Pope asks Lebanese politicians to find the ways of reconciliation
Vatican City, Feb.17,2008 (vaticans.org) - In his first public appearance after the week of Lenten spiritual exercises in the Vatican, Benedict XVI launched an appeal and a prayer for Lebanon, where since last November the parliament has not been able to meet to vote for the new president. The formal obstacles come above all from the pro-Syrian parties and from the Shiite group Hezbollah, but there have also been assassinations of parliamentarians and car bombs that have fostered fear and intransigence."I follow with concern", the pontiff said, "the persistent manifestations of tension in Lebanon. For almost three months, the country has been unable to choose a head of state. The efforts to resolve the crisis and the support offered by many prominent representatives of the international community, even if they have not yet obt ...Read More
A Revelation on the Mountain
by Fr.Leo Edgar O.P.17 February 2008Second Sunday of Lent (A)Readings:Genesis 12:1-4Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse; and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves." So Abram went, as the LORD had told him; and Lot ...Read More
Vatican tightens standards for sainthood
Vatican City, Feb. 13, 2008 (vaticans.org) - The Vatican will advise bishops around the world this next week to be more rigorous in their selection of the candidates they propose for sainthood, ANSA reports.A 20-page document to be presented in the Vatican on February 18 will ask bishops to show “greater sobriety and rigor” in accepting requests to begin inquiries into a prospective saint’s life.Initial investigations into the life of a proposed saint take place in the diocese where he or she died. The local bishop must begin the inquiry and oversee the first phase, which produces a dossier of evidence to be sent to Rome. The dossier is then examined by Vatican officials, who decide w ...Read More
Pope: Prayer nourishes hope, because nothing expresses the reality of God in our lives better than prayer with faith
Vatican City, Feb. 6, 2008 (vaticans.org) - Prayer, "the engine of the world" and the first weapon for winning the battle against evil, together with penance and fasting, characterise the period of Lent, which is "a providential occasion for making our hope more vibrant and firm". This is also accomplished through suffering, which opens the way to participating in the consolation of God. Centred around hope, the object of his second encyclical, Benedict XVI observed the "Lenten station" of Ash Wednesday this afternoon with a celebration in the ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina. It was a long celebration that began not far away in the evocative Church of Saint Anselm on the Aventine hill, on a dazzling afternoon. From here, after a moment of prayer, the penitential procession got underway, with the participation of cardinals, bishops, priests, and faithful, in addition to the Benedict ine monks of Saint Anselm and the Dominicans of Santa S ...Read More
Pope Benedict XVI has revised the Good Friday liturgy prayer for the conversion of Jews
Vatican City, Feb. 6, 2008 (vaticans.org) - Pope Benedict XVI has revised the prayer in the traditional form of the Good Friday liturgy. The February 6 edition of L'Osservatore Romano-- published, according to the custom with the Vatican newspaper, on the afternoon of February 5-- carries an announcement from the Secretariat of State, saying that the Holy Father has ordered a change in the text of the 1962 Roman Missal. The change applies to the "extraordinary form" of the liturgy; it does not alter the Good Friday prayers of the Novus Ordo. Some Jewish leaders had urged the Pope to revise the text of the Good Friday prayer in the traditional liturgy, which had referred to the "blindness" of the J ...Read More
Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi confirms government concession
Hanoi, Feb. 4, 2008 (vaticans.org) - Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet of Hanoi has confirmed reports that the government of Vietnam has agreed to restore the offices of the apostolic nuncio in Hanoi after more than a month of public protests by lay Catholics. In a February 1 statement, the archbishop welcomed the government's action and said that it was due in large part to the solidarity among Catholics in Vietnam, the support of Catholic news media outlets elsewhere, and the diplomatic intercession of the Vatican. Since December 18, thousands of Catholics in Hanoi had been organizing daily prayer vigils outside the former nunciature in Hanoi, pleading for return of the building that had been confiscated by the Communist leadership in 1959. On February 1, CWN and other media outlets learned that the protests had brought a stunning victory, with the agreement from the government to turn the building over to Church leaders. The government's surprising concession- ...Read More
Pope Benedict XVI and church leaders will begin their annual Lenten Retreat on Sunday
Vatican City, Feb. 5, 2008 (vaticans.org) - Pope Benedict XVI and the leaders of the Roman Curia will begin their annual Lenten Retreat on Sunday, February 10. Cardinal Albert Vanhoye, SJ, the former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, has been appointed by Pope Benedict as the preacher for this year's retreat. The French Jesuit scholar also secretary to the Pontifical Biblical Commission from 1990 to 2001, serving under then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger-- who, in 2006, elevated Father Vanhoye to the College of Cardinal s. The Lenten Retreat, held in the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the apostolic palace, includes three preached meditations each day along with Mass and Benedict , Eucharistic adoration, and the Liturgy of the Hours, and ample time for private prayer and contemplation. During the week-long retreat, all papal audiences will be cancelled-- including the regular weekly public audience on Wednesday-- and the regular operations of Vatican offices wil ...Read More
After 30 years Iloilo city Catholics celebrates first latin mass
Iloilo City, Philippines, Jan.26,2008 (vaticans.org) – For the first time in more than 30 years, the Catholics of Iloilo City have participated in a Mass in Latin. More than 700 faithful attended the celebration in the parish of Mandurriao this week. It was the first "Tridentine Mass" celebrated on the island since Vatican Council II decided to introduce the Mass in local languages.Maria Legarda, 56 years old and a member of the parish's pastoral council for responsible voting - recalls that the last time she took part in a Mass in Latin was after the second world war. "We understand Latin because we learned and got used to it", she says. "Celebrating it in the traditional way is inspiring for us".The celebrants were Msgr Juanito Ma. Tuvilla, Fr Oscar Andrada, Fr Winifredo Losaria, and Fr Renato Cuadras. The priests used Latin for everything but the homily, fo ...Read More
First World Apostolic Divine Mercy Congress on anniversary of John Paul II’s death
Rome, Italy, Jan.25, 2008 (vaticans.org) - On Thursday January 31, at the Holy See’s press office, the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, will announce the details of the first World Apostolic Congress on Divine Mercy, which will coincide with the anniversary of the death of the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II.The event, which will take place in the Paul VI Hall at the Vatican from April 2-6, 2008, will be presented by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, OP, Archbishop of Vienna (Austria) and the President of Congress; Fr Patrice Chocholski, General Coordinator of the Congress and Msgr. Mauro Parmeggiani, Secretary General of the Vicariate of Rome.Cardinal Schönborn recently pointed out that the opening day of the congress would deliberately coincid ...Read More
Brawl between Catholic demonstrators and police in Vietnam
Hanoi, Vietnam, Jan.25, 2008 (vaticans.org) – Scuffles broke out today in Hanoi between Catholic demonstrators and police a day after a Vietnamese government delegation visited the Archbishop of Hanoi, Mgr Joseph Ngô Quang Kiêt, in a gesture meant to reduce tensions sparked by peaceful demonstrations by Vietnamese Catholics ongoing since 18 December in favour of the request made by the diocese that the building that once housed the Apostolic Delegation be returned to the Church.Today’s incident came as some 2,000 people—priest, men and women religious and faithful—gathered to protest. Priests and worshippers left St Joseph’s Cathedral in procession (see photo) and made their way to the nearby building that used to be the home of the Apostolic Delegation.The proc ...Read More
Message of Pope Benedict XVI - 42nd World Communication Day, Sunday 4th May 2008
From the Vatican, 24 January 2008, Feast of Saint Francis de Sales.The Media: At the Crossroads between Self-Promotion and Service.Searching for the Truth in order to Share it with Others.Dear Brothers and Sisters!1. The theme of this year’s World Communications Day – “The Media: At the Crossroads between Self-Promotion and Service. Searching for the Truth in order to Share it with Others” – sheds light on the important role of the media in the life of individuals and society. Truly, there is no area of human experience, especially given the vast phenomenon of globalization, in which the media have not become an integral part of interpersonal relations and of social, e ...Read More
Lecture by the Holy Father Benedict XVI at the La Sapienza University in Rome
The following is the Address that the Holy Father intended to give during a Visit to La Sapienza University in Rome on Thursday, 17 January: Magnificent Rector,Political and Civil Authorities,Distinguished Teachers, Technical and Administrative Staff,Dear Young Students,It is a cause of deep joy for me to meet the community of La Sapienza, the University of Rome, on the occasion of the inauguration of the academic year. For centuries this University has been a part of the story and the life of the city of Rome, harvesting the fruits of the best intellects in every field of knowledge. Both in the past, when the institution depended directly on ecclesiastical authority (having been founded at the behest of P ...Read More
Thousands of Christians and Muslims attend the funeral of Fr Reynaldo Jesus Albores Roda
Datu Odin Sinsuat, Philippines, Jan.23, 2008 (vaticans.org) – Thousands of Christians and Muslims attended the funeral Mass of Fr Reynaldo Jesus Albores Roda who was shot to death on January 15 by allegedly pro-al-Qaeda militants. The Oblate clergyman was killed when he tried to resist about ten armed men who had barged into the chapel at Our Lady School in Tabawan, near Tawi-Tawi. A Muslim teacher, Omar Taub, was abducted.Pupils from Catholic schools raised banners outside the cathedral demanding “justice for Father Roda” and a “stop [to] killing priests.”Parents, students and teachers from Kidapawan, Maguindanao, Tabawan and Tawi-tawi in southern Mindanao attended the service. The bur ...Read More
Pope at General Audeince: Pray for Christian Unity
Vatican City, Jan. 23, 2008 (vaticans.org)- Pope Benedict XVI interrupted his catechesis on the Church Fathers this morning to address the theme of Christian Unity at the weekly general audience. Speaking to the thousands of pilgrims who gathered in the Paul VI Hall, the Holy Father said that during this week of prayer, Christ's faithful throughout the whole world, in all Churches and ecclesial communities, ask for the grace of unity, and commit themselves to work tirelessly so that the whole world welcomes Christ as the true Shepherd and one Lord. "When Christians from various communities come together to pray in common,” the Pope said, “they acknowledge that unity cannot be achieved by human strength alone. Only by relying on God's grace can they live according to Jesus' prayer that "they may all be one." (Jn 17 ...Read More
Apostolic task of Catholic Universities
Vatican City, Jan.21, 2008 (vaticans.org) - This morning in the Vatican, the Pope received participants in the plenary assembly of the Congregation for Catholic Education, to whom he said: "It is highly appropriate that, in our own day, we should reflect on how to render this apostolic task of the ecclesial community incisive and effective", a task "entrusted to Catholic universities and, in particular, to ecclesiastical faculties". The Holy Father then referred to reforms in the ecclesiastical study of philosophy, reforms that "will not fail to highlight the metaphysical and sapiential dimensions of philosophy". He also mentioned the possibility of "examining the suitability of reforming the 1979 Apostolic Constitution 'Sapientia christina', ... the 'magna charta' of ecclesiastical faculties which serves ...Read More
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