Holy Persons
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Pope Prays For
Success of Prayer Day for Canonization of Blessed John Henry Newman
Says Event, Which Includes Veneration of Relic, Is "Significant" and
"Inspiring"
By Staff Reporter
LONDON, October
10, 2014 - Pope Francis has sent a special message of support for
the success of a ‘Day with Newman', to be held at the Birmingham Oratory
on Saturday 11th October.
In the message,
sent through the Secretariat of State to the Auxiliary Bishop of
Birmingham, Robert Byrne, the Vatican says the Pope “wishes to convey
his good wishes and prayers for a successful and inspiring event.
“The Holy Father
cordially imparts his Apostolic Blessing upon all those persons who are
participating in this significant event and working in any way for the
Canonisation of the Blessed John Henry Newman.”
The ‘Day with
Newman’ begins with Solemn Mass in the Oratory Church at 12 noon.
The celebrant and preacher is the first Oratorian bishop in England for
140 years, Bishop Robert Byrne, C.O.
The Mass will be
followed by prayers for the canonization and veneration of the relic.
There will also be a presentation and talk on 'Why Newman Should Be
Canonized' and the day of prayer will conclude with Pontifical Solemn
Benediction in the Oratory church.
Blessed John
Henry Cardinal Newman was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in Birmingham
on 19th September 2010. Prayers continue that through Newman’s
intercession in heaven, God will work a further miracle, and that he
will then be officially numbered among the canonized saints.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Pope Francis' Letter on Beatification of Alvaro del Portillo
"This is the path of holiness that every Christian must follow: to let
himself be loved by the Lord, to open his heart to His love"
VATICAN CITY,
September 30, 2014 - Here is a translation of the full text of
a letter sent by Pope Francis to the prelate of Opus Dei, on the
occasion of Saturday’s beatification of Alvaro del Portillo
(1914-1994).
The text was
sent on June 26, feast of Saint Josemaria Escriva, founder of Opus
Dei.
* * *
Dear Brother:
The
beatification of the Servant of God Alvaro del Portillo, faithful
and first collaborator of Saint Josemaria Escriva at the head of
Opus Dei,
is a moment of special joy for all the faithful
of that Prelature, as well as for you, who for so long were a
witness of his love of God and of others, of his fidelity to the
Church and to his vocation. I also wish to unite myself to your joy
and to thank God who embellishes the face of the Church with the
holiness of his children.
His
beatification will take place in Madrid, the city in which he was
born and in which he spent his childhood and youth, with an
existence forged in the simplicity of family life, in the friendship
and service of others, as when he went to neighbourhoods to help in
the human and Christian formation of so many needy persons. And
there, above all, the event took place that sealed definitively the
direction of his life: his meeting with Saint Josemaria Escriva,
from whom he learned to fall in love with Christ more every day.
Yes, to be enamoured of Christ. This is the path of holiness that
every Christian must follow: to let himself be loved by the Lord, to
open his heart to His love and allow Him to be the one who guides
our lives.
I like to
recall the short prayer that the Servant of God used to repeat
frequently, especially in personal celebrations and anniversaries:
“thank you, sorry, help me more!” They are words that bring us close
to the reality of his interior life and his dealings with the Lord,
and which can help us also to give a new impulse to our own
Christian life.
In the first
place, thank you. It is the immediate and spontaneous reaction that
the soul feels before God’s goodness. It cannot be otherwise. He
always precedes us. No mater how much effort we make, His love
always comes before, touches and caresses us first, He arrives
first. Alvaro del Portillo was conscious of the many gifts that God
had given him, and he thanked God for that manifestation of his
fatherly love. But he did not stay there: the recognition of the
Lord’s love awakened in his heart desires to follow Him with greater
selflessness and generosity, and to live a life of humble service to
others. Especially outstanding was his love of the Church, Bride of
Christ, which he served with a heart stripped of worldly interest,
far from discord, hospitable with all and always looking for the
positive in others, for what unites, what builds. Never a complaint
or criticism, as he learned from Saint Josemaria, he always
responded with prayer, forgiveness, understanding and sincere
charity.
Sorry. He
often admitted that he saw himself before God with empty hands,
incapable of responding to such generosity. However, the admission
of human poverty is not the fruit of despair, but a confident
abandonment in God who is Father. It is to open oneself to His
mercy, to His love, which is capable of regenerating our life. A
love that does not humiliate, or sink us in the abyss of guilt, but
which embraces us, raises us from our prostration and makes us walk
with more determination and joy. The Servant of God Alvaro knew the
need we have of divine mercy and he dedicated much personal energy
to encourage persons who were attempting to approach the Sacrament
of Confession, Sacrament of joy. How important it is to feel the
tenderness of God’s love and to discover that there is still time to
love.
Help me more.
Yes, the Lord never abandons us, He is always at our side, He walks
with us and every day awaits a new love from us. We will not be
lacking in His grace, and with His help we can take his name to the
whole world. Beating in the new Blessed’s heart was the desire to
take the Good News to all hearts. So he went to many countries
fomenting projects of evangelization, without noticing the
difficulties, moved by his love of God and of brothers. The first
condition to proclaim Christ to them is to love them, because Christ
already loves them first. We must come out of our egoisms and
comfort and go to meet our brothers. The Lord awaits us there. We
cannot keep the faith for ourselves; it is a gift that we have
received to give and share with others.
Thank you,
sorry, help me! Expressed in these words is the tension of an
existence centered on God; of someone who has been touched by the
greatest Love and lives totally of that Love; of someone who, though
experiencing his human weaknesses and limitations, trusts in the
Lord’s mercy and wants all men, his brothers, to experience it also.
Dear brother,
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo sends us a very clear message; he tells
us to trust in the Lord, who is our brother, our friend who never
disappoints us and who is always at our side. He encourages us not
to be afraid to go against the current and to suffer for proclaiming
the Gospel. Moreover, he teaches us that in the simplicity and
ordinariness of our life we can find a sure path to holiness.
I ask all the
faithful of the Prelature, please, priests and laymen, as well as
all those that participate in its activities, to pray for me, while
imparting to them the Apostolic Blessing.
May Jesus
bless you and may the Holy Virgin take care of you,
Fraternally,
Franciscus
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Humility: the Key That Opens the Door to Enter into the House of
Holiness
Cardinal Angelo Amato's Homily at the Beatification of Bishop Alvaro del
Portillo
MADRID,
September 29, 2014 - Here below is the full text of the homily
of Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes
of Saints, on the occasion of the Mass for the Beatification of
Alvaro del Portillo, former prelate of Opus Dei.
***
1. “A
shepherd according to the Heart of Christ, a zealous minister of the
Church”.[1] This is the portrait that Pope Francis draws of Blessed
Álvaro del Portillo, a good shepherd who, like Jesus, knows and
loves his sheep, brings back to the sheepfold those who have
strayed, binds up the wounds of the sick ones, and offers his life
for them.[2]
As a youth,
the new Blessed was called to follow Christ, going on to become a
diligent minister of the Church and to proclaim throughout the world
the glorious riches of his saving mystery: “This is the Christ we
proclaim, this is the wisdom in which we thoroughly train everyone
and instruct everyone, to make them all perfect in Christ. It is for
this I struggle wearily on, helped only by his power driving me
irresistibly.”[3] And he made this proclamation of Christ the
Saviour in absolute faithfulness to the cross and, at the same time,
with exemplary, evangelical joy amidst difficulties. For this
reason, today the liturgy applies to him St Paul’s words: “Now I
rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete
what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body,
that is, the Church.”[4]
Serene
happiness when undergoing pain and suffering is characteristic of
the saints. Moreover, the beatitudes, including the more demanding
ones such as being persecuted, are nothing other than a hymn to joy.
2. There are
many virtues which Blessed Álvaro practised to a heroic degree, such
as faith, hope and charity. He practised these virtuous habits in
the light of the beatitudes of meekness, mercy, and purity of heart.
The testimonies all coincide in this. Apart from the absolute
spiritual and apostolic harmony he had with the holy Founder, he
also stood out as being a person of great humanity.
Witnesses
state that from his childhood Álvaro was “a very happy and studious
boy, who never caused any problems;” “he was affectionate,
straightforward, happy, responsible and kind.”[5]
From his
mother, Doña Clementina, he inherited a notable serenity,
considerateness, the habit of smiling, understanding, speaking well
about others, and reflecting deeply before judging. He was a true
gentleman. He was not a talkative person. His engineering training
gave him habits of intellectual rigour, conciseness, and precision,
enabling him to go straight to the essence of problems and solve
them. He inspired respect and admiration in others.
3. His
consideration for others went hand-in-hand with exceptional
spiritual richness. One of his outstanding graces was the unity
between his interior life and his tireless apostolic zeal. The
writer Salvador Bernal states that he turned the humble prose of
daily work into poetry.
He was an
example of fidelity to the Gospel, the Church, and the Magisterium
of the Pope. Every time he went to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, he
would recite the Creed before St Peter’s tomb, and a Salve Regina
before the picture of Our Lady, Mother of the Church.
He always
avoided focusing on himself, because he passed on the truth of the
Gospel and the fullness of tradition, not his own opinions. His
spiritual life was nourished by Eucharistic piety, devotion to the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and veneration for the saints. He kept his
awareness of God’s presence alive by frequent aspirations and vocal
prayers. Some of those he used habitually were “Most Sacred and
Merciful Heart of Jesus, grant us peace!” and “Most sweet heart of
Mary, prepare a safe journey,” as well as invoking our Lady as “Holy
Mary, our Hope, Handmaid of the Lord, Seat of Wisdom.”
4. A decisive
moment in his life was his calling to Opus Dei. When he was 21, in
1935, after meeting St Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, who was at
that time a young priest of 33, he responded generously to God’s
call to holiness and apostolate.
He had a deep
sense of filial, affective and effective communion with the Holy
Father. He received the Pope’s teaching gratefully and made it known
to all the Opus Dei faithful. In the last years of his life he would
often kiss the Prelate’s ring given to him by the Pope, as a way of
reaffirming his total adherence to the Pope’s wishes. In particular,
he backed up the Pope’s requests for prayer and fasting for peace,
Christian unity, and the evangelization of Europe.
He was
outstanding for his prudence and rectitude in evaluating events and
people; his justice in respecting other people’s good name and
freedom; his fortitude in facing up to physical or moral
difficulties; and his temperance, shown in his sobriety and his
interior and exterior mortification. Blessed Álvaro possessed the
fragrance of Christ – the bonus odor Christi –,[6] which is the
aroma of genuine holiness.
5. However,
there is one virtue which Bishop Álvaro practised in an especially
extraordinary way, considering it as indispensable for holiness and
apostolate: the virtue of humility, which is an imitation of and an
identification with Christ, who is gentle and lowly in heart.[7] He
loved Jesus’ hidden life, and respected the simple manifestations of
popular piety, such as going up the Scala Santa in Rome on one’s
knees. Once, one of the faithful of the Prelature told him that he
had visited that place but had walked up the Scala Santa normally,
because, as he put it, he considered himself a mature and
well-instructed Christian. Blessed Álvaro answered him with a smile
that he had gone up the Holy Stairs on his knees, even though the
place was somewhat stuffy because of the crowds of people and the
poor ventilation.[8] It was a great lesson in simplicity and piety.
Indeed,
Bishop del Portillo was “infected”, in the good sense, by the
behaviour of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who did not come to be served,
but to serve.[9] For this reason, he often used to pray and meditate
on the Eucharistic hymn Adoro Te devote, latens deitas – O Godhead
hid, devoutly I adore Thee. Likewise, he used to meditate on the
life of Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord. He sometimes recalled
a phrase from Cervantes’ Exemplary Novels: “Without humility, there
is no virtue worthy of the name.”[10] And he would often recite an
aspiration that is frequently used by the faithful of the Work: “Cor
contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies – a broken and contrite
heart, O God, you will not despise.”[11]
For him, as
for St Augustine, humility was the dwelling-place of charity.[12] He
would repeat some advice which the Founder of Opus Dei used to give,
quoting St Joseph of Calasanz: “If you want to be holy, be humble;
if you want to be holier, be more humble; if you want to be very
holy, be very humble.”[13] Nor did he forget that a donkey was
Jesus’ throne during his entry into Jerusalem. Even his
fellow-students, as well as stressing his extraordinary
intelligence, underline his simplicity, the serene innocence that
came of not considering himself better than others. He thought that
his worst enemy was pride. One witness states that he was “humility
personified”.[14]
His humility
was not harsh, showy, or ill-tempered, but affectionate and
cheerful. His joy was based on his conviction that he himself was
worth very little. At the beginning of 1994, the last year of his
life on earth, in a meeting with some of his spiritual daughters, he
said, “I say this to you, and I say it to myself. We have to
struggle all our lives to become humble. We have the marvellous
school of humility of our Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and St
Joseph. Let’s learn from them. Let’s fight against our own ego,
which constantly rears up like a viper, ready to bite. But we are
safe as long as we keep close to Jesus, who is the offspring of
Mary, and is the one who will crush the serpent’s head.”[15]
For Don
Álvaro, humility was “the key that opens the door to enter into the
house of holiness”; while pride was the greatest obstacle to seeing
and loving God. He said, “humility strips away from us the
ridiculous cardboard mask that presumptuous, self-satisfied people
wear.”[16] Humility is the recognition of our limitations, but also
of our dignity as God’s children. The best praise of his humility
was given by a woman in Opus Dei after the Founder’s death: “The one
who has died is Don Álvaro, because our Father lives on in his
successor.”[17]
A cardinal
testifies that when he read about humility in the Rule of St
Benedict or the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius, he felt he was
contemplating a very high ideal, but one that was unattainable for
ordinary human beings. But when he met and got to know Blessed
Álvaro, he understood that it was possible to practise total
humility.
6. What
Cardinal Ratzinger said in 2002 with regard to the canonization of
the Founder of Opus Dei can also be applied to Blessed Álvaro.
Speaking of heroic virtue, Cardinal Ratzinger, who was at the time
Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said:
“Heroic virtue does not mean precisely accomplishing great things
unaided, but that in a person’s life there appear things that he did
not bring about, because he made himself transparent and available
for God to act (…) That is holiness.”[18]
This is the
message that Blessed Álvaro del Portillo hands on to us today. He
was “a shepherd according to the Heart of Christ, a zealous minister
of the Church”.[19] He invites us to be holy like him, living a
holiness that is friendly, merciful, good-natured, meek, and humble.
The Church
and the world need the great spectacle of holiness so that its
pleasing fragrance can purify the noxious fumes of the many vices
which are being praised so arrogantly and insistently.
Now, more than ever, we need an ecology of holiness, to counteract
the pollution of immorality and corruption. The saints invite us to
bring to the heart of the Church and society the pure air of God’s
grace, which renews the face of the earth.
May Mary, Help of Christians and Mother of the
Saints, help and protect us.
Blessed
Álvaro del Portillo, pray for us.
Amen.
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Mass of Thanksgiving for Blessed Alvaro del
Portillo
Prelate of Opus Dei Pays Tribute to Predecessor Whose Holiness Showed
the Divine Mercy to Others
MADRID,
September 29, 2014 - A Mass of thanksgiving took place Sunday
morning for the beatification of Alvaro del Portillo. The
venue was the very same streets of Valdebebas that was filled with
the more than 200,000 people that attended the beatification on
Saturday. A good number of these people returned same day to
their homes in order to save travel costs. Nevertheless, tens
of thousands of others joyfully attended today’s ceremony.
At the
beginning of the ceremony during the Angelus, Pope Francis from Rome
remembered the beatification that took place yesterday in Madrid and
prayed that “the exemplary Christian and priestly witness of Bishop
Alvaro del Portillo give rise in many the desire of uniting
themselves ever more to Christ and to the Gospel”.
Prayer for all the world’s families in union with Pope Francis
Considering
that the event was attended mainly by families from the five
continents, the prelate of Opus Dei dedicated a good part of his
homily to them. This he did, by uniting himself to the wishes
of Pope Francis who dedicated this Sunday to prayer, against the
background of the celebration of the III Extraordinary General
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops dedicated to the family: “On this
day which the Holy Father Pope Francis has dedicated to praying for
the family, we unite ourselves to the petitions of the entire Church
through this communion of love, this school of the Gospel which is
the family”.
Monsignor
Echevarria addressed families saying: “Our Lord loves you, Our Lord
is present in your marriage which is the image of the love Christ
has for the Church. I know that many of you dedicate
yourselves generously to supporting other married couples along
their path of faithfulness. I know that many of you help other
homes to go forward in this social context that is sometimes
difficult and even hostile. Take courage! Your work as
Gospel witnesses is necessary for the whole world”.
He wanted
also to thank them: “Now we thank also those parents who are here
gathered and to all those who take care of children, of the aged and
of the sick”.
The massive crowd of
these days is testament to the fruitfulness of the life of Alvaro
del Portillo
At the start
of his homily the Prelate make specific reference to the
beatification ceremony that took place the day before: “The crowd
during these days, the thousands of people from all over the world
and so many others who are already waiting for us in Heaven, give
special testimony to the fruitfulness of Don Alvaro’s life”.
Speaking further he said, “we cannot really call this a crowd, but
rather a family gathering, united by love of God and love for one
another. This same love is also made strong today in the
Eucharist, during this Mass of thanksgiving for the beatification of
our beloved Don Alvaro, bishop, prelate of Opus Dei”.
Alvaro del Portillo revealed the divine
mercy through his solidarity with the poor and abandoned
During the
Thanksgiving Mass Monsignor Echevarria explained that “looking at
the holy life of Don Alvaro we discover God’s hand, the grace of the
Holy Spirit and the gift of a love which transforms us. The
prelate urged all to aim that “others may discover God’s goodness in
my way of life, as was the case in the daily activities of Don
Alvaro, who already in this beloved Madrid also revealed the divine
mercy through his solidary with the poor and abandoned”.
Continuing with this spirit of Blessed Alvaro del
Portillo the collections from the Masses of yesterday and today will
be used to support four social projects he helped to start when he
was alive:
- The construction of a mother-and-child Centre in
the Niger Foundation and Diagnostic Centre in Enugu, Nigeria, a
project that will benefit 12,000 people annually.
- A program to eradicate infant malnutrition in
Bingerville (Cote d’Ivoire) and that will directly benefit 5,000
people.
- Four outpatient clinics on the outskirts of the
Democratic Republic of Congo, a project that will offer health care
to 10,000 children a year.
-
Scholarships for the training of African priests in Rome.
At the end of the ceremony the 3,500 young
volunteers, in spite of the natural tiredness of these days of
intense work helped to collect the materials used for the ceremony.
------------------------------------------------------------
Don Alvaro del Portillo Beatified in Madrid
Tens of Thousands Celebrate Life of St. Josemaria Escriva's Successor
MADRID, September 29, 2014 - The beatification of
Alvaro del Portillo, the first successor of St. Josemaria as head of
Opus Dei, took place on Saturday before a massive crowd, in a
ceremony presided over by the delegate of Pope Francis, Cardinal
Angelo Amato, who was accompanied by Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco,
emeritus archbishop of Madrid and the bishop prelate of Opus Dei,
Javier Echevarria.
A message from Pope Francis opened the
ceremony
The ceremony began with the Vicar General of Opus
Dei, Fernando Ocariz reading a message sent by Pope Francis.
The Holy Father pointed out that “Blessed Alvaro del Portillo
teaches us that simplicity and ordinary life are a sure path to
holiness”, reminding everyone that Blessed Alvaro “went to many
countries, fostering projects of evangelization without being
inhibited by difficulties, moved only by his love for God and for
his brothers and sisters. Whoever is very immersed in God
knows how to be close to other people” (full text at:
www.alvarodelportillo.org).
Immediately following the solemn act of
beatification by Cardinal Amato at 12:24 h an image of the new
blessed was revealed to the faithful. His feast day will be
celebrated on May 12 every year in the diocese to be determined by
the Holy See.
Another key moment was the transfer of the relics
of Alvaro del Portillo to the altar, borne by the Ureta Wilsom
family, whose son Jose Ignacio was miraculously cured thanks to the
intercession of the new blessed.
A massive and international participation
The universal
nature of the new blessed was manifested by the presence of hundreds
of thousands of faithful from more than 80 countries and especially
the participation of 18 cardinals and more than 150 bishops from all
over the world.
Among those
on the front row at the ceremony were more than 200 people with some
form of disability or the other, as well as representatives of the
many social initiatives promoted by the new blessed, particularly in
Africa and in Latin America. There were also many families and
some Spanish and international civil authorities.
From very
early in the morning, 1,600 big buses and a bus shuttle service took
the more than 300,000 people from the Metro stations to the 185,000
square meters of Valdebebas. They were thus able to wait for
the start of the ceremony watching some audio-visual programs on 26
giant screens. They prepared themselves spiritually either by
praying in the 13 chapels available or by receiving the sacrament of
penance in one of the 80 confessionals spread throughout the area.
The homily laid
emphasis on his faithfulness to the Gospel, to the Church and to the
Pope
In his homily
Cardinal Amado illustrated some virtues which the new blessed “lived
in a heroic manner”, such as his “faithfulness to the Gospel, to the
Church and to the Magisterium of the Pope”. According to the
cardinal, Alvaro del Portillo “fled from all kinds of self-seeking
because he transmitted the truth of the Gospel and not his personal
opinions”. Among other things, “he stood out for the prudence
and uprightness of intention in the way he valued events and
persons. He also stood out through the respect he had for the
honour and freedom of others”.
Cardinal
Amato continued: “Today Blessed Alvaro del Portillo invites us to an
amiable, merciful, affable, meek and humble holiness. The
saints invite us to put into the womb of the Church and of society
the pure air of the grace of God which renews the face of the
earth”.
The huge
turnout of the faithful was marked by piety and the joy of singing
that was accompanied by the 200-voice choir of the last World Youth
Day. 1,200 priests distributed communion in Valdebebas.
Msgr. Echevarria: a special prayer for
those who suffer persecution as a result of their faith
At the end of
the celebration, Monsignor Javier Echevarria, Prelate of Opus Dei
spoke some words of gratitude to God, to the Church and to Pope
Francis, as well as to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, to Cardinal Amato
and to the Archdiocese of Madrid, the choir, the volunteers and the
media, all of who have made possible the ceremony that has been
followed by many throughout the world.
The prelate
continued: “the raising of Alvaro del Portillo to the altars reminds
us anew of the universal call to holiness, proclaimed with great
fervour by the Second Vatican Council”. He also made reference
to the “joy that St. Josemaria Escriva would undoubtedly feel in
seeing this most faithful son of his proposed as an intercessor and
model for all the faithful”.
Monsignor
Echevarria asked those present to pray in a special way “for our
brothers and sisters who suffer persecution for their faith,
including martyrdom in different parts of the world”.
The
Diocese of Madrid is proud of its son
In his closing remarks Cardinal Antonio Maria
Rouco wished to point out the bond that exists between Alvaro del
Portillo and the city of Madrid. "Not only for historical
reasons but also because of the influence which his life and
writings have had on the hearts of so many faithful of this
Archdiocese. His footprints are also felt through the
spiritual and social good done by the very many initiatives that owe
their inspiration to him”.
In
conclusion, Cardinal Rouco said “Blessed del Portillo, who was born
here in Madrid, is ours in a unique way and so sends us special
blessings from heaven”. “As a diocesan Church” he added, “we are
very proud of the faithful help he lent to St. Josemaria in
spreading the message of Opus Dei throughout the world and for the
contributions he made to the Second Vatican Council”.
At the end of
the ceremony the more than 3,500 young volunteers helped
participants to leave Valdebebas on their way back to Madrid.
While some returned to their places of origin, others came back on
Sunday for the traditional Mass of Thanksgiving which was presided
over by Bishop Javier Echevarria, the prelate of Opus Dei.
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1st Successor of Josemaría Escrivá to Be Beatified in September
Don Alvaro Elected to Head Opus Dei in 1975; Held Office 19 Years
ROME,
January 22, 2014 - After Pope Francis’s approval of the required
miracle and the formal decree of the Congregation for the Causes of the
Saints (5 July 2013), the Holy See has confirmed in a letter dated 21
January 2014 that the Holy Father (at the request of the Prelat of Opus
Dei, Msgr. Javier Echevarria) has established that
Alvaro del Portillo
will be beatified in Madrid, his hometown, on 27 September 2014.
An International Encounter in Madrid
The
beatification ceremony in Madrid will be presided over by the Prefect of
the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, Cardinal Angelo Amato,
and faithful from all over the world are expected to participate. The
next day, Bishop Javier Echevarría, Prelate of Opus Dei, will celebrate
a Mass of thanksgiving.
"In this
moment of profound joy,” said Bishop Javier Echevarría, “I wish to thank
Pope Francis for his decision to proceed with the beatification of this
bishop who loved and served the Church so much. From now on, let us
entrust to the soon-to-be Blessed Alvaro the intentions of the Holy
Father: the apostolic renewal and service to God of all Christians, the
care and support of the needy, the upcoming synod on the family, the
holiness of priests. "
Don Alvaro and Madrid
The biography
of Bishop del Portillo - whom many people call " Don Alvaro " - is
closely linked to the city of Rome (where he lived most of his life) and
Madrid, where he was born on March 11, 1914, and where he spent his
childhood and youth with his parents and 7 siblings. It was also in the
capital of Spain that he met St. Josemaria Escrivá and decided to join
Opus Dei in 1935.
While he was
a 19-year-old engineering student in Madrid, the young Alvaro del
Portillo took part in the activities of the St. Vincent de Paul Society,
teaching catechism to children in Vallecas and other poor neighborhoods
and distributing donations and food to needy families. Later, encouraged
by St. Josemaria, he continued to carry out similar activities with the
young people who participated in the initial work of Opus Dei organized
around the DYA Academy.
After
finishing his civil and ecclesiastical studies, he was ordained in
Madrid by the bishop of the diocese, Leopoldo Eijo y Garay, on 25 June
1944, and he carried out his priestly ministry there until he moved to
Rome in 1946.
The Setting of the Beatification
As is well
known, the papal decree of Benedict XVI on the rites of beatification
and canonization - promulgated by the Congregation for the Causes of the
Saints on 29 September 2005 - states that beatifications will be
celebrated by a representative of the Holy Father, usually the prefect
of the aforementioned Congregation, in the place that is considered most
suitable. The same decree provides that only canonizations will be
presided over by the Pope.
For this
reason, when the upcoming beatification was announced, several options
were explored, with preference being given to central locations in Rome
other than St. Peter’s Square, which is reserved to the Holy Father. Due
to the large number of expected participants, however, these proposals
proved difficult to implement, and the Congregation considered
particularly opportune a second hypothesis which presented itself:
celebrating the ceremony in Madrid, the birthplace of Alvaro del
Portillo, in the year that marks the centenary of his birth, which will
also allow a larger number of his countrymen, for whom a trip to Rome
would be difficult because of the current economic crisis, to attend the
ceremony.
Plans are
already being made to attend to the participants from around the world,
including visits to the Cathedral de la Almudena and places related to
the life of Alvaro del Portillo and the beginnings of Opus Dei , which
was founded by St. Josemaria Escrivá - in Madrid - on October 2 , 1928.
In Rome, Close to Pope Francis
The organizing committee is also preparing various
events in Rome for attendees who wish to extend their pilgrimage to
visit the Successor of St. Peter ("videre Petrum" – to see Peter, as St.
Josemaria liked to say, quoting a phrase of St. Paul).
The civil authorities are looking into the possibility
that, during the days following the beatification, the body of Don
Alvaro, which rests in the crypt of the Prelatic Church, Saint Mary of
Peace, in Rome, be provisionally transferred to the much-larger Basilica
of Sant’ Eugenio to make room for the people who want to pray before
Blessed Alvaro del Portillo.
After the
beatification, there will be a Mass of thanksgiving in one of the Roman
basilicas. The faithful may also participate in that week’s Wednesday
audience with Pope Francis and thus express their grateful union with
the Roman Pontiff.
All Together, in the Footsteps of Don Alvaro
Both in Rome and Madrid, activities promoted by
Harambee Africa International will be organized in order to finance four
medical and educational projects in sub-Saharan Africa, which were
encouraged by Bishop Alvaro del Portillo, during the years when was
Prelate of Opus Dei.
"Harambee "
means "all for one" in Swahili . Attendees at the beatification will be
invited to assist with their donations in the launching of a
mother-and-child center associated with Niger Hospital (Enugu, Nigeria),
the expansion and improvement of facilities at three medical centers of
the nursing school of Monkole Hospital Center (Kinshasa, Congo), and the
development of a program to fight child malnutrition at the Ilomba Rural
Center (in Bingerville, Ivory Coast). A fourth project is to obtain
scholarships for African seminarians at the Pontifical University of the
Holy Cross, an institution founded in Rome by Bishop Alvaro del
Portillo, following the desire of St. Josemaria Escrivá.
Rosalinda
Corbi, coordinator of the Harambee activities, explains that "it seemed
necessary to share the gift of this beatification with the people who
need it most, and we wanted to carry it out in a way that would have
pleased Don Alvaro, who from his youth dedicated a great deal of time to
the sick and needy. "
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Pope Francis' Letter On the Occasion of the 8th Centenary of Trinitarian
Founder, St. John of Mata
VATICAN CITY,
December 17, 2013 - Here is a translation of the Holy Father’s
Letter to the Minister General of the Order of the Trinitarians, on the
occasion of the 8th centenary of the death of the Founder, Saint John of
Mata.
* * *
To the Very
Reverend Father
Friar Joseph
Narlaly
Minister
General of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of Captives
Dear Brother:
In this year
in which the Order of the Most Holy Trinity and of Captives, and all
those united to it with spiritual bonds, observe the eighth centenary of
the death of their Holy Founder, John of Matha, and the four hundred
years of the happy passing of Saint John Baptist of the Conception,
Reformer of the same Order, I wish to unite myself to you in your
thanksgiving to God Trinity for these outstanding figures for the
Church, sending you this simple message of encouragement and spiritual
closeness, with the hope that it will serve as stimulation and support
to go forward with enthusiasm and decision on the spiritual path that
they traced, for the glory of the thrice Holy One and the good of those
going through different trials.
The old
motto: Hicest Ordo adprobatus, non a sanctis fabricates, sed a solo
summo Deo (Saint John Baptist of the Conception, Works III, 45) which
the Trinitarian Religious have always proclaimed, begins from a
profoundly rooted awareness in you that this charism is a gift of God,
accepted by the Church from its beginning through pontifical approval.
God has gone before us, <he has beaten us>, choosing these servants of
his to manifest his mercies in them. They were able to accept the
challenge, in docility to the Church that discerns the charisms. Thus,
if today we celebrate the dies natales of its Founder and Reformer, we
do so precisely because they were able to deny themselves, to take up
with simplicity and docility the cross of Christ and put themselves
entirely and unconditionally in God’s hands, so that He would build
their Work.
We are all
called to experience the joy that springs from the encounter with Jesus,
to conquer our egoism, to come out of our own comfort and to dare to
reach all the fringes that need the light of the Gospel (cf. Evangelii
gaudium, 20). This is what Saint John of Matha and Saint John Baptist of
the Conception did with their life and apostolic courage. They, who were
leading religious lives that were respectable, although perhaps somewhat
comfortable and safe, received a call from God, which turned them around
and pushed them to spend and exhaust themselves in favor of the
neediest, of those who were suffering for proclaiming their faith in the
Gospel, of those whose joy was in danger of being robbed from them. In
the course of the centuries, in perfect attunement with that
foundational spirit, the House of the Holy Trinity has been the home of
the poor and the disregarded, a place where wounds of the body and the
soul are healed, and this is done with prayer, which, as the Holy
Reformer well said, is a better medicine than many remedies, and also
with unconditional dedication and with disinterested and loving service.
The work, the effort and gratitude are condensed in the Rule of Saint
John of Matha with the words Ministro and sine proprio (Trinitarian
Rule, n. 1).In fact the Trinitarians have clear, and we must all learn
from them, that in the Church all responsibility or authority must be
lived as service. From this it follows that our action must be stripped
of all desire for profit or personal promotion, and must always seek to
put in common all the talents received from God to direct them, as good
administrators, to the end for which they were given, namely, to
alleviate the most underprivileged. This is Christ’s concern and that is
why the Houses of your Family “always have the door open” for fraternal
welcome (Original Directory of the Trinitarian Sisters 2. Cf. Evangelii
gaudium, 46).
Now, on
uniting myself with your song of praise to the Most Holy Trinity,
through these great Saints I wish to implore you that, following their
example, you will never cease to look at Christ and, with the strength
of his Spirit, give yourselves with humility to serve the poor and
captives. There are many of these today. We see them each day and we
cannot ignore them, contenting ourselves with a good word. Christ was
not like that. It is a condition of life to acquire Christ’s sentiments,
in order to see his face in those who suffer and give them consolation
and the light that springs from his pierced Heart. You must also dare to
be the first (cf. Evangelii gaudium, 24), exactly as Saint John Baptism
of the Conception proposed it to his friars with the attractive image of
a game of cards, trying to make them understand that it is in this stake
for the poor that we gain an authentic and happy life. For the Saint,
this is the challenge God gives us: his poor, and if we lose this hand,
he tells us, we are totally lost (Works III, 79). Therefore, for your
apostolic works and initiatives do not look for a foundation other than
“the roots of charity” and “the interest of Christ,” whom my
Predecessor, Innocent III, considered as the essential jambs of this
new way of life that he approved with his apostolic authority (Operante
divinae dispositionis clementia, Bull 17.12.1198).
In bidding
you farewell, while imparting the Apostolic Blessing upon all the
members of the Order and of the entire Trinitarian Family, I beg that,
as it is an immemorial tradition among you, you not fail to pray for
the Pope. I know that this intention is constant, together with that of
the poor, and that you present them to the Lord every night. It pleases
me very much to think that you put the Bishop of Rome in prayer together
with the poorest, as this reminds me that I cannot forget them, as Jesus
did not forget them, who felt in the depth of his Heart that he was sent
to give them the Good News and that, with his poverty, he enriched us
all (cf. Luke 4:18; 2 Corinthians 8:9). May He bless you and the Holy
Virgin take care of you.
Fraternally,
FRANCIS PP.
Vatican,
December 17, Solemnity of Saint John of Mata of the year 2013, the first
of my Pontificate.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope Francis Declares Model Jesuit a Saint
Holy Father Waives Rules to Canonize Father Pierre Favre, First Recruit of
St. Ignatius of Loyola
VATICAN CITY,
December 17, 2013 - Pope Francis has declared the 16th century
Jesuit Father Pierre Favre a saint, bypassing the usual procedures for
canonization.
The Vatican
announced the Pope’s decision on Dec. 17, Francis’ 77th birthday.
The Holy
Father has long viewed Father Favre, the first follower of the founder
of the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius of Loyola, as a model figure.
Born in the
Rhône-Alpes region of eastern France in 1506, the French Jesuit met
Ignatius while the two were college roommates at the University of
Sorbonne in Paris, along with another future Jesuit, St. Francis Xavier.
After ordination, Father Favre spent most of his ministry preaching
Catholicism in Germany and elsewhere during the Protestant Reformation.
He died in 1546.
Pope Francis
has spoken of the influence Father Favre has had in his life, in
particular his message of dialogue with anyone “even the most remote and
even with his opponents.” In an interview with the Jesuit journal La
Civilta Cattolica, he praised Father Favre’s “simple piety, a certain
naïveté perhaps, his being available straightaway, his careful interior
discernment, the fact that he was a man capable of great and strong
decisions but also capable of being so gentle and loving.”
Father Favre
and Pope Francis are said to have many characteristics in common and
share many of the same ideas. Father Favre was a supporter of Catholic
reform and a pioneer of ecumenism. St. Ignatius used to say he was
“someone who can squeeze water from a rock” and regarded him as the most
efficient spiritual leader of all his followers. He also said Father
Favre had “a gift for guiding people’s souls towards God” and wanted to
appoint him as the Society of Jesus’s top representative in Rome.
Back in June,
the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire reported that Francis was
looking to extend the liturgical cult surrounding the 16thcentury Jesuit
to the universal Church. The newspaper reported that to canonize such a
figure who lived centuries ago and based solely on the cult of holiness
surrounding him “would be a unique technical procedure.”
The practice
is mainly applied to individuals who lived a long time ago and for whom
a canonical process was begun but not completed in their lifetime.
Examples of this so-called “equivalent” canonization have been Cyril and
Methodius who were proclaimed saints by John Paul II. Pope John XXIII
also canonized Gregorio Barbarigo, whom Pope John had also held up as a
model figure, in a motu proprio in 1960.
“Equivalent”
canonization is a rare procedure, meaning popes can declare someone who
has enjoyed widespread reverence over time deserves veneration by the
universal Church without having to go through the usual canonization
steps. These include proving two miracles attributed to the candidate’s
intercession.
Pope Benedict
XVI used the procedure in his pontificate to declare Hildegard of Bingen
a saint.
During an
audience with the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of
Saints today, Angelo Amato, Pope Francis also declared a miracle
attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Maria
Teresa Demjanovich, a sister with the Congregation of the Sisters of
Charity of Saint Elizabeth. Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, on March 26,
1901 she died in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on 8 May 1927.
The Pope also
declared the heroic virtues of Servant of God Emmanuel Establés Herranz,
diocesan priest and founder of the Religious Esclavas de la Virgen
Dolorosa. Born in Campillo de Dueñas, Spain, on 1 January 1880, he died
in Madrid on June 29, 1968.
Finally, the
Pope proclaimed the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Giorgio
Ciesielski, a layman, born in Krakow, Poland, February 12, 1929, and
died in Egypt October 9, 1970.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The 800 Martyrs of Otranto
Faithful Witnesses of Christ Among First Saints Canonized by Pope Francis
By Ivan de Vargas
ROME, May 13, 2013
- The Church now has 802 new Saints, after the first canonization that
Pope Francis presided over on Sunday in Saint Peter’s Square. They are
the 800 martyrs of Otranto -- killed savagely by the Ottoman army in
1480, as well as two Latin American nuns who worked their whole lives at
the service of the poorest and invalid: Mother Laura Montoya
(1874-1949), and Mother Lupita (1878-1963). This is one of the great
events planned in the Year of Faith.
Antonio Primaldo
and Companions
Antonio Pezzulla,
called Primaldo, is the only name that has been recorded of the 800
fishermen, artisans, shepherds and farmers of the small Italian city of
Otranto, in the region of Apulia, whose blood was shed out of fidelity
to Christ, during an incursion of the Ottoman army on July 29, 1480.
The martyrdom of Antonio Primaldo and his companions
is set historically in the warlike context that lasted for a long time
in Europe’s relations with the Ottoman Empire. After the fall of
Constantinople in 1453, and the siege of Belgrade in 1456, Mehmed the
Conqueror tried in vain to conquer the Island of Rhodes in 1479. He then
went to the end of the Italian coast, closest to the ports of Albania,
already under his dominion.
In the Hands of the Ottoman Army
The Turks approached the city of Otranto, with some
150 ships and more than 15,000 men, led by the Gedik Ahmed Pasha. The
city had 6,000 inhabitants and had been abandoned by the Aragonese
militias, committed in Tuscany. No sooner has the siege began, which
lasted 15 days, they were ordered to surrender, and ordered to renounce
their faith in Christ and convert to Islam. As the inhabitants refused,
the city was bombed and fell into the hands of the invaders on August
12. The inflamed army killed them mercilessly, striking them with
scimitars.
Arriving at the cathedral, where a good part of the
inhabitants had sought refuge, the Ottomans knocked down the door and
encircled Archbishop Stefano Pendinelli, who was celebrating Holy Mass
and distributing the Eucharist to those present. Archbishop Pendinelli
was horribly quartered on the spot. In addition to the prelate, they
killed canons, Religious and other faithful who were in the church.
Death Rather than Apostasy
The next day, the Ahmed Pasha ordered that all the
survivors, some 800 men, be taken to the Turkish camp and forced to
apostatize. Antonio Primaldo, a humble cloth shearer, answered firmly
and immediately on behalf of all. He said they “regarded Jesus Christ as
Son of God, their true Lord and God, and preferred to die a thousand
times rather than deny him and become Muslims.” Commander Ahmed then
ordered their execution.
Youths, adults, the elderly were led with ropes around
their neck and their hands tied behind their back to the hill of
Minerva, on the outskirts of the city. Before they were martyred, they
comforted one another.
Primaldo, the first to suffer decapitation, stood up
miraculously and stayed that way until the end of the killings. The
miracle so impressed Berlabei, one of the executioners, that he flung
his scimitar, confessed himself a Christian and was then impaled.
The inert bodies
were left out in the open for a year in the place of execution, where
they were found uncorrupted by the troops sent to liberate Otranto. In
June of 1481, their remains were taken to the nearby church , “to the
source of Minerva,” and on October 13 they were moved to the Cathedral.
At the beginning of 1500 a chapel was built inside the Cathedral to
house the relics definitively, constant object of pilgrimages.
Popular Recognition
Antonio Primaldo and his companions were recognized
immediately as martyrs by the people. Every year on August 14, the local
church devoutly celebrates their memory. On December 14, 1771 the decree
of confirmation was issued of devotion ab immemorabili, accorded to the
martyrs.
In 1988, the then
archbishop of Otranto,Archbishop Vincenzo Franco, appointed the
historical commission. The diocesan investigation was carried out from
1991-1993. It was recognized as valid by the Congregation for the Causes
of Saints on May 27, 1994. On July 6, 2007, Benedict XVI approved the
decree recognizing that Blessed Antonio Primaldo and companions had been
killed for their fidelity to Christ.
Canonization
“Our diocese has
awaited this moment for a long time. At a time of profound crisis, the
imminent canonization of our martyrs is a strong invitation to live
daily martyrdom to the utmost, made of fidelity to Christ and to His
Church,” writes the Archbishop Donato Negro of Otranto. The recognized
miracle, needed for the mentioned decree, refers to the cure from cancer
of Sister Francesca Levote, professed religious of the Poor Sisters of
Saint Clare.
Benedict XVI fixed
the date of the canonization in the Ordinary Public Consistory of last
February 11, the day he announced his resignation from the Petrine
Ministry.
Otranto Martyrs: Witnesses of Sanctity for the
Laity
Historical Perspectives on Canonization of Antonio Primaldo and
Companions
By Ann Schneible
ROME, May 14,
2013 - It was during a consistory called to declare the
canonization of saints that Benedict XVI chose to announce his
resignation. Last Sunday, these saints were canonized, among them
800 martyrs: Antonio Primaldo and his companions.
Saint Antonio
Primaldo was a 15th century tailor and townsman of the southern
Italian town of Otranto. The region was invaded by the Ottoman Turks
who brutally executed Otranto's religious and civil leaders. When
the invaders ordered the townspeople to convert to Islam, Saint
Antonio encouraged his fellow townsmen to die for Christ since
Christ had died for them. Refusing to convert, they were led to a
hillside outside the city where they were beheaded, Saint Antonio
being the first among them.
Speaking with ZENIT shortly after Pope Benedict's
resignation, historian Timothy O'Donnell, president of Christendom
College in Front Royal, Virginia, noted how the then-Holy Father
"realized the timeliness of the witness of these martyrs for a
number of reasons: first of all, because they are laymen. These are
men who were just involved with the world."
When the invaders where trying to force the
townsmen of Otranto to apostatize, O'Donnell said, Primaldo, the lay
tailor, stood up and gave a "heroic testimony, that Christ has died
for us, so we should die for him. He ends up strengthening all the
other men. The fact that all of these other laymen gave their life
for Christ is a powerful witness."
O'Donnell also noted the relevance of elevating to
sainthood these martyrs in today's day and age. "The greatest
periods, in which the Church has been strongest," he said, "has been
when she's persecuted. There are many countries in our world where
the threat of radical Islam has been a source of persecution. But
also in Europe with secularism, and the assault on religious liberty
that we're seeing in the United States, is cause for concern."
The canonization of the Otranto martyrs, he
continued, offers a reminder to the people of Italy and Europe "of
the heroic witness of laypeople who were intimately involved in the
city life, but had such a deep love of their faith and their
families that they were willing to die rather than renounce it."
Associate professor of ancient and medieval
history for Jacksonville State University, Donald Prudlo, described
the historical context of the Otranto martyrdom, explaining how it
was not only a powerful witness to the faith, but was significant to
European history. "Mehmed II, called the Conquerer, was the Sultan
of the Ottoman empire (r. 1451-1481)… The attack on Otranto in 1480
was a raiding party designed to test Italy's defenses. It was also
calculated to spread terror across the coasts of Italy, and indeed
it did alarm Europe greatly."
"Antonio and his companions in a certain way saved
Europe," continued Prudlo, "for their example showed that Catholic
Europe was not to be terrorized."
Prudlo added
that he was particularly struck that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI
chose to announce his renunciation during the canonization
consistory of the Otranto martyrs. "Benedict too, like them, is on
the leading edge of the fight to save Europe, not only from Islamic
extremism in this case, but from rampant secularism and relativism.
Antonio and his companions are martyrs of religious intolerance."
"In response
to the irrationality of violence and intolerance," he said, "they
laid down their lives. In a similar way, Benedict has lived a life
dedicated to faith and reason, and this is why I found it
particularly poignant that the Pope chose that moment for his
announcement."
-------------------------------------------------
On St. Bonaventure
"The work of Christ and of the Church never regresses but always progresses"
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, JULY 16, 2012.- Here is a translation of the address
Benedict XVI gave Sunday before and after praying the midday Angelus with
those gathered at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters!
On the liturgical calendar, July 15 is the memorial of St. Bonaventure of
Bagnoregio, Franciscan, doctor of the Church, and successor to St. Francis
of Assisi in the leadership of the Order of Friars Minor. He wrote the first
official biography of the Little Poor Man (Poverello), and at the end of his
life he was also the bishop of this Diocese of Albano. In one of his letters
Bonaventure wrote: “I confess before God that what made me love the life of
blessed Francis the most was that it reflected the beginnings and growth of
the Church (Epistula de tribus quaestionibus, in Opere di San Bonaventura.
Introduzione generale, Roma 1990, p. 29). These words immediately send us
back to today’s Gospel, of this Sunday, that presents us with Jesus’ first
sending of the 12 Apostles on mission. “Jesus called the 12 to himself,”
writes St. Mark, “and sent them out two by two … and he instructed them to
take nothing for the journey but a staff – no food, no sack, no money in
their belts. They were, however, to wear sandals but not a second tunic”
(Mark 6:7-9). Francis of Assisi, after his conversion, practiced this Gospel
to the letter, becoming a most faithful witness to Jesus; and associated in
a singular way with the mystery of the cross, he was transformed into
“another Jesus,” as Bonaventure, in fact, presents him.
At the inspirational center of St. Bonaventure’s life and theology is Jesus
Christ. We find this centrality of Christ in the second reading of today’s
Mass (Ephesians 1:3-14), the celebrated hymn of St. Paul to the Ephesians,
which begins thus: “Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus, who has
blessed us with every spiritual benediction in heaven in Christ.” In four
passages that each begin with the phrase “in him,” referring to Jesus
Christ, the Apostle then shows how this plan of blessing is realized. “In
him” the Father has chosen us before the creation of the world; “in him” we
have redemption through his blood; “in him” we have become heirs,
predestined to be “the praise of his glory”; “in him” those who believe in
the Gospel receive the seal of the Holy Spirit. This hymn of St. Paul
contains the vision of history that St. Bonaventure helped to spread in the
Church: all of history has Christ as its center, Christ, who also guarantees
newness and renewal in every age. In Jesus, God has said and given
everything, but since he is an inexhaustible treasure, the Holy Spirit never
ceases to reveal and actualize his mystery. Hence the work of Christ and of
the Church never regresses but always progresses.
Dear friends, let us invoke Mary Most Holy – who tomorrow we celebrate as
the Virgin of Mount Carmel – that she might help us, with St. Francis and
St. Bonaventure, to respond generously to the Lord’s call, to announce his
Gospel of salvation with words and, above all else, with our life.
[Following the recitation of the Angelus, the Holy Father greeted those
present in various languages. In English he said:]
I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present
at this Angelus prayer. In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus gives the twelve
authority to preach and cast out demons. Relying on his power alone, their
efforts bear fruit. Let us continue to strive to keep our lives rooted in
Christ so that we too may be effective instruments of the Gospel. May God
bless you!
[Concluding in Italian, he said:]
I wish everyone a good Sunday.
-------------------------------------------------------
Pope's Message to the Bishop of Avila
"We are invited today to that radicalism and fidelity by this illustrious
daughter of the diocese of Avila"
ROME, JULY 16, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the message
Benedict XVI sent to the bishop of Avila, Spain, Bishop Jesús Garcia Burillo,
on the occasion of the 450th anniversary of the founding of the convent of
Saint Joseph in Avila and the beginning of the Carmelite Reform promoted by
Saint Teresa of Jesus.
* * *
To the Venerable Brother
Monsignor Jesus GARCIA BURILLO
Bishop of Avila
1. Resplendens stella. “A star that would give of itself great splendor”
(Book of Life, 32, 11). With these words the Lord encouraged Saint Teresa of
Jesus to found in Avila the convent of Saint Joseph, beginning of the reform
of Carmel, whose 450th anniversary will be observed next August 24. On the
occasion of this happy circumstance, I wish to unite myself to the joy of
the beloved Avila diocese, of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, of the
People of God pilgrimaging in Spain and of all those in the universal Church
who have found in Teresian spirituality a sure light to discover that man
obtains the true renewal of life through Christ. Enamored of the Lord, this
illustrious woman wished to please Him in everything. In fact, a saint is
not one who carries out great feats based on the excellence of his human
qualities, but one who allows Christ to penetrate their soul, to act through
their person, He being the real protagonist of all their actions and
desires, who inspires every initiative and sustains every silence.
2. To let oneself be led by Christ in this way is possible only for one who
has an intense life of prayer. In the words of the Saint of Avila, this
consists of “friendship, being very often alone with Him whom we know loves
us” (Book of Life 8, 5). The reform of Carmel, whose anniversary fills us
with inner joy, was born of prayer and tends to prayer. On promoting a
radical return to the original Rule, moving away from the mitigated Rule,
Saint Teresa of Jesus wished to foster a way of life that favored a personal
encounter with the Lord, for which it is necessary “to be in solitude and to
gaze at Him within oneself, and not to be surprised by such a good guest”
(Way of Perfection 28, 2). The convent of Saint Joseph was born precisely so
that her daughters would have the best conditions to find God and establish
a profound and intimate relationship with Him.
3. Saint Teresa proposed a new way of being a Carmelite in a world which was
also new. Those were “harsh times” (Book of Life 33, 5). And in such times,
said this Teacher of the spirit, it is necessary “to be strong friends of
God to support the weak” (Ibid., 15, 5). And she insisted eloquently: “The
world is burning, they want to sentence Christ again, they want to knock
down his Church. No, my Sisters, it is not the time to treat with God
matters of little importance”! (Way of Perfection 1, 5). Is not this
luminous and challenging reflection, made more than four centuries ago by
the mystic Saint, familiar to us in the circumstance in which we are living?
The ultimate end of the Teresian Reform and of the creation of new convents,
in the midst of a world lacking in spiritual values, was to protect with
prayer the apostolic task; to propose a way of evangelical life that would
be a model for those seeking the way of perfection, stemming from the
conviction that all genuine personal and ecclesial reform is affected by
reproducing increasingly in ourselves the “way” of Christ (cf. Galatians
4:19). The Saint and her daughters had no other commitment. Neither did her
Carmelite sons, who did no more than try “to advance in all the virtues”
(Book of Life 31, 18). In this connection, Teresa wrote: Our Lord
“appreciates more a soul won, through his mercy, by our industry and prayer
than all the services we can render Him” (Book of the Foundations, 1, 7). In
face of forgetfulness of God the Holy Doctor encouraged praying communities,
which with their prayer protect those proclaiming the Name of Christ
everywhere, supplicating for the needs of the Church, and taking to the
Savior’s heart the clamor of all peoples.
4. Today also, as in the 16th century, amid rapid transformations, it is
necessary that confident prayer be at the heart of the apostolate, so that
the message of the Redeemer Jesus Christ will resound with crystal clarity
and forceful dynamism. It is urgent that the Word of life vibrate
harmoniously in souls, with sonorous and attractive notes.
In this passionate task, the example of Teresa of Avila is of great help to
us. We can affirm that, in her time, the Saint evangelized without
lukewarmness , with ardor that was never extinguished, with methods that
were far removed from inertia, with expressions haloed with light. This
keeps all its freshness in the present circumstance, centered also following
the dictate of the Avila mystic, on contemplation of the Most Sacred
Humanity of Christ as the only way to attain the glory of God (cf. Book of
Life 22, 1; The Abodes [Las Moradas]6, 7). Thus genuine families will be
able to be formed, which discover in the Gospel the fire of their abode,
living and united Christian communities, cemented on Christ as their
cornerstone and thirsting for a life of fraternal and generous service. Also
to be desired is that incessant prayer promote the urgent cultivation of
vocational pastoral care, stressing particularly the beauty of consecrated
life, which must be properly supported as the treasure that it is of the
Church, as torrent of Graces, both in its active as well as in its
contemplative dimension.
The strength of Christ will also lead to redoubling initiatives so that the
people of God recover their vigor in the only way possible: making room in
our interior for the sentiments of the Lord Jesus (cf. Philippians 2, 5),
seeking in every circumstance a radical living of his Gospel. This means,
above all, to allow the Holy Spirit to make us friends of the Master and to
configure us with Him. It also means accepting his mandate in everything,
and adopting in ourselves criteria such as humility in conduct, giving up
the superfluous, not wronging others, acting with simplicity and lowliness
of heart. Thus, those around us will perceive the joy that stems from our
adherence to the Lord, putting nothing before his love, always being ready
to give a reason for our hope (cf. 1 Peter 3:15) and living, as Teresa of
Jesus, in filial obedience to our Holy Mother the Church.
5. We are invited today to that radicalism and fidelity by this illustrious
daughter of the diocese of Avila. Taking up her beautiful legacy, at this
moment of history, the Pope calls all the members of that particular Church,
but in an intimate way young people, to take seriously the common vocation
to sanctity. Following in Teresa of Jesus’ footprints, allow me to say to
those who have the future before them: aspire also to belong totally to
Jesus, only to Jesus and always to Jesus. Fear not to tell Our Lord as she
did: “I am yours, for you I was born, what do you want me to do?” (Poem 2).
And I ask Him to enable you to respond to his calls illumined by divine
grace, with “determined determination,” to offer the “little” that is in
you, trusting that God never abandons those who leave everything for His
glory (cf. Way of Perfection 21, 2; 1, 2).
6. Saint Teresa knew how to honor the Most Holy Virgin with great devotion,
whom she invoked under the sweet name of Carmel. I place under her maternal
protection the apostolic endeavors of the Church in Avila so that,
rejuvenated by the Holy Spirit, she will find the appropriate ways to
proclaim the Gospel with enthusiasm and courage. May Mary, Star of
evangelization, and her chaste spouse Saint Joseph intercede so that the
“star” that the Lord lighted in the universe of the Church with the Teresian
reform, will continue to radiate the great brilliance of the love and truth
of Christ to all men. With this yearning, Venerable Brother in the
Episcopate, I send you this message, which I pray you to make known to the
flock entrusted to your pastoral vigilance, and very especially to the
beloved Discalced Carmelites of the convent of Saint Joseph of Avila, that
they may perpetuate in time the spirit of their Founder, and of whose
fervent prayer for the Successor of Peter I have grateful certainty. To
them, to you and to all the faithful of Avila I impart with affection the
Apostolic Blessing, pledge of copious heavenly favors.
Vatican, July 16, 2012
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
------------------------------------------------------
Papal Homily at Canonization
Mass
"Incredible Examples of Such Passionate Love"
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 24, 2011 - Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's homily
from a Mass he celebrated Sunday for the canonization of Guido Maria
Conforti, Luigi Guanella and Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro
* * *
Venerable brothers in the episcopate and the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today our Sunday liturgy is enriched by several events that cause us to
thank and praise God. Not only do we celebrate World Mission Sunday with the
whole Church -- an annual event that aims to reawaken missionary drive and
commitment -- but we also praise the Lord for three new saints: Bishop Guido
Maria Conforti, Father Luigi Guanella, and Sister Bonifacia Rodríguez de
Castro. I happily greet all of you present, particularly the official
delegations and the numerous pilgrims who have come to celebrate these three
exemplary disciples of Christ.
The Word of the Lord, proclaimed just a couple minutes ago in the Gospel,
reminded us that the Divine Law can be summed up in love. Matthew the
Evangelist tells how the Pharisees, after Jesus had silenced the Sadducees
with his response, conspired to put him to the test (see Matthew 22:34-35).
One of them, a doctor of the law, asked Jesus: "Teacher, what is the
greatest commandment in the Law?" (Verse 36). Jesus responds with complete
simplicity to the deliberately crafty question: "You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the first and the greatest commandment" (Verse 37-38). Truly, the
main requirement for all of us is that God be present in our lives. As the
Scriptures say, he ought to permeate all the levels of our being and to fill
us completely: Our hearts should relish him and be touched by him, as well
as our souls, our wills, our minds and our thoughts. We should be able to
say with St. Paul, "It is not I who lives, but Christ who lives in me"
(Galatians 1:20).
And right away Jesus adds something that the doctor of the law hadn't even
asked for: "The second is similar: You shall love your neighbor as yourself"
(Verse 39). By saying that the second commandment is similar to the first,
Jesus implies that loving our neighbor is as important as loving God. In
fact, love for our brothers and sisters is the visible sign of God's love
that a Christian can show to the world. It is very providential that
precisely today the Church points out to all its members three new saints
who were transformed by God's love and who oriented their entire lives to
it. In diverse situations and with different charisms, each of them loved
the Lord with all their hearts, and they loved their neighbors as
themselves, "so as to be examples for all believers." (1 Titus 1:7)
Psalm 17, which we heard a short while ago, invites us to confidently
abandon ourselves into the hands of the Lord, who is "faithful to his holy
ones" (Verse 51). This attitude guided St. Guido Maria Conforti in his life
and ministry. From his youth, when he had to overcome his father's
opposition in order to enter the seminary, he showed a firm decision to
follow God's will and to correspond entirely to the caritas Christi (love of
Christ), which attracted him while he contemplated Christ crucified. He felt
a strong need to announce Christ's love to all who had not heard of it, and
the motto Caritas Christi urget nos (the love of Christ impels us, 2
Corinthians 5:14), sums up the missionary institute that he brought to life
when he was barely 30 years old. It is a religious family entirely at the
service of evangelization under the patronage of St. Francis Xavier, the
great missionary to the East. St. Guido Maria was called to live this
missionary drive as a bishop in Ravenna and later in Parma. He gave himself
entirely to help the souls of those entrusted to him, especially those who
were far from the Lord. His life was marked by many trials, including
several serious difficulties. But he knew how to accept each situation with
docility, welcoming it as part of the path traced out for him by divine
providence. In every circumstance, even in the most painful losses, he knew
how to recognize God's plan, which drove him to build up Christ's Kingdom
above all by denying himself and accepting God's will each day with a
trusting abandonment that grew more so each day. He first experienced and
witnessed what he also taught his missionaries -- that perfection consists
in doing God's will, according to the example set by Christ crucified. St.
Guido Maria Conforti fixed his inner eye on the cross, which gently
attracted him; in contemplating the cross, he saw the horizons of the world
spread out before him, and he felt the urgent desire that is hidden in the
heart of every person to receive and accept the only love that can save us.
The human and spiritual witness of St. Luigi Guanella is a special grace for
the whole Church. Throughout his life he courageously lived the Gospel of
charity, the "great commandment," which today the Word of God has invited us
to live. Thanks to a deep and continuous union with Christ in the
contemplation of his love, Don Guanella followed divine providence and
became a friend, teacher, comfort and support to the very poor and weak.
God's love stirred up in him the desire to do good to everyone entrusted to
him in his everyday life. He gave careful attention to each person's path,
respecting each individual's growth. At the same time, he firmly hoped that
every person, created in the image and likeness of God, who savored the joy
of being loved by him -- the Father of all -- would give the best of himself
to others. Today we want to praise and thank the Lord because he has given
us a prophet and apostle of charity in St. Luigi Guanella. In his example,
which is full of kindness and care for the weak, we see a shining witness to
God's loving presence and action -- the God who, as the first reading
reminded us, defends the foreigner, the widow, the orphan, and the poor one
who must pawn his own coat, his only covering for the night (cf. Exodus
22:20-26). May this new saint of charity be for everyone, and especially for
the members of the congregation that he founded, an example of a deep and
fruitful synthesis of contemplation and action, just as he lived it. The
last words that he pronounced on his deathbed, "in caritate Christi" (in the
love of Christ), sum up his entire human and spiritual experience. Christ's
love shines on the life of every person, showing that by giving ourselves to
others we lose nothing, and in fact, find our true and complete happiness.
May St. Luigi Guanella help us to grow in our friendship with the Lord in
order to bring God's love to everyone, to promote life in every condition
and circumstance, and to help human society become ever more a family of the
children of God.
In the second reading, we heard a passage from the First Letter to the
Thessalonians, which uses the metaphor of manual labor to describe the work
of evangelization. In a certain way, that metaphor also applies to the
virtues of St. Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro. When St. Paul writes this
letter he is also working to earn his wages, and it seems clear from the
tone of the letter and from the examples he uses that he preaches in his
workshop and finds his first disciples there. This same attitude inspired
St. Bonifacia, who, from the very beginning, united her daily work with her
following of Christ. Work, which she had done since childhood, was not only
a way not to be burdensome to others, but it also enabled her to fulfill her
vocation and it offered her the opportunity to attract and form other women,
who could likewise find God and hear his loving call in work, where they
could discern their life project and learn to carry it out. This was how the
Servants of St. Joseph was founded, in the midst of the humility and
simplicity of the Gospel, which presents a school of Christian life in the
home at Nazareth. In his letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul also says
that his love for the community is tiring because it entails imitating
Christ's self-giving to others, not expecting anything in return and not
seeking anything but to please God. Mother Bonifacia, who dedicated herself
enthusiastically to her apostolate and who started to see the first results
of her labors, also lived this experience of loss and rejection, even by her
disciples, and this was how she learned a new dimension of following Christ:
the cross. She carried it with an endurance that gives hope, offering her
life for the unity of the work she had started. This new saint is a perfect
example of God's work and an echo calling her daughters, the Servants of St.
Joseph, as well as us, to receive her testimony with the joy of the Holy
Spirit, without fearing opposition, and to spread the Good News of the
Kingdom of Heaven everywhere. We entrust ourselves to her intercession, and
we ask God to bless all workers, especially those who carry out menial tasks
or whose work is not sufficiently appreciated. May they discover God's
loving hand in the midst of their daily work and witness to his love,
transforming their tiredness into a song of praise to the Creator.
"I love you, Lord, my strength." Dear brothers and sisters, we proclaimed
this in the responsorial psalm, and these three new saints are incredible
examples of such passionate love. Let us be inspired by their example and
led by their teaching so that our lives may become a testimony of true love
of God and of others.
May the Virgin Mary, Queen of all saints, and the intercession of St. Guido
Maria Conforti, St. Luigi Guanella, and St. Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro
obtain this grace for us. Amen.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
POPE BENEDICT PROCLAIMS JOHN
PAUL II A BLESSED
VATICAN CITY, 1 MAY 2011 (VIS) - At 10:00am this morning, the Second Sunday
of Easter of Divine Mercy Sunday, Benedict XVI presided over the Eucharistic
celebration during which Servant of God John Paul II, Pope (1920-2005) was
proclaimed a Blessed, and whose feastday will be celebrated 22 October every
year from now on.
Eighty-seven delegations from various countries, among which were 5 royal
houses, 16 heads of state - including the presidents of Poland and Italy -
and 7 prime ministers, attended the ceremony.
Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world filled St. Peter's
Square and the streets adjacent. The ceremony could also be followed on the
various giant screens installed in Circo Massimo and various squares around
the city.
The text of the Pope's homily follows:
"Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Six years ago we gathered in this Square to celebrate the funeral of Pope
John Paul II. Our grief at his loss was deep, but even greater was our sense
of an immense grace which embraced Rome and the whole world: a grace which
was in some way the fruit of my beloved predecessor's entire life, and
especially of his witness in suffering. Even then we perceived the fragrance
of his sanctity, and in any number of ways God's People showed their
veneration for him. For this reason, with all due respect for the Church's
canonical norms, I wanted his cause of beatification to move forward with
reasonable haste. And now the longed-for day has come; it came quickly
because this is what was pleasing to the Lord: John Paul II is blessed!
I would like to offer a cordial greeting to all of you who on this happy
occasion have come in such great numbers to Rome from all over the world -
cardinals, patriarchs of the Eastern Catholic Churches, brother bishops and
priests, official delegations, ambassadors and civil authorities,
consecrated men and women and lay faithful, and I extend that greeting to
all those who join us by radio and television.
Today is the Second Sunday of Easter, which Blessed John Paul II entitled
Divine Mercy Sunday. The date was chosen for today's celebration because, in
God's providence, my predecessor died on the vigil of this feast. Today is
also the first day of May, Mary's month, and the liturgical memorial of
Saint Joseph the Worker. All these elements serve to enrich our prayer, they
help us in our pilgrimage through time and space; but in heaven a very
different celebration is taking place among the angels and saints! Even so,
God is but one, and one too is Christ the Lord, who like a bridge joins
earth to heaven. At this moment we feel closer than ever, sharing as it were
in the liturgy of heaven.
'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe' (Jn
20:29). In today's Gospel Jesus proclaims this beatitude: the beatitude of
faith. For us, it is particularly striking because we are gathered to
celebrate a beatification, but even more so because today the one proclaimed
blessed is a Pope, a Successor of Peter, one who was called to confirm his
brethren in the faith. John Paul II is blessed because of his faith, a
strong, generous and apostolic faith. We think at once of another beatitude:
'Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed
this to you, but my Father in heaven' (Mt 16:17). What did our heavenly
Father reveal to Simon? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Because of this faith, Simon becomes Peter, the rock on which Jesus can
build his Church. The eternal beatitude of John Paul II, which today the
Church rejoices to proclaim, is wholly contained in these sayings of Jesus:
'Blessed are you, Simon' and 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have come to believe!' It is the beatitude of faith, which John Paul II also
received as a gift from God the Father for the building up of Christ's
Church.
Our thoughts turn to yet another beatitude, one which appears in the Gospel
before all others. It is the beatitude of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of the
Redeemer. Mary, who had just conceived Jesus, was told by Saint Elizabeth:
'Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was
spoken to her by the Lord' (Lk 1:45). The beatitude of faith has its model
in Mary, and all of us rejoice that the beatification of John Paul II takes
place on this first day of the month of Mary, beneath the maternal gaze of
the one who by her faith sustained the faith of the Apostles and constantly
sustains the faith of their successors, especially those called to occupy
the Chair of Peter. Mary does not appear in the accounts of Christ's
resurrection, yet hers is, as it were, a continual, hidden presence: she is
the Mother to whom Jesus entrusted each of his disciples and the entire
community. In particular we can see how Saint John and Saint Luke record the
powerful, maternal presence of Mary in the passages preceding those read in
today's Gospel and first reading. In the account of Jesus' death, Mary
appears at the foot of the Cross (Jn 19:25), and at the beginning of the
Acts of the Apostles she is seen in the midst of the disciples gathered in
prayer in the Upper Room (Acts 1:14).
Today's second reading also speaks to us of faith. St. Peter himself, filled
with spiritual enthusiasm, points out to the newly-baptized the reason for
their hope and their joy. I like to think how in this passage, at the
beginning of his First Letter, Peter does not use language of exhortation;
instead, he states a fact. He writes: 'you rejoice', and he adds: 'you love
him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice
with an indescribable and glorious joy, for you are receiving the outcome of
your faith, the salvation of your souls' ( 1 Pt 1:6, 8-9). All these verbs
are in the indicative, because a new reality has come about in Christ's
resurrection, a reality to which faith opens the door. 'This is the Lord's
doing', says the Psalm (Ps 118:23), and 'it is marvelous in our eyes', the
eyes of faith.
Dear brothers and sisters, today our eyes behold, in the full spiritual
light of the risen Christ, the beloved and revered figure of John Paul II.
Today his name is added to the host of those whom he proclaimed saints and
blesseds during the almost twenty-seven years of his pontificate, thereby
forcefully emphasizing the universal vocation to the heights of the
Christian life, to holiness, taught by the conciliar Constitution on the
Church, Lumen Gentium. All of us, as members of the people of God - bishops,
priests, deacons, laity, men and women religious - are making our pilgrim
way to the heavenly homeland where the Virgin Mary has preceded us,
associated as she was in a unique and perfect way to the mystery of Christ
and the Church. Karol Wojtyla took part in the Second Vatican Council, first
as an auxiliary Bishop and then as Archbishop of Krakow. He was fully aware
that the Council's decision to devote the last chapter of its Constitution
on the Church to Mary meant that the Mother of the Redeemer is held up as an
image and model of holiness for every Christian and for the entire Church.
This was the theological vision which Blessed John Paul II discovered as a
young man and subsequently maintained and deepened throughout his life. A
vision which is expressed in the scriptural image of the crucified Christ
with Mary, his Mother, at his side. This icon from the Gospel of John
(19:25-27) was taken up in the episcopal and later the papal coat-of-arms of
Karol Wojtyla: a golden cross with the letter 'M' on the lower right and the
motto 'Totus tuus', drawn from the well-known words of Saint Louis Marie
Grignion de Montfort in which Karol Wojtyla found a guiding light for his
life: 'Totus tuus ego sum et omnia mea tua sunt. Accipio te in mea omnia.
Praebe mihi cor tuum, Maria - I belong entirely to you, and all that I have
is yours. I take you for my all. O Mary, give me your heart' (Treatise on
True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, 266).
In his Testament, the new Blessed wrote: 'When, on 16 October 1978, the
Conclave of Cardinals chose John Paul II, the Primate of Poland, Cardinal
Stefan Wyszynski, said to me: "The task of the new Pope will be to lead the
Church into the Third Millennium"'. And the Pope added: 'I would like once
again to express my gratitude to the Holy Spirit for the great gift of the
Second Vatican Council, to which, together with the whole Church - and
especially with the whole episcopate - I feel indebted. I am convinced that
it will long be granted to the new generations to draw from the treasures
that this Council of the twentieth century has lavished upon us. As a Bishop
who took part in the Council from the first to the last day, I desire to
entrust this great patrimony to all who are and will be called in the future
to put it into practice. For my part, I thank the Eternal Shepherd, who has
enabled me to serve this very great cause in the course of all the years of
my Pontificate'. And what is this 'cause'? It is the same one that John Paul
II presented during his first solemn Mass in Saint Peter's Square in the
unforgettable words: 'Do not be afraid! Open, open wide the doors to
Christ!' What the newly-elected Pope asked of everyone, he was himself the
first to do: society, culture, political and economic systems he opened up
to Christ, turning back with the strength of a titan - a strength which came
to him from God - a tide which appeared irreversible. By his witness of
faith, love and apostolic courage, accompanied by great human charisma, this
exemplary son of Poland helped believers throughout the world not to be
afraid to be called Christian, to belong to the Church, to speak of the
Gospel. In a word: he helped us not to fear the truth, because truth is the
guarantee of liberty. To put it even more succinctly: he gave us the
strength to believe in Christ, because Christ is Redemptor hominis, the
Redeemer of man. This was the theme of his first encyclical, and the thread
which runs though all the others.
When Karol Wojtyla ascended to the throne of Peter, he brought with him a
deep understanding of the difference between Marxism and Christianity, based
on their respective visions of man. This was his message: man is the way of
the Church, and Christ is the way of man. With this message, which is the
great legacy of the Second Vatican Council and of its 'helmsman', the
Servant of God Pope Paul VI, John Paul II led the People of God across the
threshold of the Third Millennium, which thanks to Christ he was able to
call 'the threshold of hope'. Throughout the long journey of preparation for
the great Jubilee he directed Christianity once again to the future, the
future of God, which transcends history while nonetheless directly affecting
it. He rightly reclaimed for Christianity that impulse of hope which had in
some sense faltered before Marxism and the ideology of progress. He restored
to Christianity its true face as a religion of hope, to be lived in history
in an 'Advent' spirit, in a personal and communitarian existence directed to
Christ, the fullness of humanity and the fulfillment of all our longings for
justice and peace.
Finally, on a more personal note, I would like to thank God for the gift of
having worked for many years with Blessed Pope John Paul II. I had known him
earlier and had esteemed him, but for twenty-three years, beginning in 1982
after he called me to Rome to be Prefect of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, I was at his side and came to revere him all the
more. My own service was sustained by his spiritual depth and by the
richness of his insights. His example of prayer continually impressed and
edified me: he remained deeply united to God even amid the many demands of
his ministry. Then too, there was his witness in suffering: the Lord
gradually stripped him of everything, yet he remained ever a 'rock', as
Christ desired. His profound humility, grounded in close union with Christ,
enabled him to continue to lead the Church and to give to the world a
message which became all the more eloquent as his physical strength
declined. In this way he lived out in an extraordinary way the vocation of
every priest and bishop to become completely one with Jesus, whom he daily
receives and offers in the Eucharist.
Blessed are you, beloved Pope John Paul II, because you believed! Continue,
we implore you, to sustain from heaven the faith of God's people. How many
time you blessed us from this very square. Holy Father, bless us again from
that window. Amen".
------------------------------------------------------
GREETINGS TO PARTICIPANTS AT BEATIFICATION
VATICAN CITY, 1 MAY 2011 (VIS) - At the end of the beatification Mass and
before the Regina Coeli, the Holy Father greeted the pilgrims and the
faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square and the surrounding area.
Speaking in French the Pope asked that "the life and work of Blessed John
Paul II be the source of a renewed dedication to the service of all persons
and all humankind. I ask him to bless the efforts of all in building a
civilization of love, respecting the dignity of each person, created in the
image of God, with special attention to those who are weakest".
Then, addressing the pilgrims in English, Benedict XVI expressed the wish
that the new Blessed's "example of firm faith in Christ, the Redeemer of
Man, inspire us to live fully the new life which we celebrate at Easter, to
be icons of divine mercy, and, and to work for a world in which the dignity
and rights of every man, woman, and child are respected and promoted".
"I invite you", he continued in Spanish, "to follow the example of
faithfulness and love for Christ and Church that he left us as a precious
inheritance. May his intercession always accompany us from heaven, so that
the faith of Your peoples remain solid at its roots and that peace and
harmony sustain the necessary progress of Your peoples".
On greeting the Polish dignitaries the Pope asked that their fellow
countryman "obtain for you and your earthy nation the gift of peace, unity,
and every prosperity".
Benedict XVI finished by thanking the Italian authorities for their
collaboration in organizing the day. "I extend my most heartfelt greetings
to all the pilgrims - those gathered here in St. Peter's Square, the
adjoining streets, and other places around Rome - and all those who have
joined in via radio and television; ... to the ill and the elderly, with
whom the new Blessed felt particularly close".
At the end of the Eucharistic celebration, the Holy Father, accompanied by
the concelebrating cardinals, walked inside the Vatican basilica to venerate
the new Blessed. Then the various dignitaries present, along with the
bishops, entered, following which the other faithful present also had the
opportunity to venerate the new Blessed.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt of Decree for John
Paul II's Beatification
"Sign of the Depth of Faith and Invitation to a Fully Christian Life"
VATICAN CITY, JAN. 14, 2011 - Here is an excerpt of the decree written by
the Congregation for Saints' Causes regarding the beatification of Servant
of God John Paul II, published today by Vatican Radio. The prefect of the
saints' causes dicastery is Cardinal Angelo Amato.
The full text can be found on ZENIT's Web page: www.zenit.org/article-31459?l=english
* * *
Beatification: Sign of the depth of faith and invitation to a fully
Christian life
The proclamation of a Saint or of a Blessed by the Church is the fruit of
putting together various aspects regarding a specific Person. First, it is
an act which says something important in the life of the Church herself. It
is linked to a "cult," i.e. to the memory of the person, to his full
acknowledgment of him in the awareness of the ecclesial community, of the
country, of the Universal Church in various countries, continents and
cultures. Another aspect is the awareness that the "presentation on the
altars" will be an important sign of the depth of the faith, of the
diffusion of faith in the path of life of that person, and that this sign
will become an invitation, a stimulus for us all towards a Christian life
ever more profound and full. Finally, thesine qua non condition is the
holiness of the person's life, verified during the precise and formal
canonical proceedings. All this provides the material for the decision of
the Successor of Peter, of the Pope in view of the proclamation of a Blessed
or of a Saint, of the cult in the context of the ecclesial community and of
its liturgy.
John Paul II's pontificate was an eloquent and clear sign, not only for
Catholics, but also for world public opinion, for people of all color and
creed. The world's reaction to his lifestyle, to the development of his
apostolic mission, to the way he bore his suffering, to the decision to
continue his Petrine mission to the end as willed by divine Providence, and
finally, the reaction to his death, the popularity of the acclamation "Saint
right now!" which someone made on the day of his funerals, all this has its
solid foundation in the experience of having met with the person who was the
Pope. The faithful have felt, have experienced that he is "God's man," who
really sees the concrete steps and the mechanisms of contemporary world "in
God," in God's perspective, with the eyes of a mystic who looks up to God
only. He was clearly a man of prayer: so much so that it is from the
dynamism of his personal union with God, from the permanent listening to
what God wants to say in a concrete situation, that the whole of "Pope John
Paul II's activity" flowed. Those who were closest to him have been able to
see that, prior to his meetings with his guests, with Heads of State, with
Church high officials or ordinary citizens, John Paul II would recollect
himself in prayer according to the intentions of the guests and of the
meeting that was to come.
1. Karol Wojtyla's contribution to Vatican II Council
After Vatican II, during the pontificates of Paul VI and of John Paul II,
the manner of presentation, and thus of self-presentation of the papacy, has
become quite expressive. On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the
pontificate of John Paul II, the Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs
published in 2004 a book entitled "Go Forth in the Whole World." Giancarlo
Zizola, a "vaticanist," remarked on the fact that "the papacy has conquered
its citizenship in the realm of public visibility, breaking away from the
siege of worship marginalisation where it had been kept by decree of secular
society, in the name of a militant vision of the liberal tenet of Separation
of Church and State" (p. 17). A German historian, Jesuit Klaus Schatz,
speaking of Paul VI and of John Paul II, underlined the meaning of the
"papacy on the way" -- thus in conformity with Vatican II -- more in the
manner of a missionary movement than as a static pole of unity. Schatz
refers to the manner of interpreting the papal mission as a challenge to
"confirm the brothers in the faith" (Luke 22:32), in a way tied to
structural authority, but with a strong spiritual and charismatic hint, in
link with the personal credibility and rooted in God himself.
Let us pause a moment to consider Vatican II. The young archbishop of Cracow
was one of the most active Council Fathers. He made a significant
contribution to the "Scheme XIII" which was to become the Pastoral
Constitution of the Council "Gaudium et Spes" on the Church in the Modern
World, and to the Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen Gentium." Thanks to his
studies abroad, bishop Wojtyla had a concrete experience of evangelisation
and of the mission of the Church, in Western Europe or in other continents,
but above all of totalitarian atheism in Poland and in the other countries
of the "Soviet Block." He brought all this experience to the Council
debates, which were certainly not like drawing-room conversations, extremely
courteous but void of contents. Here was a substantial and decisive effort
to insert the Gospel's dynamism into the conciliar enthusiasm rooted on the
conviction that Christianity is capable of furnishing a "soul" to the
development of modernity and to the reality of the social and cultural
world.
All this was to be of use in preparing for the future responsibilities of
the Successor of Peter. As John Paul II said, he already had in his mind his
first encyclical, "Redemptor Hominis," and brought it to Rome from Cracow.
All he had to do in Rome was to write down all these ideas. In this
encyclical, there is a wide invitation to humankind to rediscover the
reality of Redemption in Christ: "Man (…) remains a being that is
incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed
to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make
it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This, as has
already been said, is why Christ the Redeemer 'fully reveals man to
himself.' [...] man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong
to his humanity. In the mystery of the Redemption man becomes newly
'expressed' and, in a way, is newly created. [...] The man who wishes to
understand himself thoroughly -- and not just in accordance with immediate,
partial, often superficial, and even illusory standards and measures of his
being -- he must with his unrest, uncertainty and even his weakness and
sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to
speak, enter into him with all his own self, he must 'appropriate' and
assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in
order to find himself (No. 10). [...]
"This union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery. From the mystery is
born 'the new man,' called to become a partaker of God's life, and newly
created in Christ for the fullness of grace and truth. [...] Man is
transformed inwardly by this power as the source of a new life that does not
disappear and pass away but lasts to eternal life. [...] This life, which
the Father has promised and offered to each man in Jesus Christ (…) is in a
way the fulfilment of the 'destiny' that God has prepared for him from
eternity. This 'divine destiny' is advancing, in spite of all the enigmas,
the unsolved riddles, the twists and turns of 'human destiny' in the world
of time. Indeed, while all this, in spite of all the riches of life in time,
necessarily and inevitably leads to the frontier of death and the goal of
the destruction of the human body, beyond that goal we see Christ. 'I am the
resurrection and the life, he who believes in me ... shall never die'" (No.
18).
--- --- ---
Full text of decree: www.zenit.org/article-31459?l=english
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Benedict XVI's Message to
Newman Conference
"He Was Always Honest in the Search for Truth"
ROME, NOV. 22, 2010 - Here is a translation of the message Benedict XVI sent
to the participants in the symposium organized in Rome by the "International
Center of Newman Friends" on the topic: "The Primacy of God in the Life and
Writings of Blessed John Henry Newman."
* * *
To the Reverend Father
Hermann Geisseler, F.S.O.
Director of the International Center of Newman Friends
While the joy is still very alive in me of having been able to proclaim as
blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman during my recent trip to the United
Kingdom, I address a cordial greeting to you, the illustrious relators, and
to all the participants in the symposium organized in Rome by the
International Center of Newman Friends. I express my appreciation for the
topic chosen: "The Primacy of God in the Life and Writings of Blessed John
Henry Newman." With it, in fact, is made rightly evident theocentrism as the
essential perspective that characterized the personality and work of the
great English theologian.
It is well know that young Newman, despite having been able to know, thanks
to his mother, the "religion of the Bible," went through a period of
difficulties and doubts. For 14 years, in fact, he was under the influence
of philosophers such as Hume and Voltaire and, recognizing himself in their
objections against religion, he pointed himself, in keeping with the
humanist and liberal fashion of the time, to a sort of deism.
The following year, however, Newman received the grace of conversion,
finding peace "in the thought of only two absolutely and luminously evident
beings, myself and my Creator" (J.H. Newman, "Apologia pro Vita Sua," Milan,
2001, pp. 137-138). Hence, he discovered the objective truth of a personal
and living God, who speaks to the conscience and reveals to man his
condition of creature. He understood his own dependence on the being of him
who is the principle of all things, thus finding in him the origin and
meaning of his personal identity and singularity. It was this particular
experience that constitutes the basis of the primacy of God in Newman's
life.
After his conversion, he let himself be guided by two fundamental criteria
-- taken from the book The Force of Truth, of Calvinist Thomas Scott --
which manifested fully the primacy of God in his life. The first --
"sanctity rather than peace" (ibid., p. 139) -- documents his firm will to
adhere to the interior teacher with his own conscience, of abandoning
himself confidently to the Father and of living in fidelity to the
recognized truth. These ideals entailed immediately "a great price to be
paid." In fact, Newman both as an Anglican as well as a Catholic, had to
undergo many trials, disappointments and misunderstandings. Yet, he never
lowered himself to false compromises or was content with easy consensus. He
was always honest in the search for truth, faithful to the appeals of his
conscience and reached out toward the ideal of sanctity.
The second motto chosen by Newman -- "growth is the only expression of life"
(ibid.) -- expresses wholly his disposition to a continuous interior
conversion, transformation and growth, always confidently leaning on God.
Thus he discovered his vocation at the service of the Word of God and,
turning to the Fathers of the Church to find greater light, proposed a true
reform of Anglicanism, adhering finally to the Catholic Church. He
recapitulated his own experience of growth, in fidelity to himself and to
the will of the Lord, with the famous words: "Here on earth to live is to
change, and perfection is the result of many transformations" (J.H. Newman,
"The Development of Christian Doctrine," Milan, 2002, p. 75). And Newman was
throughout his life one who was converted, who was transformed, and in this
always remained himself, and always became increasingly himself.
The horizon of the primacy of God also marked profoundly Newman's numerous
publications. In the mentioned essay on the Development of Christian
Doctrine, he writes: "There is a truth; there is only one truth; ... the
search for truth must not be the extinguishing of curiosity; ... the
acquisition of truth does not resemble at all the excitement of a discovery;
our spirit is subjected to truth, it is not, therefore, superior to it and
is held not so much to dissertate on it, but to venerate it" (pp. 344-345).
The primacy of God is translated, hence, for Newman, in the primacy of
truth, a truth that is sought above all by disposing one's inner self to
acceptance, in an open and sincere confrontation with everyone, and which
finds its culmination in the encounter with Christ, "Way, Truth and Life"
(John 12:6). Because of this, Newman renders witness to truth also with his
very rich literary production ranging from theology to poetry, from
philosophy to pedagogy, from exegesis to the history of Christianity, from
novels to meditations and prayers.
In presenting and defending the truth, Newman was always careful to find the
appropriate language, the right form and appropriate tone. He sought not
ever to offend and to render testimony to the gentle inner light ("kindly
light"), making an effort to convince with humility, joy and patience. In a
prayer addressed to St. Philip Neri he wrote: "May my countenance always be
open and joyful, and my words gentle and pleasing, as is suitable for those
who, no matter what the state of their life, enjoy the greatest of all
goods, the favor of God and the expectation of eternal happiness" (J.H.
"Newman, Meditations and Prayers," Milan, 2002, pp. 193-194).
To Blessed John Henry Newman, master in teaching us that the primacy of God
is the primacy of truth and of love, I entrust the reflections and work of
the present symposium, while, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary,
Mother of the Church, I am happy to impart to you and to all the
participants the implored apostolic blessing, pledge of abundant heavenly
favors.
From the Vatican, Nov. 18, 2010
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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Benedict XVI's Reflection on
St. Joseph
"He Too Is Called to Be a Disciple of Jesus"
VATICAN CITY, JULY 5, 2010 - Here is a translation of the address Benedict
XVI gave today in the Vatican Gardens when he inaugurated and blessed a
fountain dedicated to St. Joseph, a gift from the Governor's Office of
Vatican City State.
* * *
Lords Cardinal,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood
Distinguished Gentlemen and Ladies,
It is a motive of great joy to me to inaugurate this fountain in the Vatican
Gardens, in a natural context of singular beauty. It is a work that is going
to enhance the artistic patrimony of this enchanting green space of Vatican
City, rich in historic-artistic testimonies of various periods. In fact, not
only the lawn, the flowers, the trees, but also the towers, the little
houses, the pavilions, the fountains, the statues and the other
constructions make of these gardens a fascinating unicum. They were for my
predecessors, and are also for me, a vital space, a place that I often
frequent to spend some time in prayer and in serene relaxation.
In addressing my cordial greeting to each one of you, I wish to express my
heartfelt gratitude for this present, which you have given me, dedicating it
to St. Joseph. Thank you for this kind and courteous thought! It was a
committed enterprise, which witnessed the collaboration of many. I thank
first of all the Lord Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo also for the words that he
addressed to me and for the interesting presentation of the works carried
out. With him I thank the archbishop, monsignor Carlo Maria Viganò and the
bishop, monsignor Giorgio Corbellini, respectively secretary-general and
vice secretary-general of the governorate. I express my intense appreciation
to the Office of Technical Services, the planner and sculptor, the
consultants and the work team, with a special thought to the Hintze spouses
and to Mr. Castrignano, of London, who generously financed the work, as well
as to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Kyoto. A word of gratitude to the
Province of Trent, to the municipalities and to the Trent companies, for
their contribution.
This fountain is dedicated to St. Joseph, beloved and close figure to the
heart of the People of God and to my heart. The six bronze panels that
embellish it evoke as many moments of his life. I wish to pause briefly on
them. The first panel represents the espousals between Joseph and Mary; it
is an episode of great importance. Joseph was of the royal line of David
and, in virtue of his marriage to Mary, would confer on the Son of the
Virgin -- on God's Son -- the legal tile of "son of David," thus fulfilling
the prophecies. The espousals of Joseph and Mary are, because of this, a
human event, but determinant in the history of humanity's salvation, in the
realization of the promises of God; because of this, it also has a
supernatural connotation, which the two protagonists accept with humility
and trust.
Very soon the moment of trial arrives for Joseph, a trial challenging for
his faith.
Engaged to Mary, before going to live with her, he discovers her mysterious
maternity and is disturbed. The Evangelist Matthew stresses that, being a
just man, he was unwilling to repudiate her, and therefore decided to send
her away quietly (cf. Matthew 1:19). But in his dreams -- as he is
represented in the second panel -- the angel made him understand that what
was happening in Mary was the work of the Holy Spirit; and Joseph, trusting
in God, consents and cooperates in the plan of salvation. The divine
intervention in his life could not but perturb his heart. To trust God does
not mean to see everything clearly according to our criteria, it does not
mean to carry out what we have planned; to trust God means to empty
ourselves of ourselves and to deny ourselves, because only one who accepts
losing himself for God can be "just" as St. Joseph, that is, can conform his
own will to God's and thus be fulfilled.
The Gospel, as we know, has not kept any word from Joseph, who carries out
his activity in silence. It is the style that characterizes his whole
existence, both before finding himself before the mystery of God's action in
his spouse, as well as when -- conscious of this mystery -- he is with Mary
in the Nativity -- represented in the third image. On that holy night, in
Bethlehem, with Mary and the Child, is Joseph, to whom the Heavenly Father
entrusted the daily care of his Son on earth, a care carried out with
humility and in silence.
The fourth panel reproduces the dramatic scene of the Flight into Egypt to
escape the homicidal violence of Herod. Joseph is compelled to leave his
land with his family, in haste: it is another mysterious moment of his life;
another trial in which he is asked for full fidelity to God's plan.
Later in the Gospel, Joseph appears in only one more episode, when he goes
to Jerusalem and lives the anguish of losing the son Jesus. St. Luke
describes the anxious search and the wonder at finding him in the Temple --
as it appears in the fifth panel -- but even greater is the astonishment at
hearing the mysterious words: "How is it that you sought me? Did you not
know that I must be in my Father's house?" (Luke 2:49). This twofold
question of the Son of God helps us to understand the mystery of Joseph's
paternity. Reminding his own parents of the primacy of the One he calls "my
Father," Jesus affirms the primacy of the will of God over every other will,
and reveals to Joseph the profound truth of his role: He too is called to be
a disciple of Jesus, dedicating his existence to the service of the Son of
God and of the Virgin Mother, in obedience to the Heavenly Father.
The sixth panel represents Joseph's work in his shop in Nazareth. Jesus
worked with him. The Son of God is hidden from men and only Mary and Joseph
guard his mystery and live it each day: The Word Incarnate grows as man in
the shadow of his parents, but, at the same time, they remain, in turn,
hidden in Christ, in his mystery, living their vocation.
Dear brothers and sisters, this beautiful fountain dedicated to St. Joseph
constitutes a symbolic reminder of the values of simplicity and humility in
carrying out day by day the will of God, values that distinguished the
silent but beautiful life of the Custodian of the Redeemer. To his
intercession I entrust the hopes of the Church and of the world. May he,
together with the Virgin Mary, his spouse, always guide my way and yours, so
that we are able to be joyful instruments of peace and of salvation.
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On a Saint Who Taught and
Guided Holy Priests
"His Secret Was Simple: To Be a Man of God"
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 30, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the
address Benedict XVI gave today during the general audience in St. Peter's
Square.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
A short while ago we ended the Year for Priests: a time of grace that has
borne and will bear precious fruits for the Church, an opportunity to
remember in prayer all those who have responded to this particular vocation.
Accompanying us on this path, as models and intercessors, were the Holy Curé
d'Ars and other figures of holy priests, true lights in the history of the
Church. Today, as I announced last Wednesday, I would like to remember
another figure, who stands out in the group of "Social Saints" in Turin of
the 19th century: St. Joseph Cafasso.
Remembering him seems proper because in fact a week ago was the 150th
anniversary of his death, which occurred in the Piedmont capital on June 23,
1860, when he was 49. Moreover, it is good to recall that, on Nov. 1, 1924,
Pope Pius XI, approving the miracles for the canonization of St. John Mary
Vianney and publishing the decree of authorization for the beatification of
Cafasso, joined these two figures of priests with the following words: "Not
without a special and beneficial disposition of Divine Goodness we have
witnessed new stars emerge on the horizon of the Catholic Church: the parish
priest of Ars and the Venerable Servant of God, Joseph Cafasso. In fact
these two beautiful, dear, providentially timely figures must be presented
to us today; the small and humble, poor and simple, but also glorious figure
of the parish priest of Ars, and the beautiful, great, complex, rich figure
of the priest, teacher and formator of priests, the Venerable Joseph Cafasso."
These are circumstances that offer us the occasion to better know the living
and timely message that emerges from the life of this saint. He was not a
parish priest as the Curé d'Ars, but was above all a formator of parish and
diocesan priests and, more than that, of holy priests, among whom is St.
John Bosco. He did not found religious institutes, as other holy priests of
the 19th century in Piedmont did, because his "foundation" was the "school
of priestly life and holiness," which he brought about by example and
teaching, in the Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Francis of Assisi in Turin.
Joseph Cafasso was born in Castelnuovo d'Asti, the same country of St. John
Bosco, on Jan. 15, 1811. He was the third of four children. The last, his
sister Marianna, would be the mother of Blessed Joseph Allamano, founder of
the Missionaries of the Consolata. He was born in a 19th century Piedmont
characterized by grave social problems, but also by a great number of saints
who were determined to find remedies for them. They were linked among
themselves by a total love of Christ and a profound charity toward the
poorest: the grace of the Lord is able to spread and multiply the seeds of
holiness!
Cafasso did his secondary studies and two years of philosophy at the College
of Chieri and, in 1830, he went to the theological seminary where he was
ordained a priest in 1833. Four months later he entered the place that for
him would be the fundamental and only "stop" of his priestly life: the
Ecclesiastical Academy of St. Francis of Assisi in Turin. Having gone there
to perfect himself in pastoral ministry, here he brought to fruition his
gifts as a spiritual director and his great spirit of charity. The academy,
in fact, was not only a school of moral theology where young priests, coming
above all from the countryside, learned to confess and to preach, but it was
also a true and proper school of priestly life, where presbyters were formed
in the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola and in the moral and pastoral
theology of the great holy bishop, Alphonsus Mary of Liguori.
The type of priest that Cafasso found in the academy and that he himself
contributed to reinforce -- especially as rector -- was that of the true
pastor with a rich interior life and a profound zeal in pastoral ministry:
faithful to prayer, committed to preaching and catechesis, dedicated to the
celebration of the Eucharist and to the ministry of confession, according to
the model embodied by St. Charles Borromeo, by St. Francis de Sales and
promoted by the Council of Trent. A happy expression of St. John Bosco
synthesizes the meaning of the educational work in that community: "at the
Academy one learned to be a priest."
St. Joseph Cafasso tried to bring about this model in the formation of young
priests so that, in turn, they would become formators of other priests,
religious and laymen, according to a special and effective chain. From his
chair of moral theology he educated them to be good confessors and spiritual
directors, concerned with the true spiritual good of the person, animated by
great balance in making the mercy of God felt and, at the same time, an
acute and lively sense of sin.
Docent Cafasso had three main virtues, as St. John Bosco recalled:
tranquility, wisdom and prudence. For him, the ministry of confession was
the verification of the lessons taught, and he himself dedicated many hours
of the day [to hearing confessions]. Bishops, priests, religious, eminent
laymen and simple people went to him: To all he was able to give the
necessary time. For many, as well, who became saints and founders of
religious institutes, he was a wise spiritual adviser. His teaching was
never abstract, based only on the books used at that time, but was born of
the intense experience of the mercy of God and of the profound knowledge of
the human spirit acquired in the long hours spent in the confessional and in
spiritual direction: his was a true school of priestly life.
His secret was simple: to be a man of God; to do, in little daily actions,
"that which can turn to the greater glory of God and to the advantage of
souls." He loved the Lord totally, he was animated by a well-rooted faith,
sustained by profound and prolonged prayer, he lived a sincere charity
toward all. He knew moral theology, but he likewise knew the situations and
the hearts of people and looked after their best interests, as the Good
Shepherd.
Each of those who had the grace of being close to him was transformed into
another good pastor and effective confessor. He indicated with clarity to
all priests the holiness to be attained precisely in pastoral ministry.
Blessed Father Clement Marchisio, founder of the Daughters of St. Joseph,
affirmed: "You entered the Academy being a great cheeky youngster and a rash
leader, without knowing what it meant to be a priest, and you came out
entirely different, fully conscious of the dignity of the priest." How many
priests were formed by him in the academy and then followed spiritually!
Among these -- as I already said -- emerges St. John Bosco, who had him as
spiritual director for a good 25 years, from 1835 to 1860: first as cleric,
then as priest and finally as founder. All the fundamental choices of the
life of St. John Bosco had St. Joseph Cafasso as their counselor and guide,
but in a very specific way: Cafasso never tried to form a disciple in Don
Bosco "in his image and likeness" and Don Bosco did not copy Cafasso. He
imitated him, certainly, in human and priestly virtues -- describing him as
a "model of priestly life" -- but according to his own attitudes and his own
peculiar vocation ... a sign of the wisdom of the spiritual teacher and of
the intelligence of the disciple: The first did not impose himself on the
second, but respected him in his personality and helped him to read the will
of God for him.
Dear friends, this is a beautiful teaching for all those who are involved in
the formation and education of young generations and also a strong reminder
of the importance of having a spiritual guide in one's life, who helps us to
know what God wants from us. Our saint affirmed with simplicity and depth:
"The whole of holiness, perfection and profit of a person is in doing the
will of God perfectly. (...) Happy are we if we succeed in thus pouring our
heart into God's, to so unite our desires, our will to his as to form only
one heart and one will: to will what God wills, to will it in such a way, in
such time, in such circumstances as he wills it, and to will all this for no
other reason than that God so wills it."
However, another element characterizes the ministry of our saint: attention
to the least, in particular to prisoners, which in 19th-century Turin lived
in inhuman and de-humanizing places. Also in this delicate service, carried
out for more than 20 years, he was always the good shepherd, understanding
and compassionate: a quality perceived by the detained, who ended up
conquered by that sincere love, the origin of which was God himself. The
simple presence of Cafasso did good: It brightened and touched hearts
hardened by the ups and downs of life and above all enlightened and shook
indifferent consciences. In the early times of his ministry among the
imprisoned, he often took recourse to the great preaching that succeeded in
involving almost the whole prison population. With the passing of time, he
preferred simple catechesis, done in conversations and in personal meetings:
Respectful of the affairs of each one, he addressed the great themes of
Christian life, speaking of trust in God, of adherence to his will, of the
usefulness of prayer and the sacraments, whose point of arrival is
confession, the encounter with God made for us infinite mercy. Those
condemned to death were the object of very special human and spiritual care.
He accompanied to the scaffold, after having heard their confessions and
administered the Eucharist, 57 people condemned to death. He accompanied
them with profound love up to the last breath of their earthly existence.
He died on June 23, 1860, after a life offered entirely to the Lord and
consumed for his neighbor. On April 9, 1948, my predecessor, the Venerable
Servant of God Pope Pius XII proclaimed him patron of Italian prisons and,
with the apostolic exhortation "Menti Nostrae" of Sept. 23, 1950, proposed
him as a model to priests committed to confession and spiritual direction.
Dear brothers and sisters, may St. Joseph Cafasso be a call to all to
intensify the way toward the perfection of the Christian life, holiness; in
particular, may he remind priests of the importance of dedicating time to
the sacrament of reconciliation and to spiritual direction, and remind all
of the attention we must give to the neediest. May we be helped by the
intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to whom St. Joseph Cafasso was most
devoted and whom he called "our dear Mother, our consolation, our hope."
[The Holy Father then greeted the people in several languages. In English,
he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In these days we celebrate the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
death of a great model of priestly holiness and apostolic zeal, Saint Joseph
Cafasso, a priest of Turin, Italy, in the nineteenth century. Saint Joseph
devoted his entire ministry to the formation of priests, spiritual direction
and service to the poor, especially prisoners condemned to death. May his
example encourage all priests in faithful witness to the Gospel.
Yesterday, on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, I conferred the
Pallium upon thirty-eight Archbishops from throughout the world. I would now
like to greet the English-speaking Archbishops present at today’s Audience,
together with their family members and the pilgrimage groups which
accompanied them to the Tombs of the Apostles:
Archbishop Alex Thomas Kaliyanil of Bulawayo (Zimbabwe),
Archbishop Gerard Tlali Lerotholi of Maseru (Lesotho),
Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan (Philippines),
Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham (England),
Archbishop Jerome Edward Listecki of Milwaukee (USA),
Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town (South Africa),
Archbishop Dennis Schnurr of Cincinnati (USA),
Archbishop Francis Kallarakal of Verapoly (India),
Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-joong of Kwangju (Korea),
Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami (USA),
Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark (England),
and Archbishop Matthias Kobena Nketsiah of Cape Coast (Ghana).
Dear Brothers, I ask the Lord to strengthen all of you in your witness to
the apostolic faith and in generous service to the flocks entrusted to your
care.
I also greet the many other English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present
at today’s Audience, especially the groups from England, Scotland, Ireland,
Ghana, Palestine, the Philippines, South Korea, Canada and the United States
of America. I thank the Schola Cantorum of Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast,
for their praise of God in song. Upon all of you I invoke an abundance of
joy and peace in our Lord Jesus Christ.
©Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
[In Italian, he said:]
My thought turns finally to young people, to the sick and to newlyweds. The
solemnity of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul celebrated yesterday is
followed today by the memorial of the First Roman Martyrs. Dear young
people, imitate their heroic evangelical witness and be faithful to Christ
in every situation of life. I encourage you, dear sick people, to take up
the example of the protomartyrs to transform your suffering into an act of
donation for love of God and of brothers. May you, dear newlyweds, be able
to adhere to the plan that the Creator established for your vocation, so as
to succeed in bringing about a fecund and lasting family union.
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On 2 Priests of the 19th Century
"It Is Not
Possible to Exercise Charity Without Living in Christ"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 28, 2010 - Here is
a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at the general
audience in St. Peter's Square.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are drawing close to the end of the
Year for Priests and, on this last Wednesday of April, I would like to
speak about two saintly priests who were exemplary in their giving of
themselves to God and in their witness of charity -- lived in the Church
and for the Church -- toward their neediest brothers: St. Leonard
Murialdo and St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo. Regarding the first, we
mark the 110th anniversary of his death and the 40th of his
canonization; regarding the second, the celebrations have begun for the
second centenary of his priestly ordination.
Murialdo was born in Turin on Oct. 26,
1828: it was the Turin of St. John Bosco, of St. Joseph Cottolengo
himself, a land fertilized by so many examples of holiness of the lay
faithful and priests. Leonard was the eighth child of a simple family.
As a child he entered, together with his brother, the school of the
Escolapios Fathers of Savona for elementary, middle and high school; he
found prepared educators, in a climate of religiosity founded on serious
catecheses, with regular pious practices. During his adolescence,
however, he went through a profound existential and spiritual crisis
that led him to advance his return to his family and to conclude his
studies in Turin, enrolling in the two-year period of philosophy.
A "return to the light" occurred -- as
he recounts -- after a few months, with the grace of a general
confession, in which he rediscovered God's immense mercy; at 17 the
decision matured to become a priest, as a response of love to God who
had seized him with his love. He was ordained on Sept. 20, 1851.
Precisely in that period, as a catechist of the Guardian Angel Oratory,
Don Bosco met and came to esteem him, convincing him to accept the
direction of the new Oratory of St. Louis in Porta Nuova, which he did
until 1865. There he also came into contact with the grave problems of
the poorest classes, he visited their homes, developing a profound
social, educational and apostolic sensitivity that led him later to
dedicate himself independently to multiple initiatives in favor of
youth. Catecheses, school and recreational activities were the
foundation of his educational method in the Oratory. Don Bosco wanted
him with him on the occasion of the audience granted by Blessed Pius IX
in 1858.
In 1873 he founded the Congregation of
St. Joseph, whose apostolic objective was, from the beginning, the
formation of youth, especially the poorest and most abandoned. The
environment of Turin at the time was marked by the intense flourishing
of charitable works and activities promoted by Murialdo until his death,
which occurred on March 30, 1900.
I wish to underline that the central
nucleus of Murialdo's spirituality was the conviction of the merciful
love of God: a Father who is always good, patient and generous, who
reveals the greatness and immensity of his mercy with forgiveness. St.
Leonard experienced this reality at the existential, not the
intellectual level, through a living encounter with the Lord. He always
considered himself a man graced by the merciful God: because of this he
lived the joyous sense of gratitude to the Lord, the serene awareness of
his own limitations, the ardent desire of penance, the constant and
generous commitment to conversion. He saw all his existence not only
illumined, guided, sustained by this love, but continually immersed in
the infinite mercy of God. He wrote in his Spiritual Testament: "Your
mercy surrounds me, O Lord ... How God is always and everywhere, so he
is always and everywhere love, is always and everywhere mercy."
Recalling the moment of crisis he had
in his youth, he wrote: "See how the good God wanted his goodness and
generosity to shine again in an altogether singular way. Not only did he
admit me again to his friendship, but he called me to a choice of
predilection: he called me to the priesthood, and this only a few months
after my return to him." Because of this, St. Leonard lived his priestly
vocation as a free gift of the mercy of God with a sense of gratitude,
joy and love. He wrote as well: "God has chosen me! He has called me,
has in the end forced me to the honor, to the glory, to the ineffable
happiness of being his minister, of being 'another Christ.' And where
was I when God sought me? At the bottom of the abyss! I was there, and
God came there to seek me; there he made me hear his voice."
Underlining the greatness of the
mission of the priest who must "continue the work of redemption, the
great work of Jesus Christ, the work of the Savior of the world,"
namely, that of "saving souls," St. Leonard always reminded himself and
his confreres of the responsibility of a life consistent with the
sacrament received. Love of God and love for God: this was the force of
his journey of holiness, the law of his priesthood, the deepest meaning
of this apostolate among poor young people and the source of his prayer.
St. Leonard Murialdo abandoned himself with confidence to Providence,
fulfilling generously the divine will, in contact with God and
dedicating himself to poor young people. In this way he joined
contemplative silence with the tireless ardor of action, fidelity to the
duties of each day with the ingeniousness of initiatives, strength in
difficulties with the serenity of the spirit. This was his way of
holiness to live the commandment of love, towards God and towards his
neighbor.
With the same spirit of charity, 40
years before Murialdo lived St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, founder of
the work he himself called "Little Home of Divine Providence" and also
called today "Cottolengo." Next Sunday, in my pastoral visit to Turin, I
will be able to venerate the remains of this saint and meet the guests
of the "Little Home."
Joseph Benedict Cottolengo was born in
Bra, a town in the province of Cuneo, on May 3, 1786. The first born of
12 children, six of whom died at an early age, he showed from his
boyhood great sensitivity toward the poor. He embraced the path of
priesthood, imitated also by two brothers. The years of his youth were
those of the Napoleonic venture and of the consequent hardships in the
religious and social realm. Cottolengo became a good priest, sought
after by many penitents and, in the Turin of that time, a preacher of
spiritual exercises and conferences for university students, where
he earned notable success. At the age of 32, he was appointed canon of
the Most Holy Trinity, a congregation of priests that had the task of
officiating in the Church of Corpus Domini and of giving decorum to the
religious ceremonies of the city, but he felt ill at ease in that post.
God was preparing him for a particular mission and, in fact, with an
unexpected and decisive meeting, made him understand what his future
destiny would be in the exercise of the ministry.
The Lord always puts signs on our
way to guide us according to his will to our real good. For Cottolengo
this happened, in a dramatic way, on Sunday morning of Sept. 2, 1827.
Arriving in Turin from Milan was a stage coach crowded as never before,
where a whole French family was crammed in which the wife, with five
children, was in an advanced state of pregnancy with high fever. After
having wandered through several hospitals, that family found lodgings in
a public dormitory, but the woman's situation got worse and some started
to look for a priest. By a mysterious design they came across
Cottolengo, and it was in fact he who, with a heavy and oppressed heart,
was to accompany the death of this young mother, amid the torment of the
whole family.
After having performed this painful
task, with a suffering heart, he went before the Most Blessed Sacrament
and prayed: "My God, why? Why did you want me to be a witness? What do
you want from me? Something must be done!" Rising, he had all the bells
rung, lighted the candles and welcoming the curious in the church, he
said: "Grace has done it! Grace has done it!" From that moment
Cottolengo was transformed: all his capabilities, especially his
economic and organizational abilities, were used to give life to
initiatives in support of the neediest.
He was able to involve in his
enterprise dozens and dozens of collaborators and volunteers. Moving to
the outskirts of Turin to expand his work, he created a sort of village.
Every building he succeeded in constructing he gave a significant name:
"house of faith," "house of hope," "house of charity." He activated the
style of "families," establishing true and proper communities of
persons, volunteers, men and women, religious and laity, united to
address and overcome together the difficulties that presented
themselves. Every one in that Little Home of Divine Providence had a
specific task: those who worked, prayed, served, instructed,
administrated. The healthy and the sick all shared the same daily
burden. The religious life was also defined in time, according to the
particular needs and exigencies. He even thought of his own seminary,
for the specific formation of priests for the Work. He was always ready
to follow and serve Divine Providence, never to question it. He said: "I
am a good for nothing and I don't even know what I am doing. However,
Divine Providence knows what it wants. And it is for me only to second
it. Forward in Domino." For his poor and neediest he described himself
always as "the laborer of Divine Providence."
Next to the small towns he also wished
to found five convents of contemplative sisters and a monastery of
hermits, and he regarded it as among the most important accomplishments:
a sort of "heart" that had to beat for the whole Work. He died on April
30, 1842, saying these words: "Misericordia, Domine; Misericordia,
Domine. Good and Holy Providence ... Holy Virgin, now it is up to You."
His whole life, as a newspaper of the time wrote, had been "an intense
day of love."
Dear friends, these two priests, of
whom I have presented some traits, lived their ministry in the total
gift of their lives to the poorest, to the neediest, to the last, always
finding the profound root, the inexhaustible source of their action in
the relationship with God, drinking from his love, in the profound
conviction that it is not possible to exercise charity without living in
Christ and in the Church. May their intercession and example continue to
enlighten the ministry of so many priests who spend themselves with
generosity for God and for the flock entrusted to them, and may they
help each one to give himself with joy and generosity to God and to his
neighbor.
[The Holy Father then greeted pilgrims
in several languages. In English, he said:]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
As the Year for Priests draws to its
close, I would like to devote today's catechesis to the example of two
remarkable priests of the nineteenth century associated with the Italian
city of Turin. Saint Leonard Murialdo, the founder of the Congregation
of Saint Joseph, devoted his life to the education and pastoral care of
disadvantaged young people. He saw his priestly vocation as a gracious
gift of God's love, to be received with gratitude, joy and love. Imbued
with a powerful sense of the Lord's mercy, he encouraged his confreres
to unite contemplation and apostolic zeal, and to confirm their
preaching by the example of their lives. Saint Joseph Cottolengo, who
lived a generation before Saint Leonard, was another outstanding apostle
of charity. Early in his priesthood, after a dramatic encounter with
human suffering, he founded the "Little Home of Divine Providence,"
involving scores of people -- priests, religious and laity alike -- in a
great charitable outreach which continues today. May the example of
these two great priests, outstanding for their love of God and their
devotion to Christ and the Church, continue to inspire and sustain the
many priests today who generously devote their lives to God and to the
service of our brothers and sisters in need.
I offer a most cordial welcome to the
ecumenical delegations from the Lutheran Church of Norway and from the
Church of England. My warm greeting also goes to the group of Jewish
leaders visiting the Vatican with the Pave the Way Foundation. Upon all
the English-speaking visitors and pilgrims present at today's Audience,
especially those from England, Scotland, Norway, Indonesia and the
United States of America I invoke God's blessings of joy and peace!
©Copyright 2010 - Libreria Editrice
Vaticana
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US Nun Closer to
Canonization
Founded Order of African Americans to Minister to
Slaves
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 29, 2010 - An American nun who founded a congregation of
sisters to minister to the poor and elderly, and particularly to slaves, is
now recognized as venerable.
Sister Henriette Delille, founder of the Sisters of the Holy Family, is one
of seven to be recognized as venerable with decrees authorized by Benedict
XVI on Saturday.
Henriette Delille (1812-1862) was of African descent and lived in Louisiana
but she was not a slave. She founded her congregation of black sisters in
1842.
In addition to the proclamation regarding Venerable Henriette, the Pope also
authorized proclamations noting the heroic virtue of two Germans, two
Italians, a Paraguayan and a Slovenian. The new venerables are:
-- Maria Felicia de Jesús Sacramentado (born Maria Felicia Guggiari
Echeverría), a Paraguayan professed sister of the Order of Discalced
Carmelites (1925-1959);
-- Maria Frances of the Cross (born Franziska Amalia Streitel), German
founder of the Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows (1844-1911);
-- Maria Theresia (born Regina Christine Wilhelmine Bonzel), German founder
of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration (1830-1905);
-- Ivan Franjo Gnidovec, Slovenian bishop of Skopje-Prizren (1873-1939);
-- Luigi Novarese, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the Silent Workers
of the Cross (1914-1984);
-- Francesco Antonio Marcucci, Italian archbishop-bishop of Montalto
(1717-1798).
Martyrs and miracles
The Holy Father also approved recognition of miracles obtained through the
intercession of six people. They are:
-- Blessed Bonifacia Rodríguez de Castro, Spanish founder of the Servants of
St. Joseph (1837-1905);
-- Juan de Palafox y Mendoza, Spanish bishop of Osma (1600-1659);
-- Maria Barbara of the Blessed Trinity (born Barbara Maix), Austrian
founder of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (1818-1873);
-- Anna Maria Adorni, Italian founder of the Congregation of Handmaidens of
Blessed Mary Immaculate and of the Institute of the Good Shepherd of Parma
(1805-1893);
-- María de la Inmaculada Concepción (born María Isabel Salvat y Romero),
Spanish superior-general of the Sisters of the Company of the Cross
(1926-1998);
-- Stephen Nehme (born Joseph), Lebanese professed religious of the Order of
Maronites (1889-1938).
The Pontiff recognized three martyrs:
-- Szilard Bogdanffy, Romanian bishop of Oradea Mare of the Latins, died in
prison in Nagyenyed, Romania (1911-1953).
-- Gerhard Hirschfelder, German diocesan priest, died in the Dachau
concentration camp (1907-1942).
-- Luigi Grozde, Slovenian layman and member of Catholic Action, killed at
Mirna in hatred of the faith (1923-1943).
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alfred Delp SJ: committed to
Christ
Michael Holman SJ
Sixty-five years ago today, a German Jesuit priest was executed as a traitor
in Berlin for his continued and outspoken resistance to the Nazi regime.
Michael Holman SJ introduces us to Alfred Delp, a man of remarkable faith
and courage, whose radical commitment to following Christ even in
life-threatening circumstances challenges us to hear and respond to the call
of Christ in our own time.
Last
summer I got to know someone, albeit very much at second or third hand, who
made a profound impression on me. This was one of those encounters which
shook me to the foundation; one of those encounters which made me think a
good deal about the way in which I go about living my life as a follower of
Christ in our country today.
Let me first set the scene. In July, I had gone up to Liverpool to make my
retreat at the Jesuit Spirituality Centre, Loyola Hall, in the suburb of
Rainhill. We Jesuits make an eight-day silent retreat each year. We are, as
one of our founder’s closest followers put it, ‘contemplatives in action’.
So listening to God’s call in our lives and responding generously is what we
are all about and this time of silence is one way of attuning ourselves to
God’s voice amidst the many voices that shout all around us.
In the early days of that retreat, I was very much taken with something that
a woman whom I admire very much had written many years ago, but they are
words which apply just as much today.
‘Faith in Jesus is very, very rare’
Ruth Burrows is a Carmelite sister, a follower of Teresa of Avila, who lives
in their convent in Quidenham, in Norfolk. She had written that ‘faith in
Jesus is very, very rare’, by which I took her to mean not so much the
intellectual assent to a God and to Jesus as the Son of God, but the kind of
faith which allows Jesus, and the Gospel of Jesus, to take hold of our
lives. That is the faith that Ruth Burrows says is ‘very, very rare’. For
too many of us, faith, like much else in life, is compromised.
It was with those challenging words ringing in my ears that during my
retreat I met someone. Now that someone has been dead for sixty-five years
now, but so vivid was the story that I read that it became something of a
personal encounter. You’ll probably know from your own experience how that
can happen. I like reading biographies of other Jesuits, I like reading
about what it was that gave them life. So I picked up this biography of a
man whose name I had heard often but about whom I knew precious little and I
was fascinated by what I read.
A modern man
Alfred Delp was born in southern Germany in 1907. He was illegitimate; his
parents married not long after he was born. His mother was a Catholic but he
was raised a Lutheran, the faith of his father. Later on in life, he wrote
that ‘if ever they try and canonise me just tell them I was a brat’. He was
wild and independent but it was that spirit which at the age of seventeen or
thereabouts led him to decide for himself that he would become a Catholic,
and which three years later took him into the Society of Jesus.
His training was much like my own half a century later, with the study of
philosophy followed by the study of theology, with a period of three years
working in a school in between. The biography included photographs of Delp;
I could see him in young people I had known myself, so modern did he look.
When working in that school he liked to try things out, to spread his wings,
to do things his way and to show he could succeed. All this annoyed his
Jesuit headmaster who later became his Provincial! I too was once a
headmaster and now I am Provincial, and yes, I have known Jesuits like him.
There was much I could relate to in his story.
Alfred Delp was modern in another sense, too. He was very much taken up with
the new humanism that was sweeping the Church in the pre-war years, as it
would in the years before and after the Second Vatican Council, which he
never saw. This humanism we must never lose sight of because it was forged
in an age of so much human suffering which gives it a peculiar authority. It
stressed the importance of the human person, the individual human person,
the uniqueness and dignity of each person and the wonder of each person as
God’s creation in God’s own likeness.
In his studies, Alfred became an expert in the social teaching of the
Church, that ‘best kept secret’ of our Catholic tradition, and he was doing
all this in the mid-thirties when his homeland was in the grip of Hitler and
the Nazis. He did all this at a time when the totalitarianism of Russia and
his own country emphasised ‘mass-man’ and put the rights and dignity of the
individual at the service of the State.
Alfred was ordained priest in 1937 and after a while was sent to be pastor
of a church that the Jesuits had responsibility for in Munich. In 1941, the
Nazis produced a propaganda film, explaining their policy of euthanasia, the
‘mercy killing’ of the handicapped. From his pulpit he denounced the film.
He spoke of the importance of those living with disability, both as
individuals and in terms of their significance in the community, and their
significance in calling forth the best of human qualities – God-like
qualities – in the rest of us.
Perhaps you would expect this kind of protest from a Catholic priest. Living
in circumstances such as those, what else would he do? Astonishingly, to
many if not to most, things didn’t seem so clear. There came a time when the
German bishops wanted to produce a report condemning euthanasia and the
disappearance of so many people, among them so many priests. Delp approved
of a draft of the document, which was outspoken in its criticism of the
regime. But the bishops were divided and feared an all-out assault on the
Church. Moreover, Catholics fought in the army of the Reich so some thought
this a time for patriotism. As the brave Bishop of Berlin put it, the final
version ‘was dry cleaned, the spots removed and all the colour too’.
Towards the end of 1944, Delp was arrested and imprisoned. For two years he
had been meeting with like-minded intellectuals, the so-called Kreisau
group, planning the future of post-war Germany. He was now suspected of
involvement in the assassination attempt on Hitler featured in the recent
Tom Cruise movie, Valkyrie. He was charged with treason.
‘God alone suffices’
Friends brought bread and wine to Alfred in prison and he celebrated Mass.
He kept the Blessed Sacrament with him always. In his laundry, his friends
smuggled in a pen, ink and paper. He wrote a diary and a set of reflections
on the Church and on society, which have proven extraordinarily prophetic.
Writing of England all those years ago, he talked about it having lost its
spirit and soul to materialism. But above all, these writings tell us of his
struggle to remain committed to Christ, his temptation to compromise, his
struggle to live knowing that ‘God alone suffices’, as Teresa of Avila
wrote.
On 8 December, a Jesuit visited him in prison and, handcuffed, with tears
pouring down his face, he made his final profession in the Society of Jesus.
In January 1945, he was put on trial. They found no evidence for his
complicity in the assassination attempt. But his judge was a fanatic Nazi
who hated Christianity, hated the Catholic Church and hated Jesuits above
all. Delp was sentenced to death.
On 2 February, aged 37, he was taken to the Plötzensee Prison and that
afternoon, in a room that is now a shrine, he was hanged from a meat hook in
the ceiling. He was then cremated and his ashes were scattered over human
sewage, as was required for traitors. His few possessions were collected
together and presented to his mother who kept them under her bed in a
suitcase until she died in 1967.
‘His ears were opened, his tongue was released’ (Mk 7:31-37)
‘Faith in Jesus is very, very rare.’ It is granted to some to have their
eyes opened and their ears unstopped so that they can read the signs of the
times and hear the call of Christ. To even rarer ones is granted what is
needed to respond with unspeakable love and generosity.
This kind of generosity is a flame that kindles other fires. Delp inspired
heroism in many others. He inspired his secretary who risked her life
bringing a pen and ink in his laundry and distributing his letters. He
himself had been inspired by another Jesuit priest in Munich, Rupert Mayer,
who unlike Delp is now beatified by the Church for his uncompromising
resistance.
But what fire does Delp’s flame kindle in us? It makes me wonder the extent
to which we are blind to the signs of the times and deaf to the call of
Christ. How accustomed to compromise in our own times have we become? To
what extent are we beguiled by the prevailing social consensus with the
result that we blend in nicely with the countryside, but little more?
It was the assault on life that made Alfred Delp’s mission urgent. In our
own times this same assault is considerable too – at the start of life and
at the end of life. In an over-commercialised economy with an over-individualised
social policy, which has too little concern for its impact on our
environment, the unique significance and dignity of each and every human
life is being compromised.
Maybe something more radical is being asked of the followers of Christ
today? Maybe we need our eyes opened, our ears unstopped and our tongues
loosened? Maybe that is the way to our renewal as a Church in Western
Europe? Lest it continue to be said about this generation that faith in
Jesus is indeed very, very rare.
Michael Holman SJ is the Provincial of the British Jesuits.
----------------------------------------------------
On Paul VI's Marian Devotion
"He Placed his Priesthood Under the Protection
of the Mother of Jesus"
BRESCIA, Italy, NOV. 8, 2009 .- Here is a
translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today before praying the midday
Angelus after he had celebrated Mass in the birthplace of Giovanni Montini, the
future Pope Paul VI.
* * *
At the end of this solemn celebration, I would
like to offer cordial thanks to those who were responsible for the liturgical
animation and those who in various ways helped with the preparation and
realization of my pastoral visit here in Brescia. Thanks to all! I also greet
those who are following us on radio and television, along with those in St.
Peter’s Square, and in a special way the numerous volunteers of the L’Unione
Nazionale Pro Loco of Italy.
In this Angelus I would like to recall the
profound devotion that the Servant of God Giovanni Battista Montini had for the
Virgin Mary. He celebrated his first Mass in the sanctuary of Santa Maria delle
Grazie, the marian heart of your city, not far from this piazza. In this way he
placed his priesthood under the protection of the Mother of Jesus, and this
connection accompanied him his whole life.
As his ecclesial responsibilities grew, he
developed a broader and more organic vision of the relationship between the
Blessed Virgin Mary and the mystery of the Church. In this perspective, his Nov.
21, 1964, address at the closing of the third session of the Second Vatican
Council is memorable. During that session of the Council the Constitution on the
Church, "Lumen Gentium," was promulgated. The document had, as Paul VI noted,
"an entire chapter dedicated to the Madonna as its apex and crown." The Pope
noted that it contained the largest synthesis of marian doctrine ever elaborated
by an ecumenical council, with the purpose of "manifesting the countenance of
the Church to which Mary is intimately joined" ("Enchiridion Vaticanum," Bologna
1979, p. [185], nos. 300-302). In that context he proclaimed Mary Most Holy
"Mother of the Church" (cf. ibid., no. 306), underscoring with lively ecumenical
sensitivity that "devotion to Mary … is a means essentially ordained to orient
souls to Christ and thus join them to the Father, in the love of the Holy
Spirit" (ibid., no. 315).
Echoing the words of Paul VI, we too today
pray: O Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, to you we commend this Church of
Brescia and all the people of this region. Remember all your children; bring
their prayers before God; keep their faith firm; strengthen their hope; make
their charity grow. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary (cf. ibid., nos.
317, 320, 325).
---------------------------------------------------
Papal Address at Bonaventure's Birthplace
"The Universe Itself Can Again Be the Voice
That Speaks of God"
BAGNOREGGIO, Italy, SEPT. 7, 2009 - Here is a
translation of Benedict XVI's address Sunday at Bagnoreggio, the birthplace of
St. Bonaventure.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters:
This morning's solemn Eucharistic celebration
in Viterbo opened my pastoral visit to your diocesan community, and this meeting
here in Bagnoreggio practically closes it. I greet you all with affection:
religious, civil and military authorities, priests, men and women religious,
pastoral agents, young people and families, and I thank you for your cordial
welcome. I renew my gratitude first of all to your bishop for his affectionate
words, which referred to my link with St. Bonaventure. And I respectfully greet
the mayor of Bagnoreggio, grateful for the courteous welcome he gave me in the
name of the whole city.
Giovanni Fidanza, who later became Friar
Bonaventure, joins his name to that of Bagnoreggio in the well-known
presentation that he makes of himself in the Divine Comedy. On saying: "I am the
soul of Bonaventure of Bagnoreggio, who in exalted tasks put to one side
erroneous endeavors" (Dante, Paradise XII, 127-129), which underscores how, in
the important tasks that he had to undertake in the Church, he always postponed
attention to temporal realities -- "erroneous endeavors" -- in favor of the
spiritual good of souls. Here, in Bagnoreggio, he spent his childhood and
adolescence; then he followed St. Francis, for whom he manifested special
gratitude because, as he wrote, when he was a child he "snatched him from the
jaws of death" (Legenda Maior, Prologus, 3,3) and predicted "bona venture," as
your mayor recalled recently. He was able to establish a profound and lasting
bond with the poor man of Assisi, drawing from him ascetic inspiration and
ecclesial genius. You jealously guard the famous relic of the "holy arm" of this
illustrious fellow-citizen, keep alive his memory and reflect deeply on his
doctrine, especially through the Center of Bonaventure Studies, founded by
Bonaventure Tecchi, which every year promotes special study conferences
dedicated to him.
It is not easy to summarize the extensive
philosophical, theological and mystical doctrine that St. Bonaventure left us.
In this Year for Priests, I would like to invite priests especially to listen to
this great doctor of the Church and to reflect more profoundly on his teaching
of wisdom rooted in Christ. He directs every step of his speculation and
mystical tension to wisdom that flowers in holiness, passing through the degrees
that range from what he calls "uniform wisdom," which concerns the essential
principles of knowledge, to "multiform wisdom," which consists of the mysterious
language of the Bible, and then to "omni-form wisdom," which recognizes in the
whole of created reality the reflection of the Creator, to "informed wisdom,"
that is, the experience of profound mystical contact with God, wherewith man's
intellect knows the infinite Mystery in silence (cf. J. Ratzinger, St.
Bonaventure and the Theology of History, Porziuncola publishers, 2006, pp.
92ff). On remembering this profound researcher and lover of wisdom, I would also
like to express my encouragement and appreciation for the service that
theologians are called to give, in the ecclesial community, of that faith that
seeks understanding, that faith which is a "friend of intelligence" and which
becomes a new life according to God's plan.
From St. Bonaventure's rich cultural and
mystical patrimony I limit myself, this afternoon, to consider a "path" of
reflection that might be useful for your diocesan community's pastoral journey.
He was, in the first place, a tireless seeker of God, from the time of his
studies in Paris until his death. He indicates in his writings the path to be
followed. "Given that God is on High," he wrote, "the mind must ascend to him
with all its strength" (De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam, No. 25).
In this way, he traces a committed path of
faith, in which it is not enough "to read without unction, to speculate without
devotion, to do research without admiration, to be circumspect without joy, to
be expert without piety, to know without charity, to be intelligent without
humility, to study without divine grace, to speak without wisdom inspired by
God" (Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Prologue 4). This journey of purification
involves the whole person striving, through Christ, to the transforming love of
the Trinity. And, given that Christ, forever God and man forever, effects in the
faithful a new creation with his grace, the exploration of the divine presence
becomes contemplation of him in the soul "where he dwells with the gifts of his
uncontainable love" (ibid. IV, 4), to be finally transported in him. Hence,
faith is the perfection of our cognitive capacities and participation in the
knowledge that God has of himself and of the world; we experience hope as
preparation for our encounter with the Lord, who will constitute the fulfillment
of that friendship that already unites us to him. And charity introduces us to
divine life, making us see all people as brothers, according to the will of our
common heavenly Father.
In addition to being a seeker of God, St.
Bonaventure was a seraphic singer of creation who, following St. Francis,
learned to "praise God in all and through all creatures," in which "shines the
omnipotence, wisdom and goodness of the Creator" (ibid. I, 10). St. Bonaventure
presents a positive vision of the world, gift of God's love to men: He
recognizes in it the reflection of the highest Goodness and Beauty that,
following St. Augustine and St. Francis, assures us that it is God himself. God
has given it all to us. From him, as original source, flow truth, goodness and
beauty. To God, as on the steps of a stairway, one ascends until arriving and
almost attaining the highest Good and in him we find our joy and peace. How
useful it would be if also today we rediscovered the beauty and value of
creation in the light of divine goodness and beauty! In Christ, observed St.
Bonaventure, the universe itself can again be the voice that speaks of God and
leads us to explore his presence; exhorts us to honor and glorify him in
everything (Cf. Ibid. I, 15). Herein we perceive the spirit of St. Francis, with
whom our saint shared love for all creatures.
St. Bonaventure was a messenger of hope. We
find a beautiful image of hope in one of his Advent homilies, where he compares
the movement of hope to the flight of a bird, which spreads its wings as far as
possible, and employs all its energies to move them. In a certain sense, it make
its whole being a movement to rise and fly. To hope is to fly, says St.
Bonaventure. But hope exacts movement from all our members and our projection to
the authentic stature of our being, to God's promises. He who hopes, he affirms,
"must lift his head, directing his thoughts on high, to the height of our
existence, that is, to God" (Sermo XVI, Dominica I Adv., Opera Omnia, IX, 40a).
In his address, the Lord Mayor posed a
question: "What will Bagnoreggio be tomorrow?" In truth, we all wonder about our
future and that of the world, and this question has much to do with hope, for
which every human heart is thirsty. In the encyclical "Spe Salvi," I wrote that
not just any hope is sufficient to address and overcome the difficulties of the
present: a "certain hope" is indispensable which, giving us the certainty of
attaining a "great" goal," justifies the effort of the journey" (cf. No. 1).
Only this "great hope-certainty" assures us that, despite the failures of our
personal life and the contradictions of history as a whole, we are always
protected by the "indestructible power of Love."
When we are sustained by such hope we never
run the risk of losing the courage to contribute, as the saints did, to the
salvation of humanity, and "we can open ourselves and open the world so that God
will enter, God, who is truth, love and goodness" (cf. No. 35). May St.
Bonaventure help us to "spread the wings" of hope, which drives us to be, as he
was, incessant seekers of God, singers of the beauties of creation and witnesses
of that Love and Beauty that "moves everything."
Thank you, dear friends, once again, for your
hospitality. While I assure you of my remembrance in prayer, I impart to you,
through the intercession of St. Bonaventure and especially of Mary, faithful
Virgin and Star of Hope, a special apostolic blessing, which I extend with
pleasure to all the inhabitants of this beautiful land, rich in saints.
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The Martyrs of Otranto, 1480
In 1480, Italy celebrated the feast of the Assumption with spectacular
liturgies, processions and, of course, banquets. With the exception of Otranto,
a tiny town on the Adriatic coast, where 800 men offered their lives for Christ.
They were the Martyrs of Otranto.
A few weeks earlier the Turkish fleet had docked just outside the Otranto harbor.
Their arrival had been feared for years; since the fall of Constantinople in
1454, it was only a matter of time before the Ottoman Turks encroached on
Europe.
Otranto stands closest to the Ottoman-controlled eastern side of the Adriatic.
St. Francis de Paul recognized the imminent danger to the town and its Christian
citizens and pleaded for reinforcements to protect Otranto. He predicted, "Oh
unhappy citizens, how many cadavers do I see covering your streets? How much
Christian blood do I see flooding you?" But the leaders of Christendom refused
to address the danger.
On July 28, 1480, 18,000 Turkish sailors swarmed the harbor of Otranto. They
offered terms of surrender to the citizens, hoping to gain this first foothold
into Italy without resistance and complete a lightening conquest of the Adriatic
coast. The Sultan Mehmed II had boasted to Pope Sixtus IV that he would "allow
his horse to eat his oats on the Tomb of St. Peter."
Pope Sixtus, recognizing the seriousness of the threat, exclaimed: "People of
Italy, if you wish to continue to call yourselves Christians, defend
yourselves!"
Although his pleas fell on deaf ears among most of the crowned heads of the
peninsula -- they were too busy fighting among themselves -- the people of
Otranto listened.
Fisherman, not fighters, they had no artillery and numbered under 15,000
including women, children and the elderly. But by common consent they took the
keys to the city and cast them into sea, committing themselves completely to
resisting the Turkish fleet.
The sophisticated Turkish artillery ripped at the strong defensive walls, but
the Otrantini repaired the breaches as soon as they opened. Charging the walls,
the Turks found the determined citizens impavidly defending the ramparts with
boiling oil, without armor, and often using their bare hands.
The citizens of Otranto foiled the Sultan’s plan for a sneak attack and bought
Italy two weeks of precious time to organize defenses and prepare to repel the
invaders, but on Aug. 11, the Turks broke through the walls and overwhelmed the
city.
The Turkish army methodically passed from house to house, sacking, looting and
then setting them on fire. The few survivors took refuge in the cathedral.
Archbishop Stefano, heroically calm, distributed the Eucharist and sat among the
women and children of Otranto while a Dominican friar led the faithful in prayer
from the pulpit.
The invading army broke open the door of the cathedral and the subsequent
violence to the women, children and Archbishop -- who was beheaded on the altar
-- shocked the Italian peninsula into action.
The Turks had taken the city, destroyed homes, enslaved its people and turned
the cathedral into a mosque. Some 14,000 people had died in the capture of
Otranto, mostly its own citizens, but a little band of 800 were left alive, so
the Turks could fully dominate the proud partisans by forcing them to convert.
Their option was Islam or death. Eight hundred men, chained together, had lost
home and family and seemed utterly subjugated to the victorious Turks.
One of the 800, a textile worker named Antonio Primaldo Pezzula, rose from
humble craftsman to heroic leader on that day. Before the Pasha Agomat, Antonio
turned to his fellow Otrantini and declared: "You have heard what it will cost
to buy the remainder of our little lives! My brothers, we have fought to save
our city; now it is time to battle for our souls!"
The 800 men aged 15 and up unanimously decided to follow the example of Antonio
and offered their lives to Christ.
The Turks, who had hoped for moment of triumphant propaganda, wanted to avoid a
massacre. They offered the return of the women and children who were about to be
shipped off as slaves, in return for the conversion of the men, and they
threatened a mass beheading if they failed to comply. Antonio refused, followed
by the rest of men.
On the vigil of the Assumption, the 800 were led outside the city and beheaded.
Tradition has it that Antonio Pezzula was beheaded first, but his acephalous
body remained standing until the last Otrantino had been killed.
One of the executioners, a Turk named Barlabei, was so amazed by this prodigy
that he converted to Christianity, and was also martyred.
The remains were lovingly collected, and are to this day kept in the Cathedral
of Otranto. On the 500th anniversary of the sacrifice of the Otrantini, Pope
John Paul II visited the city and paid homage to the martyrs.
Benedict XVI officially recognized their martyrdom in 2007, bringing Antonio
Pezzula and his companions a step closer to their canonization.
This "hour of the laity" at Otranto, separated from us by a half a millennium,
still resonates as an example of witness to the love of Christ. Few of us will
ever be asked the same heroic sacrifice as Antonio Pezzuli and his fellow
weavers, farmers and townsfolk, but how would we answer his exhortation: "Stand
strong and constant in the faith: With this temporal death we will gain eternal
life."
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On St. John Eudes
"He Wanted to Remind People … of the Heart"
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 19, 2009 - Here is a translation of the address
Benedict XVI delivered today during the general audience held at the papal
summer residence of Castel Gandolfo. He reflected on St. John Eudes and the
formation of the clergy.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters:
Celebrated today is the liturgical memorial of St. John Eudes, tireless apostle
of devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, who lived in France in the
17th century, a century marked by opposing religious phenomena and also by great
political problems. It was the time of the Thirty Years War, which devastated
not only a great part of Central Europe, but also devastated souls.
While contempt was being spread for the Christian faith by some currents of
thought that were prevalent then, the Holy Spirit inspired a fervent spiritual
renewal, with prominent personalities such as that of Berulle, St. Vincent de
Paul, St. Louis Mary Grignion de Montfort and St. John Eudes. This great "French
school" of holiness also had St. John Mary Vianney among its fruits. By a
mysterious design of Providence, my venerated predecessor, Pius XI, proclaimed
John Eudes and the Curé d'Ars saints at the same time, on May 31, 1925, offering
the Church and the whole world two extraordinary examples of priestly holiness.
In the context of the Year for Priests, I wish to pause to underline the
apostolic zeal of St. John Eudes, directed in particular to the formation of the
diocesan clergy.
The saints have verified, in the experience of life, the truth of the Gospel; in
this way, they introduce us into the knowledge and understanding of the Gospel.
In 1563, the Council of Trent issued norms for the establishment of diocesan
seminaries and for the formation of priests, as the council was aware that the
whole crisis of the Reformation was also conditioned by the insufficient
formation of priests, who were not adequately prepared intellectually and
spiritually, in their heart and soul, for the priesthood.
This occurred in 1563 but, given that the application and implementation of the
norms took time, both in Germany as well as in France, St. John Eudes saw the
consequences of this problem. Moved by the lucid awareness of the great need of
spiritual help that souls were feeling precisely because of the incapacity of a
great part of the clergy, the saint, who was a parish priest, instituted a
congregation dedicated specifically to the formation of priests. He founded the
first seminary in the university city of Caen, a highly appreciated endeavor,
which was soon extended to other dioceses.
The path of holiness he followed and proposed to his disciples had as its
foundation a solid confidence in the love that God revealed to humanity in the
priestly Heart of Christ and the maternal Heart of Mary. In that time of cruelty
and loss of interior silence, he addressed himself to the heart so as to leave
in the heart a word from the Psalms very well interpreted by St. Augustine. He
wanted to remind people, men and above all future priests of the heart, showing
the priestly Heart of Christ and the maternal Heart of Mary. A priest must be a
witness and apostle of this love of the Heart of Christ and of Mary.
Today we also feel the need for priests to witness the infinite mercy of God
with a life totally "conquered" by Christ, and for them to learn this in the
years of their formation in the seminaries. After the synod of 1990, Pope John
Paul II issued the apostolic exhortation "Pastores Dabo Vobis," in which he took
up and actualized the norms of the Council of Trent and above all underlined the
need for continuity between the initial and permanent moments of formation. For
him, for us, this is a real point of departure for a genuine reform of priestly
life and apostolate, and it is also the central point so that the "new
evangelization" is not simply an attractive slogan, but rather is translated
into reality.
The foundations of formation in the seminary constitute that irreplaceable
"humus spirituale" in which it is possible to "learn Christ," allowing oneself
to be progressively configured to him, sole High Priest and Good Shepherd. The
time in the seminary should be seen, therefore, as the actualization of the
moment in which the Lord Jesus, after having called the Apostles and before
sending them out to preach, asks that they stay with him (cf. Mark 3:14).
When St. Mark narrates the vocation of the Twelve Apostles, he tells us that
Jesus had a double objective: The first was that they be with him, the second
that they be sent to preach. But in going always with him, they truly proclaim
Christ and take the reality of the Gospel to the world.
In this Year for Priests, I invite you to pray, dear brothers and sisters, for
priests and for those preparing to receive the extraordinary gift of the
priestly ministry. I conclude by addressing to all the exhortation of St. John
Eudes, who said thus to priests: "Give yourselves to Jesus to enter into the
immensity of his great Heart, which contains the Heart of his Holy Mother and of
all the saints, and to lose yourselves in this abyss of love, of charity, of
mercy, of humility, of purity, of patience, of submission and of holiness"
(Coeur admirable, III, 2).
With this spirit, we will now sing together the Our Father in Latin.
[Translation by ZENIT]
[At the end of the audience, the Pope greeted pilgrims in several languages. In
English, he said:]
I offer a warm welcome to the English-speaking visitors present at today’s
Audience, including the pilgrims from India and Nigeria. Our catechesis
considers Saint John Eudes whose feast we celebrate today. He lived in
seventeenth-century France which, notwithstanding considerable trials for the
faith, produced many outstanding examples of spiritual courage and insight.
Saint John Eudes’ particular contribution was the foundation of a religious
congregation dedicated to the task of giving solid formation to the diocesan
priesthood. He encouraged seminarians to grow in holiness and to trust in God’s
love revealed to humanity in the priestly heart of Jesus and in the maternal
heart of Mary. During this year let us pray in a special way for priests and
seminarians that, inspired by today’s saint, they may spiritually "enter into
the heart of Jesus", becoming men of true love, mercy, humility and patience,
renewed in holiness and pastoral zeal. My dear Brothers and Sisters, upon you
and your families I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!
©Copyright 2009 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana
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On the Curé d'Ars
"Since His Earthly Youth He Sought to Conform Himself
to God
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 17, 2009 - Here is a Vatican translation of the address
Benedict XVI gave Aug. 5 at his Summer Residence in Castel Gandolfo, during
which commented on the Holy Curé d'Ars.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
In today's Catechesis I would like briefly to review the life of the Holy Curé
of Ars. I shall stress several features that can also serve as an example for
priests in our day, different of course from the time in which he lived, yet
marked in many ways by the same fundamental human and spiritual challenges.
Precisely yesterday was the 150th anniversary of his birth in Heaven. Indeed it
was at two o'clock in the morning on 4 August 1859 that St John Baptist Mary
Vianney, having come to the end of his earthly life, went to meet the heavenly
Father to inherit the Kingdom, prepared since the world's creation for those who
faithfully follow his teachings (cf. Mt 25: 34).
What great festivities there must have been in Heaven at the entry of such a
zealous pastor! What a welcome he must have been given by the multitude of sons
and daughters reconciled with the Father through his work as parish priest and
confessor!
I wanted to use this anniversary as an inspiration to inaugurate the Year for
Priests, whose theme, as is well known, is "Faithfulness of Christ, Faithfulness
of Priests". The credibility of witness depends on holiness and, once and for
all, on the actual effectiveness of the mission of every priest.
John Mary Vianney was born into a peasant family in the small town of Dardilly
on 8 May 1786. His family was poor in material possessions but rich in humanity
and in faith. Baptized on the day of his birth, as was the good custom in those
days, he spent so many years of his childhood and adolescence working in the
fields and tending the flocks that at the age of 17 he was still illiterate.
Nonetheless he knew by heart the prayers his devout mother had taught him and
was nourished by the sense of religion in the atmosphere he breathed at home.
His biographers say that since his earthly youth he sought to conform himself to
God's will, even in the humblest offices.
He pondered on his desire to become a priest but it was far from easy for him to
achieve it.
Indeed, he arrived at priestly ordination only after many ordeals and
misunderstandings, with the help of far-sighted priests who did not stop at
considering his human limitations but looked beyond them and glimpsed the
horizon of holiness that shone out in that truly unusual young man.
So it was that on 23 June 1815 he was ordained a deacon and on the following 13
August, he was ordained a priest. At last, at the age of 29, after numerous
uncertainties, quite a few failures and many tears, he was able to walk up to
the Lord's altar and make the dream of his life come true.
The Holy Curé of Ars always expressed the highest esteem for the gift he had
received. He would say: "Oh! How great is the Priesthood! It can be properly
understood only in Heaven... if one were to understand it on this earth one
would die, not of fright but of love!" (Abbé Monnin, Esprit du Curé d'Ars, p.
113).
Moreover, as a little boy he had confided to his mother: "If I were to become a
priest, I would like to win many souls" (Abbé Monnin, Procès de l'ordinaire, p.
1064). And so he did. Indeed, in his pastoral service, as simple as it was
extraordinarily fertile, this unknown parish priest of a forgotten village in
the south of France was so successful in identifying with his ministry that he
became, even in a visibly and universally recognizable manner, an alter Christus,
an image of the Good Shepherd who, unlike the hired hand, lays down his life for
his sheep (cf. Jn 10: 11).
After the example of the Good Shepherd, he gave his life in the decades of his
priestly service. His existence was a living catechesis that acquired a very
special effectiveness when people saw him celebrating Mass, pausing before the
tabernacle in adoration or spending hour after hour in the confessional.
Therefore the centre of his entire life was the Eucharist, which he celebrated
and adored with devotion and respect. Another fundamental characteristic of this
extraordinary priestly figure was his diligent ministry of confession.
He recognized in the practice of the sacrament of penance the logical and
natural fulfillment of the priestly apostolate, in obedience to Christ's
mandate: "if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the
sins of any, they are retained" (cf. Jn 20: 23).
St John Mary Vianney thus distinguished himself as an excellent, tireless
confessor and spiritual director. Passing "with a single inner impulse from the
altar to the confessional", where he spent a large part of the day, he did his
utmost with preaching and persuasive advice to help his parishioners rediscover
the meaning and beauty of the sacrament of Penance, presenting it as an inherent
demand of the Eucharistic presence (cf. Letter to Priests for the inauguration
of the Year for Priests).
The pastoral methods of St John Mary Vianney might hardly appear suited to the
social and cultural conditions of the present day. Indeed, how could a priest
today imitate him in a world so radically changed? Although it is true that
times change and many charisms are characteristic of the person, hence
unrepeatable, there is nevertheless a lifestyle and a basic desire that we are
all called to cultivate.
At a close look, what made the Curé of Ars holy was his humble faithfulness to
the mission to which God had called him; it was his constant abandonment, full
of trust, to the hands of divine Providence.
It was not by virtue of his own human gifts that he succeeded in moving peoples'
hearts nor even by relying on a praiseworthy commitment of his will; he won over
even the most refractory souls by communicating to them what he himself lived
deeply, namely, his friendship with Christ.
He was "in love" with Christ and the true secret of his pastoral success was the
fervor of his love for the Eucharistic Mystery, celebrated and lived, which
became love for Christ's flock, for Christians and for all who were seeking God.
His testimony reminds us, dear brothers and sisters, that for every baptized
person and especially for every priest the Eucharist is not merely an event with
two protagonists, a dialogue between God and me. Eucharistic Communion aspires
to a total transformation of one's life and forcefully flings open the whole
human "I" of man and creates a new "we" (cf. Joseph Ratzinger, La Comunione
nella Chiesa, p. 80).
Thus, far from reducing the figure of St John Mary Vianney to an example albeit
an admirable one of 18-century devotional spirituality, on the contrary one
should understand the prophetic power that marked his human and priestly
personality that is extremely timely.
In post-revolutionary France which was experiencing a sort of "dictatorship of
rationalism" that aimed at obliterating from society the very existence of
priests and of the Church, he lived first in the years of his youth a heroic
secrecy, walking kilometers at night to attend Holy Mass. Then later as a priest
Vianney distinguished himself by an unusual and fruitful pastoral creativity,
geared to showing that the then prevalent rationalism was in fact far from
satisfying authentic human needs, hence definitively unlivable.
Dear brothers and sisters, 150 years after the death of the Holy Curé of Ars,
contemporary society is facing challenges that are just as demanding and may
have become even more complex.
If in his time the "dictatorship of rationalism" existed, in the current epoch a
sort of "dictatorship of relativism" is evident in many contexts. Both seem
inadequate responses to the human being's justifiable request to use his reason
as a distinctive and constitutive element of his own identity.
Rationalism was inadequate because it failed to take into account human
limitations and claims to make reason alone the criterion of all things,
transforming it into a goddess; contemporary relativism humiliates reason
because it arrives de facto at affirming that the human being can know nothing
with certainty outside the positive scientific field.
Today however, as in that time, man, "a beggar for meaning and fulfillment", is
constantly in quest of exhaustive answers to the basic questions that he never
ceases to ask himself.
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council had very clearly in mind this "thirst
for the truth" that burns in every human heart when they said that it is the
task of priests "as instructors of the people in the faith" to see to the
"formation of a genuine Christian community", that can "smooth the path to
Christ for all men" and exercise "a truly motherly function" for them, "showing
or smoothing the path towards Christ and his Church" for non-believers and for
believers, while also "encouraging, supporting and strengthening believers for
their spiritual struggles" (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, n. 6).
The teaching which in this regard the Holy Curé of Ars continues to pass on to
us is that the priest must create an intimate personal union with Christ that he
must cultivate and increase, day after day.
Only if he is in love with Christ will the priest be able to teach his union,
this intimate friendship with the divine Teacher to all, and be able to move
people's hearts and open them to the Lord's merciful love. Only in this way,
consequently, will he be able to instil enthusiasm and spiritual vitality in the
communities the Lord entrusts to him.
Let us pray that through the intercession of St John Mary Vianney, God will give
holy priests to his Church and will increase in the faithful the desire to
sustain and help them in their ministry. Let us entrust this intention to Mary,
whom on this very day we invoke as Our Lady of the Snow.
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South Africa's 1st Saint?
Diocese Sends Case for Benedict Daswa to Rome
TZANEEN, South Africa, JULY 17, 2009- The first case for a South African native
saint was advanced as officials concluded a diocesan inquiry into the life and
death of Servant of God Benedict Daswa.
A press release from the South African bishops' conference reported Monday that
the inquiry was completed at the beginning of July, and the final documents sent
to the prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, Archbishop Angelo Amato.
These documents, which will be brought to Rome by Archbishop James Green, South
Africa's apostolic nuncio, include over 850 pages of testimonies about Daswa.
He was born in 1946 to a traditionalist family in a small Lemba tribe, an ethnic
group claiming common descent and some similar traditions as Jewish people.
Benedict Daswa lived among the Venda people in the Limpopo province, the
northernmost region of the country.
He was preparing to be a primary school teacher when he converted to
Catholicism.
In his new faith life, he saw a conflict between Catholic beliefs and the
witchcraft present in his culture.
Thus, Daswa took a strong stance against it, both privately and publicly,
stating that witchcraft led to the killing of innocent people.
He openly rejected using "muti" or "medicine" derived from natural substances
and used for "protection against evil or for success in sports and other
activities."
The bishops' conference stated that this stance eventually led to his death.
Benedict was stoned and bludgeoned to death on Feb. 2, 1990, a few days after
refusing to give money for witchcraft causes.
The conference stated that all evidence shows that Daswa led a holy life and was
martyred for the faith.
Now, it continued, five years after the initiation of the diocesan inquiry,
prayer cards will be prepared to encourage people to pray for Divine favors
through his intercession, which will further his cause for beatification.
A biography is being produced to make the Servant of God more widely known.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope Approves Cardinal Newman Miracle
Recognizes Martyrdom of Dachau Victim, Spanish Priests
VATICAN CITY, JULY 3, 2009 - Today, Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of
decrees recognizing miracles, martyrdom and heroic virtue in several causes for
canonization.
A Vatican communiqué reported that the Pope received in private audience
Archbishop Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, and
authorized the congregation to promulgate the following decrees.
Miracles attributed to the intercession of the following:
-- Blessed Cándida Maria de Jesús Cipitria y Barriola (1845-1912) (born Juana
Josefa), Spanish founder of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus.
-- Servant of God John Henry Newman (1801-1890), English cardinal and founder of
the Oratories of St. Phili p Neri in England.
-- Servant of God Angelo Paoli (1642-1720) (born Francesco), Italian professed
priest of the Order of Carmelites of the Strict Observance.
-- Servant of God Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas (1843-1927) (born Soultaneh
Maria), cofounder of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of
Jerusalem.
The martyrdom of the following:
-- Servant of God José Samsó i Elías (1887-1936), Spanish diocesan priest,
pastor and archpriest of Santa María de Mataro, killed during religious
persecution in Spain.
-- Servant of God Teófilo Fernández de Legaria Goñi (1898-1936) (born Beniamino),
and four companions, professed priests of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts
of Jesus and Mary, killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.
-- Servant of God Georg Häfner (1900-1942), German diocesan priest, killed in
the concentration camp of Dachau, Germany.
-- Servant of God Zolt an Ludovico Meszlenyi (1892-1951), Hungarian titular
bishop of Sinope and auxiliary of Esztergom, killed at Kistarcsa, Hungary.
Proclamation of the heroic virtue of the following was also approved:
-- Servant of God Engelmar Unzeitig (1911-1945) (born Uberto), German professed
priest of the Congregation of Missionaries of Mariannhill.
-- Servant of God Anna María Janer Anglarill (1800-1885), Spanish founder of the
Institute of Sisters of the Holy Family of Urgell.
-- Servant of God Maria Serafina del Sacro Cuore di Gesu Micheli (1849-1911)
(born Clotilde), Italian founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Angels.
-- Servant of God Teresa Manganiello (1849-1876), Italian laywoman of the Third
Order of St. Francis.
----------------------------
Miracle Healing Advances Cardinal Newman's Cause
Birmingham Oratory Prepares for Beatification
BIRMINGHAM, England, JULY 3, 2009 - Members of the Oratory in Birmingham are
preparing to celebrate the imminent beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman,
after today's announcement that Benedict XVI approved a miracle through his
intercession.
A press release distributed by the bishops' conference of England and Wales
affirmed that the beatification of the theologian and Catholic convert is now
certain.
The miracle that was approved by the Pope as a step in the cause of canonization
was the 2001 healing of Deacon Jack Sullivan of the Boston, Massachusetts, area.
Sullivan, now 70, had a debilitating back injury that interrupted his diaconal
studies and threatened to leave him paralyzed. After receiving this diagnosis,
he went to his home and turned on the television as a distraction from the pain
and disappointment.
A program about the life of Cardinal Newman was being aired, and it ended with a
request to contact the postulate for the cause of his beautification if any
favors were received through his intercession.
Sullivan recited a prayer to the cardinal, and the next morning, he awoke free
of pain.
He was able to return to his studies, but eight months later, in April 2001, the
pain came back. He once again prayed for Cardinal Newman's intercession, and
when the pain disappeared, doctors stated that there was no human explanation
for the immediate recovery.
Sullivan, who was ordained a permanent deacon in September 2002, affirmed, "Upon
hearing of the recent developments in Rome regarding Cardinal Newman's cause for
beatification, I was left with an intense sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to
Almighty God and my intercessor Cardinal John Henry Newman."
He continued, "I have dedicated my vocation in praise of Cardinal Newman, who
even now directs all my efforts."
Anticipation
In Rome, Father Edoardo Cerrato, procurator-general of the Oratory, stated, "On
behalf of the 82 houses of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, Newman's own
congregation, I welcome this decision with joy and look forward to the ceremony
of beatification with great anticipation."
Father Paul Chavasse, provost of the Birmingham Oratory, which was Cardinal
Newman's community, affirmed, "The prayers of Christ's faithful all over the
world have now been answered."
The priest noted that it is "providential that the beatification of this great
English theologian will occur in the pontificate of Benedict XVI, a major
theologian in his own right whom Cardinal Newman has influenced profoundly."
Cardinal Newman was declared venerable in 1991 by Pope John Paul II.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Papal Homily at Canonization Mass
"Let Us Thank the Lord for the Gift of Holiness"
VATICAN CITY, MAY 7, 2009 - Here is a translation of the homily Benedict XVI
gave on April 26 at the canonization Mass of five newly recognized saints.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On this Third Sunday in the Easter Season, the liturgy once again focuses our
attention on the mystery of the Risen Christ. Victorious over evil and over
death, the Author of life who sacrificed himself as a victim of expiation for
our sins "is still our priest, our advocate who always pleads our cause. Christ
is the victim who dies no more, the Lamb, once slain, who lives for ever"
(Easter Preface iii).
Let us allow ourselves to be bathed in the radiance of Easter that shines from
this great mystery and with the Responsorial Psalm let us pray: "O Lord, let the
light of your countenance shine upon us."
The light of the face of the Risen Christ shines upon us today especially
through the Gospel features of the five Blesseds who during this celebration are
enrolled in the Roll of Saints: Arcangelo Tadini, Bernardo Tolomei, Nuno de
Santa Maria Álvares Pereira, Geltrude Comensoli and Caterina Volpicelli. I
willingly join in the homage that the pilgrims are paying to them, gathered here
from various nations and to whom I address a cordial greeting with great
affection.
The various human and spiritual experiences of these new Saints show us the
profound renewal that the mystery of Christ's Resurrection brings about in the
human heart; it is a fundamental mystery that orients and guides the entire
history of salvation. The Church therefore, especially in this Easter Season,
rightly invites us to direct our gaze to the Risen Christ, who is really present
in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
In the Gospel passage, St Luke mentions one of the appearances of the Risen
Jesus (24: 35-48). At the very beginning of the passage the Evangelist notes
that the two disciples of Emmaus, who hurried back to Jerusalem, had told the
Eleven how they recognized him in "the breaking of the bread" (v. 35).
And while they were recounting the extraordinary experience of their encounter
with the Lord, he "himself stood among them" (v. 36). His sudden appearance
frightened the Apostles. They were fearful to the point that Jesus, in order to
reassure them and to overcome every hesitation and doubt, asked them to touch
him -- he was not a ghost but a man of flesh and bone -- and then asked them for
something to eat.
Once again, as had happened for the two at Emmaus, it is at table while eating
with his own that the Risen Christ reveals himself to the disciples, helping
them to understand the Scriptures and to reinterpret the events of salvation in
the light of Easter.
"Everything written about me," he says, "in the law of Moses and the Prophets
and the Psalms must be fulfilled" (v. 44). And he invites them to look to the
future: "Repentance and forgiveness of sins [shall] be preached in his name to
all nations" (cf. v. 47).
This very experience of repentance and forgiveness is relived in every community
in the Eucharistic celebration, especially on Sundays. The Eucharist, the
privileged place in which the Church recognizes "the Author of life" (Acts 3:
15) is "the breaking of the bread," as it is called in the Acts of the Apostles.
In it, through faith, we enter into communion with Christ, who is "the priest,
the altar, and the lamb of sacrifice" (cf. Preface for Easter, 5) and is among
us.
Let us gather round him to cherish the memory of his words and of the events
contained in Scripture; let us relive his Passion, death and Resurrection. In
celebrating the Eucharist we communicate with Christ, the victim of expiation,
and from him we draw forgiveness and life.
What would our lives as Christians be without the Eucharist? The Eucharist is
the perpetual, living inheritance which the Lord has bequeathed to us in the
Sacrament of his Body and his Blood and which we must constantly rethink and
deepen so that, as venerable Pope Paul VI said, it may "impress its
inexhaustible effectiveness on all the days of our earthly life" (Insegnamenti,
v [1967], p. 779).
Nourished with the Eucharistic Bread, the Saints we are venerating today brought
their mission of evangelical love to completion with their own special charisms
in the various areas in which they worked.
St Arcangelo Tadini spent long hours in prayer before the Eucharist. Always
focusing his pastoral ministry on the totality of the human person, he
encouraged the human and spiritual growth of his parishioners. This holy priest,
this holy parish priest, a man who belonged entirely to God ready in every
circumstance to let himself be guided by the Holy Spirit, was at the same time
prepared to face the urgent needs of the moment and find a remedy for them.
For this reason he undertook many practical and courageous initiatives such as
the organization of the "Catholic Workers Mutual Aid Association," the
construction of a spinning mill and a residence for the workers and, in 1900,
the foundation of the "Congregation of Worker Sisters of the Holy House of
Nazareth" to evangelize the working world by sharing in the common efforts after
the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth.
How prophetic the charismatic intuition of Father Tadini was and how timely his
example remains today in an epoch of serious financial crisis! He reminds us
that only by cultivating a constant and profound relationship with the Lord,
especially in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, can we bring the Gospel leaven to
the various fields of work and to every area of our society.
Love for prayer and for manual labour also distinguished St Bernardo Tolomei,
the initiator of a unique Benedictine monastic movement. His was a Eucharistic
life, entirely dedicated to contemplation, expressed in humble service to
neighbour. Because of his rare spirit of humility and brotherly acceptance, he
was re-elected abbot for 27 years, until his death. Moreover, in order to
guarantee the future of his foundation, on 21 January 1344 he obtained from
Clement VI papal approval of the new Benedictine Congregation called "Our Lady
of Monte Oliveto".
During the epidemic of the Black Death in 1348, he left the solitude of Monte
Oliveto for the monastery of S. Benedetto at Porta Tufi, Siena, to attend to his
monks stricken with the plague, and died, himself a victim, as an authentic
martyr of love.
The example of this Saint invites us to express our faith in a life dedicated to
God in prayer and spent at the service of our neighbour, impelled by a love that
is also ready to make the supreme sacrifice.
"Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord hears when I
call to him" (Psalm 4: 3). These words of the Responsorial Psalm express the
secret of the life of Bl. Nuno de Santa María, a hero and saint of Portugal. The
70 years of his life belong to the second half of the 14th century and the first
half of the 15th, which saw this nation consolidate its independence from
Castille and expand beyond the ocean not without a special plan of God opening
new routes that were to favour the transit of Christ's Gospel to the ends of the
earth.
St Nuno felt he was an instrument of this lofty design and enrolled in the
militia Christi, that is, in the service of witness that every Christian is
called to bear in the world. He was characterized by an intense life of prayer
and absolute trust in divine help.
Although he was an excellent soldier and a great leader, he never permitted
these personal talents to prevail over the supreme action that comes from God.
St Nuno allowed no obstacle to come in the way of God's action in his life,
imitating Our Lady, to whom he was deeply devoted and to whom he publicly
attributed his victories. At the end of his life, he retired to the Carmelite
convent whose building he had commissioned.
I am glad to point this exemplary figure out to the whole Church particularly
because he exercised his life of faith and prayer in contexts apparently
unfavourable to it, as proof that in any situation, even military or in war
time, it is possible to act and to put into practice the values and principles
of Christian life, especially if they are placed at the service of the common
good and the glory of God.
Since childhood, Geltrude Comensoli felt a special attraction for Jesus present
in the Eucharist. Adoration of Christ in the Eucharist became the principal aim
of her life, we could almost say the habitual condition of her existence.
Indeed, it was in the presence of the Eucharist that St Geltrude realized what
her vocation and mission in the Church was to be: to dedicate herself without
reserve to apostolic and missionary action, especially for youth.
Thus, in obedience to Pope Leo XIII, her Institute came into being which
endeavoured to translate the "charity contemplated" in the Eucharistic Christ,
into "charity lived," in dedication to one's needy neighbour.
In a bewildered and all too often wounded society like ours, to a youth, like
that of our day in search of values and a meaning for their lives, as a sound
reference point St Geltrude points to God who, in the Eucharist, has made
himself our travelling companion. She reminds us that "adoration must prevail
over all the other charitable works," for it is from love for Christ who died
and rose and who is really present in the Eucharistic Sacrament, that Gospel
charity flows which impels us to see all human beings as our brothers and
sisters.
St Caterina Volpicelli was also a witness of divine love. She strove "to belong
to Christ in order to bring to Christ" those whom she met in Naples at the end
of the 19th century, in a period of spiritual and social crisis. For her too the
secret was the Eucharist. She recommended that her first collaborators cultivate
an intense spiritual life in prayer and, especially, in vital contact with Jesus
in the Eucharist. Today this is still the condition for continuing the work and
mission which she began and which she bequeathed as a legacy to the "Servants of
the Sacred Heart."
In order to be authentic teachers of faith, desirous of passing on to the new
generations the values of Christian culture, it is indispensable, as she liked
to repeat, to release God from the prisons in which human beings have confined
him.
In fact, only in the Heart of Christ can humanity find its "permanent dwelling
place." St Caterina shows to her spiritual daughters and to all of us the
demanding journey of a conversion that radically changes the heart, and is
expressed in actions consistent with the Gospel. It is thus possible to lay the
foundations for building a society open to justice and solidarity, overcoming
that economic and cultural imbalance which continues to exist in a large part of
our planet.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us thank the Lord for the gift of holiness that
shines out in the Church with rare beauty today in Arcangelo Tadini, Bernardo
Tolomei, Nuno de Santa Maria Álvares Pereira, Geltrude Comensoli and Caterina
Volpicelli.
Let us be attracted by their examples, let us be guided by their teachings, so
that our existence too may become a hymn of praise to God, in the footsteps of
Jesus, worshipped with faith in the mystery of the Eucharist and served
generously in our neighbour.
May the maternal intercession of Mary, Queen of Saints and of these five new
luminous examples of holiness whom we venerate joyfully today, obtain for us
that we may carry out this evangelical mission. Amen!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salesian Missionary Declared Venerable
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 12, 2008 -
The heroic virtue of Sister Maria Troncatti, a Salesian who served the
indigenous peoples of Ecuador, has been recognized by the Congregation
for Saints' Causes.
The decree was presented today by Archbishop Angelo Amato,
prefect of that dicastery, in the presence of the newly elected
superior-general of Sister Troncatti's congregation, the Salesian
Sisters of Don Bosco Daughters of Mary Help of Christians.
Sister Troncatti is the ninth member of this religious
family to be declared venerable, following Margarita Occhiena, the
mother of St. John Bosco.
The Salesian news agency explained that Sister Troncatti
(1883-1969) lived with the Shuar population of southeast Ecuador for
more than 40 years, carrying out "an enormous work of evangelization,
in the midst of various kinds of risks."
The woman religious died in 1969 in a plane crash.
The diocesan report on a possible miracle attributed to
Sister Troncatti has already been turned into the Vatican congregation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Papal Homily at Canonization
"The Ministry of Reconciliation Is a Ministry That Is
Relevant"
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 12, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation
of
parts of a pluri-lingual homily Benedict XVI gave today at a Mass he
celebrated in St. Peter's Square. During the Mass he canonized four
saints.
* * *
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today four new saints are being proposed for the veneration of
the
universal Church: Gaetano Errico, Maria Bernarda Bütler, Alphonsa
of
the Immaculate Conception and Narcisa de Jesús Martillo
Morán.
The liturgy presents them with the Gospel image of the guests who
participate
in the feast dressed in wedding garments. The image of the feast is in
the
first reading and in various other Bible passages: It is a joyous image
because
the feast accompanies a wedding celebration, the covenant of love
between
God and his people. The Old Testament prophets continually directed
Israel's
expectations toward this covenant. And in a time marked by trials of
every
sort, when problems threatened to discourage the people, the reassuring
word
of the prophet Isaiah comes forth: "On this mountain," he says, "the
Lord
of hosts will provide for all peoples a feast of rich food and choice
wines,
juicy, rich food and pure, choice wines" (25:6). God will put an end to
the
sadness and shame of the people, who will finally live happily in
communion
with him. God will never abandon his people: this is why the prophet
invites
them to rejoice: "Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us! This is
the
Lord for whom we looked; let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved
us"
(25:9).
If the first reading exalts in God's fidelity to his promise, the
Gospel, with the parable of the wedding feast, brings us to reflect on
the human response.
Some of those who were invited first rejected the invitation, because
they
are drawn by other interests; others scorned the king's invitation,
provoking
not only their own chastisement but that of the whole city. The king,
however,
is not discouraged and he sends his servants to find others to fill up
the
hall where the feast is taking place. Thus, the rejection of the
invitation
on the part of those who were first invited has as its effect the
extension
of the invitation to all, with a special predilection for the poor and
the
disadvantaged. This is what happened in the Pascal Mystery: The power
of
evil was defeated by the omnipotence of God's love. The risen Lord can
now
invite everyone to the feast of Easter joy, himself furnishing the
guests
with the wedding garments, the symbol of the gratuitous gift of
sanctifying
grace.
But man must respond to God's generosity with free acceptance.
This
is precisely the generous path that was followed by those whom we are
venerating
today as saints. In baptism they received the wedding garment of divine
grace. They kept it pure or purified it and made it bright in the
course of their lives through the sacraments. Now they are joining in
the heavenly wedding feast. The feast of the Eucharist, to which the
Lord invites us every day and in which we must partake with the wedding
garment of his grace, is the anticipation of that crowning feast in
heaven. If it happens that this wedding garment is sullied or torn by
sin, God's goodness does not reject us or leave us to our fate, but
offers us the possibility, through the sacrament of reconciliation, of
restoring the integrity of that wedding garment that is required for
the feast.
The ministry of reconciliation, therefore, is a ministry that is
relevant. The priest Gaetano Errico, founder of the Congregazione dei
Missionari dei Sacri Cuori di Gesù e di Maria, dedicated himself
to this sacrament
with diligence, assiduity and patience, never refusing it nor counting
the
cost. He thus entered among the group of other extraordinary priests
who
tirelessly made the confessional a place to dispense God's mercy,
helping
men to rediscover themselves, to fight against sin and make progress in
the
spiritual life. The street and the confessional were the two particular
places
of Gaetano Errico's pastoral work. The street was the place that
permitted
him to offer his customary invitation: "God loves you, when shall we
meet?"
and in the confession he made their encounter with the mercy of the
heavenly
Father possible. How many wounded souls did he heal in this way! How
many
people did he help to be reconciled with God through the sacrament of
forgiveness! In this way St. Gaetano Errico became an expert in the
"science" of forgiveness, and concerned himself with teaching it to his
missionaries: "God, who does not wish the death of the sinner, is
always more merciful than his ministers; so be as merciful as you can
and you will find mercy with God!"
[...]
Mother María Bernarda, a well loved and well remembered
figure
especially in Colombia, deeply understood that the banquet the Lord has
prepared
for all peoples is represented in a very particular way in the
Eucharist.
There, Christ himself receives us as friends and gives himself for us
at
the table of the bread and of the word, entering into intimate
communion
with each one. This was the source and pillar of the spirituality of
this
new saint, as well as the missionary drive that led her to leave her
homeland
of Switzerland and open herself to other evangelizing horizons in
Ecuador
and Colombia. In the midst of the serious adversities that she had to
face,
including exile, she carried engraved on her heart the exclamation from
the
Psalm we heard today: "Though I walk through dark valleys, I fear no
evil,
for thou art with me." (Psalm 23:4). In this way, docile to the Word of
God
and following the example of Mary, she did as the servants of the
Gospel
that we heard: She went in every direction proclaiming that the Lord
invites
all to his banquet. In this way she brought others to participate in
the
love of God to which she had dedicated all of her life with fidelity
and
joy.
"He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord God will wipe
away
tears from all faces" (Is 25:8). These words of the prophet Isaiah
contain
the promise which sustained Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception
through
a life of extreme physical and spiritual suffering. This exceptional
woman,
who today is offered to the people of India as their first canonized
saint,
was convinced that her cross was the very means of reaching the
heavenly
banquet prepared for her by the Father. By accepting the invitation to
the
wedding feast, and by adorning herself with the garment of God's grace
through
prayer and penance, she conformed her life to Christ's and now delights
in
the "rich fare and choice wines" of the heavenly kingdom (cf. Is 25:6).
She wrote, "I consider a day without suffering as a day lost".
May
we imitate her in shouldering our own crosses so as to join her one day
in
paradise.
The young Ecuadorian laywoman, Narcisa de Jesús Martillo
Morán,
offers us a perfect example of a prompt and generous response to the
invitation
that the Lord makes to us to participate in his love. And from a very
young
age, upon receiving the sacrament of confirmation, she clearly felt in
her
heart the call to live a life of sanctity and surrender to God. To
assist
with docility the action of the Holy Spirit in her soul, she always
sought
the counsel and guidance of good and expert priests, considering
spiritual
direction as one of the most effective means to reach sanctity. St.
Narcisa
de Jesús shows us a path to Christian perfection accessible to
all
faithful. Despite the abundant and extraordinary graces she received,
her
life developed in great simplicity, dedicated to her work as a
seamstress
and her apostolate as a catechist. In her passionate love for Jesus,
that
brought her to embark on a path of intense prayer and mortification,
and
to identify herself more and more with the mystery of the cross, she
offers
us an inviting testimony and a polished example of a life totally
dedicated
to God and neighbor.
Dear brothers and sisters, let us thank the Lord for the gift of
sanctity, that today shines in the Church with singular beauty. Jesus
invites us all to follow him, like these saints, on the way of the
cross, to inherit the eternal life that he, dying, made a gift to us.
May their examples encourage us, their teachings orient and comfort us,
their intercession sustain us in
our daily toil, so that we too may one day share with them and all the
saints
the joy of the eternal feast in the heavenly Jerusalem. May Mary, the
Queen
of the Saints, whom we venerate with particular devotion during this
month
of October, obtain this grace for us. Amen.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sister Faustina's Confessor to Be Beatified
Church to Recognize 2nd Married
Couple
as Blessed
ROME, AUG. 20, 2008 - Sister Faustina's confessor and St.
Thérèse's
parents are among the six who will be beatified in the next two months.
The group also includes an Italian founder and two Italian
priests,
one of whom was martyred in Yugoslavia.
Polish Father Michal Sopocko, Sister Faustina Kowalska's
confessor
and spiritual director, and principal promoter of the revelations the
nun
received on Divine Mercy, will be beatified Sept. 28 in Poland. Father
Sopocko
(1888-1975) also founded the Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus.
Another witness of Divine Mercy, Vincenza Maria Poloni
(born
Lugia) (1802-1855), founder of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy,
will
be beatified Sept. 21.
Father Francesco Bonifacio (1912-1946), martyr and victim
of
ethnic cleansing in Communist Yugoslavia, will be beatified Oct. 4 in
Italy.
Diocesan priest Father Francesco Pianzola (1881-1943),
founder
of the Congregation of Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Queen of
Peace,
will also be beatified that same day.
Finally, as previously announced, Louis and
Marie-Zélie
Martin, parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, will be
beatified
on Mission Sunday at the Cathedral of Lisieux. Mission Sunday is
celebrated
this year on Oct. 19. St. Thérèse, together with St.
Francis
Xavier, is the patron of missions.
The Martins are the second married couple to be beatified
by
the Church. Italian spouses Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi were
beatified
by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 21, 2001.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause Opens for St. Gianna Beretta's Brother
Prelate Calls Them
"Spectacularly
Important Siblings"
By Alexandre Ribeiro
SÃÃO PAULO, Brazil, JULY 1, 2008 - The
brother
of a woman canonized after she opted to risk her life to save her
unborn
child is also being considered for official recognition as a saint.
The cause for Friar Albert Beretta, brother of St. Gianna
Beretta,
opened in Italy last month. Friar Albert was an Italian missionary in
Brazil
for 33 years, and is also an "example of the ideal of holiness," a
bishop
who worked with him told ZENIT.
Retired Bishop Serafim Spreafico of Grajau, Maranhao, in
northern
Brazil, reflected on the life of his countryman and fellow Capuchin,
and
that of his sister.
"They are two spectacularly important siblings for today's
world,
extraordinary examples of fraternity, of family holiness," he said.
The bishop and Friar Albert worked closely together for 20
years,
both in Italy and Brazil.
Albert Beretta was born in Milan in 1916. He was already a
doctor
and surgeon when he was ordained a priest in the Capuchin Order in
1948.
He left for Brazil a year later.
Bishop Spreafico described Friar Albert as "a witness of
the
beatitudes. [……] He was a witness of God's presence in every person,
from
the beginning to the end."
The bishop recalled an episode involving Friar Albert: "He
had
been praying for some time before the tabernacle when I arrived. Then
he
asked me: 'Will we be closer to God in heaven than we are here at this
moment,
before the tabernacle?'
"I must say I was surprised by the very simple way he asked
me
that, his simplicity in living in the presence of God.
"I then answered, 'yes,' and in heaven we will be immersed
in
God, as St. Thomas says. At that moment, in silence, he returned to
pray."
Also a missionary
Gianna (1922-1962) also wanted to go to Brazil, to work as
a
missionary beside her priest brother, Bishop Spreafico said. She
trained
for seven years to be able to go, but her frail health impeded her.
"In the spiritual dimension, she was and is a missionary
in
Brazil, so much so that it was in that country that the two miracles
took
place that raised her to the order of saints," he noted.
Gianna was a physician like her brother. She married and
had
four children. During her pregnancy with her daughter, Gianna Emanuela,
she
developed a fibroma in her uterus. Rather than choosing an abortion or
a
hysterectomy, Gianna chose to have the fibroma removed, though further
complications
were anticipated. She gave birth to little Gianna Emanuela, but died a
week
later.
She was beatified in 1994 and canonized in 2004. Her husband
and
Gianna Emanuela were present at the ceremony.
Bishop Spreafico told ZENIT that he always entrusts
himself
to the intercession of St. Gianna and Friar Albert.
"As members of my diocese, though St. Gianna [only] in the
spiritual
dimension, the two siblings must obey me," the bishop quipped. "So I
pray
to them to grant many graces and holiness to the Church in Brazil."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause Opens for US Priest
ROME, MAY 11, 2008 - The cause
for
beatification for a 20th-century Massachusetts-born priest officially
opened
in Rome.
The cause of Father Theodore Foley (1913-1974) officially
opened
Friday.
For 10 years, Father Foley was the superior general of the
Congregation
of the Passion, also known as the Passionists.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, Benedict XVI's vicar for the
Diocese
of Rome, described the priest's life during the inauguration ceremony.
He
invited the Passionist Fathers to walk the way of sanctity, "which
Father
Foley followed with such dedication."
Daniel Foley was born in 1913 in Springfield to a family
of
Irish immigrants. He attended the schools the Passionist Fathers, where
he
heard the call to the priesthood. He entered the Passionists
congregation
in 1932 and in the following year made his first profession, taking the
name
Theodore. He was ordained a priest in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1958, Father Foley became the general consultor and
assistant
to the superior-general of the Passionists. He was himself elected
superior-general
in 1964, a post that he held until his death on Oct. 9, 1974.
Father Giovanni Zubiani, postulator of the cause of
beatification,
spoke of Father Foley as a man open to dialogue "but firm on the
principles
and charism of the congregation."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benedict XVI's Homily at Mass for John Paul
II
"Death Was the Seal of an Existence Totally Given to Christ"
VATICAN CITY, APRIL 2, 2008 .- Here is a translation of the homily
Benedict
XVI gave today when he celebrated Mass on the third anniversary of the
death
of Pope John Paul II.
* * *
Dear brothers and sisters,
The date of April 2 has been imprinted in the Church's memory as the
day
the Servant of God Pope John Paul II [said] good-bye to this world. Let
us
again live with emotion the hours of that Saturday afternoon, when the
news
of his passing away was received by a great multitude of people in
prayer
who filled St. Peter's Square. For a few days, the Vatican Basilica and
this
Square truly became the heart of the world. An uninterrupted river of
pilgrims
paid homage to the remains of the venerated Pontiff and his funeral was
a
last testament of the esteem and the affection that he had won in the
spirit
of so many believers and people from all the corners of the earth.
Just like three years ago, today as well, just a short time has passed
since
Easter. The heart of the Church finds itself still submerged in the
mystery
of the resurrection of the Lord. In truth, we can interpret the entire
life
of my beloved predecessor, particularly his Petrine ministry, according
to
the sign of Christ resurrected. He felt an extraordinary faith in Him,
and
with Him, he maintained an intimate, unique, uninterrupted
conversation.
Among his many human and supernatural qualities, he had an exceptional
spiritual
and mystical sensitivity.
It was enough to see him praying: He literally submerged himself in God
and
it seemed that everything else during those moments was left outside.
During
the liturgical celebrations, he was attentive to the mystery being
carried
out, with a keen capacity to perceive the eloquence of God's word in
the
development of history, penetrating deeply into God's plan. Holy Mass,
as
he often repeated, was for him the center of the day and all his
existence
-- the "living and holy" reality of the Eucharist that gave him
spiritual
energy to guide the people of God on the path of history.
John Paul II died on the vigil of the Second Sunday of Easter, "the day
the
Lord made." The throes of death happened on this "day," in the new
time-space
that is the "eighth day," desired by the Holy Trinity through the work
of
the incarnate Word, dead and risen. Pope John Paul II showed on various
occasions
that already from before, during his life, and especially in the
fulfilling
of his mission as Supreme Pontiff, he was in some way submerged in this
spiritual
dimension
His pontificate, taken together and in many specific moments, presents
itself
to us as a sign and testimony of the resurrection of Christ. This
paschal
dynamism, which made of John Paul II's existence a total responding to
the
call of the Lord, could not be expressed except without a participation
in
the sufferings and the death of the divine Master and Redeemer. "This
saying
is trustworthy," the Apostle Paul says, "If we have died with him we
shall
also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him" (2
Timothy
2:11-12).
Since childhood, Karol Wojtyla had experienced the truth of these
words,
finding the cross on his path, in his family, with his people. Very
soon
he decided to carry it beside Jesus, following in his footsteps. He
wanted
to be his faithful servant to the point of welcoming the call to the
priesthood
as a gift and a commitment for all of his life. With Him, he lived, and
with
Him, he wanted to die. And all of this by way of the unique mediation
of
most holy Mary, mother of the Church, mother of the Redeemer,
intimately
and truly associated with the salvific mystery of his death and
resurrection.
In this evocative reflection, the biblical readings just proclaimed
guide
us: "Be not afraid!" (Matthew 28:5). The words of the angel of the
Resurrection,
addressed to the women before the empty tomb, which we just heard,
became
a type of motto on the lips of Pope John Paul II, since the solemn
beginnings
of his Petrine ministry. He repeated them on various occasions to the
Church
and to the world on the journey toward the year 2000, and after having
passed
that historical time, as well as afterward, in the dawn of the third
millennium.
He always pronounced them with inflexible firmness, first raising up
[his] crosier predominated by the cross, and later, when his physical
energies
were weakening, nearly clinging to it, until that last Good Friday, in
which
he participated in the Way of the Cross from his private chapel,
embracing
within his arms the cross.
We cannot forget that last and silent testimony of love for Jesus. That
eloquent
scene of human suffering and faith, in that last Good Friday, also
indicated
to believers and to the world the secret of every Christian life. That
"be
not afraid" was not based on human strength, nor on successes
accomplished,
but rather, only on the word of God, on the cross and resurrection of
Christ.
In the degree in which he was being stripped of everything, at the end,
even
of his very words, this total surrender to Christ manifested itself
with
increasing clarity. As it happened to Jesus, also in the case of John
Paul
II, words gave way at the end to the ultimate sacrifice, to the gift of
self.
And death was the seal of an existence totally given to Christ,
conformed
to him even physically with the traits of suffering and trusting
abandonment to the arms of the heavenly Father. "Let me go to the house
of the Father,"
these words -- report those who were at his side -- were his last
words,
the fulfillment of a life totally oriented to knowing and contemplating
the
face of the Lord.
Venerated and dear brothers: I give thanks to all of you for having
united
yourselves to me in this Mass for the soul of the beloved John Paul II.
I
address a particular thought to the participants in the first world
congress
on Divine Mercy, which begins precisely today, and which aims to go
deeper
in his rich magisterium on this theme. The mercy of God, he himself
said,
is a privileged key for interpreting his pontificate. He wanted the
message
of the merciful love of God to reach all men and women and he exhorted
the
faithful to be its witnesses. (Cf. Homily at the dedication of the
Shrine
of Divine Mercy, Aug. 17, 2002.)
For this reason, he wanted to elevate to the altars Sister Faustina
Kowalska,
a humble religious converted by the mysterious divine design into the
prophetic
messenger of divine mercy. The Servant of God John Paul II had known
and
personally lived the terrible tragedies of the 20th century, and he
asked
himself during a long time what could stop the advance of evil. The
answer
could only be found in the love of God. Only divine mercy, in fact, is
capable
of putting limits on evil; only the omnipotent love of God can topple
the
dominance of the evil ones and the destructive power of egotism and
hate.
For this reason, during his last visit to Poland, upon returning to his
native
land, he said, "Apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of
hope
for mankind."
Let us give thanks to God because he has given the Church this faithful
and
courageous servant. Let us praise and bless the Virgin Mary for having
ceaselessly
watched over his person and his ministry for the benefit of the
Christian
people and all of humanity. And while we are offering for his chosen
soul
the redeeming Sacrifice, we ask him to continue interceding from heaven
for
each one of us, for me in a special way, who Providence has called to
take
up his inestimable spiritual heritage. May the Church, following his
teaching
and example, faithfully continue its evangelizing mission without
compromises, spreading tirelessly the merciful love of Christ, fount of
true peace for
the entire world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Papal Message to Funeral of Focolare Founder
"I Give Thanks to God for the Service Chiara Has Offered to the
Church"
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 18, 2008 - Here is a translation of Benedict
XVI's letter to his secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who
celebrated
today the funeral Mass of the founder of the Focolare Movement, Chiara
Lubich.
* * *
To Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state
I spiritually participate in the solemn liturgy with which the
Christian
community accompanies Chiara Lubich in her taking leave of this earth
to
enter the bosom of the heavenly Father. I renew with affection my
profound
condolences to the leaders of the whole Work of Mary -- Focolare
Movement,
as well as to those who have collaborated with this generous witness of
Christ,
who have given themselves without reserve to the spreading of the
Gospel
message in every ambit of contemporary society, always attentive to the
"signs
of the times."
There are many reasons to give thanks to the Lord for the gift he
has given to the Church in this woman of intrepid faith, a meek
messenger of
hope and peace, founder of a great spiritual family that extends across
multiple
fields of evangelization.
Above all I would like to give thanks to God for the service
Chiara
has offered to the Church: a silent and incisive service, always in
harmony with the magisterium of the Church. "The Popes," she said,
"have always understood
us." That is because Chiara and the Work of Mary have always tried to
respond
with docile fidelity to each one of their invitations and desires.
The uninterrupted list of each of my venerable predecessors, from
the Servant of God Pius XII and Blessed John XXIII to the Servants of
God Paul
VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, is a concrete testimony. The thought
of
the Pope was for her a sure directional guide. Moreover, seeing the
initiatives
that she has started, one could even affirm that she had an almost
prophetic
capacity to intuit [that thought] and act on it in an anticipatory way.
Her heritage passes now to her spiritual family: May the Virgin
Mary, constant model as a reference point for Chiara, help each member
of Focolare
to follow the same path, contributing to make the Church be ever more a
house
and school of communion, as dear John Paul II wrote after the Jubilee
Year
2000.
May the God of hope receive the soul of our dear sister, [and]
console and support the commitment of those who take on her spiritual
testament.
For this intention, I assure a particular memory in prayer, as I send
to
all those present in the sacred rite the apostolic blessing.
From the Vatican, 18 of March of 2008
Benedictus PP XVI
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Martyrs of Spain's Civil War
by Wlodzimierz Redzioch
Fifty thousand Spanish people attended the beatification
ceremony
of 498 martyrs, victims of religious persecution in 1930's Spain. These
498
people were killed only for their faith in Jesus Christ and their
ideals,
their killing being part of the anti-Catholic plan of the Republican
government
in power since 1931. The figures of this persecution are impressive: 13
bishops,
4,154 priests and seminarians, 2,365 religious, 283 nuns and about
4,000
laymen killed for helping or hiding nuns or priests.
As Monsignor Vicente Carcel Orti, the Spanish historian
who
has been living in Rome for forty years and who worked for the Curia,
points
out, the Spanish Church did not seek any confrontation with the
Republic,
but was persecuted in spite of her neutrality. The government
persecuted
the Church in legislative terms, while Republican extremists used
violence
against people and things. Anti-clerical violence was unleashed by
Freemasons
and Communists. Persecution started long before the civil war.
According
to Monsignor Carcel Orti, the shameful history of the Spanish Republic,
a
puppet in the hands of the Stalinist regime, has been concealed on
account
of its follow-up: the long winter of Franco's dictatorship has, in a
way,
justified a distorted and mythicized reading of those tragic years.
This long interview with the Spanish historian is meant to
throw
light on this dramatic period in the history of the Spanish Church in
order
to achieve a better understanding of what is going on in present-day
Spain.
Twentieth-century Spain was a nation of martyrs. What was
the
political and ideological context in which the persecution of the
Church
and the martyrdom of believers occurred?
MONSIGNOR VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It was a slow process which
began
with a great anticlerical movement in the 19th century. In 19th century
Spain
the Church was closely linked to the monarchy by means of concordats.
Catholicism
was, in practice, the state religion, like the Orthodox religion in
Greece
and Romania and Anglicanism in England. In the 1920's King Alphonse
XIII
handed power over to Primo de Rivera, who set up a military
dictatorship
(we are talking about the age of dictatorships: there was Mussolini in
Italy,
Stalin in Russia and Hitler in Germany). The military regime, on the
one
hand, dissolved parliament, trade unions and political parties; on the
other
hand it ushered in a period of security and economic growth, through
public works amongst other things. Unfortunately economic growth came
to a sudden
halt with the 1929 world crisis. The following year the Republicans won
the
municipal elections. Thus General Primo de Rivera relinquished his
power
while the king left the country, though without abdicating. It was
under
these circumstances that the Republicans seized power on April 14th,
1931,
and proclaimed the Republic.
Why did the Republic persecute the Church and Catholic
believers?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: The Republicans had built up so much
hatred
for the monarchy and everything relating to it, the Church included,
that,
once they seized power, they began to hit their enemies. Their first
and
easiest target was the Church, being defenseless. The new regime made
laws
against the Church; in the meantime anarchists, socialists and
Communists
began to use violence against people and things.
What was the role of Freemasonry in this anti-Catholic
campaign?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Freemasonry played a key role in the
anti-Catholic
campaign since Freemasons were present in political institutions, in
the
government and the "Cortes" (the Spanish parliament), where they had at
least
183 deputies. Spanish Freemasonry therefore played a major role in the
making
of anti-Catholic laws and in the defamatory campaign against the Church.
What kind of persecution was the Church faced with from
1931
to 1936?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: As historians have ascertained, a
growing
number of measures against the Catholic Church and religious practice
were
taken between 1931 and 1936. These oppressive laws aimed at a radical
and
antidemocratic conception of the separation between Church and State.
Numberless
examples could be quoted: the Jesuits were dissolved in January 1932;
in
May 1933 a law against ecclesiastical property deprived the Church of
all
her possessions, which were handed over to civil authorities; a law was
passed
against the teaching of religion in schools, and the clergy was
forbidden
to teach. Violent persecution proper began in 1934 with the "Turon
martyrs,"
who have already been canonized, and many other believers murdered
during
the Communist Revolution of the Asturias, when priests, religious and
seminarians,
37 in all, were killed and 58 churches were burned. After 1936 in all
the
main cities, cathedrals, religious communities and parish churches were
attacked,
ransacked and burned. These persecutions aimed at erasing all traces of
Catholic
tradition in Spain. Hatred for the faith went even beyond murders and
found
expression in thousands of sacrilegious acts: tabernacles were emptied,
consecrated
particles were eaten, shot at, strewn in the streets and trodden on;
churches
were used as stables, altars were demolished, priests and nuns were
held
at gunpoint in the attempt to force them to recant their faith. Let us
remember
that persecutions started years before the beginning of the civil war,
and
the Church could be accused of supporting Franco's Falangists, referred
to
as "rebels."
But wasn't the Church hostile to the Republican government?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Spanish bishops recognized the
legitimate
Republican government from the start. The problem, however, was that
the
Republican authorities had always been openly hostile to Catholics.
After
the events of the Asturias, in the summer of 1936, socialists,
Communists
and anarchists started the most violent persecution in the history of
Spain,
aimed at the physical elimination of the Church, of both people and
things;
this persecution lasted until 1939.
Could you quote any figures?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Albeit incomplete, the figures are
impressive:
18 bishops, 4,184 between priests and seminarians, 283 nuns and about
4,000
laymen were killed for helping or hiding priests or nuns. It must be
emphasized
that in the part of the country occupied by Franco's troops, no harm
was
done to the clergy nor were the churches destroyed.
Some critics of Franco say that he had 16 Basque priests
executed.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It is true that when the nationalist
troops
entered Bilbao, 16 priests were shot, not because they were priests,
but
for political reasons with other people. I have found the documentary
evidence
of this along with the witness of the bishop who had asked those
priests
to refrain from being involved in political activities. Such political
activities
triggered off Franco's repression, which also involved 16 priests. When
the
Pope learned about this, he immediately sent a telegram to Franco, who
promised
that events like that would never happen again. The martyrdom of
priests, however, only occurred in the "red" areas. In addition, the
Republicans destroyed
churches and monasteries (in my diocese, the diocese of Valencia, over
1000
churches and other sacred buildings were destroyed).
When did the beatification causes of the Spanish martyrs
begin?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: At the end of the civil war in 1939,
the
Holy See demanded that all information about the persecution available
to
parishes and dioceses be collected. Once all the necessary material had
been
collected, bishops gradually started the diocesan phase of the
beatification
cases. These cases began in the 1940's and continued into the 1950's.
At
the end of the diocesan phase, all documents were sent to Rome for the
"Roman"
phase, to be held by the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints. Yet
Paul
VI stopped the cases, as he thought it would be best to wait until
fifty
years had passed from those dramatic events. Also, he posed a
condition:
Spain was to have a democratic government (the military regime was
still
in power in 1960's Spain). At the beginning of John Paul II's
pontificate Spain was already a democracy; the Spaniards therefore
asked the Pope to
proceed with the beatification cases, but he did not comply with their
request,
since fewer than fifty years had passed since the end of the civil war.
John
Paul II waited until 1987 to celebrate the first beatification case of
martyrs
who were victims of religious persecution (three Carmelite nuns from
Guadalajara).
This marked the beginning of the beatifications of our martyrs. On
October
18th we celebrated sixteen beatifications, raising 979 martyrs to the
altars.
As far as I know, the Congregation is now examining another 2000 cases
so
that 2000 martyrs will probably be beatified in six or seven years'
time.
The Church has sometimes been accused of opening up an old
sore
with the beatification of the martyrs of the civil war.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: It is a specious dispute with a
strong
ideological and political orientation. The victims beatified and
canonized
have never been referred to as "martyrs of the civil war," but victims
of
religious persecution; the Church has always paid tribute to martyrs of
faith
and always will. Civil and military institutions commemorate "soldiers
killed
in war" or "victims of political repression," both on the Republican
and
on the Nationalist sides, but this doesn't mean opening up an old sore,
even
though political parties sometimes clearly exploit past events.
How can these martyrs become a mark of reconciliation?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Nowadays the word "martyr" is abused;
in
common speech it is used in several senses, but its original and most
proper
use refers to someone suffering or dying for God's sake, bearing
witness
to their faith, forgiving and praying for their executioners, as Jesus
Christ
did on the cross. Others can be called "heroes" or "victims" for
various
causes, sometimes questionable, but are referred to as "martyrs," since
this
word is abused, being extended to those suffering for somebody or
something.
"Christian martyrs" have no ideological or political
motivation
except their faith in God and love of their neighbors. These martyrs
never
waged or fomented any war; they were never involved in party strife.
They
brought an everlasting message of peace and love, which lightens our
faith
and feeds our hope.
The beatification of these martyrs coincides with the
Spanish
Parliament's decision to commemorate the victims of Franco's regime.
Who
were they?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: They were people killed in the civil
war
and in the ensuing wave of repression. This involved the winners'
ideological
enemies. Franco's reaction was violent, but did not last too long.
Republicans
were tried, though by court-martials, and documents of these trials
have
come down to us.
A point must be made: those who fought for the Republic at
that
time did not fight for freedom or democracy, but to set up a regime
like
the one in power in the Soviet Union. Franco was therefore right when
he
said that he was making war on Communism. If he had not won, there
would
have been the Spanish Soviet Union.
All over the world left-wing parties have always idealized
the
Spanish Republicans and depicted Franco as the incarnation of evil.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Franco saved the Church from total
destruction.
Without his intervention the Church would probably have been blotted
out.
Yet no one knew at the time that he would become a dictator.
Franco also saved Spain from the Second World War.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: This is another very important
element.
At the end of the civil war, Hitler paid a visit to Franco and asked
his
permission for the German army to cross Spain as far as Gibraltar (he
intended
to conquer North Africa and occupy the whole Mediterranean). Franco did
not
give his consent on the grounds that the country had been devastated by
the
civil war and could not afford to be involved in another conflict.
Pius XI, who was in contact with Franco, warned him
against
Hitler (Franco declared himself a Catholic, Hitler was a pagan).
At the end of the Second World War Franco established
relations
with the U.S.A. and brought his country into the U.N. Spain was
recognized
by all states. When certain circles demand that the Spanish Church
apologize
for her relations with Franco's regime, I therefore ask myself: "What
do
we have to apologize for? For having ten thousand martyrs?"
Such requests are made by the ideological heirs of those
who
persecuted the Church. They do everything to erase all memories of her
martyrdom.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: These requests are only demagogical.
In
addition, the Spanish Church produced a document many years ago,
recognizing
that mistakes had been made and forgiving her persecutors. In this
document
it was also pointed out that no other course of action was possible
under
those circumstances.
Why is the struggle against Franco still a myth to the
whole
of the Left, a symbol of the fight for democracy against dictatorship?
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: Most of the European Left was and is
Communist.
Since Franco was the only one to defeat Communists on the battlefield,
these
have reacted by presenting the fight of the International Brigades as
the
fight for freedom against dictatorship. Unfortunately Communist
organizations
are the most backward and the most conservative ones nowadays; they are
unable
to revise their past or make any self-criticism.
Socialist, Communist and Masonic parties are in power in
Spain
nowadays. They see the Church in the same way as the Republicans who
tried
to destroy her 70 years ago. Needless to say, nobody kills priests and
nuns
or burns religious buildings, but the Church is perceived as a
hindrance
to the real progress of Spain and the whole of mankind, as an
institution
to marginalize and reduce to silence, being the holder of a
conservative
vision of man, an ideological adversary. Zapatero seems to be willing
to
create a new world, a new man in Spain.
VICENTE CARCEL ORTI: This is typical of all left-wing
totalitarian
regimes. Stalin too intended to create a new man; so did Pol Pot.
Freedom
is at risk in Spain, as the state is trying to interfere with people's
private
lives, to impose a given way of life, to decide how they must bring up
their
children, etc. It is not enough for laws to be passed by a parliament
to
be right. As there is only one voice to defend man's good, attempts are
being
made to hush it. Yet, whilst politicians are voted into and out of
power,
the Church remains.
© Urbi et Orbi Communications
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Faithful Even Unto Death: The Witness of Alfred Delp, S.J.
by Fr. Albert Münch
Editor's Note: Fr. Alfred Delp was a German Jesuit priest
who
was imprisoned in Berlin. At the time of his arrest, he was the Rector
of
St. Georg Church in Munich, and had a reputation for being a gripping,
dynamic
preacher, and one who was an outspoken critic of the Nazi regime. He
was
an important figure in the Resistance movement against Nazism.
Accused of conspiring against the Nazi government, he was
arrested
in 1944, tortured, imprisoned, and executed on February 2, 1945. While
in
prison, Fr. Delp was able to write a few meditations found in Advent of
the
Heart: Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings, 1941-1944, which also
includes
his powerful reflections from prison during the Advent season about the
profound
spiritual meaning and lessons of Advent, as well as his sermons he gave
on
the season of Advent at his parish in Munich. These meditations were
smuggled
out of Berlin and read by friends and parishioners of St. Georg in
Munich. This year marks the 100th anniversary of Fr. Delp's birth and
the 70th anniversary
of his ordination to the priesthood.
The following
article contains some of the thoughts and recollections of
Fr. Albert Münch, a close friend of Fr. Delp. It was first
published
in Reden und Ansprachen zum Gedenken an Pater Alfred Delp, S.J.,
Hammerich, Lampertheim, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 13-26. Translation from the
German by Abtei
St. Walburg.
Personal experiences
with
Alfred Delp
As you know, he was born in the year 1907 in Mannheim and
then
moved with his family to Lampertheim. The local pastor, Father Unger,
helped
him to go to high school in order start him on the way to a career that
would
be "suitable" for him. I met him in Dieburg, at the diocesan seminary
for
boys, and attended my last two years of high school there with him.
I can tell you a few things about him: Delp was a
difficult
person; he was always restless, but he fit with his times. If, today,
we
say that youth are restless and that, in the past, they were
different--that
is nonsense. In the past, the youth were also restless. And even in the
youth
movement, in which we were both involved—he with "Neudeutchland", I
with
"Quickborn"—there was plenty of unrest. However, one thing was certain:
We
always met one another on a common foundation. We knew where to find
our
footing. We were people who were believers, for whom the Lord God was
in
no way a problem, but rather, a part of life. Faith gave us security,
and
we never tried any kind of hairsplitting, either, over faith, or its
deepest
meaning, or the Lord God. We tried to envision man and the world in
such
a way that they fit in with these thoughts of God. That was the most
important thing.
Also, there was something else besides this, a second
foundation.
Back then, the youth movement had a great idea: We wanted to get out
into
nature, to see in it the will of the Creator, and to live out of His
Creation.
Our hiking and camping trips came from this idea, and often we would
hike
from Dieburg to Breuberg, through the forests of the Odenwald. In
Breuberg,
we met with Dr. Gottron, a dear friend and youth leader, who gave us an
introduction
into the liturgy, Vespers, and devotions. The singing of the Psalms
there
remains something unforgettable.
Those were two foundations, and today, when we look back
on
Father Delp's life, we can say that these were two points he never
forgot.
He stood by them and, we can say, they were simply the Christian
attitude,
or simply a matter of course in his life. He never turned aside from
them.
He graduated with
us in 1926. Let me look back once more to the time before
graduation. Alfred Delp could not be still, as I said. His whole
personality,
his mind and spirit sparkled. Therefore, there were often discussions,
even in the school with our teachers. Although we did not want to
criticize them
at all, they often had their own pace, their own way. They often wanted
no
change. And it was Alfred, of course, his mind bubbling over with
ideas,
who would interrupt in a way that was fun. And many times, when he
spoke
that way, his speech got ahead of him, you might say, and kept on
going.
He often floundered just because his train of thought was already too
far
ahead, before the thought was verbalized.
The same thing showed up in his handwriting. I love to
recall
the moment when our German teacher said: "Delp, buy yourself a
typewriter,
at long last! I can no longer read anything you write." For when he
wrote,
his mind went on ahead and entire lines came out almost like a
stenograph,
which nobody could read except him. Thus, one can say he had a
scintillating
mind and, even back then, a restless spirit that looked further ahead.
However,
he was someone who had foundations, who stood for something. For him,
the
foundation would remain unquestionable throughout all of his struggles
and
all of the difficulties he would have to experience.
Vocation and ordination
After graduation, he went to Munich to the Jesuits.
Another
friend went with him, but soon left the Order. One classmate went to
Würzburg
and studied theology there. Unfortunately, as a pastoral assistant, the
friend
from Würzburg had a fatal motorcycle accident when a child ran
into
the street. I went to Mainz. The classmate who withdrew from the Jesuit
Order
became a physician. Delp studied and worked in Munich. In the Jesuit
Order,
one had to be thirty years old for ordination, but he was not idle
during
this waiting period. As early as the year 1935, he wrote a book: Tragic
Existence.
He wrote it in opposition to the fashionable philosophy of Heidegger.
Not
only the godlessness, but modern man's "incapability of God", must be
seen,
for that was the tragedy of the time. Delp saw this and worked it into
his
writings for Stimmen der Zeit. He wrote articles, books, and tried to
navigate
his way through.
It was in 1937, on June 24 in Munich, that we saw one
another
again. He was ordained to the priesthood there by the well-known
Cardinal
Faulhaber. I think we can say that Delp was pleased to be ordained by
such
a famous person who stood up and fought in those times.
Here in Saint Andreas Church, we celebrated his first Holy
Mass.
We were together again, but would very soon go our separate ways.
Meanwhile,
many things had happened. If I may say a couple of personal things, it
will
perhaps give a clearer view of those times. Oh, yes, you can hear how
people
make accusations: "Why didn't the people resist?" Anyone who knows how
hard
it was to risk saying just one word in the pulpit that was displeasing
to
those in power also knows that prison was certain to those who took
that
risk.
Resistance and ministry
Delp came to see me one more time, after the journal,
Stimmen
der Zeit, was abolished. After they had plundered that whole building
and
stolen all there was to steal, he showed up. We spoke about the
situation.
His plans seemed dangerous to me. "Be careful," I warned him. "Maybe
you
don't know these brothers well enough." At that point, I already had
been
in prison twice, and had been sentenced to four months in prison, and
only
got out of that through an amnesty. I had to change my workplace as
Pastoral
Assistant three times. Therefore I said: "Watch out!"
However, with what you could call boyish cheerfulness, he
answered,
"No problem. I've got my documents here." At any rate, he believed he
would
be able to get out of the country. Unfortunately that would no longer
be
possible. That was our last meeting. It was tragic to hear later what
had
happened to him.
He came to Bogenhausen in Munich and worked in the parish,
as
rector of St. Georg. I am sure he did well. We hear how he was a
leader,
decision-maker, and guide. As I already mentioned, with every word that
we
spoke from the pulpit, we had to very carefully consider how far we
could
go. Mostly we had to speak metaphorically and, in this way, we were
understood
by the faithful. The men of the Gestapo, the secret state police who
mostly
served as spies, understood us too, but could not touch us. I, myself,
was
arrested for a third time and then expelled from Germany.
Plans for the future
In 1942, Alfred Delp was faced with what can be called a
challenge.
Count Moltke asked the Jesuit Provincial, Father Rösch, to give
him
someone who could say something about the social teachings of the
Church.
Helmuth von Moltke and his people were not seeking to carry out a
violent
coup. However, they knew things could not go on that way much longer.
Anyone
who followed the situation—and I did, from Rome—had to say, "Maybe
until
1944 or '45, then the whole thing is going to collapse." And these men
made
plans for what would become of our poor German people afterwards.
First,
of course, everything would have to collapse and we would stand on the
brink
of horrifying ruin—we experienced it in 1945.
Moltke invited Delp to join the group, which met in
Kreisau
on Moltke's estate, or in Munich, or Berlin, anywhere. It was too
dangerous
to keep meeting at the same place. They know that the "bloodhounds"
were
everywhere. I don't know if you know this: ten million Germans were
constantly
under surveillance by the Gestapo, and two million were in prisons and
concentration
camps. So you can picture how things were, how it seemed, how careful
one
had to be, and how dangerous it all was. Nevertheless, Delp worked with
Moltke,
with Gerstenmaier, with Gross, with Sperr and the others. And all but
Gerstenmaier
would lose their lives for it. Moltke was arrested in January 1944. He
did
not want a violent revolution, and had stayed out of the plans of those
officers
who, with Stauffenberg, were preparing to assassinate Hitler. He did
not
want that, but wanted to prepare for the day of Germany's defeat.
Arrest and imprisonment
Then they came for Father Delp as well. On 28 July 1944,
he
fell into the hands of the Gestapo. They arrested him in the morning
after
the Holy Mass. Two officers had stood in the back of the church and,
after
the service, they nabbed him and led him away. At first, friends
thought
he was in a camp, but then they found him in Berlin, at the Lehrter
Stra?e
prison. And then, alongside his martyrdom, the heroism of the laity
began.
We know that in Berlin and Munich, lay people cared for him and risked
their
own freedom—maybe even their lives—to save him, to help him. Anyone who
has
been in prison, who knows what it means to be stuck there with no
connection
to the outside, also knows what a comfort it is to find a piece of
bread
or a little message in a packet of laundry that someone was able to
bring. That was a sign that there were people who were thinking of him
and who sympathized.
When you read his letters and notes, written on small
slips
of paper that were smuggled out of the prison, you have to ask,
astonished,
where in the world did he get the strength? I return to what I said at
the
beginning, and answer, "From his faith in God, from that foundation
from
which he lived. From the joy that he had filled his soul with, not only
through
his studies and theological knowledge, but through the strength that he
stored
up in his soul when he was outside in nature, climbing mountains. That
gave
him a foothold to get through difficulties and tough times.
It was on 8 December 1944 that Alfred finally arrived at
what
he had long desired. He wanted to give himself completely and totally
to
his Lord God. It had already been planned that he make his final
profession
of vows on 15 August, but, because of his arrest, the date had to be
postponed.
On December 8, his confrere, Father Tattenbach came with full
authorization
to Berlin, to receive his final vows. It must have been an interesting
scene,
the two of them sitting at a table with a prison guard keeping watch.
And
Father Delp made his vows in the presence of his confrere.
Faithful unto death
Then came the day in January 1945, the horrible day of
that
stupid, idiotic, terrible show trial before the People's Court. Perhaps
you
have heard the name of Roland Freisler. In Berlin, they spoke of
"Raging
Roland" in his red robes, who held forth, foaming at the mouth, and
shouted
down, screamed down, and bellowed down everything, without rhyme or
reason.
It must have been a gruesome spectacle.
Moltke, Delp and the others stood before this man. It is
astonishing
how Father Delp, who otherwise let the sparks fly, stood quietly and
matter-of-factly
before the judge. The words of the Holy Scripture are true: When you
stand
before your enemies, do not ask what you should say, for the Spirit of
God
will tell you what you should say. And when Delp, in peace and
certainty
before the judge, point for point refuted the charges against him,
especially
those related to 20 July, then one can only marvel and say that it was
not
the man speaking here, but God.
Nevertheless, he was condemned to death with Moltke. Let's
keep
it brief. On 2 February 1945, he was strangled. None of us was there.
No
one knows the details...let's not speak of it—it is horrible. To think
of
these men who were intellectually outstanding, men who had ideals, men
who
wanted to survive and to give their best for their people—to think that
these
men had to depart from this life because of such a satanic system!
Valediction to Father Delp: A man who consistently went
the
way that he had recognized as the right way. Completely human, creature
of
God, completely Christian, faithful to his Master even unto death.
Grateful acknowledgement is due to Father Hammerich of St.
Andreas
Church, Lampertheim, for permission to publish text and photo. First
published
in Reden und Ansprachen zum Gedenken an Pater Alfred Delp, S.J.,
Hammerich,
Lampertheim, 1975, vol. 1, pp. 13-26. Translation from the German by
Abtei
St. Walburg. Photo: Procession to the church for Father Delp's first
Mass
on 4 July 1937. Father Albert Münch (far left), Father Alfred
Delp,
S.J. (center).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
6-Year-Old on Way to Sainthood
Pope Approves Decree of Heroic
Virtue
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 18, 2007- A 6-year-old Italian girl who
cheerfully
endured the amputation of her leg and offered it in union with the
sacrifices
of Christ might someday become the youngest canonized non-martyr saint.
Benedict XVI approved Monday the decree recognizing the
heroic
virtue of Antonietta Meo, who died of bone cancer. Along with the
recognition
of Meo's virtue, the Pope approved six decrees recognizing miracles,
and
seven other decrees affirming lives of heroic virtue.
Born in 1930, Antonietta was diagnosed with bone cancer at
age
5 after a fall caused by a knee injury would not heal.
The girl formed the habit of leaving a letter at the foot
of
a crucifix every night. At first, she dictated these notes to her
mother;
later she wrote them herself. The more than 100 letters and her diary
reveal
an intense mysticism and a surprising level of theological reflection,
albeit
hidden in simple phrases.
"Dear Jesus," one of the letters says, "I love you very
much.
I want to abandon myself in your hands [...] I want to abandon myself
in
your arms. Do with me what you want. [...] Help me with your grace. You
help
me, since without your grace, I can do nothing."
Her letters were written to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit
and
the Virgin Mary. In a letter to Mary from Sept. 18, 1936, she said,
"Dear
little Virgin, you who are very good, take my heart and bring it to
Jesus."
Antonietta died July 3, 1937, five months before her 7th
birthday.
In 1981, the Vatican Congregation for Saints' Causes
removed
the norm restricting "heroic virtue" only to those who had lived a
"period
of maturity." The change in the norm permitted the visionaries of
Fatima,
Jacinta and Francisco, to be beatified in 2000.
Holiness from a
wheelchair
Benedict XVI also approved the decree of heroic virtue
attributed
to Manuel Lozano Garrido, a Spanish journalist who spent 28 years in a
wheelchair.
Lozano Garrido (1920-1971) entered the Catholic Action
group
at age 11. During the Spanish civil war, he distributed holy Communion
to
the imprisoned.
His long illness began in 1942 and just one year
afterward,
he began to need a wheelchair. Twenty years later, nearly 10 years
before
his death, he lost his sight.
From his wheelchair, with progressive paralysis affecting
more
and more of his body, he became a recognized writer and journalist. His
professional
life led to many publications, including reports for the Associated
Press
and nine books on spirituality. When his right hand became paralyzed,
he
learned to write with his left. When that hand, too, lost movement, he
would
dictate his words.
Decrees
Besides the decrees pertaining to Antonietta and Lozano
Garrido,
Benedict XVI authorized the publication of decrees of miracles obtained
through
the intercession of the following Servants of God:
-- Michael Spocko, Polish priest (1888-1975).
-- James Ghazir Haddad (born Khalil), Lebanese professed
priest
of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins and founder of the Congregation
of
Franciscan Sisters of the Cross in Lebanon (1875-1954).
-- Maria Maddalena dell'Incarnazione Sordini (born
Caterina),
Italian founder of the Order of Sisters of the Perpetual Adoration of
the
Blessed Sacrament (died 1824).
-- Jeanne Emilie de Villeneuve, French foundress of the
Sisters
of the Immaculate Conception (1811-1854).
-- Vincenza Maria Poloni (born Luigia), Italian foundress
of
the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of Verona (1802-1855).
-- Maria Giuseppina di Gesu Crocefisso Catanea (born
Giuseppina),
Italian professed nun of the Order of Discalced Carmelites (1896-1948).
The Pope also approved decrees of heroic virtue for the
following
Servants of God:
-- Francesco Mottola, Italian priest and founder of the
Secular
Institute of the Oblates of the Sacred Heart (1901-1969).
-- Serafino Morazzone, Italian priest (1747-1822).
-- Raphael Louis Rafiringa, Madagascan professed religious
of
the Institute of Brothers of Christian Schools (1856-1919).
-- Stephen Nehme (born Joseph), Lebanese professed
religious
of the Order of Maronites (1889-1938).
-- Anna Maria Marovich, Italian member of the Sisters of
Reparation
to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary Immaculate (1815-1887).
-- Maria Piera De Micheli (born Giuseppa Maria), Italian
professed
sister of the Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of Buenos Aires
(1890-1945).
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A Martyr's Letter to His Girlfriend
"Let My Memory Always Remind You
There
Is a Better Life"
MADRID, Spain, NOV. 9, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a
translation
of a letter from Bartolomé Blanco Márquez, written to his
girlfriend
from prison the day before he was executed during religious persecution
in
1930s Spain. Márquez was beatified Oct. 28; the letter is
published
in the “Summarium Super Martyrio” of his beatification cause.
Bartolomé Blanco Márquez was born in Cordoba
in
1914. He was arrested as a Catholic leader -- he was the secretary of
Catholic
Action and a delegate to the Catholic Syndicates -- on Aug. 18, 1936.
He
was executed on Oct. 2, 1936, at age 21, while he cried out, “Long live
Christ
the King!”
* * *
Provincial prison of Jaen, Oct. 1, 1936
My dearest Maruja:
Your memory will remain with me to the grave and, as long
as
the slightest throb stirs my heart, it will beat for love of you. God
has
deemed fit to sublimate these worldly affections, ennobling them when
we
love each other in him. Though in my final days, God is my light and
what
I long for, this does not mean that the recollection of the one dearest
to
me will not accompany me until the hour of my death.
I am assisted by many priests who -- what a sweet comfort
--
pour out the treasures of grace into my soul, strengthening it. I look
death
in the eye and, believe my words, it does not daunt me or make me
afraid.
My sentence before the court of mankind will be my
soundest
defense before God's court; in their effort to revile me, they have
ennobled
me; in trying to sentence me, they have absolved me, and by attempting
to
lose me, they have saved me. Do you see what I mean? Why, of course!
Because
in killing me, they grant me true life and in condemning me for always
upholding
the highest ideals of religion, country and family, they swing open
before
me the doors of heaven.
My body will be buried in a grave in this cemetery of
Jaen;
while I am left with only a few hours before that definitive repose,
allow
me to ask but one thing of you: that in memory of the love we shared,
which
at this moment is enhanced, that you would take on as your primary
objective
the salvation of your soul. In that way, we will procure our reuniting
in
heaven for all eternity, where nothing will separate us.
Goodbye, until that moment, then, dearest Maruja! Do not
forget
that I am looking at you from heaven, and try to be a model Christian
woman,
since, in the end, worldly goods and delights are of no avail if we do
not
manage to save our souls.
My thoughts of gratitude to all your family and, for you,
all
my love, sublimated in the hours of death. Do not forget me, my Maruja,
and
let my memory always remind you there is a better life, and that
attaining
it should constitute our highest aspiration.
Be strong and make a new life; you are young and kind, and
you
will have God's help, which I will implore upon you from his kingdom.
Goodbye,
until eternity, then, when we shall continue to love each other for
life
everlasting.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Miguel Pro: Viva Cristo Rey! The Cristeros Versus the Mexican Revolution
by Christopher Check
Imagine going to confession on a Saturday afternoon only
to
find no priest available. You drive to nearby — or even distant —
churches
and encounter only frustrated parishioners facing the same situation. A
couple
with a new baby cannot find a priest to baptize him. The last time
anyone
in the group attended Mass was months ago. This nightmare gives some
sense
of the profound evil that gripped Mexico nearly a century ago.
Socialist historians from Mexico and Russia have argued
that
the Cristeros were superstitious peasants manipulated by elites who
felt
threatened by the revolution's promise of progress and justice. To make
such
arguments they had to ignore the facts of the story (the wealthy of
Mexico,
including practicing Catholics, opposed the uprising), as well as the
eleven
centuries of Catholic militancy that informed it. Seduced by Marxist
errors
and Masonic superstitions, revolutionaries declared war on the Catholic
Church.
They seized control of the government and, in 1917, wrote a socialist
constitution packed with anticlerical articles with the goal of
marginalizing the Church's
influence — if not driving her from Mexico altogether.
Backed by the full
force of federal law, the Revolutionary Government confiscated
all Church property, including hospitals, monasteries, convents, and
schools.
Priests were forbidden to wear their clerics in public. They were not
allowed
to express opinions on politics, even in private conversation. They
could
not seek justice in the Mexican courts. To take a religious vow became
a
criminal act. All foreign clergy were deported.
In 1926, the president of Mexico, Plutarco Elias Calles,
added
teeth to the persecution with additions to the penal code. The "Calles
Law,"
as it came to be known, called for uniform enforcement throughout the
country
of the Constitution's anticlerical articles. It threatened severe
sanctions
for violations and for government officials who failed to enforce them.
"As
long as I am President of the Republic, the Constitution of 1917 will
be
obeyed," he vowed, saying he would not be moved by the "wailing of
sacristans
or the pujidos (groans) of the over-pious" (David C. Bailey, Viva
Cristo
Rey!: The Cristero Rebellion, and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico,
65).
Self-Proclaimed Enemies of God
Calles was, in one sense, just another anticlerical
revolutionary
in a century-old series of anticlerical revolutionaries. For him the
Church
represented a past he wished to see liquidated.
Unable to operate under these conditions, the Mexican
bishops,
after agonized deliberations and consultation with the Holy See,
suspended
public worship on July 31, 1926. Three bishops went into hiding; the
rest
left the country in exile. The next day, for the first time in more
than
four hundred years, no priest in Mexico ascended ad altare Dei to offer
the
holy sacrifice of the Mass.
Priests who
remained in Mexico faced two choices: cooperation with the government
or a life on the run. Those who cooperated were forced to abandon their
parishes,
to move to urban areas, and to register with their state governments —
which
now had the power to set clerical quotas. In the state of Tobasco, for
example,
Governor Tomas Canabal restricted the number of priests in his state to
six,
one for every thirty thousand citizens. He demanded these six take
wives.
In true Marxist fashion, he renamed his capital city, San Juan Bautista
(St.
John the Baptist), to Villa Hermosa (beautiful villa), and named his
children
Lenin, Lucifer, and Satan. His business card identified him as "The
Personal
Enemy of God."
A courageous minority of priests refused to register. They
went
into hiding and roamed Mexico by night and in disguise, doing their
best
to bring the sacraments to the faithful. If caught, they were arrested,
fined,
jailed, and sometimes tortured and executed.
Following the suspension of public worship, the National
League
for the Defense of Religious Liberty, an organization formed by
middle-class
Catholic intellectuals, circulated a petition signed by two million
Mexicans
demanding constitutional reform. Their cries were ignored; the
government
went so far as to deny the petition existed. The people responded with
a
nationwide boycott of government transportation services, energy, and
entertainment.
The boycott failed because Mexico's wealthy — including many practicing
Catholics
— felt the sting of the boycott and complained to the government.
Federal police were sent in to break up picket lines. By January 1927,
many of the
faithful concluded that they had exhausted all peaceful means of
protest.
The Mexican landowning peasant class in the rural west took up arms.
Bishops: Fight or Flight?
Was this the effect that the bishops had desired? In the
case
of a few, perhaps, yes. Bishop Leopoldo Lara y Torres of Tacambaro
wrote
to Calles telling him that the bishops were prepared to seal their
protest
"in blood." The fiery tactics of Bishop Francisco Orozco y
Jiménez
of Guadalajara made Rome nervous; he endured three exiles for his
public
opposition to the government. Bishop José de Jesús
Manríquez
y Zárate of Huejulta had been arrested once already for
circulating
tracts condemning Calles and for using his pulpit to denounce his
administration.
Bishop Zárate would later help supply the Cristeros, and he even
considered
taking the field with them. For most of the bishops, however,
suspension
of public worship was a non-violent protest designed to bring popular
pressure
on the government.
The non-violent view was shared by José Anacleto
Gonzales
Flores, the heroic scholar and founder of the Catholic-action
organization
the Union Popular. As street demonstrations devolved into street
violence,
however, Flores reluctantly joined forces with the National League's
Rene
Capistran Garza in a nationwide call to arms. Flores told his followers
that
they were headed for Calvary.
If one of you should ask me what
sacrifice
I am asking of you in order to seal the pact we are going to celebrate,
I
will tell you in two words: your blood. If you want to proceed, stop
dreaming
of places of honor, military triumphs, braid, luster, victories, and
authority
over others. Mexico needs a tradition of blood in order to cement its
free
life of tomorrow. For that work my life is available, and for that
tradition
I ask yours. (Bailey, Viva Cristo Rey!, 110)
Flores was martyred after an ordeal of brutal torture
during
which he was hung by his thumbs while federal soldiers skinned the
soles
of his feet. Before he died, he accomplished much more than organizing
a
military uprising. He and the leaders of the Union Popular operated
catechesis
programs for children and adults and relief efforts for the poor.
Flores
understood that a military victory would be hollow if there were no
Catholic
Mexico to replace Revolutionary Mexico. He was beatified in 1999 by
Pope
John Paul II.
No Support from Northern Neighbors
When the Cristeros took up arms in January 1927, they had
very
few arms to take up, only their battle cry, "Viva Cristo Rey!" The
uprising
occurred almost simultaneously in small towns and villages in a dozen
western
states including Zacatecas, Jalisco, Guanajuato, Durango, Michoacan,
and
Colima. Hundreds of small, poorly organized bands of sharecroppers and
rancheros
bearing machetes and a few rifles took over local municipalities by
disarming
the garrisons at federal outposts, as well as local police and militia
units.
Lack of a long-term plan, however, took some of the steam
out
of these initial victories. Capistran Garza had been a great one for
creating
pious fervor, but he was not the man to organize an armed rebellion.
His
job, as he saw it, was to cross the border and stir up sympathy for the
Cristero
cause among U.S. Catholics, sympathy that would translate into large
gifts
of cash with which to buy desperately needed ammunition. Garza knew
that
American support would dictate the outcome of the war, but the U.S.
bishops
were reluctant to give any sign of supporting an armed rebellion
against
a government recognized by the United States. Meanwhile, most of the
Mexican
bishops were looking for a negotiated settlement. Garza's northern
sojourn
yielded almost no fruit.
Knowing nothing of the diplomatic bargaining that their
uprising
had generated, the Cristeros pressed ahead with their war for the soul
of
Mexico. In some regions they were clearly winning; in others, at least
they
were holding their own. Taking over one rural village at a time, they
began
not only better to organize their army, but also to organize alternate
governments
in the territories they had liberated. They controlled a wide swath of
towns
and cities in the state of Zacatecas. The region of Coalcoman in
western
Michoacan sent Calles formal notification of its succession from Mexico.
Municipal governments under Cristero control collected
taxes
for the war effort but also discharged the ordinary functions of civil
government,
such as school administration. Deeply conscious of the Christian nature
of
their movement, Cristero lawmakers took a hard line on moral behavior.
Unmarried
couples were required to marry or separate. Prostitution, gambling, and
public
drunkenness were severely punished, and rape could draw a sentence of
death.
Catholic social justice informed Cristero economic policy, which
forbade
speculation in corn and other crops afflicted by shortages resulting
from
the war.
Women Wage War of Secrecy
The war raged for thirty months. The federal government
attempted
to deny Cristero victories, but in fact — and in spite of severe
shortages
of ammunition — Catholic soldiers defeated federal units in operations
ranging
from large cavalry engagements on the plains of Jalisco to guerilla
operations
in the mountains of Durango. The American military attaché
described
the "remarkable tenacity" of the Cristeros and the general disorder of
the
federal army.
The Cristeros lived by a strict moral code, one that stood
in
strict contrast to the behavior of federal troops, who were frequently
drunk
or stoned and who terrorized the civilian population with pillage and
rape.
Consequently, public sympathy for the Cristeros was strong. For
example,
there was an extensive logistics network run by the Feminine Brigades
of
St. Joan of Arc, a Catholic women's organization affiliated with the
Unión
Popular. These women devised creative and clandestine ways to keep
soldiers
supplied: special vests for smuggling ammunition out of federal
factories
and secret workshops for the production of homemade explosives, such as
grenades
made out of jelly tins. These courageous twenty-five thousand ladies
also
carried messages — written on silk and hidden within the soles of shoes
—
between units. All of their activities were carried out under an oath
of
secrecy. No evidence indicates that the oath was ever broken.
The heroic efforts of the Joan of Arc Brigades
notwithstanding,
the Cristero army never had enough ammunition to win a decisive
victory.
Too often, in the heat of battle, they had to disengage so as to live
to
fight another day. On several occasions they were reduced to rolling
boulders
(called "Hail Marys" and "Our Fathers") down a hill on advancing
federal
troops. Although the federal army was badly led and plagued by high
rates
of desertion, they were never short of arms and ammunition — supplied
by
the U.S. government. In at least one battle, American pilots provided
air
support for the federal army. Stalemate, albeit one that could last for
years,
seemed to be the best for which the Cristeros could hope.
"Animated by a Spirit of Good Will"
Plutarco Calles felt threatened nonetheless. The war was
costing
the government ninety-six million pesos a year, more than a third of
its
annual budget. This figure did not include the harm to his economy in
reduced
agricultural production (for which Calles' scorched-earth policy was to
blame).
Worse perhaps, his policy of relocating some 30 percent of the rural
population
of Mexico to urban areas in an effort to eliminate the Cristero support
network
was only provoking widespread resentment. Half a million Mexicans left
the country, forming California's first wave of Mexican immigration. By
the end
of the fighting, military deaths approached one hundred thousand, 60
percent
of which were federal troops.
Although Calles continued to call the shots, he turned
over
the presidency to his hand-picked successor, Emilio Portes Gil. Whether
it
was Portes Gil's more moderate positions on religious questions or
Calles'
growing fear that the Cristeros would never be defeated ("they are
annihilating
us," he told Gil), the Mexican government at last came to the
bargaining
table.
The man who negotiated the settlement was the U.S.
ambassador
to Mexico, Dwight Morrow (whose daughter Anne married Charles
Lindbergh).
Calles and Portes Gil knew that if the Mexican bishops restored public
worship,
the armed resistance would fade. Pope Pius XI would permit the
restoration
of public worship only if he believed that the persecution of the
Church
would abate and that Church property would be restored. Calles and
Portes
Gil had no plans to change the constitution, but they were willing to
hint
that enforcement could be relaxed.
On June 21, 1929, Mexico City's Archbishop Pascual Diaz
and
Archbishop Ruiz y Flores, the Apostolic Delegate, along with Portes
Gil,
issued statements to the press. The Mexican episcopal statement was
brief,
citing the spirit of good will in which negotiations had taken place
and
a desire that the restoration of public worship would "lead the Mexican
people,
animated by a spirit of good will, to cooperate in all moral efforts
undertaken
for the welfare of all the people of the country" (Bailey, Viva Cristo
Rey!,
312).
Portes Gil assured the people of Mexico that the
Constitution
did not intend "to destroy the identity of the Catholic Church" nor "to
intervene
in any way with its spiritual functions" and that he was prepared to
listen
to "any complaints . . . regarding injustices . . . committed by undue
application
of the laws" (Bailey, Viva Cristo Rey!, 312). He clarified that the
registration
of clergy did not mean that the government could register clergy not
appointed
by ecclesiastical authority. He added that religious instruction could
take
place within the confines of a church, but not in schools, and that any
law
of Mexico was subject to appeal by one of her citizens.
On these two noncommittal statements, los arreglos
(agreements)
were brokered. Ruiz y Flores and Diaz had given the most generous
interpretation
possible to Pius XI's demand that Church property be restored: "In so
far
as could reasonably be expected," they told Morrow. Portes Gil told
them
that Church property not being used by the government would be returned
immediately,
but that the Church could give the government time to vacate buildings
currently
occupied. Portes Gil also ordered a total amnesty for all Cristeros,
including free rail passes to return to their homes. Officers were
permitted to keep
their sidearms and horses.
At the conclusion of the meeting, the two bishops drove
directly
to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and knelt at the high altar in
thanksgiving.
Public worship was restored. The faithful packed the churches. Word
came
from Pius XI to the Cristeros asking them to lay down their arms. Over
the
next three months, in obedience to the Holy Father, some more
reluctantly
than others, that is exactly what they did.
Betrayal, Persecution, and Mass Executions
But within a few months of the arreglos, signs emerged
that
all was not well. A significant number of churches, schools, and
rectories
remained in government hands. Ruiz y Flores and Diaz attempted to meet
with
the president but were ignored. When they at last met with Portes Gil's
successor,
Pascual Ortiz Rubio (also handpicked by Calles) and asked him to honor
his
predecessor's promises, they were told that Portes Gil had promised
nothing.
Meanwhile, the Cristeros who were not willing to move out
of
their states were taken prisoner and executed. The "annihilation of
Catholic
militants after the 1929 agreement" (Bailey, Viva Cristo Rey!, 294)
lasted
for several years. There were mass executions in Jalisco, and reports
of
Cristero veterans being hunted down and killed lasted until the 1950s.
It
is not known how many thousands of them lost their lives after the war
had
been declared over.
The worst years for the Church in Mexico were 1934 and
1935.
In this period Graham Greene set his novel The Power and the Glory, in
which
a "whiskey priest" fights persecution and his own weaknesses.
Most state governments closed the churches. Priests
practically
vanished, as they were again on the run. Less than a tenth of those who
had
served the faithful in 1925 were permitted to operate a decade later.
In
truth, the number was fewer, since those who wanted to practice legally
had
to marry. In 1934 there were 334 registered priests for fifteen million
Mexicans.
Schoolteachers in Yucatan and Michoacan were required to
take
a public oath of atheism and to promise to teach against the Catholic
religion.
Archbishop Diaz's episcopal palace was never returned. He was thrown in
jail
for a time and then forced to rent rooms where he could find them.
Fearing
to lose their property, few were willing to rent to the aged priest. He
died
hated by the Mexican government and not altogether loved by Catholic
militants
who felt he had betrayed their cause.
Doubtless it was Diaz's voice that at last convinced Pius
XI
to call for an end to the Cristero uprising. However, we can render no
just
judgment on the members of the hierarchy who sought an end to the
Cristiada
without bearing in mind that the Church is not a political movement. It
is
an institution for the care of souls. We may wish ever to see the
Church
triumph over her enemies, but her path must be the path of her founder,
a
steady march to Calvary. Pius XI and his bishops needed first and
foremost
to restore the sacraments to the Mexican faithful, even if the
circumstances
under which they were to be dispensed were trying. They negotiated in
good
faith, which is more than can be said for anyone else at the bargaining
table.
The Seed of the Church
The Mexican Church's climb out of the hell of the
Revolution
has been slow, and it is not finished. Mexican schoolchildren, to the
extent
that they even hear the story of the Cristeros, are as likely as not to
get
the socialist spin. Well into the 1970s, Catholic schools received
regular
inspections to ensure use of government textbooks. Religion could not
be
taught — only "values." Not until the 1980s were the anticlerical
articles
repealed. Not until the late 1990s, with the beatifications and
canonizations
of the Martyrs of the Mexican Revolution by John Paul II and, in 2005,
Benedict
XVI, did a sympathetic public awareness of the Cristeros resurface.
Nonetheless, the Calles Law may be off the books, but
anticlerical
sentiment remains, especially in the popular media, which fumed about
"opening
old wounds" when last summer Miss Mexico wore a dress honoring the
Cristeros.
When bishops in Mexico spoke against new laws permitting abortion, the
press
behaved as if they had no business commenting on a "political matter."
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church."
After
Tertullian wrote those words a century would pass before the Edict of
Milan.
How and when God will perfect the sacrifices of the Mexican Martyrs is
up
to him. For our part we can contemplate the ferocity with which the
Church
was persecuted not long ago in our own backyard, and the zeal of the
faithful
who defended her with Catholic hearts forged in centuries of fighting
the
enemies of Jesus Christ.
Mexico's Tarcisius: José Sánchez del
Río
In 1913, in the state of Michoacan, a boy was born to
Macario
and Maria Sánchez del Río. They called him José.
Macario
and Maria were cattle ranchers who loved Jesus Christ with all their
hearts
and who reared their four children, of whom José was the third,
to
do the same. José cultivated a strong devotion to the Blessed
Virgin
of Guadalupe and said his rosary each day with great care. He
instructed
the other young children of his town in the Catholic faith, and
encouraged
them to make holy hours before the Blessed Sacrament. José loved
to
play marbles with his companions, and he learned to ride and care for
horses.
When José was thirteen, his older brothers, Macario and Miguel,
left home to join the Cristeros. José desired to join them, but
his mother
forbade it. For a year he begged her to let him go. "Mother," he said,
"Will
you deny me the chance to go to heaven, and so soon?"
At last his mother relented, and with tears in her eyes
watched
her youngest son ride off to join the crusade. The Cristero commander
in
José's town refused the boy's appeal to enlist, so he made his
way
some twenty or thirty miles to the next town, Cotija, where he
presented
himself to the Cristero commander, Prudencio Mendoza.
"What contribution can so small a boy make to our army?"
"I ride well. I know how to tend horses, clean weapons and
spurs,
and how to fry beans and tortillas."
Mendoza was inspired by the boy's grit, so he made him the
aide
of the Cristero General Ruben Guizar Morfin. Impressed by José's
service,
Morfin promoted him to bugler. His job was to ride alongside the
general
in combat, carrying his battle standard and delivering the general's
orders
with his horn. The soldiers of José's regiment, inspired by his
piety
and fervor, nicknamed him Tarcisius after the Roman altar boy who died
protecting
the Blessed Sacrament from a pagan mob.
On February 6, 1928, the Cristero army was overwhelmed by
the
federal army in fierce and bloody combat outside of Cotija. General
Morfin's
horse was shot, and it looked as if he would soon be captured by the
federal
troops. José leapt off of his horse.
"General!" he shouted. "Take my mount and escape to
safety.
You are of far greater importance to the Cristero cause than I am."
Helping Morfin up into the saddle, José delivered a
hard
swat across the backside of the horse and sent it galloping away. He
then
took his rifle and bandolier and, taking cover behind a rock, began
shooting
the federal soldiers closing around him. At last the boy ran out of
ammunition,
and standing up shouted to the enemy, "I have not surrendered. I have
only
stopped shooting you because I am out of cartridges."
When the federal soldiers saw that they had been fired
upon
by a boy, they seized him in a fury. They put José in irons and
dragged
him off to the local church, which they had converted into a jail, a
stable
for their horses, and a coop for roosters they used in cockfights.
These
they had leashed to the church's monstrance. José scolded the
soldiers
for desecrating a holy place.
"Now we will see, hombrecito, how tough you are!" they
sneered.
To test his resolve, they forced José to watch as
they
took another captured Cristero, tortured him, and hanged him from a
telegraph
pole. Instead of looking away, José encouraged the prisoner,
telling
him that they would soon meet up in heaven. For two days, José
was
locked in the sacristy of the church, during which time he wrote to his
mother,
telling her that he had no fear, that he had welcomed the will of God
and
looked forward to dying in the light of our Lord.
The captain of the guard offered José his freedom
in
exchange for information about the Cristeros, including the names of
the
people who were supplying them. José refused, so they pinned him
down
and cut the skin off the soles of his feet. At eleven at night, they
marched
José to the cemetery on the edge of town, all the while telling
him
that if he would deny Jesus Christ they would spare his life.
"Viva Cristo Rey!" shouted José, the rallying cry
of
the Cristeros. "Viva Cristo Rey!" over and over as he limped in his
bloodied
feet over the gravel and twigs. "Long Live Christ the King! Long Live
the
Virgin of Guadalupe!" At the graveyard, José was pushed into a
shallow
grave. Struggling to his feet he again shouted, "Viva Cristo Rey!" To
avoid
the sound of gunfire, the commander of the firing squad ordered his men
to
stab the boy with their bayonets. "Viva Cristo Rey!" Again the bayonet
into
his side. "Viva Santa Maria de Guadalupe!"
"Say 'Death to Christ the King' and save your life!"
demanded
the captain of the guard.
"Viva Cristo Rey!"
The captain lost all patience and drew his own pistol. The
first
bullet struck José in the head, knocking him to the ground. As
blood
pooled next to his face, José, in a final act of defiance
against
the enemies of Jesus Christ who had taken over his country, dipped his
hand
in his blood and with it drew a cross in the dirt, then touched his
lips
to the cross. Six more bullets at point-blank range sent the martyr
into
the arms of his Savior.
Torture and Death
While Cristeros often spared the lives of captured federal
soldiers,
the reverse was not true. Cristeros who were captured in battle were
executed
after undergoing torture designed to force the Catholic soldiers to
reveal
military secrets and to deny the faith. Electric shock, burning with
blow
torches, hanging by thumbs, and broken bones were common. It was also
common
to drag prisoners behind a horse and then quarter them alive. A
widespread
form of torture was to flay the soles of the feet and force the victim
to
walk on rock salt. Nonetheless, many Cristero prisoners died bravely,
and
the accounts of their deaths inspired their brothers-in-arms.
Priests captured by the Mexican government, whether they
were
actively serving with the Cristeros or had simply refused to register
with
the government, were hanged or shot. Among them was the sixty-two year
old
Fr. Mateo Correa Magallanes, who refused to tell federal officers what
Cristero
prisoners had told him in confession. Most famous of the martyred
priests
is Bl. Miguel Pro, unjustly implicated in a failed assassination
attempt
on Calles' successor, Alvaro Obregon. Pro died before a firing squad
with
his arms outstretched like our Lord crucified, shouting "Viva Cristo
Rey!" Calles ordered the execution photographed, hoping that the grisly
images
would discourage Catholics supporting the Cristeros. But the photos had
the
opposite effect, and soon Calles was forbidding papers to print them.
Although
Fr. Pro himself was not part of any armed rebellion, his martyrdom
inspired
others to take up arms in support of the Cristeros.
Further Reading
* Blessed Miguel Pro: Twentieth-Century
Mexican
Martyr by Ann Ball (TAN)
* Blood-Drenched Altars: A Catholic
Commentary
on the History of Mexico by Most Rev. Francis Clement Kelley (TAN)
* The Cristero Rebellion: The Mexican
People
Between Church and State by Jean A. Meyer (Cambridge; out of print)
* Mexican Martyrdom: Firsthand
Experiences
of the Religious Persecution in Mexico by Wilfred Parsons, S.J. (TAN)
* The Power and the Glory by Graham
Greene
(Penguin)
* Robbery Under Law: The Mexican Object
Lesson
by Evelyn Waugh (Akadine: Common Reader)
* Viva Cristo Rey!: The Cristero
Rebellion,
and the Church-State Conflict in Mexico by David C. Bailey (University
of
Texas; out of print)
* Young Faces of Holiness by Ann Ball
(Our
Sunday Visitor)
Christopher Check is executive vice president of The
Rockford
Institute and a lecturer on military and Church history. He gratefully
acknowledges
the kind assistance of Roberto and Margarita Ucero in preparing this
article.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Caroline Chisholm, Australia's
next
saint?
A second Australian saint could be on the cards as
supporters
of Catholic pioneer Caroline Chisholm push for her beatification.
Chisholm, who died
in 1877, was known as “the emigrants’ friend” for her
work in helping single women and families settle in Australia and for
rescuing
homeless girls in colonial Sydney.
The Friends of Mrs Chisholm are preparing historical data
to
petition the Vatican for her eventual rise to Sainthood, The Age
reported.
To be considered for sainthood, supporters will need to
establish
signs of two miracles — intercessions in response to prayer from beyond
the
grave.
A public campaign, including the printing of prayer cards
and
a new website, will be launched next year to coincide with the 200th
anniversary
of her birth.
Chisholm has always been held in high regard and was the
first
woman other than a monarch to feature on Australian currency, gracing
the
$5 note until 1992.
But the path to canonisation could be problematic as
Chisholm
died in England and the process of seeking sainthood needs to be
triggered
by the local bishop there.
Friends of Mrs Chisholm spokesperson Clara Geoghegan
spokeswoman
said what makes Chisholm special was her conviction and faith.
“I don't think what she did was possible by mere human
effort,”
Ms Geoghegan said.
"She was responding to the call of the Holy Spirit to deal
with
the contemporary issues of her day.
“At the very least she is as deserving as Mary MacKillop
(of
sainthood), but what she didn't do was to work in the name of the
church.”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MacKillop one step closer to Sainthood
The road to
sainthood
for Mary MacKillop may be one step closer as a second miracle has been
revealed.
Vice-postulator of MacKillop’s cause for sainthood Sr Maria Casey has
publicly
announced
she believes the recovery of
a woman who was on her deathbed is the evidence which will elevate her
to
full sainthood, the Sydney Morning Herald reported. A devout Catholic,
Rosa
– who does not want her last name revealed – was miraculously healed as
she
lay in a coma, suffering multiple organ failure after enduring two
bouts
of breast cancer. On the night she recovered – coincidentally the Feast
day
of Mary MacKillop - her family were praying to Australia’s
saint-in-waiting
for her intercession. Among them was Father Raphael Beltrame who left
the sad gathering for his presbytery to await the call back to Rosa's
deathbed.
However, the call never came. While Mary MacKillop was beatified in
1995,
the church needs signs of two miracles from beyond the grave to award
her
sainthood. Sr Casey is not looking for Rosa's doctors to declare her
recovery
a miracle, only to ask them if they can explain it. "There are
circumstances
if the recovery is remarkable that there could be a shortening of the
time
span for investigation," Sr Casey said. Rosa, a mother of two said she
does
not invite the celebrity but, while others might be sceptical of
supernatural intervention, she is certain that faith in MacKillop is
the reason she is
alive. "I've always been a devout Catholic and I've got a lot of faith
-
and I feel faith has pulled me through. I went back to the doctors and
his
exact words were, 'It wasn't what we did, we saw a miracle'. He still
can't
believe it," she said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
506 More to be Beatified This Year
Papal Schedule Confirmed for
October-November
VATICAN CITY, OCT 12, 2007 (<A
href="http://www.zenit.org
">Zenit.org</A>).- Benedict XVI has approved the beatification
rites
of 506 more people for this year, the vast majority of them martyrs
from
the religious persecution in 1930s Spain.
The Vatican released Wednesday a schedule of the
liturgical
celebrations over which the Pope will preside for October and November,
as
well as news of the approval of beatifications.
On Sunday, Oct. 21, the Holy Father will travel to Naples
for
a pastoral visit, during which he will open the 21st International
Encounter
of Peoples and Religions.
On Monday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m., Benedict XVI will
celebrate
a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the repose of the souls of cardinals
and
bishops who died during the course of the year.
For this month, the Holy Father approved five rites of
beatification.
The Albertina Berkenbrock will be beatified on Oct. 20 in
Tubarao,
Brazil. The native Brazilian laywoman, born in 1919, was martyred in
1931.
Also in Brazil, the following day, Manuel Gómez
González
-- a Spanish diocesan priest, born in 1877 -- and Adílio Daronch
--
a Brazilian layman, born in 1908 -- will be beatified. Both were
martyred
in Feijao Miudo in 1924.
Defending the faith
Another martyr, Franz Jägerstätter, will be
beatified
in Linz, Austria, on Oct. 26. The 36-year-old husband and father of
three
was decapitated on Aug. 9, 1943, because of his public opposition to
Hitler
and Nazism.
The beatification of Celina Chludzinska (1833-1913) will
be
held at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome on Oct. 27. The widowed
native
of Poland founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection of
Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
On Oct. 28, in St. Peter's Square, 498 martyrs of the
religious
persecution in Spain (1936-1939) will be beatified. It will be the
largest
ever group of people to be beatification at the same time.
There will be two rites of beatification in November.
On Nov. 11 in Argentina, Ceferino Namuncurá
(1886-1905)
-- layman and student of the San Francisco de Sales Society -- will be
beatified.
One week later, on Nov. 18, the Italian priest Antonio
Rosmini,
theologian and philosopher, will be beatified in Novara, Italy. Father
Rosmini
(1797-1855) founded the Institute of Charity and the Sisters of
Providence.
In Brazil in December, Lindalva Justo de Oliveira will be
beatified.
The sister of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul died a
martyr
defending her virginity in 1993. She was 39.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope
Remembers
Cardinal Van Thuân
"He Lived on Hope and Spread It
Among
Those He Met"
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican
translation
of Benedict XVI's Sept. 17 address to mark the fifth anniversary of the
death
of Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân.
* * *
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND
PEACE
ON THE FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF CARD. FRANÇOIS-XAVIER
NGUYÊN
VAN THUÂN
Castel Gandolfo
Monday, 17 September 2007
Your Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I address a cordial welcome to all of you, gathered to
remember
beloved Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân,
whom
the Lord called to himself on 16 September five years ago. Five years
have passed but the noble figure of this faithful servant of the Lord
lives on
in the minds and hearts of all who knew him. I too cherish many
personal
memories of the meetings I had with him during the years of his service
here
in the Roman Curia.
I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Bishop
Giampaolo
Crepaldi, respectively President and Secretary of the Pontifical
Council
for Justice and Peace, together with their collaborators. I greet the
members
of the San Matteo Foundation established in memory of Cardinal Van
Thuân,
and of the International Observatory, called after him and created for
the
dissemination of the Church's social doctrine, as well as the deceased
Cardinal's
relatives and friends. I also express my sentiments of deep gratitude
to
Cardinal Martino for his words on behalf of those present.
I willingly take the opportunity once again to highlight
the
shining witness of faith which this heroic Pastor bequeathed to us.
Bishop
Francis Xavier -- this is how he liked to introduce himself -- was
called
to the Father's House in autumn 2000, after a long and difficult period
of
illness faced in total abandonment to God's will. A little earlier, my
venerable
Predecessor John Paul II had appointed him Vice-President of the
Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace, of which he later became President, and
he
set about publishing the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church.
How can we forget the outstanding features of his simple, ready
cordiality?
How can we not shine light on his conversational skill and his ability
to
make himself close to everyone? We recall him with deep admiration
while
we remember the great visions full of hope that inspired him and that
he
was able to present easily and engagingly: his fervent dedication to
disseminating
the social doctrine of the Church among the world's poor; his longing
for
evangelization in Asia, his Continent; his ability to coordinate
activities
of charity and human promotion which he encouraged and supported in the
most
remote places of the earth.
Cardinal Van Thuân was a man of hope. He lived on
hope
and spread it among those he met. It was thanks to this spiritual
energy that
he was able to withstand all the physical and moral difficulties. Hope
sustained
him as a Bishop who for 13 years was cut off from his diocesan
community;
hope helped him to see in the absurdity of the events that had happened
to
him -- he was never tried throughout his lengthy detention -- a
providential
plan of God. He received the news of the disease, the tumour that was
later
to lead to his death, at the same time that he learned of his
appointment
as Cardinal by Pope John Paul II, who held him in high esteem and was
very
fond of him. Cardinal Van Thuân liked to repeat that the
Christian
is the man of the moment, of the now, of the present time that must be
welcomed
and experienced with Christ's love. In this ability to live in the
present
shines forth Cardinal Van Thuân's intimate abandonment in God's
hands
and the Gospel simplicity that we all admired in him. And could it be
possible,
he used to wonder, that those who trust in the Heavenly Father then
refuse to allow themselves to be embraced by him?
Dear brothers and sisters, I accepted with great joy the
news
that the Cause of Beatification of this unique prophet of Christian
hope
is being initiated. As we entrust this chosen soul to the Lord, let us
pray
that his example may be an effective lesson for us. With this hope, I
cordially
bless you all.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vindicated
Thinker to Be Beatified
Father Rosmini's Writings Were
Condemned
NOVARA, Italy, SEPT. 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The
beatification
of a 19th-century priest whose writings were once condemned by the Holy
Office
will take place in Novara this fall.
Father Antonio Rosmini, a theologian and philosopher, will
be
beatified Nov. 18 by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of
the
Congregation for Saints' Causes.
Some of his works were condemned because of erroneous
interpretations
promoted by a few of his followers.
Ordained a priest in 1821, he went on in 1830 to found the
Institute
of Charity, a religious congregation recognized in 1839 by Pope Gregory
XVI.
Despite his absolute fidelity to Pope Pius IX, in 1849 the
ecclesiastical
authorities placed two of Father Rosmini's works on the Index of banned
books.
Condemned later with the doctrinal decree "Post Obitum" were 40 of his
propositions,
taken especially from posthumous works and others published in his
lifetime.
It was not until July 1, 2001, that a note of the
Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by the then prefect, Cardinal
Joseph
Ratzinger, stated that "the reasons for concern" regarding the work of
Antonio
Rosmini have been surmounted.
"The beatification of Father Rosmini," said Bishop Renato
Corti
of Novara in a press conference, "will be a singular event for the
Church
in Italy because it will focus the attention of today's Christians on
the
example of a person who dedicated his life to bringing together faith
and
reason. This is exactly the challenge facing us today."
According to the bishop, "The beatification will be above
all
a moment of great celebration for the men and women religious of the
Rosminian
order, who are present today throughout the world, and also for the
city
of Novara."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Papal Message on Cardinal Van Thuân
"We Remember Him With Great
Admiration"
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, SEPT. 17, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here
is
a translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today when he received
in
audience at Castel Gandolfo the officials and collaborators of the
Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary
of
the death of Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van
Thuân.
* * *
Cardinal,
Venerated Brothers in the Episcopacy and Priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters!
I cordially welcome all of you, gathered to remember
Cardinal
François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân, who the Lord
called
to himself five years ago on Sept. 16. Five years have passed, but the
noble
figure of this faithful servant of the Lord is still alive in our
hearts
and minds. I too have many personal memories of the meetings I had with
him
during his years of service here, in the Roman Curia.
I greet Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino and Bishop
Giampaolo
Crepaldi, respectively the president and secretary of the Pontifical
Council
for Justice and Peace, together with their collaborators. I greet the
members
of the St. Matthew Foundation established in memory of Cardinal Van
Thuân,
of the International Observatory, which bears his name, created to
spread
the Church's social doctrine, along with the relatives and friends of
the
deceased cardinal. To Cardinal Martino I express lively sentiments of
gratitude for his greeting in the name of all those present.
I gladly take this occasion to recall, once more, the
luminous
witness of faith that this heroic pastor left us. Bishop Francis Xavier
--
as he liked to introduce himself -- was called to the house of the
Father
during the autumn of 2002, after a long period of sickness that he
faced
with total abandonment to God's will. Years before he had been named by
my
venerable predecessor John Paul II as vice president of the Pontifical
Council
for Justice and Peace, of which he was later named president, setting
in
motion the publication of the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the
Church.
How can we forget the outstanding marks of his simple and
quick
cordiality? How can we not highlight his ability to dialogue and to
become
everyone's neighbor? We remember him with great admiration, while
recalling
the great visions, full of hope, which animated him and which he knew
how
to propose in an easy and riveting way; his fervent effort to spread
the
Church's social doctrine among the world's poor, how he yearned for the
evangelization
of his continent, Asia, the ability he had to coordinate the activities
of
charity and human promotion that he promoted and sustained in the
remotest
corners of the earth.
Cardinal Van Thuân was a man of hope; he lived hope
and spread it among everyone he met. It was because of this spiritual
energy
that he resisted all his physical and moral difficulties. Hope
sustained
him as a bishop when he was isolated for 13 years from his diocesan
community;
hope helped him to see beyond the absurdity of the events that happened
to
him -- he was never put on trial during his long imprisonment -- a
providential
plan of God. The news of his sickness, a tumor, which led to his death,
reached
him almost at the same time as his elevation to cardinal by John Paul
II,
who held him in great esteem and affection. Cardinal Van Thuân
loved
to repeat that the Christian is a man of hour, of the now, beginning
from
the present moment to welcome and live with Christ's love. In this
ability
to live the present moment his intimate abandonment in God’s hands
shines through as does the evangelical simplicity which we all admired
in him. Is
it possible -- he would ask -- that he who trusts in the Father would
refuse
to let himself be embraced in his arms?
Dear brothers and sisters I welcomed with profound joy the
news
that the cause for beatification of this singular prophet of Christian
hope
has begun and, while we entrust this chosen soul to the Lord, we pray
that
his example will be for us a valuable teaching. With that, I bless you
all
from my heart.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause for Cardinal Van
Thuân
Opens
His Successor Celebrates Mass on 5th Anniversary of Death
ROME, SEPT. 17, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal François-Xavier
Nguyên
Van Thuân's cause for beatification has been opened five years
after
the Vietnamese prelate died at age 74.
Cardinal Renato Martino, who succeeded Cardinal Nguyên Van
Thuân
as president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, announced
the
opening of the cause at a Mass he celebrated Sunday, exactly five years
after
the prelate died.
During his homily, Cardinal Martino recalled his predecessor as an
example
"of unshakeable faith, of steadfast hope and of limitless charity."
According to the current president of the Pontifical Council for
Justice
and Peace, Cardinal Van Thuân was "a shining witness of unity and
forgiveness,
of justice and peace, forged in the suffered experience of prison lived
in
union with Christ crucified and under Mary’s maternal protection."
He "knew how to distinguish between God and God’s works" above all
during
the 13 years of prison when he was tormented by his inability to carry
out
pastoral works, Cardinal Martino said.
The prelate explained that one night, a voice spoke in the depths
of
Cardinal Van Thuân's heart: "Why do you trouble yourself in this
way?
You must distinguish between God and God's works."
Cardinal Van Thuân would later recall the experience: "If
God
wants you to abandon these works by placing them in his hands, do it
immediately
and have faith in him. God will do it infinitely better than you; he
will
entrust his works to others, more able than you. You chose God alone,
not
his works! This light gave me new strength that completely changed my
way
of thinking."
Eucharistic faith
Cardinal Martino said his predecessor nourished Christian faith
with
the Eucharist.
Speaking about the Eucharist just before he died, Cardinal Van
Thuân
said: "Jesus gives us everything we need in the Eucharist: love, the
art
of loving, loving always, loving with a smile, loving right away and
loving
our enemies, loving by forgiving, forgetting having forgiven."
Cardinal Martino said this love and forgiveness permitted Cardinal
Van
Thuân to survive imprisonment, enabling him to live in the joy of
Christ,
in forgiveness, in love and in unity, amid seemingly unbearable
difficulties.
"One cannot be a saint in intervals," Cardinal Van Thuân
wrote,
"but in every minute, in the present moment."
Carinal Martino spoke of how the Vietnamese prelate changed his
jailors,
who became his friends and helped him to build a cross of wood with a
chain
made from an electric wire from his prison.
He wore it to remember "the love and unity that Jesus left us in
his
testament."
"That old wooden cross with a little bit of metal," Cardinal
Martino
said, "is a moving emblem of Christian paradoxes, because it is a cross
of
love."
Devotion to Mary
The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace
concluded
the homily by affirming that Cardinal Van Thuân "loved Our Lady,
as
a baby loves its mother."
On Aug. 15, 1975, when the police arrested him, he had only what
he
was wearing and a rosary in his pocket.
Cardinal Van Thuân recalled the experience: "Mary prepared
me
for the persecution since 1975 when, as a young and active priest,
before
the grotto of Lourdes, she made me meditate on these words 'I do not
promise
you joy and consolations but trials and suffering.'"
Also in attendance at the memorial Mass were Cardinals Angelo
Sodano
and Roger Etchegaray, president of the College of Cardinals and retired
president
of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, respectively.
During the Eucharistic celebration a holy card of Cardinal Van
Thuân
was handed out with a prayer on the back.
Cardinal Martino named Silvia Monica Correale as postulator of the
cause
of beatification.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Light of Mother Teresa's Darkness
Father Kolodiejchuk on Unity
With
Jesus
ROME, SEPT. 4, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Feeling or not feeling
love,
Mother Teresa of Calcutta knew that she was united with Jesus, for her
mind
was fixed on him and him alone.
The founder of the Missionaries of Charity expressed this
in
a letter written to a spiritual director, now published with many other
letters
in a volume titled "Come Be My Light," edited and presented by Father
Brian
Kolodiejchuk.
In this interview with ZENIT, Father Kolodiejchuk, a
Missionary
of Charity priest and the postulator for the cause of canonization of
Blessed
Mother Teresa of Calcutta, discusses his new book and the interior life
Mother
Teresa kept hidden from the world.
Q: The extraordinary interior life of Mother Teresa was
discovered
after her death. Aside from her spiritual directors, how was this life,
especially
her suffering of spiritual darkness, kept from all who knew her?
Father Kolodiejchuk: No one had any idea of her interior
life
because her spiritual directors held onto these letters. The Jesuits
have
some, some were at the archbishop's house, and Father Joseph Neuner,
another
spiritual director, had some.
These letters were discovered when we went looking for the
documents
for the cause.
When she was alive, Mother Teresa asked that her
biographical
information not be shared.
She asked Archbishop Ferdinand Perier of Calcutta not to
tell
another bishop about how things had begun. She said, "Please don't give
him
anything from the beginning, because once people come to know the
beginning,
like the
locutions, then the focus would be on me and not on Jesus."
She kept saying, "God's work. This is God's work."
Even the closest sisters had no idea of her interior life.
Many
would have thought that she would have had a great intimacy with God to
keep
her going in light of the difficulties of the order and the material
poverty
she suffered.
Q: The book discusses Mother's secret vow that she made
early
in her vocation, where she promised not to refuse God anything on pain
of
mortal sin. What role did this play in her life?
Father Kolodiejchuk: Mother Teresa made this vow, in 1942,
to
never refuse God anything.
Her inspiration letters from Jesus soon followed. In one
of
them, if not both of them, Jesus says, picking up on her vow, "Wilt
thou
refuse to do this for me?"
So the vow is the background to her vocation. Then you see
in
the inspiration letters where Jesus makes her call clear.
She then pushes forward because she knows what Jesus
wants.
She is motivated by thought of his longing and his pain because the
poor
don't know him, so they don't want him.
This was one of the pillars that kept her going through
the
trials of the darkness. Because of her certainty of her call and this
vow
in one of the letters she says, "I was at the point of breaking and
then
I remembered the vow, and that picked me up."
Q: There has been a lot of discussion about Mother
Teresa's
"dark night." It is described in your book as a "martyrdom of desire."
This
element, her thirsting for God, has largely been missed. Can you
describe
this?
Father Kolodiejchuk: A good book to read to understand
some
of these things is Father Thomas Dubay's "Fire Within."
In Father Dubay's book, he speaks of the real pain of loss
and
a pain of longing, with the pain of longing being more painful.
As Father Dubay explains, in the path to authentic union
with
God, there is the purgative stage called the dark night, after this a
soul
then goes to a stage of ecstasy and true union with God.
The purgative stage for Mother Teresa seems to have been
during
her time of formation at Loretto.
At the time of her profession, she said her companion was
most
often the darkness. The kind of letters that you read there, in the
dark
night, are typical letters you would read of someone in the dark night.
Father Celeste Van Exem, her spiritual director at the
time,
said that maybe in 1946 or 1945 she was already close to ecstasy.
After that, there is a reference to when the inspirations
and
locutions came, when the difficulty against faith stopped.
Later she wrote to Father Neuner, explaining: "And then
you
know how it worked out. And there, as if our Lord just gave himself to
me
to the full. The sweetness and consolation and union of those 6 months
passed
but too soon."
So, Mother Teresa had six months of intense union, after
the
locutions and ecstasy. She was already in the real transforming union.
At
this point, the darkness returned.
But now, however, the darkness she experienced was within
that
union with God -- so it wasn't that she had the union and then lost it.
She
lost the consolation of the union and alternated between the pain of
loss
and a deep longing, a real thirst.
As Father Dubay said, "At times the contemplation is
delightful,
and at other times it is a strong thirsting for him." But in Mother
Teresa's
case, apart from one month in 1958, she did not have this consolation
of
union.
There is one letter in which she said: "No Father, I am
not
alone, I have His darkness, I have His pain, I have a terrible longing
for
God. To love and not to be loved, I know I have Jesus in the unbroken
union,
for my mind is fixed on him and him alone."
Her experience of darkness within union is very rare even
among
the saints because for most, the end is union without it.
Her suffering, then, to use the Dominican theologian
Father
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange's term, is reparatory, much more for the
sins
of others, not purificatory, for her own sins. She is united to Jesus
in
enough faith and love to share in his experience in the Garden of
Gethsemane
and on the cross.
Mother Teresa made the comment that the suffering in the
Garden
was worse than the suffering on the cross. And now we understand where
that
was coming from, because she understood Jesus' longing for souls.
The important thing is that it is union, and as Carol
Zaleski
pointed out in her article in First Things, this kind of trial is a new
kind
of trial. It is a modern kind of experience for the saints over the
last
100 years or so, to suffer the feeling that one does not have any
faith,
and that religion is not true.
Q: The name of the book, "Come Be My Light," was a request Jesus made
to
Mother Teresa. How did her redemptive suffering for others in such
extreme
darkness connect with her particular charism?
Father Kolodiejchuk: During the 1950s, Mother surrendered and accepted
the
darkness. Father Neuner [one of her spiritual directors] helped her to
understand
it by linking the darkness with her charism, of satiating Jesus' thirst.
She used to say that the greatest poverty was to feel unloved,
unwanted,
uncared for, and that's exactly what she was experiencing in her
relationship
with Jesus.
Her reparatory suffering, or suffering for others, was part of her
living
her charism for the poorest of the poor.
So for her, the suffering was not only to identify with the physical
and
material poverty, but even on the interior level, she identified with
the
unloved, the lonely, the rejected.
She gave up her own interior light for those living in darkness,
saying,
"I know this is only feelings."
In one letter to Jesus, she wrote: "Jesus hear My prayer -- if this
pleases
You -- If my pain and suffering -- my darkness and separation gives You
a
drop of Consolation -- My own Jesus do with me as You wish -- as long
as
You wish without a single glance at my feelings and Pain.
"I am your own. Imprint on my soul and life the sufferings of Your
heart.
Don't mind my feelings -- Don't mind even, my pain.
"If my separation from You, brings others to You and in their love and
company
-- you find joy and pleasure -- why Jesus, I am willing with all my
heart
to suffer all that I suffer -- not only now, but for all eternity, if
this
was possible."
In a letter to her sisters, she makes the charism of the order more
explicit,
saying: "My dear children, without suffering, our work would just be
social
work, very good and helpful, but it would not be the work of Jesus
Christ,
not part of the redemption -- Jesus wanted to help us by sharing our
life,
our loneliness, our agony and death.
"All that He has taken upon Himself, and has carried it in the darkest
night.
Only by being one with us He has redeemed up.
"We are allowed to do the same: All the desolation of Poor people, not
only
their Material poverty, but their spiritual destitution must be
redeemed
and we must have our share in it, pray thus when you find it hard -- 'I
wish
to live in this world which is far from God, which has turned so much
from
the light of Jesus, to help them -- to take upon me something of their
suffering.'"
And that captures what I consider her mission statement: "If I ever
become
a Saint -- I will surely be one of 'darkness.' I will continually be
absent
from Heaven -- to [light] the light of those in darkness on earth…"
This is how she understood her darkness. A lot of the things she said
make
more sense and have a much deeper meaning now that we know these things.
Q: So what do you say to those who call her experience a crisis of
faith,
that she didn't really believe in God, or somehow imply that her
darkness
was a sign of psychological instability?
Father Kolodiejchuk: It wasn't a crisis of faith, or that she lacked
faith,
but that she had a trial of faith where she experienced the feeling
that
she did not believe in God.
This trial required a lot of human maturity, otherwise she wouldn't
have
been able to do it. She would have become unbalanced.
As Father Garrigou-Lagrange said, it is possible to have seemingly
contradictory
feelings at the same time.
It is possible to have "objective Christian joy," as Carol Zaleski
called
it, while at the same time going through the trial or feeling of having
no
faith.
There are not two people here, but one person with feelings on
different
levels.
We can really be living the cross in someway -- it is painful, and it
hurts,
and just because we can spiritualize it does not take way the pain, but
one
can be joyful because one is living with Jesus. And that is not false.
This is how and why Mother lived a life so full of joy.
Q: As the postulator of her cause for canonization, when do you think
we
might be able to call her St. Teresa of Calcutta?
Father Kolodiejchuk: We need one more miracle -- we have looked at a
few,
but none has been clear enough. There was one for beatification but we
are
waiting for the second.
Perhaps God has been waiting for the book to come out first, because
people
knew that Mother Teresa was holy but because of her ordinariness and
simplicity
of expression, they did not have an understanding of how holy.
I heard about two priests talking the other day. One said he was never
a
big fan of Mother Teresa because he thought she was just pious, devout,
and
did nice, admirable works, but then when he heard about her interior
life,
it changed everything for him.
Now we have more of an idea how developed she was spiritually, and now
something
of her deeper characteristics are being revealed.
Once the miracle comes in, it could take a couple of years, although
the
Pope could do it faster if he wanted to.
Q: What has happened to the order since Mother's death?
Father Kolodiejchuk: The order has grown by almost 1,000 sisters, from
around
3,850 at her death to 4,800 today, and we've added over 150 houses in
14
more countries.
God's work goes on.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother Teresa Persevered Through
Doubt
A Light
in
the 21st Century's "Dark Night"
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, AUG. 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- As a
respected Boston lawyer once remarked of recent biographies, "It's
tough times for
the dead." A case in point was the cover of last week's Time magazine.
Splashed
across the front page ran the headline "The Secret Life of Mother
Teresa,"
accompanied by the gloomiest picture you ever saw of the saintly nun.
With its sensationalist title, Time
magazine
not only descended to the level of tabloid journalism, but betrayed a
woeful
ignorance of the meaning of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta's spiritual
journey.
Capitulating to the fad of finding the
sordid behind the glitter, where titles like "Britney's Breakdown" or
"Lindsay in
Crisis" are guaranteed to boost sales, the article itself feeds into
the
mentality that things are never as pretty as they seem. In our age of
masking
our own shortcomings by pointing out the flaws in others, it suggests
that
Mother Teresa's joyous love of the poor hid a darker, almost sinister
side.
Recent interest in the extraordinary
founder
of the Missionaries of Charity stemmed from the recently published book
"Mother
Teresa: Come Be My Light." Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, postulator for
the
cause of canonization of the saintly nun who died in 1997, compiled her
letters
and writings, including a number that revealed Teresa's spiritual
trials.
By releasing these documents, Father
Kolodiejchuk
sought to grant readers a window into the intimate spiritual life of
Mother
Teresa, and to offer inspiration and hope by recounting her challenges
in
following Christ.
Instead, some have twisted her doubts
about
her faith, which she confided in letters to her spiritual director,
into
an indictment of her sincerity and personal holiness. Time author David
Van
Biema writes, "Perpetually cheery in public, the Teresa of the letters
lived
in a state of deep and abiding spiritual pain."
These terms relate Mother Teresa's life
to
that of a comic actor, suggesting that her professional persona and her
private
self were separate. Yet Teresa did more than just smile for cameras;
she
demonstrated joyous love, through her every action, gesture and
expression.
The predatory glee with which news
services leapt upon word of Mother Teresa's "dark night of the soul"
resembled the
same relish with which they report celebrity arrests. Questions such
as,
"Can she still be made a saint?" demonstrated an utter lack of
knowledge
regarding the Church's idea of sanctity while attempting to sow
division
by casting doubts on her holiness.
As a side note, Mother Teresa of Calcutta
is blessed, which means that she is officially recognized by the Church
as being
in heaven. When she becomes a saint, worldwide devotion to Mother
Teresa
will be permitted, i.e. church dedication, invocation during the
liturgy
etc.
A different standard
The standards of the media are not those
of saints. While Teresa herself feared falling into a sort of spiritual
hypocrisy,
the fact was that she, like many saints, possessed an especially keen
sensitivity
to how she fell short of Christ's example.
Celebrated atheists leapt to recruit the
nun
to their cause. Christopher Hitchens, who penned a vicious biography of
Mother
Teresa, was quoted extensively in the article. Seizing the opportunity
to
reach millions, Hitchens eagerly made his bid to turn Teresa into a
poster
child for nihilism.
Time also consulted psychologists to
posthumously
analyze Mother Teresa from her letters. It seems strange that so many
people
who do not believe in the soul felt themselves qualified to probe that
of
Mother Teresa's.
Although many have already rushed to
quell
these sparks, Mother Teresa obviously needs no defense. Happily
situated
in heaven along with other doubters like, well, St. Thomas, she is
probably
beseeching Jesus with her characteristic compassion to forgive Hitchens
and
the others "for they know not what they do."
Paradoxically, the divisive aspect of the
stories
has done what many Church synods couldn't. Liberal and traditional
Catholics
have joined forces to correct the record and to recognize Mother Teresa
as
an example for all people who suffer spiritual loneliness.
Her doubts and suffering, far from being
a source of shame for those who love and admire this great woman,
should make
us proud to discover that she is an even greater hero than we thought.
For anyone seriously interested in the
cause
of Teresa, her spiritual difficulties come as no surprise. They were
made known after her beatification in 2003. Discussing the subject at
Roman dinner
tables at the time, people spoke with awe of Mother Teresa's
exceptional
perseverance in the face of what would have crumbled anyone less
attuned
to God's grace.
Mother Teresa's experiences are not
scandal,
but a mirror of our own lonely age. While people today try to dispel
feelings
of loneliness with analysts, medications or pop spirituality, Teresa
embraced
her loneliness and clung to her faith in Jesus, which, though often
devoid
of feelings, was solid and profound. What many have failed to notice,
in
fact, is that a good number of her expressions of solitude are
addressed
to Jesus himself.
"Feeling it"
Carole Zaleski in "First Things" wrote
that Teresa converted "her feeling of abandonment by God into an act of
abandonment
to God."
In many ways, her own sense of
marginalization from God helped Mother Teresa to recognize loneliness
in others. She proclaimed
that there was "more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than
for
bread." She realized that rejection and abandonment was not only the
province
of lepers, but present even in the inner life of those who appear to be
successful
and privileged.
How many times have we gone to Mass, not
"feeling
it," as modern speak would put it. Our lips moving, our gestures
mechanical,
but we remain distant from the reality of God and his love for us. In
that
emptiness, temptation raises its head, suggesting that rather than
practice
this "hypocrisy," we should forego Mass and go out for a round of golf
instead.
Mother Teresa lived her doubts, not for
an
hour on Sunday, but every day as she tended the poor and dying in
utter, relentless
squalor. Her example reaches across from Christians to non-Christians.
Benedict XVI, as Father Joseph Ratzinger,
made the interesting point in his 1963 "Introduction to Christianity"
that "both
the believer and the unbeliever share each in his own way, doubt and
belief."
That led him to notice that doubt could be a possible "avenue of
communication"
between the two.
Time and time again, saints show us that
when they suffer, the solution is to look outside oneself, not further
within.
St. Alfonso Liguori and St. John of the Cross both overcame their own
troubles
by focusing on their calling. As one religious sister acutely observed,
when
Teresa couldn't find Jesus in her prayer life, she found him in the
faces
of her fellow human beings.
Teresa eventually came to give a meaning
to
her trials. She saw them as a privilege, the gift of sharing in
Christ's loneliness
on the cross.
In his film "The Passion," Mel Gibson
painted
a wrenching image of Christ's agony in the garden of Gethsemane. Amid
oppressive
darkness, the sight of Jesus, abandoned by his apostles, struggling to
continue
with his mission, confronts viewers with the sense of desolation that
accompanied
his sacrifice.
Saints like Blessed Teresa, who faced
loneliness in their self-sacrifice, experienced a unique sharing in the
mystery of Christ's
passion. Like the purest gold, they have been forged in hotter fires.
Particularly in our era that gives more
weight to feelings than facts and to sensation rather than sense,
Mother Teresa
teaches the world to persevere through doubt, pain and loneliness. In
the
dark spiritual night of the 21st-century, Mother Teresa of Calcutta's
example
is a shining beacon to us all.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother Teresa's Dark Night Unique, Says
Preacher
Father Cantalamessa Calls Her Saint of the Media Age
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Blessed Mother
Teresa
of Calcutta's dark night of the soul kept her from being a victim of
the
media age and exalting herself, says the preacher of the Pontifical
Household.
Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said this in an
interview
with Vatican Radio, commenting on previously unpublished letters from
Mother
Teresa, now made public in Doubleday's book "Mother Teresa: Come Be My
Light,"
edited by Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, postulator of the cause of Mother
Teresa's
canonization.
In one of her letters, Mother Teresa wrote: "There is so
much
contradiction in my soul. Such deep longing for God -- so deep that it
is
painful -- a suffering continual -- and yet not wanted by God --
repulsed
-- empty -- no faith -- no love -- no zeal. Souls hold no attraction.
Heaven
means nothing -- to me it looks like an empty place."
Father Cantalamessa explained that the fact that Mother
Teresa
suffered deeply from her feeling of the absence of God affirms that it
was
a positive phenomenon. Atheists, he contended, are not afflicted by
God's
absence but, "for Mother Teresa, this was the most terrible test that
she
could have experienced."
He further clarified that "it is the presence-absence of
God:
God is present but one does not experience his presence."
Martyrdom
Father Cantalamessa contended that Mother Teresa's
spiritual
suffering makes her even greater.
He said: "The fact that Mother Teresa was able to remain
for
hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament, as many eye-witnesses have
testified,
as if enraptured … if one thinks about the condition she was in at that
moment,
that is martyrdom!
"Because of this, for me, the figure of Mother Teresa is
even
greater; it does not diminish her."
The Capuchin priest further lauded Mother Teresa's ability
to
keep her spiritual pain hidden within her. "Maybe, this was done in
expiation
for the widespread atheism in today's world," he said, adding that she
lived
her experience of the absence of God "in a positive way -- with faith,
with
God."
Not scandalous
Father Cantalamessa affirmed that Mother Teresa's dark
night
should not scandalize or surprise anyone. The "dark night," he said,
"is
something well-known in the Christian tradition; maybe new and unheard
of
in the way Mother Teresa experienced it."
He added: "While 'the dark night of the spirit' of St.
John
of the Cross is a generally preparatory period for that definitive one
called
'unitive,' for Mother Teresa it seems that it was one stable state,
from
a certain point in her life, when she began this great work of charity,
until
the end.
"In my view, the fact of this prolongation of the 'night'
has
meaning for us today. I believe that Mother Teresa is the saint of the
media
age, because this 'night of the spirit' protected her from being a
victim
of the media, namely from exalting herself.
"In fact, she used to say that when she received great
awards
and praise from the media, she did not feel anything because of this
interior
emptiness."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Georgia Martyrs:
Heroic Witnesses to the Sanctity of Marriage
by Paul Thigpen
Ask about old Spanish missions in America, and most people
will
think of the adobe churches from the late eighteenth century that span
the
coast of California. Yet these missions, however historic and
celebrated,
were by no means the first of their kind in what is now the United
States.
A full two centuries before Bl. Junipero Serra preached to the Native
Americans
along the West Coast, his brother Franciscan friars from Spain were
spreading
the Gospel in what are now the southeastern states.
Their mission base was a Spanish settlement on the Florida
peninsula,
St. Augustine — the oldest still-inhabited city in our nation, founded
in
1565. It was here in La Florida, as the Spanish called the colony, that
the
Christian faith first took root in the lands that today form the United
States.
Here were the first Mass, the first construction of a church, the first
baptisms,
and the first Christian conversions in what is now our nation.
Long before the founding of the first permanent English
colony
in America — Jamestown, Virginia, celebrating this year its
four-hundredth
anniversary and longer still before the Pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock
(1620),
Jesuit and then Franciscan missionaries established missions in what
are
now Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. They labored with remarkable
courage
and devotion to evangelize native peoples of the region, and tens of
thousands
were baptized, catechized, and provided the sacraments.
In the late sixteenth century, six of the Spanish
Franciscans
ministered to the people called Guale who lived along what is now the
Georgia
coast. Their names were Pedro de Corpa, Blas Rodriguez, Miguel de
Afton,
Antonio de Badajoz, Francisco de Verascola, and Francisco de Avila. All
but
de Avila were murdered on September 14, 16, and 17 in 1597.
Only One Wife
Life in the American mission field was harsh. These men
left
behind the comforts of home in Spain to live as the natives did, in
huts
made of tree trunks, branches, and mud, thatched with palmetto fronds.
Agriculture
was primitive, yielding at best a few humble garden items to supplement
a
diet of gathered acorns, local shellfish and wild game from the forest.
Basic items of clothing and even liturgical vestments were
sometimes
lacking. The men were tormented throughout much of the year by
excessive
heat, a blazing sun, and the mosquitoes, ticks, and tiny biting sand
gnats
that are the scourge of the Georgia coast. Worse yet, the closest
Spanish
soldiers were far away in St. Augustine, so the friars had no
protection
from natives who might turn hostile.
Add to all these the great challenges of bringing the
Gospel
to a people of a different tongue and culture who had no knowledge of
much
that the Spaniards had been raised to take for granted. All in all, it
was
perhaps near-miraculous that they did in fact meet with success and
began
bringing new converts into the fold.
Among the difficulties faced by the missionaries, perhaps
the
greatest was that of sharing Christ's teaching on marriage — that
marriage
is a lifetime union of one man and one woman — with a people whose
culture
allowed polygamy. This teaching comes to us from Christ himself, so the
missionaries
neither could nor would change it. The practice of the missionaries was
not
to admit an adult male Guale to baptism unless he first promised to
live
in a permanent marriage with no more than one wife.
A Broken Promise
Death came to the five martyrs after a baptized Guale
named
Juanillo, living in one of the missions, broke his promise and took a
second
wife. It fell to Fray Pedro in the mission at Tolomato to admonish
Juanillo
to live the Christian faith in which he was baptized. In this he was
seconded
by Fray Blas in the nearby mission at Tupiqui (near modern Eulonia,
Georgia).
Juanillo left the mission in anger to recruit natives from
the
interior to rid the Guale territory of the "troublesome" friars. Under
cover
of darkness on a Saturday night, the war party crept into the mission
compound
and waited for dawn. When Fray Pedro was about to leave his cabin to
celebrate
morning Mass, the war party broke in and slew the missionary with a
blow
of the macana, the Guale version of the tomahawk. It was Sunday,
September
14: the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
With Christian morality thrown aside, a licentious
celebration
ensued, during which Fray Pedro's severed head was displayed on a pike
at
the mission landing. The body was left to decay in the sun for several
days
and then buried in an unmarked grave so that it would never be
recovered.
One Final Sermon
The war party now proceeded to Tupiqui and seized Fray
Blas.
During the two days he was held prisoner, he was permitted to celebrate
Mass
and to preach his last sermon. He said:
My sons, for me it is not difficult to
die.
Even if you do not cause it, the death of this body is inevitable. We
must
be ready at all times, for we, all of us, have to die someday. But what
does
pain me is that the Evil One has persuaded you to do this offensive
thing
against your God and Creator. It is a further source of deep grief to
me
that you are unmindful of what we missionaries have done for you in
teaching
you the way to eternal life and happiness. (qtd. in Luis Geronimo de
Ore,
The Martyrs of Florida [1513 – 1516])
Fray Blas distributed his personal things among his flock
and
then, bound by ropes, watched the profaning of the sacred images,
vestments,
and vessels by the war party. On September 16, he was clubbed to death.
After
his body was left exposed for several days, a faithful Christian buried
it
in the woods, where it was found later by a detachment of Spanish
infantry
sent from St. Augustine to investigate the deaths.
A Brave Local Chief
Meanwhile, the war band sent word to the local chief (or
mico)
on St. Catherines Island to kill the two friars stationed there, Fray
Miguel,
the priest, and Fray Antonio, the lay brother who was his co-worker and
interpreter.
The chief refused and instead informed Fray Antonio, offering a canoe
and
rowers to take the friars to safety at the heavily Christian San Pedro
(now
Cumberland) Island. Antonio did not believe the warning, or perhaps he
simply
would not flee the crown of martyrdom.
On September 17, the war band arrived on St. Catherines,
and
the friars knew their fate. The mico boldly told them he would do the
missionaries
no harm, and he even offered the assassins all he owned if they would
let
the friars go free. But the offer was refused.
Fray Miguel offered Mass. It was the feast of the Stigmata
of
St. Francis, and the Gospel reading of the day contained the words of
the
Lord Jesus: "Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matt.
16:25).
For four hours the friars gave themselves to prayer,
awaiting
the crown of martyrdom. Antonio was the first to receive the blow of
the
macana, and then Miguel. Their mutilated bodies were left to rot in the
sun
until crudely buried by faithful Christians at the foot of the great
mission
cross that Fray Miguel had erected. Later the relics were gathered and
taken
to the central friary at St. Augustine, now the National Guard Armory,
known
as "St. Francis Barracks."
The Last to Die
While the other murders were occurring, Fray Francisco was
returning
by canoe from St. Augustine to his mission, probably on what is now St.
Simon's
Island (though perhaps at another location). On some unknown date
before
the end of September, he arrived home with the supplies needed for Mass
and
for the ongoing construction of the mission, and with gifts for his
Guale
flock.
The details of his reception are told succinctly by a
chronicler:
"They waited for him, and when he disembarked, two natives took him in
their
arms, while the others came and killed him with blows from the macana.
Then
they buried him" (Captivity narrative of Fr. Francisco de Avila, qtd.
in
Ore, The Martyrs, 94). His Franciscan capuche, or hood, and his
sombrero
were later recovered from the Guales who were wearing them, but his
body
was never found.
News of the terrible events soon spread throughout the
Spanish
missions of La Florida. A few weeks later Friar Pedro Fernandez de
Chozas
wrote to the Spanish governor at St. Augustine: "How lonely they must
have
been, Senor General, these little lambs, at the moment of martyrdom"
(Letter
of Fr. Pedro Fernandez de Chozas to Gozalo Mendez de Canzo, Oct. 4,
1597).
The Cause of Canonization
The heroic death of these five Servants of God was
recognized
from the beginning. An official Franciscan report to his Majesty Philip
III
on October 16, 1612, bears witness:
Though [the natives did not kill them
because
of doctrine, it is certain that they slew them because of the Law of
God
they were teaching them and because of our moral precepts — so contrary
to
their way of life and their customs. Specifically they slew them
because
we would not consent that any married Christian should have more than
one
wife . . . This is the reason which the Indians gave and, recognizing
their
sin, this day cite for their slaying of the friars. It is a recognized
fact
in this land that since the death of these blessed religious the native
people
have been turning more docile and peaceful, attaining their present
state.
It is the pious belief that these blessed ones are in God's presence,
interceding
for the conversion of this land. (Archivo General de Indias, qtd. in
Ore,
94)
Martyrologies, chronicles, and histories continued to
recall
the heroic deaths of the Georgia martyrs. But only in the 1950s did the
Franciscans
begin in earnest the movement for canonization. On February 22, 1984,
the
Bishop of Savannah, Raymond W. Lessard, officially opened the Cause of
Beatification.
Work on the cause continues with the endorsement and encouragement of
the
present Bishop, J. Kevin Boland.
After 23 years, the Diocesan Inquiry — which is the first
stage
of the canonization process — has at last come to a close. The inquiry
was
the informative phase of the cause, whose main purpose was to gather
information
related to the life, deeds, martyrdom, and enduring reputation of
sanctity
of the missionaries.
The official Acts of the Process run nearly 500 pages,
each
one carefully notarized to ensure their authenticity. This official
document
was hand-carried to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints in Rome in
late
March 2007 by Fr. Conrad Harkins, OFM, the vice-postulator of the
cause.
There the Congregation, and ultimately Pope Benedict XVI, will make the
final
judgment concerning the genuineness of their martyrdom.
If that ruling is favorable, they will need no miracle to
be
beatified — that is, declared "Blessed." But full canonization — which
would
result in their designation as "saints" — is a still further process,
during
which the Church would look for a single miracle in confirmation of
their
holiness.
We Need their Example Today
Why is it so important that the heroism of these
missionaries
be recognized now? Today many American Catholics remain timid about
sharing
their faith with others, even when talking with people who are not
hostile
to the Church. At the same time, certain cultural, legal, and political
developments
exert increasing pressure on Catholics to remain silent about urgent
moral
issues. In these circumstances, the Georgia martyrs have much to teach
us
about the necessity of living the Gospel, sharing it generously, and
defending
it vigorously, without compromise, even when such faithfulness is
costly.
In particular, marriage and the family are suffering a
sustained
attack in our society. We hear increasingly strident demands to
redefine
matrimony by legalizing, not just same-sex unions, but polygamy as
well.
The Georgia martyrs inspire us to reaffirm the moral truths about
marriage
they died to defend.
The heroic missions and courageous deaths of these five
daring
witnesses to the faith are not yet widely known. But the time has come
for
their story to be told, their faith imitated, their help sought. The
martyrs'
sacrifice teaches us that some truths are worth dying for. We need
their
example and their intercession now more than ever.
Profiles of the Martyrs
* Pedro de Corpa was born in a tiny
village
in central Spain in the diocese of Madrid-Alcala, probably around 1560.
A
Franciscan priest of the province of Castile, he was known as a skilled
preacher
and confessor when he came to Spanish Florida in 1587. After serving
for
a short time near St. Augustine, he was sent north to the mission at
the
important Guale village of Tolomato, near modern Darien, Georgia. A
contemporary
described Fray Pedro this way: "Since he was a wise and holy man, the
love
of God burned in his heart, and by means of prayer, abstinence, and
self-discipline
he gave good example to the Indians of the West whom he strove to
convert."
* Blas de Rodriguez was born in the
Spanish
town of Cuacos, probably in the 1550s. He had joined the Franciscan
Province
of St. Gabriel in the strict Alcantaran branch of the order. Ordained
to
the priesthood in the 1580s, Fray Blas labored in Spain for several
years
and received the title of confessor. In 1590, he volunteered for
Florida.
* Antonio de Badajoz was a Franciscan
lay
brother born in La Albuera near Badajoz. Like Fray Blas, he was a
member
of the strict Alcantaran reform. He came with Fray Pedro de Corpa to
Florida
in 1587, learned the language of the Guale well, and served as
interpreter
for Fray Miguel de Anon. He was also instructed by the priests how to
evangelize
the native people.
* Fray Miguel de Anon was in charge of
the
mission on St. Catherines Island. He had arrived in La Florida only two
years
before. His birthplace is uncertain, but some evidence suggests that he
was
of noble origin. Like Pedro, he was a member of the Franciscan province
of
Castile and ordained to the priesthood in Spain. When Miguel came to
America,
the Spanish colonists in Havana sought his services. But he ultimately
declined
their invitation, convinced that God was calling him to Florida.
* Francisco de Verascola was born on
February
13, 1564, at Gordejuela into a relatively prosperous Basque family. He
joined
the Cantabrian Franciscan province, and after his ordination he served
for
a few years in the region of Vizcaya before volunteering to be sent to
Florida.
Soon after his arrival in 1595, Francisco was made a kind of bodyguard
for
a Spanish official on a reconnaissance expedition into the interior. He
was
chosen for this role because of his great physical stature and
strength,
which earned him the nickname "the Cantabrian Giant." His size and
athletic
prowess also made him popular with the Guale youth, who invited him to
join them in sports such as spear-throwing, wrestling, and a game
similar to soccer.
Support the Cause
To support the cause of the martyrs' canonization, join
the
Friends of the Georgia Martyrs, an association whose mission is to
spread
the story of the martyrs, pray for their canonization, share
testimonies
of answered prayer, and otherwise promote the advancement of the cause.
Members receive literature about the martyrs, including
pamphlets,
prayer cards, and occasional issues of the association newsletter, The
Palmetto,
which provides historical information about these Servants of God and
updates
about the progress of their cause. Members commit themselves to pray
for
the cause, to share the heroic story of the martyrs with others, and to
report
any extraordinary favors they believe they have received through the
martyrs' intercession.
To join, e-mail name, address, and phone number to
georgiamartyrs@comcast.net,
or mail a stamped, self-addressed business envelope to The Stella Maris
Center
for Faith and Culture, P.O. Box 30157, Savannah, GA 31410-0157.
For More Information
* www.georgiamartyrs.org
* www.PaulThigpen.com
* David Arias, Spanish Cross in Georgia
(University
Press of America, 1994)
* Michael V Gannon, The Cross in the
Sand:
The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513-1870 (University Press of
Florida,
1992 ed.)
* Paul E. Hoffmann, A New Andalucia and
a
Way to the Orient: The American Southeast During the Sixteenth Century
(Louisiana
State University Press, rev. ed., 2004)
* Jerald T. Milanich, Laboring in the
Fields
of the Lord: Spanish Missions and Southeastern Indians (Smithsonian
Institution
Press, 1999)
* Luis Geronimo de Ore, The Martyrs of
Florida
(1513-1516), Maynard J. Geiger, trans. (J. E Wagner, 1937)
Paul Thigpen is editor of The Catholic Answer magazine and
founding
director of The Stella Maris Center for Faith and Culture in Savannah,
Georgia.
He is also coordinator of the Friends of the Georgia Martyrs. Visit his
website
at www.PaulThigpen.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hildebrand
Gregori a Step Closer to Canonization
Cardinal Ruini Praises Untiring Apostle
ROME, JULY 17, 2007 - When Benedictines converted Europe,
they
did it through activity, unity and constant prayer, following the
example
of Jesus, wrote Abbot Hildebrand Gregori.
On July 3, the 15-year diocesan phase in the process of
canonization
for Abbot Gregori (1894-1985), founder of the Benedictine Sisters of
the
Reparation of the Holy Face of Our Lord Jesus Christ, was completed.
In an address at a ceremony marking the end of the
process,
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, said that
Abbot
Gregori, born in Poggio Ginolfo, Italy, "lived and actualized with
rigorous
fidelity and powerful sensibility the Benedictine charism of 'ora et
labora.'"
He was a "contemplative monk and untiring apostle in
responding
to the needs of his time," Cardinal Ruini explained.
After World War II, the cardinal continued, "his heart was
troubled
by the sight of so many children who were orphans or abandoned because
of
the war."
"Before even having an idea about how to assist them,
house
them, give them instruction and a Christian and human formation; before
even
being able to think about where he could find the means for work of
such
dimensions, he began to welcome these children into the monastery,"
Cardinal
Ruini continued.
Abbot Gregori prepared the "structures of assistance and
instruments
of education and formation absolutely ahead of his time," the
76-year-old
cardinal explained.
The Holy Face
On Aug. 15, 1950, Abbot Gregory started the "Prayerful
Sodality"
which in December, 1977, became the Pontifical Congregation of the
Benedictine
Sisters of the Reparation of the Holy Face, that today has 14
communities
in Italy, one in Poland, one in Romania, two in India, and one in Congo.
Abbot Gregori directed his spiritual daughters to the
"charism
of reparation," understood as an act of love against the "sin of social
injustice,"
in reference to the Holy Face of Christ.
Cardinal Ruini explained that according to Abbot Gregori,
it
is Christ "that must be recognized and seen in the poor and needy," and
"the
faces of Christ are also the faces of man, above all of the man who
suffers
materially, psychically, morally, and spiritually."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Forgotten Saint
Remembering St. Petronilla's
Legacy
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, JUNE 7, 2007 (Zenit.org ).- Most visitors to St.
Peter's
Basilica wonder why the candles on the altars are never lit. Early
morning
Mass attendees of course know that all the candles on the side altars
are
lit every morning from 7 to 8:30 a.m. as the individual Eucharistic
celebrations
are taking place.
But as the last taper is extinguished, the altars fall
dark,
except the one that will be used for the regular morning Masses. But on
feast
days of saints venerated in St. Peter's, the altar dedicated to the
saint
is adorned with flowers and lit candles, standing out among all the
others.
Sometimes the honoree is a well-known saint, such as St.
Gregory
the Great or St. Joseph, but often these little celebrations allow
visitors
to reacquaint themselves with long-forgotten saints and realize how
important
they are to Christian history and culture.
On May 31, St. Peter's paid homage to what is today a
somewhat
obscure saint, St. Petronilla, but closer study reveals that some of
the
finest art in the basilica was dedicated to her altar.
St. Petronilla lived in Rome and was probably martyred in
the
first century during the early Christian persecutions. Her grave, near
that
of Sts. Nereo and Achilleo in the catacomb of Domitilla, was one of the
most
venerated tombs in the city up through the seventh century, when the
catacombs
were finally abandoned.
As early as the fourth century, Petronilla was already an
artistic
subject. A fresco in an underground crypt from 356 represents the saint
assisting
a woman, Veneranda, into heaven. But this was only the beginning of
Petronilla's
rewarding association with the arts.
The remains of Petronilla, in a white marble sarcophagus,
were
transferred in 757 to the old St. Peter's Basilica built by
Constantine.
The saint was laid to rest in a former imperial mausoleum situated next
to
the church, which was consecrated as the Chapel of Petronilla and
annexed
to the Basilica.
The circular building, which can be seen in old drawings
of
the ancient church, became the French chapel of St. Peter's, as
Petronilla
became patroness of relations between the Pope and the first Holy Roman
Emperors.
The inscription on the tomb, "of the golden Petronilla,
the
sweetest daughter," the distinctiveness of her elegant mausoleum, and
the
translation of her relics to St. Peter's gave rise to the medieval
legend
that the Roman martyr was the daughter of St. Peter.
The charming tale surrounding the identity of Petronilla
recounted
that Peter's beautiful daughter attracted the eye of the pagan son of a
high-ranking
Roman official, and to protect Petronilla from unwanted advances, Peter
and
his daughter prayed for her to be rendered too ill to be considered for
marriage.
The ruse worked for a short time, but finally the young
man
realized he had been duped and denounced Petronilla as a Christian.
Peter
prayed to have his daughter spared a harrowing martyrdom and Petronilla
died
in her sleep.
This story, while adding romance and famous names,
nonetheless
demoted Petronilla from her high status of martyr to virgin. The
artwork
dedicated to her, however, went from a hasty catacomb fresco to one of
the
greatest treasures of the basilica.
In 1498, French Cardinal Jean Bilhères de Lagraulas
wanted
to commemorate the upcoming Jubilee Year of 1500 with a new work of art
for
the Petronilla chapel where he planned to be buried. He approached a
relatively
unknown, 23-year-old Florentine sculptor named Michelangelo Buonarroti,
and
asked him to sculpt a statue of the Pietà. The rest is history.
St. Petronilla still ranked high as a virgin martyr in
Cesare
Baronio's Martyrology of the post Counter-Reformation era (ending in
the
16th century). Antonio Bosio's exploration of the early Christian sites
ensured
that Petronilla had enough clout to retain a chapel dedicated to her in
the
new basilica of St. Peter completed in 1612.
The Pietà was briefly placed back in her chapel,
which
is along the right-hand aisle against the apsidal wall of the basilica.
It
was soon moved to its present position, and a new work of art was
commissioned
for Petronilla.
Francesco Barbieri, nicknamed Guercino, star pupil of the
17th-century
Carracci academy of Bologna, and Baroque painter par excellence, was
hired
to paint the enormous oil on canvas of "The Raising of St. Petronilla."
The original is kept today in the Capitoline Museums, but
the
mosaic copy in St. Peter's faithfully re-creates the effect of the
landmark
work.
This astonishing work, standing 25 feet high, drew on the
medieval
legend of Petronilla and represents Peter on the lower half of the
canvas
lowering his daughter in the tomb while the upper half shows
Petronilla,
adorned in beautiful silks and velvets being welcomed into heaven by
Christ.
The brilliant blues and rich reds catch the viewer's eye
from
afar and impart a sense of preciousness to the work, but the most
surprising
effect can only be seen by those attending Mass. As Peter grasps the
ropes
to lower his daughter's body into the grave, the corpse of Petronilla
seems
to hover above the altar. From the lowest border of the work only two
outstretched
hands reaching upward can be seen.
One might think that the hands belong to a gravedigger
ready
to receive the body and lay it in the ground, but those hands also
recall
the supplication of Veneranda, who relied on Petronilla's intercession
for
her salvation. The medieval tale blends with the ancient martyrdom.
St. Petronilla's life in both history and art recall that
the
examples of the saints are more than just pretty pictures to be admired
in
church, but also indications of how we too can be part of the great
communion
of the elect in heaven.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Church
to Proclaim 2 Saints, 320 Blessed
127 Are Martyrs From the Spanish Civil War
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 3, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI
authorized
the promulgation of the decrees that clear the way for two
canonizations
and 320 beatifications.
The Vatican made the announcement Friday after the Pope
received
in audience Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation
for
Saints' Causes.
The Holy Father approved the decrees that allow for the
canonization
of Poor Clare Sister Alphonsa of the Immaculate Conception (1910-1946)
of
India, and laywoman Narcisa de Jesus Martillo Moran (1833-1869) of
Ecuador.
Also recognized were the miracles and martyrdom of 320
candidates
for beatification, and the "heroic virtue" of seven candidates who now
await
the recognition of a miracle for their beatification.
Martyrdom was recognized for 127 religious killed during
the
Spanish Civil War: Augustinian priest Avellino Rodriguez Alonso and 97
companions
of the same order, along with six diocesan clergy, and Emmanuela of the
Heart
of Jesus and 22 companions of the Institute of Adorers of the Most Holy
Sacrament
and of Charity.
Jesuit priest Peter Kibe Kasui and 187 companions, killed
in
Japan in 1600, were also recognized as martyrs.
Martyrdom was attributed as well to Franz Jagerstatter, an
Austrian
peasant who was guillotined in Berlin in 1943 for having refused any
collaboration
with the Nazis. He was 36, a husband and a father of three.
A theologian and philosopher of the first half of the 19th
century,
Father Antonio Rosmini, will be beatified. Father Rosmini was the
founder
of the Institute of Charity and the Sisters of Providence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BLESSED GEORGE PRECA
Diocesan Priest
Founder of the Society of Christian Doctrine, M.U.S.E.U.M.
George Preca was born in Valletta, Malta, on Feb. 12,
1880,
to Vincenzo and Natalina Ceravolo. He was baptized in the Church of Our
Lady
of Porto Salvo, Valletta, on Feb. 17.
In 1888 the Preca family moved to nearby Hamrun.
George
received his confirmation and his first Communion in the Church of St
Cajetan.
When he was 17 years old, George was met one of his Lyceum professors,
Father
Ercole Mompalao, who told him: "Preca, when you grow up, people who
revere
God will befriend you and you them. You will find your good fortune
through
them and they through you." After his studies at the Lyceum, George
entered
the seminary of Malta with the aim of becoming a priest.
His confessor, Father Aloysius Galea, died on April 8,
1905.
Preca recounted how Father Galea appeared to him a few days later and
told
him: "God has chosen you to teach his people." Preca was enthused with
this
idea. He wrote a rule in Latin which he wanted to send to Pope Pius X
for
approval. He envisaged groups of seven permanent deacons in every
parish
who, with the help of lay auxiliaries, would be responsible for the
formation
of the people of God.
It was around this time (1905-1906) that Preca met a
group
of young people at Hamrun and invited them to start attending his
spiritual
conferences. He set his eye on their leader, Eugenio Borg, and started
explaining
the Gospel of John to him. (Later on, Eugenio Borg became the first
superior-general
of the Societas Doctrinae Christianae and was renowned for his holiness
when
he died in 1967.)
A few months before his ordination to the priesthood,
Preca
became ill and almost died. Through the intercession of St. Joseph, he
survived,
but as a consequence of the illness his left lung was permanently
impaired.
He was ordained a priest on Dec. 22, 1906, by Bishop Pietro Pace, and
he
celebrated his first Mass at the St. Cajetan Parish church in Hamrun on
Christmas
Day.
For a number of weeks after ordination Father Preca
would
not venture out of home except to say Mass, after which he would retire
to
a small room on the roof and remain there all day in meditation and
contemplation.
Toward the end of January 1907, he called the same group of young
people
and invited them for a spiritual conference on at the Ta' Nuzzo Church
at
Hamrun.
The little group subsequently rented a small place and
met
there for the first time on March 7, 1907. This marks the beginning of
the
Society of Christian Doctrine: a group of lay people leading an
exemplary
life, well formed in the principles of the Catholic faith and sent to
teach
the faith to the people.
At first, Father Preca called his society Societas
Papidum
et Papidissarum (Society of the Sons and Daughters of the Pope). The
rundown
place where the first members met was jokingly referred to as the
"museum."
The nickname soon became the name of the group itself and it stuck. The
founder
desided to make MUSEUM an acronym for what the group would receive as a
name:
Magister Utinam Sequatur Evangelium Universus Mundus! (Teacher, O that
the
whole world would follow the Gospel!).
The female branch of the society was inaugurated in
1910
with the help of Giannina Cutajar, who later became the first
superior-general
of that branch.
It was around 1910 that Father Preca had a very
powerful
mystical experience which he always referred to as "the extraordinary
vision
of the Child Jesus." One morning, he was passing in the vicinity of the
Marsa
Cross when he suddenly saw a 12-year-old boy pushing a low cart with a
bag
full of manure. The boy turned to Father Preca and ordered him
imperiously:
"Lend me a hand!"
The moment Father Preca put his hand on the cart, he
felt
an extraordinary spiritual sweetness and he never could remember where
they
went or what happened to the young boy. He later understood that the
boy
was Jesus and that the Lord was asking him and his followers to help
him
with nurturing the Lord's field and vineyard with sound doctrine and
formation.
The MUSEUM developed into a group of lay people who
dedicate
themselves to the apostolate of catechesis, lead a simple evangelical
lifestyle,
commit themselves to a life of prayer using short prayers or
meditations
at regular intervals during the day ("The Museum Watch") and teach
catechesis
to the young for an hour every day, which is then followed by a group
meeting
for personal permanent formation ("The Assignment").
The society had its difficult moments. In 1909, Father
Preca
was ordered to close his centers. Brokenhearted but without hesitation,
he
started following orders until the parish priests themselves protested
with
the ecclesiastical authorities and the ban was revoked by Vicar General
Salvatore
Grech.
During 1914-1915, a number of daily newspapers carried
articles
and letters denigrating the new society. Father Preca ordered his
members
to take a vow or promise of meekness, gladly forgiving anybody who
poked
fun at them and taught them "to love the contempt" they suffered and
not
to let it trouble them unduly.
In 1916, Bishop Mauro Caruana ordered an inquiry
concerning
the society. After many humiliations for the founder and his close
followers,
the Curia issued a favorable report. Although some changes were
required,
the way was open for definitive ecclesiastical approval. Bishop Caruana
canonically
established the Society of Christian Doctrine on April 12, 1932.
Father George Preca strived to spread the values and
teaching
of the Gospel in the Maltese Islands. He wrote a great number of books
on
dogma, morals and spirituality in Maltese. He also published numerous
booklets
with prayers for the private use of his members and for popular
devotion.
He was undoubtedly a great apostle of the Word of God, especially of
the
Gospel which he used to call "The Voice of the Beloved."
He would encourage his followers and the public in
general
to memorize sentences and phrases from the Gospel and his charismatic
preaching
constantly referred to parables and stories from Scripture and the life
of
the saints. He zealously defended the honor due only to God and
persuasively
illustrated how ugly sin was. He never shied away from openly preaching
about
death, judgment, hell and heaven. Utterly convinced of God's justice,
he
nevertheless movingly proclaimed the Lord's infinite mercy.
People flocked to him for advice or a word of
encouragement.
They trusted in his intercession and many still recount stories of
healings
wrought by God through Father Preca's prayers. He was endowed with many
supernatural
gifts, including the knowledge of hearts and the future. He was
nonetheless
a priest of great humility, goodness, meekness and generosity. He was
truly
a holy pastor of the people of God.
Dun Gorg, as the Maltese know him, is well known for
his
constant efforts to promote devotion to the mystery of the Incarnation.
From
1917, he propagated devotion for the text from the Gospel of John:
"Verbum
Dei caro factum est!" (John 1:14). He wanted the members to wear a
badge
with these words.
On Christmas Eve 1921, the society organized the first
"Demonstration
in Honor of Baby Jesus" in the towns and villages of Malta and Gozo.
This
event has since become a typical aspect of Christmas celebrations on
the
islands. Father Preca wanted every child who attended catechism classes
to
take a small crib or statue of the Baby Jesus home for Christmas.
The holy priest learned to trust in the maternal
protection
of Our Lady, especially during the difficult moments of the society. He
was
enrolled as a Carmelite tertiary on July 21, 1918, and at his
profession
in September 1919, he chose the name of Father Franco.
Children attending the societies' centers are still
given
the scapular. Dun Gorg also nurtured a filial devotion to Our Lady of
Good
Counsel; he promoted use of the Miraculous Medal and in fact wanted the
Church
of the society's motherhouse to be dedicated to Our Lady of the
Miraculous
Medal. In 1957, he suggested the use of five "mysteries of light" for
the
private recitation of the rosary.
On May 19, 1951, he blessed the foundation stone of
the
St. Michael School at Santa Venera, and in 1952 he sent the first
members
to start the society in Australia. Today it is also found in England,
Albania,
Sudan, Kenya and Peru.
On Oct. 2, 1952, Pope Pius XII named Dun Gorg as Privy
Chamberlain
with the title of monsignor. Father Preca was mortified. He kept the
title
for six years until the Pope passed away in 1958.
In 1955, Father Preca blessed the foundation stone of
the
Sacred Family Institute at Zabbar which later housed the members living
in
common who had been staying at Zebbug ever since their establishment in
1918.
After a long and very active life in the service of
the
Gospel and of the Christian formation of the people of God, Dun Gorg
Preca
died on July 26, 1962, at his house in Malta. He was buried in the
crypt
of the Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal at Blata l-Bajda
which
soon became a venue for constant pilgrimages.
Father George Preca was beatified by Pope John Paul II
in
Malta on May 9, 2001. His liturgical feast is celebrated on that day.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography of Charles of St. Andrew
VATICAN CITY, MAY 29, 2007
(Zenit.org).-
Here is an adapted version of a biography of Father Charles of St.
Andrew
(1821-1893), which was published by the Holy See. Benedict XVI will
canonize
the priest on Sunday.
* * *
Father Charles of St. Andrew, known in secular life as
John
Andrew Houben, was born on Dec. 11, 1821, in Munstergeleen, in the
diocese
of Ruremond, Holland, the fourth of 11 children.
He was baptized the same day with the name John Andrew. He
received
his first Communion on April 26, 1835, and the sacrament of
confirmation
on June 28 in the same year.
He began his formal education in Sittard and then in
Broeksittard.
In 1840 he had to interrupt his studies to enter the military. It was
during
this latter period that he first heard about the Congregation of the
Passion.
At the end of his military service he completed his
studies
and requested to be admitted to the congregation. He was received by
Blessed
Dominic Barberi, Passionist, and he entered the novitiate in the
Belgium
city of Ere, near Tournai on Nov. 5, 1845.
In December of that same year he was vested with the
Passionist
religious habit and was given the name of Charles of St. Andrew. Having
completed
the canonical year of novitiate, he professed first vows on Dec. 10,
1850.
At the conclusion of his studies, he was ordained a priest by Bishop
Labis,
the ordinary of Tournai.
Immediately he was sent to England where the Passionists
had
founded three monasteries and it was here that, for a period of time,
he
undertook the ministry of vice master of novices in the monastery of
Broadway.
He also did parochial ministry in the Parish of St. Wilfred and
neighboring
areas until 1856 when he was transferred to the newly established
monastery
of Mount Argus, on the outskirts of Dublin.
Blessed Charles Houben lived almost the remainder of his
life
in this retreat and was greatly loved by the Irish people to point that
they
referred to him -- a native of Holland -- as Father Charles of Mount
Argus.
He was a pious priest, outstanding in exercising obedience, poverty,
humility
and simplicity and to an even greater degree, devotion to the Passion
of
the Lord.
Due to his poor mastery of English, he was never a formal
preacher
and he never preached missions. Rather he successfully dedicated
himself
to spiritual direction, especially through the sacrament of
reconciliation.
The fame of his virtue was such that crowds of people
would
gather at the monastery to seek his blessing. There are also numerous
testimonies
to the miraculous cures that he worked, to the extent that even during
his
lifetime he was known as a miracle worker.
Precisely because of this fame that extended throughout
all
of Great Britain as well as in America and Australia, in 1866, to give
him
time to rest, he was transferred to England where he lived for a time
in
the communities at Broadway, Sutton and London. There he ministered as
usual
and there too, inside and outside the monastery, he was sought by the
faithful,
both Catholics and non-Catholics.
He returned to Dublin in 1874 where he remained until his
death
on Jan. 5, 1893.
During his funeral, there was proof of the popular
devotion
that had surrounded him throughout his life. A newspaper of the time
reported:
"Never before has the memory of any man sparked an explosion of
religious
sentiment and profound veneration as that which we observed in the
presence
of the mortal remains of Father Charles."
The superior of the monastery wrote to his family: "The
people
have already declared him a saint."
The cause of his beatification and canonization was
introduced
on Nov. 13, 1935, and on Oct. 16, 1988, Pope John Paul II proceeded
with
the beatification.
The miracle that led to his canonization was obtained
through
his intercession on behalf of Adolf Dormans of Munstergeleen, the
birthplace
of the blessed.
The diocesan inquiry "super miro" was also undertaken in
the
Diocese of Roermond, Holland, from Nov. 6, 2002, until Feb. 19, 2003,
at
which time the validity of the miracle was recognized by a decree from
the
Congregation for Saints' Causes on Nov. 7, 2003.
The medical consultation board was convoked on Nov. 24,
2005,
and following the investigation of the matter, the members unanimously
expressed
that the cure of Dormans of "perforated, gangrenous appendicitis with
generalized
peritonitis that was multi-organically compromising and included
extenuating
and prolonged agony" was "not scientifically explainable."
The theologian consultors, in the particular congress of
Feb.
21, 2006, and the Ordinary Congregation of Cardinals and Bishops of
Dec.
12, 2006, also gave their unanimous approval of the supernatural aspect
of
the said healing.
The decree concerning the miracle was given in the
presence
of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI last Dec. 21.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother Marie Eugenie
Sometimes the Holy Spirit works
in
strange and fascinating ways.
In the early 1800s, a French girl named
Marie-Eugénie
Milleret grew up in a family that had no interest in religion or Jesus
Christ
but was passionate about politics and social justice. They deplored the
injustices
of a class system and the misery brought on by the rise of
industrialization.
For them, however, there was no connection between these concerns and
Catholicism,
the traditional religion of the people. They found hope in the cry of
the French Revolution for liberty, equality and fraternity.
When she was fifteen, Marie Eugénie’s parents
separated
and she moved to Paris with her mother, only to see her mother die of
cholera
shortly afterwards. Her father then sent her to live with
relatives
whose great interest proved to be money and pleasure.
Alone,
far from her brother who had been her constant companion,
Eugénie
wondered about the meaning of life and love. She had lost everything
except
her fervor for social and political questions and the desire to do
something
good for others.
Her father next sent Eugénie to live with very
Catholic
cousins in Paris. He wanted her to take her place in society like other
young
women of her age by marrying. Marie Eugenie found the cousins’ piety
narrow
and stifling and, while she had no real objection to marriage, she
rejected
all suitors.
One day, her cousins invited her to the cathedral to hear
a
Lenten sermon preached by a priest famous for his eloquence and
influence
with youth. His way of speaking of Christ and the Church led to her
conversion.
She discovered that the ideals of justice and liberty, equality and
fraternity
are rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ who is the universal
and
definitive Liberator, and that “the Church possesses the secret of
doing
good here on earth.” While there will always be suffering and
difficulties,
“God wills to establish a social order in which no human would have to
suffer
from the oppression of any others.” [Letter 1843]
Less than a year later, hearing her confession and
recognizing
that Marie Eugénie had intelligence and a passion that could
make
a difference in society, a priest asked to see her afterward. He
convinced
her that the religious life and education were her vocation.
Marie Eugénie prepared herself by study and prayer
and,
at twenty-two, founded the Religious of the Assumption with four other
young
women. Her life and her work spanned most of the nineteenth century and
quickly
spread internationally. She and the sisters taught that our faith in
Jesus
impels us to get involved in contemporary social issues and that all
action
should flow from a life of love and prayer.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Biography
of Blessed Marie-Eugénie of Jesus
To Be Canonized on Sunday
VATICAN CITY, MAY 30, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Here is an
adapted
version of a biography of Blessed Marie-Eugénie of Jesus
(1817-1898),
which was published by the Holy See. Benedict XVI will canonize the
woman
religious on Sunday.
* * *
BLESSED MARIE EUGENIE OF JESUS (1817-1898)
Anne-Eugénie Milleret was born in 1817 in Metz
after
Napoleon's complete defeat and the restoration of the monarchy. She
belonged
to a nonbelieving and financially comfortable family and it seemed
unlikely
that she would trace a new spiritual path across the Church of France.
Her father, a follower of Voltaire and a liberal, was
making
his fortune in the banking world and in politics. Anne-Eugénie's
mother
provided the sensitive daughter with an education, which strengthened
her
character and gave her a strong sense of duty. Family life developed
her
intellectual curiosity and a romantic spirit, an interest in social
questions
and a broad worldview.
Like her contemporary, George Sand, Anne-Eugénie
went
to Mass on feast days and received the sacraments of initiation, as was
the
custom, but without any real commitment. However, her first Communion
was
a great mystical experience that foretold the secret of her future. She
did
not grasp its prophetic meaning until much later, when she recognized
it
as her path toward total belonging to Jesus Christ and the Church.
Her youth was happy but not without suffering. She was
affected
when still a child by the death of an elder brother and a baby sister.
Her
health was delicate and a fall from a horse left serious consequences.
Anne-Eugénie
was mature for her age and learned how to hide her feelings and to face
up
to events.
Later, after a prosperous period for her father, she
experienced
the failure of his banks, the misunderstanding and eventual separation
of
her parents and the loss of all security. She had to leave her family
home
and go to Paris while Louis, closest to her in age and faithful
companion,
went to live with their father. Anne-Eugénie went to Paris with
the
mother she adored, only to see her die from cholera after a few hours
of
illness, leaving her alone at the age of 15 in a society that was
worldly
and superficial. Searching in anguish and almost desperate for the
truth,
she arrived at her conversion thirsty for the Absolute and open to the
Transcendent.
When she was 19, Anne-Eugénie attended the Lenten
Conferences
at Notre Dame in Paris, preached by the young Abbé Lacordaire,
already
well-known for his talent as orator.
Lacordaire was a former disciple of Lamennais -- haunted
by
the vision of a renewed Church with a special place in the world. He
understood
his time and wanted to change it. He understood young people, their
questions
and their desires, their idealism and their ignorance of both Christ
and
the Church.
His words touched Anne-Eugénie's heart, answered
her
many questions, and aroused her generosity. Anne-Eugénie
envisaged
Christ as the universal liberator and his kingdom on earth established
as
a peaceful and just society.
"I was truly converted," she wrote, "and I was seized by a
longing
to devote all my strength or rather all my weakness to the Church
which,
from that moment, I saw as alone holding the key to the knowledge and
achievement
of all that is good."
Just at this time, another preacher, also a former
disciple
of Lamennais, appeared on the scene. In the confessional, Father
Combalot
recognized that he had encountered a chosen soul who was designated to
be
the foundress of the congregation he had dreamed of for a long time. He
persuaded
Anne-Eugénie to undertake his work by insisting that this
congregation
was willed by God who had chosen her to establish it. He convinced her
that
only by education could she evangelize minds, make families truly
Christian,
and thus transform the society of her time. Anne-Eugénie
accepted
the project as God's will for her and allowed herself to be guided by
the Abbé Combalot.
At 22, Marie Anne-Eugénie became foundress of the
Religious
of the Assumption, dedicated to consecrate their whole life and
strength
to extending the Kingdom of Christ in themselves and in the world. In
1839,
Anne-Eugénie, with two other young women, began a life of prayer
and
study in a flat at rue Ferou near the church of St. Sulpice in Paris.
In
1841, under the patronage of Madame de Chateaubriand, Lacordaire,
Montalembert
and their friends, the sisters opened their first school. In a
relatively
short time there were 16 sisters of four nationalities in the community.
Marie Anne-Eugénie and the first sisters wanted to
link
the ancient and the new -- to unite the past treasures of the Church's
spirituality
and wisdom with a type of religious life and education able to satisfy
the
demands of modern minds. It was a matter of respecting the values of
the
period and at the same time, making the Gospel values penetrate the
rising
culture of a new industrial and scientific era. The spirituality of the
congregation,
centered on Christ and the incarnation, was both deeply contemplative
and
dedicated to apostolic action. It was a life given to the search for
God
and the love and service of others.
Marie Anne-Eugénie's long life covered almost the
whole
of the 19th century. She loved her times passionately and took an
active
part in their history. Progressively, she channeled all her energy and
gifts
in tending and extending the congregation, which became her life work.
God gave her sisters and many friends. One of the first
sisters
was Irish, a mystic and her intimate friend whom she called at the end
of
her life, "half of myself." Kate O'Neill, called Mother
Thérèse
Emmanuel in religion, is considered as a co-foundress.
Father Emmanuel d'Alzon, who became Marie
Anne-Eugénie's
spiritual director soon after the foundation, was a father, brother or
friend
according to the seasons. In 1845, he founded the Augustinians of the
Assumption
and the two founders helped each other in a multitude of ways over a
period
of 40 years. Both had a gift for friendship and they inspired many lay
people
to work with them and the Church. Together, as they followed Christ and
labored
with him, the religious and laity traced the path of the Assumption and
took their place in the great cloud of witnesses.
In the last years of her life, Mother Marie
Anne-Eugénie
experienced a progressive physical weakening, which she lived in
silence
and humility -- a life totally centered on Christ. She received the
Eucharist
for the last time on March 9, 1898, and on March 10, she passed over to
the
Lord. She was beatified by Pope Paul VI on Feb. 9, 1975, in Rome.
Today, the Religious of the Assumption are present in 34
countries
-- eight in Europe, five in Asia, 10 in America and 11 in Africa.
Almost
1,200 sisters form 170 communities throughout the world.
The Lay Assumption -- Assumption Together -- made up of
Friends
of the Assumption and Communities or Fraternities of the Assumption,
are
numerous: Thousands of Friends and hundreds of Lay Assumption are
committed
to live according to the Way of Life.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Process Under Way for North Korean Martyrs
Died During the Regime of Kim
Il-sung
SEOUL, South Korea, MAY 27, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The process
for
the beatification of 36 North Koreans martyred during the 1949-'52
Stalinist
regime of Kim Il-sung has opened.
The announcement was made Thursday by the Order of St.
Benedict
Waegwan Abbey in South Korea, which exercises ecclesial jurisdiction
over
the North Korean Abbacy of Tokwon.
According to Abbot Simon Petro Ri Hyeong-u, apostolic
administrator
of the Territorial Abbacy of Tokwon, "The community of Order of St.
Benedict
Waegwan Abbey is full of aspiration to honor the witness of faith shown
by
our predecessors."
The initiative also has a political value, according to
www.AsiaNews.it.
Until now, the Seoul government has exerted its influence to avoid the
commemoration
of these martyrs in order not to provoke a diplomatic incident with the
present
regime in the North, led by Kim Jong-il, Kim Il-sung's son.
The process is for the beatification of Benedictine Abbot
Bishop
Boniface Sauer, Benedictine Father Benedict Kim and companions.
These men, according to Sabas Lee Seong-geun, vice
postulator
for the cause, "all died in the North Korean communist death camps
during
that terrible wave of anti-Catholic persecution after the communists
came
to power. We remember them together because in some way they are all
linked
to the Tokwon Abbey."
Since the end of the civil war in 1953, the three local
ecclesiastical
jurisdictions and the whole Catholic community in North Korea have been
wiped
out by the Stalinist regime. Not a single local priest has been left
alive
and all foreign clergymen have been expelled, AsiaNews said.
There are neither resident priests nor
ecclesial
structures. According to Vatican sources, Catholics in North Korea
number
800, far fewer than the 3,000 recently acknowledged by the government.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archbishop Romero - a saint for the 21st century
I met Monseñor Romero a
few
days after he took office as Archbishop on February 22nd, 1977. I had
not
attended his installation because I did not feel honest about being
there,
since he was not the archbishop that I, like many others, had hoped for.
The first time we met was purely by chance but it left me
with
an unforgettable memory. We physically bumped into each other as he was
leaving
and I was going into the seminary. Of course I said hello to him and he
answered
me with a single word ayúdeme (Spanish for "help me")
something
that he'd not only said to me but to everyone who met him. I was
impressed
by his humility, a trait that always distinguished him. Many times he
would
publicly or privately ask forgiveness for mistakes he had made.
His death three years later was not an ordinary death. It
was
the death of a saint, of a prophet and of a true Christian. He was a
martyr
for the faith and the magisterium of the Church. He died because he
believed
in God: he died for the Gospel, for the people in whom he saw Christ
and
because he was faithful to the Church's teachings. He knew how to
maintain
a dual loyalty in his life loyalty to God and to the human person which
must
be the defining criterion of every authentic Christian.
Remembering him twenty seven years later, means making him
come
alive again among us: not only to admire him but to follow the example
of
his life. It also means remembering many others in our country along
with
him: rural people, teachers, labour leaders, priests and religious an
entire
people that was massacred and crucified.
MONSEÑOR ROMERO: A MAN ROOTED IN GOD
I recall Monseñor Romero telling me once "It is so
striking
that in his teachings Jesus had the poor in mind in a preferential way.
In
two of his speeches, the Sermon on the Mount and at Nazareth, he refers
to
the poor and to those who suffer". That is how the Lord begins his
public
life, keeping in mind the poor multitudes that he cured and fed. The
disabled,
the blind, the lepers and the needy were always in his company. Does
this
not then say something to his Church and to its Shepherds?
Monseñor Romero absorbed this completely: I don't
know
how many bishops in the world would have done what he did on one
occasion
when he was the bishop of a rural diocese before coming to San
Salvador.
When he learned that miserably paid labourers in the coffee harvest had
been
sleeping outdoors in a local park after finishing their work, he threw
open
the doors of his bishop's residence to give them a roof over their
heads.
He had learned this from Jesus. The prime teacher for our Christian
life.
One day while preaching in his homily he said:
"Inside the heart of every man there is something like a
small
intimate cell to which God comes down for a private conversation. And
it
is there where man decides his own destiny, his own role in the world.
We
live too much outside of ourselves. Very few people really look inside
themselves,
and that's why there are so many problemsIf all of us who are burdened
by
so many problems were to go into that little cell right now, and from
there,
hear the Lord's voice speaking to us in our conscience, how much could
each
of us do to improve the environment, society and the family we live in?
(July
10, 1977)
I had several opportunities to become aware of his great
prayerful
spirit, of his soul rooted in God. In December 1979, Cardinal
Lorscheider
of Brazil and an important man from the Salvadorean government were
visiting
him, and I was also present. They were conversing among themselves, and
at
one point, Archbishop Romero excused himself and left the room. The
minutes
passed by and he did not return.
It occurred to me that the visitors had not come to see me
but
to see him, and, after a few minutes, I also excused myself and went to
look
for him. I went to his rooms, but he wasn't there: I looked in the
visiting
room and he wasn't there either. I looked out into the small garden of
the
hospital and I couldn't find him. I decided to go back to the meeting
and
it suddenly occurred to me to look in the chapel. And there, inside,
was
the Archbishop, kneeling in the third pew before the Blessed Sacrament
which
was exposed there. I approached him and said, "Monseñor, the
gentlemen
are waiting for you". "Yes, I'll be right there". My understanding is
that
he had gone to the Lord to consult him about how to respond to the
Cardinal and the government representative, and that he never said or
did anything
without first consulting God.
After his assassination delegations would arrive from
various
countries that admired Archbishop Romero very much. Some asked if it
was
true that he had been manipulated, either by a group of priests, or by
the
left, or by some Jesuits. And I would answer, yes, it is true. He was
manipulated
but manipulated only by God, who did with him as He pleased.
To follow Christ is, of course, to be one with him. But as
we
know, spirituality means having a spirit of prayer and the compassion
of
Jesus when he fed the hungry and when he said that there is no greater
love
than the love shown by the one who gives his life for his friends. And
Monseñor
Romero also had Jesus' spirit because he prayed deeply and shared the
suffering
of the hungry, abused and murdered multitudes. That is how he learned
from
the teachings of Jesus.
Another illustration of his prayerful spirit happened when
I
accompanied him to Rome, when he made his visit to Pope Paul the Sixth
in
March 1977. He went to explain the situation in the archdiocese on the
occasion
of the single Mass that was celebrated for the burial of Father Rutilio
Grande.
He had been Archbishop for just over a month. When we arrived in Rome
it
was 8.30 in the morning: we had been flying the whole night with no
sleep
at all. We went to the Priests' House, close to the Vatican. I went to
my
room, unpacked and I was looking at my bed, looking forward to some
rest.
Suddenly someone knocked at my door. I opened it and there was
Monseñor
Romero. He said to me: "Would you like to go for a walk?" "Yes,
Monseñor",
I said. We left the house and we went directly to St Peter's Basilica,
went
down through the central nave and the first thing he did was to kneel
before
the confessional altar of St Peter and the other Popes. I was kneeling
too.
After about seven minutes I stood up and saw him praying with such deep
devotion,
that I said to myself: "This is a man to follow, because he is
following
God". On Wednesday, March 30th, he was received by the Pope and
Monseñor
Romero explained to him how he was trying to put into practice the
Gospel
and the Second Vatican Council, the conference of Medellin and what
Pope Paul
VI himself had proposed in Populorum Progressio. He felt encouraged by
the
Pope's words: "Take courage, go ahead, you are the one in charge".
ARCHBISHOP ROMERO: A MAN FOR THE PEOPLE
The archdiocese was living through a "paschal hour",
Monseñor
Romero wrote. In his pastoral work, Archbishop Romero was trying to
bring
into being what the Pope and the Latin American bishops had urged at
their
meeting in Medellin in Colombia. "That the Church in Latin America
should
be manifest, in an increasingly clear manner, as truly poor, missionary
and
paschal; separate from all temporal power and courageously committed to
the
liberation of each and every person."
I deeply believe he was faithful and free. Being faithful
and
free is not an easy thing. But he was faithful to God and faithful to
the
people. That is the double fidelity of the people of the Church. He
loved
God with such intensity and saw things and events with the eyes of God.
Not
always do we see with the eyes of God.
I believe he died for being faithful to the Gospel and to
the
teachings of the Church in social matters. He is a martyr to these
social
teachings. If the Church in its documents didn't speak the way it does,
he
would never have felt all the support that he found in them.
And he was faithful to the human person that the Gospel
and
the church have placed as the high point of God's creation, in His
image
and likeness. And he clearly saw that in his country of El Salvador,
people
did not look like God and people were not treated as if they were His
image.
That oppressed his soul and he couldn't bear it inside, unlike others
who
know how to store in silence even the greatest infamies. The more we
keep
quiet the more "prudent" we are. We have made prudence the queen of the
cardinal
virtues, and justice and fortitude are subordinated to it. And that is
why
Monseñor also felt free, because Jesus told us: "If you live
according
to my teaching, you are truly my disciples: then you will know the
truth,
and the truth will set you free". And he was able to discover the truth
about
the people in his country.
In addition to the Fathers of the Church's first seven
centuries,
who decisively defended the poor in their writings, Monseñor
Romero
was familiar with the systematisation of the Church's social doctrine,
including
social encyclicals such as Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII and
Quadragesimo
Anno of Pope Pius XI. Later, the Second Vatican Council and the
documents
of the Pope and the Latin American bishops from Medellin and Puebla
gave
necessary support to his pastoral work.
One day I was visiting him in his rooms. He had a book in
his
hands. "Read this" he said to me, and I read: "Do you want to honour
the
body of Christ? Don't ignore Him then, when you find him naked in the
poor.
Do not honour him in the temple with clothes of silk if, on your way
out,
you abandon him in his cold nakedness. Because the same one who said:
"This
is my body", and with his words made real what he said, also stated:
"Every
time you did not do this to one of these little ones, you did not do it
to
me." () Is it good to decorate Christ's table with vessels of gold if
the
same Christ is dying of hunger? First, feed the hungry and then, with
what
is left over, you may decorate Christ's table.
After I had read it, Monseñor said to me: "It is
from
St John Chrysostom, from the fourth century. He was canonised. He is a
saint.
The Church needs saints like him", he said. And Monseñor Romero
became
one of those saints. He loved God and he loved the people, particularly
the
poor.
I would argue that if Archbishop Romero had not felt the
great
support of these social documents he would have felt less equipped to
develop
the enormous work in defence of the poor which he carried out in his
pastoral
ministry. When he was named auxiliary bishop in 1970, the motto that he
chose
for his episcopate was "Sentire cum Ecclesia", which means: to feel
with
the Church, to be at one with the Church.
To be at one with the Church meant three things to him.
First,
it meant continuous closeness through constant and fervent prayer. He
confessed
that in God he found the strength to keep on going. Second, it meant
decisive
love and service to others, whatever the consequences, including
offering
his life on God's altar for the people that he loved and defended until
his
death. Third, for him it meant filial fidelity to the teachings that
emanated
from the Church.
In his homily on July 2, 1978, he said: "It is easy to
talk
about social doctrine, but it is difficult to put it into practice".
Here
he was undoubtedly referring to the difference between Orthodoxy and
Orthopraxis.
We Catholics accept the Gospel: we all accept the Second Vatican
Council
and the different documents of the Church's teachings. Yet, it is one
thing
to accept them theoretically and place them on the shelves in our
libraries,
and another, very different thing, to say that if the Gospel and the
magisterium
tell me certain things about poverty, injustice and human dignity, I am
going to make them my own and preach about them and that I will
denounce injustice
and defend the poor. It was the Second Vatican Council that said, "The
joys
and hopes, the grief and anguish of the people of our time, especially
of
those who are poor or afflicted, are the joys and hopes, the grief and
anguish
of the followers of Christ as well" (Gaudium et Spes, Part 1).
Monseñor
Romero took this to heart; he looked at the reality of his people and
said
to himself: "If the Gospel is asking this of me, I will apply it to the
reality
of misery, injustices and poverty of my people."
He always kept in mind the Church's teachings, summed up
in
Vatican II, in the Medellin and Puebla documents and in Evangelii
Nuntiandi.
Nevertheless, he ran into big difficulties in Rome because of his
attitude.
So, on November 11th 1979, he said: "I want to assure all
of
you, and I ask for your prayers to remain faithful to this promise,
that
I will not abandon my people, but instead will face, with them, all of
the
risks that my ministry demands."
Monseñor Romero was always ready to listen He
listened
to God, to the Church's teachings, and to the people especially to
the
poorest. He listened to God, the main source of his inspiration and his
life,
to the Church, so as always to keep in mind its teachings, and to the
people,
who were the reason for his service.
Reflecting on how he listened to people, I remember an
occasion
when he called all the best minds of the Archdiocese together for a
consultation.
Among those present were pastoral specialists, ethicists, theologians
and
canon lawyers. Each one gave his opinion on what he was asked about,
and
Monseñor Romero paid attention and took notes. After the
nearly-two
hour meeting was over, he was walking down the steps from the place
where
the meeting had been held. A person was there, who looked like a
beggar,
and the Archbishop approached him. I thought he was going to give the
man
something, but to my surprise, he asked him the very same question that
he
had posed to the expert people at the meeting. That is how he listened
to
people, in whom he also saw the Church. This, for him, was the Church
of
the street.
A letter he wrote on June 24th, 1978, to Cardinal
Sebastiano
Baggio. Then Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops, in Rome, clearly
defines
his thinking and actions as Archbishop. He wrote: "I have tried to
proclaim
the true faith without detaching it from life, to offer the rich
treasure
of the Church, in its entirety, to everyone, and to firmly maintain the
Church's
unity. For many years my motto has been "To be at one with the Church",
"to
feel with the Church", and it will remain so always. I have often said
to
myself: how hard it is to try to be completely faithful to what the
Church proclaims in its Magisterium, and how easy, on the other hand,
to forget
or leave aside certain aspects. The former brings much suffering with
it;
the latter brings a great deal of security and peace, and an absence of
problems.
The former provokes accusations and contempt; the latter, praise and
very
promising human advancements. But this confirms for me what the
magisterium,
through the Council, says to the Bishops: "Teach the Christian doctrine
in
a manner that takes into account the needs of the times, that responds
to
the needs and problems which most concern men and women, and look also
to
that same doctrine to teach the faithful themselves to defend and
propagate
it. In teaching it, show the Church's maternal concern for all
humankind,
faithful or not, and consecrate particular care to the poor, to whom
the
Lord sent you to give the Good News."
This document seems very important to me, because it
allows
us to make the connection between Monseñor Romero's death and
the
Gospel. In it he speaks of the faith, but of a faith that must not be
separated
from daily life. He speaks of the Church's teachings, but also of the
need
to take account of it in its entirety. He speaks of unity and recalls
what
has always been his life's motto: "To be at one with the Church".
Monseñor would later be more explicit about his
adherence
to the teachings of the Church, saying two things in particular: How
difficult
it is to be completely faithful to what the Church proclaims in so many
documents
justice, the poor, and human rights and how this is difficult because
it
brings great suffering. He proved this personally, as the target of
accusations,
contempt and slander, and finally, with the offering of his own life in
martyrdom while celebrating the Eucharist.
In the Bible, (in Amos Chapter three, verse seven), the
prophet
says: "indeed, the Lord God does nothing without revealing His plan to
His
servants, the prophets". It is affirmed here that God reveals his
secrets
to the prophet. Hence, the reference to "nothing" in Amos means no
"event,
situation or reality". Everyone sees events and situations. Yet most
people
tend to look at the events from the outside, at their appearance. The
prophet,
on the other hand, penetrates the outside and reaches the deep centre
that
holds its secret and meaning. In other words, he sees God's plan to be
carried out in events.
Why do most of us fail to see what the prophet sees?
Because
generally, events come wrapped in a dense layer of ideas and
interpretations
that prevail in any given system. Those who benefit from a certain
system
impose these ideas and interpretations and they don't seek change,
because
change would diminish or put an end to their privileges. People who are
dominated
by the system have no way of knowing and understanding reality, since
those
who maintain the system tend to present reality according to their own
interpretation
of it. And so, the system is perpetuated without question. The prophet
simply refuses to accept the manipulated version of reality. In the
face of situations
and events, he is suspicious of prevailing interpretations, he analyses
reality
in depth, discovering what God wants to reveal to us through these
events.
It is said of Archbishop Romero that he changed
drastically
with the murder of Father Rutilio Grande, and that his conversion
happened
less than one month after he became Archbishop. I don't believe that
this
is so. I believe that Monseñor Romero was someone who always,
throughout
his life, sought conversion. It was something similar to what Mark
tells
us about when Jesus cured a blind man. When they arrived at Bethsaida,
they
brought him a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. Jesus took the
blind
man by the hand and led him outside the village. Putting spittle on his
eyes
he laid his hands on him and asked: "Do you see anything?" Looking up
the
blind man replied: "I see people who look like trees, walking". Then
Jesus
laid hands on his eyes a second time and he saw clearly, his sight was
restored
and he could see everything distinctly" (Mark 8:22-25). Monseñor
Romero
also began to see gradually, as he discovered more about the Gospel and
the
painful situation of the people. All of these changed him. He never
spoke
of himself in terms of conversion; he spoke of evolution. For this
reason
he wrote: "readiness to change. He who fails to change will not gain
the
Kingdom." This is why he adds: "When we escape from reality, we escape
from
God."
In the course of history, three bishops have been murdered
in
their Churches. The first, St Stanislaus of Krakow in Poland, was
assassinated
for calling attention to the King's personal sins that is, for
defending
morality. The second was St Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury,
who
was assassinated for defending the Church's rights and liberties. The
third,
Archbishop Romero, supported by the Gospels and the Church's teachings,
was
assassinated for defending the poor. The first two Bishops have been
canonised.
Finally, I want to quote from Archbishop Romero's homily
of
July 2nd, 1978, in which he said: "I have once again confirmed that I
will
die, God willing, faithful to the successor of Peter. It is easy to
preach
teachings in theory. Following the Church's teachings in theory is very
easy.
But when it becomes a question of living out these saving teachings, of
embodying
them and making them real in the history of the suffering people like
our
own, that is when conflicts arise. Not that I have been unfaithful
never!
On the contrary, I feel that today I am more faithful than ever because
I
experience the test, the suffering and the deep happiness of
proclaiming
(and not only in words and with lip service) a doctrine that I have
always
believed in and loved. I am trying to bring it to life for the
community
the Lord has entrusted to me. And I beg of you, dear brothers and
sisters,
that if we are really to be Catholics, followers of a true and
therefore,
very difficult, Gospel, if we really want to honour the word of
Christ's followers,
that we must not be afraid of bringing forth blood, life, truth and
history
from this doctrine. Taken from the pages of the Gospels, it is made
current
by the doctrine of the Councils and the Popes who try to live the
vicissitudes
of their time as true Pastors." (July 2nd, 1978)
Monseñor Romero brought forth blood, life, truth
and
history from what the Church taught him. He died faithful to God,
faithful
to the human person and faithful to the Church's teachings. For this
reason
I believe, I affirm, and I maintain that he was a martyr for the Gospel
and
the Church's teachings and for the love of the poor.
ARCHBISHOP ROMERO, DEFENDER OF HUMAN RIGHTS
In one of his meetings with a group of priests, Archbishop
Romero
asked one of them to keep a record or a diary of what was happening in
the
Church and in the country. A month later, during the following meeting,
he
asked the priest to whom he had entrusted the diary, how it was going.
The
priest answered, saying: Monseñor, I'm a bit disorganised and I
haven't
started it yet. Monseñor hit the table and said: "With the
Church
no-one can be disorganised". Months passed by and no-one heard anything
more
about the diary. When Monseñor Romero died, we went to his room,
and
to our great surprise, we found that on May 31st, 1978, he had started
a
diary that he had dictated every day onto a tape recorder, without
saying
a word to anybody about it. Several editions of his diary have been
published in Spanish and it has been translated into English, French,
Italian and Portuguese.
So, one person's failure is the reason that we now have this treasure.
There
is no way that one can learn the essence of Monseñor Romero
without
reading his diary.
I am remembering on purpose this matter about his diary,
just
to make you see that the first entry in it was about the protection of
human
rights. On that first day it says, literally: "The most important
meeting
today was one we had with lawyers and law students we had brought
together
to explain to them the difficulties that the Church is facing and to
ask
them for legal help with so many cases of abuse of human rights".
For Monseñor Romero, human rights were also divine
rights.
Men and women created in God's image and likeness should be respected
because
they are human beings and God's creatures. "I have to go around picking
up
corpses", he said one day, in the middle of terror and a period of
great
upheaval in the country. And looking at himself in the face of all that
pain,
he commented: "The Archbishop has to be where the suffering is."
Monseñor Romero was, in fact, the first human
rights
ombudsman in the history of El Salvador and its people. He was an
ombudsman
who knew how to combine the ethics and truth of the Gospel with legal
defence
and public denunciation. He was an ombudsman who sought, within the
limited
legal framework available, some means of promoting democracy and one
who
always made use of solidarity and justice in his ministry of
accompaniment
of his people.
In acting as he did, Monseñor Romero bound the vast
majority
of Salvadoreans together in the cause of human rights. No one before
him
had been able to do this in El Salvador. Nor has anyone since him done
it
as effectively as he did during those tumultuous years preceding the
outbreak
of war.
In the history of humankind, Monseñor Romero holds
a
place among the great defenders of human rights, both for his theory
and
for his practice. His influence is Salvadorean, Central American, and
global.
While he was alive his voice was heard around the world, and his Sunday
homilies,
proclaimed from the Cathedral of San Salvador, turned him into an
international
paradigm for the promotion and defence of human rights. Each Sunday he
would
spend more than an hour on theological themes, interpreting the
readings
from that week's liturgy and delivering a message of reconciliation to
a
society bloodied and divided by violence. He would then dedicate as
much
time as was needed to narrate the most important events that had taken
place
that week. In that "spoken Sunday newspaper" he reported what the
national
media controlled and censored by an authoritarian and repressive
State
could not report.
Many of the events that Oscar Romero revealed in his
homilies
were grave human rights violations directed against the poorest
Salvadoreans.
That an Archbishop would publicly relate these deeds, often in great
detail,
resulted in something unprecedented. It was the response of a humanist,
a
democrat and a Christian. And, of course, there were very few who dared
to
make such a public response in the dangerous El Salvador of those years.
Monseñor Romero's emphasis on denouncing human
rights
violations had a massive impact on the national community and awoke the
interest
of the international community, especially those organisations which
specialised
in the defence, promotion and protection of human rights. In 1978, the
International
Federation of Human Rights arrived in El Salvador, drawn by
Monseñor
Romero's denunciations. The Inter-American Commission of Human Rights
visited
El Salvador in 1979, attracted by the voice of Monseñor Romero.
Amnesty
International chose El Salvador as the destination for its first
large-scale
mission to Central America because of Monseñor Romero. From
Geneva
the International Commission of Jurists, dedicated to promoting the
rule
of law and justice throughout the world, visited El Salvador to listen
to
the Archbishop. A congressional delegation from the United States made
its
first investigation of human rights violations, motivated by the
courageous
words proclaimed each Sunday by Monseñor Romero from the
Cathedral.
Also, from Geneva, the protestant Churches and other Christian
denominations
united in the World Council of Churches encouraged its Commission for
International Concerns to accompany Archbishop Romero in his work.
Shortly before his assassination,
the British Parliament presented Monseñor Romero as its nominee
for
the Nobel Peace Prize.
In closing, I wish to recall what he wrote in his last
spiritual
retreat, thirty days before dying: "Another fear of mine is with regard
to
the risks to my life. It is difficult to accept a violent death that,
in
these circumstances, is most possible Father Azcue (Romero's confessor)
has
encouraged me, telling me that my disposition should be to give my life
for
God whatever my end might be. The grace of God will see me through
unknown
circumstances. He has assisted the martyrs and, if necessary, I will
feel
Him near me when I take my last breath. But what is more important than
the
moment of death is to give Him my whole life, to live for Him".
Two weeks before his death, in an interview with the
Mexican
magazine Excelsior, he said: "I have frequently been threatened with
death.
I should tell you that, as a Christian, I do not believe in death
without
Resurrection. If they kill me, I will rise again in the Salvadorean
people.
I tell you this without any boasting, with the greatest humilityAs a
pastor,
I am obliged by Divine order to give my life for those whom I love,
that
is, for all Salvadoreans, even those who will kill me. If they succeed
in
their threats, from now I already obey God. I offer my blood for the
redemption
and resurrection of El Salvador.Martyrdom is a grace of God I do not
believe
I deserve. But if God accepts the sacrifice of my life, may my blood be
the
seed of liberation and a sign that hope will soon be a reality. My
death,
if it is accepted by God, will be for the liberation of my people and a
testimony
of hope in the future. You could say, if they should kill me, that I
forgive
and bless those who do it".
This is the man who loved God beyond everything, who loved
the
suffering people and who offered his life for the love of God and for
the
human person. He was a prophet, a martyr and a saint for this 21st
Century.
Monseñor Ricardo Urios, former secretary to
Archbishop
Romero gave this talk in Westminster, Roehampton and Aylesford recently.
Source: Romero Trust
© Independent Catholic News LONDON - 22
May
2007
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope says pick a saint
The Holy See has
adopted
new rules that allow national bishops' conferences to propose saints
from
under-represented countries for inclusion on the Church's universal
calendar
- but competition is stiff for the few remaining available dates.
Catholic News reports that the General Roman Calendar,
the
universal schedule of holy days and feast days for the Latin rite of
the
Catholic Church, is so packed that more selectivity is needed,
according
to new norms and a commentary published in the official bulletin of the
Congregation
for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.
Pope Benedict has approved the stricter guidelines for
determining
which saints will be remembered with mandatory feast days on the basis
of
recommendations from the congregation, the commentary said.
"A saint can be inserted in the general calendar
because
of the significant and universal importance of his or her spiritual
message
and effectiveness as an example for a broad category of members of the
church,"
the norms say.
According to the new norms, special consideration will
also
be given to saints from countries not already represented in the
general
calendar and from underrepresented categories, such as laypeople,
married
couples and parents.
But ten years should have passed since the
canonization
ceremony to ensure ongoing, widespread devotion.
The process for adding a candidate is begin with a
two-thirds
favorable vote from the bishops' conference where the saint was born,
lived
or died. In addition, the congregation will ask the opinion of at least
three
other bishops' conferences on different continents.
"The numerous beatifications and canonizations
celebrated
in the past few years by the supreme pontiff have underlined concretely
the
multiple manifestations of holiness in the church," the commentary said.
But, it said, hundreds of new saints also has meant
greater
competition for the limited free dates on the universal calendar, dates
used
to remember saints with a local importance and to keep the tradition of
remembering
Mary on Saturdays not already dedicated to an obligatory feast.
The year does not have enough days to include all the
saints
in the universal calendar, particularly when Sundays and holy days are
subtracted.
"It will be difficult in the future to make further
additions
if certain criteria are not rigorously applied," the norms conclude.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope's Address
at
Canonization of 1st Brazilian
"His Immense Charity Knew No
Bounds"
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 11, 2007
(Zenit.org).-
Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave today at
the canonization Mass of Blessed Antônio de Sant'Ana
Galvão (1739-1822), the first Brazilian to be proclaimed a saint.
* * *
My Venerable Brothers in the College of Cardinals,
Archbishop Scherer of São Paulo,
Bishops of Brazil and Latin America,
Distinguished Authorities,
Sisters and Brothers in Christ!
I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise
always
on my lips (Psalms 32:2)
1. Let us rejoice in the Lord, on this day when we
contemplate
another marvel of God, who in his admirable providence allows us to
taste
a trace of his presence in this act of self-giving Love that is the
Holy
Sacrifice of the Altar.
Yes, we cannot fail to praise our God. Let all of
us praise him, peoples of Brazil and America, let us sing to the Lord
of his
wonders, because he has done great things for us. Today, Divine Wisdom
allows
us to gather around his altar with praise and thanksgiving for the
grace
granted to us in the canonization of Frei Antônio de Sant'Ana
Galvão.
I would like to express my thanks for the
affectionate words spoken on behalf of all of you by the Archbishop of
São Paulo.
I thank each one of you for your presence here, whether you come from
this
great city or from other cities and nations. I rejoice that, through
the
communications media, my words and expressions of affection can enter
every
house and every heart. Be sure of this: the Pope loves you, and he
loves
you because Jesus Christ loves you.
In this solemn eucharistic celebration, we have
listened to the Gospel in which Jesus exultantly proclaims: "I thank
you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise
and understanding and revealed them to babes" (Matthew 11:25). I am
glad
that the elevation to the altars of Frei Galvão will always
remain
framed in the liturgy that the Church presents to us today.
I greet with affection all the Franciscan
community,
and especially the Conceptionist Sisters who, from the Monastery of
Light, from the capital of the State of São Paulo, spread the
spirituality
and the charism of the first Brazilian to be raised to the glory of the
altars.
2. Let us give thanks to God for the lasting
benefits obtained through the powerful evangelizing influence that the
Holy Spirit
impressed upon so many souls through Frei Galvão. The Franciscan
charism,
lived out in the spirit of the Gospel, has borne significant fruits
through
his witness as an ardent adorer of the Eucharist, as a prudent and wise
guide
of the souls who sought his counsel, and as a man with a great devotion
to
the Immaculate Conception of Mary, whose "son and perpetual servant" he
considered
himself to be.
God comes towards us, "he seeks to win our hearts,
all
the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross,
to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by
which, through
the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its
path"
(Encyclical Letter "Deus Caritas Est," 17). He reveals himself through
his
word, in the sacraments and especially in the Eucharist. The life of
the
Church, therefore, is essentially eucharistic. In his loving
providence,
the Lord has left us a visible sign of his presence.
When we contemplate the Lord at Mass, raised up by
the priest after the consecration of the bread and wine, or when we
devoutly
adore him exposed in the monstrance, we renew our faith with profound
humility,
as Frei Galvão did in "laus perennis", in a constant attitude of
adoration.
The Holy Eucharist contains all the spiritual wealth of the Church,
that
is to say Christ himself, our Passover, the living bread come down from
heaven,
given life by the Holy Spirit and in turn life-giving because it is the
source
of Life for mankind. This mysterious and ineffable manifestation of
God's
love for humanity occupies a privileged place in the heart of
Christians.
They must come to know the faith of the Church through her ordained
ministers,
through the exemplary manner in which they carry out the prescribed
rites
that always point to the eucharistic liturgy as the centre of the
entire task
of evangelization. The faithful, in their turn, must seek to receive
and
to venerate the Most Holy Sacrament with piety and devotion, eager to
welcome
the Lord Jesus with faith, and having recourse, whenever necessary, to
the
sacrament of reconciliation so as to purify the soul from every grave
sin.
3. The significance of Frei Galvão's example
lies
in his willingness to be of service to the people whenever he was
asked.
He was renowned as a counsellor, he was a bringer of peace to souls and
families,
and a dispenser of charity especially towards the poor and the sick. He
was
greatly sought out as a confessor, because he was zealous, wise and
prudent.
It is characteristic of those who truly love that they do not want the
Beloved
to be offended; the conversion of sinners was therefore the great
passion
of our saint. Sister Helena Maria, the first religious sister destined
to
belong to the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição,
witnessed
to what Frei Galvão had said to her: "Pray that the Lord our God
will
raise sinners with his mighty arm from the wretched depths of the sins
in
which they find themselves." May this insightful admonition serve as a
stimulus
to us to recognize in the Divine Mercy the path towards reconciliation
with
God and our neighbour, for the peace of our consciences.
4. United with the Lord in the supreme communion of
the Eucharist and reconciled with him and our neighbour, we will thus
become
bearers of that peace which the world cannot give. Will the men and
women
of this world be able to find peace if they are not aware of the need
to
be reconciled with God, with their neighbour and with themselves?
Highly
significant in this regard are the words written by the Assembly of the
Senate
of São Paulo to the Minister Provincial of the Franciscans at
the
end of the eighteenth century, describing Frei Galvão as a "man
of
peace and charity". What does the Lord ask of us? "Love one another as
I
have loved you." But immediately afterwards he adds: "Go out and bear
fruit,
fruit that will last" (cf. John 15:12,16). And what fruit does he ask
of
us, if not that of knowing how to love, drawing inspiration from the
example
of the Saint of Guaratinguetá?
The renown of his immense charity knew no bounds.
People from all over the country went to Frei Galvão, who
offered a fatherly welcome to everyone. Among those who came to implore
his help were the poor
and the sick in body and spirit.
Jesus opens his heart and reveals to us the core of
his entire saving message: "No one has greater love than this: to lay
down his
life for his friends" (John 15:13). He himself loved even to the extent
of
giving his life for us on the Cross. The action of the Church and of
Christians
in society must have this same inspiration. Pastoral initiatives for
the
building up of society, if directed towards the good of the poor and
the
sick, bear within themselves this divine seal. The Lord counts on us
and
calls us his friends, because it is only to those we love in this way
that
we are capable of giving the life offered by Jesus through his grace.
As we know, the Fifth General Conference of the
Latin-American
Episcopate will take as its fundamental theme: "Disciples and
Missionaries
of Jesus Christ, so that our Peoples may have Life in Him". How can we
fail
to see, then, the need to listen with renewed fervour to God's call, so
as
to be able to respond generously to the challenges facing the Church in
Brazil
and in Latin America?
5. "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden,
and
I will give you rest", says the Lord in the Gospel (Matthew 11:28).
This is
the final recommendation that he makes to us. How can we fail to
recognize
here God's fatherly and at the same time motherly care towards all his
children?
Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, stands particularly close to us at
this
moment. Frei Galvão prophetically affirmed the truth of the
Immaculate
Conception. She, the Tota Pulchra, the Virgin Most Pure, who conceived
in
her womb the Redeemer of mankind and was preserved from all stain of
original
sin, wishes to be the definitive seal of our encounter with God our
Saviour.
There is no fruit of grace in the history of salvation that does not
have
as its necessary instrument the mediation of Our Lady.
In fact, the saint that we are celebrating gave
himself irrevocably to the Mother of Jesus from his youth, desiring to
belong to
her for ever and he chose the Virgin Mary to be the Mother and
Protector
of his spiritual daughters.
My dearest friends, what a fine example Frei
Galvão
has left for us to follow! There is a phrase included in the formula of
his consecration which sounds remarkably contemporary to us, who live
in an age
so full of hedonism: "Take away my life before I offend your blessed
Son,
my Lord!" They are strong words, the words of an impassioned soul,
words
that should be part of the normal life of every Christian, whether
consecrated
or not, and they enkindle a desire for fidelity to God in married
couples
as well as in the unmarried. The world needs transparent lives, clear
souls,
pure minds that refuse to be perceived as mere objects of pleasure. It
is
necessary to oppose those elements of the media that ridicule the
sanctity
of marriage and virginity before marriage.
In our day, Our Lady has been given to us as the
best defence against the evils that afflict modern life; Marian
devotion is the
sure guarantee of her maternal protection and safeguard in the hour of
temptation.
And what an unfailing support is this mysterious presence of the Virgin
Most
Pure, when we invoke the protection and the help of the Senhora
Aparecida!
Let us place in her most holy hands the lives of priests and
consecrated
laypersons, seminarians and all who are called to religious life.
6. My dear friends, allow me to finish by recalling
the Vigil of Prayer at Marienfeld in Germany: in the presence of a
multitude
of young people, I spoke of the saints of our epoch as true reformers.
And
I added: "Only from the saints, only from God does true revolution
come,
the definitive way to change the world" (Homily, 25 August 2005). This
is
the invitation that I address to all of you today, from the first to
the
last, in this Eucharist without frontiers. God said: "Be holy, as I am
holy"
(Leviticus 11:44). Let us give thanks to God the Father, to God the
Son,
to God the Holy Spirit from whom, through the intercession of the
Virgin
Mary, we receive all the blessings of heaven; from whom we receive this
gift
which, together with faith, is the greatest grace that can be bestowed
upon
a creature: the firm desire to attain the fullness of charity, in the
conviction that holiness is not only possible but also necessary for
every person in
his or her own state of life, so as to reveal to the world the true
face
of Christ, our friend! Amen!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SÃO PAULO, Brazil, MAY 11, 2007
(Zenit.org).-
Benedict XVI greeted the Brazilian woman who attributes the birth of
her
son to the intercession of Blessed Antônio de Sant'Anna
Galvão.
Sandra Grossi de Almeida, 37, and her son Enzo, 8, were present today
as
the Pope canonized the priest. Enzo also received his first Communion
from
the Holy Father.
More than 1 million people attended the open-air Mass on the airfield
of
Campo de Marte Airport in São Paulo.
The woman gave birth to her son in 1999 after having taken "Father
Galvão's
pills," tiny rice-paper pills prepared by Sisters of the Monastery of
Light.
Each pill, taken by people seeking cures for their illnesses, is
inscribed
with a prayer.
Grossi de Almeida had a uterine malformation that should have made it
impossible
for her to carry a child for more than four months.
Her case was recognized as "scientifically inexplicable" by the team of
medical
experts on Jan. 18, 2006, during the process of canonization of Father
Galvão
(1739-1822).
Grossi de Almeida said before her encounter with the Benedict XVI: "I
believe
that I will be so excited that I will just barely be able to thank him
for
approving the canonization of Father Galvão here in Brazil, a
gift
for me and all Brazilians."
Before becoming pregnant with Enzo, she had suffered three miscarriages
from
a genetic problem known as a bicornuate uterus -- also known as a
heart-shaped
uterus.
Faith
"Gynecologists told me to be realistic; that they would do everything
medically
possible to help me but they told me I would most likely miscarry
again,"
said Grossi de Almeida in the official Web page of the Pope's visit to
Brazil.
It was then that a family friend spoke to the expectant mother of
Father
Galvão's pills, which she decided to take.
Grossi de Almeida said that the hemorrhaging stopped on the first night
of
the novena: "That was a sign that I could believe in the power of
Father
Galvão even more, and in his intercession."
In the fifth month of pregnancy the doctors said that the baby was too
big,
and that she was at risk for a miscarriage. "It was then that I prayed
again
to Father Galvão," she recalled.
The doctors performed a Caesarean section at 32 weeks of pregnancy
without
any complications. "The doctors said it was impossible, but not for
God,"
she said.
Enzo suffered from a serious lung problem at birth, a common cause of
death
for premature babies, but after his mother prayed again to Father
Galvão,
the baby was taken off the respirator the next day.
Asked about Father Galvão, Enzo said: "It is thanks to him that
I
was born."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope to
Canonize
1st Brazilian-Born Saint
SÃO PAULO,
Brazil,
MAY 9, 2007- Brazil's first native-born saint will be canonized in his
home
country by Benedict XVI.
Canonizations normally take place in Rome, but the
Holy
Father will make an exception Friday and canonize Blessed Antonio
Santa'Ana
Galvão in São Paulo.
News of the canonization was received with great joy
in
Brazil, reported Archbishop Odilo Scherer of São Paulo,
president
of the country's episcopal conference.
Father Galvão, who was born in 1739, "wanted to
be
Jesuit but ended up a Franciscan," explained the archbishop.
He continued: "In São Paulo, he was devoted to
the
prayer, intense work, preaching, and charity. He was a true 'man of
God'
endeavoring to help people to be closer to God.
"Always welcoming people, he gave special attention to
the
poor, the sick and the afflicted."
Father Galvão founded Santa Clara's convent, in
Sorocaba,
at a time Marquês de Pombal's law imposed enormous restrictions
on
the Church and its building initiatives.
Father Galvão "helped to build Luz Monastery in
São
Paulo, where still today the nuns of the religious congregation he
founded
live," remarked Archbishop Scherer.
Father Galvão died in 1822, the year of the
independence
of Brazil. His grave, a place of devotion, is at the Luz Monastery, in
São
Paulo.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Despite
Suffering, Nun Sang of God's Mercy
Sister Maria Rosa Pellesi Beatified in Rimini
RIMINI, Italy, MAY 9, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Suffering
from
tuberculosis, Sister Maria Rosa of Jesus asked God for the ability to
sing
of his mercy and to be heard.
Sister Maria Rosa was beatified April 29 in Rimini.
Cardinal
José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for
Saints'
Causes and Benedict XVI's delegate for the occasion, presided over the
rite.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins reflected in his homily on
the
invitation of Sister Maria Rosa to hope and "to not let ourselves be
tied
down by our limitations."
Like her, we must pray that Jesus uses each one of us
"to
build upon the wreckage" of human weakness, [to be] that "masterpiece
that"
God "has had in his mind for all eternity," exhorted the cardinal.
Her life
Born Bruna Pellesi on Nov. 10, 1917, near Modena in
northern
Italy, she was the youngest of nine children. Her parents were farmers
with
a strong Catholic faith.
The postulator of her cause of beatification, Father
Florio
Tessari, in an interview with Vatican Radio, said, "When she was a
young
girl she was vivacious and loved to dress well."
"She was one of the most beautiful girls in town," he
added,
and she "was filled with a desire to love and be loved."
When she was 17, she dated a young man but "left him
because
her heart was beating for another. Christ became her only love," Father
Tessari
explained.
Bruna Pellesi entered the convent of the Franciscan
Missionary
Sisters of Christ when she was 23, making her final profession two
years
later, taking the name of Sister Maria Rosa of Jesus.
At the age of 26 she was diagnosed with tuberculosis
and
was hospitalized by the sickness for 27 years.
Her treatment included extracting liquid from her
lungs
five times a day. The postulator said she never complained.
Father Tessari recalled that when Sister Maria Rosa
was
near death, in 1972, she said in a whisper: "I say this now, all that
matters
is loving the Lord. I am happy because I die in love and I am happy
because
I love everyone."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jerome Lejeune Saintly
scientist
Written by Carolyn Moynihan
Thursday, 26 April 2007
The Frenchman who discovered trisomy 21 was heroically
professional
when he insisted it could be cured.
Jerome Lejeune Is there any field of medical science
trendier
than genetics? Stem cell research might cap it, but genetics is far
better
established and has plenty of runs on the board. Both, given their
practitioners'
propensity to test the ethical limits of medicine, seem unlikely fields
in
which a person might earn a reputation for sanctity. Yet, that is what
the
late Jerome Lejeune did in the course of his career as one of the
fathers
of modern genetics. In 2004, ten years after his premature death from
cancer,
and in response to popular demand, the Vatican called for the process
which could see the French doctor declared a saint to be opened.
Earlier this month,
Paris Archbishop Andre Vingt-Trois launched the process for his
beatification.
Lejeune's scientific and spiritual fame centres on his
40-year
commitment to finding a cure for Down's syndrome (for pedantic reasons
now
known as "Down syndrome" in North America and elsewhere). At the very
beginning
of his medical career in the 1950s he found himself drawn to the young,
mentally
handicapped children, so often segregated in institutions and denied
treatment
which could have relieved associated health problems. He also felt
deeply
for the parents who learned that they had given birth to a "Mongol"
child ("Mongolian idiocy" was the cruel technical term for the
condition) and who
fell under suspicion of breeding racial degeneracy. In earlier decades
Down's
sufferers had been targets of the eugenics movement.
Fellow feeling for these innocent outcasts turned the young
Parisian
doctor into a research scientist, his mind and heart set on solving the
mystery
of their condition and relieving their suffering. He would not accept
that
his profession could turn its back on one whole group of people.
Already
some scientists speculated that Down's was caused by a fault in the
chromosomes.
Following this lead and using the new technique of karyotyping he
discovered,
in 1958, that a patient with Down's had an extra chromosome at the 21st
pair.
The genetic diagnosis known as Trisomy 21 was born, establishing the
first
ever link between mental disability and a chromosome disorder -- and
heralding
a new era in genetics.
It was a discovery of incalculable importance to people
with
the condition and their families -- if only at first from a symbolic
point
of view. The embarrassing and misleading term "mongolism" was gradually
retired
(although it still crops up) and the term Down's adopted after John
Langdon
Down who first described the syndrome.
But Lejeune's contribution went beyond the scientific into
the
realm of what we might call "public relations" as he sought to open
people's
eyes to the human dignity of those affected by the syndrome and their
claim
on our love and effort. With his trademark combination of precise
observation,
moral insight and poetry he once wrote:
"With their slightly slanting eyes, their little
nose
in a round face and their unfinished features, trisomic children are
more
child-like than other children. All children have short hands and short
fingers;
theirs are shorter. Their entire anatomy is more rounded, without any
asperities
or stiffness. Their ligaments, their muscles, are so supple that it
adds
a tender languor to their way of being. And this sweetness extends to
their
character: they are communicative and affectionate, they have a special
charm
which is easier to cherish than to describe. This is not to say that
Trisomy
21 is a desirable condition. It is an implacable disease which deprives
the
child of that most precious gift handed down to us through genetic
heredity:
the full power of rational thought. This combination of a tragic
chromosomic
error and a naturally endearing nature, immediately shows what medicine
is
all about: hatred of disease and love of the diseased."
For that testimony alone, one feels, he should be
canonised.
Indeed, he is as
likely to be recognised by the Church as much for his verbal
defence of the human being -- in whatever condition -- as for his
scientific
work, since the one quickly became as necessary as the other. As he and
colleagues
turned his surgery at the Necker Hospital for Sick Children (Paris)
into
one of the largest cytogenetics centres in the world, studying more
than
30,000 chromosomic cases and treating more than 9000 patients with
genetically-linked
intellectual disabilities, the medical profession became involved in a
great
betrayal, using the new science for prenatal diagnosis leading to
abortion.
By the 1990s as many as 90 per cent of Down's syndrome babies in
Britain
were deliberately aborted. Since 2003 every pregnant woman in Britain
is
offered a screening test whose main purpose is to make abortion
possible.
This trend was a source of tremendous anguish for Lejeune
and
drove him to defend his patients publicly from what he called
"chromosomic
racism". This put him in demand as a speaker and expert witness for the
pro-life
movement -- adding to his already enormous workload of teaching,
research
and clinical work -- but led to his being ostracised by many of his
peers.
"Medicine has become mad," he said, "when it attacks the patient
instead
of fighting the disease. We must be on the patient's side, always."
Fighting
on two fronts his life must have become a kind of martyrdom -- albeit
one
marked by joy and good humour -- shared by his staunch wife and five
children.
(In her biography of her father, La Vie est un bonheur
(life
is happiness) Clara Lejeune Gaymard recounts how every summer when the
children
were young Lejeune would pack the family into the car and drive them to
Denmark
-- where his wife's family lived -- for a long holiday. Then he would
drive
back to the heat of Paris to do research which he had no time for while
teaching.)
Lejeune was convinced that a cure for Down's syndrome was
possible
and that it would open the way to a cure for all the other genetic
diseases.
"It is obvious that we'll find a way," he said. "The intellectual
effort
is much simpler than putting a man on the moon." And, "The patients are
waiting
for me, I have to find the answer." However, although he laboured to
the
last weeks of his life -- exploring the use of folate therapy, for
example
-- he died in April 1994 without achieving his mission, and feeling
that
he was "abandoning them".
Jerome Lejeune received many awards and honours during his
life
-- including warm recognition within the Catholic Church and in
particular
from Pope John Paul II, who was a personal friend -- but he would have
traded
them all, no doubt, for support from his profession for his great
mission
of finding a cure for genetic diseases. Even today the Paris-based
Jerome
Lejeune Foundation struggles to awaken greater interest in research on
Trisomy
21.
It would console the saintly scientist, however, that
there
seems to be a sort of grassroots rebellion brewing against the culture
of
death that has stifled the lives of countless thousands of Down's
babies
prenatally. Articulate middle class parents, who tend to have their
children
later and to that extent run a greater risk of Down's, have been
speaking
up in the media about their disabled children. A fine example appeared
in
the London Times last year, a testimony by the paper's chief sports
writer
to the joy he has had from his second son, who has Down's.
The writer, Simon Barnes, is at pains to make it clear he
is
"not a saint", just a dad who enjoys life and takes it as it comes --
including
in the form of an intellectually impaired son, whom he has found it
quite
natural to love. While respecting his sensibilities about "sainthood"
one
should perhaps warn him that sanctity could still sneak up on him.
After
all, Jerome Lejeune did no more than love the children in front of him
in
a perfectly natural way -- as a man, a father and a professional.
There is much more to say about the geneticist who could
be
a saint. But this much can be said with confidence: that his profession
was
never in greater need of the ideals he represents and a model for
living
them than it is now.
Carolyn Moynihan is Deputy Editor of MercatorNet.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardinal
Van
Thuân's Cause to Begin
ROME, APRIL 24, 2007
(Zenit.org).-
The secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said
Cardinal
François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân's beatification
process
is about to begin, some five years after the Vietnamese prelate's death.
Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi made the announcement when
presenting
a book by Cardinal Camillo Ruini entitled "God's Truth and Man's Truth:
Benedict
XVI and the Great Questions of Our Time."
The book is being published as a part of the Cardinal Van
Thuân
International Observatory's "Journals" series.
Bishop Crepaldi explained: "The book urged me to link the
theme
of truth -- of God's and man's -- to which Cardinal Ruini's book is
dedicated;
and the theme of hope, so dear to the departed Cardinal
François-Xavier
Nguyên Van Thuân and at the core of his spirituality and
his
exemplary living of human and Christian life."
The prelate, who worked with the cardinal and who is
president
of the Van Thuân Observatory, explained how "truth and hope have
deep
ties. The intelligence of faith leads me to the firm conviction that
truth,
in surrendering or uncovering itself, reveals a vocation and therefore
brings
about hope."
Biography
Bishop Crepaldi underlined the connection between the
theme
of the book and the Vietnamese cardinal, saying that it "is made even
more
immediate and meaningful by the fact that this year we will be
remembering
the fifth anniversary of his death, which occurred on Sept. 16, 2002,
and
the cause for his beatification is starting."
Nguyen Van Thuân was ordained a priest in 1953 and
appointed
bishop of Nha Trang in 1967.
In 1975, Pope Paul VI named him coadjutor archbishop of
Saigon
(today's Ho Chi Minh City).
After the defeat of South Vietnam, he was detained for 13
years
in a Communist re-education camp. Nine of those years he spent in
solitary
confinement.
In 1988 he was liberated and forced into exile. Pope John
Paul
II welcomed him to Vatican City and entrusted him with responsibilities
in
the Roman Curia, naming him president of the Pontifical Council for
Justice
and Peace.
In March 2000, Archbishop Van Thuân preached the
spiritual exercises attended by John Paul II and the Roman Curia,
sharing many of his
spiritual experiences in prison. "The Testimony of Hope" was published
as
a collection of his meditations.
He was made cardinal in February 2001 and died the
following
year at the age of 74.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A "Priest of Divine Mercy" Beatified
Father Luigi Boccardo (1861-1936)
TURIN, Italy, APRIL 17, 2007 -
Father
Luigi Boccardo, known as an apostle of merciful love, was proclaimed
blessed
in his native city of Turin.
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the
Vatican
Congregation for Saints' Causes, presided over the beatification Mass,
held
Sunday in the Church of the Holy Face. Cardinal Severino Poletto,
archbishop
of Turin, concelebrated.
Luigi Boccardo was born Aug. 9, 1861, the seventh of nine
children.
He was ordained a priest in 1884, and served as assistant
pastor
to his brother and godfather, Father Giovanni Maria Boccardo, who was
beatified
by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
Father Luigi then served as vice rector and spiritual
director
at the Consolata College for young priests, and as a theology professor
at
the diocesan seminary.
The priest also spent hours hearing confessions at the
Shrine
of the Consolata and visiting prisoners.
Father Luigi became the superior general of the Poor
Sisters
of San Gaetano, founded by his brother, after Father Giovanni Maria
died
in 1913.
In 1919, Father Luigi became director of an institute for
the
blind. In that time he built the Shrine to Jesus Christ, King and
Priest.
In 1932, he founded the Order of Sisters of Christ the
King,
a contemplative branch of the order founded by his brother.
He died June 9, 1936.
A priest
Mother Teresa Ponsi, superior general of the Poor Sisters
of
San Gaetano, spoke of the newly beatified to Vatican Radio: "His
charism
as educator and founder was to reveal the merciful love of Jesus,
priest
and king, to his brothers, especially in the education of the clergy
...
and in the spiritual direction of so many that approached him in the
confessional."
Father Luigi "could be defined as 'a priest, always a
priest,'"
the superior general added. "For him, to be a priest was the most
marvelous
adventure."
Mother Ponsi added that the priest and founder was a
"teacher
and guide for the young clergy, confessor and spiritual guide for all
types
of people."
She added that he was a "priest of divine mercy," and that
he
"disseminated this in great abundance."
Mother Ponsi continued: "A contemplative and an apostle,
he
had an knowledge of delicate charity in understanding that even blind
people
can live a religious life, because before God no impediments exist with
respect
to who, by his grace, is called to consecrate their life to him."
"Because of all this, Blessed Luigi Boccardo is an example
and
a motivation in the coherent search for holiness," and a "witness of
charity,"
she added.
Cardinal Poletto wrote in the diocesan paper: "The event
of
two brothers, priests in our diocese, being declared blessed by the
Church,
is an extraordinary grace."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samurai on way to beatification, Cardinal believes
A number of samurai who chose
non-violence
in spite of their fighting skills are among 188 mostly lay Japanese
martyrs
expected to be beatified in November, according to Tokyo-born Cardinal
Stephen
Fumio Hamao.
UCA News reports that Japanese Cardinal Hamao, who
previously
headed the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and
Itinerants,
anticipates Pope Benedict XVI will soon approve a decree for the
beatification
of the martyrs, and he expects the ceremony will take place in Japan.
According to UCA News, Cardinal Hamao, 77, played a
central
role at a decisive meeting of 20 cardinals and archbishops at the
Congregation
for the Causes of the Saints to discuss the cause for the 188 martyrs.
The cardinal, the only Asian in attendance, presented a
compelling
case for their beatification, saying that "they were put to death not
for
political reasons, not because they were political opponents, but by
reason
of their Christian faith."
His discourse stressed that "though many were samurai and
knew
how to fight, they nevertheless chose the path of non-violent
resistance,
and that is also very significant for people today."
The cardinal said the Vatican officials responded
favourably,
and "voted unanimously in favour of their beatification."
The prelate is particularly pleased that the 188 martyrs
will
soon be beatified because it marks "the first time the Japanese bishops
have
promoted a cause."
He noted that Religious orders, not bishops, presented the
several
beatified and canonised martyrs that the Church in Japan already has.
According to Cardinal Hamao, it is "highly significant"
that
all 188 are Japanese and all but four are laypeople - mostly women but
also
many children.
In his view, the beatification will be important for all
Japanese,
not just Catholics, because it highlights the fact that "the right to
believe
in a religion is a fundamental human right."
At the time of the martyrs in the 17th century, "it was
not
so, and the government persecuted people for this."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Odoardo Focherini in Process of Beatification
CARPI, Italy, MARCH 20, 2007
(Zenit.org).-
The Catholic journalist Odoardo Focherini saved more than 100 Jews
before
he died in a concentration camp during World War II, at the age of 37.
The Catholic Union of the Italian Press paid tribute to
Focherini
on Saturday, marking the 100th anniversary of his birth. The journalist
was
the administrative director of L'Avvenire d'Italia and president of the
Italian
segment of Catholic Action.
In a letter he dictated shortly before dying, he said: "I
declare
that I die in the most pure catholic, apostolic, Roman faith and in
full
submission to the will of God, offering my life as a holocaust for my
diocese,
Catholic Action, for the Pope and for the return of peace to the world."
Bishop Elio Tinti of Carpi, who opened the celebration,
said:
"He was a man who knew how to bring joy to the lives of many people,
especially
the 105 Jews he saved, but also to all those he met, offering a shining
example
of what it means to be a man of simplicity."
The prelate spoke of the journalist's deep love for his
family,
"his tender relationship with his beloved wife and his seven dear
children
-- deep ties that we see revealed in the marvelous letters that he
wrote,
but ties which did not impede him from living his life for others."
Bishop Tinti added: "With hope and devotion, we hope that
the
Church will soon be able to recognize him as a martyr. His life is
truly
a hymn of sanctity."
Focherini organized a network to move Jews out of Italy to
safety
in Switzerland. He was arrested for this on March 11, 1944. After stops
in
several prisons, he died from an infected leg wound on Dec. 27, 1944,
in
the Hersbruck concentration camp in Germany.
Father Claudio Pontiroli, vice postulator of his cause for
beatification,
reported: "We found more than 300 letters of condolences; in 62 of them
Odoardo
is spoken of as a martyr of charity. Celebrations for him were made,
like
for no other victim of the war."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardinal Baronio's Canonization Cause Revived
By Elizabeth Lev
ROME, MARCH 8, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The virtue of patience
is
hard to come by in any day or age, but the extraordinary example of
Cardinal
Cesare Baronio should give us all heart.
Not only did he dedicate long hard hours to his studies
and
writing, and suffer the ceaseless practical jokes of St. Philip Neri,
but
additionally his cause for canonization has been stalled since 1745
when
Pope Benedict XIV conferred on him the title of venerable.
But Cardinal Baronio's spirit of forbearance has paid off.
This
year, the 400th anniversary of his death, Cardinal Baronio's case has
been
reopened by the general attorney of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri,
known
as the Oratorians.
"Peace and obedience" was the motto of this extraordinary
man,
and he lived both virtues throughout his life in such an exemplary
manner
that Pope John XXIII, an admirer of Cardinal Baronio's, took the same
words
and inverted them to become his own dictum.
While his contemporary St. Peter Canisius traveled to
heretical
hot spots to preach -- personifying the daring, brilliant charism of
the
Jesuits -- Cardinal Baronio embodied the nurturing nature of the
Oratorians
by remaining stably in his parish, and writing steadily as he tended to
his
flock.
Both men, however, gave a troubled world the tools to
perceive
the truth. St. Peter Canisius wrote the first catechism and Cardinal
Baronio
wrote 12 volumes of meticulously researched Church history.
Cesare Baronio was born near Naples in 1538 to a poor but
noble
family. At the age of 19 he came to Rome to study law at the Rome
University
and found lodgings in Piazza Farnese around the corner from the Church
of
San Gerolamo della Carità where Father Philip Neri lived.
The young student was soon introduced to his saintly
neighbor
and, attracted by the great magnet of Father Neri's holiness, he
started
to frequent the oratory.
Father Neri recognized the immense potential in Baronio
and
took an interest in his formation. Although Baronio's natural
inclination
lent toward subjects such as death and final judgment, Father Neri
called
him back to the here and now by setting him to study Church history.
Baronio knew he was called to the priesthood, but wanted
to
join one of the new orders such as the Jesuits or Theatines, and to
live
among his brothers in the priesthood. After much discernment, however,
he
was ordained a secular priest in 1564.
He took up his ministry in the Church of San Giovanni dei
Fiorentini,
the Florentine national church in Rome in the care of Father Neri.
Together
with two other priests, they were the nucleus of the congregation of
the
Oratorians which was officially established in 1575.
Every day Father Baronio went from preaching and hearing
confessions
at San Giovanni to tending the sick and moribund at the hospital of
Santo
Spirito, and then returned home to cook for community of the Oratorians.
When he realized that the kitchen duty was always left for
him,
Father Baronio's patience and good humor came to the fore and he
inscribed
above his oven "Caesar Baronius coquus perpetuus," "Cesare Baronio,
cook
in perpetuity."
Father Neri saw the many honors conferred on Father
Baronio
as a danger to his humility, and so the future saint would play tricks
on
the young priest to keep him from becoming too proud of his
accomplishments.
Father Neri once told Father Baronio to sing Psalm 51
"Miserere"
at a wedding, although it was reserved for Good Friday or funerals. The
startled
guests looked at Father Baronio with disgust, but he took the lesson to
heart,
and always remained gentle and unassuming.
While Pope Gregory XIII was reforming the Julian calendar
in
1580 to fashion the Gregorian version still in use today, he set Father
Baronio
to reorganize the liturgical calendar, entrusting him with the task of
revising
the stories of the saints and martyrs. The Roman Martyrology has
undergone
numerous additions and alterations (the latest version was released in
2004).
Father Baronio's careful work forms the basis of this beloved and
useful
book.
During the writing of the martyrology, Father Baronio's
passion
for relics grew, and he was one of the first people to come running
when
the Catacombs of St. Priscilla was rediscovered in 1578.
He was elevated to cardinal in 1596. Although he was very
poor,
he took great pains to care for his titular church, St. Nereo and
Achilleo.
He even obtained the return of their relics which had been transferred
to
the Church of St. Hadrian.
A scholar without intellectual arrogance, a cardinal who
performed
the humblest tasks for his fellow priests, a man inclined to solitude
who
spent most of his day caring for others, Cardinal Cesare Baronio offers
a
resonant example for our own time.
To revive the memory and commemorate his great scholarly
contributions,
the Oratory has organized a year of special Masses with various members
of
the College of Cardinals, symposiums, concerts and conferences. Not bad
for
the humble house chef.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edith Stein's Conversion Was No Coincidence
It Started Before Reading St.
Teresa
of Avila
ROME, FEB. 8, 2007 (Zenit.org).- A new compilation of
Edith
Stein's completed works presents evidence that her conversion was
influenced
by more than just her reading of St. Teresa of Avila's autobiography.
Stein (1891-1942) was a Jewish philosopher and convert to
Catholicism,
who became a Carmelite and was later martyred at Auschwitz.
The story of her conversion up till now had been
attributed
to mere happenstance as she unwittingly stumbled upon the autobiography
of
St. Teresa of Avila. Devouring the book overnight, she decided to
convert
to Catholicism when she finished it at dawn.
During the presentation of the complete works of Stein at
the
Pontifical Lateran University of Rome, Father Ulrich Dobhan, a German
Carmelite
and expert on Stein who supervised the German edition of her works,
presented
his own findings about Stein's conversion. From his research, he
believes
that Stein already knew of the existence of St. Teresa of Avila's book
and
sought it out.
"During the summer semester of 1918, during Husserl's
lectures
at the University of Freiberg on the subject of Rudolf Otto's book,
'Das
Heilige,' Edith probably read Teresa of Avila's name because it's
mentioned
in that book," Father Dobhan explained to ZENIT.
Later, on May 24 or 25, 1921, at the house of Anne Reinach
and
her sister-in-law Pauline, in Goettingen, Germany, Stein chose the
autobiographical
volume: "Life of St. Teresa of Avila" from their library.
The reading of St. Teresa's book was decisive in tipping
Stein
toward Catholicism instead of Protestantism, but Father Dobhan wants to
clarify
that "here we are not talking about the step from atheism to
Christianity."
"The exclamation of 'This is the Truth!' that is generally
put
in the mouth of Stein upon reading the autobiography of the saint, does
not
correspond to what she said, nor does it reflect Stein's spiritual
process,"
Father Dobhan clarified.
Stein's inquiry into Christianity had been maturing over
time.
As a philosopher, she was profoundly influenced by the work of Max
Scheler
during his Catholic period and the heroic witness of Anne Reinach,
widow
of fellow philosopher Adolf Reinach, who fell in the war in November
1917.
While not the sole source of her conversion, the book did
lead
to her decision to become a Carmelite, where upon entering she took the
name
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.
St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross was canonized by Pope
John
Paul II in October 1998, and made a co-patroness of Europe in October
1999.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause for Cardinal
Pironio's
Beatification Continues
Co-founder of World Youth Day Is Remembered
ROME, FEB. 8, 2007 (Zenit.org).- A Mass for the co-founder
of
World Youth Day, Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, was celebrated as work for
the
cause of his beatification continues.
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of
state,
presided over the Mass on Tuesday at the Regina Apostolorum university
to
remember Cardinal Pironio.
The event marked a "day of study" of Cardinal Pironio's
life
and work as part of the beatification process.
Eduardo Pironio was born in Argentina in 1920 and ordained
a
priest in 1943. He served as bishop of Mar del Plata, secretary and
president
of the Latin American bishops' council, prefect for the Congregation
for
Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and
president
of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
Cardinal Pironio also shared a great spiritual closeness
with
Sister Lucia, the visionary of Fatima. He died in Rome on Feb. 5, 1998,
and
the process of his beatification was initiated in June 2006.
Cardinal Bertone told those present that Cardinal Pironio
was
a "man of God" who "irradiated God's holiness in the Church."
"His life leaves us with an icon of a holy, generous and
ardent
minister of Christ," affirmed the secretary of state. "He made of his
own
existence an act of love for God and for his brothers and sisters; an
act
of love sustained by unwavering faith and joyful hope."
Cardinal Bertone concluded with the hope "that the Church
will
recognize his holiness and offer him as a model for living."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saint Gianna: A Model For Mothers
Helen Hull Hitchcock
The Foreword from Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor
by Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero
"A woman of exceptional love, an outstanding wife and
mother,
she gave witness in her daily life to the demanding values of the
Gospel."
In his homily on the occasion of her beatification, April 24, 1994,
Pope
John Paul II proposed Gianna Beretta Molla as a model for all mothers:
"By
holding up this woman as an exemplar of Christian perfection, we would
like
to extol all those high-spirited mothers of families who give
themselves
completely to their family, who suffer in giving birth, who are
prepared
for every labor and every kind of sacrifice, so that the best they have
can
be given to others."
In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring, the Church
officially
recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an
ordinary
life-as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother. Though she had
once
considered entering a religious order, instead she practiced medicine
(receiving
her medical degree in 1949, and her specialty in pediatrics in 1952).
She
devoted herself to caring for her patients, and her selflessness and
dedication
as a physician endeared her to the people. But it was not only her
practice
of medicine that influenced them. She regarded her profession as a
mission through which she could aid and nurture both bodies and souls.
The young
doctor's devotion to her Catholic faith was well known in her
community,
and especially her instruction of young Catholic girls in their faith.
Gianna meditated long and prayerfully on God's will for
her.
"What is a vocation?" she wrote: "It is a gift from God-it comes from
God
Himself! Our concern, then, should be to know the will of God. We
should
enter onto the path that God wills for us, not by 'forcing the door',
but
when God wills and as God wills." [1] Gianna believed she was called to
marriage
and * family life, but she waited patiently for God's will to be
revealed.
Gianna Beretta did not marry until she was thirty-three
years
old-to an engineer ten years her senior, Pietro Molla, whose sister had
earlier
been a patient of the young Dr. Beretta. Letters Gianna wrote during
their
year-long courtship reveal her deep commitment to this new vocation.
The
couple married in September 1955. Several days before their wedding,
Gianna
wrote to Pietro, reflecting on their vocation to marriage: "With God's
help
and blessing, we will do all we can to make our new family a little
cenacle
where Jesus will reign over all our affections, desires and actions....
We
will be working with God in His creation; in this way we can give Him
children who will love Him and serve Him."
Gianna's faith and her communion with Christ were
profound,
and from this grace she drew deeper understanding of the dedication and
self-giving
love that is fundamental to Christian marriage and family life.
After her marriage and even after she had children Gianna
continued
her medical practice, extending her gifts beyond her immediate family
to
the children of others, Three children, a son and two daughters, were
born
between 1956 and 1959, and Gianna had two miscarriages before
conceiving
another baby in 1961 Pietro and Gianna referred to their children as
their
"treasures".
In his own account of these years, Pietro Molla says that
he
did not object to Gianna's continuing her medical practice, because she
was
so deeply attached to her patients, though after she became pregnant
with
their fourth child, Pietro and Gianna had agreed that she would stop
working
outside the home after the baby was born.
Early in the pregnancy it was discovered that Gianna had a
fibroma,
a benign tumor, on her uterine wall. Surgery that would involve
aborting
the baby was suggested, but the Mollas instantly and firmly rejected
this
idea, and chose surgery that would remove only the tumor. Because of
her
medical knowledge, Gianna understood more fully than most the risks
involved
in this delicate surgery-both to her and to her unborn child. She
insisted
that the baby be protected at all costs.
The surgery successfully removed the fibroma, and the
pregnancy
continued, apparently normally, and the family made plans for the
future
in joy and hope. But all was not well, and a few days before the baby
was
born, Gianna realized it would be a difficult-possibly life-threatening
delivery.
She asked her husband to promise that if it were necessary to choose
between
saving her and saving the baby, he should choose the baby. "I insist",
she
said.
On Good Friday, Gianna entered the hospital. And a lovely,
healthy
baby daughter, Gianna Emanuela, was born the next day, April 21, 1962.
But
the mother had developed a fatal infection-septic peritonitis. (Modern
antibiotics
most likely would have saved her.) The inflammation caused immense
suffering
during her final week on earth. In the midst of her terrible pain,
Gianna
called to her own mother, Maria, who had died in 1942-and she prayed.
As
she lay dying, she repeated, "Jesus, I love you", over and over. Her
agony
ended on April 28–at home.
She was thirty-nine. The tiny infant, Gianna Emanuela, was
exactly
one week old.
The bereft Pietro was left to raise four very young
children
without their mother: Pierluigi, the eldest, was not yet six;
Mariolina,
four; Laura, nearly three; and of course the new baby. In this book are
Pietro's
own reflections on the difficult years that followed, and how the
example
of his wife's serene and joyous faith helped sustain him through his
grief
at Gianna's death; when their little daughter, Mariolina, died only two
years
later; and through all the ordinary difficulties of raising a family
alone–with
the added extraordinary challenges of raising children whose absent
mother
had already become a revered public figure.
Almost immediately upon her death a devotion to Gianna
arose
among those whose lives she had so deeply touched, and who knew her
heroic
devotion to her faith and her family.
Her "cause" was introduced formally in 1970. She was
beatified
April 24, 1994; and canonized on May 16, 2004–forty-two years after her
death.
That her husband, now ninety-one, and three children
attended
her canonization ceremony is one of several historic "firsts" connected
with
her canonization. (Pierluigi, an engineer, is married; Laura is a
political
scientist; Gianna Emanuela is a physician who specializes in
Alzheimer's
disease.)
Gianna Beretta Molla is the first married laywoman to be
declared
a saint (though there are many sainted widows). She is also the first
canonized
woman physician–a professional woman who was also a "working mom" four
decades
ago, when this was unusual.
Her witness of abiding faith in Christ, and her example of
generous,
loving self-donation–wherever and however she was called to serve the
Lord–provide
particular inspiration for women of our time and in our culture, where
conflicting
demands and confusing signals are a daily part of our lives.
There is another aspect of this new saint's life that is
worth
pondering–and this book affords a glimpse of it. That is, the role of
her
family–the example of her parents -in her formation as a committed,
active
young Catholic. Her family was outstanding for its deep Christian
faith,
expressed not only in worship, in private prayer and family devotions,
but
in generously extending their gift of faith to others.
Her family's example of unselfish love set the direction
of
young Gianna's life. It gave her the firm foundation upon which,
through
the grace of God and her trusting acceptance of his will for her, she
confidently
built her life–a life that would shelter, nurture, guide, and inspire
countless
others. Gianna's plans for raising her own children in the faith was
influenced
by her own experiences growing up. Her understanding of motherhood came
from
her own mother. Even though her own children could not know her tender
motherly
presence while they were growing up, she interceded for them. At the
very
end of her life, as Gianna suffered mortal pain, she sought her
mother's
prayers. As we-especially mothers of young families–may now seek hers.
Saint Gianna, pray for us.
Helen Hull Hitchcock
Feast of Saint Joachim and Saint Anne | July 26, 2004
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martyr's Beatification Cause Moves Forward
Korean Layman
Worked
With Poor
SEOUL, South Korea, JAN. 19, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The
diocesan
phase of the cause of beatification and canonization of John Song
Hae-bung,
a lay missionary martyred during the Korean War, has opened in the
Diocese
of Incheon.
The present cause is the first of a layman in the
period
following the Japanese colonial era, the Fides news agency of the
Vatican
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples reported Thursday.
The diocesan commission has been established which
will
guide this phase of the process, collecting the necessary testimony and
documentation
for the cause of beatification.
According to a biography published by Fides, John Song
was
the eldest of a Catholic family, and entered the seminary in 1944.
After Korea's liberation from Japanese occupation, he
left
his theological studies to dedicate himself to active missionary work.
He
opened schools and homes for orphans and the poor in the Diocese of
Incheon.
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, he was falsely
accused
of being a Communist. He was arrested and killed by a death squad,
reported
Fides.
Korea has over 10,000 Christian martyrs, killed in
various
persecutions over the centuries.
In 1984, in the first canonization ceremony held
outside
the Vatican, Pope John Paul II inscribed 103 martyrs of the Korean
Church
into the catalogue of saints.
In 2003, the Holy See approved the opening of the
beatification
process for Paul Yun Ji-Chung and 123 companions, tortured and killed
for
the faith in 1791, when Christianity had just reached Korea.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DECREES
OF THE CONGREGATION FOR THE CAUSES OF SAINTS
VATICAN CITY, DEC 16, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, during a private
audience
with Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins C.M.F., president of the
Congregation
for the Causes of Saints, the Pope
authorized
the congregation to promulgate the decrees concerning the following
causes:
MIRACLES
- Blessed Szymon of Lipnica, Polish, priest of the Order of
Friars
Minor (1439-1482).
- Blessed Antonio de Santa Ana (ne Antonio Galvao de Franca),
Brazilian,
priest of the Order of Alcantarine or Discalced Friars Minor, and
founder
of the Convent of Conceptionist Sisters (1739-1822).
- Blessed Charles of St. Andrew (ne Johannes Andreas Houben),
Dutch, priest of the Congregation of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus
Christ (1821-1893).
- Blessed Marie Eugenie de Jesus (nee Anne-Eugenie Milleret de
Brou), French, foundress of the Institute of Sisters of the Assumption
of the Virgin
Mary (1817-1898).
- Venerable Servant of God Carlo Liviero, Italian, bishop of
Citta
di Castello and founder of the Congregation of Little Handmaidens of
the Sacred
Heart (1866-1932).
- Venerable Servant of God Stanislaus of Jesus Mary (ne Jana
Papczynski),
Polish, priest and founder of the Congregation of Marian Clerics of the
Immaculate
Conception of the Virgin Mary (1631-1701).
- Venerable Servant of God Celina Chludzinska, Polish, widow and
foundress
of the Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus
Christ
(1833-1913).
- Venerable Servant of God Marie Celine of the Presentation (nee
Jeanne-Germaine
Castang), French, nun of the Second Order of St. Francis (1878-1897).
MARTYRDOM
- Servants of God Manuel Gomez Gonzalez, Spanish, diocesan
priest born in 1877, and Adilio Daronch, Brazilian, lay person born in
1908, both
killed in Feijao Miudo, Brazil, in 1924.
- Servant of God Albertina Berkenbrock, Brazilian, lay person
born
in 1919, killed in 1931.
- Servant of God Eufrasio of the Baby Jesus (ne Eufrasio Barredo
Fernandez),
Spanish, born in 1897, priest of the Order of Discalced Carmelites,
killed
during religious persecution in Spain in 1934.
- Servants of God Lorenzo, Virgilio and 44 companions of the
Institute
of Brothers of the Marist Schools, Spanish, killed during religious
persecution
in Spain in 1936.
- Enrique Izquierdo Palacios and 13 companions, Spanish, of the
Order of Friars Preachers, killed during religious persecution in Spain
in 1936.
- Servants of God Ovidio Beltran, Hermenegildo Lorenzo, Luciano
Pablo,
Estanislao Victor and Lorenzo Santiago, Spanish, members of the
Institute
of Brothers of the Christian Schools, and Jose Maria Canovas Martinez,
Spanish,
parish helper, killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.
- Servants of God Maria del Carmen, Rosa and Magdalena Fradera
Ferragutcasas,
Spanish, religious of the Congregation of Daughters of the Blessed and
Immaculate
Heart of Mary, killed during religious persecution in Spain in 1936.
- Servant of God Lindalva Justo de Oliviera, Brazilian, of the
Sisters
of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, born in 1953, killed in 1993 in Sao
Salvador
de Bahia, Brazil.
HEROIC VIRTUES
- Servant of God Mamerto Esquiu, Argentinean (1826-1883), of the
Order
of Friars Minor, bishop of Cordoba, Argentina.
- Servant of God Salvatore Micalizzi, Italian (1856-1937),
professed
priest of the Congregation of the Mission.
- Servants of God Jose Olallo Valdes, Cuban (1820-1889),
professed
religious of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God.
- Servant of God Stefan Kaszap, Hungarian (1916-1935), novice of
the
Society of Jesus.
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The Virtually Venerable Fulton J. Sheen by Charles F. Harvey
Has Archbishop Fulton Sheen been
declared
an American saint? Not exactly. In fact, not at all. At least not yet.
Only
now is the process of opening his cause for canonization begun. It
would
be presumptuous, then, to declare Sheen a saint-in-the-making. We
aren't
in a position to anticipate the Church's judgment and even though not
everyone
who is a saint by virtue of making it to heaven is declared a saint by
the
Church, we can't settle the question of "who's in" and "who's not" by
our
own lights. But we can say that Sheen certainly embodied two qualities
that
characterized many canonized American saints: zeal for personal
sanctity
and a drive to realize the unique possibilities for spreading the
Gospel
that America affords. -- Mark Brumley
On May 8, 1895, in
El Paso, Illinois, a son born to Newton and Delia Sheen
was given the name Peter. Yet, when it came time to enroll him in
parochial
school and his maternal grandfather (whose last name was Fulton) was
asked
the boy's name, he replied: "It's Fulton." The Confirmation name "John"
completed
the name that would become world-famous as one of the most vibrant
spokesmen
for the Church since the Protestant Reformation: Fulton J. Sheen.
Archbishop Sheen notes in his autobiography, Treasure in
Clay,
that in Gaelic "Fulton" means "war" and "Sheen" means "peace." It is as
though
his very name foretold the kind of life he was to have: an
uninterrupted
warring against the powers of darkness to promote the peace of Christ's
kingdom.
After high school, while attending St. Viator's College,
the
young Sheen took part in a national examination and won a scholarship
entitling
him to three years of university training with all expenses paid. His
close
friend, Fr. William J. Bergan, counseled him not to accept the prize,
but,
instead, to enter the seminary. He took his friend's advice, and after
completing
theological studies at St. Viator's and at St. Paul's Seminary in
Minnesota,
he was ordained to the priesthood on September 20, 1919.
Since he had excelled in his studies for the priesthood,
he
was selected to attend the Catholic University of America for advanced
academic
work. It was there that he earned his S.T.L. and J.C.B.
In September of 1921--just two years after ordination--he
was
off to the University of Louvain in Belgium where he took his Ph.D. in
1923.
Offers of teaching positions at Columbia and at Oxford were declined in
obedience
to his bishop. Instead of a prestigious academic post, he would be an
assistant
pastor assigned to a parish where the streets had not even yet been
paved.
Academic offers continued (an invitation to organize and
head
the philosophy department at the seminary in Detroit was especially
attractive),
but Sheen dedicated himself to the task at hand, immersing himself in
the
work of the parish.
Then, late in the summer of 1926, his bishop told him that
he
was to join the faculty at Catholic University. He remained on the
faculty
there for the next twenty-five years. So popular were his lectures that
sometimes
extra seats were brought in to accommodate the overflow.
Two years after his appointment to Catholic University, he
began
a parallel career: a long-time media presence as a Catholic spokesman
and
apologist on radio and, later, on television. After anchoring a series
of
religious broadcasts on radio, he was selected to host The Catholic
Hour
on NBC radio until he moved to TV. In 1952, Bishop Sheen (he had been
named
auxiliary bishop in New York under Cardinal Spellman in 1951) starred
in
the first religious television show in New York: Life Is Worth Living.
That
program (with his trademark "God love you") brought him instant
recognition
by the American TV-viewing public in the early-to-mid 1950s.
By 1954, his ratings were competitive with those of Mr.
Television
himself, Milton Berle. His popularity increasing, Sheen moved to ABC
for
a national hook-up. By 1956, his show was being broadcast on
one-hundred
eighty-seven stations in the U. S. and Canada. He said, "Little did I
know
in those days that it would be given to me through radio and television
to
address a greater audience in half an hour than Paul in all the years
of
his missionary life."
Athanasius Redux
If God raised up the great bishop Athanasius to fight
Arianism
in the fourth century, perhaps it is not too far afield to think that
he
raised up the great bishop Sheen to combat Communism in the twentieth.
Sheen
stressed the need for reason in dealing with Communism, which had
continued
to gain appeal in America since the 1920s. His prophetic program on
Stalin's
death, which was broadcast live a week before the Soviet ruler died,
cemented
Sheen's position as America's top Catholic anti-Communist. Some
high-level
party members called him "Public Enemy No. 1."
Contrary to some, Sheen was no intellectual featherweight,
and
he brought his formidable powers of intellection to bear on the problem
of
Communism, the better to refute it. He absorbed Marx, Lenin, and Stalin
to
prepare himself for the assaults he would sustain in his attack on
their
theories. He was a tremendous success. He converted or influenced a
number
of Communists and leftists in the heyday of American Communism,
including
Louis Budenz, Elizabeth T. Bently, Bella Dodd, and Heywood Broun.
One incident related in his autobiography is worth
recounting
here, revealing as it does the intensity of pro-Communist sentiment in
America
during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. According to Bishop Sheen's
own
account, "The foreign policy of the United States was considering
lifting
[sic] the embargo against sending arms to the Communists in Spain. In
order
to combat this movement, a meeting was held in Constitution Hall,
Washington.
The speakers were three: a former Spanish Ambassador, a young woman who
had
been in Spain and had fought against the Communists, and myself.
Thousands
were turned away from Constitution Hall. It is very likely that the
meeting
had something to do with breaking down the movement to send arms to the
Communists."
Sheen used that episode to lead into an anecdote that
reveals
to us something about President Franklin Roosevelt that his apologists
would
prefer remain unspoken. Bishop Sheen recalled that the day after the
meeting
in Constitution Hall, he had a meeting with FDR. He went to ask for a
political
favor for an old friend who had lost his re-election bid to Congress.
During
the meeting, FDR took Sheen to task for something that he mistakenly
thought
the bishop had said at the Constitution Hall meeting. Sheen tried to
disprove
Roosevelt's allegation, but the President would not permit him to
follow
through. Next Roosevelt said: "You think you know a great deal about
the Church's
attitude toward Communism, don't you? I want to tell you that I am in
touch
with a great authority, and he tells me that the Church wants the
Communists
to win in Spain." Sheen answered: "Mr. President, I am not the least
bit
impressed with your authority." FDR: "I did not tell you who it was."
The
bishop checkmated Roosevelt with: "You are referring to Cardinal
Mundelein,
and I know that Cardinal Mundelein never made the statement you
attributed
to him."
Roosevelt had stuck his foot in his mouth; but Bishop
Sheen
wanted to conduct the business he came for in the first place. He said:
"Mr.
President, I came to see you about a position in Housing." FDR said:
"Oh,
Eddie voted for everything I wanted in Congress. He wants to be in
Housing,
does he not?" Sheen said that was correct. Roosevelt made a note on a
pad
and continued: "The moment you leave this office I will call Mrs.
So-and-So
[he mentioned the name of the woman who was in charge of Housing] and
you
call Eddie and tell him he has the job." When Sheen left the White
House
he called Eddie and said: "Eddie, I saw the President. I am sorry, you
do
not get the job." Eddie said: ""Is that what the President said after
all
I did for him?" Sheen said: "No, he said you would have it." Eddie
never
got the job. Needless to say, Bishop Sheen was a shrewd observer of the
human
heart.
Sheen also told a story that reveals the depth of
pro-Soviet
sympathy in America during his radio days. He said that because of his
position
on the USSR, his talks were closely monitored. If he "veered from the
then-popular
position of Russia being a democracy," a technician in the studio would
cut
him off. Once he submitted a manuscript for an upcoming broadcast that
had
the line, "Poland was crucified between two thieves--the Nazis and the
Soviets." Sheen got a telegram from the Bishops' Conference asking him
not to say that,
because one of the thieves was, of course, the USSR. Never one to miss
a
beat, the bishop answered the telegram with: "How would it be to call
Russia
the 'good' thief?"
20th Century Missionary Giant
In 1950, Bishop Sheen was tapped to head the national
office
of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He founded a magazine
named
Mission and published God Loves You, a weekly column in Catholic
newspapers.
Between 1950 and 1966, he irrigated the fields of the foreign missions
with
$200 million (a tremendous sum these days; how much more so then!).
In Treasure in Clay, Archbishop Sheen recounts some of his
dealings
with the foreign missions. For example, he tells the story of a
missionary
priest in Australia who labored in the desert there. The heat averaged
125
degrees, and the only kind of food he could carry was canned peaches,
since
everything else exploded in the desert heat. His "rectory" was his
Volkswagen,
which was eventually swept away in a flood. Bishop Sheen wrote him a
check
for a new VW. In his capacity as national head of the Society for the
Propagation
of the Faith, his decisions benefited the mission efforts in New
Guinea,
Borneo, Pacific Islands, China, Africa, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, and
countless
other locales.
Prodigious author
Archbishop Sheen, known primarily for his oratorical
skills,
was, nonetheless, a superb prose stylist. (He wrote more than sixty
books!)
And he gave full exercise to both of these talents in defending and
promoting
the Church. His many works include such gems as God and Intelligence in
Modern
Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, Preface to Religion, Three to Get
Married,
The Divine Romance, Peace of Soul, Life Is Worth Living, The Seven Last
Words,
The Way of the Cross, This Is the Mass, The Power of Love, The Divine
Verdict,
The Armor of God, Way To Inner Peace, God Loves You, Thinking Life
Through,
and Thoughts For Daily Living.
Consummate Churchman
In 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Rochester,
New
York, where he served for four years before stepping down at age
seventy-four.
He was named titular Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport (Wales)
in
1969.
His quicksilver wit and golden smile softened the
patrician
bearing that would quickly stiffen in defense of Christ's Church and
the
honor of His Bride. And he had a marvelous sense of humor: Pope Paul VI
once
reportedly told him that he would have a high place in heaven. "Is that
an
infallible statement?" he grinned.
His high-caliber intellect (steeped as it was in the
wisdom
of St. Thomas Aquinas), the magnitude of his writing and speaking
skills,
his shrewd sense of theater, and his unflagging love for Christ's
Church
combined to produce the most colorful and effective Catholic apologist
in
twentieth century America.
Humble priest
By his own account, each day of his priestly life included
a
continuous hour in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. This daily
prayer
and mediation and his deep devotion to the Blessed Mother formed the
spine
of his fidelity to his priestly vocation and the foundation for the
holiness
to which he aspired.
Some two months before his death, he met the visiting John
Paul
II, who embraced him warmly and told him: "You have written and spoken
well
of the Lord Jesus. You are a loyal son of the Church." Archbishop Sheen
died
in New York City on December 9, 1979.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2001
issue
of Catholic Dossier magazine.
Archbishop Sheen books and videos available through
Ignatius
Press:
• Treasure in Clay
• Life Is Worth Living
• The Priest Is Not His Own
• The World's First Love
• Through the Year with Fulton Sheen
• Fulton Sheen: Good Friday (VHS)
• Bishop Fulton J. Sheen: His Irish Wit and Wisdom (VHS)
• Fulton Sheen: His Last Words (VHS)
• Bishop Sheen on Angels (VHS)
• Sheen Gems (VHS)
• Retreat with Fulton Sheen (DVD)
• Fulton Sheen Mission Rosary (CD)
• Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen: A Prophet for Our Time (VHS)
• Fulton Sheen: His Last Words (DVD)
• The Hour That Makes My Day | Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
|
From Treasure in Clay
• On Advent and Eternity | Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen |
From
Through the Year with Fulton Sheen
Charles F. Harvey worked at Ignatius Press from 1998 until
his
death in February 2003. He became the full-time managing editor of
Homiletic
& Pastoral Review in 2001. He had previously worked for Catholic
Answers,
the San Diego diocesan Office of Social Ministry, and St. Joseph
Communications.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John XXIII, Minus the Myths
Interview With
Pope's
Great-Nephew Marco Roncalli
ROME, NOV. 24, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The life of Pope
Blessed
John XXIII is still the focus of intense debate and numerous
clichés
which distort his intellectual and spiritual figure.
To clarify the matter, a book has just been published
in
Italian by Marco Roncalli, entitled "Giovanni XXIII -- Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli.
Una vita nella storia" (John XXIII -- Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli: A Life
in
History), published by Mondadori.
The author is John XXIII's great-nephew, who, among
other
things, has been the editor of the correspondence (1933-1962) between
Loris
Francesco Capovilla, Giuseppe De Luca and Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli,
published
this year by Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura.
The new biography of
John XXIII was to be presented today in Bergamo, Italy,
by Archbishop Loris Capovilla, who was John XXIII's secretary, and by
Monsignor Gianni Carzaniga, president of the Giovanni XXIII Foundation.
To understand better the figure of John XXIII, ZENIT
interviewed
his great-nephew, Marco Roncalli.
Q: What are the clichés that you hope to refute
on
the human and spiritual history of the beloved Pope John XXIII?
Roncalli: I would say they are many. They stand out
clearly
if one revises carefully all the Roncalli sources, especially those
that
are unpublished.
I am thinking of certain youthful notebooks, agendas
or
diaries, some collected letters and collections of homilies. But I'm
also
referring to documentation relative to his figure, which has appeared
in
several archives and was known by few specialists in the most recent
congresses.
And we can start with those of long ago. Let us think
of
the spent cliché of a peasant Roncalli, virtually the receiver
of
an ancestral wisdom. It is true that his roots are important, also his
family.
But let's not forget that he entered the seminary
while
still a child and that was his new family. The seminary formed the man,
and
the man of the Church.
In sum, Roncalli's social extraction is not a
secondary
fact -- though common to most of the Italian northern clergy at the
beginning
of the 20th century: From this extraction a certain tenacity and
constancy
are derived, joined to a strong practical sense and respect for the
times
necessary in each cycle […], all elements of his character.
And from this stems also a certain harmony between
nature
and the supernatural, a way of living in the present, looking at the
future
with unconditional confidence in God's providence.
However, I repeat, the cliché of Roncalli as an
exclusive
product of a peasant culture -- or of the country boy who became Pope
who
does not forget the "least," as if Roncalli's roots alone "sic et
simpliciter"
could explain everything to us -- does not stand on its own.
Instead, beginning with the years of the seminary,
without
breaking or attenuating the bond with his own and his land, the
awareness
soon matures in him of being a member of the universal Church. Once
elected
Pope, he said immediately that the world was his family.
Another cliché is that of a simple Roncalli,
whereas
whoever studies his life has before him a complex figure -- but a
figure
in which culture has had an important role: studies, meetings with
writers,
philosophers, theologians, etc., in the course of his life.
Thus, exploring the archives, we come across a very
young
Roncalli who is, yes, the one known until now for the "Diary of a
Soul,"
his spiritual compendium, but also a very sensitive seminarian,
attentive
to the widest cultural horizons of his time.
We see him at the dawn of the 20th century, very aware
of
the problematic relationship between tradition and renewal, of the need
for
the Church's progressive attention to new cultural realities.
Whoever, for example, leafs through one of his
unpublished
notebooks entitled "Ad Omnia," sees him wondering not only about the
phenomenon
of Modernism, a storm through which he also goes through, but also
about
Americanism: ecclesiological theories, his idea of the unavoidable
confrontation
between Christianity and modernity.
Another point: Pope John has often been depicted as a
weak
Pope, who suffered. Instead, if one wishes to weigh up his gestures in
a
correct manner, suffice it to read his agendas or diaries to realize
how
well he was able to move decisively.
Some biographers have said that John XXIII read at the
last
minute texts prepared by others. Nothing could be further from the
truth.
Several journal notes document whole days spent preparing an address in
his
own handwriting.
On June 28, 1962, for example, he wrote: "Day of the
vigil
of St. Peter: occupied entirely in preparing an address in St. Peter's
after
Vespers. It was a bit of an effort for me to write it, word by word as
I
do, and all by myself in these circumstances. But in the end, though
I'm
not always delighted with myself, I am happy to fulfill a function, and
to
transmit to the clergy and the faithful a sentiment that is entirely my
own.
I am Pope by the will of the Lord who is my good witness: But to be a
parrot
who repeats by heart others' thought and voice, truly mortifies me."
He certainly was born -- to use a slogan -- "to bless
and
not to condemn," but his humble and amiable being was not equivalent to
being
weak or accommodating.
He was certainly less decisive than his predecessor;
however,
he put meekness to one side when it became an alibi for others.
I am thinking of May 1962, when the so-called crisis
of
exegesis continued, and, seeing the inactivity of the commission with
the
same name -- to say nothing of the frictions with Cardinal Augustin
Bea's
work, ever more active in the Council's preparation -- he wrote a
letter
to Cardinal Eugène Tisserant which seems like an ultimatum:
"Either
the commission intends to move, work and provide, suggesting to the
Holy
Father measures appropriate to the needs of the present hour, or it is
worthwhile
for it to be dissolved and a higher authority provide 'in Domino' a
reconstitution
of this organism.
"However, it is absolutely necessary to remove the
impression
about uncertainties circulating here and there, which honor no one, of
fears
about clear positions that must be taken on the orientations of persons
and
schools. [...] It would be a motive of great consolation if with the
preparation
of the Ecumenical Council a biblical commission could be established of
such
resonance and dignity that it would become a point of attention and
respect
for all our separated brothers who, leaving the Catholic Church, took
refuge
as shelter and salvation under the shadows of the sacred Book,
diversely read
and interpreted."
This fact emerges also in relations with his
collaborators.
When someone did something he didn't like, while being careful to
safeguard
relations, he was not afraid to make his interlocutors understand his
displeasure.
It happened especially with Cardinal Alfredo
Ottaviani,
but also with Cardinal Angelo Dell'Acqua. An example? The latter -- the
day
after the ministerial crisis of the winter of 1961, centered on Fanfani
--
realized the Pope was colder toward him.
The reason? It became known that Dell'Acqua, the
substitute
of the Secretariat of State, had dined at Fanfani's home, and the
family
dinner became, thanks to the Curia's "telltale," a meeting for the
definition
of the government's team with the outstanding role of Dell'Acqua.
The substitute's quick clarification was the occasion
to
hear from the Pope words of dissociation from Italian political issues:
"I
was told something else and I'm sorry! We cannot be concerned with
issues
that correspond exclusively to the Italian state: We are not the ones
who
must intervene in this matter.…"
Examples with Ottaviani are more numerous. And so John
XXIII
intervened directly with Ottaviani when he was worried about the
identity
of the Holy Office, which was running the risk of being no longer, as
he
wrote in his diary, that "monastery of very strict cloister, left to
its
task, severe certainly, but most reserved in all that concerned the
vigilance,
custody and defense of the doctrine and precepts of the Lord," no
longer
the "Supreme Congregation of which the Pope is the true Superior" and
"from
whose authority all should depend and by right and in fact does depend,
at
least in the most important and significant matters" -- but rather the
"bulwark"
around which, even from the perspective of defending Christian values,
ends
up by engaging one in unimportant politics.
Also recently there has been talk of a naive Pope in
the
face of Khrushchev. We read what John XXIII wrote in his diary on
September
20, 1961, commenting on the Soviet leader's speaking well of the Pope
for
the first time, after the papal radio-message of September 10.
This is his private comment: "In the afternoon on TV
they
reported the communication of Khrushchev, the despot of Russia, on my
appeals
to statesmen for peace: respectful, calm, comprehensible. I believe it
is
the first time that a Pope's invitatory words to peace were treated
with
respect. In regard to the sincerity of the intentions of one who is
proud
to profess himself an atheist and materialist, though he speak well of
the
Pope's word, to believe him is something else. Meanwhile, this is
better
than silence or contempt. 'Deus vertat monstra in bonum' [God converts
monsters
into something good]. It is enough?"
Q: What were the Pontiff's real expectations in regard to Vatican II?
Roncalli: In the last four chapters of the book, in fact, I concentrate
on
the Council. Based on new sources, I recount how this idea germinated,
how
it was received.
I follow the venture of Vatican II in the coming to light of the first
idea,
in the phase that preceded the preparation, in the preparation itself,
in
the beginning, also talking about a free confrontation -- what the Pope
called
the holy freedom of the children of God -- which the whole world
witnessed.
And I reflect on the anxieties and consolations of the Pope who every
day
thought of the Council.
The Council was not his invention. It was a valuable instrument
verified
by history of the Church which he knew well. The instrument that would
have
enabled him to interpret -- in the line of tradition, but open to
updating
-- the role to which he had been called; an instrument that would have
allowed
him to make the Church advance on her path in step with the world,
questioning
the whole episcopate involved in the exercise of collegiality in an
extensive
"universal" reflection.
But let us go back to the beginning of it all: the idea of the Council.
As
he stated, it did not ripen within him "as the fruit of a prolonged
meditation,
but as the spontaneous flower of an unexpected spring."
Therefore, he applied to himself that rather familiar spiritual rule
"of
absolute simplicity in accepting divine inspirations, and prompt
submission
to the apostolic needs of the present time."
"In announcing the ecumenical Council, we have listened to an
inspiration;
we have considered its spontaneity, in the humility of our soul," he
said
in a message to the Venetian clergy.
It's true, he had the applause of the secretary of state, Domenico
Tardini,
as the latter's diary documents. And there are also the statements of
Cardinal
Ruffini and of others who maintain -- plausible fact -- that they
suggested
to the Pope the idea of a Council, an idea that, moreover, according to
several
unanimous and concordant statements, Roncalli had also expressed
repeatedly
during the years of delegation in Istanbul to Monsignor Righi, to
Jacquin
of the Institut Catholique of the Paris Nunciature, to Monsignor
Bortignon
of the Venetian Patriarchate, and also to his nephew Privato Roncalli,
my father.
We should recall that the convocation of a Council had already been
considered
at least twice in the 20th century, by Pius XI in 1923 -- who then put
it
to one side awaiting a solution to the "Roman question" -- and by Pius
XII
-- to whom in fact Cardinals Ruffini and Ottaviani had written a
memorandum
enumerating the reasons for a convocation.
There were two outlines, held for a long time in strict secret, for the
second
of which Monsignor Francesco Borgoncini Duca -- a friend of Roncalli,
who
also might have spoken about it with him, but before 1954, the year
when
he died -- was appointed director general of all the preparatory works.
And this is not all. There were also other prelates in the past who had
supported
the idea of a Council for a long time as a "necessity" or "wish," such
as
Monsignor Celso Constantini, author of a lengthy dossier dated February
15,
1939, and reported under the title "The Council: On the Appropriateness
of
Convoking an Ecumenical Council."
A week after Constantini's reflections, Giovanni Papini wrote in Il
Corriere
della Sera: "We like to think that the new Pontiff will see to the
reopening
of the Vatican Council that was suspended on October 20, 1870. (...)
Now
that the independence and authority of a sovereign have been restored
to
the Pope, a resumption of the Council interrupted seventy years ago,
will
take place in a more moderate climate and would be welcomed with very
great
joy by Catholics worldwide."
And now we come to the central point: the meaning that John XXIII
wished
to give, at least in the focus, to "his" Council, something that at the
beginning
was not at all defined: that it should probably be more pastoral than
dogmatic
-- pastoral, however, but not in a reductive sense.
It should make room to evaluate everything. As Monsignor Dell'Acqua has
attested,
Pope Roncalli "never thought of opening and closing the Ecumenical
Council.
Whoever thinks this, is outside of the truth. Pope John told me
repeatedly:
'What matters is to begin; the rest we leave to the Lord'; in how many
other
circumstances a Pope began a Council that was concluded by another
Pope.
It was not his intention, therefore, to speed things up."
When he announced it for the first time, take note, he wrote in his own
writing
on the text that he invited everyone to pray for "a good beginning,
continuation
and happy success of these intentions of hard work, for the light,
edification
and joy of the whole Christian people, as a kind and renewed invitation
to
our brethren of the separated Churches to take part with us in this
encounter
of grace and fraternity."
Moreover, the event of the Council convoked by John XXIII, in keeping
with
the preceding perspectives and being open to the breath of the Spirit,
should
manifest to the Church and the world the holy freedom of the children
of
God, in the sign of a less defensive general vision, […] more open to
confidence,
respect, to confrontation, to co-responsibility, to the "signs of the
times."
Evaluated carefully, it was also a courageous choice. Conscious of his
age,
he could have remained tranquil between blessings and canonizations,
ordinary
activity and the writing of some document, leaving to his successors
all
the problems that cardinals and bishops put on his desk, and dismissing
situations
in continual evolution.
Instead, he did the opposite. He addressed everything and not on his
own.
It was his sensitivity, his historical studies: "A Council is
necessary."
He confided to his secretary a "biblical reason" to explain his idea:
"Did
Jesus ever speak to Peter on his own? No, the other disciples were
always
present."
Q: In what ways was Pope John XXIII prophetic?
Roncalli: Suffice it to read his October 11 address with which he
opened
the Second Vatican Council, a memorable text because of the breadth of
its
horizon and prophetic inspiration. Do you not perceive in him, in his
essence,
the force of a religion that unifies?
It was Pope John's prophetic task, however, to indicate the goal of
peace:
urgent, which cannot be delayed. ... Let us think of his encyclical
testament,
"Pacem in Terris."
He is the one who is writing -- speaking of himself in that text as
"the
vicar of Him whom the prophet announced as the Prince of Peace, [we]
conceive
of it as Our duty to devote all Our thoughts and care and energy to
further
this common good of all mankind. Yet peace is but an empty word, if it
does
not rest upon that order which Our hope prevailed upon Us to set forth
in
outline in this encyclical. It is an order that is founded on truth,
built
up on justice, nurtured and animated by charity, and brought into
effect
under the auspices of freedom."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cardinal Bertone Comments on Blessed John XXIII
"I Want to Be Kind, Today and Always, to Everyone"
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 22, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the homily given by
Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone at the Mass celebrated in St. Peter's on Oct. 11,
memorial
of Blessed John XXIII.
* * *
Pope John XXIII's message is still extraordinarily timely today. His
life,
his discourses and his actions bring us to the heart of the faith and
the
heart of Christian commitment.
As we know, one of Pope John's most important decisions was to convoke
the
Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, which was inaugurated on Oct. 11,
1962,
here in St. Peter's Basilica.
I was present -- indeed, by a fortunate circumstance, it was I who
organized
the distribution of the first council documents "sub peculiari secreto"
to
the council fathers -- and I remember how the day unfolded to its
extraordinary
conclusion in St. Peter's Square by moonlight.
We could recall a wealth of Pope John's teachings and episodes
concerning
him, but today I intend to focus on several thoughts which might be
useful
in our personal life and spiritual renewal.
The Church, in his view, has a motherly face: Her task is to keep "her
arms
open to receive everyone." She is a "home for one and all" that
"desires
to belong to everyone, and in particular she is the Church of the poor,
like
the village fountain," with no distinctions of race or religion.
The Church's holiness and human wisdom are expressed very clearly in
what
is called "the daily decalogue of Pope John XXIII":
1) Only for today, I will seek to live the livelong day positively
without
wishing to solve the problems of my life all at once.
2) Only for today, I will take the greatest care of my appearance: I
will
dress modestly; I will not raise my voice; I will be courteous in my
behavior;
I will not criticize anyone; I will not claim to improve or to
discipline
anyone except myself.
3) Only for today, I will be happy in the certainty that I was created
to
be happy, not only in the other world but also in this one.
4) Only for today, I will adapt to circumstances, without requiring all
circumstances
to be adapted to my own wishes.
5) Only for today, I will devote 10 minutes of my time to some good
reading,
remembering that just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so
good
reading is necessary to the life of the soul.
6) Only for today, I will do one good deed and not tell anyone about it.
7) Only for today, I will do at least one thing I do not like doing;
and
if my feelings are hurt, I will make sure that no one notices.
8) Only for today, I will make a plan for myself: I may not follow it
to
the letter, but I will make it. And I will be on guard against two
evils:
hastiness and indecision.
9) Only for today, I will firmly believe, despite appearances, that the
good
providence of God cares for me as no one else who exists in this world.
10) Only for today, I will have no fears. In particular, I will not be
afraid
to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe in goodness. Indeed, for 12
hours
I can certainly do what might cause me consternation were I to believe
I
had to do it all my life.
To conclude: here is an all-embracing resolution: "I want to be kind,
today
and always, to everyone."
In this way, we can put Pope John's hope for every Christian into
practice:
"Every believer in this world must be a spark of light, a core of love,
life-giving
leaven in the mass: and the more he is so, the more he will live, in
his
innermost depths, in communion with God."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Bosco's Mother Is Decreed "Venerable"
Margaret Occhiena, Co-founder of Salesian Family
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The prefect of the
Congregation
for Saints' Causes read a decree recognizing the heroic virtues of
Margaret
Occhiena, mother of St. John Bosco, as well as her reputation for
holiness.
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins read the decree Wednesday in the
chapel
of the Salesian community in the Vatican.
On hand were the rector major of the Salesians, Father Pascual
Chávez;
the postulator general, Father Enrico dal Cóvolo; the prefect of
the
Apostolic Vatican Library, Father Raffaele Farina; the director general
of
the Vatican Press, Father Elio Torrigiani; and the members of the
religious
community.
After the reading, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
came
to offer his greetings and his blessing.
The Congregation for Saints' Causes, at the invitation of Benedict XVI,
promulgated
the decree Oct. 23.
At the end of the brief ceremony the rector major, Father
Chávez,
said: "This is a memorable day for the Salesian family which sees Mama
Margaret
take a further step toward the altars.
"It is an event the whole Salesian world has been waiting for and for
which
it has been preparing with many initiatives in honor of the mama of Don
Bosco.
We entrust ourselves to her so that she may intercede for the whole
Salesian
family and for the congregation as it prepares to celebrate the 26th
General
Chapter in 2008."
Widowed
Margaret Occhiena was born on April 10, 1788, in Caprigli, Italy. She
lived
at home until she married Francis Bosco. Later she moved to Becchi.
After her husband's premature death, Margaret, 29, had to raise her
family
alone at a time of starvation.
She took care of her husband's mother and of the latter's son Anthony,
while
educating her own sons, Joseph and John.
She supported her son John in his journey toward the priesthood. At age
58,
she left her little house of Colle and followed her son in his mission
among
the poor and abandoned boys of Turin.
There, for 10 years, mother and son united their lives in the
beginnings
of the Salesian Work. She was Don Bosco's first and principal
cooperator.
She contributed her maternal presence to the Preventive System. Thus
she
became the "co-founder" of the Salesian family.
Margaret was illiterate but full of a wisdom that helped so many street
boys.
"For her, God was first, so she consumed her life in the service of
God,
in poverty, prayer and sacrifice," explains a biography issued by the
Salesians.
She died on Nov. 25, 1856, in Turin at age 68. A throng of boys, who
wept
for her as for a mother, accompanied her remains to the cemetery.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Virtually Venerable Fulton J. Sheen | Charles F. Harvey
Has Archbishop Fulton Sheen been declared an American
saint?
Not exactly. In fact, not at all. At least not yet. Only now is the
process
of opening his cause for canonization begun. It would be presumptuous,
then,
to declare Sheen a saint-in-the-making. We aren't in a position to
anticipate
the Church's judgment and even though not everyone who is a saint by
virtue
of making it to heaven is declared a saint by the Church, we can't
settle
the question of "who's in" and "who's not" by our own lights. But we
can
say that Sheen certainly embodied two qualities that characterized many
canonized
American saints: zeal for personal sanctity and a drive to realize the
unique possibilities for spreading the Gospel that America affords. --
Mark Brumley
On May 8, 1895, in El Paso, Illinois, a son born to Newton and Delia
Sheen
was given the name Peter. Yet, when it came time to enroll him in
parochial
school and his maternal grandfather (whose last name was Fulton) was
asked
the boy's name, he replied: "It's Fulton." The Confirmation name "John"
completed
the name that would become world-famous as one of the most vibrant
spokesmen
for the Church since the Protestant Reformation: Fulton J. Sheen.
Archbishop Sheen notes in his autobiography, Treasure in Clay, that in
Gaelic
"Fulton" means "war" and "Sheen" means "peace." It is as though his
very
name foretold the kind of life he was to have: an uninterrupted warring
against
the powers of darkness to promote the peace of Christ's kingdom.
After high school, while attending St. Viator's College, the young
Sheen
took part in a national examination and won a scholarship entitling him
to
three years of university training with all expenses paid. His close
friend,
Fr. William J. Bergan, counseled him not to accept the prize, but,
instead,
to enter the seminary. He took his friend's advice, and after
completing
theological studies at St. Viator's and at St. Paul's Seminary in
Minnesota,
he was ordained to the priesthood on September 20, 1919.
Since he had excelled in his studies for the priesthood, he was
selected
to attend the Catholic University of America for advanced academic
work.
It was there that he earned his S.T.L. and J.C.B.
In September of 1921--just two years after ordination--he was off to
the
University of Louvain in Belgium where he took his Ph.D. in 1923.
Offers
of teaching positions at Columbia and at Oxford were declined in
obedience
to his bishop. Instead of a prestigious academic post, he would be an
assistant
pastor assigned to a parish where the streets had not even yet been
paved.
Academic offers continued (an invitation to organize and head the
philosophy
department at the seminary in Detroit was especially attractive), but
Sheen
dedicated himself to the task at hand, immersing himself in the work of
the
parish.
Then, late in the summer of 1926, his bishop told him that he was to
join
the faculty at Catholic University. He remained on the faculty there
for
the next twenty-five years. So popular were his lectures that sometimes
extra
seats were brought in to accommodate the overflow.
Two years after his appointment to Catholic University, he began a
parallel
career: a long-time media presence as a Catholic spokesman and
apologist
on radio and, later, on television. After anchoring a series of
religious
broadcasts on radio, he was selected to host The Catholic Hour on NBC
radio
until he moved to TV. In 1952, Bishop Sheen (he had been named
auxiliary
bishop in New York under Cardinal Spellman in 1951) starred in the
first
religious television show in New York: Life Is Worth Living. That
program
(with his trademark "God love you") brought him instant recognition by
the
American TV-viewing public in the early-to-mid 1950s.
By 1954, his ratings were competitive with those of Mr. Television
himself,
Milton Berle. His popularity increasing, Sheen moved to ABC for a
national
hook-up. By 1956, his show was being broadcast on one-hundred
eighty-seven
stations in the U. S. and Canada. He said, "Little did I know in those
days
that it would be given to me through radio and television to address a
greater
audience in half an hour than Paul in all the years of his missionary
life."
Athanasius Redux
If God raised up the great bishop Athanasius to fight Arianism in the
fourth
century, perhaps it is not too far afield to think that he raised up
the
great bishop Sheen to combat Communism in the twentieth. Sheen stressed
the
need for reason in dealing with Communism, which had continued to gain
appeal
in America since the 1920s. His prophetic program on Stalin's death,
which
was broadcast live a week before the Soviet ruler died, cemented
Sheen's
position as America's top Catholic anti-Communist. Some high-level
party
members called him "Public Enemy No. 1."
Contrary to some, Sheen was no intellectual featherweight, and he
brought
his formidable powers of intellection to bear on the problem of
Communism,
the better to refute it. He absorbed Marx, Lenin, and Stalin to prepare
himself
for the assaults he would sustain in his attack on their theories. He
was
a tremendous success. He converted or influenced a number of Communists
and
leftists in the heyday of American Communism, including Louis Budenz,
Elizabeth
T. Bently, Bella Dodd, and Heywood Broun.
One incident related in his autobiography is worth recounting here,
revealing
as it does the intensity of pro-Communist sentiment in America during
the
Spanish Civil War of 1936-39. According to Bishop Sheen's own account,
"The
foreign policy of the United States was considering lifting [sic] the
embargo
against sending arms to the Communists in Spain. In order to combat
this
movement, a meeting was held in Constitution Hall, Washington. The
speakers
were three: a former Spanish Ambassador, a young woman who had been in
Spain
and had fought against the Communists, and myself. Thousands were
turned
away from Constitution Hall. It is very likely that the meeting had
something
to do with breaking down the movement to send arms to the Communists."
Sheen used that episode to lead into an anecdote that reveals to us
something
about President Franklin Roosevelt that his apologists would prefer
remain
unspoken. Bishop Sheen recalled that the day after the meeting in
Constitution
Hall, he had a meeting with FDR. He went to ask for a political favor
for
an old friend who had lost his re-election bid to Congress. During the
meeting,
FDR took Sheen to task for something that he mistakenly thought the
bishop
had said at the Constitution Hall meeting. Sheen tried to disprove
Roosevelt's allegation, but the President would not permit him to
follow through. Next
Roosevelt said: "You think you know a great deal about the Church's
attitude
toward Communism, don't you? I want to tell you that I am in touch with
a
great authority, and he tells me that the Church wants the Communists
to
win in Spain." Sheen answered: "Mr. President, I am not the least bit
impressed
with your authority." FDR: "I did not tell you who it was." The bishop
checkmated
Roosevelt with: "You are referring to Cardinal Mundelein, and I know
that
Cardinal Mundelein never made the statement you attributed to him."
Roosevelt had stuck his foot in his mouth; but Bishop Sheen wanted to
conduct
the business he came for in the first place. He said: "Mr. President, I
came
to see you about a position in Housing." FDR said: "Oh, Eddie voted for
everything
I wanted in Congress. He wants to be in Housing, does he not?" Sheen
said
that was correct. Roosevelt made a note on a pad and continued: "The
moment
you leave this office I will call Mrs. So-and-So [he mentioned the name
of
the woman who was in charge of Housing] and you call Eddie and tell him
he
has the job." When Sheen left the White House he called Eddie and said:
"Eddie,
I saw the President. I am sorry, you do not get the job." Eddie said:
""Is that what the President said after all I did for him?" Sheen said:
"No, he
said you would have it." Eddie never got the job. Needless to say,
Bishop
Sheen was a shrewd observer of the human heart.
Sheen also told a story that reveals the depth of pro-Soviet sympathy
in
America during his radio days. He said that because of his position on
the
USSR, his talks were closely monitored. If he "veered from the
then-popular
position of Russia being a democracy," a technician in the studio would
cut
him off. Once he submitted a manuscript for an upcoming broadcast that
had
the line, "Poland was crucified between two thieves--the Nazis and the
Soviets."
Sheen got a telegram from the Bishops' Conference asking him not to say
that,
because one of the thieves was, of course, the USSR. Never one to miss
a
beat, the bishop answered the telegram with: "How would it be to call
Russia
the 'good' thief?"
20th Century Missionary Giant
In 1950, Bishop Sheen was tapped to head the national office of the
Society
for the Propagation of the Faith. He founded a magazine named Mission
and
published God Loves You, a weekly column in Catholic newspapers.
Between
1950 and 1966, he irrigated the fields of the foreign missions with
$200
million (a tremendous sum these days; how much more so then!).
In Treasure in Clay, Archbishop Sheen recounts some of his dealings
with
the foreign missions. For example, he tells the story of a missionary
priest
in Australia who labored in the desert there. The heat averaged 125
degrees,
and the only kind of food he could carry was canned peaches, since
everything
else exploded in the desert heat. His "rectory" was his Volkswagen,
which
was eventually swept away in a flood. Bishop Sheen wrote him a check
for
a new VW. In his capacity as national head of the Society for the
Propagation
of the Faith, his decisions benefited the mission efforts in New
Guinea,
Borneo, Pacific Islands, China, Africa, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, and
countless
other locales.
Prodigious author
Archbishop Sheen, known primarily for his oratorical skills, was,
nonetheless,
a superb prose stylist. (He wrote more than sixty books!) And he gave
full
exercise to both of these talents in defending and promoting the
Church.
His many works include such gems as God and Intelligence in Modern
Philosophy,
Philosophy of Religion, Preface to Religion, Three to Get Married, The
Divine
Romance, Peace of Soul, Life Is Worth Living, The Seven Last Words, The
Way
of the Cross, This Is the Mass, The Power of Love, The Divine Verdict,
The
Armor of God, Way To Inner Peace, God Loves You, Thinking Life Through,
and
Thoughts For Daily Living.
Consummate Churchman
In 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed him Bishop of Rochester, New York,
where
he served for four years before stepping down at age seventy-four. He
was
named titular Archbishop of the Titular See of Newport (Wales) in 1969.
His quicksilver wit and golden smile softened the patrician bearing
that
would quickly stiffen in defense of Christ's Church and the honor of
His
Bride. And he had a marvelous sense of humor: Pope Paul VI once
reportedly
told him that he would have a high place in heaven. "Is that an
infallible
statement?" he grinned.
His high-caliber intellect (steeped as it was in the wisdom of St.
Thomas
Aquinas), the magnitude of his writing and speaking skills, his shrewd
sense
of theater, and his unflagging love for Christ's Church combined to
produce
the most colorful and effective Catholic apologist in twentieth century
America.
Humble priest
By his own account, each day of his priestly life included a continuous
hour
in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. This daily prayer and
mediation
and his deep devotion to the Blessed Mother formed the spine of his
fidelity
to his priestly vocation and the foundation for the holiness to which
he
aspired.
Some two months before his death, he met the visiting John Paul II, who
embraced
him warmly and told him: "You have written and spoken well of the Lord
Jesus.
You are a loyal son of the Church." Archbishop Sheen died in New York
City
on December 9, 1979.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Holiness Is Simplicity: Father Mariano de la Mata (1905-1983)
Interview With a Blessed's Contemporary
SAO PAULO, Brazil, NOV. 8, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Father Mariano de la Mata
is
an example to the Church not because of his great works, but because of
his
simple and virtuous life, says the vice postulator of his cause for
canonization.
Father Miguel Lucas, who lived with the Spanish priest in the
Augustinian
community in Brazil, says in this interview with ZENIT that his
companion
is an example for all to see that sanctity is reached by living the
little
things in life well.
Father Mariano de la Mata (1905-1983) was beatified Sunday in the
Cathedral
of Sao Paulo, during a ceremony presided over by Cardinal José
Saraiva
Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes.
Q: Who was Father Mariano de la Mata?
Father Lucas: A Spanish Augustinian priest. He was born in 1905 and
came
to Brazil in 1931; he died in Sao Paulo in 1983. He was a man of
charity
for the poor and spiritual director of the St. Rita of Cassia charity
workshops,
which are dedicated to making clothes for the poor. During Father
Mariano's
life, there were about 9,000 women members.
Father Mariano always visited the four hospitals that existed within
Sao
Paulo's Parish of St. Augustine. He liked children very much, and was
always
surrounded by them and had sweets in his pockets to give them.
He was a friend to his students. He made a friend of each student. He
loved
nature. He looked after plants as if they were patients. He cultivated
many
flower pots in the terrace of St. Augustine School.
Q: What led to the start of his process of beatification?
Father Lucas: Since Father Mariano's death, his reputation for holiness
spread
rapidly. God has granted many graces through his intercession. When, in
1977,
my superior in Brazil and I went to ask Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns to
open
Father Mariano's process of beatification, he replied: "This man
deserves
to be a saint; this one does."
Q: You lived together with Father Mariano. Did you think he would reach
the
glory of the altar?
Father Lucas: No. First because there was no blessed or saint in
Brazil.
And second, because he isn't outstanding for great works. It's true
that
everything he did, he did well. He practiced all the virtues to a
higher
degree than normal. He was always dedicated to the poor, the sick, to
prayer.
This makes us think that sanctity is within our reach.
Q: Can you illustrate how he lived the virtues?
Father Lucas: When he was in the sacristy of St. Augustine Church he
was
visited by the poor. He would put his hands on their shoulders, which
were
sometimes dirty or wounded, and talk with them. He always gave them
some
money.
His assiduous visitors left the church happier because of Father
Mariano's
embrace, than for the pennies he gave them. On cold winter nights,
Father
Mariano would go down with blankets to the school's square to cover the
poor
who slept there.
Another story about Father Mariano is that, despite his impaired
vision,
he would go by car all day through the streets of Sao Paulo to visit
the
premises of the St. Rita of Cassia charity workshops.
When he arrived late for a meal, some friend would say: "Father
Mariano,
the meal is almost over." He would reply: "The meal can wait, but not
the
sick; many times they do not wait."
Father Mariano also enjoyed sports. He himself had a soccer team in the
school,
of which he was director, and played with the youths. There is even a
photograph
of him with the school's soccer team and several trophies his team won.
Q: What message has Father Mariano left the Church in Brazil and in the
world?
Father Lucas: With his life and testimony, Father Mariano is telling us
that
holiness continues to apply today in the Christian life and is always
possible.
Above all, he is a saint who gives credit to the fact that the building
of
the kingdom of God is also done on the city streets and in the little
acts
of every day.
Father Mariano's life challenges all of us. He is a saint of today for
the
life of today.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Benedict XVI Canonizes 4
Saints
Says They Invested in Heaven
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 15, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Saints gain heaven by
trusting
in the word of God, said Benedict XVI on proclaiming the sanctity of a
bishop,
a priest and two women religious.
"Their names will be remembered forever," he said today at the
canonization
Mass of the four saints in St. Peter's Square.
Rafael Guízar Valencia
(1878-1938)
was born in Cotija de la Paz, in the Mexican state of Michoacan, the
fourth
of 11 children.
His evangelizing work was often impeded by the political situation in
Mexico.
During the religious persecution of the 1920s, he was exiled in the
United
States, Guatemala and Cuba, where he continued his missionary work.
Many miracles were attributed to him in his lifetime. He died on June
6,
1938.
"Imitating Christ," the Holy Father said during the homily of the more
than
two-hour celebration in St. Peter's Square, St. Guízar Valencia
"gave
up his properties and never accepted gifts from the powerful, or gave
them
away immediately."
"That is why he received a 'hundredfold' and was able to help the poor,
even
amid relentless 'persecutions,'" (cf. Mark 10:30) added the Pontiff.
His heroic charity earned him the name "bishop of the poor,'" the Pope
said
to the crowd gathered in St. Peter's Square, including some 10,000
Mexicans.
Benedict XVI said that "in his priestly and later episcopal ministry,
he
was a tireless preacher of popular missions, the most appropriate way
to
evangelize people then, using his 'Catechism of Christian Doctrine,'"
he
said in reference to the book which became the manual of faith for
several
generations of Mexicans.
The Bishop of Rome added that one of the bishop's priorities was "the
formation
of priests," the reason why he "reconstructed the seminary, which he
considered
'the apple of his eye.'"
"That is why he used to exclaim: 'A bishop might not have a miter, a
staff
or even a cathedral, but he can never be without a seminary, because
the
future of his diocese depends on it,'" the Pope said.
The Holy Father continued: "May the example of St. Rafael Guízar
Valencia
be a call to brother bishops and priests to consider as essential in
pastoral
programs, in addition to the spirit of poverty and to evangelization,
the
fomenting of priestly and religious vocations, and their formation
according
to the heart of Christ."
Mother Theodore Guérin (1798-1856),
founder of St. Mary-of-the-Woods College in the United States.
The French religious entered the Congregation of the Sisters of
Providence
in 1823, and devoted herself to the work of teaching in schools.
In 1839 she was asked by her superiors to move to the United States to
become
the head of a new community in Indiana.
"After their long journey over land and sea, the group of six sisters
arrived
at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. There they found a simple
log-cabin
chapel in the heart of the forest," said the Pope today at the
canonization
Mass in St. Peter's Square.
The Holy Father continued: "They knelt down before the Blessed
Sacrament
and gave thanks, asking God's guidance upon the new foundation.
"With great trust in divine providence, Mother Theodore overcame many
challenges
and persevered in the work that the Lord had called her to do."
"By the time of her death in 1856, the sisters were running schools and
orphanages
throughout the state of Indiana," said the Pontiff.
Benedict XVI quoted the 19th-century nun: "How much good has been
accomplished
by the sisters of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods! How much more good they will
be
able to do if they remain faithful to their holy vocation!"
At the end of the canonization, when reciting the Angelus, the Holy
Father
prayed in French that St. Theodore will encourage "us to live the faith
and
to witness before our contemporaries, paying ever more attention to
little
ones and to the most abandoned in society."
Italian Father Filippo Smaldone
(1848-1923),
known as the apostle of those who can't hear or speak.
St. Filippo Smaldone was a "priest of great heart," said the Holy
Father
during today's canonization Mass, which could be followed in sign
language
on large screens in St. Peter's Square.
"[N]ourished by constant prayer and Eucharistic adoration, he was above
all
a witness and servant of charity, manifested eminently in service to
the
poor, in particular deaf-mutes, to whom he was completely dedicated,"
said
the Pope.
The saint founded the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Hearts, which has
convents
in Italy, Brazil, Moldavia, Paraguay and Rwanda.
"St. Filippo Smaldone saw the image of God reflected in deaf-mutes, and
he
used to repeat that, just as we prostrate ourselves before the Blessed
Sacrament,
so we should kneel before a deaf-mute."
Sister Rose Venerini (1656-1728), founder of
the
first public school for women in Italy.
St. Venerini "was not content to give the girls a good
education,"
said the Holy Father during today's canonization Mass in St. Peter's
Square,
"but was concerned to give them a complete formation, with firm
references
in the doctrinal teaching of the Church."
"Her apostolic style still continues to characterize the life of the
Religious
Teachers Venerini, which she founded," said the Pope.
The Pontiff added: "And how timely and important also for present-day
society
is the service they carry out in the field of education, especially in
the
formation of women!"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mother Theodore Guerin
An Indiana nun once banished from her
congregation
by a bishop will be proclaimed a saint on Sunday, providing a model of
virtuous
life to America's Roman Catholics — even if they find themselves at
odds
with church leaders.
Pope Benedict XVI
will canonize Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin as the first
new U.S. saint in six years, a span marked in this country by the
scandal
over the sexual abuse of minors by clergy.
The pontiff also will canonize a Mexican bishop and two Italians who
founded
religious orders.
The celebration of a new saint offers a respite from the lawsuits and
settlements
that have dominated much of the discussion of the U.S. church in recent
years,
and Guerin's life story can inspire those struggling in their own
faith,
said members of the religious order she founded, the Sisters of
Providence
of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.
"The bishop here in Vincennes was impossible to work with, yet she
always
kept her faith. She held on to it," said Sister Marcia Speth, one of
the
order's leaders. "In that way, she witnesses to us how to be today in
an
imperfect, flawed, sinful church."
Guerin led a group of six French nuns who arrived in Indiana on Oct.
22,
1840, to establish a community in the woods outside Terre Haute. She
and
Vincennes Bishop Celestin de la Hailandiere struggled over control of
the
fledgling order, and he dismissed Guerin from her vows, threatened her
with
excommunication and banished her for a time from St. Mary-of-the-Woods.
She
did not return until after his resignation in 1847.
In that way, she is like many saints who found themselves bucking
church
authorities while alive, only to be acclaimed as saints after their
deaths,
said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre
Dame
and the author of the 2001 book "Lives of the Saints."
"So many leading figures who had tussles with their bishop or other
high-ranking
ecclesiastical officials were later rehabilitated. History remembers
them,
but not the officials who gave them a difficult time," McBrien said. "I
dare
say that Mother Guerin, as a soon-to-be-canonized saint, will achieve
an
elevated status that will forever elude the bishop who dismissed her."
When Guerin and fellow sisters stepped off the stagecoach at St.
Mary-of-the
Woods, only a simple church in a dense forest awaited them. They
boarded
with a local family until acquiring a small cabin that was so cold
their
bread froze. They faced anti-Catholic prejudice in frontier western
Indiana.
Guerin raised money and built an academy for girls billed as the oldest
Roman
Catholic college for women in the U.S. It's known today as St.
Mary-of-the-Woods
College. The sisters also founded schools across Indiana. Today the
order
has 465 sisters, with 10 women currently in formation to become nuns.
Guerin, who died in 1856 at the age of 57, remains a role model for
women
at the college, said Samantha Dumm, a 19-year-old sophomore from
Morgantown,
Ind., who is traveling with other students to the
Vatican for Sunday's canonization.
"She wants us to be strong women, stand up for ourselves and make our
own
way in life," Dumm said.
Guerin will become the eighth U.S. saint and the first one canonized
since
Sister Katherine Drexel in October 2000.
A little more than a year after Drexel's canonization, the scandal over
the
sex abuse by Catholic priests erupted in the Archdiocese of Boston and
spread
across the country. Since then, hundreds of millions of dollars in
settlements
have been paid out, and bishops' popularity has waned, despite reform
measures.
Sister Marie Kevin Tighe, who promoted Guerin's cause for sainthood for
the
order, said she hopes the canonization will refocus the attention of
Catholics
and non-Catholics alike on holiness.
"I think every time it happens, it is an impetus for the rest of us,"
Tighe
said. "God did not create just some people to be special. We are all on
earth
on a faith journey to heaven."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause Opens for Native
Bangladeshi
Prelate
Archbishop Ganguly on Track for Beatification
DHAKA, Bangladesh, SEPT. 14, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The diocesan phase
opened
for the process of beatification of the first native archbishop of
Bangladesh,
Theotonius Amal Ganguly.
The solemn Mass to mark the occasion Sept. 2 was reported by Vatican
Radio,
which also explained that it is a historic event for the country, whose
population
of 147 million includes 280,000 Catholics.
About 3,000 people were on hand for the Mass, including Archbishop Paul
Tschang
In-Nam, the apostolic nuncio, and Archbishop Paulinus Costa of Dhaka.
In 1960 Pope John XXIII appointed Father Ganguly the first native
bishop
of the then territory of East Pakistan, making him auxiliary of Dhaka.
Five years later, Pope Paul VI appointed him coadjutor archbishop of
the
same place, eventually becoming archbishop at the age of 47. Four years
later,
after separation from the rest of the Pakistani territory, the country
was
named Bangladesh. The prelate died at age 57 from a heart attack.
In his homily, Archbishop Costa mentioned that many lay people, both
young
and old, asked him to initiate his predecessor's process of
beatification.
The prelate made this request to Benedict XVI last March.
"We will pray that God will grant a good outcome to this cause,"
Archbishop
Costa told the thousands of faithful present. "Each one of you will
receive
a photo of the Servant of God and a prayer. Please pray it in every
home
and parish."
At the end of the ceremony, the faithful went in great numbers to pray
at
Archbishop's Ganguly's tomb in the Archbishop's Residence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beatification for Hungarian nun
executed
for saving Jews
In the first beatification to take place in Hungary
since
that of St Stephen nearly 1000 years ago, Sara Salkahazi, a nun
honoured
by Jewish organisations for saving the lives of dozens of Jews during
World
War II, is to be declared Blessed in Budapest later this month.
Sara Salkahazi, who
was recognised in 1972 by Yad Vashem, was killed by the
Arrow Cross - the Hungarian allies of the Nazis - on 27 December 1944
for
hiding Jews in a Budapest building used by her religious order, the
Sisters
of Social Service, the Jerusalem Post reports.
Salkahazi was taken along with several other occupants of the home and
shot,
their bodies falling into the Danube River and never recovered.
The beatification rite will take place 17 September at St Stephen's (St
Istvan's)
Basilica, Budapest and will be the first beatification to take place in
the
country since the beatification of St Stephen himself who was beatified
in
1083 along with his son, St Imre, and St Gellert, an Italian bishop who
had
a key role in converting Hungarians to Christianity.
"Sara Salkahazi heroically exercised her love of humanity stemming from
her
Christian faith," said Budapest Cardinal Peter Erdo, who will celebrate
the
beatification mass. "This is for what she gave her life."
Salkahazi was born in the city of Kassa in 1899, at the time in Hungary
but
now known as Kosice and part of Slovakia.
Changes introduced by Pope Benedict again allow beatification rites to
be
held around the world, instead of only in the Vatican, as was the norm
for
centuries.
Church officials also highlighted Salkahazi's modest middle-class
roots,
saying she will be first Hungarian to be beatified who is not royalty
or
a member of the country's aristocracy, the Post added.
Before taking her religious vows in 1930, Salkahazi worked as a
bookbinder,
journalist and newspaper editor.
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority,
was
established in 1953 by an act of the Israeli Knesset. Since its
inception,
Yad Vashem has been entrusted with documenting the history of the
Jewish
people during the Holocaust period, preserving the memory and story of
each
of the six million victims, and imparting the legacy of the Holocaust
for
generations to come through its archives, library, school, museums and
recognition
of the Righteous Among the Nations.
Interview With Cardinal Peter
Erdo
primate
of
Hungary, before the beatification.
Q: Of what importance is this event?
Cardinal Erdo: First I wish to say that the last canonization that took
place
in Hungary was in 1083, at a time when there was still no technical
distinction
between beatification and canonization. Therefore, it is correct to say
that
it is the first beatification that is effected in Hungary.
Above all it is a great joy, not only for Catholic believers but for
the
whole society: a completely extraordinary event. And it is also very
important
that all this is happening in the year of Hungary's jubilees, in a year
that
the Hungarian episcopal conference has declared a year of prayer for
the
spiritual renewal of the Magyar nation. Above all it is the 50th
anniversary
of the 1956 revolution.
What does this beatification mean for us in the city of Budapest? It
means
that a woman of today, of the 20th century, let us say an ordinary
woman,
that is, not aristocratic or of the royal household, can live the
Christian
ideal and also be shown to all the people as an example of Christian
life.
The blessed and saints are, on one hand, our patrons who intercede for
us
and, on the other, they are always examples of Christian life and this
example
must be current, palpable for people today.
Hungarians have relatively few canonized saints, also because our
administrative
strength, to carry out these processes, was somewhat lacking in our
very
agitated history.
Therefore, it is an extraordinary joy that John Paul II already
beatified
three Hungarians and now Benedict XVI has permitted the beatification
of
Sister Sara Salkahazi, who was a martyr and died in Budapest, in this
city
which has existed under this name only since 1873, because before, Buda
and
Pest were two different cities.
The patron saint of our city is St. Gerard Sagredo of Venice, who was
an
Italian bishop. After St. Stephen's death, [St. Gerard] was thrown into
the
Danube from the mountain that now bears his name. His statute raises
the
cross over the city of Budapest. His martyrdom was closely linked to
the
Danube's waters.
And now we celebrate the beatification of a saintly woman of the 20th
century,
who also suffered martyrdom and whose martyrdom is also related to the
waters
of the Danube.
She was shot on the Danube, with many people of Jewish origin, because
she
was a martyr of Christian charity. She gave her life for her neighbors.
She
hid many persecuted people in her convent, and when this fact was
discovered
at the end of 1944 she was arrested and then, together with the women
she
was hiding, was shot on the Danube.
Later, eyewitnesses of this event were found who stated how she died.
She
made the sign of the cross in the last moment of her life; therefore,
fully
conscious, she wished to give witness of the way that a true Christian
must
behave in such tragic situations.
Q: In the history of the Church, including during difficult periods,
some
charismatic personalities have appeared as compasses in the storm. What
role
did Sister Sara play in the tormented period in which she lived?
Cardinal Erdo: Above all, Sister Sara was a very modern woman. A
journalist
in the city of Kosice, which belonged to Hungary when it was born and
later
formed part of Czechoslovakia, she wrote for several newspapers and
later
she also wrote plays and her writings are full of human sensibility but
also
full of Christian thought.
Through her intellectual activity, she was open to a vocation and
decided
to dedicate her life to the service of her neighbor. That is why she
entered
the Society of the Social Sisters, which was a new congregation of that
time
and which was engaged above all in service to the poor and the sick.
In regard to the poor, Sister Sara discovered the extreme need of women
in
the society of that time; women who were obliged to work even though
they
had a family, who often lived in utter dependence and poverty.
She also organized several houses for women in situations of crisis.
Thus,
a Christian feminism characterized the thought of this religious and
also
the house in Budapest where she was a superior at the end of her life.
Initially it was a house for women workers and in this house they later
hid
many women of Jewish origin. This was not an isolated action of Sister
Sara
but also organized centrally by her whole congregation.
It was Margit Slachta, superior general of the congregation, who wrote
that
in each house of her Society, persecuted women were hidden; yet more
than
that, when students were in boarding schools, they were sent home to
have
enough room for persecuted women.
Hungarian laws at that time exempted people of Jewish origin from the
juridical
consequences of their origin if they were members of a religious
congregation,
or if they were priests or clerics of a Christian church.
Because of this, for example, in the city of Cluj, in present-day
Romania,
which also belonged to Hungary, this Society had a large house, where
not
a few young women were dressed as religious to save their lives. So, we
have
many testimonies of this kind.
We have other information also that in another house of the Society in
Budapest,
until the last moment of Nazism, there were many people hidden, also
men,
naturally not as religious, but, for example, in compartments under the
house's
roof and other such things.
In fact, after her death, no other religious was killed, either by the
Nazis
or the Communists who arrived later. It was a truly moving story
already
at that time, but a story about which, under Communism, relatively
little
was said; hence the cause of beatification could only be initiated
after
the change of the system.
Q: Saints and blessed leave us an ideal testament and a strong example
to
follow in which the Catholic community should be inspired in life and
in
daily difficulties. Sister Sara's testimony is an up-to-date message
for
us all. In what way can we propose her exemplary life in the
contemporary
context of irresponsibility and relativism?
Cardinal Erdo: By presenting the details of her life, because in at
least
10 places she worked for the poor: for example, in Ukraine of the
Carpathians,
where also at that time there were enormous social problems and poverty.
Then, we can present her as a person who fought for her vocation, a
person
who was very determined to follow the will of God, once she recognized
it.
All those who knew her say she was a severe and strong personality,
even
though she knew how to joke, but who never wished to give up when she
had
recognized something as the will of God.
This clarity of decision could be a great example for people today who
have
great difficulty in deciding, in finding their vocation, their spouse,
or
their life's profession.
She is also a great example of Christian attitude that helps others
without
calculation, without taking her own interests into account and who
looks
with open eyes at the social situation of the people, of the city where
she
lives and who is aware of the needs of people who live around her,
because
today we are often very isolated and do not even realize the misery in
which
some of those close to us live.
Hence, there is a very strong alienation in present-day society and we
as
Christians must pull down this wall of alienation. We must open our
eyes
and also our hearts to those who have some kind of need, which might
have
to do with health, or be material, psychological, spiritual or social
in
people who are oppressed or persecuted.
Today's world is full of such situations; hence, the testimony of this
religious
is, sadly, of great present importance.
Q: What was her charism? How can you describe her spirituality?
Cardinal Erdo: Her life was inscribed harmoniously in her congregation;
hence,
social service to the human person.
Today the great systems of social welfare, of health, if they work, do
not
function as before, including in the Western world; this is one issue.
Another issue is that the loans given by these systems are generally
material
loans and not directly personal, so that the systems are
de-personalized,
while the help that these religious tried to give was always a most
personal
help which did not just calculate the quantity of foods distributed but
tried
to be in personal contact with the needy. This too, in my opinion, is a
very
timely aspect of Christian spirituality.
Q: Her motto was: "Ecce ego, mitte me!" (Here I am. Send me!). How can
this
motto be interpreted and applied in the contemporary world?
Cardinal Erdo: All of us are obliged to seek the will of God in
general,
if we want the objective norms of human behavior that are already
written
in our hearts and nature.
But we are also obliged to seek the concrete will of God: his plan for
our
person, hence, our vocation.
Surely it cannot be impossible to find this vocation. God does not call
us
to hide himself but he calls us to meet us; therefore, we must believe
with
much optimism in the fact that it is possible to know the will of God
also
in the concrete situations of our lives.
When Jesus Christ promised that the Holy Spirit would teach us the
whole
truth that he taught and would make us recall all the teachings of
Jesus
Christ, we have no illusions, we do not think that the Holy Spirit
works
a miracle with our memory, but instead points out to us in each
concrete
situation what Jesus Christ wants, what his teaching means for us in
that
specific situation -- hence, [...] baptism, which also implies the Holy
Spirit
as gift of God, and, in a special way, confirmation, which gives us
this
indelible sign of the Holy Spirit, the capacity to hear the voice of
the
Spirit which points out to us what God wills, what he expects from us
in
the specific circumstances of each day.
There are traditional and current phrases of Christian life, such as
the
examen of conscience every day, or a good resolution every morning
looking
ahead, foreseeing how the day will go, which will certainly be full of
stress
and agitation, and we try to foresee what the greatest temptations of
the
day will be which are predictable or perhaps what occasions there are
to
do good.
Therefore, if we have a small project for the day, no doubt at night,
in
our examen of conscience, we can ask ourselves if, with the grace of
God,
we have been able to accomplish the project. Or, if there were sins, we
can
ask for God's forgiveness and begin again with our eyes open wider.
If we succeed in learning this attitude of attention to the Holy
Spirit,
it will become increasingly easier. And this promptness is called
virtue
in the theological sense of the word.
Q: What has impressed you personally of the figure of Sister Sara?
Cardinal Erdo: I still know personally ladies who were rescued by
Sister
Sara or other religious of her congregation. For me, her figure was
always
a figure of the stories of the ancestors, if we want a realistic
reading.
It is a proof that the saints are not persons who are remote from us,
from
daily life, from our possibilities; rather, they are people like
ourselves
who simply -- even in the trivial circumstances of daily life --
succeed
in following God's will consistently. And this promptness of the person
then
receives God's blessing.
And through our simple actions, miracles take place, events that later
shake
a whole generation and that leave their mark for a long time, including
on
the conscience of an entire city or a whole nation.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessed Bartolo Longo
The Feast of the Assumption was Aug. 15, and to mark
the
occasion thousands of pilgrims gathered at the Sanctuary of the Holy
Rosary
of Pompei, one of the world's most famous Marian shrines. Among other
things,
the pilgrims celebrated the 100th anniversary of the gift of the shrine
to
the Holy See in 1906 by Blessed Bartolo Longo, its founder and a
tireless
advocate of the dogma of Mary's Assumption.
Beatifying Longo in 1980, John Paul II called him the "Man of Mary."
If every saint (and near-saint) has an interesting story, some are more
interesting
than others, and Longo's may be close to the most interesting of all.
He
holds the singular distinction that he was once a priest -- but not of
the
Catholic church, or even of the Christian God.
Improbably, Longo was a priest of Satan.
He grew up in a Catholic household, but fell in with a different crowd
when
he went to Naples for law school. Attracted to the 19th century
"Spiritist"
movement, he began attending séances, and eventually became
involved
in a Satanic cult. He was formally made a priest, and regularly
conducted
Black Masses and other Satanic rituals for the better part of a decade.
Eventually, however, Longo came under the influence of a Dominican who
brought
him back to Catholicism. Longo became a lay member of the Dominicans'
Third
Order, taking the name "Brother Rosary."
Longo organized a petition drive for world peace from 1896 to 1900,
collecting
more than four million signatures in dozens of countries. For his
efforts,
he was nominated for the 1902 Noble Peace Prize.
At the same time, Longo also led a petition drive supporting the dogma
of
Mary's Assumption. More than 120 bishops signed, and the petition was
given
to Pope Leo XIII. Some questioned the idea of a layperson meddling in
theology,
but Leo declared that the Holy Spirit can speak through any of the
baptized.
Longo did not live to see the proclamation of the Assumption by Pius
XII
on Nov. 1, 1950. Forty years later, however, John Paul acknowledged him
as
the father of "the promotional movement of the definition of the dogma."
The moral of this story? If a former Satanist can become the architect
of
an infallible papal declaration, maybe there's hope for us all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Paul I's Cause Expected to Advance
Diocesan Phase Might End in November
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 17, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The vice postulator of the
cause
for the beatification of Pope John Paul I announced that the diocesan
phase
of the process could end this year.
The announcement, reported on Vatican Radio, was made public on the
occasion
of the presentation of the celebrations for the 28th anniversary of the
election
to the papacy of the patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Albino Luciani. The
celebrations
will be held Aug. 26.
Speaking of John Paul I's birthplace, Canale d'Agordo, the vice
postulator,
Monsignor Giorgio Lise, revealed that "170 witnesses have been heard in
190
sessions; there are some missing in Rome and Vittorio Veneto.
Therefore,
the diocesan phase is drawing to a close and, in November, on the
patronal
feast of St. Martin, on the 11th of that month, it might well be
concluded."
According to the vice postulator, the focus has been on the purported
miracle
that occurred in Puglia, in southern Italy. A man says he was cured of
a
tumor after praying to God for the grace through the Pontiff's
intercession.
The diocesan phase of the cause began in Belluno in 2003. Once the
diocesan
phase is concluded, the cause will be taken up by the Vatican
Congregation
for Saints' Causes.
Albino Luciani, born on Oct. 17, 1912, was elected Pope on the second
day
of the conclave, on Aug. 26, 1978. He died a month later.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the
Cross
| Edith Stein | August 9th
August 9th is the Feast Day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, who
was
martyred on that day in 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp.
Fr. Charles P. Connor, in Classic Catholic Converts, writes:
The story of the Jewish Carmelite
Sister
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, known in the world as Edith Stein,
presents
us with one of the more brilliant converts to come to the Faith in [the
twentieth]
century; it also places us in close contact with a horrendous tragedy
of
the modern world, the Holocaust.
Edith Stein was born in Breslau, Germany on October
12,
1891, the youngest of eleven children. In 1913 she began studies at the
University
of Göttingen in Germany. She soon became a student of the
phenomenologist
Edmund Husserl and was later attracted to the work of Max Scheler, a
Jewish
philosopher who converted to Catholicism in 1920. A chance reading of
the
autobiography of Saint Teresa of Avila revealed to her the God of love
she
had long denied. She entered the Church in 1922.
For eight years Edith lived with the Dominicans, teaching at Saint
Magdelene's,
which was a training institute for teachers. She wrote:
Initially, when I was baptized on New
Year's
Day, 1922, I thought of it as a preparation in the Order. But a few
months
later, when I saw my mother for the first time after the baptism, I
realized
that she couldn't handle another blow for the present. Not that it
would
have killed her—but I couldn't have held myself responsible for the
embitterment
it would have caused.
In fact, after her conversion Edith continued to
attend
synagogue with her mother. Meanwhile, she continued to grow and impress
as
a philospher. In 1925 she met the Jesuit Erich Pryzwara, a philosopher
who
would have a tremendous influence on Hans Urs von Balthasar. Pryzwara
encouraged
Edith to study and translate St. Thomas Aquinas; she eventually wrote a
work
comparing Usserl with Aquinas.
In 1933 Edith entered the religious life with the Carmel of Cologne,
Germany.
She fell in love with the person and writing of Saint
Thérèse
of Lisieux. She wrote:
My impression was, that this was a life
which
had been absolutely transformed by the love of God, down to the last
detail.
I simply can't imagine anything greater. I would like to see this
attitude
incorporated as much as possible into my own life and the lives of
those
who are dear to me.
After taking her first vows, Edith was known as
Sister
Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She continued to write, Fr. Connor
notes,
"continually developing the theme that Christ's sacrifice on the Cross
and
the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass are in fact one and the same sacrifice.
From
her religious background, she knew the importance of sacrificial prayer
for
Old Testament prophets." She wrote of how Jesus' sacrifice as the
Incarnate
God-man was the final, perfect sacrifice that replaced all of the
sacrifices
of the Old Testament.
Because of the rise of Nazi power, Edith and her sister Rosa, who had
also
converted to Catholicism, moved to Holland in 1938. On August 2, 1942,
Edith
and her sister were taken from the convent by two S.S. officers. She
was
martyred seven days later. Fr. Connor writes: "On October 11, 1998,
fifty-six
years, two months, and two days after her death at Auschwitz, Edith
Stein,
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, was canonized a saint of the
Roman
Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II."
Ferdinand Holböck writes in New Saints and Blesseds of the Catholic Church :
1984-1987
(Volume 2):
The Church now presents Sister Teresa
Benedicta
a Croce to us as a blessed martyr, as an example of a heroic follower
of
Christ, for us to honour and to emulate. Let us open ourselves up for
her
message to us as a woman of the spirit and of the mind, who saw in the
science
of the cross the acme of all wisdom, as a great daughter of the Jewish
people,
and as a believing Christian in the midst of millions of innocent
fellow
men made martyrs. She saw the inexorable approach of the cross. She did
not
flee in fear. Instead, she embraced it in Christian hope with final
love
and sacrifice and in the mystery of Easter even welcomed it with the
salutation,"ave
crux spes unica". As Cardinal Höffner said in his recent
pastoral letter, "Edith Stein is a gift, an invocation and a promise
for our time.
May she be an intercessor with God for us and for our people and for
all
people."
Edith
Stein: A Biography
by Waltraud Herbstrith
A powerful and moving story of the remarkable Jewish woman who
converted
to Catholicism, became a nun, achieved remarkable success in the
male-dominated
world of German philosophy, and was sent to a Nazi death camp when she
refused
to deny her Jewish heritage.
Waltraud Herbstrith has fashioned a warm, memorable portrait of this
woman
who, as Jesuit philosopher Jan Nota points out in the introduction,
"discovered
in Christ the meaning of human existence and suffering ... Edith Stein
was
one of those Christians who lived out of a hope transcending optimism
and
pessimism." Hers is a voice that speaks powerfully to all of us today,
and
a life that stands as testimony to the profoundest values of human
existence,
the significance of the individual, and the truths of faith that can
reconcile
Christian and Jew, philosophy and religion, oppressor and oppressed to
heal
a troubled world.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

St.
Benedict
Whittaker Chambers | From Saints For Now, edited by Clare
Boothe
Luce
Queen Victoria left this world almost at the moment that I chanced to
enter
it. Her memory, when I was old enough to identify it, fell thinly
across
my earliest childhood. People still spoke of
"the Queen", as if in all history there had been only one and everybody
must
know at once that Queen Victoria was meant. Somewhat later, I sensed
that
her going had stirred a deep-set uneasiness, as if with her a part of
the
mainland of human experience had sunk into the sea and no one quite
knew what
further subsidences and commotions to expect. Yet, in those far off
days, no one ever chanted to me that grim line of the Queen's favorite
poet:
And the great aeon sinks in blood:
though I was not very old when I had the "Death of Arthur" read to me
in
full, and, after the depressingly long glories of the winter moon, I
noted
with relief that
The new sun rose, bringing the new year.
With the rest of my generation, I grew in that sun's illusory light.
For
the historical skies of my boyhood were only in frequently troubled,
chiefly
by a triad of figures powerful and unpredictable enough to thrill from
time
to time the nerve of reality. They were, of course, in America,
Theodore
Roosevelt; in England, King Edward VII; and, on the continent of
Europe,
bestriding it like a self-inflated colossus, the German Kaiser. Each
had
a characteristic motif; too, like a Wagnerian hero: a little repetitive
phrase
that set the historic mood or forecast that each, for good or ill, was
about
to vault again upon the world stage, to give some new tingling turn to
the
plot. Thus, from the heart of Europe, would come characteristic
variations
on the Bismarckian theme of Blut und Eisen. In America, rose
blithe
shouts of "Bully! It's bully!" While Edwardian England had reversed the
plea
in which Swinburne exhorted Walt Whitman to "send but a song oversea to
us",
and both shores of the Atlantic rocked to the surge and thunder of
Tarara-boom-de-ay.
Long before I had the slightest notion what the barbaric sounds might
mean,
as language or destiny, I listened fascinated to people chanting:
A Brussels carpet on the floor:
An elevator at the door:
Tarara-boom-de-ay; Tarara-boom-de-ay!
It was not only because of its gayness that it embedded it self in my
memory.
For what others found gay, I found indefinably ominous, as fixing a
tone,
a touch of dissolution that, even as a sensitive child, I could not
possibly
have explained to myself or anybody else. But one day, much later, the
echo
of Tarara-boom-de-ay fused itself unexpectedly with something that
would
seem to have nothing to do with it--a more or less random remark by one
of
my college instructors in Contemporary Civilization. Contemporary
Civilization,
a course required for all freshmen at Columbia College, was taught by
several
young men whom I remember chiefly as rather lugubrious--disillusioned
veterans
of the First World War, and a conscientious objector who had refused to
take
part in it. One day, the objector, staring at some point far beyond the
backs
of our heads, observed that "the world is entering upon a new Dark
Ages."
It was one of the few things that I carried away from Contemporary
Civilization,
required for all freshmen. And it was not so much the meaning of the
words,
which I was far too unfledged to understand, as the toneless
despondency
with which they were uttered that struck me. That, and their acceptance
of
the Dark Ages as something relevant, and possibly recurrent in history.
For under the sunlit skies of my boyhood, the Dark Ages were seldom
mentioned:
if at all, chiefly by way of contrast to the light of our progress. For
the
voice of that time was, at least as it reached me, wholly incapable of
the
irony with which, little more than a decade later, Jean de
Bosschére
would ask: "Qui se leva pour dire que nous ne sommes pas en plein
jour?"
The Dark Ages were inexcusable and rather disreputable--a bad time when
the machine of civilization in its matchless climb to the twentieth
century
had sheared a whole rank of king-pins and landed mankind in a
centuries-long
ditch. At best, it was a time when monks sat in unsanitary cells with a
human
skull before them, and copied and recopied, for lack of more fruitful
employment,
the tattered records of a dead antiquity. That was the Dark Ages at
best,
which, as anybody could see, was not far from the worst.
If a bright boy, leafing through history, asked: "How did the Dark Ages
come about?" he might be told that "Rome fell!"--as if a curtain simply
dropped.
Boys of ten or twelve, even if bright, are seldom bright enough to say
to
themselves: "Surely, Rome did not fall in a day." If a boy had asked:
"But
were there no great figures in the Dark Ages, like Teddy Roosevelt,
King
Edward, and the Kaiser?" he might well have been suspected of something
like
an unhealthy interest in the habits and habitats of spiders. If he had
persisted
and asked: "But isn't it clear that the Dark Ages are of a piece with
our
age of light, that our civilization is by origin Catholic, that, in
fact,
we cannot understand what we have become without under standing what we
came from?" he would have been suspected of something much worse than
priggery--a distressing turn to popery.
I was no such bright boy (or youth). I reached young man hood serene in
the knowledge that, between the failed light of antiquity and the
buzzing
incandescence of our own time, there had intervened a thousand years of
darkness
from which the spirit of man had begun to liberate itself
(intellectually)
first in the riotous luminosity of the Renaissance, in Human ism, in
the
eighteenth century, and at last (politically) in the French Revolution.
For
the dividing line between the Dark Ages is not fast, and they were
easily
lumped together.
To be sure, even before Queen Victoria died, the pre Raphaelites had
popularized
certain stage properties of the Middle Ages. And on the Continent there
had
been Novalis, to mention only one name (but no one in my boyhood
mentioned
Novalis). There had been Huysmans (we knew Huys mans, but his name was
touched
with decadence). There was a fad of the Gothic and figures like
Viollet-le-Duc:
while an obscure American, Henry Adams, was even then composing Mont
St.
Michel and Chartres, and inditing certain thoughts on the Virgin
and
the Dynamo that would echo briefly above the clink of their swizzle
sticks
in the patter of my generation.
I was in my twenties, a young intellectual savage in college with
thousands
of others, before the fact slowly dawned upon me that, for a youth
always
under the spell of history, the his tory I knew was practically no
history
at all. It consisted of two disjointed parts--the history of Greece and
Rome,
with side trips to Egypt and the Fertile Crescent: and a history of the
last
four hundred years of Europe and America. Of what lay in between, what
joined
the parts and gave them continuity, and the pulse of life and breath of
spirit,
my ignorance was darker than any Dark Age. Less by intelligence than by
the
kind of sixth sense which makes us aware of objects ahead in the dark,
I
divined that a main land mass of the history of Western civilization
loomed
hidden beyond my sight.
I turned to medieval history. But the distinguished teachers who first
guided
me into the Dark Ages seemed, even to my blindness, not too sure of
their
own way. They knew facts, more facts than I would ever know. Yet in
their
understanding of the facts something was missing, something that would
enable
them to feel that the life of the times they were exploring was of one
tissue
with the life of ours, that neither could be divided from the other,
without
an arterial tearing, that neither could be understood without the
other.
Their exposition, even of so obvious a problem as the causes for the
fall
of the Roman West left me with a sense of climbing railless stairs
above
a chasm at night. Rome fell, I learned, because of the barbarian hordes
and
a series of great barbarian leaders. H. G. Wells would presently
startle
me with the information that the hordes had been comparative handfuls
among
the populations they conquered, while, somewhat later, I would come to
believe
that the barbarian leaders were scarcely more barbarian than the
Romans, that
many of them were disaffected officials of the Roman state and their
conduct was not so much that of invaders as what we should now call
Fifth Columnists.
Or I was taught that Rome's collapse was due in part to the disrepair
of
the Roman roads and the breakdown of communications. Or the resurgence
of
the Pontine marshes and the high incidence of malaria at Rome. Or that
the
conquest of the East had introduced alien and indigestible masses into
the
Empire, and corrupted Rome, and so it fell. But even a collegiate
savage
could scarcely fail to note that it was precisely the corrupt Eastern
half
of the Empire that survived as a political unit, and, for another eight
hundred
years, stood against the vigorous East, and was the bulwark of the
fallen
West.
There were other facts and factors. My ignorance could question them
only
so far, and then not their reality for the most part, but their power
to
explain by themselves an event so complex and so thunderous as the
crash
of a civilization. Some more subtle dissolvent, I sensed, must also
have
been, undivined, at work. I thought I had caught a hint of it in
Salvianus'
moritur et ridet: "The Roman Empire is luxurious, but it is
filled
with misery. It is dying but it laughs--moritur et ridet." But
Salvian,
we learned with a deflecting smile, was an extremist, though, in the
hindsight
of disaster, his foresight would scarcely seem overstated. What
interested
me was that men had smiled complacently at Salvian's words when he
spoke
them, and men still smiled at them complacently a thousand years
later--the
same kind of men, I was beginning to suspect, upon, I also suspected, a
similar
turning point of history.
In any case, for me it was too late. What the missing some thing was in
the crisis of Rome I was not to learn in classrooms. The crisis of
civilization
in my own time had caught me in its undertow and soon swept me far
beyond
that earlier Dark Ages. Not until it had cast me back upon its rocks,
by
grace a defeated fugitive from its forces, would I again find peace or
pause
to seek to determine what, if anything, that mortal experience had
taught
me about the history of our own time, or any other.
This century was half gone, and with it more than half my life, that at
that moment seemed all but to have ended in an ordeal with which my
name
is linked, when someone, seeking only to comfort me, once more directed
my
eyes to that point in the past from which, some thirty years before, I
had
abruptly taken them. Anne Ford, my friend of many years standing, sent
me
from the Monastery of Gethsemani a little silver medal, blessed in my
family's
name and mine, by Father Louis--Thomas Merton of The Seven-Storey
Mountain,
who, as a later student, had sat in the same college classrooms,
listening
to some of the same instructors I had known. On the medal was an image
of
St. Benedict.
I found myself asking who St. Benedict had been. I knew that he had
founded
a monastic order, which bore his name, and that for it he had written a
famous
Rule. I knew that he had uttered a precept that I had taken for my own:
Laborare
est orare--to labor is to pray. I had once written a little news
story
about plans for the restoration of his monastery of Monte Cassino after
its
destruction in the World War of 1939. What I had written had presumably
been
read at least by one hundred thousand people (so much for journalism in
our
time). But a seeker after knowledge at any age, certainly one fifty
years
old, must begin by confessing that he probably knew less about St.
Benedict
than many a pupil in parochial school. Nor, had I asked a dozen
friends,
regarded as highly intelligent by themselves and the world, could one
of
them have told me much more about St. Benedict than I knew myself. The
fact
that such ignorance could exist, could be taken as a matter of course,
was
more stunning than the abyss of ignorance itself.
For the briefest prying must reveal that, simply in terms of history,
leaving
aside for a moment his sanctity, St. Benedict was a colossal figure on
a
scale of importance in shaping the civilization of the West against
which
few subsequent figures could measure. And of those who might measure in
terms
of historic force, almost none could measure in terms of good achieved.
Nor was St. Benedict an isolated peak. He was only one among ranges of
human
height that reached away from him in time in both directions, past and
future,
but of which, with one or two obvious exceptions, one was as ignorant
as
of Benedict: St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, Pope St. Leo the
Great,
Pope St. Gregory the Great, St. Francis of Assisi, Hildebrand (Pope
Gregory
VII).
Clearly, a cleft cut across the body of Christendom itself, and raised
an
overwhelming question: What, in fact, was the civilization of the West?
If
it was Christendom, why had it turned its back on half its roots and
meanings
and become cheerfully ignorant of those who had embodied them? If it
was
not Christendom, what was it? And what were those values that it
claimed
to assert against the forces of active evil that beset it in the
greatest
crisis of history since the fall of Rome? Did the failure of the
Western
World to know what it was lie at the root of its spiritual despondency,
its
intellectual confusion, its moral chaos, the dissolving bonds of faith
and loyalty within itself, its swift political decline in barely four
decades
from hegemony of the world to a demoralized rump of Europe little
larger than
it had been in the crash of the Roman West, and an America still
disputing
the nature of the crisis, its gravity, whether it existed at all, or
what
to do about it?
Answers to such questions could not be extemporized. At the moment, a
baffled
seeker could do little more than grope for St. Benedict's hand and pray
in
all humbleness to be led over the traces of the saint's progress to the
end
that he might be, if not more knowledgeable, at least less nakedly
ignorant.
The biographical facts were synoptic enough and chiefly to be found in
the
Dialogues of Pope St. Gregory the Great or inferred between the
lines
of St. Benedict's Rule.
Benedict had been born, toward the end of the fifth century, of good
family
in the sturdy countryside of Nursia, which lay close enough to Rome to
catch
the tremors of its sack, in 410, by Alaric's West Goths (the first time
in
eight hundred years that the city had fallen) and the shock of its sack
by
the Vandals, who, in 455 completed the material and human havoc
that
the West Goths had begun. To a Rome darkened by such disasters,
Benedict
had been sent to school as a boy of fourteen or fifteen. There he was
shaken
by the corrupt customs of his schoolmates, it is said. But we may
surely
conjecture that he was touched, too, like sensitive minds in our own
day,
by a sense of brooding, indefinable disaster, of doom still incomplete,
for
the Dark Ages were scarcely more than begun.
The boy fled from Rome, or, as we might say, ran away from school, and
settled
with a loose-knit congregation about thirty miles from the city. There
he
performed his first miracle. When, as a result, men called him good, he
fled
again. For, though he was a boy, he was clearly old enough to fear the
world,
especially when it praises. This time he fled into the desert
wilderness
near Subiaco, where for three years he lived alone in a cave. To those
who
presently found him, he seemed more like a wild creature than a man.
Those
were the years of the saint's conquest of his flesh, his purgation,
illumination,
and perhaps his prayerful union with God. They must also have been the
years
when he plumbed all the perils of solitary austerities and the hermit
life,
by suffering them.
At any rate, the saint left Subiaco to enter on his first experience in
governing a community of monks. He returned to Subiaco, and, in twelve
years,
organized twelve Benedictine communities. His days were filled with
devotion
and with labor and touched with miracles. But again human factors
threatened
failure. St. Benedict with a few companions withdrew to Monte Cassino,
some
eighty miles southeast of Rome. There he overthrew an ancient altar of
Apollo
(for paganism was still rooted in the countryside), and there he raised
his
own altar. On those heights, he organized his community, ruled his
monks,
performed new miracles, distilled his holy experience in his Holy Rule.
There
he died at a date which is in dispute, but was probably about 547, when
the
campaigns of the Eastern Roman Empire to recover Italy from the East
Goths
had so permanently devastated the Peninsula that the irruption of the
Lombards
into the ruins brought a new horror rather than any novelty in havoc.
Against that night and that ruin, like a man patiently lighting a wick
in
a tempest, St. Benedict set his Rule. There had been other monastic
Rules
before--St. Pachomius' and St. Basil's, for example. St. Benedict
called
his the Holy Rule, setting it down and setting it apart from
all others,
with a consciousness of its singular authority that has led some
biographers
to speculate whether he had not been prompted by the Holy See to write
it.
Perhaps it is permissible to hazard that his authority need have
proceeded
from nothing more than that unwavering confidence which commonly
sustains
genius.
What was there in this little book that changed the world? To us, at
first
glance, it seems prosaic enough, even fairly obvious. That, indeed, is
the
heart of its inspiration. In an age of pillar saints and furiously
competing
athletes of the spirit, when men plunged by thousands into the desert,
in
a lunge toward God, and in revulsion from man, St. Benedict's Rule
brought
a saving and creative sanity. Its temper was that of moderation as
against
excesses of zeal, of fruitful labor as against austerities pushed to
the
point of fruitlessness, of discipline as against enthusiasm, of
continence
of spirit and conduct as against in continence.
It has been said (by T. F. Lindsay in his sensitive and searching St. Benedict)
that, in a shattered society, the Holy Rule, to those who submitted
to
its mild but strict sway, restored the discipline and power of Roman
family
life.
I venture that it did something else as well. For those who obeyed it,
it
ended three great alienations of the spirit whose action, I suspect,
touched
on that missing something which my instructors failed to find among the
causes
of the fall of Rome. The same alienations, I further suspect, can be
seen
at their work of dissolution among ourselves, and are perhaps among the
little
noticed reasons why men turn to Communism. They are: the alienation of
the
spirit of man from traditional authority; his alienation from the idea
of
traditional order; and a crippling alienation that he feels at the
point
where civilization has deprived him of the joy of simple productive
labor.
These alienations St. Benedict fused into a new surge of the human
spirit
by directing the frustrations that informed them into the disciplined
service
of God. At the touch of his mild inspiration, the bones of a new order
stirred
and clothed themselves with life, drawing to itself much of what was
best
and most vigorous among the ruins of man and his work in the Dark Ages,
and
conserving and shaping its energy for that unparalleled outburst of
mind
and spirit in the Middle Ages. For about the Benedictine monasteries
what
we, having casually lost the Christian East, now casually call the
West,
once before regrouped and saved itself.
So bald a summary can do little more than indicate the dimensions of
the
Benedictine achievement and plead for its constant re-examination.
Seldom
has the need been greater. For we sense, in the year 1952, that we may
stand
closer to the year 410 than at any other time in the centuries since.
If
that statement seems as extreme as any of Salvian's, three hundred
million
Russians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, East Germans, Austrians, Hungarians,
and
all the Christian Balkans, would tell you that it is not--would tell
you
if they could lift their voices through the night of the new Dark Ages
that
have fallen on them. For them the year 410 has already come.
Whittaker Chambers (April 1, 1901 - July 9, 1961) was an American
writer,
editor, and famous defector from the American Communist Party. He is
best
known for his testimony about the espionage of Alger Hiss, detailed in
his
book Witness, published in 1952.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Study In Faithful Obedience |
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers | New Foreword to From Slave to Priest
Sister Caroline Hemesath's powerful narrative of Father Augustine
Tolton's
life is a poignant reminder that with God all things are
possible. This welcome new edition, reacquaints us with the first
black American priest of the United States and chronicles the profound
struggle
for equality and acceptance faced by black Catholics in the postbellum
era. Confronted with a succession of seemingly indomitable challenges
(a narrow escape from slavery, his father's death, abject poverty,
exclusion from American seminaries), Father Tolton's fervent desire to
study Catholicism, his intense longing for the priesthood and his
mother's loving support were the wellsprings from which he drew the
strength to persevere.
Father Tolton knew that unconditional trust in God meant that he must
become
completely vulnerable before the God who made him. Father Tolton
reveled
in the folly of divine abandonment, confidently exposing the deepest
parts
of his soul before God who gave him the strength to exercise his
priestly
ministry under the weighty yoke of racism. He was a beacon of hope to
black
Catholics in the nineteenth century who were trying to find a home in
the American Church. Father Tolton, in his abiding faith and selfless
charity,
was the instrument through which God's love shone brightly. The
resplendent chorus, "I have come ... not to do my own will, but the
will of him who sent me" (Jn 6:38) echoed majestically throughout
Father Tolton's brief life.
Despite the oppressive hardships placed upon Father Tolton by a culture
firmly rooted in the arid soil of hatred and malevolence, God brought
him
out of the heart of darkness and used him as an instrument of grace.
Father
Tolton was a tireless messenger of the Gospel and "was not afraid to go
into
the deep South, where racial hatreds had reached a high pitch and where
segregation
was decreed by harsh laws." Despite the novelty of being the only black
priest
in an all-white clergy, the gifted Father Tolton was able effectively
to
convey the richness, beauty and truth of the Catholic faith, which
penetrated
even the hardest hearts ("Wherever he went, he was respected and
honored").
When we look beneath the surface of our national life, we see that the
septic
undercurrent of racism flows largely unabated. Racism is alive and
well,
and is intricately woven into the fabric of American culture. But
unlike
the 1950s and '60s, where racism was overt, extreme, and statutorily
institutionalized,
the structure of racism today is more subtle and covert, exhibiting
itself
through outward manifestations of a now unconscious and tacit
philosophy
of dehumanization.
Since the 1960s and '70s, many black Catholics, in response to racism
in
the Church, have turned to and been heavily influenced by liberation
theology,
a Christian belief in the transcendent as a vehicle for social
liberation.
Liberation theology does not ask what the Church is, but rather what it
means
to be the Church in the context of liberating the poor and oppressed.
As
such, the Church's primary mission is to challenge oppression and
identify herself with the poor. For liberation theology, the
Magisterium (that is,
the teaching authority of the Church) is part of the oppressive class
by
definition since, in this view, it does not participate in the class
struggle. Ultimately, in this "liberation" version of Catholicism,
faith is subordinate
to political ideology, and the Church becomes an instrumental good
rather than remaining an intrinsic good and the necessary means of
salvation.
Father Tolton, a former slave become Catholic priest, knew well that
the
basis for any authentic theology of liberation must include the truth
about
Jesus, the Church and man's dignity. He endured years of frustration,
humiliation,
and rejection in a country boasting openness to religious freedom and
tolerance.
Despite the fact that slaves were "free", they were far from liberated.
In
Father Tolton's own words: "We are only a class-a class of dehumanized,
brutalized,
depersonalized beings." The nation failed the "freedom" litmus test
rooted
in its own Declaration of Independence, while the Catholic Church in
America
failed to live up to the tenets of her own creed and gospel by not
recognizing
that genuine liberation means freedom from the bondage of iniquity and
sin.
With the assistance and support of several very
persistent and undaunted
priests, Father Tolton was finally accepted by the Catholic Church--in
Rome!
He thrived in the Eternal City where his priestly vocation was nurtured
and
where his gifts and talents were recognized, prompting even the prefect
of
the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide to note what the
American
Church failed to appreciate: "Father Tolton is a good priest, reliable,
worthy,
and capable. You will discover that he is deeply spiritual and
dedicated."
For his part, Father Tolton acknowledged the great gift of his Catholic
faith
and, despite bitter trials and turmoil, remained faithful to the
teachings
of the Church. He was a visionary who saw far beyond race and politics,
looking
inward-into the heart of the Church herself. He taught, "The Catholic
Church
deplores a double slavery--that of the mind and that of the body. She
endeavors
to free us of both .... She is the Church for our people."
The life of Father Tolton is a study in faithful obedience. When the
Vatican
assigned Father Tolton to serve as a missionary priest in the United
States,
where he was "a slave, an outcast, a hated black", he obeyed in faith.
His
was not the faith of blind obedience, like that of an automaton or
domesticated
animal, but a spirit of faith that, as a child of our Heavenly
Father--in
complete humility and generosity--he continually strove to discern and
fulfill
the will of God under the loving guidance and direction of the Holy
Spirit.
It is precisely duc et altum--into the void, the unknown--that
Father
Tolton received his mission to be a fisher of men.
The greatest legacy of Father Augustine Tolton does not lie in the fact
that lie was a pioneer, the first black American priest in the United
States.
Yes, he was that-but lie was so much more! Father Tolton loved and
served
the Lord with great fervor and intensity. He knew that God's love is so
immense,
its power so limitless, its embrace so tender and intimate, that Love
Himself
brings forth life. Father Tolton was a living testimony to God's
creative,
life-giving work.
Father Tolton serves as a role model for those who seek to be
configured
more perfectly to Christ. Amid great persecution, Father Tolton showed
us
that being configured to Christ means emptying ourselves so that God
can
fill us; it means exposing the weakest parts of who we are so that God
can make us strong; it means becoming blind to the ways of this world
so that
Christ can lead us; it means dying to ourselves so that we can rise
with Christ.
I pray that everyone who reads this biography will be inspired by
Father Augustine Tolton, who, guided by the Holy Spirit, became a
living example of what it means to be fully alive in our Catholic faith.
-- Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers
Portland, Oregon
Holy Thursday, 2006
Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, MTS is a
deacon in the Archdiocese
of Portland, Oregon, and the founder of Aurem Cordis, an
apostolate
dedicated "to promote the truth and beauty of the gospel by encouraging
others
to submit themselves freely to the life-giving love of the Trinity and
to
become living witnesses to that love in the world." Deacon Burke-Sivers
gives talks around the country on spirituality, family life, lay
vocations, and
other topics, and has appeared on "Catholic Answers Live", EWTN, and
many
local television and radio programs. He has a BA in economics from
Notre
Dame and an MTS from the University of Dallas. He, his wife Colleen,
and
their four children live in Portland, Oregon.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Process for Beatification of Cardinal Pironio Opens
Phase Begins in Rome for Argentina-born Prelate
ROME, JUNE 25, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Pope's Vicar for Rome opened the
diocesan
phase of the process of beatification of Cardinal Eduardo Pironio, who
helped
John Paul II launch World Youth Days.
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the vicar, on Friday described the three
characteristics
of the faith of the Argentine cardinal: God the Father, the Virgin Mary
and
the cross.
The vicar for Rome explained that these three loves gave Cardinal
Pironio
the courage not to draw back, not even when he received death threats
in
his country.
The opening of the diocesan phase took place in Rome because that was
the
diocese in which the Cardinal Pironio lived during his last years, and
where
he died on Feb. 5, 1998.
Eduardo Pironio, born on Dec. 3, 1920, played an important part in
Church
history in the last quarter of the 20th century.
John Paul II appointed him president of the Pontifical Council for the
Laity
on April 8, 1984, and in that Vatican dicastery, he became the
Pontiff's
right-hand man in his pastoral work with youth worldwide.
Before, Cardinal Pironio had been prefect of the Congregation of
Institutes
of Consecrated Life, the dicastery which oversees more than 1 million
religious
and consecrated persons in the world. He was spiritually close to
Sister
Lucia, the visionary of Fatima.
Pope Paul VI elevated him to cardinal in May 1976 after having worked
for
many years in the Latin American bishops' council, first as secretary
and
later as president.
In Argentina, he was bishop of Mar del Plata, in the province of Buenos
Aires.
He was the youngest of an Italian immigrant family of 22 children.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sister Sara Salkahazi Helped Jews
BUDAPEST, Hungary, JUNE 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Sister
Sara
Salkahazi, a nun shot to death for sheltering Jews in Hungary during
World
War II, will be beatified in Budapest this fall.
Bishop Andras Veres, secretary of the Hungarian bishops' conference,
said
on Thursday that the beatification will be conducted by Cardinal Peter
Erdo,
archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and president of the Hungarian
episcopal
conference, on Sept. 17 in St. Stephen's Basilica.
In April, Benedict XVI signed a decree on Sister Salkahazi's martyrdom,
a
document paving the way for her beatification.
A member of the Sisters of Social Service, a charity organization
helping
the poor, the woman religious was a journalist, a writer and a cultural
activist.
She helped to shelter hundreds of Jews, including many women and
children,
in a convent in the final months of the war.
She was reported to the authorities, and henchmen of the ruling fascist
Arrow
Cross Party drove her and the people she had sheltered to the banks of
the
Danube River and shot them on Dec. 27, 1944.
The Sisters of Social Service saved more than 1,000 lives during the
war.
Cardinal Erdo, the primate of Hungary, said in reaction to the Pope's
decision:
"I believe that in the year of the nation's spiritual renewal, the Holy
Father
could not give a more beautiful gift to the Church, and also to the
whole
of Hungarian society."
ZE06062301
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Italian Priest, Father Mose
Tovine,
to Be Beatified in Bresica
BRESCIA, Italy, JUNE 23, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Father Mosè Tovini,
an
Italian priest who was passionate about the catechism, will be
beatified
in Bresica this fall.
The beatification will take place on Sept. 17 in the city's cathedral.
In December, Benedict XVI authorized the Congregation for Sainthood
Causes
to publish a decree of acknowledgment of a miracle due to Father
Tovini's
intercession, which opened the door to his beatification.
The miracle attributed to Father Tovini is the cure of an Italian
priest,
Father Giovanni Flocchini, a former pastor of Comero.
Father Tovini (1877-1930), a priest of the Diocese of Brescia, was a
professor
at the Brescia Seminary, teaching mathematics, philosophy, sociology,
apologetics
and dogmatic theology.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Father Eustaquio Van Lieshout
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil, JUNE 19, 2006 (Zenit.org).-
Dutch-born
Father Eustaquio Van Lieshout, beatified in Brazil, was presented as a
model
of contemplation as well as apostolic action and dedication to souls.
Last Thursday, on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, 70,000 faithful
attended
the beatification of this missionary of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and
Mary.
During the beatification Mass, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins,
prefect
of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, read at Benedict XVI's behest
the
apostolic letter with which the Pope inscribed the servant of God,
Father
Van Lieshout, in the list of the blessed.
The cardinal stressed the importance of Father Van Lieshout's "social
message."
He was a man who was greatly concerned about "the poor, the afflicted,
all
those who suffered and children," the Vatican prefect noted.
According to Cardinal Saraiva Martins, ceremonies such as this
represent
a stimulus so that the faithful have as reference people whom the
Church
considers models of humility and humanity.
Some 50 bishops and 60 priests attended the ceremony, in addition to
the
crowd that gathered in Belo Horizonte's Mineiro stadium.
Also present were some 30 members of the new blessed's family, who
traveled
for the occasion from the Netherlands, as well as Father Gonxalo Belem,
82,
whose miraculous cure of cancer of the larynx four decades ago opened
the
doors to the beatification.
Inspired by biography
Van Lieshout was born in Aarle-Rixtel, in the Netherlands, on Nov. 3,
1890.
He was baptized the same day and given the name Humberto. He was the
eighth
of 11 siblings in a farming family, explains the biographical note
issued
by the Vatican Information Service.
It was the reading of the biography of Blessed Father Damien de
Veuster,
the Belgium-born apostle of lepers, which led Van Lieshout to enter the
same
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. During his
novitiate,
he took the name Eustaquio.
He was ordained a priest in 1919 and carried out his pastoral ministry
in
his country until 1924. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro the following year.
For 18 years, he worked as a missionary in Brazil. In April 1942 he
became
parish priest of St. Dominc's in Belo Horizonte, where he died on Aug.
30,
1943.
In 1949, his remains were translated from the cemetery to his last
parish.
Last Oct. 19, Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree
recognizing
the miracle attributed to the intercession of the Dutch missionary,
which
opened the doors to his beatification.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fr. Eustaquio Van Lieshout (1890-1943)
VATICAN CITY, JUN 14, 2006 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. tomorrow,
in
the Mineirao Stadium of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Cardinal Jose Saraiva
Martins
C.M.F., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will
preside
at a Eucharistic concelebration during which, by order of Benedict XVI,
he
will read out the Apostolic Letter in which the Holy Father proclaims
as
Blessed, Servant of God Fr. Eustaquio Van Lieshout.
Fr. Eustaquio Van Lieshout was born in Aarle-Rixtel,
Netherlands,
on November 3, 1890, the eighth of eleven children, and baptized the
same
day with the name of Humberto. He came from a very Catholic rural
family.
After reading the biography of the Belgian Blessed, Fr. Damian de
Veuster
of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he decided
to
join the same order. During his noviciate, he took the name of
Eustaquio.
He was ordained a priest in 1919, and exercised the pastoral ministry
in
his own country until 1924.
He arrived in Rio de Janeiro in 1925, and for the next 18 years
worked
as a missionary in Brazil. In April 1942, he took over the parish of
Santo
Domingo in Belo Horizonte, where a few months later, on August 30,
1943,
he died.
In 1949, his mortal remains were transferred to his last parish,
which
is dedicated to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.
On December 19, 2005 Benedict XVI authorized the
promulgation
of a decree concerning a miracle attributed to the intercession of Fr.
Eustaquio.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
88 Japanese Martyrs Closer
to
Beatification
TOKYO, JUNE 12, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Congregation
for
Sainthood Causes has approved the cause of beatification for 188
Japanese
martyrs of the 17th century.
The Catholic bishops' conference of Japan confirmed the announcement in
a
communiqué.
Father Fuyuki Hirabayashi, secretary of the episcopal commission in
charge
of the cause, said the beatification ceremony will most likely take
place
some time after May 2007.
Bishop Jun-ichi Nomura of Nagoya, president of the bishops' conference
in
Japan, Bishop Francis Xavier Osamu Mizobe of Takamatsu, and Father
Hirabayashi
visited the Vatican in January to submit a petition signed by all the
members
of episcopal conference.
Cardinal Seiichi Shirayanagi, retired archbishop of Tokyo, also
personally
presented a petition with the same request to Benedict XVI. The next
step
will be the Pope's signature and promulgation of the decree of
beatification.
The beatification "will be an extraordinary event for the Church in
Japan,"
the Fides news agency said.
The news agency said the beatification of Peter Kassui Kibe and 187
other
martyrs "will bring enthusiasm, immense joy and spiritual consolation
to
the little flock of Catholic faithful in the country of the rising sun."
Already recognized among Japan's martyrs are Paul Miki and companions.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chinese Diocese
Remembers
Its Martyrs
Looks Back, and Ahead, at 150th Anniversary
ROME, JUNE 11, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The 150th anniversary of the
foundation
of the Chinese Diocese of Cangzhou helped to stimulate the Catholic
community's
missionary effort, said diocesan representatives.
Bishop Joseph Li Liangui of Cangzhou, in the province of Hebei, opened
the
anniversary ceremonies last month, reported Eglises d'Asie, an agency
of
the Foreign Missions of Paris.
A key event took place in the Catholic cemetery of Xianxian, where a
small
monument was recently erected in memory of the diocese's founders.
Buried
in the cemetery are five French bishops, a Chinese bishop and many
Chinese
priests and foreign missionaries.
All their tombs were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of
1966-1976.
Using the cathedral's paschal candle to light a 2-meter torch, the
bishop
appealed to priests and faithful to continue the missionary endeavor
undertaken
in the region more than 150 years ago.
In a pastoral letter last January, Bishop Li, 44, a prelate accepted by
both
Rome and Beijing, invited the diocesan faithful to prepare for this
jubilee.
Foundation
The French missionaries who "brought to this land the seeds of light
and
truth" founded the diocese in 1856.
"Today, the hour has come to write new pages of the history of our
diocese,"
wrote the bishop. "Animated by an unbreakable spirit, we have inherited
from
our predecessors the seed of the Good News."
Accompanied by saints' relics, including those of St.
Thérèse
of Lisieux, for five months the torch will go from parish to parish,
symbolizing
the light of Christ spread throughout the region. The torch will be
returned
to the cathedral Oct. 15.
In early October, an assembly will be held of representatives of the
diocese,
culminating with the baptism of 150 catechumens, and, on Oct. 12-13, a
university
colloquium will take place on evangelization.
Known for its numerous priestly and religious vocations, the Diocese of
Cangzhou
has more than 200 parishes and 75,000 faithful.
The bishop is assisted by some 100 priests and 227 women religious.
About
80 seminarians are studying in the diocese's intermediate seminary,
before
attending the regional seminary of Shijiazhuang.
The Holy See established the diocese in 1856, splitting the Catholic
mission
of Tcheli in three territories. The southeastern Vicariate of Tcheli
was
entrusted to the French Jesuits and, in 1924, it took the name
Vicariate
of Xianxian.
Elevated to the rank of diocese in 1946, Xianxian was renamed Cangzhou
in
1981.
Fourteen of China's 120 martyrs, canonized in Rome in October 2000,
were
from the Diocese of Xianxian during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. Four
priests
and 5,153 faithful died as a result of the rebellion directed against
the
Western presence in China.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause Advancing for 2 Poles Slain in Peru
Diocesan Inquiry Nears End for Conventual
Franciscans
KRAKOW, Poland, MAY 31, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Father Michael Tomaszek and
Father
Zbigniew Strzalkowski, both of Krakow, were on mission in the Peruvian
Andes
when they were killed by Maoist terrorists 15 years ago.
On June 5, 1995, the fourth anniversary of their death, the
Congregation
for Sainthood Causes authorized the opening of their process of
beatification
as martyrs of the faith.
The following year, inquiries were made in Krakow to obtain information
about
the infancy, formation and first years in ministry of these Polish
Servants
of God.
Now, the diocesan inquiry is nearing completion, stated the
Communications
Office of the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals.
After completing their theological studies at the Conventual Franciscan
Major
Seminary in Krakow and obtaining a master's degree in Spanish, the two
religious
left to go on mission in the Andes with another Conventual Franciscan,
Father
Jaroslaw Wysoczanski.
They carried out their "difficult ministry," as the order noted, in a
poor
parish of Pariacoto and in many surrounding villages of the area.
Coca
The country in which they were missionaries was one of the top world
producers
of coca, destined to become cocaine and yield huge "profits for drug
dealers"
and a "miserable income for farmers," the order noted.
The northern areas of the Andes, where the Franciscan religious were
working,
at the time had an intense coca leaf trade.
In the early 1990s, the Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) terrorist group
"controlled
the region, guaranteeing safety and prosperity for the drug traders and
taking
advantage of the fear and ignorance of the local people," the
communiqué
stated.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 22, 1991, there were a record 1,638 violent deaths
in
the country.
In this environment, the action of the Church -- a more incisive
catechesis,
the opening of centers for Christian activities and the training of lay
leaders
-- "represented a threat and a danger," the Conventual Franciscan order
said.
As a result, violence increased against foreign missionaries and lay
people.
One of Shining Path's numerous leaflets read: "With the Bible and the
Cross
they are trying to stop the advance of revolution."
Imbued with a mixture of Maoism and nationalism, full of hatred for
"exploiters,"
the terrorists were also willing to kill poor farmers who opposed their
plans
or were suspected of collaborating with the government or army.
Father Strzalkowski and Father Tomaszek arrived in Pariacoto in 1990.
They
helped leave the imprint of their Franciscan charism in their mission,
reflected
in humility, poverty, prayer, affability, commitment to the good and
tenacity
in community life, the order said.
Last Mass
On the afternoon of Aug. 9, 1991, Father Strzalkowski, 32, and Father
Tomaszek,
30, celebrated their last Mass.
The terrorists knocked at the friary door. The two priests were dragged
outside,
loaded on a jeep and taken to the village center. A make-shift "trial"
was
held. The religious were clear in expressing their evangelizing mission.
Taken in the jeep to the mountains, the two religious were pushed out
of
the vehicle and made to lie on the road with their hands tied behind
their
back with their death sentence written on a bloodstained piece of
cardboard:
"This is the way the lackeys of imperialism die." They were shot.
"The area where the missionaries intended to have a place of retreat
for
the local people," wrote the order, "became the scene of their
martyrdom."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Verbum Dei Founder Gets Papal Greeting
Father Jaime Bonet Turns 80
VATICAN CITY, MAY 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI sent a message of
congratulations
on the 80th birthday of Father Jaime Bonet, founder of the Verbum Dei
Missionary
Fraternity.
The Pope's message, issued by the Vatican on May 18, was read by the
fraternity's
president, Isabel Maria Fornari, during the thanksgiving Mass that
Father
Bonet celebrated May 21 in the church of the Verbum Dei Theological
Institute
in Madrid, Spain.
The Holy Father conferred his apostolic blessing on the founder and
invoked
an "abundance of divine graces and the maternal protection of the Holy
Virgin
Mary."
Pope John Paul II gave his consent to the declaration of the Verbum Dei
Missionary
Fraternity as a unique fraternity of consecrated life, which was
ratified
by the Holy See with a decree of papal approval in April 2000.
Preaching academies
Jaime Bonet was born in Alqueria Blanca, Spain. While still a
seminarian,
he organized a school or "preaching academy" to give sound preparation
for
engaging in the ministry of the Word.
Later, Father Bonet was noted for his preaching of the spiritual
exercises.
In the 1960s, the growth of groups wishing to prepare for preaching led
him
to create "apostolic schools" or schools of evangelization with youths
who,
in the measure they were formed, became leaven in many other parishes.
In 1963 a group of girls belonging to the schools of evangelization
asked
Father Bonet about the possibility of consecrating themselves
completely
to the life of evangelization that he inspired with his preaching.
This first such group, called Diocesan Missionaries of the Word of God,
were
dedicated "to prayer and the ministry of the Word." They received their
approval
from the bishop of Mallorca in October 1963.
As the fruit of Father Bonet's preaching, groups of youth and some
diocesan
priests adopted this form of life. And, in 1969, two priests were given
permission
by the bishop to be incorporated in Verbum Dei.
On Wednesday, Father Jaime Bonet will celebrate 50 years of priesthood.
Verbum Dei is present in 35 countries. It has about 1,000 consecrated
persons
and 35,000 disciples.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New Portuguese Blessed Put Kids
First
Mother Rita Beloved of Jesus (1848-1913)
VISEU, Portugal, MAY 29, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The plight of children in
the
21st century makes newly-beatified Mother Rita Beloved of Jesus an
important
figure, says Cardinal José Saraiva Martins.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood
Causes,
said this Sunday when he presided over the rite of beatification of the
Portuguese
founder, in Viseu, her birthplace.
The "characteristic point" of the Portuguese religious' holiness "was
the
maternal and charitable care of poor and abandoned children, for whom
she
heroically gave her life," Cardinal Saraiva Martins said.
Rita Lopes de Almeida was born on March 5, 1848. In 1880 she laid the
bases
for her institute with the opening of a school for poor girls.
She would later found the Institute of Sisters of Jesus, Mary and
Joseph.
Mother Rita's work extended to several localities and she was able to
surmount
the existing difficult political conditions by moving to Brazil. She
died
on Jan. 6, 1913.
Trying times
A native of the same region as the new blessed, Cardinal Saraiva
Martins
recalled on Vatican Radio the circumstances of the time in which Mother
Rita
was born: "a time, socially and religiously, of notable wounds between
the
civil authorities and the Church."
He continued: "At the beginning of the 19th century, given the
political
vicissitudes and the consequent suppression of the religious orders,
the
Church in Portugal wrote very lofty pages of martyrdom, to the point of
undergoing
the desert of exodus, as happened to Mother Rita's spiritual daughters,
precisely
in 1913, as she was going to the house of the Father."
She "literally gave her life" for poor and abandoned children, the
cardinal
said. "There is no greater love."
The Vatican official added: "In the wake of the material and moral
destructions
of World War II, the Servant of God Pius XII cried out several times in
his
messages: 'Save the children, who are the future of society.'
"More than 70 years earlier, in a similar climate of riots and
destruction,
Blessed Rita placed poor and abandoned children at the center of her
attention."
"Her spiritual daughters received and developed this commission,
gathering
up, at the same time, the solidity and simplicity of Mother Rita's
pedagogical
intuitions and her concrete contribution to the literacy" of the people
of
Portugal and Brazil, the cardinal said.
"Still today she is the loving mother of thousands of children in
Europe,
Africa and Latin America," he added.
Love of rosary
"Mother Rita could not give us a more timely message, given that the
daily
news reports again present to us the grief of murdered and rejected
children,
offended in their modesty and innocence, sold, enslaved or prematurely
trained
for war," lamented the cardinal.
In his homily, quoted by the Ecclesia agency, Cardinal Saraiva Martins
highlighted
the new blessed's Marian devotion, "with her particular predilection
for
the rosary," which anticipated in a certain way all that would come
with
the "message of Our Lady to the three little shepherds of Fatima," just
four
years after the woman religious' death.
"In love" with Jesus, from whom she drew her apostolic zeal, Mother
Rita
also left a "very important" message, because "she struggled with all
her
might for the liberation of women from all forms of slavery," Cardinal
Saraiva
Martins said.
"The future of a country, of the whole of society, depends on
education,
above all of children and youth," he added. "This is Mother Rita's
great
and precious teaching."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter
to Session of Congregation for Sainthood Causes
"The Last Word Is Given to Theology"
VATICAN CITY, MAY 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation
of
the letter Benedict XVI recently sent to the participants in the
plenary
session of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes.
* * *
To my Venerable Brother
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins
Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints
On the occasion of the plenary assembly of this Congregation for the
Causes
of Saints, I would like to address my cordial greetings to you, Your
Eminence,
which I gladly extend to the cardinals, archbishops and bishops who are
taking
part in the meeting. I likewise greet the secretary, the
undersecretary,
the consultors and medical experts, the postulators and all the members
of
this dicastery.
Together with my greeting, I also express my sentiments of appreciation
and
gratitude for this congregation's service to the Church in promoting
the
causes of saints, who "are the true bearers of light within history,
for
they are men and women of faith, hope and love," as I wrote in the
encyclical
"Deus Caritas Est" (No. 40).
This is why from the outset the Church has held their commemoration and
worship
in great honor, dedicating down the centuries ever more vigilant
attention
to the procedures that lead the servants of God to the honors of the
altar.
In fact, the causes of saints are "major causes," both because of the
nobility
of the subject treated and their effect on the life of the People of
God.
In light of this reality, my Predecessors often intervened with special
legislative
measures to improve the examination and celebration of their causes. In
1588,
Sixtus V willed the Sacred Congregation for Rites to be established for
this
purpose.
Then how can we forget the provident legislation of Urban VIII, the
promulgation
of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the norms of Pius XI for ancient causes,
the
"motu proprio" "Sanctitas Clarior" and Paul VI's apostolic constitution
"Sacra
Rituum Congregatio"?
My Predecessor Benedict XIV, rightly considered "the master" of the
causes
of saints, deserves a grateful mention. More recently, in 1983, beloved
John
Paul II promulgated the apostolic constitution "Divinus Perfectionis
Magister,"
followed in the same year by the publication of the "Normae Servandae
in
Inquisitionibus ab Episcopis Faciendis in Causis Sanctorum" [Norms to
be
Observed in Inquiries made by Bishops in the Causes of Saints].
More than 20 years' experience has prompted this congregation to draft
an
appropriate "Instruction for the Process of the Diocesan Inquiry in the
Causes
of Saints."
This document is addressed primarily to diocesan bishops and its
preparation
constitutes the first item on the agenda of your plenary meeting. Its
intention
is to facilitate the faithful application of the "Normae Servandae"
cited,
in order to ensure the seriousness of the investigations carried out in
diocesan
inquiries into the virtue of servants of God and in cases claiming
martyrdom
or possible miracles.
The evidence for the causes is collected and studied with supreme care
and
with a diligent search for the historic truth through testimonies and
documentary
proof "omnino plenae," for they have no other aim than the glory of God
and
the spiritual good of the Church and of all who are in search of the
Gospel
truth and perfection.
The diocesan pastors, deciding "coram Deo" on which causes deserve to
be
initiated, will first of all evaluate whether the candidates to the
honors
of the altar truly enjoy a firm and widespread fame of holiness and
miracles
or martyrdom. This fame, which the Code of Canon Law of 1917 stipulates
should
be "spontanea, non arte aut diligentia procurata, orta ab honestis et
gravibus
personis, continua, in dies aucta et vigens in praesenti apud maiorem
partem
populi" (Canon 2050 §2), is a sign of God who points out to the
Church
those who deserve to be set on the lamp stand to "give light to all in
the
house" (cf. Matthew 5:15).
It is clear that it will not be possible to introduce a cause of
beatification
or canonization if proven holiness does not exist, even if the person
concerned
was distinguished for conformity with the Gospel and special ecclesial
and
social merits.
The second theme that your plenary assembly is treating is "the miracle
in
the causes of saints." It is well known that since ancient times, the
process
for arriving at canonization passes through the proof of virtues and
miracles,
attributed to the intercession of the candidate to the honors of the
altar.
As well as reassuring us that the servant of God lives in heaven in
communion
with God, miracles constitute the divine confirmation of the judgment
expressed
by the ecclesiastical authority on his/her virtuous life. I hope that
the
plenary meeting will be able to examine this subject in greater depth
in
the light of the Tradition of the Church, of present-day theology and
of
the most reliable scientific discoveries.
It should not be forgotten that in the examination of events claimed to
be
miraculous the competence of scholars and theologians converges,
although
the last word is given to theology, the only discipline that can give a
miracle
an interpretation of faith.
This is why the process of saints' causes moves from the scientific
evaluation
of the medical council or technical experts to a theological
examination
by the consultors and later by the cardinals and bishops. Moreover, it
should
be clearly borne in mind that the uninterrupted practice of the Church
establishes
the need for a physical miracle, since a moral miracle does not suffice.
Martyrdom, a gift of the Spirit
The third subject reflected upon at the plenary meeting concerns
martyrdom,
a gift of the Spirit and an attribute of the Church in every epoch (cf.
"Lumen
Gentium," No. 42). The Venerable Pontiff John Paul II, in his apostolic
letter
"Tertio Millennio Adveniente," noted that since the Church has once
again
become the Church of martyrs, "as far as possible, their witness should
not
be lost" (No. 37).
The martyrs of the past and those of our time gave and give life
("effusio
sanguinis") freely and consciously in a supreme act of love, witnessing
to
their faithfulness to Christ, to the Gospel and to the Church. If the
motive
that impels them to martyrdom remains unchanged, since Christ is their
source
and their model, then what has changed are the cultural contexts of
martyrdom
and the strategies "ex parte persecutoris" that more and more seldom
explicitly
show their aversion to the Christian faith or to a form of conduct
connected
with the Christian virtues, but simulate different reasons, for
example,
of a political or social nature.
It is of course necessary to find irrefutable proof of readiness for
martyrdom,
such as the outpouring of blood and of its acceptance by the victim. It
is
likewise necessary, directly or indirectly but always in a morally
certain
way, to ascertain the "odium Fidei" [hatred of the faith] of the
persecutor.
If this element is lacking there would be no true martyrdom according
to
the perennial theological and juridical doctrine of the Church. The
concept
of "martyrdom" as applied to the saints and blessed martyrs should be
understood,
in conformity with Benedict XIV's teaching, as "voluntaria mortis
perpessio
sive tolerantia propter Fidem Christi, vel alium virtutis actum in Deum
relatum"
("De Servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione," Prato
1839-1841,
Book III, chapter 11, 1). This is the constant teaching of the Church.
The subjects being examined at your plenary meeting are of indisputable
interest
and the reflections, with the possible suggestions that may arise, will
make
a valuable contribution to the achievement of the objectives indicated
by
John Paul II in the apostolic constitution "Divinus Perfectionis
Magister,"
in which he says: "Most recent experience, finally, has shown us the
appropriateness
of revising further the manner of instructing causes and of so
structuring
the Congregation for the Causes of Saints that We might meet the needs
of experts and the desires of Our Brother Bishops, who have often
called for
a simpler process while maintaining the soundness of the investigation
in
matters of such great import.
"In light of the doctrine of the Second Vatican Council on
collegiality,
We also think that the Bishops themselves should be more closely
associated
with the Holy See in dealing with the Causes of Saints."
To be consistent with these instructions, elected to the Chair of
Peter,
I was glad to act on the widespread desire that greater emphasis be
placed
in their celebration on the essential difference between beatification
and
canonization, and that the particular Churches be more visibly involved
in
Rites of Beatification on the understanding that the Roman Pontiff
alone
is competent to declare a devotion to a servant of God.
Your Eminence, I thank you for this congregation's service to the
Church
and, while I wish those who are taking part in the work of the plenary
meeting
every success through the intercession of all the saints and of the
Queen
of the saints, I invoke upon each one the light of the Holy Spirit. For
my
part, I assure you of my remembrance in prayer as I cordially bless you
all.
From the Vatican, April 24, 2006
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tanzanian
President's
Cause Is Under Way
ROME, MAY 9, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The cause of
beatification
for Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, considered one of Africa's "fathers of the
nation,"
is under way.
Nyerere was president of the Tanganyika African National Union and,
after
independence, the first president of Tanzania.
The Catholic Information Service for Africa has confirmed that the
diocesan
phase of the process of Nyerere's beatification has been completed.
Nyerere (1922-1999) became president in 1961, and through the Arusha
Declaration
of 1967 introduced a national policy of self-reliance based on a
socialist
model of cooperative village farms.
Critics blame his Ujamaa system for the country's past economic woes.
He
voluntarily relinquished power in 1985.
Bishop Justin Samba of Nyerere's home Diocese of Musoma is directing
the
cause of beatification, while Father Wojciech Koscielniak is the
postulator
and Maryknoll Father Ed Hayes the vice postulator.
Father John Civille of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio, who has
written
a book on Nyerere, and Fathers Laurenti Magesa and Philbert Rwehumbiza
are
the theological censors involved in the process.
More information is available from Father Andrzej Madry, of the Musoma
Diocese
communications office, at madry@juasun.net.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mexico's Rafael
Guízar
Valencia
VATICAN CITY, MAY 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Among the
latest
people in line to be canonized as saints is Bishop Rafael Guízar
Valencia,
a standout evangelizer in Mexico at the time of its religious
persecution
last century.
Last Friday Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of a decree
recognizing
a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Rafael, who was
bishop
of Veracruz.
Rafael Guízar Valencia (1878-1938) was born in Cotija de la Paz,
in
the state of Michoacan, the fourth of 11 children. His brother Antonio
became
archbishop of Chihuahua.
Rafael Guízar received his priestly ordination at age 23 in
Zamora
in June 1901. He was in charge of spiritual direction in the Zamora
seminary,
where he taught dogmatic theology.
He was soon appointed apostolic missionary by Pope Leo XIII, and
evangelized
the villages he visited, basing his teaching on a simple catechism that
Father
Guízar wrote.
At the time of the Mexican revolution of 1910, he dedicated himself in
particular
to the dying and their families. In 1913, he carried out mission work
among
soldiers in Mexico City, Puebla and Morelos.
Disguised as a vendor of trinkets, and sometimes under a hail of
bullets,
he attended to the dying, imparted sacramental absolution and often
gave
them viaticum, which he carried concealed to avoid detection as a
priest.
Exiled
In July 1919, he was in Havana when he received the news that Pope
Benedict
XV appointed him bishop of Veracruz.
On Nov. 30, 1919, he received episcopal consecration in the Cuban
capital
by the apostolic delegate, Archbishop Tito Trocchi.
Among his works, Bishop Guízar revived the diocesan seminary,
establishing
it in Xalapa, moving it later to Mexico City, when anti-clerical forces
confiscated
the Church's buildings.
During the religious persecution of the 1920s, he was exiled in the
United
States, Guatemala and Cuba, where he continued his missionary work.
Later he returned. But under the government of Plutarco Elías
Calles
he had to travel to Mexico City with many of his seminarians and asked
the
priests of Veracruz to continue their services in anonymity.
Bishop Guízar succeeded in keeping the seminary open. The
authorities
sought him and he was again forced to leave the country. He went to the
United
States, Cuba, Guatemala and Colombia.
On May 7, 1929, President Portes Gil stated his willingness to dialogue
with
the bishops. On hearing the news, Bishop Guízar returned to his
homeland,
to his diocese and to his seminary.
That May 24 he wrote a letter to all the faithful asking for prayers
for
a speedy peaceful arrangement between the Church and state. The
arrangement,
though provisional, was made public on June 22, 1929.
Death sentence
In 1931, the governor of Veracruz, Adalberto Tejeda, imposed a law
limiting
the number of priests to one for every 100,000 inhabitants -- 13
priests
for the entire state of Veracruz. This forced Bishop Guízar to
flee
his diocese a third time. This time he went to Puebla and Mexico City.
He returned later despite a death sentence passed against him. After a
painful
illness, he died in a house next to his seminary in Mexico City.
He was beatified Jan. 29, 1995, by Pope John Paul II.
One of the future saint's sisters, María, was the mother of
Maura
Degollado Guízar, whose son Father Marcial Maciel founded the
Legionaries
of Christ and Regnum Christi movement.
In a book-length interview, "Christ Is My Life," Father Maciel recalled
his
great-uncle: "I remember that on one occasion he invited me to
accompany
him to Mexico City's Alameda. He was carrying an accordion which he
played
very well, but I didn't know for what he would use it. We arrived at
this
place, which was very crowded and he took out his accordion and began
to
play popular songs.
"People gathered around him. When there was a sufficiently large
number,
he put the accordion aside and began to preach Christ. I don't know if
he
did so to teach me a lesson. I think it flowed from his soul and it was
obvious
that he really enjoyed talking about Christ to others."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2 Priests Beatified in Milan
Father Luigi Monza and Monsignor Luigi Biraghi
MILAN, Italy, APRIL 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Milan's cathedral was the
setting,
for the first time since 1662, for the rite of beatification of two
priests
and founders.
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, archbishop of Milan, presided over the
beatification
ceremony of Father Luigi Monza and Monsignor Luigi Biraghi.
"We have great need to have many blessed and saints, so that their
example
of life will denounce the evil present in us, but above all so that it
will
awaken and strengthen the drive toward the authentic good," the
cardinal
said in the homily.
Also present was the papal legate, Cardinal Joséé Saraiva
Martins,
prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, who read the formula
of
beatification in the Pope's name.
"With our apostolic authority, we grant that the venerable servants of
God,
Luigi Biraghi and Luigi Monza, be called henceforth blessed and that
their
feast be celebrated in places and according to the rules established by
law:
every year, on May 28 for Luigi Biraghi and on Sept. 28 for Luigi
Monza,"
said Cardinal Saraiva Martins.
Father Monza (1898-1954) founded the Little Apostles, a community of
consecrated
women that seeks to bring to society the charity of the early
Christians.
"Our Family," an institution that looks after handicapped children in
several
countries worldwide, is a product of the Little Apostles.
Monsignor Biraghi (1801-1879) was doctor of the Ambrosian Library and
undertook
intense charitable works and support of mission countries.
In 1838 he founded the Sisters of St. Marcellina, dedicated in numerous
countries
to the cultural and moral education of young people, and to the
missions.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Apostle of the Untouchables" Beatified
Father Augustine Thevarparampil
RAMAPUAN, India, APRIL 30, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Father Augustine
Thevarparampil,
known as the apostle of the untouchables, was beatified in Ramapuan,
India.
Cardinal Varkev Vithayathil, major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly,
presided
at the beatification ceremony today in the name of Benedict XVI.
Here is a biography of Father Thevarparampil, adapted from a Holy See
document.
* * *
Everybody knew him as Kunjachan which, in the Malayalam language of
India,
means "little priest."
Father Augustine Thevarparampil was very short, but was a giant in
announcing
Christ among the dalit, the outcasts.
Born in Ramapuram, in the Diocese of Palai, Kerala, on April 1, 1891,
Augustine
entered the seminary after completing his studies in public schools.
He was ordained a priest at age 33, on Dec. 17, 1921, by Servant of God
Mar
Tommaso Kurialacherry. (Mar in the Syrian Oriental Churches is a title
of
respect used to address bishops.)
In 1923 Kunjachan was sent as vice parish priest to Kadanad, in the
Church
of St. Sebastian. His pastoral service in this place did not last long.
Ill-health
forced him to return to his native village in 1926.
During his convalescence, he became aware of the miserable living
conditions
of the "untouchables," those belonging to the lowest caste of the
Indian
society. Gandhi used to call them Harijan -- "the people of God."
Father Augustine decided to devote his life to the evangelization and
human
betterment of the poorest of his society.
The priest rose at 4 each morning. After celebrating Mass, he and a
catechist
used to go and visit the families in the villages. He took care of the
dalits
in his parish, as well as all those he could materially reach.
He used to call "child" anybody who needed help. He offered assistance
and
comfort, tried to solve disputes and took care of the sick. Some used
to
avoid him and hide from him.
His short height was a blessing because he could go in and out, without
any
difficulty, of the poor village huts. Kunjachan was a friend to the
children;
he always carries some sweets for them. The children enjoyed his
company
tremendously.
Father Augustine spent his entire life in simplicity, living like the
poor
to whom he had devoted his existence.
His will begins: "I possess neither land nor money, and I owe no one
anything.
I want my funeral to be a very simple one."
A man of great spirituality, he used to pray continuously even during
his
frequent traveling. He was always patient and understanding with the
outcasts.
He knew how to overcome mistrust.
During his priesthood days among the dalits he personally baptized
almost
6,000 people. And he was known as the "apostle of the untouchables."
After celebrating 50 years of priesthood, he died on Oct. 16, 1973, at
age
82.
He wished to be buried among his beloved children, in the barren land,
but
the parishioners demanded that he be laid to rest in the church, at the
foot
of the altar of St. Augustine, patron of the community.
Ever since then his tomb has been the destination of thousands of
pilgrims
every year. Solemn celebrations are held especially on Oct. 16 to
commemorate
his death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legacy of Slain Monks of
Tibhirine
Recounted by Priest Who Was in Ill-fated Monastery
Last Testament of Victim Prior Blesses Murderers
TIBHIRINE, Algeria, MARCH 28, 2006 (Zenit.org).- A friend of the prior
of
the Trappist monks of Tibhirine is trying to stir interest in the
spiritual
legacy of those men who were murdered a decade ago.
On the night of March 26-27, 1996, some 20 gunmen invaded the Monastery
of
Notre Dame of Atlas in Tibhirine and kidnapped its seven Trappist
monks,
of French nationality.
A month later, Djamel Zitouni, leader of the Armed Islamic Groups,
claimed
responsibility for the kidnappings and proposed an exchange of
prisoners
to France.
The following month, a second communiquéé from the group
announced:
"We have slit the monks' throats." The killings reportedly took place
May
21, 1996; their bodies were found nine days later.
Father Thierry Becker, of the Algerian diocese of Oran, was a guest of
the
monastery the night that the Muslim fundamentalists abducted Father
Christian
de Chergéé, the prior, and the other six Trappists.
In recent statements to the Italian newspaper Avvenire, Father Becker
asserted
that he is recounting the legacy of the monks of Tibhirine.
Theirs was "a message of poverty, of abandonment in the hands of God
and
men, of sharing in all the fragility, vulnerability and condition of
forgiven
sinners, in the conviction that only by being disarmed will we be able
to
meet Islam and discover in Muslims a part of the total face of Christ,"
the
priest said.
Father Becker is no stranger to strife in Algeria. He was vicar general
in
Oran when on Aug. 1, 1996, his own bishop, Pierre Lucien Claverie, 58,
was
killed along with an Algerian friend, Mohammed Pouchikhi. The Dominican
prelate,
born in Algeria, had dedicated his life to dialogue between Muslims and
Christians.
He had such a deep knowledge of Islam that he was often consulted on
the
subject by Muslims themselves.
A welcoming in truth
"Precisely the desire to welcome one another in truth, brought us
together
10 year ago in Tibhirine," said Father Becker. "The meeting 'Ribat
es-Salam,'
Bond of Peace, was being held in those days, a group of
Islamic-Christian
dialogue which was oriented to share respective spiritual riches
through
prayer, silence…….
"The Ribat still exists; it has not given up the challenge of communion
with
the spiritual depth of Islam. Thus we make our own the spiritual
testimony
of Father Christian de Chergéé, whose monastic choice
matured
after an Algerian friend saved his life during the war of liberation,
while
that friend, a Muslim of profound spirituality, was killed in reprisal."
Father Becker continued: "'We are worshippers in the midst of a nation
of
worshippers,' the Prior used to say to his brothers in community, all
of
whom had decided to stay in Tibhirine even when violence was at its
height.
"In the course of the decades, the monastery stripped itself of its
riches,
donated almost all of its land to the state, and shared its large
garden
with the neighboring village. The monks chose poverty, also in the
sense
of total abandonment to the will of God and of men.
"And great trust was born with the local people, so much so that 10
years
after the events, nothing has disappeared from the monastery,
everything
has been respected. But the future of that holy place is in the hands
of
the Algerians."
Testament
The spiritual legacy of the monks also has caught the eye of a member
of
the International Theological Commission.
Archbishop Bruno Forte, who participated in a Vatican-organized
videoconference
on "Martyrdom and the New Martyrs," quoted the "spiritual testament" of
the
Trappist prior. He described it as a "splendid example of how martyrdom
is
the crowning of a whole life of faith and love of Christ and his
Church."
The text of the testament follows.
* * *
Testament of Dom Christian de Chergéé
(opened on Pentecost Sunday, May 26, 1996)
Facing a GOODBYE ...
If it should happen one day -- and it could be today -- that I become a
victim
of the terrorism which now seems ready to engulf all the foreigners
living
in Algeria, I would like my community, my Church and my family to
remember
that my life was GIVEN to God and to this country.
I ask them to accept the fact that the One Master of all life was not a
stranger
to this brutal departure.
I would ask them to pray for me: for how could I be found worthy of
such
an offering?
I ask them to associate this death with so many other equally violent
ones
which are forgotten through indifference or anonymity.
My life has no more value than any other. Nor any less value. In any
case,
it has not the innocence of childhood.
I have lived long enough to know that I am an accomplice in the evil
which
seems to prevail so terribly in the world, even in the evil which might
blindly
strike me down.
I should like, when the time comes, to have a moment of spiritual
clarity
which would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human
beings,
and at the same time forgive with all my heart the one who would strike
me
down.
I could not desire such a death. It seems to me important to state this.
I do not see, in fact, how I could rejoice if the people I love were
indiscriminately
accused of my murder.
It would be too high a price to pay for what will perhaps be called,
the
"grace of martyrdom" to owe it to an Algerian, whoever he might be,
especially
if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam.
I am aware of the scorn which can be heaped on the Algerians
indiscriminately.
I am also aware of the caricatures of Islam which a certain Islamism
fosters.
It is too easy to soothe one's conscience by identifying this religious
way
with the fundamentalist ideology of its extremists.
For me, Algeria and Islam are something different: it is a body and a
soul.
I have proclaimed this often enough, I think, in the light of what I
have
received from it.
I so often find there that true strand of the Gospel which I learned at
my
mother's knee, my very first Church, precisely in Algeria, and already
inspired
with respect for Muslim believers.
Obviously, my death will appear to confirm those who hastily judged me
naive
or idealistic:
"Let him tell us now what he thinks of his ideals!"
But these persons should know that finally my most avid curiosity will
be
set free.
This is what I shall be able to do, God willing: immerse my gaze in
that
of the Father to contemplate with him His children of Islam just as He
sees
them, all shining with the glory of Christ, the fruit of His Passion,
filled
with the Gift of the Spirit whose secret joy will always be to
establish
communion and restore the likeness, playing with the differences.
For this life lost, totally mine and totally theirs, I thank God, who
seems
to have willed it entirely for the sake of that JOY in everything and
in
spite of everything.
In this THANK YOU, which is said for everything in my life from now on,
I
certainly include you, friends of yesterday and today, and you, my
friends
of this place, along with my mother and father, my sisters and brothers
and
their families -- you are the hundredfold granted as was promised!
And also you, my last-minute friend, who will not have known what you
were
doing:
Yes, I want this THANK YOU and this GOODBYE to be a "GOD BLESS" for
you,
too, because in God's face I see yours.
May we meet again as happy thieves in Paradise, if it please God, the
Father
of us both.
AMEN! INCHALLAH!
Algiers, 1st December 1993
Tibhirine, 1st January 1994
Christian +
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Elisha of St. Clement (1901-1927)
VATICAN CITY, MARCH 16, 2006 (Zenit.org).-
Elisha
of St. Clement of the Order of Discalced Carmelites will be beatified
this
Saturday during a Mass in the cathedral of Bari, Italy.
Archbishop Francesco Cacucci of Bari-Bitonto will preside, according to
the
announcement from the Holy See's office of liturgical celebrations.
Below is a biography of the religious, written by the Discalced
Carmelite
Order. It is adapted here.
* * *
The new blessed was born in Bari, on Jan. 17, 1901, the third child of
Joseph
and Pasqua Fracasso. Four days later she was baptized in the Church of
St.
James by her uncle, Father Charles Fracasso, chaplain at the cemetery,
and
given the name Theodora. She was confirmed in 1903.
Her family then lived in St. Mark's Square and were supported by what
the
father earned as a master painter and decorator. Around 1929, after
many
sacrifices, he opened a shop for the sale of paint. Her mother was
always
busy with work in the home.
They were both good practicing Christians and had in all nine children;
four
died in infancy. The five remaining children were Prudence, Anne,
Theodora
Domenica and Nicola.
In 1905 the family moved to Via Piccinni, to a house with a little
garden,
in which, the little Theodora, aged 4 or 5, said she saw a beautiful
Lady
in a dream, who moved among the rows of blooming lilies, then suddenly
disappeared
in a beam of light.
Later her mother explained to her the possible significance of the
vision
and Theodora promised that she would become a nun when she grew up.
Theodora was sent to a nursery school run by the Stigmata Sisters, and
continued
her studies until third grade. On May 8, 1911, after making a long
preparation,
she received her first holy Communion. The night before she dreamed of
St.
Teresa of the Child Jesus who predicted to her: "You will be a nun like
me."
Later she attended a work shop for sewing and embroidery near the same
institute.
Theodora entered the Association of the Blessed Imelda Lambertini, a
Dominican
nun with a special devotion to the Eucharist.
Afterward she joined the "Angelic Army" of St. Thomas Aquinas. She met
with
her friends from time to time in the dormitory where they would
meditate
and pray together, read the Gospel, "The Eternal Maxims," "The
Imitation
of Christ," the "Fifteen Saturdays of Our Lady," the lives of the
saints
and, in particular, the autobiography of St. Teresa of the Child Jesus.
Third Order
Her behavior and the good influence she had on her companions did not
go
unnoticed. In the meantime Theodora's vague religious vocation was
becoming
clearer thanks to the advice of Dominican Father Peter Fiorillo, her
spiritual
director.
He introduced her to the Third Order Dominicans, who accepted her as a
novice
on April 20, 1914. She took the name Agnes, and made her profession on
May
14, 1915, with a special dispensation because of her young age.
During the war years, 1915-1918, Theodora found numerous occasions to
increase
her apostolic work, as a catechist and helper.
Toward the end of 1917, Theodora decided to seek advice from a Jesuit,
Father
Sergio Di Gioia. He became her new confessor. About a year later he
decided
to direct her, together with her friend Clare Bellomo, the future
Sister
Diomira of Divine Love, to the Carmel of St. Joseph, Via De Rossi, in
Bari.
They went there together for the first time in December 1918.
1919 was a year of intense spiritual activity, as, under the guidance
of
Father Di Gioia, she prepared to enter the convent.
She entered the community on April 8, 1920, and took the habit that
Nov.
24, taking the name Sister Elisha of St. Clement.
She made her first simple vows on Dec. 4, 1921. Besides St. Teresa of
Jesus,
she took as her guide Théérèèse of the
Child
Jesus, following the "little way of spiritual childhood where I felt,"
she
affirmed, "called by the Lord." She made her solemn profession Feb. 11,
1925.
Her journey, from the beginning, was not easy. Already in the first
months
of the novitiate she had to face not a few difficulties.
Severe superior
The real problem arose after Mother Prioress Angelica Lamberti in the
spring
of 1923, appointed Sister Elisha to be in charge of the embroidery
machine
in the girls boarding school attached to the Carmel.
The head mistress, Sister Columba of the Blessed Sacrament, was of an
authoritarian
disposition, severe and with little understanding of others. She
refused
to see the goodness and gentleness with which Sister Elisha treated her
pupils,
and, so, after two years, had her removed from her post.
Always observant of the rule and community acts, Sister Elisha passed
much
of her day in her cell, dedicating her time to the embroidery that was
given
her. The mother prioress continued to esteem her greatly, and, in 1927,
appointed
her sacristan.
During her painful trial, Father Elias of St. Ambrose, the procurator
general
of the Discalced Carmelite Order, was a great comfort. He had first
come
to know of her in 1922, on the occasion of a visit to St. Joseph's
Carmel.
The young Carmelite kept up an exchange of letters with him from which
she
drew great benefit.
In January 1927 Sister Elisha was struck down and weakened by
influenza.
She started to suffer from frequent headaches, but did not complain.
When, on Dec. 21, Sister Elisha also began to have a violent fever and
other
disturbances, the community assumed it was just one of her usual
illnesses,
but each day her situation caused more concern.
On Dec. 24 a doctor came to see her. Even though he diagnosed possible
meningitis
or encephalitis, he did not consider the clinical situation
particularly
serious. Only on the following morning were two doctors called to her
bedside.
At that point they declared that her condition was irreversible.
Sister Elisha of St. Clement died at noon on Christmas Day 1927. She
had
predicted: "I will die on a feast day."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Life of Father Michael McGivney
By Catherine Smibert
ROME, MARCH 2, 2006 (Zenit.org).- You could call it an American success
story,
with a Catholic twist.
A new book, "Parish Priest," tells the life of Father Michael McGivney,
the
founder of the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic men's fraternal benefit
society.
It is about a meek yet strong leadership. It shows how one priest, by
helping
his parishioners, changed the face of the Church in his own country and
beyond.
A co-author of the work, Julie Fenster, was in Rome for a book-signing
held
at the North American College last Tuesday.
Fenster talked about her subject, Father McGivney (1852-1890).
"There's always going to be prejudice in any age and anywhere," she
said,
"and the way this parish priest chose to deal with his very
anti-Catholic
surroundings of the mid-late 1800s is inspiring."
Fenster isn't your typical biographer of saintly folks. Actually she's
a
historian who tends to specialize in American heritage, presenting
often-untold
stories of pioneers and heroes. But, there was something about Father
McGivney
that put him in this category for her and her co-author, historian
David
Brinkley.
"Father McGivney wasn't negative but positive, and felt that Catholic
values
coincided with fundamental American ones," Fenster contended.
"One of the ways he proved that, was through the founding of the
Knights
of Columbus which gave Catholic men a spiritual support system and drew
them
into their Church even more," she said. "But it could also put a
pragmatic
yet deeply spiritual face on Catholicism for a lot of mainstream
Americans
so they could see and understand how crucial family life is to
Catholics."
Her co-author Brinkley agrees: "Father McGivney served as a sort of
John
the Baptist of the modern insurance movement."
Also on hand at the book-signing was the postulator for the cause of
Father
McGivney's beatification, Dominican Father Gabriel O'Donnell. He said
the
backgrounds of the authors strengthen the book.
"Though it has not been written in any way to promote Catholicism or
the
priesthood, it does just that and more effectively," Father O'Donnell
said.
"The authors, as credible historians, can say things about the Church
that
are more objective and won't risk sounding self-promoting."
Fenster observed how Father McGivney promoted the American dream to his
faithful
in a less conventional way: "Moving beyond the influences of kings,
generals,
etc., Father McGivney was different because he led from the back.
"He wasn't a ferocious leader who swung his arms around, but one whose
idea
of being a leader was to live the Christian life -- to be mild in his
personal
relationships with other people. If we look at successful
businesspeople
we see these are qualities that translate even into our times."
It's through this leadership, and a vision of the family as the
building
block of society, that have brought the current count of members of his
benevolent
order to 1.7 million. It’’s also what attracted the around 175 diocesan
seminarians
present for the book-signing.
"The book focuses on a very humble priest who was never swayed or
tempted
toward apathy," Fenster said. "And our goal through this event is to
turn
that focus to those studying for the priesthood as if to honor them
through
this book and to respect what they have the potential to be."
Nick Schneider, a seminarian from North Dakota, said he was impressed
and
enlightened by the presentation.
"Anyone who has a great zeal for the faith and is familiar with our
social
climate is always a great example for us," he told me afterward. "It's
important
for us studying in Rome and for all American Catholics to know more
about
exceptional characters in the history of the Church in our nation."
Father O'Donnell, the postulator, commented on the daily e-mails from
people
who learn about Father McGivney: "They say they feel that though he is
a
model figure, he's reachable and ever present."
The diocesan phase of Father McGivney's cause has been completed. The
Congregation
for Sainthood Causes is now reviewing his case.
Father O'Donnell called Father McGivney "a remarkable example of what
makes
a good parish priest at a difficult time. And there was a deep
spirituality
there that is a witness to the whole world, to families and certainly
to
priests and seminarians."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Father Andrea Santoro
ROME, FEB. 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The Jewish-Italian
Fund
planted a tree in Jerusalem in memory of Father Andrea Santoro, the
missionary
who was killed in Turkey on Feb. 5.
The initiative was promoted by Emmanuele Pacifici, a member of the
Jewish
Community of Rome and president of the Friends of Yad Vashem
Association.
He contacted the Jewish-Italian Fund and wrote a letter of solidarity
to
Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Pope's vicar for Rome.
Pacifici told ZENIT that he "felt immense grief" for what happened to
Father
Santoro, who was killed while he was praying.
Pacifici's own father, the chief rabbi of Genoa, has been seized while
praying,
and then tortured and deported to Auschwitz, from where he never
returned.
As a child, Pacifici was saved from Nazi persecution thanks to the help
of
the nuns of St. Martha in Settignano, Florence.
He explained that in Jewish religious tradition a tree symbolizes life.
Since
1962 a tree is planted in the Avenue of Righteous Gentiles, near Yad
Vashem,
in Jerusalem, in memory of those who risked their lives to save Jews
from
extermination and who have been declared "Righteous among the Nations."
---------------
Remembering a Missionary Killed in
Turkey
Note of Cardinal Sepe in Memory of Father Andrea Santoro
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 13, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Here is the note of Cardinal
Crescenzio
Sepe, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, in
memory
of Father Andrea Santoro, the Italian missionary who was killed in
Turkey
on Feb. 5.
The text, adapted here, was published by Fides, the dicastery's news
agency.
* * *
"Unless the grain of wheat which falls to the ground dies, it remains
alone;
if it dies, it produces much fruit" (John 12:24). This Gospel verse, we
learn
from those around him, was often on the lips of Father Andrea Santoro.
Almost
like a program for life, to be kept continually in mind, or,
considering
his death, a forewarning, an announcement that his life offered for the
cause
of the Gospel would not be fruitless.
Father Andrea was neither unprepared nor imprudent: He had studied and
had
become very familiar with the culture and environment in which he chose
to
live, he was aware that an extreme act such as the one which killed him
was
not to be excluded.
He loved God profoundly and with the same intensity he loved all those
whom
the Lord placed on his path in Rome and in Turkey. Besides, there is an
unbreakable
bond between love of God and love of neighbor: "One is so closely
connected
to the other that to say that we love God becomes a lie if we are
closed
to our neighbor or hate him altogether …… love of neighbor is a path
that
leads to the encounter with God and closing our eyes to our neighbor
also
blinds us to God" (cfr. "Deus Caritas Est," No. 16).
All missionaries know they may be called to sacrifice their life for
the
cause of the Gospel. However, a violent death is not something
accidental
which must be simply taken into account, it is the supreme offering of
self.
Missionaries put their lives in the hands of the Lord with full
awareness
and with love, knowing that should their blood be shed it will not be
in
vain, it will be nourishment and source of life for the local community
and
indeed for the whole Church.
Reverend Andrea was a missionary sent by the Diocese of Rome, the
Church
bathed in the blood of Sts. Peter and Paul and built on the sacrifice
of
a host of other martyrs. He went to the origins of the Church, to the
place
where the good news of the Gospel first began to spread, thanks to the
work
of St. Paul.
As a Christian who received the faith from that part of the world, he
wanted
to return there to give the faith in his turn. Reverend Andrea went to
Turkey
not to proselytize or to try to impose a change on the situation and
society:
His mission was one of presence, a presence of prayer and of concern
for
the material and spiritual poverty around him; he was absorbed in love
for
God and for every brother and sister with whom he came into contact.
"Anyone who needs me, and whom I can help, is my neighbor," the Holy
Father
Benedict XVI writes in his first encyclical "Deus Caritas Est" (cfr.
No.
15). "The concept of neighbor is now universalized, yet it remains
concrete
... it is not reduced to a generic, abstract and undemanding
_expression
of love, but calls for my own practical commitment here and now"
(ibid.).
The Father called Reverend Andrea home on the Lord's day, just after
Mass
when he had renewed the sacrifice of Christ's death and resurrection
[……],
as he was saying his prayers in the church entrusted to his care.
The profound, intimate, spiritual communion the priest was experiencing
at
that moment has now become fullness of life in the eternal embrace of
God.
His blood has been added to that of the host of other missionary
martyrs
who died while on mission in many different parts of the world and on
many
different frontiers: Many of them remain unknown, unknown their names
and
unknown their burial places.
But in the eyes of God their death was precious and the whole Church is
indebted
to them for their witness of faith, love and courage. Reverend Andrea
was
a Fidei Donum priest (gift of faith) sent on mission to Turkey by the
Diocese
of Rome. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the "Fidei Donum"
encyclical
written by Pope Pius XII who instituted this form of missionary
service,
let us pray that the blood shed by this priest may irrigate the soil of
our
local Churches, flow abundantly in the hearts of priests and men and
women
religious, pour into our young people and enflame them with love and
readiness
for mission.
As we return the mortal body of Reverend Andrea to the earth while
waiting
for the glorious day of resurrection and unending joy, we pray to the
Lord
"that the sacrifice of his life may promote the cause of dialogue among
religions
and peace among peoples" (Benedict XVI, General Audience, Feb. 8,
2006),
certain that -- when and how the Lord alone wills and knows -- the
Church
and the world will reap abundant fruits from this little seed now
buried
in the earth.
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Pope Hears Support for Beatification of Mafia Victim
Palermo Prelate Extols Example of Father Giuseppe
Puglisi
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2006 (Zenit.org).- In a private audience with
Benedict
XVI, the archbishop of Palermo supported the cause of beatification of
a
diocesan priest who was murdered by the Mafia.
Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, prelate of the Sicilian capital, recalled
the
"heroic witness" of Father Giuseppe Puglisi, who was gunned down Sept.
15,
1993, outside his church.
The Archdiocese of Palermo on Monday disclosed the content of the
cardinal's
audience with the Pope, held three days earlier.
Cardinal De Giorgi expressed to the Holy Father "the greetings of the
Church
of Palermo" and thanked him "for the interest he has shown in it since
the
start of his pontificate," states the note.
"The archbishop made particular reference to this pastoral interest of
the
Pope, reminding him of the heroic testimony of the Servant of God,
Giuseppe
Puglisi," it adds. The priest was killed by the Sicilian Mafia on his
56th
birthday.
Father Puglisi was "guilty" of being concerned for the children of
Palermo's
Brancaccio neighborhood. His concern conflicted with Mafia interests
and
cost him his life. A film has been made of the priest's life.
"As he already did during the conclave," the statement of the
Archdiocese
of Palermo says, Cardinal De Giorgi "emphasized to the Pope that Father
Puglisi
was killed because, as priest, he educated the children and young
people
evangelically, in respect for legality and thus removed them from the
seductions
of the Mafia."
Well known
The note states that the cardinal stressed how Father Puglisi's witness
is
already known beyond Italy's borders.
It "constitutes an exemplary point of reference both for priests as
well
as faithful in the struggle against evil and the promotion of good,"
the
statement says.
"The Holy Father followed with great interest the exposition of the
cardinal,
who expressed the expectation of a favorable result of the process of
beatification
for martyrdom, under examination by the Congregation for Sainthood
Causes,"
states the communiquéé.
Benedict XVI assured the cardinal that "the witness of this priest is
very
important to him."
Recognition of the martyrdom would open the doors of Father Puglisi's
beatification
without the need to verify a miracle attributed to his intercession.
ZE06020103
Pontiff Praises St. John Bosco as "Teacher of Life"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. John
Bosco
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 1, 2006 (Zenit.org).-
Benedict XVI extolled the example of St.
John Bosco as a "teacher of life" for young people.
The Holy Father referred to the famed priest and educator (1815-1888)
at
the end of today's general audience in Paul VI Hall.
"See in him, dear young people, an authentic teacher of life and
holiness,"
the Pope said, a day after the liturgical memorial of the Italian saint.
Addressing the sick in attendance at the audience, Benedict XVI
encouraged
them to learn "from your spiritual experience to trust the crucified
Christ
in all circumstances."
He also addressed the newlyweds present, who arrived in their wedding
clothes.
The Holy Father urged that they take recourse to St. John Bosco's
intercession,
"that he may help you to assume with generosity your mission of
spouses."
The saint, who founded the Salesian Society, the Institute of the
Daughters
of Mary Help of Christians, and the Pious Union of Salesian
Cooperators,
dedicated his life to the education of the poor in Turin, Italy.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Antonio Rosmini: A Thinker Vindicated
Defenders Hoping to Start Cause of Beatification
ROME, NOV. 24, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A 19th-century priest whose writings
were
once condemned by the Holy Office is now a possible candidate for
beatification.
The process of beatification might begin for Antonio Rosmini Serbati
(1797-1855),
a profound thinker. Some of his works were condemned because of
erroneous
interpretations promoted by a few of his followers.
Ordained a priest in 1821, he went on in 1830 to found the Institute of
Charity,
a religious congregation recognized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.
Despite his absolute fidelity to Pope Pius IX, in 1849 the
ecclesiastical
authorities placed two of Father Rosmini's works on the Index of banned
books.
Condemned later with the doctrinal decree "Post Obitum" were 40 of his
propositions,
taken especially from posthumous works and others published in his
lifetime.
It was not until July 1, 2001, that a note of the Congregation for the
Doctrine
of the Faith, signed by the then prefect, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
removed
every shadow doubt about Father Rosmini.
Genuine posture
Father Vito Nardin, provincial superior of the Italian Rosminians from
1997
to 2003, said in statements to ZENIT that he believes the cause of
beatification
of Father Rosmini might begin before July, to mark the 150th
anniversary
of his death.
Explaining why the Vatican's doctrinal congregation lifted the ban on
Father
Rosmini's writings, Father Nardin explained that "the serious and
rigorous
scientific publications demonstrate that the interpretations contrary
to
the faith do not correspond with Rosmini's genuine posture."
The conclusion, he said, is that "the reasons for concern and prudence
and
the doctrinal difficulties which determined the promulgation of the
'Post
Obitum' decree of condemnation of the Forty Propositions, taken from
Antonio
Rosmini's works, can be considered surmounted."
"The condemnation continues to be valid for those who read them outside
the
context of Rosmini, …… with a meaning contrary to the Catholic faith
and
doctrine," clarified the priest.
Papal praise
In his encyclical "Fides et Ratio," Pope John Paul II presented Rosmini
as
one of the thinkers who effected a fruitful encounter between
philosophic
learning and the Word of God.
"In words that are comprehensible to all it can be expressed thus: 'The
accused
has not committed the deed,'" said Father Nardin.
He also noted the "humility" of Father Rosmini, which "led him to
accept
condemnations and bans."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
José Luis Sánchez: A Congregation's Inspiration
Interview With Legion of Christ Founder Father Marcial
Maciel
ROME, NOV. 20, 2005 (ZENIT.org).- Among those who witnessed the 1928
martyrdom
of a now-beatified teen-ager in Mexico was a friend who went on to
found
the Legionaries of Christ and the Regnum Christi Movement.
Marcial Maciel was only 7 years old when he saw the execution of his
14-year-old
friend Joséé Luis Sáánchez del
Ríío.
Joséé Luis was among 13 martyrs beatified today in
Guadalajara,
Mexico.
José Luis had joined the Cristeros, a large group of Mexican
Catholics
who rose against the religious persecution of the government of
Plutarco
Elíías Calles.
Q: You were a witness of Joséé Sáánchez del
Ríío's
martyrdom in Mexico. After almost 80 years, what do you remember of
those
moments? How did you meet Joséé?
Father Maciel: Joséé Luis -- as we, his friends, called
him
-- was from Sahuayo, Michoacan, a village not far from Cotija, my
native
village.
My maternal grandmother, Maura Guíízar Valencia, had her
home
there, and we often went to visit her. I was six years younger than
Joséé
Luis. He liked to organize games for the children. He would speak to us
of
Jesus. I remember that he took me to visit the Blessed Sacrament. He
was
very good.
When the religious persecution began, he wanted to join the Cristeros
to
defend the faith. He asked for permission several times, and in the end
was
received.
In February 1928 -- I was 7 years old, almost 8 -- I was in Sahuayo
when
we learned that Joséé Luis had been arrested and had been
locked
in the parish's baptistery.
One of the windows looked out on the street and from there we could
hear
him sing: "To heaven, to heaven, to heaven I want to go," while
awaiting
his sentence. The federals were using the parish as a prison, and also
as
a corral. Rafael Picazo, who controlled the village of Sahuayo, put as
a
condition to release him that he deny his faith before Picazo himself
and
his soldiers.
We all heard about this, and we were very worried and in a tremendously
emotional
and sad state. We, his friends, met together to pray for him. We cried
a
lot, asking the Most Holy Virgin that he not be killed but, at the same
time,
that he not renounce his faith. In fact, Joséé Luis
wanted
no part in [renouncing the faith].
And at the end of two days we learned, in the afternoon, that he had
been
taken to the Refuge inn. That night they cut off the soles of his feet
and
forced him to walk barefoot to the cemetery, which was several blocks
away.
We -- a few relatives, friends, village acquaintances -- followed him
from
a distance. I remember the stains of blood left by his footsteps. He
went
with his hands bound behind his back and I remember the federals
pushing
him, insulting him and demanding that he stop crying out "Hail to
Christ
the King!" And his answer was always to cry: "Hail to Christ the King
and
Holy Mary of Guadalupe!"
We were only allowed to go to the cemetery's wall. They put him next to
the
grave. They say he was stabbed several times and that they kept
insisting
that he renounce his faith, but he answered: "Hail to Christ the King
and
Holy Mary of Guadalupe!" His father wasn't with us. He wasn't there.
And
they asked him mockingly: "What do you want your father to be told?" He
answered:
"That we will see each other in heaven."
Finally they shot him in the temple. I heard the shot that put an end
to
his life. You can imagine the profound impression this made on us,
especially
the children.
I have a very beautiful, profound memory of this friend of mine who
gave
his life for Christ; he has always been for me a testimony of what
authentic
love of Christ means. I also remember him with some nostalgia, because
I
would say to Our Lord: "Why did you choose him to be a martyr and leave
me
behind?"
Q: How did that testimony of martyrdom influence you in your personal
life
and in the work you would later undertake to found the Legionaries of
Christ
and the lay movement Regnum Christi?
Father Maciel: As I said, Joséé Luis' martyrdom left a
profound,
indelible mark on me. His death contributed to root in me the certainty
that
faith is worth more than life. It spoke to me of the eternal value of a
life
totally given for love of Christ, it stirred in me a longing for
eternity
... but it was not only Joséé Luis.
In my village of Cotija, during the Cristero war, we often saw those
who
were hung in the square or witnessed the shooting of Cristeros who died
crying
out, "Hail to Christ the King!" They were leaving behind, perhaps, a
family,
children, a mother -- how many mothers encouraged their children not to
renege
on their faith!
I witnessed the martyrdom of Antonio Ibarra, a musician from by
village,
of Leonardo and several others. I still have engraved in my mind some
of
those faces and scenes, especially when they took Antonio down from the
gallows
and placed him in the arms and lap of his mother, Isabel Ibarra. And it
was
all kinds of people who were martyred in many villages of Mexico:
children,
youths and adults, men and women, rich and poor, priests and lay
faithful.
I think the testimony of martyrdom of so many Christians, who preferred
to
shed their blood before betraying Jesus Christ, influenced my own life
very
much and my mission as founder, as it was a testimony that, so to
speak,
made one live the heroic faith of the early Christians.
That testimony helped me to understand that, to be coherent, a
Christian
life must be fully committed to Jesus Christ. A half-baked
Christianity,
of compromises, which "lights a candle to God and another to the
devil,"
as the popular saying says, is not Christianity.
I would have liked to have given my life, as Joséé Luis
Sáánchez
did, as hundreds of thousands of Cristero martyrs did; but I understood
that
God was asking another kind of martyrdom of me, that of living the
Gospel
to its ultimate consequences. And it is this, in the end, that is
behind
the foundation of the Legion of Christ and of the Regnum Christ
Movement:
to help other people also to commit themselves to know, live and
transmit
the love of Jesus Christ.
When the time came to choose the name for the congregation that the
Holy
Spirit was inspiring me to found, I thought of several names in my
mind,
but the memory of the testimony of the Cristeros was an element that
helped
me to understand that the name that would best express our mission was
that
of Legionaries of Christ -- men who join the struggle for the Kingdom
of
Christ without keeping anything for themselves, men who are prepared to
give
their lives.
Q: José was killed and the Cristero movement he
supported
failed. Was it a futile death?
Father Maciel: In 1929 the Cristeros lay down their arms in obedience
to
the order of Pope Pius XI. The political authorities of the time did
not
keep their agreements with the Church and with the Cristeros, and many
disarmed
Cristeros afterward were killed.
It all ended in nothing. It seemed a failure. But as Tertullian said:
"The
blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians."
On his first trip to Mexico in 1979, the first of his trips as a
pilgrim
around the world, John Paul II witnessed the enthusiasm and life of the
faith
that is breathed in Mexico, undoubtedly watered by the blood of the
martyrs.
A martyrdom not only is never a futile death, but rather is a fruitful
and
redeeming death.
It is the death of the disciple who associates himself to his Master's
cross,
and who with him offers his life for the salvation of many men,
including
his own executioners.
Like Jesus, [the martyr's] death seems immediately a failure, but he is
a
luminous witness of the resurrection and of eternal life over death.
I have been able to witness several times that since
Joséé
Luis' death until today, many visit his tomb, take flowers to him,
light
candles, and pause there to pray, praying for his intercession.
As Jesus said: "God is not God of the dead, but of the living." When we
pray
to the saints, we know we are speaking with people who are alive, who
have
triumphed definitively and have reached happiness with God, toward
which
we journey during this life and to which we are all called.
Q: At 15 years, is a boy capable of giving his life for Christ? Can a
15-year-old
boy know his vocation clearly?
Father Maciel: You ask me if a 15-year-old adolescent is capable of
giving
his life for Christ. The very context of this interview,
Joséé
Luis Sáánchez del Ríío's martyrdom, a boy
of
14 years, is in itself an answer.
In your second question you establish a beautiful relationship, which
encloses
a great truth. Martyrdom is a call from God to give the whole of one's
life
for Christ in a few minutes. A vocation is also a call to give the
whole
of one's life for Christ, but day by day, minute by minute.
We must not forget that it is God who calls, and he chooses the moment
to
do so. God is the sower who deposits the seed.
He can awaken a priestly vocation in the heart of a child, as in that
of
a youth, as in that of an adult; when he sees the opportune moment. He
knows
how to find the way to make them feel clearly in their interior his
invitation
to follow him.
Of course, as happens with every process of maturation, in the life of
a
child and of a youth, the seed must grow in time, and the call will be
studied
and will have time to be pondered and verified.
The path toward the priesthood or consecrated life goes through
different
stages of formation, and the Church will admit those who are apt.
What is important is to be able to offer these children and adolescents
who
feel God's call in their interior at an early age, a space of freedom
and
a propitious environment, a "good earth," sun, water and air so that
the
seed can sprout in its time; this is what we try to do in the
vocational
centers of the Legion and of the Regnum Christi.
This was also my personal experience: I received the call to the
priesthood
at 14 years of age; I left my home for the seminary at 15 years; I have
never
doubted my vocation; I have been and am fully happy in my priesthood
and
I am already 85 ...
Q: Do you know that the founder of another religious congregation which
arose
in Mexico was also a witness of this martyrdom?
Father Maciel: I suppose you are referring to Father Enrique Amezcua
Medina,
founder of the priestly Confraternity of the Laborers of the Kingdom of
Christ.
He is from Colima.
I cannot tell you if he was a witness of the martyrdom, I rather think
not,
but I do believe that he owes his priestly vocation to
Joséé
Luis Sáánchez, whom he met in 1927, at the height of the
Cristero
war.
He said that when he was 9 years old, when he approached
Joséé
to get to know him, Joséé hugged the flag of Christ the
King
against his chest and spoke with much fervor about the Most Holy Virgin
to
a discouraged Cristero youth.
Father Enrique ... the boy Enrique, approached him and said he wanted
to
be like him, a soldier of Christ the King. Joséé smiled
at
him and said he was still too young, but that what he had to do was to
pray
much for him and for all the Cristeros.
Father Enrique recalled how he fixed his gaze on him and said: Perhaps
God
will want you to be a priest. And if one day you become a priest, you
will
be able to do many things that neither I nor we can do. So, don't fret.
They made a pact to always pray for one another, and they sealed it
with
a handshake. And Joséé Luis said good-bye to him: "Now,
until
God wills, see you soon, or in heaven ..."
Q: For what do you pray to Joséé Luis?
Father Maciel: For what I always pray: that he obtain from God the
grace
for all of us to be faithful to our faith and to our unconditional love
of
Christ until death. I entrust to him all children and adolescents.
I think that, as he was for me, Joséé will be for all of
them
an excellent model of friendship with Christ and of Christian
faithfulness
and coherence.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message of the Mexican Martyrs
Interview With Father Luis Orozco, Author
ROME, NOV. 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The 13 Mexicans martyrs of the 1920s
religious
persecution who will be beatified next Sunday, help to explain the
flowering
of the Church in that country, says a scholar.
Legionary Father Luis Alfonso Orozco, a professor of theology at the
Regina
Apostolorum Pontifical University, has published a book on the subject,
"Martyrdom
in Mexico During the Religious Persecution."
The priest, who gave an interview to ZENIT, says that the blood of
these
martyrs made possible the maturation of the Church in Mexico in the
20th
century.
Q: Are they martyrs of the Cristero war of 1926-1929, or martyrs of the
religious
persecution which that conflict sparked? Is there a difference?
Father Orozco: A martyr is one who gives his life for confessing his
faith.
The circumstances of martyrdom are very varied.
Specifically, in Mexico, it was the lot of these people -- who were
priests,
farmers and youths, like Joséé Luis
Sáánchez
del Ríío, killed at 14 -- to live in circumstances that
were
particularly complex as were those that sparked the religious
persecution.
The Church, in her theological and historical judgment, does not raise
them
to the altar because they participated in the "Cristiada," but because
they
confessed their faith in Christ.
Q: How important are these 13 beatifications? Is there some general
characteristic
that unites the new Mexican blessed?
Father Orozco: They are the third group of martyrs of the "Cristiada"
raised
to the altar. The essential characteristic of this group is that the
majority
of the blessed are lay people. An interesting heterogeneous group, but
in
these 13 blessed is reflected the variety and the richness of martyrdom
in
the Church.
Q: What importance does the martyrs' message have for our time?
Father Orozco: The Christian people are called to confess their faith
in
Jesus, but not all Christians are called to be martyrs. Martyrdom is a
gift
given to us by God.
Pope John Paul II said that in these times Christians might not be
asked
for the testimony of blood but for the testimony of fidelity: to be
faithful
to the given word, to commitments assumed, to public witness of what we
are.
Whoever is faithful to Christ in these difficult times is in a certain
sense
also a martyr.
Q: Is the blood of martyrs useful to people?
Father Orozco: In my particular case, one of the motivations that
induced
me to carry on with my research on martyrdom in Mexico during the
religious
persecution, is the immortal phrase of Tertullian, who, around the
third
century A.D., said: "The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christian
life."
It has been confirmed in the course of the history of the Church that,
precisely,
wherever there was a persecution, wherever there were martyrs who shed
their
blood in different circumstances, those places, those particular
Churches
afterward grew and flourished.
It is as if God, in his providence, has a very outstanding place
reserved
for the martyrs. And, of course, for peoples who have given martyrs to
the
universal Church.
Q: Their blood is not shed in vain?
Father Orozco: Their testimony does not fall into the void. That
generous
blood is united, in a certain way, to the blood of Christ shed on the
cross,
with which he redeemed the human race.
The blood of martyrs shed in all ages, contributes -- with its part --
to
the work of redemption initiated by Christ.
In Mexico, in the 20th century, the Mexican Church reached its
maturity,
precisely because of the blood of these martyrs. The popular faith and
family
unity experienced in Mexico is also its consequence.
There is no doubt that the faith of the Mexican people has emerged
strengthened
from the events of martyrdom.
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A Mexican Gandhi Nears Beatification
Anacleto Gonzáález Flores, Symbol of
1920s
Martyrdom
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, NOV. 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Thirteen Mexicans
martyred
during the religious persecution of the 1920s will be beatified in
Guadalajara
next Sunday according to Benedict XVI's new guidelines.
Among the martyrs who died during the so-called Cristero war of
1926-1929,
the most outstanding is Anacleto González Flores.
He was a lay leader who was very active from 1915 until the year of his
martyrdom,
1927, at the hands of the federal army commanded by Mexican President
Plutarco
Elíías Calles.
González Flores founded the Popular Union, better known as the
"U,"
a movement that included labor, women and farmers. It promoted
catechesis
and actively opposed the local and federal governments in their
measures
to suppress religious freedom.
Because of his option for pacifism and nonviolence during the Cristero
war,
González Flores was known as the "Mexican Gandhi."
Married and the father of two, "Master Cleto," as he was known, was
born
in Tepatitlan, in the state of Jalisco, in July 1888.
He came from humble origins. The son of an alcoholic weaver, he did
various
jobs until he received his law degree at 33 in 1921. Before that, he
had
been a seminarian and postulant in the seminaries of San Juan de los
Lagos
and Guadalajara.
Gladium
In 1914, when all churches were closed on the order of
Joséé
Guadalupe Zuno, governor of Jalisco, González Flores organized
the
Popular Union and founded the newspaper Gladium, "sword" in Latin, a
word
with which he already dreamed of martyrdom.
Confrontations between the government and Catholics started in July
1918,
to which González Flores responded with the philosophy of
"peaceful
resistance."
He was arrested in 1919 for his social, political and religious ideals.
Three
years later he coordinated the first Catholic Labor Congress in
Guadalajara
and organized the National Catholic Labor Conference that spread
throughout
the country.
In May 1925 the National League in Defense of Religious Freedom was
founded
in Mexico City. It favored recourse to arms, but González Flores
disagreed,
and insisted on moral strength to win the battle.
Militants arrived in the capital in 1926 with an ultimatum for the
Popular
Union, which obliged him to enter the National League. The armed
movement
began the following year, which Gonzáález Flores accepted
with
regret.
Taken prisoner
General Jesús Ferreira decided to put an end to the Popular
Union
by taking the "Master" prisoner. González Flores was arrested on
March
31, 1927, and martyred the following day. His executioners hanged him
by
his thumbs and then, at bayonet point, kept torturing him to disclose
the
whereabouts of the archbishop of Guadalajara and other leaders of the
Cristero
Revolution.
Finally, the steel blade fatally pierced his heart. At the same time,
his
companions in the struggle and martyrdom were shot in the courtyard of
the
same prison.
The "Master" asked to be killed after his companions, so as to be able
to
console them.
Before dying, González Flores told the general in charge: "I
forgive
you from my heart; we will soon meet before the divine tribunal, the
same
judge who will judge me will judge you; then you will have an
intercessor
in me with God."
González Flores' process of beatification was opened officially
and
solemnly on Oct. 15, 1994, in the Shrine of Guadalupe, in Guadalajara,
where
his mortal remains rest. Many faithful flock there to venerate his
memory.
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Maria Pia Mastena: Saw Jesus in the Sick and Poor
Founder of the Sisters of the Holy Face to
Be
Beatified
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See issued a
biography
of Maria Pia Mastena (1881-1951), founder of the Sisters of the Holy
Face,
who will be beatified Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica. An adapted
excerpt
of the biography appears below.
* * *
Maria Pia Mastena was born in Bovolone in the Italian province of
Verona
on Dec. 7, 1881.
Her parents were exemplary Christians and very fervent in the practice
of
the faith and in works of charity. Of their four children, the last,
Tarcisio,
entered the Capuchin Franciscans, and he too died with a reputation for
sanctity.
The future blessed received her first Communion on March 19, 1891, with
great
fervor, and on this occasion she made a private vow of perpetual
chastity.
On Aug. 27, 1891, she received the sacrament of confirmation. During
her
adolescence she was assiduous at religious functions and at parish
activities,
especially as a catechist.
Shortly afterward she sensed a calling to religious life, and she
pursued
this ideal that was characterized by a strong Eucharistic devotion and
devotion
to the Holy Face. She requested to enter religious life at age 14, but
she
was only accepted as a postulant in 1901 in the Institute of the
Sisters
of Mercy of Verona.
With the permission of her superiors, on April 11, 1903, she made "a
private
vow to be a victim soul."
She was vested with the religious habit on Sept. 29, 1902, and on Oct.
24,
1904, she professed vows of religious life and received the name Sister
Passitea
Maria of the Child Jesus.
The blessed lived this phase of her life with particular spiritual
intensity
and she would also recall that it was a time of grace and blessing. The
fervor
which she experienced in the institute would be an inspiration for her
to
take a vow to seek perfection in all things.
She was a teacher in various places in the Veneto region, in particular
for
more than 19 years in Miane, where she dedicated herself to an intense
apostolate
to students of every age, infirmity and disability.
With the authorization of her superiors and the "nulla osta" of the
Holy
See, on April 15, 1927, she entered the Cistercian monastery of Veglie,
to
fulfill a deep desire for the contemplative life.
On Nov. 15, 1927, with the encouragement of the bishop of Vittorio
Veneto,
she left the monastery, resumed teaching and proceeded toward the
foundation
of a new religious institute called the Sisters of the Holy Face. It
was
canonically recognized on Dec. 8, 1936, and, after great suffering, it
was
recognized as a congregation of pontifical right on Dec. 10, 1947.
The entire apostolic ministry that followed was dedicated to the
establishment
and the expansion of the congregation, through promoting new
initiatives
for the poor, the suffering and the sick.
The blessed entrusted to the institute the mission to "engender,
restore,
and rediscover the image of the gentle Jesus in souls."
She died in Rome on June 28, 1951.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maria Crocifissa Curcio: Her Life
Founder of Carmelite Missionary Sisters to
Be
Beatified
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See issued a
biography
of Maria Crocifissa Curcio (1877-1957), founder of the Carmelite
Missionary
Sisters of St. Théérèèse of the Child
Jesus,
who will be beatified Sunday in St. Peter's Basilica. An adapted
excerpt
of the biography appears below.
* * *
Maria Crocifissa Curcio, founder of the Carmelite Missionary Sisters of
St.
Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was born in Ispica, Sicily,
in
the Diocese of Noto, on Jan. 30, 1877. Her parents were Salvatore
Curcio
and Concetta Franzòò.
The seventh of 10 siblings, she spent her childhood in a highly
cultural
and social home environment, in which she quickly exhibited lively
intelligence
and a pleasant personality. Strong-willed and determined, in her early
teens
she developed a strong tendency toward piety, with specific attention
toward
the weak and marginalized.
At home she was raised under the strict moral guidelines. But according
to
the customs of the era, her father did not permit her to study beyond
grade
six.
This deprivation cost her greatly. However, eager to learn, she drew
comfort
from the many books in the family library, where she found a copy of
the
"Life of St. Teresa of Jesus." The impact of this saint enabled her to
come
to know and love the Carmel, and so she began her "study of celestial
things."
In 1890, at age 13, she succeeded, not without difficulty, in enrolling
in
the Carmelite Third Order. Because of her regular attendance at the
Sanctuary
of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and her deep devotion to Our Lady of Mount
Carmel,
who "had captured her heart since childhood" by assigning her the
mission
of "making the Carmel reflourish," her knowledge of Carmelite
spirituality
made her understand the divine plans in store for her.
She desired to share the ideal of a Missionary Carmel, which unites the
contemplative
dimension with that of a specifically apostolic dimension. So she began
an
initial experience of community life with a few fellow members of the
Third
Order in a small apartment in her ancestral home, which her siblings
had
bequeathed to her.
She then transferred to Modica, where she was entrusted with the
management
of the "Carmela Polara" conservatory for the acceptance and assistance
of
young females who were orphans or in any way needy. Maria had the firm
resolution
to turning them into "worthy women who would be useful to themselves
and
to society."
After several years of trials and hardships in the vain attempt to see
this
undertaking of hers in some way supported and officially recognized by
the
local ecclesiastic authorities, she finally managed to obtain the
support
and agreement of her missionary ideal in Father Lorenzo Van Den
Eerenbeemt,
a Carmelite Father of the Ancient Order.
On May 17, 1925, she came to Rome for the canonization of St.
Théérèèse
of the Child Jesus, and the next day, accompanied by Father Lorenzo,
she
visited Santa Marinella, a small town on the Latium coast north of
Rome.
She was struck by the natural beauty of this region, but also by the
extreme
poverty of a great number of this town's inhabitants. It was here that
she
finally realized that she had reached her landing place.
Having obtained an oral permission "of experiment" from the bishop of
the
Diocese of Porto Santa Rufina, Cardinal Antonio Vico, on July 3, 1925,
she
definitively settled in Santa Marinella. On July 16, 1926, she received
the
decree of affiliation of her small community with the Carmelite order.
In 1930, after many sufferings, her small nucleus obtained the
recognition
of the Church. Cardinal Tommaso Pio Boggiani, ordinary of the Diocese
of
Porto Santa Rufina, established the Congregation of the Carmelite
Missionary
Sisters of St. Théérèèse of the Child Jesus
as
an institute of diocesan rights.
"To bring souls to God" is the objective that brought to life the
numerous
openings of educational and charitable institutions in Italy and
abroad.
For this reason Maria urged her daughters to bring a Christian point of
view
to families.
She was able to achieve her missionary yearning in 1947 when she sent
the
first sisters to Brazil with the mandate to "never forget the poor."
With her entire life marked by poor health and diabetes, which she
forced
herself to always accept with strength and a serene adhesion to the
will
of God, she passed the last years of her life in illness, continuing to
pray
and to give of herself to her sisters, to whom she offered a precious
example
of virtues.
She intensely cultivated the union of love with Christ in the Eucharist
by
giving all of herself to make amends "for the immense number of souls
who
do not know and do not love God." She urged her sisters to "love with
holiness
the treasures with which the Divine Goodness entrusts you; the souls of
the
youth, the hope of the future."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The hidden life of Charles de Foucauld
An explorer, monk and priest who did
nothing
by half-measures: by KATE WHITE
Charles de Foucauld lived a remarkable life of adventure, deprivation
and
devotion. He was a man of extremes, an aristocratic bon vivant whose
conversion
to Christianity led him to embrace a life of radical solitude and
prayer.
He was killed in 1916 by a group of rebels in the Algerian desert where
he
had lived in the midst of a Berber tribe for 10 years, drawn to serve
the
poor and the forsaken.
Foucauld, who will be beatified in Rome Nov. 13, was inspired by the
“hidden
life” of Jesus in Nazareth and hoped that other disciples of Jesus
would
be as well. He championed a life for religious that would not only be
found
in enclosed communities, monasteries or convents but lived among
ordinary
people.
He hoped lay missionaries would come to the southern part of Algeria.
He
envisioned Christians who would participate in the local economy and
live
a Christian life among a Muslim population. All this in the early 1900s.
The Muslim holy man who said of Foucauld, “He has given his time to the
Eternal,”
did not say, “He has given his life” but rather “his time.” To give
one’’s
time is a very concrete, demanding experience. To give one’’s life
seems
more abstract. During many hours of adoration in front of the
Eucharist,
Foucauld had images of the role of the church. Missionaries should live
among
the poor and be witnesses to the life of Christ. They should not
necessarily
preach the Gospel with words, but live the joy and simplicity and
poverty
of a life like that of Jesus.
He thought the liturgy should be celebrated in the language of the
people
of the country where it was being celebrated. Foucauld wanted the
Catholic
worship of God to be open and understandable to nonbelievers.
His belief in the real presence in the Eucharist was so strong that he
felt
the presence of Christ in the Eucharist had a spiritual effect on the
persons
around it. He believed the real presence held the world together.
Those who were influenced or inspired by Foucauld include Dorothy Day,
Thomas
Merton, Jacques Maritain and John Howard Griffin, author of Black Like
Me.
“This man, he’s like an addiction. He’s contagious,” said Fr. Lennie
Tighe,
a Boston priest who is a member of Jesus Caritas, a fraternity of
diocesan
priests inspired by the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld. It, like
the
many Foucauld-inspired lay fraternities, emphasizes solitude,
simplicity,
a spirit of adoration and “a love of the desert, of withdrawal from
time
to time,” said Fr. Tighe.
For some, Foucauld’s appeal lies in his nonconformism. For others, the
purity
and intensity of his calling and the human struggles he experienced in
his
life attract them. Certainly, he was a man of paradoxes. The Web site
for
Jesus Caritas describes Foucauld in these words: “While longing to
establish
a community, he never had a member. He was a human being: attractive
and
enigmatic, a product of his time yet classically mysterious.”
He inherited a fortune
Charles de Foucauld was born Sept. 15, 1858, into a noble family
in
Strasbourg, France. During the summer, his extended family would meet
in
the country home of his parents. Charles’’ parents died while he was
still
a child, and he inherited a large fortune. Aside from his sister, his
closest
family relationship was with Marie Moitessier, a first cousin nine
years
older, whose quiet faith would later greatly influence him.
Charles de Foucauld was excessive in whatever he did. As a young army
officer
at the Military Academy of Saumur, he was known for a great consumption
of
the best foie gras and the best champagne. He became almost obese. As a
young
army officer assigned to duty in the French department of Algeria, he
made
a liaison with a young woman, “Mimi,” whom he brought to all the
gatherings
of officers and their wives. This was the 1880s and the French army was
known
for its strong Catholic traditional opinions. The wives of the officers
“were
not amused” by the presence of Charles’ mistress.
When Charles’ superior officers requested that he not bring the lady to
all
the social functions, he refused to conform, resigned from the army and
with
Mimi returned to France. In 1881, back in France and living in Evian,
he
read in a newspaper that the army division of which he was a member in
Algeria
had been attacked by a rebellious tribe and had taken serious
casualties.
Immediately he left for Algeria and rejoined his division to fight in
the
Sahara. In fighting the Arab tribes, he came to respect his adversaries
and
set out to learn Arabic. This led to studying the Quran and then the
Bible.
He was struck by the great sense of hospitality found in even the
poorest
Muslim homes. His spirit became immersed in the vast spaces of the
desert.
In their unlimited horizons, he saw an icon of eternity.
Charles was not the first Frenchman to grow to respect the Muslim
faith.
Several young Frenchmen, including Ernest Psichari, the grandchild of
Renan,
were converted back to their childhood faith through the experience of
adoration
by the Muslims in the desert. But while Charles was moved by the sight
of
a Muslim stopping in the desert to spread a rug and bow to the presence
of
the Almighty, he remained an agnostic. God, if he existed, was
unknowable
In 1882, Charles resigned from the army. Shortly afterward, he decided
to
go on an exploratory mission in the region of the Sahara that was along
Morocco’s
Algerian border. Morocco, at that time, did not allow Europeans to
enter
its borders. Charles joined a caravan of Eastern European and Middle
Eastern
Jews traveling through Algeria and Morocco. He was exceptionally gifted
in
foreign languages and managed to pass as an itinerant rabbi fleeing
persecution
in Russia. He took notes on the geography of the area and upon his
return
to Paris published his findings.
Another exploratory expedition, in 1885-86, took him to the oases in
South
Algeria and Tunisia. French soldiers were posted in the Algerian
Sahara,
and Charles ascribed to their presence a “peacekeeping” mission. Before
the
French army took control of the area, it was common for the villages in
the
desert oases to be raided by traveling tribes on horseback. It was so
common
that people in the oases felt discouraged from storing water, planting
crops,
building permanent dirt houses or undertaking other long-term plans. In
his
caravan trip to Algeria and Morocco, Charles saw up close the local
population
and their relationship with the French military. He thought the
military could
and should bring the benefits of the French republic to the desert
dwellers
and should put an end to intertribal warfare. Later when he lived in
the
Sahara, he worked to stop the practice of slavery among the nomadic
tribes.
In 1886 back in Paris, Charles took an apartment near his cousin Marie
Moitessier,
now married and the vicomtesse Olivier de Bondy, and prepared his
conferences
on the topography of the Sahara near and inside Morocco. The Eiffel
Tower
was being built in Paris, but Charles was worlds away in his mind
studying
Arabic and the Muslim faith. “Mimi” seems to have disappeared from the
picture.
‘God, if you exist ……’
He was frequently in the home of his cousin, a devout Roman Catholic
who
never mentioned his excesses but hoped he would return to the faith of
his
childhood and incorporated him into her family. Her confessor was
l’Abbé
Henri Huvelin, a popular diocesan priest assigned to the church of St.
Augustine
in Paris. Not yet 30, he found the question of “faith” was much on his
mind.
According to a biography by Jean François Six, Foucauld would
visit
churches and silently pray, “God, if you exist, let me know it.” One
October
day in 1886 he went to see l’Abbé Huvelin in the confessional at
the
church of St. Augustine. Charles said he wanted to talk about “the
faith”
and the priest answered, “Why don’’t you begin with a good confession?”
Charles converted to faith in Christ at that instant. It reminds one of
the conversion
of Paul Claudel, the French poet, playwright and diplomat, who said
that
one Christmas day, as he was standing by a pillar in the Cathedral of
Notre
Dame, faith came to him in a flash.
Charles would later remark, “My religious vocation dates from the same
hour
as my faith: God is so great.” Three events shaped his vocation. The
first
was a sermon by l’Abbé Huvelin in which he said that Jesus took
the
last place. Foucauld wanted to be with Jesus in the last place. With a
friend,
he visited a Trappist monastery and happened to see a monk who had an
old
mended habit. The monk looked like a beggar and Charles decided he
wanted
to be that poor. The third was a visit to the Holy Land beginning at
the
end of November 1888 and ending in February 1889. His visit to Nazareth
brought
him a great desire to live as Jesus lived, hidden, a workman, without
prestige
or power.
Prayer, poverty, solitude
In 1890, Foucauld entered the Trappist monastery of Our Lady of
the
Snows in France. At the insistence of l’’Abbéé Huvelin,
he
had waited three years before entering. Almost from the beginning, he
struggled
to fulfill his own sense of religious calling. He fought frequently
with
his superiors, who wanted him to become a priest, while Foucauld wanted
to
return to the desert to be a hermit. He longed to live a life of
prayer,
poverty and solitude, to triumph over his own feelings of laziness and
half-heartedness.
He wished for self-abnegation, even abjection, in his desire to imitate
the
life of Jesus.
Six months after he entered Our Lady of the Snows, Foucauld, at his
request,
moved to a poorer monastery in Syria, then part of the Ottoman Empire.
The
monastery employed over a dozen laborers, and Foucauld was in put in
charge
of the workers who were building a road. Foucauld was uneasy with this;
he
felt he had not become a monk to give orders to others. He wanted “the
last
place” and began dreaming of a new community of persons living with and
among
the poor. He remarked, “Jesus lived by the work of his hands. He did
not
live on donations, offerings or the work of foreign workers to whom he
gave
orders.”
In Syria, Foucauld drafted his initial rule for a religious community.
As
he saw it, no past worldly status of a monk should influence his place
in
the community. He did not want some monks to be priests and others to
do
manual labor. He believed that monks should not own property but should
live
from day to day as simply as possible. The diet was to be meager, based
on
that of the local people. He sent his rule to his spiritual confessor.
Concerned
that the rule was too demanding, even frightening in its severity,
l’Abbé
Huvelin replied, “Live as a poor person …… as abjectly as you like, but
I
beg of you, don’’t write a rule for others.”
In 1897 Foucauld moved to the Holy Land to live as a servant to the
cloistered
Poor Clares in Nazareth. He lived in a tool hut in the back of the
garden
and was in charge of running the community’s errands in town. He did
odd
jobs, carpentry and masonry, dug in the garden and studied the Bible.
He
organized each hour of the day, praying, writing in his diary, eating
the
minimum possible, working, reading the Gospel, and back to praying. He
would
spend all night in the chapel in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
Shortly before his move to Nazareth, the Ottoman Turks had massacred
some
140,000 Armenians in 1895. Foucauld was deeply affected by the
slaughter.
He regretted not being a priest who could comfort the Armenians and
minister
to them in their own language. In Nazareth he began to think seriously
of
becoming a missionary and priest.
On June 9, 1901, Charles de Foucauld was ordained a priest and went to
the
Sahara near Morocco to live as a “hermit missionary” among
non-Christians.
He still dreamed of being joined by a small community that would live
with
him in the desert. He revised his rule, which was nonetheless still
severe.
He wrote that he would demand three things of his companions: that they
be
ready to have their heads cut off, to die of starvation and to obey him
“in
spite of his worthlessness.”
For the next 15 years he lived as a missionary hermit, settling first
near
a French military base and later in a Touareg village in the southern
part
of the Sahara. The Touareg were a Berber people, and Foucauld prepared
the
first dictionary and grammar of the Touareg language, translated the
four
Gospels into Touareg and undertook a translation of Touareg poetry. He
divided
his time between prayer, intellectual work and visits from the Touareg.
All
the time, he longed for manual work.
In a way he was not hidden at all like Jesus of Nazareth but was a
focal
point for the community. He gave as little time as possible to eating
and
sleeping -- to the point of becoming ill with scurvy. (This is the man
who
once had enjoyed the best foie gras and champagne.) The local people
respected
his life of poverty, prayer and hospitality. Foucauld made no attempt
to
convert them. Foucauld said once, “It would make as much sense to start
by
preaching the news of Jesus to the Muslims here as it would for a
Muslim
preacher to go to a town in Brittany [a Catholic stronghold in France].”
In 1916, Fr. Charles de Foucauld was shot by a band of robbers during
an
anti-French uprising. He was alone when he died, but within a decade of
his
death a biography had spread word of him and over time Foucauld’’s life
and
writings came to inspire others to follow in his path of prayer,
adoration
of the Eucharist, love of the desert and radical simplicity.
Today 19 different movements exist throughout the world of lay people,
priests
and religious following Foucauld’s instructions to live simply among
the
poor, to do the same kind of work as their neighbors do and to live the
Gospel
faith not so much by word as by example. Initially, most of the members
of
the religious communities inspired by Foucauld worked in factories or
as
manual laborers. These days members of the Little Brothers of Jesus or
the
Little Sisters of Jesus do many kinds of work, for religious
specialization
is the antithesis of what Foucauld thought important -- that is,
humble,
fraternal love for Jesus and for others. Foucauld’s originality lay in
recognizing
that it is not necessary to teach others, to cure them or to improve
them;
it is only necessary to live among them, sharing the human condition
and being
present to them in love.
Kate White lived in France for 20 years where she worked at the House
of
Ananias, a center for the catechumenate in Paris. (November 11, 2005)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eurosia Fabris
Eurosia Fabris was born in
Quinto
Vicentino, an agricultural area, near Vicenza, on Sept. 27, 1866. Her
parents,
Luigi and Maria Fabris, were farmers.
At the age of 4, Eurosia moved with her family to Marola, a village in
the
municipality of Torri di Quartesolo. She lived there for the rest of
her
life. She attended only the first two years of elementary school
between
1872 and 1874 because even at such a young age, she was forced to help
her
parents with farm work and her mother in particular with the household
chores.
It was enough, however, for her to learn to read and write with the
help
of the Scriptures or religious books such as a catechism.
Besides her domestic tasks, she helped her mother in her work as a
dressmaker,
a practice which Eurosia would also take on later. Even as a child, she
was
rich in virtue and spirituality, always careful in providing for the
needs
of her family.
She was 12 when she made her first Communion. From then on, she
received
the Eucharist on all religious feasts, since at that time daily
Communion
was not the practice.
Eurosia joined the Association of the Daughters of Mary in the parish
church
of Marola, and was faithful in participating in their devotions. She
diligently
observed the practices of the group which helped increase in her a love
for
Mary. In Marola, she lived within sight of the shrine of the Madonna of
Monte
Berico.
Her favorite devotions were to the Holy Spirit, the infant Jesus, the
cross
of Christ, the Eucharist, the Virgin Mary, and the souls in the
purgatory.
She was an apostle of good will in her family, among her friends, and
in
her parish, where she taught catechism to the children and sewing to
the
girls who came to her home.
By age 18, Eurosia was dedicated, pious and hardworking. These virtues,
along
with her pleasant personality, did not go unobserved and several young
men
proposed marriage to her, though she did not feel called to accept.
In 1885, Rosina, as she was called by her family, was affected by a
tragic
event. A young married woman near her home died, leaving three very
young
daughters. The first of them died shortly after her mother. The other
two
girls, Chiara Angela and Italia, were only 20 months and 2 months old,
respectively.
The father of these girls was away, living with his uncle and a
grandfather
who suffered from a chronic disease. They were three very different
men,
always quarrelling among themselves.
For six months, every morning, Rosina would go to care for the children
and
take care of their home. Later, following the advice of her relatives
and
that of the parish priest, and after praying about this turn of events,
she
decided to marry.
Rosina was joined in marriage to a man named Carlo Barban, well aware
of
the sacrifices that married life would hold for her in the future. She
accepted
this fact as the will of God who she now felt was calling her through
these
two babies to embrace a new mission. The parish priest would often
comment:
"This was a true act of heroic charity toward others."
The marriage was celebrated on the fifth of May 1886 and, in addition
to
the two orphaned babies, was blessed with nine other children. Her home
was
always opened to other children as well. Among them were Mansueto
Mazzuco,
who became a member of the Order of Friars Minor, taking the name
Brother
Giorgio.
To all these children, "Mamma Rosa," as she was called since her
marriage,
offered affection and care, sacrificing her own needs to provide for
them
a solid Christian formation. From 1918 to 1921, three of her sons were
ordained
priests, two for the diocesan clergy and one as a Franciscan (Father
Bernardino),
who would become her first biographer.
Once married, she embraced her marital obligations, always showing the
greatest
love and respect for her husband and becoming his confidant and
adviser.
She had a tender love for all her children. She was a hard worker who
fulfilled
her duties.
Mamma Rosa lived an intense life of prayer, which was evident by her
great
devotion to God love's, to the Eucharist and to the Blessed Virgin
Mary.
Like the strong woman in Scripture, she became a treasure to her family.
She knew how to balance the family budget and at the same time
exercised
great charity toward the poor, sharing her daily bread also with them.
She
cared for the sick and gave them continuous assistance, showing heroic
strength
during the final illness of her husband Carlo, who died in 1930.
Mamma Rosa became a member of the Franciscan Third Order, known today
as
the Secular Franciscans. She faithfully attended all their meetings,
but
above all tried to live the true Franciscan spirit of poverty and joy
in
her home, in the midst of her daily work and prayer.
She had a gentle manner with everyone and praised God as the Creator
and
source of all good and the giver of all hope.
Mamma Rosa's family home was an ideal Christian community where her
children
were taught to pray, to obey, to respect the will of God, and to
practice
Christian virtues. In her vocation as a Christian mother, Mamma Rosa
sacrificed
herself day by day. She died on Jan. 8, 1932, and was buried in the
church
of Marola.
The canonical process of beatification and canonization was initiated
last
Feb. 3, at the diocesan curia of Padova, after getting passed several
difficulties
and misunderstandings among juridical persons trying to promote the
cause.
Mamma Rosa was a model of holiness in what should be the daily life of
a
Catholic family. Her three sons who became priests were encouraged in
their
vocation by her example of holiness. She was proclaimed venerable on
July
7, 2003, by Pope John Paul II for her heroic and singular virtues.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Maria
Laura Mainetti
Cause Opens for Religious Slain in
Satanic
Rite
Sister Maria Laura Mainetti Murdered by 3 Teen-age Girls
CHIAVENNA, Italy, NOV. 6, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The cause of beatification
has
opened for Sister Maria Laura Mainetti, a 60-year-old religious
murdered
by three girls during a Satanic rite in 2000.
Bishop Alessandro Maggiolini of Como solemnly opened the process in
Chiavenna
on Oct. 23.
"After the time of sorrow and mourning, now is the moment of joy and
light,"
said Monsignor Ambrogio Balatti, archpriest of Chiavenna San Lorenzo,
as
reported by the Italian newspaper Avvenire.
Sister Laura, as she was known, was stabbed 18 times on the night of
June
6-7, 2000, after being taken to a dark alley by two 17-year-olds and a
16-year-old.
Monsignor Balatti said: "The three hapless girls could find no better
excuse
to attract Sister Laura, than to convince her that one of them was
expecting
a child, that she had been rejected by her family and boyfriend, and
that
she didn't know what to do or where to go.
"It makes me angry when they say that Sister Laura was naive. She took
every
precaution, but so did the girls. They were able to set up an astute
and
diabolic plan."
"Saw them lost"
"How could Sister Laura, whose birth cost her mother her life, who died
a
few days after her birth, refuse to help that young girl who said she
was
a mother?" the monsignor asked.
Sister Laura had "a special predilection for young people," whom she
"considered
the real poor of today: She saw them lost, without points of reference,
exposed
to the risk of the existential void."
Under interrogation, the accused said they killed the nun to "dispel
the
boredom of a life that was always the same in the small city," said
Monsignor
Balatti.
Officials soon learned that the trio initially wanted to sacrifice a
priest
in their Satanic rite -- and their first choice for a victim was
Monsignor
Balatti.
"At that time, interest in Satanism and occultism had become a fad,"
said
the archpriest. "Even dress, music and some books contributed to the
spread
of such a tendency.
"Many young people followed more than anything out of a desire to call
attention,
to defy the rules. It found fertile ground in some because they were
angry
with God, perhaps because of personal problems, because of family
troubles."
"Forgive them"
During the cause's opening ceremony, some of Sister Laura's thoughts
were
read out: "My life belongs to you, Jesus," "Lord, take also the little
I
have and the misery I am."
The killers themselves admitted that when she was dying, Sister Laura
found
the strength to pray for them, saying: "Lord, forgive them."
Bishop Maggiolini said: "I am certain that all this will reflect
positively
also on the three girls: Sister Laura's is a light that will help them
grow
and mature."
Sister Laura, who was baptized Teresina, was born in Colico, Italy, on
Aug.
20, 1939. At the time of her death she was superior of the Community of
Daughters
of the Cross, in the Mary Immaculate Institute of Chiavenna.
A foundation and a series of charitable and pro-life services have been
established
in her memory. Several denominational centers in Italy and Africa have
been
named after the murdered religious.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chiara Barillà
Speaking of beloved Italian Catholic women, Rome suffered a loss in
late
October with the death of Sr. Teresilla, a well-known figure locally
for
her ministry in prisons, bringing comfort to inmates from all social
classes
and all walks of life. She became famous for the role she played in
transmitting
a "secret diary" from a former member of the Red Brigades, containing
insight
into the 1978 kidnapping and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo
Moro,
to the Italian president at the time, Francesco Cossiga. Shortly
thereafter,
the former Red Brigade member received an amnesty after 11 years in
prison
and began working in a church-run social service center in Calabria.
Her death as the result of an automobile accident on Oct. 24 was a deep
shock
to many Italian Catholics.
Sr. Teresilla, whose birth name was Chiara Barillàà and
who
belonged to a community known as the Serve di Maria Riparatrice, was
taking
part in an annual candlelight Marian procession at the time she died.
The
procession begins on a Saturday evening and continues until Sunday
dawn,
ending at the Sanctuary of Divino Amore on the outskirts of the city.
The
route winds through a number of narrow, dimly lit streets, and just at
the
end of this year's procession, a car came around a corner and struck
Sr.
Teresilla. She died on the spot at the age of 61.
Sr. Teresilla was remembered as a driven but deeply compassionate woman
who
smiled upon presidents and prisoners alike. "Hers was a form of pure
volunteerism,
not linked to any organization," said Fr. Sandro Spriano, chaplain of
Rome's
sprawling Rebibbia prison. "She did everything possible for the
reinsertion
of detainees in society, finding work for them in businesses and social
agencies.
She followed them even after they left prison, but anonymously, because
she
didn't like to be in the limelight."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Martyr of Spanish Civil War to Be Beatified
Maríía de los Ángeles
Ginard
Martí
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Maríía de los
Ángeles
Ginard Martí, a martyr who died amid the religious persecution
unleashed
by the Spanish Civil War, will be beatified this week.
Sister Maríía de los ÁÁngeles died in
Madrid
on Aug. 26, 1936. On Saturday, Cardinal Joséé Saraiva
Martins,
prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, will preside at the
beatification
Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
At Benedict XVI's request, the cardinal will read the apostolic letter
with
which the Pope will inscribe among the blessed of the Church, the
Servant
of God, "virgin and martyr," and seven other martyrs of the Spanish
Civil
War.
The Vatican's office of liturgical celebrations confirmed the news. In
a
statement it noted that those to be beatified, "sustained by the Bread
of
Life and strengthened by the Word of God, faced the good fight of the
faith
and now participate in the glory of Christ the King, Master and
Shepherd."
The third of nine siblings, Maríía de los
ÁÁngeles
Ginard Martíí was born in Lluchmayor, in the Balearic
Islands,
on April 3, 1894. She was a professed religious of the Congregation of
Sisters
Zealous of Eucharistic Worship.
Killed by a group of republican militiamen who previously had destroyed
the
congregation's convent in the Dehesa de la Villa, in the Spanish
capital,
her remains were found in a common grave. They now rest in the cemetery
of
the congregation's present convent in Madrid, according to the
archdiocese's
Digital Analysis service.
Cardinal Antonio Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, published a
pastoral
letter for the beatification. He called it a celebration that "impels
us
to live the faith in such a way that we can communicate it to our
contemporaries,
especially the youngest," according to the archdiocesan press office.
Centered on Eucharist
Maríía de los ÁÁngeles Ginard
Martíí
felt drawn to the religious life around the time of her first
Communion,
which took place on April 14, 1905, explains a biography by the Holy
See.
In her youth she had to work to help her family financially, noted
Cardinal
Rouco.
"But she rose early every day to participate in the Eucharist," he
said,
"and her work did not prevent her from reciting the rosary, visiting
the
Blessed Sacrament and spending long periods of adoration in the church
of
the Sisters Zealous of Eucharistic Worship." She entered the
congregation
in 1921.
Between 1926 and 1929 "she lived and worked …… in the house of the
Sisters
in Madrid where, sent by her superiors, she returned in 1932 and spent
the
four years prior to her death," the cardinal recalled.
The Holy See's biography noted: "When the Spanish Civil War broke out
in
1936, Sister Maríía de los ÁÁngeles was in
Madrid.
Events prior to the war were alarming for the Church and its members.
The
religious persecution manifested itself openly with the burning of
churches
and convents and threats to priests, religious and Catholic faithful.
"In these circumstances, Sister Maríía de los
ÁÁngeles
was grieved by the destruction and threats embarked upon by the
persecutors
'out of hatred for the faith,' for everything related to God and the
Church.
In her adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament she prayed for a
solution
to these problems and, firm in the faith, offered her life in
martyrdom,
if it was God's will, for the triumph of Christ."
Betrayed
Having sought refuge on July 20, 1936, together with the religious of
her
community, in the home of friends, "on the afternoon of Aug. 25, 1936,
denounced
by a porter of the dwelling where she had been received, she was
seized,"
wrote Cardinal Rouco in his letter.
Sister Maríía de los ÁÁngeles saved the
life
of a married woman who had also been detained when she said: "I am the
only
nun here." Incarcerated, she was shot at sunset on Aug. 26 in the
Dehesa
de la Villa in Madrid.
The diocesan phase of her process of canonization opened in Madrid in
April
1987; it closed in March 1990. On April 19, 2004, Pope John Paul II
approved
the publication of the decree on martyrdom for her beatification.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newman's Papal Influence; Jesuit Agency's Milestone
New Book Focuses on British Cardinal
By Catherine Smibert
ROME, OCT. 27, 2005 (Zenit.org).- He is a figure whose work and persona
have
inspired innumerable pursuits of truth, and now he might have a greater
impact
still.
Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) has inspired a wealth of
studies,
publications and organizations -- and even influenced our current Pope,
according
to a new book represented at the English College last week.
"Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman" was presented to an audience of
Curia
members, journalists and pontifical university students during an
upright
English, yet relaxed Roman affair.
The glossy book is filled with select writings from both Church figures
and
other leading English clergy, and is edited by longtime religious
commentator
Peter Jennings.
Produced in only six months (from the time of the papal election),
Jennings'
book clearly presents Benedict XVI's keen interest in this convert from
Anglicanism
which dates back to his seminary days.
Declared venerable in 1991 for heroic virtues, the cardinal's effect on
the
current Holy Father is recognized throughout the writings in the new
book.
These include introductory addresses given by the then Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger
at the symposium "John Henry Newman, Lover of Truth," to his address on
conscience
and truth, presented at a bishops workshop in Texas.
Jennings told me how he tried to enhance the in-depth chronology of
Newman's
life by using previously unpublished pictures like that of Newman in
his
role as founder of the English Oratory of St. Philip Neri, from the
archives
of the Birmingham Oratory.
"Having been baptized in the Oratory and now being the press secretary
for
the archbishop of Birmingham, Vincent Nichols, I’’ve had the great
fortune
of working more directly with the Oratory Fathers and thus, the
postulator
for the cause" of canonization, Jennings said.
The postulator is the provost of the Birmingham Oratory, Father Paul
Chavasse.
He told me he thinks the book will encourage a resurgence in Newman's
popularity.
"In the passing years there has been a steady, increasing devotion to
the
cardinal on a world scale," Father Chavasse said, "but it was
enormously
encouraging for us to see the interest that was expressed by all
attending
the reception. Each expressed a desire for the cause to reach a happy
conclusion
as soon as it's practical."
That conclusion might be close at hand, he added.
"At the moment, we're investigating a possible miraculous cure through
the
intercession of Cardinal Newman in the Archdiocese of Boston," the
priest
said. "It was the healing of a 60-year-old permanent deacon who had
suffered
from a severe degenerative spinal disease which was threatening his
mobility.
"Although there had been an operation, the surgeons were not at all
convinced
that he would be restored to health but, in fact, that's just what
happened,
he got out of bed and ... I read the medical reports in which one of
the
principal surgeons says: 'If you want an explanation for what has
happened
to you, I suggest you ask God.'"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cause for Solidarity Chaplain Is Advancing, Says Official
Postulator Thinks Ceremony Could Occur in
June
WARSAW, Poland, OCT. 20, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The process of
beatification
for Father Jerzy Popieluszko might be concluded within a year, says the
postulator
of the cause.
The postulator, Father Tomasso Kaczmarek, has finished the "positio,"
or
report, on the cause of martyrdom.
The 1,100-page volume describes both events in the life of Solidarity's
chaplain,
as well as evidence that "demonstrate that he was killed out of hatred
of
the Church and God," said the postulator.
He contended that the "positio" shows that "Father Jerzy died
reconciled
with God and that he accepted the sufferings and violent death he
received
in the spirit of Love."
According to the postulator, the beatification could take place in June
2006,
during Benedict XVI's possible visit to Poland.
The "positio" will be handed to the relator, Father Hieronim Fokcinski,
who
represents the Congregation for Sainthood Causes. It will then be read
by
seven consultors. If their opinion is positive, the secretary of the
Vatican
congregation will prepare a report on the state of the cause, which the
prefect
will present to the Holy Father.
If the Pope accepts it, the decree of the heroic virtues will be read
in
the Consistory. In the case of a cause of martyrdom, in fact, this
means
that the Servant of God could be proclaimed blessed.
The postulator underlined that the date of beatification would depend
on
the work of the consultors, who he said will treat this as a "priority"
cause.
Kidnapped
Father Popieluszko, Solidarity's chaplain, was only 37 when he died.
The
Communist regime regarded him as a fanatic, an example of militant
clericalism.
Many Poles, however, considered him a wise and courageous pastor.
Father Popieluszko was kidnapped and killed on Oct. 19, 1984, by secret
service
agents, who beat him and threw him into the icy waters of the Vistula
River.
His body was found later in a lake at the Wloclawek dam, about 100
kilometers
(60 miles) north of Warsaw.
The priest's tomb, located in Warsaw next to the church where he
celebrated
Masses for the homeland, has drawn millions of pilgrims.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Joseph Bilczewski, Tireless Archbishop of Leopoli
Prelate to Be Canonized This Sunday
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 20, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the biography issued
by
the Holy See of Joseph Bilczewski (1860-1923), who will be canonized
with
four other blessed this Sunday by Benedict XVI.
* * *
Blessed Archbishop Joseph Bilczewski was born April 26, 1860, in
Wilamowice
near Kety, in the present-day Diocese of Bielsko Zywiec, then part of
the
Diocese of Krakow. Having finished elementary school at Wilamowice and
Kety,
he attended high school at Wadowice receiving his diploma in 1880.
On July 6, 1884, he was ordained a priest in Krakow by Cardinal Albino
Dunajewski.
In 1886 he received a doctorate in theology from the University of
Vienna.
Following advanced studies in Rome and Paris he passed the qualifying
exam
at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow. The following year he became
professor
of dogmatic theology at the John Casimir University of Leopoli.
He also served as dean of theology for a period of time prior to
becoming
rector of the university.
He dedicated himself to scientific work and, despite his young age,
acquired
fame as a learned man. His extraordinary intellectual and relational
abilities
were recognized by Franz Joseph, the emperor of Austria, who presented
Monsignor
Bilczewski to the Holy Father as a candidate for the vacant
metropolitan
See of Leopoli. Pope Leo XIII responded positively to the emperor's
proposal
and on Dec. 17, 1900, he named the 40-year-old monsignor archbishop of
Leopoli
of the Latin rite.
Given the complex social, economic, ethnic and religious situation,
care
for the large diocese required of the bishop a deep commitment and
called
for great moral effort and strong confidence in God. Archbishop
Bilczewski
became known for his goodness of heart, understanding, humility, piety,
commitment
to hard work and pastoral zeal.
Upon taking possession of the Archdiocese of Leopoli he spelled out
clearly
his pastoral plan, which can be summed up in the words "totally
sacrifice
oneself for the holy Church." Among other things he pointed out the
need
for the development of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and frequent
reception
of Communion.
A particular form of pastoral action of Archbishop Bilczewski were the
pastoral
letters and appeals addressed to the priests and the faithful of the
archdiocese.
In them he spoke of the problems of faith and morals of the time as
well
as of the most pressing issues of the social sphere. He also explained
devotion
to the Eucharist and to the Sacred Heart and the importance of
religious
and moral formation of children and youth in the family and in school.
He taught for the Church and for the Pope, and took care to cultivate
many
priestly vocations. He saw the priest as first and foremost a teacher
of
faith and an instrument of Christ, a father for the rich as well as for
the
poor. Taking the place of Christ on earth, the priest was to be the
minister
of the sacraments and for this reason his whole heart had to be
dedicated
to the celebration of the Eucharist, in order to be able to nourish the
people
of God with the body of Christ.
He often exhorted the priests to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. In
his
pastoral letter devoted to the Eucharist he invited the priests to
participate
in the priestly associations: the Association for Perpetual Adoration
of
the Most Holy Sacrament and the Association of Aid to Poor Catholic
Churches,
whose goal was to rejuvenate the zeal of the priests themselves.
He also dedicated a great deal of care to the preparation of children
and
to full participation in the Mass, desiring that every catechesis would
lead
children and youth to the Eucharist.
Archbishop Bilczewski promoted the construction of churches and
chapels,
schools and day-care centers. He developed teaching to help enable the
growth
in the instruction of the faithful. He materially and spiritually
helped
the more important works which were springing up in his archdiocese.
His holy life, filled with prayer, work and works of mercy led to his
meriting
great appreciation and respect on the part of those of various faiths,
rites
and nationalities present in the archdiocese. No religious or
nationalistic
conflicts arose during the tenure of his pastoral work. He was a
proponent
of unity, harmony and peace. On social issues he always stood on the
side
of the people and of the poor. He taught that the basis of social life
had
to be justice made perfect by Christian love.
During the First World War, he pointed out to the people the infinite
love
of God, capable of forgiving every type of sin and offense. He reminded
them
of the need to observe the commandments of God and particularly that of
brotherly
love.
During his 23 years of pastoral service he changed the face of the
Archdiocese
of Leopoli. Only his death on March 20, 1923, could end his vast
pastoral
action.
Wanting to rest among those for whom he was always father and
protector,
in accord with his desires, he was buried in Leopoli in the cemetery of
Janow,
known as the cemetery of the poor. Thanks to the efforts of the
Archdiocese
of Leopoli the process for his beatification and canonization was
initiated.
The first step was concluded on Dec. 17, 1997, with the declaration of
the
life of heroic virtue of Archbishop Bilczewski by Pope John Paul II.
In June 2001, the Congregation for Sainthood Causes recognized as
miraculous
the fact of the rapid lasting and unexplainable "quo ad modum" healing
through
the intercession of Archbishop Bilczewski of the third-degree burns of
Marcin
Gawlik, a 9-year-old boy, thus opening the way for his beatification.
The beatification took place in the Diocese of Leopoli on June 26,
2001,
during John Paul II's apostolic visit to Ukraine.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cure could speed Cardinal Newman's path to sainthood
A 'miracle cure' in Boston may help clear
the
way for the canonisation of John Henry Cardinal Newman, whose cause is
promoted
in a book launched in Rome on Monday night in the presence of Cardinal
Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor.
The announcement was made by Fr Paul Chavasse, Provost of the
Birmingham
Oratory and Postulator of the Cause for the beatification and
canonisation
of Cardinal Newman, at the launch of Pope Benedict XVI and Cardinal
Newman,
a collection of writings edited by Peter Jennings and published by
Family
Publications, Oxford. The book was launched at the English College.
Among
those attending were the Archbishops of Westminster and Birmingham, the
president
of the Vatican's Council for Social Communications, Archbishop John P
Foley;
and leading Newman scholars.
Fr Chavasse told them: "A couple of years ago, we received reports at
the
Birmingham Oratory, of a cure which had taken place in Boston, in the
United
States of America, of a man, a deacon. I am not at liberty to give the
name
of this man, who had been suffering from severe spinal problems, and
who
has now recovered, as a result of the intercession of the Venerable
John
Henry Cardinal Newman."
Fr Chavasse thanked Andrea Ambrosi, "a most active member of the
College
of Postulators, who is now involved most intimately in advancing the
Cause
to a new stage, and whose assistance at this time has become
indispensable."
He said: "Postulators are not known for rushing, indeed, they cannot,
given
the caution needed before anyone can be certain that a presumed
miraculous
cure is just that. Time has to elapse, evidence has to be gathered and
so
forth. Well, time has elapsed, evidence has been gathered, and guided
by
the Avvocato Ambrosi's expert knowledge and, with the approval of the
Archbishop
of Boston, a tribunal opened there on 25 June this year to investigate
this
cure.
"Much work has been done and much remains to be done: the tribunal will
not
finish its work until the beginning of February next; the last session
is
scheduled for 6 to 7 February 2006. After that, all the evidence
gathered
comes to Rome and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints begins its
meticulous
work, examining the medical and theological aspects of it. If these
processes
end positively, undoubtedly a miracle will be announced and Cardinal
Newman,
the best-known English churchman of the nineteenth century, will be
declared
Blessed in the usual way."
Fr Chevasse ended: "I commend this whole matter to your prayers, that
all
will go well and that before too long has elapsed we will be able to be
gathered
together again to celebrate the happy conclusion of another stage of
the
great English Cardinal's journey to officially recognised Sainthood."
Pope
Benedict XVI and Cardinal Newman brings together talks, sermons and
addresses
given to commemorate a variety of anniversaries and events concerned
with
Cardinal Newman's life, as well as several important new contributions
which
highlight the relevance of the great Cardinal's life and teachings for
the
contemporary Church.
The book contains articles by Fr Chevasse as well as by Cardinal Cormac
Murphy-O'Connor
and Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Birmingham.
Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, whose chapter is entitled: "The Importance of
Newman
Today", said he had discovered Newman's writings on the development of
Christian
doctrine while studying for the priesthood in Rome. He had chosen as a
dissertation
topic Newman's concept of the laity.
Peter Jennings said he hoped the book would increase popular devotion
to
Cardinal Newman, "the best-known churchman of the nineteenth century."
The Birmingham launch of the book will take place on Friday 21 October
at
the Birmingham Oratory, Upper Cloister Hall, 12.30pm to 2pm. The Oxford
Launch
will take place on Friday 28 October at the Oxford Oratory, 4.30pm to
5.45pm.
(Mass at 6pm.) Further information from
http://www.familypublications.co.uk
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Felix of Nicosia, a Humble Capuchin Friar
18th-Century Blessed to Be Canonized
Sunday
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 19, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the biography issued
by
the Holy See of Felix of Nicosia (1715-1787), who will be canonized
with
four other blessed this Sunday by Benedict XVI.
* * *
Felix of Nicosia was born of the marriage between Filippo Amoroso and
Carmela
Pirro, in Nicosia, Sicily, on Nov. 5, 1715. He was baptized on the same
day,
and was given the names Philip James. His father, a shoemaker by trade,
died
Oct. 12, 1715, leaving his widow with three children.
The family was poor but very religious. As a young boy, Felix worked in
the
workshop of the shoemaker Giovanni Cavarelli, close to the Capuchin
friary,
and so he often had opportunities to visit the community, get to know
the
friars and admire their way of life. Like most Sicilian boys in those
days,
he never attended school. The more time he spent with the friars, the
more
strongly he felt drawn to their life: their joyful austerity, their
liberating
poverty, their penance and prayer, their charity and missionary spirit.
Vocation tested
At age 20 he asked the superior of the friary in Nicosia to speak for
him
to the father provincial of Messina so that he could be admitted to the
order
as a lay brother. Being illiterate, he could not be admitted as a
cleric;
the lay vocation was more suited to his humble, simple nature. His
request
was repeated for eight successive years, and each time was met with the
answer
no, but his desire was as strong as ever.
His was a mature vocation, well weighed and ardently longed for.
Certainly
it is surprising that, after so many refusals, he never tried to join
another
similar order. For him, being a man of God and being a Capuchin were
one
and the same.
In 1743, hearing that the provincial of Messina was visiting in
Nicosia,
Felix asked to see him. He then explained his cherished wish. At last,
the
provincial admitted him to the order and sent him to the friary at
Mistretta
for his novitiate year.
A Capuchin friar
On Oct. 10, 1743, he began his novitiate, taking the name of Brother
Felix.
For him, the novitiate was a particularly intense year, spent in the
practice
of the virtues.
All his biographers tell us that Brother Felix was distinguished for
his
flair for obedience, his angelic purity, his love of mortification and
his
truly seraphic patience. It was with these virtues that he made his
profession
on Oct. 10, 1744.
Streets of Nicosia
Immediately after profession his superiors, contrary to the custom,
sent
him to the friary of Nicosia. In fact it was not common practice to
assign
a young religious to his own home town, in case he might be distracted
by
relatives and acquaintances. But Brother Felix's detachment from
earthly
affections was such that the superiors considered that no harm would
come
to his spiritual growth.
He had already made his own the maxim of St. Francis, that a friar
should
live in the world as a pilgrim and a stranger, calling nothing on earth
his
own, neither house, nor place, nor anything at all.
He was given the job of collecting alms. Every day he would walk
through
the streets, knocking on the doors of the rich, inviting them to share
their
prosperity, and of the humble dwellings of the poor, offering them
comfort
in their daily necessities.
There was a tranquil serenity and discretion about him as he moved
through
the streets, going from house to house. He would always say "thank you"
whenever
he received something, and even when he was sent away roughly he would
answer:
"Let it be for the love of God."
Thirsting for Scripture
Brother Felix was unable to read and write, yet full of Christian
doctrine.
Whatever he could not learn by reading Scripture, he learned by heart.
He
made every effort to absorb the passages of Scripture and the edifying
books
that were read at table in the friary, and lost no opportunity to
listen
to the sermons in the churches of Nicosia.
Devotions and penances
He was devoted to the crucified Christ. Every Friday he used to
contemplate
the passion and death of Jesus. Each Friday in March he fasted on bread
and
water and knelt in choir with his arms outstretched in the form of a
cross,
meditating before the crucifix.
He had a particular veneration for the Eucharist, spending hours in
front
of the tabernacle even after having endured the trials of every-day
life.
He showed tender devotion to the Mother of God.
Last days
Now relieved of all duties, and physically ill on account of his
extreme
penances and mortifications, he was always ready for any kind of
service,
especially for the sick brothers in the friary infirmary. The more his
strength
declined, the more intense was his concentration on God and his joyful,
simple
obedience.
At the end of May 1787 he was overtaken by a sudden, raging fever while
working
in the garden. His superior, Father Macario, ordered him under
obedience
to lie down. Brother Felix told the doctor who prescribed medicines for
him
that they were useless, because this was his "final illness." His
earthly
life ended at 2 a.m. on May 31, 1787.
He was beatified by Pope Leo XIII on Feb. 12, 1888.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alberto Hurtado, Servant of Chile's Poor
Biography of a Soon-to-Be-Canonized
Jesuit
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 18, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Among the five people to be
canonized
a saint this Sunday is Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga. Here is an excerpt
from
a biography issued by the Holy See.
* * *
Alberto Hurtado Cruchaga was born in Viñña del Mar,
Chile,
on Jan. 22, 1901. His father died when he was 4 years old. His mother
had
to sell, at a loss, their modest property in order to pay the family's
debts.
As a further consequence, Alberto and his brother had to go to live
with
relatives and were often moved from one family to another. From an
early
age, therefore, he experienced what it meant to be poor, without a home
and
at the mercy of others.
He was given a scholarship to the Jesuit College in Santiago. Here he
became
a member of the Sodality of Our Lady and developed a lively interest in
the
poor, spending time with them in the most miserable neighborhoods every
Sunday
afternoon.
When he completed his secondary education in 1917, Alberto wanted to
become
a Jesuit, but he was advised to wait in order to take care of his
mother
and his younger brother. By working in the afternoons and evenings, he
succeeded
in supporting them; at the same time, he studied law at the Catholic
University.
In this period, he maintained his care for the poor and continued to
visit
them every Sunday. Obligatory military service interrupted his studies,
but
once he fulfilled this duty he went on to earn his degree early in
August
1923.
On Aug. 14, 1923, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in
Chillan.
In 1925 he went to Cordoba, Argentina, where he studied humanities. In
1927
he was sent to Spain to study philosophy and theology.
However, because of the suppression of the Jesuits in Spain in 1931, he
went
on to Belgium and continued studying theology at Louvain. He was
ordained
a priest there on Aug. 24, 1933, and in 1935 obtained a doctorate in
pedagogy
and psychology.
After having completed his tertianship in Drongen, Belgium, he returned
to
Chile in January 1936. Here he began his activity as professor of
religion
at Colegio San Ignacio and of pedagogy at the Catholic University of
Santiago.
He was entrusted with the Sodality of Our Lady for the students, and he
involved
them in teaching catechism to the poor. He frequently directed retreats
and
offered spiritual direction to many young men, accompanying several of
them
in their response to the priestly vocation and contributing to the
formation
of many Christian laymen.
In 1941 Father Hurtado published his most famous book: "Is Chile a
Catholic
Country?" The same year he was asked to assume the role of assistant
for
the Youth Movement of the Catholic Action, first within the Archdiocese
of
Santiago and then nationally. He performed these roles with a spirit of
initiative,
dedication and sacrifice.
In October 1944, while giving a retreat, he felt impelled to appeal to
his
audience to consider the many poor people of the city, especially the
numerous
street children in Santiago. This request evoked a ready and generous
response.
This was the beginning of the initiative for which Father Hurtado is
especially
well known: a form of charitable activity which provided not only
housing
but a homelike milieu for the homeless: "El Hogar de Cristo."
By means of contributions from benefactors and with the collaboration
of
committed laity, Father Hurtado opened the first house for children;
this
was followed by a house for women and then one for men. The houses
multiplied
and took on new dimensions; in some houses there were rehabilitation
centers,
in others trade-schools, and so on.
In 1945 Father Hurtado visited the United States to study the Boys Town
movement
and to consider how it could be adapted to his own country. The last
six
years of his life were dedicated to the development of various forms in
which
"El Hogar" could exist and function.
In 1947 Father Hurtado founded the Chilean Trade Union Association to
promote
a union movement inspired by the social teaching of the Church.
Between 1947 and 1950, Father Hurtado wrote three important works: on
trade
unions, on social humanism, and on the Christian social order. In 1951
he
founded Mensaje, a well-known Jesuit periodical dedicated to explaining
the
doctrine of the Church.
Pancreatic cancer brought him, within a few months, to the end of his
life.
In the midst of pain, he was often heard to say, "I am content, Lord."
He
died on Aug. 18, 1952.
His apostolate had been an _expression of a personal love for Christ
the
Lord. It was characterized by a great love for poor and abandoned
children,
an enlightened zeal for the formation of the laity, and a lively sense
of
Christian social justice.
Father Hurtado was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 16, 1994.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope Gregory the Great
Perhaps this saint of almost
1,500
years ago seems a little too far away from us. He was from a wealthy
Roman
patrician family and didn't die the glorious and gruesome death of a
martyr,
so what is there to capture the imagination of the 21st century?
Plenty. The 14-year pontificate of Gregory the Great has many
resounding
messages for the Catholic world today.
"Magnus, magnus" we all heard during the funeral of John Paul II and
many
wondered at its meaning. The term "magnus" (the great) has not been
used
in a very long time, not since Pope Nicholas I died in 867. It is a
popular
acclamation, not a granted title, something that people use and it
sticks.
Johannus Paulus Magnus certainly sounds as if it will stand the test of
time.
What earns this title is a pontificate of great theological and
intellectual
advances, brilliant navigation of the Church through dark times and
troubled
waters, and the genuine love of the flock.
When Gregory was unanimously elected Pope, he was living as monk in
Rome.
He had transformed his family palace on the Caelian Hill into a
monastic
community. Although often sent by his predecessor, Pope Pelagius II, on
delicate
and complicated diplomatic missions, Gregory's first and true love was
the
contemplative life. Upon election to the papacy, like John Paul II,
Gregory
had balance his mystical side with his active responsibilities as Pope.
Responsibilities that Pope Gregory took very seriously. He was the
first
Pope to refer to himself as "Servus servorum Dei," or Servant of the
servants
of God, a title that John Paul II used frequently of himself. He
fortified
Rome against the Lombards, gave his own lands to feed the starving
population
and sent out missionaries to evangelize new lands, especially England.
As our John Paul II was actor and poet, so Pope Gregory left a lasting
artistic
gift to the Church, Gregorian chant.
Pope Gregory's last years were spent in constant illness and physical
pain,
but according to biographer Paul the Deacon, "he never rested" and
continued
his ministry until he died a peaceful and happy death in 604. His
ceaseless
work and prayer for the souls in his care served as an example for all
those
who witnessed it.
Another significant link between St. Gregory and our present times can
be
found in St. Benedict. Although St. Benedict died in 547 when Gregory
was
still a child, the Pope admired the monastic founder and furthered
Benedictine
monasticism with every means at his disposal. In these days of renewed
interest
in Benedict and his teachings, Pope Gregory seems to have planted the
seeds
that we are reaping now.
The legacy of Pope Gregory the Great earned him the title of Father of
the
medieval Church. Maybe John Paul II will be known as the Father of the
Church
of the third millennium.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
José
Luis Sáánchez Gave His Life at 14
2 Founders Witnessed Execution
GUADALAJARA, Mexico, SEPT. 2, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The execution of
José
Luis Sáánchez del Ríío, a 14-year-old
martyr
who will be beatified this fall, was witnessed by two founders of
ecclesial
entities in the Church.
Father Marcial Maciel, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, and
Enrique
Amezcua Medina, founder of the priestly confraternity of the Laborers
of
the Kingdom of Christ, both met the young martyr, and are able to
recount
years later the heroism he exhibited.
José Luis, of Sahuayo, in the state of Michoacan, joined the
Cristeros,
a large group of Mexican Catholics who rose against the religious
persecution
of the government of Plutarco Elíías Calles, a year
before
he was executed on Feb. 10, 1929.
A 7-year-old Marcial Maciel witnessed the martyrdom of his young friend.
José Luis "was captured by government forces, which wanted to
give
the civilian population that supported the Cristeros, an exemplary
lesson,"
said Father Maciel in the book "Christ Is My Life."
"Under pain of death, they asked him to give up his faith in Christ.
Joséé
Luis refused to apostatize. His mother was overwhelmed by sorrow and
anguish,
but kept encouraging her son," he said.
"Then the skin of the soles of his feet was sheered off, and he was
obliged
to walk through the village towards the cemetery. He wept and moaned
with
pain, but would not give in."
"Hail to Christ the King!"
Father Maciel continued: "Every now and then they stopped and said: 'If
you
cry out "Death to Christ the King," we will spare your life. Say 'Death
to
Christ the King!' But he answered, 'Hail to Christ the King!'"
Father Maciel said that at the cemetery, "before shooting him, they
asked
him once more if he would deny his faith. He refused and was killed
right
then and there. He died crying out as many other Mexicans did: 'Hail to
Christ
the King!'
"These are indelible images of my memory and of the memory of the
Mexican
people, although often there is not much mention of it in the official
history."
Father Medina, then 9 years old, said in the biography of the
confraternity
he founded that he considers providential his meeting with the young
martyr.
He met the child-martyr of Sahuayo and asked him if he could follow him
but,
seeing that he was so young, the future martyr told him: "You will do
things
that I will not be able to do," which, eventually, led him to the
priesthood.
The confraternity's seminary in Salvatierra, Guanajuato, has been named
Christ
the King Seminary, and the boarding school was called José Luis,
in
honor of the future Mexican blessed.
The remains of José Luis rest in the church of the Sacred Heart
of
Jesus in Sahuayo.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles de Foucauld
Charles de Foucauld, a French Army officer who entered
religious
life and became a hermit, will be beatified Nov. 13 in St. Peter's
Basilica,
says the postulator of the cause.
Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1858, de Foucauld was orphaned at 6.
After
a brief military career, in 1883 he undertook an expedition in the
Moroccan
desert which won him the gold medal of the French Geographic Society.
His
religious conversion occurred in 1886. He went on pilgrimage to the
Holy
Land in 1888.
Heart of the Sahara
After de Foucauld's experience as a Trappist in Syria and as a hermit
in
Nazareth, in 1901 he was ordained a priest. He studied Arabic and
Hebrew.
"He lived in poverty, contemplation and humility, witnessing
fraternally
to God's love among Christians, Jews and Muslims," said Cardinal
Joséé
Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes,
during
the ceremony for the decree's promulgation.
"In order to imitate Jesus' hidden life in Nazareth, de Foucauld went
to
live in Tamanrasset, in the heart of the Sahara Desert," added the
cardinal.
De Foucauld wrote several books on the Tuaregs, members of a Berber
people
of the western and central Sahara, including a book of grammar and a
French-Tuareg
dictionary. He founded the Union of Brothers and Sisters of the Sacred
Heart
that was committed to the evangelization of the Tuaregs.
On Dec. 1, 1916, at 58, de Foucauld was shot dead in the midst of a
skirmish
among Berbers of Hoggar.
Ten religious congregations and eight spiritual life associations have
been
inspired by his testimony and charism.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bishop Who Defied Hitler to Be Beatified in October
According to Muenster Diocese
ROME, JULY 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal August
von Galen,
who dared to defy Hitler, will be beatified Oct. 9, according to the
Muenster
Diocese Web page.
The cardinal, who lived 1878-1946, would become the
first German to be proclaimed blessed in Benedict XVI's pontificate,
the page said.
In a letter addressed to Bishop Reinhard Lettmann
and dated
June 29, Benedict XVI announced von Galen's beatification for "this
year."
The diocese stated that the beatification will be
held in St. Peter's Basilica, with a papal decree to be read by
Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for
Sainthood Causes, who will
preside over the ceremony. The beatification is taking place after a
miracle
occurred in December attributed to Cardinal von Galen.
While bishop of Muenster, during the Nazi regime,
Clemens August von Galen spoke out in defense of the rights of the poor
and the sick,
protesting strongly against euthanasia, the confiscation of monasteries
and
convents, the persecution of Jews and the expulsion of religious.
To avoid uprisings resulting from Bishop von Galen's
protests, Hitler gave orders on Aug. 3, 1941, to officially block the
euthanasia program.
Euthanasia continued, though on a much smaller scale.
During von Galen's process of beatification, it was
discovered that Pope Pius XII read his homilies and presented him as a
"hero" to German priests of Westphalia.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Salesian Pushes the Cause of Don Bosco's Mother
Meets With Pope at Vacation Residence
LES COMBES, Italy, JULY 13, 2005 (Zenit.org).- When
welcoming Benedict XVI to the chalet where he is spending vacation, the
rector-major of the Salesians asked a special favor.
Father Pascual Chávez asked the Pope to speed
up the beatification of Margaret Occhiena, the mother of St. John
Bosco, founder of the Salesians.
The rector-major, who spoke in private Monday with
the Holy Father in the Salesian-owned chalet, handed him documents and
a letter from all Salesian bishops worldwide, in which they request the
promulgation of the decree of heroism of "Mama Margaret's" virtues.
The Salesian family would like Margaret Occhiena to
be declared venerable on the 150th anniversary of her death, reported
the congregation's
ANS news agency.
Benedict XVI responded that the holiness of Occhiena
is so evident that there should be no need for the whole process,
showing how
familiar he was with her virtues, added the news service.
"We are following the stages of the regular
procedure," replied Father Chávez. The "positio" stating the
formal argument for
beatification was handed in June 25, 2000, while the examination by the
historical
experts ended in a positive manner the following Oct. 3.
The Holy Father expressed the hope that the
beatification might be possible in 2006, ANS reported.
"Co-founder"
Margaret Occhiena was born on April 1, 1788, in
Capriglio, and remained there until her marriage to Francis Bosco.
After her husband's premature death, she had to take
charge of her family, helping her husband's mother, and taking care of
his son Anthony,
and educating her sons Joseph and John.
When John was ordained a priest, she left her home
to accompany
him for 10 years on his mission among the poor and abandoned young
people
of Turin.
"Without knowing it, she became 'co-founder' of the
Salesian Family," states a biography issued by the Salesians.
"Without knowing how to write, but full of wisdom
which comes from on high, she helped many poor street boys, no one's
children. She
put God before anything else, giving herself for him in a life of
poverty, prayer and sacrifice," adds a brief biography.
She died at age 68 in Turin, in 1856.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edith Stein's Appeal to the Young
Superior of Discalced Carmelites on the Saint's Impact
ROME, JULY 11, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Edith Stein, the
Carmelite saint and co-patroness of Europe, could be a very engaging
figure for some of the 800,000 expected to attend World Youth Day next
month in Germany.
That is the opinion of Father Luis Aróstegui
Gamboa, superior general of the Discalced Carmelites. "The search for
Truth of Edith
Stein -- Teresa Benedicta of the Cross -- could be a stimulus for young
people
who will go to Cologne, where she lived in the Carmel," he told ZENIT.
"Edith Stein is a very different figure from
Thérèse of Lisieux, also a Carmelite saint, who enthused
young people at Paris' World
Youth Day," Father Aróstegui said.
"In the same way," he added, "I think that there are
some young people, perhaps not all, who might be attracted by Stein's
figure, as
she is modern and her biography is very interesting in the best sense
of
the term: Jewish, German, seeker, who lost her faith and found it."
The Carmelite religious died in Auschwitz in August
1942.
Into contemplation
"She accepted her death in the concentration camp as
communion with the cross of Christ, for her people and for peace in the
world," said the superior general of the Order of Discalced Carmelites.
"This is impressive."
"Edith Stein was a person who was very committed to
her faith and an exceptional personality; she was called to give
lectures and classes when this was unusual, and she defended woman's
rights and dignity," he said.
"This faith and fidelity, but at the same time
reflection with freedom and responsibility, might be very attractive to
young people," Father Aróstegui added.
He continued: "Moreover, her continuity of life when
she entered the Cologne Carmel is also very interesting, as it was not
a rejection of the intellectual life but, on the contrary, an entering
more intensely into contemplation, which isn't inaction. In fact, her
superiors asked her
to continue with her intellectual work and she did so, in union with
the
Church and the needs of the world.
"Above all, the fact that she was a seeker and
integrated values in her life and thought, and her profundity in the
faith are very good
for the world of young people who will meet in her native Germany."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Testimonies Sought About Holiness of Cardinal
Pironio
Argentine Helped to Plan World Youth Days
ROME, JUNE 28, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The Diocese of
Rome appealed
for testimonies about the holiness of Cardinal Eduardo Pironio who, as
president
of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, planned the first World Youth
Days.
An edict, published in today's Italian edition of
L'Osservatore Romano and signed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for
Rome, stated that, "with the passing of the years," the Argentine
cardinal's "fame for holiness" has increased, so there has been a
formal request "to begin the cause for beatification and canonization
of the Servant of God."
Cardinal Pironio died Feb. 5, 1998, in Rome. He was
77.
The edict requests that "if any writing that has the
Servant of God as author, [and] has not already been handed in to the
postulation of the cause," it should be sent to the diocesan tribunal
of the Vicariate of Rome. The edict noted that printed works have
already been collected.
Those who wish to keep originals of the cardinal's
writings may send authenticated copies.
The diocese also asks the faithful to communicate to
the tribunal "all news from which may be gathered elements favorable or
contrary to the fame for holiness of the Servant of God."
It was also established that the edict be published
in the curia of La Plata, Argentina, and in that diocese's review.
Key posts
Eduardo Pironio was born Dec. 3, 1920. He played an
important part in Church history during the last quarter of the 20th
century.
He organized the World Youth Days from the time John
Paul II appointed him president of the Pontifical Council for the
Laity, in April
1984.
Prior to this appointment, the cardinal had been
prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, which
oversees the
Church's religious and consecrated persons.
Pope Paul VI elevated Archbishop Pironio to cardinal
on May 24, 1976, after he had worked for many years in the Latin
American bishops'
council, first as secretary and later as president. In Argentina, he
was
bishop of Mar del Plata.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 Beatifications Delegated to Warsaw Cardinal
Includes Communist-Era Martyr
WARSAW, Poland, JUNE 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- At
Benedict XVI's request, Cardinal Jozef Glemp of Warsaw will preside
here over the closing
Mass of a National Eucharistic Congress and the beatification of three
Polish
priests.
Among the future blessed is a martyr, Father
Ladislaw Findysz.
He was born in Kroscienko Nizne, in the then Diocese of Przemysl of the
Latins,
on Dec. 13, 1907.
As a parish priest in Nowy Zmigrod, in the
present-day Diocese of Rzeszow, he carried out his mission during World
War II. In 1963,
under the Communist regime, he was imprisoned because of his pastoral
ministry.
In prison, he was humiliated and mistreated. His
health broken, he was released from prison but died a few months later,
on Aug. 21,
1964.
Cardinal Glemp, the primate of Poland, will also
preside at the beatification of Father Bornislaw Markiewicz, who was
born in Pruchnik, near Przemysl, on July 13, 1842.
He was a parish priest and seminary professor. He
entered the Salesian Society of St. John Bosco in Turin, Italy.
Returning to Poland, he worked primarily in the
formation of poor and orphaned young people.
He founded the men's and women's congregations of
St. Michael
the Archangel. The congregations were approved after his death, which
occurred
in Miejsce Piastowe on Jan. 29, 1912. The two congregations have
belonged
to the Salesian Family for years.
Formator of youth
The third future blessed is Father Ignatius
Klopotowski. He was born on July 20, 1866, in Korzeniowka.
He was committed to charitable works. As a parish
priest in Warsaw, he founded the Sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary of
Loreto. He
worked in the formation of young people, the rehabilitation of troubled
girls,
and the care of orphans and the elderly. He died in Warsaw on Sept. 7,
1931.
Pilsudski Square in Warsaw will be the setting of
the solemn
Mass. Pope John Paul II presided at a Mass there during his first
pastoral
visit to Poland in 1979; at the time it was called Victory Square.
Benedict XVI has revived a papal tradition of not
presiding at beatifications, a practice that was interrupted in 1971 by
Pope Paul VI,
when beatifying Maximilian Kolbe. For his part, Pope John Paul II
presided over the beatification of 1,330 Servants of God.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Process for "Righteous" Emmanuele Stablum Moves
Ahead
Saved Jews in Italy During Nazi Occupation
ROME, JUNE 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The diocesan
process has been concluded for the beatification of Emmanuele Stablum,
a religious hailed by Israel as "Righteous among the Nations" for
saving Jews from Nazi
persecution.
"An angel," is how he was described by Tibor
Schlosser, adviser of the Israeli Embassy, during the November 2001
ceremony in which Stablum was conferred the "Righteous" recognition
posthumously by the Yad Vashem Institute of Jerusalem.
Born in Terzolas in 1895, Stablum wanted to be a
priest, but the superiors of the Congregation of the Sons of the
Immaculate Conception asked him to become a doctor first, in order to
treat patients of the Dermatological Institute of the Immaculate
Conception (IDI), a sanatorium in Rome.
After the Nazi occupation of Italy in September
1943, Brother
Emmanuele Stablum, who at the time was director of IDI, decided to save
51
Jews, by hiding them in the institute.
He put cream on the Jews' faces, so that the police
would think they were patients with dermatological problems.
When Stablum died, Italo Levi-Luxardo, a Jewish
doctor, wrote that Stablum, in addition to helping Jews, hid officers
who did not want to be allied with the German occupation, as well as
fugitives from the
Nazi purges.
Elio Toaff, the former chief rabbi of Rome,
commented: "To speak of the Israeli community's recognition is too
little in regard to
the work of salvation undertaken by the IDI which, without taking into
account
the grave danger it was in by helping Jews, showed with deeds of
solidarity
its determination to oppose injustice and oppression."
Brother Stablum was assistant general and later
vicar general
of his religious congregation. He died in 1950, at age 55.
Today the IDI is considered one of the most
prestigious medical centers in Italy for dermatological problems.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
American, Spanish Missionary Women Beatified
Benedict XVI Resumes Tradition of Not Presiding at
Ceremony
VATICAN CITY, MAY 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Two women
missionaries, from the United States and Spain, are the first to be
beatified during the
Pontificate of Benedict XVI.
American Marianne Cope (1838-1918) and Spanish
Ascensión of the Heart of Jesus (1868-1940) were raised to the
altars on Saturday in
St. Peter's Basilica. Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins,
prefect
of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, presided at the ceremony.
The Bishop of Rome has taken up on this occasion the
Papal tradition of not presiding at beatifications, a practice that was
interrupted in 1971 by Paul VI, when beatifying Polish priest
Maximilian Kolbe.
Beginning in the Holy Year of 1975, Paul VI presided
over beatifications until the end of his Pontificate. John Paul II
continued in
the steps of Paul VI, and presided over the beatification of 1,338
members of the Church.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins delivered his homily in
Italian, Spanish and English, taking into account a numerous presence
of American, Latin American and Spanish pilgrims.
He described Marianne Cope's life as "a wonderful
work of divine grace."
An evangelizer of lepers in Molokai, she was the
successor of the apostle of the lepers on the Hawaiian island, Blessed
Father Damian De Veuster.
Born in Heppenheim, Germany, she was christened
Barbara. She immigrated to New York in the United States when she was
three-years old,
and eventually became a U.S. citizen.
She belonged to the Sisters of the Third Order of
Saint Francis of Syracuse, New York. She held several positions of
responsibility, but gave her final testimony of charity working with
the lepers in the secluded
island community, where she died Aug. 9, 1918.
"Blessed Marianne loved those suffering from leprosy
more than she loved her very self. She served them, educated them, and
guided them
with wisdom, love and strength. She saw in them the suffering face of
Jesus,"
explained the cardinal.
"Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother.
She drew strength from her faith, the Eucharist, her devotion to our
blessed Mother,
and from prayer. She did not seek earthly honors or approval. She
wrote:
'I do not expect a high place in heaven. I will be very grateful to
have
a little corner where I can love God for all eternity,'" he stated.
The cardinal described Ascensión of the Heart
of Jesus, co-founder of the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary,
dedicated to the evangelization of the Amazonian tribes, as "one of the
great missionaries of the past century."
"She made frequent apostolic trips to Peru and
Europe, and even went to China. She had the temper of an intrepid and
tireless fighter,
as well as a maternal tenderness capable of conquering hearts," he said.
Born Florentina Nicol Goñi in Tafalla, Spain,
she eventually entered the congregation of Dominican Sisters of the
Third Order of Huesca. She was a teacher and directress of the school
adjacent to the convent.
At 45, she traveled as a missionary to Peru, where
she helped Dominican Bishop Ramón Zubieta in the foundation of
the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary, of whom she was the
first general superior. She died in Pamplona, Spain, Feb. 24, 1940.
Cardinal Saraiva Martins announced that Benedict XVI
set the feast day of Marianne of Molokai on Jan. 23, and that of
Ascensión of the Heart of Jesus on Feb. 24.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Blessed Elisabetta Hesselblad Hailed for Wartime Aid to Jews
Religious Founder Proclaimed "Righteous Among The
Nations"
ROME, MAY 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Blessed Elisabetta
Hesselblad, founder of the Order of Our Most Holy Savior of St.
Bridget, was proclaimed "Righteous Among the Nations" for helping Jews
in Rome during World War II.
The medal awarded to the Swede will be given on June
3 to her successor as general abbess of the Order, Mother Maria Tekla
Famiglietti, by Shai Cohen, adviser of the Israeli Embassy.
The Yad Vashem remembrance authority in Israel,
grants the title of Righteous Among the Nations to non-Jews who risked
their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
The award ceremony in the Chancery Palace will be
attended by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Vatican
Secretariat of State;
Walter Veltroni, mayor of Rome; Swedish ambassadors; and relatives of
the
blessed.
Mother Hesselblad, a Lutheran convert to
Catholicism, founded
the religious order in 1911. Today the order has spread to 16
countries. Pope
John Paul II beatified her on April 9, 2000.
The religious lived in Rome during the German
occupation of Italy. Her residence as general abbess of the order was
St. Bridget's Convent
in Piazza Farnese.
After moving because of the Nazi occupation, the
Roman Jewish families Piperno and Sed decided to return to the Eternal
City on Sept.
8, 1943, and sought refuge in St. Bridget's Convent.
Mother Hesselblad hid them and also took care that
they not be compelled to attend Christian prayers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An extraordinary Roman girl, Antionetta Meo.
Buried in the Church of the Holy Cross, she is
recognized as a "servant of God," the first step toward sainthood.
Antonietta, or "Nennolina" as her family called her,
was like most any little girl except for her precocious and deep love
of Jesus. She was born on Dec. 15, 1930, and baptized on the feast of
the Holy Innocents. The date of her baptism turned out to be a
foreshadowing of her life. At age
5, she was diagnosed with cancer and at age 6 her leg was amputated.
Shortly
before her 7th birthday, she died.
What would appear to be a tragic story, takes on its
joyous tone through the letters of Nennolina. Even as she was learning
to write, her first letters were to Jesus.
One side of the room shows the possessions of any
little girl. Dolls, tea sets, school dresses neatly arrayed seem normal
enough until
one notices the cane by Nennolina's Sunday coat and remembers the
trauma
she suffered.
The other side of the room documents the rich,
intense and exemplary spiritual life of this little Christian soldier
who was confirmed just before she died. The same little girl who asked
God to "let me die before
I commit a mortal sin."
Nennolina would put her letters under a statue of
Jesus by her bed so "at night he could read them." The letters show her
acceptance of suffering as a mark of Jesus' favor. "I am happy that
Jesus sent me this
difficulty, it means I am his beloved," she wrote.
Offering up her lost leg to God for lost souls, she
begged Jesus to "give me many souls … to make them good so they can
come to heaven with you."
The little suffering girl wrote 105 letters to Jesus
and Mary, some in the awkward script of a young hand, some when she was
too ill
to write and dictated to her mother. In 1937, one letter found its way
to
Pope Pius XI.
It read, "Dear Jesus crucified, I love you so very
much! I want to be with you on Calvary. Dear Jesus, give me the
necessary strength to stand the pain which I offer to you for those who
have sinned."
The next day, the Pope sent a legate to bring his
apostolic blessing to Nennolina. Shortly after, she died.
Her example has not only provided much solace to
those suffering but has also spurred conversions. Her age, however, has
proved a
difficulty on her path to sainthood. Her bravery, faith and deep love
of
Christ continues, nonetheless, to set an example for those many times
her
age.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pope to Proclaim Cry of Abitene Martyrs
"We Cannot Live without Sunday!"
BARI, Italy, MAY 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- On his first
trip outside the province of Rome, Benedict XVI will make known to the
world the
message left by the martyrs of Abitene: "We cannot live without Sunday."
The martyrs' message is the theme of the 24th
Italian National
Eucharistic Congress, to be held in Bari May 21-29. The Pope will
preside
at the closing Mass, confirmed the Vatican.
Martyred in 303, the Christians lived in Abitene, a
city of the Roman province called "Africa Proconsularis," today's
Tunis. They were
victims of Emperor Diocletian's persecution, initiated after years of
relative
calm.
The emperor ordered that "the sacred texts and holy
testaments of the Lord and the divine Scriptures be found, so that they
could be burnt; the Lord's basilicas were to be pulled down; and the
celebration of sacred rites and holy reunions of the Lord were to be
prohibited" (Acts of the Martyrs,
I), explained the organizers of the eucharistic congress.
Disobeying the emperor's orders, a group of 49
Christians of Abitene (among them Senator Dativus, the priest
Saturninus, the virgin Victoria, and the reader Emeritus) gathered
weekly in one of their homes to
celebrate Sunday Mass.
Taken by surprise during one of the meetings in
Ottavio Felice's home, they were arrested and taken to Carthage to
Proconsul Anulinus to be interrogated.
When the Proconsul asked them if they kept the
Scriptures in their homes, the martyrs answered courageously that "they
kept them in
their hearts," revealing that they did not wish to separate faith from
life.
"I implore you, Christ, hear me," "I thank you, O
God," "I implore you, Christ, have mercy" were exclamations uttered by
the martyrs during their torment. Along with their prayers they offered
their lives and
asked that their executioners be forgiven.
Among the testimonies, is that of Emeritus, who
affirmed fearlessly that he received Christians for the celebration.
The Proconsul asked him: "Why have you received Christians in your
home, transgressing the
imperial dispositions?"
"Sine dominico non possumus" ("We cannot live
without Sunday"),
answered Emeritus.
"The term 'dominicum' has a triple meaning. It
indicates the Lord's day, but also refers to what constitutes its
content -- his resurrection
and presence in the eucharistic event," explained the congress'
organizers.
The motive of martyrdom "must not be sought in the
sole observance of a 'precept,'" as "in that period the Church had not
yet established in a formal way the Sunday precept," noted Monsignor
Vito Angiuli, pro-vicar of the Archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, in last
Sunday's edition of the Vatican daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano.
"Deep down was the conviction that Sunday Mass is a
constitutive element of one's Christian identity and that there is no
Christian life without
Sunday and without the Eucharist," he stressed.
This is clearly appreciated, he said, in the
"commentary that the writer of the Acts of the Martyrs made to the
question posed by the
Proconsul to martyr Felice: 'I am not asking you if you are a
Christian, but
if you have taken part in the assembly or if you have a book of the
Scriptures,"
he stressed.
"O foolish and ridiculous question of the judge!"
states the commentary of the acts. "As if a Christian could be without
the Sunday Eucharist, or the Sunday Eucharist could be celebrated
without there being a Christian! Don't you know, Satan, that it is the
Sunday Eucharist which makes the Christian and the Christian that makes
the Sunday Eucharist, so
that one cannot subsist without the other, and vice versa?"
"When you hear someone say 'Christian,' know that
there is an assembly that celebrates the Lord; and when you hear
someone say 'assembly,'
know that a Christian is there," concludes the quotation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
book review by Edmund Campion
Life of Eileen O'Connor; Waterhole of Hope;
Sacred Space
by John Hosie
You may start getting ready for another Australian
saint. The appearance of John Hosie's biography Eileen: The Life of
Eileen O'Connor
(Sydney: St Paul's $29.95) is a signal that the Brown Sisters have
recharged
their drive to see their co-founder canonised. It's a fascinating
story.
Church history is often an account of the quarrels of good people; but
in
its purest form it is a saga of the saints. Spilled from a pram at the
age
of three, Eileen O'Connor suffered an extreme curvature of the spine
that
kept her in pain and often in bed for much of her short life. Her
twisted
body refused to grow; all her life she was just over one metre in
height.
Eileen offered her suffering as a prayer for the missionary work of the
church.
Then a real life missionary came into her life,
Father Ted McGrath MSC, the local priest who brought her Holy
Communion, and a spark
ignited between them. They began to dream a great dream that would join
them
together for eternity. At the time - this was early in the 20th century
-
social services for the very poor were limited. There were hospitals
such
as St Vincent's where the poor could find a place but often the sick
and
disabled poor just stayed at home and rotted. But what if, Eileen and
Father
Ted dreamed, you could inspire some nurses to devote their lives to
caring
for the poor "and the poor only" in their own homes. And so, just as
World
War I was about to start, Our Lady's Nurses for the Poor came into
being.
They were nurses, not nuns, wearing a washable white
nurse's uniform with a brown hat and a brown cloak (St Joseph's colour)
- so Sydneysiders called them the Brown Nurses and later the Brown
Sisters. They lived in a
home, not a convent, and the heart of their home was the invalid Eileen
O'Connor
whom they called their "little mother". She liked games and laughter
and
picnics and playing with her dog, Rags. She ate little but was addicted
to
tea, so that taking tea with her was always an occasion, almost
Japanese in
its rituals. Personally she was very close to her nurses, teaching them
to
pray and giving them points for daily meditation and keeping their
hearts pure. When they left the home each morning, it was to serve
Christ in the poor; and when they returned in the evening it was to
Eileen's bedside, to
discuss their work and to be encouraged by her.
That home of theirs, however, became a cause of
heartbreak. Among their earliest supporters were a well-off brother and
sister, the Gells.
Father Edward Gell, parish priest of Ryde in Sydney, was a graduate of
Propaganda
Fide College, Rome, the training school for future bishops, so not
easily
spooked by church authorities (although he met his match when Norman
Gilroy
came to town - but that's another story). He and his sister Frances put
up
the money to buy a home for the nurses in Coogee, a seaside suburb.
They
put ownership in the names of Eileen and Father Ted. Hello? Father Ted
was
a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, a priest with a vow of poverty.
Unlike
Father Gell, an unvowed secular priest, he could not own property. Thus
when
an enforcer from head office came out to Australia to smarten up the
Missionaries,
he quickly got onto Father Ted's case. Take your name off those title
deeds,
he told Eileen's co-founder. No way, said the young priest. Well, then,
off
to Tasmania you go.
The story now becomes somewhat operatic. Father Ted
does go to Tasmania but Eileen, thinking he might be losing his
vocation, goes after him. Then they travel back to Sydney, where Father
Gell invites them to join him on a Pacific cruise. On their return
Father Ted is convicted of
disobedience and the canonical crime of "flight with a woman" and he is
expelled
from the Missionaries. I'll appeal to Rome, he responds. Eileen says,
I'll
go with you - when they see me they'll know this "flight with a woman"
business
is absurd; I'm no sex object - as a later age might put it. Afterwards
it
all went pearshaped. Father Ted got back into the Missionaries all
right,
but he was exiled from Australia and posted to the United States. On
her
return to Sydney, Eileen was given the cold shoulder by church
authorities and the Catholic gossip mill ground her small. She and
Father Ted had a couple
of furtive meetings - one notably in Bombay, whither she sailed from
Sydney,
Father Ted, by then a WWI military chaplain, coming from Basra in Iraq,
or
Mesopotamia as it was then called. Under these conditions the survival
of
the Brown Nurses may be thought providential.
They have been well served by historians. I first
got to
know their story when one of my students did an assignment on them 20
years
ago. (Frank Jones, where are you?) He led me to a useful booklet by the
fine
MSC historian John F McMahon and I wrote about Eileen and Father Ted in
a
Jesuit magazine, collected in Great Australian Catholics. Next, in
1992,
came a capacious book by Tom Boland, the Brisbane priest who has
written
good biographies of Archbishops Carr and Duig. He took the story
through
to Eileen's death, in 1921; the church's recognition of the Nurses as a
religious
congregation, in 1953; the return of Father Ted to the Home at Coogee,
in
1969; and his death there at the age of 96. Now John Hosie has put
another
good biography alongside these. More information has emerged since Dr
Boland
wrote. It's a sensational story yet John Hosie does not sensationalise
it.
He is quite matter-of-fact about various supernatural manifestations -
attacks
by Satan, appearances by the Blessed Virgin Mary, the discovery that
Eileen's
body was incorrupt fifteen years after her death - manifestations a
less
temperate writer could not have resisted shouting about.
Church authority is a necessary part of Eileen
O'Connor's story, as it is of another story, a quite different one,
that I've been reading
lately. A few kilometres outside the NSW provincial city of Goulburn
there's
a property which was once a Catholic orphanage and is now a "House of
Prayer".
It's mentioned in Michael McGirr's Bypass (see Online Catholics No 19)
and
when I was in Melbourne I found a book on it tucked into a bottom shelf
and
the Catholic Bookshop: Waterhole of Hope by Annie Patterson, published
by
Spectrum in Melbourne three years ago. (One of the problems of being an
historian
of the grassroots is that much of your source material can be evasive.)
It's
a big book, really two books; a ruminative memoir by the "founder", Sue
Gordon
Woods, and a parallel account of the House's first 25 years. A big book
but
a good one, especially if you come from a more structured environment
for
then it will give you a shake and maybe get you thinking about how your
life
has run. Through the quarter century there were three archbishops who
had
ultimate oversight of the House of Prayer, Thomas Vincent Cahill,
Edward
Bede Clancy and Francis Patrick Carroll - three very different
individuals,
each charged to make or delay difficult decisions that would impact on
the
life of the House. What struck me about this was the constant
understanding
and sympathy and - shall I say? - love Sue Gordon Walker and her
companions
showed towards their bishops. It's not the sort of thing that makes the
news
but nonetheless it's a reality of our story.
One of the things that puzzled me about the House of
Prayer was how they actually prayed. Oh, they go off to Mass and make
retreats and
share biblical insights and meditate on the Bible and all that; but
when
I put the book down I found it difficult to imagine what prayer life in
the
House might be like. This line of thought was teasing me because, also
in
Melbourne, I'd met a woman called Michelle Anderson. She's started her
own
publishing house, led to it by her own need. An alumna of a Loreto
school,
she found herself seeking spiritual sustenance; and so discovered
www.sacredspace.ie,
the website run by the Irish Jesuits to meet the modern hunger for a
prayer
life that nourishes. Good stuff, she found. Coming from a background in
publishing,
her next thought was - BOOK: had anyone thought of turning this
wonderful
website into a book? And the answer was no. So we have Sacred Space:
The
Prayer Book 2005 (Melbourne: Michelle Anderson Publishing: $24.95). It
follows
the church's liturgical year, which means that Page One is about to
start.
As I was looking at this, the postman brought the latest copy of
Madonna,
the Jesuit spirituality magazine and I found that they have seen it
too.
I'll borrow two of their sentences: "This is a book to help everyday
prayer
go more sweetly and to help you find unexpected space for God each day.
It
offers prayers for each day of the year, with reflections on prayer set
within
a standard weekly format, the gospel reading, and a few questions about
the reading." Amen to that.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Young Politician and Engineer "of Charity” to be
Beatified
Catholic Action's Alberto Marvelli Is on His Way to
the Altar
VATICAN CITY, SEPT 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- When John
Paul II beatifies Italian engineer Alberto Marvelli (1918-1946) of
Catholic Action
this Sunday, he will give the universal Church an exemplary figure for
young
people and politicians.
The characteristics of the future blessed were
highlighted on Monday by Archbishop Angelo Comastri of Loreto, who
described him as "a
youth who made himself a saint as a youth." Marvelli "reminds us that
youth
is not the age of rashness, nor the age ... to waste time; it is not
the
age of whims and amusements," said the archbishop.
"Youth is the most beautiful time in which good can
be done. St. Philip Neri said to the young people of his time: 'Lucky
you, young
people, who have so much time to do good!" Alberto Marvelli, whom John
Paul
II described as the "engineer of charity," understood "this well and
reminds
young people precisely of this truth," the archbishop added on Vatican
Radio.
Marvelli was also "a young Christian involved in
politics," where "he left a sign of cleanness, transparency, dignity,
correctness, which
is a great message for all politicians today. One can be in politics
and
be a saint, and this is a very great message that comes from the life
of
Alberto Marvelli," the prelate emphasized.
A native of Ferrara, Italy, he was born on March 21,
1918. Marvelli participated in the Salesian "Oratorio" and in Catholic
Action, where
his faith matured in a decisive option: "My program of life is
summarized in one word: holiness," he said.
Of a strong and determined character, and a great
lover of sports, especially cycling, Marvelli prayed, taught
catechesis, and expressed
apostolic zeal, charity, and serenity, according to the biography
issued
by the Holy See. He chose Pier Giorgio Frassati (1901-1925) as the
model
of his youth. Frassati was a member of Italian Catholic Action,
beatified by John Paul II in 1990.
When Marvelli finished his university studies in
mechanical engineering in 1941, he joined the army during World War II,
a conflict he
firmly condemned. He was discharged as three of his brothers were at
the
front. He then worked for a brief period for FIAT, Italian automobile
company,
in Turin.
Following the events that led to the fall of Fascism
and the German occupation of Italy in 1943, Marvelli returned to his
home in Rimini.
During the war he did much work for the poor and was
very active in the post war reconstruction of his city.
At that time, the future blessed even went without
shoes, giving his own to the needy. He would go on his bicycle to take
food and spiritual
solace to refugees in hiding, witnesses said during the beatification
process.
Marvelli also rescued many young people from
deportation during the German occupation. After the city was liberated
on Sept. 23, 1945,
he was only 26 and one of the advisers of the first junta of the
liberation
committee.
He was put in charge of housing in the city, and
later reconstruction. At one point Marvelli wrote: "To serve is better
than to be
served. Jesus serves."
When political parties re-surfaced in Rimini,
Marvelli registered as a Christian Democrat, living "his political
commitment as a
service to organized society: political activity could and should be
transformed
in the highest _expression of lived faith," the Holy See biography
notes.
In 1945, the Bishop of Rimini asked him to direct
Catholic professionals. His commitment can be summarized in two words:
culture and charity. He also founded a popular university and opened a
soup kitchen for
the poor, where he himself served and listened to their needs. As
co-founder of Italian Workers' Catholic Action, he formed a cooperative
for construction workers.
He showed his genuine love for the Eucharist in a
continuous relationship, from where he drew the strength "to carry out
his work of redemption
and liberation, capable of humanizing the face of the earth," the Holy
See
emphasized.
Marvelli died on Oct. 5, 1946, when a military truck
hit him while he was riding his bicycle to a polling station (he was
one of the
candidates in the election for the first communal administration). He
was
28.
On Sunday, Sept. 5, in addition to Alberto Marvelli,
John Paul II will beatify two other outstanding figures of Catholic
Action: young
Italian lay woman Pina Suriano and Spanish priest Pere Tarres i Claret.
-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Paul II Will Beatify Pere Tarres i Claret
Ecclesiastical Adviser to Catholic Action in Spain
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Pere
Tarres i
Claret was a doctor, a priest, an apostle, a formator of youth and he
will
be beatified this Sunday by John Paul II in Loreto.
As a young student and doctor, the future blessed
already walked "on the paths of holiness." As a priest, "he dedicated
himself to intense
pastoral activity" and, in particular, to the "formation of the youth
of
Catholic Action," highlighted Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of
the
Congregation for Sainthood Causes, in his decree last June that opened
the
doors to the imminent beatification.
An ecclesiastical adviser of Catholic Action, Pere
Tarres i Claret was "a great educator, say those who knew him: he knew
how to teach
to love," acknowledged Italian Catholic Action.
A native of the city of Manresa, near Barcelona,
Spain, Father Claret was born on May 30, 1905. He studied at the
faculty of medicine of the University of Barcelona. While living in
this city, he frequented St.
Philip Neri's Oratory.
He was a member, with great apostolic zeal, of the
Catalonian Federation of Christian Youth. Both in the federation as
well as in Catholic Action he worked in several posts simultaneously.
He made a vow of chastity at 22 with the approval of his spiritual
director.
In 1928, after completing medical school, he
established himself definitively in Barcelona. Together with his
friend, Dr. Gerardo Manresa,
he founded the sanatorium-clinic of Our Lady of Mercy in that city.
During the disturbing period of the Spanish Civil
War, as a refugee in Barcelona, he secretly took communion to the
persecuted. He
also acted as a field doctor, heroically looking after numerous
wounded, and
did not miss an occasion to manifest his faith.
He returned home from the front in 1939, and entered
the Seminary of Barcelona that same year. He was ordained a priest on
May 30, 1942.
The future blessed was entrusted with many pastoral
activities in his short eight years as a priest. Among the offices he
held were that of diocesan vice-assistant of Catholic Action youth in
Barcelona and assistant of the association's center for women and youth
in the parish of St. Vincent of Sarria.
In 1945 he wrote in his diary that he felt
"submerged in
the ocean of the apostolate, as he had dreamed about for so long, with
the
same fire and enthusiasm that he felt as a lay person for the
federation" of Christian Youth.
After three months of a painful illness, Pere Tarres
i Claret died at 45 in the clinic he had founded on Aug. 31, 1950.
In addition to Father Claret, John Paul II will
beatify on Sunday two other outstanding figures of Catholic Action:
young lay Italians Pina Suriano (1915-1950), and Alberto Marvelli
(1918-1946).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Czeslaw Milosz - a life infused with faith
Jo Siedlecka
The Nobel Prize-winning poet Czeslaw Milosz, died at
his home in Krakow, Poland on Saturday. He was 93.
Best known as a poet, Milosz also wrote novels and
dozens of essays. His translations of Polish writers introduced many
foreign readers to the literature of his homeland. His poems were an
inspiration to the Solidarity
trade union movement fighting the communist regime in Poland in the
1970s
and '80s.
Faith infused all his writing. A committed Catholic,
Milosz was drawn to the Book of Job, where suffering tests a man's
faith in God but
does not break it. Milosz translated many books of the Bible from
Hebrew and
New Testament Greek into Polish. His favourite books were Psalms, Job
and
Revelations.
Professor Robert Faggen, from Claremont McKenna
College in California who edited Striving Toward Being: The Letters of
Merton and Milosz (1997) said: "He had a profound understanding of the
history of religion
and the Christian church. One of the questions he would always be
asking
is: 'How could a just and good God have created a world so filled with
cruelty
and torture?' "
Professor Faggen said: "He is without question one
of the
heroic figures of 20th century poetry, although 'heroic' was a mantle
he
shunned. At the Solidarity monument in Gdansk, you have icons of three
figures:
Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II and Milosz."
Faggen said the Pope and the poet began
corresponding over
Milosz's treatise on theology and its justifications of evil.
"One of the things the Pope said to him was: "In
your poetry,
you take two steps forward and one step back.'" Czeslaw replied: 'Holy
Father,
how in this century can I do otherwise?' "
Born in what is now Lithuania, Milosz moved to
Poland and
survived the Nazi occupation during World War II and the Soviet
takeover that
followed. His poetry gave witness, creating a literary record filled
with
anger and irony but not despair.
Milosz credited French wartime philosopher Simone
Weil for teaching him to live with contradiction. He wrote about this
conflict in several poems. Explaining his own rationale for the
existence of God, he
said: "It's not up to me to know anything about heaven or hell. But in
this
world, there is too much ugliness and horror. So there must be,
somewhere,
goodness and truth. And that means somewhere God must be."
Paying tribute to Milosz, Lech Walesa, former Polish
president and Solidarity leader said: ""He inspired, encouraged and
strengthened us.
He belonged to the generation of princes, great personalities."
Czeslaw Milosz is survived by two sons. His first
wife, Janina, died in 1986. His second wife, Carol, died in 2003.
Although he was ill, Milosz kept writing until
shortly before his death. In a poem called 'Meaning' he wrote in 1991:
When I die, I will see the lining of the world
The other side, beyond bird, mountain, sunset
The true meaning, ready to be decoded.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEW ROMAN MARTYROLOGY
LISTS
7,000 SAINTS AND BLESSEDS
VATICAN CITY, JAN 4, 2005 (VIS) - In Rome at the
beginning of last month, the second edition of the Roman Martyrology
was presented. The new Martyrology is an updated list not, as the name
might suggest, of
martyrs, but of all the saints and blesseds venerated by the Church.
The latest edition of the Martyrology was
presented during an event promoted by the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline
of the Sacraments to commemorate the conciliar constitution on
liturgical
reform "Sacrosanctum Concilium", promulgated on December 4, 1963.
The new edition contains certain differences
with respect to the earlier edition, which was published in 2001 and
was the first
since Vatican Council II. A number of typographical errors have been
corrected
and the 117 people canonized or beatified between 2001 and 2004 have
been
added. Moreover, many saints, mostly Italian-Greek monks, whose names
have
not thus far been listed in the Martyrology but who are effectively
much
venerated, especially in southern of Italy, have also been included.
The updated Martyrology contains 7,000 saints
and blesseds currently venerated by the Church, and whose cult is
officially recognized
and proposed to the faithful as models worthy of imitation.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Lion of Munster” opposed Nazi Euthanasia and
Persecution of Jews
Clemens Augustus von Galen To Be Beatified
MUNSTER, Germany, OCT. 22, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The
heroic virtues of the Servant of God Clemens Augustus von Galen
(1878-1946), better known as the "Lion of Munster," were recognized on
Dec. 20, 2003.
Last Year the medical-theological Commission had
already recognized the validity of a miracle. Now it corresponds to
bishops and cardinals
to endorse the cause of beatification. Once this step is taken, the
Holy
Father will sign the decree and decide the date of the beatification
ceremony.
Clemens Augustus, Count von Galen, belonged to the
noble family of Spee. His uncle, Wilhelm von Ketteler was a well-known
bishop of
Mainz. After completing his studies and obtaining excellent results, he
was
ordained a priest and on Sept. 5, 1933 appointed bishop of Munster.
During the whole Nazi period, he raised his voice in
defense of the rights of the Church, the poor, the Jews, and the sick.
He energetically opposed the spread of Nazi paganism.
His homilies of the summer of 1941 became famous,
which brought him to the brink of being arrested and condemned to
death. Von Galen
protested forcefully against euthanasia, the seizure of monasteries and
convents,
the expulsion of religious and the persecution of Jews.
Especially effective was von Galen's offensive
against Hitler's euthanasia program.
In a homily opposing euthanasia, von Galen said:
"Never, for any reason, can a man kill an innocent if it is not in war
or for legitimate defense." "If the principle by which we can kill our
non-productive brothers is affirmed and accepted, calamities and
misfortunes will strike us when we
are old and weak!"
The bishop of Munster added in the homily: "If we
allow one of us to kill those who are non-productive, misfortune will
strike the
invalid who exhausted and sacrificed themselves, and lost their health
and
strength in the productive process."
"If we even once accept the principle of the right
to kill
our non-productive brothers -- even if it is limited from the start to
the
poor and defenseless mentally ill --, then by this principle murder
becomes
admissible for all non-productive beings, the incurably ill, those made
invalid
at work or in war, and ourselves, when we are old, weak and so not
productive."
"Arriving at this point, the life of none of us will
be safe. Any commission can include us in the list of the
non-productive," von
Galen alerted.
"No police, no court will investigate our murder, or
punish the murderer as he deserves."
"Who will be able to trust a doctor? He could
classify his patient as non-productive and receive instructions to kill
him."
"It is impossible to imagine the abysses of moral
depravity and general mistrust, even in the family realm, to which we
would descend if such a horrible doctrine were tolerated, accepted, and
put into practice," von Galen concluded.
The homily was reproduced in leaflets which were
dropped by Britain's Royal Air Force over Germany.
Von Galen's resistance to the Nazi euthanasia
programs was kept up by other priests, among them the Provost of Berlin
Cathedral, Bernhard Lichtenberg.
Lichtenberg was arrested, tried and condemned in
October 1941. He died in 1943 on the way to Dachau. John Paul II raised
him to the
honor of the altar on June 23, 1996.
Von Galen's homilies had great impact among the
wounded soldiers returning from the battlefront. Many of them, in fact,
thought they
would be eliminated in the euthanasia program.
Despite his efforts, von Galen's courageous
opposition did not stop the horror machine. Hitler announced publicly
that he had put
an end to the euthanasia program on Aug. 24, 1941, but the programs to
eliminate
the weak, the sick and non-Aryans continued.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Statue Unveiled to Italian Franciscan Who Saved Many
From Nazi Persecution
Inauguration Took Place in the Basilica of St.
Anthony of Padua
PADUA, Italy, OCT. 22, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A bust of
Father Placido Cortese, known for his efforts to save numerous people
from Nazi persecution,
was unveiled in the Basilica of St. Anthony of Padua.
Born Nicolo Cortese di Cherso and called Father
Placido by his brothers in the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, he was
director of
the magazine "St. Anthony's Messenger."
According to Father Apollonio Tottoli, the priest’s
biographer, Father Placido "did not look like a hero. He was small and
thin. But he had
amazing courage and determination to the point of facing martyrdom in
prayer."
At the height of the war, when the city of Padua was
occupied by the Nazis, Father Placido organized a network to rescue
prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. He saved the lives of
refugees, prisoners, Jewish and Slovenian persecuted politicians and
others.
Carlo Bolzonella, who knew him, said that "Father
Placido was an angel, he had amazing charity, he was a friar who was
truly all heart."
"I once saw him weep because he couldn't help all
those who were imploring him. He helped the Jews and to this end he
often asked me for two workers who later went on to Como and
Switzerland," he added.
When the Gestapo began to look for him, Father
Placido decided to stay in his monastery, which enjoyed papal
extraterritoriality.
Subsequently, on Oct. 8, 1944, with the pretext of
helping a person, he was lured out of the monastery and arrested by the
Nazis.
Some eyewitnesses say that during the
interrogations, despite
unheard of tortures, Father Placido assumed all responsibility and did
not
reveal the name of a single collaborator in the charity network.
Slovenian Colonel Vladimiro Vauhnih, head of the
pro-Allies information network, reported that "the Gestapo took out the
eyes of the religious,
cut his tongue off, and buried him alive."
Father Placido was 37 when he died. His cause of
beatification opened in January, 2002 in Trieste, the place where he
was tortured, whom people already call the "Paduan Father Kolbe."
The biography of the blessed is entitled "Father
Placido Cortese: Victim of Nazism," and is available in Italian from
Messaggero di
S.Antonio Editrice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marvelli, a Blessed in Jacket and Tie
Interview with Biographer of New Blessed
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 22, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Blessed
Alberto Marvelli is not what most would consider a traditional blessed:
he was a
young, athletic layman who often wore a jacket and tie.
In this interview, Professor Roberto Di Ceglie of
the Pontifical
Lateran University, explains to ZENIT how "faith and history" are
intertwined
in Marvelli who was proclaimed blessed a month ago in Loreto. He also
outlines
his personality and describes him as "athletic, responsible and
credible."
Professor Roberto Di Ceglie is co-author with
Natalino Valentini of a book on the new lay blessed entitled "Alberto
Marvelli: Fidelity
to God and Fidelity to History” published in Italian by Messaggero di
S.Antonio
Editrice. The book includes the minutes of a scientific congress
promoted
by the diocese of Rimini, Italy, this year.
Q: What does this contemporary young saint in a
jackete and tie have to say to the world?
Di Ceglie: A saint in a tie and jacket means the
Christian capacity to dress oneself with the clothing of history,
making it significant in the light of the pillars of faith, the
Eucharist, and prayer.
In other words, this clothing assumes its maximum
potentiality in the constant remembrance of the values of faith in a
God who himself is
involved in the first person in human affairs.
Q: Marvelli is among the most luminous figures of
Italian Catholicism. Why?
Di Ceglie: Because in him faith and history have
been united
in a marvelous way. This bond, which brings with it the splendor of a
life
lived to the fullest thanks to faith in Christ, finds in Marvelli an
_expression
of exceptional power: young, athletic, courageous, intelligent, able in
his
studies and successful at work, solid in his positions but respectful
of
diversity, attentive to the needs of others, determined to pursue
objectives
with obligation and responsibility, credible, sure.
Who would not be attracted by the fascination of
such a
figure? Luminous, without a doubt.
Q: Lay, young, saint: is it a path we will see
increasingly?
Di Ceglie: In each one of us, certainly, there is
the yearning
to see and meet saints. It is therefore desirable that holiness be
increasingly
allied to the condition of the laity, who can have the honor of living
it
in the context of daily life, in an authentic missionary spirit of
which
the need is increasingly noted.
And it turns out to be even more fascinating that
youth comes across such paths, because it is a symbol of freshness, of
openness to reality and, in a certain sense, of serene correspondence
with events and
history, still not vitiated, and if I am allowed the _expression,
foreign to a certain pedantry that at times comes with age.
In a word, it is a question of re-thinking, from
this point
of view, the spontaneity of the little ones, who not by chance Jesus
called
to be free to go to Him.
Q: Truth and charity, contemplation and action:
Marvelli is spoken about as an extraordinary example of faith and
history. How did he do it?
Di Ceglie: The fact of appreciating and developing
earthly realities is constitutive of Christianity.
Medieval culture combined the saying Gratia non
destruit naturam sed perficit, namely, that grace does not diminish but
empowers the
dignity of the things of the world in relationship to God who loves man
to
the point of sacrificing His Son for his salvation.
Marvelli's extraordinary experience is attributable,
undoubtedly, to an exceptional visibility of this relationship, which
finds its effective _expression in the capacity to combine faith,
politics, and ethics.
But beyond this particularity, we must say that in
general there is no holiness without this correspondence between faith
and history.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Paul II's Homily After Beatification of 5
persons
"Allowed Themselves to Be Guided by the Word of God"
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 3, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is a
translation of John Paul II's homily today, delivered during the solemn
Mass in which he proclaimed blessed Peter Vigne (1670-1740);
Joseph-Marie Cassant (1878-1903); Anna Katharina Emmerick (1774-1824);
María Ludovica De Angelis (1880-1962); and Charles I of Austria
(1887-1922).
* * *
1. "'Verbum Domini manet in aeternum' -- The Word of
the Lord remains for ever."
The exclamation of the Song of the Gospel refers us
to the very foundations of the faith. In the face of the passage of
time and the continual alterations of history, the revelation that God
has offered us in Christ remains stable forever and opens a horizon of
eternity on our
earthly journey.
This is what the five new blessed experienced in a
singular way: Peter Vigne, Joseph-Marie Cassant, Anna Katharina
Emmerick, María Ludovica De Angelis, Charles of Austria. They
allowed themselves to be guided
by the Word of God as by a luminous and sure light, which never failed
to
illuminate their path.
[In French]
2. By contemplating Christ present in the Eucharist
and in his salvific passion, Father Peter Vigne was led to be an
authentic disciple
and faithful missionary of the Church. May his example give the
faithful
the desire to draw audacity for the mission from the love of the
Eucharist
and adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament! Let us pray that he will
touch
the hearts of young people so that they will accept to consecrate
themselves
totally to him in the priesthood or religious life, if they are called
by
God. May the Church in France see in Father Vigne a model so that new
sowers
of the Gospel will arise.
3. Brother Joseph-Marie always put his trust in God,
in contemplation of the mystery of the passion, and in union with
Christ present in the Eucharist. In this way, he was permeated with the
love of God, abandoning himself to him, "sole happiness on earth," and
detaching himself from the goods of the world in the silence of a
Trappist monastery. In the midst of
trials, with his eyes fixed on Christ, he offered his sufferings for
the
Lord and the Church. May our contemporaries, in particular the
contemplatives and the sick, discover, following his example, the
mystery of prayer, which raises the world to God and gives strength in
trials!
[In Spanish]
4. "God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a
spirit of power and love and self-control."
These words of St. Paul invite us to collaborate in
the building of the Kingdom of God, from the perspective of faith. They
may well
be applied to the life of Blessed Ludovica De Angelis, whose life was
totally
consecrated to the glory of God and the service of her fellowmen.
Prominent in her figure are the heart of a mother,
her leadership qualities, and the very audacity of saints. She had a
concrete and generous love for sick children, enduring sacrifices to
alleviate them; for her collaborators at the La Plata Hospital she was
a model of joy and responsibility, creating a family atmosphere; for
her sisters in the community, she was a genuine example of a Daughter
of Our Lady of Mercy. In all this, she was sustained by prayer, making
of her life a continuous communication with the Lord.
[In German]
5. Blessed Anna Katharina Emmerick showed and
experienced in her own flesh "the bitter passion of Our Lord Jesus
Christ." The fact that,
from being the daughter of poor peasants, who constantly sought
closeness to God, she became the famous "mystic of Muenster" is a work
of divine grace.
Her material poverty is contrasted with her rich interior life. As much
as
by her patience to endure her physical weaknesses, we are impressed by
the
strength of character of the new blessed and her firmness in the faith.
She received this strength from the Holy Eucharist.
In this way, her example opened the hearts of poor and rich men,
educated and
humble people, to complete loving passion toward Jesus Christ. Still
today
she communicates to all the salvific message: "By his wounds you have
been
healed" (see 1 Peter 2:24).
6. The decisive duty of the Christian is in seeking
the will of God in everything, in knowing it and carrying it out. This
daily challenge
was addressed by the man of state and Christian Charles, of the House
of
Austria. He was a friend of peace. In his eyes, war was "something
horrible."
Ascending the throne in the midst of the storm of the First World War,
he
tried to take up the peace initiative of my predecessor Benedict XV.
From the beginning, Emperor Charles understood his
task of sovereign as a holy service to peoples. His first need, in his
political conduct, was to follow the call of Christians to holiness.
That is why he
considered the idea of social love important. May he always be a model
for
us all, in particular for those today who have a political
responsibility in Europe!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles I of Austria: a Eucharistic Soul
Peace Was a Top Commitment
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 1, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Vatican
press office issued this biography of Charles I of Austria (1887-1922),
who will be beatified this Sunday.
* * *
Charles of Austria was born August 17, 1887, in the
Castle of Persenbeug in the region of Lower Austria. His parents were
the Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony, daughter of
the last King of
Saxony. Emperor Francis Joseph I was Charles' Great Uncle.
Charles was given an expressly Catholic education
and the
prayers of a group of persons accompanied him from childhood, since a
stigmatic
nun prophesied that he would undergo great suffering and attacks would
be
made against him. That is how the "League of prayer of the Emperor
Charles
for the peace of the peoples" originated after his death. In 1963 it
became
a prayer community ecclesiastically recognized.
A deep devotion to the Holy Eucharist and to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus began to grow in Charles. He turned to prayer
before making any important decisions.
On October 21, 1911, he married Princess Zita of
Bourbon and Parma. The couple was blessed with eight children during
the ten years of their happy and exemplary married life. Charles still
declared to Zita on his deathbed: "I'll love you forever."
Charles became heir to the throne of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire on June 28, 1914, following the assassination
of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand.
World War I was under way and with the death of the
Emperor Francis Joseph, on November 21, 1916, Charles became Emperor of
Austria. On
December 30th he was crowned apostolic King of Hungary.
Charles envisaged this office also as a way to
follow Christ:
in the love and care of the peoples entrusted to him, and in dedicating
his
life to them.
He placed the most sacred duty of a king -- a
commitment to peace -- at the center of his preoccupations during the
course of the terrible
war. He was the only one among political leaders to support Benedict
XV's
peace efforts.
As far as domestic politics are concerned, despite
the extremely difficult times he initiated wide and exemplary social
legislation, inspired by social Christian teaching.
Thanks to his conduct, the transition to a new order
at the end of the conflict was made possible without a civil war. He
was, however,
banished from his country.
The Pope feared the rise of Communist power in
central Europe, and expressed the wish that Charles reestablish
the authority of his government in Hungary. But two attempts failed,
since above all Charles
wished to avoid the outbreak of a civil war.
Charles was exiled to the island of Madeira. Since
he considered
his duty as a mandate from God, he could not abdicate his office.
Reduced to poverty, he lived with his family in a
very humid house. He then fell fatally ill and accepted this as a
sacrifice for
the peace and unity of his peoples.
Charles endured his suffering without complaining.
He forgave
all those who conspired against him and died on April 1, 1922 with his
eyes
turned toward the Holy Sacrament. On his deathbed he repeated the motto
of
his life: "I strive always in all things to understand as clearly as
possible
and follow the will of God, and this in the most perfect way."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anna Katharina Emmerick, Mystic of the Passion
She Bore the Wounds of Christ
VATICAN CITY, OCT. 1, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is the
biography issued by the Holy See of Anna Katharina Emmerick,
(1774-1824), who will be
beatified this Sunday.
* * *
Anna Katharina Emmerick was born on September 8,
1774, in the farming community of Flamsche near Coesfeld. She grew up
amidst a
host of nine brothers and sisters. She had to help out in the house and
with
the farm work at an early age. Her school attendance was brief, which
made
it all the more remarkable that she was well instructed in religious
matters.
Her parents and all those who knew Anna Katharina noticed early on that
she
felt drawn to prayer and to the religious life in a special way.
Anna Katharina labored for three years on a large
farm in the vicinity. Then she learned to sew and stayed in Coesfeld
for her further
training. She loved to visit the old churches in Coesfeld and to join
in
the celebration of Mass. She often walked the path of Coesfeld's long
Way
of the Cross alone, praying the stations by herself.
Anna Katharina wanted to enter the convent, but
since her
wish could not be fulfilled at that time, she returned to her parental
home.
She worked as a seamstress and, while doing so, visited many homes.
Anna Katharina asked for admission to different
convents, but she was rejected because she could not bring a
significant dowry with her. The Poor Clares in Münster finally
agreed to accept her if she would
learn to play the organ. She received her parents' permission to be
trained
in Coesfeld by the organist Söntgen. But she never got around to
learning
how to play the organ. The misery and poverty in the Söntgen
household
prompted her to work in the house and help out in the family. She even
sacrificed
her small savings for their sake.
Together with her friend Klara Söntgen Anna
Katharina was finally able to enter the convent of Agnetenberg in
Dülmen in 1802.
The following year she took her religious vows. She participated
enthusiastically
in the life of the convent. She was always willing to take on hard work
and
loathsome tasks. Because of her impoverished background she was at
first
given little respect in the convent. Some of the Sisters took offence
at
her strict observance of the order's rule and considered her a
hypocrite.
Anna Katharina bore this pain in silence and quiet submission.
From 1802 to 1811 Anna Katharina was ill quite often
and had to endure great pain.
As a result of secularization the convent of
Agnetenberg was suppressed in 1811, and Anna Katharina had to leave the
convent along with the others. She was taken in as a housekeeper at the
home of Abbé Lambert, a priest who had fled France and lived in
Dülmen. But she soon
became ill. She was unable to leave the house and was confined to bed.
In
agreement with Curate Lambert she had her younger sister Gertrud come
to
take over the housekeeping under her direction.
During this period Anna Katharina received the
stigmata. She had already endured the pain of the stigmata for a long
time. The fact that she bore the wounds of Christ could not remain
hidden. Dr. Franz Wesener, a young doctor, went to see her, and he was
so impressed by her that he became
a faithful, selfless and helping friend during the following eleven
years.
He kept a diary about his contacts with Anna Katharina Emmerick in
which
he recorded a wealth of details.
A striking characteristic of the life of Anna
Katharina was her love for people. Wherever she saw need she tried to
help. Even in
her sickbed she sewed clothes for poor children and was pleased when
she
could help them in this way. Although she could have found her many
visitors
annoying, she received all of them kindly. She embraced their concerns
in
her prayers and gave them encouragement and words of comfort.
Many prominent people who were important in the
renewal movement of the Church at the beginning of the 19th century
sought an opportunity to meet Anna Katharina, among them Clemens August
Droste zu Vischering, Bernhard
Overberg, Friedrich Leopold von Stolberg, Johann Michael Sailer,
Christian
and Clemens Brentano, Luise Hensel, Melchior and Apollonia Diepenbrock.
The encounter with Clemens Brentano was particularly
significant. His first visit led him to stay in Dülmen for five
years. He visited Anna Katharina daily to record her visions which he
later published.
Anna Katharina grew ever weaker during the summer of
1823. As always she joined her suffering to the suffering of Jesus and
offered it
up for the salvation of all. She died on February 9, 1824.
Anna Katharina Emmerick was buried in the cemetery
in Dülmen.
A large number of people attended the funeral. Because of a rumor that
her
corpse had been stolen the grave was reopened twice in the weeks
following
the burial. The coffin and the corpse were found to be intact.
Clemens Brentano wrote the following about Anna
Katharina Emmerick: "She stands like a cross by the wayside." Anna
Katharina Emmerick shows us the center of our Christian faith, the
mystery of the cross.
The life of Anna Katharina Emmerick is marked by her
profound closeness to Christ. She loved to pray before the famous
Coesfeld Cross, and
she walked the path of the long Way of the Cross frequently. So great
was
her personal participation in the sufferings of our Lord that it is not
an
exaggeration to say that she lived, suffered and died with Christ. An
external
sign of this, which is at the same time, however, more than just a
sign,
are the wounds of Christ which she bore.
Anna Katharina Emmerick was a great admirer of Mary.
The feast of the Nativity of Mary was also Anna Katharina's birthday. A
verse from a prayer to Mary highlights a further aspect of Anna
Katharina's life for us. The prayer states, "O God, let us serve the
work of salvation following the example of the faith and the love of
Mary." To serve the work of salvation -- that is what Anna Katharina
wanted to do.
In Colossians the apostle Paul speaks of two ways to
serve the gospel, to serve salvation. One consists in the active
proclamation in
word and deed. But what if that is no longer possible? Paul, who
obviously finds himself in such a situation, writes: "Now I rejoice in
my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking
in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church"
(Colossians 1:24).
Anna Katharina Emmerick served salvation in both
ways. Her words, which have reached innumerable people in many
languages from her
modest room in Dülmen through the writings of Clemens Brentano,
are
an outstanding proclamation of the gospel in service to salvation right
up
to the present day. At the same time, however, Anna Katharina Emmerick
understood
her suffering as a service to salvation. Dr. Wesener, her doctor,
recounts
her petition in his diary: "I have always requested for myself as a
special
gift from God that I suffer for those who are on the wrong path due to
error
or weakness, and that, if possible, I make reparation for them." It has
been
reported that Anna Katharina Emmerick gave many of her visitors
religious
assistance and consolation. Her words had this power because she
brought
her life and suffering into the service of salvation.
In serving the work of salvation through faith and
love, Anna Katharina Emmerick can be a model for us.
Dr. Wesener passed on this remark of Anna Katharina
Emmerick: "I have always considered service to my neighbor to be the
greatest virtue. In my earliest childhood I already requested of God
that he give me the strength
to serve my fellow human beings and to be useful. And now I know that
he
has granted my request." How could she who was confined to her sickroom
and
her bed for years serve her neighbor?
In a letter to Count Stolberg, Clemens August Droste
zu Vischering, the Vicar General at that time, called Anna Katharina
Emmerick a special friend of God. In the words of Hans Urs von
Balthasar we can say,
"She brought her friendship with God to bear in solidarity with human
beings."
To bring friendship with God to bear in solidarity
with human beings -- does this not shed light on an important concern
in the life
of the Church today? The Christian faith no longer includes everyone.
In
our world the Christian community represents people before God. We must
bring
our friendship with God to bear, let it be the decisive factor in
solidarity
with human beings.
Anna Katharina Emmerick is united to us in the
community of believers. This community does not come to an end with
death. We believe in the lasting communion with all whom God has led to
perfection. We are united
with them beyond death and they participate in our lives. We can invoke
them
and ask for their intercession. We ask Anna Katharina Emmerick, the
newly
named Blessed, to bring her friendship with God to bear in solidarity
with
us and with all human beings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trappist Joseph-Marie Cassant, Ordinary and Saintly
Biography of Soon-to-Be-Beatified Monk
Joseph-Marie Cassant (1878-1903)
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 28, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Holy
See issued this biography of Joseph-Marie Cassant (1878-1903), a French
Trappist monk and priest, whom John Paul II will beatify on Sunday.
* * *
Joseph-Marie Cassant was born on March 6, 1878, at
Casseneuil, Lot-et-Garonne, in the Diocese of Agen, France, into a
family of orchard-keepers. The second child born to the family, he had
an elder brother already nine years of age. He was a lodger at the
boarding school of the La Salle Brothers in Casseneuil itself, and it
was there that his poor memory began to cause him difficulty in
studying.
He received a solid Christian education at home and
at school, and little by little the deep desire to become a priest grew
within him. Father Filhol, the parish priest, thought well enough of
the boy to help
him with his studies, but his weak memory kept him from entering the
minor
seminary. When it became clear that he was drawn toward silence,
recollection
and prayer, Father Filhol suggested that he give thought to the
Trappists,
and the young 16-year-old unhesitatingly agreed.
After a trial period, Joseph entered the Cistercian
Abbey of Sainte-Marie du Désert, in the Diocese of Toulouse,
France, on Dec.
5, 1894. The novice master at the time was Fr. André Mallet, a
man
skilled at understanding the needs of souls and responding in love.
From
their very first meeting he showed this when he said to the young man,
"Just
trust, and I will help you to love Jesus!" Nor were the other monks of
the
monastery slow to appreciate the newcomer: He neither argued nor
grumbled
but was ever happy, ever smiling.
The young monk would often meditate upon Jesus in
his passion
and on the cross, and so became deeply imbued with love for Christ. The
"way
of Jesus' heart" which Father André taught him is an unceasing
call
to live the present moment with patience, hope and love.
Brother Joseph-Marie was well aware of his
limitations and weaknesses, and so was led to depend more and more on
Jesus, his strength. He had no interest in half-measures but wished to
give himself completely to Christ. His personal motto bears witness to
this: "All for Jesus, all through
Mary." On Ascension Thursday, May 24, 1900, he was admitted to final
vows.
Then came his preparation for the priesthood. This
he viewed
primarily in relation to the Eucharist, which was truly to him the
living
presence of Jesus among us. The Eucharist is the Savior himself, wholly
giving
himself to men; his Heart is pierced on the Cross and then tenderly
gathers
in all those who trust in him. There were times during his theological
studies
when, because of his great sensitivity, he suffered much from the lack
of
understanding of the monk teaching the course.
But, as in all his contradictions, he relied upon
Christ present in the Eucharist as his "only good upon this earth" and
confided his
suffering to Father André who would cheer him up and help him
better
to understand. In the end, he did well enough to pass his examinations
and
had the great joy of being ordained a priest on October 12, 1902.
At that point it became clear that he had contracted
tuberculosis and that the disease was already well advanced. The young
priest spoke of
his pains only when it was impossible to hide them further. How could
he
complain, he who meditated so lovingly on the Lord's Way of the Cross?
In spite of a seven weeks' stay with his family
which he
undertook at his abbot's request, his health continued to deteriorate.
He
then returned to the monastery, where he was soon sent to stay in the
infirmary.
Here was one more opportunity to offer up his sufferings for Christ and
the
Church: His physical pain became more and more unbearable, and was even
worsened
by the nurse's neglect. Father André continued to accompany him
and
became more than ever his constant aid and support.
The young priest had said, "When I can no longer say
Mass, Jesus can take me from this world." Early in the morning of June
17, 1903, Father Joseph-Marie received Communion and left this world to
be with Christ Jesus for ever.
On June 9, 1984, the Holy Father, John Paul II,
acknowledged his heroic virtues.
The sheer ordinariness of his life has been noted by
some: 16 quiet years at Casseneuil and nine years of monastic enclosure
spent in
doing the simplest of things: prayer, studies, work. They are indeed
simple
things, but lived in an extraordinary way. They were the slightest of
deeds,
but performed with limitless generosity. Christ imbued his mind, clear
as
the water that leaps from a spring, with the conviction that God alone
is
our true and highest happiness and that his kingdom is like a hidden
treasure
or a pearl of great price.
The message of Father Joseph-Marie has great meaning
for us today. In a world filled with distrust and often with despair
but thirsting for love and kindness, his life can provide an answer,
and in a special way
to today's young who seek meaning in their lives. Joseph-Marie was a
youth
without any standing or worth in the eyes of men. He owed the success
of
his life to a meeting with Jesus that redefined his very existence.
He showed himself a follower of the Lord in the
midst of
a community of brothers, with the guidance of a spiritual father, who
was
to him a witness of Christ as well as one who knew to receive and to
understand
him.
For the meek and humble he is a superb example.
Watching Joseph-Marie, we learn how to live each day for Christ with
love, zeal and
fidelity, accepting at the same time the help of an experienced brother
or
sister who can lead us in the footsteps of Jesus.
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Apostle of Eucharist and Tireless Missionary Raised
to Altar
John Paul II Will Beatify French Priest Peter Vigne
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 27, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Next
Sunday, a week after the beginning of the "Year of the Eucharist," John
Paul II will
propose to the universal Church the life and testimony of a tireless
missionary
and apostle of the Most Holy Sacrament, when he beatifies French priest
Peter
Vigne (1670-1740) in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican.
Here is the biography of the future Blessed issued
by the
Holy See.
* * *
PETER VIGNE (1670-1740)
Peter Vigne was born on Aug. 20, 1670 in Privas,
France, a small town still feeling the effects of the Wars of Religion
from the previous
century. His father, Peter Vigne, an honest textile merchant, and his
mother,
Frances Gautier, married in the Catholic Church, had their five
children
baptized in the Catholic parish of Saint Thomas. Two daughters died in
infancy.
Peter and his two older siblings, John-Francis and Eleonore, lived with
their
parents in relative comfort.
When he was 11 years of age, Peter was chosen by the
parish priest to act as a witness, signing the parish register for
baptisms, marriages and deaths.
After receiving a good level of education and
instruction, towards the end of his teenage years, his life was
suddenly transformed by
a new awareness of the presence of Jesus Christ in the eucharist. This
experience
led him to center his life on Jesus, who offered himself on the Cross
for
love of us and, in the Eucharist, never ceases to give himself to all
men.
In 1690, he entered the Sulpician Seminary in Viviers. Ordained a
priest
on September 18, 1694 in Bourg Saint Andeol by the bishop of Viviers,
he
was sent as curate to Saint-Agreve where, for six years he exercised
his
priestly ministry, in friendship with his parish priest and beloved by
his
parishioners.
Always attentive to discern in life's events what
the Lord
was asking of him, he felt called elsewhere. With understandable
hesitancy in the beginning and then with increasing certitude, he
pursued his spiritual itinerary along new paths. His desire to work as
a missionary among the poor
was central to his decision to join the Vincentians in Lyon, in 1700.
There,
he received a solid formation in poverty and in conducting "popular
missions"
and with his fellow priests began visiting towns and villages in the
work
of evangelization. In 1706, he left the Vincentians of "his own free
will."
Now more than ever he was passionate for the salvation of souls,
especially
for the poor people living in the countryside. After a period of
searching,
his vocation took shape with increasing clarity. He became an
"itinerant
missionary" applying his own pastoral methods, whilst submitting his
ministry
to the authorization of his hierarchical superiors.
For more than thirty years he traveled tirelessly on
foot or on horseback the roads of Vivarais and Dauphiné, and
even beyond. He faced the fatigue of being constantly on the move, as
well as severe weather
conditions, in order to make Jesus known, loved and served. He
preached,
visited the sick, catechized the children, administered the sacraments,
even
going as far as carrying "his" confessional on his back, ready at all
times
to celebrate and bestow the mercy of God. He celebrated Mass, exposed
the
Blessed Sacrament, and taught the faithful the prayer of adoration.
Mary,
"beautiful tabernacle of God among men" was also given a place of honor
in
his prayer and teaching.
In 1712, he went to Boucieu-le-Roi, where the
setting favored
the erection of a Way of the Cross. With the help of parishioners he
constructed
39 stations throughout the village and countryside, teaching the
faithful
to follow Jesus from the upper room to Easter and Pentecost. Boucieu
became
his place of residence. There, he gathered together a few women,
charging
them to "accompany the pilgrims" on the Way of the Cross and to help
them
pray and meditate.
It was there that he founded the Congregation of the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. On Nov. 30, 1715, in the church at
Boucieu, he gave
them the cross and the religious habit. He invited them to ensure
continuous
adoration of Jesus present in the eucharist and to live together in
fellowship.
Anxious to give the youth access to instruction, thus helping them grow
in
their faith and Christian values, Peter Vigne opened schools and also
established
a training school for teachers.
Such a challenging and busy lifestyle needed some
support. For that reason, whenever Peter Vigne was in Lyon on business,
he never failed
to call on his former seminary tutors, the priests of Saint Sulpice, to
meet
his confessor and spiritual director. Drawn by the Eucharistic
spirituality
of the Priests of the Blessed Sacrament, founded by Monsignor d'Authier
de
Sisgaud, he was accepted as an associate member of this society of
priests
on Jan. 25, 1724, in Valence, and benefited from their spiritual and
temporal
help.
Whilst continuing to accompany his young
congregation, Peter Vigne continued with his apostolic works, and to
make the fruits of
his missions more available, he found time to write books: rules to
live
by, works of spirituality, and especially one entitled, "Meditations on
the
Most Beautiful Book, Jesus Christ Suffering and Dying on the Cross."
The physical strength of our pilgrim for God, the
demands of his apostolic activities, the long hours he spent in
adoration and his life of poverty, bear witness not only to a fairly
robust physique, but above
all to a passionate love of Jesus Christ who loved his own to the end
(cf.
John 13:1).
At the age of 70, the effects of exhaustion began to
show. During a mission at Rencurel, in the Vercors mountains, he was
taken ill and
had to interrupt his preaching. Despite all his efforts to celebrate
the
Eucharist one more time and encourage the faithful to love Jesus,
feeling his end was near, he expressed once again his missionary zeal,
then withdrew in quiet prayer and reflection. A priest and two Sisters
came in haste to
accompany him in his final moments. On July 8, 1740, he went to join
the
One he had so loved, adored and served. His body was taken back to its
final
resting place in the little church in Boucieu where it remains to this
day.
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Biography of Future Blessed Sister Maria Ludovica de
Angelis
"Do Good to All, No Matter Who it May Be"
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 24, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is
the biography issued by the Holy See of Sister Maria Ludovica de
Angelis (1880-1962), whom the Pope will beatify on Oct. 3 in St.
Peter's Square in the Vatican.
* * *
Born on Oct. 24, 1880, in Italy, at St. Gregorio, a
small village of Abruzzo, not too far from the city of L'Aquila, Sister
Maria Ludovica
De Angelis, the first of eight children, brought great happiness to her
parents.
On the same afternoon of the day she was born, she was carried to the
baptismal
font where her parents chose the name of Antonina for their firstborn.
Even as a very young child, Antonina loved nature,
and, as she worked long and tirelessly in the fields, she felt right at
home being
so close to God's earth. A bright and honest child, Antonina grew into
a
sensitive and delicate yet very strong young woman. She was somewhat
reserved,
as was typical of the people of her native land. However, her
penetrating
and serious eyes conveyed boundless tenderness and this is how she
looked
upon all whom she met, especially the children.
On Dec. 7 of the same year on which Antonina was
born, a great woman died in Savona. The woman of whom we speak had
chosen to dedicate
fully her own life to the following of Christ who said: "Be merciful as
your
heavenly Father is merciful..." and "All that you do the least of my
brethren,
you do to me...”
She was Saint Mary Joseph Rossello who began the
Institute of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy, a Religious Family,
her family that, having taken its first steps in 1837, was now
spreading to various parts of
the world as it engaged in the works of mercy.
This Religious Family, known for its good example
and genuine
religious lifestyle, was' attracting many other women to follow the
same
ideal.
Antonina, coming to know this religious family,
immediately felt in her heart that her dreams were echoing the same
dreams as those cherished
by Mother Rossello. There was no need to search further. She entered
the
community of the Daughters of Our Lady of Mercy in November 1904 and,
on
the day of her reception, she received the name of Sister M. Ludovica.
Exactly
three years after her entrance, on November 14, 1907, in God's
Providence,
she set sail for Buenos Aires, arriving there on December 4. From this
time
she gave of herself unselfishly in uninterrupted service and ministered
with
complete dedication in whatever she was called to do.
Sister Ludovica did not have a formal education, but
all that she accomplished through her own resourcefulness astounded
everyone who
lived with her and knew her. Although her Spanish was mixed with
Italian, her native tongue -- an abruzzese dialect -- she understood
well and was always
able to make herself understood. She had neither the talent nor the
ability
to set up programs or to write goals and objectives. However, she gave
of
herself completely in her assignment at the Children's Hospital.
From her very first days in the Hospital she felt at
home and took on the task of providing the meals for the children,
Sisters and staff. Later, when she was named as manageress of the
Hospital and Superior of the community, she was known as the untiring
angel of the hospital staff that, through her loving efforts, was
gradually becoming a strong and united family with a single goal in
mind -- the good of the children.
Gentle in manner and determined in her commitment,
she always had the Rosary in her hands, her gaze and heart turned to
God, and a warm smile lighted up her face. Through her unbounded
goodness, without being aware of it, Sister Ludovica became a constant
instrument of mercy so
that the message of God's love for each one of his children was
touching everyone.
Her goal in life was repeated in the sentence: "Do
good to all, no matter who it may be."
Heaven only knows how Sister Ludovica managed to
procure financial help to build operating rooms, additional children's
rooms, medical equipment, a building at Mar del Plata for convalescing
children, a Chapel -- today a parish -- and even a flourishing farm, at
City Bell, that yielded abundant produce so that her children could
have good nourishment. All this
was accomplished by this simple woman who was driven by love and
complete dedication.
For 54 years, Sister Maria Ludovica was a friend,
mother and counselor to countless numbers of people of every social
condition.
On Feb. 25, 1962, her earthly journey ended as God
summoned her to her eternal reward. However, her story did not end in
death. For those
who knew her, especially the medical personnel, were very mindful of
all
the good she had accomplished. They named the Children's Hospital after
her,
calling it "Superior Ludovica Hospital."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pere Tarrés Aimed to Be a Holy Priest, at All
Costs
John Paul II Recalls Catalan at Beatification
LORETO, Italy, SEPT. 5, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul
II pointed to the testimony of Pere Tarrés i Claret, a doctor
who became a priest on his way to beatification.
Born in Manresa, Spain, on May 30, 1905, Pere
Tarrés was a member of the Federation of Christian Youth of
Catalonia and of Catholic Action. He founded the sanatorium-clinic of
Our Lady of Mercy in Barcelona.
"In the exercise of his medical profession, he
dedicated himself with special solicitude to the sick who were poorest,
convinced that
'the sick person is a symbol of the suffering of Christ,'" the Pope
said
during his homily at today's beatification Mass, celebrated near the
Shrine
of Loreto.
As a refugee in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil
War, Tarrés secretly took Communion to the persecuted. He also
acted in
his capacity as a field doctor, heroically caring for numerous wounded.
He returned home from the front in 1939 and entered
the Barcelona seminary that same year. He was ordained a priest in May
1942.
Tarrés "consecrated himself with generous
audacity to the tasks of his ministry, remaining faithful to the
commitment assumed on the eve of his ordination: 'Only one purpose,
Lord: to be a holy priest, no matter what it costs,'" the Pope said in
the homily.
"He accepted with faith and heroic patience a
terrible sickness, which led to his death when he was only 45," the
Holy Father said.
"Despite his suffering, he often repeated: 'How good the Lord is to
me!'
And, 'I am really happy.'"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pina Suriano's Secret: "To Live for Jesus"
Pope Tells of Young Sicilian at Her Beatification
LORETO, Italy, SEPT. 5, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul
II summarized the life of newly beatified Pina Suriano with the phrase,
"I do
nothing other than to live for Jesus."
The young Sicilian (1915-1950) had to give up the
dream of her life -- religious consecration -- because of her family's
opposition and practical problems. She then gave her life to God as a
lay member of Catholic
Action.
"She spoke to Jesus with the heart of a spouse," the
Pope said today in the homily at the beatification Mass. He added these
words of
Suriano: "Jesus, make me ever more yours. Jesus, I want to live and die
with
you and for you."
"As a girl she was a member of the Feminine Youth of
Catholic Action, of which she was later a parish leader, finding in the
association important stimulus for human and cultural growth in an
intense climate of
fraternal friendship," the Holy Father said.
"She matured gradually a simple and firm will to
give her
young life to God as an offering of love, in particular for the
sanctification and perseverance of priests," John Paul II concluded.
Suriano, known among her friends for her beauty,
made a
vow of chastity on April 29, 1932, in the Chapel of the Daughters of
Mercy
and of the Cross, social headquarters of Feminine Youth of Catholic
Action.
On May 30, 1948, together with three friends, she
offered herself as a victim for the holiness of priests.
Just over a year later, she developed a form of
rheumatoid arthritis that frequently forced her to stay in bed, unable
to move. She died
of a heart attack on May 19, 1950, at 35.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alberto Marvelli, a Politician of God
At Beatification Mass, Pope Recalls a Postwar
Protagonist
LORETO, Italy, SEPT. 5, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The
secret of
Alberto Marvelli, an Italian engineer and postwar politician, was the
giving
of his life for Jesus and his brothers, John Paul II said at his
beatification.
In his homily at today's beatification Mass,
addressed to 250,000 people gathered near the Shrine of Loreto, the
Pope sketched the
profile of this "strong and free youth, generous son of the Church of
Rimini
and of Catholic Action."
He "conceived the whole of his brief life of just 28
years as a gift of love to Jesus for the good of his brothers," the
Holy Father said.
John Paul II recalled the words Marvelli wrote in
his diary:
"Jesus has enveloped me with his grace," "I see only Him, I think only
of
Him."
Alberto Marvelli was born in 1918. He was a
childhood friend
of film director Federico Fellini, and a member of Catholic Action. In
1941,
at the end of his university studies in mechanical engineering,
Marvelli
had to enlist in the Italian army, even though he condemned the war.
Discharged from the front, he dedicated himself to
aiding the poor during the conflict.
He succeeded in rescuing many young people from
deportation during the German occupation.
"In the difficult period of World War II, which
sowed death
and multiplied atrocious violence and suffering, Blessed Alberto lived
an
intense spiritual life, from which arose that love of Jesus which led
him
to forget himself constantly to carry the cross of the poor," the Pope
said
in his homily.
After the city of Rimini was liberated in 1945,
Marvelli's name was among the members of the first Junta of the
Committee of Liberation. He was just 26, and became one of the
protagonists of the postwar reconstruction of the city. He was a member
of the Christian Democratic Party.
On the evening of Oct. 5, 1946, while he was riding
his bicycle to an election meeting -- he was a candidate for the first
communal administration -- he was struck and killed by a truck.
"Alberto made of the daily Eucharist the center of
his life," John Paul II said during the Mass. "He also sought in prayer
inspiration for his political commitment, convinced of the need to live
fully as children of God in history, to make the latter a story of
salvation."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
LORETO, Italy, SEPT. 5, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is a
translation of the homily John Paul II delivered today in Loreto, at
the beatification Mass for Father Pere Tarrés i Claret
(1905-1950), Alberto Marvelli (1918-1946) and Pina Suriano (1915-1950).
* * *
1. "What man can know the will of God?" (Wisdom
9:13). The question, posed in the Book of Wisdom, has an answer: Only
the Son of
God, made man for our salvation in Mary's virginal womb, can reveal
God's
plan to us. Only Jesus Christ knows the way to "attain wisdom of heart"
(Responsorial
Psalm) and obtain peace and salvation.
And what is this way? He has told us in today's
Gospel: It is the way of the cross. His words are clear: "Whoever does
not bear his
cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:27).
"To carry the cross after Jesus" means to be ready
for any sacrifice for love of him. It means to put anything or anyone
before him,
not even the persons most dear to us, not even our own life.
2. Dear brothers and sisters, gathered in this
"splendid valley of Montorso," as described by Archbishop Comastri,
whom I thank sincerely
for the warm words he addressed to me. With him, I greet the cardinals,
archbishops
and bishops present; I greet the priests, religious, consecrated
persons;
and above all I greet you, members of Catholic Action who, led by the
assistant
general, Monsignor Francesco Lambiasi, and by the national president,
Dr.
Paola Bignardi, whom I thank for her warm greeting, wished to gather
here,
under the gaze of Our Lady of Loreto, to renew your commitment of
faithful
adherence to Jesus Christ.
You know it: To adhere to Christ is an exacting
choice. It is no accident that Jesus speaks of the "cross." However, he
specifies immediately after: "after me." This is the important message:
We do not bear
the cross alone. He walks before us, opening the way with the light of
his
example and the strength of his love.
3. The cross, accepted out of love, generates
freedom. The Apostle Paul experienced this, "an old man and now a
prisoner for Christ Jesus," as he describes himself in the letter to
Philemon, but interiorly totally free. This is precisely the impression
given in the page that was just proclaimed: Paul is in chains, but his
heart is free, because it is full
of the love of Christ. This is why, from the darkness of the prison in
which
he suffers for his Lord, he can speak of freedom to a friend who is
outside
the prison. Philemon is a Christian from the city of Colossae: Paul
addresses
him to ask him to liberate Onesimus, who is still a slave according to
the
law of the period, but a brother through baptism. Renouncing the other
as
his possession, Philemon will receive as a gift a brother.
The lesson from this episode is clear: There is no
greater love than that of the cross; there is no greater freedom than
that of love; there is no fuller fraternity than that born from the
cross of Christ.
4. The three blessed, just proclaimed, made
themselves humble disciples and heroic witnesses of the cross of Jesus.
Pedro Tarrés i Claret, first a doctor and
then a
priest, dedicated himself to the lay apostolate among the young of
Barcelona's Catholic Action, of whom, subsequently, he was an
assistant. In the exercise of the medical profession he dedicated
himself with special solicitude to
the sick who were poorest, convinced that "the sick person is a symbol
of
the suffering Christ."
Once a priest, he consecrated himself with generous
audacity to the tasks of his ministry, remaining faithful to the
commitment assumed on the eve of his ordination: "Only one purpose,
Lord: to be a holy priest, no matter what it costs." He accepted with
faith and heroic patience a terrible
sickness, which led to his death when he was only 45. Despite his
suffering,
he often repeated: "How good the Lord is to me!" And, "I am really
happy."
5. Alberto Marvelli, strong and free youth, generous
son of the Church of Rimini and of Catholic Action, conceived the whole
of his
brief life of just 28 years as a gift of love to Jesus for the good of
his
brothers. "Jesus has enveloped me with his grace," he wrote in his
diary.
"I see only Him, I think only of Him." Alberto made of the daily
Eucharist
the center of his life. In prayer he also sought inspiration also for
his
political commitment, convinced of the need to live fully as children
of
God in history, to make the latter a story of salvation.
In the difficult period of World War II, which sowed
death and multiplied atrocious violence and suffering, Blessed Alberto
lived an
intense spiritual life, from which arose that love of Jesus which led
him
to forget himself constantly to carry the cross of the poor.
6. Blessed Pina Suriano, a native of Partinico, in
the Diocese of Monreale, also loved Jesus with an ardent and faithful
love to
the point of being able to write in all sincerity: "I do nothing other
than
to live for Jesus." She spoke to Jesus with the heart of a spouse:
"Jesus,
make me ever more yours. Jesus, I want to live and die with you and for
you."
As a girl she was a member of the Feminine Youth of
Catholic Action, of which she was later a parish leader, finding in the
association important stimulus for human and cultural growth in an
intense climate of
fraternal friendship. She matured gradually a simple and firm will to
give
her young life to God as an offering of love, in particular for the
sanctification
and perseverance of priests.
7. Dear brothers and sisters, friends of Catholic
Action, gathered in Loreto from Italy, Spain and so many parts of the
world! Through the beatification of these three Servants of God, the
Lord says to you today:
Holiness is the greatest gift you can give to the Church and the world.
Carry in your hearts what the Church carries in her
heart: that many men and women of our time be conquered by the
attraction of Christ; that his Gospel may shine again as a light of
hope for the poor, the sick, those hungry for justice; may Christian
communities be ever more lively, open,
attractive; may cities be welcoming and livable for all; may humanity
be
able to follow the ways of peace and fraternity.
8. It corresponds to you, the laity, to witness to
the faith through the virtues that are specific to you: fidelity and
tenderness in the family, competence in work, tenacity in serving the
common good, solidarity
in social relations, creativity in undertaking works that are useful to
evangelization
and human promotion. It corresponds to you also to show, in close
communion
with pastors, that the Gospel is timely, and that faith does not remove
the
believer from history, but submerges him more profoundly in it.
Courage, Catholic Action! May the Lord guide your
journey of renewal!
The Immaculate Virgin of Loreto accompanies you with
tender solicitude; the Church looks to you with confidence; the Pope
greets you, supports you, and gives you his heartfelt blessing.
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