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Thursday, December 1, 2011

CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD: THURS. DEC. 1, 2011











VATICAN : POPE : FAMILY EVANGELISATION - AIDS THERAPIES - OTHER NEWS

EUROPE: SCOTLAND: MARY MEALS FEEDS HALF MILLION CHILDREN A DAY

ASIA : CHINA : RIP UNDERGROUND BISHOP CHANGFENG AGE 79

AMERICA : BOLIVIA : CATHOLIC CHURCH TRIES TO HAVE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS

TODAY'S SAINT: DEC. 1: ST. EDMUND CAMPION

TODAY'S GOSPEL AND MASS ONLINE: DEC. 1: Matthew 7: 21, 24 - 27


CHAMPIONS OF THE FAITH, PERENNIAL MODELS FOR THE BAPTISED

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - "Witness and Witnesses. The 'Martyria' and the Champions of the Faith" was the theme of the sixteenth public session of the Pontifical Academies, which was held yesterday in the great hall of the Palazzo of St. Pius X on Rome's Via della Conciliazione. The meeting also involved the presentation of the Pontifical Academy Prize, awarded by the Pope to institutions or to young researchers or artists who have distinguished themselves in promoting Christian humanism. (IMAGE RADIO VATICANA)

This year's prize went to the "Studium Biblicum Franciscanum" of Jerusalem which carries our archaeological excavations with the purpose of uncovering and reclaiming the biblical past of the Holy Land, and to Daria Mastrorilli, an archaeologist who specialises in the martyrs Zoticus, Ireneus and Amantius, carrying out research in the cemetery of that name in Rome.

Another archaeologist, Cecilia Proverbio, was granted the pontifical medal for her doctoral thesis on the iconography of paleo-Christian basilicas of Rome, in particular St. Peter's and St. Paul's.

During the course of the ceremony, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. read out a message sent for the occasion by the Holy Father to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Co-ordinating Council of the Pontifical Academies.

The theme of the public session, the Pope explains in his message, provides an opportunity to reflect on Christianity's historical roots, its involvement in history "which it transforms profoundly thanks to the leaven of the Gospel and to sanctity, lived and witnessed".

In this context, the archaeological remains of early Christian communities are of particular interest, especially in the Holy Land, "the best place in which to seek signs of the historical presence of Christ and of the first community of His disciples", and in Rome, where the catacombs "attest that from its beginnings the Christian community exalted the champions of the faith as models and examples for all the baptised".

"The vast numbers of monuments and works of art dedicated to martyrs, as documented by archaeological excavations and other research, arose from the Christian community's conviction, yesterday as today, that the Gospel speaks to man's heart and is communicated above all by the witness of believers' lives ", the Pope writes. "If we look carefully at the example of the martyrs, those courageous witnesses of ancient Christianity, as well as at the many witnesses of our own time, we realise that they are all profoundly free, free from compromise and selfish ties, aware of the importance and beauty of their lives, and precisely for this reason capable of loving God and their brothers and sisters, setting a high example of Christian sanctity".

The Holy Father continues his message: "Today too the Church, if she wishes to speak to the world effectively, if she wishes to continue faithfully announcing the Gospel, ... must bear witness to the credibility of the faith, even in those areas which seem most intransigent or indifferent. In other words, she must offer concrete prophetic witness through effective and transparent signs of coherence, faithfulness and passionate and unconditional love for Christ, not without authentic charity and love for others. Today as yesterday, the blood of the martyrs and their eloquent witness touches the hearts of men and women, making them fruitful, ... open to accepting the life of Christ and to bringing resurrection and hope to the surrounding world".

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NEW EVANGELISATION DEPENDS LARGELY ON FAMILIES

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received participants in the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for the Family led by their president, Cardinal Ennio Antonelli. This year's plenary coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of John Paul II's Apostolic Exhortation "Familiaris consortio" and his creation of the pontifical council itself.

In his remarks, the Pope noted that "in our time, as in the past, the eclipse of God, the spread of an anti-family ideology and the abasement of sexual morality appear interconnected". This is why "the new evangelisation is inseparable from the Christian family. The family is the Church's 'path', because it is a 'human place' in which we encounter Christ. ... The family founded on the Sacrament of Marriage is an individual microcosm of the Church, a community which is saved and saves, which is evangelised and evangelises. Like the Church, the family is called to live, irradiate and express to the world the love and presence of Christ".

Accepting and transmitting divine love, Benedict XVI explained, "comes about in the spouses' dedication to one another, in generous and responsible procreation, in raising and educating children, in work and social relations, in care for the needy, participation in Church activity and commitment to civil society". The Christian family "reflects the splendour of Christ and the beauty of the divine Trinity in the world" in the extent to which it manages to experience love "as communion and service, as reciprocal gift and openness to everyone".

The Pope then recalled his recent visit to Ancona to close the Italian National Eucharistic Congress where he had met priests and married coupes together. "Both these states of life", he said, "have the same roots in Christ's love whereby He gave Himself for the salvation of humanity; they are called to a shared mission of bearing witness to this love, and causing it to be present through service to the community for the edification of the people of God. Such a perspective enables us to overcome a reductive vision in which the family is seen as the mere recipient of pastoral activity. ... The family is the best place to impart human and Christian education, and thus remains the greatest ally of priestly ministry".

The Pope then identified a number of areas in which the cooperation of priests and Christian families is vital: educating children, adolescents and young people in love, seen as communion and the gift of self; preparing engaged couples for marriage; forming spouses; participating in charitable, educational and civil activities, and in pastoral care by families for families.

Finally, referring to the forthcoming seventh World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Milan, Italy, in June 2012, the Pope said: "It will be a great joy for me and for us all to come together, pray and rejoice with families from all over the world".

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PROMOTING UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HIV/AIDS THERAPIES

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was an English-language statement from the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers for World AIDS Day 2011.

The text, signed by Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the pontifical council, says that the Day "must constitute a new opportunity to promote universal access to therapies for those who are infected, the prevention of transmission from mother to child, and education in lifestyles that involve, as well, an approach that is truly correct and responsible as regards sexuality. In addition, this is a privileged moment to relaunch the fight against social prejudice".

An estimated 1,800,000 people still die every year because of HIV/AIDS, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. "These are people who could lead normal lives if they only had access to suitable pharmacological therapies, those known as antiretroviral therapies.

"Deaths are thus witnessed that are no longer justifiable, just as the pain of the relatives of the people involved. ... By now the transmission of the infection from mothers to their children, who often become victims even before they begin to see the outlines of the world that surrounds them, equally, cannot be justified.

"Although the extension of these therapies to all peoples and to all the parts of a population is something that cannot but be engaged in, of fundamental importance, on the other hand, remains the formation, the education, of everyone, and in particular the new generations, in a sexuality based upon 'an anthropology anchored in natural law and illuminated by the Word of God'. The Church and her Magisterium ask for a lifestyle that privileges abstinence, conjugal faithfulness and the rejection of sexual promiscuity, because, as the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation 'Africae munus' emphasised, all of this forms a part of the question of the 'integral development' to which people and communities have a right.

"In launching this new appeal for commitment and solidarity in favour of all the (both direct and indirect) victims of HIV/AIDS, we would like to thank, in union of spirit with the Holy Father, all those who have striven, often for very many years, to help them. We are referring here to institutions, agencies and volunteers who 'work in the sector of health care and especially of AIDS'. ... who, without doubt, deserve the operational support, and support without ideological ties, of international organisations and benefactors.

"Lastly, we wish to express our proximity to people afflicted by HIV/AIDS, to those who are near to them, and to all those healthcare workers who, being exposed to the risk of infection as well, provide all possible care to them, respecting their personalities and their dignity".

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THE CHURCH IS IN NEED OF "METANOIA"

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The sixth meeting of the twelfth Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops was held in the Vatican on 23 and 24 November, according to a communique made public today.

Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod, began by recalling that the thirteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is due to be held in the Vatican from 7 to 28 October 2012 on the theme: "The new evangelisation for the transmission of the Christian faith". Participants in the meeting were then presented with a summary of the responses to the "Lineamenta" sent in by episcopal conferences, synods of "sui iuris" Eastern Catholic Churches, offices of the Roman Curia and the Union of Superiors General. Taking account of these responses, attention turned to the draft outline of the "Instrumentum laboris" for next year's Synod.

An attempt was made to find an adequate definition of "new evangelisation", as addressed to Christians who no longer practise their faith, non-believers, agnostics and faithful from other religions. This concerns the entire Church, though in different ways in different regions. "Through the new evangelisation", the communique reads, "the Church is seeking to respond to the constant changes in the global human community as it undergoes the process of globalisation in a cultural and moral climate of secularisation and agnosticism. These challenges require new languages, new methods and, above all, credible witnesses to transmit the faith to new generations and in new social contexts".

Finally, the communique explains that the Church, "while ever more acutely aware of her duty to preach the Gospel, is in need of a 'metanoia' (conversion) to enable her, among other things, to present herself as teacher and witness to people who seek the Lord because, by announcing the Gospel, she proclaims conversion and the forgiveness of sins". The next meeting of the council is due to take place on 16 and 17 February 2012.

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SPECIAL ENVOY FOR CENTENARY OF YANGON CATHEDRAL

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was a letter of the Holy Father, written in Latin and dated 4 November, in which he appoints Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, as his special envoy to celebrations marking the centenary of the cathedral of Yangon, Myanmar, due to take place on 8 December.

Cardinal Martino will be accompanied on his mission by Fr. Joseph Maung Win, pastor of St. Anthony's parish, and Fr. George Shwe Htun, vice pastor of St. Mary's Cathedral.

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PRESENCE OF BISHOP LEI SHIYIN AT EPISCOPAL ORDINATION

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - Following the consecration yesterday of the coadjutor bishop of Yibin, in the Chinese province of Sichuan, a number of journalists raised the question of the presence of Bishop Lei Shiyin at the ceremony, in reply to whom Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi gave the following response:

"I learned from the media this morning that Fr. Peter Luo Xuegang has been ordained as coadjutor bishop of the diocese of Yibin in Sichuan province. The main consecrator was the elderly diocesan bishop, Msgr. John Chen Shizhong, and all the consecrating bishops are in communion with the Holy Father with the exception of Lei Shiyin of Leshan.

"In the wake of three recent episcopal ordinations without pontifical mandate, the fact that there is a new bishop in communion with the Pope and all the Catholic bishops of the world is certainly positive, and will be appreciated not only by Chinese bishops and faithful, but also by the universal Church. Nonetheless, the participation of an illegitimate bishop whose canonical status, as is well known, is one of excommunication, is not a step in the same direction and arouses the disapproval and dismay of the faithful, even more so because he participated as a consecrating bishop and concelebrated the Eucharist. His repeated disobedience to the norms of the Church unfortunately aggravates his canonical position.

"In normal conditions the presence of Bishop Lei Shiyin should have been completely excluded, and would have led to canonical consequences for the other participating bishops. In the present circumstances it its probable that they were unable to avoid his presence without serious consequences. In any case the Holy See will be able to evaluate the matter in greater detail when it has received more information".

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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in audience sixteen prelates of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, on their "ad limina" visit:

- Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput O.F.M. Cap. of Philadelphia, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishops Daniel Edward Thomas, Timothy C. Senior, John J. McIntyre and Michael J. Fitzgerald.

- Bishop John Oliver Barres of Allentown.

- Bishop Mark L. Bartchak of Altoona-Johnstown.

- Bishop Lawrence E. Brandt of Greensburg.

- Bishop Joseph Patrick McFadden of Harrisburg.

- Bishop David Allen Zubik of Pittsburgh, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop William J. Waltersheid, and by former Auxiliary Bishop William Joseph Winter.

- Bishop Joseph C. Bambera of Scranton, accompanied by Bishop emeritus James Clifford Timlin and Bishop emeritus Joseph Francis Martino, and by former Auxiliary Bishop John Martin Dougherty.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 1 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Armando Xavier Ochoa of El Paso, U.S.A., as bishop of Fresno (area 91,268, population 2,778,000, Catholics 1,084,000, priests 166, permanent deacons 46, religious 152), U.S.A.

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EUROPE: SCOTLAND: MARY MEALS FEEDS HALF MILLION CHILDREN A DAY

CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: Mark Greaves meets Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, founder of a charity that provides free meals to half a million children each day

By MARK GREAVES on Wednesday, 30 November 2011

The salmon farmer who feeds the world

Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow is mobbed by children in Haiti

CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow’s first experience of delivering aid was to drive a Land Rover crammed with food, clothing and medicine from the Highlands of Scotland down to Bosnia. At the time he was a salmon farmer: he had taken just a week’s holiday to do it. When he got back, his family shed was bulging with aid that had poured in from friends and friends of friends. He quit his job, sold his house, and learned to drive articulated lorries. Now, about 20 years later, his charity Mary’s Meals feeds half a million children every day.

But that is not the start of the story. At least, not how Magnus tells it. The real beginning was 10 years earlier, when he was 14, and he went on a pilgrimage to a small village called Medjugorje.

I meet Magnus for tea near London Victoria. He is tall and in a suit; his hair is greying a bit at the sides. He says he finds it hard to describe the effect that first trip had on him. “It was something in my heart – an experience of God’s grace,” he says. Later, he describes it as “something God seems to do for many people there: [he] gives them an awareness of his love for them”.

It was a madcap adventure: 10 of his family and friends, all teenagers, turned up at Medjugorje without anywhere to stay. They had read an article about six children having visions of the Virgin Mary and thought if it was possibly true they should visit. They flew in to Dubrovnik and drove there in two hire cars (harder than it sounds, since their map didn’t have Medjugorje on it).

After evening Mass a friar, Fr Slavko Barbaric, came over to them and introduced them to his sister, who they ended up staying with for the week and who had children their age. It was, Magnus says, an “amazing mixture of the supernatural and the very mundane” – one minute they’d be talking to Bosnian children about Italian football and the next “we’d all be talking about the fact that one of them was going out with one of the visionaries”.

At the time the six alleged visionaries were young teenagers, too. They invited Magnus’s group into the room where they were having apparitions of the Virgin Mary every evening. Magnus knows two of them still.

What struck him, though, was not the visionaries themselves – they were “very nice, very ordinary people”– but the faith of the villagers and the way they responded to what the six children were saying.

“By the time I came home,” he says, “I had the belief that Our Lady really was appearing in Medjugorje and that she was appearing with a message for the whole world.”

He says that he wanted to try, “in whatever way I could, to respond to her invitation to … put God back at the centre”.

About a decade later Magnus was in a pub with his brother Fergus. They were talking about a news item they had seen about refugees near Medjugorje during the Bosnian war. And that’s when they thought of driving aid there themselves.

Magnus tends to play down his role in all this. Once the donations came pouring in, he says, “it was harder to stop than it had been to start”. Giving up his house and job was no big sacrifice, he insists. He had been a salmon farmer for six years and was “looking to do something else anyway”.

After 20 minutes or so of talking – Magnus, though very mild-mannered, talks at an incredible pace – we remember to pour the tea. Over the next 10 years, he explains, his charity Scottish International Relief brought aid to Bosnia, built care homes in Romania and worked in Liberia and elsewhere.

His stories pour out and are some of the most moving I’ve ever heard. He talks about 11-year-old Romanian orphans so neglected they could not walk properly. The children, all HIV positive, had been abandoned in hospitals and no one had lifted them out of their cots long enough for them to learn. The doctors, he says, “couldn’t see any worth in those children at all and they were dying, numbers of them, every week”.

Magnus recalls an exchange with one doctor who said: “I don’t know why you’re building these [care] homes for these kids.” Pointing to one girl, Juliana, he said: “She’ll be dead before you even finish building them.” Now, Magnus says, “Juliana’s a young woman, and a few summers ago I went back for the weddings of three of those girls. It’s been a miracle to me because we thought we were building a hospice where they could have a dignified death so really it’s been an amazing thing that all of them are still alive.”

Magnus has plenty of these stories, and is used to telling them, I think. He gives talks in schools and to fundraising groups. He says at one point: “I’m sure there’s only so much of all this stuff you want, because there’s a lot of it.”

Mary’s Meals was founded in 2002. Its one, simple idea was to provide children with a free school meal every day.

To explain how it started, Magnus goes back to that first Medjugorje pilgrimage 20 years earlier. His sister, he explains, wrote an article about it in The Catholic Herald. Printed at the end was their parents’ address, and 1,000 letters from all over the world flooded in, including from a woman in Malawi called Gay Russell. Their parents replied, but heard nothing back. They did not know that she had gone to Medjugorje herself, had a profound experience, and decided to build a replica shrine in her home country.

Magnus was introduced to her years later because she was also a key figure in famine relief. It was through her contacts that Magnus’s charity was able to start work in Malawi. And it was an encounter there that led to Mary’s Meals.

During a visit to the villages they were bringing food into, Magnus says, a priest took him to see a family. The father had died a year before and the mother had about three or four weeks left to live. She was in agony, surrounded by her six children on the floor of her mud hut. She was saying there was nothing left for her except to pray that someone would look after her children after she’d gone.

Magnus started talking to the oldest child, Edward, and asked him what his hopes were in life. He said he “would like to have enough food to eat and would like to go to school one day”.

That encounter was “one big reason why Mary’s Meals was born”, Magnus says. But the idea for it actually came from Tony Smith, a Catholic businessman and philanthropist, who had himself taken it from George McGovern, a US senator who helped create the World Food Programme. When Tony Smith shared the idea, Magnus says, he “immediately felt this was what we were called to do”.

Now, Mary’s Meals feeds 17 per cent of Malawi’s primary school population, and 581,000 children globally. A free meal goes far, says Magnus: there is evidence that “enrolment shoots up, attendance rates improve and academic performance improves dramatically as well”.

The government in Malawi has now said it wants to provide free meals for all schoolchildren (though in practice this is a far-off prospect).

Magnus says that, while he believes Mary’s Meals was a fruit of Medjugorje, “we don’t shout it from the rooftops”, and lots of people involved in the work would not even have heard of it.

I ask Magnus about the controversies around Medjugorje. I refer to it only vaguely, but I am thinking of the laicisation of Tomislav Vlasic, a former Franciscan friar and early spiritual director of the visionaries. Previously, he was reported to the Vatican for “diffusion of dubious doctrine, manipulation of consciences, suspected mysticism [and] disobedience toward legitimately issued orders”.

Magnus’s belief in the apparitions is unshaken, though. He says: “There are lots of people involved at Medjugorje and I don’t see that if any of them make a mistake or do something wrong it has a direct bearing on the authenticity of the apparitions. If a priest or lay person who has a connection to Medjugorje does something wrong, is that not the world over? Is that not just what happens?”

The fruits of Medjugorje, he says, are “beautiful and amazing”.

“You go to all these corners of the globe and you can see these good things happening,” he says. “It seems to be the source of this incredible grace.”

A year after his first pilgrimage his parents went too, and had a similarly profound experience. They turned their home into a retreat centre, the Craig Lodge Family House of Prayer.

It’s there that Mary’s Meals still has its headquarters. (Magnus’s office is a tin shed in the garden.) He is heading back there at the end of the day.

Magnus explains that one of the key values of Mary’s Meals is “our belief in the innate goodness of people”. He says: “It’s just our experience over the years. You go back to how we began and it was just this spontaneous outpouring of goodness.”

He talks about fundraisers in America and the tens of thousands of volunteers in Malawi. He recalls people in aid camps in Bosnia who would smuggle a quarter of their food back to friends or relatives stuck on the other side of the war.

“You start by thinking you’re doing all the giving and then you go there and there’s someone else doing something much more amazing,” he says. “That’s one of the things I really, really love [about the work]: it constantly restores your faith in human nature.”

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2011/11/30/the-salmon-farmer-who-feeds-the-world/

ASIA : CHINA : RIP UNDERGROUND BISHOP CHANGFENG AGE 79

UCAN REPORT: Remembered by faithful for his frugality, devotion to parishioners
ucanews.com reporter, Zhouzhi
China
December 1, 2011
Catholic Church News Image of Underground bishop dies at 79
Bishop Anthony Zong Changfeng

“Underground” Coadjutor Bishop Anthony Zong Changfeng of Kaifeng in central Henan province was laid to rest during a funeral ceremony in his Zhouzhi home town on November 29.

The prelate, who never assumed office because of obstructions from the government, died on November 22 at the age of 79, after receiving the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick and amid the prayers of his supporters.

Bishop Zong lived as a priest in Zhouzhi diocese, central Shaanxi province.

Local Catholics described him as “genuinely underground,” as he never concelebrated Mass and seldom had contact with priests of the “open” Church community.

“He put on only his zucchetto to say Mass every day at home, attended by dozens of people,” a source said.

Living a frugal life, Bishop Zong’s enthusiasm for building churches and conducting pastoral work earned him the respect of local Catholics.

About 3,000 faithful from several counties attended his funeral in the Nanyu village Church. Three bishops and some 40 priests celebrated the funeral Mass, after which his body was buried in the church courtyard.

Born to a Catholic family in 1932, Bishop Zong entered the seminary at the age of 12. He was forced to return home after the seminary was disbanded amid growing political turmoil. However, he maintained his priestly vocation while working as a livestock breeder and brick maker during the Cultural Revolution.

In 1979, when religious activities revived, he was ordained a priest and then served in parishes in Zhouzhi. Despite many difficulties and his weak health, he organized Catholics to pool resources to build 13 churches.

Bishop John Baptist Liang Xisheng of Kaifeng in neighboring Henan province secretly ordained the then Fr Zong as his coadjutor bishop in 1998, but the government prevented him from assuming his office and pastoral duties.

The “impeded” prelate continued to serve the Zhouzhi diocese until his retirement from ill health in 2008, after which he lived with a nephew in Nanyu village until his death.

http://www.ucanews.com/2011/12/01/underground-bishop-dies-at-79/

AMERICA : BOLIVIA : CATHOLIC CHURCH TRIES TO HAVE RELIGIOUS TEACHERS IN SCHOOLS

Agenzia Fides REPORT - The Catholic Church and the State have reached an agreement in Bolivia as far as education is concerned: The government recognizes the educational structure of the Catholic Church, through the delegations of each jurisdiction and educational center of the Church, is what is read in the Bolivian Episcopal Conference statement of which a copy was sent to Fides. The agreement allows the Church to appoint the staff of educational institutions, in order to guarantee the identity of these centers. Similarly, the State recognizes that the Church may appoint religion teachers at the centers of public education where families require a Catholic religious education. The agreement was signed on Monday, November 28th from the Secretary General of the Bolivian Episcopal Conference, His Exc. Mgr. Oscar Aparicio, and, by the State, the Minister of Public Education, Roberto Aguilar. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 01/12/2011)

AUSTRALIA : ARCHBISHOP ON SONSHINE RADIO SERIES

ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH REPORT: 30 Nov 2011

Article by B Spinks, Photo Fr R. Cross

Archbishop Hickey was in the radio studio at Sonshine FM in Como on 29 November to voice a radio series to be broadcast in the coming weeks.

In this six-segment "Words of Jesus" series, Archbishop Hickey proclaims the good news of Jesus taking inspiration from various sayings of Jesus in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.

He invites the listener to ponder God's voice in their life by tuning into the theme of the chosen Scripture quote in each of the six messages.

Archbishop Hickey is also using these radio messages to invite listeners to come into the new Archdiocesan Faith Centre, which is focussed on evangelisation and Catholic culture.

98.5 Sonshine FM will begin broadcasting the series of six short messages from December onwards.

Tune into Sonshine radio on 98.5 FM to hear a piece of good news.

http://www.perthcatholic.org.au/news-events/view_article.cfm?loadref=10&id=133

AFRICA : IVORY COAST : JOURNALISTS DETAINED BY ADMINISTRATION

CISA REPORTS: ABDIJAN, November 29, 2011 (CISA) -The administration of Ivory Coast has detained without charge three journalists from an opposition newspaper since Thursday November 24, in violation of the country’s own press law and constitution, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said.

Public Prosecutor Simplice Kouadio ordered police to arrest Editor César Etou, copy editor Didier Dépry and political desk chief Boga Sivori of daily Notre Voie, a newspaper seemed to favour the former leader Laurent Gbagbo, in connection with stories critical of the government that were published last week, according to news reports and local journalists.

The three have been held without formal charge in a police station in the economic capital Abidjan beyond the 48-hour constitutional limit on pre-trial detention, and in contravention of Ivory Coast’s 2004 press law, which bans detentions of journalists for press matters.

“President Alassane Ouattara took office with the promise to uphold democracy and the rule of law and break with Laurent Gbagbo’s intimidation tactics towards the press,” said CPJ Africa Advocacy Coordinator Mohamed Keita. “We call on the authorities to release immediately César Etou, Didier Dépry and Boga Sivori and end persecution of the media, which have a constitutional right to critically scrutinize the government.”

Judicial authorities interrogated Etou and Sivori on accusations of “offense to the head of state” over a November 21 story entitled “While Ivorians are dying of hunger and diseases, Ouattara buys 40 Mercedes worth 1.46 billion CFA francs [US$2.07 million],” defense lawyer Serge Essouo told CPJ.

Judicial authorities accused Dépry of “undermining the national economy,” with a November 24 story which criticized the government’s dismissive reaction to an earlier Notre Voie report suggesting a currency devaluation was imminent, Essouo told CPJ.

Commenting on the arrests Sunday, Ouattara called the allegations by Notre Voie “unacceptable lies,” and said justice should be allowed to run its course. “I think that journalists, of course, can express their opinions, but one must rely on facts,” he said.

The government has not held to account the pro-Ouattara Republican Forces of the Ivory Coast (FRCI) fighters implicated in ransacking and occupying for five-months pro-Gbagbo media outlets such as Notre Voie, CPJ research shows. And authorities have made no arrests in two separate incidents involving FRCI fighters in which two radio journalists have lost their lives: the May 8 murder of radio journalist Sylvain Gagnetau Lago and the November 19 shooting death of Gilles Tutsi Murris Dabé.

In a press statement, the pro-Gbagbo party Ivory Popular Front (FPI) condemned the arrests.

http://www.cisanewsafrica.com/?p=3564

TODAY'S SAINT: DEC. 1: ST. EDMUND CAMPION

ST. EDMUND CAMPION & COMPANIONS

ENGLISH JESUIT MARTYR

FEAST: DECEMBER 1



INFORMATION:

FEAST DAY:DECEMBER 1
BORN:JANUARY 24, 1540, LONDON
DIED:DECEMBER 1, 1581, TYBURN, ENGLAND
CANONIZED:OCTOBER 25, 1970 BY POPE PAUL VI

ENGLISH JESUIT AND MARTYR; HE WAS THE SON AND NAMESAKE OF A CATHOLIC BOOKSELLER, AND WAS BORN IN LONDON, 25 JAN., 1540; EXECUTED AT TYBURN, 1 DEC., 1581. A CITY COMPANY SENT THE PROMISING CHILD TO A GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND TO CHRIST CHURCH HOSPITAL. WHEN MARY TUDOR ENTERED LONDON IN STATE AS QUEEN, HE WAS THE SCHOOLBOY CHOSEN TO GIVE THE LATIN SALUTATORY TO HER MAJESTY. SIR THOMAS WHITE, LORD MAYOR, WHO BUILT AND ENDOWED ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE AT OXFORD, ACCEPTED CAMPION AS ONE OF HIS FIRST SCHOLARS, APPOINTED HIM JUNIOR FELLOW AT SEVENTEEN, AND, DYING, GAVE HIM HIS LAST MESSAGES FOR HIS ACADEMIC FAMILY. CAMPION SHONE AT OXFORD IN 1560, WHEN HE DELIVERED ONE ORATION AT THE REBURIAL OF AMY ROBSART, AND ANOTHER AT THE FUNERAL OF THE FOUNDER OF HIS OWN COLLEGE; AND FOR TWELVE YEARS HE WAS TO BE FOLLOWED AND IMITATED AS NO MAN EVER WAS IN AN ENGLISH UNIVERSITY EXCEPT HIMSELF AND NEWMAN. HE TOOK BOTH HIS DEGREES, AND BECAME A CELEBRATED TUTOR, AND, BY 1568, JUNIOR PROCTOR. QUEEN ELIZABETH HAD VISITED OXFORD TWO YEARS BEFORE; SHE AND DUDLEY, THEN CHANCELLOR, WON BY CAMPION'S BEARING, BEAUTY, AND WIT, BADE HIM ASK FOR WHAT HE WOULD. SUCCESSES, LOCAL RESPONSIBILITIES, AND ALLUREMENTS, HIS NATURAL EASE OF DISPOSITION, THE REPRESENTATIONS, ABOVE ALL, OF HIS FRIEND BISHOP CHEYNEY OF GLOUCESTER, BLINDED CAMPION IN REGARD TO HIS COURSE AS A CATHOLIC: HE TOOK THE OATH OF SUPREMACY, AND DEACON'S ORDERS ACCORDING TO THE NEW RITE. AFTERTHOUGHTS DEVELOPING INTO SCRUPLES, SCRUPLES INTO ANGUISH, HE BROKE OFF HIS HAPPY OXFORD LIFE WHEN HIS PROCTORSHIP ENDED, AND BETOOK HIMSELF TO IRELAND, TO AWAIT THE REOPENING OF DUBLIN UNIVERSITY, AN ANCIENT PAPAL FOUNDATION TEMPORARILY EXTINCT. SIR HENRY SIDNEY, THE LORD DEPUTY, WAS INTERESTED IN CAMPION'S FUTURE AS WELL AS IN THE REVIVAL WHICH, HOWEVER, FELL THROUGH. WITH PHILIP SIDNEY, THEN A BOY, CAMPION WAS TO HAVE A TOUCHING INTERVIEW IN 1577.

AS TOO CATHOLIC MINDED AN ANGLICAN, CAMPION WAS SUSPECTED, AND EXPOSED TO DANGER. HIDDEN IN FRIENDLY HOUSES, HE COMPOSED HIS TREATISE CALLED "A HISTORY OF IRELAND" WRITTEN FROM AN ENGLISH STANDPOINT IT GAVE MUCH OFFENCE TO THE NATIVE IRISH, AND WAS SEVERELY CRITICIZED, IN THE NEXT CENTURY, BY GEOFFREY KEATING IN HIS IRISH HISTORY OF IRELAND. URGED TO FURTHER EFFORT BY THE ZEAL OF GREGORY MARTIN, HE CROSSED TO ENGLAND IN DISGUISE AND UNDER AN ASSUMED NAME, REACHING LONDON IN TIME TO WITNESS THE TRIAL OF ONE OF THE EARLIEST OXONIAN MARTYRS, DR. JOHN STOREY. CAMPION NOW RECOGNIZED HIS VOCATION AND HASTENED TO THE SEMINARY AT DOUAI. CECIL LAMENTED TO RICHARD STANIHURST THE EXPATRIATION OF "ONE OF THE DIAMONDS OF ENGLAND" AT DOUAI CAMPION REMAINED FOR HIS THEOLOGICAL COURSE AND ITS LESSER DEGREE, BUT THEN SET OUT AS A BAREFOOT PILGRIM TO ROME, ARRIVING THERE JUST BEFORE THE DEATH OF ST. FRANCIS BORGIA; " FOR I MEANT", AS HE SAID AT HIS EXAMINATION, "TO ENTER INTO THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, THEREOF TO VOW AND TO BE PROFESSED". THIS HE ACCOMPLISHED PROMPTLY IN APRIL (1573), BEING THE FIRST NOVICE RECEIVED BY MERCURIANUS, THE FOURTH GENERAL. AS THE ENGLISH PROVINCE WAS AS YET NON-EXISTENT, HE WAS ALLOTTED TO THAT OF BOHEMIA, ENTERING ON HIS NOVICESHIP AT PRAGUE AND PASSING HIS PROBATION YEAR AT BRUNN IN MORAVIA. RETURNING TO PRAGUE, HE TAUGHT IN THE COLLEGE AND WROTE A COUPLE OF SACRED DRAMAS; AND THERE HE WAS ORDAINED IN 1578. MEANWHILE, DR. ALLEN WAS ORGANIZING THE APOSTOLIC WORK OF THE ENGLISH MISSION, AND REJOICED TO SECURE FATHERS ROBERT PARSONS AND EDMUND CAMPION AS HIS FIRST JESUIT HELPERS. IN THE GARDEN AT BRUNN, CAMPION HAD HAD A VISION, IN WHICH OUR LADY FORETOLD TO HIM HIS MARTYRDOM. COMRADES AT PRAGUE WERE MOVED TO MAKE A SCROLL FOR P. EDMUNDUS CAMPIANUS MARTYR, AND TO PAINT A PROPHETIC GARLAND OF ROSES WITHIN HIS CELL. PARSONS AND CAMPION SET OUT FROM ROME, HAD MANY ADVENTURES, AND CALLED UPON ST. CHARLES BORROMEO IN MILAN, AND UPON BEZA IN GENEVA. CAMPION WAS MET IN LONDON, AND FITLY CLOTHED, ARMED, AND MOUNTED BY A DEVOTED YOUNG CONVERT FRIEND. HIS OFFICE WAS CHIEFLY TO RECLAIM CATHOLICS WHO WERE WAVERING OR TEMPORIZING UNDER THE PRESSURE OF GOVERNMENTAL TYRANNY; BUT HIS ZEAL TO WIN PROTESTANTS, HIS PREACHING, HIS WHOLE SAINTLY AND SOLDIERLY PERSONALITY, MADE A GENERAL AND PROFOUND IMPRESSION. AN ALARM WAS RAISED AND HE FLED TO THE NORTH, WHERE HE FELL AGAIN TO WRITING AND PRODUCED HIS FAMOUS TRACT, THE "DECEM RATIONES". HE RETURNED TO LONDON, ONLY TO WITHDRAW AGAIN, THIS TIME TOWARDS NORFOLK. A SPY, A FORMER STEWARD OF THE ROPER FAMILY, ONE GEORGE ELIOT, WAS HOT UPON HIS TRACK, AND RAN HIM AND OTHERS DOWN AT LYFORD GRANGE NEAR WANTAGE IN BERKSHIRE ON 17 JULY, 1581.

AMID SCENES OF VIOLENT EXCITEMENT, CAMPION WAS DERISIVELY PARADED THROUGH THE STREETS OF HIS NATIVE CITY, BOUND HAND AND FOOT, RIDING BACKWARDS, WITH A PAPER STUCK IN HIS HAT TO DENOTE THE " SEDITIOUS JESUIT". FIRST THROWN INTO LITTLE EASE AT THE TOWER, HE WAS CARRIED PRIVATELY TO THE HOUSE OF HIS OLD PATRON, THE EARL OF LEICESTER; THERE HE ENCOUNTERED THE QUEEN HERSELF, AND RECEIVED EARNEST PROFFERS OF LIBERTY AND PREFERMENTS WOULD HE BUT FORSAKE HIS PAPISTRY. HOPTON HAVING TRIED IN VAIN THE SAME BLANDISHMENTS, ON CAMPION'S RETURN TO THE TOWER, THE PRIEST WAS THEN EXAMINED UNDER TORTURE, AND WAS REPORTED TO HAVE BETRAYED THOSE WHO HAD HARBOURED HIM. SEVERAL ARRESTS WERE MADE ON THE STRENGTH OF THE LIE. HE HAD ASKED FOR A PUBLIC DISPUTATION. BUT WHEN IT CAME OFF IN THE NORMAN CHAPEL OF THE TOWER, BEFORE THE DEAN OF ST. PAUL'S AND OTHER DIVINES, CAMPION HAD BEEN DENIED OPPORTUNITY TO PREPARE HIS DEBATE, AND HAD BEEN SEVERELY RACKED. THUS WEAKENED, HE STOOD THROUGH THE FOUR LONG CONFERENCES, WITHOUT CHAIR, TABLE, OR NOTES, AND STOOD UNDEFEATED. PHILIP HOWARD, EARL OF ARUNDEL, WHO WAS LOOKING ON IN THE FLUSH OF WORLDLY PRIDE, BECAME THEREBY INSPIRED TO RETURN TO GOD'S SERVICE. THE PRIVY COUNCIL, AT ITS WITS' END OVER SO PURELY SPIRITUAL A "TRAITOR", HATCHED A PLOT TO IMPEACH CAMPION'S LOYALTY, AND CALLED IN THE HIRELINGS ELIOT AND MUNDAY AS ACCUSERS. A RIDICULOUS TRIAL ENSUED IN WESTMINSTER HALL, 20 NOV., 1581. CAMPION, PLEADING NOT GUILTY, WAS QUITE UNABLE TO HOLD UP HIS OFTEN-WRENCHED RIGHT ARM, SEEING WHICH, A FELLOW PRISONER, FIRST KISSING IT, RAISED IT FOR HIM. HE MADE A MAGNIFICENT DEFENCE. BUT THE SENTENCE WAS DEATH, BY HANGING, DRAWING, AND QUARTERING: A SENTENCE RECEIVED BY THE MARTYRS WITH A JOYFUL SHOUT OF HAEC DIES AND TE DEUM. CAMPION, WITH SHERWIN AND BRIANT, WHO WERE ON A SEPARATE HURDLE, WAS DRAGGED TO TYBURN ON 1 DECEMBER. PASSING NEWGATE ARCH, HE LIFTED HIMSELF AS BEST HE COULD TO SALUTE THE STATUE OF OUR LADY STILL IN SITU. ON THE SCAFFOLD, WHEN INTERRUPTED AND TAUNTED TO EXPRESS HIS MIND CONCERNING THE BULL OF PLUS V EXCOMMUNICATING ELIZABETH, HE ANSWERED ONLY BY A PRAYER FOR HER, "YOUR QUEEN AND MY QUEEN". HE WAS A CATHOLIC ENGLISHMAN WITH POLITICAL OPINIONS WHICH WERE NOT ALLEN'S, THOUGH HE DIED, AS MUCH AS EVER FELTON DID, FOR THE PRIMACY OF THE HOLY SEE. THE PEOPLE LOUDLY LAMENTED HIS FATE; AND ANOTHER GREAT HARVEST OF CONVERSIONS BEGAN. A WILD, GENEROUS-HEARTED YOUTH, HENRY WALPOLE, STANDING BY, GOT HIS WHITE DOUBLET STAINED WITH CAMPION'S BLOOD; THE INCIDENT MADE HIM, TOO, IN TIME, A JESUIT AND A MARTYR.

HISTORIANS OF ALL SCHOOLS ARE AGREED THAT THE CHARGES AGAINST CAMPION WERE WHOLESALE SHAM. THEY PRAISE HIS HIGH INTELLIGENCE, HIS BEAUTIFUL GAIETY, HIS FIERY ENERGY, HIS MOST CHIVALROUS GENTLENESS. HE HAD RENOUNCED ALL OPPORTUNITY FOR A DAZZLING CAREER IN A WORLD OF MASTER MEN. EVERY TRADITION OF EDMUND CAMPION, EVERY REMNANT OF HIS WRITTEN WORDS, AND NOT LEAST HIS UNSTUDIED GOLDEN LETTERS, SHOW US THAT HE WAS NOTHING LESS THAN A MAN OF GENIUS; TRULY ONE OF THE GREAT ELIZABETHANS, BUT HOLY AS NONE OTHER OF THEM ALL. HE WAS BEATIFIED BY POPE LEO XIII ON 9 DECEMBER, 1886, AND CANONIZED BY POPE PAUL VI IN 1970. RELICS OF HIM ARE PRESERVED IN ROME AND PRAGUE, IN LONDON, OXFORD, STONYHURST, AND ROEHAMPTON. A NOT VERY CONVINCING PORTRAIT WAS MADE SOON AFTER HIS DEATH FOR THE GESÙ IN ROME UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF MANY WHO HAD KNOWN HIM. OF THIS THERE IS A COPY IN OILS AT STONYHURST, AND A BRILLIANTLY ENGRAVED PRINT IN HAZART'S "KERCKELYCKE HISTORIE" (ANTWERP, 1669), VOL. III (ENGHELANDT, ETC.), THOUGH NOT IN EVERY COPY OF THAT NOW SCARCE WORK.

SOURCE: EWTN

2011

TODAY'S GOSPEL AND MASS ONLINE: DEC. 1: Matthew 7: 21, 24 - 27

Matthew 7: 21, 24 - 27
21"Not every one who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
24"Every one then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock;
25and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.
26And every one who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand;
27and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it."