Pope Benedict’s 5th anniversary as Supreme Pontiff
Today is a wonderful day to celebrate: the 5th anniversary of the election of Pope Benedict XVI as the Supreme Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church.
The papacy of Benedict will be marked in history as one that attended to the recovery of the sacred and the beautiful. Recall some of the words he spoke at his inaugural Mass as Pontiff:
“It is really true: as we follow Christ in this mission to be fishers of men, we must bring men and women out of the sea that is salted with so many forms of alienation and onto the land of life, into the light of God. It is really so: the purpose of our lives is to reveal God to men. And only where God is seen does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God. Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ. There is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him. The task of the shepherd, the task of the fisher of men, can often seem wearisome. But it is beautiful and wonderful, because it is truly a service to joy, to God’s joy which longs to break into the world.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Homily at the Mass for the Inauguration of the Pontificate, 2005
The Pope meets 8 victims of sexual abuse in Malta: a profound experience
The prominent Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera, published a beautiful quote of Lawrence Grech, a victim of sexual abuse, who met with Pope Benedict during his pastoral visit to Malta Saturday and Sunday and had a profound experience. Mr. Grech said that he felt liberated, that a great stone lifted after speaking with Benedict. Grech went on to say that after this encounter he was a more convinced Catholic and that this was “the greatest gift after the birth of my daughter.”
Italy’s other news agency, La Stampa, reported the story.
Will this quote show up in the American press?
Bernardo de Hoyos beatified
Today, in Valladolid, Spain, Father Bernardo de Hoyos (1711-1735) was beatified. I previously mentioned Father de Hoyos on this blog. Here is a précis of Father Adolfo Nicolás’ letter to the Jesuits. The full text of the letter can be read here Bernard de Hoyos letter.pdf
“He is considered the first apostle of the Sacred Heart in Spain. To recapture who he was and what he contributed, I offer some biographical information that should be understood in the religious and cultural context of the 18th century.” Thus begins Nicolás’ for this occasion. More than a century ago, in 1895, the cause for Father De Hoyos was introduced; due to many ecclesiastical vicissitudes and the political history of Spain, it was repeatedly postponed. Father Nicolás, in his letter, traces the major events in the very short life of the newly beatified who died on the 29th of November 1735 at the age of 24. Near to the time of his death, de Hoyos was ordained a priest and in Tertianship.
“His reputation for holiness,” the letter continues. “spread immediately after his death. However, because of the difficult situation in which the Society found itself opposed by the Jansenists, the cause for beatification was not introduced at that time. Later the suppression of the Society would leave many projects unfinished. When the Society was restored in 1814 by Pope Pius VII, a strong devotion to the Sacred Heart emerged in the whole Church. In accord with the religious sensibilities of the time, the reborn Society dedicated itself to the spread and propagation of this devotion with significant results.” The letter outlines the steps of this recovery of the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, beginning with Jesuits’ General Congregation 31st in 1965, through the generalate of Father Pedro Arrupe and then with generalate of Father Peter Hans Kolvenbach.
Then Father Nicolás goes on: “Bernardo de Hoyos’s passion for the Heart of Jesus faithfully corresponds to the devotion that Saint Ignatius felt for Jesus poor and humble, before whom he asks that our affections be moved in order to accompany Him in each step of His life: As companions with him on mission, his way is our way (GC35, D.2, nº 14), so that in what we do in the world there must always be a transparency to God (GC35, D. 2, nº 10). On the occasion of this beatification, I invite the whole Society, together with our collaborators, to renew our personal love of Jesus Christ and to open ourselves to the grace of identifying ourselves with Him, so that in Nadal’s words, we might understand with His understanding; will with His will; remember with His memory; and that our entire being, living, and doing be not centered in us, but in Christ (MHSI vol 90. p.122; GC35, D. 2, nº14), as the cornerstone of the particular vocation to which each of us has been called.”
Father Nicolás concludes his letter: “May the Father who has hidden these things from the wise and the learned and has revealed them to the childlike (Mt 11, 25) through the intercession of Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos, grant the Society the grace of accomplishing its mission of being in the Church a loving response to Him who was pierced by the pain and the aggressive injustice of a world in need of forgiveness and reconciliation.”
May Blessed Bernardo de Hoyos show us the way to the Heart of Jesus!
John Paul II and the Development of a “New Feminism”
The April 2010 issue of Inside the Vatican (18:4) published a special commemorative issue observing the papal death of John Paul II and the papal election of Benedict XVI. The editor asked various people to write their memories of one of the popes. Sister Sara Butler, MSBT, a professor of dogmatic theology at St Joseph’s Seminary -Dunwoodie, New York, offered her thoughts on Pope John Paul’s contribution to feminist thinking. Sister Sara is a published author and a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic Dialogue and the International Theological Commission. Sister remembers:
Looking back over the papacy of the Servant of God John Paul II, I find myself especially grateful for the initiative he took in addressing the feminist critique. The Pope did this in his Letter to Women (1995), his apostolic letter On the Dignity and Vocation of Women (Mulieris dignitatem, 1988), and his ground-breaking catecheses on the “theology of the body.” He not only acknowledged the positive contributions of feminist scholarship and offered needed clarifications and correctives in response to their objections; he also spelled out his own appreciation of the “genius” of women and took steps to promote their increased participation in the Church and in the social order. Since the Pope’s death, we are already beginning to see the fruits of his recommendation that Catholic women undertake to develop a “new feminism,” consistent with Catholic doctrine (Evangelium vitae, par 99). In my opinion , it is hard to overestimate the contribution Pope John Paul II made to meeting this contemporary challenge.
Tomáš Cardinal Špidlík dead at 91
The staff of the Centro Aletti with faith in the life-giving power of the Lord’s Resurrection announced the death of Tomáš Cardinal Špidlík Friday, 16 April 2010 at 9 pm.
The In making their announcement the staff of the Centro Aletti expressed their gratitude to God for the Cardinal’s many years through his gift of paternity and wisdom. They ask that all of us to be united in prayer to accompany the Cardinal’s soul to his ultimate and definitive passage to eternal life.
The Cardinal’s wake will be at the Centro Aletti until Monday, April 19. On Tuesday, April 20 the Mass of Christian Burial will take place at the Vatican Basilica at 11:30 am celebrated by Angelo Cardinal Sodano with the Holy Father concluding the Liturgy with a homily and the prayers of final commendation.
Let us pray.
By Thy resurrection from the dead, O Christ, death no longer has dominion over those who die in holiness. So, we beseech Thee, give rest to Thy servant Tomáš in Thy sanctuary and in Abraham’s bosom. Grant it to those, who from Adam until now have adored Thee with purity, to our fathers and mothers, to our kinsmen and friends, to all men who have lived by faith and passed on their road to Thee, by a thousand ways, and in all conditions, and make them worthy of the heavenly kingdom.
The Holy Father’s telegram to the superior general of the Society Jesus, Father Adolfo Nicolas Pachon, reads:
“The pious demise of Cardinal Tomas Spidlik, distinguished Jesuit and zealous servant of the Gospel, has aroused deep commotion in my heart. It is with profound gratitude that I recall his solid faith, his paternal affability and his intense cultural and ecclesial labours, especially as an authoritative expert on Eastern Christian spirituality. I raise fervent prayers to the Lord that, by the intercession of the Most Holy Virgin and St. Ignatius of Loyola, He may give the deceased cardinal the eternal prize promised to His faithful disciples. And to you, to the Society of Jesus, and to everyone who knew him and appreciated his gifts of mind and heart, I send a heartfelt and comforting apostolic blessing.
We give thanks to the Lord for blessing us with this wise and holy priest and cardinal!
Grail Psalter, Revised –gets Vatican approval
On November 11, 2008, Abbot Gregory Polan of Conception Abbey received the US bishops’ positive vote for the liturgical use of the Revised Grail Psalter. The Grail Psalter was first published for liturgical use in 1963 and revised by Abbot Gregory and monks of Conception Abbey according to current translation principles including Liturgiam Authenticam (2001)
Recently, the whole project received what is called the “recognitio” from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Disciple of the Sacraments (the Vatican office deputed by the pope to guide liturgical matters) in a March 19th letter to Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, Bishop of Paterson and Chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship.
The reception of Vatican approval of these texts means that future liturgical books will use this translation of the Psalms.
Read Conception Abbey’s press release on receiving the Vatican recognitio for the Revised Grail Psalter, which gives many of the interesting details of the work.
The Catholic Key Blog ran a story on the matter on Thursday, April 15, 2010.
Ut in omnibus glorificetur Deus, That in all things may God be glorified
Blessed Clara Gambacorta
Merciful God, grant us a spirit of prayer and penance.
By following in the footsteps of Blessed Clara may we be worthy to win the
crown she has received in heaven.
Blessed Clara, a 14th century who married at 12 and was widowed at 15, and despite objections from her family became a Dominican nun, living a life of sacrifice teaching that it is possible to serve the Lord in a multiple of ways always focusing on the Cross. She was known for her prudential judgment, study and charity, particularly when it came to forgiving her father and brother’s killer.
Dolan in Syria and Lebanon: the deep sacred roots of the churches, places and people in the story of our redemption
As bishop, I am told, you are asked to sit on boards and be a voice for causes that you may not have too much interest in or knowledge of. While to the new Archbishop Dolan’s portfolio as the archbishop of New York, he is the chairman of the board of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (CNEWA) and is learning lots of new and beautiful things about the Church in other parts of the world. He made a recent trip to the Middle East with members of the governing board which opened his eyes to a new reality of what it is like to be an Eastern Christian. John Cardinal Foley, Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem accompanied the CNEWA board. The archbishop learned the beautiful horizons of the East and the limits thereof.
Read Archbishop Dolan’s reflections on his visit to the Middle East last week. I found it interesting and insightful and I hope it does the same for you.
I am going to be shameless here. When I was at the Catholic Information Service at the Knights of Columbus I commissioned my friend, Father Steven Hawkes-Teeples, SJ, professor Theology at the Oriental Institute in Rome to write a booklet on basics of Eastern Christianity. The old booklet just didn’t serve the needs of our readers and something more up-to-date was needed, especially since Catholic Church has more than one expression of herself. The booklet, The Eastern Christians and Their Churches, is worth a thorough read.
New Connecticut Episcopal bishop misleading
Reading my hometown newspaper, The New Haven Register, the editors ran a story about Connecticut’s 15th new Episcopal bishop, the Right Reverend Ian T. Douglas regarding his forthcoming ordination. I am sure for many the presence of Nobel peace laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu will be a big “plus.” But there are aspects of the new bishop’s opportunistic thinking that raises concerns.
Bishop-elect Douglas is being touted as a “ground breaker” as the episcopal bishop of Connecticut because he’s known on the international scene, and that he’s never served as a priest in the diocese prior this moment. Besides Douglas’ statement that he’s not afraid to call in favors from around world, what got my attention, is his misleading Protestant Episcopal reasoning for selecting the principle consecrating bishop (Katharine Schori) and her two of the co-consecrating bishops: “they are diverse in race, sex and theology, and so represent ‘the catholicity of the church.'”
The catholicity of the Church, Episcopal or otherwise, is not demonstrated by race, sex and theology. These elements are trendy and do not constitute the fundamental character of ordination and episcopal service to a (local) Church. Race, sex and theological diversity are elements of a multicultural attitude of the Church and they don’t stand the test of time not to mention patronizing. Sacred Scripture, Truth and Tradition are divinely revealed and orient our theological and liturgical praxis. At last I knew, consecrating bishops are too be chosen for their orthodox faith and for nothing else. Christ did not build his church on multicultural clap-trap. Sadly, Douglas’s understanding of the episcopacy is like his rolodex: it may be diverse but it lacks the quality of substance and orthodox ecclesiology: where is the traditional communion ecclesiology that is supposed to exist? Oh, wait, true communion ecclesiology has vanished with the Episcopal Church! This is just one reason that is contributing to the demise of the Anglican Communion in America and abroad.