Prayer to St Joseph

O St. Joseph whose protection is so great, so strong, so prompt before the Throne of God, I place in you all my interests and desires.

O St. Joseph do assist me by your powerful intercession and obtain for me from your Divine Son all spiritual blessings through Jesus Christ, Our Lord; so that having engaged here below your Heavenly power I may offer my Thanksgiving and Homage to the most Loving of Fathers.

O St. Joseph, I never weary contemplating you and Jesus asleep in your arms. I dare not approach while He reposes near your heart.

Press him in my name and kiss His fine Head for me, and ask Him to return the Kiss when I draw my dying breath.

St. Joseph, Patron of departing souls, pray for us.

Prayer To Saint Matthew

 

O Glorious Saint Matthew, in your Gospel you portray Jesus as the longed-for Messiah who fulfilled the Prophets of the Old Covenant and as the new Lawgiver who founded a Church of the New Covenant. 

Obtain for us the grace to see Jesus living in his Church and to follow his teachings in our lives on earth so that we may live forever with him in heaven.

Amen.

Feast of St David

March 1 is the feast day of St. David, a sixth-century monk and bishop who became the patron saint of Wales.

His diocese is traditionally believed to have been at Mynyw, where he had his monastery, now known as St. David's.

He was a talented orator, renowned for his sermons, and he is usually shown being inspired by the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a dove on his shoulder, and standing on a hill, preaching.

March 1 is the unofficial day of Welsh independence, so in solidarity with all of our Welsh friends, we will wear a leek in our hat and a daffodil on our lapel in honor of Dewi Sant.

You may remember that the trouble that Pistol encountered when he mocked Fluellen's leek in the last act of Shakespeare's Henry V.

It is the symbol of Henry's Welsh heritage, noted with pride by Fluellen in Act IV:

FLUELLEN

Your majesty says very true: if your majesties is remembered of it, the Welshmen did good service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Monmouth caps; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an honourable badge of the service; and I do believe your majesty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day.

HENRY V

I wear it for a memorable honour;
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

FLUELLEN

All the water in Wye cannot wash your majesty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that: God pless it and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, and his majesty too!

Cymru am byth!

Source

American bishops criticise Obama administration’s decision on marriage law

The United States bishops’ Office of General Counsel said the Obama administration’s decision to no longer support the Defense of Marriage Act in legal challenges ahead “represents an abdication” of its “constitutional obligation to ensure that laws of the United States are faithfully executed.”

“Marriage has been understood for millennia and across cultures as the union of one man and one woman,” the office said in a statement issued February 23 after President Barack Obama instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the federal law passed by Congress and signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton.

The Defense of Marriage Act says the federal government defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman and that no state must recognize a same-sex marriage from another state.

“The principal basis for today’s decision is that the president considers the law a form of impermissible sexual orientation discrimination,” the Office of General Counsel said.

In a February 23 statement, Attorney General Eric Holder said that although the administration has defended the 1996 law in some federal courts, it will not continue to do so in cases pending in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Unlike in the previous cases, said Holder, the 2nd Circuit “has no established or binding standard for how laws concerning sexual orientation should be treated.”

In response to the announcement, the National Organization for Marriage, which opposes same-sex marriage, called on Congress to “get lawyers in the courtroom who actually want to defend the law, and not please their powerful political special interests.”

“We have only begun to fight,” said Brian Brown, president of the organization.

He also said that with Holder’s announcement, Obama “unilaterally” declared homosexuals “a protected class” under the Constitution and would effectively make a federal court decision on the law “unreviewable by higher courts.”

While Obama favors repealing the law, Holder said the president has supported defending it as constitutional if a state or local law meets the legal standard of having “a rational basis” for singling out people for different treatment based on sexual orientation.

But in the pending cases, Holder said, the administration “faces for the first time the question of whether laws regarding sexual orientation are subject to the more permissive standard of review or whether a more rigorous standard, under which laws targeting minority groups with a history of discrimination are viewed with suspicion by the courts, should apply.”

Obama “has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny,” Holder’s statement said.

He added that Obama has concluded that the law “as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the president has instructed the department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the president’s determination.”

The United States bishops’ Office of General Counsel said refusal to support the law was “a grave affront to the millions of Americans who both reject unjust discrimination and affirm the unique and inestimable value of marriage as between one man and one woman.”

It also stressed that support for traditional marriage “is not bigotry,” but is a “reasonable, common judgment affirming the foundational institution of civil society.” 

The office said that “any suggestion by the government that such a judgment represents discrimination is a serious threat to the religious liberty of marriage supporters nationwide.”

Holder said the legal landscape has changed since the law was passed, including with Supreme Court rulings overturning laws criminalizing homosexual conduct and the repeal by Congress of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Unless Congress repeals the Defense of Marriage Act, or a final court ruling strikes it down, it will continue to remain in effect and the administration will continue to enforce it, Holder noted.

“But while both the wisdom and the legality of (the pertinent section of the law) will continue to be the subject of both extensive litigation and public debate, this administration will no longer assert its constitutionality in court,” Holder said.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, said the decision by the Obama administration reflects the president’s views 15 years ago when he was running for the Illinois state Senate. At the time, he said he favored legalizing same-sex marriage and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages.

Donohue said Obama endorsed civil unions in 2004, but that during his presidential campaign he spoke of marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

“Now Obama is officially on record as president opposing the defense of marriage,” said Donohue’s Feb. 23 statement. 

He said the president was not only going against the 1996 law but also was “in opposition to the over 30 state initiatives affirming marriage as a union between a man and a woman.”

Source

Pope John Paul II beatification strikes special chord among Romans

With more than a million people expected to descend on Rome for Pope John Paul II's beatification May 1, the event is being described as yet another pilgrim "invasion" of the Eternal City.

Because the beatification falls on a public holiday, some have predicted a massive exodus by Rome residents eager to escape the logistical problems caused by such a big crowd.

But church officials say that Romans, in fact, may represent the biggest group at the beatification, for a very good reason: For them, Pope John Paul was not only a pope but also a pastor.

The late pope took the title "bishop of Rome" seriously, visiting the city's parishes, prisons, schools, hospitals and soup kitchens. He even held an annual audience with Rome's garbage collectors.

"John Paul II managed to get close to the Roman people, and he's still very much present in their minds. Even Romans who were not great believers were touched by him," said Giancarlo Distante, who works in a bookstore near the Vatican.

"Sure, it's tempting to escape the city May 1. But I think the joy of seeing this man beatified is going to keep a lot of people here," Distante said.

The Diocese of Rome has even organized its own special event, a prayer vigil the night before the beatification, which will take place in the open area that was once the ancient Circus Maximus. Hundreds of thousands are expected to attend.

When Pope John Paul II was elected in 1978, Romans flocked to St. Peter's Square and were shocked to hear that a certain "Karol Wojtyla" would be the new pontiff -- the first non-Italian pope in more than 450 years. But the new pope quickly won the crowd over when he gave his first speech in Italian and invited people to correct him if he made any linguistic mistakes.

The Polish pope worked hard to build bridges in Rome, carrying on with the pastoral work that he had enjoyed so much as archbishop of Krakow. In an effort to better know his flock, he visited more than 300 of Rome's 334 parishes, providing every Roman neighborhood with moments of celebration and excitement.

Those visits were not limited to a papal Mass. Typically, the pope met with parish groups, chatted with young people and toured the facilities. Romans had the sense that this pope had come to learn about them as well as preach to them.

Pope John Paul met routinely with Rome city officials, and he did not hesitate to weigh in on social and moral problems. He often did so from places that had rarely, if ever, seen a pope: a Rome prison, for example, where prisoners served at the papal altar, read prayers and sang hymns.

He not only visited Rome's homeless shelters and soup kitchens, but opened a 74-bed hostel for the poor inside the Vatican and, more than once, personally visited with people there.

His annual encounters with the street sweepers and garbage collectors near the Vatican never made headlines, but always gave Romans a sense that this pope stood with the "little people."

In 1998, Pope John Paul personally kicked off a city-wide evangelization campaign, knocking on the door of a fifth-floor apartment in Rome and casually visiting with the family that lived there.

In the neighborhood of Rome's ancient Jewish ghetto, Pope John Paul's photo still hangs in some shops. Residents there say they'll never forget when he made history by visiting their synagogue in 1986.

Even more than with special groups, Pope John Paul made connections with a whole generation of young people in Rome. As pope for more than 26 years, he hosted Roman schoolchildren on dozens of occasions at the Vatican, in encounters that often included song, dance and testimonies by the young. As he grew older and frailer, these meetings had a special poignancy.

When the pope lay dying, Rome's young people were the first to arrive in St. Peter's Square. They came by the hundreds and then by the thousands, serenading and praying for the pope beneath his window. Eventually they were joined by more than 3 million people who arrived in Rome for the pope's death and funeral.

Romans were proud of themselves in 2005 for absorbing and hosting such a huge crowd with little or no problem. They want to do the same for the beatification, but there are some unusual practical problems.

For one thing, May 1 is Europe's "labor day" holiday, which means a shutdown of most businesses, shops, coffee bars, restaurants and public transportation. Store owners have already petitioned for an exemption from the closure rules, and say if no permission is granted they may open anyway.

"Such a great mass of people cannot arrive here and find a city without services," said Cesare Pambianchi, the president of Rome's Confcommercio retailers' association. "The image of Rome is at stake."

Source

For Belgian Church rocked by scandal, three new auxiliary bishops

Pope Benedict XVI has appointed three new auxiliary bishops to assist Archbishop Andre-Joseph Leonard of Mechelen-Brussels.

Msgrs. Jean-Luc Hudsyn, Jean Kockerols and Leon Lemmens were appointed Feb. 22. 

The Belgian Church has been rocked by clerical abuse scandals in recent years.

Archbishop Leonard was appointed in Jan. 2010 in part in response to the scandals, which occurred under Cardinal Godfried Danneels, now retired. 

Archbishop Leonard was called by some the "Belgian Ratzinger" for his no-tolerance policy on sexual abuse.

Just months after Archbishop Leonard's appointment, Bishop Roger Vangheluwe of Bruges, Belgium resigned following revelations of charges of  past abuse. 

Within weeks, more than 400 abuse allegations against priests were made public and in June, authorities stormed diocesan offices in Brussels and confiscated the files and computers of the diocesan commission investigating abuse claims. 

No charges against the Church were filed.

More controversy came in October with the release of a book of interviews with Archbishop Leonard.
 

In it, the archbishop was quoted as suggesting that AIDS was a “a kind of immanent justice,” for homosexual activity.

“If we act inappropriately with physical nature, nature in turn will mistreat us,” the archbishop is quoted as saying. 

“And when people deal inappropriately with the deeper meaning of human love, that brings catastrophes at all levels.”

The statements caused a riot in international media and led to the resignation of the archbishop's spokesperson. 

Since then, however, the archbishop  has kept well under the radar.

The Pope's appointment of the three auxiliaries comes after a winter season of relative peace and quiet for the Belgian Church.

Father Tommy Scholtes, S.J., spokesman for the country’s bishops, told CNA that having a number of auxiliary bishops has been a "normal" thing in the archdiocese in recent years. 

He did not see any special significance to appointing all three at the same time.

"I think this is good news for everybody," he said of the appointments, adding that he didn't anticipate any problems. 

“I haven't heard anything, either yesterday or today."

After Archbishop Leonard's appointment last January, there were rather public complaints that he was "too conservative" for the nation.

After a rocky 2010, the archbishop is “going in a good direction," Fr. Scholtes said.

With the appointments of the auxiliaries, he added, "I think it will be better now."

Msgr. Hudsyn, 63, will now be in charge of the French-speaking region south of Brussels called the Vicariate of Walloon Brabant. 

He was groomed into the position through 22 years of service to the former auxiliary bishop in charge of the same region.

Msgr. Hudsyn already serves in a number of administrative and pastoral capacities in the area. 

According to a press release from the archdiocese, Msgr. Hudsyn pays particular attention to the theological and pastoral formation of the laity.

He also prepares and accompanies permanent deacons in their service and has also been very involved in media relations.

The 52-year old Msgr. Jean Kockerols has a broad formation in law, philosophy, theology and cooperation and development. 

He has worked largely in parishes and founded a pastoral studies center in Brussels in 2001.

He has been dean of the Church's Brussels-South region in recent years and works as director of the department of faith, formator at the diocesan seminary and course leader at the 

Institute of Theological Studies.

As auxiliary, Msgr. Kockerols will head the Vicariate of Brussels.

Msgr. Leon Lemmens, 56, is being called back to Belgium from his current position as official of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches in charge of Formation and Study. 

He is specialized in collaboration with the Eastern Orthodox churches and is a member of the Sant'Egidio community.

Msgr. Lemmens has served as president of the Major Seminary of Hasselt, Belgium and rector of the College Romain in Rome. 

He has worked in vocations, permanent formation and on the inter-diocesan commission for media and culture.

He will oversee the Flemish Brabant region, the Dutch-speaking area that surrounds Brussels.

The three will be ordained on Sunday, April 3 in the Basilica of Koekelberg.

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Red World Youth Day bandanas recall love of martyrs

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez Gonzalez of Cordoba, Spain recently explained that the red bandanas that were distributed to World Youth Day participants in his diocese recall the sacrifice of Christian martyrs.

Bishop Fernandez sent an article to CNA on Feb. 21, explaining that “for Christians, in their 2,000 year-long history, red is the color of the blood of the martyrs, it is the color of the Holy Spirit.”

“This is not the color red of the Marxist revolution, which was a resounding failure, nor of the nihilism of Nietzsche, which leads to nothing and to meaninglessness even though it exalts the super man.” 

Nor, he continued, does it symbolize “the sexual revolution of Freud and his followers, which enslaves people everywhere to sex.”

On the contrary, “the red color of the bandanas given to our young people … represents Christian love, which has built history on the foundation of Jesus Christ,” the bishop said.

On Feb. 19, thousands of young people gathered in the city of Cordoba to prepare for World Youth Day with music and a liturgy.

The event was intended to encourage young people to “change their lives, to draw closer to Jesus Christ, to live in a state of grace and recover the purity of soul that is offered in the sacrament of forgiveness,” Bishop Fernandez said.

“The future of the Church and of our society is in these young people,” he stated.

Source

Mexico considers making 'sexual preference' a human right

The president of the Mexican association Familia Mundial, Juan Dabdoub, has denounced the country’s government for considering a constitutional amendment that would make “sexual preference” a human right. 

He argued that the measure would also legitimize pedophilia and bestiality.

Dabdoub, who directs the association based in Monterrey, underscored that the human right to “sexual preference” does not exist in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or in “any international organization.”

The House of Representatives debated Feb. 24 whether to put the measure to a vote on March 1, but chose to send it back to the committee.

Dabdoub said the measure was sponsored by “representatives from the Democratic Revolution Party,” which also promoted the legalization of abortion and homosexual unions in Mexico City.

Dabdoub told CNA on Feb. 24 that this amendment would institutionalize conduct that psychiatric entities worldwide “treat as disorders,” such as transvestism, fetishism, voyeurism, exhibitionism and sado-masochism.

If the measure is approved, “teachers would be able to dress as transvestites and teach their classes.”

They could not be disciplined “because you would be discriminating against them,” Daboub added.

Sexual preference is not “a medical term,” he underscored, noting that “a clear intent” exists “to move toward allowing behavior in society in which sexuality is completely trivialized.”

“There are politicians who want to push these things through, but there are also many people of good will who should have been just a bit more suspicious of what their colleagues were proposing with their erroneous ideology,” Dabdoub said.

Source

Pope to visit site where Nazis executed hundreds of Italians

Later this month Pope Benedict XVI will mark the anniversary of a brutal massacre that took the lives of 335 Italians during World War II.

On March 24, 1944, Nazi soldiers slaughtered the hundreds of individuals to exact revenge for a surprise bomb attack in the heart of Rome that killed 33 of their colleagues.

When he heard of the attack, Adolf Hitler ordered that 10 Romans be rounded up for each Nazi casualty.

The Nazi commander in Rome took all those on death row in a military prison, but they did not equal the number Hitler had ordered. 

He added 75 Jews, political prisoners, individuals in jail for petty crimes and civilians present at the attack to the group to reach the figure. 

The final count proved to be higher than 330.

The 335 victims were led into the caves of a quarry by soldiers who were driven by commanding officers to kill each of them, one-by-one, with a shot to the back of the head.

Following the massacre, the Nazis covered their tracks by blowing up the caves. 

The bodies were recovered and properly buried a year later, when the war had finished.

A mausoleum that looks similar to a military bunker was later erected on the site to house the tombs of the dead.

The Pope will go to the site, called the “Fosse Ardeatine,” on March 27 to observe the 67th anniversary of the executions. It is very near the Catacombs of St. Callistus on the outskirts of Rome.

He follows in the footsteps of Popes Paul VI and John Paul II, who also paid their respects to the dead.

 

During his visit to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland in May 2006, Pope Benedict said, “In silence, then, we bow our heads before the endless line of those who suffered and were put to death here; yet our silence becomes in turn a plea for forgiveness and reconciliation, a plea to the living God never to let this happen again.”

 

Source

After setback in dialogue with Islam, Vatican official entrusts talks' future to God

Dialogue will continue on God's time, said a Vatican official as talks with an top Egyptian authority of Islam suffered a blow last week.

A two-day meeting between the Vatican and an Egyptian institute of Sunni Islam set for Feb. 23-24 was suspended. Egyptian officials have said unofficially that the future of dialogue hinges on an apology from the Pope. 

The Vatican and the highest authority of Sunni Islam, Cairo's Al-Azhar Institute, planned to continue ongoing talks on theology during the sessions. 

The two sides normally meet twice per year, but this week's dates came and went without a sound. 

The bombing of the Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt after a New Year's Mass nearly two months ago was the first in a series of events that led to the suspension.

In the days that followed, Pope Benedict XVI condemned the attack and called for greater religious liberty in Egypt and protection for all citizens. His words appear to have been perceived by the government through media reports as possible calls for a western action in the country.

To clarify the meaning of the statements, the nation recalled its Holy See ambassador to Cairo.

Then, on Jan. 20, the Al-Azhar institute issued a press release in which they announced the suspension of theological dialogue with the Vatican. They said the Vatican had interfered in the nation's affairs.

The president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran told L'Osservatore Romano on Jan. 29 that the Vatican delegation expected all future appointments to be kept.

“If we want progress in dialogue,” he added, “we must first of all find the time to sit down and talk person-to-person and not through the newspapers.”

Days before the meetings were set to take place, on Feb. 20, he told the French agency I.Media, “we don't have any news from our friends.”

The government announced that their ambassador would return to Rome at mid-week, but there was still no official word from Al-Azhar.

Feb. 23 - 24 came and went with no statement about the talks. Incidentally, an official from Al-Azhar and the institute's former spokesman were in Rome to participate in a forum sponsored by the Catholic Church's Sant'Egidio Community.

Away from the microphones at the event, the two made separate statements to media on their thoughts on how dialogue can continue.

In a report from Italy's ASCA news agency, the special representative of the Grand Imam of Azhar, Hasan Shafie, said that for the dialogue to be reopened the Pope must apologize for his words on Islam and Muslims in his now famous address at Regensburg, Germany in 2006.

The speech provoked furor among some Muslim leaders after some phrases were taken out of context and reproduced in misleading mass media reports.

The Pope quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor who approached a Persian thinker to get a better understanding of Islam. 

The emperor asked, “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.”

The Pope used the quote to illustrate that a greater understanding is needed between faiths through dialogue, explained the Vatican's spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi after Muslim leaders expressed outrage at the quote.

Fr. Lombardi explained that the Pope respects Islam and wants to “cultivate an attitude of respect and dialogue toward the other religions and cultures, obviously also toward Islam.”

After the miscommunication with the Egyptian government in January, Fr. Lombardi again stepped in to say that “an attentive reading” of the Pope's words on religious freedom would help to dispel this latest the round of “misunderstandings.”

According to ASCA, on Feb. 23, Shafie called this response “another insult” because it assumed they did not understand it well the first time around.

Muhammad Rifaa Al-Tahtawi, Al-Azhar's spokesman until just recently, was also at the Sant'Egidio meeting. He said Muslims need to see a “show of respect” from the Vatican.

According to the National Catholic Register, al-Tahtawi said the Vatican's response to Regensburg was “not acceptable.”

Asked why they have not been able to forgive the Pope, despite his efforts rectify the situation, Al-Tahtawi said, “It's not a question of forgiveness.

“He has given an apology for the Holocaust, but there has been no apology for the Crusades. (We) need this. Why? Because the Pope is not only considered chief of Catholics, he is a man of universal authority.”

He also asked the Pope to condemn the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue official Msgr. Khaled Akasheh, member of the committee for dialogue with Al-Azhar told CNA over the phone on Feb. 25 that these were personal statements and the council is treating them as such.

He said that they “work on the official things.”

“Everyone on a personal level can assert whatever they wish, but this does not commit their institution or ours,” he explained.

The two Egyptians speak for themselves and not Al-Azhar, he reiterated. For now, Msgr. Akasheh said that dialogue will continue “Whenever God wishes.”

Asked when that might be, he said, “we don't know yet. We have to wait.”

Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Holy See's Press Office confirmed the temporary suspension of meetings with Al-Azhar.

“The Holy See is committed to the dialogue and will pursue all its efforts to overcome the problems,” he told CNA.

Source

Catholic Church to Launch "Faithbook," Pope Likes This

In an attempt to connect to its followers and increase its numbers, the Vatican released "Faithbook," an online Catholic social network. 

The website allows Catholics to interact and connect internationally, and it also boasts a direct connection to the Vatican. 

The site has the verbal and -most importantly - the electronic support of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI. 

"We thought it was really important to make sure His Holiness had a profile," commented Cardinal Amendolia. "We also made a page for Jesus, but we're still waiting for Him to update his page."

With the recent popularity of Facebook, the Church felt it had to create an alternative social network for its followers that wasn't founded by a guy who's name "sounds kind of Jewish." 

Many features are the same as Facebook, such as the profile page and ability to create events, but with a Catholic spin. For example, upon creating a profile, the user is automatically invited to the event "Armageddon," with the only RSVP option being "Attending." 

The only options for relationships for non-clergy members are married and single, but an added feature for nuns allows them to be "in a relationship with Jesus." 

There is a large range of apps to choose from. These include "Will You Go to Heaven?" quizzes, "Guess the Papal Bull" trivia games and Farmville.

Despite the intitial success of the site, there are still some problems. Many parents have expressed discomfort with priests "poking" their children. 

The Vatican had to recently issue a statement that Faithbook-stalking should be called "knowing thy neighbor" to avoid complicated theological issues.

While the Vatican has generously subsidized the creation of Faithbook, the Church hopes to eventually make the website self-sufficient through advertising, which has been somewhat controversial thus far. 

The most recent advertising campaign focused on creating targeted ads for priests, but the only ads that seemed to work were for gay singles bars.

For all its faults, the sites have caused a worldwide splash. 

There have been rumors of a movie coming out about the site starring Jesse Eisenberg as the Pope, but nothing has been confirmed. 

Many other major religions have been developing their own sites to rival Faithbook. Jewish leaders are currently working on what they're calling "Facebaruch," while Muslim leaders have been developing "Don'tShowYourFacebook." 

No word has been heard regarding the Buddhist social network other than that your profile changes every time you log on based on your past actions while on the site.

Whether Faithbook is a passing fad or here to stay is still uncertain, but the Pope seems to be happy with the results. 

He recently posted, "LOVE the new site. 

Check your profiles for invites to Vatican III! It's gonna be dope." 

He then promptly liked his own status, because he's allowed to do that sort of thing.

Source

Vatican Radio adapts to changing media scene

Eighty years ago, a persistent Pope and a scientific pioneer teamed up to create Vatican Radio, launching an evangelisation tool that reached virtually every corner of the globe. 

Today, Vatican Radio is riding the latest wave of digital technology to expand its audience and its services, with an Internet presence in more than 40 languages.

The anniversary celebrations kicked off in February with a retrospective Vatican Museums exhibit. 

Among the items on display was the microphone Pope Pius XI used to broadcast the first radio message to the world - in Latin, of course - on 12 February 1931.

At that time, radio broadcasting was still in its infancy, but the Pope insisted that he wanted his own radio station. He turned the project over to Guglielmo Marconi, the Italian inventor who developed wireless technology, who was only too happy to help.

It still stands as one of the most successful collaborative efforts involving the Church and modern science. The image of Pope Pius at the microphone seemed to change the role of the papacy itself; from then on, every Pope would be the Church’s “first communicator.”

It’s a legacy Pope Benedict XVI wants to preserve and build on as the Vatican’s media adapt to the digital age. One of the Pope’s first in-house visits at the Vatican was to Vatican Radio, where employees gave him an iPod nano pre-loaded with classical music.

In late April, the Pope will address members of the European Broadcasting Union when they meet in Rome, and his speech is expected to highlight the Church’s ongoing investment in communications resources and technology.

In 1931, Pope Pius saw radio as a God-given opportunity to reach countries where missionaries and other Church personnel were not free to work. At the centre of Vatican Radio’s mission, then and now, was the Pope’s voice.

“The electric radio waves will carry your word of peace and your blessing through space to the whole world,” Marconi told the Pope before the inaugural broadcast.

During and immediately after World War II, Vatican Radio broadcast more than 1.5 million messages to help reunite prisoners of war and refugees with their families.

Some prisoners still remember the radio’s transmissions being played through the loudspeakers of internment camps.

After the war, Vatican Radio began a new chapter, broadcasting daily to communist countries behind the Iron Curtain.

When East European Communism gave way to democracy, the radio was inundated with more than 40,000 letters of thanks from Catholics and others who had listened to the programmes for decades.

Vatican Radio still transmits to Catholic populations that are culturally isolated, which increasingly include large groups of foreign workers.

In parts of the Middle East, for example, millions of Christian immigrants from Asia can tune in to Vatican Radio programmes in various languages. 

Other broadcasts reach Catholic minorities in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. 

Over the years, Vatican Radio has developed a staff that works not only in many languages but in 15 different alphabets.

It’s a unique resource at the Vatican, one that positions Vatican Radio to be a key player in the digital age.

At a Vatican event in mid-February, US Mgr Peter B Wells said in a speech that Vatican Radio has a crucial role in the modern world, as a voice for religious freedom, dialogue and harmony.

To do that, he said, the radio needs to be savvy about modern media and technology, which can deliver a message to millions of people on their cell phones or other personal devices.

“It is no longer enough to go on air, to publish, to write. Today, one needs to be present in the marketplaces, to update the Web pages, in order to reach a world ever hungrier for news,” Mgr Wells said. 

“In other words, not having new technical tools at one’s full disposal, or not knowing about the most current tools, will mean that one’s message will arrive late, will arrive wrong and might even arrive in vain,” he said.

Mgr Wells also spoke about media convergence at the Vatican. “Convergence,” a term used by Pope Benedict in 2008, has become a watchword among Vatican officials as they attempt to unify and coordinate the Vatican’s wide variety of communications tools - including TV, radio, newspaper, publishing and press office.

Mgr Wells said convergence has already moved ahead, with increased cooperation between Vatican Radio, the Vatican Television Centre and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

But he said there are much broader and bigger plans to “establish the permanent presence of the Holy See in the world of new media.”

The speech by Mgr Wells was significant in ways unique to the Vatican, and sent important signals. 

In effect, the US Monsignor was speaking for the Secretariat of State, where he is assessor for general affairs. He left no doubt that media convergence will not simply be a slogan at the Vatican.

In fact, Vatican officials are excited about the next big step in communications: the unveiling of a Vatican multimedia news site. 

The site will be a one-stop Internet portal for news and features from CTV, Vatican Radio, the Vatican newspaper, the Vatican press office and the missionary news agency Fides.

Officials plan to launch the project this year, perhaps as early as Easter.

When it’s up and running, many expect Vatican Radio to take a leading role in providing content - the latest transformation of an institution that began with a Pope and a microphone.

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LA Catholic leader Cardinal Roger Mahony steps aside

Cardinal Roger Mahony stepped down Sunday – the day he turned 75. 

KPCC reviews the record of the man some observers call the most powerful Catholic prelate in the United States.

Some 26 years ago, Roger Mahony became the first Los Angeles native to head its Catholic archdiocese.

He was born in Hollywood, but he began his priesthood in the Fresno area – a region he chose so he could minister to immigrant farm workers. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan – who became friends with Mahony in his early days as archbishop - says the Fresno days influenced his mission in LA.

"He had refused to go to a debutante ball because his whole interests were in poor farm workers and immigrants," says Riordan. "I talked him into it - in effect becoming close to the rich in Los Angeles because they’re the ones that can help him solve the problems of the poor."

Riordan says Mahony picked up on that right away but never lost his focus on immigrants and poor people.

When the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged the St. Vibiana Cathedral, Mahony moved to build what is now the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.

He took heat for spending close to $200 million on a building, when critics wanted him to spend that money on services for poor people. Riordan, a Catholic, contributed a million dollars to the construction effort.

He says poor Angelenos congregate at the new cathedral all the time.

"You go there on Sundays and see thousands of people there wandering outside the cathedral and you feel like the Catholic Church has come back as a church that represents the poor," Riordan says.

"Cardinal Roger Mahony is not just a great person, a great servant, a great man of faith, he’s one of our heroes," says activist Juan Jose Gutierrez.

Gutierrez demonstrated few weeks ago at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. The director of Vamos Unidos credits Mahony with making comprehensive immigration reform a top priority in the US Catholic Church. 

"Before him, maybe somewhere in the background, leaders in the Catholic Church in the United States would talk about that as an issue that needed to be thought about, but not as something that was really a 'burning issue,'" Gutierrez says.

Mahony has never shied away from criticizing federal immigration policy. In May 2009, in a speech at Fuller Theological seminary in Pasadena, he says that immigrants labor with dignity on jobs that are menial but important. 

"As a result, the United States receives the benefits of their toil and taxes without having to worry about protecting their rights, either in the courtroom or in the workplace," Mahony says.

But if some observers emphasize Mahony’s immigrants’ rights activism, others maintain that history will hold him responsible for mishandling the sexual abuse cases that came to light on his watch.

Joelle Casteix of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests was a victim of sexual abuse by a lay person when she studied at Mater Dei High School in Orange County. That’s outside the LA Archdiocese, but she says Mahony’s reputation on the issue crosses such boundaries. 

"His number one legacy will be the children who were sexually abused at the hands of priests that he knew about, that he covered up for and that he enabled to continue to molest kids over and over again," she says.

In 2007, the Los Angeles Archdiocese reached a $660-million settlement with more than 500 victims.

Raymond Boucher was the victims’ main attorney. He says Cardinal Mahony did the right thing in reaching the settlement - but he adds that the archbishop still won’t release important documents connected with the case.

"You know there’s so many things he’s done that he dserves credit for. And it’s a part of his personality," Boucher says. "The work with farmworkers, immigrants. The work he did to reach the settlements. On the other hand, he’s a powerful man who made some mistakes and continues to make some mistakes. So in that respect, he’s an enigma."

Mahony’s supporters say he did his best with a difficult situation and can hand over the leadership of the LA archdiocese with his head held high.

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'Anglo-Lutheran Catholics' to Enter Catholic Church through Anglican Ordinariate (Contribution)

Pope Benedict XVI has placed the commitment to the full communion of the Church at the forefront of his Papacy. 

This is evident in his love, respect and repeated overtures toward our Orthodox brethren, whom we recognize as a Church and whose priesthood and Sacraments we also recognize. 

However, this love is also evident in his outreach to the separated Christians of the Reformation communities of the West.

 I am not alone in calling Pope Benedict XVI the Pope of Christian Unity.

On Thursday I received an  email from Archbishop Irl Gladfelter, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church entitled, "New Information About The Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church." Readers of my articles on Catholic Online know I have written extensively concerning the Anglican Ordinariate. 

 

I mentioned this group of sincere Christians who desire full communion with the Catholic Church on July of 2010 in a piece entitled "Are Lutherans Next? Lutherans Seek Full Communion with Catholic Church". 

In that article I wrote: "I am in a dialogue with Archbishop Irl A. Gladfelter, CSP, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the  Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, a group of Lutherans who have embraced the Catholic Catechism and the teaching of the Magisterium. They are humbly knocking at the door of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith seeking a way into full communion. . .Some have said that their smallness and placement on "the fringes" of the Lutheran community makes them less representative. I recall that those were the same comments made about the "Traditional Anglican Communion" in their early efforts. They became the prophetic vehicle the Holy Spirit used to open up an historic breakthrough."

In a lengthy interview the Archbishop shared the journey of this group and their overture to Rome.

I decided to write little about them to protect their effort. 

However, I did write: "To be Catholic is to enter into the prayer of Jesus for the Unity of His Church. 

In Pope Benedict XVI's first Papal message he signaled his  commitment to this unity:

"Nourished and sustained by the Eucharist, Catholics cannot but feel encouraged to strive for the full unity for which Christ expressed so ardent a hope in the Upper Room. The Successor of Peter knows that he must make himself especially responsible for his Divine Master's supreme aspiration. Indeed, he is entrusted with the task of strengthening his brethren (cf. Lk 22: 32). With full awareness, therefore, at the beginning of his ministry in the Church of Rome which Peter bathed in his blood, Peter's current Successor takes on as his primary task the duty to work tirelessly to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers. This is his ambition, his impelling duty." 

Pope Benedict XVI has placed the commitment to the full communion of the Church at the forefront of his Papacy. 

This is evident in his love, respect and repeated overtures toward our Orthodox brethren, whom we recognize as a Church and whose priesthood and Sacraments we also recognize.

However, this love is also evident in his outreach to the separated Christians of the Reformation communities of the West. History is demonstrating that this Pope is making some very prophetic overtures toward that end. I am not alone in calling Pope Benedict XVI the Pope of Christian Unity. 

On January 14, 2011,upon the Holy Father's return from his apostolic visit to the United Kingdom where he raised Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman to the altar, I wrote "Prophetic Gesture? First Priests of the Anglican Ordinariate to be Ordained." 

In it I wrote: "Toward the end of his historic visit to the United Kingdom where he presided over the beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman, an Anglican convert who prayed for the reunion of the Anglican communion with Rome, Pope Benedict XVI  gathered with all of the Bishops. 

At the end of the address he spoke these words: "I asked you to be generous in implementing the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. This should be seen as a prophetic gesture that can contribute positively to the developing relations between Anglicans and Catholics. It helps us to set our sights on the ultimate goal of all ecumenical activity: the restoration of full ecclesial communion in the context of which the mutual exchange of gifts from our respective spiritual patrimonies serves as an enrichment to us all. Let us continue to pray and work unceasingly in order to hasten the joyful day when that goal can be accomplished."

When I read the Archbishops letter Thursday I was moved to prayer and rejoicing! Let me share some excerpts:

"Good Afternoon, Deacon Fournier:

 

"On February 21, 2011, it became public that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has invited the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church (ALCC) to enter the Catholic Church "through the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus," and that the ALCC has officially and unconditionally accepted their invitation. I am writing to inform you that this information is correct.

 "For documentation, attached are copies of the ALCC's petition, the official letter Of instruction from the CDF signed by Luis Ladaria, Secretary of the CDF; letters from Cardinal Kasper his receipt of the ALCC's petition and Archbishop Ladaria acknowledging the CDF'sreceipt of the ALCC's petition; and the ALCC's official written unconditional acceptance of the CDF's instruction, requesting entrance into the Catholic Church "through the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus" as soon as possible.

...Lest anyone get the idea that the ALCC's entry into the Catholic Church "through the provisions of Anglicanorum coetibus" indicates a change in the nature of the American Ordinatiate, please note the following, which the ALCC's Bishop of Florida, + Edward Steele, wrote on The Anglo-Catholic: "the letter . . . which we received in October from the CDF was (as we and all who have read it understand it) a response to our petition of May 2009 and nothing more. We do not assume nor speculate that our response from the CDF in any way changes the original intention of Anglicanorum coetibus. While we humbly and joyfully look forward to being part of the ordinariate, we feel that using the letter for any type of reinterpretation of the Holy Father's intentions is unwise."

I read  a report on this good news from Fr. Christopher Phillips entitled "Our Family is Growing" on The Anglo-Catholic, a wonderful site edited by Christian Campbell which covers all of the news of the growing Anglican Ordinariate.

However, I waited until it was confirmed by Archbishop Irl before writing this article.

Both the Archbishop and I are traveling this weekend. So, I have scheduled an interview with him next week.

I communicated an assurance of our prayer to him and wanted to keep our readers up to date concerning this news. In the comments following Fr Phillips article on the Anglo-Catholic, the Archbishop answers many of the questions our readers might ask about the Anglo-Catholic Lutheran Church.

Here is a response to the first question concerning the size of the group which he gave me permission to use: 

"I am the Metropolitan of the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic church. As reported to the editors of the "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches - 2011," world-wide, the ALCC has (in round numbers) 11,000 baptized members world-wide. In the U.S. there are between 4,000 and 5,000 baptized members. The majority both overseas and in the U.S. are Sudanese (from the newly independent nation of South Sudan.) The ALCC has a parish of approximately 300 baptized members in a parish in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum; and a parish in Berlin, Germany.

"It is difficult to estimate the size of an average ALCC parish. Some are larger than others. As is the case in many Continuing Anglican Churches, while some parishes are growing faster than others, by American standards, most would be considered on the small side.

"I would point out, however, that the ALCC does not admit anyone to membership who does not want to be fully Roman Catholic, and all are catechized using the "Catechism of the Catholic Church," the "Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church" and other books and resources used in Catholic RCIA classes.

"As for our clergy, all are required to sign and abide by an enhanced version of the Mandatum, which, in the form of a witnessed, dated, legally enforceable contract binds then "not to teach, preach, write, or publish anything contrary to the [Roman Catholic] Magisterium. This is enforced.

"I am sure that these firm doctrinal policies have affected our growth, but the decision was made years ago that the ALCC would rather remain small than risk developing a dissenting, "Protestant-oriented" faction which would cause difficulties when we enter the Catholic Church, which has always been our ecumenical goal."

We are living in an extraordinary time in Church history. Could it be that the divisions which characterized the Second Millennium of Church history will find their healing in this Third Millennium as the Holy Spirit, working through the Successor of Peter, moves the Church toward a model of full communion which restores both orthodoxy and orthopraxy within legitimate diversity?

Let us continue to join in the Prayer of Jesus, "May they be One" (John 17:21)

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