NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH & THE VATICAN

Magister 'advertised' this on his blog on 2/2/08 - an article appearing in this week's issue of L'Espresso magazine, and I thought that by the following day, he would have had it translated into English and post it that way. But he hasn't. He says that this article appears in L'Espresso under the title 'LOBBY BENEDETTA', an obvious play on words, since 'benedetto(a)' in Italian means blessed. I am just stumped that the English word lobby is considered feminine; and if it were masculine, then "LOBBY BENEDETTO' would be a more appropriate wordplay.


The Italian government and
the politics of the Church
From L'Espresso, No. 5/2008
Out Feb. 1, 2008
By Sandro Magister
Translated from



About the fallen government, the Church is elusive. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, kept to generalizations: "The hope is that they agree on something for the common good."

Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, president of the Italian bishops conference (CEI), preferred to keep out of it: "The bishops do not concern themselves with political dynamics, much less with political parties."

Same thing with Mons. Giuseppe Betori, secretary of the CEI: "We do not have a preference for an institutional, constitutional or electoral solution, as long as it respects democracy".

And L'Osservatore Romano, the Pope's newspaper, is silent on this.

But everyone knows that the future government, whoever will constitute it, is very much awaited. The Church does have its 'politics' - one that is demanding and which does not take anyone for granted.

This could be seen during the terminal phase of Romano Prodi's government. The last Sunday before its fall was a popular celebration of support for the Pope in St. Peter's Square.

The theologian/philosopher Pope who was welcomed with all honors at the Blue Mosque of Istanbul, and who will soon be addressing the Parliament of the world at the United Nations in New York, was 'rejected' in his own Rome by a state university - without the government saying one word in his support, except the expressions of regret after the visit had been cancelled.

On balance, after the incident, there was, on the one hand, the powerful lecture on faith and reason which was written but not delivered by Benedict XVI, and on the other, the epistolary protest by some professors and invective from a handful of students. Between the two, there was no match.

And Prodi's government? Pope Joseph Ratzinger spared any mention of the government, addressing the crowd at St. Peter's. But the day after, in opening the winter agenda of the Italian bishops, Cardinal Bagnasco was less diplomatic.

He reiterated what the CEI newspaper Avvenire had written about the La Sapienza episode at the time of the cancellation: that it had been the Italian government authorities who 'suggested' that the Pope stay home rather than go to the university.

Stung to the core, both Prime Minister Prodi's office and Interior Minister Amato reacted by denying Bagnasco's account. This discourtesy to the Vatican was the last act of government by 'adult Catholic' Prodi. Two days later, it fell.

The government on the way out had its supporters in the Church, One was the Archbishop of Pisa, Alessandro Plotti, who is retiring any day now because of age.[(In fact, he retired last week and the Vatican promptly named a successr.)

In an interview with La Stampa, he said that the Church was wrong in hammering on its 'usual topics' - abortion, the family, etc - because "that way, there is the risk of a boomerang effect which will rekindle anticlerical feelings".

But Plotti and a few others are dissonant voices in a hierarchy which in the past three years has consolidated around Benedict XVI and his primary collaborators in Italy: Cardinals Bertone, Bagnasco and the latter's predecessor at CEI, Cardinal Ruini, who is still very influential, as well as the CEI secretary, Mons, Betori.

For the Church in Italy, the fact that there is no longer a Catholic political party (like the Christian Democrats from the postwar era to the 1980s) has not been considered a loss but a liberation. The Church can now speak out on everything and to everybody.

It does not demand that what can only be accepted and understood through faith should become law. What it does is fight in defense of commandments which it says are written in the hearts of all men, Catholic or not.

And it does not limit itself to preaching, but has learned to act politically so that its words may become fact. In recent years, the facts have more often than not rewarded the Church.

From the 2005 referendum on artificial fertilization to Family Day last May, the Church hierarchy has demonstrated that it knows how to represent and inspire the common feelings of a great part of the Italian population, much more than the political parties and the dominant culture and media can.

To the point that the Italian Church has become a model for other Churches in Europe. Last December 30, Spanish Catholics replicated in Madrid the success of Family Day, with the Pope addressing the rally in a live broadcast from St. Peter's Square. A similar Family Day is planned next in Berlin.

Under the leadership of Cardinal Ruini, the Italian Church introduced innovations in waging political action. To the old-style Catholic associations which occupied themselves with everything, there have arisen new movements which are generally focused on specific objectives: campaigning against abortion, or promoting the family, or carrying out educational programs.

Law 40 regulating artificial reproduction is only partially congruent with Catholic doctrine, but in 2004, it was voted on by almost two-thirds of the parliamentary representatives of both right and left, thanks to the tenacious lobbying of the Catholic Forum for the family.

The 2005 referendum saw the successful work of another of these new ad hoc associations, the Committee on Science and Life, which is open even to non-Catholic participation.

This modality exhibits something of the techniques used by the Radical party, but it is more particularly American-style political action - with focused campaigns, new laws proposed in succession, almost without pauses, and referenda fought to win not simply to show a stand.

As for laws to be elaborated, the Italian bishops conference has availed over the past dozen years of a very efficient machine in an organism called the juridical-legislative observatory. Directed by Prof. Venerando Marano and composed of jurists who are experts in various areas of the law, the observatory follows by the minute whatever happens in the Italian Parliament, in the Constitutional Court, in courts of cassation, in the Council of State (cabinet), in the local courts and in regional administrations - ready to document and analyze at any time whatever point may interest the Church.

For example, the battles which succeeded in ditching the government's attempts to pass a law on de facto unions that would include homosexual marriages, had decisive support from the Observatory. There is no political party that has anything comparable.

The next government should prepare itself. The battle for the implementation of the abortion law in the parts intended to help mothers and maternity will be one of the grounds on which it will be put to the test by the Church.

The Church has already been implementing these provisions for years with its centers for aid to life, one of its other associations targeted to a single objective. These centers estimate that since 1978, they have helped at least 85,000 children born who would otherwise have been aborted. That's the population of a small city.

Catholic nuns and monks decline
BBC News, 4 Feb. 2008


The Vatican has reported a further dramatic fall in the number of Roman Catholic monks and nuns worldwide.

Newly published statistics showed that the number of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006.

During the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II, the number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by a quarter.

The downward trend accelerated despite a steady increase in the membership of the Catholic Church to more than 1.1bn.

However, correspondents say even this failed to keep pace with the overall increase in world population.

On the back page of its official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican published on Monday new statistics revealing that between 2005 and 2006 the number "members of the consecrated life" fell by just over 10%.

The number of members, predominantly women, some engaged only in constant prayer, others working as teachers, health workers and missionaries, fell 94,790 to 945,210.

The membership of the Roman Catholic Church has risen to 1.1 billion.

Of the total, 753,400 members were women, while 191,810 were men, including 136,171 priests and 532 permanent deacons.

The figures were published next to a report of Pope Benedict XVI's meeting with nuns, monks and priests from many countries gathered in St Peter's Basilica in Rome last weekend.

The BBC's David Willey in the Italian capital says the accelerating downward trend must have caused concern to the Pope.

The Roman Catholic Church has an aging and diminishing number of parish and diocesan clergy and this latest fall is quite dramatic, our correspondent says.

The number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by about a quarter during the reign of Pope John Paul, and this further drop shows that new recruits are failing to replace those nuns who die, or decide to abandon their vows, he adds.


2/5/08
P.S. AP picked up the story today.

Vatican sees decline
in religious orders



VATICAN CITY, Feb. 5 (AP) - The number of men and women belonging to Roman Catholic religious orders worldwide has continued to decline but there has been an increase in priests assigned to dioceses, the Vatican said Tuesday.

The total of men and women in Catholic religious orders in 2006 stood at 945,210 — 7,230 fewer than the previous year, said a Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Ciro Benedettini. He said an article Monday in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, had overstated the decrease.

The Vatican's statistics office said the total number of priests worldwide stood at 405,000, with an increase of 600 diocesan clerics.

The overwhelming majority in religious orders, 753,400, are women.

The Vatican has long lamented a decrease in the number of priestly vocations in Europe and elsewhere in recent years, while the number of priests has increased in Africa and Asia.

The Osservatore Romano report did not give a reason for the recent figures.

Pope Benedict XVI said in a 2005 speech to Italian priests that the West was "a world that is tired of its own culture, a world that has arrived at a time in which there's no more evidence of the need for God, much less Christ, and in which it seems that man alone can make himself."

Mentioning Australia, Europe and the United States, the pontiff said in that speech that "one sees that the great churches appear to be dying."


Vatican corrects wrong figure
on decline of nuns and monks


Vatican City, Feb. 5 (dpa) - The Vatican on Tuesday corrected a report published in its own newspaper which suggested the Roman Catholic Church has suffered a dramatic decline in the number of priests, monks and nuns.

On Monday, the Vatican's L'Osservatore Romano mouthpiece published figures indicating that the number of men and women in religious orders had fallen by 94,000 or 10 per cent between 2005 and 2006.

"But the actual number was 7,230 and not 94,000," Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "All the other statistics reported in the newspaper were correct."

According to the L'Osservatore Romano, some 945,210 people belong to religious orders worldwide.

The majority - around 753,000 - consists of women serving as nuns, some devoted to constant prayer in cloister, others working as teachers, health workers and missionaries.

Male clerics, including around 136,000 priests, made up the rest of the total, L'Osservatore Romano said.

Worldwide Roman Catholics are estimated to number some 1.1 billion.

In November and December last year, journalist Curzio Maltese wrote a series of supposedly 'investigative' articles for La Repubblica on Vatican and Church finances which was nakedly intended to cast the Church in the most terrible light, never mind what lies and misrepresetnations he used to make his case. His most egregious error of fact was to keep confounding the finances of the Vatican with that of the Church of Italy.

Reactions from Avvenire to some of Maltese's misreporting were posted on this thread, along with the note that not once did Repubblica acknowledge at the very least the corrections of fact to Maltese's stories that had been presented by both Avvenire and L'Osservatore Romano and refuted with official documents, including annual reports by the Italian bishops (on how they disburse the .085% share of annual Italian tax revenues that goes to the Church of Italy under the terms of the Lateran treaties) - reports published in Repubblica itself!

With Sandro Magister's story for L'Espresso (which belongs to the same media conglomerate as of La Repubblica) two posts above as a comparison, this new story by Maltese in today's Repubblica is yet another blatant example of that newspaper's relentless and malicious partisanship against the Pope and the Church.

Until I have time to translate the whole article, I am translating only its headline and opening, which are indicative enough of hostile bias.

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Benedict XVI's shove
toppled Prodi

The true shove which led to the collapse of the Prodi government came from the Vatican. It was clear for some time that the ecclesiastical hierarchy had entered the arena directly to oppose the center-left and to favor the return of the Berlusconi government, dispenser of thousands of favors to the Church during its five-year term.

The Church behaved on the eve of the government crisis like any other political lobby, even though acting 'extra-Parliamentary' Parliament, and indeed, extra-territorially, with a political intelligence superior to the current political parties....

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Of course, in attributing such 'power' to the Church, Repubblica is really running down the entire Italian political establishment today, including Repubblica's own friends of the left!

Sainthood for Pius XII
will get more study in '08,
Vatican official says
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York, Feb. 5, 2008


Probably the most delicate cause for sainthood currently working its way through the Vatican system will be further studied this year, according to the Holy See’s top official for saints, but he offered no projection of when Pope Pius XII might be formally beatified and, eventually, canonized.

Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, spoke in a Feb.1 interview with the newspaper of the Italian bishops’ conference, Avvenire.

The cause of Pius XII is particularly explosive because of lingering debate over his role during the Second World War, and specifically whether he did enough to condemn the Nazis and to resist the Holocaust. Many observers believe that beatifying Pius XII would have serious repercussions for Catholic/Jewish dialogue.

One reminder of those tensions came last May in Israel, when the papal nuncio, or ambassador, briefly threatened to boycott an annual memorial at Yad Vashem, Israel’s leading Holocaust museum, because of a dispute over how Pius XII was depicted. In the end, museum officials agreed to review the critical photo caption in question and the nuncio attended the memorial, but the standoff nevertheless suggested the intensity of feeling on both sides.

Last May, the cardinals and bishops who make up the Congregation for the Causes of Saints voted in favor of a “decree of heroic virtue” for Pius XII, one of the preliminary stages towards sainthood. Upon approval by the pope, the decree would entitle Pius XII to be known as “venerable.”

In the nine months since that vote, however, Benedict has not issued the required approval, leading to speculation that the Vatican has decided to put the cause on a temporary back burner. In his L’Avvenire comments, Saraiva seemed to indirectly confirm that hypothesis, while also insisting that the cause has not been abandoned.

The following is the question put to Saraiva and his response, in an NCR translation from the Italian.

Has the cause of Pius XII, after the positive vote expressed unanimously by the ordinary congress of the congregation on his heroic virtue, really been delayed or shelved?

Saraiva Martins:: “Technically it has not been delayed, much less shelved. This year is the 50th anniversary of the death of Pope Pacelli [Pius XII], and for this reason various initiatives will be promoted, including deeper research in the Vatican Archives. This will certainly contribute to the cause of Pius XII.”

Spanish bishops say
moral guidance isn't politics


MADRID, Feb. 5 (CNA) - The spokesman for the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Juan Antonio Martinez Camino, responded to Socialists attacks on the Church this week and said a statement issued by the bishops is not a declaration of support for any particular party, but rather a series of orientations that Catholics must bear in mind as they go to the polls on March 9.

“The bishops don’t say who to vote for. We have given a series of moral criteria so that those who want to listen have an idea (…) It is some guidance on issues such as abortion or education,” Bishop Camino told the TV network Telecinco.

“The bishops respect those who vote differently,” he continued, but that does not mean they should not speak out about social ethics.

“What is more worrisome is that some say that because the Church exercises her pastoral duty and her freedom of expression, she is acting outside of democracy,” Bishop Camino stressed in reference to attacks by Socialists who claim the bishops are supporting the Popular Party.

“This statement is based on pastoral ministry. It is not a doctrine invented yesterday,” the bishops pointed out, adding that no political party meets all of the directives given by the bishops, and therefore people have to vote for “the lesser of evils.”


Upcoming Spanish Elections Increasingly
Resemble Referendum on Abortion, Gay Marriage
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman


MADRID, February 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In the increasingly close race for the presidency and the parliament of Spain, abortion and "gay marriage" are becoming two of the most talked about issues, despite the fact that the country's two major parties differ only slightly with regard to them.

The worsening economic situation may be the main contributor to the tightness of the race, but social issues seem to be a close second. Recent scandals regarding Spain's controversial abortion industry, as well as growing discontent with the Socialist Worker's Party's "gay marriage" system, have helped to create serious uncertainty about the outcome of this year's elections.

The Socialist Worker's Party, headed by President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, is defending its legacy of easy abortion. This policy, however, exploded in his party's face late last year when undercover television reporters and pro-life activists exposed the routine criminality and gruesome inhumanity of Spain's abortion industry. Clinic personnel were subsequently arrested in Barcelona and Madrid.

In the wake of the scandals, which are still sending tremors through Spain's body politic, the socialists have dug in their heels and have resolved to create new legal protections for Spain's abortion clinics, and to implement "privacy" policies that are calculated to make it more difficult to prosecute clinic personnel for violating Spanish law. Although such changes would be largely cosmetic, representatives of the abortion industry have expressed approval and appreciation for the idea.

However, in the wake of horrifying images of late-term abortions shown on national television, as well as stories of fetal remains being ground up in food processors and disposed of in the sewer system, the government has apparently shelved the idea of relaxing existing regulations on abortion. That proposal has been pushed by forces within the Socialist Worker's Party since 2004, thus far without success.

Instead, socialist Vice President María Teresa Fernández de a Vega has announced that it is time to "improve" the country's abortion laws. "The government is not going to allow the rights of any woman who has, or who has to confront a decision so painful as that of interrupting her pregnancy, to be put in jeopardy," she said recently.

Although the principal opposition to the socialists, the People's Party, claims to have no plans to add any new restrictions to abortion, they are positioning themselves closer to pro-lifers, promising to vigorously enforce all existing abortion laws.

Those same laws were the basis of recent prosecutions of clinic personnel in Barcelona and Madrid, who were charged with fabricating diagnoses of medical or psychological "risk," which are required to do abortions after five months of gestation.

Another creation of the socialists, "gay marriage" is also becoming a political liability for their party in traditionally Catholic Spain. A massive pro-family rally held by the nation's bishops recently in Madrid attracted one million people, and was seen as a blow to socialist political ambitions, although organizers denied it had a political purpose.

Feeling the pressure, the socialists have assured the public that they will do nothing further to alter the institution of marriage.

On the other side of the political divide, however, leaders of the People's Party have made it clear that they have little intention of actually abolishing "gay marriage", although again they have positioned themselves closer to pro-family forces by speculating on the possibility of removing the label of "marriage", while maintaining the legal privileges the law provides cohabiting homosexuals.

In addition, consistent denunciations of socialist policies on the part of the bishops have caused rising tensions between Catholic Church authorities and the government. President Zapatero seems to be so concerned about the effect of the bishops' opposition to his policies that he has taken the unprecedented step of filing a complaint with the Vatican through his ambassador.

However, such chest-beating by anti-family forces is not likely to move Pope Benedict XVI, who himself made a televised appearance at the bishop's pro-family demonstration in Madrid. Zapatero and his party seem to be "reaping the whirlwind" as a result of their attacks on the traditional family.

While the range of the debate remains narrow, its intensity cannot be denied. Whatever the outcome, Spain's national elections in March of 2008 are likely to be won by candidates who stand on the majority side of an electorate increasingly polarized by issues of life and family.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Five Muslims at the Vatican
to Prepare the Audience with the Pope

They represent the signatories of the "letter of the 138" written to Benedict XVI last October.
Here's who they are, and from where they come.

by Sandro Magister




ROMA, February 6, 2008 – In the two days before this Ash Wednesday, the first meetings were held in Rome in preparation for the scheduled visit to the Vatican of a representative group of the 138 Muslim scholars who in October of 2007 addressed to the pope and to the heads of the other Christian confessions a letter with an offer of dialogue entitled "A Common Word Between Us and You."

The meetings will be held at the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue (CIRD), and will be presided over by cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.

The schedule is for the Muslim representatives to meet with Benedict XVI and other Church authorities beginning next spring. And they will hold study sessions in institutes like the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, the PISAI, headed by Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot.

The Muslim delegation was composed of five Muslims scholars from as many nations:

– Ibrahim Kalin, from Turkey, director of the SETA foundation in Ankara and a professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.;

– Abd al-Hakim Murad Winter, from England, a professor of Islamic studies at the Shaykh Zayed Divinity School of the University of Cambridge, and director of the Muslim Academic Trust of the United Kingdom;

– Sohail Nakhooda, from Jordan, director of "Islamica Magazine," an international magazine edited in the United States;

– Aref Ali Nayed, from Libya, a member of the Interfaith Program of the Faculty of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, a former teacher at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization in Malaysia, and at the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies in Rome;

– Yahya Sergio Yahe Pallavicini, from Italy, imam of the al-Wahid mosque in Milan, president of the ISESCO council for education and culture in the West, and vice-president of the Islamic Religious Community of Italy, the COREIS.

All of these are part of the group of experts coordinated from Amman by Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, president of the al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought, the leading promoter of the letter of the 138 and the protagonist behind the exchange of events that took place in November and December with Benedict XVI, through Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, in preparation for the future meetings.

Of the five, the best known among the Vatican authorities and experts are Aref Ali Nayed and Yahya Pallavicini.

Nayed – well known to the readers of www.chiesa, which has published previews of many of his writings – is one of the leading experts in Western philosophy and Christian theology in the Muslim camp. He studied at the Gregorian, in addition to universities in the United States and Canada, and he knows as few others do the Summa Theologiae of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

He is one of the main architects of the letter of the 138. And he is the author of a letter that is important in its own right, in which he responded to the message addressed to the Muslims by Cardinal Tauran on the occasion of last Ramadan.

But Yahya Pallavicini has also been for some time a prominent counterpart for the Vatican authorities and experts.

His father, Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini, embraced the Muslim faith in 1951, like many other European intellectuals at that time who adopted Islam in the wake of the French metaphysician René Guénon.

In the course of a long of a voyage in the East, he joined the Sufi confraternity Ahamadiyyah Idrissiyyah Shadhiliyyah, which is in sharp contrast to the sectarian Wahhabi Islamism that still dominates Saudi Arabia. He later became head of the confraternity in Italy.

In Assisi, in 1986, Abd al-Wahid Pallavicini took part in the prayer meeting among the leaders of the religions called together by John Paul II. His dream is to build in Milan "a little Jerusalem that would see the children of Abraham united in prayer: Jews, Christians, and Muslims."

His unshakable faith is that Islam is "the ultimate and definitive expression of that primordial tradition that founded, confirms, and vivifies the earlier revelations."

Yahya Pallavicini, 43, was born Muslim and today is known in Italy as one of the main representatives of a sophisticated, democratic, "moderate" Islam, together with Khaled Fouad Allam of Algeria and Souad Sbai of Morocco.

In his religious profile, Pallavicini distinguishes himself from other Muslim personalities with whom he often finds himself in agreement – the best known of these in Italy is the Egyptian Magdi Allam.

Unlike Magdi Allam, who does not practice the religion to which he was born and expresses a decisively secularized Islam, Yahya Pallavicini is an observant and fervent Muslim. He is the imam of a mosque in Milan, the leader of a community of Italians who have converted to Islam that is active in various cities, and is involved in courses of formation for new imams.

Since 2006, he has been a consultant on Islam for the Italian interior ministry. He is an unyielding critic of the violent tendencies of Muslim thought and practice. He has written and said on numerous occasions in public – something that is rare and often risky for a Muslim – that "acts of violence find no legitimization in the teachings of the prophet Mohammed or of the wise men."

He has often strongly condemned "the exploitation of sharia, the Islamic law, to create a parallel alternative world, which refuses to integrate with the Western system." He has denounced "the culture of hatred" spewed in the preaching in many of the mosques in Italy on the part of imams "who are in reality political instigators with nothing authentically Islamic about them."

On the contrary, he is a convinced promoter of a positive dialogue with Judaism and Christianity. In 2005, he publicly contested the fatwa, the juridical sentence issued on the television screens of al-Jazeera by one of the most influential world leaders of fundamentalist Islam, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, banning all dialogue with the Jews.

The question has been raised again in recent days in Italy, when suddenly, because of an order that come from the al-Azhar University in Egypt, the representatives of the Grand Mosque of Rome had to cancel a visit – the first ever – to Rome's Jewish synagogue, scheduled for January 23rd.

These criticisms are all repeated in a book that Yahya Pallavicini recently published in Italy, entitled Dentro la moschea [Inside the mosque].

But there is much more in the same book. On the positive side, there is an account of a Muslim community in Italy, with the places and moments of its religious life: the mosque, those who attend it, how and when they pray, Ramadan, marriages, the veil, schools, birth, death, the pilgrimage to Mecca.

Pallavicini belongs to the Sufi community {Islam's main mystical sect], which is very distant from the image of Islam that dominates the media, and is often hampered and opposed in fratricidal struggles by the proponents of this fundamentalist and aggressive Islam.

In his book, Yahya Pallavicini speaks on behalf of many of his brothers in faith. An entire section collects the preaching delivered in the mosques on Fridays by 25 Italian imams.

Another section presents life stories: an entrepreneur, a violinist, a painter, men and women who have converted to Islam in the heart of the West.

One of these converts, Ahmad Abd al-Wahliyy Vincenzo, has inaugurated a chair for the history of Islamic law and civilization at the Università Federico II in Naples.

This is how he concludes his account: "Once, after an examination, a student told me something of which I am very proud: Dear professor, you should know that yesterday I received the sacrament of confirmation. And studying Islam with you was the best preparation I could have had."

Synod of Bishops on the Bible
already causing ferment
All Things Catholic
by John L. Allen, Jr.
Friday, February 8, 2008


Though it's still eight months away, next October's Synod of Bishops on the Bible is already causing ferment. The gathering will be the 22nd synod since Pope Paul VI created it in September 1965 as a means of giving bishops a voice in governance of the universal church (though it will be just the 12th "ordinary" synod). It is keenly anticipated for at least three reasons:

- An eruption in Catholic appreciation for Scripture following the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), both in academic circles and at the grass roots, has had enormous impact in virtually every area of the life of the church, from moral theology to liturgical practice to popular prayer and devotion.

- Especially for Western Protestantism, which launched the Reformation under the slogan of sola scriptura, the Bible is the most important terrain for ecumenical encounter, and any shift in emphasis from Catholicism would likely have strong ecumenical implications.

- Since today's Catholic identity mega-trend has already transformed the way the church translates and interprets liturgical texts, it's reasonable to assume that a similar identity wave is poised to crest in Scriptural translation and exegesis.

Given what's at stake, it's hardly surprising that Catholics with an interest in Scripture are already mobilizing to try to steer the Synod's deliberations in one direction or another.

So far, perhaps the most interesting examples have come from two of the hierarchy's best minds on Scripture, representing two distinct points of view: Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the emeritus Archbishop of Milan; and Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and Pope Benedict XVI's designee as relator, or chairman, of the synod.

Both Martini and Ouellet can stake a claim to expertise on the Bible. Martini, a Jesuit, is a former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. After he stepped down from Milan, he moved to Jerusalem to resume his Scripture studies.

Though Ouellet's degrees are in philosophy and dogmatic theology, he has long had a special passion for Scripture. As a Vatican official in 1997, Ouellet organized a symposium at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Scriptural exegesis.

He has also taken part in an international group called the "Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar," composed of Biblical scholars and other academics who seek a "kneeling exegesis," a combination of rigorous academic investigation with deep faith in the Bible as the revealed Word of God.

The main sponsors came from the Anglo-Saxon Protestant world - the British Foreign Bible Society, the University of Gloucestershire in the U.K., Baylor University in the States and Redeemer University College in Canada.

Martini's attempt to shape the upcoming Synod came with an essay in the Feb. 2 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, a Jesuit-run journal in Rome that enjoys a semi-official Vatican status. In broad strokes, Martini urged that the Synod not revisit big-picture theological decisions made at Vatican II in its document on the Bible, Dei Verbum, but rather focus on pastoral application of that document's vision.

For example, Martini warned against prolonged discussion of two hot-button issues treated at Vatican II: the relationship between Scripture and tradition, and the use of the historical-critical method. Both topics, he argued, have been dealt with in authoritative church statements, and the Synod should restrict itself largely to affirming those teachings.

"It's important to take care that formulas not be used which would carry us backwards with respect to the Second Vatican Council," Martini wrote.

Instead, Martini emphasized the practical. For example, he proposed that the Synod call for a three-minute explication of the readings from Scripture every time daily Mass is celebrated.

[Allen had an earlier story outlining Martini's argument in greater detail, which I missed seeing, and which I am posting below.]

Ouellet, meanwhile, entered the fray with an interview in the Jan. 31 issue of Avvenire, the official newspaper of the Italian bishops' conference.

In a Q&A with veteran Italian journalist Gianni Cardinale - who is sort of the Larry King of the Catholic church, routinely delivering interesting conversations with major Catholic newsmakers - Ouellet briefly outlined his vision for the Synod.

The following are Cardinale's questions and Ouellet's answers, in my translation from the Italian.

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How did you react to your nomination as relator?
I was obviously moved by the kindness the pope showed by nominating me for this responsibility, even if it means I have more work to do. We're talking about an important synod, which is already generating enormous interest in the Catholic church and also among the other Christian confessions.

So we're talking about a synod with a strongly ecumenical character?
Certainly. Let's hope that it will contribute to the growing closeness between Rome and the other churches and Christian communities. It would be wonderful if that happens, especially since the tragic separation of the Reformation was based on interpretation of Scripture. But it will also be a synod that has as its goal a re-launching of the missionary dimension of the church. The Word of God is intended for all people.

What are the themes that the Synod might address?
A first point that could certainly be clarified regards the distinction between Scripture, which is a witness, and the living Word of God, who is the risen Christ present in his church, principally through the sacraments. This distinction must always be maintained.

Another question on which the Synod will have to try to offer a word of clarification regards the interpretation of Sacred Scripture. Such interpretation can never be merely individual, but must always be reconciled with the living tradition of the church. Further, such interpretation must utilize the scientific research of exegetes, but at the same time it must never place itself in rivalry, or opposition, to the magisterium.

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While Ouellet's brief comments by no means constitute a rebuttal of Martini, their accents are nevertheless different. Most importantly, while Martini discourages a discussion of the relationship between Scripture and tradition, Ouellet welcomes it.

To some extent, this contrast probably reflects a basic difference in attitude towards the hard-won autonomy achieved by Catholic Scripture scholars in the decades since Vatican II.

For Martini, the emergence of Bible studies as a separate enterprise, no longer merely a sub-discipline of dogmatic theology, meant liberation from the embarrassment of "proof-texting." It was also a needed reminder, as Dei Verbum put it, that church teachings and traditions must in some sense be measured against Scripture, rather than automatically interpreting Scripture in light of them. That's what some Bible experts mean when they talk about Scripture as a "purifying" element in the church, a perennial challenge to complacency and self-congratulation.

While Ouellet would no doubt applaud all that, he also sees a shadow side to what he perceives as a growing distance between scientific study of the Bible and the church.

"Faith is a basic principle to the scientific character of exegesis," he said in a 2005 address to the Scripture and Hermeneutics Seminar. "If we exclude faith, we are not being rigorous, we are misunderstanding the book. This point has to be made in the academy."

"We have to move," Ouellet said then, "we have to help each other come home to Scripture in the spiritual sense."

In all likelihood, both the Martini and Ouellet instincts will be represented in next October's Synod - one current hoping to concentrate on concrete pastoral matters, the other pushing for a ringing endorsement of "kneeling exegesis." Since Ouellet is the relator, however, at this stage one has to give the second school an edge in terms of capacity to shape both the agenda and the eventual result.

The lineamenta, or official preparatory document, for the Synod can be found on
www.vatican.va/roman_curia/synod/documents/rc_synod_doc_20070427_lineamenta-xii-assembly...

The official title of the gathering is "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church."

In addition to Ouellet, Pope Benedict has also named Austrian-born Bishop Wilhelm E. Egger of Bolzano-Bressanone, Italy, as the Synod's special secretary. Egger served as president of the international Catholic Biblical Federation from 1996 to 2002, and has played lead roles in both the official Italian and German translations of the Bible.


NB: The second part of Allen's column yesterday was about the new Good Friday prayer for the Jews, which I have posted in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT.


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Martini's 'preemptive strike'
ahead of Synod on the Bible
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome, Feb. 2, 2008


Looking ahead to next October’s Synod of Bishops on the Bible, a cardinal and one of the most noted experts on scripture in the Catholic hierarchy has launched what amounts to a “preemptive strike” – appealing to his brother bishops to concentrate on practical matters, rather than revisiting theological questions settled by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65).

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, the former archbishop of Milan and a former rector of the Pontficial Biblical Institute in Rome, published his recommendations in the Feb. 2 issue of La Civiltà Cattolica, a Jesuit-run journal that enjoys a semi-official Vatican status.

Martini, a Jesuit, is widely regarded as a leading voice for the progressive wing of the Catholic church. His essay on the Synod suggests concern that next October’s Synod could be an occasion for reconsidering, or even reversing, choices about scripture made by the progressive majority at Vatican II.

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec, another scripture scholar, to lead the October synod on the topic of “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church,” along with Austrian-born Bishop Wilhelm E. Egger of Bolzano-Bressanone, Italy, as his special secretary. The synod is scheduled to meet Oct. 5-26.

In substance, Martini’s essay is a defense of the Vatican II document Dei Verbum, the Dogmagtic Constitution on Divine Revelation, which he calls “perhaps the most beautiful” text of the council. Though Martini does not make the point, it is also the Vatican II document with which a young German theologian named Joseph Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI, was most involved.

“It will be important, above all, to look to this conciliar document in order to have a secure point of reference, Martini writes, and “to avoid the danger of prolonged and abstract discussions.”

Martini then divides his reflections into three categories: “some things to avoid,” “themes not necessary to discuss much,” and “topics to pursue.”

Martini appeals to synod participants “not to descend beneath the happy formulas of Vatican II.”

For example, Martini cites Dei Verbum's assertion that what is most important about scripture is not so much “the individual truths revealed, but the God who reveals himself” in its pages.

Martini also points to the document’s description of faith as “human beings freely committing themselves to God,” and of tradition as the process through which “the church, in its doctrine, in its life and its worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she is, and all that she believes.”

Martini also calls for upholding Vatican II’s affirmation that “The magisterium is not above the Word of God, but rather in service to it.”

“It’s important to take care that formulas not be used which would carry us backwards with respect to the Second Vatican Council,” Martini writes.

As an example of this danger, Martini cites a bit of Italian translation from the final document of the 1985 Synod of Bishops. In Latin, the text used the phrase Ecclesia sub Verbo Dei, or “the church under the Word of God.” In Italian, however, the phrase came out as La Chiesa nella parola di Dio, or “the church in the Word of God.”

It’s important, Martini writes, not to waste time in the synod “reprising those themes which were already treated fully at Vatican II, and about which it’s not possible for the moment to expect significant new contributions.”

Martini cites two examples: the relationship between scripture and tradition, and discussion of the historical-critical method of Biblical interpretation.

On the first point, Martini recalls the lively debate at Vatican II about how to understand the relationship between scripture and tradition. In 1962, in fact, when a preliminary vote on the subject was taken, the council appeared almost evenly divided and “some feared it would be impossible to move forward.”

Pope John XXIII then intervened to take the draft off the table, asking a commission led by Cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani, an Italian and the conservative head of the Vatican’s doctrinal office, and Augustin Bea, a German and a leader of the progressive forces at Vatican II, to produce a new text.

In substance, the final document approved by the council in 1965 asserts that tradition, scripture and the teaching office of the church are mutually inter-dependent, rather than seeing them as essentially parallel streams of revelation and authority.

“I recalled briefly this episode to suggest how unproductive it would be today to revisit these discussions,” Martini writes. “What was achieved with great effort, and without a degree of compromise, does not merit reconsideration, especially facing more urgent practical and pastoral matters.”

On the historical-critical method, meaning the effort to understand the various parts of scripture using the tools of historical science and literary analysis, Martini recalls that forty years ago some Catholics regarded these approaches as “incompatible with the faith.”

In the meantime, Martini observes, the church has issued several other documents examining the merits and the limits of these critical tools. He points to a 1964 instruction from the Pontifical Biblical Commission, as well as the 1995 document from that commission, The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church.

The synod, Martini suggests, should content itself largely with echoing the contents of these documents – which were broadly approving of historical-critical study, as long as a faith perspective is not lost.

Martini urges the synod to become an occasion for “a great examination of conscience by the entire church on the fruits it draws from sacred scripture.” In general, Martini counsels a focus on pastoral applications rather than theological underpinnings.

The majority of Catholics, Martini writes, “have not yet reached that level of familiarity with scripture that was hoped for by Vatican II.” He cites an Italian study, for example, which found that 70 percent of Italian Catholics have never read the four gospels, and another 15 percent have done so only once.

Yet paragraph 25 of Dei Verbum, Martini recalls, asserts that “ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ.” Those words, he writes, should constitute “a goal, and an important moment in the pastoral planning of every bishop.”

Observing the explosion in Catholic Biblical commentaries and study aids in the years since Vatican II, Martini says that “it’s inexcusable that a Catholic lay person, and much more a priest or religious, should claim that they don’t use scripture because they don’t have adequate supports.”

Martini also argues for a distinction between scripture study and catechesis, arguing that it’s desirable for catechetical materials to utilize scripture, but that nothing substitutes for direct contact with the Bible itself.

In that connection, Martini voices “a desire, perhaps a bit Utopian, but nonetheless important”: During every daily Mass, he proposes, a three-minute explanation of the scripture readings for the day should be offered.

“Experience shows that it’s possible in three minutes to give an ‘input’ that will help shape the day,” Martini writes, arguing that to be effective this presentation has to be well-prepared.

Finally, Martini turns to the ecumenical and inter-religious dimension of the Bible, focusing especially on the need to respect contemporary Jewish exegesis of Scripture as a means for “overcoming every possible form of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism.”

“It’s not enough to avoid anti-Semitic sentiments,” Martini writes. “It’s necessary to come to love the Jewish people in all the expressions of their life and culture: their literature, their art, their folklore, their religiosity.”

“Only then,” Martini writes, “can we achieve those bonds that allow us not only to overcome diffidence and prejudice, but to collaborate for the common good of humanity.”

Martini has long been a leader in Jewish/Catholic relations; following his retirement from the Archdiocese of Milan, Martini spends part of each year at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Jerusalem.

With regard to the role of the Bible in relation to other religions, Martini writes that experience “is not very developed,” and it will be up to the synod to ponder what more can be done.

'Too many wrong ideas
about Jesus in the Church'

Translated from the
Italian service of



BARCELONA, Feb. 8 (ZENIT.org)- The Church should rediscover the true Jesus through faith, historico-critical research and the Biblical-ecclesial tradition, according to Mons. Angelo Amato, number-2 man at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Mons. Amato spoke at the second session of a seminar on Pastoral Questions sponsored by the Centro Sacerdotale Montalegre, at the Catalonia Faculty of Theology.

He said that the situation in the Church about Jesus himself has become 'critical', requiring 'rapid therapy for healing' because of some erroneous concepts about Jesus that have become widespread.

Some, he said, are reductive, because they do not encompass the revealed mystery in in its totality, while others which claim to be rationalist, only take note of the historical aspects, doing away with what is specifically 'Christian' - namely, "the definitive and universal value of Christ's revelation, his condition as the living Son of God, his real presence in the Church, and the universality of his redeeming sacrifice."

Amato said that a healthy Christian idea of the human being himself must be based on the correct proclamation of who Christ is, and knowledge about him.

"Catholic Christology should recover the authentic Biblical-ecclesial Christ, who is the keystone of the Church, in order to re-launch an authentic Christian anthropology (concept of man) which can restore hope and the joy of human existence to post-modern man," he said.

He lamented that historical research about Jesus "has fragmented his image into a multiplicity of interpretations" as well as "a gallery of falsifications in which Jesus is lost in a fog of myths and legends", citing The Da Vinci Code as an example.

Such reductions and distortions of Jesus, Amato says, can only end up cancelling any interest for him or his ideals.

"He who is the Light of the world has been reduced to a shadow," he said. "How can anyone follow and love such a phantasm?"

In contrast, Mons. Amato welcomed some historical approximations to the figure of Christ, revalidating the historical Jesus as important for the faith by going to authentic sources like the original Gospels, the Dead Sea scrolls and Hellenistic literature.

Some 200 persons, mostly the bishops and priests of Barcelona, Tarragona and Solsona, participated in the sessions.

Other speakers included Prof. Bernardo Estrada, of the Pontifical Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome and Catalonian theologian Josep Maria Rovira Belloso.

Posted today in the preceding page -

---

Two related John Allen articles:
- October Bishops' Synod already causing ferment
- Cardinal Martini's pre-emptive strike before the Synod

---

'Too many wrong ideas
about Jesus in the Church'

Translated from the
Italian service of



BARCELONA, Feb. 8 (ZENIT.org)- The Church should rediscover the true Jesus through faith, historico-critical research and the Biblical-ecclesial tradition, according to Mons. Angelo Amato, number-2 man at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Mons. Amato spoke at the second session of a seminar on Pastoral Questions sponsored by the Centro Sacerdotale Montalegre, at the Catalonia Faculty of Theology.

He said that the situation in the Church about Jesus himself has become 'critical', requiring 'rapid therapy for healing' because of some erroneous concepts about Jesus that have become widespread.

Some, he said, are reductive, because they do not encompass the revealed mystery in in its totality, while others which claim to be rationalist, only take note of the historical aspects, doing away with what is specifically 'Christian' - namely, "the definitive and universal value of Christ's revelation, his condition as the living Son of God, his real presence in the Church, and the universality of his redeeming sacrifice."

Amato said that a healthy Christian idea of the human being himself must be based on the correct proclamation of who Christ is, and knowledge about him.

"Catholic Christology should recover the authentic Biblical-ecclesial Christ, who is the keystone of the Church, in order to re-launch an authentic Christian anthropology (concept of man) which can restore hope and the joy of human existence to post-modern man," he said.

He lamented that historical research about Jesus "has fragmented his image into a multiplicity of interpretations" as well as "a gallery of falsifications in which Jesus is lost in a fog of myths and legends", citing The Da Vinci Code as an example.

Such reductions and distortions of Jesus, Amato says, can only end up cancelling any interest for him or his ideals.

"He who is the Light of the world has been reduced to a shadow," he said. "How can anyone follow and love such a phantasm?"

In contrast, Mons. Amato welcomed some historical approximations to the figure of Christ, revalidating the historical Jesus as important for the faith by going to authentic sources like the original Gospels, the Dead Sea scrolls and Hellenistic literature.

Some 200 persons, mostly the bishops and priests of Barcelona, Tarragona and Solsona, participated in the sessions.

Other speakers included Prof. Bernardo Estrada, of the Pontifical Holy Cross Pontifical University in Rome and Catalonian theologian Josep Maria Rovira Belloso.

When top Catholic bishop speaks,
Italy listens
by Philip Pullella
January 23rd, 2008


As mentioned in NEWS ABOUT BENEDICT, Reuters's chief Vatican correspondent Philip Pullella maintains a blog, and this is one of his recent entries. The 'news' is dated, but the way he reports it informally is interesting, especially compared to his 'formal' reports for the news service.




When the head of the Catholic bishops’ conference in most countries speaks, he expects the specialist Church media to report on him and considers himself lucky if he makes it into the religion pages of the mainstream press.

When the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI) speaks, Italian media sit up and listen.

So when Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco delivered his opening address to a regular meeting of the CEI’s permanent council last Monday, his speech was all over the television and radio that night and in all mainstream newspapers the next morning.

Bagnasco, following up on recent economic surveys, opinion polls and media stories, said Italy was effectively in a state of malaise, if not outright decline. He said Italy appeared like a “frayed” country and at times seemed as torn apart as “confetti.”

He cited a recent report by the social research organisation Censis that said Italy was suffering from “deep inertia” and seemed “incapable of building a common future”. A “dangerous lack of confidence” was widespread, he said.

Newspapers used the word “attack” to describe Bagnasco’s ctiticism of Italy’s current social and political situation. Most linked it to the fact that Pope Benedict had to scrap a visit to Rome’s La Sapienza University last week because of planned protests.

When the Vatican cancelled the visit, it said the reason was because the respectful climate it wanted at the university no longer existed. The interior ministry said security was not a problem, but Bagnasco said the visit was cancelled after “suggestions by Italian authorities”. The prime minister’s office denied that this was the case.

Last Sunday, a huge crowd, many of them students, turned out in St Peter’s Square to show their support for the Pope.

Bagnasco can speak more freely about the Italian political and social situation than Pope Benedict, but it is understood that he is reflecting the Vatican’s position.

Italy’s powerful Catholic Church, with the backing of the Vatican, has been at odds with the the centre-left government over a number of issues, including a major clash last year over plans to give non-married heterosexual and homosexual couples more rights.

Ironically, a day after Bagnasco delivered his speech, Prime Minister Romano Prodi’s government itself started unravelling. Clemente Mastella, the justice minister who leads a small Catholic party, withdrew its support for the coalition. Mastella had earlier resigned as minister after he and wife became caught up in a corruption scandal in southern Italy. He says his family has done nothing wrong.

Mastella said one of straws that broke the camel’s back for him was his frustration, as a Catholic and a citizen, that the Pope could not even deliver an address at the main university in the Italian capital.

At the time of writing, the Italian government, a coalition that ranges from Catholics to hard-line communists, has asked for two confidence votes in parliament, on Wednesday and Thursday.

If Prodi’s government does collapse and if the centre-right opposition led by former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi eventually returns to power in one form or another, one man who probably won’t be crying is Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco.

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

Of course, Prodi's government did not survive the no-confidence vote, and Italian President Giorgio Napolitano has called for general elections for a new Parliament in mid-April, right on the eve of Pope Benedict's departure for the United States.

HongKong's next Catholic head
to bridge Sino-Vatican ties
www.christiantoday.com/
Monday, February 11, 2008


The next leader of Hong Kong's Catholic Church said he would take a more flexible approach in bridging Vatican and China ties, while hinting he would be less outspoken than the current head, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Newly appointed Associate Bishop John Tong Hon, whom Pope Benedict XVI recently named as successor to Cardinal Joseph Zen when he retires, said he would act as a "bridge" between the Holy See and Beijing, through a flexible approach upholding Vatican principles.

"The principles are there. But there is some degree of freedom on how to interpret the principles or how to materialise them. I will not say if it is a milder approach or not. It all depends on how other people view it," Bishop Tong was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post.

"But we should also hold up justice. We should endorse what is right and criticise what is wrong," Bishop Tong added.

China's 8-12 million Catholics are split between a state-sanctioned church and an underground church that rejects government ties and answers only to Rome. Beijing and the Vatican have no formal diplomatic relations, giving Hong Kong Catholic leaders a potentially important liaison role.

Hong Kong's current Catholic leader Joseph Zen, whose outspoken views on democractic and religious freedoms have antagonised Beijing, has said he wants to retire to focus on mending ties between the Holy See and Beijing.

Bishop Tong, however, reportedly hinted he would not be as outspoken as Zen on Hong Kong politics, amid what the Post called "concerns that the diocese might soften its stance on democracy while seeking to smooth Sino-Vatican relations".

"There are many talents in the church. It is not for one single bishop to speak up all the time ... my role is to play as a bridge," Bishop Tong was quoted as saying.

Lourdes celebrates 150th anniversary
of Virgin Mary vision







Paris, Feb. 11 (DPA) - More than 50,000 Catholic pilgrims took part in a Mass on Monday at the Catholic shrine in the southern French city of Lourdes to celebrated the 150th anniversary of the appearance of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl named Bernadette Soubirous.

The Mass was read jointly by some 30 bishops and 800 priests in several languages, including German, Polish and English. The rest of Monday was to be devoted to prayer.



On February 11, 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette at the entrance of a grotto near Lourdes. This was the first of 18 apparitions of Mary to the young girl.

Asked to describe her, Bernadette said, "She has the appearance of a young girl of 16 or 17. She is dressed in a white robe, girdled at the waist with a blue ribbon which flows down all along Her robe.

"She wears upon Her head a veil which is also white. This veil gives just a glimpse of Her hair and then falls down at the back below Her waist."

As a result of the visions, Lourdes has become one of the most popular pilgrimage destinations in the world, with an average of 5 million visitors a year, many of them coming in the hopes of being cured of a variety of ailments.

Although it has a population of only about 15,000, Lourdes contains the second-largest number of hotels of any French city, behind only Paris.

Some 8 million visitors are expected to stream into Lourdes this year to take part in the celebrations commemorating the anniversary of Saint Bernadette's visions.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to travel to Lourdes later in the year, probably in September.




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


VATICAN MASS FOR THE SICK:
'OUR SUFFERINGS ARE ALSO CHRIST'S SUFFERINGS '


VATICAN CITY, 11 FEB 2008 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 4 p.m. today, Feast of OuR Lady of Lourdes and 16th World Day of the Sick, Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, celebrated Mass for the sick and for pilgrims of UNITALSI (Italian National Union for Transport of the Sick to Lourdes and International Shrines), and of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi.

At the beginning of his homily, the cardinal recalled that today marks the 150th anniversary of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to Bernadette Soubirous in the grotto of Massabielle.

Commenting on certain aspects of Benedict XVI's Message for the World Day of the Sick - in which the Pope highlights the intimate bond between the Eucharistic mystery, Mary's role in the project of salvation and the reality of human suffering - Cardinal Lozano asked: "Is it possible to experience the suffering of Christ in our own suffering, to find therein happiness and joy? The answer", he went on, "can only come from the Holy Spirit, fusing our suffering with that of Christ through His infinite Love".

The Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's suffering, said the president of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, going on to explain that "the reality of the mystery of suffering - which in Christ becomes positive, creative, redeeming, happiness and joy, while not ceasing to be extremely painful - is the Eucharist. Participation in the Eucharist is the authentic way to make our own suffering part of Christ's suffering. This is Eucharistic communion. The Eucharist is thus our cross and our resurrection. It is the only true remedy to pain. It is the medicine of immortality".

"In order to respond to the full love of the cross", said Cardinal Lozano, we must pronounce "an unreserved 'yes' to the mysterious plan of the Redeemer, a 'yes' that means fullness of Love. This complete 'yes' of love is the Immaculate Conception of our dear Mother, Mary", who participated "on Calvary as the co-redeemer of the Saviour. ... Christ on the cross suffered all the pains that his Most Holy Mother suffered. And she in Christ suffers all our pains, she assumes them and knows how to commiserate with us. Out suffering is also her suffering".

He went on: "Suffering has value in as much as the death of Christ inherently comprehends His resurrection. In other words, suffering has value in as much as it leads towards the destruction of suffering, Thus suffering itself, understood in a Christian sense, encourages us to struggle against suffering in this life, as an anticipation of the resurrection.

"Hence the Eucharist, as participation in Christ's suffering, encourages us to care for our sick brothers and sisters", the cardinal added. "We must share the joy of the resurrection, overcoming the daily manifestation of death in sickness. Here is the engine that drives us forward to combat all infirmities and bring health to everyone. From here arises the obligation to progress constantly in the art and science of medicine and to continue its extraordinary modern developments".

____________________________
JUBILEE YEAR OF ST. PAUL




Scratching the surface
of Turkey's religious heritage
by Antonio Gaspari


ANKARA, Turkey, FEB. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Perhaps it's not immediately visible, but the Christian heritage of Turkey is accessible if one simply begins to scratch the surface, said the president of this country's episcopal conference.

Bishop Luigi Padovese, apostolic vicar of Anatolia, said this when talking to ZENIT about the program and objectives of the Year of St. Paul, which Benedict XVI called for June 28, 2008, to June 29, 2009.

The prelate said the organization of pilgrimages and trips to the places touched by St. Paul is marked above all by its religious goals.

"The purpose is to awaken in the Christians of Turkey and the world the consciousness of their own identity," he said.

To reach this goal, a host of initiatives ranging from a new Turkish translation of the Pauline letters, to an October pilgrimage for the nation's minority-Catholic population, to a short Pauline catechism, are in the works.

Bishop Padovese said one of the main goals is helping Christians to understand what it means to be Christian.

St. Paul, he said, "gave a universal dimension to the Christian reality and showed that Christianity is a novelty more than a continuity, because, as Tertullian said, 'one is not born a Christian, but becomes one,' and Paul helps us to understand where we are and who we are. Paul recalls the Christian identity.

"It is not just about the continuity with the Jewish religion -- that relationship exists and one has to recognize it, but the Incarnation is an enormous qualitative jump and the 'scandal of the cross and Resurrection' goes beyond all imagination."

Bishop Padovese said the Pauline jubilee "is an opportunity to make known to the world's Christians the importance of the Apostle Paul," with special reference to his mission in Turkey.

"In those times," recalled the apostolic vicar, "this region was more flourishing and rich, a meeting point for culture, peoples and religions which enabled the inculturation and expansion of Christianity."

The jubilee is also offering an opportunity to reach out to religious and civil leaders. A warming of relations with non-Catholic Christians and with Turkish authorities are hoped-for effects of the Pauline year.

Bishop Padovese explained that Orthodox leaders, including Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, have been involved in meetings to plan the jubilee.

And, he said, the Turkish authorities have shown themselves to be very interested in the Pauline year "although they have not responded to the petition to build a church in Tarsus dedicated to St. Paul."

From the archeological and historical point of view, Bishop Padovese lamented that with the passing of years "Christianity has been very much erased." But, he said, if the surface is scratched, "one can still find a great deal of the Christian presence."

"In the large cities," he said, "many churches have been lost and many others transformed into mosques." In Tarsus, for example, "there was a beautiful church built as a basilica that is currently a mosque."

"But on the perimeter, signs of Christianity are still visible," the prelate affirmed. In Antioch of Pisidia, for example, a Church dedicated to St. Paul has been found, where the apostle pronounced the speech about the mission."

"In fact," Bishop Padovese stated, "in Turkey, St. Paul preferentially performed his apostolate. The studies support that of the 10,000 miles that Paul traveled, a good part of them were in Turkey. And it is enough to take the Acts of the Apostles to realize up to what point Paul lived and traveled the lands of modern-day Turkey."

The apostolic vicar will pre-announce the opening of the jubilee in a June 21 event in Tarsus, a week before the Pauline year officially begins. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, leaders of the Orthodox Churches, and civil authorities from Ankara will participate.

The bishops' conference also published a pastoral letter for the jubilee. In it, they recall the importance of ecumenical relations.

"Before being Catholic, Orthodox, Syrians, Armenians, Chaldeans or Protestants, we are Christians. Our duty to be witnesses is founded on this," the letter stated. "We cannot let our differences generate distrust and damage the unity of the faith; we cannot permit non-Christian to be estranged from Christ because of our divisions."

Irish primate reportedly asked
cardinal to drop legal appeal


Dublin, Feb. 12, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Cardinal Desmond Connell decided to drop a legal effort to block release of documents relating to sex-abuse policy in the Dublin archdiocese after a visit from Cardinal Sean Brady, the Primate of All Ireland, the Irish Times reports.

Cardinal Connell, the former Archbishop of Dublin, had filed a High Court appeal to stop the release of some documents to the Dublin Archdiocese Commission of Investigation. But on February 11 his lawyer withdrew the appeal, allowing the commission to examine the documents. Neither Cardinal Connell nor his representatives offered any public explanation for the change.

The Irish Times reports that Cardinal Brady met with Cardinal Connell on February 9, at the nursing home where the retired cardinal now lives. The older cardinal—who is recovering from injuries sustained when he fell in January—also received a visit from his successor in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Archbishop Martin, who had authorized release of the disputed documents, welcomed Cardinal Connell’s decision to forego a legal appeal.

The case in High Court threatened to create a rare legal situation in which one Catholic archbishop was contesting his successor's right to release documents.


Argentine reporter explains
Vatican rejection of ambassador

Buenos Aires, Feb. 12, 2008 (CNA/CWNews.com) - The Argentinean press reported last week that the reason given by the Vatican in declining official approval for the country’s newly named ambassador to the Holy See - Alberto Iribarne, a divorced and remarried Catholic - could lead to the naming of a replacement.

Reporter Jose Ignacio Llados of the Buenos Aires daily La Nacion said the lack of approval by the Vatican Secretary of State has irked the government of Cristina Kirchner and has become a new source of tension with the Vatican, “just when it seemed relations had been focused after the meeting between Kirchner and the executive committee of the Bishops’ Conference, led by Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, and the meeting with Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.”

Llados explained that the Argentine government bears most of the blame for the lack of approval because it ignored the two conditions the Vatican has for the acceptance of an ambassador: that he not harbor anti-religious sentiments and that he not present canonical irregularities if the person in question is Catholic.

In the case of Iribarne, the “canonical irregularities” do not relate to his being divorced, but rather to his remarriage outside the Church.

Llados said that while the state has the right to name anyone it wants to be ambassador, the receiving state also has the right to accept or decline. Therefore the solution is in holding preliminary consultations - which was not done by the Argentinean government.

The Argentine government compiled a list of divorced ambassadors who represent their countries before the Holy See, but it failed to mention that none of them are Catholics and therefore they are not subject to canon law.

“Nobody questioned the moral integrity of Iribarne,” Llados said. “It’s not a moral problem, but rather a canonical irregularity of the designated ambassador.”

The newspaper Clarin reported that Kirchner supporters have confirmed that “there was not even the slightest chance the Vatican would change its position,” as “there is no precedent for granting the placet to a divorced and remarried Catholic, not with this Pope or any of the previous ones.”

Therefore, Kirchner supporters said, “if the idea is to progress in relations with the Holy See, insisting on Iribarne carries the risk of further deterioration.”

The newspaper reported as well that “the closest case to Iribarne is that of a Nicaraguan official who was granted the placet after it was shown that is annulment case is currently being processed and on the condition that his wife not accompany him during official diplomatic acts until his case has been settled. Iribarne has not opened an annulment process nor does he seem willing to keep his current wife in the background.”

The miracle of Lourdes:
A revolution that changed
the world's criteria
By Giampaolo Mattei
Translated from the
2/13/08 issue of



Mons. Perrier at the Mass he led on Feb. 11 in Lourdes.


A hundred and fifty years but it seems as though everything began today. It has been a very good 150 years.

"The miracle of Lourdes? Conversion. The style of Lourdes? Simplicity. The revolution of Lourdes? Giving pride of place to the sick and the disabled. The secret of Lourdes? The encounter with Jesus through Mary and the Eucharist, giving a sense to life."

Thus spoke the Archbishop of Tarbes and Lourdes, Mons. Jacques Perrier, after presiding yesterday at the anniversary of the Virgin Mary's first apparition to a sickly, semi-literate peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, in 1858, in a cave on the banks of the river Gave.

The Jubilee year began last December 11 and will be highlighted by a visit of Pope Benedict XVI expected in the autumn.


What does Lourdes say to contemporary man?
Lourdes overturned the world's criteria. It is a place that has no doors - where everyone can enter. But in the front rank will always be the sick, the disabled, the poor, the marginalized, the lonely, the least according to the world's standards.

This, too, is the sense of the Jubilee. I hope February 11 will always be understood in this sense by everyone, not only by those who come to Lourdes or experience suffering in their own flesh.

The one objective is clear: conversion. In a society that seeks to crush the sacred, men find room for life and hope in sanctuaries like Lourdes.

The granting of a plenary indulgence by the Pope makes the sense of pilgrimage to Lourdes this year even more evident.


Why a jubilee celebration?
The answer is simple: it wasn't decided by us, but by history.
Exactly 150 years ago, the Immaculate Conception appeared 18 times to a 14-year-old girl called Bernadette Soubirous, from February 11 to July 16 here in Lourdes.

We hope to revive that atmosphere of faith and evangelical simplicity. Of hope. In his message on February 11, Benedict XVI said we are all invited to look at the Immaculate Mother as a real model.

One cannot contemplate Mary and not be attracted to Christ, and one cannot look at Christ without realizing right away the presence of Mary.

The Pope explains that there is an inseparable bond between Mother and Son, and that we are aware of this bond, in a mysterious way, in the Sacrament of the Eucharist. These words of Benedict XVI synthesize what Lourdes is and the jubilee we are celebrating.

That police commissar who during a harsh interrogation of Bernadette
"to unmask the deception behind the apparitions', was right when he reproached her, "You are making everyone come running here!"

And everyone continues to come here! We had considered initiatives addressed to every type of person for the jubilee. But it is the liturgical year and its Marian festivities that give particular force to these celebrations. It is not by chance that the Jubilee opens and closes with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.


But don't people come to Lourdes hoping for a miracle?
Conversion of the heart is the true miracle. Even if one must not forget the physical cures that take place. As you know, the Church has so far recognized 67 miracles, out of over 7000 that have been reported and investigated.

Beyond the numbers, it is clear that Lourdes remains a mystery despite all the studies and investigations. Here, sick people pray not only for themselves but for those who are next to them, even if they are total strangers. Lourdes brings experiences of true friendship, of faith and solidarity. Here, many despairing people go back home full of hope and life. They discover they are not alone, even from the moment they are on the train that brings them here.


The train is an element of the pilgrimage.
Yes, doubtless it is the preferred means of transport. It allows having an experience of communion already during the trip here. Think also that the railway came to Lourdes as early as 1866.


What does the usual pilgrim look for and what does he find here in Lourdes?
They look for conversion and find it - conversion as that revolution of God which happens in the heart, such that sickness becomes not a weight but an opportunity. Millions of persons continue to come and offer simple humble gestures, to experience the central message of Lourdes which is conversion and penitence. Nothing is new, it is the person who becomes new. All our jubilee initiatives have that objective.


What would be the most characteristic of these initiatives?
The one innovation, if you can call it that, is a jubilee itinerary. It consists of four essential stages that recapitulate Christian life, from Baptism to the Eucharist.

The pilgrims, on foot, start out from the church which has the baptismal font of St. Bernadette. Then they pass by the very humble place where she lived with her family and where her unique vocation took shape. Then, they go through the sanctuary and the grotto at Massabielle, culminating in the old hospital where Bernadette received her first Communion. And to each pilgrim we give a certificate, like they do in Santiago de Compostela.


Something extraordinary amid ordinariness then...
To make it easier for pilgrims, we have also assigned specific 'missions' to volunteers who work among the sick, the disabled, and the youth; to pray for peace among peoples, or for the unity of Christians, or dialog with other religions. All of this, obviously nourished by the Eucharist, in the spirit of conversion and in a Marian dimension. These are all realities typical of Lourdes.

We have fixed appointments: the Angelus, the meditated Rosary, the Way of the Cross. It is a schedule known to the pilgrims.

And we continue to encourage scientific conferences, as well as theatrical shows and musicals. And we don't lack for theological contributions.


What has been the most important theological contribution so far?
We will have the 22nd Mariologic and Marian Congress on September 4-8 on the topic of 'The apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in history, faith and theology'.

The phenomenon of Marian apparitions has always attracted people. One can see that even now. Not only the interest of immense crowds of believers, but even so many non-Christians.


Any other message for the Jubilee?
That in Lourdes, all barriers are down, and all misunderstandings and hostilities are overcome, because here speaks the simple language understandable to all which is God's love. Here popular piety meets the most elevated theology, science meets the most authentic religious experiences. In Lourdes, one meets the whole man.

L'Osservatore Romano - 13 febbraio 2008


Other pictures from the Feb. 11 celebration in Lourdes:

Thousands celebrate the feast
of Our Lady of Lanka,
in spite of the bombs
by Melani Manel Perera





TEWATTA, Sri Lanka, Feb. 11 (AsiaNews) - In spite of the fear of bombing attacks in crowded places, yesterday thousands of faithful Marian devotees came from all of the country to Tewatta, to celebrate the feast at the national basilica of Our Lady of Lanka.

Ramond Fernando, a father of five children who came from the northwestern diocese of Chilaw, tells AsiaNews of the widespread "horrible fears of bombs. Travelling is uncertain with the fear of explosions". "But I could not remain without attending this feast day of the Most Holy Mother of Lanka, and praying for peace in the country".

Shymalee De Mel of the diocese of Anuradhapura also speaks of fear of attacks. In spite of this, she came here with her entire family, "to honour our Mother Mary. We cannot forget the great miracle she did during the second world war. So I am sure that our Mother Mary will hear our constant prayer. In these hours of fear, the only thing we can do is pray to our Amma (Mother)".

The basilica was the initiative of former Colombo archbishop Jean-Marie Masson. In 1940, he vowed that if the island were spared from the horrors of war, he would build a basilica for the Virgin. In 1946, he obtained the Vatican's permission to build the church and to dedicate it to Our Lady of Lanka. In 1948, Pope Pius XII proclaimed the blessed Mother as protectress of Sri Lanka.

The first stone was laid on February 4, 1951. Pope Pius XII blessed the statue of the Virgin Mary in 1952, and it was brought to the island. The Mass of consecration in 1974 was celebrated by all of the bishops of the country, headed by Cardinal Thomas Cooray.

In recent months, the country has seen an escalation of terrorism, with attacks that have struck ordinary civilians and even buses of religious pilgrims. Today all of the pilgrims recount the same daily terror, but also their trust and abandonment in the arms of Mary.

The public official Kannangara Wasanthan, who participated in the Mass with his wife and two children, tells AsiaNews that "no one can predict when and where the next explosion will take place. We are the victims of the fighting" between the rebels and the government.

"The only thing we can do is pray for peace to God and Mother Mary. We know she has performed one miracle already".

About 7-8,000 faithful came to the Mass, according to Fr Merl Shanthi, administrator of the basilica. "Many of them come from far away dioceses, and normally they come and stay near the shrine two three days before the feast day. There are Buddhists, Muslims, and Hindus in addition to our Catholics". The celebrations begin nine days before the feast, with a novena of preparation in the parishes.

The celebrations on February 10 began early in the morning, at 7:30, with the rosary and hymns to the Blessed Mother. This was followed by the Mass, celebrated by Archbishop Oswald Gomis, together with Fr Sylvester Ranasinghe, rector of the College of St Joseph in Colombo, Fr Bertram Fernando, and Fr Merl Shanthi Perera.

There were five other Masses for the feast, celebrated in the Sinhalese, Tamil, and English languages. In his homily, Archbishop Gomis called upon all to "cultivate peace", above all in their own lives and families, in order to "better understand others and their needs". He invited all to "pray to Mother Mary to give us the wisdom and strength to understand and love people, and to spread peace in our country".

He asked all to say the rosary daily, in their families and parishes, asking for peace and unity in the country.

Orissa:
'I prayed to Mother Teresa
as the Hindus hunted us'
by Nirmala Carvalho

From the region wracked by anti-Christian attacks, the eye-witness account of Fratel Oscar,
Missionary of Charity and director of Shanti Nivas, a home for the elderly destroyed by hindutva militias.



KHANDAMAL, India, Feb. 12 (AsiaNews) - “We have to love others and give until it hurts, until the last drop of blood,” said the Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata whose words have inspired so many missionaries and believers victims of acts of persecution and injustice like those that have recently touched the Indian state of Orissa.

Br Oscar Tete, a 25-year veteran of the Missionaries of Charity, lives among the people of Khandhamal district who have been affected by recent anti-Christian attacks. In an interview with AsiaNews he explained how “it is possible to give until it hurts.”

“It was 10 pm on 25 December,” he said, “when a group of 80 Hindu extremists came into our compound, our Shanti Nivas, armed with swords, axes, sticks and iron rods. To avoid violence we moved the 33 patients, all Hindus, to the last floor of our hospital; 22 of them are very old and suffering from malnutrition, tuberculosis and diabetes.”

At one point outside the extremists ran after me and three fellow brothers as well as six local villagers, throwing stones but thanks to the Blessed Mother Teresa’s intercession none of us got hurt.”

“The extremists then turned on the chapel and tore it down, literally; they razed it to ground; not one stone left unturned. Religious articles and symbols of our faith were desecrated. Nothing was left where our place of worship once stood; only a pile of rubbles fills the space. The missionaries have no place to celebrate the Eucharist.”

After telling the missionaries not to clean up the place before they could inspect it, local police showed up only last Saturday.

Brother Oscar said that even today the situation remains very tense and residents of the village are still haunted by the memory of that terrible day.

The Missionaries of Charity have been operating in the area for more than 25 years and have offered their services to everyone, irrespective of religion, to Hindus as well as Christians. In this district the latter are a minority.

“It is very sad that after all we have done for the Hindu community, such fury should fall on Christians,” said the brother. “Right now we are only hoping that peace might prevail.”

Under the circumstances Mother Teresa’s words, “Give till it hurts,” acquire an even more meaningful among the missionaries in Khandhamal who offer Christ’s persecution for the salvation of Hindu extremists.

The Missionaries of Charity pray that the Blessed Mother Teresa may protect them and give them the strength necessary to keep “giving,” bearing Christ’s message of love for Hindus and Christians, persecutors and persecuted alike.

The Pilgrimage of Interreligious Dialogue:
Interview With Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran





VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Inter-religious dialogue isn't a business deal or a political negation, but rather something more similar to a pilgrimage of going out of yourself to meet persons of other faiths, said Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran.

The cardinal was appointed president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue last June. In this interview with ZENIT he comments on the challenges and goals of this dicastery, and particularly, advances in dialogue with Islam.

2008 has been declared the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. Could you comment on this initiative and the role of the Church in the event?

Cardinal Tauran: A month has passed and we have not yet perceived the amplitude of the initiative, but the important thing, what the European leaders have emphasized, is that more than a third of Frenchmen are in daily contact with people who belong to another race, another religion or another culture, and they are therefore "doomed," so to speak, to dialogue, in order to know each other and live together.

Therefore, I think that there are many efforts to be made in order to progress in this dialogue, and personally what I am going to propose is perhaps a joint initiative between the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Inter-Religious Dialogue to see how we can help our contemporaries to progress in this mutual knowledge that is a question of respecting the other, as well as respecting the identities of one another.

Q: Regarding inter-religious dialogue, as president of the pontifical council, what are your expectations and hopes for this year?

Cardinal Tauran: I have been in this post since the month of September, and I consider myself still in a period of novitiate. Therefore, for me this year is going to be a year of discovery. What appears very interesting to me, above all, is that inter-religious dialogue is not something new. Since the [Second Vatican] Council much has been done, much of the path has been traveled.

For example, something I discovered and which appears splendid to me is the inter-religious dialogue between monasteries, between contemplatives. Catholic monks and nuns are meeting with Buddhist monks and sisters, for example, or even with representatives of Sufism. This is something that appears important to me; it is what I call the "dialogue of spiritualities."

There is talk of the dialogue of life, of theological dialogue, but the dialogue of spiritualities is the dialogue among people for whom prayer is the reason of their life, who make the monastic profession of a radical life, either in the Christian world, or in the Asian tradition or in Islam. I think a deepening in this dialogue between spiritualities is needed. In fact, when man prays he is greater. Therefore, we try to go out to meet him, here where he is at the height of his dignity.

Q: Dialogue with Muslims appears to be advancing with the coming of Muslim delegates to the Vatican to prepare for a later meeting of larger dimensions. But there are continuing differences of opinion about what needs to be discussed. What are, in your point of view, the priorities and the most fruitful points of discussion?

Cardinal Tauran: It is clear that I cannot know beforehand what our Muslim friends have in mind when they come here to dialogue with us, but I think that we can share common convictions: for example, adoration of the only God, the sacred character of human life, the dignity of the family, concern for education and youth.

Obviously other problems will have to be discussed, for example, the interpretation of human rights just as they are defined by the international conventions, or the principle of reciprocity, which is very important in the context of religious liberty. I think that these are problems among those that we could speak about.

Q: You have developed a good part of your ministry at the service of Vatican diplomacy. How has that experience helped you?

Cardinal Tauran: It is a help for me in the measure in which diplomacy is based on dialogue, in listening to the other: knowing how to listen, knowing how to perceive the details, and then to put forward the point of view in all its truth. Contrary to what is thought, diplomacy is not at all lying or ambiguity. On the contrary, it is to seek the truth in a way that negotiation can be reached without ulterior motives lurking behind.

Now then, I think that one has to distinguish between inter-religious dialogue and diplomatic dialogue, since inter-religious dialogue is not just a conversation between friends, who want to please each other. Neither is it a negotiation, since negotiation seeks to resolve a problem, to find a solution, and it's done.

Inter-religious dialogue is like a pilgrimage and a personal rethinking. A pilgrimage in the sense that it invites us to go out of ourselves in order to go to meet the other, to walk together along the path with him to know him better.

And moreover, it is a risk, since when you ask the other, "Who is your God? How do you live the faith?" I place myself in a position where the person I have in front of me can ask me the same questions. And therefore, I also am obliged to answer him. It is, therefore, at the same time a pilgrimage and a risk.

Q: Inter-religious dialogue is very close to the politics or the positions of some states. Is it possible to remain on a religious level without being manipulated by these latter factors, regardless of who they are?

Cardinal Tauran: Manipulation is always possible. But I think that one has to be careful both with sealing off religion from politics and with confusing the two areas. I think that one has to reflect on the concept of separation.

The Church can be separated from the states, without a doubt, but the Church cannot be separated from society - that is impossible, we experience it so. Therefore, the important thing is that there be separation and collaboration since, ultimately, the government and the religious leader deal with the same person, who is both citizen and believer. Therefore, cooperation, distinction of competencies, but a cooperation for the common good and for the good of this person necessarily occurs.

Q: You have spent practically your entire ministry outside of France, your native country. How do you see the Church in France today?

Cardinal Tauran: There is no doubt the Church in France has experienced a crisis, to say that is banal. But I think now there are signs of rebirth. In particular, when I visit the seminaries, it always impresses me to see the young priests. I think that there is a new generation much more concerned with transmitting a spiritual experience.

I think in the France of today the important thing is to see Christians who pray, Christians who celebrate, Christians who are on the frontiers of charity, who practice what I call the "power of the heart."

In a society that in the depths is very hardened, occasionally distracted, we have this "power of the heart," meaning, sowing mercy, witnessing to the love of God for us that is transmitted through brotherly love. In the end, the best way to show that God is a Father is to live as brothers.

Q: One final question. I return to the question of dialogue with Muslims: Do you not think there is risk in promoting a friendly dialogue, but leaving aside problems and divisions?

Cardinal Tauran: Undoubtedly it is a risk, but I think that the interest in this meeting we are going to have with the representatives of the 138 [Muslim leaders], who in fact now are 241, consists in creating a structure of dialogue, a kind of channel that will always be open and in which we can meet.

This is what I would like to propose, such that this dialogue can be something continual, structured, so as to avoid a certain superficiality.

Leaving very clear that with this, we are not saying, "All religions are equal." We are saying, "All the seekers of God have the same dignity."

This is inter-religious dialogue; it is not at all syncretism. That is, "All people who are in search of God have the same dignity, therefore, they should share the same freedom, the same respect."



Culture Council to Study Secularism


VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The Pontifical Council of Culture will dedicate its next plenary assembly to the theme of secularization.



The council, presided over by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, will gather March 6-8 for the assembly.

"It will be three days of intense dialogue and cultural exchange to try to respond to the questions of a globalized postmodern culture,” the dicastery announced in a communiqué.

The problem of secularization will be faced “just as it is presented to us in this beginning of the third millennium, taking into account above all its cultural dimension, at times combined with secularism," it added.

This secularism not only explicitly denies the presence of God, the council explained, but is revealed also in “a mentality in which God is absent, totally or partially, from life and the human conscience"

"The consequence," the dicastery affirmed, "is an existential vacuum in which postmodernity is characterized by the paradox of the increase of a double reality: secularization and religiosity, practical atheism and substitute religions, in a pluralistic society which seeks an ethic whose values are accepted by those who proclaim themselves 'absolutely different' and those who absolutize the relative."

Alaska Diocese to File for Bankruptcy


ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Fe. 14 (AP) — The Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks plans to file for bankruptcy after negotiations to settle sexual abuse claims failed, the bishop said Wednesday.

Bishop Donald J. Kettler said he anticipates filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection within five weeks.

"I am legally and morally bound to both fulfill our mission and to pursue healing for those injured," he said in a prepared statement.

More than 150 claims were filed against the Roman Catholic church, alleging abuse by clergy or church workers between the 1950s and 1980s. The plaintiffs' lawyer Ken Roosa said 135 of those cases are still pending.

Negotiations have been ongoing with lawyers in the remaining cases since last summer, Kettler said.

"While filing for reorganization is not my first choice, I believe that at this time this is the best way to bring all parties together and to provide for fair and equitable treatment of all who have been harmed."

However, he said settlement talks have failed because its main insurance carrier has not participated meaningfully in the process. The insurance carrier was identified as CNA.

Kettler also cited high legal expenses as a reason for seeking bankruptcy protection.

Roosa said bankruptcy protection should help speed the process of getting his clients what they fairly deserve. Now, instead of pursuing the cases in state and federal courts, everything will be pulled together into one court, he said.

"It was clear to an objective observer that this was going to happen. We embrace it," Roosa said.

He said he does not know what the diocese's assets may be worth because he has never been provided with that information.

Kettler said only eight of the 46 parishes within the diocese are financially self-sufficient, requiring the diocese to rely on the generosity of donors.

Robert Hannon, chancellor and special assistant to the diocese, said quite a few of the cases were uninsured because the abuse took place decades ago.

"We didn't have this kind of insurance coverage that protects us against these kinds of actions," he said.

Hannon said the diocese's three other insurance carriers participated in the mediation process, but not CNA. The company could not immediately be reached for comment.

Barbara Dorris, outreach director for SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said the bishop is trying to avoid having to disclose in court "how much he knew and how little he did about pedophile priests, nuns, seminarians and other church employees."

"Instead of fostering healing, he's delaying it," she said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

In November, a Roman Catholic religious order agreed to pay $50 million to more than 100 Alaska Natives who alleged sexual abuse by Jesuit priests. The settlement with the Oregon Province of the Society of Jesus was the largest one yet against a Catholic religious order.

However, the cases did not include those against the Diocese of Fairbanks, which owned and managed the churches in the villages in rural Alaska where the Jesuit priests were assigned.

The Fairbanks diocese is the nation's largest geographically, extending to more than 400,000 square miles. It is the only diocese in the United States to fall under the Catholic Church's missionary wing.

On the Net:
www.dioceseoffairbanks.org/

Vatican mobilizes Catholics
to help Christians in the Holy Land




Vatican City, Feb 15, 2008 / 11:25 am (CNA).- The head of the Congregation that oversees the Church in the Holy Land, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, has appealed to the Catholic Church to provide assistance to the Christians there, so that “the future may be welcomed with hope.”

The summons to support Christians in the Holy Land went out in the form of a letter to Catholic bishops all over the world, and to their respective Churches.

Cardinal Sandri’s appeal was made on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI, and asked for continued spiritual and material support for the Catholic community in the Holy Land.

"The absence of peace", says the cardinal in the English-language version of the letter, "exacerbates the many long-standing problems as well as the poverty afflicting the region of the Holy Places. That absence also contributes to the creation of new difficulties. Thus, we must recognize that Christians who reside there are a priority for the attention of the entire Catholic Church, together with that of all other Churches and ecclesial communities.”

The cardinal pointed to the annual Good Friday Collection as one specific way for Catholics to help those in the Holy Land and expressed his hope that "every local Church shall participate in the effort to further our commitment to charity.”

"In this way", he adds, "the Latin community openly supports the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the Franciscans who are Custodians of the Holy Land, and all those belonging to the Eastern Catholic Churches. The desire of the Holy See is that the charitable outreach by all Catholics will not simply be viewed as occasional, but as so continuous and profound that the future may be welcomed with hope,” he said.

Cardinal Sandri also made sure to explain that when the Congregation for Oriental Churches distributes aid, it does so without any “religious, cultural or political distinctions.”

Instead, the aim of the relief is “to equip the younger generations to take their place in society in a manner which renders them competent and able to transmit the worth of their Catholic education and formation.”

Among the concerns of the cardinal is stopping the flow of Christian immigration from the Holy Land. “We must seek to safeguard Christianity’s historic legacy by striving to preserve those ‘living communities’ in which the Mystery of Christ, our Peace, is cherished and celebrated," he explained.

Cardinal Sandri concluded his letter by encouraging his fellow bishops “to authorize once again this 'Collection for the Holy Land' owing to the merit of its objectives and its specific characteristics.”

Other Christian churches not invited
to enthronement of new Patriarch
Translated from







VATICAN CITY, Feb. 18 - The Catholic Church is not invited to the enthronement ceremony of the new Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Athens and Patriarch of Greece, Hieronymus II, elected last week to succeed the late Archbishop Christodoulos.

"The Vatican delegation to such an event was promptly named, but the Greek Orthodox Church has informed us that representatives of other Churches will not be invited to it," said Mons. Francesco Papamanolis, president of the Greek bishops conference, in an interview with SIR, the news agency of the Italian bishops' conference.

Mons. Papamanolis, who is also the parish priest of St. Dionysius, the Catholic Cathedral of Athens, said, "I think the steps forward we took with Archbishop Christodoulos may have to be taken all over. We can only pray."

But Archimandrite Ignatius Sotiriades, member of the Greek Orthodox delegation at the European Union, told SIR that the decision did not imply an 'impediment to dialog' nor 'lack of respect' for other religions.

"Very simply, the new Patriarch wants to keep a low profile and therefore, the protocol invitations have only gone out to the local Greek Orthodox churches, not to representatives of other Christian churches," he said.

He explained further: "In fact, he wishes to be enthroned only as Archbishop of Athens and not as the Primate of the Holy Synod. In his first speech, he did not even speak of Europe or of inter-Christian (ecumenical) relations. We take it to mean that he will leave off discussing what he wants to do as Primate of Greece - and therefore, all relations outside Athens - for a later discussion with all the hierarchy which will be meeting on Feb. 28. He will make his proposals, and the Synod can act on them."

That Hieronymus does not intend any 'closing out', the Archimandrite said, is shown by "his approval of this year's scholarship program - the fourth year in a row - for some 30 Catholic priests and seminarians to spend a month in Athens to learn about the Greek Orthodox religion and culture."

German bishops reiterate NO
to embryonic stem-cell research
Translated from the
Italian service of



Stem cells, guidelines for ecumenical prayers, the Pauline jubilee year, the situation of Catholics in China, and an evaluation of the Lisbon Treaty (the replacement for the rejected European Constitution draft) nations were some of the issues discussed in the plenary assembly of the German bishops which ended yesterday in Wuerzburg.

The news agency SIR reports on the final speech given by Cardinal Karl Lehmann, who resigned recently as president of the conference, which elected the Archbishop of Freiburg, Robert Zollitsch, to succeed him.

Lehmann said that the fiery debate in Germany on stem-cell research "distracts attention from the true and proper issue: protecting human dignity from the very beginning of life, and the embryo's right to life."

He said what matters is not the purpose of embryonic stem-cell research but "the fact that it involves killing embryos", and therefore, it involves "deciding whether one can take human life for the purpose of research."

Cardinal Lehmann called the Lisbon Treaty concluded last year 'a success', but the bishops are concerned over its failure to include the charter of fundamental human rights.

Moreover, the bishops find it 'unsatisfactory' that the document contains no reference to God and the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Planned to replace the EU Constitution that was rejected by the Netherlands and France in 2005, the new treaty was signed on 13 December 2007 in Lisbon, Portugal.

The Treaty of Lisbon is expected to be ratified by the rest EU member states within 2008, while it will take force as of 2009.

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

However, an earlier interview with the new head of the German bishops' conference was a bit ticklish. Here is a translation of an Italian news agency report:


MEW BISHOPS' PRESIDENT OPEN
TO EXAMINING PRIESTLY CELIBACY ISSUE




BERLIN, Feb. 16 (ANSA) - The new president of the German bishops' conference, Robert Zollitsch, 69, confirmed his liberal positions and told the weekly magazine DER SPIEGEL that he was open to examining the issue of priestly celibacy.

Zollitsch said that a link between priesthood and celibacy was not a theological necessity, but he is aware that a change in the policy would be "a revolution in which part of the Church would not participate."

In two successive worldwide Bishops' Synod in Rome, there has always been a great majority against a change in the policy.

Zollitsch said, "I think there cannot be a change unless there is a new Church Council called. because changing the policy would have significant effects within the Church."

On homosexuality, he said: "For me, it is not a question of liberalism, but of social reality. As a Catholic, of course, my ideal is that of traditional matrimony and the family. But when there are persons with a homosexual disposition, the State can decide appropriate laws for them. I personally consider so-called homosexual marriage false because it would seem to imply parity with a regular marriage between a man and a woman."

On the differences between the Catholic Church and the reformed evangelical churches of Germany, Zollitsch said the questions are being examined more openly today than in the past.

"The president of the Evangelical Church in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, speaks about an ecumenical profile [for Christian churches]. I cannot argue against that. I think that the Evangelical Church is a church, but other than the Catholic Church," Zollitsch said.
[Does this mean he is against the Vatican-II distinctions, as clarified by the CDF note last year?]


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

It turns out Rorate caeli blog ran a translation of the Der Spiegel item on Saturday in this post on Saturday:


POOR GERMANY
rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/


After the arid years in which the German Episcopal Conference was headed by one of the worst prelates in contemporary Catholicism, Cardinal Lehmann, the new President of the German Episcopal Conference, Robert Zollitsch, Archbishop of Freiburg, shows that he is ready to battle his fellow countryman, the Bishop of Rome - who only last year solemnly confirmed that, in "continuity with the great ecclesial tradition", priestly celibacy "remains obligatory in the Latin tradition" (Sacramentum Caritatis, 24).

The German Church remains in the hands of a rebellious prelate, as Zollitsch confirms in an interview to the German weekly Der Spiegel (translation by Chris Gillibrand, of Catholic Church Conservation):

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Head of German Catholics
considers celibacy "not necessary"


For Catholics, it would be a revolution: Robert Zollitsch, the new chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, is considering an end to the celibacy. For priests to live without marrying, was "not theologically necessary," he says in SPIEGEL - and also let his understanding for the Greens and the SPD [Socialists] be known.

HAMBURG – Into his first few days in office - and he even dares to take on a mammoth project: the Archbishop of Freiburg and newly elected chairman of the German Bishops' Conference, Robert Zollitsch said that he was against "a prohibition on thinking" about the subject of celibacy. In an interview with Spiegel, the 69-year-old said the link between the priesthood and celibacy was "not theologically necessary."

For the Catholic Church, this statement is a radical departure from past practice. Zollitsch is also aware of this: A farewell to celibacy "would be a revolution, in which a part of the church would not take part," he says. A Council that would be needed, because the interior life of the entire church would be affected.

At the same time, Zollitsch advocates an opening of his church towards new social milieus. He went on to distance himself from statements of other bishops about kindergarten care.

"Terms like 'Baby Bearing Machine' or 'stove bonus ' do not belong to my vocabulary and break down any discussion about the approach. We need nurseries because many parents simply are in need."

He spoke critically about the development of the CDU [the Conservative party, Christian Democratic Union], although that party shares "many Christian values in our sense."

But, then Zollitsch added, "The CDU has become closer to more neoliberal theories - and thereby there is a danger in the social market economy that social issues are not kept firmly enough in mind."

The proximity between the Catholic Church and the CDU was "very diminished". Furthermore, other parties such as the Socialists and the Greens appreciated "things that are important to us, more than ever before".

The Archbishop of Freiburg also canvassed for a better relationship with the Protestant Church. The Roman statement about what to be a church means triggered resentment among the Protestants. The Protestant Church "is a church. I cannot deny it."

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Cor Unum President
Urges Charity in India


JAMSHEDPUR, India, FEB. 18, 2008 (Zenit.org).- India's economic and social development has important consequences for the Church's charitable work in the country, according to the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.

On the invitation of this nation's episcopal conference, Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of that Vatican dicastery, began a 5-day trip to India on Feb. 15 to meet with the bishops in plenary assembly in Jamshedpur.

The Pontifical Council Cor Unum is the agency that coordinates and promotes the world's Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.

The council announced Cardinal Cordes' trip in a communiqué Saturday, in which it reported that the "purpose of the meeting [with the bishops] is a reflection on the spirit of the charitable commitment of the Church in light of the encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est,' with a particular emphasis on the study of the Christian roots of charity."

"With this visit," the note continued, "there is a desire to reinforce the Catholic Church's witness in the field of charity. This witness continues to make itself visible through many charitable works.

"Christians already operate 20% of the elementary schools in India, 25% of the support organizations for widows and orphans, and 30% of the support structures for the handicapped, lepers and victims of AIDS."

According to the pontifical council statement: "There are new challenges and opportunities that are emerging today. India, with its 1.2 billion inhabitants, is a nation in full development from the economic and social point of view and this has important consequences for charitable organizations.

"The mission of ‘diakonia,' or service, remains indispensable both for the poor and for the essence itself of the Church. Since diakonia is an ecclesial activity, the role of the bishop or ordinary is primary: He has the ultimate responsibility in charitable efforts.

"Cardinal Cordes will encourage the Indian prelates especially in this commitment."

The first stage of the cardinal's visit included a trip to the tomb of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, followed by visits to the shelters for the poor that she founded.

Local Muslims divided over
first Catholic Church in Qatar




DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 18 (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Catholic church of St. Mary, constructed as planned without a bell tower or cross, is close to inauguration.

In spite of the great modesty of the Catholic community, there is no lack of disagreement on the part of a Muslim intellectuals who are firmly opposing the new church, maintaining that a popular referendum is necessary.

The pages of the newspaper Al-Arab read, "the cross should not be raised in the sky of Qatar, nor should bells toll in Doha".

In a letter to Al-Watan, the engineer Rashed al-Subaie maintains that the Christians have the right to practice their faith, but should not have permission to build places of worship.

The lawyer and former justice minister Najib al-Nuaimi expressed himself as along the same lines. Nuaimi stresses that Qatar is a Muslim country, not a secular one, and maintains that a referendum is the only way to ensure that the church is socially acceptable.

Moderate comments of support come from Abdul Hamid al-Ansari, a former head of the faculty of Islamic law (sharia) at the University of Qatar, who has published articles in various newspapers welcoming the Catholic church in Doha: "Places of worship for various religions is a fundamental human right guaranteed by Islam".

St Mary's will ultimately become a gathering place for the community of Catholics, who number about 100,000 faithful from Southeast Asia and from the West.

"It will be merely a place for collective prayer", says St. Mary's parish priest, Father Tomasito Veneracion. "It will not have crosses outside the building or serve as a platform for proselytising".

A simple inauguration ceremony will be provided over by Cardinal Ivan Dias and Bishop Paul Hinder on March 14. Five other churches are planned for the same property where St Mary stands, including Anglican, Coptic, and Greek Orthodox churches.

Once St Mary's open its doors to the faithful, Saudi Arabia will be the only Gulf country that still prohibits the building of churches within its borders.

POST-SIBIU ECUMENICAL
ASSEMBLY IN LONDON


Translated from PETRUS today:

VATICAN CITY - The annual meeting of the Joint Committee of the Conference of European Churches (local acronym KEK) and the Council of the European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) will take place in London from Thursday to Sunday.



The main agenda will be a follow-up to the third European Ecumenical Assembly held in Sibiu, Romania, last September, as well as relationships with Islam.

The Joint Committee consists of 7 representatives from each of the two main organizations.

The CCEE representatives include Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux; Cardinal Josip Bozanic of Zagreb; Mons. Stanislaw Hocevar of Belgrade; Mons. Vincenzo Paglia, Bishop of Terni (Italy); and the secretary general of the CCEE, Mons. Aldo Giordano.

The KEK representatives include its president, Protestant pastor Jean-Arnold of Clermont (France); its vice-president, Orthodox Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania; Lutheran deacon Margarethe Isberg; Anglican Bishop Richard Chartres of London; and Metropolitan Gennadios of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

The participants will visit the St. Ethelburga Center for Reconciliation and Peace and get together for Vespers at the Anglican Cathedral of St. Paul.

The members will also attend formal receptions by the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, and the Anglican Bishop of London, Richard Chartres.

A reason to celebrate
Northern Daily Leader
(New South Wales, Australia)
Feb. 19, 2008




THE cross and icon, symbols of the world’s largest youth event Catholic World Youth Day, were greeted with a short ceremony in Parliament House in Canberra yesterday.

Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell was joined by hundreds of school children and parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson, in welcoming the 3.8m cross.

Cardinal Pell said World Youth Day (WYD) – to be held in Sydney between July 15 and 20 – will be a “momentous and uplifting” event.

“The WYD cross and icon have visited parliaments around the world and their visit here is a reason to reflect,” Cardinal Pell said in parliament’s Great Hall.

“It is a moment to pray for justice, peace and equality in our country and a moment to acknowledge prayerfully those times in our history when the cross has not been faithfully borne by those who profess to follow Christ.”

The cross and icon have visited parts of the world coinciding with historic events - it was in Europe in 1985 before the fall of the Berlin Wall and Ground Zero in New York City in 2002.

“The icon and cross has reached another significant historic moment here,” Cardinal Pell said in reference to last week’s Parliamentary apology to the stolen generations.

Mr Rudd was greeted by cheers and loud clapping before he spoke on the significance of the event.

He said Australia was “honoured” to have Pope Benedict XVI visit this year for WYD, marking his first visit to the country.

The 40kg wooden cross was carried into the Great Hall by eight pallbearers, followed by four people carrying the 15kg icon.



The cross and icon have spent the past seven months travelling around Australia in the lead-up to WYD, accompanied by an indigenous message stick.

The message stick is an invitation to Aboriginal Australians to attend WYD from the indigenous people of Sydney – the Eora Gadigal people.

The ceremony included a Welcome to Country by Aunty Agnes Shea, a local Ngunnawal elder.

WYD was established by Pope John Paul II in 1986 as an annual event to reach out to young people.

The Sydney event is expected to attract 500,000 people.

Cardinal Kasper hails 'new climate'
with Russian Orthodox



ROME, FEB. 19, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The ice is melting in relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, and there is good will for cooperation, says the president of the Pontifical Council for Promotion Christian Unity.

In an interview with Gerard O'Connell for Our Sunday Visitor, Cardinal Walter Kasper said relations with the Russian Orthodox Church are much better than when he began as president of that Vatican dicastery. And he discussed what lies ahead on the path toward unity.

"Very soon after I was appointed as president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity [March 2001], the four Catholic dioceses in Russia were established, and this caused a profound crisis with the Russian Orthodox Church," Cardinal Kasper explained. "In the meantime the situation has improved; it’s no longer ice, the ice is melting.

"We are of the opinion that a personal encounter between the Pope and Patriarch Alexy II would be very helpful for the further development of our relations. The Moscow Patriarchate has never in principle excluded such an encounter, but it claims that some problems have to be resolved beforehand, i.e., the problem of what they call proselytism and uniatism.

"We are working to solve these problems and we hope we are able to do so even though there are different approaches and concerns. At this moment the Moscow Patriarchate is interested in cooperating on the questions relating to the Christian roots and values of Europe."

The two questions of "proselytism" and "uniatism" are the two main issues blocking a possible meeting between the Pope and the patriarch, the cardinal affirmed.

"We have explained several times what we mean and what we do not mean with regard to these two problems. In particular, we have explained that the Catholic Church too does not accept proselytism," the cardinal said. "But the problem is that we have a different understanding of this term."

Cardinal Kasper clarified: "This problem is linked with the Russian Orthodox understanding of their canonical territory. The Catholic Church recognizes that Russia has a longstanding Christian tradition and culture. We recognize all the sacraments, the episcopate and the priesthood of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"Thus, while Catholic Christians living in Russia may clearly give witness of their Catholic faith, there cannot be an evangelization as such, as this can only be undertaken in a pagan context. Therefore, it is not our policy or strategy to convert the Orthodox to the Catholic Church...

"We do not undertake missionary work in Russia as we do in the pagan regions of the world. We want to collaborate with the Russian Orthodox in missionary work and in evangelization, which is needed in modern Russia after more then 70 years of atheistic propaganda and education."

But despite work to clarify the terms, Cardinal Kasper said he has the "impression that doubts still remain, because I feel they think that there is a discrepancy between what we are saying and what we are doing."

"For this reason, two or three years ago, I was very active in setting up a joint commission to investigate complaints," the pontifical council president stated. "If a complaint is valid, then we have to change; but if it is not correct, then the given complaint should be retracted. This commission works well and could solve some concrete problems.

"When I was in Kiev only one week ago I had the impression that now, thanks to God, something is moving and the situation is slowly improving also between the Orthodox under Moscow and the Greek Catholics, even though relations -- by virtue of historical reasons -- are still difficult.

"I had a very friendly meeting with Metropolitan Vladimir. We were able to inaugurate St. Clement Ecumenical Center with the blessing of Metropolitan Vladimir from the Russian Orthodox Church, of Cardinal Lubomyr Husar from the Greek Catholic Church, and of Cardinal Marian Jarworski from the Latin Catholic Church.

"This accord is in itself a little miracle. This center is still a small plant, but it is set to grow. I hope it will become a common reference and meeting point, a place of dialogue and communication between the Churches."

Still, the cardinal confirmed, the problem of uniatism still remains.

"We say that 'uniatism,' understood as a method, today and in the future, is no longer a means of achieving Church unity," Cardinal Kasper said. "But the so-called uniate Churches, which emerged in the past under circumstances very different from today, are a historical reality and have a right to exist.

"But they must open themselves to ecumenical relations with the Orthodox mother Churches. As I see it, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church is ready to do so, and has a good ecumenical program in the academy of Leopoli. Finally, we agreed that both sides should recognize the religious freedom of individual Christians who by reason of their conscience want to join another Church."

Cardinal Kasper agreed that there is still debate over alleged Catholic proselytism in what the Russian Orthodox consider their canonical territory.

There was even, he said, a statement made by Metropolitan Kirill regarding a wish that Benedict XVI would abolish the four dioceses established by John Paul II, a statement Cardinal Kasper called "very surprising."

"But," the cardinal said, "during [the metropolitan's] recent visit in Rome he did not mention this point. I think it must be clear also to him that the Holy See cannot and will not step back.

"It is hard to see a qualitative difference between our Catholic dioceses in Russia and the Russian Orthodox dioceses in the West. The Russian Orthodox Church should therefore look at nurturing the same openness that we offer to Russian Orthodox Christians and to their parishes and dioceses here in Western Europe and in America."

In any case, Cardinal Kasper said, "I am convinced the dialogue will now go on. Each Church has to face the reality that there is no realistic and responsible alternative to dialogue in today’s world. Faced with the challenge of secularization, Christians have to stand together and give common witness of their faith and of Christian values."

"Patriarch Alexy II has expressed several times his high esteem for Benedict XVI, as a theologian with a profound understanding of the Church Fathers and as a Pope who stands for conservative values, conservative understood in the positive meaning of the term," the cardinal affirmed. "Letters and greetings are regularly exchanged between them, and both are committed to improving relations."


AND NOW, THE VIEW
FROM MOSCOW

Ummmm....I know it's part of CardinalKasper's job description as president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity to be optimistic, but some German pragmatic realism would help when dealing with the intransigent Alexei-II. On the heels of Cardinal Kasper's interview above is this one given by the Patriarch:


Russian Patriarch sees
no imminent ties with Rome



WARSAW, Feb. 19 (Reuters) - The leader of Russia's powerful Orthodox Church played down hopes of an imminent reconciliation with Rome in an interview on Monday, saying Catholic missionary activity in Russia prevented the churches from restoring ties.

Speculation has flourished about a possible historic meeting between Russia's Patriarch Alexiy II and Pope Benedict XVI after both sides indicated they were open in principle to healing a centuries-old rift between Western and Russian Christianity.

Russia is by far the biggest Orthodox Christian church and has undergone a big religious revival since the demise of the atheist Soviet Union. President Vladimir Putin, once a KGB spy, is now open about his Orthodox faith.

"Stopping us from restoring relations are some unsolved issues between our churches," Alexiy told the Polish daily Dziennik in an interview published on Monday.

"We have many questions about the missionary and charitable activities of Catholic monks and clergy in Russia and CIS (former Soviet) countries."

The Russian Orthodox Church, by far the dominant religion in Russia, has sharply criticised the Vatican for creating new dioceses on its turf and has accused Catholic priests of attempting to poach Orthodox believers as converts to Rome.

Alexiy said some Catholic clerics "started to see the ex-Soviet Union as a spiritual desert to be dealt with".

The Catholic Church says it is only doing what is necessary to attend to the needs of Russia's estimated one million Catholics, mostly of East European or German origin, who were neglected during decades of religious persecution in the Soviet Union.

"We have always said that a Russian visit of (former) Pope John Paul was possible only when all the problems between our churches were resolved. Unfortunately, it has not happened until now," Alexiy said.

"In Russia and Ukraine, Catholics always treated the Orthodox believers more as enemies than as brothers in faith ... the activities of Catholics in Russia have created many challenges for the dialogue of our churches."

"These matters need to be resolved".

In particular, Alexiy criticised Catholic shelters which he said brought up orphans from Orthodox families in the Catholic tradition, saying this "is hurting us exceptionally".

Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz said last October at a farewell news conference after 16 years heading the Catholic Church in Russia that the Orthodox "could have been better to us", adding he never sought to convert Orthodox Christians.

Christianity split into two branches in the Great Schism of 1054, when the Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman church in a row over papal authority and the insertion of a disputed clause into the Creed, the central statement of Christian faith.

Catholic clergy 'strained'
by rush of the faithful in
the 'world's busiest diocese'
By Nishika Patel
The Standard (Hongkong)
February 18, 2008

Hong Kong's Catholic priests are facing mounting pressure as they struggle to cope with the growing workload of the "world's busiest diocese," says a top church leader.

Reverend Lawrence Lee, chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, told The Standard that a shortage of priests and a heavy workload was placing serious strains on the clergy.

He said the diocese's 300 priests were not enough to cater to the city's 250,000 Catholics - a number that increases by 2,500 yearly.

It is common for priests to deal with churchgoers as late as 11pm, Lee said. Hong Kong has the world's busiest diocese, he said, due to being a financial hub, its proximity to the mainland and small size.

"Many people come to Hong Kong for business and pass through on their way to China, which means the local church is full of vitality," Lee said.

"The parishes are very active in the evening. After people leave their offices they come to church for meetings and activities. We can be taking calls at 11pm or meeting people after 8pm. This is common in poorer districts. They cannot handle the workload."

Priests are getting older, with the average age over 60 years, but they are still having to take care of their parishes. In the past seven years the diocese has tried to attract younger blood but only managed to recruit 10 priests, with just four from Hong Kong.

Priests usually start the day with mass at 7am and then engage in pastoral work in schools, hospitals, funeral services and home visits. They then handle parish activities in the evening.

About 30 are also busy with the work of 24 diocesan commissions, which advise the bishop on social issues including hospital work, education and justice. Dioceses in Western countries did not face such pressures, Lee said.

The vice rector of the Holy Spirit Seminary, Benedict Lam, agreed.

"Hong Kong is such a small place to have so many parishes," he said. "There are 50. The Catholic density is so high that the workload is also high."

Lee said it was more difficult to attract priests because of the secularization of society and smaller families. "People's outlook on life is different and they have different values from the past."

Cardinal Newman close to beatification
by Peter Jennings
The Times of London
Feb. 19, 2008





The Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890, the best-known English churchman of the 19th century, may be beatified later this year according to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

Last month Cardinal José Saraiva Martins said that he hoped that the beatification of Cardinal Newman, founder of the English Congregation of the Oratory of St Philip Neri, would happen this year.

Fr Paul Chavasse, the Provost of the Birmingham Oratory in Edgbaston, where Newman spent much of his Catholic life, said: “We are much encouraged that Cardinal Martins has indicated that the beatification of our founder Cardinal Newman might take place later this year.”

Fr Chavasse, who is also Postulator of the Newman Cause, continued: “At present the Congregation for Saints in Rome is meticulously investigating the 'miraculous' healing during 2001 of Deacon Jack Sullivan from the Archdiocese of Boston, USA. We encourage everyone to redouble their prayers for a successful outcome.

"The beatification of this great English cardinal will hold him up to the Church world-wide as a sure guide of orthodoxy, at a time when the Catholic faith is under increasing attack in our secular society,” he added.

Mr Sullivan, 69, a Magistrate from Marshfield, Massachusetts, had a severe spinal disorder but was restored to full mobility after prayer to Cardinal Newman on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15 2001.

Pope Benedict XVI has been interested in Cardinal Newman since first reading him in 1946, at the age of 18.

At the end of the introduction to my book Benedict XVI And Cardinal Newman I wrote: “Will it be Benedict XVI, the first Pope of the twenty-first century, who will canonise John Henry Newman, and declare him a Doctor of the Church? Except for the martyrs, Newman would be the first English saint canonised since the Reformation.”

The only Englishman to be declared a Doctor of the Church is the Venerable Bede, a Benedictine monk, who died in 735 - an honour bestowed by Pope Leo XIII in 1899.

St Bede the Venerable is buried in Durham Cathedral, more than 175 miles to the north east of the Oratory House at Rednal, on the outskirts of Birmingham, where Cardinal Newman was buried on August 19, 1890 following his Funeral Mass in Edgbaston.

Who was Newman?

John Henry Newman was born at 80 Old Broad Street in the City of London on February 21, 1801. The site is now marked by a blue plaque on what was the visitors’ entrance to the London Stock Exchange. He was the eldest of six children born to John Newman and Jemima Fourdrinier, who had been married on September 24 1799 in St Mary’s church in Lambeth.

John Henry was baptised on April 9, 1801, in the church of St Benet Fink, no longer in existence. His bothers and sisters to whom he became close were Charles, Harriett, Francis, Jemima and Mary. Their father was a partner in a small banking firm. Their mother was the daughter of a paper manufacturer of Huguenot ancestry.

The Newman family moved to 17 Southampton Street (now Southampton Place) in Bloomsbury in 1803 and also owned a country house at Ham where young John Henry lived for the first few years of his life. Mr and Mrs Newman were members of the Church of England. John Henry was brought up with a love for the Bible, taught by his mother.

Meanwhile, the anniversary of Cardinal Newman’s birthday is marked each year at his Birmingham Oratory in Edgbaston by a Musical Oratory – a service of music, preaching and prayer. It will be held this week, on Thursday February 21 at 7.30pm.

The service based around theme “Newman On Lent” will be led by Fr Gregory Winterton, the former Provost and Vice Chairman of the Friends of Cardinal Newman and Dr Francis Jackson, Organist Emeritus of York Minister, will play some organ music. Towards the end of the service Fr Winterton will lead the congregation in the special prayer for the beatification and canonisation of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman. All are welcome.

The Musical Oratory dates back to the 16th century, the time of St Philip Neri (1515-1595) and is a combination of prayers, music (choral or instrumental) and short addresses or Fervorini as they are known in Italy. These Fervorini were much used by St Philip Neri who founded the Congregation of the Oratory in Rome during 1575.

Peter Jennings, is a Catholic journalist, writer and broadcaster. He has worked with the Fathers of the Birmingham Oratory on the Cause for the beatification and canonisation of Cardinal Newman since 1975. His book Benedict XVI And Cardinal Newman (Family Publications, Oxford) was launched at the English College in Rome in October 2005. He will write regularly for Times Online on the moves in Rome to beatify Cardinal Newman.

German bishop clarifies
Zollitsch remarks on priestly celibacy


REGENSUBRG, Feb 20, 2008 (CNA).- Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller of REGENSBURG told reporters in Germany today that the Catholic Church does not intend to abolish clerical celibacy.

“The Latin rite of the Catholic Church holds to the sensible union of the priesthood and the celibate life for love of the Kingdom of Heaven. This is and will continue to be the Catholic Church’s discipline,” the bishop said, adding that celibacy will not be abolished “now or in the future.”

He said reporters had twisted the comments of Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg about celibacy, saying that “in a fast interview, all of the demands related to the issue of priesthood and celibacy cannot be satisfied.”

He went on to note that Vatican II clarified that the Church would continue to uphold the tradition of priestly celibacy.

According to the website Kath.net, Bishop Muller reiterated that “as bishops we are concerned about awakening vocations to the priesthood and striving to deepen the understanding of the spiritual dimension of the celibate life.”

Men who feel called to the priesthood and to the charism of this way of life in accord with the Gospel can be blessed as priests in the Catholic Church, “as long as the necessary requirements are met,” he said.

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In fairness, Mons. Zollitsch said that priestly celibacy was open to question because it was not a theological necesdity, but he also said he did not feel a change in Catholic practice development that was imminent.