Benedict XVI: laity key to formulating, implementing social doctrine
“Christ’s lay faithful cannot be just passive users and executors, for they are key players in the actuation of the Church’s social doctrine, and valuable partners of the Church’s pastors in its formulation,” Pope Benedict XVI said on Monday at a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace to mark the 50th anniversary of Blessed John XXIII’s seminal social encyclical, Mater et magistra.
The Holy Father also stressed the importance of prudential reasoning and judgment regarding the implementation of the Church’s social doctrine, recalling Blessed John XXIII’s own words on the matter in Mater et magistra: “Differences of opinion in the application of principles can sometimes arise even among sincere Catholics. When this happens, they should be careful not to lose their respect and esteem for each other. Instead, they should strive to find points of agreement for effective and suitable action, and not wear themselves out in interminable arguments, and, under pretext of the better or the best, omit to do the good that is possible and therefore obligatory.”
Read more HERE
In the 1980s a false 'visionary' was travelling the world with her messages. She managed to deceive a Marian theologian from Dublin who promoted her throughout Ireland and Europe. Vassula Rydén, a divorcee, not Catholic, claiming, from November 1985, to be receiving private revelations dictated by an entity which she identifies with Jesus. The messages are available in 10 to 12 volumes.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued two warnings and invites all the faithful not to regard Mrs. her writings and speeches "as supernatural and to preserve the purity of the faith that the Lord has entrusted to the Church". The Congregation continues to refrain from an explicit condemnation,simply because Mrs Rydén, a Greek Orthodox, does not fall under the jurisdiction of the Church.
In 2003 another divorced woman appeared claiming to have 'conversations' with Jesus, the saints, God the Father, and I guess, everyone in Heaven. And she has written 'volumes'. No surprise.
In 2005 a thread started on a Catholic Internet forum named “The Catholic Community Forum.” A forum member going by the name “MDS” posted on September 17, 2005 an E-mail exchange that he had with a representative of the Direction for Our Times DFOT apostolate, later reproduced on another website, Unity Publishing. MDS was troubled that the DFOT representative was unwilling to name Anne’s Bishop. MDS wanted to write to the Bishop and ask for a statement as to where Anne and her apostolate canonically stood in his Diocese. MDS wasn't happy with the reply so he then took the E-mail exchange to the Catholic Community Forum for their thoughts. Unity Publishing picked up the thread and followed up the story. The woman 'Anne' was using a false name saying 'heaven' told her not to reveal her real name in order to protect her family. Richard Salbato from Unity Publishing exposed her real name as Kathryn Ann Clarke, a divorcee from Chicago.
Mr. Salbato disclosed the written source of his expose of Anne as Kathryn. He produced E-mail correspondence (goes with a warning of explicit language!) of an intimate conversation between Anne/Kathryn and her DFOT C.E.O. The correspondence revealed "a heavily vulgar woman who claimed to be receiving messages from heaven even while the correspondence was occurring." (Wiki). Her travel engagements were reduced to zero and she indicated to Catholic writer Deal Hudson that she only travels when [heaven] tells her to travel.
Getting back to MDS and the bishop in question. 'Anne' or her associates sought the Imprimatur which was obtained on September 8, 2005 by Bishop Escaler of the Philippines.
Bishop Escaler was retired as of 1997, which has led to questions about the validity of his Imprimatur for her Volumes. For a more detailed analysis on this read here.
It turns out that 'Anne' the lay apostle lives in Co. Cavan, Ireland and her bishop is Leo O'Reilly. He granted permission in 2006 for her materials to be disseminated. He states, "In so far as I am able to judge, she is orthodox in her writings and teaching." On the DFOT website they quote the Bishop:
I have known "Anne," the founder of the movement, for several years. She is a Catholic in good standing in the diocese, a wife and mother of small children, and a woman of deep spirituality.
Bishop O'Reilly never once actually states in his 2006 letter that he has given permission for her materials to be disseminated. What he does say is that she does not publish anything without his permission. It is presumed that he has given permission, but his letter is not precise. Fine. But she is claiming to have supernatural 'conversations' and he is ignoring the vulgar 'conversations' she had with her CEO publisher. Why is this? Questions need to be asked.
Finally, the 'volumes' are being published and distributed by none other than Veritas, the publishing company and chain of bookstores owned by the Irish Bishops Conference.
Recommended reading - the E-mail correspondence between Kathryn Ann Clarke and her CEO.
While recognising the validity of Unity Publishing's findings on Anne the lay apostle, Cailin does not endorse the site itself.
A young man recently sent me a private message on Facebook to tell me I'm wasting my time talking about God, because God doesn't exist.
I replied, "I believe He does indeed exist".
He responded, "Do you have any evidence to prove that God exists?"
"Yes. Jesus.", I answered.
When someone claims to have a supernatural vision of, for example, Our Lady, the Church does not say that it believes that Our Lady is appearing, but instead that it believes the person who claims that they have had a vision is telling the truth. The individual goes through a rigorous examination to see if they are a person of honesty, credibility, truthfulness, and of sound mind and spirit.
So how do we know that Jesus is the Son of God? A good place to begin is to study the testimony of the witnesses. The disciples witnessed Jesus perform miracles, they witnessed Him calming the sea, they witnessed Him on Mount Tabor with Moses and Elijah, and heard the voice of God say "This is my Son, the beloved, listen to Him". And above all St. John the Evangelist tells us:
"But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. And he who saw it, has given testimony, and his testimony is true. And he knows that he what he says is true; that you also may believe." John 19:33-35
A closer look at the word 'true' reveals:
True (ἀληθινὴ) Genuine, according to the true ideal of what testimony should be.
True (ἀληθῆ) Literally, true things. As distinguished from false. Thus, by the use of the two words for true, there are brought out, as Westcott remarks, the two conditions which testimony ought to satisfy; the first, that he who gives it should be competent to speak with authority; and the second, that the account of his experience should be exact." Bible.cc
Three days after his death, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalen and the other disciples. What Jesus said came true. And on the third day......
Pope Benedict XVI's Wednesday General Audience is spiritual food for the soul. On Wednesday the 9th February, the Pope talked about Saint Peter Canisius.
Catholic Teaching Statement on the So-Called "Morning-After Pill" Pontifical Academy for Life, October 31, 2000
It is a well-known chemical product (of the hormonal type) which has frequently been presented by many in the field and by the mass media as a mere contraceptive or, more precisely, as an "emergency contraceptive", which can be used within a short time after a presumably fertile act of sexual intercourse, should one wish to prevent the continuation of an unwanted pregnancy.
The inevitable critical reactions of those who have raised serious doubts about how this product works, namely, that its action is not merely "contraceptive" but "abortifacient", have received the very hasty reply that such concerns appear unfounded, since the morning-after pill has an "anti-implantation" effect, thus implicitly suggesting a clear distinction between abortion and interception (preventing the implantation of the fertilized ovum, i.e., the embryo, in the uterine wall).
Considering that the use of this product concerns fundamental human goods and values, to the point of involving the origins of human life itself, the Pontifical Academy for Life feels the pressing duty and definite need to offer some clarifications and considerations on the subject, reaffirming moreover already well-known ethical positions supported by precise scientific data and reinforced by Catholic doctrine.
The morning-after pill is a hormone-based preparation (it can contain oestrogens, oestrogen/progestogens or only progestogens) which, within and no later than 72 hours after a presumably fertile act of sexual intercourse, has a predominantly "anti-implantation" function, i.e., it prevents a possible fertilized ovum (which is a human embryo), by now in the blastocyst stage of its development (fifth to sixth day after fertilization), from being implanted in the uterine wall by a process of altering the wall itself. The final result will thus be the expulsion and loss of this embryo. Only if this pill were to be taken several days before the moment of ovulation could it sometimes act to prevent the latter (in this case it would function as a typical "contraceptive"). However, the woman who uses this kind of pill does so in the fear that she may be in her fertile period and therefore intends to cause the expulsion of a possible new conceptus; above all, it would be unrealistic to think that a woman, finding herself in the situation of wanting to use an emergency contraceptive, would be able to know exactly and opportunely her current state of fertility.
The decision to use the term "fertilized ovum" to indicate the earliest phases of embryonic development can in no way lead to an artificial value distinction between different moments in the development of the same human individual. In other words, if it can be useful, for reasons of scientific description, to distinguish with conventional terms (fertilized ovum, embryo, fetus, etc.) different moments in a single growth process, it can never be legitimate to decide arbitrarily that the human individual has greater or lesser value (with the resulting variation in the duty to protect it) according to its stage of development.
It is clear, therefore, that the proven "anti-implantation" action of the morning-after pill is really nothing other than a chemically induced abortion. It is neither intellectually consistent nor scientifically justifiable to say that we are not dealing with the same thing. Moreover, it seems sufficiently clear that those who ask for or offer this pill are seeking the direct termination of a possible pregnancy already in progress, just as in the case of abortion. Pregnancy, in fact, begins with fertilization and not with the implantation of the blastocyst in the uterine wall, which is what is being implicitly suggested.
Consequently, from the ethical standpoint the same absolute unlawfulness of abortifacient procedures also applies to distributing, prescribing and taking the morning-after pill. All who, whether sharing the intention or not, directly co-operate with this procedure are also morally responsible for it.
A further consideration should be made regarding the use of the morning-after pill in relation to the application of Law 194/78, which in Italy regulates the conditions and procedures for the voluntary termination of pregnancy. Saying that the pill is an "anti-implantation" product, instead of using the more transparent term "abortifacient", makes it possible to avoid all the obligatory procedures required by Law 194 in order to terminate a pregnancy (prior interview, verification of pregnancy, determination of growth stage, time for reflection, etc.), by practising a form of abortion that is completely hidden and cannot be recorded by any institution. All this seems, then, to be in direct contradiction to the correct application of Law 194, itself debatable.
In the end, since these procedures are becoming more widespread, we strongly urge everyone who works in this sector to make a firm objection of moral conscience, which will bear courageous and practical witness to the inalienable value of human life, especially in view of the new hidden forms of aggression against the weakest and most defenceless individuals, as is the case with a human embryo.
THE Pope will be officially told the Irish Catholic Church is "on the edge" of national collapse and has only five to 10 years to make a radical recovery by giving laymen and women a greater say in decision-making.
Cooney reports that Cardinal Sean O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston, gave this commitment at a private meeting with members of the recently formed Catholic Priests' Association.
Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery, revealed that Cardinal O'Mallley engaged in "serious discussion" with the association. Fr. Flannery was addressing the annual meeting of The People of God, (Pobal Dé), a lay reform group, who want more involvement in Church leadership and decision-making by the laity.
Fr Flannery said Cardinal O'Malley told the association that the Irish church had a decade, at most, to avoid falling over the edge and "becoming like other European countries" where religion is marginal to society.
MESSAGE TO CARDINAL O'MALLEY:
Do not listen to the prophets of doom, who wish to change the RCC to suit their own lifestyles and Celtic spirituality. The Holy Spirit is very alive and active in Ireland. The Lord has been preparing faithful people for many years now to go out into the whole world and proclaim the Good News. The Lord is in charge, but before the new evangelisation could begin, the 'filth' in the Church needed to be cleared out. Dirty and clean water cannot be mixed in the same glass without sullying the purity of the water. So, yes, the time is here. The ground has been prepared. The seeds are being sown at this very time. And the harvest will be rich. In due time.
Michael D Higgins, Labour Party, talked to Newstalk Radio on Friday 11th February about David Quinn, Iona Institute. The original broadcast can be found here. If you go to part 3 of the show and jump to 53:30.
David wrote a great piece in the Irish Independent on the 11th entitled
"Any vote for the Labour Party is a vote for abortion".
He simply pointed out the hypocrisy of the Labour Party for canvassing outside Sunday Masses, looking for votes from Catholics who no doubt are pro-life. David pointed out the fact that many of the Sunday Mass goers don't actually know that Labour intends to bring in abortion on demand, based on the UK model.
Higgins' opening line is
"This is a scandalous article".
Where's the scandal? David is speaking the truth. Is the scandal not that Labour want to introduce abortion on demand? It is scandalous that they are attempting to deceive Catholic voters. They want to destroy the life of the unborn right up to birth in the name of the goddess 'choice'? This is scandalous.
He says there is an arrogant misstatement in every paragraph! He also calls it rubbish:
"I know all this rubbish and the black stuff that's in it".
What on earth is he into? What black stuff? He calls the 'Alive' newspaper a 'rag' newspaper,(run by the Dominicans). Any man who would react so strongly to the truth turns the torch right around on his own face.
And this man is running to be the President of Ireland next November. God help us.
The Association of Catholic Priests, representing about 400 of Ireland’s 4,500 priests has made an urgent plea to the country’s bishops to postpone the introduction of the new English translation of the Missal for at least another five years.
Representatives from the priests’ group said the proposed literal translations from Latin had produced texts that were “archaic, elitist and obscure and not in keeping with the natural rhythm, cadence and syntax of the English language”.
What? Do they think the Sacred Liturgy is a novel?
Fr Dermot Lane, president of Mater Dei Institute of Education in Dublin, said the priests want the bishops to begin consulting with priests, liturgical committees and lay people to develop new texts that would inspire and encourage the faithful.
These priests do not represent the laity. Is it not very presumptuous of the priests to decide for us lay people what will or will not inspire and encourage us? Such arrogance. They seem to think that the Irish people will not be able to 'understand' the new translation. We are mature adults, with mature faith, who love and are faithful to the Magisterium of the Church. To be quite honest I'd rather listen to the Pope and our bishops and embrace what they have proposed rather than rebellious, anti-hierarchical, sometimes heretical priests. One priest, Fr Gerard Alwill, a priest in the Diocese of Kilmore, said:
“We are saying very clearly that this new translation of the Missal is not acceptable… We are deeply concerned that if these new texts are imposed, they could create chaos in our church. Our Church doesn’t need chaos at this time."
Fr PJ Madden said the association feared that the imposition by the Vatican of a revised prayer book containing arcane language would lead to
"chaos and confusion".
Is it not possible that the 1970 translation in use for the past forty years is seriously flawed and in fact has caused much confusion among the laity. There is much less ‘full and active participation’ in the Mass in Ireland now than there was 40 years ago. Perhaps the current English translation, ‘a new and improved version’ of which the ACP would welcome, is one of the reasons for this?
Surely the new English translation of the Roman Missal represents "a catechetical moment for the whole Church" in the country. I look forward to the moment when only the priest says "Through Him, with Him, in Him" and the congregation says with one voice "Amen"! I look forward to the moment when the congregation will kneel at the Consecration and at the appropriate parts of the Mass instead of the situation we have at the moment where the people either don't know or don't care. What have the Priests of the Priests' Association done in the last 30 years to address that? Nothing!
The liberals in the Church are scared and scare-mongering. Their drift from Holy Tradition to the point of protestantising the Catholic Church has finally been road blocked.
Deo gracias. *******************************************************************************
I received this book today, and it is even more masterful than I hoped it would be. I am an investigative medical journalist. When I first interviewed Ted Green years ago, I urged him to write a book for a popular audience. He has done so, and it's truly extraordinary.
Green, you may recall, is the preeminent scientist and former head of the AIDS Prevention Research Project at Harvard, who scandalized the rulers of this present age in 2009 when he publicly agreed with Pope Benedict XVI that condom promotions are not the solution to AIDS in Africa, that the only way to reverse the pandemic is to do what Ugandans did when the pandemic began: to promote fidelity as the pillar of our AIDS response.
Although Green defended the Pope on the pages of the Washington Post, he is not a Catholic nor even a Christian. And he's certainly not a conservative. This outspoken, liberal whistle-blower takes on blind U.S. politicians and the tired old "AIDS establishment" in ways that plainly demonstrate he's his own man,a truly original thinker.
An uncompromising defender of Africans' rights to prevent the pandemic their way, anthropologist Green has long recognized the simple truth that millions of Africans lying in their graves today would still be alive if the "AIDS establishment" (a powerful coalition of Western AIDS organizations who've misspent billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars) had only heeded the African solution to AIDS and had promoted fidelity first.
Further, he has the curriculum vitae and the scientific ammunition to prove it.
Read this book. Absorb it. It will completely change your thinking about AIDS prevention in Africa. This book is a job brilliantly done. Green has suffered much for the truth, and he has not given up. In his defense of the weak and powerless, he is a hero who has risked his entire illustrious career in an attempt to get out the truth. Anyone who angrily attacks this work is knowingly or unknowingly in league with those who are promoting misleading public-health messages that have needlessly claimed millions of African lives.
photo via @kathrynlopez A 13-year study of pregnancy-associated deaths, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that the maternal mortality rate associated with abortion is 2.95 times higher than the maternal mortality rate associated with pregnancies carried to term.
The study included the entire population of women 15-49 years of age in Finland, 1987-2000. The researchers linked birth and abortion records to death certificates.
The annual death rate of women who had abortions in the previous year was also 46% higher than that of non-pregnant women.
Women who carried to term (gave birth) had a significantly lower death rate than non-pregnant women.
Non-pregnant women had 57.0 deaths per 100,000, compared to only 28.2 for women who carried to term (gave birth), 51.9 for women who miscarried, and 83.1deaths for women who had abortions.
[Gissler M, Berg C, Bouvier-Colle MH, Buekens P. Pregnancy-associated mortality after birth, spontaneous abortion or induced abortion in Finland, 1987-2000. Am J Ob Gyn 2004; 190:422-427. Finland National Research and Development Center]
The RTE 'Would You Believe' documentary, "Unspeakable Crimes", has made an allegation about the Vatican, using a leaked, highly confidential letter, by Luciano Storero, the then Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland. He died in 2000.
The programme stated:
The bishops met to discuss the letter. One bishop's hand written notes reveal how he understood the directive from Rome. " We have received a mandate from the Congregation for the Clergy asking us to conceal the reported crime of a priest".
All the mainstream media carried the story that the "Vatican Warned Bishops Not To Report Child Abuse"!
Having read a bit re the above, I would have to disagree.
the letter nowhere instructed Irish Bishops to disregard civil law reporting requirements.
The “moral and canonical concerns” mentioned in the letter, according to Fr. Lombardi, the Vatican spokesperson, concerned the sacrament of confession.
A main concern of the letter is to ensure that when a bishop takes action against an abuser, his edict should stick – suggesting a fairly tough line on abuse, rather than a drive to cover it up.
The letter does not directly forbid bishops from reporting abusers to police and prosecutors. Instead, it communicates the judgment of one Vatican office that mandatory reporting policies raise concerns. It’s not a policy directive, in other words, but an expression of opinion.
The Vatican did not want the Irish Bishops to act independently of the Congregation of the Clergy. Because there was no unified policy from the Vatican to that date, they wanted to formulate a policy document for the English speaking world and wanted time to do this.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — now Pope Benedict — successfully petitioned Pope John Paul II to grant in 2001 his Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith jurisdiction over all cases of clerical sex abuse of minors. That decision began the process of unifying the Vatican’s response and sidelined officials like Cardinal Castrillon who were pursuing divergent policies.
It does appear however, that there were power struggles going on between different departments and if any Cardinal was pursuing his own agenda to protect himself and/or other guilty priests then that Cardinal should be questioned.
The Vatican's currently stated policy, which specifies that "civil law concerning reporting of crimes to the appropriate authorities should always be followed."
Cailin's new year resolution: to learn the Our Father in Latin!
Pater Noster, qui es in caelis,
sanctificétur nomen Tuum,
adveniat Regnum Tuum,
fiat volúntas tua, sicut in caelo et in terra.
Panem nostrum cotidiánum da nobis hódie,
et dimitte nobis débita nostra,
sicut et nos dimittímus debitóribus nostris;
et ne nos indúcas in tentationem,
sed libera nos a malo.
In memory of Pope John Paul II. Music from Abba Pater CD. TRANSLATION: 1:03 You are My son, today I have begotten you. 1:11 I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me. 1:18 These are prophetic words. They speak of God, who is the Father 1:25 in the highest and most authentic sense of the word. 1:32 Isaiah says: "Lord, You are our Father 1:39 we are the clay, and You are our potter; 1:47 we are all the work of Your hands." 2:00 Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me." 2:10 Can a woman forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? 2:17 Though she may forget, I will not forsake you 2:34 It is significant that in the passages from the prophet Isaiah... 2:40 the paternity of God is filled with images inspired by maternity. 2:51 Jesus refers again and again to the paternity of God in regard to mankind 2:59 by alluding to numerous passages contained in the Old Testament. 3:06 For Jesus, God is not only the Father of Israel and the Father of mankind, 3:12 but also his Father and my Father. 3:19 Our Father in heaven 3:25 hallowed be Your name 3:32 Your kingdom come, Your will be done 3:40 on earth as it is in heaven. 3:48 Give us this day our daily bread 3:54 and forgive us our debts, 3:58 as we also have forgiven our debtors, 4:04 and do not bring us to the time of trial, 4:10 but rescue us from the evil one. 4:22 Our Father in heaven 4:28 hallowed be Your name 4:35 Your kingdom come, Your will be done 4:42 on earth as it is in heaven. 4:51 Give us this day our daily bread 4:58 and forgive us our debts, 5:03 as we also have forgiven our debtors, 5:10 and do not bring us to the time of trial.
****************************************************************************** Fr. Z's conclusion is that the new idea of the Our Father is actually the old idea:
Praeceptis salutaribus moniti, et divina institutione formati, audemus dicere: (Instructed by Thy saving precepts, and following divine directions, we presume to say:) ...
The Our Father is a prayer given by God himself for us, for our salvation, so by following God's directions on this prayer we may boldly presume to say: Pater Noster.....
The Vatican has announced who will sit on the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the new Evangelization, the agency headed by Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella. (See here)
One of the Cardinals appointed is Cardinal Schonborn. Earlier this year, an article by John Thavis, Catholic News Service, on Cardinal Schonborn, reported the following:
In an unusual public chastisement, the Vatican said a series of statements by Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schonborn have contributed to widespread misunderstandings on issues related to clerical sexual abuse.
In particular, the Vatican took issue with Cardinal Schonborn's statement that Cardinal Angelo Sodano, former secretary of state, had blocked an investigation of sexual abuse and offended victims by calling their complaints "petty gossip."
In addition, Cardinal Schonborn was said to have suggested that the church reconsider its position toward remarried divorced Catholics, who are not allowed to take Communion, and toward homosexuals in stable relationships. He also has made statements that appear to support reconsideration of the mandatory celibacy rule in the Western church. see complete article here.
So how did this man get a top job in the New Evangelisation? Appointing young Cardinals is not always the wisest thing to do. Remember Comiskey?
Any others you might ask? Yes.
Archbishop Bernard Longley who attacked faithful pro-life/pro-family Catholics for telling inconvenient truths about the Soho Masses. One of those truths is the support for homosexual parenting among the Soho Masses organisers. Terence Weldon, a member of the Soho Masses Pastoral Council who distributes Holy Communion at the Masses, is also a homosexualist blogger who writes in favour of homosexual parenting.
Thousands of Pakistani police were on high alert in Lahore on Wednesday ahead of the funeral for Punjab’s provincial governor, Salam Taseer. Taseer was assassinated by one of his security guards Tuesday in Islamabad because of his opposition to the nation’s controversial blasphemy law. The governor had also requested a pardon for Asia Bibi, the Christian mother of five sentenced to death under the law. “Taseer was a vocal and bold and courageous man,” says Shahbaz Bhatti, Federal Minister for Minorities and member of the Pakistan Peoples Party.
More on Elton John from an article in the Independent:
The report ran: "Elton John has become a parent" -- even though the sperm-donor was in fact his partner David Furnish. But the same report also declared that both men had "fathered" the child, when we all know only one did. So: what do the words "parent" and "father" mean any more? Moreover, when we read that the entire affair cost €150,000, does the word "dollar" have the same negotiable meaning as the words "parent" and "father"?
Well, actually no, because the US Treasury has rules about the meaning of dollar: it protects the value of the currency as being vital for the state of the US economy. There is of course no longer anyone who will protect the meaning of words like "father", "mother", "parent", "family" or even "birth certificate". In this new moral order, unlike the world of finance, nothing is quite ever what it says on the tin. A birth certificate is now an ideological declaration, not a documentary fact. Kevin Myers
May Europe be reconciled to its own Christian roots, which are fundamental for understanding its past, present and future role in history; in this way it will come to experience justice, concord and peace by cultivating a sincere dialogue with all peoples.
It's pretty clear from the Pope's message for World Day of Peace that what we are seeing in Europe is the beginning of forms of political and ideological totalitarianism which emphasise public power while demeaning and restricting freedom of conscience, thought and religion as potential competitors. Whenever the legal system at any level, national or international, denies citizens the right to express publicly their religion and the right to obey their conscience, it becomes an instrument of injustice and not justice. To reject the freedom of religion is not only unjust to individuals and to God, but also to itself. Since humans are not
a creation of the state, they cannot be manipulated by the state, but must rather be acknowledged and respected by it.
Today in his homily for January 1, 2011 on the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the Pope stressed once again as he had in his Peace Day message, that religious freedom is the essential element of the rule of law. “you cannot deny it,” he said, “without, at the same time, undermining all rights and fundamental freedoms.”
No better way to end the old year and ring in the New!
Te Deum laudamus: te Dominum confitemur. Te aeternum Patrem omnis terra veneratur. Tibi omnes Angeli, tibi Caeli et universae Potestates: Tibi Cherubim et Seraphim incessabili voce proclamant: Sanctus: Sanctus: Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra maiestatis gloriae tuae. Te gloriosus Apostolorum chorus: Te Prophetarum laudabilis numerus: Te Martyrum candidatus laudat exercitus. Te per orbem terrarum sancta confitetur Ecclesia: Patrem immensae maiestatis: Venerandum tuum verum et unicum Filium: Sanctum quoque Paraclitum Spiritum. Tu Rex gloriae, Christe. Tu Patris sempiternus es Filius. Tu ad liberandum suscepturus hominem, non horruisti Virginis uterum. Tu devicto mortis aculeo, aperuisti credentibus regna caelorum. Tu ad dexteram Dei sedes, in gloria Patris. Iudex crederis esse venturus. (Kneel) Te ergo quaesumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemisti. Aeterna fac cum Sanctis tuis in gloria numerari. Salvum fac populum tuum Domine, et benedic haereditati tuae. Et rege eos, et extolle illos usque in aeternum. Per singulos dies, benedicamus te. Et laudamus nomen tuum in saeculum, et in saeculum saeculi. Dignare Domine die isto, sine peccato nos custodire. Miserere nostri Domine, miserere nostri. Fiat misericordia tua Domine super nos, quemadmodum speravimus in te. In te Domine speravi: non confundar in aeternum.
English Translation
We praise Thee, O God: we acknowledge Thee to be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee and the Father everlasting. To Thee all Angels: to Thee the heavens and all the Powers therein. To Thee the Cherubim and Seraphim cry with unceasing voice: Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Hosts. The heavens and the earth are full of the majesty of Thy glory. Thee the glorious choir of the Apostles. Thee the admirable company of the Prophets. Thee the white-robed army of Martyrs praise. Thee the Holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge. The Father of infinite Majesty. Thine adorable, true and only Son Also the Holy Ghost the Paraclete. Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ. Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. Thou having taken upon Thee to deliver man didst not abhor the Virgin's womb. Thou having overcome the sting of death didst open to believers the kingdom of heaven. Thou sittest at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father. We believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge. We beseech Thee, therefore, help Thy servants: whom Thou has redeemed with Thy precious Blood. Make them to be numbered with Thy Saints in glory everlasting. Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine inheritance. Govern them and lift them up forever. Day by day we bless Thee. And we praise Thy name forever: and world without end. Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day to keep us without sin. Have mercy on us, O Lord: have mercy on us. Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us: as we have hoped in Thee. O Lord, in Thee have I hoped: let me never be confounded.
It's been quite a busy year for Pope Benedict XVI. Besides his almost daily meetings with ambassadors groups, heads of States, and his weekly Wednesday audiences, his Sunday Angelus blessing for pilgrims, this year he took five trips outside of Italy, to Malta, Portugal, Cyprus, Spain, and the first state visit for a Pope to the United Kingdom. He beatified Blessed John Henry Newman, the first beatification Mass ever on English soil. He made four trips within Italy, created twenty four new cardinals, canonised six new saints. He established a new Pontifical Council for promoting the New Evangelisation and he concluded the Year for Priests this past June, with possibly the largest meeting of priests and the largest concelebrated Mass in history, with 15,000 priests present. He also recently led the Synod of Bishops on the Middle East.
Among his many writings and regular homilies and discourses throughout the year, of note this year are his Apostolic Exhortation on the "Word of God", his "Letter to Seminarians" and his "Letter to the Catholics of Ireland".
The Holy Father's schedule would be quite daunting for anyone, but for a man of 83 years old, it is nothing short of remarkable.
In the words of Peter Seewald, with whom he published an extensive and exclusive interview in a book entitled "Light of the World", where he says
"this man is a servant of the Church, a great giver, who completely exhausts himself in his giving.
In the next few days the Holy Father will celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by giving of himself more. Tomorrow at noon he will give his annual Urbi et Orbi blessing, the blessing for the city of Rome and for the world. On Sunday, this year marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, he will eat lunch with about 300 of the poorest of the poor here in Rome, who are served by the Missionaries of Charity, at "Dona de Maria" , Gift of Mary, here at the Vatican. He will lead Vespers on the December 31st and celebrate Mass on January 1st here at St. Peter's, for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. On January 5th he will visit with and bring gifts to children in Rome's Policlinico Gemelli hospital. On January 6th he will be here at the Mass of the Epiphany, and on January 9th, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Holy Father will baptise 22 infants in the Sistine Chapel, during Mass for the children and their parents.
