Yelp! Moscow has doused cold water on Vatican expectations yet again! Same-old, same-old...

End Catholic 'proselytism',
Russian Patriarch demands

Moscow, Aug. 8, 2007 (CWNews.com) - Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II of Moscow has repeated his demand that the Vatican must curb the "proselytism" by Catholic clerics in Russia and eastern Europe.

During an August 7 meeting with Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the Russian Patriarch said that Church leaders should 'speedily' call a halt to the expansion of Eastern Catholic churches.

The Moscow patriarchate called attention to Patriarch Alexei's comments shortly after Vatican officials noted that the August 7 meeting had taken place in a 'brotherly climate'.

Cardinal Etchegaray, meeting with the Russian patriarch as a papal envoy, had told reporters after the meeting that ecumenical relations were steadily improving, and could soon lead to a 'summit meeting' between the Russian prelate and the Pope.

In his own comments Patriarch Alexei downplayed those hopes, suggesting that curbs on Catholic 'proselytism' were required to "develop further the positive tendencies in Orthodox-Catholic relations."

While he acknowledged the broadening cooperation between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, particularly in efforts to revive a public witness to Christianity in Europe, he insisted that Catholic activity in eastern Europe "should not turn into proselytism."

The Russian primate said that the strained relations between Eastern-rite Catholics and Orthodox in Ukraine is a particular source of tension. But he added that the Orthodox Church is alarmed by the 'Uniate expansion' in other traditionally Orthodox regions.

'Uniate' is the term used by the Orthodox churches to denote those Eastern churches that have been restored to full communion with the Holy See. By far the largest of these Eastern Catholic bodies is the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

For years the Moscow patriarchate has bitterly objected to the activities of the Uniate churches in eastern Europe, and complained about 'proselytism' by Catholic priests inside Russia.

Catholic officials have responded by saying that missionaries in Russia are not attempting to lure Orthodox believers away from their parishes, but trying to reach out to the great majority of Russians who do not attend any church.

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Patriarch Alexei-II sure is a hard nut to crack. It wasn't very nice to 'diss' Cardinal Etchegaray this way, either. Wasn't the Cardinal aware he was being lectured about this alleged proselytism? It often seems a Papal trip to Beijing is far more likely to happen in the foreseeable future than any Papal meeting anywhere with Alexei. He seems to keep raising the bar for such a meeting to be possible.

Is it just me, because I feel like the majority of the time Patriarch Alexei-II makes a comment on the Catholic Church, it's along the lines of 'Stop proselytism'! It seems to me like he really went out of his way with this statement. Its almost as if he and Cardinal Etchegaray went to two different meetings.

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I agree. If he was sleeping and you whispered the word "Catholic' in his ear, Alexei would probably bound out of bed and start roaring and shaking his fist, "Proselytism!" He's enjoying the fact that he made John Paul II practically run through hoops to try and visit Moscow, and now he's having his fun with Benedict. It's not my place to say it but I'll say it anyway, I just don't trust him. He's not ready for ecumenism, he'll never recognize the Primacy of Rome, and he is openly disdainful of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. That's not promising at all.
TERESA

Thanks to Curt Jester for leading us to this. The story is just too outrageous it requires no comment except SHAME, SHAME, SHAME to all bishops and priests who so openly flaunt their opposition to the Successor of Peter whom they are sworn to follow as Christ's Vicar on earth. Damian Thompson is also editor of the Catholic Herald, a weekly newspaper which is the orthodox counterpart of the liberal Tablet.



Bishops support book attacking the Pope
By Damian Thompson
Posted on 09 Aug 2007
'Holy Smoke" blog in
The Daily Telegraph



The Catholic Church in England and Wales has helped commission a withering attack on Pope Benedict XVI that also refers to the atrocities of 9/11 as “the ‘terrorist’ attacks” in inverted commas.

Catholic Social Justice, a volume of essays put together by an agency of the Bishops’ Conference, systematically rubbishes Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est (God is Love). The book has been given a glowing foreword by the Bishop of Plymouth, Christopher Budd.

Benedict is accused of taking an ideological position in favour of “the capitalist system and colonialism”.

We are told that the Pope’s views on social justice are “hardly credible” in view of the Church’s historic record of violence, torture and theft. We learn that the Catholic clergy teach that “men are superior to women” because they are more in the image of Christ.

Pope John Paul II is also criticised. According to Fr Tissa Balasuriya, the author of the relevant essay, both John Paul and Benedict lived their lives “in a world dominated by white racism” and therefore could not understand the developing world.

This judgment has been produced under the aegis of Caritas-social action, an agency of the Bishops’ Conference. In other words, Catholics in the pew have helped pay for an attack on the Pope.

But worst of all, in my opinion, is this passage in Balasuriya’s essay: “The 21st century was born in violence, with the ‘terrorist’ air attack on New York on 11 September 2001 and the invasion of Iraq by the USA, the UK and Australia on 18 March 2003.”

Those inverted commas are despicable. Did the Bishop of Plymouth notice them before he recommended the book in his foreword?

The other essays mostly consist of sub-Marxist drivel. Philomena Cullen, one of the editors, attacks “the ideology of the nuclear family” and endorses “the open family ideology rooted in a feminist perspective”.

Cullen – social policy coordinator of the Bishops’ Conference agency – notes that all dominant ideologies entail the misuse of power, “whether manifested as sexism, racism, disabilism, ageism, hetereosexism”.

Need I go on? How much evidence do Catholics need that the Bishops' Conference has been hijacked by Left-wing activists working under the patronage of bishops who are in many cases doctrinaire socialists?

Pope Benedict is incredibly badly served by his English bishops, at least one of whom – Budd – is undermining the Pope by putting his name to this book.

AND THE ITALIAN MEDIA JUST FAN THE FLAMES

The Italian papers today all have something to say about the Rydzyk case, reporting the brief Vatican statement yesterday but adding no new information to what is being done, if any, about Fr. Rydzyk in Poland, by the Redemptorist Order which announced last month it would discipline him, possibly by exile even, or by the Bishops of Poland, whom Pope Benedict XVI entrusted last year with surveillance of Radio Maryja's activities.

They have also published new statements by Jewish leaders.


From La Repubblica, 8/10/07:

At the Vatican Secretariat of State, they pointed out that the use of the term 'baciamano' in the Vatican statement yesterday meant the usually formal greeting made to the Pope by any person who meets him after a general audience at the Vatican or an Angelus in Castel Gandolfo.

"It is a brief formal greeting which cannot be compared to a private audience."

Authoritative sources at the Vatican said "Fr. Rydzyk was not received by himself but as part of a large group of Polish pilgrims led by Redemptionist fathers like him. So, there was no private audience, much less Pontifical legitimization of Radio Maryja's controversial editorial policies. It was a simple gesture of courtesy." [The reaction of the outraged Jewish leaders shows a total disregard for the Christian concept of charity, let alone elementary courtesy

Despite the Vatican assurances, the Jewish world was not satisfied.

"The fact that the Pope receives with all honors one who propagates through his radio repeated anti-Semitic libels is irritating and concerns us," said Riccardo Pacifici, spokesman and vice president of the Jewish Community of Rome.

The president of the Assembly of Italian Rabbis, Giuseppe Laras, said he was 'perplexed' that "in a situation as well known as that of Radio Maryja,the Pope chose to give such a welcome in a public context, to a person like Fr. Rydzyk." [What did the Rabbi want the Pope to do? Be impolite and pass over and ignore someone who is a visitor at his residence no matter who he is? 'Such a welcome' what?]

The meeting, Laras said, "could increase anti-Semitic sentiments and compromise Jewish-Christian relations." [AAAARGHHHHH! Please spare us all this misplaced and unfounded sanctimony!]

The Council of French Jewish Communities, through its president Richard Pasquier, likewise expressed 'perplexity and concern' because the activities of Radio Maryja "are totally incompatible with the climate of understanding and friendly relations that have been established between the Catholic Church and the Jews for several years." [It appears there is no 'understanding and friendly relations' on the part of people like Pasquier who are ready to be offended at the slightest pretext no matter how unfounded and then refuse to look at objective facts once they have seized on their pretext to sound off against the Church and the Pope.]


From Corriere della Sera, 8/10/07:

At the Vatican there is no concealing the irritation over how Fr. Rydzyk has 'used' the Pope by publishing photos of the meeting in Castel Gandolfo in his newspaper as "a blessing for Radio Maryja."

[According to other Italian newspaper reports, this is how Rydzyk's newspaper, Nasz Dziennik, captioned the photo-op showing the Pope and Rydzyk: "Benedict XVI invited Fr. Rydzyk, and imparted his blessing on Radio Maryja and all its workers and listeners." Unfortunately, he Pope has no control over what people choose to do with the pictures of these fleeting photo-ops.]

Incidentally, Osservatore Romano yesterday published an obituary on Raoul Hilberg, considered one of the most authoritative historians of the Shoah, who died earlier this week.

The Rydzyk case has come at a particularly tense time. Barely a month ago, the Israeli ambassador to Poland wrote the Church in Poland to denounce that Radio Maryja continued to insult Jews repeatedly, despite the fact that it was supposed to be under the surveillance of the Polish bishops as directed by Pope Benedict XVI when he visited Poland in May 2006.

The Vatican statement yesterday did not stop negative reactions from Italian Jews.

[The statement of Mr. Laras, quoted in the Repubblica item above, is cited.]

The Chief Rabbi of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, said, "The 'baciamano' represented a deliberate choice made with an eye to keeping internal equilibrium within the Polish Church, no matter how much the Vatican tries to minimize its significance." [Quite apart from this willful over-inflation of a simple courtesy that could not have lasted more than a few seconds, what does Di Segni know of the internal affairs of the Polish Church - and what business is it of his?]

Di Segni added; "It is analogous to what happened with the Motu Proprio on the Latin Mass: even in that case, a choice was made out of internal reasons within the Church of Rome with marginal importance but with negative impact on the Jews They are not thinking of the damage that they are doing." [PUH-LEEZE! Stop this paranoia - and this presumption of judging internal affairs of the Church and the continued blindness to the fact that the Jewish objections in this respect are TOTALLY UNFOUNDED. Rabbi Neusner, please talk some sense to your overheated hysterical colleagues....And how is it that neither the reporter nor his editor - as any responsible journalist would - does not add a line to point out the OBJECTIVE FACTS that show how unfounded and uncalled-for the Jewish to-do about the MP is???? [/C}

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WHAT IS THE CATHOLIC ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE OF ITALY DOING ABOUT THIS? ALL THESE UNFOUNDED CONCLUSIONS AND EXTRAPOLATIONS ARE JUST AS DEFAMATORY AS SAYING DIRECTLY "THE POPE IS REALLY ANTI-SEMITIC BECAUSE HE IS TAKING THE SIDE OF RADIO MARYJA' OR, AT THE VERY LEAST, "THE POPE IS A HYPOCRITE ABOUT JEWISH-CHRISTIAN RELATIONS."

I don't think even these foaming-at-the-mouth critics believe that about the Pope, but they sure enjoy givng that impression.

In Il Giornale today, thanks to Lella's blog, the reliable Massimo Introvigne writes a commentary that places the Radio Maryja issue into better context. Here is a translation:

On the Jewish 'rush to judgment'
of the Pope because of Fr. Rydzyk
by Massimo Introvigne


The European Jewish Congress has condemned in harsh terms the 'private audience' allegedly granted by the Pope to the Polish priest Tadeusz Rydzyk, the Redemptorist director of the Polish radio Maryja.

Rydzyk's radio has become very controversial because of its relentless campaign against what it calls 'Jewish-Masonic conspiracies', considered outright anti-Semitism by his critics.

Actually, of course, the Pope did not receive Rydzyk in a private audience. The priest was part of a group of Polish pilgrims led by Rydzyk's Redemptorist superior in Poland.

It is overlooked that when the pope travelled to Poland in May 2006, Fr. Rydzyk had requested a private audience with him and the Pope refused. Instead, he sent him an admonition to stop broadcasting programs and statements which could in any way be interpreted as anti-Semitic. [And, from reports during the Polish visit, the Pope also asked the Polish bishops conference to exercise surveillance over Radio Maryja. Have the Polish bishops made any statement about this in the light of this current furor? It is not incumbent on them to say something and account for their stewardship of the Pope's instructions? Are they again being as late-to-react as they were over the Wielgus case?]

Perhaps the European Jewish Congress ought to have acquainted itself with these facts first, before attacking a Pope who in his inaugural Mass recalled 'the great common spiritual patrimony" shared by Christians and Jews' and that God's promises to the people of Israel are 'irrevocable.'

With these words, Papa Ratzinger indicated full support of the critical opposition to the 'theology of substitution' which claims that with Christianity, the Lord's promises to the Jews had been replaced by the new alliance between God and Christians. During John Paul II's pontificate, Cardinal Ratzinger personally contributed a great deal to opposing such theology.

And what about Pope Benedict's repeated affirmations about the right of Israel not just to its sovereignty but to security as a sovereign state?

Is it really worth dismissing the whole vast project of a social and cultural alliance between Christians and Jews over a simple handshake with a controversial priest? Obviously not, and it is in everyone's interest to stop the polemics now.

Hysterics aside, we can even look at the Radio Maryja issue more dispassionately. In 2003, at an international congress in Vilnius, Lithuania, it fell to me to organize the first round-table discussion among sociologists about the Radio Maryja phenomenon, then considered a mirror of Polish society.

Radio Maryia is neither fascist nor Nazi. Its obsession with imagined Jewish plots is the residue of the Catholic anti-Semitism of the 19th century, which, unfortunately, not a small part of Polish society still harbors.

The Polish bishops and the Holy See have sought to intervene discreetly against this lingerimng anti-Semitism. But now perhaps, it is time to come down harder on Fr. Rydzyk.

However, Radio Maryja needs to be reformed, not to be closed down. But many of its critics really want to silence it because they disagree with its politics which is decidedly center-right, anti-Communist and intransigent on matters involving life and the family.

Il Giornale, 10 agosto 2007

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If anyone out there has a good background/situationer article about Radio Maryja, please share with us! Thank you.

Pope set to declare income tax evasion 'socially unjust'

Richard Owen
Times Online
August 11, 2007

Pope Benedict XVI is working on a doctrinal pronouncement that will condemn tax evasion as “socially unjust”, according to Vatican sources.

In his second encyclical – the most authoritative statement a pope can issue – the pontiff will denounce the use of “tax havens” and offshore bank accounts by wealthy individuals, since this reduces tax revenues for the benefit of society as a whole.

It will focus on humanity’s social and economic problems in an era of globalisation. Pope Benedict intends to argue for a world trade and economic system “regulated in such a way as to avoid further injustice and discrimination”, Ignazio Ingrao, a Vatican watcher, said yesterday.

The encyclical, drafted during his recent holiday in the mountains of northern Italy, takes its cue from Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), issued 40 years ago. In it the pontiff focused on “those peoples who are striving to escape from hunger, misery, endemic diseases and ignorance and are looking for a wider share in the benefits of civilisation”. He called on the West to promote an equitable world economic system based on social justice rather than profit.

This week the Italian centre-left Government of Romano Prodi began a concerted crackdown on tax evaders, saying that it would target individuals with second homes and other signs of “conspicuous wealth”. If the black economy is included, unpaid taxes amount to 27 per cent of Italy’s gross domestic product.

Mr Prodi, a devout Catholic, urged church leaders to speak out on tax evasion, telling the Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana that a third of Italians heavily evaded taxes, which were needed to plug Italy’s huge budget deficit. “Why, when I go to Mass, is this issue almost never touched upon in homilies?” Mr Prodi asked, adding: “If memory serves, St Paul exhorted the faithful to obey authority.”

As part of its crackdown the Government said that it was seeking taxes on undeclared earnings of €60 million (£40 million) by Valentino Rossi, the world motorcycling champion.

The article below provides more detail on the item Teresa posted up the thread a bit.


English Bishops' Conference Agency Publishes Book Bashing Pope, Pro-Lifers

By Hilary White
LifeSiteNews.com
Friday August 10, 2007

LONDON, August 10, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A book published under the auspices of an official body of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, has angered Catholics in Britain for its attacks on Pope Benedict. "Catholic Social Justice: Theological and Practical Explorations," been denounced as a "withering attack" on Pope Benedict XVI and his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est. The book has been the subject of dozens of blog posts around Britain by mainstream Catholics, almost all denouncing it as an anti-Catholic Marxist diatribe.

The book is a volume of essays published by Caritas Social Action, the umbrella organisation for Catholic social justice and aid organisations in England and Wales. The Caritas website says, "We are an agency of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and part of Caritas International."

On his Daily Telegraph weblog, in a post titled, "Marxist Malice from Bishops' Conference," Damien Thompson, the editor-in-chief of the leading British Catholic newspaper, the Catholic Herald, blasted the bishops of England and Wales for their involvement in the book and their socialist political leanings, calling the book's economic analysis "sub-Marxist drivel".

The book, says the editor of the Herald, systematically attacks Pope Benedict and "consists mostly of sub-literate Marxism" in which it "sneers at anti-abortion campaigners and the traditional family".

"We are told," Thompson says, "that the Pope’s views on social justice are 'hardly credible' in view of the Church’s historic record of violence, torture and theft. We learn that the Catholic clergy teach that 'men are superior to women' because they are more in the image of Christ."

Thompson quotes one of the essays: "We may find that a particular person who calls himself a pro-life campaigner is merely an anti-abortionist. Although many of those with whom he campaigns are inspired to very positive action, he is energised only by the more negative aspects of the struggle in which he is involved. While he is convincing himself that he is motivated only by love, all that others see when they meet him is an avenger."

Another essay attacks those who try to uphold the traditional family: "Probing below the worst of the noisy rhetoric of the 'recovery of family values', one often finds a form of Christianity that is deeply connected to capitalism. Hence the association of 'traditional' families with financial as well as spiritual flourishing is made, and in one swift construction an entire capitalist economic system is also vindicated."

"In other words," Thompson says about the content of the book, "Catholics in the pew have helped pay for an attack on the Pope."

Thompson points to the essay by Philomena Cullen, one of the book's editors, on "the ideology of the nuclear family" in which she endorses "the open family ideology rooted in a feminist perspective". Cullen is a social policy coordinator of the Bishops' Conference Caritas agency.

Thompson singles out Bishop Christopher Budd of Plymouth for having written a "glowing" forward, saying that Budd "is undermining the Pope by putting his name to this book."

He concludes, "How much evidence do Catholics need that the Bishops' Conference has been hijacked by left-wing activists working under the patronage of bishops who are in many cases doctrinaire socialists?"

I must say that although the Bishops Conference in the USA has never gone this far, we could do without them. In 2004, Cardinal McCarrick suppressed Cardinal Ratzinger's letter "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion" which said some of the same things about politicians and the right reception of the Eucharist that he later said in Sacramentum caritatis. Most of the bishops in the conference never even got access to the letter until it was leaked to Sandro Magister (as I remember). Anyway, the USCCB is a notable repository of semi-leftist thought and it keeps individual bishops from taking stands on issues that they should be doing.

benefan, 11/08/2007 01:54:

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We learn that the Catholic clergy teach that 'men are superior to women' because they are more in the image of Christ."

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Well, this is news to me. Has anyone on this forum heard this one before? I certainly haven't. What drivel!

Pope, the goal of every pilgrimage is heaven

In his Angelus today Benedict XVI invites the faithful to "detach themselves from material goods" and undertake "a journey towards the heavenly heights". He also turns his thoughts to the numerous victims of the floods in South Asia, urging the Christian community to lend their "prayers and concrete help".


Castel Gandolfo (AsiaNews) – The goal of every pilgrimage is the city of "solid foundations", whose architect and builder is "God": a goal that is not of this world, but of "heaven". During his Angelus address from the courtyard of the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI recalled that the "early Christian community" was fully aware of this fact, considering themselves to be "custodians here on earth" identifying their presence in cities as "parishes" a Greek word meaning "colony of foreigners".

The Pontiff's reflections on the liturgy look towards the future inviting Christians to once again, "detach themselves from material goods, which are for the most part illusory" and to undertake a journey towards the "heavenly heights", ready to welcome the Lord when he will "come again in all His glory". "The early Christians - contined the Pope - expressed a most important characteristic of the Church, which is of course attention to all that comes from on high, to the life that is to come, which we repeat each time we pray the Credo when we profess our faith". He also invited the faithful to live in a life of "wisedom and providence", carefully considering their Christian "destiny" and its' final realities : "Death, the last judgement, eternity, Hell and Heaven".

Sunday's liturgy is also an invitation to prepare for the feast of the Assumption which is celebrated on August 15th. A feast "completey orientated towards the future, towards Heaven, where the Blessed Virgin "went before us 'to the joy of Paradise'".

Concluding his Angelus the Pope also remembered the numerous victims of the floods which have recently wracked many countries in South Asia. "While I share in the profound pain of those who have been affected - underlined Benedict XVI – I urge the ecclessial communities to pray for the victims and to support all charitable initiatives which aim to alleviate the suffering of those many people who have been sorely tried"; he also called on the support of the "International community". In the last three weeks floods have brought India, Bangledesh, Vietnam and Southern China to their knees, causing death and destruction : according to the latest figures over 30 million people have been made homeless, while in India alone over 1600 people have been killed and damages amount to over 270 million dollars.

A full translation of the Holy Father's words at Angelus today has been posted in AUDIENCE AND ANGELUS TEXTS.

Looks like our beloved Pope had another overflow crowd in
Castel Gandolfo yesterday, because again, there are two different balconies in today's pictures. In fact, Lella confirms it on her blog, where she reports that unusually, too, the TV coverage today showed not only the regular part of the Angelus, from the inner courtyard balcony, but also the Pope's greeting to the overflow crowd.

First, the familiar one overlooking the first inner courtyard of the Apostolic residence -















Then, the balcony overlooking the town piazza:

Luigi Accatoli in Corriere della Sera today has a brief item, translated here, on the Pope's reported second encyclical as reported a few days ago by Richard Owen in the Times of London, based on a story by Ignacio Ingrao in Panorama magazine. I have been unable to find the article online - and Lella hasn't posted it either, so it seems unavailable just yet.


In new encyclical, the Pope will
reportedly denounce tax havens
and fiscal fraud
By Luigi Accattoli

VATICAN CITY - Moral condemnation of 'fiscal fraud' and 'tax havens' is supposed to be one of the items in the next encyclical of Pope Benedict XVI, which will be about social doctrine and is expected to come out early next year.

But the 'indiscretions' are based on 'preparatory materials' that have been put together by various Vatican offices, and no one actually has any clue as to what the Pope intends.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, did confirm to newsmen last month during the Pope's vacation in the Dolomites that the Pope was working on 'an encyclical with a social context' and could have done so 'even during his vacation', but he added "I do not know when the encyclical will come out."

The speculation that it could come out early next year is based on the fact that this was a project initiated the day after the Pope was elected, according to Cardinal Karl Lehmann, who said in May 2005 that it was to mark the 40th anniversary of Paul VI's encyclical Populorum progressio on 'the development of nations' issued in March 2007. Since that anniversary has come and gone, Benedict's encyclical is overdue and should be coming out soon.

According to an article in Panorama magazine, quoted in the Times of London, one of the 'preparatory materials' given to the Pope is a paper on "Finance and taxes" which extends to 'tax havens' the same condemnation of 'fiscal fraud' already mentioned in Paragraph 2409 of the Cathechism of the Catholic Church.

It is therefore expected that Papa Ratzinger's second encyclical will declare it 'morally unacceptable' that wealthy citizens are able to transfer large parts of their assets to foreign banks in order to avoid paying domestic taxes.

The document could also deal with the very topical question of 'harmonizing fiscal policies' - looking to an international agreement on regulating fiscal transactions that would prevent, in an era of globalization, new injustices and discriminations brought about by traditional competition among nations for economic hegemony.

Il Corriere della sera, 12 agosto 2007

I'm not denying the importance of the Pope's social encyclical, but I do wish he'd write one that incorporates some of the content of Dominus Iesus and the CDF "Response" and elevate his reflections on Jesus and the Church to the status of an encyclical.

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Perhaps it is because both DOMINUS IESUS in 2000 and the Vatican Council Constitution on the Church, which the CDF statement comments upon, are already major documents of the Magisterium, which say all there is to say, at least for those who don't want to play blind?

Teresa

Here is an item from PETRUS today, translated here:

The Pope, a photo opportunity,
and respect for truth
By Monsignor Tommaso Stenico


VATICAN CITY - I think that love and respect for the truth is an obligation - which also requires clarity. Especially when it involves uneasiness and unnecessary suffering. Most especialLY when it involves the figure of the Pope himself and the Church's relations with other religions. And those others happen to be 'our older brothers', the Jews.

Last Sunday, in Castel Gandolfo, among a group of Polish pilgrims admitted to the ritual 'baciamano' with the Pope was Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk, director of Poland's controversial Radio Maryja. The picture and the news soon flashed around the world.

Why? Because Fr. Rydzyk has been very much in the news as the leading voice of traditionalist Polish Catholicism, which has been accused of anti-Semitism. Radio Maryja's editorial policy has polarized the two 'souls' of Poland - one that is modern, liberal-demcoratic and European, against the 'Poland in depth' which is nationalist, conservative, mistrustful of Europe and the modern world, disapproving of the Jewish culture which was Central Europe's driving force in the 18th and 19th century, with a passion that evokes sinister memories.

That is why the European Jewish Congress issued a statement saying it was "shocked that Pope Benedict XVI received Fr. Rydzyk, the director of the anti-Semitic Radio Maryja, in private audience in his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo." In fact, Radio Maryja has "largely broadcast Fr. Rydzyk's anti-Semitic statements."

Thus, the news. But one must observe that it certainly Was not the Pope himself who personally admitted Fr. Rydzyk to his presence. Rydzyk was with a group of Polish pilgrims who were on the list of groups that the Pope would greet after the Angelus prayers last Sunday.

Requests for such opportunities are presented to the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household. I am sure Pope Benedict himself was not even aware he had shaken the hand of Fr. Rydzyk [unless Fr. Rydzyk introduced himself, which I think he would have - and if he had not, then his Redemptorist superior Fr. Kralka, who led the group of pilgrims, would have done so. Let us not err on the side of naivete, either..]

Let us be clear about one thing: this was neither an audience granted on a personal basis, nor even a private audience. Rydzyk was with a group, whose names were not perhaps even listed by the Pontifical Household.

Even more important, let us not forget that one year ago, Pope Benedict himself distanced himself from Radio Maryja and accused it of being 'anti-Semitic'.

As a result, the Apostolic Nuncio in Poland, Mons. Josef Kowalczyk, wrote an open letter to the Bishops of Poland, calling on them to regulate the extremist broadcasts of Radio Maryja, saying "We have lost patience!"

That is what counts. A photo opportunity with the Pope that was exploited for self-serving ends does not change the situation, as the Holy See took care to point out in a brief statement last Wednesday about the 'baciamano.'

Nevertheless, I think that there are specific identifiable individuals who should be called on to answer for this - Fr. Rydzyk's Redemptorist superiors - both the provincial in Poland, and the superior-general.

It is true that these days, the priestly vow of obedience is seeing difficult times. But isn't it true that the good of the Church, the good of the faithful [Bonum animarum suprema lex!- The good of souls is the supreme law] and of our brothers from other religions deserve direct and decisive intervention by these supeors?

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I still do not undertsand why no one in the media that we have access to - Italian or English - has yet bothered to report on this case directly from Poland, which is not in deepest Siberia! Even if it were only to report directly what the Polish media have been saying about the whole affair.

And, forgive me for the bees in my bonnet, but 1) whatever happened to the sanctions that the Redemptorist superior-general announced at a news conference last month were forthcoming against Fr. Rydzyk? Why isn't anyone following up on that? 2) And what do the bishops of Poland have to report - more than a year since the Pope asked them in May 2006 to do something about Radio Maryja? Did they actually try to do anything at all? Or just postponed things as they did with investigating Fr.Wielgus months ago? Is it possible not one of them has made a statement so far about this case despite all the furor and the unnecessary 'embarassment' it has caused for the Holy Father?

Not one journalist has had the initiative to clear up these very elementary questions - all of seven days now since that contested photo-op! Mons. Stenico works in the Curia himself. I cannot believe he does not have the contacts who can find out and report these things. I appreciate his comments but he does not add anything new to what has been endlessly rehashed this past week - as if telephones did not exist, nor people who can translate from Polish to Italian or English!


P.S. It doesn't answer the two questions above but here's some news, however sketchy, from Poland by PETRUS's correspondent in Warsaw, translated here:


Rydzyk tapes under study
by Polish police as
possible basis for charges
By Ilona Malysz


WARSAW - Polish judicial police(?)('polizia giudiziaria') are analyzing statements made by Fr. Tadeusz Rydzyk, controversial director of Radio Maryja, who has been accused of anti-Semitic conduct and positions.

Many Jewish as well as non-Jewish Poles in the city of Torum put together tapes of Rydzyk's statements and submitted them for evaluation, according to a spokesman for the police, Ewa Janczur.

She said magistrates are examining the statements to see whether they can be the basis for charges of 'apologizing for Nazism' and whether these statements are, in fact, anti-Semitic.

The newspaper Wrpost speculated that Fr. Rydzyk may yet find himself in court to answer for his extreme rightist sentiments.

No, Teresa, that's not the point that Dominus Iesus and the CDF have issued documents. A papal encyclical is a giant step above those and would set the clarification in stone. Also, given what Benedict has to say about Jesus and the Church, it would be finally authoritative.

Il Messaggero today claims an 'exclusive' story by its Vatican correspondent Franca Giansoldati about Pope Benedict XVI's second consistory, but it is essentially a modified rehash of the real 'exclusive' by Andrea Tornielli for Il Giornale more than a month ago. Don't these editors read other newspapers?

Here are Giansoldati's lead paragraphs, in translation:

POPE TO CREATE NEW CARDINALS
By Franca Giansoldati

The second consistory of the Ratzinger era will most likely be announced on October 24, at the end of the Wednesday general audience, exactly ad the Pope did on February 22, 2006 when he directly announced the first consistory to the audience in attendance at Aula Paolo VI.

This time, there will be at least 17 new cardinals named in a consistory on the Feast of Christ the King (November 23), which precedes the last liturgical Sunday of the year.

....

This was the item we posted on July 4.

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New cardinals for Papa Ratzinger
By Andrea Tornielli


Benedict XVI is said to have decided to call the second consistory of his Pontificate at the end of November, on the eve of the Feast of Christ the King.

But before then, the Pope will be announcing other nominations, two of them involving changes in his immediate staff - Archbishop Piero Marini, liturgical master of ceremonies, and Mons. Miecyslaw Mokrzycki (Mietek), the Pope's second private secretary.

Marini, who was named to his current position by John Paul II, will be named president of the Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, replacing Cardinal Tomko. Marini's position in the Papal staff will reportedly be filled by his current deputy, Mons. Enrico Vigano.

Mietek, whom Benedict XVI retained from similar service with John Paul II, will be named coadjutor to the Polish Cardinal Marian Jaworski, Archbishop of Lviv, giving him right to succession. In which case, both secretaries of John Paul II will once again be close by - Cardinal Stanislaw Dsizwisz in Cracow, and Mietek in Lviv.

The next consistory would be on November 23, when Cardinal Angelo Sodano turns 80. [Will he then be replaced as Dean of the College of Cardinals???] On that day, there will be 17 'vacancies' available among the cardinal electors to reach the maximum of 120 maximum decreed by Paul VI by decree (although exceeded several times by John Paul II). The vacancies represent the number of cardinals who have turned 80 since Benedict's first consistory.

The list of new cardinals is expected to include: Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, newly named Prefect of the Congregation of Oriental Churches; Giovanni Lajolo, Governor of Vatican State; Angelo Comastri, arch-priest of St. Peter's Basilica; Raffaele Farina, newly named Librarian-Archivist of the Holy Roman Church; John Patrick Foley, newly named pro-Grand Master of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher; Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian bishops conference; Paolo Romeo, archbishop of Palermo; and the archbishops of Paris, Sao Paolo, Warsaw and Washington, D.C.

---

And here's the rest of Giansoldati's story:

Papa Ratzinger appears to be following the example of his predecessors, in full respect of the rule that limits the number of cardinal-electors (those aged below 80) to 120.

This limit was set by Pope Paul VI, but Pope John Paul II exceeded it several times, although he never moved to change the rule. [Then, how can she state in the previous sentence that Benedict is "moving in the wake of his predecessors, etc...." Are these people thinking at all?]

With the recent death of Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, there are now 182 cardinals, of which 105 are entitled to elect a new Pope.

The autumn consistory will contribute to the silent revolution which Benedict XVI, in characteristic style, has been effecting in the Curia and in the Church - no radical or traumatic changes, but a series of nominations to create a network of co-workers who have his confidence.

In the autumn, two more prominent cardinals will be losing the right to vote in a Conclave - Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the Polish-born American bishop who was for years the Governor of Vatican City, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals, who turns 80 on the Feast of Christ the King.

A new consistory is always the object of much speculation and analysis because the choice of new cardinals inevitably reflects the geopolitical vision of the Pope with respect to governance of the Church.

Nominees are examined as to their country of origin and the relative importance of their continent of origin for the future of the Church. Also analyzed is how many come from the Curia as opposed to those who represent diocesan seats, and if they are members of a religious order, which order they represent.

This time, the list of obvious candidates includes some important dioceses like Sao Paulo, Paris, Washington (DC) and Warsaw.

Leading the Italian nominees will be Mons. Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and president of the Italian bishops conference;
Mons. Angelo Comastri, arch-priest of St. Peter's Basilica; Mons, Paolo Romeo, Archbishop of Palermo; Mons, Giovanni Lajolo, governor of Vatican City state; and Mons. Raffaele Farina, recently-named Librarian of the Holy Roman Church.

From the Curia, Argentine bishop Leonardo Sandri, who was named last June to head the Congregation for Oriental Churches; Mons, Josef Cordes, German, who heads the Pontifical Council Cor Unum; Mons. Stanyslaw Rylko, Polish, who heads the Pontifical Council for the Laity; and Mons, John Foley, American, who was until recently, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

Il Messaggero, 13 agosto 2007

Il Tempo today has three stories on this topic, the second two primed by the first one based on a two-year analysis by a Rome University sociology department. Here is a translation:


The Pope and the media
By GIANPIERO GAMALERI


A doctoral disseration presented at the University of Rome-3 recently regarding the theory of communications is the first systematic analysis of the relationship thus far between Pope Benedict XVI and the Italian press.

It answers many obvious questions in the wake of the media phenomenon that John Paul II represented.

Luca Gentili, author of the study, analyzed 917 articles - 222 of them front-page stories - and picked out ten labels or descriptions most frequently used to describe Benedict.

Five were positive - 'refined intellectual,' 'man of great culture', 'warm', 'sincere', 'limpid'. The five labels that were negative in the context they were used were "Panzerkardinal', 'German shepherd', 'rigid', 'guardian of the faith', and 'God's rottweiler.'

The articles were drawn from the following newspapers: Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, the two most-circulated general dailies; Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian bishops conference; and two other general dailies of opposite orientation, Il Manifesto (a Communist Party organ) and Il Foglio(edited by Giuliano Ferrara, a non-Catholic who favors the positions of the Church on social issues).

The articles were limited to seven key points of the Ratzinger Pontificate so far: the Conclave, the referendum on assisted reproduction, the Pope's first encyclical, the Regensburg lecture, the apostolic voyage to Turkey, the nomination of Mons. Wielgus as Archbishop of Warsaw, and the Pope's statements on the Christian roots of Europe.

The two events that were most reported on were the Conclave (34% of articles) and the Regensburg lecture (33%). The trip to Turkey had a 16% share, but the encyclical only 4%.

The first conclusion drawn by the study is that it is difficult for the "Pope of words" (as he has been unanimously described in comparison with his predecessor who is called 'the Pope of gestures") to reach the media and public opinion with his most reflective and calm words - but only when these words are misreported or inadequately reported, giving rise to huge controversy as with the Regensburg lecture. [Whose entire message was still woefully under-reported if not deliberately ignored! As for his most reflective and calm words - those he gives at his homilies and audiences, they are hardly ever reported in the general media.]

Gentili cites two persons he interviewed about this particular issue: Joaquin Navarro-Valls, who served John Paul II for 22 years and Benedict XVI for more than a year; and Fr. Federico Lombardi, who succeeded him as director of the Vatican Press Office.

Gentili also interviewed Vatican correspondents from each of the five dailies.

Marco Politi of La Repubblica and Ubaldo Casotto of Il Foglio both remarked that Pope Benedict had told Navarro-Valls at the start that "In today's world, a concept is worth more than a thousand words." It is a venerable saying if it applies to contemporary man and makes him think more profoundly and less ephemerally about current events. But it's not easily applicable.

Here is what Fr. Lombardi said about the Regensburg lecture: "The entire lecture, seen in its entirety, seemed to me very clear...A few hours after the text was first distributed, I was called by a journalist...When I arrived, everyone was already discussing that citation about Mohammed...I explained that it was meant to illustrate a statement against violence and the irrational use of religion...Two days later came the wave of protests from the Muslim world, fed by Al Jazeera - it was like a media tsunami....This is to point out how even a complex but logical discourse presents remarkable difficulties in foreseeing and guiding how it should be presented to the media."

But alongside his intellectual and theological efforts, an enduring image of Papa Ratzinger is also endearing: his first television appearance to the world as the new Pope, when, under his ceremonial vestments, were the black sweater sleeves of the humble priest who was asking the faithful for their collaboration and prayers in his mission to cultivate 'the vineyard of the Lord."

Perhaps both expressions are true: that a concept is worth more than a thousand words (think of the slogans that have become part of history), and that a picture is often worth more than thousand words. It depends on the concept, and on the picture. [About concept, what about these words: Deus caritas est. It continues to be emblematic not only of the Christian doctrine but also of this Pope. I would add another three words: JESUS OF NAZARETH, but obviously this study was conducted and completed before the appearance of the book.]

Il Tempo, 13 agosto 2007

Fortunately, it appears that public response to Pope Benedict XVI is not conditioned by what the media say or not say, because all the numbers in this regard are phenomenal and rising.

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


The second item has some quotations from the five Vatican reporters interviewed for the study:


WHAT THE VATICANISTI SAY

These are the opinions of five privileged observers about the relationship between the Pope and the Holy See with the press:

Luigi Accattoli, Corriere della Sera:
"Father Federico Lombardi is to Benedict XVI was Navarro-Valls was to John Paul II." Apart from the fact they both have the same job title, this takes some explanation! They might have chosen a more informative or revealing quotation from Accatoli.]

Umberto Casotto, Il Foglio:
"Papa Ratzinger rules the piazza like his predecessor. In fact, Wojtyla's numbers have been surpassed."

Filippo Gentiloni, Il Manifesto:
"I find one charatceristic of this Pontificate very relevant- the great emphasis on reason. But it is difficult for contemporary culture to accept anything like universal reason."

Salvatore Mazza, Avvenire:
"There really is remarkable difficulty about disseminating religious news or stories about the Vatican. Even the press itself is interested only in social and political issues."

Marco Politi, La Repubblica:
"We should point out a substantial difference between Italian media and foreign media. The presence of the Pope in international reporting is far less in comparison, drastically so." [Indeed! What would we do for our daily dose of Papal news and commentary on this Forum if we did not have the Italian media as a source?]


The third article looks at the failure so far of integrating and coordinating the Vatican communications media.


No prima donnas
in Ratzinger's circle
By PAOLO FRANCIA

Under John Paul II, Joaquin Navarro Valls was, de facto, the communications arm of the Holy See. Courtly in manner and a skillful public relations practitioner - although he was elusive with his co-workers and rather elitist in his choice of Vaticanisti to favor - this physician-journalist (who was the Spanish newspaper ABC's correspondent in Rome) masterfully embodied the voice of the Wojtyla Pontificate.

In the first 15 years, when John Paul was in full health and could still directly convey his extraordinary powers of communication, Navarro-Valls held himself back discreetly. But as the Pope's health worsened, he gradually stepped forth in a measured manner but without reticence.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Vatican communications spectrum, Mario Agnes conducted L'Osservatore Romano along the Wojtylian line - which, for 15 years, was also the Ruini line, but with little contact with Navarro-Valls.

They were neither friends nor enemies. They each walked their own way, parallel but not convergent or divergent. Two parallels which never did meet.

Navarro-Valls retired more than a year ago, to be succeeded by Fr. Federico Lombardi, who continues to be the director of both Vatican Radio and Vatican telvision. Agnes will be leaving in a few weeks to be replaced by Patristic philologist Giovanni Maria Vian.

A month ago, the Pope named Archbishop Claudio Celli to head the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. It will be around this organism that the Pope intends to shape a new overall Vatican communications strategy.

This Council can trace its origin to 1948 when Pope Pius XII wanted to create a commission for religious and didactic cinema, but this was destined to undergo various transformations as it became enriched by other media disciplines in keeping with the growing importance of media in the global village.

John XXIII and Paul VI did their part. But it was not until the Apostolic Constitution Pastor bonus by John Paul II in 1988 that the Council got its present name as well as a vast charter that made it a virtual 'ministry' of communications.

Despite all that, it never managed to exercise the coordination and overall communications direction that John Paul II had intended because of the autonomous roles played by the Osservatore Romano on the one hand and Navarro-Valls on the other.

The Council was led for 20 years by a good friend of Papa Wojtyla, the American Archbishop John Patrick Foley of Philadelphia, just turned 72 and still three years away from the canonical retirement age.

By naming Celli to that position, Benedict XVI paved the way for making the Council what it is supposed to be. Vian's nomination is the final step. Agnes is leaving after 23 years, an eternity in this context.

Vian, though not a professiomnal journalist, has great personal assets and fully shares the views of the German Pope. He is only 55, and he has the credentials and the preparation to achieve a quantum leap in the quality of the Vatican newspaper that could last beyond this Pontificate.

Vian is expected to modernize the editorial content and graphic look of the newspaper so that it can be more attractive to paying customers. But he will tread lightly, just as Fr. Lombardi has so far trod lightly.

In choosing new officials for the Curia, and in general, those who would be working closest to him, Benedict has chosen persons who are not likely to become prima donnas, though perhaps not always successfully. But Archbishop Celli, Fr. Lombardi, and Vian fit that requirement very well.

We will know if and when Celli succeeds in his assignment, because as first among equals, he would stamp a uniform orientation on all Vatican communications media so that they all follow the Ratzinger line.

Stanislaw Rylko's nomination to the cardinalate is interesting. If he moves up, so does Bishop Josef Clemens, the Pope's former private secretary.

Two other Italian newspapers, La Repubblica and Il Foglio, chimed in today on the consistory news. Il Foglio at least refers to Il Giornale, whose Vatican correspondent Andrea Tornielli first broke the news almsot six weeks ago, as we noted in earlier post . Here's a translation of Il Foglio's article:


Papa Ratzinger prepares for
his second consistory:
Cardinal Bertone's list
almost ready


After Il Giornale, even Il Messaggero has reported it most likely that Benedict XVI will call his second consistory to create new cardinals this November. The Vaticanisti of both newspapers are usually well-informed. Which means that the news is circulating in the Apostolic Palace itself.

Dates speculated on are the Presentation of the Child Mary on Wednesday, November 21, or the vigil or Feast itself of Christ the King (Saturday or Sunday, November 24 0r 25).

The names are not expected to be announced, however, until about a month earlier, around the end of October.

This will be Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's first consistory as Secretary of State. Conventionally, it has been the Secretary of State who hands the 'first list' of candidates for the Pope to choose from.

It is taken for granted that Papa Ratzinger will respect the ceiling of 120 that Paul VI had set as the maximum number of cardinals eligible to elect a new Pope.

Right now, there are 15 vacancies, but two more cardinals will be reaching age 80 soon - Cardinal Edmund Szoka on September 14, and Cardinal Angelo Sodano on November 23.

Sodano will continue after that as Dean of the College of Cardinals but he must resign as president of the cardinals' commission that is supposed to watch over the activities of IOR, the controversial Vatican bank.

[The article goes on to mention the four Curial members who are almost certain to be named cardinals: the Italians Comastri, Lajolo and Farina, and the Argentine Sandri.]

The Pope could also elevate current Curial agency heads for whom a cardinalate is not automatic, namely, Mons. Stanyslaw Rylko of the Council for the Laity (who was expected to be named last year), Mons. Paul Cordes of Cor Unum, and the Italians Francesco Coccopalmerio [recently named head of the Pontifical Council on Legislative Texts], Claudio Maria Celli [Council for Social Communications], and Gianfranco Ravasi [who is expected to be named first as president of the Pontifical Council for Culture to succeed Cardinal Paul Poupard]; and Archbishop John Foley of Philadelphia, immediate past President of the Council for Social Communications, now the Pro Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

[The article goes on to cite the new diocesan archbishops who are almost certain to become cardinals, led by Mons. Bagnasco of Genoa and Mons. Paolo Romeo of Palermo.]

Outside Italy: In Europe - Andre Ving-Trois (Paris), Luis Martinez Sistach (Barcelona), Kasimiersz Nycz (Warsaw), and Diarmuid Martin (Dublin); in the Americas - the archbishops of Toronto, Washington, DC, Baltimore, St. Louis, and Sao Paulo; in Asia, the archbishop of Bombay.

Other possible archdioceses who may get a cardinal are Brasilia, Belo Horizonte and Aparecida in Brazil; Paraguay, which still has to have its first cardinal; as well as Karachi (Pakistan) or Colombo (Sri Lanka). China is a special case that may merit another cardinal this year as it did last year.

The Pope did not name an African cardinal-elector in his first consistory [he named one over 80] but this time, he is expected to name at least one, either from Senegal, Burkina Faso, Kenya or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.


Il Foglio, 14 agosto 2007

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

There's far more than 17 already on the list of probables. It doesn't look like an easy juggle for the Pope because of the geographical considerations.

Both Avvenire and korazym.org today have major preparatory stories for the Pope's visit to Loreto on September 1-2. Here is the Avvenire story, translated, which covers all the highlights. Vsual materials in this post were taken from miscellaneous sites.





Loreto awaits the Pope
By Loreto Giacomo Ruggeri


The Agora of Italian Youth on September 1-2 will take place in two major locations: the historic city of Loreto and the adjacent plain of Montorso where the Pope will meet some 300,000 youth at an evening encounter on September 1 and a Mass the following day.



The Papal Legate to Loreto, Archbishop Gianni Danzi, spoke about the Pope's program yesterday at a press conference in connection with a photo exhibit about the city of Loreto and its experience with John Paul II and his successor, who visited Loreto at least 7 times as a cardinal.



The exhibit is called “Giovanni Paolo II – Benedetto XVI. Maria, i giovani, il Creato: un comune percorso” [John Paul II to Benedict XVI - Mary, the youth, Creation: A common journey].

"The Pope is coming here to meet the youth and to pray at the Sacred House of Nazareth," Danzi said, "but he will also take the opportunity to meet with the people of Loreto."

The Pope is arriving at the heliport of Montorso Saturday afternoon, September 1, and will proceed directly to the so-called "Shell", a natural amphitheater, to meet the partiipants of the Agora, a youth assembly sponsored by the Italian bishops conference in preparation for the XXIII World Youth Day in Sydney in July 2006.



Top photo- Montorso in 2004, Johyn Paul II's last of six visits to Loreto;
Above, stage under construction in Montorso for the papal events on Sept. 1-2. .

The encounter will feature a question-and-answer format such as those the Pope has held at St. Peter's Square with the youth of Rome last year and withthe First Communion children of Rome in 2005.

After this encounter, the Pope will proceed to the city of Loreto itself to the Basilica which houses the Sacred House of Nazareth, believed to have been transported by angels to Italy in 1294.


Left, Cardinal Ratzinger at September 8, 1991, Feast of Mary's Nativity, in Loreto;
right, John Paul II praying at the Basilica, 1995.

Mons. Danzi said, "As the Pope will be in prayer at the chapel of the Holy House, the youth in Montorso will start an evening vigil of prayers around seven 'fountains of light'. Joining the Pope will be the nuns of the content of Loreto for a prayer in unison with the young people in Montorso."

The following day, Sunday, Septmber 2, the Pope will celebrate Mass and lead the Angelus for the youth at Monotorso.

For the city of Loreto itself, the main encounter will be at 4 p.m. of Sunday, when the Pope will greet them and lead a prayer at the Piazza of the Madonna in front of the Basilica.

Moreno Pieroni, mayor of Loreto, said: "The event will be open to everyone, and no passes will be needed. The citizens of Loreto look forward to this historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI, even as they welcomed Pope John Paul II here six times (1979, 1984, 1985, 1994, 1005, and 2004). Loreto is a city of welcome and of brotherhood."

To allow more people to see the Pope, it is planned for him to travel by Popemobile from the Porta Romana (Roman gate) along Corco Boccalini, the main street, where the town hall and its other main buildings are located.

Before that, the Pope will have lunch with the Church hierarchy at the Sala Macchi, after coming from the Mass and Angelus in Montorso.

"Students from our local institute for hotel training will prepare and serve the meal to His Holiness," said Danzi.

An example of preparations for the Pope's visit is that done by the cloistered Passionist nuns of Loreto, who have been preparing the flags and drapes to be used on balconies to welcome the Pope. They have also arranged to have water from the convent delivered by special taps on the street for pikgrims to use.

At the afternoon event on September 2, the Pontifical Legation in Loreto, where the Pope will be staying overnight, will present him with two books - one on the origins of Christianity in the Marche (Italian region where Loreto is located), and a book of photographs entitled L'ultimo viaggio (The last trip)about the visit of John Paul II to Loreto in 2004.

The Marche region, the province of Ancona and the city administration will present the Pope with an art treasure from the region.

Avvenire, 14 agosto 2007





THE POPE'S PRAYER FOR THE AGORA

On February 14th, the Holy Father asked the faithful of the Marche region to recite this prayer everyday in preparation for the Agora.

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Mary, Mother of YES, you have listened to Jesus. You know the sound of His voice and you have heard the beat of His heart. Star of the Morning, speak to us of Him. Tell us of your following Him on the road of faith.

Mary, you lived with Jesus in Nazareth. Imprint in us your docility and that silence that listens. Make the Word flower in us so that we choose true liberty.

Mary, speak to us of Jesus, so that the freshness of faith shines in our eyes and warms the hearts of those we meet. Visiting Elizabeth in her old age, you made her rejoice with you in the gift of life. May we too cause those we meet rejoice in the gift of life.

Mary, Virgin of the Magnificat, help us bring joy to the world. Help us to inspire today’s youth to fraternal service and as at Cana, to do what Jesus says.

Mary, look kindly on the Agorà of Italian youth, so that Italy may become fertile land for the Church. Pray that Jesus, crucified and risen, may be born again in us and change our night into a day of light and Him.

Mary, Our Lady of Loreto, gate of heaven, help us to raise our sights. Help us to see Jesus, to talk with Him, to tell everyone of His love.

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They call it Ferragosto in Italy, which means 'August holiday'. The Feast of the Assumption is celebrated on the day, Feriae Augusti, when the Roman Empire honored the gods, especially Diana, goddess of the hunt, the moon, and chastity. Italians, of course, take off the whole month of August for vacation and leisure.

But is a very important Church holiday, and since it falls in August, it has become a custom for the Pope in residence for the summer in Castel Gandolfo, to celebrate the Mass of the Assumption at the local parish church next to the Apostolic residence.

Apcom tells us the Pope's brother Mons. Georg; his Secretary of
State, Cardinal Bertone; and his private secretary, the other Mons. Georg, will all be with him tomorrow.


Assumption Mass and Angelus:
'A great joy for the community'

VATICAN CITY, Aug. 14 (APcom) - Pope Benedict XVI begins his public day tomorrow at 8 a.m. by celebrating Mass at the parish church of St. Thomas Villanova, and at noon, he will lead Angelus prayers from the balcony of the Apostolic Residence.

Fr. Valdemar Niedziolka, the Polish parish priest, said, "It is always a moment of great joy for all of us, of special significance for the community of Castel Gandolfo. It's like a pastoral visit to us."



Expected to be present are Mons. Georg Ratzinger, who is spending the rest of the summer with his brother in Castel Gandolfo; Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, back from his first trip to the United States; and Mons. Georg Gaenswein, the Pope's private secretary, back from his annual summer break with his family in Germany.

Mons. Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, will also be there, along with the mayor of Castel Gandolfo, Maurizio Colacchi, and his entire council.

The church itself can only accommodate about 300 persons, but the town plaza is expected to be crowded as usual. The Pope generally walks to and from the Church which is next to the papal residence.

During his Angelus message, the Pope will direct a special greeting to the international youth pilgrims in Mariazell, Austria, who will be ending a four-day event in preparation for both the Pope's visit o Austria on September 7-9 as well as the World Youth Day in Sydney which the Pope will attend next July.


Sylvie's montage of Assumption Day in Castel Gandolfo last year
(Chere Sylvie - Wherever you are, God bless you, and please get in touch!

The following story from PETRUS was a stopgap but it turns out to be rather inadequate, after the Vatican released the transcript of the Pope's homily on 8/16/07..






CASTEL GANDOLFO - Only love can triumph over hate and over 'materialistic ideologies' of modern society like 'selfishness, consumerism and amusement,' Pope Benedict XVI said today in an extemporaneous homily on the Feast of the Assumption.

The Pope presided at 8:00 Mass in the parish church of St. Thomas Villanova next to the Papal residence in Castel Gandolfo and commented on the Gospel for the day taken from the Apocalypse written by St. John.

He said the dragon with seven heads and ten horns in the vision of the Evangelist has not disappeared "but exists in new and various ways" - "in the form of materialistic ideologies which tell us it is absurd to think of God, it is absurd to observe his commandments, that life is worth living for itself alone, that only selfishness counts, consumerism, amusement." It seems impossible, he said, to think today of God who is master of man.

The Pope said the modern-day dragon was "not only anti-
Christian forces but all the anti-Christian materialistic dictatorships of all time." In the past century, he said, "we saw the dictatorship of Nazism, of Stalin - how strong the dragon could be. But in the end, love was stronger than hate. Even now, the dragon may once again seem invincible, but love will triumph, not hate nor selfishness."

The Church and the faith, he said, "are like a helpless woman facing a dragon, without hope of surviving, much less winning. Who could oppose such a power? But in the end, we know that the woman triumphed, not selfishness or hate, but love of God, and the Roman empire itself opened up to the Christian faith."

Mary's example, he said, invites us to say, 'Bear up, take courage, in the end, life will triumph, the life that is true.'Have the courage to live that way even against all the powers of the dragon. That is the great sign of love, and of the victory of goodness and love."

The Pope said Mary represents "the pilgrim Church of all time'.In every generation, "Christ must be born anew, the Church must bear the image of Jesus in all his suffering through all its tribulations under varying circumstances in the world and in time.

"In the end, the Church triumphs as a guarantee of God's love against all the ideologies of hate and selfishness. Even today, the dragon would devour the God who became a baby, but never think that God can be overcome, because God is strong, the real strength, since love is stronger than hate."

As anticipated, the Pope's audience included his brother
Georg, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Mons. Marcello Semeraro (Bishop of Albano, of which Castel Gandolfo is part), Mons Georg Gaenswein, who is back from his German holiday, city mayor Maurizio Colacchi and his council.

Hundreds of residents who could not be accommodated inside the Church watched the Mass on maxi-screens. After the Mass, the Pope was able to greet some of them and shake their hands.











8/16/07
Now that the Vatican has finally released the transcript, I am posting a translation of the Pope's extemporaneous homily here as well as in HOMILIES, DISCOURSES, MESSAGES, because the accounts about it, like the one above, really fail to do it justice.

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THE POPE'S HOMILY
ON ASSUMPTION DAY 2007

Dear brothers and sisters,

In his great work The City of God, St. Augustine says that the story of man, the story of the world, is a battle between two loves: the love of God expressed to the limit by the 'loss' of himself, the gift of himself; and love of oneself to the point of contempt for God and hatred of others.

This interpretation of history as a battle between two loves - between love and selfishness - also appears in the Reading taken from the Apocalypse which we just heard.

In this reading, these two loves are represented by two major figures. First, there is a very powerful red dragon, with an impressive manifestation of power without grace, without love, of absolute selfishness, of terror and violence.

At the time John wrote the Apocalypse, this dragon was for him embodied in the power of the anti-Christian Roman emperors, from Nero to Domitian. This power appeared limitless - the military, political and propagandistic power of the Roman empire was such that before such power, the faith, the Church, appeared like a helpless woman, with no chance of survival, much less of winning.

Who could oppose an omnipresent power that appeared to be able to do anything? Nevertheless, we know that ultimately, the 'helpless woman' triumphed - neither selfishness or hatred prevailed. The love of God won out, and the Roman empire itself opened up to the Christian faith.

The words of Sacred Scripture always transcend the historical moment. Thus, the dragon indicates not only the anti-Christian power of the persecutors of the Church at that time, but the materialistic anti-Christian dictatorships in every age.

We saw this power, this force of the red dragon, manifested in the great dictatorships of the past century: the dictatorship of Nazism and that of Stalin had all the powers - they penetrated every corner, to the very last. It seemed impossible that, in the long run, the faith could survive before a dragon so strong that it wanted to devour the God who had made himself into a baby, and the woman, the Church. But in the end, even in these cases, love proved stronger than hate.

Today the dragon exists in new ways, many different ways. It exists in the form of materialistic ideologies which tell us: "It is absurd to think of God; it is absurd to observe the commandments of God; those are things of the past. All that matters is to live life for itself. To take from this brief spell of life everything that we can get from it. The only things that matter are consumerism, selfishness, entertainment. That is life, that is how we should live."

And again, it may seem absurd and impossible to oppose this dominant mentality, with all its mediatic and propagandistic power. It may seem impossible today to think about a God who created man and who made himself a baby who would be the true lord of the world.

Even today the dragon appears invincible, but even today, it remains true that God is more powerful than the dragon, that it is love that triumphs, not selfishness.

Having thus considered the various historical configurations of the dragon, let us look at the other image [from the Reading]: the woman clothed with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, surrounded by twelve stars. This image too is multi-dimensional.

A first interpretation without question is that it is Our Lady, Mary, clothed totally in the sun, namely God - Mary who lives in God totally, surrounded and penetrated by the light of God. Surrounded by 12 stars, namely, the 12 tribes of Israel, of all the People of God, the communion of saints. And at her feet, the moon - image of death and mortality.

Mary has left death behind her. She is completely clothed in life. She was assumed body and soul to the glory of God, and thus, raised to glory, having triumphed over death, she tells us: "Have courage. In the end, love always wins. My life was to say, I am the handmaid of the Lord, I lived my life for God and for my neighbor. And now this life of service has arrived into true life. Be confident, have the courage to live the same way, against all the menaces of the dragon."

That is the first meaning of the woman that Mary has come to personify. The 'woman clothed with the sun' is the great sign of the victory of love, of the victory of goodness, of the victory of God. A great sign of comfort.

But then this woman of the vision who suffers, who must flee, who gives birth with a cry of pain, is also the Church, the pilgrim Church of all time. In every generation, it must give birth to Christ again, bring him into the world all over in great pain, in suffering. Persecuted in all ages, it lives almost in a desert always chased by the dragon.

But in all this time, the Church, the People of God, continues to live in the light of the Lord, and is nourished, as the Gospel says, by God, fed by the bread of the Holy Eucharist.

Thus, in all its tribulations, in all the diverse situations that the Church has found itself in the course of time, in different parts of the world, it triumphs in suffering. The Church is the presence, the guarantee of God's love, against all the ideologies of hate and selfishness.

We certainly see that today, the dragon wants to devour God, the God who made himself a baby. Do not fear for this apparently helpless God. The battle has been won. Even today, this God is strong - he is the true strength.

Thus, the feast of the Assumption is an invitation to trust in God and an invitation to imitate Mary in what she herself has said - I am the handmaid of the Lord, I am at the disposition of the Lord.

This is the lesson: let us move along. let us give our life, not take life. This way we are on the path of love, which is losing oneself, but a losing oneself that is really to truly find oneself, to find true life.

Let us look at Mary, the Assunta [Assumed One]. Let us be encouraged in our faith and in a celebration of joy that God wins. The faith which may seem weak is a true force on earth. And let us say with Elizabeth: "Blessed are you among all women." We pray to you with all the Church: "Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen."

---

A translation of the Holy Father's words at the noon Angelus today in Castel Gandolfo has been posted in AUDIENCE AN ANGELUS TEXTS.

The Vatican has released the text of the Holy Father's message of condolence to the people of Peru for yesterday's earthquake, sent in his name by Cardinal Tarciso Bertone to the bishops of the affected dioceses. Here is a translation from the Spanish:

TELEGRAM OF THE HOLY FATHER


HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI, DEEPLY SADDENED AT LEARNING THE SAD NEWS OF THE EARTHQUAKE THAT HAS AFFLICTED SO MANY VICTIMS AND CAUSED GREAT MATERIAL DAMAGE, OFFERS PRAYERS TO THE LORD FOR THE ETERNAL REST OF THOSE WHO DIED AND ASKS YOUR EXCELLENCY TO CONVEY HIS SINCERE CONDOLENCES TO THE FAMILIES OF THE DECEASED, AND SENTIMENTS OF HIS PATERNAL SPIRITUAL CLOSENESS TO THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN INJURED AND THOSE WHO HAVE LOST THEIR HOMES.

AT THE SAME TIME, HE ENCOURAGES ALL INSTITUTIONS AND MEN OF GOOD WILL TO LEND THE NECESSARY ASSISTANCE TO VICTIMS WITH CHARITY AND IN A SPIRIT OF SOLIDARITY. WITH THESE SENTIMENTS, THE HOLY FATHER IMPARTS ON ALL THOSE WHO ARE AFFECTED BY THE TRAGEDY AND THOSE WHO HELP THEM A COMFORTING APOSTOLIC BLESSING AS A SIGN OF HIS AFFECTION FOR THE BELOVED PEOPLE OF PERU.

CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE TO HIS HOLINESS

On July 16, during the Pope's vacation in Lorenzago, we posted a book review on this thread, and not in the BOOKS thread because the book in quetion is really a reaction to the Regensburg lecture. Lella on her blog today posts two reviews one month later by two other newspapers, Il Giornale and Quaderni Cannibali. Lella also has a picture of the book cover.



I will start with the July 16 post which gives the whole context:

---

REGENSBURG REVISITED: STANDING UP FOR AND WITH THE POPE

Ten months removed from the white-hot intensity of reaction against Pope Benedict XVI's now-historic lectio magistralis at Regensburg, what a surprise today, not just to find a highly-credentialled Western intellectual taking his side, but that Corriere della Sera should be writing approvingly about it. Where were they in September 2006?

In any case, we can only rejoice that distance in time - and the unlikelihood of threats of physical violence today over a 'closed' issue - conspire to make a public 'vindication' of the Pope's position possible. Here is a translation of a book review that appeared in Corriere della Sera yesterday.


A progressive secularist
defends the Regensburg lecture
By Dario Fertilio


A secularist, a progressive, a Jew: Andre Glucksmann, the French philosopher, is not an ally one would expect for the Pope.

But in a book of essays called "May God save reason" (Cantagalli, 200 pp), coming out in Italian next week, in which Pope Benedict XVI is represented with three essays (the Regensburg lecture and his homilies in Munich and Regensburg in September last year), Glucksmann's essay on the relationship between faith and reason is perhaps the most audacious and militant in the book.

Glucksmann places himself squarely in support of Ratzinger's Regensburg propositions: full opening to dialog among all cultures;
a comparison for purposes of distinction of the doctrinal contents of the various faiths; unequivocal renunciation of violence rationalized by any religion; and opposition to every kind of post-modern relativism.

In the background looms the historic lecture given by the Pope in Regensburg on September 12 (anniversary of the liberation of Vienna from an invading Turkish army), which generated headlines because the Pope appeared to make a direct relation between the violence of holy war (jihad) and the preaching of Mohammed.

Actually, it was a quotation from the Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologue who, in 1391, in conversation with a Persian intellectual, said clearly: conversion by force is wrong, and not to act with reason is contrary to the nature of God.

That was all it took for radical ideological Islam, in many countries, to scream outrage and sacrilege, inciting to violence which resulted in the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia.

All this, while most of the West and a great part of so-called Islamic moderates kept quiet.

Against all that, Glucksmann now ranges himself with Ratzinger. The anthology that contains his essay and Ratzinger's Bavarian discourses, also includes essays by American Joseph Weiler, German Robert Spaemann [good friend of Pope Benedict], Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh and Egyptian Wael Farouq.


Corriere della sera, 14 luglio 2007


André Glucksmann is a French philosopher who supported the 1960s protest movement, opposed the communist regimes of eastern Europe and supported the 2003 war against Saddam Hussein. He struggles against complacency in the face of totalitarian ideology of whatever kind. He believes Europe is trapped by complacency and an all too human desire for oblivious contentment - and that this helps ensure the success of the nihilistic terror and extremist ideology exemplified by al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein. "Nobody wants war- but genocide is worse than war," he has said .

By the way, I am very glad the editors of this book also included the homilies in Munich and Regensburg, because they are genuine companion pieces to the Regensburg lecture, and I believe the Pope conceived them integrally that way. The Munich homily led into the Regensburg homily which in turn led to the Regensburg lecture.

Unfortunately, because the homily and the lecture took place on the same day, the homily was dreadfully under-reported and virtually forgotten. Those who might want to refresh their memory about it can go back to our ...BAVARIA thread.

---

Now, today's review from Il Giornale, translated:


An artificial conflict
between faith and reason
By Luca Doninelli


It is right and sacrosanct that media should look back and re-evaluate what was, culturally, the most important event of the new millenium so far, Pope Benedict XVI's academic lecture in Regensburg last September, which aroused such anger in Islamic circles, and which some Catholic circles branded as a diplomatic tumble.

A most interesting document on the role of that discourse is the new book Dio salvi la ragione [May God save reason!](Cantagalli, 192 pp.), which contains, besides the Pope's celebrated lecture, contributions by exceptional authors: the French Jew Andre Glucksmann, the Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh, the Catholic German Robert Spaemann, Jewish constitutionalist and EU expert Joseph Weiler, and the very young Egyptian Muslim intellectual Wael Farouq.

Above all, the contributors demonstrate how healthy and useful it is for anyone, believer of any faith or non-believer, to seriously confront the arguments presented by Benedict XVI.

The articles impel a reconnection to the current of history in order to retrace the causes of an artificial conflict between faith and reason - which had not existed until the decades that led to Enlightenment dogmatism.

The concept of a God above reason - which has given rise, in various historical cases, to eliminating one or the other from consideration - was not born with Islam, but arose from a misunderstanding of the relationship between man and God, a relationship sought to be understood intellectually.

The need for truth, beauty, justice, that resides in each of us, is ceaselessly in search of something which corresponds totally to the need, to its total satisfaction.

The search is really for the truth, and for many, it has led to a God who made himself known to man. But God who is life itself can also lead reason to unimagined pathways, obliges reason to continue renewing itself, not to stay attached to one's own schemes, so that the mind may recognize things that are otherwise unthinkable. And this may create outrage among those who choose to content themselves with the empty shell of reason.

Out of that was born the dogmatic rationalism from which Europe still suffers, and on the other, the irrational fundamentalism that places God above reason. They are two faces of the same mistake.

And that is why the Catholic Church is the object of hate by both Islamic fundamentalists as well as extreme secularists.


Il Giornale, 15 agosto 2007


Here is the other review, from the July issue of Quaderni cannibali, about which the only thing I can find out is that it is a publication of the Don Bosco Salesian youth movement in the Triveneto area, which was started after the death of John Paul II. The review is unsigned.


Five philosophers confront
the Pope's lecture

Dio salvi la ragione, recently released by Cantagalli, is a further step in that process which began on September 12, 2006, with Pope Benedict XVI's lectio magistralis in Regensburg that caused the Muslim world to erupt in outrage - demonstrations, threats, attacks, even killings. The Nuncios in the Muslim countries stormed the Secretariat of Satet with telephone calls of alarm.

The Roman Curia hastened to clarify exactly what the Pope said, and he himself declared he had been misunderstoood. Not that he had said anything wrong, but that he had been misunderstood.

Meanwhile, the words said in Regensburg are out there, as an inevitable reference point for whoever wants to discuss faith and reason, and the relationship among religions.

Cantagalli has put together all of the relevant texts from the Pope's Bavaria visit last year under the title "Whoever believes is never alone" (motto for the visit), with commentary offered by five eminent authors: the Catholic philosopher Robert Spaemann (German), the Jewish philosopher-sociologist Andre Gluckmann (French), the Jewish atheist Joseph Weiler (South African who works in the US), and two Muslims, Sari Nusseibeh (Palestinian) and Wael Farouq (Egyptian).

Regensburg started a process of clarifying the Christian identity as standing for truth as well as love - verita and carita - on inter-religious relationships viewed without indifference, on the public role of faith against the neutrality or relativism of secularity, and on the relationship between faith and reason which, according to the Pope, is not the same in all religions.

One who proposes an irrational and arbitrary god cannot be on the same plane as one who considers God Primordial Reason. One who preaches violence cannot be equated to one who preaches love and truth, not only for reasons of faith, but because of reason itself: "Not to act according to reason is against the nature of God."

That sentence taken by the Pope from statements made by the Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Paleologue, can make the difference in how religions are practised - in whether a religion can submit its 'truth' to examination by reason and thus in itself become an aid to reason.

So the issue about the truth of religions has two sides which respond to two complementary questions: Is my faith compatible with the demands of reason? And is it in a position to aid reason to expand its scope?

Modern philosphy claims that man cannot know anything beyond himself. But how can that be claimed without going beyond oneself? Spaemann poses this the problem of problems, from which is born the innate collaboration between faith and reason.

Heinrich von Kleist, a pupil of Kant, who negated the possibility of knowing anything beyond oneself, killed himself. If a larger possibility did not exist, if there is no God, then there can be no 'true world'. The truth of the world depends on the truth of God, and knowledge of God must come from the truth of the world. And so, faith and reason go hand in hand.

It has been claimed that without God, one is more free. But constitutional lawyer and philosopher Joseph Weiler reminds us that freedom can truly be experienced to the utmost only if one has the possibility o nay no to God. Freedom of religion, according to him, is the principal freedom because it allows the possibility to say No. Religions are the basis of this liberty, and even non-believers should protect this freedom as a guarantee of other freedoms.

But are we sure that being rational always mdeans being not violent? According to Sari Nusseibeh, even those who caused the September 11 catastrophe behaved 'rationally' - in that reason is simply a logical method of proceeding, whereas 'reasonableness' involves measuring reason against reality and the decisions to take. It is reasonableness, he says, that allows religious life to be pluralistic. Will Islam succed to be reasonable, or is violence intrinsic to it? He thinks it is up to the Muslim community to answer that by its actions and behavior.

As one can see, there is great diversity over the concept of reason iself. Religious faiths have a different rational capacity. Glucksmann and Spaemann, as philosophers, focus quite well on the problem of arrogance in conempo0rary Western reason, which claims to be absolute and completely 'self-generated'.

That being so, it has had to progressively reduce its area for investigation to what it can completely dominate, ending up by reducing itself to practically nothing. Rationalism always converts itself to nihilism. And with this kind of reasoning, religious faith has no possibility for dialog.

Not all the five authors share this view of reason. Wael Farouq, for instance, thinks reason should always take tradition into account.

But it is quite clear to all five what the title of the book expresses: it will not be reason that saves itself its opening to a greater reason, but it will be able to evaluate this greater thing from a rational point of view.

Therefore, not all religions are equally capable of saving reason. The challenge is open. The important thing is that a confrontation should take place through rational argumentation.

Quaderni Cannibali, luglio 2007

August 16, 2007
Interfax (www.Interfax-religion.com)

MOSCOW (Interfax) – The vice-dean of the Vatican's College of Cardinals has urged not to speed up the question of meeting between Pope Benedict XVI and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia.

Retired French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, in an interview shown on Vesti-24 TV channel here Aug. 16, said that the question concerning the meeting of two leaders is often asked and is appropriate "because it is a very important question."

"Not only the pope and the patriarch wish to meet but our nations want this meeting," he aid, but stressed that "no show should be made of it."

"It is necessary that all the circumstances should be favorable for this meeting, and only in this case it will be a sincere and profound meeting, not only poses before cameras," he said, adding that he was unsure as to when and where a meeting might take place.

"Only God knows when it happens. But it should be some special, spiritual place which will contribute to the sincerity of the meeting," the cardinal said, "because it will be a meeting for the benefit of Russia and Christians throughout the world."

Members of both churches, he said, should pray that this meeting may take place. "It will be a common witness to the one faith, a witness before the world which needs God more than ever before," he said.

On Aug. 15, Cardinal Etchegaray led the feast day celebration of the Assumption of the Mother of God in the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception here.

"I am very glad that I am celebrating this feast together with you in a living church, together with the bishops and priests who guide you," the cardinal said addressing the Moscow faithful.

He reminded them that last year he celebrated the feast of the Assumption in Lebanon, where he came as a special envoy of Pope Benedict XVI to pray for peace. That peace, he added, "has not yet come to us," praying that "the Virgin Mary will help us all to move towards it."

The head of the Archdiocese of the Mother of God in Moscow, Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, who also participated in the service, thanked the high-ranking representative of the Vatican for his consent to celebrate in the Catholic cathedral in Moscow and noted that Cardinal Etchegaray's visit to Russia and his meetings with local clergy and faithful "are very important for the consolidation of our church, for her taking a position in society because the church is not separated from society."

He asked the cardinal to convey to the pope that the Catholic Church in Russia "is alive."

"Though it is a small Church here, she lives just like in France or Spain," the archbishop said.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

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

Earlier today, the French and Italian services of Vatican Radio carried this interview with Cardinal Etchegaray, which seems to be just another puff piece, translated here:

The cardinal talks
about his meeting
with Patriarch Alexei II

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray presided at the Mass of the ASsumption at the CAthedral of Moscow yesterday. The French cardinal was earlier in Irkutsk and Novosibirsk in Siberia. In the latter city, he helped celebrate the 10th anniversary of the consecration of the Catholic cathedral in Russia's eassternmost city.

Before going to Siberia, the Cardinal also met in Moscow with Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and all the Russias. Etchegaray talked about this meeting in a telephone conversation with Vatican Radio's Romilda Ferrauto.

Cardinal Etchegaray: I met with Patriarch Alexei yet one more time. You know we are old freinds. Last year, I met him twice in Moscow, when he himself invited me in my personal capacity to come to the celebration of his 15th anniversary as Patriarch of Moscow.

In the past 30 years, we have worked together a lot for Europe. I can say I feel very close to him, I consider him like a brother. So I saw him again, we spoke together at length and on very frendly terms. I also carried to him a personal message from Benedict XVI, a message that the Patriarch appreciated very much. So, I can only say that relations between us have been very very free and easy.

Certainly, you know that everyone is looking forward to a meeting between he Pope and the Patriarch...

Everyone has been taking about it for a long time. Definitely, the patriarch himself and Benedict XVI - like John Paul II before him - sicenrely and ardently want such a meeting. But when will it take place?

No one can say, because both the Pope and the`patriarch want it to be a genuine encounter, not a media event simply to say they met, no! Both want the meeting to be very well prepared beforehand, so that it can take place in the clearest conditions of truth, with the possibility of profound dialog.

Often, the press stages events a bit - simplifying or idealizing reality which is often complex, one mustn't forget that! In the discourse that the Patriarch addressed to me at the start of oru last private meeting, he listed the many initiatives that Catholics and Orthodox have taken together in Russia, and it was impressive what is being done, in many different ways - and all of it is new.

So we cannot stay fossilized in our thinking and about new data - we should have confidence....

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

Well, I wish the Vatican radio interviewer had asked the cardinal to enumerate this list of initiatives, and more importantly, to ask him why, after he had spoken with the same optimism to the Russian news agency Novosti after the meeting with Alexei, the latter found it necessary to douse cold water on it by pointing out that he had warned the cardinal about the problem of Catholic proselytism among the Russian Orthodox!

At least, Etchegaray is more realistic in these statements now by reiterating the Moscow line that no meeting is possible until certain 'fundamental differences' can be clarified. But since the main difference that Moscow questions is the Primacy of Rome, how likely is it that Alexei will ever yield on that?

Why was the question not posed to Etchegaray at all? At the very least, he could have been asked to define exactly what he thought those 'conditions' were that needed to be clarified before a meeting could take place.

A repetition of 'formula answers' without an attempt to show exactly what both sides understand by the formula - 'certain conditions must first be clarified' - does not advance the story at all.

And I don't think that the excellent personal friendship the Patriarch has for Cardinal Etchegaray is going to change his own attitude one bit!

TERESA

8/17/07 P.S. By the way, about Patriarch Alexei's obsessive resentment of supposed proselytism by the Catholic Church, is he perhaps unaware that the Orthodox are part of an interfaith initiative to draw up a 'code of conduct' regarding any attempts at proselytism? [See NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH entry by Benefan yesterday.]

It's summer, virtually everyone's on vacation in Italy (including VIS and ZENIT for the whole month of August), there's really not much to report on, so why not try to 'make news' by writing about something that took place two weeks ago, as this reporter does for Il Messaggero today? The story also cites disquieting statements attributed to Cardinal Bertone and Fr. Lombardi, which appear to contribute unnecessarily to the confusion over this issue, instead of giving a clear unequivocal reply. Here is a translation:


Rabbis write Pope
about Good Friday prayers
By FRANCA GIANSOLDATI


The two chief rabbis of Israel have written an appeal to Pope Benedict XVI.

Yona Metzger and Schlomo Amar, heads of the Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities, respectively, apparently lost all patience and two weeks ago wrote the Pope asking him to take out a prayer for the conversion of the Jews contained in the traditional Mass whose use has been liberalized by the Pope.

[Since the reporter - who has not lost any opportunity lately to cast the Pope and the Church in a negative light - does not quote anything directly from the letter, we do not know exactly what prayer the rabbis are protesting. If its the 'standard' Pavlovian reaction by those like Abraham Foxman and the ADL, it would be objecting to a prayer that no longer exists, and the protest is academic.]

Other rabbis, including Italians, have expressed their 'concern' at the presence in the Missal which was in force until 1962, of an invocation for 'the conversion of the Jews' to Jesus Christ.

In the letter which the Israeli rabbis wrote in English, they cite Nostra Aetate and stress the ecumenical spirit of Vatican-II as a wind of newness that opened the Church to the world with a renewed impulse for collaboration among religions.

Vatican authorities, in the face of the Jewish protests, have said they are not prejudicially opposed to making changes in the text as demanded by the Jews.

On July 18, at a news conference in Lorenzago di Cadore [it was actually held in Pieve di Cadore - so remember, if a journalist is careless about small details, you can't be sure he/she is not equally careless about bigger ones], Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, when asked about this, said, "The elimination of the prayer for conversion can be studied," specifying that the prayer should be that formulated by Paul VI. The Vatican secretary of state then added: "This can be decided, and all problems can be resolved."

A few days later, Fr. Federico Lombardi gave assurances that the Missal of 1962, liberalized by Papa Ratzinger with his Motu Proprio, should not be seen as "an unmodifiable and eternal text", that "It is not the Pope's intention to consider the Latin Missal fixed definitively" and that the prayer in question can simply be replaced by a less aggressive formulation, in keeping with Jewish wishes.

[If both Lombardi and Bertone are correctly quoted, then - of all people to do so! - they are simply contributing to the confusion. They could simply have said factually that the prayer in question, already modified by John XXIII in 1959 and 1962, was subsequently reformulated altogether by Paul VI. What is there to study? It simply needs to be said clearly!]

Eventual changes should be executed by the theological commission Ecclesia Dei [I am not sure 'theological commission' defines what Ecclesia Dei is, which was created as an administrative liaison/overseer of the activities of disaffected traditionalist Catholic groups] and approved by Pontifical decree.

[The rest of the article is background information on the Good Friday prayers for the Jews as they were prior to John XXIII's changes first in 1959, then further in 1962, as well as the 1970 formulation by Paul VI.]

The two Israeli rabbis express the hope that the Pope will listen to their appeal and repair the 'vulnus' (wound) immediately.

In September 2005, both rabbis were received in Castel Gandolfo by Pope Benedict XVI to mark the 40th anniversary of Nostra Aetate. Both rabbis described the visit as 'a further step in the process of constructing more profound religious relations between Catholics and Jews."

Il Messaggero, 17 agosto 2007


P.S. See related post in NEWS ABOUT THE CHURCH today - in which John Allen adds to the confusion. Time to have someone ask Ecclesia Dei to make a straightforward statement about this!

The much-cited Panorama article purporting to preview the Pope's second encyclical is finally available online - and it turns out the encyclical is simply a pretext for raising questions about the Church's exemption from property taxes, and it is surprising that not one of the articles that had previously cited it, never mentioned the second part of the Panorapam piece at all. Here is a translation. Its teaser intro reads:

Exclusive! After Prime Minister Prodi's suggestion [that priests should preach to the faithful against tax evasion], Panorama anticipates a new Papal document that talks about taxes and evasion. Which refutes the Prime Minister's criticisms.


Ratzinger encyclical
against tax havens
By IGNAZIO INGRAO
Panorama, No. 33
August 2007


"Finances and taxes" is the provisional title of one of the chapters in Benedict XVI's next encyclical on social problems and globalization, taking off from the 40th anniversary of Populorum progressio, Pauk VI's historic encyclical on the development of nations.

Joseph Ratzinger is working on the draft of trhe encyclical these days at Castel Gandolfo.

The chapter in question, which Panorama is in a position to preview, primarily targets tax havens, and states that it is unacceptable for wealthy citizens to transfer a consdierable aprt of their assets to foreign banks in odder to avoid paying domestic taxes on such assets.

It then goes on to consider relations between states, with the observation that there is a competition among nations for fiscal and economic hegemony, therefore, the Pope would urge an international agreement regulating the competition in order to avoid new sources of injustice and discrimination.

At first glance, it appears that Benedict XVI would seem to have tkaen Prime Minister Prodi's statements earlier in which he asked the Church to be more actively involved in reminding Catholics about their obligation to pay taxes.

Actually, a draft about the fiscal contents of the proposed encyclical has been ready for months. That would explain the apparent irritation at Prodi's statement by some Vatican officials, starting with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state.

The Church hierarchy points out that the Church teaches the faithful to pay their taxes in the Social Doctrine of the Church published in 2004, and in a 2001 document called "Educating in the law".

But to many, including Luigi Amicone, editor of the weekly Catholic magazine Tempi, Prodi's words appeared to be a threat directed above all against the hierarchy of the Italian Church which his government considers 'too hostile' against it.

Prodi's implied threat supposedly has to do with the tax-exempt status of church organizations with respect to any properties they own, which could mean 400 million euros a year for the Church in Italy.

The figure is attributed to a group of leftist Italian politicians who have questioned the Church's tax-exempt status before the European Commission, citing the National Association of Italian Communes (municipal governments) as source.

A study group commissioned last October by the Economics Minsitry is supposed to define the types of church properties that could be considered tax-exempt.

The emeritus bishop of Como, Mons. Alessandro Maggiolini, expressed his concern that the Church's adversaries are not only targeting the Church's tax exemption on properties but also on its many activities: "The Church is also the custodian of countless invaluable artistic monuments and cultural treasures. It helps the poor, it has homes for needy children and youth, assists mothers in difficuluty, the sick and the aged, and manages Catholic schools mostly financed by the tuitions paid by Catholic parents."

Prodi's statements could also presage a new government offensive in favor of is legislative initiatives on biological wills and legalizing de-facto unions including homosexual partnerships, according to Domenico Delle Foglie, principal organizer of the Family Day held in Rome last May to demonstrate support for the traditional family.

"Instead of coming to a moratorium with the Catholic world on ethically sensitive issues, the Prime Minister is insisting on moralistic intervention via the law," Delle Foglie said.

August 17,2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)

XUANHUA, China (CNS) - Catholics in northern China, celebrating the feast of the Assumption of Mary, were reminded of the call for unity in Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Chinese Catholics.

In Hebei province's Xuanhua Diocese, about 1,000 parishioners attended the 5 a.m. Mass Aug. 15 at Xiheying Church in Yuxian County, about 100 miles west of Beijing.

"Today we celebrate the feast day of our Blessed Mother, the caretaker of our souls," Father Xia Shaowu said in his homily. "We should also give thanks to all mothers who take care of our material and spiritual needs."

He highlighted Pope Benedict's emphasis on one church and unity between China's clandestine Catholic communities and those officially registered with the government. The papal letter was published June 30; the priest's remarks were reported Aug. 17 by the Asian church news agency UCA News.

"No matter which way we have taken before, we should now return to the side of our Blessed Mother on this feast day," Father Xia said.

In a separate Mass that day, some Catholic youth of Xuanhua presented the papal letter as an offertory gift. They later dedicated the letter and their acceptance of it to Mary by burning it in a basin in front of a Marian statue. Burning gifts such as paper money is a traditional Chinese way of making symbolic offerings to their ancestors.

The youth, mostly university students, were taking part in a weeklong formation activity that ended Aug. 16. During the week, they shared with each other their understanding of the papal letter. They also discussed the role of Catholic youth in the church and how they could live out their faith in their study and work.

Chen Chen, one of the students, told UCA News she would strive harder to live Christian virtues and would "bravely admit" her Catholic identity in her workplace. She added that she previously thought revenge was the way to deal with foes, but she learned from the pope's letter that the best way toward unity is love and forgiveness.

To help Catholics understand Pope Benedict's message, Father Xia told UCA News, his parish has published 1,000 copies of the letter for free distribution and holds daily sharing sessions to discuss it.

The latest issue of his diocese's monthly magazine, Faith Life, published a special issue that dedicated the church in China to Mary in the spirit of the pope's letter.

Father Xia said the letter has prompted some clandestine Catholics who had refused to enter any church to come to his parish and be in communion with other parishioners. This was also the case in other areas of the diocese, the priest added.

The clandestine Catholics, accounting for a small portion of Catholics in Xuanhua, usually gather at a layperson's house for Mass and religious activities since they regard all church buildings as belonging to the government-approved or registered church community, even though underground clergy manage some parishes.

Laywoman Gao Fufa told UCA News that, in the past, many underground clergy told people not to go to any open church, and that any sacraments they received there would be invalid.

"But now the pope's letter is clear. If we do not listen to the pope, aren't we becoming schismatic?" she asked.

Another layperson, Zhao Fu, told UCA News: "The late Bishop Philippus Petrus Zhao Zhendong said we can enter any church. But since we had opposed the open church for many years, we did not listen to him in order to 'save face,'" he said, referring to the Chinese custom of avoiding embarrassment.

"Now the pope has appealed for unity. I cannot disobey him," Zhao added.

When the Chinese government began suppressing the church in the late 1950s, it established the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, whose members initially were asked to reject ties with the Vatican. Many of the Catholics who joined indicated they chose to cooperate with the government and work within its restrictions, but remained loyal to the Vatican.

Catholics who refused to join the patriotic association maintained their loyalty to the Vatican and suffered decades of persecution. For years, some of these clandestine Catholics thought registering with the government would be a betrayal of everything for which people have suffered, and some said they thought the registered church was still controlled by the communist government.

Today, the government asks bishops and key church sites to be registered with the government.


SOURCE: www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?...

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It's very encouraging that these 'underground' Catholics are coming out and citing ibedience to the Pope as their reason! God bless all the Catholics of China and help them unite finally.