Category: Pope Benedict XVI

The Church walks with you, Pope tells European Gypsies

Meeting with Europe’s Gypsy community is not something hear about too often. Let alone with the Pope. His Holiness met with the Gypsies today. The Gypsies made a pilgrimage to Rome to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of their heavenly patron and martyr, Blessed Ceferino Giménez Malla (1861-1936); it is also the 75th anniversary of his martyrdom; John Paul II beatified Gimenez in 1997 (here’s the beatification homily).
This is not the first time a pope has met with Europe’s gypsy communities. Paul VI met twice with them, John Paul in 1997 and in 2000 and now Benedict. The Church has worked with Gypsies consistently over the years traveling with them as their chaplains.
Benedict said three things that stand out: 
“The conscience of Europe cannot forget so much pain! Never again must your people be the object of vexations, rejections and disdain!”
“On your part, always seek justice, a law-abiding life, reconciliation…avoid being a cause of another’s suffering.”
“The Church walks with you and She challenges you to live according to the high and demanding requirements of the gospel, confiding in Christ’s strength, toward a better future.”

Read the Q&A with Archbishop Antonio Maria Vegliò, the organizer of the meeting between the Holy Father and 2000 people from the various Gypsy communities.

Society is built upon gift of self and a well-formed conscience tells Croats, us

Thumbnail image for students sing for Pope in Zagreb June 4 2011.jpg

I am very glad that the first engagement of my visit should
be with you, representing as you do key sectors of Croatian society and the
Diplomatic Corps. My cordial greetings go to each of you personally and
also to the important communities to which you belong: religious, political,
academic and cultural, the world of the arts, finance and sport. I thank
Archbishop Puljic and Professor Zurak for the kind words they have addressed to
me, and I thank the musicians who have welcomed me in the universal language of
music. This dimension of universality, characteristic of art and culture,
is particularly appropriate for Christianity and the Catholic Church. Christ is fully human, and whatever is human finds in him and in his word the
fullness of life and meaning.

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Continue reading Society is built upon gift of self and a well-formed conscience tells Croats, us

Pope Benedict’s prayer intentions for June 2011

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The general intention


That priests, united to the Heart of Christ, may always be true witnesses to the caring and merciful love of God.


The missionary intention


That the Holy Spirit may bring forth from our communities many missionaries who are ready to be fully consecrated to spreading the Kingdom of God.


When the bishop of a diocese celebrates the Chrism Mass during Holy Week each year he does two things: he blesses and consecrates the holy oils used for the sacraments and he leads the assembled priests in the “Renewal of Commitment to Priestly Service.” The laity are asked by the bishop to pray for their priests asking “the Lord to bless them with the fullness of his love, to help them be faithful ministers of Christ the High Priest, so that they will be able to lead” the faithful to their eternal destiny: life with the Most Blessed Trinity.

Educating Young People in Justice and Peace

…and this is the Holy Father’s theme for the 45th World Day of Prayer of Peace of January 1, 2012.

This is a theme that Pope Benedict comes back to with some frequency in his addresses to bishops, to the diplomats, gatherings of priests and religious and encyclicals. It all has to hang together: lectio divina, Scripture study, liturgical praxis, the spiritual and moral life and matters of justice. In the ’60s and ’70s we would often see a separation of faith from justice which led to a radical reduction of the human person, virtue and politics. As it was said, “The theme engages an urgent need in the world today: to listen to and enhance the important role of new generations in the realization of the common good, and in the affirmation of a just and peaceful social order where the fundamental human rights can be fully expressed and realized,” (LOR online).

The English edition of the L’Osservatore Romano has a spot on the papal choice here.
And, what is our work going to be in the near future: to listen, to enhance, to work and to pray for peace and justice today.
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Pope in Venice: the gate between East and West

Benedict, Angelo and Georg May 8 2011.jpgThese last two days Pope Benedict has been visiting the Patriarch of Venice, Angelo Cardinal Scola and the Archdiocese of Aquileia with an estimate crowd of 300K.

This is the first visit of a pope to Venice in 26 years. The Pope prayed at the Basilica of Saint Mark (in front of the saint’s relics preserved there for a 1000 years), addressed civil, culture and business leaders, the bishops, priests, religious and students and mingled with the people.
Note the Pope’s mode of transportation!
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Among the things the pope noted was that the “patrimony of civil traditions, culture and art, found rich development thanks to Venetians’ embrace of the acceptance of Christian faith. Over the centuries the faith transmitted by the first evangelists weaved itself evermore deeply into the social fabric, and eventually became an essential part of it.”
The asked the Lord to send the Venetians the grace of a “sincere and fruitful faith, a faith that can nourish both great hope, and the patient search for the common good.”

At home with Pope Benedict

Pope & president souza.jpgTime Magazine published a now translated story written by Andrea Tornielli of La Stampa. Tornielli did a recent piece on the Pope’s living arrangements and the people living and working with him. Last week I mentioned that a new member of the Papal Household was introduced recently to Benedict’s family.

Pope Benedict XVI: 6 years as Pontiff

Pope Benedict in choir dress.jpgBefore going to the Noon Mass, I want to offer this prayer for Pope Benedict on the 6th anniversary of his election as the Supreme Pontiff. Be sure to unite your intentions when you receive Holy Communion and pray the rosary for Benedict and the Church. May the Lord bestow on the Pope the graces needed to live a holy life and to lead the Church unto salvation.


O Lord, in union with millions of believers, and
prostrate here at thy feet, we pray Thee to save, defend, and long preserve the
Vicar of Christ, Pope Benedict XVI the Father of the glorious society of souls,
our own Father. Today and every day he prays for us, fervently offering to Thee
the sacred victim of love and peace. Turn then, O Lord, thy loving eyes upon
us, who forgetful as it were of ourselves pray now above all things for him.
Unite our prayers with his, and receive them into the bosom of thy infinite
mercy, as a most sweet perfume of that living and efficacious charity, in which
the children of the Church are united to their Father. All that he asks of Thee
today we too ask for with him. Whether he sorrows or rejoices, or when he hopes
or offers the victim of love for his people, we would be united with him. We
desire that the utterance of our souls should be one with his. Amen.

Pope Benedict clarifies Christian view of who killed Jesus

The Jerusalem Post published a story today picking up on Pope Benedict’s clarifies what Christians believe about the Jews viz. the death Jesus. Sergio Minerbi’s article “Pope Benedict Revises the Gospels” looks at Benedict’s volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth. This issue has been a painful one among Christians and Jews through the millennia. In his typical manner of precise writing –because of sharp thinking– Benedict challenges the reality of ideology that’s been a force for violence than reconciliation. This article ought to get you to re-read Nostra Aetate and to read volume 2 of Jesus of Nazareth.