The Vatican today officially announced the Holy Father's summer vacation plan.


Banner of the Lorenzago website is the winter look
of the Dolomite peaks that shelter the town .



THE HOLY FATHER'S VACATION
AT LORENZAGO DI CADORE
July 9-27, 2007


From Monday, July 9, to Friday, July 27, the Holy Father Benedict XVI will spend a period of rest in private at Lorenzago di Cadore, in the province of Belluno, diocese of Belluno-Feltre, as a guest in one of the houses maintained by the diocese of Treviso.

On Sunday, July 15, at noon, the Pope will lead the Angelus prayer at the Castello di Mirabello.

The following Sunday, July 22, this will be done at the main Piazza of Lorenzago.


Journalists, photographers and broadcast teams interested in covering the Angelus may direct all inquiries to:

Don Giuseppe BRATTI
Press Office of the Diocese of Belluno-Feltre
Tel: 0437 212678 (diretto)
Cell: 328 3038880
E-mail: giuseppe.bratti@diocesi.it
Fax: 0437 940661 (Attention: Don Giuseppe Bratti)

ADDENDUM:

There will be no Wednesday audiences on July 11, 18 and 25. The general audiences will begin again on Aug. 1.

On July 27, the Pope will travel to the summer papal residence at Castel Gandolfo, located some 30 kilometers (18 miles) south of Rome.


=====================================================================

Just to refresh your memory if you followed previous reporting about this vacation in POPE-POURRI, or if you did not see it before:


www.multimap.com/maps/?&t=l&map=46.4786,12.4577|15|4&loc=IT:46.4786:12.4577:15#t=l&map=45.7808,12.17651|8|4&loc=IT:46.4786:12...
As the map on the link shows, Venice is the nearest big city.

Lorenzago di Cadore (ZIP code 32040) belongs to the province of Belluno and is 56 kilometers far from Belluno, that is the Chief Town of the homonymous province.

Lorenzago di Cadore has a population of 578 inhabitants and a surface of 27,6 square kilometers thus showing a population density of 20,94 inhabitants per square kilometer. It rises 883 metres above the sea level.

The City Hall is located in Via Faureana 117, phone ++39 0435 75001, fax ++39 0435 75001.

Population: The municipality of Lorenzago di Cadore had a popolation of 646 inhabitants accordingly to the results of the national census made in 1991. After the national census made in 2001 the population was 578 inhabitants, thus showing during the years 1991 - 2001 a percentual variation of -10,53% inhabitants.

The inhabitants are distributed in 258 families with an average of 2,24 people per family.

The place: The territory of the municipality lies between 683 and 2,581 metres above sea level. (Average altitude 1898 meters, roughly 6,100 feet).


Views of Lorenzago, seen from the neighboring town.

Officially, the Pope's hosts in Lorenzago are the Bishops of Belluno and Treviso. Benedict XVI will be staying at the Castello di Mirabello, guest house of the Diocese of Treviso, where John Paul II stayed during the 6 times he was in Cadore, recalled by a bust and a bronze plaque in front of the Church in Lorenzago.

He will take his walks along the panoramic route baptized the John Paul II Path, with its scenic views of the major peaks in the area- Montanel, Miaron and the Cridola group.


JP-II in Lorenzago in 1987

John Paul II vacationed in Lorenzago six times: In 1987, from July 8-14; in 1988, from July 13-22; in 1992, when he was recovering from an operation; in 1993 and then 1996. His last visit was in 1998, from July 8-21.

But his first visit to Belluno was in 1979 when he went to Canale d'Agordo, birthplace of John Paul I, and said Mass at the stadium in Belluno.

Pope Benedict is also expected to make a brief trip to Canale d'Agordo next month during his vacation, where he will be a guest of Papa Luciani's brother Edoardo at the family home.


=====================================================================

6/26/07 Sorry to piggyback this item here - in the interest of chronology. It's VIS's belated report, posted Monday, 6/25, on the Pope's address to participants in a conference of European university professors on Saturday, 6/23. The full text was posted in HOMILIES,DISCOURSES, MESSAGES on Saturday, but there was no news report.


FAITH AND REASON IN THE SEARCH FOR TRUTH



VATICAN CITY, JUN 23, 2007 (VIS) - Today in the Vatican, Benedict XVI received participants in a meeting of professors and rectors of European universities, who have come together to mark the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

"The theme of your meeting - 'A New Humanism for Europe. The Role of the Universities' - invites a disciplined assessment of contemporary culture on the continent," said the Pope in his English-language address. "Europe is presently experiencing a certain social instability and diffidence in the face of traditional values, yet her distinguished history and her established academic institutions have much to contribute to shaping a future of hope."

"Promoting a new humanism, in fact, requires a clear understanding of what this 'newness' actually embodies. ... Europe today is experiencing a massive cultural shift, one in which men and women are increasingly conscious of their call to be actively engaged in shaping their own history. Historically, it was in Europe that humanism developed, thanks to the fruitful interplay between the various cultures of her peoples and the Christian faith."

"The present cultural shift is often seen as a 'challenge' to the culture of the university and Christianity itself, rather than as a 'horizon' against which creative solutions can and must be found."

On the subject of these solutions, the Pope identified three issues to which "men and women of higher education" are called to turn their attention: "The need for a comprehensive study of the crisis of modernity," and of "the problems raised by a 'humanism' that claims to build a 'regnum hominis' detached from its necessary ontological foundation. ... The anthropocentrism which characterizes modernity can never be detached from an acknowledgment of the full truth about man, which includes his transcendent vocation.

"A second issue," he added, "involves the broadening of our understanding of rationality," which "needs instead to be 'broadened' in order to be able to explore and embrace those aspects of reality which go beyond the purely empirical. ... The rise of the European universities was fostered by the conviction that faith and reason are meant to cooperate in the search for truth, each respecting the nature and legitimate autonomy of the other, yet working together harmoniously and creatively to serve the fulfillment of the human person."

The third issue identified by the Pope "concerns the nature of the contribution which Christianity can make to the humanism of the future. The question of man, and thus of modernity, challenges the Church to devise effective ways of proclaiming to contemporary culture the 'realism' of her faith in the saving work of Christ. Christianity must not be relegated to the world of myth and emotion, but respected for its claim to shed light on the truth about man."

"It is," the Pope concluded, "my hope that universities will increasingly become communities committed to the tireless pursuit of truth, 'laboratories of culture' where teachers and students join in exploring issues of particular importance for society, employing interdisciplinary methods and counting on the collaboration of theologians."

"This can easily be done in Europe, given the presence of so many prestigious Catholic institutions and faculties of theology. I am convinced that greater cooperation ... between the various academic communities will enable Catholic universities to bear witness to the historical fruitfulness of the encounter between faith and reason."

Pope: John the Baptist,
first 'witness' of Christ and
of truth without compromise


Vatican City, June 24 (AsiaNews) - The Pope today dedicated his Angelus message to the figure of John the Baptist, 'witness' of Christ and of the 'truth without compromise', who "knew how to remain faithful to Christ and to be a courageous witness of his truth and his love for all".

Speaking to many pilgrims - some gathered with umbrellas and fans to find relief from the great heat - Benedict XVI underscored the value of John the Baptist "whose life was completely oriented to Christ, as was that of His mother, Mary", whose birthday the Church celebrates today.

He pointed out that of all the saints - for whom usually the dies natalis(the day of their death, as the day of their 'birth' in heaven) - is celebrated, the earthly birthdays of John the Baptist and Mary are celebrated.

"By commemorating his birth," the Pope said, "we are celebrating Christ, the realisation of all the promises made by the prophets, of which John the Baptist was the greatest, called to 'prepare the way' for the Messiah (Mt 11,9-10)".

The pontiff recalled that "each of the Gospels begin narrating Christ's public life with the story of his baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist....My book Jesus of Nazareth also begins with Christ's baptism in the river Jordan, an event of enormous resonance at the time".

The event of Jesus's baptism by John the Baptist, allowed the latter to know 'the full reality of Jesus of Nazareth' and to 'make him known to Israel' (Jn 1,31), indicating him as the Son of God and mankinds redeemer: 'This is the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world' (Jn 1,29)".

Another important element in the life of the Baptist is that he bore 'witness to the truth without compromise'. Listing the many battles that the Church sustains in its defence of life, the family, religious freedom, human rights, Benedict XVI added:

"He denounced the transgression of God's commandments, even when the transgressors were powerful. Such as when he accused Herod and Erodiade of adultery, he paid with his life thus sealing with his martyrdom his service to Christ, who is Truth in person. We invoke his intercession together with the Virgin Mary, so that the Church of our times remains faithful to Christ and bears courageous witnesses of his truth and love for all".

Following the Marian prayer and his greeting in various languages to the pilgrims, the pontiff thanked the Italian faithful for their 'Day for Charity for the Pope', a special collection that takes place the Sunday before the feast day of Saints Peter and Paul, in aid of the Holy Sees missionary work.

Speaking to the Italian faithful, Benedict XVI said, 'I am deeply grateful for the prayers and the solidarity with which you participate in the evangelising and charitable mission of St. Peter's Successor for the entire world".

Thanks to Lella's blog, here's an update on the Pope's vacation from Corriere delle Alpi - which, I imagine, will be our best local source for stories during that time.


The headline says, 'Pope will meet priests'


Pope will meet local priests
By Marcella Corra

BELLUNO - Two Angelus prayers in public - one at Mirabello Castle for the diocese of Treviso, the other at Piazza Calvi in Lorenzago di Cadore for the diocese of Belluno-Feltre - were previously announced.

Now, it is known the Pope will also meet with the local clergy in a church that can hold 600-800 priests, or probably at the Centro Papa Luciani in Santa Giustina near Belluno.

The Pope's summer vacation, from July 9-27, will otherwise be quite 'monastic' and very private, according to Mons. Giuseppe Andrich, Bishop of Belluno, at a press conference yesterday.

The meeting with the clergy of both the host dioceses "is an occasion that is important to all of us", Mons. Andrich said. The Pope did this in Val d'Aosta in 2005, but this time there will be four times as many priests attending - some 200 from the diocese of Beluno and 600 from the diocese of Treviso.

The Pope will arrive at the airport of Istrana at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, July 9, with about 20 staff and security. He will then take a helicopter to Lorenzago, where he is expected at noon. He will return to Rome on July 27, leaving Lorenzago at 5;30 p.m.

Andrich said the Vatican itself is inviting those who will there to welcome the Pope. "Definitely, the list will include the top regional and provincial officials."

He added: "The Pope is here to rest and study," saying this vacation will be much different from those made by John Paul VI to Lorenzago six times during his Pontificate.

"John Paul was out almost the whole day on excursions," Andrich said. "Benedict will spend almost all his time indoors.' [Working on Vol. 2 of JESUS OF NAZARETH, maybe?]

He said Benedict's 'walks' would be limited to the area around Mirabello Castle, the guest house of the diocese of Treviso where he will be staying.

"New paths have been set out around the castle. And the building itself was renovated to have more space (for lodging people)."

The only two public events will be the Angelus. The first Angelus on July 15 will be at Mirabello Castle and will be broadcast internationally. It will be preceded by a Mass celebrated by the Bishop of Treviso, Andrea Bruno Mazzocato. The second Angelus on July 22 will be at the main piazza of Lorenzago. Mons. Andrich will celebrate the Mass that precedes it.

Andrich said there have been numerous requests for the Pope to make private visits, but he says it is all up to the Pope. "Nothing is on the program. Anything that happens will be inpromptu."

One possibIlity is a visit to Canale d'Agordo, hometown of John Paul I, where he would meet Papa Luciani's brother Edoardo.

And everyone is preparing gifts for the Pope - sculptors, painters as well as ordinary folk. All gifts will be screened by Vatican staff, he said.

The parish priest of Lorenzago, don Sergio de Martin said his flock has been preparing for some weeks now, with a weekly prayer meeting." These have been very well attended and are very moving." He said the prayer meetings will continue even while the Pope is in Lorenzago.

"Our attitude is to prepare ourselves not so much for community or personal encounters with the Holy Father," said the parish priest, "but to avail of the spiritual benefits that accrue simply from the presence of Benedict XVI among us."

The parish and the municipal government are also cooperating, through many volunteer groups, to present concerts, torchlight processions, book presentations and other activities during the Pope's vacation.

Monsignor Aldrich also released the following message yesterday:

"I greet all the guests who are coming to us in the land of the Dolomites to spend some days on vacation. Our parish communities are happy to welcome so many guests who are also able to share moments of spirituality and meditation with us and feel part of our Christian community.

"Pope Benedict's presence here has put our province in the world's spotlight. He has given us great honor and privilege. For our Christian communities, the physical nearness will make us feel more deeply the words that Albino Luciani always said, 'Let us not detach ourselves from the rock,' and that rock is Peter.

"I appreciate the many prayer programs that the parish of Lorenzago, the arch-deaconate of Cadore, and the entire diocese have undertaken in preparation for and during the Pope's visit. Likewise, my appreciation to everyone for complying with our request, from the day the Pope's vacation was first announced, that we must all respect that the Pope is on vacation and the daily rhythm that he chooses to keep while he is here.

"Our diocese considers the recital of the Angelus on July 15 and 22 as moments of participation in the prayer of the universal Church, and we will listen to the Pope's words, knowing he is always attentive to the most serious problems faced by peoples as well as individuals."

===================================================================




I finally found a picture of Mirabello Castle from the website of Lorenzago - it wasn't there last time I looked - and it's the only one I have seen online so far, but obviously taken before any of the renovations done for the Pope's coming visit.

I can't even get any historical data on it, nor where exactly it is found in relation to the center of town. But the current information about it is that the diocese of Treviso uses it as a vacation house for its seminarians in the summer and for special courses given for young people at that time. John Paul II lived here during his six visits to Lorenzago.

Anyway, here's a June 18 story from Corriere delle Alpi on the security measures that have been set up around the Castle.


Security shut-off protects
Pope's summer residence
By Francesco del Mas


LORENZAGO - The Pope's vacation in Lorenzago is already well 'sealed.' Those who went up to Castello Mirabello this week to look at the place where the Pope will spend his summer vacation found themselves looking at a chickenwire fence covered with green plastic surrounding the villa.

The 'wall' has been set up around 900 meters away from the house itself, where summer camp for the seminary of Treviso has started.

The perimeter has also been wired in order to provide nighttime illumination which will facilitate the work of security forces assigned to keep watch on the temporary papal residence.

Vatican security officials arrived to confirm security preparations and the choice of a nearby landing field for surveillance helicopters that can also be used in case of an emergency. The Castello is set in the middle of woods.

Helicopter surveillance of the area will start June 30, according to local authorities.

The villa itself is obviously off limits. But the gravel garden paths have been laid with cobblestones. New paths through the woods have been opened. Benches and park tables have been installed along the paths. A gazebo is being installed in the little meadow surrounding the hilltop villa.

The so-called John Paul II Path starts from the Mirabella grounds - it's a scenic path that affords panoramic views of the nearby Dolomite peaks. Visitors who were able to get this far yesterday said "it's a fairytale setting."

Workers at Mirabello said a piano has been brought in for the Pope.

Meanwhile, homes in Lorenzago have started displaying the Vatican flag on their windows with the coat of arms of Pope Benedict and the Italian flag. The local tourism bureau has been distributing them.

Tony Blair can't just breeze in to a private audience with our Holy Father and assume he's going to be accepted into the Church!!!!! Thank God for Joseph Ratzinger!!!!!! [I wrote a comment on News about the Church thread as well]





Frankly, you were wrong: Benedict tells Blair


Tony Blair told Pope Benedict that he wants to become a Catholic, Vatican sources say, but the pontiff did not hesitate to criticise the outgoing British PM's policies on Iraq and other issues in what was described as a "frank exchange of views".

The Age reports that in talks lasting more than half an hour, Prime Minister Blair was left in no doubt that the Pope took a dim view of his record in office.

A statement issued afterwards by the Vatican said there had been a "frank exchange of views" on "particularly delicate subjects".

Such sharp language is deemed highly unusual for the Vatican, which frequently describes talks between the Pope and other heads of state and government as "cordial".

Vatican sources told reporters that the Pope was unmoved in his view that Mr Blair had been wrong over Iraq. More so than his predecessor, Pope Benedict feels that Catholic politicians cannot separate their public lives from their private, it said.

Italian reports also said the Pope had criticised UK laws allowing greater stem cell research on human embryos, easy access to abortion, same-sex marriages, and adoption by gay couples.

The meeting with the pontiff came four days before Mr Blair leaves office after agreeing to resign amid the British public's dissatisfaction with the country's involvement in the US-led war in Iraq.

Addressing reports that he was about to become a Catholic, Mr Blair told The Times newspaper on Saturday that the question of his conversion had not been entirely "resolved".

"I don't want to talk about it," he said. "It's difficult with some of these things. Things aren't always as resolved as they might be."

Some commentators saw the fact that the Blairs gave Pope Benedict three period photographs of Cardinal John Henry Newman, a famous nineteenth century British convert to Catholicism, as a symbolic gesture signalling Mr Blair's own imminent conversion.

On the other hand Vatican sources point out that as a young theology student at Freising the Pope made a special study of Cardinal Newman, writing his doctorate on Newman's theology of conscience, and has supported moves to make him a saint, reports say.


SOURCE
Pope's dim view of Blair's war stance (The Australian, 25/6/07)
Pope takes Blair to task over Iraq, abortion and stem cells (Times Online, 24/6/07)

Britain's Blair 'may become a Catholic' (The Age, 23/6/07)
Blair tells Pope: I'm ready to become a Catholic (Scotsman, 23/6/07)
Blair gives Pope portrait of Catholic convert (Independent, 23/6/07)
Blair won't convert this weekend says Vatican (Times Online, 22/6/07)

LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
10 Downing Street website
Tony Blair (Wikipedia)

What about spendig a few weeks in Lorenzago in July?

Maybe we can dress up like nuns and...




OKAY ...

A translation of the Pope's address to the Vatican Library officails and staff has been posted in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES.



Pope says he had once hoped
to end church career doing research


VATICAN CITY, June 25 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI visited the Vatican library Monday and revealed he had hoped to end his church career there conducting research.

"I confess that when I turned 70 (10 years ago), I would have so much desired that the beloved John Paul II would allow me to dedicate myself to study and research" on documents in the library, Benedict said.

Instead, Benedict added, "the Lord had other plans for me."

The pope paid the library, which holds some 1.6 million books, a visit before it shuts down for a three-year restoration.

From the Italian item in La Repubblica last Friday that I was going to translate:

Mons. Raffaele Farina, prefect of the library, gave assurances Thursday that during the three-year project, "Researchers will not be hampered from doing their work", replying to a New York Times article last week on 'panic among visiting scholars' worried about being 'cut off from their sources with crucial research under way.'


A hall in the Vatican Library. (New York Times photo)


Here's the full story of this morning's visit from the Italian news agency ASCA, translated here, from Lella's blog:

VATICAN CITY, June 25(ASCA) - Precious codices, rare papyri, literal manuscripts - handwritten - by some of the greatest names in church history, and centuries-old texts of historic significance were brought out for inspection today for Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to the Vatican Apostolic Library and Secret Archives.

The scholar Pope examined at first hand historic Bible sources and manuscripts by such as Augustine, Thomas of Aquinas, Martin Luther and Galileo.

He was able to see again the Bodmer Payrus XIV-XV presented to him last January by a Switzerland-based American foundation, which instantly became one of the Vatican Library's most valuable documents as it contains the Gospels of Luke and John written in Egypt some 200 years after the death of Jesus, the oldest known version of those two Gospels.

Then there is the Vatican Codex B, the first complete text of the Bible in Greek, from the beginning of the 4th century. An illustrated codex containing Augustines Enarrationes in psalmos. Thomas Aquinas's manuscript of the Summa contra gentiles. Some signed letters by Martin Luther. And a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, the first book ever printed with the printing press invented in the mid-15th century.

In the Secret Archives, the Pope was shown the Liber diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, an 8th century formulary of Papal seals; the 1122 Concordat of Worms between Emeperor Henry V and Pope Callixtus II regarding episcopal nominations; Meister Eckhart's 'retraction of errors' in 1327; the acts of the proceedings on Galileo from 1616-1633; and a curiosity - 100-gram gold seal of Spain's Phillip III, the heaviest document-seal in the Vatican collection. [Of course, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger had free access to the Archives.]


This must be Philip-III's gold seal - it's a medallion!

The Pope also went to the Torre dei Venti (Tower of Winds) with its Meridian Hall, which was the papal astronomical observatory and study center at the time of the Gregorian calendar reform. Then down to the basement archives where he visited one of the halls where ancient parchments are kept.

The Vatican Library contains 1,600,000 volumes, 8,300 incunabuli (books written before the printing press was invented) and 75,000 original manuscripts.

Addressing the staff and personnel, the Pope said: "Your task, dear friends who work here daily, is to safeguard the synthesis of faith and culture which is expressed by the precious documents and treasures in your custody, the walls that surround you, the museums near you and the splendid Basilica you see from your windows."

He called the Vatican Library 'a house of science, culture and humanity", and the Archives 'a treasure chest' for 'erudite research' on ancient as well as contemporary history.

"However, research, studies and publications can also give rise to polemics," he noted. "Therefore I can only praise the attitude of disinterested service that you render, keeping away from the sterile and often weak partisan visions of history, simply offering to researchers - without exclusion or prejudice - the documentary materials in your possession and maintained with orderly competence."

He praised the vision of Leo XIII who in 1881 first opened the Secret Archives to historians, and referred to his authorization last year to open the documents on the Pontificate of Pius XI for public research.

Referring to his anticipation 10 years ago of retiring to a life of research, the Pope said, "In his providential designs, the Lord had a different program for me, and so here I am with you today not as a passionate student of ancient texts but as a shepherd called to urge all the faithful to work together for the salvation of the world by each one of us fulfilling the will of God wherever he puts us to work."

The Vatican Library and Archives maintain seven services - restoration, photography, data center, editorial, training, exhibitions, and information coordination.

The big news from the Vatican today was in the RESIGNATIONS AND NOMINATIONS section, although the Pope himself also made the announcement at his opportune visit to the Vatican Library and Archives today:

The Pope today named Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran as President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog.

Cardinal Tauran, as Archivist and Librarian of the Holy Roman Church, was the Pope's host today in his visit to the Vatican Library and Archives. He will formally take his new office on September 1.


Left photo: The Pope is flanked by Cardinal Tauran and Mons. Farina who will succeed Tauran as Archivist/Librarian of the Church.

Last year, the Pope placed the Council under the presidency of Cardinal Paul Poupard, who is also President of the Pontifical Council on Culture.

Taking over Tauran's position at the library will be his Prefect, Mons. Raffaele Farina, S.D.B., who is also being promoted to the rank of Archbishop.

Farina's prefect will be Mons. Cesare Pasini, currently vice-prefect of the Ambrosian Library.


Here's a profile of Cardinal Tauran from the Gazzetta del Sud, translated:

Tireless mediator for peace
in his long diplomatic career

VATICAN CITY - Benedict XV has chosen a tireless mediator for peace as the new president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog.

Cardinal Jean-Lous Tauran, 64, who was Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church since 2004, has a long diplomatic career behind him, during which he has carried out sensitive missions for teh Holy See to 'hot spots'.

Born in France in April 1943, he was ordained on September 20, 1969. He came to Rome in 1973 to attend the Pontifical Ecclesiatic Academy, where diplomatic personnel for the Holy See are trained.

He began his diplomatic service first in the Apostolic Nunciature in the Dominican Republic, then in Lebanon, where he spent four years. In December 1990, he was named Secretary of the Council for Public Affairs at the Secretariat of State. A few months later, the Council became the Section for Relations with Other States.

As head of the section, Tauran became the first 'foreign minister' of the Holy See (the task Benedict XVI has given to Mons. Dominique Mamberti), and in this role, he became one of the closest collaborators with John Paul II on foreign affairs' The Pope sent him on mediation missions to what was then Yugoslavia, to Kosovo, and to the Middle East, including Iraq, where he spoke to Saddan Hussein before the US-led war.

John Paul II made him a cardinal in the consistory of October 21, 2003.

==================================================================


And look at the nasty and gratuitous spin that the AP's senior Vatican correspondent puts to the story - insisting on the MSM version of exactly what the Pope did last year when he placed the Council for Inter-religious Dialog under Cardinal Poupard, who has since said time and again that the CIRD remained a separate office with its own staff:

Pope turns to veteran diplomats
By VICTOR L. SIMPSON


VATICAN CITY, June 25 (AP) - After a season of apparent policy slip-ups, Pope Benedict XVI is shuffling top advisers and bringing in veteran diplomats closely identified with Vatican policy in Iraq and the Middle East.

[Please enumerate what this 'season of apparent policy slip-ups' consists of. Regensburg was not at all a policy slip-up, nor was the decision to temporarily make the very well-qualified Cardinal Poupard president of the CIRD as well. Everything else that Simpson mentions here had nothing to with policy but with a misrepresentation in the media of what the Pope said. And the problem with Wielgus was not the Pope's but the Secretariat of State, the Congregation of Bishops and the Nuncio in Poland who were supposed to have vetted the nomination before sending it off to the Pope. This is such a cheap pretext to dredge up all the supposed slip-ups of Benedict XVI and make it appear it is habitual with him.!]

On Monday, Benedict restored an office that specializes in relations with Muslims, a year after he was criticized for disbanding it. [There was nothing to restore because nothing was disbanded. How can you ignore the facts?]

He appointed French Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's foreign affairs chief from 1990 to 2003, as president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, raising the office's profile. Tauran was one of the strongest Vatican opponents of U.S. plans to invade Iraq, saying a unilateral military strike would be a "crime against peace" with no justification on grounds of self-defense.

Two weeks ago, the pope named Archbishop Fernando Filoni, an Italian prelate who served as Vatican envoy in Iraq from 2001-2006, to the key post of undersecretary of state.

Church relations with Muslims were badly strained after a speech by Benedict in September that linked Islam to violence. Benedict later said he regretted that Muslims were offended by his remarks.

That was not the only brushfire that had to be stamped out. Benedict's support for a Polish archbishop who turned out to have been an informer for the dreaded communist secret service was also an embarrassment. Even Benedict's first news conference caused confusion, and resulted in the Vatican rewriting some of his remarks.

When Benedict was elected, some questioned his pastoral preparation after two decades in a Vatican office. Few had doubts about his intellectual acumen, theological precision and foreign language skills, but he had no diplomatic experience.

Though Benedict continues to draw thousands to his public appearances two years into his papacy, he has made some apparent mistakes on policy issues that he or Vatican officials have had to fix. [Name one policy that was involved in any of the petty matters you dredge up!]

"What you are seeing is tension almost from the beginning" of the Benedict papacy, John-Peter Pham, a former Vatican diplomat, told The Associated Press.

He pointed out that while Benedict is a theologian, the Secretariat of State was concerned with "realpolitik considerations."

Benedict backed off from his remarks on Islam and violence, first expressing regret for offending Muslims, then adding a footnote to his original speech - the version now in the Vatican archives for posterity. [Damn you!!!! - You, Mr. Simpson, know very well the footnotes were really forthcoming because it was an academic paper, and the text of the Regensburg lecture distributed before the Pope spoke already carried the notice that subsequent footnotes were to be added .]

It made clear that he was quoting a 14th-century Byzantine emperor and was not expressing "my personal view of the Quran," the Muslim holy book.[He never said any such thing about the Quran, because the quote was not about the Quran but about Muhammed!]

Benedict has lately become more outspoken about the Middle East, decrying during a recent visit to Assisi "the illusion" that force could resolve conflicts.

The pope has repeatedly denounced the killings and kidnappings of priests and other Christians in the Middle East, as well as policies that have forced thousands of members of communities that date to the early years of Christianity to flee.

Under John Paul, Tauran was a strong voice demanding "international guarantees" to protect Christian, Muslim and Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem. The Israelis and Palestinians, however, rejected the demand.

On other topics, Indian rights groups in Brazil criticized Benedict for his insistence during his trip that Latin American Indians wanted to become Christian before European conquerors arrived centuries ago. [Insistence! He made one statement - three sentences in a very long speech about other matters. And what did he say that evangelists have not said for centuries about the pagans and the Gentiles - they may not have known it but what their hearts desired was Christ, who stands for transcendent truth, goodness and beauty.]

Upon returning to Rome, Benedict said the church does not gloss over the injustices that accompanied the Christian colonization of Latin America and lamented that indigenous peoples' basic rights were often trampled upon by missionaries.

Early in his papacy, he came under fire for not listing Israel among countries that were victims of terrorism, then made up for it in a subsequent speech. [And who prepared that part of the speech but the supposedly briliant Realpolitik experts of the Secretariat of State - 'Realpolitikers' who never hid their partisanship with Palestine and hostility to Israel?????]

Benedict's predecessor, the late Pope John Paul II, honed his political skills as a priest in communist Poland.
[Yeah, sure, the obligatory "Benedict is such a ninny compared to the GREAT JOHN PAUL"! It's an offence against John Paul himself to keep making this spurious and gratuitous comparisons. And it's just MEAN, MEAN, MEAN and NASTY, NASTY, NASTY. Doesn't working around the Vatican - for over a decade in the case of Simpson - bring at the very least a modicum of honesty to these reporters who blatantly and brazenly twist facts to suit their biases??? !]

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6/26/07

I commented on one of Simpson's blatantly false statements yesterday:

---

On Monday, Benedict restored an office that specializes in relations with Muslims, a year after he was criticized for disbanding it. [There was nothing to restore because nothing was disbanded. How can you ignore the facts?]

---

Rocco Palmo in his blog today makes the same point:

Finally, several reports from wire services today continue to remark that, in appointing Tauran to head a dicastery whose outgoing head did double-duty for the last 15 months, the Pope has "restored" the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue or, alternatively, that the council was "abolished" in early 2006 on the transfer of Michael Fitzgerald to Cairo.

The use of both terms is a glaring inaccuracy.

When Cardinal Paul Poupard was tapped to head PCID in addition to his duties at the Pontifical Council for Culture, neither office was suppressed, nor downgraded, nor were the two councils ever merged.

With the exception of their presidency, the staffs and officials of both dicasteries remained completely separate of each other, their respective competencies untouched. A similar arrangement at the council level was likewise employed in several instances during the pontificate of John Paul II.

Yes, beneline, the thought had crossed my mind!!!! Two of our members went to Les Combes last year; unfortunately one didn't know the other was going, so they didn't meet. You can read their experiences - very exciting! - on the Visit With Papa thread I think? Teresa will know which thread it is.
If you live near enough to be able to travel there - then go for it!!!! I think you live in Germany. That would be near enough for me to have a go!
Unfortunately, I have to fly from England to somewhere fairly near and then would have to think how to get there.
It would be marvellous to be there for the Angelus one week!
Luff, Mary x
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Found it! See Visit With Papa thread pages 10 and 11. Anna and Danich reported on their visits and the photos are.....well, you have been warned!!!!!!

Here's an attractive dinner plate we can buy for our Papa, to remind him of his holiday.

Goodness!! Those pictures of the Vatican library are magnificent. I've visited the Vatican museum in 1989 and saw a marvellous collection of medieval music and other manuscripts. But for the life of me I can't remember if it was in the Library or elsewhere. I don't seem to recall these halls and rooms. It is enough to make the mouth water. Thank you Teresa. Papa looks so at home in this environment.

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About being 'so at home' in the environment, you'll think so even more when you read the next article (next page). TERESA

Thanks to Lella's blog, here's an item by the Editorial staff of Il Giornale today about remarks made yesterday by Pope Benedict. A translation:


Ratzinger would have wanted
to be the Vatican Librarian



Ten years ago, Joseph Ratzinger asked John Paul II in vain to allow him to leave the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in order to dedicate his time to studying documents in the Vatican Library and Archives.

But of course, Wojtyla did not allow his right arm - who would end up being his successor - to become a 'library mouse' [literal translation of the Italian idiom 'topo di biblioteca'; there must be an English equivalent, but definitely not 'bookworm']

Benedict XV himself revealed this yesterday during his visit to the Vatican Apostolic Library on the eve of restoration work which will keep it partially closed for three years.

The Pope also announced his nomination of Cardinal Jean-Luis Tauran as President of the Pontifical Council for InterReligious Dialog, with his prefect, the Salesian Bishop Raffaele Farina to take over as Archivist-Librarian of the Holy Roman Church.

In his remarks at the Library, the Pope said: "I confess that when I turned 70, I had wanted very much the beloved John Paul II to let me dedicate myself to the study and research of documents and references in your care - true masterworks that help us to retrace the history of mankind and of Christianity."

In fact, in 1997, the year Ratzinger turned 70 and published his autobiography (which only went as far as 1977, when he became Archbishop of Munich), it was rumored that he could possibly be transferred to the Vatican Library to spend his last five years before the statutory retirement age of 75. But the rumor remained just that, because he stayed on at the CDF.



But his words yesterday confirmed the rumor then - that after having guided the CDF since 1981, Ratzinger would have wanted to leave after his third term to go back to being a scholar even while remaining in Rome. Papa Wojtyla asked him instead to stay on at CDF.

"In his providential design, the Lord had other plans for me, and so I am here among you today, not as a passionate student of ancient texts, but as a shepherd called on to urge all the faithful to cooperate in the salvation of the world, by each of us fulfilling the will of God wherever he puts us to work," Benedict said yesterday.

Then John Paul II went on to confirm Ratzinger for an unprecedented fifth term as head of CDF when he turned 75 in 2002.

In September 2001, Ratzinger had commented in Cernobbio on a statement made by his contemporary Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini of Milan, who also wished to retire at 75: "It's a very hard life. I am impatient for the day when I can go back to write books myself. I can understand Cardinal Martini - we are both professors."

So, it is no secret that Ratzinger had asked John Paul II several times to be allowed to retire. But obviously, Wojtyla thought it necessary to keep his 'guardian of the faith' beside him.

There was talk then that John Paul II would propose to Ratzinger a plan that would relieve him of the day-to-day routine at CDF and just maintain its supervision. Something that never materialized.
And with the death of John Paul, Ratzinger was not only still CDF Prefect but also, despite his age, the most authoritative candidate for the difficult succession.

©Il Giornale, 26 giugno 2007

Here is a translation of an Italian news agency item, also from Lella's blog.

VATICAN CITY, June 25 (ADNkronos) - Benedict VXI's letter to the Catholics of China will mark a turning point in the relations between Rome and Beijing and open a great debate on the role of the Catholic Church in the world's most populous nation.

The Pope will address all the faithful who live in China - both those belonging to the 'underground' Church, which has been officially persecuted in the past several decades, as well as those who recognize the Patriotic Association, the name for the 'official' Cahtolic Church controlled by the Beijing government.

Sources tell ADNkronos that the Pope sees a substantial unity in the Church of China - that, in practice, if there are two coexisting 'churches', Rome will say that both expressions of Catholicism are part of one Church and should not be in opposition. Even if simply implicit, such a principle would be something new in the relations between the Church and the Communist regime in China.

The long-awaited letter will be published in the form of a booklet - it is said to be 28-30 pages long. Now, it is being said this could come Saturday, June 30. The delay in its release has been attributed in part to translation - to make sure there can be no misinterpretations.

The letter will contain orientations of a general character applicable to the universal Church, along with specific indications of administrative character for the dioceses, and finally, the Pope's pastoral indications.

The situation in China for Catholics is not uniform. Whether they are persecuted or live in relative religious freedom depends on their local and regional officials where. Some important concessions have been made to Taoists and Buddhists (not including the Tibetans, though).

It does appear that the Vatican has chosen to pursue dialog and keep future options open. The firm opposition that has been courageously espoused by Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hongkong will be re-stated in other terms by the Pope, whose elevation of Zen to cardinal was a recognition of the indomitable battle waged by the Church in China in behalf of religious freedom, calling the world's attention to the persecution of Catholics in China.

The Church has been looking to Asia where social and economic changes of great importance have taken place, and where societies are in such ferment, cultures and religions can play an extraordinary role.

Notably, Cardinal Ivan Dias, Prefect of teh Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, recently called on all religious monasteries to pray for the favorable reception of the Papal letter.

In the development of Vatican-China relations, the social doctrine of the Church has taken on significant weight as it is being studied and appreciated in academic and political circles. It is seen as an instrument that seeks to limit the worst effects of economic growth in the indiscriminate and savage exploitation of workers.

The Pope's letter is not expected to make any reference to Taiwan, as it is addressed specifically to the Catholics of the mainland. The Taiwan issue is a political and diplomatic question. Beijing has repeatedly said that a prerequisite to diplomatic relations with the Vatican is for the latter to cut off its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The Holy See has indicated in the past that it is prepared to do this.


Here is the AsiaNews story on the prayer initiative:

VATICAN-CHINA
Nuns to pray for Pope's letter on China
and full religious freedom


Vatican City, June 25 (AsiaNews) - More than 600 female monasteries are praying "so that the Holy Father's letter is well-received, China opens up to the Gospels and give unrestricted religious freedom to all believers."

This initiative is the brain-child of Card Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, and Fr Ciro Biondi, PIME, secretary of the Pontifical Missionary Union (PUM), one of the Pontifical Missionary Works connected to Propaganda Fide.

Fr Biondi said the Popes letter "will become a milestone in the history of the third millennium".

Their action comes as the publication date approaches for the Pope's 'Letter to Catholics in China', which the Pope signed on May 27, solemnity of Pentecost.

In a letter sent to 610 cloistered female monasteries, Cardinal Dias said that Benedict XVI wrote the letter "to express his paternal closeness and offer them some orientation about the life of the Church and the work of evangelisation in that huge country."

The prelate calls on them to "say special prayers so that the Letter of the Holy Father is well received, China opens up to the Gospels and give unrestricted religious freedom to all believers."

Cardinal Dias said that "the Catholic Church [in China] is split in two groups in relation to the government: an official Church recognised by government authorities and an 'underground' Church. This creates a lot of problems and confusion among the clergy and the faithful."

"All Catholics," Dias wrote, "are united in professing the one faith in their fearless loyalty to the Successor of Peter. For this reason many of them have experienced terrible persecution and died for the cause of Christ and the Church."

Citing Tertullian, one of the early Fathers of the Church who said that the "blood of martyrs is the seed of the church," the prefect of Propaganda Fide noted "it is comforting to realise that the Church in China, despite the harsh persecution that has lasted five decades, is undergoing a strong numerical growth."

"Almost everyone of the hundred or so bishops in that territory are in communion with the Holy See, vocations to the priestly and religious life abound, the faithful attend holy mass in great numbers and are very devoted to the Most Holy Mary, Help of Christians and Queen of China," Dias wrote.

In the message to the enclosed nuns, Fr Ciro Biondi calls the Pope's letter "a very important and much expected event that will become a milestone in the history of the third millennium."

The PUM secretary calls on the nuns to "dedicate a week of prayers so that the message of the Holy Father, Benedict XVI, can bear fruit which He and all the Church hope for."

He also calls on every nun to spread the word of the initiative to every monastery in the world.

===================================================================

PRAYER TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

Father Zuhlsdorf has published prayers that he calls
on everyone to offer regarding the Motu Proprio on the Mass:

May the hard of heart yield to the Holy Spirit
when hearing the Vicar of Christ's will.
May the eager rejoice graciously and with true thanksgiving to God.
May the ignorant seek first to learn before making judgments.
May the learned offer comments in charity.
May our priests use considered prudence.
May our bishops be generous and paternal.


VENI, Sancte Spiritus, reple tuorum corda fidelium,
et tui amoris in eis ignem accende.
COME, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Thy faithful
and kindle in them the fire of Thy love.
V. Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur;
R. Et renovabis faciem terrae.
V. Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created
R. And Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.
Oremus:
DEUS, qui corda fidelium Sancti Spiritus illustratione docuisti:
da nobis in eodem Spiritu recta sapere,
et de eius semper consolatione gaudere.
Per Christum Dominum nostrum. Amen.
Let us pray:
O GOD, Who taught the hearts of the faithful
by the light of the Holy Spirit,
grant that, by the gift of the same Spirit,
we may be always truly wise,
and ever rejoice in His consolation.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

====================================================================

It's a very good prayer for all the Holy Father's intentions
and for straying, misguided Catholics.

The Vatican today released the text of a Motu Proprio by Pope Benedict XVI saying the College of Cardinals should return to the traditional standard of a two-thirds majority required to elect a new Pope. The Motu Proprio is in Latin and dated June 11.

Father Z has translated the gist of the key paragraph in the brief MP:


So, if the Cardinals become deadlocked and cannot get an election, they are to have a day of prayer and dialogue. After that, the two Cardinals at the top of the last balloting are the only candidates for election (and they may not vote - they have only a vox passiva) but the number required for a valid election will continue to be 2/3 majority rather than the simple majority established by John Paul II in 1996.

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Here's the APcom report, translated:

Pope decrees new Conclave rules:
Two-thirds majority required
to elect Pope in any case


VATICAN CITY, June 26 (APcom) - To elect a new Pope wll now require a two-thirds majority of the cardinal electors in a Conclave, regardless of the number of ballotings.

Benedict XVI has decreed this in a Motu Proprio published today to go back to the traditional requirement amended by John Paul II in 1996.

Accordingly, a Vatican communique said, in order for a Pope to be considered validly elected, he must have the votes of at least two-thirds of the voting cardinals.

Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican Press director, said that the new rules will "guarantee the widest possible consensus on the new Pope."

With the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis in 1996, John Paul II abolised two of the three traditional methods for electing a Pope - unanimous acclamation by the College of Cardinals, and election by compromise, whereby the Conclave delegates the decision to 9-15 cardinals as Grand Electors.

But John Paul II also decreed that if the Conclave fails to elect a Pope after 10 days and 33 ballotings, a majority of the Cardinals could decide to proceed to elect one by simple majority (50% plus one).

In 1975, Paul VI decreed, in Romano Pontifici eligendo, that only the unanimous decision of the Conclave could authorize a simple majority vote. He also set 120 as the maximum number of cardinal electors, and in the Motu Proprio Ingravescentem Aetatem, he decreed that cardinals who reach age 80 can no longer vote, although they can still be candidates for Pope.

===================================================================
Pending an official translation of Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, here is an informal relation of what it contains.

It is entitled "De aliquibus mutationibus in normis de electione Romani Pontificis" (Some changes in the rules for electing the Roman Pontiff).

It says that after the Universi Dominici Gregis was published, John Paul II received 'not a few requests' to return to the traditional rule of a two-thirds majority under any ccircumstance. Now, in his turn, Benedict XVI writes that, after long consideration, he has decided to do just that.

The definitive paragraph states that if no one has been elected after 10 days and 33 ballotings, the cardinal electors should take a day off for prayer and reflection, then come back to vote again between the two cardinals who received the most number of votes in the last balloting. These two would not themselves participate in the voting.

The decree would take effect the day it is published in Osservatore Romano, which published it today (for tomorrow's issue, 6/27/07).

[The document is so short I do not understand why the Vatican could not have provided the translation in all 6 Vatican official languages at the same time!]

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Here are the reports from AP and Reuters. AP is very sketchy.


Pope Benedict XVI changes rules for vote


VATICAN CITY, June 26 (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI has changed the rules for electing a new pope, returning to the traditional requirement that two-thirds of the cardinals in the conclave agree on a new pontiff, the Vatican said Tuesday.

Pope John Paul II had altered the voting process in 1996, allowing the pope to be chosen by a simple majority [50% plus 1] if the cardinals were unable to agree after several days of balloting in which a two-thirds majority was needed.

In a document released Tuesday, Benedict said he was returning to the traditional voting norm, essentially reversing John Paul's revision of the centuries-old process.

The brief document, written in Latin, was issued June 11, 2007 and signed by Benedict.

Benedict, the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was elected pope on April 19, 2005 in one of the fastest conclaves in modern history. He reportedly was elected after four ballots, with 84 of the 115 votes.


Reuters was more informative:

Pope changes rules for electing successor
By Phil Stewart

VATICAN CITY, June 26 (Reuters) - Pope Benedict announced on Tuesday he had changed the rules to elect his successor, in a move meant to ensure that future pontiffs have broad support before white smoke rises again from the Sistine Chapel.

Benedict's "motu proprio," a type of papal decree, partly reverses changes made by his predecessor John Paul II that had opened the possibility of electing a Pope with only a slight majority in the event of a deadlock.

From now on, the two-thirds majority needed at the start of voting in the conclave will be required until the very end - no matter how many rounds of balloting end with "black smoke" above St. Peter's Square.

The Vatican's chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, said the changes "would guarantee the widest possible consensus for the election of the new Pope."

The 80-year-old Benedict also appeared to be remedying what some critics saw as an unfortunate consequence of the changes made by John Paul, who is on the fast-track to sainthood.

They say that instead of simply avoiding a deadlock, the changes John Paul made in 1996 had empowered any majority willing to hold out until the two-thirds requirement expired.

"I believe that the Pope has realized the system introduced by John Paul II was giving the (slightest) majority in the conclave the absolute power to impose its candidate," said Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst who writes for Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

Benedict, in a bid to address the deadlock issue, calls instead in his decree for a run-off vote between the top two candidates after 33 rounds of voting.

No such extremes were needed in 2005, when then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected on just the second day of the conclave.

He had at least a two-thirds majority, but what happened behind closed doors in the frescoed Sistine Chapel in April 2005 is secret. The 115 cardinals who entered the conclave took a vow of "absolute and perpetual secrecy" not to reveal details about the election.

But one account published in the respected Italian magazine Limes in 2005 said Ratzinger was elected Pope only after his closest rival in the conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina, indicated he did not want the responsibility.

In the fourth and final round of voting, Ratzinger was elevated to the papacy with 84 votes - less than the 99 votes thought to have been cast for Pope John Paul in 1978, according to the account, which Limes said was from the diary of an unnamed cardinal.

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Note the last two paragraphs. As usual, I bristle at the spin - and the implicit acceptance of the scurrilous Limes piece as 'fact'. Limes may be 'respected' - what do I know? - but the article was based on tainted dubious information in an obvious ploy by some disgruntled and dishonest cardinal to stab Ratzinger in the back.

And the gratuitous remark about John Paul's votes! Why not mention also that most of the reports before the Limes article came out said Ratzinger got anywhere between 95-103 votes? And it is absolutely false to say that "Ratzinger was elected Pope only after his closest rival in the conclave, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina, indicated he did not want the responsibility" - when even the Limes piece claims, for whatever it is worth, that Bergoglio peaked at 41 votes.

This is MSM's way of planting myth into history, as they have planted oh-so-many other myths about Joseph Ratzinger and now Benedict XVI: If you repeat a lie often enough, it becomes accepted as 'fact'.

That's the motivation why, like AP's Simpson did yesterday on reporting the Tauran nomination, they keep repeating all the distortions and misrepresentations they make about events like, so far: 1) omitting Israel from a list of terror victims, 2) not apologizing enough for the Holocaust at Auschwitz, 3) taking out Fitzgerald from the CIRD, 4) Regensburg-Regensburg-Regensburg [forgetting about the amazingly successful Turkey visit], 5) the Wielgus nomination, 6) the excommunication statement enroute to Brazil, 7) the statement about indigenous peoples in Aparecida.

Did I miss anything? Oh yes, trifles they have enshrined as fact, forever to be associated with Benedict like shoes are with Imelda Marcos - that he favors designer shoes by Prada and designer shades.

But look back at the 7 things that they keep throwing at him - and one sees that any 'controversy' over them was created by the media themselves, quibbling over statements they choose to present in the worst possible light. Was any of that major? Except for Regensburg, because of the two-week orchestrated outrage (yes, just two weeks - go back and look at the news coverage) it provoked in the Muslim world, everything else was a tempest in a teapot.

So when all is said and done, after 26 months of this Pontificate, that MSM has to resort to this litany of trivia again and again to bash Benedict is a tacit admission that they cannot fault him for anything major - other than, of course, for defending what the Church stands for against any of the liberal causes dear to the dominant culture. But MSM has criticized every Pope in the communications era for that, ignoring the simple fact that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, custodian of a 2000-year-old tradition, and not a politician who must compromise at every turn and follow what is 'popular.'

From Vatican Radio's Italian service, here is an interview with Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran conducted after he was named yesterday to be the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialog. He assumes the position, currently held by Cardinal Paul Poupard, who is also President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, on September 1. The interview conducted by Romilda Ferrauto is translated here:

Cardinal Tauran: I think it is a sign of the importance that the Pope gives to the dialog between religions, particularly with Islam. So, he has given this Council full autonomy to be a more effective instrument for that purpose.

Did the post-Regensburg crisis have anything to do with the Pope's decision?
Yes, I think it had a decisive influence, if only because, thanks to the reactions, the Pope could clarify his thinking. Reading the addresses which the Pope has given not only to the ambassadors from Muslim states [after Regensburg] but to those from Asia who have come to present their credentials, the common thread is that he believes inter-religious dialog is a factor for peace, and that religions are in the service of peace.

Eminence, you are a diplomat who has been sent on delicate missions to many hot spots. What is the significance of entrusting the presidency of the council to you?
From what the Holy Father has said to me, I think that it was the experience I have on Middle East problems and the knowledge I have of the Arab world, which led him to believe I could bring a contribution to the construction of inter-religious dialog.

It's too early to ask you what your priorities will be, but can you tell us your state of mind as you prepare to take on this new position?
First of all, I will listen to what my colleagues have to say when they brief me about the various dossiers that are on the table, but thinking of the future, I would like to promote a concerted effort - for instance, among this Council, the second section of the Secretariat of State [foreign relations, which Tauran headed for 10 years], the Congregation for Oriental Churches, the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and the Pontifical Institute for Arabic Studies, so we can all have a total picture of this complex problem of inter-religious dialog.

Could we say that inter-religious dialog is indispensable today particularly in view of the situation in the Middle East?
Definitely. In fact, I remember the Pope saying recently that dialog with the Muslims, for instance, is not a transient concern but something that belongs to Church activity, since the Church is essentially dialog in the sense that Christ is the Word of God, so the Church is word and dialog essentially.


===================================================================

I meant to comment on this yesterday: It is remarkable that all the media reports criticizing the Pope openly or implicitly for having placed the Council for Inter-Religious Dialog (CIRD) under the presidency of Cardinal Paul Poupard last year unanimously considered it a 'demotion' of the Council.

It was, in fact, a promotion, because previously it was headed by an Archbishop, Michael Fitzgerald, whom the Pope decided to assign to Cairo as Apostolic Nuncio and as the Holy See observer in the Arab League. But the MSM had so much invested in Fitzgerald as somehow a Galahad for Muslims that they would not report or note this obvious fact!

As Cardinal Poupard himself has said on every occasion, the Council continued to be autonomous and was never incorporated into the Council for Culture which he also heads. It seems more likely that the Pope was waiting to name a suitable cardinal to head the CIRD instead of naming a lower-level prelate.

What a wonderful interview!...And after reading this, if you have not yet read a recent post about Fr. Twomey's book in BOOKS BY AND ON BENEDICT please do so!



MAYNOOTH, Ireland, JUNE 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The modern conception of conscience reduces it to an excuse mechanism, that it cannot err and that what one thinks is right is in fact right, said author Father Vincent Twomey.

Father Twomey, retired professor of moral theology at the Pontifical University of St. Patrick's College, in Maynooth, is the author of Pope Benedict XVI: The Conscience of Our Age, published this year by Ignatius Press.

In this interview with ZENIT, he comments on the Holy Father's role in providing a way to return to a deeper understanding of conscience.

You were a doctoral student of Father Joseph Ratzinger. How has that experience uniquely prepared you to write this book?
I joined Professor Ratzinger's doctoral colloquium in the spring of 1971, and studied under his supervision for the doctorate, which I was awarded in 1979.

Since his election as archbishop of Munich in 1977, he has met with his former doctoral and postdoctoral students each year for a weekend colloquium, a practice that continued even after his election as Benedict XVI.

I think that, as a result, I have a personal knowledge of the Pope that is, perhaps, unique. Sitting at his feet as a student, studying his writings, and participating in discussions with him over some 36 years has also given me a certain insight into his thought, which in turn has influenced my own theology profoundly.

What do you think are the most defining characteristics of the writings of Joseph Ratzinger, now Benedict XVI?
The most defining formal characteristics of his writings are originality, clarity and a superb literary style that is not easy to render in translation.

Ratzinger is more than a world-class scholar and academic: He is an original thinker.

He has the Midas touch, in the positive sense that whatever he touches, he turns to gold, in other words, whatever subject he examines, he has something new and exciting to say about it, be it the dogmas of the Church or a mosaic in an ancient Roman church or bioethics. And he writes with amazing clarity.

With regard to his style, Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne is reported as commenting that Ratzinger is the Mozart of theology - he writes masterpieces effortlessly.

With regard to its content, as Ratzinger once said himself, "God is the real central theme of my endeavors."

There is hardly an area of theology - dogma, moral, political life, bioethics, liturgy, exegesis, music, art - that he has not examined in-depth. And everything he examines, he does so from God's viewpoint, as it were, namely trying to discover what light revelation - Scripture and Tradition - can shine on a particular issue.

On the other hand, his theological reflection is firmly rooted in contemporary experience: the questions and existential issues posed by modernity and post-modernity, by contemporary thinkers and the epoch-making events of our times.

However, his pastoral and administrative duties as archbishop and prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith were such that he had little time to write extensive monographs, with the result that most of his writings are of a fragmentary nature. But what fragments!

Each has the capacity to convey that insight into truth that touches the mind and heart of the reader - and can effect in many a change of heart.

You describe Benedict XVI as unafraid of making mistakes, and as "having the courage to be imperfect." Can you explain this further?
Having the courage to be imperfect is more than being afraid of making mistakes, though it may include it.

Basic to his whole attitude to life and to theology is the assumption that only God is perfect, that human effort is always imperfect.

Perfectionism of any kind is inimical to man, but above all in the political sphere. Most political ideologies aim to create a perfect world, a perfect society and usually end up making hell on earth.

That is a frequent theme of his writings on political life. But also with regard to the human effort to do theology, as it were. That, too, will always be unfinished business, always capable of improvement, of correction and deepening.

We cannot know everything, least of all God and his design for man. I have described his writings as "fragmentary." Most of his writings are unfinished - like his classic book, Introduction to Christianity, and, more recently, his Jesus of Nazareth. And yet he has the courage to publish them in their unfinished state.

This attitude gave Joseph Ratzinger that inner calm and detachment which the world is now experiencing in Benedict XVI. But it also is, perhaps, the secret of his gentle humor and wit.

You suggest that there has been a distortion of the word conscience. What is this distortion and how has it affected the Church?
The starting point is the traditional notion of an erroneous conscience, which in the wake of the turbulence that followed Humanae Vitae, was falsely interpreted to mean, in effect for many, that it does not matter what one does, provided that one is sincerely convinced that it is right.

Sincerity now becomes the criterion of morality and, taken to its logical conclusion, it would be impossible to condemn a Hitler or a Stalin, since it could be claimed that they too acted according to their "lights," according to their sincere convictions.

The traditional insistence on the primacy of following your conscience, even if erroneous, led to a new notion, that of the "infallible conscience." This amounts to the claim that conscience cannot err, that what you think is right is in fact right. This is to reduce conscience to an excuse mechanism. This notion receives its persuasiveness, if not its inspiration, from the prevailing relativism of modernity.

It is sometimes claimed today that each one can adopt whatever moral principles he or she decides best for them. These are the fruit of their conscientious choice, after having looked at the options.

This is indeed a very attractive theory. But it amounts to the claim that each person can determine for himself what is right or wrong, the temptation of Adam and Eve in the garden.

Often, it is given the title "a la carte" Catholicism, picking and choosing what suits us. Morality is reduced to an ultimately irrational personal preference.

This prevailing notion of conscience has had a devastating effect on the Church and Christian living.

You describe Benedict XVI as a guide for the conscience in today's age. In what ways do you believe this to be true?
First of all, as theologian and later as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger has been the voice of the Church's conscience in affirming the objective truth when it was denied either theoretically or in practice.

It is astonishing that secular thinkers, those outside the Church, as it were, seem to recognize this more than those inside. Thus, for example, the French Academy honored him as the apt successor to Andrey Sacharov, the dissident atom physicist during the tyranny of the Soviet Union.

It was their recognition of a courageous thinker who was in effect the great "dissident" under the "dictatorship of relativism" that has swamped Europe and America over the past half-century.

Secondly, conscience is not only a central theme of his writings, he has also made a major contribution to correcting the false understanding of conscience outlined above, to which I devote a whole chapter in my book.

How did the experience of growing up in Nazi Germany help to prepare Joseph Ratzinger for the papacy? What particular lessons did he learn then that he still puts into practice today?
The answer to this question is to be found in a comment he made in an interview in 1999: "As a result [of living through the Nazi period], I learned to have a certain reserve with regard to the reigning ideologies."

Evidently, he meant "ideologies" also to cover those found within the Church, which are fashionable since they reflect current ideological trends in society.

His experience of living under a political ideology and its bureaucracy made him sensitive to the need for the exercise of moral responsibility on the part of each one, but in particular on the part of those who hold public office in the Church or in the state. Moral responsibility is but another word for conscience.

His skepticism regarding episcopal conferences is rooted in the experience of how, as a collective, the German bishops, to put it mildly, had not quite matched up to the witness given by individual bishops such as Bishop Clemens von Galen of Muenster and Archbishop Michael Faulhaber of Munich.

He calls on all bishops to give personal witness and not wait for the collective conference to rubber-stamp some document prepared by an anonymous commission.

Likewise, his theology has been marked by a personal search for the truth, urged on by his conscience. All his life, he has exercised his personal moral responsibility, even when it earned for him the negative title of "rottweiler" or "grand inquisitor" - or, indeed, "the enemy of humanity," as one journalist put it.

To speak the truth in love is to be in opposition, very often, to the prevailing fashions and so to make oneself unpopular.

Now, as Benedict XVI, he continues to exercise that moral responsibility, not least in the way he writes most of his own speeches, which speak to the heart of his audience because they are spoken from his own heart and not from a prepared schema.

'All Christians venerate
the Apostle to the Gentiles'


ROME, JUNE 25, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Year of St. Paul has ecumenical significance, according to the prior of the Benedictine abbey at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

The Year of St. Paul will be proclaimed by Benedict XVI on June 28, on the eve of the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, during an ecumenical celebration at the church housing the apostle's tomb.

ZENIT spoke with Benedictine Father Johannes Paul Abrahamowicz about the significance of this year.

"St. Paul," he said, "has perhaps been somewhat forgotten as a person, even if we hear his words in one of the readings at almost every Mass."

The Benedictine prior said that Catholics associate St. Peter with the Pope, but that "no Christian confession claims to have the right of succession to the holy Apostle to the gentiles. St. Paul is for all. Just look at how Christians of all confessions venerate his tomb."

Speaking of Benedict XVI's ecumenical effort, Father Abrahamowicz explained: "It is a new effort, not in the sense of a repetition, as if to say, 'Come on, let's give it another try,' but rather it is an effort with a new style, in which he seems to be recalling a particular aspect proper to the work of St. Paul.

"With great success that athlete of God traveled more than 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) to evangelize Asia Minor, but this Pope has not forgotten that those Churches, new at that time, are in present day Turkey."

=====================================================================

A report from FIDES news agency has the schedule for the Peter-Paul Triduum that begins today at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls:

June 26
17:30 Cardinal Bertone celebrates Mass and Vespers

June 27
18:00 Vespers, celebrated with representatives
of other Christian confessions in Rome
They will end by proclaiming together the
great Pauline hymn (1 Cor 13) at the Tomb of St. Paul

June 28
17:30 Pope Benedict XV presides at Vespers.
He will proclaim the Year of St. Paul
on the occasion of the 2000th anniversary
of the Apostle's birth (between 6-10 AD)

June 29
17:30 Vespers and Mass presided by
Fr. Edmund Power, OSB, abbot of the Benedictine Abbey in the Basilica, and
Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, Arch-Priest of the Basilica.
20:00 Procession with 'the Chain of St. Paul'

NB:
June 29
9:00 The Holy Father presides at concelebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica
at which he will confer the Pallium on 51 Metropolitan Archbishops
named
in the past year.

Hoping for a minor miracle, I just checked the Vatican site again for the official translation of the MP made known today. No such luck. And it's only six sentences long! Here's what's available -

---

Motu Proprio con cui il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ripristina la norma tradizionale circa la maggioranza richiesta nell'elezione del Sommo Pontefice (11 giugno 2007)
[Latino]

Motu Proprio 'Totius orbis' contenente nuove disposizioni circa le Basiliche di San Francesco e di Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi (9 novembre 2005)
[Francese, Inglese, Italiano, Latino, Portoghese, Spagnolo, Tedesco]

Motu Proprio per l'approvazione e la pubblicazione del Compendio del Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica (28 giugno 2005)
[Francese, Inglese, Italiano, Portoghese, Rumeno, Sloveno, Spagnolo, Tedesco]

Motu Proprio «L'antica e venerabile Basilica» per la Basilica di San Paolo fuori le Mura e per il suo Complesso extraterritoriale (31 maggio 2005)
[Francese, Inglese, Italiano, Portoghese, Spagnolo, Tedesco]

---

Why is there no Latin version of the first two (by date) MPs? And why does the MP on the Compendium of the Catechism have special translations in Romanian and Slovenian, neither of which are official languages of the Vatican? Consistency - a word so dear to the Pope is obviously not a virtue of the Vatican Press Office, except as it is consistently inconsistent!

Here is a translation of the report in Corriere della Sera today on the Pope's Motu Proprio, as representative of the coverage in the Italian media today.


Ratzinger changes Conclave rules
to guarantee wider consensus:
Beyond just 'simple majority'
By Luigi Accattoli


The Motu Proprio published in
Osservatore Romano today, 6/27/07.

VATICAN CITY - Whoever succeeds Papa Ratzinger, when the time comes, may be elected only with a majority of at least two-thirds of the cardinal electors.

Benedict XVI decided this in a Motu Proprio which eliminates the possibility of an election by 'simple majority' only which was introduced - to avoid any possible deadlock - by Papa Wojtyla with the Conclave reforms he promulgated in 1996.

No one was expecting this change in Conclave rules at this time, but during the past decade, there had been great concern over the 'risk' that the rule introduced by John Paul II could favor - in the event of a College of Cardinals strongly divided - supporters 'castling' behind a candidate, staying together until the quorum was lowered under the rule and thereby guarantee their candidate's election.

Obviously the theologian Pope has been attentive to this concern, to which cardinal jurist Mario Pompedda - who framed the 1996 reforms, and who died last October - alwas replied: "In case of a deep division and after 33 ballotings without the required two-thirds majority, it is reasonable to provide a mechanism which will avoid an indefinite prolongation of the paralysis."

Going by the change he ordered, it appears Papa Ratzinger considers such a 'paralysis' less serious compared to the risk of encouraging a strategy that could lead to the election of a less acceptable candidate.

The Vatican spokesman told newsmen yesterday that the change introduced by Benedict XVI would "guarantee an election with the widest possible consensus."

The Motu Proprio is a single page entitled De aliquibus mutationibus (On some changes)from its initial words in Latin.

It abrogates and substitutes Article 75 of the constitution Universo dominici gregis by John Paul II which had provided that if 33 ballotings under the 2/3 rule have failed to produce a winner, the Conclave could either decide to proceed requiring only a simple majority (from 66% to 50%-plus-1), or to decide to choose only from the two cardinals getting the most votes in the last balloting, but even in this case, requiring only a simple majority.

The new Article 75 provides that if the 33rd balloting is unsuccessful, "in the next balloting, the two cardinals who obtained the most number of votes in the last one will have a passive voice [not take part in the voting], and that to be validly elected, one must get the required majority (i.e., 2/3)..."

The clause providing for the 'passive voice' of the candidates is to keep them from voting for themselves.

© Il Corriere della sera, 27 giugno 2007

=====================================================================

Osservatore Romano published the Motu Proprio in today's issue, thereby making it effective as of today. But apparently, nowhere in its pages does it carry a translation, not even in Italian. Obviously, there are higher-ups in the Vatican's communications structure who do not understand what 'communication' means. This failure to translate a six-sentence, one-page document [granted, the sentences are long, but not kilometric] defies understanding!



Here is a translation of the document from Avvenire's Italian translation:

---

In the Apostolic Constitution Universi dominici gregis, promulgated on February 22, 1996, our venerable predecessor John Paul II, introduced some changes in the canonical rules to be observed in the election of the Roman Pontiff established by Paul VI of happy memory.

In Number 25 of this Constitution it was decreed that - all votations having been taken in vain according to the established rule, which requires two-thirds of the vote of all cardinals present in order for the election of the Roman Pontiff to be valid - the Cardinal Chamberlain shall consult the Cardinal electors on how to proceed, which they will decide by a simple majority, on the principle that the election will be valid either with a simple majority of the votes, or by voting only on the two names which obtained the most votes in the balloting that preceded, requiring also in this case only a simple majority.

But after the promulgation of the abovementioned Constitution, not a few authoritative requests reached John Paul II asking him to restore the rule set by tradition, according to which the Roman Pontiff is not validly elected unless he has obtained two-thirds of the votes of the Cardinal electors present.

We, therefore, having weighed the question carefully, establish and decree that, abrogating the rules set in Number 75 of the Apostolic Constiution Universi Dominici gregis of John Paul II, these will be replaced by the following rules:

If the ballotings referred to in numbers 72, 73 and 74 of the aforementioned Constitution come to nothing, a day must be dedicated to prayer, reflection and discussion; but in the successive ballotings, respecting the procedure established by Number 74 of the same Constitution, the two Cardinals who got the most votes in the preceding balloting shall have a passive participation, and [the Conclave] must keep to the principle that in these successive ballotings, the above-qualified majority [two-thirds] shall be required for a valid election. In these votations, moreover, the two Cardinals with passive vote cannot exercise an active vote.

This document will be in force as soon as it is published in Ossevratore Romano. We have decreed and established this, notwithstanding any contrary disposition.

Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, on the 11th day of the month of June of the year 2007, the third of our Pontificate.


BENEDICTUS PP XVI

---

The Vatican press bulletin today announces that:

The Holy Father has named as President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications Mons. Claudio Maria Celli, titular Archbishop of Civittanova, who has been Secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See.

He replaces Archbishop James Patrick Foley, who has been named Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Saint Sepulchre in Jerusalem.


A CNS story gives us the background on both nominations. It starts with Archbishop Foley because he is American.


Pope names Archbishop Foley
to head Knights of Holy Sepulcher
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY, June 27 (CNS) - Pope Benedict XVI has named U.S. Archbishop John P. Foley pro-grand master of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher, a fraternal organization dedicated to supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to responding to the needs of Catholics in the Holy Land.

The 71-year-old Philadelphia native had been head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for "23 years and three months," he said June 27.

Naming Archbishop Foley "pro-"grand master, Pope Benedict seemed to indicate that he would be named a cardinal during the next consistory, which likely will be held in November.

Archbishop Foley, who will remain in Rome, succeeds retired Italian Cardinal Carlo Furno, 85.

The Vatican also announced June 27 that Archbishop Foley's successor at the social communications council would be Italian Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, who will turn 66 in July.

Archbishop Celli had been a Vatican diplomat and was the Vatican's point man for contacts with the communist governments of Vietnam and North Korea in the early 1990s when he was an undersecretary in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Since 1995, Archbishop Celli has been secretary of the Administration of the Patrimony of Holy See, the office overseeing Vatican investments, and also the Vatican's Web site and Internet office.

Archbishop Foley told Catholic News Service he had met with Cardinal Furno and the governor general of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher shortly before his appointment was announced, but he has not visited the Holy Land since the 1970s.

The grand master's task, he said, is "to try to strengthen Catholic institutions in the Holy Land, work with (Jerusalem's Latin-rite) patriarch, encourage more members and promote the spiritual lives of the knights and dames."

Catholic World News adds this information:

The Pontifical Council for Social Communications has been the subject of many rumors, with some journalists suggesting the Pope Benedict might merge several Vatican offices into a single dicastery to supervise the public-affairs efforts of the Holy See. To date no such plans have been unveiled.

Archbishop Foley was president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications for an extraordinary period of 23 years. A native of Philadelphia who once edited the newspaper of that archdiocese, he was appointed to head the Vatican's media efforts by Pope John Paul II in April 1984.

==================================================================

Without meaning any offense to Archbishop Foley, because I don't know what his situation may have been, but still he was Prefect of a Pontifical Council for 23 years, so I think it is legitimate to ask:
What role did Foley really have in Vatican media policy for all those 23 years?

The JP-II years appeared to be a Navarro-Valls one-man show. And yet, as an American, Floley would have been expected to be gung-ho and at least introduce efficiency into Vatican media efforts - but so far, the newspaper, radio, TV and press office operations continue to seem not only uncoordinated but totally independent of each other - and all equally and maddeningly inefficient in terms of serving day-to-day media communications needs.

Sandro Magister recently wrote a stinging article in which he points out that all the beautiful homilies and addresses Benedict XVI makes are really wasted because they only reach the few who follow Papal news closely and those who are present at the events, assuming they understand what is being said. And this is completely inexcusable in this day and age.

Take today as an example. The Vatican did not post the text of the Pope's catechesis until two-and-a-half hours had elapsed from the end of the audience. I thought - 'Oh, maybe they are going through the tape of his catechesis and transcribing anything he might have said extemporaneously'....To my great disappointment - but not surprise, really - I could not find in the text some very important statements quoted by AsiaNews in its report on the audience. So, they had delayed posting the text but had not done any work on it!

And the statements omitted were important enough to merit- rightly - AsiaNews's headline, that Arianism is still around today where people deny the divinity of Christ, and two or three other equally significant statements. I had to excerpt the AsiaNews report as an addendum to the text I translated, because otherwise, they would not be 'on the record', even if it's only for our own purposes.

But how can anyone work for the Pope and not care at all that what he says is not being reported properly - and as promptly as possible? How can anyone call himself a journalist who does not have a sense of urgency or responsibility?

I cannot believe no one has made Archbishop Foley aware of these daily lapses all these years - and the woeful failure to translate the Pope's words ASAP! For instance, for Osservatore Romano to use up one-third of its front page to publish a six-sentence, 20-line Motu Proprio in Latin, without even an Italian translation - when Italian is the language of the paper itself - just defies common sense and is literally a crying outrage!

What will it take to inject a minimum of journalistic professionalism - the very essentials - into the Vatican's communications efforts? If an Archbishop from Philadelphia who was there for 23 years could not do it, who can?

VATICAN
Pope: as in Arianism,
temptation today to deny Christ's divinity


Vatican City, June 27 (AsiaNews)- "Denying Christ's divinity", which was at the centre of Arian heresy, "is still today a temptation for Christians".

Benedict XVI dedicated his 100th general audience today to Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, the author of a catechism for true Christians, for whom "doctrine and life are not two distinct entities but one existential journey".

The over 10,000, who took part in today's audience, were spared the June heat and divided between St. Peter's basilica and the Paul VI audience hall. The Wednesday audiences have enabled Benedict to speak directly to over 2,200,000 people over the course of the past 19 months.

In order to counter tendencies such as Arianism, the Pope said, an 'integral catechesis' is needed, through which the faithful can learn about Christianity "which truly involves our entire existence and which makes us credible witnesses of Jesus Christ, truly God and truly man".

The Pope said that was the objective which Saint Cyril aimed to achieve in the IV century but which is still valid today.

The Pope recalled that Cyril, a bishop of Jerusalem 'against his will' in the fourth century, was involved in the controversies of the Eastern Church, but the Pope particularly underlined his work as a teacher of the faith, author of 24 catechesis, a true 'introduction to Christianity' and 'still today a model of the journey to being Christian'.

Cyril, unjustly accused of Arianism, while he was instead 'a man full of faith', met with exile three times before he was allowed to return for good to Jerusalem in 378 "bringing peace and unity once again among the faithful".

His catechesis was not only intellectual but 'a journey of learning how to live in the Christian community' and his teaching is "an integral catechesis which involves the body, soul and spirit, an emblem even for the Christians of today".

At the end of his audience, greeting the diverse groups present the Pope reaffirmed his position on the subject of stem cell research: "The position of the church is clear and supported from science and reason - that scientific research is promoted and encouraged, as long as it does not cause the destruction of human beings, whose dignity is inviolable from the first moment of existence".




Pope Benedict supports adult stem cell research


VATICAN CITY, June 27 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI endorsed adult stem cell research Wednesday, distinguishing it from the manipulation of stem cells from human embryos, which the Roman Catholic Church condemns.

Speaking at the end of his weekly general audience, the Roman Catholic leader saluted delegates at a global conference on the use of adult stem cells to treat cardiac problems, organised by La Spaienza university in Rome.

"On this matter the position of the Church, supported by reason and by science, is clear," he said.

"Scientific research must be encouraged and promoted, so long as it does not harm other human beings, whose dignity is inviolable from the very first stages of existence."

The Roman Catholic Church believes that an embryo is wholly a human being. For that reason, it condemns abortion and genetic manipulation such as research on embryonic stem cells.

Unlike embryonic stem cells, or primitive cells from early-stage embryos capable of developing into almost every tissue of the body, adult stem cells divide to replenish dying cells and regenerate damaged tissues.

They can be isolated from tissue samples taken from adults, and - unlike embryonic stem cells - they are already being used to tackle a number of diseases, including several forms of cancer.

Since most of the stories about the Motu Proprio said virtually the same thing as far as reporting facts, I have picked out from the various stories in the Italian papers today - conveniently collected daily by Lella on her blog - some significant comments, background details and sidebars.


Six years later, Benedict XVI acts
on a question he raised as Cardinal

The headline is from Il Foglio today, which comments:

---

With his Motu Proprio on the Conclave, Benedict XVI has realized a conviction he has held for years. As we wrote here on February 23, 2001, there were widespread reservations among cardinals about the provision in John Paul's Conclave rules allowing for a simple majority vote on a Pope.

[It reprints the story. The occasion was the consistory at which John Paul II created 44 new cardinals, raising the number of cardinal electors to 135, 15 above the maximum decreed by Paul VI in his Apostolic Constitution about the Conclave. The new cardinals were understandably concerned about the implications of a simple-majority vote. The story goes on to say:]

But the more important discussions are those taking place - and have been taking place - inside the Vatican itself. Since the document Universi Dominici gregis first came to light, the ex-Holy Office [Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith] has twice sent the Pope opinions advocating a return to the traditional rule.

Both times the request was sent back to the CDF by the Secretariat of State with the response that it was not an opportune time to change back. Meanwhile, many other prelates of the Roman Curia have openly expressed the desire to restore the old rules.

---

Interestingly, Il Foglio on the same day ran a story headlined "Sodano gains power with the new Fundamental Law". The story does not spell out what that law is, but apparently it has to do with Vatican administration. And its lead paragraph said:

---

These days in Rome when almost all the cardinals of the Sacred College are present, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State, has become the main protagonist of the Church in the Italian mass media, because of the rounds of political talks he has been holding prior to the next (Italian) elections...In Church circles, many are asking why this kind of 'political' activity is being carried out directly by the Vatican when it is usually done through the Italian bishops. But it is a fact that in recent days, the power- and the visibility - of the Secretary of State has been in continuous rise...And it has not been limited to the 'political.' He is known to have a hand in drawing up the list of candidates for cardinal....(And) One must note that with new Fundamental Law which took effect yesterday increases the power of the Secretary of State in the governance of the State of Vatican City."

---

Paolo Rodari in Il Riformista commented:

---

Even then Cardinal Ratzinger did not show particular enthusiasm for the new rules which came out of John Paul II's consultations with the canonist Cardinal Mario Pompedda (who died last October).

---

A background story by Bruno Volpe in PETRUS yesterday was more blunt:

---

It has long been bruited that the document Universi Dominici gregis was thought up and completely written by Cardinal Mario Pompedda, and was thus approved and signed by John Paul II, who trusted him blindly on this. Both of them have passed on, so we will never know for sure, but most veteran Vatican correspondents believed it. Pompedda was a canon law expert who had spent almost his entire career at the Vatican, and John Paul II was known not to pay particular attention to legislative and administrative detail....

---

In Il Messaggero today, Franca Giansoldati says:

---

At that time, the Wojtylian innovations were greeted by a wave of criticism within the college of Cardinals, whether of the 'right' or of the 'left. And in the last months of John Paul's life, there were heated debates about this among canon law experts. It was said at the time that Cardinal Ratzinger had questioned the wisdom of having a Pope elected only by a simple majority....

---

Andrea Tornielli in Il Giornale:

---

The document passed almost in secret, but it raised a lot of criticism. The author of the text was the canonist Pompedda, who died a few months ago. The document that he wrote for John Paul also increased the role of the Deputy Secretary of State and the pontifical ceremonial master in the Conclave proceedings.

The cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the CDF, was not too pleased either. The document had been written and published without his office being notified. [Most unusual!]

During the consistory in 2001, many cardinals raised the question and requested for a change. Above all, the German-speaking cardinals (with Ratzinger among them) and some Latin Americans. But they were told by the Pope and his secretary of state that they could not change something after only 5 years.

---

Marco Tosatti in La Stampa echoes the last point made by Tornielli:

---

During the consistory of 2001, several cardinals from German-speaking areas and from Latin America, among them Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, had expressed to the Pope their reservations about his innovation on the voting rule. But they were told that making a change was inopportune.

---

Agostino Bagliani in La Repubblica:

---

Benedict XVI's decision to restore the two-thirds majority requirement for a papal vote regardless of the time it takes to reach it reaffirms the validity of a rule that goes back to 1179.

It was a rule that was not changed for eight centuries until John Paul's decree. No other rule pertaining to the election of a Pope has lasted so long, which validates its splendid usefulness.
It is understandable that Benedict XVI wanted to restore it, and thus remain loyal to tradition.

---

The tradition of the two-thirds majority goes back to the third Lateran Council in 1179 when it was decreed that "since the enemy will not stop sowing discord, if there is no unanimity among the cardinals in teh choice of a Pope, he who is elected and acknowledged by two thirds of the cardinals shall be considered the Roman Pontiff, even if the remaining one-third do not intend to follow or will presume to elect somebody else."

Corriere della Sera, in a brief historical sidebar, notes:

---

Since then (1179), the rule has been so until John Paul II, to encourage a consensus among the cardinals without having to drag out a conclave, promulgated his decree.

In saying that if you get to 33 ballotings and have still not chosen a Pope, then you can proceed to choose one with only a simple majority, it was if John Paul II was saying, "Make haste when electing my successor, otherwise there will be a scandalous rupture in the Church [due to two presumably irreconcilable factions] which will be unprecedented."

But with Ratzinger, elected with a vast majority [eletto a maggioranza vastissima], that was not a problem....Nevertheless, Benedict XVI has decided to eliminate the potential risk and restore the old and beloved two-thirds majority vote."

---

Says Alberto Bobbio in L'Eco di Bergamo:

---

An important change, because in this way, Ratzinger keeps a process which has all the characteristics of a democratic election with the merit at the same time of reinforcing the mandate of the future Pope. The cardinals will be compelled to make an effort at collegiality in order to reach a two-thirds majority.

Benedict XVI is seeking to have any new Pope surrounded by a very strong consensus that reflects the universality of the Church.

---

=====================================================================

Just to add another perspective to Cardinal Pompedda's involvement in this issue, here is what I posted in POPE-POURRI last October, when Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Pompedda's funeral Mass at St. Peter's:

CARDINAL POMPEDDA, R.I.P.
When Cardinal Pompedda died last week, we had a bit of an exchange in the main forum about it because Ratzigirl's first comment on posting the news was - "He was the one who wrote the supposedly 'secret diary' of the last Conclave."

And, of course, I said, Requiescat in pace, etc. - but if he was really the culprit, as had been rumored even last fall, why on earth did he do that? Why would any cardinal have done it? And now, Papino is offering his funeral Mass!

Because I still find the whole episode very distasteful, I decided not to say anything in the English section when I posted the obit. But as John Allen in his 10/22/08 daily journal has blown the lid off, for the Anglophone media anyway, here it is...



Alleged 'Deep Throat'
of Catholic Church
dies at 77
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York

A cardinal rumored by some to be the 'Deep Throat' of the Catholic Church - the source of one of the most famous, if also widely contested, leaks of the last quarter-century - died on Wednesday in Rome at the age of 77.

Cardinal Mario Francesco Pompedda, an expert in canon law who served as Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura from 1997 to 2004, has often been flagged in Roman circles as the source of a document entitled 'Diary of the Conclave', published in the Italian journal Limes in September 2005, which purported to offer round-by-round voting totals from the April 2005 election which propelled Benedict XVI to the papacy.

Italian journalist Lucio Brunelli, author of the Limes report, said at the time that the diary had been provided to him by a cardinal after the conclave, despite the cardinals' vow of secrecy - and despite the penalty of excommunication for violating it.

Not everyone, it should be noted, believes that the alleged diary is authentic. It offered no new nuggets of insider detail, other than alleged vote totals, which had not already surfaced in other accounts.

Certainly not everyone bought the theory that Pompedda was the source, especially since he was the principal editor of Pope John Paul II's 1995 apostolic constitution, Universi dominici gregis, outlining the very rules of the conclave that Pompedda was rumored to have violated.

The diary's account gave then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger 47 votes on the first ballot, 65 on the second, 72 on the third, and 84 on the fourth, six more than the two-thirds needed to elect him to the papacy. The account also indicated that Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was a strong second-place finisher. [Allen does not indicate here that this 'secret' account was the only one that gave these figures, and that most other accounts had the final votes for Ratzi at 95, including Allen's own investigations.]

Privately, Pompedda denied the rumors that he was the source, and Brunelli has not had any comment on Pompedda's death.

Yet among many observers in Rome it quickly became conventional wisdom that Pompedda was the source - perhaps for no other reason than that the Sardinian jurist was a notoriously independent thinker in an environment that tends to breed homogeneity, perhaps because Pompedda was unafraid to speak his mind despite the near-epidemic of caution that usually infects church officials at his level....

Expected Motu Proprio
to be published July 7,
German newspaper announces


Vatican City, Jun 27,(CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI intends to publish his Motu Proprio liberating the Mass of St. Pius V on July 7, 2007 announced today the Vatican correspondent for the German newspaper Die Welt, Paul Badde.

Badde reported today that Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, presented a copy of the Motu Proprio universally liberating the Tridentine Mass to some 30 bishops from different countries at the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace.

Die Welt's correspondent only mentions that Cardinal Karl Lehmann from Germany was one of the bishops attending the meeting, which ended with a one-by-one greeting to the Holy Father.

The 3-page long document, signed by Pope Benedict XVI, comes with a letter of explanation about four pages long. The publication of both documents will take place on July 7th.

According to Badde, the letter emphasizes the unity of the Roman Rite, which from now on will have to forms, an 'ordinary' and an 'extraordinary,' supposed to inspire each other.

The ordinary form will continue to be the Post-Vatican rite; while the extraordinary will be the Missal used until 1962 and written according to the norms established by Pope St. Pius V and confirmed by the Council of Trent - thus the adjective Tridentine.


I went and checked Badde's original story and found it on KATHNET - and I will translate the whole thing (it's not very long), although the CNA story pretty much has all the important points. But it misses the point of the Pope's appearance at the event, and it does not make clear is when this meeting with the bishops took place - and it appears from the story that it took place today, Wednesday afternoon! Anyway, here's the translation:


Motu Proprio on the Old Mass
out on July 7
By Paul Badde/DIE WELT

Vatikan (www.kath.net/DieWelt), 27 June, 18:35
The document, with which Pope Benedict XVI, of his own accord ('motu proprio', in Latin), will allow the old Tridentine liturgy for the whole Church, was distributed Wednesday afternoon by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican Secretary of State, to some 30 bishops from around the world at the Sala Bologna of the Apostolic Palace.

The bishops were specially invited to Rome for the occasion. At the end of the meeting, during which the document was presented, along with its accompanying explanatory letter from the Pope, Benedict XVI himself joined the presentation.

The document in a mere three pages represents an epochal turning point for the Catholic Mass celebration. The accompanying letter is four pages long.

Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German bishops conference, was invited from Germany.

It was made very clear how important it is for the Pope that the bishops should learn about the contents of the Motu Proprio from himself and not read about it in the media, in what was 'a special gesture of collegial encounter.'

The general publication of both documents is planned to be on July 7. The explanatory letter expressly stresses the unity of the Roman rite. But this rite will henceforth consist of an ordinary and an extraordinary form, which should mutually enrich each other.

The ordinary form will continue to be the new rite, which Paul VI enabled in 1969 with an unprecedented stroke of the pen. But as an extraordinary form, the Latin rite - as Pope John XXIII had it published in the 1962 official Roman Missal - will be allowed. The basic features of this Mass were laid down at the Council of Trent (1545-1563).

---

Ratzinger would have wanted
to be the Vatican Librarian

---

Just had the chance to read the whol;e thing. I think the term library mouse fits... but definitely NOT a bookworm. There's just something about reading how Cardinal Ratzinger asked repeatedly to retire that brings a tear to my eye. Thank you JP2 for listening to the Holy Spirit... for keeping your beloved friend in Rome close to you. But the article still makes me cry.

When Pope Benedict XVI reminded the youth of Umbria, during that memorable encounter with them in Assisi on June 17, that he would see them again in Loreto in September, I had presumed his visit there would be a one-day affair. But he will be there for both days of the AGORA for Italian youth, a grand Italian prelude to World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney.



Here's a translation of an Avvenire story yesterday from a news conference held by the organizers of AGORA,
which is under the auspices of the Italian bishops conference.





Two days with the Pope



The youth of Italy - as many as half a million are expected - will have two days of encounter with the Pope in Loreto on September 1-2.

Most of them are expected to arrive Saturday morning in Loreto, the northeastern Italian city which is the site of the House of Nazareth and one of the major Marian shrines in Italy.

Prior to that, some 80,000 youth will be guests of homes in 32 dioceses of the Marche, Umbria, Abruzzo and Emilia-Romagna from August 29-31.

The Agora activities will be held in a valley alled Montorso outside Loreto. Participants will begin their activity by a pilgrimage on foot from the city to Montorso.

There will be musical shows galore to keep them entertained before the big event of the day.

Pope Benedict XVI is expected to arrive at mid-afternoon for a prayer encounter. He will deliver a meditation on the Annunciation, and will spend at least two hours with the youth.

This will be followed by an evening program during which testimonials by various young people will be interspersed with music and spectacle, at which famous Italian entertainers will be performing.

During the night, the youth will have meditations and discussions in eight spaces called 'fountains' divided according to their subject of interest: Marian prayer, reconciliation, Eucharistic adoration; youth problems, vocations, sexuality; ecumenism and conservation of nature.

Sunday, September 2, will start with church bells pealing all over Loreto and the celebration of Lauds.

The highlight will be the Mass celebrated by the Pope, who will consign a 'missionary mandate' to 72 representatives of the youth (72 is the Biblical number for the peoples of the earth). This will be the culmination of the Agora national youth encounter, which prepares the way for World Youth Day in Sydney from July 15-20, 2008, which Pope Benedict will attend.

Youth representatives from 53 nations, mostly Europe and the Mediterranean countries, are also coming to Loreto, along with a delegation of 14 from the Sydney WYD.

A special project of the Agora is to raise 500,000 euro from contributions to send to the diocese of Emdeber in Ethiopia for a church and youth center, on the occasion of the Jubilee 2000 celebration by Ethiopian Christians who observe the Julian calendar.

A communique from the Vatican Press Office today confirms Paul Badde's exclusive story yesterday (See Post 8073 above):

A meeting was held yesterday afternoon at the Vatican presided by the Cardinal Secretary of State, at which he presented the contents and the spirit of the announced Motu Proprio of the Holy Father on the use of the Missal promulgated in 1962 by John XXIII to representatives of various episcopal conferences.

The Holy Father arrived to greet the bishops and stayed with them in conversation for almost an hour.

The publication of the document - which will be accompanied by an ample letter of explanation from the Holy Father to each bishop - is
anticipated within a few days after the document has been sent to all bishops indicating when it will go into effect.


====================================================================


This story comes from Le Croix, a French Catholic daily newspaper:

Pope's Motu Proprio
unveiled to bishops
By Isabelle de Gaulmyn
Rome

On the afternoon of Wednesday, June 27, archbishops and cardinals from different countries met with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, to learn directly about the Motu Proprio by the Holy Father liberalising the use of the Mass also called Tridentine, or the Pius V Mass.

"It was sort of an internal publication [of the Motu Proprio] by the Church," said a Curia official. The official publication, through the Osservatore Romano, is expected soon. The text is in Latin and will be accompanied by a letter from Benedict in several languages. [Let us hope the MP itself comes with translations too!]

Before yesterday's meeting, none of the bishops knew the definitive contents of the text. After the last known meeting of the Ecclesia Dei commission (which carries out liaison with traditionalist movements) on December 12, 2006, any further work on the issue has been done in utmost discretion.

The Pope, who had wanted to facilitate the use of the old Mass, had asked the commission in 2006 to work out a solution that would favor both the return of traditionalist communities to the church, as well as encourage an appreciation by Catholics of a liturgical tradition which he believes was wrongly shut down by a misinterpretation of the Second Vatican Council's liturgical reform.

Since last October, the Pope had been widely expected to issue a Motu Proprio on the issue that would restore 'full rights' to the old Mass which would now be authorized without prior permission from the local bishop.

The plan has raised objections from many bishops, particularly in France and the United States, who claim that this 'bi-ritualism' presents a risk to the unity of the Church. They fear that a bishop could lose authority within his diocese if subjected to pressures in favor of one rite over the other. [What pressures? And what one rite over the other? It presents a free choice - both rites are valid.]

The Pope addressed that objection in his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, in which he said the bishop is 'the liturgist of his diocese' who can 'preserve unity of celebrations in his diocese.'

The Motu Proprio is expected to contain guarantees that will give the local bishop the last word in case of disputes between priests and faithful over the Mass rites.
....

Jews in Germany have expressed concern that the Old Mass may retain
the Good Friday prayer for the conversion of Jews that was still present in John XXIII's 1962 Missal.

They also claimed that the old Mass does not use any texts from the Old Testament [THIS IS PATENTLY FALSE - the Psalms are sprinkled liberally on every page, for instance] , which is the common patrimony of Jews and Christians. [And do Christians tell the Jews what they should do in their rites? What presumption!]

But the Pope's MP may provide that the readings to be followed in both rites be those that were established by Paul VI for the Novus Ordo in 1969.

====================================================================
7/1/07 P.S.
For the record, here are the names of the cardinals present at the 6/28/07 briefing on the MP at the Vatican. Rorate caeli has obligingly put the list together, as I had been meaning to do, but the names alone tell a story:

For the Roman Curia:
1. Cardinal Bertone, Secretary of State
2. Cardinal Arinze, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
3. Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos, President of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei

Europe

Italy
4. Cardinal Ruini, Cardinal Vicar of Rome
5. Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference

France
6. Cardinal Ricard, Archbishop of Bordeaux, President of the French Episcopal Conference
7. Cardinal Barbarin, Archbishop of Lyon

Germany
8. Cardinal Lehmann, Bishop of Mainz, President of the German Episcopal Conference

England and Wales
9. Cardinal Murphy O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales

Switzerland
10. Kurt Koch, Bishop of Basel, President of the Swiss Episcopal Conference

Poland
11. Cardinal Dziwisz, Archbishop of Cracow

Americas

United States
12. Cardinal O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston
13. Raymond Burke, Archbishop of Saint Louis

Africa

Gabon
14. Basile Mvé Engone, Archbishop of Libreville, President of the Episcopal Conference of Gabon

Asia

India
15. Cardinal Toppo, Archbishop of Ranchi, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India

Australia
16. Cardinal Pell, Archbishop of Sydney

Note: Though the list includes no diocesan ordinaries from Latin America, different sources confirm that two Latin American prelates (probably, considering the list, two presidents of episcopal conferences) were invited, but "justified" their absence. They probably had no idea that the Pope would personally greet them and discuss the matter with them for one hour. The pretentiousness and self-sufficiency of many Latin American Bishops were not softened by the Papal visit to the region in May...

And here's the only photo we have seen so far of the event,
posted on Cardinal O'Malley's blog. Rorate caeli identifies the persons:


From left to right: Burke, Bagnasco, Koch, Dziwisz, Bertone,
Engone, the Pope, O'Malley, Castrillón, Ruini, Toppo, Ricard,
Pell, Arinze, and Murphy O'Connor

Cardinal O'Malley said in his blog that altogether there were about 25 'cardinals and bishops' present, so we're still missing about 9 names.

====================================================================

Here's the generally misinformed secular spin from today's issue of the New York Times - which had absolutely no inkling of the meeting at the Vatican yesterday! And this is supposed to the newspaper of record. 'Wider use of Latin Mass likely'? Likely???? Are they hoping against hope it won't happen? I'd hang my head in shame if I were the NYT correspondent for the Vatican and did not have a clue about what took place in Sala Bologna yesterday.

This article, of course, screams to be fisked, but I won't bother just now. It's an article overcome by events!


June 28, 2007
Wider Use of Latin Mass Likely,
Vatican Officials Say
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and IAN FISHER

Pope Benedict XVI has signed a document that would allow more churches to adopt the old Latin Mass that largely faded from use during the 1960s, when the groundbreaking Second Vatican Council opened the door to worship in the local vernacular, Vatican officials say.

The revival of what is known as the Tridentine Mass has long been promoted by Roman Catholic traditionalists, who say it is more moving, contemplative and historically authentic than the modern Mass.

But Pope Benedict has been hearing resistance from cardinals and bishops, many of them in Europe, who argue that the change would divide the church by promulgating two very different official rites.

They say that it could create rifts in smaller parishes that cannot agree which Mass to use, and that it would burden already overburdened members of the clergy, many of whom do not know Latin and were never trained to perform the older rite's more complex choreography.

In the Tridentine Mass, the priest faces away from the congregation and prays, sometimes in a whisper, in Latin, a language unfamiliar to most of the world's one billion Roman Catholics. The Vatican II reformers intended the modern Mass to be more accessible by allowing the priest to face the congregation and to involve the worshipers in prayer and song, mostly in their native language but including some passages in Latin.

The issue is not a compulsory return to the Tridentine rite, which is named for the 16th-century Council of Trent that codified it. While it is increasingly popular in small pockets of the church, there seems to be no widespread demand for it. The document being discussed, church officials say, would allow priests to celebrate the Tridentine Mass without asking for permission from their bishops.

Under the current rules, priests must get permission. And while many bishops have granted it, some have not, frustrating priests who wish to make the Tridentine Mass more widely available.

Catholic experts agree that the debate is not merely about ritual, but about the legacy of the Second Vatican Council, which met from 1962 to 1965.

Some Catholic traditionalists regard the introduction of the modern liturgy as the start of what they see as the church's slide since Vatican II and hope that the Tridentine Mass will rejuvenate the faith. Church liberals fear that if the pope undermines the modern Mass, it may lead to the reversal of other Vatican II reforms, like more open relationships with other faiths.

Bishop Kieran Conry of Arundel and Brighton in England said he had freely and happily given permission for the Tridentine Mass to be celebrated in his diocese but opposed a change in the rules.

"It might be taken by some to infer that Benedict himself is not entirely behind the reforms of the Vatican Council," Bishop Conry said. "For many it's a symbol and a flag."

Although this change has been rumored to be in the works for years, even under Pope John Paul II, who died two years ago, the church has only recently signaled impending action.

In recent weeks several top officials, including the No. 2 at the Vatican, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the secretary of state, were quoted in news reports as saying that the document would be issued shortly. Vatican officials say that the pope has already signed it and that it will be released and go into effect before the pope starts vacation on July 9.

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos told a meeting of Latin American bishops in Brazil in May that Pope Benedict was motivated in part by his desire to bring back into the fold the members of the Society of St. Pius X, a schismatic group opposed to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council.

The society's founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, was excommunicated in 1988 after consecrating four bishops without Vatican consent. He died in 1991. Cardinal Castrillón leads a Vatican commission created to try to reconcile the archbishop's followers, who reportedly number about one million, with the church.

In recent months some bishops in Germany, Belgium, Britain and France have strongly urged the pope not to issue the document, arguing that it would undermine their authority and cement the perception of a church out of line with modernity. The main bloc of opposition, church officials say, has come from France, where the Society of St. Pius X is strongest.

In addition, Jews and Catholics involved in interfaith relations have expressed concerns to Vatican officials that the Tridentine liturgy still includes passages offensive to Jews. The liturgy for Good Friday, for instance, contains a prayer 'for the conversion of the Jews.'

The Rev. Keith Pecklers, a Jesuit liturgical scholar at the Gregorian University in Rome, said: "We've made tremendous progress in 40 years of Jewish-Christian relations since Vatican II. What will that mean now to return to a liturgy that prays for the conversion of the Jews on Good Friday?

"I don't think they're considering all of the potential pitfalls."

It is possible that the document will be further delayed or even derailed, but those who know the pope say they doubt it.

The Rev. Joseph Fessio, an American Jesuit priest who has published the pope's books, said: "Because he is such a deliberate person, it is hard for me to think that he will have done all these drafts and spent all this time and not publish it. If he really believes it would help the church and doesn't do it because some bishops complain, then all he does is strengthen the position of those bishops who want to oppose him."

The Tridentine Mass has loyal fans who will travel great distances to churches where it is still celebrated. In Rome last Sunday, about 30 people, many of them young foreigners, attended the 10:30 a.m. Mass at San Gregorio dei Muratori church.

"It feels alien when you first start doing it," said Leah Whittington, 27, an American graduate student. But, she said, "I just love Latin and feeling that 2,000-year connection to the church, and I find it easier to pray, because there is not a lot of conversation between the priest and the congregation."

Peter Kiefer contributed reporting from Rome.

Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the editor, in this case, the Times of London, protesting the mis-reporting of Tony Blair's last meeting with Pope Benedict XVI.

Here is the letter published in yesterday's issue:

---

June 27, 2007

Sir, Certain articles that appeared in the British press after the visit of Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Vatican presented a negative picture of the atmosphere of the meetings that took place. Such a negative picture does not reflect what really happened.

The reason behind such coverage lies mainly in a mistranslation of the Italian words 'franco confronto' used in the press release issued by the Vatican press office. In Italian these words do not have the negative connotation ascribed to them in English which certainly does not reflect the tone of the Vatican communiqué.

In reality, the intention was simply to state that it had been an 'open and sincere discussion', without any acrimonious or hostile overtones. The meetings took place in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, as the journalists who were present can confirm.

It is important to remember that the Holy See has always expressed its appreciation for certain very important initiatives taken by the British Government, especially with regard to furthering the peace process in Northern Ireland and promoting the development of the world's poorest countries. Relations between the Holy See and the United Kingdom, therefore, are both healthy and positive.

FR FEDERICO LOMBARDI SJ, Director, Press Office of the Holy See

---

Well, while I am certainly glad that Fr. Lombardi made the 'correction', I also hope it makes him realize wht it is absolutely FOOLISH for the Vatican Press Office not to provide a simultaneous translation of its releases. My primary concern is the Papal texts, but communiques are important in their own way. They are always short, and there is no justification for not being able to provide a translation at the same time.

As I commented on the day the Daily Mail led off the British barrage of these 'negative' stories, anyone watching the videos and looking at the photos would have been puzzled about their spin. Also, Mr. Blair had the common sense to say before and after the meeting that the question of his conversion was not for public discussion and that 'there are many questions to be resolved.'

On Tuesday, Avvenire's editor-in-chief wrote an editorial - also unprecedented, I thought - praising Blair's prudence about the matter.

Roman Curia: The Reform That Isn't There

Appointments made at a snail's pace.
Documents that are useless or continually delayed.
Offices drifting aimlessly.
Why the renewal of the Vatican bureaucracy is not a priority for Benedict XVI

by Sandro Magister



ROMA, June 28, 2007 - The last great reform of the Vatican curia was made by Paul VI in the fifth year of his pontificate. Benedict XVI is in his third year, but there's nothing to indicate that he is preparing anything similar.

[It would have been nice if Magister included a paragraph to say just what those reforms accomplished - because the Curia continues to be a word-symbol for stagnancy, resistance to change and petty empire-building!]

The few appointments made in the curia so far by Pope Joseph Ratzinger, interpreted by almost everyone as the pre-announcement of a systemic revolution, have remained what they were: few and isolated. The most spectacular of his initial decisions was even revoked.

This concerned the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue. On February 15, 2006, Benedict XVI removed its director. He exiled to Cairo as a nuncio its president, the English bishop Michael Fitzgerald, who was seen as too accommodating toward Islam. And he delegated the direction of the Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue to the President of the Council for Culture, Cardinal Paul Poupard.

Almost everyone saw in this decision by the Pope, apart from a correction of course, the prelude to a reduction of the number of Curia offices, with the elimination of some and the combination of others.

The parallel dismissal [he was not dismissed - he turned 80!- I can't believe Magister is committing this mistake!] of Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao and the consequent unification of the office he presided over, the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant People, with the Council for Justice and Peace headed by Cardinal Renato Martino, seemed to confirm this intent to prune things down.

[The problem was that because, by chance, the two events happened close to each other - and both for entirely different reasons- everyone rushed to interpret it as a 'sign' of planned consolidations by Benedict! And whereas 'Migrants...' appears to have been effectively merged into 'Justice and Peace', 'Dialog' never merged with 'Culture'- as Cardinal Paul Poupard has kept saying to anyone who wants to listen!]

But things didn't go that way. At the beginning of May of this year, the Vatican nuncios of the world informed the episcopates of the various countries that the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious dialogue would become autonomous again[????], and would again have its own president. This president was appointed on June 25, in the person of cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the former foreign minister for John Paul II.

As for the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, this remains incorporated with 'Iustitia et Pax', but it continues to churn out symposiums and documents that immediately fall into disregard: the complete opposite of the expected simplification. Its latest product is a sort of catechism on the rules of the road presented to the press on June 19.

Joseph Ratzinger worked in the curia for 24 years before being elected pope. He knows it better than anyone else. He arrived there with the anti-Roman distrust typical of the Germans. But he later acknowledged that he had been won over.

"One of the things that I learned well in Rome is how to bide time", he said in a book-length interview in 1985. "Biding one's time can be a positive thing; it can permit a situation to settle, to mature, and so to clarify itself." [That does not sound like being 'won over' - more like a pragmatic adjustment to something that must be dealt with on its own terms.]

Perhaps this is exactly the way in which Benedict XVI intends to discipline the curia. For the two crucial appointments at the beginning of any pontificate - that of Secretary of State and that of his deputy - he waited until the resistance and rivalries had dwindled down to nothing. [There you go! He's using the system to beat it where he can!]

And since Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone has been Secretary of State, the Pope has seemed quite pleased that general opinion no longer attributes the real or presumed task of reforming the Curia to him, but to the enterprising cardinal.

Another cardinal to whom the pope would have given the mandate of redesigning the Vatican bureaucracy is Attilio Nicora, president of the APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, as well as the superintendent of the Governatorate of Vatican City and of the IOR, the Institute for the Works of Religion, the pontifical bank.

Nicora is a qualified expert in administrative procedures, while Bertone is known as a great organizer. But the fact is that until now, neither of them has ever been head of anything. [What do you mean, 'neither has ever been head of anything'? Bertone was Archbishop of two important dioceses, and Nicora's current positions are listed in the preceding paragraph!]

In the third year of his reign, it is by now evident that reform of the Curia does not figure among the priorities on Benedict XVI's agenda.

In part because of his advanced age, Pope Ratzinger has drastically pared down the matters to which he dedicates himself body and soul: before all else, preaching, the liturgical celebrations, and the book Jesus of Nazareth, the second volume of which, on the Passion and Resurrection, he is already writing.

On these absolute priorities, Benedict XVI is not 'biding his time'; on the contrary, he dedicates himself to them with a tireless passion equal to the crystalline clarity with which he formulates his theses.

Pope Ratzinger never minces words on the controversial questions close to his heart. He clearly says what is the right thing to do: in the field of the liturgy as in the field of public ethics, for example on whether or not to receive communion if one maintains that abortion is permissible. But in the end, the Pope wants to leave these decisions to conscience. More than issuing orders and establishing sanctions, he aims at educating, at convincing.

With a restive Curia that is hardly his friend, Benedict XVI instead adopts another style: it is precisely that of 'biding his time'.

The new Deputy Secretary of State, Fernando Filoni - the Curia official in closest contact with the pope [No! More than the Secretary of State himself, who, institutionally, has a daily hourlong meeting with the Pope??? What's with Magister today???] - was named on June 9 of this year, after an extremely long gestation that was required to push back into the ranks the excessive number of aspirants for the position.

And it's not only the appointments - documents, too, can undergo long delays intended to smooth over resistance.

The Pope's letter to Chinese Catholics that was promised for Easter was put off until the summer, in order to find a formulation that would satisfy both the 'realist' diplomats, the ones most accommodating toward the Beijing authorities, and the 'neoconservatives' like the cardinal of Hong Kong, Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who are much more combative.

Another document that was announced repeatedly but delayed a number of times was the one that authorizes more extensive use of the Roman missal in Latin that was in effect until 1962. Here the opponents are both within and outside of the Curia, and the pope listened to all of them.

One reason for this preventive caution was the deluge of criticism that continues to assail, forty years later, certain daring innovations made by Paul VI in the areas of the Curia and conclaves.

Instead of going up against the machine, Benedict XVI limits himself to placing here and there in the Curia his trusted men: from Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Sri Lanka, made secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, to his former right hand man at the congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Bertone. Or he calls in prominent personalities from the outside: like Brazilian Cardinal Cláudio Hummes, and the former Archbishop of Bombay, Ivan Dias.

But meanwhile, entire sections of the curia continue to drift, including the pivotal area of communications. The Pontifical Council that should concern itself with this has a new president as of June 27, Claudio Maria Celli, who has replaced the American bishop John P. Foley, now the pro-Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher.

But the change doesn't promise anything good: the Pontifical Council for Social Communications is a champion of non-productivity, and has been deprived of the position of secretary for years. L'Osservatore Romano, too, is a shadow of its former glory, and drags itself along while awaiting a new director who never arrives.
[I was just questioning yesterday what exactly this Pontifical Council has done for Vatican communications which are a mess!]

Much more than curia appointments, Benedict XVI has at heart the appointment of bishops.

He dedicates much greater attention to these than John Paul II did. Before giving his permission, the pope keeps the dossiers of the designates on his desk for up to two or three weeks. And sometimes he rejects them, without giving an explanation to the competent Curia dicastery presided over by cardinal Giovanni Battista Re.

Pope Ratzinger is very demanding; he wants bishops of quality, and doesn't always find them. The pace of episcopal appointments has fallen by a quarter with him, in comparison with the previous pontificate.

To explain to the Roman Curia what it was not supposed to be, Paul VI described it in 1967, the year of his reform, as "a pretentious and sluggish bureaucracy, entirely wrapped in rule and ritual, a breeding ground for ambition and sordid antagonism."

But Benedict XVI is not tender, either. On May 7, 2006, while ordaining 15 new priests for the diocese of Rome at Saint Peter's, he recalled in the homily that, shortly before describing himself as the good shepherd, Jesus said of himself "I am the door". And he continued:

"It is through Him that one must enter the service of shepherd. Jesus highlights very clearly this basic condition by saying: 'he who climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber' (Jn 10: 1). This word 'climbs' - anabainei in Greek - conjures up the image of someone climbing over a fence to get somewhere out of bounds to him.

"'To climb' - here too we can also see the image of careerism, the attempt to 'get ahead', to gain a position through the Church: to make use of and not to serve. It is the image of a man who wants to make himself important, to become a person of note through the priesthood; the image of someone who has as his aim his own exaltation and not the humble service of Jesus Christ.

"But the only legitimate ascent towards the shepherd's ministry is the Cross. This is the true way to rise; this is the true door."


=====================================================================

I've never seen Magister commit so many little slips like he does in this article....

And I think he should have included a brief situationer on the state of the Curia, at least since Pius XII, as a benchmark to measure against.

Because, from all accounts, it does not look like any Pope has managed to change the Vatican bureaucracy, even those who had ample time to do it, like Paul VI and John Paul II. So why judge Benedict, who's only been 26 months in office, by a different standard? John Paul II waited three years before he made any changes in the Curia. In that perspective, Benedict is a sprinter, not a snail!

I have to use shorthand now for the Mass MP as opposed to the Conclave MP...

Angela Ambrogetti of PETRUS brings us more details of yesterday's meeting at the Vatican, and some interesting background information on the Old Mass.

After reiterating the information from the Vatican communique today, she goes on to report, translated here:


At yesterday's meeting, Vatican spoke3sman Fr. Federico Lombardi said, there were about 15 cardinals and a similar number of bishops from various countries, mostly presidents of the national bishops' conferences.

He named Cardinal Ruini and Archbishop Bagnasco from Italy; from France, Cardinals Philippe Barbarin of Lyons and Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux (also president of the French bishops' conference); Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston; Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster (London); Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the Berman bishops' conference; and Mons. Kurt Koch of Basle, president of the Swiss bishops conference.

The publication of the Motu Proprio and the Pope's accompanying letter of explanation could come earlier than July 7, as it is contingent on when all bishops around the world will have received the documents.

The 1962 Roman missal approved by John XXIII updated the traditional liturgy of Pius V. The Vatican communique said this would be the basis for the Mass that the Motu Proprio will put into force.

In 1990, the 1962 Missal was reprinted in French with a Preface by then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who wrote: "Responding to your request, I am glad to present this reprinting of the Roman Missal as it was in 1962. This liturgy, which Pope John Paul II wished to allow to all those who feel bound to it, is an integral part of the richness that the diversity of charisms, spiritual traditions and apostolates represents for the Church."

Citing the Motu Proprio Ecclesia Dei signed on July 2, 1988, by John Paul II, Ratzinger said "it is good that the Latin text with the French translation of this Missal are made available to the faithful, (a Missal) on which, as Paul VI stated, 'numberless saints abundantly nourished their piety' towards God, through its lessons on the Sacred Scriptures or its prayers, and whose general arrangement essentially goes back to St. Gregory the Great."

He concluded: "I therefore hope that the present edition responds to the expectation of the faithful and helps them to participate actively in the celebration of Holy Mass. It will contribute, to the degree that is proper to it, to the liturgical renewal intended by the Second Vatican Council, by highlighting the beauty of 'unity in diversity.'"

With his Motu Proprio, a document written of his own accord, Pope Benedict XVI will restore to the pre-Conciliar Latin Mass the legitimacy that it 'lost' improperly after the liturgical reform of Paul VI.

[She then gives the background information on the history of this Motu Proprio so far, as reported by Isabelle de Gaulmyn in the Le Croix article translated above.]

As to the concern that the return of the Tridentine Mass could negate in part the message of Vatican-II, the Pope has made clear that he is interpreting the Council in the light of tradition without affecting two of its most important attributes, namely, religious freedom and the Church's relation to the world...

The Pope presided at Vespers tonight at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls. Here is the story from korazym.org, translated:





Pope announces Pauline Year
from June 2008-June 2009
By Mattia Bianchi
korazym.org

Pope Benedict XVI tonight declared a jubilee year dedicated to St. Paul, commemorating 200 years since his birth, thought to have taken place between 5-10 A.D. The jubilee will last from June 28, 2008 to June 29, 2009.

In a homily delivered at the traditional June 28 Vespers at the Basilica of St. Paul outside the Walls, on the eve of the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, the Pope said the Pauline Jubilee will be marked with cultural and liturgical events, along with' various pastoral and social initiatives inspired by the Pauline spirituality.'

He urged participation by all dioceses, parishes and churches around the world, with particular attention to ecumenism, "that we may progress in our humble and sincere quest for the full unity of all the members of the Mystical Body of Christ."

Special participants in tonight's Vespers was a delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, led by Metropolitans Emmanuel and Gennadios.

The Pope spoke of the charisms of Peter and Paul, of their relationship which was 'not free from tensions' and their commitment to a single cause: "building the church of Christ."

"Therefore we can say that on this day, the Church of Rome marks its birth, because the two apostles laid down its foundations" just as Romulus and Remus had founded Rome.

The Pope called Paul 'an apostle by vocation', saying the extraordinary success of his missions was not due to 'brilliant rhetoric or refined missionary and apologetic strategies.' Rather, he said, it was his "personal involvement in proclaiming the Gospel, with total dedication to Christ, a dedication that did not fear risks, difficulties and persecution."

Paul's example, he said, was valid for Christians even today, since "the action of the Church is effective and credible to the degree that those who are part or it are ready to prove their loyalty to Christ by staking themselves in every circumstance."

Where such willingness is lacking, he said, "then it diminishes the strength of the argument for truth on which the Church depends."

"Concretely," he said, "even today Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. It needs witnesses and martyrs like St. Paul - once a violent persecutor of Christians, when, on the road to Damascus, he was struck down, blinded by divine light, and without hesitation, chose to follow the Crucified Lord, never turning back. He lived and worked for Christ; for him, he suffered and died. How relevant his example is today!"

Words that anticipated the Pope's homily tomorrow, at St. Peter's Basilica, when he confers the pallium on 46 new metropolitan archbishops named in the past year [5 have been unable to come to Rome] and is expected to preach about Peter, the first Pope.

Among the notable new metropolitans are Angelo Bagnasco of Genova, Calogero La Piana of Messina, and Paolo Romeo of Palermo; Kasimierz Nycz of Waraw, Odilo Pedro Scherer of Sao Paulo and Csaba Ternyak of Eger (Hungary).

The text below is the editorial of the June-July issue of Inside the Vatican magazine.

Benedict and the Mass
A reflection on the meaning of the Mass,
and a comment on the debate over the restoration of the old liturgy
by Dr. Robert Moynihan




"Throw melted wax into melted wax, and the one interpenetrates the other perfectly. In the same way, when the Body and Blood of Christ are received, the union is such that Christ is in the recipient and he in Christ."
-St. Cyril of Jerusalem

"When Mass was over I remained with Jesus in thanksgiving. Oh how sweet was the colloquy with paradise that morning! It was such that, although I want to tell you all about it, I cannot... The heart of Jesus and my own - allow me to use the expression - were fused. No longer were two hearts beating, but only one... My joy was so intense and deep that I could bear it no more and tears of happiness poured down my cheeks."
-St. Padre Pio (canonized June 16, 2002)


In Rome in mid-June, the release of Pope Benedict's motu proprio allowing wider celebration of the 'old Mass' was reportedly 'imminent', expected in any case "during the first days of July, before the Pope goes on his summer vacation," Vatican officials close to the Pope said. (And yet, the document has been delayed before.)

So what do we know already about this matter? Several things: 1) that the Pope has wished to publish the motu proprio for about a year; 2) that he has been advised by many bishops, who evidently fear it will cause divisions in the Church, not to publish it; 3) that he has therefore taken his time, consulting many advisors, and has written a prefatory letter to explain what the motu proprio means.

Why all the attention to this issue? That is the deeper question. Isnt the essence of Christianity to lead a good life, with all the liturgies of the Church a secondary concern? That is what many seem to believe.

It is difficult to get at the truth of the matter, and the difficulty will not cease even with the release of the motu proprio. In fact, it may only intensify.

Some would see the Holy Father's interest in the old Mass as a matter of cultural taste. His desire for a wider use of the old rite in Latin is seen as something comparable to his interest in classical music. For these people, the issue is often reduced to a question of practicality: the old rite, in Latin, is 'impractical' in the 21st century, and so, these people say, it would be unwise to expand its use.

But this is a serious misunderstanding of Benedict's motivation. He is not concerned with Latin in itself. His respect for the 'old Mass' is not a nostalgic cultural attachment to an ancient language. No, Benedict is concerned about the essence of the Mass itself.

And what is that essence? The right worship of God.

Certainly there is something to be said, in practical terms, for the use in a worldwide Church of a single liturgical language. And certainly, Latin is in some ways a good candidate to be that universal language. It was the language of the Empire under which Jesus lived and died. It has been used for almost 20 centuries. And translations could make the language 'accessible' to all even today -- and even in times to come.

But that is not the point. It isn't about the Latin. (And the Latin Mass is, in any case, not the Latin Mass at all; that is a misnomer; it is, rather, 'the Latin, Greek and Aramaic Mass', with Kyrie eleison in Greek and Amen and Alleluia in Aramaic.) And those who think Latin is at the core of this matter do not see fully what is at stake here.

And what is at stake is not a trivial matter. If it were, the Pope wouldn't have given two years of attention to it, or 25 years as a cardinal to stating repeatedly that there needs to be a 'reform of the reform.' Rather, it is an important matter. In fact, the most important one. For the Mass is celebrated for a single reason: for the Eucharist. And the Eucharist is one thing only: Christ with us. And Christ with us is the sole reason for the Church's being.

So in dealing with the Mass, the Pope is not dealing with a marginal, a peripheral matter. The liturgy is not a 'side issue.' It is a central one; indeed, the central one. It is the little matter (and the Orthodox rightly stress this) of... the divinization of man! A reality which brought Padre Pio to tears.

So it is a very important matter. But what is the problem? It seems that Benedict, like many thoughtful believers, is concerned about the fact that the conciliar reform of the liturgy in the 1960s has in some way apparently failed to achieve its chief goal, which was to bring about an even greater reverence for the Eucharist, an even greater participation by the faithful in the mystery of Christ, an even deeper sacramental life within the Church. (That is what the conciliar fathers hoped to accomplish by approving a liturgical reform.)

And if there are in the 'old Mass', as many argue, qualities too hastily discarded in the 1960s - a sense of tradition which made it a bit easier for some to turn their minds toward the eternal, a sense of solemnity which helped some to turn their hearts toward God - and if that loss can, even if only in part, be made good, if it can be remedied, by a motu proprio allowing the 'old Mass' to be celebrated more widely, then it is a work of great import for the Pope to carry out.

If the 'old Mass' is merely a 'cultural' matter, the fad of a small elite, it will not flourish in any case, and the motu proprio will be a dead letter. But if it is a matter of renewing the Church, and if the dignity and holiness of the old rite strikes the faithful in such a way as to re-kindle in them a sense of that devotion which prepares them to encounter Christ, then allowing the old Mass to be celebrated more widely will be an act worth preparing for with much toil and care.