Author: Paul Zalonski

Angelo Scola, 69, cardinal-archbishop, TO Milan

Angelo Scola detail.jpgLong 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


Eucharist detail JvanWassenhove.jpg

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

ordination San Carlo.jpgTremendous 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).
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.

girl at Angelus June 26 2011.jpgToday 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

St Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer.jpg“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 
Copyright © 2010, World Library Publications CM MORNING SONG, McKee

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.

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

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

Vincent Long Van Nguyen, OFM Conv.jpgThe 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

Corpus Christi in Rome 2011


Benedict on Corpus Christi 2011.jpg

The feast of Corpus Domini is inseparable from the Holy
Thursday Mass of in Caena Domini, in which the institution of the Eucharist is
also celebrated. While on the evening of Holy Thursday we relive the mystery of
Christ who offers himself to us in the bread broken and wine poured out, today,
in celebration of Corpus Domini, this same mystery is proposed to the adoration
and meditation of God’s people, and the Blessed Sacrament is carried in
procession through the streets of towns and villages, to show that the risen
Christ walks among us and guides us towards the Kingdom of heaven. Today we
openly manifest what Jesus has given us in the intimacy of the Last Supper,
because the love of Christ is not confined to the few, but is intended for all.
This year during the Mass of Our Lord’s Last Supper on Holy Thursday, I pointed
out that the Eucharist is the transformation of the gifts of this land – the
bread and wine – intended to transform our lives and usher in the
transformation of the world. Tonight I would like to return to this point of
view.

Everything starts, you might say, from the heart of Christ, who at the
Last Supper on the eve of his passion, thanked and praised God and, in doing
so, with the power of his love transformed the meaning of death which he was
about to encounter. The fact that the Sacrament of the altar has taken on the
name “Eucharist” – “thanksgiving” – expresses this: that
the change in the substance of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of
Christ is the fruit of the gift that Christ made of himself, a gift of a love
stronger than death, love of God which made him rise from the dead. That is why
the Eucharist is the food of eternal life, the Bread of life. From the heart of
Christ, from his “Eucharistic Prayer” on the eve of his passion,
flows the dynamism that transforms reality in its cosmic, human and historical
dimensions. All proceeds from God, from the omnipotence of his love One and
Triune, incarnate in Jesus. In this Love the heart of Christ emerges, so He
knows how to thank and praise God even in the face of betrayal and violence, and
thus changes things, people and the world.

Continue reading Corpus Christi in Rome 2011

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Birth of St John the Baptist AGentileschi.jpg

When the Prophet Zechariah was officiating as priest within the Temple, offering up the petitions of the people to the most loving Lord, he beheld an angel who cried out to him, “Your supplication and entreaty have been heard, Be of good cheer, O Elder, and do not disbelieve! For you shall have a child, the Forerunner of God, the greatest of those born of women, who in the power of Elijah will go before the Lord!”




Don’t forget to light a fire in honor of Saint John the Baptist. See the Blessing here.