VATICAN
The bishop fended off the man with a censer, a ceremonial incense holder, as altar servers and other church workers jumped to his defense. They wrestled the attacker to the ground and held him until the police arrived several minutes later.
The bishop, Felix Genn, was unharmed and finished the service.
The church was completely full for the 10 o’clock Easter Mass when the man rose from his seat and rushed toward the altar, swinging a roughly three-foot-long broom handle and knocking over a large candle before turning on the bishop, according to Ulrich Bosse, a spokesman for the Münster police.
“He approached the bishop and wanted to hit him, too, but he did not succeed,” Mr. Bosse said.
The man, identified as a 44-year-old from the nearby town of Steinfurt, gave the police no explanation of his motives and was undergoing evaluation at a nearby psychiatric facility.
There appeared to be no connection to the unfolding scandal in the Roman Catholic Church over sexual abuse, though Mr. Bosse said “nothing could be ruled out.”
The police were previously aware of the man and his psychiatric problems, he said.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 5, 2010, on page A3 of the New York edition.
AFRICA
SOMALIA: 17 PEOPLE KILLED IN FIGHTING
All Africa report: At least 17 people, mostly fighters have been killed and over 20 others injured on Sunday in heavy clashes that erupted in central Somalia, officials and witnesses said.
Heavy fighting erupted on the night of Saturday in Rage Ele area in Middle Shabelle between fighters loyal to Al-Shabaab and archrival Ahlu Sunnah
Wal-Jamaa, killing at least 8 people mostly fighters from both sides and injured 11 others.
Witnesses said the warring sides used heavy and light weapons in the fighting that continued for several hours.
A spokesman for Ahlu Sunnah said his group has captured the area from Al-Shabaab, vowing to continue with the fight.
"We planned for this fight and we have achieved our mission," said Sheikh Omar Muse Hussein, adding Al-Shabaab fled the area, leaving behind the bodies of four fighters.
On other hand, fierce gun battle erupted Sunday between Ahlu Sunnah and Al-Shabaab in an area between Guriel and Elbur towns in Galgadud region, claming 9 lives and few others.
Witnesses said residents have fled the area, which has now fallen under the hands of Al-Shabaab.
The fighting is part of the escalating bloody conflict between the two groups, which both have military presences in central Somalia.http://allafrica.com/stories/201004050037.html
Monsignor David Alonzo, spokesman of the Archdiocese of Zamboanga, 850 kilometers southeast of Manila, branded the crime “deplorable.”
Local police say eight heavily armed men abducted Charlie Reith, 72, at around 6 p.m. April 4 from the resort where he was staying in Sitio Parkampo, Barangay Patalon, west of Zamboanga.
The kidnap victim was born in the Philippines to a Filipino mother and Swiss father.
His friend, German national Karl Reichling, reportedly managed to fight off the raiders.
“The raiders, disguised as policemen, arrived on several speedboats and abducted Reith,” Army Colonel Santiago Baluyot, commander of a local anti-terror task force, told reporters.
“We have launched a pursuit operation but it was too dark to track down the raiders,” he said.
A crisis committee has also been formed.
No group or individual claimed responsibility for the abduction and the motive is still unknown. But officials said ransom could be the motive.
“We condemn this kidnapping,” Monsignor Alonzo told reporters April 5. “We are also praying for the safe release of the victim.”
Such crime must also be solved by the authorities “so that people will have confidence in the peace and order situation here” in the run-up to the May general election, he said.
Baluyot said Reith may have been taken either to nearby Basilan where Abu Sayyaf militants are active or Zamboanga del Norte province where criminal gangs linked to previous kidnappings and terrorism operate.
Foreigners and wealthy traders have been kidnapped in the past and freed after their families paid ransom. Among those kidnapped in Zamboanga City were Taiwanese, Belgian, German and Chinese citizens.
In nearby Pagadian City, armed men also snatched Irish Columban Father Michael Sinnott last year and held him for US$2 million ransom. He was released after nearly a month reportedly without ransom being paid.http://www.ucanews.com/2010/04/05/zamboanga-priest-condemns-easter-sunday-kidnapping
“Sure, it was explained to me when I converted that the gate would be narrow, but I had no idea,” she wrote.
Born “nothing,” Davis completed her adult catechism and chose to become a Catholic in 2000, “to the thinly veiled displeasure of people close to me.”
“Archbishop Fulton Sheen put it right when he said, ‘There are not over a hundred people in the US that hate the Catholic Church, there are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be the Catholic Church, which is, of course, quite a different thing,’” she said.
Davis acknowledged that “the horrific replay of the 2002 clerical sexual-abuse scandals has again stirred up sadness, anger and the inevitable stream of negative postings on my social-networking feeds.”
“There is zero tolerance for pedophiles in the Church today,” she explained, “And the test of moral credibility the Holy See is charged with really applies to the whole church — not just clergy but the whole mystical body of Christ.”
“If we all made this past Lenten season a truly repentant and earnest one, then we’re surely continuing on the path to clearing out the evil and healing those who still suffer its terrible wounds. The beauty of Easter isn’t just the expiation of our own sins but that Jesus suffered and was put to death in the flesh once for us all (1 Peter 3:18) and that his resurrection holds the great promise of his return (Luke 21:25-28),” Davis also wrote.
“The Catholic Church,” she continued “is more than this scandal. I, for one, want to help serve with a church that has done more to help the sick, poor, hungry, suffering and forgotten than any other group in recorded human history.”
“Through everything my relationship with Jesus, especially in the Eucharist, is the source and summit of my spiritual strength and the one thing I will never abandon.”
“Resurrectio Domini, spes nostra! The resurrection of Christ is our hope!” she concluded.http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/journalist_explains_why_i_am_a_catholic_in_ny_paper/
The Superintendent of Wesley Mission, the Rev Dr Keith Garner led the capacity crowd in prayers for asylum seekers, victims of natural disasters and people caught up in conflict overseas, said an AAP report in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"As we look beyond Australia we see the ongoing need for peace in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world," he said.
"We see the need for help in Haiti, Chile and throughout Africa, and the need for compassionate leadership for asylum seekers in all developed nations."
Australia's Catholic leader, Archbishop Cardinal Pell, called on people to focus, not on problems within the Church, but on the good work done by Christians.
Cardinal Pell said that despite the failings, people should give more recognition to the Christian values that underpin Australian society. 'Australians believe that everyone is entitled to a fair go because of the Christian teaching that every person, unlike the animals, is made in God's image,' he said.
In his Easter address at St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen told the congregation a secular society was a fast track to loneliness.
"I have emphasised human loneliness this Easter because that is what expert observers of our society are saying is a real problem," Dr Jensen said.
"It is what we would expect to occur given the secularist philosophy we have embraced.
"This philosophy emphasises the individual and individual rights, it invites us to invent our own lives and it undervalues commitment to other human beings.
"It is a recipe for loneliness and the path to a very lonely old age." http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=20453
St. Isidore of Seville
BISHOP
Feast: April 4
Information:
Fea
st Day:
April 4
Born:
560 at Cartagena, Spain
Died:
4 April 636 at Seville, Spain
Canonized:
1598, Rome by Pope Clement VIII
Patron of:
computer technicians, computer users, computers, the Internet, schoolchildren, students
Born at Cartagena, Spain, about 560; died 4 April, 636.
Isidore was the son of Severianus and Theodora. His elder brother Leander was his immediate predecessor in the Metropolitan See of Seville; whilst a younger brother St. Fulgentius presided over the Bishopric of Astigi. His sister Florentina was a nun, and is said to have ruled over forty convents and one thousand religious.
Isidore received his elementary education in the Cathedral school of Seville. In this institution, which was the first of its kind in Spain, the trivium and quadrivium were taught by a body of learned men, among whom was the archbishop, Leander. With such diligence did he apply himself to study that in a remarkably short time mastered Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Whether Isidore ever embraced monastic life or not is still an open question, but though he himself may never have been affiliated with any of the religious orders, he esteemed them highly. On his elevation to the episcopate he immediately constituted himself protector of the monks. In 619 he pronounced anathema against any ecclesiastic who should in any way molest the monasteries.
On the death of Leander, Isidore succeeded to the See of Seville. His long incumbency to this office was spent in a period of disintegration and transition. The ancient institutions and classic learning of the Roman Empire were fast disappearing. In Spain a new civilization was beginning to evolve itself from the blending racial elements that made up its population. For almost two centuries the Goths had been in full control of Spain, and their barbarous manners and contempt of learning threatened greatly to put back her progress in civilization. Realizing that the spiritual as well as the material well-being of the nation depended on the full assimilation of the foreign elements, St. Isidore set himself to the task of welding into a homogeneous nation the various peoples who made up the Hispano-Gothic kingdom. To this end he availed himself of all the resources of religion and education. His efforts were attended with complete success. Arianism, which had taken deep root among the Visigoths, was eradicated, and the new heresy of Acephales was completely stifled at the very outset; religious discipline was everywhere strengthened. Like Leander, he took a most prominent part in the Councils of Toledo and Seville. In all justice it may be said that it was in a great measure due to the enlightened statecraft of these two illustrious brothers the Visigothic legislation, which emanated from these councils, is regarded by modern historians as exercising a most important influence on the beginnings of representative government. Isidore presided over the Second Council of Seville, begun 13 November, 619, in the reign of Sisebut. But it was the Fourth National Council of Toledo that afforded him the opportunity of being of the greatest service to his county. At this council, begun 5 December, 633, all the bishops of Spain were in attendance. St. Isidore, though far advanced in years, presided over its deliberations, and was the originator of most of its enactments. It was at this council and through his influence that a decree was promulgated commanding all bishops to establish seminaries in their Cathedral Cities, along the lines of the school already existing at Seville. Within his own jurisdiction he had availed himself of the resources of education to counteract the growing influence of Gothic barbarism. His was the quickening spirit that animated the educational movement of which Seville was the centre. The study of Greek and Hebrew as well as the liberal arts, was prescribed. Interest in law and medicine was also encouraged. Through the authority of the fourth council this policy of education was made obligatory upon all the bishops of the kingdom. Long before the Arabs had awakened to an appreciation of Greek Philosophy, he had introduced Aristotle to his countrymen. He was the first Christian writer to essay the task of compiling for his co-religionists a summa of universal knowledge. This encyclopedia epitomized all learning, ancient as well as modern. In it many fragments of classical learning are preserved which otherwise had been hopelessly lost. The fame of this work imparted a new impetus to encyclopedic writing, which bore abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. His style, though simple and lucid, cannot be said to be classical. It discloses most of the imperfections peculiar to all ages of transition. It particularly reveals a growing Visigothic influence. Arévalo counts in all Isidore's writing 1640 Spanish words.
Isidore was the last of the ancient Christian Philosophers, as he was the last of the great Latin Fathers. He was undoubtedly the most learned man of his age and exercised a far-reaching and immeasurable influence on the educational life of the Middle Ages. His contemporary and friend, Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa, regarded him as a man raised up by God to save the Spanish people from the tidal wave of barbarism that threatened to inundate the ancient civilization of Spain, The Eighth Council of Toledo (653) recorded its admiration of his character in these glowing terms: "The extraordinary doctor, the latest ornament of the Catholic Church, the most learned man of the latter ages, always to be named with reverence, Isidore". This tribute was endorsed by the Fifteenth Council of Toledo, held in 688. SOURCEhttp://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/I/stisidoreofseville.asp
TODAY'S MASS READINGS
Acts 10: 34, 37 - 43
34
And
Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality,37
the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John preached:
38
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.
39
And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree;
40
but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest;
41
not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
42
And he commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead.
43
To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."
Psalms 118: 1 - 2, 16 - 17, 22 - 23
1
O give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever!
2
Let Israel say, "His steadfast love endures for ever."
16
the right hand of the LORD is exalted, the right hand of the LORD does valiantly!"
17
I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the LORD.
22
The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.
23
This is the LORD's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
Colossians 3: 1 - 4
1
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
3
For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4
When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
1
Now on the first day of the week Mary Mag'dalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
2
So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him."
3
Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb.
4
They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first;
5
and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.
6
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying,
7
and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself.
8
Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed;
9
for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
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