation and the renewal of the entire universe.

That is why, in my Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace, I urged all persons of good will – those same men and women to whom the angels rightly promised peace – to protect creation.

In the same spirit of joy I am happy to greet each of you today, particularly those present for the first time at this ceremony. I thank you most heartily for the good wishes conveyed to me by your Dean, Ambassador Alejandro Valladares Lanza, and I repeat how much I esteem your mission to the Holy See.

Through you I send cordial greetings and good wishes for peace and happiness to the leaders and people of the countries which you worthily represent.

My thoughts also go to all the other nations of the earth: the Successor of Peter keeps his door open to everyone in the hope of maintaining relations which can contribute to the progress of the human family.

It is a cause for deep satisfaction that, just a few weeks ago, full diplomatic relations were established between the Holy See and the Russian Federation. The recent visit of the President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was likewise very significant; Vietnam is a country close to my heart, where the Church is celebrating her centuries-long presence by a Jubilee Year.

In this spirit of openness, throughout 2009 I met many political leaders from all over the world; I also visited some of them and would like to continue to do so, insofar as is possible.

The Church is open to everyone because, in God, she lives for others! She thus shares deeply in the fortunes of humanity, which in this new year continues to be marked by the dramatic crisis of the global economy and consequently a serious and widespread social instability.

In my Encyclical Caritas in Veritate, I invited everyone to look to the deeper causes of this situation: in the last analysis, they are to be found in a current self-centred and materialistic way of thinking which fails to acknowledge the limitations inherent in every creature.

Today I would like to stress that the same way of thinking also endangers creation. Each of us could probably cite an example of the damage that this has caused to the environment the world over. I will offer an example, from any number of others, taken from the recent history of Europe.

Twenty years ago, after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the materialistic and atheistic regimes which had for several decades dominated a part of this continent, WAS IT not easy to assess the great harm which an economic system lacking any reference to the truth about man had done not only to the dignity and freedom of individuals and peoples, but to nature itself, by polluting soil, water and air?

The denial of God distorts the freedom of the human person, yet it also devastates creation. It follows that the protection of creation is not principally a response to an aesthetic need, but much more to a moral need, inasmuch as nature expresses a plan of love and truth which is prior to us and which comes from God.

For this reason I share the growing concern caused by economic and political resistance to combatting the degradation of the environment. This problem was evident even recently, during the XV Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Copenhagen from 7 to 18 December last.

I trust that in the course of this year, first in Bonn and later in Mexico City, it will be possible to reach an agreement for effectively dealing with this question. The issue is all the more important in that the very future of some nations is at stake, particularly some island states.

It is proper, however, that this concern and commitment for the environment should be situated within the larger framework of the great challenges now facing mankind.

If we wish to build true peace, how can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn? It is in man’s respect for himself that his sense of responsibility for creation is shown. As Saint Thomas Aquinas has taught, man represents all that is most noble in the universe (cf. Summa Theologiae, I, q. 29, a. 3).

Furthermore, as I noted during the recent FAO World Summit on Food Security, "the world has enough food for all its inhabitants" (Address of 16 November 2009, No. 2) provided that selfishness does not lead some to hoard the goods which are intended for all.

I would like to stress again that the protection of creation calls for an appropriate management of the natural resources of different countries and, in the first place, of those which are economically disadvantaged.

I think of the continent of Africa, which I had the joy of visiting last March during my journey to Cameroon and Angola, and which was the subject of the deliberations of the recent Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

The Synod Fathers pointed with concern to the erosion and desertification of large tracts of arable land as a result of overexploitation and environmental pollution (cf. Propositio 22). In Africa, as elsewhere, there is a need to make political and economic decisions which ensure "forms of agricultural and industrial production capable of respecting creation and satisfying the primary needs of all" (Message for the 2010 World Day of Peace, No. 10).

How can we forget, for that matter, that the struggle for access to natural resources is one of the causes of a number of conflicts, not least in Africa, as well as a continuing threat elsewhere? For this reason too, I forcefully repeat that to cultivate peace, one must protect creation!

Furthermore, there are still large areas, for example in Afghanistan or in some countries of Latin America, where agriculture is unfortunately still linked to the production of narcotics, and is a not insignificant source of employment and income.

If we want peace, we need to preserve creation by rechanneling these activities; I once more urge the international community not to become resigned to the drug trade and the grave moral and social problems which it creates.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the protection of creation is indeed an important element of peace and justice! Among the many challenges which it presents, one of the most serious is increased military spending and the cost of maintaining and developing nuclear arsenals.

Enormous resources are being consumed for these purposes, when they could be spent on the development of peoples, especially those who are poorest. For this reason I firmly hope that, during the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference to be held this May in New York, concrete decisions will be made towards progressive disarmament, with a view to freeing our planet from nuclear arms.

More generally, I deplore the fact that arms production and export helps to perpetuate conflicts and violence, as in Darfur, in Somalia or in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Together with the inability of the parties directly involved to step back from the spiral of violence and pain spawned by these conflicts, there is the apparent powerlessness of other countries and the international organizations to restore peace, to say nothing of the indifference, amounting practically to resignation, of public opinion worldwide. There is no need to insist on the extent to which such conflicts damage and degrade the environment.

Finally, how can I fail to mention terrorism, which endangers countless innocent lives and generates widespread anxiety. On this solemn occasion, I would like to renew the appeal which I made during the Angelus prayer of 1 January last to all those belonging to armed groups, of whatever kind, to abandon the path of violence and to open their hearts to the joy of peace.

The grave acts of violence to which I have just alluded, combined with the scourges of poverty, hunger, natural disasters and the destruction of the environment, have helped to swell the ranks of those who migrate from their native land.

Given the extent of this exodus, I wish to exhort the various civil authorities to carry on their work with justice, solidarity and foresight. Here I wish to speak in particular of the Christians of the Middle East. Beleaguered in various ways, even in the exercise of their religious freedom, they are leaving the land of their forebears, where the Church took root during the earliest centuries.

To offer them encouragement and to make them feel the closeness of their brothers and sisters in faith, I have convened for next autumn a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East.

Ladies and Gentlemen, to this point I have alluded only to a few aspects of the problem of the environment. Yet the causes of the situation which is now evident to everyone are of the moral order, and the question must be faced within the framework of a great programme of education aimed at promoting an effective change of thinking and at creating new lifestyles.

The community of believers can and wants to take part in this, but, for it to do so, its public role must be recognized. Sadly, in certain countries, mainly in the West, one increasingly encounters in political and cultural circles, as well in the media, scarce respect and at times hostility, if not scorn, directed towards religion and towards Christianity in particular.

It is clear that if relativism is considered an essential element of democracy, one risks viewing secularity solely in the sense of excluding or, more precisely, denying the social importance of religion.

But such an approach creates confrontation and division, disturbs peace, harms human ecology and, by rejecting in principle approaches other than its own, finishes in a dead end. There is thus an urgent need to delineate a positive and open secularity which, grounded in the just autonomy of the temporal order and the spiritual order, can foster healthy cooperation and a spirit of shared responsibility.

Here I think of Europe, which, now that the Lisbon Treaty has taken effect, has entered a new phase in its process of integration, a process which the Holy See will continue to follow with close attention.

Noting with satisfaction that the Treaty provides for the European Union to maintain an "open, transparent and regular" dialogue with the Churches (Art. 17), I express my hope that in building its future, Europe will always draw upon the wellsprings of its Christian identity.

As I said during my Apostolic Visit last September to the Czech Republic, Europe has an irreplaceable role to play "for the formation of the conscience of each generation and the promotion of a basic ethical consensus that serves every person who calls this continent ‘home’ " (Meeting with Political and Civil Authorities and with the Diplomatic Corps, 26 September 2009).

To carry our reflection further, we must remember that the problem of the environment is complex; one might compare it to a multifaceted prism. Creatures differ from one another and can be protected, or endangered, in different ways, as we know from daily experience.

One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes. I am thinking, for example, of certain countries in Europe or North and South America.

Saint Columban stated that: "If you take away freedom, you take away dignity" (Ep. 4 ad Attela, in S. Columbani Opera, Dublin, 1957, p. 34). Yet freedom cannot be absolute, since man is not himself God, but the image of God, God’s creation. For man, the path to be taken cannot be determined by caprice or willfulness, but must rather correspond to the structure willed by the Creator.

The protection of creation also entails other challenges, which can only be met by international solidarity. I think of the natural disasters which this past year have sown death, suffering and destruction in the Philippines, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Taiwan. Nor can I pass over Indonesia and, closer to us, the Abruzzi region, hit by devastating earthquakes.

Faced with events like these, generous aid should never be lacking, since the life itself of God’s children is at stake. Yet, in addition to solidarity, the protection of creation also calls for concord and stability between states.

Whenever disagreements and conflicts arise among them, in order to defend peace they must tenaciously pursue the path of constructive dialogue. This is what happened twenty-five years ago with the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Argentina and Chile, reached thanks to the mediation of the Apostolic See.

That Treaty has borne abundant fruit in cooperation and prosperity which have in some way benefited all of Latin America. In this same area of the world, I am pleased by the rapprochement upon which Columbia and Ecuador have embarked after several months of tension.

Closer to us, I am gratified by the agreement concluded between Croatia and Slovenia on arbitration regarding their sea and land borders. I am also pleased by the accord between Armenia and Turkey for the re-establishment of diplomatic relations, and I express my hope that, through dialogue, relations will improve among all the countries of the southern Caucasus.

In the course of my pilgrimage to the Holy Land, I urgently appealed to the Israelis and the Palestinians to dialogue and to respect each others’ rights.

Once again I call for a universal recognition of the right of the State of Israel to exist and to enjoy peace and security within internationally recognized borders. Likewise, the right of the Palestinian people to a sovereign and independent homeland, to live in dignity and to enjoy freedom of movement, ought to be recognized.

I would also like to request the support of everyone for the protection of the identity and sacred character of Jerusalem, and of its cultural and religious heritage, which is of universal value. Only thus will this unique city, holy yet deeply afflicted, be a sign and harbinger of that peace which God desires for the whole human family.

Out of love for the dialogue and peace which protect creation, I exhort the government leaders and the citizens of Iraq to overcome their divisions and the temptation to violence and intolerance, in order to build together the future of their country.

The Christian communities also wish to make their own contribution, but if this is to happen, they need to be assured respect, security and freedom. Pakistan has been also hard hit by violence in recent months and certain episodes were directly aimed at the Christian minority.

I ask that everything be done to avoid the recurrence of such acts of aggression, and to ensure that Christians feel fully a part of the life of their country.

In speaking of acts of violence against Christians, I cannot fail to mention also the deplorable attack which the Egyptian Coptic community suffered in recent days, during its celebration of Christmas.

Concerning Iran, I express my hope that through dialogue and cooperation joint solutions will be found on the national as well as the international level.

I encourage Lebanon, which has emerged from a lengthy political crisis, to continue along the path of concord.

I hope that Honduras, after a period of uncertainty and unrest, will move towards a recovery of normal political and social life. I desire the same for Guinea and Madagascar with the effective and disinterested aid of the international community.

Ladies and Gentlemen, at the end of this rapid overview which, due to its brevity, cannot mention every situation worthy of note, I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul, for whom "all creation groans and is in agony" and "we ourselves groan inwardly" (Rom 8:20-23).

There is so much suffering in our world, and human selfishness continues in many ways to harm creation. For this reason, the yearning for salvation which affects all creation is that much more intense and present in the hearts of all men and women, believers and non-believers alike.

The Church points out that the response to this aspiration is Christ "the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created" (Col 1:15-16). Looking to him, I exhort every person of good will to work confidently and generously for the sake of human dignity and freedom.

May the light and strength of Jesus help us to respect human ecology, in the knowledge that natural ecology will likewise benefit, since the book of nature is one and indivisible. In this way we will be able to build peace, today and for the sake of generations to come. To all I wish a Happy New Year!

---

VATICAN DIPLOMATIC TIES
AT A GLANCE
Translated from


On December 9, 2009. the Holy See established full diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation, at the level of an Apostolic Nunciature on the part of the Holy See, and an Embassy for the Russians.

There are now 178 States who have full diplomatic relations with the Vatican, in addition to the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, as well as the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

In terms of international organizations, the Holy See is in the United Nations as an Observer State, and is a member of seven organizations or systems within the UN system; an observer in another eight UN agencies; and a member or observer in five regional organizations, including the Arab League.

On January 12, 2009, an agreement was signed between the Holy See and teh federal state of Schleswig-Hosltein in Germany to regulate the juridical status of the Catholic Church in that state.

On March 5, 2009, a Sixth Additional Agreement was signed to the Convention between the Holy See and Austria for the regulation of their patrimonial relationships.

On Dec. 10, 2009, there was an exhcange of ratified documents on an Agreement with Brazil signed in November 2008.

Finally, on Dec. 17, a monetary convention was signed between the State of Vatican City and the European Union which took force immediately.





How the news agencies
reported the Pope's address

I am learning not to necessarily post various accounts of the Pope's major addresses and messages, because they are generally very incomplete anyway and tendentiously selective, with each reporter choosing what he/she wants to focus on. So here is a sampling of the headlines for the news agency reports today:

AP - Pope denounces failure to forge new climate treaty
BBC- Pope lambasts Copenhagen failure
dpa - Pope laments scorn of religion in the West
Bloomberg - Pope skeptical on recovery, predicts more 'dramatic' crisis
CNS - Selfishness, lack of respect for life lead to destruction
CNA - Relativism must not be allowed to deny religion's importance
And once again, Reuters which caused a minor ruckus with last year's Curial address by claiming that the Pope "had likened saving mankind from homosexuals to saving the rain forests" - as absurd and improbable as that statement sounds - does it again with this headline immediately picked up by all the gay sites on line:
Reuters - Pope says gay marriage a threat to creation
What 's with Philip Pullella's gay fixation, anyway?

You can compare the headlines with what the Pope actually said.

Holy Land prelates will accompany
Benedict XVI to the Rome Synagogue




JERUSALEM, Jan. 12 (SIR) - “The Catholics of the Holy Land, too, will be with Benedict XVI on his visit to Rome’s Synagogue” on Sunday, January 17th, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mons. Fouad Twal, told SIR today, after a meeting with US and European Union bishops visiting the Holy Land till Jan. 14.

Patriarch Twal, representing the Catholic community of the Holy Land; Mons. Antonio Franco, Apostolic Nuncio in the Holy Land; and Mons. Giacinto Boulos Marcuzzo, the Patriarch's vicar for Galilee, will accompany the Pope on this historic visit.

"I hope this visit will help our inter-religious relations. It is a gesture we make with the heart to show our respect for the Israeli community as well. Hopefully, this gesture will have a positive impact on Israeli public opinion and in Jerusalem”, the patriarch said.

Father David Neuhaus, patriarchal vicar for the Hebrew-speaking Catholic communities said: "This visit is very symbolic, even if Jews and Catholics may not be accustomed yet to such visits. It is significant that the Patriarch and the Nuncio will be with the Pope, because it means that the Church of the Holy Land is part of the universal Church, which has great concern for the fate of the Middle Eastern Christian communities. Such a visit might help, with time, to change the mentality of the future generations”.


A very thoughtful move on the part of the Pope. This gives the visit more symbolic significance beyond what it means for the Church in Rome and for the Vatican.

Sandro Magister always has the good sense to quote Pope Benedict directly and liberally to call attention to the Pope's words. Here is what he thought to be the key points in the Pope's address to the Vatican diplomatic corps yesterday:


Benedict XVI to the diplomats:
Three levers to lift the world

An ecology of nature but above all of man, positive secularity, freedom of religion.
The salient points of the pope's annual speech to representatives of states.




ROME, January 11, 2010 – As at the beginning of every year, Pope Benedict XVI delivered his state of the world address this morning to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See.

The address was in the prudent style of Vatican diplomacy. For example, it does not mention India or China, the two emerging superpowers where the Catholic Church is for various reasons oppressed and attacked.

However, this does not change the fact that the address transmits messages that intentionally go against the mainstream. Three of them in particular.


1. ECOLOGY OF NATURE, BUT ABOVE ALL OF MAN

The first message coincides with the one previously issued by Benedict XVI for the World Day of Peace, celebrated on New Year's Day: "If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation." With a decisive and unconventional emphasis: the primacy that must be given to the comprehensive safeguarding of man.

Here are three passages from the address that develop this theme:

---

Twenty years ago, after the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the materialistic and atheistic regimes which had for several decades dominated a part of this continent, it was easy to assess the great harm which an economic system lacking any reference to the truth about man had done not only to the dignity and freedom of individuals and peoples, but to nature itself, by polluting soil, water and air.

The denial of God distorts the freedom of the human person, yet it also devastates creation. It follows that the protection of creation is not principally a response to an aesthetic need, but much more to a moral need, in as much as nature expresses a plan of love and truth which is prior to us and which comes from God." [...]

If we wish to build true peace, how can we separate, or even set at odds, the protection of the environment and the protection of human life, including the life of the unborn? It is in man’s respect for himself that his sense of responsibility for creation is shown. [...]

Creatures differ from one another and can be protected, or endangered, in different ways, as we know from daily experience. One such attack comes from laws or proposals which, in the name of fighting discrimination, strike at the biological basis of the difference between the sexes. I am thinking, for example, of certain countries in Europe or North and South America.

Saint Columban stated that: 'If you take away freedom, you take away dignity.' Yet freedom cannot be absolute, since man is not himself God, but the image of God, God’s creation. For man, the path to be taken cannot be determined by caprice or willfulness, but must rather correspond to the structure willed by the Creator.

---

2. POSITIVE SECULARITY

A second unconventional message is addressed mainly to Europe and the West. It defends the public role of the Church. In this sense:

---

The causes of the situation which is now evident to everyone are of the moral order, and the question must be faced within the framework of a great programme of education aimed at promoting an effective change of thinking and at creating new lifestyles.

The community of believers can and wants to take part in this, but, for it to do so, its public role must be recognized. Sadly, in certain countries, mainly in the West, one increasingly encounters in political and cultural circles, as well in the media, scarce respect and at times hostility, if not scorn, directed towards religion and towards Christianity in particular.

It is clear that if relativism is considered an essential element of democracy, one risks viewing secularity solely in the sense of excluding or, more precisely, denying the social importance of religion. But such an approach creates confrontation and division, disturbs peace, harms human ecology and, by rejecting in principle approaches other than its own, finishes in a dead end.

There is thus an urgent need to delineate a positive and open secularity which, grounded in the just autonomy of the temporal order and the spiritual order, can foster healthy cooperation and a spirit of shared responsibility.

Here I think of Europe, which, now that the Lisbon Treaty has taken effect, has entered a new phase in its process of integration, a process which the Holy See will continue to follow with close attention.

Noting with satisfaction that the Treaty provides for the European Union to maintain an 'open, transparent and regular' dialogue with the Churches (Art. 17), I express my hope that in building its future, Europe will always draw upon the wellsprings of its Christian identity.

---

3. FREEDOM OF RELIGION

Finally, a third message defends freedom of religion, and denounces situations in which this freedom is violated.

Benedict XVI cites some of the examples that see Christians as the victims: Iraq, Pakistan, Egypt, Middle East. He doesn't mention Islam, but in all of the cases cited the aggressors are Muslims:

---

Out of love for the dialogue and peace which protect creation, I exhort the government leaders and the citizens of Iraq to overcome their divisions and the temptation to violence and intolerance, in order to build together the future of their country.

The Christian communities also wish to make their own contribution, but if this is to happen, they need to be assured respect, security and freedom. Pakistan has been also hard hit by violence in recent months and certain episodes were directly aimed at the Christian minority.

I ask that everything be done to avoid the recurrence of such acts of aggression, and to ensure that Christians feel fully a part of the life of their country.

In speaking of acts of violence against Christians, I cannot fail to mention also the deplorable attack which the Egyptian Coptic community suffered in recent days, during its celebration of Christmas. [...]

The grave acts of violence to which I have just alluded, combined with the scourges of poverty, hunger, natural disasters and the destruction of the environment, have helped to swell the ranks of those who migrate from their native land.

Given the extent of this exodus, I wish to exhort the various civil authorities to carry on their work with justice, solidarity and foresight.

Here I wish to speak in particular of the Christians of the Middle East. Beleaguered in various ways, even in the exercise of their religious freedom, they are leaving the land of their forebears, where the Church took root during the earliest centuries.

To offer them encouragement and to make them feel the closeness of their brothers and sisters in faith, I have convened for next autumn a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East.

---

Here's the editorial in today's L'Osservatore Romano on the Pope's 'state-of-the-world' address.


In God, the Church
lives for others
Editorial
by Giovanni Maria Vian
Translated from
the 1/11-1/12/10 issue of



Benedict XVI's address to the diplomats accredited to the Holy See looks to the future. With a breadth of vision that is generally not found among international leaders, and with a realism that does not hide problems.

In a review that is traditional in form but very well demonstrates the attention and attitude of the Bishop of Rome towards the world, the Pope says in his introductio, that "the Church is open to all because in God, it lives for others".

This opening was demonstrated in the past weeks by the establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation - reason for 'profound satisfaction', the Pope said - and by the visit of the President of Vietnam, added to the numerous meetings the Pontiff has held with the world's political representatives at the Vatican and during his travels.

Still in the forefront of the international panorama is the tragic crisis in the world economy and the resulting social instability.

At the root of the crisis - as one reads in Caritas in Veritate - is selfish and materialistic mentality. Whose effects threaten Creation itself - such as the environmental degradation, brought to light after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the European countries that had been under atheist regimes.

That is why the Holy See shares the strong concern over the substantial failure of the Copenhagen conference on climate change, and hopes that follow-up meetings in Bonn and Mexico City will be able to overcome political and economic resistance to positive measures against environmental degradation. Otherwise, the very fate of some countries is at stake, the Pope declared.

For more reason, the Church - while attentive to the protection of the environment - insists on the irrenunciable respect for the human person, which means protection of life from conception, and an equitable distribution of food resources, of which the world has enough for its entire population, as the Holy See has repeated over the decades against the advocates of catastrophism [with increasing population].

Thus Benedict XVI once again expressed his concern over the exploitation of enormous zones of Africa, drug production in Afghanistan and some nations of Latin America, but above all, the constant increase in military spending and for nuclear arms, which will be the subject of a UN conference in New York this May.

Many insupportable situations due to the spread of violence, poverty and hunger are at the origin of the evident phenomenon of migration worldwide, in the face of which the Pope also appealed once more to civilian authorities to act with "justice, solidarity and foresight" - recalling in particular the forced migration of Christians from their historic homelands in the Middle East.

It is precisely this tragic and preoccupying phenomenon - which risks the extinction of the Christian presence in the lands where the Church was born - that prompted Benedict XVI to call a special assembly of the Bishops' Synod in the autumn.

He also reiterated his advocacy of universal recognition of the rights to statehood of Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the unique identity and character of the city of Jerusalem.

The crises of the world and of individual societies begin in the hearts of men, the Pope reiterated - and they can be overcome by a change in mentality and lifestyles through massive educational efforts.

The Church wishes to be part of such efforts, and therefore, its public role should be acknowledged - in Europe which should not abandon the sources of its own identity, and in the world.

Where the Church does not seek privileges, but only to be allowed to live for others, faithful to its only Lord.

Tuesday, January 12

ST. MARGUERITE BOUGEOYS (b France 1620, d Canada 1700)
Missionary and Foundress, Congregation of Notre Dame sisters
Canada's first woman saint migrated in 1653 from France, where she had been turned down by
two nuns' congregations, to start a school in the then new colony of Ville Marie (present
Montreal). She would go back three times to France to recruit more missionary helpers
dedicated to the needs of children and women, French as well as Indian. She established
the order in 1676 but its Rules were not approved till 1698. At 69, she walked from Montreal
to Quebec when the bishop asked her to establish a school there. By the time she died, she
was known as 'mother of the colony'. She was canonized in 1982.


OR for 1/22-1/12/10:

Benedict XVI to the diplomats accredited to the Vatican:
'Violating the dignity of man is a wound to creation'

Other papal stories in this double issue: coverage and papal texts from the Mass of the Baptism of Our Lord on
Sunday and the subsequent Angelus, and the Pope's visit Saturday evening to Cardinal Etchegaray in a Rome
hospital; am editorial on the Pope's address to the diplomatic corps; the Pope's message of condolence on the
death last Jan. 9 of Cardinal Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, 85, Madagascar's first and only cardinal so far.
The cardinal retired as Archbishop of Antananarivo in 2005. The only other Page 1 story: Obama says he is not
sending US troops to fight in Yemen and Somalia.



No events scheduled for the Holy Father today.



Pope mourns death of
Madagascar cardinal
Translated from



Cardinal Armand Gaétan Razafindratandra, emeritus Archbishop of Antananarivo (Madagascar, formally
the Republic of Malagasy), died Saturday, Jan. 9, at the age of 85.

The Holy Father sent the following telegram of condolence to the present Archbishop, Mons. Odon Marie
Arsène Razanakolona. The telegram is in French:

---

H.E. MGR ODON MARIE ARSÈNE RAZANAKOLONA
ARCHBISHOP OF ANTANANARIVO

Having learned that your predecessor, Cardinal Armand Gaetan Razafindratandra, has been called
back to God, I express my profound union in prayer with the Archdiocese of Antananarivo, with
the family of the deceased and with all the persons affected by this loss.

Entrusting him to the mercy of the Lord, I thank God for the ministry of this ardent Pastor who spent
all his life in the service of the Malagasians, as a diocesan priest, then as Archbishop of Antananarivo,
giving the best of himself so that Christ could be announced.

With the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Africa, may the Lord welcome his faithful
servant to his Kingdom of peace and light!

To you, to your diocesan faithful, and to the archbishop's family and friends, and to all those who will
gather for the funeral rites, I impart from my heart the Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP XVI

---

Here's another article flagged by Beatrice on her site

http://benoit-et-moi.fr/



Emerging from the ‘relativist’ fog
By Denis Tillinac
Translated from

January 7, 2010


At the time the Pope Benedict XVI was attacked by a madwoman in St. Peter’s Basilica, I was reading some of his writings, among them, his lecture at the College des Bernardins.

The Holy Spirit is said to enlighten the cardinals when they vote in Conclave for a Pope, but there have been, at the very least, ‘intermittences’ throughout the long history of the papacy.

However, for the election of Benedict XVI, the Spirit did not spare his grace – he is the Pope whom the Church needs. He inspires comparison with the erudites of the Merovingian ages, who, in the monasteries, gave everything in order to make culture live on perennially even while barbaric anarchy was raging around them.

With morality tamped down, we live in barbaric times – one only has to turn TV on or surf the Web to know it. And the Pope is well aware of it. But instead of vainly adhering to the times, he pursues his exegesis of Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church - in short, the basics of the faith. Some find it ‘retrograde’. But that is his mission as Pope.

Well aware of the depths of modern nihilism, he continues to advocate the marriage of faith and reason in the service of a freedom that aims much higher than the navel of our ego.

For now, the impression may be that he is preaching in the desert. But that is a deceptive impressiom, due in large part to the thoughtless negligence of the mediatic system.

The philosophers of ‘deconstruction’ are at the end of their rope; there is no metaphysics behind the ideology of ‘innovation’, no morality behind the exhortations on values; and we are pestered daily about condoms, priests who want to marry or women who want to say Mass.

As though the Church (with more than a billion souls) does not have more crucial concerns. As if the substance of its message should dissolve in the air of the times.

The deep de-Christianization of the West goes back to the Enlightenment, to Descartes. And it cannot be remedied by demagoguery over sexuality, hetero or homo.

The Pope knows this - he has taken the measure of the challenge, and it is vertiginous, even as the basis of the problem has become clear: a world without God is ultimately unlivable.

Everything shows this, including the compensatory divinities of an infantile polytheism which are being sold to us relentlessly to mask the evidence of a nauseating void.

The Pope rightly wants nothing to do with this barbarism. And one ends up realizing that only his voice is indicating the one route mankind can take without getting lost. That, in fact, this octogenarian is the only contemporary philosopher.

It would be good if, sooner or later, a savior could emerge from the ‘relativist’ fog, as Benedict XVI calls it. But when? God knows.

A commentator has said that using argot and wearing a cap backwards is not the best way for a young man to find a job. [I suppose he is referring to the ‘angry young men’ of the Muslim street in France.] It’s a testimonial of fact. Why pretend this is somehow a ‘racist’ comment ?

Another one has said that if there were as many minarets on our territory as there wre belltowers, then France would no longer be France. It’s a testimonial. Why impute to him some kind of Islamophobia ?

Why this neurotic, even autistic, need to deny reality? What does one fear? What unsaid phantasms are eating at the subconscious of these socialist dignitaries?... Out of folly in some, out of cowardice in others – So why are we surprised that France is basically disoriented, without a compass ? …..

[The closing paragraphs are a commentary on France’s coming regional elections in March.]

Augustine & Benedict:
Battling the heresies of today
by Giuliano Vigini
Translated from

January 12, 2009


This essay anticipates the release this month by the Vatican publishing house LEV of Sant'Agostino spiegato dal Papa which puits together the various homilies and catecheses that Benedict XVI has given on the saint that has most influenced his work as theologian.


Benedict XVI's frequent references to St. Augustine tells the story of a long friendship that started in Joseph Ratzinger's youth.

Cultivating and deepening his knowledge of Augustine's work, Joseph Ratzinger entered into full harmony with it, grasped its 'newness' and revelled in the enjoyment of a kindred spirit.

Augustine became the subject of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Munich in the academic year 1950-1951. This led young Prof. Fr. Ratzinger to inquire further and to understand in a fresh manner the sacramental nature of the Church, through the Christological and ecclesiological thinking elaborated by Augustine, in whose vision and action, nothing is separated, everything tends to interact and compose together a fruitful harmony.

In fact it is obvious that the doctrine of Augustine left a deep mark on the young Ratzinger.

In the courses, seminars and lectures that he gave in the theological faculties of four German universities - Bonn, Muenster, Tuebingen and Regensburg - from the late 1950s to 1977 when he was named Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Augustine was his constant point of reference - one of the inspirational bases for his theology as well as a spiritual lighthouse of his Magisterium.

For Benedict XVI, the turbulent course of Augustine's life and his eventual anchoring in the faith was characterized above all by a 'passion for the truth', as he recalled during the solemn Eucharistic concelebration in the Orti Borromaici (Borromeo Gardens) of Pavia when he came to pay homage to the remains of Augustine (April 22, 2007).

This was not truth understood as an abstract philosophical principle, but as a tangible reality - not a remote mirage, but an incarnated truth. In which it is faith that throws wide open the horizons for such truth, leading to that essential link between 'intelligere' (to understand) and 'credere' (to believe) in the context of reason and the authority of faith, faith as thought and faith as lived.

But first of all, there was the humility with which Augustine set out to open the doors to the mystery of God - the humility to which every Christian is called: "The humility of God's incarnation should match the humility of our faith," Augustine wrote, "which lays down all-knowing arrogance and bows down when it enters to become part of the community of the Body of Christ".

After his journey to conversion and coming home to the faith, Augustine proved his humility, the Pope underscored, in the sacrifice of his own dreams (above all, once he had become a priest, to devote himself to the contemplative life), to become a living Gospel among men. In the crossroads of life - when one chooses to go one way but God asks us to go the other - such humility is required.

Augustine had the humility, placing himself totally in the service of others: "Ever anew, to be there for everyone, not for one's own perfection; ever anew, to be with Christ, to give one's life so that others may find him, who is true Life".

Augustine's humble faith was shown even in his endless desire for God's mercy. His was not the attitude of someone who has received the gift of grace once and for all, but on the contrary, of someone who all his life considered himself to be 'a mendicant of God' (mendicus Dei) and therefore continued to seek him to obtain his pardon and help.

This aspect of Augustine also highlights the urge for 'permanent conversion' together with 'the grace of perseverance' which we must pray for daily to the Lord.

Finally, the passion for truth, which in Augustine finds its outlet in his faith in Christ and in the Church, is also expressed as a great passion for man. Faith does not close one's doors, it does not isolate, it does not abandon reason and freedom, it does not exclude anything.

Rather, faith opens up, expands, orients and leads, because faith in 'God Love' (1 Jn 4,8.16) is that which manifests itself as an expansion of love, and the Church is most herself to the degree that it is a community of love.

Benedict XVI's first encyclical, Deus caritas est - which he symbolically gave to the world in front of Augustine's tomb - and which "owes very much to him" - is, in fact, a mirror of the commandment of charity, lived as service to truth and Christ's love.

In presenting Augustine, Benedict XVI arrives at the heart of his teaching, from which he has drawn the thoughts, words and examples that constitute the guidelines for his own Magisterium. Augustine is a mirror that reflects part of him.

In reviewing his theological, spiritual meditative and cultural works, one can truly grasp the Augustinian line that inspires and holds together his reflections.

There appear two be two cardinal concepts along which Benedict XVI develops his thought: truth and unity.

Truth understood as a 'symphony' according to an ancient concept revived and made famous by Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Unity understood as communion in the truth, where differences do not splinter into ruinous particularisms, but act as a bond in a reciprocity of love that always looks at the greater good, the truth - full, total and harmonious.

Absent these premises, the approach to truth becomes a 'mono-phony' rather than a 'sym-phony' - a solo rather than polyphony.

It is what Johann Moehler - one of the theologians most appreciated by Benedict XVI (along with Newman, Rosmini, Guardini, De Lubac, Congar, Von Balthasar...) - expressed in a similar way, speaking of the sense of superior beauty one gets from the sound of a polyphonic choir: not so much because they are singing impeccably, but because the training of the singers and the wisdom of their conductor are such as to blend together different voices and tonalities into one harmony.

Such is the work of Benedict XVI, who recalls in many ways the various aspects of Augustine's preaching and pastoral action.

Already in his celebrated Rapporto sulla Fede [his interview-book with Vittorio Messori), the author faced a series of theological adn moral issues - from the concept of Church to the tragedy of morals; from liturgy to separated brothers; from the theology of liberation to feminism - making his points firmly and seeking to dissipate the numerous equivocations that have surrounded these issues.

Today, some of those questions have come back; some have changed form; and some have been added on, feeding old and new debates.

Indicating the sources of the faith and an authentic interpretation of texts, Benedict XVI always has the bar firmly centered, in which faithfulness to principles, to Tradition, to a clear and solid Christian identity, does not preclude the possibility of seeing and applying - in an intelligent and balanced way - whatever will serve to be able to live the faith ever more consciously, for the Church and for men.

If, in the time of Augustine, controversies were doctrinal in nature and his contemporaries saw the strenuous efforts of the Bishop of Hippo to combat so many heresies and deviations (Manichaean, Donatist, Pelagian, etc), today the great problems are of an ecclesial and pastoral nature, considered above all within the context of that vast subject of 'the new evangelization', in a world that is getting more secularized, within the Church as well as outside it.

All of Benedict XVI's commitment, in fulfillment of his own mandate to protect and confirm his brothers in the faith, is to remind the world of the need for a strong rootedness in Christ and the perennial values of Christianity.

These are the only true prerequisites for being Christians who are mature in living their faith and credible in bringing it to others.

That is why Benedict XVI does not tire - in the name of Augustine, who is one of the founding fathers of Western culture - to rally the faithful around the Christian foundations of Europe, which serve as the mortar holding together the idea of man himself as a sacred being because he is a creature of God and inviolable in his human and personal dignity.

Without such roots, not only will the Christian identity be lost which has spiritually and culturally shaped Europe, but the profound truth about man and his destiny will likewise be stripped away instead of being at the common heart of Europe itself today.

Wednesday, January 13

ST. HILAIRE (HILARY) OF POITIERS (France, 315-368), Bishop, Writer, Doctor of the Church
Benedict XVI, in October 2007, synthesized the saint's life this way: "Born around the year 310, baptized when he was about thirty-five,
he became Bishop of Poitiers some eight years later. In opposition to the Arians, who believed Jesus was a created being, Hilary dedicated
his life to defending our faith in the divinity of Christ. While exiled to Frigia, because of the stance he took against the Arians at the Synod
of Béziers, he began his most important work, De Trinitate. In this text he demonstrates how both the old and new testaments clearly attest
the divinity of the Son and his equality with the Father with whom he shares one nature. In his De Synodis Hilary maintained a conciliatory
spirit with those who used deficient theological formulations, while leading them to accept fully the Nicean creed. In 360 he returned home,
took up his pastoral duties, and continued to write. The influence of his teaching spread and many were strengthened in their resistance to
Arian thought, realising that Christ is our Saviour precisely because he is true God nd true man. Fundamental to Hilary’s insight was the
importance of our Trinitarian baptismal faith. Let us join him in praying to the Lord that we remain faithful to this confession, and always
bear joyful witness to our baptismal call!" St. Hilary has been called 'Hammer of the Arians' and 'Athanasius of the West'.
Readings for today's Mass: www.usccb.org/nab/readings/011310.shtml



OR today.

No papal stories in this issue. On Page 1: China tests an anti-missile system;
Obama prepares to tax US banks; tens of thousands of refugees have fled the civil
war in Democratic Republic of the Congo (capital Brazzaville) for the neighboring
Republic of Congo (capital Kinshasa); and a commentary on Istanbul as the current
'cultural capital of Europe' [a European city is given this designation every year].
In the inside pages is an interview with Cardinal Claudio Hummes, prefect of the
Congregation for the Clergy, who says bishops must show both firmness and a
fatherly attitude towards erring priests.



THE POPE'S DAY

General Audience - In the catechesis today, the Holy Father spoke of the extraordinary development
in the 13th century of the mendicant orders, epitomized by St. Francis and St. Dominic, who founded
their respective orders.



Pope calls on international community
to come to the aid of earthquake-stricken Haiti

The Holy Father offered his prayers and spiritual nearness to the people of Haiti whose capital, Port au Prince, was struck by a devastating earthquake early this morning, and was practically levelled, with a possible loss of thousands of lives, and most of its residents homeless.

In an appeal issued after his catechesis and plurilingual greetings at the General Audience today, the Pope said:

---

I wish to make an appeal for the tragic situation in Haiti. My thoughts go out especially to the population who have been struck most by a devastating earthquake, a few hours ago, which has caused grave losses in human life, a great number of homeless and displaced people, and enormous material damage.

I calll on everyone to join me in prayer to the Lord for the victims of this catastrophe and for those who mourn their loss.

I assure my spiritual closeness to those who have lost their homes and all those severely tried in various ways by this grave calamity, asking God to give them comfort and relief in ther suffering.

I appeal to the generosity of everyone, that there may be no lack of help and solidarity, and active assistance from the international community, for these brothers and sisters in their need and pain.

The Catholic Church will immediately activate its charitable institutions to extend immediate help to thost who need it most.

---

Meanwhile, there is a tragic bulletin from the Italian service
of the Missionary International Service news Agency:

Haiti Archbishop found dead
in the earthquake ruins
Translated from
the Italian service of

PORT AU PRINCE, HAITI, Jan. 14 (Translated from MISNA) - The lifeless body of Mons. Serge Miot (in photo, with the Pope), 66, Archbishop of Port au Prince, was found under the ruins of the Archbishop's residence, according to the missionaries of the Society of St. James, who have served in Haiti for more than 40 years.

They said they have not heard from Mons. Benoit, the Vicar General of the Haitian capital. The death of Mons. Viot was confirmed by the parish priest of the Cathedral of Haiti , according to Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Apostolic Nuncio in Port au Prince, speaking to the FIDES news agency.


The Nuncio is also quoted in an online report by Avvenire:

'Screams and cries from the ruins:
The city center completely destroyed'
Translated from



"I have gone around Port-au-Prince to the extent that it is possible, The center is completly destroyed. The beautiful cathedral has been reduced to a pile of concrete, except for a few walls that remain standing. The Archbishop's residence is completely razed to the ground. All the churches have been destroyed - and hundreds of priests and seminarias are in the ruins. I don't think any such devastation has been seen before, Not even on TV."

These were the words of Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Filipino who Has been Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti for less than 2 years, in an interview with Avvenire to be published in full in tomorrow's issue.

Mons. Auza said, "I have visited the President of the Republic and his wife. They are very much in shock. The Preisdential Palace collapsed shortly after they hadd left the building, and their own home crumbled down just before the First Lady was about to enter it. They have taken shelter in their garage. But the President immediately left by car to visit hospitals and get damage assessment. All the ministries, except that for culture, have been destroyed, as well as the UN headquarters, whose delegation chief is among the hundreds feared dead under the ruins".


Pope meets Christmas Eve aggressor
Translated from


The director of the Vatican Press Office released this statement at noon today:

---

At the end of the General Audience this morning, the Holy Father had a brief meeting with Ms. Susanna Maiolo in a room next to the Aula Paolo VI.

Ms. Maiolo expressed her regret for what took place before Christmas Eve Mass on Dec. 23, and the Pope expressed his forgiveness, as well as his interest and cordial wishes for her health.

Ms. Maiolo was accompanied by two family members.

The investigation undertaken by the Magistrature of Vatican City State will continue to its completion.

---

I certainly read it all wrong when I speculated a few days ago that this event was unlikely to happen! I can't second-guess the Pope, so I won't comment, except to hope fervently that it's the last time we have to hear about Ms. Maiolo,!