Paul Zalonski – Page 334

Reciprocal festal gestures for Sts Peter & Paul feast: Pope and an Ecumenical delegation meet

It’s like having your favorite but not too seen aunt Gretchen over the house for coffee to remember what she looks like and to keep up some appearances of genuine love. I shouldn’t make light of such encounters; they are important. It’s tradition and tradition is a very good thing. On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul a delegation is sent to Rome to meet the Pope, to exchange fraternal greetings, to listen to a brief discourse that’s on the mind of the Pope, to hear what the Patriarch of Constantinople has to say, etc. The whole thing is repeated on November 30 when Rome sends a delegation to Constantinople for the feast of Saint Andrew. The trouble is, does anything concrete result from these yearly meetings? What are the implications of this type of high level meeting? Note the Pope’s perspective and his hope. There is an important rhythm of dialogue that happens in coming to understand human and ecclesial complexities which have an end in mind. Two of the Pope’s paragraphs are noted below.

The Orthodox delegation included: His Eminence, Emmanuel, metropolitan of France and Director of the Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union, Bishop Athenagoras, Bishop of Sinope and auxiliary to the metropolitan of Belgium and Archimandrite Maximus Pothos, vicar general of the metropolitan of Switerland.

Watch the video report from H2O News.

We follow with great attention the work of the Mixed Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church as a whole. From a purely human point of view, one might have the impression that the theological dialogue is having trouble in progressing. In reality, the rhythm of dialogue is linked to the complexity of the themes being discussed, which call for an extraordinary effort of study, of reflection and of reciprocal openness. We are called to continue this course together in charity, invoking light and inspiration from the Holy Spirit, in the certainty that He wishes to lead us to the full accomplishment of the will of Christ: that they may all be one (John 17:21). I am particularly grateful to all the members of the Mixed Commission and in particular to the co-Presidents, His Eminence the Metropolitan of Pergamum Ioannis and His Eminence Cardinal Kurt Koch, for their tireless dedication, their patience and their competence.

Continue reading Reciprocal festal gestures for Sts Peter & Paul feast: Pope and an Ecumenical delegation meet

Angelo Scola: how do we face the post-modern world as a Church? In happiness and freedom as announced by Christ!

Gerry O’Connell speaks to the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angelo Scola – son of a socialist truck driver and a profoundly Catholic mother. He is also a leading intellectual in the Italian Bishops’ Conference and one of the more creative and original thinkers in the College of Cardinals.

Q. What do you see as the main challenges facing the Catholic Church today?

A. I think the principal challenge, which the Church shares with every other social subject in the field, is the interpretation of the post-modern. The question is; have we, or have we not entered the post-modern world? Certainly the collapse of the Berlin Wall has marked a rather radical mutation that can be seen in certain macroscopic phenomena.

Indeed, what is happening in the Middle East is like a second phase of what happened in 1989. There is obviously a strong desire for freedom on the part of peoples on the world stage, and that comes with an urgent demand for real participation.

This has complicated even more that which I call the process of the mixing of civilizations and cultures; that is, a process of movement and displacement of peoples which will become even more radical in the coming decades. All this has made it made more urgent for us in Europe to gain a deeper knowledge of Islam.

Then there is the question of the progress of techno-sciences, especially in bio-engineering, cloning, bio-convergence, informatics, biology, molecular physics, neuroscience and so on. All these phenomena are producing a different kind of man and so the challenge for the Church is the same as for all humanity: What kind of man does the man of the third millennium wish to be?

Continue reading Angelo Scola: how do we face the post-modern world as a Church? In happiness and freedom as announced by Christ!

Benedict XVI launches News.va with his new iPad

Today, Pope Benedict launched a new Vatican website with a new iPad.

The Pope made tweet today –the first ever by a Supreme Pontiff– when he launched the brand new news portal, News.va. This news portal collects all the communications into one place: the news will be updated in English at least 3 times a day.

And, what did the Pope say? His Holiness tweeted:

“Dear Friends, I just launched news.va. Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI.”

He tweeted in English.

Watch the Pope as he’s presented with the iPad.

Angelo Scola, 69, cardinal-archbishop, TO Milan

Long predicted by the ever-present vaticanisti, Angelo Cardinal Scola, until now the Patriarch (archbishop) of Venice, is nominated to be the archbishop of Milan. Cardinal Scola replaces Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, 77, who has served Milan since 2002 and who celebrates 54 years of priesthood today, in fact.

Two former 20th century archbishops of Milan have been elected Pope: Achille Ratti and Giusseppi Montini; and one 20th century predecessor is a beatus of the same See: Ildelfonso Schuster, OSB. But we can also say that Pope Paul VI is a Servant of God. Of course, Scola becomes the successor to the great Saint Ambrose and Saint Charles Borromeo!

The Archdiocese of Milan has been in existence since the 1st century and is said to be the largest diocese in the world with more than 4.88 million faithful of 5.29 inhabitants (as of 2009) in 1625 square miles with more than 1100 parishes and nearly 3000 priests. There are 5 auxiliary bishops in the archdiocese; there are 9 suffragan Sees. Milan also just had three of her children beatified: Sister Enrichetta Alfieri (1891-1951), Fathers Serafino Morazzone (1747-1822) and Clemente Vismara (1897-1988) on the 26th.

Scola’s biography is widely accomplished … The new Ambrosian archbishop has been a priest for 41 years, a bishop for nearly 20 and a cardinal for almost 8. His titular Church in Rome –one of my favorites and the one where Pope Clement the XIV is buried– is the Church of the Twelve Apostles.

Corpus Christi is God’s expression of love that doesn’t consume

It is only
because God himself is the eternal dialogue of love that he can speak and be
spoken to. Only because he himself is relationship can we relate to him; only
because he is love can he love and be loved in return. Only because he is
threefold can he be the grain of wheat which dies and the bread of eternal
life.

Ultimately, then, Corpus Christi is an expression of faith in God, in
love, in the fact that God is love. All that is said and done on Corpus Christi
is in fact a single variation on the theme of love, what it is and what it
does. In one of his Corpus Christi hymns Thomas Aquinas puts it beautifully:
love does not consume: it gives and, in giving, receives. And in giving it is
not used up but renews itself.

Since Corpus Christi is a confession of faith in
love, it is totally appropriate that the day should focus on the mystery of
transubstantiation. Love is transubstantiation, transformation. Corpus Christi
tells us: Yes, there is such a thing as love, and therefore there is
transformation, therefore there is hope. And hope gives us the strength to love
and face the world.

Perhaps it was good to have experienced doubts about the
meaning of celebrating Corpus Christi, for it has led us to the rediscovery of
a feast which, today, we need more than ever.

Pope Benedict XVI Benedictus

New Fraternity of St Charles priests and deacons

Tremendous joy exists when a man is ordained for the service of Christ and the Church.

Let’s live ”the glory and joy of the priesthood in the service of Christ and His Mystical Body’ in the communal life ‘experiencing the help of Christ in our existence, calling all the brothers to a continual configuration that is always more profound to you your person.”

Saturday, June 25, was a day of joy for 8 religious men of the Fraternity of Saint Charles Borromeo were ordained priests and deacons by His Excellency, Archbishop Rino Fiscihella, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization. Monsignor Massimo Camisasca, founder and Superior General of the Fraternity presented his spiritual sons and brothers for the Lord’s service.

The Fraternity now has 2 new priests (Patricio Hacin and Christoph Matyssek) and 6 deacons (Emmanuele Angiola, Diego García Terán, Simone Gulmini, Tommaso Pedroli, Ruben Roncolato & Luca Speziale).

The pictures from the ordination…

Here’s the vocation narrative of the new priests, Don Patricio and Don Christoph.

Father Julián Carrón’s letter to the newly ordained: Fr Carron’s Letter to the newly ordained 2011.pdf

The Church can’t live without the Eucharist, Pope Benedict reminds

Here’s the Pope’s Angelus address from earlier today. Notice the key points.

Today in Italy and other countries Corpus Domini is
celebrated, the feast of the Eucharist, the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of
the Lord, which he instituted with the Last Supper and which is the Church’s
most precious treasure. The Eucharist is like the beating heart that gives life
to the whole mystical body of the Church: a social organism entirely founded on
the spiritual but concrete link with Christ. As the Apostle Paul states: “Because
there is one bread, we, although many, are one body: all of us in fact
participate in the one bread” (1 Corinthians 10:17).

Without the Eucharist the
Church simply would not exist. It is the Eucharist in fact that makes a human
community a mystery of communion, able to bring God to the world and the world
to God. The Holy Spirit, which transforms the bread and wine into the Body and
Blood of Christ, also transforms into members of the Body of Christ those who
receive it with faith, so that the Church is truly the sacrament of the unity
of men with God and of men with each other.

In a culture that is ever more
individualistic — like that in which Western societies are immersed and which
is spreading throughout the world — the Eucharist constitutes a kind of “antidote,”
which operates in the minds and hearts of believers and continually sows in them
the logic of communion, of service, of sharing, in a word, the logic of the
Gospel. The first Christians, in Jerusalem, were an evident sign of this new
way of life because they lived in fraternity and held all of their goods in
common so that no one should be indigent (cf. Acts 2:42-47). Where did all of
this come from? From the Eucharist, that is, the risen Christ, really present
with his disciples and working with the power of the Holy Spirit. And in the
succeeding generations, through the centuries, the Church, despite human limits
and errors, continued to be a force for communion in the world. We think
especially of the most difficult periods, the periods of trial: What did it
mean, for example, for countries that were under the heal of totalitarian regimes
to have the possibility to gather for Sunday Mass! As the ancient martyrs of
Abitene proclaimed: “Sine Dominico non possumus” – without the “Dominicum,” that is, the Sunday Eucharist, we cannot live. But the
void produced by false freedom can be dangerous, and so communion with the Body
of Christ is a medicine of the intellect and will to rediscover taste for the
truth and the common good.

Dear friends, let us call upon the Virgin Mary, whom
my predecessor, Blessed John Paul II defined as a “Eucharistic woman”
(Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 53-58). In her school our life too becomes fully “Eucharistic,”
open to God and to others, able to transform evil into good by the power of
love, which fosters unity, communion, fraternity.

Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer

“True shepherds, after my own heart,

I’ll give you,” says the Lord, “Who’ll feed your souls on knowledge and

Sound teaching of my word.”

Thus did Josemaria live, That all might know Christ’s light, Within the holy work of God, And work for Him in might.

O Father, Son, and Spirit blest, Eternal Three-in-One, Your church this hymn of joy will raise, From dawn to set of sun.

The Church liturgically commemorates a significant 20th century priest and founder of a movement of laity and priests, Saint Josemaría Escrivá (1902-75). Saint Josemaría’s call to holiness and friendship with the Lord ought to be an example for all people. His movement, Opus Dei, teaches us that holiness is possible through our everyday life: our work, study, family and friendships.

J. Michael Thompson

Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture: a deeper dialogue between science and faith

The Pontifical Council for Culture has been doing some good work in promoting serious dialogue among those who work in science, the humanities and theology. You may be familiar with the Council’s “Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest” (STOQ Project). The most recent collaboration has been with NeoStem in organizing a forthcoming conference dealing with the theme of “Adult Stem Cells: Science and the Future of Man and Culture.” Regenerative medicine is now on the front burner for dialogue and research among scientists, theologians and pastors. This field of study has wide applications for work in culture, law, theology, pastoral practice, scientific research and practical application for all peoples on the planet.

The Council for Culture is working also with the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers to give a united front and clear witness to the importance of this topic to all interested parties.

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Vincent Long Van Nguyên responds to a call to venture into a new depth

The Church in Melbourne, Australia saw the Holy Spirit
consecrate a former boat person turned Conventual Franciscan priest turn
auxiliary bishop on Thursday. The witness of his life is testimony of the hand of God leading.

Vincent Long Van Nguyên is the first Vietnamese bishop in Australia and one of
three in the English speaking world. The USA has Bishop Dominic Mai Luong of
Orange County, California and Bishop Vincent Nguyên Manh Hieu of
Toronto.

Father Vincent Long Van Nguyên OFM Conv, is now an Auxiliary Bishop of
Melbourne holding the title of Bishop of Thala. But his personal narrative is
beautiful.

In 1981, Long was an 18-year-old refugee who arrived in Australia
knowing no English, having no personal connections with anyone, knowing nothing
of Australian culture. One can only say that 31 years ago Long was given the
gift of a new life in moving -with tremendous difficulty–from oppression to
freedom.

Continue reading Vincent Long Van Nguyên responds to a call to venture into a new depth