Luminous

Imagine the Potential - This Ad was Rejected by NBC and CNN

2011-01-23T11:51:00.000-05:00

Tim Tebow and Pam Tebow Prolife Superbowl 44 Commercial - Focus on the F...

2011-01-23T11:49:00.000-05:00

Catholic FAQ #8: If someone has an abortion and regrets it, will God for...

2011-01-23T11:42:00.000-05:00

Women & Abortion: Stories of Grief and Healing: March for Life 2011

2011-01-23T11:35:00.000-05:00

Archdiocese of Omaha, March for Life, Flash Mob Jan 22, 2011

2011-01-23T11:32:00.000-05:00

THE TENTH CRUSADE: God's 38th Anniversary Present to Roe v Wade

2011-01-23T11:18:00.000-05:00

THE TENTH CRUSADE: God's 38th Anniversary Present to Roe v Wade: "The hour has struck - the battle, the most widespread, bitter and ferocious the world has ever known, has been joined. It must be fought to the finish. - Pius XII... It took me several days to get my spirituality tucked in enough to read the sinister descriptions of Gosnell's infant extermination facility. The Grand Jury report, with photos of the macabre crimes against women and children is HERE. It's worse than I expected. Hundreds of children were delivered alive and then murdered. Their bodies and parts were strewn about in the blood and filth."

Midnight Mass - Homily of His Holiness, Benedict XVI

2010-12-25T04:01:00.000-05:00

MIDNIGHT MASS

SOLEMNITY OF THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

Saint Peter's Basilica

Friday, 24 December 2010

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

"You are my son, this day I have begotten you" – with this passage from Psalm 2 the Church begins the liturgy of this holy night. She knows that this passage originally formed part of the coronation rite of the kings of Israel. The king, who in himself is a man like others, becomes the "Son of God" through being called and installed in his office. It is a kind of adoption by God, a decisive act by which he grants a new existence to this man, drawing him into his own being.

The reading from the prophet Isaiah that we have just heard presents the same process even more clearly in a situation of hardship and danger for Israel: "To us a child is born, to us a son is given. The government will be upon his shoulder" (Is 9:6). Installation in the office of king is like a second birth. As one newly born through God's personal choice, as a child born of God, the king embodies hope. On his shoulders the future rests. He is the bearer of the promise of peace.

On that night in Bethlehem this prophetic saying came true in a way that would still have been unimaginable at the time of Isaiah. Yes indeed, now it really is a child on whose shoulders government is laid. In him the new kingship appears that God establishes in the world. This child is truly born of God. It is God's eternal Word that unites humanity with divinity. To this child belong those titles of honour which Isaiah's coronation song attributes to him: Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Is 9:6). Yes, this king does not need counsellors drawn from the wise of this world. He bears in himself God's wisdom and God's counsel. In the weakness of infancy, he is the mighty God and he shows us God's own might in contrast to the self-asserting powers of this world.

Truly, the words of Israel's coronation rite were only ever rites of hope which looked ahead to a distant future that God would bestow. None of the kings who were greeted in this way lived up to the sublime content of these words. In all of them, those words about divine sonship, about installation into the heritage of the peoples, about making the ends of the earth their possession (Ps 2:8) were only pointers towards what was to come – as it were signposts of hope indicating a future that at that moment was still beyond comprehension.

Thus the fulfilment of the prophecy, which began that night in Bethlehem, is both infinitely greater and in worldly terms smaller than the prophecy itself might lead one to imagine. It is greater in the sense that this child is truly the Son of God, truly "God from God, light from light, begotten not made, of one being with the Father". The infinite distance between God and man is overcome. God has not only bent down, as we read in the Psalms; he has truly "come down", he has come into the world, he has become one of us, in order to draw all of us to himself. This child is truly Emmanuel – God-with-us. His kingdom truly stretches to the ends of the earth. He has truly built islands of peace in the world-encompassing breadth of the holy Eucharist. Wherever it is celebrated, an island of peace arises, of God's own peace.

This child has ignited the light of goodness in men and has given them strength to overcome the tyranny of might. This child builds his kingdom in every generation from within, from the heart. But at the same time it is true that the "rod of his oppressor" is not yet broken, the boots of warriors continue to tramp and the "garment rolled in blood" (Is 9:4f) still remains. So part of this night is simply joy at God's closeness. We are grateful that God gives himself into our hands as a child, begging as it were for our love, implanting his peace in our hearts. But this joy is also a prayer: Lord, make your promise come fully true. Break the rods of the oppressors. Burn the tramping boots. Let the time of the garments rolled in blood come to an end. Fulfil the prophecy that "of peace there will be no end" (Is 9:7). We thank you for your goodness, but we also ask you to show forth your power. Establish the dominion of your truth and your love in the world – the "kingdom of righteousness, love and peace".

"Mary gave birth to her first-born son" (Lk 2:7). In this sentence Saint Luke recounts quite soberly the great event to which the prophecies from Israel's history had pointed. Luke calls the child the "first-born". In the language which developed within the sacred Scripture of the Old Covenant, "first-born" does not mean the first of a series of children. The word "first-born" is a title of honour, quite independently of whether other brothers and sisters follow or not. So Israel is designated by God in the Book of Exodus (4:22) as "my first-born Son", and this expresses Israel's election, its singular dignity, the particular love of God the Father.

The early Church knew that in Jesus this saying had acquired a new depth, that the promises made to Israel were summed up in him. Thus the Letter to the Hebrews calls Jesus "the first-born", simply in order to designate him as the Son sent into the world by God (cf. 1:5-7) after the ground had been prepared by Old Testament prophecy. The first-born belongs to God in a special way – and therefore he had to be handed over to God in a special way – as in many religions – and he had to be ransomed through a vicarious sacrifice, as Saint Luke recounts in the episode of the Presentation in the Temple. The first-born belongs to God in a special way, and is as it were destined for sacrifice. In Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross this destiny of the first-born is fulfilled in a unique way. In his person he brings humanity before God and unites man with God in such a way that God becomes all in all. Saint Paul amplified and deepened the idea of Jesus as first-born in the Letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians: Jesus, we read in these letters, is the first-born of all creation – the true prototype of man, according to which God formed the human creature. Man can be the image of God because Jesus is both God and man, the true image of God and of man. Furthermore, as these letters tell us, he is the first-born from the dead. In the resurrection he has broken down the wall of death for all of us. He has opened up to man the dimension of eternal life in fellowship with God. Finally, it is said to us that he is the first-born of many brothers. Yes indeed, now he really is the first of a series of brothers and sisters: the first, that is, who opens up for us the possibility of communing with God. He creates true brotherhood – not the kind defiled by sin as in the case of Cain and Abel, or Romulus and Remus, but the new brotherhood in which we are God's own family. This new family of God begins at the moment when Mary wraps her first-born in swaddling clothes and lays him in a manger.

Let us pray to him: Lord Jesus, who wanted to be born as the first of many brothers and sisters, grant us the grace of true brotherhood. Help us to become like you. Help us to recognize your face in others who need our assistance, in those who are suffering or forsaken, in all people, and help us to live together with you as brothers and sisters, so as to become one family, your family.

At the end of the Christmas Gospel, we are told that a great heavenly host of angels praised God and said: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!" (Lk 2:14). The Church has extended this song of praise, which the angels sang in response to the event of the holy night, into a hymn of joy at God's glory – "we praise you for your glory". We praise you for the beauty, for the greatness, for the goodness of God, which becomes visible to us this night. The appearing of beauty, of the beautiful, makes us happy without our having to ask what use it can serve. God's glory, from which all beauty derives, causes us to break out in astonishment and joy. Anyone who catches a glimpse of God experiences joy, and on this night we see something of his light.

But the angels' message on that holy night also spoke of men: "Peace among men with whom he is pleased". The Latin translation of the angels' song that we use in the liturgy, taken from Saint Jerome, is slightly different: "peace to men of good will". The expression "men of good will" has become an important part of the Church's vocabulary in recent decades. But which is the correct translation? We must read both texts together; only in this way do we truly understand the angels' song. It would be a false interpretation to see this exclusively as the action of God, as if he had not called man to a free response of love. But it would be equally mistaken to adopt a moralizing interpretation as if man were so to speak able to redeem himself by his good will. Both elements belong together: grace and freedom, God's prior love for us, without which we could not love him, and the response that he awaits from us, the response that he asks for so palpably through the birth of his son. We cannot divide up into independent entities the interplay of grace and freedom, or the interplay of call and response. The two are inseparably woven together. So this part of the angels' message is both promise and call at the same time. God has anticipated us with the gift of his Son. God anticipates us again and again in unexpected ways. He does not cease to search for us, to raise us up as often as we might need. He does not abandon the lost sheep in the wilderness into which it had strayed. God does not allow himself to be confounded by our sin. Again and again he begins afresh with us. But he is still waiting for us to join him in love. He loves us, so that we too may become people who love, so that there may be peace on earth.

Saint Luke does not say that the angels sang. He states quite soberly: the heavenly host praised God and said: "Glory to God in the highest" (Lk 2:13f.). But men have always known that the speech of angels is different from human speech, and that above all on this night of joyful proclamation it was in song that they extolled God's heavenly glory. So this angelic song has been recognized from the earliest days as music proceeding from God, indeed, as an invitation to join in the singing with hearts filled with joy at the fact that we are loved by God. Cantare amantis est, says Saint Augustine: singing belongs to one who loves. Thus, down the centuries, the angels' song has again and again become a song of love and joy, a song of those who love.

At this hour, full of thankfulness, we join in the singing of all the centuries, singing that unites heaven and earth, angels and men. Yes, indeed, we praise you for your glory. We praise you for your love. Grant that we may join with you in love more and more and thus become people of peace. Amen.

Help us, here they need everything

2010-12-13T16:20:00.001-05:00

AMERICA/HAITI - Between violence and cholera: the situation is dramatic.
Help us, here they need everything"

News; Fides Service

AMERICA/HAITI - Between violence and cholera: "the situation is dramatic. Help us, here they need everything"

Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) - "The situation is deteriorating further and further on the island. We have already arrived at 2,100 dead and we are taking about 400,000 infections and 200,000 deaths if this pandemic continues without being stopped", Father Antonio Menegon, Head of the Camillian Mission in Haiti, revealed to Fides (see Fides 26/11/2010). "The situation is dramatic, for the violence also raging throughout the country following the outcome of the elections. Everything is closed and blocked," said Fr Menegon. Ports and airports are closed, there are very few flights. Because of the violence, the United States and Canada have closed their embassies. The stores have been besieged. We cannot supply medicines or oil, everything is closed."

The Camillian missionary continued: "Our hospital continues to welcome people sick with cholera. Some have died, others recovered. In one family, during a funeral vigil where they did not know that the dead had died of cholera, 25 have died. We working with other hospitals to try to curb these emergencies, but everything is very complicated. Disinfectant, antibiotics and other medicine is being sent to cope with the cholera from the Camillian Province in Turin. There are many problems and the situation is getting worse."

Father Crescenzo Mazzella in Haiti reveals that they have received the medicines sent by air with the Red Cross nurses, but supplies are increasingly problematic. "The situation is dramatic." says Fr Crescenzo, "Help us, here they need everything, but also that God turns his gaze to Haiti." From another Camillian in Jeremie, Fr Massimo, comes the report that there are already 500 confirmed dead but that there is certainly double this number, because the entire country is infected. Even in the religious houses there are sick and dying. In public hospitals there are thousands of abandoned and infected people.

(AM/AP) (Agenzia Fides 13/12/2010)

Send donations to help Haiti through Catholic Relief Services:

http://crs.org/countries/haiti

WHEN WAS THE REAL FIRST THANKSGIVING?

2010-11-25T12:16:00.001-05:00

WHEN WAS THE REAL "FIRST THANKSGIVING"?

by Lisa Alekna

I've visited Plimoth Plantation a couple of times. I dimly remember the first time as a child – we visited a candle museum and we stood and stared at the boulder etched with the date "1620" and giggled – wondering why the settlers would jump from their ship to a rock instead of just walking up the beach. It seemed precarious and a little silly. Of course we all knew the legend of the "First Thanksgiving" – Pilgrims and local Indians feasted together and gave thanks after the Pilgrims nearly killed themselves off due to basic ignorance of how to do things like, oh, farm. And that might have been their first feast of gratitude and thanksgiving – but it was hardly the first Thanksgiving feast in the New World. There are at least two earlier events, and both of them are Catholic, and both involved not only a feast, but a Mass of Thanksgiving.

Let us travel now 1,200 miles south and more than 50 years earlier to the banks of the Matanzas River in North Florida. Here we find that ancient Timucuan village of Seloy, where the Spanish admiral Pedro Menendez de Aviles landed with his fleet of 500 soldiers, 200 sailors, and 100 civilian families and artisans on September 8^th, 1565. In this location, that later became the city of St. Augustine, Florida, they gathered with the inhabitants of Seloy, gathered at an altar, and said a Catholic Mass and held the first Thanksgiving feast.

No turkey, no cranberries, not even mashed potatoes. The Timucuans brought oysters and giant clams. The Spaniards bought garbanzo beans, olive oil, bread, pork, and wine. The main dish was a bean soup.

On the original site where Menendez landed now stands the Mission of Nombre de Dios and Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. Historians now recognize that the stories we all learned in grade school are wrong. St. Augustine is the oldest European settlement in what came to be called the New World. Archaeologists and historians agree. Here was the first Catholic Mass, here was the first Thanksgiving Day. In 1965 Professor Michael Gannon wrote the book "The Cross in the Sand", in which he stated that this feast should be recognized as the first Thanksgiving Day. The city built a 208-foot-tall stainless steel cross at the Mission of Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine, which was erected in 1965 to mark the 400th anniversary of the city, and the location of the nation's first Thanksgiving in 1565. The city also opened a 3,000-sq-ft museum as a center to celebrate and study the history of the Catholic faith in Florida from the date of the founding of the city on Sept 8, 1564 until the present. Permanent exhibits will include the coffin of Pedro Menendez de Aviles and the remains of the original "Rustic Altar". Each year the city's founding on Sept. 8 is celebrated with much pageantry, including cannon fire, a mayor's proclamation, speeches by historians and Mass at the Rustic Altar. A grass-roots group and city commission have been set up to plan festivities to celebrate the city's 450th anniversary in 2015. Realizing that the tales we learn as young children stick with us the longest, Florida school teacher Robyn Gioia felt so strongly about this lack of recognition that she wrote a children's picture book, "America's REAL first Thanksgiving," in April 2007.

After a failed attempt to cross the sea because of bad weather, Menendez landed at a harbor in Northern Florida on Sept. 4, 1565, that he named San Agustin (St. Augustine) in honor of the saint upon whose feast day, Aug. 28, he had first sighted land near what is modern day Cape Canaveral. The fleet's chaplain was a priest named Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, who not only was the fleet's spiritual leader, but also kept a log describing the historic passage and landing:

"On Saturday the 8th, the general landed with many banners spread, to the sounds of trumpets and salutes of artillery," according to a translation of what Father Lopez wrote. "As I had gone ashore the evening before, I took a cross and went to meet him, singing the hymn 'Te Deum Laudamus.' The general, followed by all who accompanied him, marched up to the cross, knelt and kissed it. A large number of Indians watched these proceedings and imitated all they saw done."

The Spanish named the landing spot Nombre de Dios, or "Name of God," and it became missionary headquarters in the new land. Father Lopez was named pastor of the new settlement. The Timucuans, a gentle people in their manner and disposition, had no reason to believe the Spanish were enemies. Menendez strove to find a way to co-exist with the native people and wrote that he treated the chief as he himself wanted to be treated.

The next "official" Thanksgiving feast was, again, not in New England, and did not involve the Pilgrims. New Mexico has claim to this date: April 30, 1598. On this day, the Spanish expedition lead by Don Juan de Oñate gave thanks for reaching a new homeland just south of modern day El Paso. Three months earlier the Spanish expedition had set out from Mexico, and after a long, dangerous trek forging a new trail northward, up what became the now famous El Camino Real [The Royal Road], the expedition crossed the Rio Grande and set up camp. After having braved the privations of the desert 86 days, traveling almost 800 miles, braving hunger, thirst, and risking their lives every day, the expedition had been assisted by natives whom the Spaniards called "the Mansos" who had helped the expedition by showing them where to find water, assisting them in crossing the Rio Bravo river, and presented them with gifts of fish, in exchange for the Spaniards gifts of clothing.

Don Juan ordered the erection of a chapel, and Fray Alfonso Martínez, the Commissary Apostolic, led the members of the expedition in singing a "very solemn Mass" and then delivered a "famous sermon, well thought out" to give thanks to God for their deliverance from the hardships of the trail. Following the solemn Mass, the attending Mansos were baptized. After the Mass, the Franciscan priests blessed the food on tables, ducks and geese, (again, no turkey, no cranberries!) and the 600-strong expedition of soldiers, colonists and their native guides, the Mansos, feasted together. Following the feast, Don Juan de Oñate took formal possession of the new land, naming it New Mexico, and dedicating this New World to the Lord, God Almighty, and his earthly lord, King Philip II of Spain, only son of the Emperor Charles V, and Isabella of Portugal. De Oñate also read the official proclamation: "In the name of the most Holy Trinity … I take possession of this whole land this April 30, 1598, in honor of Our Lord Jesus Christ, on this day of the Ascension of Our Lord …." and with this, the kingdom of New Mexico came into being, at midday on April 30, 1598, twenty-two years before the Pilgrims landed at Plimoth.

References:

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09326/1014871-37.stm

http://historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=736

In Fidelity to the Lords will... we recognize that the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth...

2010-09-18T20:43:00.001-04:00

As published in VIS - the Vatican Information Service:

PROGRESS IN MANY AREAS OF ANGLICAN-CATHOLIC DIALOGUE

VATICAN CITY, 17 SEP 2010 (VIS) - At 3.40 p.m. today the Holy Father travelled by car to Lambeth Palace in London, the official residence of the archbishop of Canterbury. The palace library, one of the oldest in the country, contains more than 120,000 books concerning the political, social and economic history of English-speaking countries. It also houses the archives of the archbishops of Canterbury from the thirteenth century to the present, and the archives of the Church of England.

The Church of England, a national Church which broke away from the Catholic Church in 1533 when King Henry VIII passed the Act of Supremacy, is made up of the ecclesiastical provinces of Canterbury and York which comprise the forty-three dioceses of the United Kingdom. The Church of England has twenty-five million faithful, forty-three percent of the country's population; Queen Elizabeth is its supreme governor while its spiritual head is the archbishop of Canterbury, primate of all England. The archbishops who preside over the two provinces and twenty-four other bishops sit by right in the House of Lords. The Anglican Communion has some eighty million faithful in thirty-eight autonomous provinces in 164 countries.

Arriving at Lambeth Palace the Holy Father was welcomed into the library by Rowan Williams, the current archbishop of Canterbury. Also present at the meeting were the archbishop of York, the primate of Scotland, and the bishops of London and Winchester.

The Holy Father visited an exhibition currently being held in the library commemorating the 400th anniversary of its foundation. Then, following a brief prayer and some remarks from Archbishop Williams, he delivered an address to those present.

Recalling how Archbishop Williams had mentioned the historic meeting thirty years ago between Pope John Paul II and Robert Runcie, then archbishop of Canterbury, Benedict XVI noted that, despite "the difficulties that the ecumenical path has encountered and continues to encounter", in the forty years since the inception of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission there has been "remarkable progress ... in so many areas of dialogue".

"The context in which dialogue takes place between the Anglican Communion and the Catholic Church has evolved in dramatic ways since the private meeting between Pope John XXIII and Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher in 1960", said Pope Benedict. "On the one hand, the surrounding culture is growing ever more distant from its Christian roots, despite a deep and widespread hunger for spiritual nourishment. On the other hand, the increasingly multicultural dimension of society, particularly marked in this country, brings with it the opportunity to encounter other religions. For us Christians this opens up the possibility of exploring, together with members of other religious traditions, ways of bearing witness to the transcendent dimension of the human person and the universal call to holiness. ... Ecumenical co-operation in this task remains essential, and will surely bear fruit in promoting peace and harmony in a world that so often seems at risk of fragmentation.

"At the same time", he added, "we Christians must never hesitate to proclaim our faith in the uniqueness of the salvation won for us by Christ, and to explore together a deeper understanding of the means He has placed at our disposal for attaining that salvation. God 'wants all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth', and that truth is nothing other than Jesus Christ. ... In fidelity to the Lord's will, ... we recognize that the Church is called to be inclusive, yet never at the expense of Christian truth. Herein lies the dilemma facing all who are genuinely committed to the ecumenical journey".

In this context, the Pope mentioned Cardinal John Henry Newman, "whose ecclesial vision was nurtured by his Anglican background and matured during his many years of ordained ministry in the Church of England. He can teach us the virtues that ecumenism demands: on the one hand, he was moved to follow his conscience, even at great personal cost; and on the other hand, the warmth of his continued friendship with his former colleagues, led him to explore with them ... the questions on which they differed, driven by a deep longing for unity in faith".

"In that same spirit of friendship", Pope Benedict concluded, "let us renew our determination to pursue the goal of unity in faith, hope, and love, in accordance with the will of our one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ".

After his meeting with the archbishop of Canterbury, Benedict XVI travelled by popemobile to Westminster Hall.

PV-UNITED KINGDOM/

VIS 20100918 (760)

Fw: Join the 40 Days for Life Prayer Campaign this fall!

2010-09-15T20:05:00.001-04:00

40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life campaign with a vision to access God's power through prayer, fasting, and peaceful vigil to end abortion throughout the world.

In what has grown to be an international effort over the last three years, 2,811 lives have been reported as spared from abortion and those are just the ones we know about!

Please consider joining the 40 Days for Life and help with prayers and presence in the Worcester Diocese this fall. The campaign runs from Sept. 22 through Oct. 31. You can participate by signing up for a time to join others outside of Problem Pregnancy on Pleasant St. in Worcester any day between 7:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. People are especially needed on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays when abortions are being done at Planned Parenthood across the street.

Can't be physically present? You can also commit to pray and/or fast at a specific time from wherever you are.

Contact area coordinator Pauline Morris at (508) 473-6718 or pmorris113@comcast.net to sign up or for more information.

You can also sign up directly through the local website: www.40daysforlife.com/worcester.

Bring a friend or family member, your high school football team, or a group of parishioners to spend an hour in quiet prayerful witness for an end to abortion! This effort is supported by the Diocese of Worcester. We hope every parish will be represented at some point during the 40 Days. Your prayers do save lives!

Download the brochure at our website: www.worcesterdiocese.org/respectlife. This one-page flyer can also be duplicated and used as a bulletin insert or bulletin board flyer.

See the related article coming in the Sept. 17^th edition of The Catholic Free Press.

Mrs. Allison LeDoux, Director

Respect Life Office

Office of Marriage and Family

Diocese of Worcester

49 Elm St., Worcester, MA 01609

Phone: (508)929-4311

Fax: (508)753-7180

E-mail: aledoux@worcesterdiocese.org

Web: www.worcesterdiocese.org

If you are hurting from a past abortion, we can help.

Call Project Rachel at (508)791-HOPE.

Holy Land Contemplatives: E-mail Us Your Petitions - Embrace Mission to Intercede for Society

2010-08-29T20:17:00.000-04:00

http://www.zenit.org/article-30175?l=english

ZE10082707 - 2010-08-27
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-30175?l=english

Holy Land Contemplatives: E-mail Us Your Petitions - Embrace Mission to Intercede for Society

JERUSALEM, AUG. 27, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Several contemplative communities in the Holy Land are now accepting E-mailed prayer requests.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem announced that it set up this service whereby people worldwide can request prayers from the religious communities that reside in the Holy Land.

In a communiqué, the patriarchate acknowledged that these prayer intentions "may be very important to you and this is the reason why you want to entrust them to the people who have devoted their life to God and who live and pray in the Holy Land."

The communiqué also quoted from the instrumentum laboris (working document) of the upcoming synod of bishops for the Middle East, which states that "the first mission of the monks and moniales is the prayer and intercession for society."

The patriarchate invited the faithful to send their prayer requests to one or several of the religious communities.

It noted: "You can entrust them your prayers, specifying the details you want to communicate. All this will stay private and only be known by you and the community!"

The e-mail addresses given by the patriarchate are as follows:

-- Poor Clares, Nazareth:
clairemarie1884@bezeqint.net

-- Carmelites, Mount Carmel, Haifa:
zanotiel@netvision.net.il

-- Nuns of the Emmanuel, Bethlehem:
community@emmanuelmonastery.org

-- Bridgettine Sisters, Bethlehem:
brigida@p-ol.com

-- Silent Workers of the Cross, Mater Misericordiae, Jerusalem:
betaniasilenziosi@yahoo.com

-- Benedictines, Mount of Olives, Jerusalem:
benetur@netvision.net.il

-- Poor Clares, Jerusalem:
mi.yesh@gmail.com

-- Carmelites of the Pater, Jerusalem:
edcarmelpn@live.com

-- Nuns of Bethlehem, Bet Gemal, Bet Shemesh:
midbar@gmail.com

-- Little Family of the Resurrection, Jerusalem:
pfrjer@alqudsnet.com

--- --- ---

For more information: secretary3@latinpat.org

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Mother Teresa - A Miracle For The World

2010-08-23T21:34:00.000-04:00

"Mother Teresa, a miracle for the world" - Interview with Sister Mary, Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity

Calcutta (Agenzia Fides) – It's Jesus who leads the steps of the Missionaries of Charity, who leads them in their missionary spirit and work: 100 years after the birth of Mother Teresa (an event which will be celebrated on August 26, 2010), it is this "trust in Divine Providence" that is one of the essential features of the Congregation of Sisters with the “white sari" live, in respect and memory of their founder, who has been called "a miracle in the history of mankind." This is what has been revealed by German-born Sister Mary Prema, present Superior General of the Order, in an interview with Fides through the mediation of "Missio Austria,” the Pontifical Mission Societies in Austria.

Sister Prema, you are responsible for a religious order in the world takes care of the poor and sick. Why, in your opinion, does God allow suffering?

Suffering cannot be a punishment. And yet, God allows it. We can take advantage of suffering to approach him and ask him for the grace to endure it and thus be able to live this suffering well. Suffering often comes as the consequence of our decisions. However, it is also a consequence of a passing world/nature that is fragile. Of course, suffering can also be caused by things that are beyond our reach. Natural disasters, such as the earthquake in Haiti or floods in Pakistan, are an example. But, I am convinced that God allows suffering because it can transform us into better and more profound people. Thus, we are able to understand that this world and this life are not the ultimate goal, but that there is something more: the life of the soul which - if one really accepts suffering - is purified.

Mother Teresa distinguished between physical suffering and spiritual suffering. Can you tell us a little more about how your work today takes them both into account?

The greatest suffering is spiritual suffering, the suffering of the soul. Here in Calcutta, we see that it is much easier for us to care for physical needs, to carry out corporal works of mercy: wash dying people, provide medical care to the sick, and help the homeless in our homes. The services of spiritual charity require a much larger commitment. We can respond to the suffering of the soul above all with our prayers. It is important that God's grace touches people with such suffering. Likewise, it is also important that we pray for this same reason. Every day we stop for an hour of prayer before the Eucharist. It is crucial for our work. In fact, our work is not a social commitment, but a missionary commitment.

What do you understand with the word “mission”? For Mother Teresa, did this imply "conversion" to the Catholic faith?

Mother Teresa wanted everyone to know and love Jesus. She was convinced that every soul desires Jesus' salvation, whether or not he realizes it or not. The work of conversion, however, remains a work of God. It is not our task. Only God can convert a soul. Mother Teresa dedicated her own life to the task of loving Jesus and transmitting this love to those around her. That was her only goal. She tried to be faithful to whatever she thought God expected from her in good conscience. Mother Teresa felt that God had called her to carry out a genuine and disinterested service to man, to give her undivided attention to the person who suffers. She was always 100% present and open to the person who she was with at any given moment. She was never interested in big things. She was not concerned with advertising or anything like that. The most important for her was always the one-on-one contact with the individual. This, of course, shows her great wisdom.

Can you tell us how Mother Teresa lived in her environment? What was the image that you, Sister Prema, had of Mother Teresa?

She would probably say that her goal was always to convey the experience of Jesus to those around her. This is the legacy she left us. Through her life, her work, her charisma, she brought those around her to God. She did not preach, but she testified with her own life. Even today, many people tell me of their first meeting with Mother Teresa. Perhaps they had seen her for five minutes on the terrace of our motherhouse. But that one moment changed their lives forever. Oftentimes a phrase, a kind word was enough. Many of these people are Hindus. They have not converted to Christianity since they met Mother Teresa. However, they began to see their lives and their work with different eyes and have become other people, living in a different way, based on love and mercy, within their own families. There are many examples.

At 100 years since the birth of Mother Teresa, what do you see as the major challenges for the Congregation in the coming years?

The Missionaries of Charity might seem like a great organization, but we do not make plans for the next ten years. We try to remain open to what God asks of us. Only Jesus will tell me what is the next step. So, in the spirit of Mother, I'm not the one who controls things. God is the one who decides.

Mother Teresa has left indications on the future order?

Someone once asked her what would happen when she was no longer alive. Her answer was very dry: "Let me die in peace first!" She never gave us any indications of future plans. Besides the fact that we should always strive to become more holy! This was her constant advice. Today, in the direction of the Order, we work as a group: three other sisters share this task with me. But ultimately, as Superior General, the responsibility for the Order is mine. For this task, I have been able to learn a lot from our founder. The decision process took place in two phases: the first was to discuss and learn about all the possibilities and consequences (decision making), then came the phase for making a choice, in which one makes the decision (decision taking). Mother Teresa listened to all the advice accurately, then withdrew, and then made the decision. She was very good at that.

How are facing the challenges of the new millennium?

Mother Teresa listened to Jesus and was always open to the new challenges and problems which are found in society. In the 80s, for example, it was HIV/AIDS. She opened a house in New York for the victims of this disease. In the center, she put the accompaniment of patients in a terminal stage. At that time, medicines to control the virus did not even exist. What suffering! Mother Teresa listened to Jesus, but at the same time she also had an open ear to the world's problems. So, we must listen to Jesus and be generous. She was very generous towards God and towards those suffering beside her. In this, we want to imitate her.

What kind of formation do the Sisters receive in preparing for this task?

From the beginning of their formation, the novices have the opportunity to work with the poor in the slums. The receive criteria for caring for the sick and of course, a basic formation in theology, church history, catechism, and Sacred Scripture.

When do you think Mother Teresa will be canonized?

Everyone talks of an acceleration on the path to canonization, for the 100th anniversary of his birth (August 26, 2010). But I do not think this is so important. Everyone knows that she is a saint - both Hindus and Christians here in Calcutta and in most places where we are present - this is beyond doubt. Everyone expects a miracle...but Mother Teresa was the same miracle for the world and humanity.

(MS-PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/08/2010)

Fides Reports - Discriminations against Christian minorities in distribution of humanitarian aid

2010-08-20T10:06:00.000-04:00

FIDES: ASIA/PAKISTAN - Discriminations against minorities in distribution of humanitarian aid

Lahore, Pakistan (Agenzia Fides) - “While Caritas and the Pontifical Mission Societies are working on providing humanitarian relief to displaced persons without discrimination of origin, race, or religion, in other areas, the Christian refugees, even in the midst of this tragedy, are being treated as second class citizens. They often receive little assistance, or are excluded altogether.”

This is the alert being sent to Fides by Fr. Mario Rodrigues, Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in the country, in talking about the government distribution of aid following the floods which have ravaged the country. The priest notes that the aid is coming "slowly and with difficulty and that now, among the 20 million displaced people struggling to survive, there is the fear of an outbreak of epidemics."

In this dramatic situation, there is an ongoing “war among the poor" to appropriate the humanitarian aid that is insufficient, and in the distribution of aid managed by the Pakistani government, Christians received the worst part.

"The refugees belonging to religious minorities are the most neglected, excluded, discriminated against. Our priests, volunteers and lay leaders in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Baluchiestan are visiting the affected areas, collecting hundreds of displaced Christians who had been left to themselves, bringing them to camps run by Caritas and other NGOs of Christian inspiration in order to guarantee them the minimum assistance they need."

On the long-term effects of the disaster, Fr. Mario notes: "It is a disaster for the entire country. This tragedy will mark the initiation of a dark period in which, given the destruction of vast tracts of farmland and the death of livestock, there will be a serious food security crisis due to the lack of food and rising prices of primary goods.”

Meanwhile, even the “Jesuit Mission,” the Jesuit missionary service, has launched an appeal for flood victims, ensuring the commitment of the Jesuits in Pakistan for helping the displaced.

In a dramatic testimony sent to Fides, Fr. Fernando Jacob, a Jesuit of Lahore, said: "The refugees are desperate and have nothing. In Multan, many are camped out near the Bishop's house, where they are offered rice every day. Everywhere there is food shortage and many congregations of Catholic sisters are engaged in distributing food and assisting the weakest, especially women and children."

(PA) (Agenzia Fides 08/20/2010)

Ruling forces last Catholic adoption agency in England and Wales to cease adoptions

2010-08-20T08:50:00.001-04:00

"Did not meet the threshold for an exemption"? Why? Because they were Catholic, and this defies one of the fundamental doctrines of the Faith? What if this were an adoption agency that was Islamic, and they refused to place children with same-sex couples, based on the same exact criterion, and applied for an exemption - would THEY meet the "threshold"? I wonder - because when an Islamic organization doesn't get its way, there tends to be a rather different action than "disappointment" and prayer - such as threats to burn down buildings and car bombs. Such as we saw last week when a Muslim gentleman in the US threatened to blow up a courthouse because he owed unpaid parking tickets, and they refused to wave the fines.... So what would meet the threashold? So one more adoption agency closes and what happens to the children? How many thousands of children, over the decades, did this agency serve? Does this commission even care? ~ Lisa

London, England, Aug 20, 2010 / 05:32 am (CNA):

The suppression of Catholic institutions in the U.K. continues as the only remaining Catholic adoption agency in England and Wales has lost a battle to continue its services. A commission ruled the agency’s religious views did not justify its refusal to place children with homosexual couples.

Catholic Care, the social care organization of the Diocese of Leeds, had applied to amend its legal charitable objects to allow it to continue adoption work in accordance with Catholic teaching. The Charity Commission for England and Wales refused the application, claiming that Catholic Care’s reasons did not meet the necessary threshold for an exemption from sexual orientation discrimination laws.

The charity places children only with married heterosexual couples.

“In certain circumstances, it is not against the law for charities to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation,” commented Andrew Hind, chief executive of the Charity Commission. “However, because the prohibition on such discrimination is a fundamental principle of human rights law, such discrimination can only be permitted in the most compelling circumstances.”

A Catholic Care spokesperson said the charity is “very disappointed” with the outcome.

“Catholic Care will now consider whether there is any other way in which the Charity can continue to support families seeking to adopt children in need,” the spokesperson commented in a Wednesday statement.

The agency said it will seek to register as an adoption support agency to support adoptive parents already approved by Catholic Care and to serve those who were adopted in the past and are now seeking information about their background.

Catholic Care has been providing adoption services for over 100 years and has served hundreds of families in that area. It still provides school counseling, residential care for children, and support for adults with learning disabilities and mental health problems.

While eleven Catholic adoption agencies were in operation in 2007, Catholic Care is the only one remaining which has not closed or renounced its religious identity. Sexual orientation regulations passed by the Labour government prompted the action.

The Christian Institute said the charity commission’s ruling comes amid “increasing concern” among many Christians that their rights and liberties are “often trampled on by homosexual ‘rights’.”

Copyright © CNA
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com)

New Translation of the Roman Missal Approved

2010-04-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

New Mass Translation Given Rome's Approval

by Edward Pentin Wednesday, April 28, 2010 - National Catholic Register / www.ncregister.com

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments is to issue its formal approval of the new English translation of the complete Roman Missal later today.

The recognitio comes after nearly ten years of study and sometimes difficult consultation over the new translation of prayers for the Mass.

Today's development will therefore mark a key step, although when the new Missal will be made available in parishes remains unclear.

Cardinal George Pell, chairman of the Vox Clara Committee, the international group of bishops advising the Vatican about the translation, told the Register yesterday that although formal approval will be given today, the new Missal certainly won't be available before 2011.

Advent next year is considered to be the most likely time, once various technical adjustments and printing are completed.

The International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) has been working in consultation with English-speaking episcopates worldwide to formulate a new translation in line with the 2001 Vatican document Liturgiam Authenticam, making the texts adhere more closely to their Latin original.

UPDATE I:

Pope Benedict XVI gave the following address
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/bulletin/news/25459.php?index=25459&lang=en

to members of the Vox Clara Committee today at a lunch in the Casina Pio IV villa in the Vatican Gardens:

Dear Cardinals,

Dear Brother Bishops and Priests,

Members and Consultors of the Vox Clara Committee,

I thank you for the work that Vox Clara has done over the last eight years, assisting and advising the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in fulfilling its responsibilities with regard to the English translations of liturgical texts. This has been a truly collegial enterprise. Not only are all five continents represented in the membership of the Committee, but you have been assiduous in drawing together contributions from Bishops' Conferences in English-speaking territories all over the world. I thank you for the great labour you have expended in your study of the translations and in processing the results of the many consultations that have been conducted. I thank the expert assistants for offering the fruits of their scholarship in order to render a service to the universal Church. And I thank the Superiors and Officials of the Congregation for their daily, painstaking work of overseeing the preparation and translation of texts that proclaim the truth of our redemption in Christ, the Incarnate Word of God.

Saint Augustine spoke beautifully of the relation between John the Baptist, the vox clara that resounded on the banks of the Jordan, and the Word that he spoke. A voice, he said, serves to share with the listener the message that is already in the speaker's heart. Once the word has been spoken, it is present in the hearts of both, and so the voice, its task having been completed, can fade away (cf. Sermon 293). I welcome the news that the English translation of the Roman Missal will soon be ready for publication, so that the texts you have worked so hard to prepare may be proclaimed in the liturgy that is celebrated across the anglophone world. Through these sacred texts and the actions that accompany them, Christ will be made present and active in the midst of his people. The voice that helped bring these words to birth will have completed its task.

A new task will then present itself, one which falls outside the direct competence of Vox Clara, but which in one way or another will involve all of you the task of preparing for the reception of the new translation by clergy and lay faithful. Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly forty years of continuous use of the previous translation. The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity, and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped. I pray that in this way any risk of confusion or bewilderment will be averted, and the change will serve instead as a springboard for a renewal and a deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English-speaking world.

Dear Brother Bishops, Reverend Fathers, Friends, I want you to know how much I appreciate the great collaborative endeavour to which you have contributed. Soon the fruits of your labours will be made available to English-speaking congregations everywhere. As the prayers of God's people rise before him like incense (cf. Psalm 140:2), may the Lord's blessing come down upon all who have contributed their time and expertise to crafting the texts in which those prayers are expressed. Thank you, and may you be abundantly rewarded for your generous service to God's people.

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

UPDATE II

Vox Clara have now issued a press release on the news (H/T Rocco Palmo and Fr. Tim Finigan).
http://the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com/2010/04/vox-clara-press-release.html

As you will see, the Congregation for Divine Worship actually confirmed the new translation by a decree on March 25 but the ruling wasn't made public until this week.

VOX CLARA COMMITTEE
PRESS RELEASE
April 28-29, 2010

The Vox Clara Committee met at the Pontifical North American College in Rome from April 28-29, 2010. This was the nineteenth meeting of this Committee of senior Bishops from Episcopal Conferences throughout the English-speaking world. The Vox Clara Committee was formed by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on July 19, 2001 in order to provide advice to the Holy See concerning English-language liturgical books and to strengthen effective cooperation with the Conferences of Bishops in this regard.

The Vox Clara Committee is chaired by Cardinal George Pell, Sydney (Australia). The participants in the meeting were Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, Emeritus Mobile (USA), who serves as First Vice-Chairman; Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Emeritus Westminster (England), who serves as Secretary, Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I., Chicago (USA), Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Bombay (India), who serves as Second Vice-Chairman; Archbishop Alfred Hughes, Emeritus New Orleans (USA); Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J., Ottawa (Canada); Archbishop Peter Kwasi Sarpong, Emeritus Kumasi (Ghana); Archbishop Kelvin Felix, Emeritus Castries (Saint Lucia), and Bishop Philip Boyce, O.C.D., Raphoe (Ireland). Cardinal Justin Rigali, Philadelphia (USA), who serves as Treasurer, is also a member of the Committee, but was not present for the meeting.

The members were assisted in their work by the following advisors: Reverend Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B. (USA), Reverend Dennis McManus (USA), Monsignor Gerard McKay, Abbot Cuthbert Johnson, O.S.B. (England), and Monsignor James P. Moroney (USA), Executive Secretary. The customary assistance of officials of the Congregation, led by Reverend Anthony Ward, S.M., Undersecretary, was also appreciated.

The meeting opened with the happy announcement that the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments had completed its work of reviewing the English language edition of the Missale Romanum, editio typica tertia. Following careful consideration of the advice provided over the past eight years by the members of the Vox Clara Committee, a final text was arrived at by the Congregation, confirmed by a decree dated 25 March, 2010 (Prot. 269/10/L) and signed by Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect, and Archbishop J. Augustine DiNoia, O.P., Secretary to the Congregation.

The Committee celebrated the occasion by hosting a luncheon with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI, on the first day of the meeting. On this happy occasion, the Holy Father addressed the group:

[... the text of the Holy Father's address (see update I above)]

The second day of the meeting was spent in a study of issues which had emerged in the course of the development of the confirmed text of the Roman Missal, including a review of efforts to assure internal consistency in the translation of deprecatory language and other specialized terms, the poetic and musical dimensions of the text, and its suitability for proclamation. An extended review of various programs developed throughout the English speaking world for the effective implementation of the new translation was also undertaken.

At its closing session, commemorative medals were presented by the Cardinal Prefect on behalf of the Holy See to each of the members and advisors of the Committee. He expressed the thanks of the Congregation for the work of the members and advisors over the past nine years.

Cardinal Cañizares also announced the intention of the Congregation to continue the work of the Vox Clara Committee in advising the Holy See on matters pertaining to the English language translation of liturgical books. The Prefect also expressed his gratitude to Cardinal George Pell, chairman of the Committee, for his willingness to continue as Chairman of the Committee.

On behalf of the members and advisors, Cardinal Pell expressed his appreciation for the Prefect's words and reiterated the gratitude of the Committee to the Cardinal Prefect and his predecessors for their continuing encouragement of the project. He also thanked the Executive Secretary, Monsignor James Moroney, for his outstanding contribution over the many years since the Committee began its work. The Chairman also expressed his gratitude for the participation of other officials and Superiors of the Congregation throughout the years, most especially Father Anthony Ward, S.M., Undersecretary to the Congregation, who has played an indispensable role in facilitating the work of the Vox Clara Committee.

The meeting closed with the Collect "For the Church" from the new Roman Missal:

O God, who in your wonderful providence
decreed that Christ's Kingdom
should be extended throughout the earth
and that all should become partakers
of his saving redemption;
grant, we pray, that your Church
may be the universal sacrament of salvation,
and that Christ may be revealed to all
as the hope of the nations and their Savior.
Who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Pope's Holy Saturday Homily - "The Cure for Death Does Exist"

2010-04-04T17:50:00.001-04:00

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The World Seen From Rome

ZE10040401 - 2010-04-04

Pope's Holy Saturday Homily

"The Cure for Death Does Exist"

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI's homily at the Easter Vigil.

* * *

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

An ancient Jewish legend from the apocryphal book "The life of Adam and Eve" recounts that, in his final illness, Adam sent his son Seth together with Eve into the region of Paradise to fetch the oil of mercy, so that he could be anointed with it and healed.

The two of them went in search of the tree of life, and after much praying and weeping on their part, the Archangel Michael appeared to them, and told them they would not obtain the oil of the tree of mercy and that Adam would have to die.

Subsequently, Christian readers added a word of consolation to the Archangel's message, to the effect that after 5,500 years the loving King, Christ, would come, the Son of God who would anoint all those who believe in him with the oil of his mercy.

"The oil of mercy from eternity to eternity will be given to those who are reborn of water and the Holy Spirit. Then the Son of God, Christ, abounding in love, will descend into the depths of the earth and will lead your father into Paradise, to the tree of mercy."

This legend lays bare the whole of humanity's anguish at the destiny of illness, pain and death that has been imposed upon us. Man's resistance to death becomes evident: somewhere people have constantly thought there must be some cure for death. Sooner or later it should be possible to find the remedy not only for this or that illness, but for our ultimate destiny for death itself. Surely the medicine of immortality must exist.

Today too, the search for a source of healing continues. Modern medical science strives, if not exactly to exclude death, at least to eliminate as many as possible of its causes, to postpone it further and further, to prolong life more and more.

But let us reflect for a moment: what would it really be like if we were to succeed, perhaps not in excluding death totally, but in postponing it indefinitely, in reaching an age of several hundred years? Would that be a good thing? Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation.

The true cure for death must be different. It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity: it would need to transform us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness.

What is new and exciting in the Christian message, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was and is that we are told: yes indeed, this cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist. It has been found. It is within our reach. In baptism, this medicine is given to us. A new life begins in us, a life that matures in faith and is not extinguished by the death of the old life, but is only then fully revealed.

To this some, perhaps many, will respond: I certainly hear the message, but I lack faith. And even those who want to believe will ask: but is it really so? How are we to picture it to ourselves? How does this transformation of the old life come about, so as to give birth to the new life that knows no death?

Once again, an ancient Jewish text can help us form an idea of the mysterious process that begins in us at baptism. There it is recounted how the patriarch Enoch was taken up to the throne of God. But he was filled with fear in the presence of the glorious angelic powers, and in his human weakness he could not contemplate the face of God. "Then God said to Michael," to quote from the book of Enoch, "'Take Enoch and remove his earthly clothing. Anoint him with sweet oil and vest him in the robes of glory!' And Michael took off my garments, anointed me with sweet oil, and this oil was more than a radiant light its splendour was like the rays of the sun. When I looked at myself, I saw that I was like one of the glorious beings" (Ph. Rech, Inbild des Kosmos, II 524).

Precisely this being reclothed in the new garment of God is what happens in baptism, so the Christian faith tells us. To be sure, this changing of garments is something that continues for the whole of life. What happens in baptism is the beginning of a process that embraces the whole of our life it makes us fit for eternity, in such a way that, robed in the garment of light of Jesus Christ, we can appear before the face of God and live with him for ever.

In the rite of baptism there are two ele ments in which this event is expressed and made visible in a way that demands commitment for the rest of our lives. There is first of all the rite of renunciation and the promises. In the early Church, the one to be baptized turned towards the west, the symbol of darkness, sunset, death and hence the dominion of sin. The one to be baptized turned in that direction and pronounced a threefold "no": to the devil, to his pomp and to sin. The strange word "pomp", that is to say the devil's glamour, referred to the splendour of the ancient cult of the gods and of the ancient theatre, in which it was considered entertaining to watch people being torn limb from limb by wild beasts. What was being renounced was a type of culture that ensnared man in the adoration of power, in the world of greed, in lies, in cruelty. It was an act of liberation from the imposition of a form of life that was presented as pleasure and yet hastened the destruction of all that was best in man.

This renunciation albeit in less dramatic form remains an essential part of baptism today. We remove the "old garments", which we cannot wear in God's presence. Or better put: we begin to remove them. This renunciation is actually a promise in which we hold out our hand to Christ, so that he may guide us and reclothe us. What these "garments" are that we take off, what the promise is that we make, becomes clear when we see in the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Galatians what Paul calls "works of the flesh" a term that refers precisely to the old garments that we remove. Paul designates them thus: "fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like" (Gal 5:19ff.). These are the garments that we remove: the garments of death.

Then, in the practice of the early Church, the one to be baptized turned towards the east the symbol of light, the symbol of the newly rising sun of history, the symbol of Christ. The candidate for baptism determines the new direction of his life: faith in the Trinitarian God to whom he entrusts himself. Thus it is God who clothes us in the garment of light, the garment of life. Paul calls these new "garments" "fruits of the spirit", and he describes them as follows: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal 5:22).

In the early Church, the candidate for baptism was then truly stripped of his garments. He descended into the baptismal font and was immersed three times a symbol of death that expresses all the radicality of this removal and change of garments. His former death-bound life the candidate consigns to death with Christ, and he lets himself be drawn up by and with Christ into the new life that transforms him for eternity . Then, emerging from the waters of baptism the neophytes were clothed in the white garment, the garment of God's light, and they received the lighted candle as a sign of the new life in the light that God himself had lit within them. They knew that they had received the medicine of immortality, which was fully realized at the moment of receiving holy communion. In this sacrament we receive the body of the risen Lord and we ourselves are drawn into this body, firmly held by the One who has conquered death and who carries us through death.

In the course of the centuries, the symbols were simplified, but the essential content of baptism has remained the same. It is no mere cleansing, still less is it a somewhat complicated initiation into a new association. It is death and resurrection, rebirth to new life.

Indeed, the cure for death does exist. Christ is the tree of life, once more within our reach. If we remain close to him, then we have life. Hence, during this night of resurrection, with all our hearts we shall sing the alleluia, the song of joy that has no need of words.

Hence, Paul can say to the Philippians: "Rejoice in the Lord always, again I will say, rejoice!" (Phil 4:4). Joy cannot be commanded. It can only be given. The risen Lord gives us joy: true life. We are already held for ever in the love of the One to whom all power in heaven and on earth has been given (cf. Mt 28:18). In this way, confident of being heard, we make our own the Church's Prayer over the Gifts from the liturgy of this night: Accept the prayers and offerings of your people. With your help may this Easter mystery of our redemption bring to perfection the saving work you have begun in us. Amen.

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Speedskater Races Towards Grace

2010-02-15T19:08:00.007-05:00

What a great story! It just goes to show – God can use ANYONE – if we only LET Him! If we only open our hearts to grace, and just LISTEN!

Speedskater Races Towards Grace

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Twelve years ago at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, a 17-year-old speedskating prodigy named Kirstin Holum was tapped for future greatness.

When Holum placed sixth in the 3,000 meters – one of the most grueling disciplines in the women’s program, a lung-scraping four-minute bust of lactic acid torture – speedskating insiders predicted a golden future and speculated she may not even reach her peak for another decade.

Like many of the longer distances, the 3,000 is regularly dominated by older athletes, as it can take years to build up the requisite reserves of aerobic capacity and deep-tissue resilience. At Nagano, 32-year-old Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann of Germany claimed the gold.

Holum was born into speedskating royalty. Her mother Dianne was a world-class speedskater who won Olympic gold in 1972 and reached even greater heights as a coach, mentoring the legendary Eric Heiden to his clean sweep at Lake Placid in 1980.

Despite an ongoing battle with exercise-induced asthma, Holum was a champion waiting to happen. Instead, Nagano would signal the final time she would pull on a pair of skates with competitive intent.

From that point on, her life began an entirely different journey.

“Speedskating was such a huge part of my life,” Holumn said in a telephone interview with Yahoo! Sports. “I still loved the sport, but I had this incredibly strong calling that it was time to move on and take a different path in life.”

There is no television and no internet at St. Joseph’s Convent in Leeds,

England

, meaning Holum won’t get to watch the Winter Olympics where she was supposed to become a star.

The peaceful surrounds of the convent is where Holum, now known as Sister Catherine, devotes her life to religious service as a Franciscan nun.

That calling had begun on a trip to Our Lady of Fatima, a holy site in

Portugal

famed for a series of religious visions that appeared nearly a century ago. It was outside the Fatima basilica where Holum decided that a path of religious dedication, not frozen skating lanes, would be her destiny.

“It is funny now to think of how different my life is now,” she said. “I had the wonderful privilege of being able to compete as an Olympian, and now I am blessed to able to serve God and help those less fortunate.”

After completing an art degree, including a thesis on the Olympics at the Art Institute of Chicago, Holum joined the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, a faith whose mission is “work with the poor and homeless and evangelization.”

Read the rest here: U.S. speedskater took leap of faith

Planned Parenthood called S.W.A.T. team on pro-lifers

2010-02-13T10:46:00.001-05:00

This is Matt Abbot's latest column. Please copy it and send it to all your
prolife friends. If this is happening in Chicago and Albany, then it's
coming soon to a PP death-mill near you. And take note of what Scheidler
says - a couple of things, actually - the police are NOT reading the
ordinances - they are clearly annoyed, frustrated, and not paying
attention - to them these are nuisance calls - they don't want to come out
and deal with this "nonsense" - so they will NOT deal kindly with anyone
"violating" such ordinances - and they are not actually reading the
ordinances very carefully. And they ARE taking sides. Be aware. Arm yourself
with rosaries, prayer, and copies of the actual ordinances in your area.

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

'Bubble' trouble: Planned Parenthood called S.W.A.T. team on pro-lifers

By Matt C. Abbott

From Joe Scheidler, national director of the Pro-Life Action League:

http://prolifeaction.org/contact.php

'It's been three months since the City of Chicago began enforcing the
hideous new 'Bubble Zone' law, and we're really taking a beating.

'Since the first day it took effect, the police have demonstrated profound
confusion about the law, and their orders and threats have been
unpredictable. My sidewalk counselors never know what they're going to hear
next.

'One Saturday, Planned Parenthood even called out the S.W.A.T. Team to
confront the peaceful pro-life sidewalk counselors at their north side
abortion mill — including a mother counseling with her five-year-old
daughter in her arms.

'I've really got my hands full dealing with the Chicago Bubble Zone. I've
been training my sidewalk counselors how to keep saving babies under the new
restrictions, working with my attorneys to build a strong case against the
Bubble Zone and handling crisis after crisis out on the street.

'And now I've learned that the City Council in Rockford, Illinois — 90 miles
west of Chicago — is considering following Chicago's example and enacting a
Bubble Zone of its own.

'The first problem recorded with the new Bubble Zone occurred the first week
the Bubble Zone was in effect. It happened to my wife, Ann, at Albany
Medical-Surgical Center, only a mile from my office.

'Ann was sidewalk counseling near the entrance at Albany, when the clinic
administrator, Diana Lamon, came out to tell her that she was violating the
Bubble Zone. Lamon insisted Ann had to stand at least fifty feet away from
the clinic.

'Wrong. What the Bubble Zone law actually says is that anyone trying to
counsel within fifty feet of a medical facility has to get permission to
approach closer than eight feet. It says nothing about how close you can
stand to the entrance.

'But part of the purpose of this law, from the pro-aborts' perspective, was
to cause confusion. It's a confusing law, with its eight-foot bubble inside
of a fifty-foot bubble. So Lamon decided to try spreading the confusion to
the police.

'Three squad cars soon arrived at Albany, and three police officers headed
into the clinic. Ten minutes later, they came out, and one of them
approached Ann holding a copy of the ordinance. He pointed to the phrase
'within fifty feet of the entrance' and told Ann she had to move way down
the block.

'Ann was unable to convince the officer he was mistaken about the law. She
couldn't even get him to read the entire sentence he was pointing to! She
had no choice but to obey his false interpretation of the law.

'But of course, Ann wasn't going to leave it at that. After her counseling
stint, she contacted the city attorney who had drafted the ordinance — who
verified Ann's reading of the law — and then faxed a copy of the ordinance
and the correct interpretation of it to every police station in Chicago
located near an abortion clinic.

'Since then, thankfully, none of the counselors at Albany have had any
problems. But it's another story at Planned Parenthood, as I'll tell you
below.

'I knew right from the start that the true purpose of the Bubble Zone was to
give the clinic escorts — the 'Deathscorts' — at Planned Parenthood a tool
for harassing the strong pro-life presence there every Saturday morning,
their main abortion day. Our sidewalk counselors have been saving a lot of
babies, and it's been driving the Deathscorts crazy.

'Now they've got this confusing new law on the books, and they're having a
field day with it.

'The first Saturday under the Bubble Zone law, a police officer told the
sidewalk counselors outside Planned Parenthood they 'could not approach or
even stand within eight feet of a woman' and that no signs could be placed
within fifty feet of the door. When the pro-lifers tried to explain what the
ordinance really says, the police officer said if he had to go back to
the station to get a copy of it, he would arrest any of the pro-lifers still
at the clinic when he returned!

'Eventually the pro-lifers convinced the police to let them stand fifteen
feet away from the clinic entrance, though the number fifteen isn't anywhere
in the ordinance.

'Since then, the police keep changing their interpretation of the Bubble
Zone from week to week. Here are just a few examples of the rules they come
up with on the spot:

* Police have forbidden [would 'tried to forbid' be better?] pro-lifers
to display graphic abortion signs on the sidewalk outside Planned
Parenthood, declaring that the signs cannot touch the sidewalk because it is
public property.

* Police have told sidewalk counselors they cannot speak to anyone
entering the clinic unless that person first asks them for information.
Desperate, abortion-bound mothers are somehow supposed to know some of the
people standing on the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood happen to be
pro-life counselors!

* Police have insisted that pro-lifers cannot stand within eight feet of
the door of the clinic — as if the door has been granted a special bubble
all its own.

* One police officer, right after claiming he's only enforcing the law
with strict neutrality, told a pro-lifer that 'you all are here to harass
women, and this clinic is here to help them.'

* As I mentioned above, one Saturday, they even called out the S.W.A.T.
team! The peaceful sidewalk counselors — including a mom counseling with her
five-year-old daughter in her arms — were confronted by an armored squadron!

'As soon as I realized that the Planned Parenthood abortion mill on
Chicago's near north side was going to be the Bubble Zone hot spot, I
dispatched my staff member Corrina Gura to monitor the situation on the
ground.

'Every Saturday, Corrina has been going out to Planned Parenthood equipped
with a video camera to record the arbitrary and confused directives coming
from police. Every Monday she reports back to me and my attorneys with the
latest developments.

'With Corrina's help, my attorneys and I are putting together a strong case
against the Chicago Bubble Zone. In fact, all this outrageous behavior from
the police should end up helping to get the law struck down.

'As it's written, the Chicago law conforms to the Supreme Court's dubious
ruling upholding such free speech zones. But the way it's being enforced is
beyond the pale.

'What's more, I think we have a real shot at knocking down all the other
Bubble Zone laws out there in other U.S. cities. The makeup of the Supreme
Court has changed since they ruled that some Bubble Zones are okay. And now
the first-rate legal team from NOW v. Scheidler is on the case.'

Plug into Sacramentals

2010-02-08T19:16:00.001-05:00

Plug into Sacramentals
by Catherine Doherty

Sacramentals are sacred signs instituted by the Church. They prepare men to receive the fruit of the sacraments and sanctify different circumstances of life. Among the sacramentals blessings occupy an important place. The Church fosters the forms of popular piety that express an evangelical instinct and a human wisdom and that enrich Christian life. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1677-79

Having in your home gracious sacramentals helps to keep young minds, and older ones, God-centereda crucifix in each room, holy water in every bedroom, pictures of our Lord and our Lady and favorite saints. Things like this create a Christian 'atmosphere'; this is how good foundations are slowly laid, and a start made toward Christ and heaven.

Holy waterwater blessed by God and the Churchis a most powerful sacramental. It is very potent against Satan and all the powers of darkness, and in sickness and in health. At evening we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross, using holy water. There is a grace in making the sign of the cross on ourselves with holy water just before we give ourselves over to the power of sleep, asking God to protect us from every form of darkness. And when we 'emerge' again after sleep and life begins afresh, we do the same thing in the morning. It reminds us of the water of baptism, through which we were issued into the life of Christ.

Since my childhood holy water has been a constant companion on life's journey. We used it 'to bless our self to sleep' and in times of trial and sickness, of joy, in storms (when two blessed candles would be lighted, and the holy water sprinkled through the house), and in temptations. Always there was this little bottle of holy water. One felt safe behind its blessed drops, and behind the sign of the cross that always went with it.

By her blessing it, the Church frees water from all the dark powers that sleep in it. She blesses it and asks God to make it the vehicle of his grace. You can get holy water in any church. Holy Water is most efficacious in repelling evil spirits. So don't worry about the devil; just make the sign of the cross, using it.

There is, of course, Our Ladywhen Satan meets her he disappears! You can invoke her name and get him out. In simplicity of soul, I recite the Rosary in any place where there is danger to my soul or body, for I remember that the Mother of God is the woman the devil is certainly afraid of. So I recite the Rosary; and I always travel with holy water. The medal of St. Benedict also keeps the devil away, as do blest salt and blest oil. The sacramentals of the Catholic Church have a power over devils, and we should think about that.

Candles are solemnly blessed on February 2nd. This particular day is chosen because it is the feast of Our Lord's Presentation in the Temple, and it was on this occasion that Simeon called the child Jesus "a light of revelation to the gentiles". Every home should have a blessed candle in readiness for protection, when in danger of fire or lightning.

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. On this day, the priest blesses ashes that are made by the burning of palm branches saved from Lent of the previous year. With them he traces on the forehead of each Catholic a cross, saying, "Remember, man, that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." The meaning of this ceremony is obvious. Ashes are the symbol of penance, atonement for personal sin. So it was in the Old Testament. Jonah went to Nineveh; he preached and the people of Nineveh repented, wearing sackcloth and ashes, and none were destroyed. Blessed palms remind us of the triumphal entry of Christ in Jerusalem when people honored and greeted him by waving palms. A piece of blessed palm can be kept in your home.

One of the great sacramentals of the Church is relics: the bones of martyrs, of saints, or anything touched to them. I have several relics over my fireplace; amongst them is Saint Catherine of Sienna. Sometimes when I come home and am really down and out I take them out, kiss them and talk to the saint; I hold the relic in my hand and it gives me consolation.

I think sacramentals are consolations of Christ and of the Church for us. Sometimes we need a hand. We talk about 'the Communion of Saints,' which includes the saints in heaven. To me they are as real as if they were sitting right here, and I don't hesitate one moment to call on them because I figure that's what they're there for. These characters up there were all people who gave their lives for othersas martyrs, or prayerful people, or looking after lepers, or what have you, so why shouldn't I ask them to help me now? You're missing the boat if you don't ask them, because you're leaving a lot of powerful people out of your life.

 Adapted from My Russian Yesterdays;
Summer School talk 1968;
Spiritual Readings in 1972, 78 and 80;
and 'Letters to Parents,' Dec 1949
~ St. Joseph's Magazine

Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, Archbishop of Haiti, RIP

2010-01-13T15:23:00.001-05:00

Fides.org, the Vatican news agency, reported at approx. 11AM that the body of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, Archbishop of Haiti had been found amidst the rubble of his residence. Authorities in Haiti are estimating that as many as 100,000 people could be dead, and as many as 3,000,000 people could be affected by the earthquake that has devastated this already poorest of the poor nation. Hospitals are destroyed or abandoned. People are stacking bodies in the street. The entire nation is in shock. Catholic Relief Services and Caritas International are already on their way to help.

Please pray, and please, if you can, help generously.

The staff of Caritas International were already in Haiti, and have been able to be contacted - information is on their blog, here:

http://blog.caritas.org/category/emergencies/haiti-quake/

http://crs.org/
Catholic Relief Services

http://crs.org/

Caritas International

http://www.foodforthepoor.org/
Food for the Poor

Eternal rest, grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed
through the mercy of God rest in peace.
Amen.

God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.
Lord, those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray in hope for all the dead known to You alone.
In company with Christ,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in Your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Unite us together again in one family,
to sing Your praise forever and ever.
Amen.

O merciful God,
take pity on those souls
who have no particular friends and intercessors
to recommend them to Thee, who,
either through the negligence of those who are alive,
or through length of time are forgotten
by their friends and by all.
Spare them, O Lord,
and remember Thine own mercy,
when others forget to appeal to it.
Let not the souls which Thou hast created
be parted from thee, their Creator.
May the souls of all the faithful departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us, and on the whole world.

You were chosen.

2010-01-06T11:58:00.001-05:00

Have a happy, healthy, peaceful, and grace-filled New Year! Happy Feast of Epiphany!

If Jesus truly is who he claims to be, the eternal Son of God and Savior of the world, then why is he not recognized by everyone who hears his word and sees his works? John the Evangelist states that when Jesus came into the world "the world knew him not and his own people received him not" (John 1:10-11). Jesus was born in obscurity. Only the lowly shepherds recognized him at his birth. Some Wise Men also found their way to Bethlehem to pay homage to the newborn King of Israel.

Today is traditionally celebrated as the Feast of the Three Kings - the day that the Three Kings came to Our Lord Jesus Christ, bearing him the gifts of gold, frankencense and myrrh, heralding him as King, Priest, and Savior. In their thirst for knowledge of God, the wise men from the East willingly left everything, their home and country, in pursuit of that quest. In their diligent search they were led to the source of true knowledge to Jesus Christ, the Light and Wisdom of God. When they found the newborn King they humbly worshiped him and gave him gifts fitting for a king. How could they recognize this infant as both divine and a human king - born of flesh yet sent from heaven?

They perceived one thing with the eyes of their bodies but another with the perceptions of their hearts. The humblenss of the body he assumed was seen, but the glory of his divinity is now made manifest as it touches their soul. An infant he is, but it is God who is adored. The invisible and eternal nature did not hesitate to take on the weaknesses of the flesh on our behalf. In the Christ Child, Heaven and Earth touch each other, Eternity is joined with our weak matter for all time. This is the bridge that Christ has given us when the Majesty of the Lord humbled himself and took on humanity, becoming truly one of us, body and soul, the Son of God, who is God of the universe, born of a human being in the flesh, born into poverty, placed into a feeding trough, to become the Bread of Life for us all, the heavens within a manger! He is heard in the voice of a crying infant. This is the same one for whose voice the whole world would tremble in the hour of his passion. Thus he is the One, the God of glory and the Lord of majesty, whom as a tiny infant the magi recognize.

To know and to encounter Jesus Christ is to know God personally. In the encounter of the wise men with Jesus we see the plan of God to give his only Son as King and Savior, not just for the Jewish people, who awaited their Messaiah, but for all the nations as well. The Lord Jesus came that all people might find true and lasting peace with God. Let us pray today that all people around the world will find the Lord and Savior on their journey of life. Do you bring the light of Jesus Christ to those you meet through the witness of your life and testimony?

Let us pray:

"Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for bringing salvation to all the nations. May the gospel of salvation be proclaimed to every nation today, through this New Year, and every day, to every person on the face of the earth. Help me to be a good witness of the joy of the gospel to all I meet."

Psalm 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-13

1 Give the king thy justice, O God, and thy righteousness to the royal son!
2 May he judge thy people with righteousness, and thy poor with justice!
7 In his days may righteousness flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
8 May he have dominion from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth!
10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts!
11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him!
12 For he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper.
13 He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves the lives of the needy.

Our Father, who art in Heaven;
hallowed be Thy name;
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth
as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those
who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
Amen

Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen

O Mary, Mother of Jesus and Mother of us all, we turn to you today as the one who said "Yes" to Life. "You will conceive and bear a Son," the angel told you. Despite the surprise and the uncertainty about how this could be, you said yes. "Be it done unto me according to your word." Mary, we pray today for all mothers who are afraid to be mothers. We pray for those who feel threatened and overwhelmed by their pregnancy. Intercede for them, that God may give them the grace to say yes and the courage to go on. May they have the grace to reject the false solution of abortion. May they say with you, "Be it done unto me according to your word." May they experience the help of Christian people, and know the peace that comes from doing God's will. Amen.

God, our Father, I offer this prayer to you on the behalf of those people who seek Your divine help and guidence as they look for suitable employment. They need Your wisdom to guide their footsteps along the right path, and to lead them to find the proper things to say and do in this quest. Help them to use the gifts and talents You have given them with the opportunity to do so with gainful employment. Do not abandon them, dear Father, in this search, but rather grant them this favor that they seek, so that they may return to You with praise and thanksgiving for Your gracious assistance. Grant this through Christ, our Lord, Amen

O merciful God, take pity on those souls who have no particular friends and intercessors to recommend them to Thee, who, either through the negligence of those who are alive, or through length of time are forgotten by their friends and by all. Spare them, O Lord, and remember Thine own mercy, when others forget to appeal to it. Let not the souls which Thou hast created be parted from thee, their Creator. May the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Amen.

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me.
Amen.

Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience

2009-11-28T13:55:00.001-05:00

Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience
Drafted October 20, 2009
Released November 20, 2009

Preamble

Christians are heirs of a 2,000-year tradition of proclaiming God's word, seeking justice in our societies, resisting tyranny, and reaching out with compassion to the poor, oppressed and suffering.

While fully acknowledging the imperfections and shortcomings of Christian institutions and communities in all ages, we claim the heritage of those Christians who defended innocent life by rescuing discarded babies from trash heaps in Roman cities and publicly denouncing the Empire's sanctioning of infanticide. We remember with reverence those believers who sacrificed their lives by remaining in Roman cities to tend the sick and dying during the plagues, and who died bravely in the coliseums rather than deny their Lord.

After the barbarian tribes overran Europe, Christian monasteries preserved not only the Bible but also the literature and art of Western culture. It was Christians who combated the evil of slavery: Papal edicts in the 16th and 17th centuries decried the practice of slavery and first excommunicated anyone involved in the slave trade; evangelical Christians in England, led by John Wesley and William Wilberforce, put an end to the slave trade in that country. Christians under Wilberforce's leadership also formed hundreds of societies for helping the poor, the imprisoned, and child laborers chained to machines.

In Europe, Christians challenged the divine claims of kings and successfully fought to establish the rule of law and balance of governmental powers, which made modern democracy possible. And in America, Christian women stood at the vanguard of the suffrage movement. The great civil rights crusades of the 1950s and 60s were led by Christians claiming the Scriptures and asserting the glory of the image of God in every human being regardless of race, religion, age or class.

This same devotion to human dignity has led Christians in the last decade to work to end the dehumanizing scourge of human trafficking and sexual slavery, bring compassionate care to AIDS sufferers in Africa, and assist in a myriad of other human rights causes from providing clean water in developing nations to providing homes for tens of thousands of children orphaned by war, disease and gender discrimination.

Like those who have gone before us in the faith, Christians today are called to proclaim the Gospel of costly grace, to protect the intrinsic dignity of the human person and to stand for the common good. In being true to its own calling, the call to discipleship, the church through service to others can make a profound contribution to the public good.

Declaration

We, as Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Christians, have gathered, beginning in New York on September 28, 2009, to make the following declaration, which we sign as individuals, not on behalf of our organizations, but speaking to and from our communities. We act together in obedience to the one true God, the triune God of holiness and love, who has laid total claim on our lives and by that claim calls us with believers in all ages and all nations to seek and defend the good of all who bear his image. We set forth this declaration in light of the truth that is grounded in Holy Scripture, in natural human reason (which is itself, in our view, the gift of a beneficent God), and in the very nature of the human person. We call upon all people of goodwill, believers and non-believers alike, to consider carefully and reflect critically on the issues we here address as we, with St. Paul, commend this appeal to everyone's conscience in the sight of God.

While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.

Because the sanctity of human life, the dignity of marriage as a union of husband and wife, and the freedom of conscience and religion are foundational principles of justice and the common good, we are compelled by our Christian faith to speak and act in their defense. In this declaration we affirm: 1) the profound, inherent, and equal dignity of every human being as a creature fashioned in the very image of God, possessing inherent rights of equal dignity and life; 2) marriage as a conjugal union of man and woman, ordained by God from the creation, and historically understood by believers and non-believers alike, to be the most basic institution in society and; 3) religious liberty, which is grounded in the character of God, the example of Christ, and the inherent freedom and dignity of human beings created in the divine image.

We are Christians who have joined together across historic lines of ecclesial differences to affirm our rightand, more importantly, to embrace our obligationto speak and act in defense of these truths. We pledge to each other, and to our fellow believers, that no power on earth, be it cultural or political, will intimidate us into silence or acquiescence. It is our duty to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in its fullness, both in season and out of season. May God help us not to fail in that duty.

Life

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Although public sentiment has moved in a pro-life direction, we note with sadness that pro-abortion ideology prevails today in our government. The present administration is led and staffed by those who want to make abortions legal at any stage of fetal development, and who want to provide abortions at taxpayer expense.

Majorities in both houses of Congress hold pro-abortion views. The Supreme Court, whose infamous 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade stripped the unborn of legal protection, continues to treat elective abortion as a fundamental constitutional right, though it has upheld as constitutionally permissible some limited restrictions on abortion.

The President says that he wants to reduce the "need" for abortiona commendable goal. But he has also pledged to make abortion more easily and widely available by eliminating laws prohibiting government funding, requiring waiting periods for women seeking abortions, and parental notification for abortions performed on minors. The elimination of these important and effective pro-life laws cannot reasonably be expected to do other than significantly increase the number of elective abortions by which the lives of countless children are snuffed out prior to birth.

Our commitment to the sanctity of life is not a matter of partisan loyalty, for we recognize that in the thirty-six years since Roe v. Wade, elected officials and appointees of both major political parties have been complicit in giving legal sanction to what Pope John Paul II described as "the culture of death." We call on all officials in our country, elected and appointed, to protect and serve every member of our society, including the most marginalized, voiceless, and vulnerable among us.

A culture of death inevitably cheapens life in all its stages and conditions by promoting the belief that lives that are imperfect, immature or inconvenient are discardable. As predicted by many prescient persons, the cheapening of life that began with abortion has now metastasized.

For example, human embryo-destructive research and its public funding are promoted in the name of science and in the cause of developing treatments and cures for diseases and injuries. The President and many in Congress favor the expansion of embryo-research to include the taxpayer funding of so-called "therapeutic cloning." This would result in the industrial mass production of human embryos to be killed for the purpose of producing genetically customized stem cell lines and tissues.

At the other end of life, an increasingly powerful movement to promote assisted suicide and "voluntary" euthanasia threatens the lives of vulnerable elderly and disabled persons.

Eugenic notions such as the doctrine of lebensunwertes Leben ("life unworthy of life") were first advanced in the 1920s by intellectuals in the elite salons of America and Europe. Long buried in ignominy after the horrors of the mid-20th century, they have returned from the grave. The only difference is that now the doctrines of the eugenicists are dressed up in the language of "liberty," "autonomy," and "choice."

We will be united and untiring in our efforts to roll back the license to kill that began with the abandonment of the unborn to abortion. We will work, as we have always worked, to bring assistance, comfort, and care to pregnant women in need and to those who have been victimized by abortion, even as we stand resolutely against the corrupt and degrading notion that it can somehow be in the best interests of women to submit to the deliberate killing of their unborn children. Our message is, and ever shall be, that the just, humane, and truly Christian answer to problem pregnancies is for all of us to love and care for mother and child alike.

A truly prophetic Christian witness will insistently call on those who have been entrusted with temporal power to fulfill the first responsibility of government: to protect the weak and vulnerable against violent attack, and to do so with no favoritism, partiality, or discrimination. The Bible enjoins us to defend those who cannot defend themselves, to speak for those who cannot themselves speak. And so we defend and speak for the unborn, the disabled, and the dependent. What the Bible and the light of reason make clear, we must make clear. We must be willing to defend, even at risk and cost to ourselves and our institutions, the lives of our brothers and sisters at every stage of development and in every condition.

Our concern is not confined to our own nation. Around the globe, we are witnessing cases of genocide and "ethnic cleansing," the failure to assist those who are suffering as innocent victims of war, the neglect and abuse of children, the exploitation of vulnerable laborers, the sexual trafficking of girls and young women, the abandonment of the aged, racial oppression and discrimination, the persecution of believers of all faiths, and the failure to take steps necessary to halt the spread of preventable diseases like AIDS.

We see these travesties as flowing from the same loss of the sense of the dignity of the human person and the sanctity of human life that drives the abortion industry and the movements for assisted suicide, euthanasia, and human cloning for biomedical research. And so ours is, as it must be, a truly consistent ethic of love and life for all humans in all circumstances.

Marriage

The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. Genesis 2:23-24

This is a profound mysterybut I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:32-33

In Scripture, the creation of man and woman, and their one-flesh union as husband and wife, is the crowning achievement of God's creation. In the transmission of life and the nurturing of children, men and women joined as spouses are given the great honor of being partners with God Himself.

Marriage then, is the first institution of human societyindeed it is the institution on which all other human institutions have their foundation. In the Christian tradition we refer to marriage as "holy matrimony" to signal the fact that it is an institution ordained by God, and blessed by Christ in his participation at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. In the Bible, God Himself blesses and holds marriage in the highest esteem.

Vast human experience confirms that marriage is the original and most important institution for sustaining the health, education, and welfare of all persons in a society. Where marriage is honored, and where there is a flourishing marriage culture, everyone benefitsthe spouses themselves, their children, the communities and societies in which they live. Where the marriage culture begins to erode, social pathologies of every sort quickly manifest themselves.

Unfortunately, we have witnessed over the course of the past several decades a serious erosion of the marriage culture in our own country. Perhaps the most tellingand alarmingindicator is the out-of-wedlock birth rate. Less than fifty years ago, it was under 5 percent. Today it is over 40 percent. Our societyand particularly its poorest and most vulnerable sectors, where the out-of-wedlock birth rate is much higher even than the national averageis paying a huge price in delinquency, drug abuse, crime, incarceration, hopelessness, and despair. Other indicators are widespread non-marital sexual cohabitation and a devastatingly high rate of divorce.

We confess with sadness that Christians and our institutions have too often scandalously failed to uphold the institution of marriage and to model for the world the true meaning of marriage. Insofar as we have too easily embraced the culture of divorce and remained silent about social practices that undermine the dignity of marriage we repent, and call upon all Christians to do the same.

To strengthen families, we must stop glamorizing promiscuity and infidelity and restore among our people a sense of the profound beauty, mystery, and holiness of faithful marital love. We must reform ill-advised policies that contribute to the weakening of the institution of marriage, including the discredited idea of unilateral divorce. We must work in the legal, cultural, and religious domains to instill in young people a sound understanding of what marriage is, what it requires, and why it is worth the commitment and sacrifices that faithful spouses make.

The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture. It reflects a loss of understanding of the meaning of marriage as embodied in our civil and religious law and in the philosophical tradition that contributed to shaping the law.

Yet it is critical that the impulse be resisted, for yielding to it would mean abandoning the possibility of restoring a sound understanding of marriage and, with it, the hope of rebuilding a healthy marriage culture. It would lock into place the false and destructive belief that marriage is all about romance and other adult satisfactions, and not, in any intrinsic way, about procreation and the unique character and value of acts and relationships whose meaning is shaped by their aptness for the generation, promotion and protection of life. In spousal communion and the rearing of children (who, as gifts of God, are the fruit of their parents' marital love), we discover the profound reasons for and benefits of the marriage covenant.

We acknowledge that there are those who are disposed towards homosexual and polyamorous conduct and relationships, just as there are those who are disposed towards other forms of immoral conduct. We have compassion for those so disposed; we respect them as human beings possessing profound, inherent, and equal dignity; and we pay tribute to the men and women who strive, often with little assistance, to resist the temptation to yield to desires that they, no less than we, regard as wayward. We stand with them, even when they falter. We, no less than they, are sinners who have fallen short of God's intention for our lives. We, no less than they, are in constant need of God's patience, love and forgiveness.

We call on the entire Christian community to resist sexual immorality, and at the same time refrain from disdainful condemnation of those who yield to it. Our rejection of sin, though resolute, must never become the rejection of sinners. For every sinner, regardless of the sin, is loved by God, who seeks not our destruction but rather the conversion of our hearts. Jesus calls all who wander from the path of virtue to "a more excellent way." As his disciples we will reach out in love to assist all who hear the call and wish to answer it.

We further acknowledge that there are sincere people who disagree with us, and with the teaching of the Bible and Christian tradition, on questions of sexual morality and the nature of marriage. Some who enter into same-sex and polyamorous relationships no doubt regard their unions as truly marital. They fail to understand, however, that marriage is made possible by the sexual complementarity of man and woman, and that the comprehensive, multi-level sharing of life that marriage is includes bodily unity of the sort that unites husband and wife biologically as a reproductive unit. This is because the body is no mere extrinsic instrument of the human person, but truly part of the personal reality of the human being.

Human beings are not merely centers of consciousness or emotion, or minds, or spirits, inhabiting non-personal bodies. The human person is a dynamic unity of body, mind, and spirit. Marriage is what one man and one woman establish when, forsaking all others and pledging lifelong commitment, they found a sharing of life at every level of beingthe biological, the emotional, the dispositional, the rational, the spiritualon a commitment that is sealed, completed and actualized by loving sexual intercourse in which the spouses become one flesh, not in some merely metaphorical sense, but by fulfilling together the behavioral conditions of procreation. That is why in the Christian tradition, and historically in Western law, consummated marriages are not dissoluble or annullable on the ground of infertility, even though the nature of the marital relationship is shaped and structured by its intrinsic orientation to the great good of procreation.

We understand that many of our fellow citizens, including some Christians, believe that the historic definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is a denial of equality or civil rights. They wonder what to say in reply to the argument that asserts that no harm would be done to them or to anyone if the law of the community were to confer upon two men or two women who are living together in a sexual partnership the status of being "married." It would not, after all, affect their own marriages, would it?

On inspection, however, the argument that laws governing one kind of marriage will not affect another cannot stand. Were it to prove anything, it would prove far too much: the assumption that the legal status of one set of marriage relationships affects no other would not only argue for same sex partnerships; it could be asserted with equal validity for polyamorous partnerships, polygamous households, even adult brothers, sisters, or brothers and sisters living in incestuous relationships. Should these, as a matter of equality or civil rights, be recognized as lawful marriages, and would they have no effects on other relationships? No. The truth is that marriage is not something abstract or neutral that the law may legitimately define and re-define to please those who are powerful and influential.

No one has a civil right to have a non-marital relationship treated as a marriage. Marriage is an objective realitya covenantal union of husband and wifethat it is the duty of the law to recognize and support for the sake of justice and the common good. If it fails to do so, genuine social harms follow. First, the religious liberty of those for whom this is a matter of conscience is jeopardized. Second, the rights of parents are abused as family life and sex education programs in schools are used to teach children that an enlightened understanding recognizes as "marriages" sexual partnerships that many parents believe are intrinsically non-marital and immoral. Third, the common good of civil society is damaged when the law itself, in its critical pedagogical function, becomes a tool for eroding a sound understanding of marriage on which the flourishing of the marriage culture in any society vitally depends.

Sadly, we are today far from having a thriving marriage culture. But if we are to begin the critically important process of reforming our laws and mores to rebuild such a culture, the last thing we can afford to do is to re-define marriage in such a way as to embody in our laws a false proclamation about what marriage is.

And so it is out of love (not "animus") and prudent concern for the common good (not "prejudice"), that we pledge to labor ceaselessly to preserve the legal definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman and to rebuild the marriage culture. How could we, as Christians, do otherwise? The Bible teaches us that marriage is a central part of God's creation covenant. Indeed, the union of husband and wife mirrors the bond between Christ and his church. And so just as Christ was willing, out of love, to give Himself up for the church in a complete sacrifice, we are willing, lovingly, to make whatever sacrifices are required of us for the sake of the inestimable treasure that is marriage.

Religious Liberty

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners. Isaiah 61:1

Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Matthew 22:21

The struggle for religious liberty across the centuries has been long and arduous, but it is not a novel idea or recent development. The nature of religious liberty is grounded in the character of God Himself, the God who is most fully known in the life and work of Jesus Christ.

Determined to follow Jesus faithfully in life and death, the early Christians appealed to the manner in which the Incarnation had taken place: "Did God send Christ, as some suppose, as a tyrant brandishing fear and terror? Not so, but in gentleness and meekness..., for compulsion is no attribute of God" (Epistle to Diognetus 7.3-4). Thus the right to religious freedom has its foundation in the example of Christ Himself and in the very dignity of the human person created in the image of Goda dignity, as our founders proclaimed, inherent in every human, and knowable by all in the exercise of right reason.

Christians confess that God alone is Lord of the conscience. Immunity from religious coercion is the cornerstone of an unconstrained conscience. No one should be compelled to embrace any religion against his will, nor should persons of faith be forbidden to worship God according to the dictates of conscience or to express freely and publicly their deeply held religious convictions. What is true for individuals applies to religious communities as well.

It is ironic that those who today assert a right to kill the unborn, aged and disabled and also a right to engage in immoral sexual practices, and even a right to have relationships integrated around these practices be recognized and blessed by lawsuch persons claiming these "rights" are very often in the vanguard of those who would trample upon the freedom of others to express their religious and moral commitments to the sanctity of life and to the dignity of marriage as the conjugal union of husband and wife.

We see this, for example, in the effort to weaken or eliminate conscience clauses, and therefore to compel pro-life institutions (including religiously affiliated hospitals and clinics), and pro-life physicians, surgeons, nurses, and other health care professionals, to refer for abortions and, in certain cases, even to perform or participate in abortions.

We see it in the use of anti-discrimination statutes to force religious institutions, businesses, and service providers of various sorts to comply with activities they judge to be deeply immoral or go out of business. After the judicial imposition of "same-sex marriage" in Massachusetts, for example, Catholic Charities chose with great reluctance to end its century-long work of helping to place orphaned children in good homes rather than comply with a legal mandate that it place children in same-sex households in violation of Catholic moral teaching. In New Jersey, after the establishment of a quasi-marital "civil unions" scheme, a Methodist institution was stripped of its tax exempt status when it declined, as a matter of religious conscience, to permit a facility it owned and operated to be used for ceremonies blessing homosexual unions. In Canada and some European nations, Christian clergy have been prosecuted for preaching Biblical norms against the practice of homosexuality. New hate-crime laws in America raise the specter of the same practice here.

In recent decades a growing body of case law has paralleled the decline in respect for religious values in the media, the academy and political leadership, resulting in restrictions on the free exercise of religion. We view this as an ominous development, not only because of its threat to the individual liberty guaranteed to every person, regardless of his or her faith, but because the trend also threatens the common welfare and the culture of freedom on which our system of republican government is founded.

Restrictions on the freedom of conscience or the ability to hire people of one's own faith or conscientious moral convictions for religious institutions, for example, undermines the viability of the intermediate structures of society, the essential buffer against the overweening authority of the state, resulting in the soft despotism Tocqueville so prophetically warned of.¹ Disintegration of civil society is a prelude to tyranny.

As Christians, we take seriously the Biblical admonition to respect and obey those in authority. We believe in law and in the rule of law. We recognize the duty to comply with laws whether we happen to like them or not, unless the laws are gravely unjust or require those subject to them to do something unjust or otherwise immoral. The biblical purpose of law is to preserve order and serve justice and the common good; yet laws that are unjustand especially laws that purport to compel citizens to do what is unjustundermine the common good, rather than serve it.

Going back to the earliest days of the church, Christians have refused to compromise their proclamation of the gospel. In Acts 4, Peter and John were ordered to stop preaching. Their answer was, "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

Through the centuries, Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted, but sometimes required. There is no more eloquent defense of the rights and duties of religious conscience than the one offered by Martin Luther King, Jr., in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Writing from an explicitly Christian perspective, and citing Christian writers such as Augustine and Aquinas, King taught that just laws elevate and ennoble human beings because they are rooted in the moral law whose ultimate source is God Himself. Unjust laws degrade human beings. Inasmuch as they can claim no authority beyond sheer human will, they lack any power to bind in conscience. King's willingness to go to jail, rather than comply with legal injustice, was exemplary and inspiring.

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar's. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God's.

Drafting Committee

Robert George Professor, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University

Timothy George Professor, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University

Chuck Colson Founder, the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview (Lansdowne, VA)

1 Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Sign the Declaration here:

http://manhattandeclaration.org/sign-the-declaration

All Souls Day

2009-10-30T22:47:00.001-04:00

Concerning All Souls Day (November 2nd)

On All Souls Day we remember the souls of the faithful departed who are suffering in Purgatory and pray for them. We can pray for them any day, of course, but there are special indulgences attached to this special feast of the Church to encourage prayer at this time.

All Souls Regulations

An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. The indulgence is plenary each day from the first to the eighth of November; on other days of the year it is partial.

A plenary indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who on the day dedicated to the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed [November 2 {as well as on the Sunday preceding or following, and on All Saints' Day}] piously visit a church.

In visiting the church it is required that one Our Father and the Creed be recited.

To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary also to fulfill the following three conditions: sacramental Confession, Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the intention of the Holy Father.

The three conditions may be fulfilled several days before or after the performance of the visit; it is, however, fitting that communion be received and the prayer for the intention of the Holy Father be said on the same day as the visit.

The condition of praying for the intention of the Holy Father is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary.

A plenary indulgence can be acquired only once in the course of the day.

As Catholics we have the right, on the occasion of our death, to the Mass of Christian Burial, as well as to burial in a Catholic cemetery or mausoleum. The rites of Christian burial combine proper reverence for the body of the dead with a faith-filled hope in the resurrection of the body.

(Incidently there are any number of ways to earn plenary indulgences. When one goes to daily Mass, is within an octave (8 days before or after) confession, prays for the intentions of the Holy Father, and does an indulgenced act - then one can merit such an indulgence daily. Praying the rosary at the Blessed Sacrament or making the Stations of the Cross--just to name two- merit the indulgence that can be applicable to the souls in Purgatory)

Conditions for both indulgences:

1. Only one plenary indulgence can be granted per day.

2. It is necessary to be in the state of grace, at least by completion of the work.

3. Freedom from attachment to sin, even venial sin, is necessary; otherwise the indulgence is only partial. (By this is meant attachment to a particular sin, not sin in general.)

4. Holy Communion must be received each time the indulgence is sought.

5. Prayers must he recited for the intentions of the Holy Father on each day the indulgence is sought. (No particular prayers are prescribed. One Our Father and one Hail Mary suffice, or other suitable prayers.

6. A sacramental concession must he made within a week of completion of the prescribed work. (One confession made during the week, made with the intention of gaining all the indulgences, suffices.)

A New National Pastime?

2009-10-30T18:16:00.001-04:00

ANTI-CATHOLICISM

The following article was submitted in a slightly shorter form to the New York Times as an op-ed article.
The NYT declined to publish it.
I thought you might be interested in reading it.

FOUL BALL!

By Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
Archbishop of New York

October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series!

Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism.

It is not hyperbole to call prejudice against the Catholic Church a national pastime. Scholars such as Arthur Schlesinger Sr. referred to it as "the deepest bias in the history of the American people," while John Higham described it as "the most luxuriant, tenacious tradition of paranoiac agitation in American history." "The anti-semitism of the left," is how Paul Viereck reads it, and Professor Philip Jenkins sub-titles his book on the topic "the last acceptable prejudice."

If you want recent evidence of this unfairness against the Catholic Church, look no further than a few of these following examples of occurrences over the last couple weeks:

- On October 14, in the pages of the New York Times, reporter Paul Vitello exposed the sad extent of child sexual abuse in Brooklyn's Orthodox Jewish community. According to the article, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/nyregion/14abuse.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=paul%20vitello&st=cse

there were forty cases of such abuse in this tiny community last year alone. Yet the Times did not demand what it has called for incessantly when addressing the same kind of abuse by a tiny minority of priests: release of names of abusers, rollback of statute of limitations, external investigations, release of all records, and total transparency. Instead, an attorney is quoted urging law enforcement officials to recognize "religious sensitivities," and no criticism was offered of the DA's office for allowing Orthodox rabbis to settle these cases "internally." Given the Catholic Church's own recent horrible experience, I am hardly in any position to criticize our Orthodox Jewish neighbors, and have no wish to do so . . . but I can criticize this kind of "selective outrage."

Of course, this selective outrage probably should not surprise us at all, as we have seen many other examples of the phenomenon in recent years when it comes to the issue of sexual abuse. To cite but two: In 2004, Professor Carol Shakeshaft documented the wide-spread problem of sexual abuse of minors in our nation's public schools (the study can be found here). http://www.archny.org/media/archbishops-blog/Sexual_Misconduct_Report.pdf

In 2007, the Associated Press issued a series of investigative reports that also showed the numerous examples of sexual abuse by educators against public school students. Both the Shakeshaft study and the AP reports were essentially ignored, as papers such as the New York Times only seem to have priests in their crosshairs.

- On October 16, Laurie Goodstein of the Times offered a front page, above-the-fold story on the sad episode of a Franciscan priest who had fathered a child. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/us/16priest.html

Even taking into account that the relationship with the mother was consensual and between two adults, and that the Franciscans have attempted to deal justly with the errant priest's responsibilities to his son, this action is still sinful, scandalous, and indefensible. However, one still has to wonder why a quarter-century old story of a sin by a priest is now suddenly more pressing and newsworthy than the war in Afghanistan, health care, and starvation-genocide in Sudan. No other cleric from religions other than Catholic ever seems to merit such attention.

- Five days later, October 21, the Times gave its major headline to the decision by the Vatican to welcome Anglicans who had requested union with Rome. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/world/europe/21pope.html?scp=5&sq=vatican&st=cse

Fair enough. Unfair, though, was the article's observation that the Holy See lured and bid for the Anglicans. Of course, the reality is simply that for years thousands of Anglicans have been asking Rome to be accepted into the Catholic Church with a special sensitivity for their own tradition. As Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Vatican's chief ecumenist, observed, "We are not fishing in the Anglican pond."

Not enough for the Times; for them, this was another case of the conniving Vatican luring and bidding unsuspecting, good people, greedily capitalizing on the current internal tensions in Anglicanism.

- Finally, the most combustible example of all came Sunday with an intemperate and scurrilous piece by Maureen Dowd on the opinion pages of the Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/opinion/25dowd.html

In a diatribe that rightly never would have passed muster with the editors had it so criticized an Islamic, Jewish, or African-American religious issue, she digs deep into the nativist handbook to use every anti-Catholic caricature possible, from the Inquisition to the Holocaust, condoms, obsession with sex, pedophile priests, and oppression of women, all the while slashing Pope Benedict XVI for his shoes, his forced conscription -- along with every other German teenage boy -- into the German army, his outreach to former Catholics, and his recent welcome to Anglicans.

True enough, the matter that triggered her spasm -- the current visitation of women religious by Vatican representatives -- is well-worth discussing, and hardly exempt from legitimate questioning. But her prejudice, while maybe appropriate for the Know-Nothing newspaper of the 1850's, the Menace, has no place in a major publication today.

I do not mean to suggest that anti-catholicism is confined to the pages New York Times. Unfortunately, abundant examples can be found in many different venues. I will not even begin to try and list the many cases of anti-catholicism in the so-called entertainment media, as they are so prevalent they sometimes seem almost routine and obligatory.

Elsewhere, last week, Representative Patrick Kennedy made some incredibly inaccurate and uncalled-for remarks concerning the Catholic bishops, as mentioned in this blog on Monday. http://www.archny.org/news-events/columns-and-blogs/blog---the-gospel-in-the-digital-age/index.cfm?i=13999

Also, the New York State Legislature has levied a special payroll tax to help the Metropolitan Transportation Authority fund its deficit. This legislation calls for the public schools to be reimbursed the cost of the tax; Catholic schools, and other private schools, will not receive the reimbursement, costing each of the schools thousands - in some cases tens of thousands - of dollars, money that the parents and schools can hardly afford. (Nor can the archdiocese, which already underwrites the schools by $30 million annually.) Is it not an issue of basic fairness for ALL school-children and their parents to be treated equally?

The Catholic Church is not above criticism. We Catholics do a fair amount of it ourselves. We welcome and expect it. All we ask is that such critique be fair, rational, and accurate, what we would expect for anybody. The suspicion and bias against the Church is a national pastime that should be "rained out" for good.

I guess my own background in American history should caution me not to hold my breath.

Then again, yesterday [October 28th] was the Feast of Saint Jude, the patron saint of impossible causes.

Choose Life License Plate

2009-09-13T17:34:00.001-04:00

The Choose Life License Plate is a wonderful way to raise public awareness and much needed funding to support the positive choices of Life & Adoption (for crisis pregnancies), and the Safe Havens Program (for newborns). We have until October 31st to obtain a total of 1500 reservations for this plate.

Last Update - September 10, 2009 - Total Registrations to Date is 1230 - We're so close!

This means you have to fill out the registration form, available at the site below, write a check for $40 to the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, and send your completed form and check to: Choose Life, Inc., 25 Fairmount Ave, Wakefield MA 01880.

http://www.machoose-life.org/

The state of Massachusetts has never been closer to getting the specialty plate to promote aid to the Unborn human life. 100% volunteer populated "Choose Life, Inc." ensures 100% of funds go to promoting Adoption, Safe Havens, and Pregnancy Crisis Centers. This is not about being "against" anything - this is only about being supportive of choosing LIFE.

Watch this Youtube video for more info.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-PU1TbPa40

The purpose of Massachusetts Choose Life is to create a specialty license plate with the slogan "Choose Life."

Funds generated by Massachusetts' Choose Life specialty license plate will assist women with the expenses of a full term pregnancy - such as medical bills, temporary housing, transportation, utility bills, food, maternity clothing, and similar expenses of infants.

Funds will be distributed to qualified not-for-profit agencies within Massachusetts that do not counsel in or refer for abortion.

As of March 30, 2009, twenty-four states have approved the plate (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee and Virginia).

In addition, there are support groups working to create this plate in 16 other states (Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming).

Lets help make it happen in Massachusetts! Choose Life!

Celebrating Mercy & Reconciliation

2009-08-26T12:08:00.001-04:00

Celebrating Mercy & Reconciliation

Yesterday, the Holy Father wrote in a letter written on the occasion of Italy's 60th National Liturgical Week, being held in Barletta that the Church needs "wise and holy spiritual teachers" who are able not only to hear confessions, but also to educate consciences. He also noted that it had been 35 years since the new Rite of Penance came into force.

This month in the US there is a bit of a hubbub regarding another anniversary - the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Many are talking about various musical events, there's even a new movie coming out. All are waxing nostalgic for the bygone days of beads, bell-bottoms, peace signs, "free love", and sweet-smelling smoke everywhere one went...

It's a stark contrast. Licentiousness and "do what thou wilt", versus developing a "well-formed conscience" and striving for holiness in one's life. The Holy Father writes that the "sense of sin is lost [and] feelings of guilt increase which people [then] seek to eliminate by recourse to inadequate palliative remedies." I have seen for myself, for decades, the physical, mental, moral, and spiritual destruction such "palliative remedies" wreaks on not just the individual, but entire families. I have looked into those lost and despairing eyes, in the dark of the night, as they weep, and wonder how things got so bad. Why do they feel so lost, why does it hurt so much, if they're having so much "fun"?

The Holy Father urges priests to make use of the spiritual and pastoral tools they have available to them to contribute to the healthy formation of consciences. "Like all the sacraments, the sacrament of Penance too requires catechesis beforehand and a mystagogical catechesis for a deeper knowledge of the sacrament: 'per ritus et preces.' Catechesis should be combined with a wise use of preaching, which has had different forms in the Church's history according to the mentality and pastoral needs of the faithful."

Oh, would that our bishops and our priests would only actually DO this! I have heard horrible stories of priests in the confession over the years - not the stories of priests who are too hard on a person, or the nasty stories of the old priest who yelled at the poor penitent - but priests who don't listen, who try to play pop psychologist, who brush off a person's sense of sin or guilt as if they are mistaken or even mentally ill for admitting to such a thing.

About a year ago, I went to confession, and after stating one or two sins, as I paused to collect my thoughts, suddenly found myself being given absolution and shoveled out the door of the confessional. I was so shocked, I did leave, and immediately went and found the rector, and asked for another confession, explaining that I hadn't finished, hadn't been actually listened to, and didn't feel that I merited absolution until I could actually complete my ENTIRE confession - he acquiesced, and then tried to tell me that "some of the older priests don't hear all that well". Trust me, the man wasn't hard of hearing he just apparently thought that 1 or 2 things, and I was all done. He didn't wait for me to say, "for these and all my sins I am truly sorry" he just assumed I wasn't going to do a particularly in-depth examination of conscience, didn't try to help me examine my conscience, just shoveled me out the door The second priest, on the other hand, did listen, and then, rather than offering pop-psychology, talked about grace, and allowing Divine Mercy to work in my life, and actually gave spiritual direction!

Recently, I went to a priest who is well-known for his conservative homilies. He is a very dear man, who reaches out to many in his parish. Yet, in sharing with him my dismay at having repeatedly failing to avoid sin, and thus "injuring Christ", he looked at me like I was crazy. I told him I remembered the story of one of the children at Fatima, Francisco, and he was so touched by the thought that every sin wounded Christ, that he resolved not only do his best to never fall into sin again, but to do "sacrifices", in reparation for the sins of the world - he said he wanted to comfort Jesus. I told this priest that I really wanted to do this - that I wanted to live my life this way, and it was painful to me that I couldn't do better. He asked me if I was seeing someone for my "depression".

The Holy Father is urging the priests of the church to "celebrate" the Sacrament of Penance, to assist with "adequate formation" of conscience, so that they can "foster in the faithful the experience of spiritual support".

I know that in many parishes Confession are offered in a desultory fashion, one tiny window of time per week, or "by appointment" - that no one ever makes. And lines are short, even in large parishes. In parishes where the sacrament is offered more frequently, or even multiple times per day, the people come in droves, and the lines are long.

It's hard, in this day and age of "self-help-ism" and "fix-it-ism" to actually find a priest who is willing to sit back and actually be a spiritual director, instead of trying to be a psychologist. When I talk to my friends, we tend to agree when we go to confession, we aren't looking for a psychiatrist we are looking for God. We are looking for spiritual direction, not cognitive therapy! And we all tend to feel that the parishes where we have the best experiences with Confession are not only offering the sacrament more frequently, but are offering less Stephen Covey and Wayne Dyer and more Christ, scripture, and saints.

I am praying, that these "wise and holy spiritual teachers" that the Holy Father is looking for will be brought forward by the Holy Spirit, to bring a renewed love of the Sacrament of Penance into the Church - not in a spirit of pain and guilt and, in the language of Woodstock, a drag and a bummer - but in the spirit of hope. For it is in recognizing where we've fallen down that we can pick ourselves up and start all over again - this is what Reconciliation is all about. It is not a laundry list of "bad", but a paean of joy, celebrating the Divine Mercy of the Lord, as we reach out for His hand!

Quotes from the Holy Father taken from:

http://www.zenit.org/article-26685?l=english

A Circle of Quiet

2009-08-21T16:49:00.006-04:00

A Circle of Quiet
Using your imagination and creativity to "think yourself well"

When my son was a very little boy, maybe four years old, and he would get a headache, I would have him lie down, and put a cool cloth on his head, and tell him to close his eyes. Then we would play our "river game" to make the headache go away, and he would "think himself well".

I would tell him to take long, slow deep breaths, and let his toes relax, and let his legs relax, and breath in, and breath out, and let his whole body relax… one by one, moving up his body, we'd "tell" all his muscles to relax, and in a minute or so, he'd be as limp as a noodle.

Then, lying there quietly, I would tell him to imagine a cool stream of water, clean, and clear, and sparkling; icy cold, and running over little rocks, and under shady trees – and imagine it flowing though his body – through the center of his forehead, across and through his whole head, and down and out the back of his head – washing his pain away, washing his pain away, washing his pain away. I'd speak softly, gently, slowly…. Sometimes he lay with his head in my lap. Sometimes he'd get sleepy. But in just a minute or two he would always tell me that he felt better, that his head felt "cooler", and many times the pain was gone completely.

This is what psychologists call "visualization" – I just call it using your imagination, creativity, and the gifts God gave you – to help yourself relax and feel better. This was a very simple one – he could imagine the river because we lived near a river, and we'd walked by the river, and thrown stones in the river, and he'd gone fishing in the river, and he knew the river well. The idea of the cold, clear water washing his pain away was simple for him to imagine. And that's the way it works best. Put yourself in a setting you know well, and is comfortable for you, and then imagine yourself feeling better. You are essentially thinking yourself well!

We can use many different simple "visualizations" to help ourselves relax and feel better; here is another one, that author Madeleine L'Engle actually does when she's a bit stressed – but she writes about it so vividly and so beautifully, that I thought I'd share it, as a lovely example of using the the power of your creativity and your imagination to take a five minute "vacation" and mentally take yourself to your own safe, quiet place.

Your "circle of quiet" will probably be very different than Madeleine's, when you try this exercise yourself. With practice you can do this any time, any place, for a brief but relaxing moment all to yourself, but when you first start you may find it helpful to lie down on your bed, slow your breathing, close your eyes, and spend about 5 minutes in your own, special "circle of quiet".

Build it in your imagination, like the author does when she shares her special place with the reader. See the colors, the sky, and the plants. Hear the wind whispering. The birds chirping. Make it as real as you can, all the while breathing deeply and slowly – and soon you will find your whole body feels more relaxed and your mind feels less tense and anxious.

A CIRCLE OF QUIET

Every so often I need OUT; something will throw me into total disproportion, and I have to get away from everybody – away from all these people I love most in the world – in order to regain a sense of proportion.

I like hanging out the sheets on lines strung under the apple trees – the birds like it, too. I enjoy going out to the incinerator after dark, and watching all the flames; my bad feeling burn away with the trash. But the house is still visible, and I can hear the sounds from within; often I need to get away completely, if only for a few minutes. My special place is a small brook in a green glade, a circle of quiet from which there is no visible sign of human beings. There's a natural stone bridge over the brook, and I sit there, dangling my legs and looking through the foliage at the sky reflected in the water, and things slowly come back into perspective. If the insects are biting me – and they usually are; no place is perfect – I use the pliable branch of a willow tree as a fan. The brook wanders through a tunnel of foliage, and the birds sing more sweetly there than anywhere else; or perhaps it is just that when I am at the brook I have time to be aware of them, and I move slowly into a kind of peace that is marvelous, "annihilating all that's made to a green thought in a green shade." If I sit for a while, then my impatience, crossness, frustration, are indeed annihilated, and my sense of humor returns.

It's a full ten-minute walk to the brook. I cross the lawn and go through the willow tree which splashes its fountain of green down onto the grass so that it's almost impossible to mow around it. If it's raining and I really need the brook badly, I go in my grandfather's old leather hunting coat and a strange yellow knitted hat from Ireland (one of my children, seeing me set off, asked, "Who do you think you are, Mother? Mrs. Whatsit?"); it's amazing what passing the half-century mark does to free one to be eccentric. When my hair gets wet, I look like a drowned ostrich, and I much prefer resembling an amiable, myopic giraffe as I wade through the wet clover of the large pasture….

After the pasture is traversed, I walk through a smaller pasture, which has been let go to seed because of all the rocks, and is now filled with thistles. Then there is a stone wall to be climbed; the only poison ivy around here grows on and by the stones of this wall, and I'm trying to kill it by smothering it with wet Sunday Timeses; my children have made me very aware of the danger of using chemical sprays…. I think the poison ivy is less flourishing than it was; at any rate, The New York Times is not going to unbalance the ecology. I love the ology words; olog: the word about. Eco, man's dwelling place. The word about where man lives.

Once I'm over the stone wall, the terrain changes. I step into a large field full of rocks left over from glacial deposits; there are many ancient apple trees, which, this summer, are laden with fruit. From the stone wall to the brook… takes me across a high ridge where there are large outcroppings of glacial stone, including our special star-watching rock. Then the path becomes full of tussocks and hummocks; blackberry brambles and wild roses. Earlier this summer the laurel burst from the snow into fire, and a few weeks later we found a field of sweet wild strawberries. And then there are the blueberry bushes, not very many, but a few, taller than I am, and to me, infinitely beautiful.

The burning bush; somehow I visualize it as much like one of these blueberry bushes. The bush burned, was alive with flame, and was not consumed. Why? Isn't it because as a bush, it was perfect? It was exactly as a bush is meant to be. A bush certainly doesn't have the opportunity for prideful and selfish choices, for self-destruction, that we human beings do. It is. It is a pure example of ontology. Ontology is one of my favorite words this summer. Ontology: the word about the essence of things, the word about being.

I go to the brook because I get out of being, out of the essential. So, I'm not like the bush, I put all my prickliness, selfishness, inturnedness, onto my is-ness; we all tend to, and when we burn, this part of us is consumed. When I go past the tallest blueberry bush, I think that the part of us that has to be burned away is something like the deadwood on the bush; it has to go, to be burned in the terrible fire of reality, until there is nothing left but our ontological selves; what we are meant to be.

I go to the brook, and my tensions, and frustrations are lost as I spend a happy hour sitting right by the water, and trying to clear it of the clogging debris left by a fallen tree.

From: A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle,
Harper and Row Publishers, 1972 pp 4 – 6

Tulsa Bishop - effort to recapture a "more authentic" Catholic worship

2009-08-20T17:24:00.001-04:00

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ZENIT, The world seen from Rome
News Agency
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Tulsa Bishop Explains Why He Faces East
Expresses Desire to Recover Authentic Worship

TULSA, Oklahoma, AUG. 19, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The bishop of Tulsa explains his decision to celebrate Mass at the diocesan cathedral "ad orientem" -- facing east -- as an effort to recapture a "more authentic" Catholic worship.

Bishop Edward Slattery affirmed this in an article featured in the September edition of the Eastern Oklahoma Catholic, titled "Ad Orientem: Revival of Ancient Rite Brings Multiple Advantages, Some Misperceptions."

In a discussion about liturgy, the prelate said, it is necessary to grasp this "essential" truth: "At Mass, Christ joins us to himself as he offers himself in sacrifice to the Father for the world's redemption."

He reminded his readers that "all of the faithful offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice as members of Christ's body" through baptism.

The priest has a unique role in this offering, the bishop affirmed, to stand "in the person of Christ, the historic Head of the Mystical Body, so that, at Mass, it is the whole body of Christ -- Head and members together that make the offering."

Bishop Slattery explained that "from ancient times, the position of the priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass."

As well, he added, "everyone -- celebrant and congregation -- faced the same direction, since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ's unique, unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice."

The prelate continued: "When we study the most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, we find that the priest and the people faced in the same direction, usually toward the east, in the expectation that when Christ returns, he will return 'from the east.'

"At Mass, the Church keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called 'ad orientem,' which simply means 'toward the east.'"

This traditional posture lasted for nearly 18 centuries in the Church, he noted, as something that was handed on from the time of the Apostles.

Journey together

The bishop observed that this single eastward position "reveals the nature of the Mass" as an act of worship shared by the priest and the congregation.

However, he said, this "shared orientation was lost" as the priest and people became accustomed to facing opposite directions.

Bishop Slattery explained, "This innovation was introduced after the Vatican Council, partly to help the people understand the liturgical action of the Mass by allowing them to see what was going on, and partly as an accommodation to contemporary culture where people who exercise authority are expected to face directly the people they serve, like a teacher sitting behind her desk."

Unfortunately, he added, this change had some "unforeseen and largely negative effects."

Not only was it a "serious rupture with the Church's ancient tradition," the prelate asserted, but it also "can give the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God."

He stated that it also "places an inordinate importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of liturgical stage."

The bishop noted Benedict XVI's appeal to "draw upon the ancient liturgical practice of the Church to recover a more authentic Catholic worship."

He continued, "For that reason, I have restored the venerable 'ad orientem' position when I celebrate Mass at the cathedral."

This gesture, he stated, is not one of rudeness or hostility toward the faithful, nor an attempt to "turn back the clock."

Rather, Bishop Slattery affirmed, it represents the fact that "we journey together to God."

As well, he continued, it is an attempt to respond to the Pope's invitation to "discover what underlies this ancient tradition and made it viable for so many centuries, namely, the Church's understanding that the worship of the Mass is primarily and essentially the worship which Christ offers to his Father."

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On the Net:

Full text: http://dioceseoftulsa.org/eoc/eoc200909.pdf

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ZE09081904
2009-08-19
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This article is from the ZENIT news agency.

"A Victory for Love and Mercy"

2009-08-12T15:59:00.002-04:00

"A Victory for Love and Mercy"
Saint of the Day - Blessed Karl Leisner
By: Fr. John Larson, MIC
www.marian.org/divinemercy/story.php?NID=3239

Photo: www.katolsk.no/biografi/kleisner.htm
Karl Leisner, a year before his death in 1945

Fr. John Larson, MIC writes: I enjoy looking into the archives of our Province and digging up gems. There are a number of old reel-to-reel tapes that have sat and collected dust for years, and I've wondered just what is recorded on them? Finally, with the help of my parents, I was able to get an old reel-to-reel tape deck working from the Marians' Chicago house, and I have discovered some lost treasures.

Among them, episodes of a dramatic radio program called "The Hour of St. Francis." Each show is only 15 minutes, so the term "hour" here is used figuratively. One episode was titled, "The Victory of Father Karl," which chronicles the trials of Karl Leisner, who became a priest while interred in Dachau, the Nazi German concentration camp.

At the end of the program, I wondered, "Could this really be true?" A quick check on the Internet found that not only is the story true, but Fr. Karl Leisner was beatified by Pope John Paul II in Germany in 1996. I also found that there is a book called The Victory of Father Karl by Fr. Otto Pies, S.J. It was translated from the German in 1957.

But who is this Fr. Karl, and why is his story so amazing?

Blessed Karl Leisner was born in 1915 in Westphalia, Germany. He grew up in Kleve, and during his school years, he became such a good youth organizer that the high school chaplain suggested he create a youth group, at the age of 12!

The group of boys, called the Saint Werner Group, often went on bicycle trips, which included the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass as the high point of the day. They would play music and pray various prayers, including acts of devotion to Our Lady.

As he grew, he excelled in schoolwork and also had a deep awareness of God. He wrote of needing the love of God and joy in his soul. While he was still in high school, as National Socialism came to power, he would need God to show him the way to love. He discerned a call to the priesthood and applied to the Theological Seminary in Muenster. Because there were many applicants, he was put on a waiting list.

Karl continued to work to lead youth to Christ, but now there was a new youth movement coming: Hitler Youth. The people of Germany didn’t realize it yet, but persecution was on the way. While waiting to attend the seminary, Karl used the time to volunteer in the newly instituted compulsory youth labor service that the Nazis had just formed, essentially to get it over with. He was afraid that if he waited, and was accepted into seminary, they could force him to quit, in order to work in the youth labor service. During that time, Karl was thrilled when he obtained the possibility to attend Holy Mass on occasion.

After this time, he was finally able to enter the seminary. It was now 1934, and the Nazis increasingly attacked Catholic institutions. After the closing of a youth house in Dusseldorf in 1935, Karl wrote, "But we maintain our Christian, courageous calm. Nobody will take away our will to struggle and fight back as long as He is with us. God is the ruler of the fates of men and peoples. This is our victory, which overcomes the world."

He wrote a poem that expressed his feelings at this time:

“Though the road wind through the blackest night,
Victory will be ours in the dawn's crimson light.
We are ready to proclaim, in all lands and climes,
That God is the Lord even of these our times.”

Karl continued to work with youth, and to share the Gospel with them, and the Gestapo noted it. They opened a secret file on his activities in 1936. They watched his movements and read his mail.

His studies continued, and he was ordained subdeacon and then deacon. But in 1939, shortly after he had been ordained deacon, his health quickly deteriorated. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis in both lungs. He went for treatment to a hospital in the Black Forest.

After six months, his health was improving, but one day after hearing about an attempt to assassinate Hitler with a bomb, he remarked that it was a pity that Hitler wasn't there when the attack occurred. This was reported to the authorities, and within hours, Karl was arrested.

He was moved from one prison to another and then sent to Dachau. At this time, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS), ordered all priests to be sent there. There were between 1,500 and 2,000 priests in the camp. Priests from 25 different European countries found themselves in Block Numbers 26 to 30. Karl arrived at Dachau on Dec. 8, 1940 — the feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The authorities allowed a chapel to be built in Block 26. There was even a makeshift tabernacle. It was made of wooden boxes and tin cans. Still, it was sufficient to house the King of Kings in this terrible environment in which He and His priests were treated with contempt. Jesus was there. The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass was allowed once each morning at 5 a.m., just before the dawn roll call.

Although he suffered from depression, Karl kept up the spirits of others. Other prisoners remembered his cheerful disposition, and he would lead songs, just as he did with youth groups. One prisoner said of him, "Karl was always friendly to every fellow prisoner. He talked to everyone and inquired in the greatest detail about the latest bit of news. I never heard him speak an unfriendly or an impolite word; and I never saw him unwilling to do anything." He still longed for the priesthood, but that did not appear to be likely.

In 1941, his condition worsened. The tuberculosis was taking its toll. A blood vessel in his lung broke on March 15, causing blood to come from his mouth. He had a high fever. He was put in the camp hospital, which was as good as a death sentence.

This was a time of great trial for him, and he questioned God's providence at times. He held on to a particular Gospel verse, a favorite in his: "And we have come to know, and have believed, the love that God has in our behalf" (1 Jn 4:16). He did not want to give up his firm belief in love. In all this suffering, he held onto a "faith in love." To others, Karl was a ray of hope. He did not allow them to see his struggles. The possibility of his ordination seemed quite remote at this time.

Then, in September of 1944, there was a bishop among the new prisoners. Bishop Gabriel Picquet, of the diocese of Clermont-Ferraud, in France, was now among the inmates in Block 26. Others told him of Karl and his situation.

The bishop agreed to ordain him, but a letter of authorization was needed from the local bishop. A young novice of the Convent of the Poor Sisters in Freising was the vital link in passing the letters back and forth and for bringing the holy oils and other things needed for an ordination. She would get vegetables and plants that people bought from the camp greenhouse, but this was mainly so that she could pass other things in and out of the camp. (This girl, Sr. Josepha Imma Mack, later had the privilege to attend his beatification in 1996.)

The day was set for the ordination: Dec. 17, 1944. This was Gaudete Sunday — the Third Sunday of Advent. The SS were not aware of the plans, although they suspected something. Still everyone involved considered the risks worth it. He was ordained with all the splendor that could be mustered in the poor circumstances of the prison camp.

Father Karl celebrated his first Mass on Dec. 26 — the feast of St. Stephen the Martyr, but it was the only Mass he would ever celebrate. He was quite weak at this time, and although he survived to the time of the liberation of the camp by the Allies on April 29, 1945, he was then moved to a hospital where he died on Aug. 12.

He kept a diary in the hospital, and his last entry, on July 25, 1945, ended with "Bless my enemies, too, O Lord. 'Lord lay not this sin to their charge.'" The final words were a quote from St. Stephen when he was being stoned.

When Pope John Paul II beatified Fr. Karl Leisner, he held the staff used by the bishop when Bl. Karl was ordained. The beatification occurred at the Olympic Stadium built in 1936 by Adolf Hitler for the Olympic games. The stadium was meant to show the power of the Nazi regime, but the lasting power of God's grace had triumphed in the end.

Pope John Paul II said that day, "Karl Leisner encourages us to remain on the way that is Christ. We must not grow weary, even if sometimes this way seems dark and demands sacrifice. Let us beware of false prophets who want to show us other ways. Christ is the way that leads to life. All other ways are detours or wrong paths."

Blessed Karl Leisner, pray for us!

Living Out Her Spiritual Gifts

2009-08-09T17:06:00.014-04:00

Living Out Her Spiritual Gifts

Last summer, EWTN talk show host, Rosalind Moss, announced that she is starting a new community of sisters in the Archdiocese of St. Louis with the permission of Archbishop Raymond L. Burke.

For those that aren’t familiar with her, Rosalind Moss was raised as a child as a conservative Jew, before converting to Christianity as an adult. She spent 18 years as an evangelical Protestant before becoming a Catholic in 1995.

She has hosted popular talk shows on the Catholic television network, EWTN, for a number of years – “Household of Faith”, and “Now That We’re Catholic”, and is also a Staff Apologist with Catholic Answers. Rosalind’s new order will be called The Daughter’s of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope. They are currently developing a web site, but it has nothing other than a simple home page and contact information at this time.

Now this is not new news. The web has been buzzing about this since last year. What is new is that I just heard that back in May Rosalind came out this way - to Tyringham, Massachusetts, to become a postulant for a year at the Visitation Monastery.

It’s truly exciting to find out that Sr. Rosalind is taking the next year to develop her vocation with the Salesians up here in Massachusetts with The Sisters Of the Visitation of Tyringham. The sisters at Tyringham are cloistered, contemplative group of religious – and Sr. Rosalind has stated that her new order will have much of this component – but she has also said that her order will also have much of the same charism as that of St. Francis de Sales, St. Jane de Chantal, and St. John Bosco had – to get out there, into the community, where the people are, and minister to them “where they’re at”. One of her other stated goals is to design a “head to toe” habit – she feels that it “preaches and teaches” without saying a word.

If the recent experience of some young Franciscan friars is any lesson, she’s right. And then again, St. Francis de Sales was very fond of the spirituality of St. Francis of Assisi, and used many examples of his teachings and sayings in his sermons! I would guess that Sr. Rosalind too has heard St. Francis’ oft quoted saying, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words!”

Let’s all pray for Sr. Rosalind as she completes her year of postulancy with the Sisters of the Visitation, and pray for her new order, the Daughter’s of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope. If you’re interested, there is an interview with Sr. Rosalind at the St. Louis Catholic site, and Blessed Sacrament, in Greenfield, has posted a great article discussing her conversion story, courtesy of Envoy Magazine.

God bless!

Church threatens excommunication as Italy green lights abortion pill

2009-08-03T22:32:00.001-04:00

Defying Vatican opposition, Italy has authorised the used of the abortion drug Mifepristone, also known as RU-486. The Church is threatening to excommunicate doctors who prescribe the pill and women who take it.

The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) announced its decision to authorise the pill late on Thursday after a long meeting during which it was lobbied intensely by the Church and Catholic politicians, Reuters reported.

"There will be excommunication for the doctor, the woman and anyone who encourages its use," said Monsignor Elio Sgreccia, emeritus president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the pope's top expert on bioethical issues.

"First abortion was legalised to stop it being clandestine, but now doctors are washing their hands of it and transferring the burden of conscience to women," he told reporters.

The abortion pill has already been given experimentally in some Italian regions but the AIFA ruling means it will now be legally available throughout the country.

Although Italian law states that all abortions must take place in a hospital and AIFA's stipulation that Mifepristone can only be given in hospital, critics of the new move said some women were bound to abort at home without medical assistance, the report added.

"It intrinsically means women will have abortions at home, because the moment of expulsion is not predictable," Reuters quoted senior health ministry official Eugenia Roccella saying.

She said authorisation of the RU-486 pill had been "heavily sponsored by politicians" and questioned its safety record.

Italy legalised abortion on demand through the end of the third month of pregnancy in 1978, the Associated Press reported. Abortion after three months is allowed when the pregnancy is deemed a "grave danger" to the woman's "mental or physical health".

Three years later, Italians voted in a referendum to keep the law, again defying a Church backed campaign.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, issued a strong condemnation of abortion and the RU-486 pill in a front page article in Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano on Friday. He said the Church cannot passively sit back, and insisted the ethical implications of the pill could not be overlooked.

"An embryo is not a bunch of cells," Fisichella wrote. "It's real and full human life. Suppressing it is a responsibility nobody can take without fully knowing the consequences."

August Prayer Intentions

2009-08-02T02:31:00.001-04:00

Holy Father's Prayer Intentions

August 2009

General:

That public opinion may be more aware of the problem
of millions of displaced persons and refugees and that
concrete solutions may be found for their often tragic situation.

Mission:

That those Christians who are discriminated against and persecuted
in many Countries because of the name of Christ
may have their human rights, equality and religious freedom recognized,
in order to be able to live and profess their own faith freely.

Militia of the Immaculata
MONTHLY PRAYER INTENTIONS 2009

Immaculata, please intercede

August:

That, looking at St. Maximilian Kolbe's witness,
we may understand that to love

means giving our life without measure.

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you, and for all who do not have recourse to you, especially the enemies of the Church and those recommended to you.

Kindred Souls on the Way

2009-08-01T14:00:00.001-04:00

Friars Trudge 300 Miles and Find Kindred Souls on the Way
By William Wan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 29, 2009

They've been mistaken for Jedi-wannabes headed to a Star Wars convention. They've been investigated by police, approached by strangers, gawked at from cars and offered gifts of crumpled dollar bills and Little Debbie snacks.

After trekking along more than 300 miles of dusty Virginia country roads and suburban highways, six Franciscan friars reached Washington on Tuesday, having seen it all during an offbeat modern-day quest for God.

For six weeks, the brothers walked from Roanoke with only their brown robes, sandals and a belief in the kindness of strangers to feed and shelter them.

The sight of six men in flowing habits, trudging single file on the side of the road, prompted many to pull over and talk, even confess. People on their way to work described their loneliness. College students wanted help figuring out what to do with their lives. Children, mistaking them for the Shaolin monks in movies, ran up to ask the friars if they knew how to beat up bullies.

"Dressed like we are in our habits, it's like a walking sign that says, 'Tell us your life's problems,' " explained Cliff Hennings, the youngest of the friars at 23.

In every instance, the friars made time for conversation. They shot the breeze with a gang of drunk bikers, dispensed relationship advice to the brokenhearted commuters and bore witness to one and all, yea, even to the Chik-fil-A employee dressed as a cow.

The pilgrimage was the idea of four young friars just finishing their training in Chicago and working toward taking lifelong vows. Seeking to emulate the wanderings of their founder, Saint Francis of Assisi, they wanted to journey together as a fraternity, ministering to one another and to strangers, while depending on God for every meal and place to sleep.

Joined by two older friars supervising their training, they picked as their destination a friary in Washington, D.C., called the Franciscan Monastery of the Holy Land -- a symbolic gesture, because the actual Holy Land was too far away.

Then last month they drove from Chicago to Salem, just outside Roanoke, parked their van at a church and set out on foot.

They tried to live by the ascetic rules Jesus laid out for his 12 disciples: "Take nothing for the journey -- no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic." The less they brought, they reasoned, the more room they could leave for God. The friars did make a few modifications, carrying a toothbrush, a wool blanket, water and a change of underwear ("a summer essential," one explained), as well as one cell phone in case of emergency.

Some rules, however, had to be made on the fly. They had agreed not to carry any money, but just minutes into their first day, strangers were pressing dollar bills into their hands. So they made a pact to spend what they received each day on food, often high-protein Clif bars, and to give the rest to the needy.

They walked 15 miles their first day and found themselves at dusk in front of a fire station just outside Roanoke. One of the friars, Roger Lopez, a former fireman himself, knocked on the station door and asked whether there was somewhere they could sleep. As they talked, the friars spotted a giant trampoline out back.

"It seemed like such a good idea at the time," said Lopez, 30.

The six spread out on the trampoline as if they were spokes on a wheel. But soon they realized gravity was against them, pulling everyone toward the center. Some tried to sleep clutching the side railing. When one person rolled over, the rest bobbed uncontrollably like buoys. No one got much sleep, but the firefighters did send them off the next morning with corned beef sandwiches.

Since then, they have slept on picnic tables outside Lynchburg, basement floors in Charlottesville, even on office tables at a food pantry.

One night they were hosted by a man with tattoos on his arms, an unkempt ponytail and all of his front teeth missing. He had pulled up in his beat-up Jeep and offered to let the friars stay with him in an old one-room schoolhouse in Nelson County.

"He looked like he had just gotten out of prison," said Hennings, but the man turned out to be a Native American healer. The friars stayed up all night talking to him. He told them Native stories and played his double flute. They chanted Latin hymns in return and told him stories from the Gospel.

Such moments of grace became a daily occurrence for the friars. Sure, some passersby gave them the finger. One guy even leaned out the window to add a sprinkling of Nietzsche ("God is dead!") to his vulgarities. But most encounters were meaningful, even profound.

Just outside Harrisonburg, a woman in her 40s with a young daughter pulled over in her old Dodge sedan to talk to 25-year-old friar Richard Goodin.

She'd recently caught her husband cheating on her. He had kicked her and her daughter out of their house, she told Goodin. Now, like the friars, they were wandering through the wilderness, unsure of their next meal or their next move.

As they talked, the woman's daughter rummaged through the car and gave the friars a soda. Then she found a chocolate bar and offered that. As the conversation began winding down, the daughter said there was nothing more in the car. The woman reached for her purse and told Goodin, "I want to give you what we have left."

She pressed $3.52 into his hand, which he accepted reluctantly.

"I realized she wasn't giving this to us or to me," Goodin said. "I think she heard us talk about trusting in God and she wanted to try to trust in the same way. She was giving that money to God."

He and the other friars have thought about the woman a lot. Last week, they thought about her as they walked along Lee Highway in Fairfax, where Mary Williams and her three kids pulled over in their minivan and offered to take the brothers to a Chik-fil-A.

"It was the oddest experience sitting there at Chik-fil-A with everyone staring at us," said Williams, 45. "The high point was when the guy dressed up like a cow came out and gave us all high fives. He was in costume. They were in robes. A lot of people were wondering what was going on."

People had much the same reaction Tuesday as the friars crossed the Memorial Bridge and wandered past the Lincoln Memorial. In an instant, tourists went from posing in front of Lincoln's statue to posing with the Franciscans.

Their plan was to spend one last night wherever God provided and then arrive this morning at the monastery near Catholic University. They hope to spend the day there, telling the story of their journey and the goodness they encountered to anyone who wanted to listen.

Their message will be simple: "Anything can happen when you live in the moment, one step at a time," said Mark Soehner, 51, one of the mentors to the young friars. "But to find that out, you have to be willing to take that one step."

© 2009 The Washington Post Company
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/28/AR2009072803220_pf.html

Drifting thoughts...

2009-08-01T12:58:00.001-04:00

Over the past year I've come to see that there is no security in this world. That the image of the feather floating on the wind is as much an image of following the Holy Spirit as it is an image of fluttering aimlessly wherever the wind takes me, helplessly driven along. I have no control. But if the wind if the Breath of God, then I need no control, I am driven, yet held up, at the same time. I need to trust that even in the depths of what seems to be a storm, God is there. How can He not be?

I look out, and the day goes on whether I am in or out, busy or keeping quiet. God is like that. He is with me, whether I keep that awareness close to me or not; He is here, waiting for me to turn towards him.

In the favorite prayer of my childhood, we ask God to turn towards us and smile upon us. I think rather He waits for us to remember to look up, and turn towards Him, and remember He is with us always.

Taika, Shalom, Pace, Pax, Peace,

Lisa Alekna, MI
http://www.universalis.com/readings.htm
http://www.mi-international.org/Documenti/2009_Intention_en.htm

Your strength is not in numbers, nor does Your power depend upon stalwart men; but You are the God of the lowly, the helper of the oppressed, the supporter of the weak, the protector of the forsaken, the savior of those without hope. -- Judith 9:11

The Twisted Logic Underlying Abortion

2009-07-20T18:51:00.001-04:00

The Twisted Logic Underlying Abortion
By: Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D

July 2009

Many influential people and institutions in our society, including Hollywood and the mass media, strongly support abortion. To justify their position, however, they must adeptly defy logic and ignore certain obvious facts.

One example of this side-stepping is the oft-repeated argument for abortion that it's all about a woman's body. As actress Amy Brenneman, who starred in the TV show Judging Amy, once put it, "Unless a woman really has sovereignty over her own body we really haven't come that far."

The obvious flaw in this argument was cleverly exposed a few years back by supermodel Kathy Ireland (who used to favor abortion) during a televised interview: "Some people say, 'Well it's a woman's body; it should be her choice. There's a 50% chance the baby she's carrying is a male child, and he would have a penis. Women don't have penises. So it's residing in her body; it is not a part of her body." While it should go without saying that babies have their own bodies, abortion advocates seem all too ready to tiptoe around the obvious to promote their agenda.

That tiptoeing is also evident whenever a breaking news story about the murder of an abortionist grabs the headlines. After someone recently gunned down Dr. George Tiller, the late-term abortionist in Kansas, almost every major media outlet extolled the genuine tragedy of his death, while tiptoeing past the tragedy of the 60,000 deaths that Tiller himself had coordinated within his clinics.

Several TV commentators, however, immediately perceived this double standard. Ann Coulter, for example, satirically mentioned, "This one random nut who shot Tiller . I don't really like to think of it as a murder. It was terminating Tiller in the 203 rd trimester." She then argued: "I am personally opposed to shooting abortionists, but I don't want to impose my moral values on others."

Coulter also couldn't resist exposing the faulty moral logic behind so much pro-abortion rhetoric and sloganeering, as in: "If you don't believe in abortion, then don't have one," to which she replied: "If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, then don't shoot abortionists." Perhaps no one has so clearly summarized the deadly logic of the pro-abortion position as Mother Teresa, when she declared in her 1979 Nobel Peace Prize speech: "If a mother can kill her own child - what is left for me to kill you and you kill me - there is nothing between."

The moral chaos of abortion often begins when advocates feign not to know when life begins. George Jonas, in his cleverly entitled essay Thoughts from an Ex-Fetus, observed how advocates must "pretend not to realize that life is an autonomous process, a continuum from zygote to old-age pension, a self-elaborating force that begins when it begins and keeps growing unless it's vacuumed out first.. They must pretend not to see that if a fetus were not alive, it wouldn't have to be killed."

Perhaps the most plausible explanation of why abortion advocates will so readily defy logic and ignore the obvious came from writer Dale Vree. He had been invited to a "living-room discussion" on abortion back in 1989 which included six prominent pro-lifers, six prominent pro-choicers, and one or two undecideds.

Vree expected that the heart of the debate would hinge on when life began, but it didn't. It didn't even turn on the hard cases - rape and incest. When one of the radical feminists argued that abortion is simply about the right to make choices, one of the pro-lifers replied that the choice was made back when the woman agreed to have sex. Then one of the pro-choicers finally blurted out: "We're pro-sex and you're anti-sex," meaning, according to Vree, that "they're for lots of sex in lots of forms while we pro-lifers feel it should be limited to heterosexual marriage.. They made it abundantly clear that they're committed to the sexual revolution, and that revolution will wither without the insurance which is abortion and this is their bottom-line concern."

This indeed appears to be the crux of the matter, the central concern that has motivated radical feminists, Hollywood, and many other advocates of abortion to sacrifice untold millions of unborn babies since the early 1970's. George Jonas zeroed in on this same bottom-line explanation: " We invent euphemisms, such as 'choice' for killing, and sophomoric dilemmas, such as pretending not to know when life begins, to ensure that nothing hinders Virginia's quest for Santa Claus. No obstacle must interfere with her goal of self-fulfillment -- least of all an issue (as it were) of her healthy sexual appetite."

In the final analysis, this stands as probably the single greatest tragedy of our time, that the unordered and inordinate sexual desires of men and women have been allowed to twist the most rudimentary moral logic to the point of death for so many of our children.

Originally printed in the Catholic Herald 7/15/2009

http://www.catholicherald.com/opinions/detail.html?sub_id=10671

Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in neuroscience

from Yale and did post-doctoral work at Harvard.

He is a priest of the diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as the Director of Education

at The National Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia.

Obama Administration Calls for Universal Access to Abortion at UN

2009-07-02T15:38:00.001-04:00

—July 2, 2009| Volume 12, Number 29

C-FAM

Pass It On: Light of My World

2009-07-01T12:47:00.001-04:00

Friends of Madonna House

Pass It On #60

Light of My World

by a Madonna House Staff Worker

"All that came to be had life in him and that life was the light of men, a light that shines in the dark, a light that darkness could not overpower." (John 1:4-5)

Jesus Christ is the shining bright light of the world. Jesus is the maker of history, the freer of slaves, the healer, the great lover of man. Jesus is as personal as he is cosmic.

These words may mean little or nothing to us unless, like St. Paul, we are assailed by the light of the living, risen Son of God, unless our hearts are stung and burned by the touch of God's life. There is life which is far more than life. There is joy beyond all imagining. There is, right now, this minute, hope and light and healing for us who are flat on our faces in the muck and mire of our broken humanness.

To all of us who are unhinged in a world which seems utterly dark and without any anchor in reality; to us who are sick, tired, disgusted, assailed by anxiety and fear; to us who long and thirst after goodness and truth; to us on the verge of despair from the emptiness of our searchto us are addressed the living words of Jesus: "Come to me all you who labor and are heavily burdened and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. Then you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light" (Matthew 11:28-30). "I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; he will have the light of life" (John 8:12).

Jesus knows how confused, tired, and cynical we are. He says exactly what he means and he does just what he says he will do. God is not glib; he is active. He makes himself absolutely available. He tells us who he is and promises that by knowing him we will know light, truth, freedom and abundant life.

Some of us feel that these are wonderful wordsbut for othersfor holy people. Not for us! Yes, what about us who are afraid of death, afraid of our neighbors, afraid of darkness? What about us who are fat and ugly, ashamed and embarrassed? What about us who are mad and hostile and hateful? What about us who are never sober? What about us who have needle scratches up and down our arms? What about us who have our faces in the gutters and our bodies in pain? Yes, what about us hypocrites and phonies, us liars and thieves, us deceivers? Is there hope for the likes of us? How can anyone so without hope and life think that good things could come to him?

In the eyes and minds and hearts of men it is not possible. But God is God and not man, and his love is poured forth on all men without exception or discrimination. It is precisely to us who think little or nothing of ourselves that he is most especially addressing himself. It is precisely to us who suffer the most hideous, embarrassing, and neurotic maladies that the living Gospel of Jesus is proclaimed. "I have not come to call the just, but sinners." (Matthew 9:13)

I am one of those sufferers. I am one of those who have come right up against the wall of despair but who, in that position, have come to know the embrace of the resurrected, alive, powerful Jesus Christ. Being so identified with trouble and negative attitudes, I can state with conviction to the point of folly that God comes to the poor, the afflicted, and the lowly, to heal, to re-fashion, and to console. Out of my personal bondage the Lord called me, and slowly, with his words, he cracked open my heart and there came forth his own love. Having known the touch of mercy and the healing God gives, I know to whom he speaks. I can testify that his word is always love, and his promise is always life. My response is to cleave to his word and his promise so tenaciously that my identity is found only in God's life, in my relationship to him.

When we have known God's life, we desire, as he desires, to speak about it, to proclaim it, to bear his message of love to the ends of the earth. God has swooped down upon us, the afflicted, the sinners, and the lowly, only to set us back into the world so that we can help set his world on fire with love.

I am thoroughly convinced that the Kingdom of God is being established here and now. The Kingdom of God is the Light of the world shining in and through the hearts of those touched by his love.

 Adapted from Coming Home

Living the Gospel Without Compromise

By Catherine Doherty

In this hard-hitting book, Catherine Doherty brings unique wisdom and clarity to the dilemmas and anxieties of the modern world. She turns the insecurity and fear of the world on its head, showing you how cultivating "holy insecurity" could be your most reliable path to genuine peace. She writes movingly about numerous matters that today's secular society ridicules and caricatures: sacrifice, renewal, community, stewardship, and more. She explains how you can learn to overcome your fear and live with danger, all with joyful (but never naïve or unrealistic) faith and hope in Christ. Click here for more information.

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Holy Father's Homily - Mass in Amman May 10 2009

2009-05-10T11:24:00.001-04:00

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

International Stadium - Amman
Fifth Sunday of Easter, 10 May 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I rejoice that we are able to celebrate this Eucharist together at the beginning of my Pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Yesterday, from the heights of Mount Nebo, I stood and looked out upon this great land, the land of Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist, the land where God's ancient promises were fulfilled in the coming of the Messiah, Jesus our Lord. This land witnessed his preaching and miracles, his death and resurrection, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the Church, the sacrament of a reconciled and renewed humanity. As I pondered the mystery of God's fidelity, I prayed that the Church in these lands would be confirmed in hope and strengthened in her witness to the Risen Christ, the Savior of mankind. Truly, as Saint Peter tells us in today's first reading, "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we are to be saved" (Acts 4:12).

Today's joyful celebration of the Eucharistic sacrifice expresses the rich diversity of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land. I greet all of you with affection in the Lord. I thank His Beatitude Fouad Twal, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for his kind words of welcome. My greeting goes also to the many young people from Catholic schools who today bring their enthusiasm to this Eucharistic celebration.

In the Gospel we have just heard, Jesus proclaims: "I am the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep" (Jn 10:11). As the Successor of Saint Peter, to whom the Lord entrusted the care of his flock (cf. Jn 21:15-17), I have long awaited this opportunity to stand before you as a witness to the Risen Savior, and to encourage you to persevere in faith, hope and love, in fidelity to the ancient traditions and the distinguished history of Christian witness which you trace back to the age of the Apostles. The Catholic community here is deeply touched by the difficulties and uncertainties which affect all the people of the Middle East. May you never forget the great dignity which derives from your Christian heritage, or fail to sense the loving solidarity of all your brothers and sisters in the Church throughout the world!

"I am the good shepherd", the Lord tells us, "I know my own, and my own know me" (Jn 10:14). Today in Jordan we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Vocations. As we reflect on the Gospel of the Good Shepherd, let us ask the Lord to open our hearts and minds ever more fully to hear his call. Truly, Jesus "knows us", even more deeply than we know ourselves, and he has a plan for each one of us. We know, too, that wherever he calls us, we will find happiness and fulfilment; indeed, we will find our very selves (cf. Mt 10:39). Today I invite the many young people here present to consider how the Lord is calling you to follow him and to build up his Church. Whether it be in the priestly ministry, in consecrated life or in the sacrament of marriage, Jesus needs you to make his voice heard and to work for the growth of his Kingdom.

In today's second reading, Saint John invites us to "think of the love that the Father has lavished on us" by making us his adopted children in Christ. Hearing these words should make us grateful for the experience of the Father's love which we have had in our families, from the love of our fathers and mothers, our grandparents, our brothers and sisters. During the celebration of the present Year of the Family, the Church throughout the Holy Land has reflected on the family as a mystery of life-giving love, endowed in God's plan with its own proper calling and mission: to radiate the divine Love which is the source and the ultimate fulfilment of all the other loves of our lives. May every Christian family grow in fidelity to its lofty vocation to be a true school of prayer, where children learn a sincere love of God, where they mature in self-discipline and concern for the needs of others, and where, shaped by the wisdom born of faith, they contribute to the building of an ever more just and fraternal society. The strong Christian families of these lands are a great legacy handed down from earlier generations. May today's families be faithful to that impressive heritage, and never lack the material and moral assistance they need to carry out their irreplaceable role in service to society.

An important aspect of your reflection during this Year of the Family has been the particular dignity, vocation and mission of women in God's plan. How much the Church in these lands owes to the patient, loving and faithful witness of countless Christian mothers, religious Sisters, teachers, doctors and nurses! How much your society owes to all those women who in different and at times courageous ways have devoted their lives to building peace and fostering love! From the very first pages of the Bible, we see how man and woman, created in the image of God, are meant to complement one another as stewards of God's gifts and partners in communicating his gift of life, both physical and spiritual, to our world. Sadly, this God-given dignity and role of women has not always been sufficiently understood and esteemed. The Church, and society as a whole, has come to realize how urgently we need what the late Pope John Paul II called the "prophetic charism" of women (cf. Mulieris Dignitatem, 29) as bearers of love, teachers of mercy and artisans of peace, bringing warmth and humanity to a world that all too often judges the value of a person by the cold criteria of usefulness and profit. By its public witness of respect for women, and its defence of the innate dignity of every human person, the Church in the Holy Land can make an important contribution to the advancement of a culture of true humanity and the building of the civilization of love.

Dear friends, let us return to the words of Jesus in today's Gospel. I believe that they contain a special message for you, his faithful flock in these lands where he once dwelt. "The good shepherd", he tells us, "lays down his life for his sheep." At the beginning of this Mass, we asked the Father to "give us new strength from the courage of Christ our shepherd", who remained steadfast in fidelity to the Father's will (cf. Opening Prayer, Mass of the Fourth Sunday of Easter). May the courage of Christ our shepherd inspire and sustain you daily in your efforts to bear witness to the Christian faith and to maintain the Church's presence in the changing social fabric of these ancient lands.

Fidelity to your Christian roots, fidelity to the Church's mission in the Holy Land, demands of each of you a particular kind of courage: the courage of conviction, born of personal faith, not mere social convention or family tradition; the courage to engage in dialogue and to work side by side with other Christians in the service of the Gospel and solidarity with the poor, the displaced, and the victims of profound human tragedies; the courage to build new bridges to enable a fruitful encounter of people of different religions and cultures, and thus to enrich the fabric of society. It also means bearing witness to the love which inspires us to "lay down" our lives in the service of others, and thus to counter ways of thinking which justify "taking" innocent lives.

"I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me" (Jn 10:14). Rejoice that the Lord has made you members of his flock and knows each of you by name! Follow him with joy and let him guide you in all your ways. Jesus knows what challenges you face, what trials you endure, and the good that you do in his name. Trust in him, in his enduring love for all the members of his flock, and persevere in your witness to the triumph of his love. May Saint John the Baptist, the patron of Jordan, and Mary, Virgin and Mother, sustain you by their example and prayers, and lead you to the fullness of joy in the eternal pastures where we will experience for ever the presence of the Good Shepherd and know for ever the depths of his love. Amen.

Caritas Worker Killed in Sri Lanka "Safe" Zone

2009-05-09T14:04:00.001-04:00

Caritas Worker Killed in Sri Lanka "Safe" Zone

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, MAY 8, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A Caritas worker was killed this week in the "safe zone" where Sri Lankan government forces have cornered the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"Raj" Anthonipillai Uthayaraj, 26, died as a result of the fighting in Mullivaikal, in the "No Fire" zone where civilians have taken refuge from the conflict, Caritas reported Wednesday.

The organization's secretary general, Lesley-Anne Knight, said, "This is a dreadful loss for Raj's family, friends and Caritas."

Although tens of thousands of people sought safety in this zone at the north of the island, the rebel forces were pushed back into the same region, and consequently the fighting pursued the civilians.

Knight stated, "It further emphasizes the need for people caught up in this conflict to reach safety and have the basic things they need."

An estimated 190,000 civilians have been able to escape the zone into government refugee camps.

Two weeks ago, the local Caritas director, Father T. R. Vasanthaseelan, was seriously injured in the zone.

The national director, Father Damien Fernando, asserted: "There must be an end to this war or more lives will be lost. Aid workers and civilians alike must receive genuine protection."

He added that Caritas will continue helping people and seeking a lasting solution for peace in the country.

Religion Must Make a Positive Contribution to Society

2009-05-09T13:50:00.001-04:00

RELIGION MUST MAKE A POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIETY

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAY 2009 (VIS) - At 11.30 a.m. today, the Pope travelled to the King Hussein bin Talal Mosque in Amman, built by order of King Abdullah II in memory of his father and inaugurated in 2006. The Holy Father also visited the Hashemite Museum located next to the mosque.

The Holy Father subsequently met with Muslim religious leaders, the diplomatic corps and rectors of Jordanian universities on an area near the mosque.

The Pope first addressed some remarks to Prince Ghazi bin Talal, one of the signatories of the message "A Common Word between Us and You" of 13 October 2007, sent by 138 Muslim scholars to the Pope and to other Christian leaders. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. later replied to the message in the Pope's name, and a delegation of Muslim leaders led by Prince Ghazi was received by Benedict XVI in the Vatican on 6 November last year.

The Holy Father expressed concern at the fact that some people "assert that religion is necessarily a cause of division in our world". Yet, he asked, "is it not also the case that often it is the ideological manipulation of religion, sometimes for political ends, that is the real catalyst for tension and division, and at times even violence in society?"

Muslims and Christians, he went on, must be "consistent in bearing witness to all that is true and good, and ever mindful of the common origin and dignity of all human persons, who remain at the apex of God's creative design for the world and for history".

The Pope praised the resolve of Jordanian educators and religious and civic leaders "to ensure that the public face of religion reflects its true nature" and highlighted how collaboration between Christians and Muslims in the country "sets an encouraging and persuasive example for the region, and indeed the world, of the positive, creative contribution which religion can and must make to civic society".

He also stressed the need for Christian and Muslims to embrace "the challenge to cultivate for the good, in the context of faith and truth, the vast potential of human reason. ... As believers in the one God we know that human reason is itself God's gift and that it soars to its highest plane when suffused with the light of God's truth. In fact, when human reason humbly allows itself to be purified by faith, it is far from weakened; rather, it is strengthened to resist presumption and to reach beyond its own limitations. In this way, human reason is emboldened to pursue its noble purpose of serving mankind".

"Thus", he went on, "genuine adherence to religion - far from narrowing our minds - widens the horizon of human understanding. It protects civil society from the excesses of the unbridled ego which tend to absolutise the finite and eclipse the infinite; it ensures that freedom is exercised hand in hand with truth, and it adorns culture with insights concerning all that is true, good and beautiful".

"We are reminded that because it is our common human dignity which gives rise to universal human rights, they hold equally for every man and woman, irrespective of his or her religious, social or ethnic group. In this regard, we must note that the right of religious freedom extends beyond the question of worship and includes the right - especially of minorities - to fair access to the employment market and other spheres of civic life".

Before concluding his remarks, the Pope indicated that the presence of His Beatitude Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Baghdad, "brings to mind the people of neighbouring Iraq many of whom have found welcome refuge here in Jordan. The international community's efforts to promote peace and reconciliation, together with those of the local leaders, must continue in order to bear fruit in the lives of Iraqis. ... Once again, I urge diplomats and the international community they represent, together with local political and religious leaders, to do everything possible to ensure the ancient Christian community of that noble land its fundamental right to peaceful coexistence with their fellow citizens".

Pope Blesses Cornerstone of Univesity in Madaba

2009-05-09T13:49:00.003-04:00

POPE BLESSES CORNERSTONE OF UNIVERSITY IN MADABA

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAY 2009 (VIS) - At 9.45 a.m. today, Benedict XVI travelled to the town of Madaba, 19 kilometres from Mount Nebo in Jordan. The site is famous for the "Map of Madaba", a floor mosaic of a sixth-century Byzantine church, discovered in 1896, showing a map of the Holy Land with an itinerary to reach Jerusalem passing through 150 localities, and a detailed description of the city.

The Pope travelled through the Christian quarter of Madaba by popemobile to the site where, at the express wish of His Beatitude Fouad Twal, patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins and a native of Madaba, the University of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem is being constructed. On arrival, the Pope blessed the cornerstone of the new building, then addressed some words to those present in which he commended "the promoters of this new institution for their courageous confidence in good education as a stepping-stone for personal development and for peace and progress in the region".

"While assimilating their own heritage, young Jordanians and other students from the region will be led to a deeper knowledge of human cultural achievements, will be enriched by other viewpoints, and formed in comprehension, tolerance and peace", he said.

"This 'broader' education is what one expects from institutions of higher learning and from their cultural milieu, be it secular or religious. In fact, belief in God does not suppress the search for truth; on the contrary it encourages it".

"Religion, of course, like science and technology, philosophy and all expressions of our search for truth, can be corrupted", the Holy Father said. "Religion is disfigured when pressed into the service of ignorance or prejudice, contempt, violence and abuse. In this case we see not only a perversion of religion but also a corruption of human freedom, a narrowing and blindness of the mind".

And yet, he proceeded, "every person is also called to wisdom and integrity, to the basic and all-important choice of good over evil, truth over dishonesty, and can be assisted in this task.

"The call to moral integrity", he added, "is perceived by the genuinely religious person, since the God of truth and love and beauty cannot be served in any other way. Mature belief in God serves greatly to guide the acquisition and proper application of knowledge. Science and technology offer extraordinary benefits to society and have greatly improved the quality of life of many human beings. ... At the same time the sciences have their limitations. They cannot answer all the questions about man and his existence".

"The use of scientific knowledge needs the guiding light of ethical wisdom. Such is the wisdom that inspired the Hippocratic Oath, the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Convention and other laudable international codes of conduct".

Benedict XVI concluded by addressing some words to the young Christian students of Jordan: "You are called", he told them, "to be builders of a just and peaceful society composed of peoples of various religious and ethnic backgrounds. These realities - I wish to stress once more - must lead, not to division, but to mutual enrichment".

Mt. Nebo: Looking With Faith and Hope to the Future

2009-05-09T13:49:00.001-04:00

MOUNT NEBO: LOOKING WITH FAITH AND HOPE TO THE FUTURE

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAY 2009 (VIS) - Having celebrated a private Mass at the apostolic nunciature in the Jordanian capital of Amman, the Holy Father travelled by car to Mount Nebo. The mountain, 806 metres above sea level, is the site of the Basilica of the Memorial of Moses, a fourth century structure built over an earlier monument dating from the classical age.

Since the year 1933 there has been a Franciscan monastery at Siyagha on Mount Nebo. It has areas in which faithful from the nearby city of Madaba can pray, and special buildings for archaeologists. The top of the mountain affords a unique view over the Holy Land.

At the beginning of his address, the Pope mentioned the Franciscan Fr. Michele Piccirillo, who died last year having "devoted his life to the study of Christian antiquity, and is buried in this shrine which was so dear to him". The Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land have had a presence on this site since 1932.

"It is appropriate that my pilgrimage should begin on this mountain, where Moses contemplated the Promised Land from afar", said the Holy Father. "Here, on the heights of Mount Nebo, the memory of Moses invites us to 'lift up our eyes' to embrace with gratitude not only God's mighty works in the past, but also to look with faith and hope to the future which He holds out to us and to our world".

Like the prophets, the apostles and the saints, we too, said Benedict XVI, "are called to welcome the coming of Christ's Kingdom by our charity, our service to the poor, and our efforts to be a leaven of reconciliation, forgiveness and peace in the world around us. ... And we know that the God Who revealed His name to Moses as a pledge that He would always be at our side will give us the strength to persevere in joyful hope even amid suffering, trial and tribulation".

"Here, in the footsteps of the countless pilgrims who have preceded us in every century, we are challenged to appreciate more fully the gift of our faith and to grow in that communion which transcends every limit of language, race and culture".

The Pope recalled how "from the beginning the Church in these lands has commemorated in her liturgy the great figures of the Old Testament, as a sign of her profound appreciation of the unity of the two Testaments.

"May our encounter today inspire in us a renewed love for the canon of Sacred Scripture", he added, "and a desire to overcome all obstacles to the reconciliation of Christians and Jews in mutual respect and co-operation in the service of that peace to which the Word of God calls us!"

The visit to Mount Nebo over, the Pope travelled by car to the University of the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, located 19 kilometres away in Madaba.

PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES

2009-05-09T13:48:00.001-04:00

PRAISE FOR THE WORK OF THE EASTERN CHURCHES

VATICAN CITY, 8 MAY 2009 (VIS) - This morning, during his flight from Rome to the Jordanian capital city of Amman, Benedict XVI granted a brief interview to journalists accompanying him on the papal plane. A transcription of the questions and answers is given below.

"This trip takes place at very delicate moment for the Middle East: There are strong tensions - during the Gaza crisis it was speculated that you would not make this visit. At the same time, a few days after your trip, the political leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority will meet with U.S. President Obama. Do you think that you can contribute to the peace process that currently seems to be running aground?"

Benedict XVI: "Certainly I intend to contribute to peace, not as an individual, but in the name of the Catholic Church, of the Holy See. We are not a political power, but rather a spiritual force, and this spiritual force is a reality that can contribute to the progress of the peace process. I see [a contribution to be made on] three levels: As believers, we are convinced that prayer is a real power. It opens the world to God. We are convinced that God listens and that He can act in history. I think that if millions of people - of believers - pray, this really is an influential power that can contribute to the advancement of peace. Secondly, we try to help in the formation of consciences. The conscience is the capacity of mankind to perceive the truth, but particular interests often block this capacity, and it is difficult to free ourselves from these interests, to open up to truth and to real values. One of the Church's duties is to help us recognise true criteria, true values, and free ourselves from particular interests. As for the third point, let us draw reason in as well: ... precisely because we are not a political institution it is perhaps easier for us, also in the light of faith, to see the true criteria, to help people understand what contributes to peace, to speak to reason, to support truly reasonable positions. This we have already done, and we want to do so now and in the future".

"As a theologian, you have reflected in particular on the shared roots that unite Christians and Jews. How is it possible that, despite the efforts of dialogue, misunderstandings often occur? How do you see the future of dialogue between the two communities?"

Benedict XVI: "The important thing is that in reality we have the same roots, the same Books of the Old Testament which is - for the Jews as for us - the Book of the Revelation. But naturally, after 2,000 years of different, even separate, history, it is not surprising that misunderstandings should arise. Highly diverse traditions of interpretation, language, and thinking have been formed - what we could call very different "semantic universes" - so that the same words have different meanings for each tradition. With the use of these words, which over the course of history have taken on different meanings, misunderstandings are obviously born. We must do everything to learn one another's language, and it seems to me that we are making great progress. Today it is possible for young people, the future professors of theology, to study in Jerusalem, in the Hebrew University; and the Jews have academic contact with us. Thus these "semantic universes" meet. We learn from one another and we progress along the path of true dialogue. We learn from each other and I am convinced we are making progress. This will also help peace, and what is more, reciprocal love".

"Your Holiness, this journey has too principal dimensions of inter-religious dialogue, with Islam and with Jews. Are they completely separate from one another or will there be a shared message that concerns all three Abrahamic religions?"

Benedict XVI: "Certainly there exists a shared message, and there will be a chance to highlight this. Despite the difference of origins, we have shared roots, because, as I have said, Christianity is born of the Old Testament, and the writings of the New Testament would not exist without the Old. ... Islam too was born in an environment where Judaism and various branches of Christianity, Judeo Christianity, Antiochean Christianity, Byzantine Christianity co-existed, and all these circumstances are reflected in the tradition of the Koran. Thus we have much in common from our origins, in the faith in the one God. Hence it is important to maintain dialogue with the two sides - with the Jews and with Islam - as well as a trilateral dialogue. I myself co-founded a foundation for dialogue between the three religions which included such figures as Metropolitan Damaskinos and Rene-Samuel Sirat, chief rabbi of France. This foundation also published an edition of the books of the three religions: the Koran, the New Testament and the Old Testament. For this reason the trilateral dialogue should go forward, it is very important for peace, and as well for living one's own religion well".

"A last question. Your Holiness, you have often mentioned the problem of the decline of the Christians in the Middle East, and also in particular in the Holy Land. It is a phenomenon that has various political, economic and social reasons. What can be done to help Christians in the region? What contribution do you hope to make with your trip? Is there hope for these Christians in the future? Do you have a particular message for the Christians of Gaza who will come to see you in Bethlehem?"

Benedict XVI: "Certainly there is hope, because, as you have said, this is a difficult moment, but also a moment of hope, of a new start, of a new impulse in the path toward peace, and we want to encourage Christians in the Holy Land, and in all of the Middle East, to stay, to make their contribution to their countries of origin. They are important components of life in these regions. In concrete terms the Church, beyond her words of encouragement, has schools and hospitals. In this sense we have a very concrete presence. Our schools form a generation that will have the possibility to be present in public life. We are creating the Catholic University in Jordan, and I feel this offers great prospects for young people - both Muslims and Christians - to meet and learn together, for forming a Christian elite specifically prepared to work for peace. ... Furthermore, there are many Christian associations that help Christians in various ways, and with specific help they encourage them to stay. In this way I hope that Christians are able to find the value, the humility, the patience to stay in these countries, to offer their contribution to the future of these countries".

PRAYING FOR THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF UNITY AND PEACE

2009-05-09T13:45:00.001-04:00

PRAYING FOR THE PRECIOUS GIFT OF UNITY AND PEACE

VATICAN CITY, 8 MAY 2009 (VIS) - At 3.30 p.m. local time today (2.30 p.m. in Rome), the Holy Father arrived at the "Regina Pacis" Centre in the Jordanian capital city of Amman. The centre, founded by Bishop Salim Sayegh, Latin patriarchal vicar of Jordan, is dedicated to the social rehabilitation of people with disabilities. Having been greeted by His Beatitude Fouad Twal, patriarch of Jerusalem of the Latins, the Pope began his remarks by praising the work of the Comboni Sisters and the lay staff who work in the centre.

"Like countless pilgrims before me", he said, "it is now my turn to satisfy that profound wish to touch, to draw solace from and to venerate the places where Jesus lived, the places which were made holy by His presence. Since apostolic times, Jerusalem has been the primary place of pilgrimage for Christians, but earlier still, in the ancient Near East, Semitic peoples built sacred shrines in order to mark and commemorate a divine presence or action. And ordinary people would travel to these centres carrying a portion of the fruits of their land and livestock to offer in homage and thanksgiving".

"Every one of us is a pilgrim", he continued. "We are all drawn forward, with purpose, along God's path ... sometimes with trepidation or anxiety, but always with expectation and hope, knowing too that there are others who encourage us along the way. I know that the journeys that have led many of you to the 'Regina Pacis' Centre have been marked by suffering or trial. Some of you struggle courageously with disabilities, others of you have endured rejection. ... Of particular importance, I know, is the centre's great success in promoting the rightful place of the disabled in society".

"At times", the Pope went on, "it is difficult to find a reason for what appears only as an obstacle to be overcome or even as pain - physical or emotional - to be endured. Yet faith and understanding help us to see a horizon beyond our own selves in order to imagine life as God does. God's unconditional love, which gives life to every human individual, points to a meaning and purpose for all human life".

"Unlike the pilgrims of old, I do not come bearing gifts or offerings. I come simply with an intention, a hope: to pray for the precious gift of unity and peace, most specifically for the Middle East. Peace for individuals, ... for communities, peace for Jerusalem, for the Holy Land, for the region, peace for the entire human family; the lasting peace born of justice, integrity and compassion, the peace that arises from humility, forgiveness and the profound desire to live in harmony as one.

"Prayer is hope in action", the Holy Father added, for through it "we come into loving contact with the one God, the universal Creator, and in so doing we come to realise the futility of human divisions and prejudices and we sense the wondrous possibilities that open up before us when our hearts are converted to God's truth, to His design for each of us and our world".

Turning then to address the young people of the centre, Benedict XVI said that among them he "drew strength from God". And he went on: "Your experience of trials, your witness to compassion, and your determination to overcome the obstacles you encounter, encourage me in the belief that suffering can bring about change for the good. In our own trials, and standing alongside others in their struggles, we glimpse the essence of our humanity, we become, as it were, more human. And we come to learn that, on another plane, even hearts hardened by cynicism or injustice or unwillingness to forgive are never beyond the reach of God, can always be opened to a new way of being, a vision of peace".

The Holy Father concluded his remarks by calling upon everyone "to pray every day for our world" and, now in particular, "for me every day of my pilgrimage; for my own spiritual renewal in the Lord, and for the conversion of hearts to God's way of forgiveness and solidarity so that my hope - our hope - for unity and peace in the world will bear abundant fruit".

Following his visit, the Holy Father went to the apostolic nunciature in Amman. Later today he is due to travel to the Al-Husseiniyeh Palace where he will pay a courtesy visit to Jordanian monarchs King Abdullah II and Queen Rania.

Dominican Republic Enshrines Right to Life in its Constitution

2009-04-23T18:16:00.001-04:00

Dominican Republic Enshrines Right to Life in its Constitution
Pro-life article 11 passes by large majority despite pressure from
pro-abortion groups
By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

SANTO DOMINGO, April 22, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Dominican Republic
has voted to approve language in its new constitution protecting the right
to life from the moment of conception.

Article 11 of the new constitution, which was approved by a large majority
of 167-32, states that "the right to life is inviolable from conception
until death. The death penalty cannot be established, pronounced, nor
applied, in any case."

The approval of the article came in the wake of a series of massive
campaigns by the Catholic bishops of the Dominican Republic, led by Cardinal
Archbishop Nicolas de Jesus Lopez of Santo Domingo.

The Cardinal has organized marches, has given a speech on national
television, and has staged large-scale protests outside of government
buildings and in other places over the past two years.

On Easter Sunday, a little more than a week before the vote, the Cardinal
and other priests gave sermons on the importance of protecting the right to
life (see LifeSiteNews coverage at
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09041703.html).

The nation's Evangelical Protestant churches have also had a major influence
on the outcome. Organized by such leaders as Dr. Gene Antonio, they have
succeeded in playing video of abortions on national television and have
distributed tens of thousands of flyers to Dominicans.

"We are thrilled that the protection of human life from the moment of
conception is now established into the constitution in spite of fierce
international pressure to legalize abortion," stated Antonio. "This
overwhelming victory serves as an example to the other Latin countries
fighting to protect life, that we can win and we must win because the lives
of little people are at stake."

The article passed despite pressure from pro-abortion groups, whom Catholic
Church officials have accused of representing the international abortion
lobby, as well as opposition from the Dominican Medical College.

Passage of article 11 ensures that the Dominican Republic's existing penal
code, which punishes abortion in all cases except when the life of the
mother is at stake, will remain intact despite the pressure exerted by
international and domestic pro-abortion organizations.

Canticle - Daniel 3

2009-04-12T19:10:00.000-04:00

Canticle - Daniel 3

All creatures, bless the Lord

Our Redeemer has risen from the tomb: let us sing praise to the Lord our God. Alleluia.

Bless the Lord, all his works,
praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, you heavens;
all his angels, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, you waters above the heavens;
all his powers, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, sun and moon;
all stars of the sky, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, rain and dew;
all you winds, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, fire and heat;
cold and warmth, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, dew and frost;
ice and cold, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, ice and snow;
day and night, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, light and darkness;
lightning and storm-clouds, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, all the earth,
praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, mountains and hills;
all growing things, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, seas and rivers;
springs and fountains, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, whales and fish;
birds of the air, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, wild beasts and tame;
sons of men, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, O Israel,
praise and exalt him for ever.
Bless the Lord, his priests;
all his servants, bless the Lord.
Bless the Lord, spirits of the just;
all who are holy and humble, bless the Lord.
Ananias, Azarias, Mishael, bless the Lord,
praise and exalt him for ever.
Let us bless Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
praise and exalt them for ever.
Bless the Lord in the firmament of heaven,
praise and glorify him for ever.

Our Redeemer has risen from the tomb: let us sing praise to the Lord our God. Alleluia.

Saint Leo the Great, Sermon on Lent, IV

2009-03-21T20:26:00.001-04:00

Saint Leo the Great
Sermon XLII
On Lent, IV

I. The Lenten fast an opportunity for restoring our purity.

In proposing to preach this most holy and important fast to you, dearly beloved, how shall I begin more fitly than by quoting the words of the Apostle, in whom Christ Himself was speaking, and by reminding you of what we have read: "behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation." For though there are no seasons which are not full of Divine blessings, and though access is ever open to us to GOD'S mercy through His grace, yet now all men's minds should be moved with greater zeal to spiritual progress, and animated by larger confidence, when the return of the day, on which we were redeemed, invites us to all the duties of godliness: that we may keep the super-excellent mystery of the LORD'S passion with bodies and hearts purified. These great mysteries do indeed require from us such unflagging devotion and unwearied reverence that we should remain in GOD'S sight always the same, as we ought to be found on the Easter feast itself. But because few have this constancy, and, because so long as the stricter observance is relaxed in consideration of the frailty of the flesh, and so long as one's interests extend over all the various actions of this life, even pious hearts must get some soils from the dust of the world, the Divine Providence has with great beneficence taken care that the discipline of the forty days should heal us and restore the purity of our minds, during which the faults of other times might be redeemed by pious acts and removed by chaste fasting.

II. Lent must be used for removing all our defilements, and of good works there must be no stint.

As we are therefore, dearly-beloved, about to enter on those mystic days which are dedicated to the benefits of fasting, let us take care to obey the Apostle's precepts, cleansing "ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit:" that by controlling the struggles that go on between our two natures, the spirit which, if it is under the guidance of GOD, should be the governor of the body, may uphold the dignity of its rule: so that we may give no offence to any, nor be subject to the chidings of reprovers. For we shall be rightly attacked with rebukes, and through our fault ungodly tongues will arm themselves to do harm to religion, if the conduct of those that fast is at variance with the standard of perfect purity. For our fast does not consist chiefly of mere abstinence from food, nor are dainties withdrawn from our bodily appetites with profit, unless the mind is recalled from wrong-doing and the tongue restrained from slandering. This is a time of gentleness and long-suffering, of peace and tranquility: when all the pollutions of vice are to be eradicated and continuance of virtue is to be attained by us. Now let godly minds boldly accustom themselves to forgive faults, to pass over insults, and to forget wrongs. Now let the faithful spirit train himself with the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, that through honor and dishonor, through ill repute and good repute, the conscience may be undisturbed in unwavering uprightness, not puffed up by praise and not wearied out by revilings. The self-restraint of the religious should not be gloomy, but sincere; no murmurs of complaint should be heard from those who are never without the consolation of holy joys. The decrease of worldly means should not be feared in the practice of works of mercy. Christian poverty is always rich, because what it has is more than what it has not. Nor does the poor man fear to labor in this world, to whom it is given to possess all things in the LORD of all things. Therefore those who do the things which are good must have no manner of fear lest the power of doing should fail them; since in the gospel the widow's devotion is extolled in the case of her two mites, and voluntary bounty gets its reward for a cup of cold water: For the measure of our charitableness is fixed by the sincerity of our feelings, and he that shows mercy on others will never want for mercy himself. The holy widow of Sarepta discovered this, who offered the blessed Elias in the time of famine one day's food, which was all she had, and putting the prophet's hunger before her own needs, ungrudgingly gave up a handful of corn and a little oil. But she did not lose what she gave in all faith, and in the vessels emptied by her godly bounty a source of new plenty arose, that the fullness of her substance might not be diminished by the holy purpose to which she had put it, because she had never dreaded being brought to want.

III. As with the Savior, so with us, the devil tries to make our very piety its own snare.

But, dearly-beloved, doubt not that the devil, who is the opponent of all virtues, is jealous of these good desires, to which we are confident you are prompted of your own selves, and that to this end he is arming the force of his malice in order to make your very piety its own snare, and endeavoring to overcome by boastfulness those whom he could not defeat by distrustfulness. For the vice of pride is a near neighbor to good deeds, and arrogance ever lies in wait hard by virtue: because it is hard for him that lives praise-worthily not to be caught by man's praise unless, as it is written, "he that glorieth, glorieth in the LORD." Whose intentions would that most naughty enemy not dare to attack? Whose fasting would he not seek to break down? Seeing that, as has been shown in the reading of the Gospel, he did not restrain his wiles even against the Savior of the world Himself. For being exceedingly afraid of His fast, which lasted 40 days and nights, he wished most cunningly to discover whether this power of abstinence was given Him or His very own: for he need not fear the defeat of all his treacherous designs, if Christ were throughout subject to the same conditions as He is in body. And so he first craftily examined whether He were Himself the Creator of all things, such that He could change the natures of material things as He pleased: secondly, whether under the form of human flesh the Godhead lay concealed, to Whom it was easy to make the air His chariot, and convey His earthly limbs through space. But when the LORD preferred to resist him by the uprightness of His true Manhood, than to display the power of His Godhead, to this he turns the craftiness of his third design, that he might tempt by the lust of empire Him in Whom the signs of Divine power had failed, and entice Him to the worship of himself by promising the kingdoms of the world. But the devil's cleverness was rendered foolish by GOD'S wisdom, so that the proud foe was bound by that which he had formerly bound, and did not fear to assail Him Whom it behoved to be slain for the world.

IV. The perverse turn even their fasting into sin.

This adversary's wiles then let us beware of, not only in the enticements of the palate, but also in our purpose of abstinence. For he who knew how to bring death upon mankind by means of food, knows also how to harm us through our very fasting, and using the Manicheans as his tools, as he once drove men to take what was forbidden, so in the opposite direction he prompts them to avoid what is allowed. It is indeed a helpful observance, which accustoms one to scanty diet, and checks the appetite for dainties: but woe to the dogmatizing of those whose very fasting is turned to sin. For they condemn the creature's nature to the Creator's injury, and maintain that they are defiled by eating those things of which they contend the devil, not GOD, is the author: although absolutely nothing that exists is evil, nor is anything in nature included in the actually bad. For the good Creator made all things good and the Maker of the universe is one, "Who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them." Of which whatever is granted to man for food and drink, is holy and clean after its kind. But if it is taken with immoderate greed, it is the excess that disgraces the eaters and drinkers, not the nature of the food or drink that defiles them. "For all things," as the Apostle says, "are clean to the clean. But to the defiled and unbelieving nothing is clean, but their mind and conscience is defiled."

V. Be reasonable and seasonable in your fasting.

But ye, dearly-beloved, the holy offspring of the catholic Mother, who have been taught in the school of Truth by GOD'S Spirit, moderate your liberty with due reasonableness, knowing that it is good to abstain even from things lawful, and at seasons of greater strictness to distinguish one food from another with a view to giving up the use of some kinds, not to condemning their nature. And so be not infected with the error of those who are corrupted merely by their own ordinances, "serving the creature rather than the Creator," and offering a foolish abstinence to the service of the lights of heaven: seeing that they have chosen to fast on the first and second days of the week in honor of the sun and moon, proving themselves in this one instance of their perverseness twice disloyal to GOD, twice blasphemous, by setting up their fast not only in worship of the stars but also in contempt of the LORD'S Resurrection. For they reject the mystery of man's salvation and refuse to believe that Christ our LORD in the true flesh of our nature was truly born, truly suffered, was truly buried and was truly raised. And in consequence, condemn the day of our rejoicing by the gloom of their fasting. And since to conceal their infidelity they dare to be present at our meetings, at the Communion of the Mysteries they bring themselves sometimes, in order to ensure their concealment, to receive Christ's Body with unworthy lips, though they altogether refuse to drink the Blood of our Redemption. And this we make known to you, holy brethren, that men of this sort may be detected by you by these signs, and that they whose impious pretences have been discovered may be driven from the society of the saints by priestly authority. For of such the blessed Apostle Paul in his foresight warns GOD'S Church, saying: "but we beseech you, brethren, that ye observe those who make discussions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye learnt and turn away from them. For such persons serve not Christ the LORD but their own belly, and by sweet words and fair speeches beguile the hearts of the innocent."

VI. Make your fasting a reality by amendment in your lives.

Being therefore, dearly-beloved, fully instructed by these admonitions of ours, which we have often repeated in your ears in protest against abominable error, enter upon the holy days of Lent with Godly devoutness, and prepare yourselves to win GOD'S mercy by your own works of mercy. Quench your anger, wipe out enmities, cherish unity, and vie with one another in the offices of true humility. Rule your slaves and those who are put under you with fairness, let none of them be tortured by imprisonment or chains. Forego vengeance, forgive offences: exchange severity for gentleness, indignation for meekness, discord for peace. Let all men find us self-restrained, peaceable, kind: that our fastings may be acceptable to GOD. For in a word to Him we offer the sacrifice of true abstinence and true Godliness, when we keep ourselves from all evil: the Almighty GOD helping us through all, to Whom with the Son and Holy Spirit belongs one Godhead and one Majesty, for ever and ever. Amen.

Saint Patrick Wasn't Irish

2009-03-16T19:40:00.001-04:00

Did you know that Saint Patrick, the revered patron saint of Ireland wasn't really Irish? His name wasn't even Patrick, it was Maewyn Succat. He was born in Britain, around 309 AD. Some sources say he was from Scotland. His family was Roman, and they were Christian, his father was a deacon, and his grandfather was a priest. Biographers say that as a boy, Maewyn wasn't even very religious. At age 16 he was kidnapped by Irish pirates, taken to Ireland and made a slave. He was set to work herding sheep. It was during this time alone in the mountains that Maewyn had a deep religious conversion. Then, after 7 years, Maewyn started having dreams. An angel appeared to him in his dream, telling him how he could escape. He walked across Ireland, over 200 miles, to the coast, where he found a ship, just as foretold in his dream, to take him back to Britain, where he was reunited with his family.

Maewyn realized that with his knowledge of the Celtic language, he would make an excellent missionary to the Irish, many of whom were still pagan, worshipping many gods. He longed to return to Ireland, to teach the people about Christ.

Maewyn wasn't the first Christian missionary to go to Ireland. Saint Palladius, was sent from Rome to Britain in 429 AD, where as a deacon he fought the Pelagian heresy. He was then consecrated as a bishop in 431, and sent to Ireland.

Maewyn studied for the priesthood in Gaul, and Patricius was his baptismal name, given by Pope Celestine prior to his mission to Ireland. Patrick was eventually ordained a bishop. In the early 430s, Pope Celestine sent Patrick back to Ireland,. Patrick arrived in the winter of 433 and made his base at Armagh. Local chieftain Dichu, his first converted patron, gifted a large barn to use for a church sanctuary.

Over the next 30 years Patrick and his followers traveled throughout Ireland, preaching, converting, baptizing, and building churches and monasteries all over the island. He converted nearly the entire population to Christianity.

Patrick did not condemn the Celtic beliefs of the Irish but he assimilated their practices into a totally Christian spirituality - their sacred wells became Holy Wells dedicated to the saints, their druidic oak groves became Christian chapels for the Eucharist, etc. Patrick was also very successful in winning the local chieftains to the Faith which, in turn, made it easier for their subjects to embrace Christianity.

Patrick died on March 17, 461, after almost 30 years of intense evangelization in Ireland, where he consecrated some 350 Irish Bishops. It is believed that he was buried at Saul, where he had built his first church. Some of the ancient sources record that for several days the light of heaven shone around his bier.

There are many legends and stories of Saint Patrick, the most famous of which is that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. It is very likely that the story was meant to be symbolic, since for geographic and climatic reasons Ireland never actually had snakes.

In the Celtic tradition serpents were associated with fertility and wells, while in Christianity the serpent was Satan, the devil. Therefore, it is believed that the snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Pagan priests, the Druids, and to Saint Patrick converting the heathen and eliminating pagan beliefs.

The popular green shamrock -the internationally known symbol of Ireland- and Saint Patrick are closely associated.

According to legend, Saint Patrick traditionally used the three leaves of the shamrock to teach the Irish about the concept of the Holy Trinity and to explain the Christian dogma of "unity in diversity". There's no evidence that Patrick ever actually used a shamrock in this way - but it's a nice story.

We do have handed down to us several of Saint Patrick's writings. His "Confessio" and his "Epistola ad Coroticum" are recognized universally as genuine writings by the saint.

Other Irish writings dating from a similar time period are less clear; a series of 31 ecclesiastical canons entitled "Synodus secunda Patritii", though unquestionably of Irish origin and dating before the close of the seventh century, is generally considered to be of a later date than St. Patrick, but are interesting as sources of early Christian spirituality in the region.

The famous prayer, "Faeth Fiada", or "The Lorica of Saint Patrick" is known to be genuine, as are the book of his sayings, preserved in the "Book of Armagh", and the text of the "Rule of Patrick".

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

Lorica of Saint Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth and His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion and His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection and His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In preachings of the apostles,
In faiths of confessors,
In innocence of virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and evil,
Against every cruel merciless power that opposes my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of women and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that reward may come to me in abundance.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

These 40 Days of Lent

2009-02-26T11:50:00.001-05:00

These 40 Days of Lent

I've noticed that a lot of national newspapers tend to write articles about Lent this time of year. They either tend to focus on the insanity of Mardi Gras, or the aspect of depriving oneself of something pleasurable for 40 days. None of them really seems to actually have a clue about why we do this... Many Christians now participate in Lenten practices - it's no longer a solely Catholic "thing". You know it's getting to be a fairly widespread phenomenon when McDonald's and Taco Bell start advertising their Lenten fast food choices!

Fasting for 40 days, of course, is a discipline that is in memory and honor of Jesus' 40 day fast in the desert (Matthew 4:2). It is also in memory of Moses' 40 days on Mount Sinai (Exodus 34:28), Elijah's 40 day fast on his journey to Mount Horeb (1 Kings 19:8), and the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert.

Ash Wednesday officially begins the 40-day season of Lent. This tradition dates back to the 7th century. Ashes from burned palm leaves, which are saved from the previous years Palm Sunday celebration are placed on the forehead of the penitent. This custom of placing ashes on the heads of people is an ancient practice and can be found mentioned in the Old Testament. It is a sign of sorrow, of penitence and mourning. As early as the 300's AD it was adopted by local churches. After a laying on of hands and the imposition of ashes on their heads, they were reminded, as we still are today: "Remember, you are dust, and to dust you shall return." (Genesis 3:19) By the 11th century traditions of Ash Wednesday were adopted by all adult members of the parish and were similar to those performed today.

Fasting and Abstinence are still the traditional hallmarks of modern Lenten tradition. They are often linked together, but are two different disciplines. Fasting has to do with the quantity of food eaten on specific days. Usually little or none, or perhaps none before sundown, etc. Abstinence refers to denial to oneself of particular kinds of food or activities, for example meat, or sweets, or abstaining from games, Internet, television, etc. Denying oneself in either of these fashions has been a popular act of faith and devotion since ancient times and is mentioned frequently in Scripture.

Fasting and abstinence can be done for different reasons. It can prepare one for a feast. It promotes self-discipline. It supports one's prayers. It cleanses oneself of previous abuses and sin. All of these have been traditional reasons people have used these traditions during Lent.

Another way of looking at the practices of Lent more recently is to also add holy activities and devotions to one's life - such as making time for a daily rosary, going to Mass daily, praying the Liturgy of the Hours, reading Holy Scripture or devotional books. All of these activates can help make Lent a time not just of deprivation, but of true, holy, preparation for the Easter season.

By participating in the ancient traditions of this holy season of the Christian church, we remind ourselves of the price paid for our sins by Christ, and the glorious gift of redemption we received with his resurrection. Through the observances of Lent, we walk with Our Lord on a Spiritual Pilgrimage, walking the road to Calvary with Him, climbing that hill with Him, standing with Him at the foot of the Cross, and finally, walking with Him as He triumphs over death, and walks out of the tomb, to redeem us all, forever.

Message of the Holy Father for Lent 2009

2009-02-25T11:58:00.001-05:00

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR LENT 2009

"He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2)

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

At the beginning of Lent, which constitutes an itinerary of more intense spiritual training, the Liturgy sets before us again three penitential practices that are very dear to the biblical and Christian tradition prayer, almsgiving, fasting to prepare us to better celebrate Easter and thus experience God's power that, as we shall hear in the Paschal Vigil, "dispels all evil, washes guilt away, restores lost innocence, brings mourners joy, casts out hatred, brings us peace and humbles earthly pride" (Paschal Præconium). For this year's Lenten Message, I wish to focus my reflections especially on the value and meaning of fasting. Indeed, Lent recalls the forty days of our Lord's fasting in the desert, which He undertook before entering into His public ministry. We read in the Gospel: "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4,1-2). Like Moses, who fasted before receiving the tablets of the Law (cf. Ex 34,28) and Elijah's fast before meeting the Lord on Mount Horeb (cf. 1 Kings 19,8), Jesus, too, through prayer and fasting, prepared Himself for the mission that lay before Him, marked at the start by a serious battle with the tempter.

We might wonder what value and meaning there is for us Christians in depriving ourselves of something that in itself is good and useful for our bodily sustenance. The Sacred Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and all that leads to it. For this reason, the history of salvation is replete with occasions that invite fasting. In the very first pages of Sacred Scripture, the Lord commands man to abstain from partaking of the prohibited fruit: "You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die" (Gn 2, 16-17). Commenting on the divine injunction, Saint Basil observes that "fasting was ordained in Paradise," and "the first commandment in this sense was delivered to Adam." He thus concludes: " 'You shall not eat' is a law of fasting and abstinence" (cf. Sermo de jejunio: PG 31, 163, 98). Since all of us are weighed down by sin and its consequences, fasting is proposed to us as an instrument to restore friendship with God. Such was the case with Ezra, who, in preparation for the journey from exile back to the Promised Land, calls upon the assembled people to fast so that "we might humble ourselves before our God" (8,21). The Almighty heard their prayer and assured them of His favor and protection. In the same way, the people of Nineveh, responding to Jonah's call to repentance, proclaimed a fast, as a sign of their sincerity, saying: "Who knows, God may yet repent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we perish not?" (3,9). In this instance, too, God saw their works and spared them.

In the New Testament, Jesus brings to light the profound motive for fasting, condemning the attitude of the Pharisees, who scrupulously observed the prescriptions of the law, but whose hearts were far from God. True fasting, as the divine Master repeats elsewhere, is rather to do the will of the Heavenly Father, who "sees in secret, and will reward you" (Mt 6,18). He Himself sets the example, answering Satan, at the end of the forty days spent in the desert that "man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Mt 4,4). The true fast is thus directed to eating the "true food," which is to do the Father's will (cf. Jn 4,34). If, therefore, Adam disobeyed the Lord's command "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat," the believer, through fasting, intends to submit himself humbly to God, trusting in His goodness and mercy.

The practice of fasting is very present in the first Christian community (cf. Acts 13,3; 14,22; 27,21; 2 Cor 6,5). The Church Fathers, too, speak of the force of fasting to bridle sin, especially the lusts of the "old Adam," and open in the heart of the believer a path to God. Moreover, fasting is a practice that is encountered frequently and recommended by the saints of every age. Saint Peter Chrysologus writes: "Fasting is the soul of prayer, mercy is the lifeblood of fasting. So if you pray, fast; if you fast, show mercy; if you want your petition to be heard, hear the petition of others. If you do not close your ear to others, you open God's ear to yourself" (Sermo 43: PL 52, 320. 322).

In our own day, fasting seems to have lost something of its spiritual meaning, and has taken on, in a culture characterized by the search for material well-being, a therapeutic value for the care of one's body. Fasting certainly bring benefits to physical well-being, but for believers, it is, in the first place, a "therapy" to heal all that prevents them from conformity to the will of God. In the Apostolic Constitution Pænitemini of 1966, the Servant of God Paul VI saw the need to present fasting within the call of every Christian to "no longer live for himself, but for Him who loves him and gave himself for him he will also have to live for his brethren" (cf. Ch. I). Lent could be a propitious time to present again the norms contained in the Apostolic Constitution, so that the authentic and perennial significance of this long held practice may be rediscovered, and thus assist us to mortify our egoism and open our heart to love of God and neighbor, the first and greatest Commandment of the new Law and compendium of the entire Gospel (cf. Mt 22, 34-40).

The faithful practice of fasting contributes, moreover, to conferring unity to the whole person, body and soul, helping to avoid sin and grow in intimacy with the Lord. Saint Augustine, who knew all too well his own negative impulses, defining them as "twisted and tangled knottiness" (Confessions, II, 10.18), writes: "I will certainly impose privation, but it is so that he will forgive me, to be pleasing in his eyes, that I may enjoy his delightfulness" (Sermo 400, 3, 3: PL 40, 708). Denying material food, which nourishes our body, nurtures an interior disposition to listen to Christ and be fed by His saving word. Through fasting and praying, we allow Him to come and satisfy the deepest hunger that we experience in the depths of our being: the hunger and thirst for God.

At the same time, fasting is an aid to open our eyes to the situation in which so many of our brothers and sisters live. In his First Letter, Saint John admonishes: "If anyone has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need, yet shuts up his bowels of compassion from him how does the love of God abide in him?" (3,17). Voluntary fasting enables us to grow in the spirit of the Good Samaritan, who bends low and goes to the help of his suffering brother (cf. Encyclical Deus caritas est, 15). By freely embracing an act of self-denial for the sake of another, we make a statement that our brother or sister in need is not a stranger. It is precisely to keep alive this welcoming and attentive attitude towards our brothers and sisters that I encourage the parishes and every other community to intensify in Lent the custom of private and communal fasts, joined to the reading of the Word of God, prayer and almsgiving. From the beginning, this has been the hallmark of the Christian community, in which special collections were taken up (cf. 2 Cor 8-9; Rm 15, 25-27), the faithful being invited to give to the poor what had been set aside from their fast (Didascalia Ap., V, 20,18). This practice needs to be rediscovered and encouraged again in our day, especially during the liturgical season of Lent.

From what I have said thus far, it seems abundantly clear that fasting represents an important ascetical practice, a spiritual arm to do battle against every possible disordered attachment to ourselves. Freely chosen detachment from the pleasure of food and other material goods helps the disciple of Christ to control the appetites of nature, weakened by original sin, whose negative effects impact the entire human person. Quite opportunely, an ancient hymn of the Lenten liturgy exhorts: "Utamur ergo parcius, / verbis cibis et potibus, / somno, iocis et arctius / perstemus in custodia Let us use sparingly words, food and drink, sleep and amusements. May we be more alert in the custody of our senses."

Dear brothers and sisters, it is good to see how the ultimate goal of fasting is to help each one of us, as the Servant of God Pope John Paul II wrote, to make the complete gift of self to God (cf. Encyclical Veritatis splendor, 21). May every family and Christian community use well this time of Lent, therefore, in order to cast aside all that distracts the spirit and grow in whatever nourishes the soul, moving it to love of God and neighbor. I am thinking especially of a greater commitment to prayer, lectio divina, recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and active participation in the Eucharist, especially the Holy Sunday Mass. With this interior disposition, let us enter the penitential spirit of Lent. May the Blessed Virgin Mary, Causa nostrae laetitiae, accompany and support us in the effort to free our heart from slavery to sin, making it evermore a "living tabernacle of God." With these wishes, while assuring every believer and ecclesial community of my prayer for a fruitful Lenten journey, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

UK Hospital Reinstates Nurse Suspended for Prayer

2009-02-10T15:12:00.001-05:00

What the article below is too polite to mention is that the hospital in question received literally thousands of calls and emails protesting this action - I'd say that the world-wide attention might have had a little something to do with their change of heart. Now that begs the question - what about all those people who are slapped down by their employers, for simply offering to pray for someone, who don't end up on the international news? Is that what it takes, these days, to be allowed to say something as simple as "would you like me to pray for you?" - The fact that the women she asked didn't even actually put in a formal complaint, but that the punitive action was initiated because a co-worker reported the "incident" makes this whole event even more suspect. It reeks of a general intolerance for religious belief in general, in the ever-widening quest to be oh-so-careful, and oh-so-correct. Personally, I've given up on being "correct" - I am a person of faith, and if they can't deal with being blessed, well, then I gotta wonder if splashing holy water on them might make the steam rise... And I'm going to pray for them anyway.... Everyone can use grace, everyone can use blessings from God - whether they believe or not. Like it says in the old saying - doesn't matter, God believes in them.

UK Hospital Reinstates Nurse Suspended for Prayer
Recognizes Importance of "Spiritual Belief"

LONDON, FEB. 9, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The Christian nurse who was suspended for offering to pray for a patient was notified that she may return to work.

Caroline Petrie was contacted Thursday by the North Somerset Primary Care Trust with the news that she could resume her hospital responsibilities within days.

The 45-year-old nurse had asked an elderly patient if she would like her to pray with her. The patient in question, May Phippen, 79, said she did not feel offended, but rather commented in passing to another nurse that she found the offer strange, and that it could be offensive for other patients.

As a result, Petrie had a disciplinary hearing for "failing to show a commitment to equality and diversity."

The hospital reported her reinstatement Thursday night, affirming that they are "keenly aware of the importance of an individual's spiritual belief."

It stated: "We recognize that Caroline felt that she was acting in the best interests of her patients. For some people of faith, prayer is seen as an integral part of health care and the healing process."

"It is acceptable," the statement continued, "to offer spiritual support as part of care when the patient asks for it."

The hospital expressed support for "Caroline and other staff who have a faith" to continue to "offer high quality care for patients while remaining committed to their beliefs."

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