Pope Benedict meets with Pope Pelosi

The Holy See’s Press Office released a statement this morning about the US Speaker of the House’s visit to the Holy See and to the Pope:

 

Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.

 

His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.

 

Pope & Pelosi.jpgGood for the Pope. I wish I could’ve been there watching the Speaker’s face while the Pope teaches her (and her entourage) the orthodox faith including the various constituent components of Catholic moral teaching. I’m sure she knew that the Pope would say something about her heterodoxy but I bet she didn’t expect such a direct address. Or, did she? You know, she’s not very clear on these things so every little bit helps. Perhaps now she’ll actually become a believing Catholic and not one that merely picks and chooses what to believe so as to keep an influential job.

 

Now, can we get Joe Biden and the other Catholics in Congress to meet Pope Benedict?

 

Ignace Joseph III enthroned as new Syrian Catholic Patriarch

The new Syrian Patriarch, Ignace Joseph III Younan, elected on January 22nd was  enthroned on February 15th in Beirut. The story of the event is here and here. It is interesting to note the theological and liturgical differences between Western & Eastern Catholics. The Patriarch was enthroned, not installed. The proper term is enthroned; one installs computer software and a new dishwasher, not a bishop. To enthrone a bishop means that he is led to his chair and seated. Of course there’s more to the rite but that’s it essentially. Worldwide the Syrian Catholics number about 200, 000.


Lori Cathedra.jpgThe point of this note isn’t the size of a bishop’s chair as it was to draw attention to a new Eastern Catholic Patriarch. That said, for some, parsing the difference between enthronement vs. installation may be overly picky. The liturgical theology of the Church says that bishops sit on cathedras (substantial looking chairs), not thrones even if some look more like thrones than mere a big chair. That some bishops may look like plenipotentiaries, even act like them, they’re not. But to say that a bishop is led to a choir stall, like an abbot is upon his election, is not quiet correct either. How long has the word “installation” been used to denote the act of inaugurating a bishop’s ministry? I think some people who claim to be liturgists tend to force a new agenda on the Church using inaccurate jargon. But I defer to a great authority.

Is he sorry?

a-rod.jpgTonight’s evening news had an update on the A-Rod drug scandal. What I find amazing is that a man would admit to taking steroids, citing pressure, to enhance his performance to play a high profile sport and get paid $275 million (by all accounts a record). A-Rod must think everybody is looking the other way and stupid. His defense was that as 25 year old he made some stupid decisions.

 

Fair enough, we all do things we regret. No one, except the Savior of mankind and the BVM can claim otherwise. Original Sin has deeply affected our lives. As a Catholic, I can testify to the beauty of the Catholic faith by the mercy experienced when you ask for the mercy of God (forgiveness!) through the sacrament of Confession, make amends with your brothers and sisters AND you change your life. I don’t know A-Rod’s faith life but something seems out of whack here in that he still has a job playing baseball and he’s still being looked upon as a hero. Not telling the truth is a serious offence. If the news caught A-Rod expressing his sorrow by saying “I am sorry” to the public, it wasn’t aired. I wonder if he said those 3 words. Personally, I think the Yankees should fire the man AND go to confession. But that’s me.

 

Moreover, a 9 year old child told a report that what A-Rod did “wasn’t wrong but he should not have used drugs.” Not wrong? WHAT???? I suppose the child’s moral formation is still in flux at the moment but this is crazy. I’d like to know what the parents teach this young man. What moral formation does this child get in school, in church, in the Boy Scouts?

The Pope’s brief thoughts on the sacred Liturgy, prayer and belief

Pope Benedict spoke of “teaching the art of prayer, encouraging participation in the liturgy and the Sacraments, wise and relevant preaching, catechetical instruction, and spiritual and moral guidance. From this foundation faith flourishes in Christian virtue, and gives rise to vibrant parishes and generous service to the wider community” to the Nigerian bishops making their ad limina.

 

Later the Pope said: “The celebration of the liturgy is a privileged source of renewal in Christian living” and “to maintain the proper balance between moments of contemplation and external gestures of participation and joy in the Lord”.

New Saints

During a public Ordinary Consistory in the Clementine Hall Apostolic Palace on 21 February 2009, Pope Benedict XVI will announce the canonization of the following Blesseds as Saints.

Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński, bishop, founder of the Congregation of Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary;

Arcangelo Tadini, priest, founder of the Congregation of Worker Sisters of the House of Nazareth;

Francis Coll y Guitart, priest of the Order of Friars Preachers (Dominicans), founder of the Congregation of Dominican Sisters of the Annunciation of the BVM;

Joseph Damian de Veuster, priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary of the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar;

Bernard Tolomei, abbot, founder of the Congregation of Saint Mary of Monte Oliveto of the Order of Saint Benedict;

Rafael Arnáiz Barón, religious of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance;

Nuno of Saint Mary Álvares Pereira, religious of the Order of Carmelites;

Gertrude (Catherine) Comensoli, virgin, founder of the Institute of Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament;

Marie of the Cross (Jeanne) Jugan, virgin, founder of the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor;

Catherine Volpicelli, virgin, founder of the Congregation of the Handmaids of Sacred Heart.

The ceremony of Canonization of the Blesseds: Arcangelo Tadini; Bernard Tolomei; Nuno de Santa Maria Álvares Pereira; Gertrude (Caterina) Comensoli e Catherine Volpicelli will be Sunday, 26 April 2009.

 

The ceremony of Canonization of the Blesseds: Zygmunt Szczęsny Feliński; Francisco Coll y Guitart; Jozef Damian de Veuster; Rafael Arnáiz Barón e Marie de la Croix (Jeanne) Jugan will be Sunday, 11 October 2009.

Music can proclaim Christ


music.jpg“Music, like art, can be a particularly great way to proclaim Christ because it is able to eloquently render more perceptible the mystery of the faith.” Music can “help us contemplate the intense and arcane mystery of Christian faith.”

 

(Pope Benedict XVI spoke after a concert given Our Lady’s Choral Society of the Archdiocese of Dublin, Ireland on the occasion of the 80th anniv. Vatican City State, 13 Feb 2009)

Anointing Father John Oetgen

This afternoon the Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey, with whom I am currently living, gathered in the room of Father John Oetgen to celebrate the Rite of Anointing of the Sick. Father John is one of the senior monks of this monastic community spending a lifetime serving the Lord as a monk, a priest and a professor literature. He’s in 80s and he’s been infirmed for the last 4 months. He’s received this sacrament before, but Father Abbot Placid thought it best to celebrate the sacrament now as Father John has grown weaker in body. What comfort there is when brothers “gather in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ who is present among us” to pray and show affection for a brother.

If you have been present for the sacrament of the sick you know how moving it is. I was moved to tears several times during the rite probably for no other reason than what I was experiencing was a great theology at work: God’s praise and our conversion. While I don’t know Father John well, the humanity of act of gathering in prayer and companionship was beautiful.

The rite, recalling the words of sacred Scripture, remind us that the sick came to Jesus for healing; moreover, we recall that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection is what sets us free from sin and death. This is the faith we have professed, this is the faith we gave witness to today with Father John, it is the faith that comforts and sustains Father John.

Addressing the faithful, the Saint James exhorts us to care for the ill in this manner: “Are there any who are sick among you? Let them send for the priests of the Church, and let the priests pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick persons, and the Lord will raise them up; and if they have committed any sins, their sins will be forgiven them.”  This we did and it was beautiful.

With the laying on of hands and prayer, we asked God to grant Father John comfort in his suffering, courage in the face of fear, patience if distressed and hope when sad and the support of the brothers (and all others) when feeling alone. So, I ask you to pray that God will do the loving thing for Father John and to assist the monks here in all ways that Providence sees fit.

Saints Cyril and Methodius


Saints Cyril and Methodius.JPGAfter this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town and place where He Himself was about to come. And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

 

Father, You brought the light of the Gospel to the Slavic nations through Saint Cyril and his brother Saint Methodius. Open our hearts to understanding Your teaching and help us to become one in faith and praise.

 

 

Writing about today’s saints Pope John Paul II said:

 

[Saints Cyril and Methodius made a] generous decision to identify themselves with those peoples’ life and traditions, once having purified and enlightened them by Revelation, make Cyril and Methodius true models for all the missionaries who in every period have accepted Saint Paul’s invitation to become all things to all people in order to redeem all. And in particular for the missionaries who, from ancient times until the present day, from Europe to Asia and today in every continent, have labored to translate the Bible and the texts of the liturgy into the living languages of the various peoples, so as to bring them the one word of God, thus made accessible in each civilization’s own forms of expression.

 

Perfect communion in love preserves the Church from all forms of particularism, ethnic exclusivism or racial prejudice, and from any nationalistic arrogance. This communion must elevate and sublimate every purely natural legitimate sentiment of the human heart. (Slavorum apostoli, 11, 1985)

Saint Valentine


St Valentine baptizing Lucilla.jpgHe that hates his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

 

We beseech You almighty God, grant that we who celebrate the heavenly birth of blessed Valentine, Your martyr, may through his intercession be freed from all impending evils.

 

 

 

(The antiphon and prayer for Mass is a far cry from the saccharine sense of the saint we honor today in the secular world.)