"The Truth Makes Us Good and Goodness Is True"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 18, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the speech Benedict XVI planned to deliver Thursday at La Sapienza University in Rome. The Vatican reported Tuesday that the visit would be postponed due to what the Pope's secretary of state called a lack of the "prerequisites for a dignified and tranquil welcome."

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Magnificent Rector,
Political and Civil Authorities,
Illustrious Professors and Administrative Staff,
Dear Young Students!
It is a source of great joy for me this encounter with the community of La Sapienza -- University of Rome -- on the occasion of the inauguration of the academic year. For centuries now this university marks the journey and! the life of the city of Rome, bringing the best intellectual energies to bear fruit in every field of knowledge.

Whether in the period when, after its foundation at the behest of Pope Boniface VIII, it depended directly on ecclesiastical authority, or whether when the "Studium Urbis" later developed as an institute of the Italian state, your academic community has maintained a high scientific and cultural level, which places it among the most prestigious universities of the world.

The Church of Rome has always looked upon this university center with affection and admiration, recognizing the commitment -- sometimes arduous and demanding -- to research and to the formation of new generations. Significant moments of collaboration and dialogue have not been lacking in recent years. I would like to recall, in particular, the International Meeting of Rectors on the occasion of the Jubilee of Universities that saw your community take charge, not only of welcoming and organizing, but above all of the prophetic and complex task of elaborating a "new humanism for the third millennium."

It is a pleasure, in this circumstance, to express my gratitude for the invitation you have offered to me to come to your university to give a lecture. In this regard I asked myself first of all the question: What can, and must, a Pope say on an occasion like this? In my lecture at Regensburg I spoke, indeed, as Pope, but above all I spoke as a former professor of that university of mine, trying to bring together memories and current events. At La Sapienza, the ancient university of Rome, however, I am invited precisely as Bishop of Rome, and because of this I must speak as such. Certainly, La Sapienza was once the Pope's university, but today it is a secular university with that autonomy that, on the basis of its foundational concept itself, has always been part of the university, which must be bound exclusively to the authority o! f the truth. In its freedom from political and ecclesiastical authorities, the university finds its particular function, precisely for modern society as well, which needs an institution of this type.

I return to my initial question: What can and must the Pope say in meeting with the university of his city? Reflecting on this question, it seemed to me that it included two others, whose clarification must lead by itself to the answer. It must, in fact, be asked: What is the nature and the mission of the Papacy? And still further: What is the nature and the mission of the university? In this place I do not wish to detain you and me with long disquisitions on the nature of the Papacy. A brief remark will suffice.

The Pope is first of all Bishop of Rome and as such, in virtue of succession to the Apostle Peter, has an episcopal responsibility in regard to the whole Catholic Church. The word "bishop" – "episkopos" in Greek, which primarily means "overseer" -- has already in the New Testament been fused together with the biblical concept of shepherd: He is the one who, from a higher vantage point, considers the whole, concerning himself with the right path and of the cohesion of the whole. In this sense, such a designation of his task orientates him first of all to the entirety of the believing community. The bishop -- the shepherd -- is the man who takes care of this community; he who maintains its unity and keeps it on the way toward God, indicated, according to the faith, by Jesus -- and not only indicated by Jesus: Jesus himself is the way for us.

But this community with which the bishop concerns himself -- large or small as it may be -- lives in the world; its state, its example and its word inevitably influence all the rest of the human community in its entirety. The bigger it is, the more that its good state or its possible degradation have repercussions for the whole of humanity. Today we s! ee with great clarity how the conditions of the religions and how the situation of the Church -- her crises and her renewals -- affect the whole of humanity. Thus the Pope, precisely as shepherd of his community, has also become more and more a voice of the ethical reason of humanity.

Here, however, there immediately surfaces the objection, according to which, the Pope would not truly speak on the basis of ethical reason, but would take his judgments from the faith, and because of this he could not pretend that they are valid for those who do not share this faith. We must return to this issue later because here the absolutely fundamental question is posed: What is reason? How can a claim -- above all a moral norm -- show itself to be "reasonable"?

At this moment I would like to only briefly note that John Rawls, although denying to comprehensive religious doctrines the character of "public" reason, nevertheless sees at least in their "nonpublic" reason a reason that cannot, in the name of a secularly hardened rationality, simply be disregarded by those who support it.

He sees a criterion for this reasonableness in, among other things, the fact that similar doctrines derive from a responsible and validly grounded tradition in which, over a long period of time, sufficiently good argumentation has developed to support the respective doctrine. What seems important to me in this affirmation is the recognition that experience and demonstration over the course of generations, the historical background of human wisdom, are also a sign of its reasonableness and its enduring significance. In the face of an a-historical reason that tries to construct itself through a-historical rationality, the wisdom of humanity as such -- the wisdom of the great religious traditions -- is to be valued as a reality that cannot be with impunity thrown into the dustbin of the history of ideas.

Let us return ! to the initial question. The Pope speaks as a representative of a believing community in which, over the centuries of its existence, a determinate wisdom of life has matured; he speaks as the representative of a community that bears within itself a treasury of ethical knowledge and experience that turns out to be important for the whole of humanity: in this sense he speaks as a representative of ethical reason.

But now we must ask ourselves: And what is the university? What is its task? It is a huge question to which, once again, I can try to respond only in an almost telegraphic way with some observations. I think that it can be said that the true, interior origin of the university is in the desire for knowledge that is native to man. He wants to know what it is that surrounds him. He wants truth. In this sense we can see that Socrates' self-questioning as the impulse from which the Western university was born.

I think, for example -- to mention only one text -- of ! the debate with Euthyphro, who defends mythical religion and his piety before Socrates. Against this Socrates poses the question: "Do you really believe that the gods fight with one another, and have awful quarrels and battles? … Must we in fact say, Euthyphro, that all that is true?" ("Euthyphro," 6b-c). In this apparently impious question -- which in Socrates derived from a more profound and more pure religiosity, from the search for the truly divine God -- the Christians of the first centuries recognized themselves and their path. They did not understand their faith in a positivistic way, or as an escape from frustrated desires; they understood it as the dispersal of the fog of mythological religion to give room for the discovery of that God who is creative Reason and at the same time Reason-Love.

On account of this, reason's asking itself about the greater God, as its asking about the true nature and the true meaning of the human being, wa! s not a problematic form of a lack of religiosity for those early Christians, but was part of the essence of their way of being religious. They did not need, then, to throw off or put aside Socratic self-questioning, but were able -- or rather, had to -- accept as part of their own identity reason's difficult search to reach knowledge of the whole truth. In this way, in the domain of Christian faith, in the Christian world, the university was able to -- or rather, had to -- be born.

It is necessary to take a further step. Man wants to know -- he wants truth. Truth is first of all a thing of seeing, of understanding, of "theoria," as it is called by the Greek tradition. But the truth is never only theoretic. Augustine, in making a correlation between the beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount and the gifts of the Spirit mentioned in Isaiah 11, affirmed a reciprocity between "scientia" and "tristitia": mere knowing, he says, makes one sad. And, in fa! ct, those who only see and apprehend everything that happens in the world ends up becoming sad. But truth means more than knowing: Knowledge of the truth has knowledge of the good as its scope. This is also the meaning of Socratic self-questioning: What is that good that makes us true? The truth makes us good and goodness is true: This is the optimism that lives in Christian faith, because to it has been conceded the vision of the Logos, of creative Reason that, in the incarnation of God, has revealed himself as the Good, as Goodness Itself.

In medieval theology there was a substantial debate about the relationship between theory and practice, about the right relation between knowing and acting -- a debate that we cannot develop here. In fact, the medieval university, with its four faculties, presents this correlation. Let us start with the faculty that, according to the understanding of the time, was the fourth, namely, medicine. Even if it was considered more of an "art" than a science, nevertheless, its insertion in the cosmos of the "universitas" clearly signified that it was placed in the context of rationality, that the art of healing was under the guidance of reason, and was removed from the context of magic. Healing is a task that demands more and more from simple reason, but precisely because of this it needs the connection between knowing and power, it needs to belong to the sphere of "ratio."

In the faculty of jurisprudence the question of the relationship between practice and theory, between knowing and acting, inevitably appears. It is a matter of giving the right form to human freedom, which is always a freedom in reciprocal communion: Law is the presupposition of freedom, not its antagonist. Be here the question immediately arises: How can we identify the criteria of justice that make a freedom lived together possible and serve man's well-being. At this point a leap into the present i! mposes itself: It is the question of how a juridical norm that constitutes an ordering of freedom, of human dignity and of the rights of man can be found. It is the question that concerns us today in the democratic processes of the formation of opinion and that at the same time makes us anxious as a question for the future of humanity.

Jürgen Habermas expresses, in my view, a vast consensus of current thought when he says that the legitimacy of a constitutional charter, as a presupposition of legality, would be derived from two sources: from the egalitarian political participation of all citizens and from the reasonable form in which political conflicts get resolved. In regard to this "reasonable form" he notes that it cannot only be a struggle for arithmetic majorities, but it must be characterized by a "process of argumentation that is sensitive to the truth" ("wahrheitssensibles Argumentationsverfahren"). This is well said, but it is a difficult thing to transform into a political practice.

The representatives of that public "process of argumentation" are -- we know -- predominantly the parties as those in charge of the formation of the political will. In fact, they will unfailingly have as their aim above all the obtaining of majorities and so will almost inevitably be preoccupied with the interests that they promise to satisfy; such interests, however, are often particular and do not truly serve the whole. The sensitivity to truth is again and again defeated by the sensitivity to interests. I find it significant that Habermas speaks about the sensitivity to the truth as a necessary element of the process of political argumentation, reinserting thus the concept of truth into the philosophical debate and into the political debate.

But then Pilate's question becomes inevitable: What is truth? How is it recognized? If in answer to these questions one refers to "public reason,&qu! ot; as Rawls does, once more there necessarily follows the question: What is reasonable? How does a reason show itself to be true reason? In any case, on this basis it is made evident that, in the search for the law of freedom, for the truth of just communal life, voices besides those of parties and interest groups must be heard, but without thereby contesting the importance of the parties and interest groups. Let us return to the structure of the medieval university.

Alongside the faculty of jurisprudence were the faculties of philosophy and theology, to whom was entrusted the study of man's being in its totality and, along with this, the task of keeping the sensitivity to truth alive. It could even be said that this is the permanent and true meaning of both faculties: being guardians of the sensitivity to truth, not allowing man to be deterred from the search for truth. But how can they live up to this task? This is a question for which it is necessary again and again t! o labor, and which is never definitively posed or resolved. Thus, at this point, neither can I properly offer an answer, but an invitation to stay on the road with this question -- the road along which the great ones have struggled and searched throughout the whole of history, with their answers and their restlessness for the truth, which continually refers beyond any single answer.

Theology and philosophy form, because of this, a peculiar pair of twins, neither of which can be totally separated from the other and, nevertheless, each must preserve its proper task and proper identity. It is the historical merit of St. Thomas Aquinas -- vis-à-vis the various responses of the Fathers due to their historical context -- to have illumined the autonomy of philosophy, and with it the proper right and the responsibility of reason that questions itself on the basis of its powers. Differentiating themselves from the Neoplatonic philosophies, in which religion and philosophy we! re inseparably intertwined, the Fathers presented the Christian faith as the true philosophy, underscoring also that this faith corresponds to the exigencies of reason in search of the truth; that faith is the "yes" to the truth, compared with the mythic religions that had become mere custom.

But then, with the birth of the university, those religions no longer existed in the West, but just Christianity alone, and thus it was necessary to emphasize in a new way the proper responsibility of reason, that must not be absorbed by faith. Thomas found himself acting in a privileged moment: For the first time the whole corpus of Aristotle's philosophical writings were available; Jewish and Arab philosophies were present as specific appropriations and continuations of Greek philosophy. In this way Christianity, in a new dialogue with the reason of others, with which it came into contact, had to struggle for its own reasonableness.

The faculty of philosophy! , which, as the so-called "faculty of arts," until that moment had only been a propedeutic to theology, now became a true and proper faculty, an autonomous partner of theology and of faith in this reaction. We cannot pause here over the absorbing confrontation that resulted. I would say that St. Thomas' idea of the relationship between philosophy and theology could be expressed in the Council of Chalcedon's formula for Christology: Philosophy and theology must relate to each other "without confusion and without separation." "Without confusion" means that both of them preserve their proper identity. Philosophy must truly remain an undertaking of reason in its proper freedom and proper responsibility; it must recognize its limits, and precisely in this way also its grandeur and vastness. Theology must continue to draw from the treasury of knowledge that it did not invent itself, that always surpasses it and that, never being totally exhaustible throug! h reflection, and precisely because of this, launches thinking.

Together with the "without confusion," the "without separation" is also in force: Philosophy does not begin again from zero with the subject thinking in isolation, but rather stands in the great dialogue of historical wisdom, that again and again it both critically and docilely receives and develops; but it must not close itself off from that which the religions, and the Christian faith in particular, have received and bequeathed on humanity as an indication of the way. Various things said by theologians in the course of history and also things handed down in the practice of ecclesial authorities, have been shown to be false by history and today they confuse us. But at the same time it is true that the history of the saints, the history of the humanism that grew up on the basis of the Christian faith, demonstrates the truth of this faith in its essential nucleus, thereby making it an e! xample for public reason. Certainly, much of what theology and faith say can only be accepted within faith and therefore it cannot present itself as an exigency to those for whom this faith still remains inaccessible. At the same time it is true, however, that the message of the Christian faith is never only a "comprehensive religious doctrine" in the sense of Rawls, but a purifying force for reason itself, that helps reason to be more itself. The Christian message, on the basis of its origin, must always be an encouragement toward the truth and thus a force against the pressure of power and interests.

Well, I have only been talking about the medieval university, trying nevertheless to make transparent the permanent nature of the university and its task. In modern times new dimensions of knowledge have been disclosed that in the university have been valued above all in two great fields: first of all in the natural sciences, which have developed on the basis of the connection of experimentation and the presupposed rationality of matter; in the second place in the historical and humanistic sciences, in which man, scrutinizing the mirror of his history and clarifying the dimensions of his nature, attempts to understand himself better. In this development there has opened to humanity not only an immense measure of knowledge and power; the knowledge and recognition of the rights and dignity of man have also grown, and we can only be grateful for this.

But man's journey can never suppose itself to be at an end and the danger of falling into inhumanity is never simply overcome -- as we see in the panorama of contemporary history! Today the danger of the Western world -- to speak only of this context -- is that man, precisely in the consideration of the grandeur of his knowledge and power, might give up before the question of truth. And that means at the same time that reason, in the end, bows to the pressure of interests and the cha! rm of utility, constrained to recognize it as the ultimate criterion. To put this in terms of the point of view of the structure of the university: The danger exists that philosophy, no longer feeling itself capable of its true task, might degenerate into positivism; that theology, with its message addressed to reason, might become confined to the private sphere of a group more or less sizable. If, however, reason -- solicitous of its presumed purity -- becomes deaf to the great message that comes from the Christian faith and its wisdom, it will wither like a tree whose roots no longer reach the waters that give it life. It will lose courage for the truth and thus it will not become greater but less. Applied to our European culture this means: If it wants only to construct itself on the basis of the circle of its own arguments and that which convinces it at the moment -- worried about its secularity -- it will cut itself off from the roots by which it lives; then it will not become ! more reasonable and more pure, but it will break apart and disintegrate.

With this I return to the point of departure. What does the Pope have to do with, or have to say to the university? Surely he must not attempt to impose the faith on others in an authoritarian way since it can only be bestowed in freedom. Beyond his office as Shepherd of the Church, and on the basis of the intrinsic nature of this pastoral office, there is his duty to keep the sensitivity to truth alive; to continually invite reason to seek out the true, the good, God, and on this path, to urge it to glimpse the helpful lights that shine forth in the history of the Christian faith, and in this way to perceive Jesus Christ as the Light that illuminates history and helps us to find the way to the future.

From the Vatican, January 17, 2008

BENEDICTUS XVI

[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]

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God bless,
Lisa
lanat@rcn.com

"...every day, in going to church or in devoting ourselves to prayer at home, we start from God and end in him, so the entire day of our life here below, and the course of every single day, always starts from him and ends in him" ~ St Ambrose

By Hilary White

LANCASTER, UK, January 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Catholic bishop of Lancaster's plans to have his Catholic schools use Catholic doctrine from the Catechism of the Catholic Church has infuriated hard-line secularists and anti-religious voices in Parliament. Bishop Patrick O'Donoghue of the North West city has issued a 66-page document that outlines his determination to shift his schools back to a genuinely Catholic religious character, especially in catechesis, from which many parents and lay people say the Church in England has been steadily drifting for decades.
The Lancaster document will apply to all the schools, both primary and secondary, in his diocese. In it, Bishop O'Donohue calls for teachers to use science to teach about the "truths of the faith", recognise and respect the role of parents in teaching children about sex and mention sex only within the sacrament of marriage.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the virulently anti-Catholic National Secular Society (NSS), said, "I do not think the state should be funding Catholic indoctrination." The NSS has long campaigned for the abolition of any public funding for religious schools, and the erasure of any religious character in British public life.

"The bishop, it seems, wants to introduce a Taliban-style regime of Catholic orthodoxy in his diocese's schools," Terry Sanderson wrote for the NSS website. "It is time for [education minister] Ed Balls to do what other education ministers have not had the guts to do - tell the Archbishops and the bishops that their time is up in schools."

Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield and chairman of the parliamentary cross-party committee on children, schools and families, said he wants some English Catholic bishops to "meet" with the committee. The move was related, he said, to a rise in "fundamentalism" among religious leaders, a clear allusion to British fears of Islamic extremism.

Sheerman was quoted in the far-left Guardian newspaper: "A group of bishops appear to be taking a much firmer line and I think it would be useful to call representatives of the Catholic church in front of the committee to find out what is going on."

He continued, saying, "It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. But as soon as there is a more doctrinaire attitude questions have to be asked. It does become worrying when you get a new push from more fundamentalist bishops. This is taxpayers' money after all."

The bishop's reform, however, received high praise from the Vatican's Archbishop Mauro Piacenza, Secretary for the Congregation for Clergy who said, "The Congregation is especially pleased as your pastoral plan is precisely that which was called for in the 'General Directory for Catechesis' after the release of the 'Catechism of the Catholic Church'" (CCC).

In the document, the bishop insists that religious education teachers and those developing curricula use the Catechism and related sources. The instruction says to make the CCC available in school libraries and to each teacher and to include it in the classrooms from primary to secondary schools and to train teachers in its use.

Bishop O'Donohue wrote, "The secular view on sex outside of marriage, artificial contraception, sexually transmitted disease, including HIV and AIDS, and abortion, may not be presented as neutral information ... parents, schools and colleges must also reject the promotion of so-called 'safe sex' or 'safer sex', a dangerous and immoral policy based on the deluded theory that the condom can provide adequate protection against AIDS."

Despite the fury of anti-Catholic groups, Bishop O'Donoghue said he was "overwhelmed" by the positive response he has received from Catholics. "Before Christmas, my office was inundated with congratulations, enquiries, and requests for copies of Fit for Mission? Schools from within the diocese, from around the country and internationally."

Fr. Timothy Finigan, a pro-life activist and theology lecturer wrote on his weblog, "I have not read the whole document yet but even just skimming through, I am bowled over by it...frankly this is in a different league from anything I have seen in terms of school policy in over 23 years as a priest."

Fr. Finigan, however, warned that the biggest danger to Catholic schools is not from outside. "[I]t is likely that much of the most serious trouble will come from people within the Catholic education system itself: senior staff, governors and officials who will be outraged that the Church should suggest that they actually follow the teaching of the Catechism."

Read the text of the document (Adobe reader required):
http://www.lancasterrcdiocese.org.uk/mission%20review/school...

To contact Bishop O'Donohue:

Office (01524) 596050
Bishop's Apartment,
Cathedral House,
Balmoral Road,
Lancaster, UK.
LA1 3BT

Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:

UK Catholic Bishop to Schools: Lessons on Sex, Contraception Etc May Not be Presented as "Neutral Info"
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/dec/07121202.html

God bless,
Lisa
lanat@rcn.com

"...every day, in going to church or in devoting ourselves to prayer at home, we start from God and end in him, so the entire day of our life here below, and the course of every single day, always starts from him and ends in him" ~ St Ambrose

LifeSiteNews.com
Monday January 7, 2008

The Homily that Caused an Outcry and the Priest to be Dismissed

Homily on NFP provokes congregation member to stand up and shout at priest "When are you going to stop?"
By John Jalsevac

ROCKFORD, Illinois, January 4, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This past December 9, at St. James' parish in Rockford Illinois, a very normal Mass suddenly became a very unusual Mass when a parishioner stood up in the middle of the homily, interrupted the priest, shouting at him "When are you going to stop?", and then left, with her homosexual partner in tow. A few other parishioners also stood up and left the church. A few days later, the priest was dismissed from his duties at the parish by his bishop.

Catholics know that there are some things that you just don't hear preached from the pulpit any more. The most conspicuous of these unpreachables is sexual ethics, especially the idea that using contraception might be immoral, and contrary to a Culture of Life. Most priests know that these are unpopular subjects, and emphatically avoid them. But Fr. Tom Bartolomeo, who until several weeks ago was the associate pastor at St. James parish, is not your typical priest.

To begin with, Fr. Bartolomeo was ordained only just over a year ago. This, of course, is not exactly extraordinary in itself, except for the fact that he is now seventy years old. At an age when many other priests are retiring, therefore, he is only getting his feet wet.

Perhaps, says the elderly priest in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, his newness to the ministry and late vocation explains his almost youth-like zeal for his priestly duties. "I'm going to die with my boots on," he says. "Who knows how many years I have left? That kind of puts pressure on me to preach the Gospel message. My days are numbered."

About a month ago, however, Fr. Bartolomeo's enthusiasm for the Gospel message brought an unexpected turn into his life, when he gave what he thought was a normal Advent homily. The homily was the second of a projected series of four homilies dealing with life and family issues, designed to coincide with the four Sundays of Advent - the season leading up to the birth of Jesus. This particular homily had to do with contraception and natural family planning.

The Catholic Church teaches that the use of contraception is intrinsically and gravely immoral. Church teaching does, however, allow married couples to use the natural rhythms of the female body to knowingly space children, if there is a sufficiently grave reason to do so. These fundamental moral teachings formed the basis of Fr. Bartolomeo's homily.

"New births, anniversaries and funerals, separations of any kind, a photograph from the past - give us pause and remind us whom we are bound to," he said in his homily, a copy of which he provided for LifeSiteNews. "Our human sexuality - father, mother, brother, sister - reveals our deepest relationships. We call God our father, and his Son our brother."

"Contraception, contra-conception, trivializes the sacred value of human sexuality - a danger humanity did not have to face a century ago before the advent of modern chemistry and technology, the pill (before or after) and a host of plastic devices."

"Contracept, take God's plan off the table, and you have mayhem," he said. "The most important thing in your lives, bearing children, is no longer discussed. It has been permanently removed from the conversation. Done deal. The pill, the IUD, the diaphragm, the sponge, the condom - who is making money here? - have shut down not only the body but the brain. And wives and husbands wonder why they grow apart? When a man and woman, a husband and wife, share daily this most wonderful mystery of their human sexuality they are bonding as nature and God intended."

In the middle of this homily however, say witnesses, one congregation member stood up and began to argue with the priest, yelling "When are you going to stop?" Gerald Weber, who has been a parishioner at St. James for 47 years, was at that Mass. "It was embarrassing, the noticeable argumentative tone with which she stopped him in his homily," he told LifeSiteNews. "Father treated her nicely for the way she was acting, but she continued yelling. She finally sat down, but then stood up again, and took her friend with her and made a show of leaving the church. With that there were some other people who objected to the subject matter."

While Weber suggests that the homily may have been somewhat "graphic" for a Sunday Mass, insofar as it touched on some of the science of NFP, he points out that nothing in the homily was contrary to Catholic teaching. The fact that Fr. Bartolomeo was dismissed from the parish Weber calls "drastic." "I think it's rather drastic, without knowing all the facts, to come down on a man in this way."

Another parishioner, Heidi Martinez, who was also at the Mass in question, disagrees that the homily was graphic, saying that she can't even recall what might have been considered objectionable in that way.

Martinez says she distinctly remembers the date and time of the homily, because she gave birth to her first-born child that same day, shortly after she left the church; she calls her new-born child her "miracle baby," since she had previously gone through three miscarriages. She also says that she has something of a different perspective on the homily, being as she is recently married. The message that Fr. Bartolomeo preached was extremely pertinent and necessary, she says. "The Catholic Church pushes all the time--don't use contraceptives, use NFP, and all that, but a lot of people don't know why. And if you don't hear it from the Church that pushes it, where are you going to get it from?"

"You're certainly not going to get it in the Catholic schools."

Weber also revealed to Fr. Bartolomeo, and LifeSiteNews, that the parishioner who had created the scene was a publicly practicing lesbian. She and her partner had recently been told that they could no longer lector or distribute Communion at the parish. "They [the lesbian couple] may have had an edge," says Weber, "because they have recently been kind of, not reprimanded, but not allowed to participate like they had been participating."

The priest, however, is quick to defend his bishop. "Bishop Doran's orthodox Catholic reputation is well established," he points out. "Our diocesan Respect Life Office under the leadership of Bishop Doran is continuously advancing the pro-life cause."

"I'm not being punished," Fr. Bartolomeo clarifies, pointing out that Bishop Doran agreed that his homily was perfectly in keeping with Catholic teaching. "I wasn't accused of doing anything wrong. I think the implication was that I was imprudent."

The Rockford Diocese's media relations official, Penny Wiegert, told LifeSiteNews that the diocese would not comment on Fr. Bartolomeo's dismissal, saying "The reasons for these moves are between the individual priest and his bishop and is considered a personnel issue that our diocese does not discuss in the press out of respect for both the individual priest and his bishop."

Wiegert also defended the Rockford Diocese's pro-NFP stance, saying "The Rockford Diocese is in the forefront of supporting Natural Family Planning and educating the faithful on its physical and spiritual benefits especially in its marriage preparation programs, seminars for married couples and in informational classes....The aforementioned forums are considered to be the most appropriate for educating and promoting the benefits and details of NFP. "

Fr. Bartolomeo, however, clearly does not agree that he was imprudent. "The Church is really under attack, and I think we flinch at the slight objections and I don't think that's the proper way to react to our enemies," he says. "Rather than dissuading me, all of this is drawing me more and more into that truth, into the Gospel. I have no idea where this is going to take me." He says that now he is beginning to read everything he can get on the life and family issues, and is looking into the possibility of pursuing advocacy in those areas.

He also disagrees that his homily was "graphic," observing that even the youngest children routinely encounter much more explicit material in their day-to-day encounters with television, the internet, and sex-ed at school.

The priest says that he was surprised at the adverse reactions to his homily, but is also learning that many of the Church's teachings on sexuality are not well-known, and are often considered optional by some Catholics. "The fact is, I suspect that most Catholics do not practice NFP," he says. "I think for many people there's a visceral reaction to that, particularly if they haven't heard it before. And tweaking of consciences can be painful."

But, he adds, "There's nothing more central to the malaise and disease in the church than contracepting Catholic couples, and not realizing the wonderful strengthening of faith that can be found in NFP. All you have to do is meet a family and their children to see that they have found the proper way to relate to each other. It's so demonstrably wonderful to see this natural, loving union of children. You don't ordinarily see that in families."

See Fr. Barolomeo's complete homily at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2008/jan/080107a.html

God bless,
Lisa
lanat@rcn.com

"...every day, in going to church or in devoting ourselves to prayer at home, we start from God and end in him, so the entire day of our life here below, and the course of every single day, always starts from him and ends in him" ~ St Ambrose

Rosarium
The Prayers of the Rosary, In Latin & in English

IN nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

IN the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Domine, labia mea aperies, Et os meum annuntiabit laudem tuam. Deus in adiutorium meum intende, Domine ad adiuvandum me festina.

God bless!

Pax et bonum!
Lisa A., MI
lanat@rcn.com
http://www.consecration.com
Prayer is the best weapon we possess, the key that opens the heart of God.
-- St. Padre Pio

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

January and February, 2008

Dear Prayer Warriors,

Friends - Past, Present and Future

Throughout our lives, we have made many friends. There are the friends of
our past who we grew up with and over the years have lost contact with.
Then there are the friends who we associate with now, but then there are our
friends in the future - namely, those whom we now pray for their release
from Purgatory. They are now strangers to us but in the future they will be
our friends in Heaven.

This newsletter will speak of a friend from our past. John had emailed us
asking for a Chaplet of Our Lady of Sorrows. We emailed him back and asked
him if he was affiliated with a Monastery where we worked prior to our
retirement. (We had not known John's last name at that time) He then
realized Friends of the Poor Souls was our apostolate and was glad to be in
touch with us once again. John has joined our apostolate and shared with us
two experiences he had with a Soul from Purgatory. We would like to share
them with you.

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

John's first experience is as follows:

(John says) It happened at a Catholic Charismatic prayer meeting in 1989.
At that time my wife was in a PVS (persistent vegetative state) coma due to
an operating room accident -- since October of 1987, so at the suggestion of
a friend I started going to Healing Masses and prayer meetings in the hope
of asking for healing and prayers for her. On this particular evening, after
the prayer meeting ended, people would be allowed to ask to be "prayed over"
by the prayer group members for whatever intentions they had. Several
members of this prayer group had very discernable manifestations of the
gifts of the Holy Spirit (Word of Knowledge, Wisdom, Faith, Healing,
Discernment, etc. - as mentioned in St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians),
and after the pray-over they would share with you (if God allowed it) what
they "saw".

I asked to be prayed-over for my wife. When they were finished, one of the
ladies had a somewhat puzzled look on her face. I asked her what she "saw",
and she told me of her vision in very great detail. She said that she was
shown a plain wooden casket, rising from the ground, and then standing
upright. The lid opened, and then inside was a woman's skeleton. The
skeleton's arm and hand reached out - to me - and pulled back in again, as
if 'beckoning' me for something.......like it was saying "Come here." The
lady saw her do it several times in row.

Well, I immediately thought that the skeleton was that of my wife, who was
not dead - yet. "Is this God's way of telling me that she is going to die
soon?" I asked. "No, I saw no indication of that", she said. But the lady
was quite certain of two facts: it was a woman's skeleton; and it was not
my wife's. She asked me if I had any idea of what this could mean. I had
no explanation for it.

But, then after a minute or two, I remembered something! That very day I
had been passing by Immaculate Conception Cemetery, when - on a lark - I had
decided to go in and try to find my grandmother's grave. It was unmarked,
but my Mom had told me that it was over in the "St. Joseph" section, so I
had wandered over there near the statue of St. Joseph, but I did not see
anything that I could recognize as possibly having been grandma's grave. As
I was walking through that area, I almost tripped over a depression in the
ground. It was a grave that had sunken in an inch or two, and apparently
had not been visited or attended to for a very long time. There was no
marker, no flowers, nothing but grass. I got such a lonely feeling when I
walked over to it; so I stopped and said a "Hail Mary" for whoever was
buried there - figuring that no one had probably prayed for this person in
many years. Then I continued looking for grandma's grave, but to no avail.

I told this to the lady who had seen the vision, and immediately her whole
face lit up in a wonderful grin! "That's it!", she said. "The 'woman in
the casket' was the occupant of that grave. She was beckoning to you to
pray for her. She kept beckoning to you for more prayers!"

Then, the lady asked me if I regularly pray for the souls in Purgatory - but
I told her "No." My mom, when we were growing up, ALWAYS said a small
prayer for the souls in Purgatory whenever we passed a cemetery - but I
never did. It was just today that I felt I should, for the first time. So
the lady explained to me that I should start praying, regularly, for the
Holy Souls in Purgatory. I've been doing that very thing, ever since.

The second experience happened about three years ago.

(John says): I had been riding a bicycle back and forth to work for several
years because my car broke down beyond my financial ability to have it
repaired. Each day I would try to pass through Immaculate Conception
Cemetery on my way to work, and then again on my way home. As I would go
through the cemetery I would recite (and still do) the prayer of St.
Gertrude, wherein Our Lord told her that every time that prayer was recited
with devotion He would release 1000 souls from Purgatory into Heaven. My
former landlady was a 3rd Order Carmelite, and she told me that prayers for
the dead take on special beneficial strength if said while in a cemetery -
so that's why I started to say that prayer in my travels each day.

One winter's night, there was no moon and it was especially dark and
bitterly cold out. I had stayed late at work, and was soon freezing on my
trip home when I approached the cemetery. For some reason, I became very
scared that particular evening to enter. I couldn't figure out why I was
suddenly so scared to ride through the cemetery, as I had done hundreds of
times before. Well, I went in anyway. After only riding a few feet I
started to realize..."John, what are you so scared of? At worst, these are
just some poor spirits waiting to get to Heaven! There's nothing to worry
about."

Just then, about 50 feet inside the cemetery gate, I had to stop my bicycle.
I didn't know why.......but I was starting to feel something 'funny'
happening to my body.....all of a sudden I was starting to warm up, all
toasty inside. I could no longer feel the bitter cold of the night.
Then -- I'll never forget this as long as I live -- I could feel dozens of
people crowding around me -- hugging me -- warming me. And, even though I
could not see them with my eyes, my 'mind's eye' saw them all smiling! I
stayed there, straddling my bicycle, basking in this wonderful warm loving
feeling for about 10 minutes.

Slowly, I started to realize that after being scared only a few moments
before, here I was being warmed and 'thanked' by those souls whom I had
realized "....were just waiting to go to Heaven..." It was WONDERFUL!

Many are the times, through the years, when I ride through that cemetery
while praying for the poor souls -- hoping to relive that experience. Alas,
nothing so far. But, at least I know that they are there - in Purgatory -
and that they really do need and appreciate all of the prayers that we offer
for their release.

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

God bless you both for caring so very much for our suffering brothers and
sisters!

--
http://friendsofthepoorsouls.blogspot.com
http://relicbadges.blogspot.com