The Congregation of the Doctrine for the Faith published today the norms reforming the law and process in dealing with clergy sex abuse cases under a motu proprio signed by Pope Benedict XVI, titled, Sacramentorum sanctitatis tutela (May 21, 2010).
The historical background: Historical Intro SST.pdf
The letter to the bishops: SST letter to bps.pdf
The Norms (Normae de Gravioribus Delictis)
The feast of the great theologian and Doctor of the Church, Saint Bonaventure, is observed today. A theologian points us toward what is revealed by God, and so a thought of his helpful for us today.
We have been brought to life through Christ. The apostle makes this known in [the] passage when he says: “He has brought us to life together with Christ.” The apostle says this because God brings is to life in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, and according to Christ.
In the first place, God has brought us to life in Christ, because he has shared our mortality of life in his person, according to that passage in John: “As the Father has life in himself, even so he has given to the Son as life in himself” (5:26). Therefore, if the Son has life in himself, while he has taken to himself our mortality, he has joined us to the true and immortal life, and through this he has brought us to life in himself.
He has brought us to life with Christ, while Christ himself, who was life, lived among mortal men… So while he was seen on earth and lived among men (Bar 3:28), God brought us to life with Christ, when he made us live with him.
He also brought us to life through Christ, when he snatched us from death through his death, according to that passage of the First Epistle of Peter: “Christ also died once for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us back to God. Put to death indeed in the flesh, he was brought to life in the spirit” (3:18). When Christ laid down his life for us, God brought the dead human race to life through him.
Finally, he brought us to life according to Christ when he guided us through the path of life according to his example, according to that passage of the psalmist: “You have known to me the paths of life when he gave us faith, hope, charity, and the gifts of grace. To these he added the commands according to which Christ himself walked and in which the path of life consists. It is according to these that Christ has taught us to walk. God has brought us to life according to Christ because he guides his imitators to life.
Saint Bonaventure (+1274)
Just for fun I am reading Martin Luther’s essay “Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants.”
What are you chewing on today?
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha (1656 – 1680), is known popularly as the “Lily of the Mohawks” and the “Geneviève of New France.” Kateri was born in the Mohawk area of Ossemenon in New York State, the daughter of a Mohawk warrior and a Catholic Algonquin woman whom he had saved from captivity at the hands of the Iroquois. By the time she four years old smallpox killed her parents and her brother; she was left her scarred and with impaired eyesight.
Adopted by her uncle, the chief of the Turtle clan, and Kateri had many offers of marriage. The Jesuit missionaries (the Black Robes) gave some knowledge of the Catholic faith to Kateri that gave her the desire to live life not only as a Christian but as a virgin: a heroic determination at the time. However, Kateri was not baptized until she was 20. Because of her virtue she experienced persecution and death threats, she fled to the established Christian community at Kahnawake in Québec. Observers testify that Kateri advanced in communio with God taking on bodily mortifications with intense prayer; she died at the age of 24. Kateri Tekakwitha was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 22 June 1980.
… for a few days I am fishing for catfish … and eating Ted Drews …
On the liturgical ordo of the Carmelite Order today is the feast of the relatively unknown saint outside some circles (on the Roman ordo today’s saint is memorialized on April 12). Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes was born on July 13, 1900 and died on April 12, 1920 and having spent only 11 months as a Carmelite nun.
Scenes from the 2010 Northeast Coast Communion & Liberation Vacation in the Hudson Valley, outside New Paltz, New York, July 1-5, 2010 … Can anything make life new again?
Each year the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has a theme and the theme for the 2011 observance of the Week of Prayer is One in the Apostles’ Teaching, Fellowship, Breaking of Bread and Prayer.
My friend Robin in Glen Carbon, IL, let me know about a fund raising opportunity for a new Catholic high school, Fr McGivney Catholic High School.
… who would have thought that someone, anyone, would think that a common octopus named Paul, would select THE winner of the World Cup 2010!!!