Author: Paul Zalonski

Anthony Joseph Cardinal Bevilacqua, dead at 88

Anthony J. Bevilacqua.jpeg

Last evening at 9:15pm, Anthony Joseph Cardinal Bevilacqua, 88, 7th archbishop of Philadelphia, died in his sleep in his quarters at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. He retired from his episcopal duties in 2003.


Philly.com has an extended article on the late Cardinal (1923-2012). He was appointed to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in 1987 and installed in 1988.


The Pope’s note of condolence to Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, OFM Cap, and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia:


HAVING LEARNED WITH SADNESS OF THE DEATH OF CARDINAL ANTHONY BEVILACQUA, ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS OF PHILADELPHIA, I OFFER MY HEARTFELT CONDOLENCES TO YOU AND TO ALL THE FAITHFUL OF THE ARCHDIOCESE. I JOIN YOU IN COMMENDING THE LATE CARDINAL’S SOUL TO GOD, THE FATHER OF MERCIES, WITH GRATITUDE FOR HIS YEARS OF EPISCOPAL MINISTRY AMONG CHRIST’S FLOCK IN PHILADELPHIA, HIS LONGSTANDING COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE PASTORAL CARE OF IMMIGRANTS, AND HIS EXPERT CONTRIBUTION TO THE REVISION OF THE CHURCH’S LAW IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL. TO YOU, AND TO ALL THE CLERGY, RELIGIOUS AND LAITY OF THE CHURCH IN PHILADELPHIA, AND TO THE MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY, I CORDIALLY IMPART MY APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A PLEDGE OF CONSOLATION AND PEACE IN OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI


May God be merciful to His Eminence.

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Pope Benedict XVI’s monthly prayer intentions for February 2012

Thumbnail image for Pope hold monstance Dec 31 2010.jpgPraying with Pope Benedict XVI for the needs of the Church and people of good will, let’s raise our hearts to the Lord with the following:

The general intention
That all peoples may have access to water and other resources needed for daily life.
The missionary intention
That the Lord may sustain the efforts of health workers assisting the sick and elderly in the world’s poorest regions.

The Marriage Reality: How are you so engaged? Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers speaks at the Siena Forum for Faith and Culture

Harold Burke Sivers Forum.jpeg

The Siena Forum for Faith and Culture (NYC) has been running a series on Marriage this year. The Year of Marriage began with Dr. Jim Healy from the Joliet Diocese and Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers of the Archdiocese of Portland was recently at the Siena Forum.

Two more presentations on Marriage will be on March 10 with Frank Hannigan from the Archdiocese of Chicago and on April 21 with Father Jordan Kelly, OP.

Deacon Harold Burke-Sivers, ordained for service in the Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon has a ministry of evangelzation where he roams the USA speaking on faith, culture, Marriage. he was invited by the Siena Forum to speak on the importance of our preparation for Marriage today. The Deacon is a native of Newark, he’s an Oblate of Saint Benedict and a married man with 4 children.

NET TV’s interview with Deacon Burke-Sivers and participants can be viewed here.

Nuncio takes up work in Ireland

Crd Brady & Abp Martin welcome Abp Brown in Dublin.jpg
The Pope’s man in Ireland, Archbishop Charles J. Brown, arrives to take up his duties. He’s greeted by Seán Cardinal  Brady (Archbishop of Armagh) and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (Archbishop of Dublin). The newly ordained archbishop is a New York native and until recently has been working in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Saint Patrick, pray for Ireland.

Saint John Bosco

St Don Bosco.jpgO God, who raised up the Priest Saint John Bosco as a father and teacher of the young, grant, we pray, that, aflame with the same fire of love, we may seek out souls and serve you alone.

Saint John Bosco is for me, an important model and patron of ministry. Thanks to my friend Dom Paschal of Portsmouth Abbey, Bosco’s values of loving kindness, religion and reason are front-in-center of my own ministry and have become the basis of pastoral care be it mission work, education, the healthcare apostolate or parish life. 
Saint John Bosco’s final words were recorded as “Love each other as brothers. Do good to all, evil to none.”
Indeed, let’s follow Don Bosco.

Communion & Liberation of Connecticut meets for Mass

CL 2012-1.jpgAn annual Mass is celebrated for the repose of the soul of Father Luigi Giussani (+February 22, 2005) and the good of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation. We are a small but faithful group of friends who help each other to follow Christ and love the Church; we live our Baptism.

The anniversary of the Church’s approval of the charism of Communion and Liberation is the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, 11 February.

Our friend, Bishop Peter Rosazza, an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass with another friend concelebrating, Father Sal Rosa.
The 2012 Mass was held at Our Lady of Pompeii Church (Route 80, East Haven, CT) was the host thanks to Father John Lavorgna.
The CL movement asks us to live our lives in communion with the Vicar of Christ, the Pope. This communion, this fidelity to the sacred Scripture and sacred Tradition is expressed with concrete expressions of communion with the bishop of the diocese in which we live and therefore marking a gesture of communion with the Pope. Hence, by praying the Mass celebrated by Bishop Peter we demonstrate that we are in communion with him and Archbishop Henry Mansell (successors of the apostles) who are in communion with Pope Benedict XVI.
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Confession: Celebration of mercy, not trial before prosecution


“As confessors we are called to show mercy and
hope, to be fathers more than judges, to take on the penitent’s pain and listen
with much patience,” Cardinal Raymond Burke told CNS correspondent Carol Glatz.


Cardinal Burke spoke on the role of the priest in confession: be merciful, not judgmental. Amazing. You would not know that this is the teaching of the Church given some of our priests. God’s minister is not equal to being God. Thanks to the Cardinal!

A Hope that is Stronger than the Recession

The Italian daily Il Avvenire published a story by Giorgio Paolucci, “A Hope that is Stronger than the Recession,” an interview with the President of Communion and Liberation, Father Julián Carrón.

Speaking of the Year of Faith called by Benedict, Father Carrón stated: 
“Today, too, a new beginning is therefore necessary to testify to how reason and freedom find their fulfillment in faith, making evident that Christianity is something that is humanly worth our while. In this sense, the Year of Faith is directed first of all to Christians, but, in the degree to which we live a ‘new beginning,’ it can benefit everyone, according to the method chosen by Jesus: give the grace to some so that through them it can reach everyone who is open to accepting it.”
I find that the interview is beautiful and striking. Read it and see why I say so, but don’t let skew your impression.

The Jesus mandate vs. Obama’s mandate –the challenge of religious freedom

William Edward Lori’s essay, “The Jesus mandate vs. Obama’s mandate” was published this afternoon in The Washington Post. Lori is the 4th bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport and the chairman of the US Bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

Two paragraphs of Bishop Lori’s essay follow, but the full text is noted here:

Last year alone, Catholic Charities served more than
10 million of the poor, the needy, and the suffering throughout our nation.
 Catholic Charities doesn’t know how many of those served were not
Catholic, because they simply never ask. Our faith compels us to serve, not the
faith of those we help.

Catholic ministries for the needy are as blind to race,
creed, class, and gender as Jesus Christ, their founder. That any one of them,
much less all of them, should be forced to choose between the Gospel mandate
and the U.S. government’s health care mandate strikes at the very heart of the
right to religious liberty on which our country was founded.