Tag: Pope Benedict XVI

Easter Urbi et Orbi 2011: Christ’s resurrection happens in history, permanently remembered and lived


Urbi et Ordbi Easter 2011.jpg

“In
resurrectione tua, Christe, coeli et terra laetentur!

In your resurrection, O
Christ, let heaven and earth rejoice!” (Liturgy of the Hours).

Dear Brothers
and Sisters in Rome and across the world, Easter morning brings us news that is
ancient yet ever new: Christ is risen! The echo of this event, which issued
forth from Jerusalem twenty centuries ago, continues to resound in the Church,
deep in whose heart lives the vibrant faith of Mary, Mother of Jesus, the faith
of Mary Magdalene and the other women who first discovered the empty tomb, and
the faith of Peter and the other Apostles.

Continue reading Easter Urbi et Orbi 2011: Christ’s resurrection happens in history, permanently remembered and lived

Benedict’s Easter Vigil 2011 homily:

Easter Vigil 2011.jpgDear Brothers and Sisters, The liturgical celebration
of the Easter Vigil makes use of two eloquent signs. First there is the fire
that becomes light. As the procession makes its way through the church,
shrouded in the darkness of the night, the light of the Paschal Candle becomes
a wave of lights, and it speaks to us of Christ as the true morning star that
never sets – the Risen Lord in whom light has conquered darkness. The second
sign is water. On the one hand, it recalls the waters of the Red Sea, decline
and death, the mystery of the Cross. But now it is presented to us as spring
water, a life-giving element amid the dryness. Thus it becomes the image of the
sacrament of baptism, through which we become sharers in the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Continue reading Benedict’s Easter Vigil 2011 homily:

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.

Walking that new path of liberation by the gravitational force of God’s love, Pope Benedict tells

Pope Benedict is nothing if not a master of the spiritual life and superb pastor of souls. His Palm Sunday homily delivered earlier today is extraordinarily beautiful for its content and style , but most importantly it gives us a path to Jesus. He’s not giving a legacy; he’s giving us truth.

Pope with palm 2011.jpg

It is a moving
experience each year on Palm Sunday as we go up the mountain with Jesus,
towards the Temple, accompanying him on his ascent. On this day, throughout the
world and across the centuries, young people and people of every age acclaim
him, crying out: “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the
name of the Lord!”

But what are we really doing when we join this procession as
part of the throng which went up with Jesus to Jerusalem and hailed him as King
of Israel? Is this anything more than a ritual, a quaint custom? Does it have
anything to do with the reality of our life and our world? To answer this, we
must first be clear about what Jesus himself wished to do and actually did.
After Peter’s confession of faith in Caesarea Philippi, in the northernmost
part of the Holy Land, Jesus set out as a pilgrim towards Jerusalem for the
feast of Passover. He was journeying towards the Temple in the Holy City,
towards that place which for Israel ensured in a particular way God’s closeness
to his people. He was making his way towards the common feast of Passover, the
memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt and the sign of its hope of
definitive liberation. He knew that what awaited him was a new Passover and
that he himself would take the place of the sacrificial lambs by offering
himself on the cross. He knew that in the mysterious gifts of bread and wine he
would give himself for ever to his own, and that he would open to them the door
to a new path of liberation, to fellowship with the living God. He was making
his way to the heights of the Cross, to the moment of self-giving love. The
ultimate goal of his pilgrimage was the heights of God himself; to those
heights he wanted to lift every human being.

Continue reading Walking that new path of liberation by the gravitational force of God’s love, Pope Benedict tells

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.

Rossella Teregnoli: the new woman in the papal household

papa01g.jpgThe pope’s household –the Pope’s family– gets a fourth assistant with Rossella Teragnoli. She joins three other Memores Domini women, Loredana, Carmela and Cristina.

Rossella Tereganoli comes from Soresina in the Italian Province of Cremona. She will take up the duties formerly done by the late Manuela Camagni who died in November as the result of a car accident.

Memores Domini is the consecrated lay group of men and women who live a life of virginity, obedience and poverty living in community and active in the world. Memores Domini is not a religious order but a new way of total dedication to God. The Memores are part of Communion and Liberation.
But the Pope doesn’t only work with the Memores Domini but he also is assisted by Birgit, a consecrated lay woman who belongs to the Schoenstatt movement.
More detail on the papal household is found here. If you are interested, the Pope answers Peter Seewald’s question about his life in the Apostolic Palace in his recent interview, Light of the World.

Is the Pope’s Irish proposal reasonable?

Haven’t been thinking of the Pope’s letter to the Church in Ireland regarding the sexual abuse problems in a while? Let’s start thinking anew: the year of prayer that the Pope asked for is coming to an with Easter. I’d like to know what’s different.


No one I know takes issue with what the Pope has been doing with the sexual abuse matters. That may be a point of criticism of me and my friends, but I don’t have all the answers to such a complex issue such as pedodphilia and ephebophilia and I tend to lean toward diagnosing the problem not merely from psychological and sociological criteria but most importantly from spiritual criteria. What does one do with sin in one’s spiritual life? My experience with secular and religious clergy, religious sisters and brothers, and of course the laity, is that there is lots of mediocre spiritual lives in the Catholic; I might even argue for an acceptance that there are a lot of spiritually dead men of the cloth pastoring souls today. Since the Pope’s March letter to Ireland of a year ago I have been thinking and praying about the matter, as you have you some concrete initiatives to address the situation, in addition to a special investigation into the way certain dioceses took responsibility for the crimes.



Continue reading Is the Pope’s Irish proposal reasonable?