DONATE TO JCE NEWS

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD : TUES. JUNE 4, 2013 - SHARE BREAKING NEWS

 2013


POPE FRANCIS "THERE IS NO TRUTH WITHOUT LOVE" AND LATEST FROM VATICAN

TODAY'S SAINT : JUNE 4 : ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO

Vatican Radio REPORT: Hypocrites may say all the right things, but for the wrong reasons. A Christian should not use a "socially mannered language", prone to hypocrisy, but speak the truth of the Gospel with the transparency of a child. There is no truth without love; love is the first truth.This was the lesson drawn by Pope Francis at morning Mass Tuesday in Casa Santa Marta. Emer McCarthy reports:

From the corrupt to their language of choice: hypocrisy. Pope Francis continued his thread of thought from Monday’s homily in his reflections on the episode recounted in the Gospel of the day: The tribute due to Caesar, and the Pharisees and of the Herodians’ subtle questioning of Christ on the legitimacy of that tribute.

Pope Francis noted that the intention with which they approach Jesus is to make him "fall into a trap." Their question whether it is lawful or not to pay taxes to Caesar is made "with soft words, with beautiful words, with overly sweet words . "They try to show themselves his friends." But it is all false. Pope Francis says this is because, "they do not love the truth" but only themselves, "and so they try to deceive, to involve others in their deceit, their lies. They have a lying heart, they cannot tell the truth ":

"Hypocrisy is the very language of corruption. And when Jesus speaks to his disciples, he says: 'let your language be,' Yes, yes! No, no '. Hypocrisy is not a language of truth, because the truth is never given alone. Never! It is always given with love! There is no truth without love. Love is the first truth. If there is no love, there is no truth. They want a true enslaved to their interests. There is a love, of sorts: it is love of self, love for oneself. That narcissist idolatry that leads them to betray others, that leads them to abuse of trust. "

Pope Francis continued, what looks like a "persuasive language," instead leads to "errors, to lies." Then with a hint of irony, he noted that those who now approached Jesus and "seem so amiable in their language, are the same people who will go to fetch him on Thursday evening in the Garden of Olives, and will bring him to Pilate on Friday." Instead, Jesus asks exactly the opposite of those who follow him, a language of "yes is yes, no is no," a "language of truth and love"

"And the meekness that Jesus wants us to have, has nothing, has nothing of this adulation, this sickly sweet way of going on. Nothing! Meekness is simple, it is like that of a child. And a child is not hypocritical, because it is not corrupt. When Jesus says to us: 'Let your speech be' Yes is yes! No, is no! 'with the soul of a child', he means the exact opposite to the speech of these [hypocrites –ed]".

The Pope’s final consideration regarded "certain inner weakness", stimulated by "vanity", that means "we like people to say good things about us." The "corrupt know this well" and " are trying to weaken us with this language".


"Let us think closely today: What is our language? Do we speak in truth, with love, or do we speak with that social language to be polite, even say nice things, which we do not feel? Let our language be evangelical brothers and sisters! Then these hypocrites that start out with flattery, adulation and all of that, end up, through false witnesses, with accusing the very ones they had flattered. Let us ask the Lord today that our language be the language of the simple, the language of a child, the language of the children of God, the language of truth in love. "

Mass was concelebrated by the Armenian Catholic Patriarch, Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Msgr. Vianney Fernando, Bishop of Kandy in Sri Lanka, and Msgr. Jean Luis Brugues the of the Vatican Library, accompanied by a group of employees.



SHARED FROM RADIO VATICANA

PROMULGATION OF DECREES BY CONGREGATION FOR CAUSES OF SAINTS
Vatican City, 4 June 2013 (VIS) – Yesterday, 3 June, the Holy Father authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the following decrees regarding:
MARTYRDOM
   - Servants of God Mauro (born Abel Angelo Palazuelos Maruri) and 17 Companions from the Order of St. Benedict, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
   - Servants of God Joan of Jesus (born Joan Vilaregut Ferre) and 3 Companions from the Order of Discalced Carmelites along with diocesan priest Pau Segala Sole, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
   - Servants of God Crisanto (born Casimiro Gonzalez Garcia), Aquilino (born Baldomer Baro Riera), Cipriano Jose (born Julian Iglesias Banuelos), and 63 Companions from the Marist Brothers of the Schools (Little Brothers of Mary), along with 2 laymen, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain between 1936 and 1939.
   - Servants of God Aurelia (born Clementina Arambarri Fuente) and 3 Companions from the Servants of Mary, Ministers of the Sick, killed in hatred of the faith in Spain in 1936.
HEROIC VIRTUES
   - Servant of God Joao de Oliveira Matos Ferreira, auxiliary bishop of Guarda, Portugal, and titular of Aureliopolis in Lydia. Founder of the Association of the League of the Servants of Jesus (1879-1962).
   - Servant of God Nicola Mazza, priest of the Diocese of Verona, Italy, and founder of several institutes of education (1790-1865).
   - Servant of God Maria Celeste of the Holy Redeemer (born Giulia Crostarosa), founder of the Order of Redemptoristine Nuns (1686-1755), and
   - Servant of God Teresa of Saint Joseph (born Teresa Toda Juncosa), founder of the Teresian Carmelite Sisters of Saint Joseph (1826-1898).
POPE FRANCIS: LET GOD CARRY OUT HIS PLAN
Vatican City, 4 June 2013 (VIS) – After the memorial Mass in St. Peter's Basilica yesterday afternoon, presided by Bishop Francesco Beschi of Bergamo, Italy, the Holy Father went to the Basilica and, after praying before the urn containing the remains of Blessed John XXIII, met with the two thousand pilgrims from the Diocese of Bergamo who had travelled to Rome to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the Blessed.
The Pope noted how, in those days, St. Peter's Square had been transformed into a sanctuary under the open skies, receiving faithful of different ages and social backgrounds who had gathered to pray for the Pope's health day and night, as well as the tremendous grief that 3 June in 1963 on receiving the news of the pontiff's death. The entire world had seen Pope John as a pastor and a father. And how had he won the hearts of such different people, many even non-Christians? The answer, Pope Francis said, is found in his episcopal motto: “Oboedientia et Pax”, obedience and peace.
“I would like to start from peace, because this is the most obvious aspect that people perceived in Pope John. Angelo Roncalli was a man capable of transmitting peace: a natural, serene, and friendly peace; a peace that he expressed to the entire world upon his election to the pontificate and received the reputation of goodness.”
“It is so wonderful to meet a priest, a good priest with goodness.” The pontiff recalled the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola when he gave the Jesuits an entire list of virtues that a superior should have. “But in the end he said: 'And if he doesn't have these virtues, let him at least have much goodness.' This is what's essential.”
“This was undoubtedly,” continued the Pope, speaking of John XXIII, “what distinguished his personality, that which enabled him to build strong friendships everywhere … often coming in contact with environments and worlds that were far removed from the Catholic universe in which he was born and formed. It was in precisely those spheres that he proved an effective weaver of relationships and a valuable promoter of unity, within and outside of the ecclesial community, open to dialogue with the Christians of other Churches, with proponents of the Jewish and Muslim worlds, and with many other men and women of good will.”
“Here,” the Holy Father said, “we come to the second and decisive word:'obedience' … In fact, it was the instrument for achieving peace. Firstly, it had a very simple and concrete meaning: carrying out, in the Church, the service that his superiors asked, without seeking anything for himself, without trying to get out of anything that was requested of him, even when it meant leaving his own land, dealing with worlds unknown, staying for long years where the Catholic presence was scarce. This letting oneself be led, like a child, constituted his priestly journey.”
“Through this obedience, however, Roncalli, the priest and bishop, lived an even deeper faithfulness, which we can define—as he would have called it—abandonment to Divine Providence. In the faith he continuously recognized that, through that life's journey that was seemingly guided by others, not led by his own tastes or on the basis of his own spiritual sensitivity, God was carrying out His plan.”
“Even more profoundly, through this daily abandonment to God's will, the future Pope John lived a purification that allowed him to completely break away from himself and to adhere to Christ, letting that holiness that the Church has officially recognized emerge. 'Whosoever loses their life for my sake will save it', Jesus tells us. Herein lies the true source of Pope John's goodness, of the peace that he spread in the world, herein we find the root of his holiness: in his evangelical obedience.”
“This is a lesson for all of us, but also for today's Church: if we know how to let ourselves be led by the Holy Spirit, if we know how to mortify our selfishness to make room for the Lord's love and his will, then we will find peace, then we will know how to be builders of peace and we will spread peace around us.”
In conclusion, the Pope addressed the faithful present, urging them to “imitate his holiness. Let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Don't be afraid of the risks just as he was unafraid. Docility to the Spirit, love for the Church, and forward … the Lord will do the rest.”
PHOTO EXHIBIT DEDICATED TO POPE FRANCIS WHEN HE WAS ARCHBISHOP OF BUENOS AIRES
Vatican City, 4 June 2013 (VIS) – The Santa Catalina Monastery in Buenos Aires, Argentina, inaugurated the first photo exhibit on Pope Francis yesterday, 3 June. Entitled “Francis: Servant in Buenos Aires, Servant for the World” the exhibit offers 25 images, mostly previously unpublished, of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio's pastoral activities as archbishop of Buenos Aires, the work of photographer Enrique Cangas.
Cangas' photos show Cardinal Bergoglio washing the feet of an elderly woman in Penna Hospital, celebrating Mass with children in Roca Park, at the traditional Corpus Christi procession, or meeting with his evangelical “brothers” at an amusement park. “My objective,” declared photographer who has had the opportunity to portray the portray the Pope on various occasions, “was to show that Pope Francis' attitudes and gestures, which today are amazing the world and opening a period of hope for the whole Church, are a continuation of what he demonstrated in Buenos Aires.”
The exhibit, which is free of charge, will continue until 28 June.
8 JUNE: POPE'S VIDEO MESSAGE TO PARTICIPANTS IN “TEN SQUARES FOR TEN COMMANDMENTS” INITIATIVE
Vatican City, 4 June 2013 (VIS) – This coming Saturday, 8 June, the Holy Father will send a video message to those participating in the “Ten Squares for Ten Commandments” initiative that is being promoted by the Renewal in the Holy Spirit movement. It will take place in the Square of the Cathedral of Milan, Italy beginning at 8:30pm and will be dedicated to the third commandment:: “Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day”. It is the third part of a series of moments of evangelization that will continue throughout the year in various Italian cities.
It is the first time that Pope Francis is participating in this event, which was inaugurated in September of 2012, during Benedict XVI's pontificate, in Rome's Piazza del Popolo with the theme: “I am the Lord your God”. The second instalment took place simultaneously on 15 September of last year in Verona's Piazza dei Signori, focusing on the second commandment—“Do not take the Lord's Name in vain”—and in Naples' Piazza del Plebiscito, where the fourth commandment—“Honour your father and mother”—was treated. Local personalities, artists, writers, scientists, and musicians have taken part in each of the events, and similar participation is also scheduled for the remaining events.

AMAZING VIRAL COCA-COLA VIDEO THAT UNITES PEOPLE GLOBALLY

AN AMAZING NEW POP-MACHINE made by Coca-Cola brings peace among two countries. This video went viral on the web with over 1 MILLION views. 
About the Coca-Cola Machine:  
In March 2013, Coca-Cola set out to break down barriers and create a simple moment of connection between two nations -- India and Pakistan. The initiative "Small World Machines" provided a live communications portal between people in India and Pakistan and showed that what unites us is stronger than what sets us apart. The key to engaging with each other through the machines was simple: people in India and Pakistan could complete a task, like touching hands, drawing peace, love, and happiness symbols -- together. (Shared from Coca-Cola) 

FREE CATHOLIC MOVIES - THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE - CHRONICLES OF NARNIA PART 2

FREE CATHOLIC MOVIES - THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE - CHRONICLES OF NARNIA PART 2

Part 1 Click http://jceworld.blogspot.ca/2013/06/free-catholic-movies-lion-witch-and.html
IN HONOR OF THE YEAR OF FAITH JCE NEWS will be showing some of the Best Catholic Films of all time. Here is the drama of The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, PART 2 in English :


TODAY'S MASS ONLINE : TUES. JUNE 4, 2013

Mark 12: 13 - 17

13And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Hero'di-ans, to entrap him in his talk.14And they came and said to him, "Teacher, we know that you are true, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?15Should we pay them, or should we not?" But knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, "Why put me to the test? Bring me a coin, and let me look at it."16And they brought one. And he said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?" They said to him, "Caesar's."17Jesus said to them, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." And they were amazed at him.


HOMESCHOOLERS - LEARN PIANO WITH THIS AWARD WINING SOFTWARE

ADVENTUS WEBSITE: Order the #1 Learn-to-Play Piano Lesson Software

Buy Piano Suite Premier

Ages 8 to Adult • Windows 7/Vista/XP/2000

Piano Suite PremierTM teaches you how to play piano using instant visual & audio feedback. A comprehensive, interactive music learning, playing and composing system, Piano Suite Premier is loved by thousands of piano students and instructors, and is the most sophisticated piano learning program available today. When you're learning to play piano with Piano Suite Premier, you'll know exactly what you notes played wrong, and what you played right!
Always Something New to Learn
Piano Suite Premier is designed to help beginners through intermediate players become competent and keen musicians. With this much content, you'll always be challenged:
  • 500+ popular pieces of music for 5 skill levels!
  • Music history & 150 biographies
  • 8 Fun Games
  • Add your favorite songs from the web!
Recommended by Piano Teachers

Developed by piano teachers and music learning experts, Piano Suite Premier guides students through a flexible music learning process, with the help of immediate and continuous feedback and assessment.
  • 5 skill levels from beginner to intermediate
  • Detailed evaluation & progress reports
  • Play hands-together or separately
  • Compose, edit, save, print & play music
Education licenses are available: visit www.musiqlab.com for K-20 group class solutions.

Watch an overview:


Awards & Accolades

Piano Suite Premier has been recognized the following organizations:
  • 'Best In Class' Award. International Society for Technology in Education
  • Magazines: MusicTech Magazine • PC Magazine • Keyboard Player Magazine • Pianist Magazine • Techplus Magazine
  • Reviewers: Learning Village • New Media Review • Learningware Reviews
  • Massachusetts Elementary School Principals' Association
  • Newspapers: The New York Times • The Toronto Sun
  • 2009’s Best Piano Lesson Software. Top Ten Reviews
  • 1st Place award, Early & Upper Elementary Music. The Education Software Review. (EDDIES)
  • Pro-Art Musica™
Read all Reviews

What's Inside:

  • Piano Player: supervised piano practice with valuable audio/visual feedback. The learn-to-play engine allows the user to select 9 different methods for playing and evaluation.
  • Library: the learn-to-play song library includes 500 Classical, Jazz, Blues, Pop, Traditional, Children’s, Religious, Rock, Country, Folk, National Anthems and Christmas pieces; with 65 licensed pieces by: R.E.M, The Beatles, Boyz ll Men, Barbra Streisand, Whitney Houston, Elvis Presley, Bryan Adams, Willie Nelson, James Brown, Frank Mills, Kansas, Bread, Frank Sinatra and many more. It's even possible to download songs from the internet to learn. View a list of all of the piano pieces included.
  • Theory Thinker: hundreds of narrated, step by step theory lessons with practice exercises to teach notation, sight-reading, and playing skills.
  • Composers Corner: a place to express your creativity or re-learn an old favorite. Compose, edit, and print your own music and then be evaluated on how well you play it. Pieces can be saved to a custom library and learned by others. Feeling creative? Lay down a drum track, guitar or piano parts into the multi-track recorder.
  • Games: challenging and fun music related activities to reinforce lessons, sharpen your piano playing skills and develop theory comprehension.
  • Personal Profile: individual performance records let you or your instructor review your progress, tracking the results of every piece practiced or game played, for dozens of users.
  • History Happens: detailed biographies of over 150 famous composers and performers who have helped shape the history of music.

THOUSANDS CELEBRATE CORPUS CHRISTI DESPITE RAIN IN AUSTRALIA

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
4 Jun 2013

In brief respite from rain, Bishop Porteous with a group of Tongan Australians and their prayer For One Human Family
Sunday's stormy weather, plummeting temperatures and pelting rain triggered the cancellation of the annual Walk with Christ Procession of the Blessed Sacrament through the CBD to the Cathedral. However  the winter conditions didn't stop 4000 crowding into St Mary's Cathedral to mark the Feast of Corpus Christi and join Pope Francis in the world's first global Eucharistic Adoration.
"Being inside the Cathedral lent a special beauty and real sense of solemnity to the day and the joy and devotion of all those who had braved the weather was overwhelming," says Cathy Kennedy, Director of CREDO, the Archdiocese of Sydney's Catholic Renewal and Evangelisation Diocesan Office.
Cathy says in the past the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the Feast of Corpus Christi has had to be cancelled midway through the walk due to heavy rain.
"But this is the first time any of us can remember the weather being so bad that a decision was made to cancel the procession entirely and to hold the celebration instead inside the Cathedral," she says.
The decision was made early Sunday morning as wild gusts and heavy rain drenched the city.
"With the Anzac Bridge and other roads closed by the storm, it was decided not to add to the traffic chaos with the Procession," Cathy says.
The cancellation on the annual Corpus Christi Procession of the Sacrament was posted on the Archdiocese website and CREDO organised volunteers to be at St Patrick's Church Hill, Wynyard where participants in the Walk with Christ had been told to gather, to let them know about the change in plan.
While thousands had been expected to take part in the Procession, what wasn't expected was the huge turnout at the Cathedral where it was literally standing room only.

Cardinal Pell delivered the homily at Sunday's Feast of Corpus Christi and Eucharistic Adoration
The Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell delivered the homily and although there was no Walk with Christ through the CBD, Bishop Julian Porteous, Episcopal Vicar of Evangelisation and Renewal carried the Holy Sacrament in a solemn procession through the Cathedral, accompanied by 10 seminarians from the Seminary of the Good Shepherd at Homebush and the Mater Redemptoris Missionary Seminary at Chester Hill and followed by the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.
The 4000 at the Cathedral also joined in an hour of Eucharistic Adoration as part of the Holy Father's global initiative that saw churches and cathedrals across the world synchronise their watches so millions of faithful could simultaneously pray together in what was one of the most significant events of this Year of Faith.
While many millions of Catholics from every corner of the globe were able to participate at the same time as the live broadcast from Rome's St Peter's Basilica from 5 pm local time, nations such as Australia, New Zealand and parts of the US and South America, the time difference made this impossible.  So instead of joining the global Adoration at what would have been 1.am Monday morning Sydney time, Cardinal Pell designated the 3 pm Corpus Christi celebrations at the Cathedral as the official Cathedral Adoration Event for the faithful to be united with Pope Francis.
shared from ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY

TODAY'S SAINT : JUNE 4 : ST. FRANCIS CARACCIOLO

St. Francis Caracciolo
FOUNDER
Feast: June 4


Information:
Feast Day:June 4
Born:October 13, 1563, Villa Santa Maria, Province of Chieti, Region of Abruzzo, Kingdom of Naplesa
Died:June 4, 1608, Agnone, Province of Isernia, Region of Molise, Kingdom of Italy
Canonized:May 24, 1807, Rome by Pope Pius VII
Major Shrine:Church of Santa Maria di Monteverginella, Naples
Patron of:of the city of Naples, Italy and of Italian cooks
St. Francis Caracciolo as a boy was one of those children whom the world "sets down as unnatural." No doubt we ourselves also had we seen the little Ascanio, by which name he was baptized, eschewing games and "the things of a child," to make constant visits to the Blessed Sacrament and give food and other reliefs to the poor, would have thought it all very "odd," did we not reflect that the "supernatural" does strange things at times and manifests itself in old and young alike, regardless of what people may say or even do! Ascanius, or as we must call him by his name in religion, Francis, Caracciolo, was born at Villa Santa Maria in that quarter of Italy known as the Abruzzi, the very name of which always recalls mental pictures of wild and lonely scenery and picturesque groups of Salvator Rosa-esque brigands! The family of the Saint was noble, being a junior branch of the ancient house. While still a youth, he was attacked by one of the several skin complaints collectively described as "leprosy" in those days, but which in the case of the subject of this memoir was made the means of still further withdrawing him from things of earth and towards those of Heaven. He was cured in consequence, it is said, of a vow to devote his life to the service of God, and with this end in view he went, at the age of about twenty-two, to study for the priesthood at Naples. In the intervals of reading, he busied himself with works of devotion and charity, making long visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and consoling the inmates of hospitals and prisons. He had a special liking for neglected churches, seeking to make up by his attendance and prayers for the absence of worshippers in these uncared-for sanctuaries. After his Ordination in 1587, he joined a pious confraternity, known as the "The White Robes of Justice." This Society, like that of the better-known Misericorde, attended condemned criminals and prepared them to die well. All this time, Francis seems to have had in mind the founding of a new religious Order, and next year the matter came to a head. It happened that the same idea had also occurred to another devout man, Giovanni Agostino Adorno, who unburdened his mind on the subject in a letter addressed to another member of the Caracciolo family, named Fabricius Ascanio. The letter was delivered by a very natural error to our Saint, who saw in the occurrence a clear indication of the divine will. Joining in at once with John Adorno and Fabricius Caracciolo, our Saint and they retired for a while to the desert of Camaldoli, where the holy trio drew up the Rule of what was to be the Minor Clerks Regular. Francis then went to Rome to obtain the approval of the Pope for the new Foundation. Sixtus V was at that time in the midst of his strenuous pontificate, clearing the Papal States of the swarms of brigands which had long made that part of Italy one of the most insecure places in Europe, and in beautifying Rome with those stately public buildings which still reflect the glory of the Sistine rule. The Holy Father with quite unwonted alacrity approved the Congregation on 1st July of the same year (1588).

The new Congregation of the Minor Clerks Regular thus established was one of considerable severity. The Clerks bound themselves to distribute various practices of penance among themselves daily, so that while one fasted, another took the discipline, a third wore the hair-shirt and so on. The rest not so engaged were meanwhile watching in turn before the Blessed Sacrament. In addition to the three usual vows, a fourth was added-not to aspire after dignities (de non ambiendis dignitatibus).

At his solemn profession at Naples, 9th April, 1589, Fr. Caracciolo took the name of Francis, from his great devotion to the holy Founder of the Seraphic Order. Fr. Adorno dying two years later, Fr. Francis, entirely against his own wish, was chosen Superior of the Congregation. He showed himself a model in all that related to the Rule, but quite surpassed all his brethren in the matter of prayer and austerity. He meditated several hours daily on the sufferings of Our Lord, and spent most of the night before the Blessed Sacrament. This he did, among other reasons, to make up as far as he could for the coldness and ingratitude of men, and often, too, the culpable negligence of indifferent ecclesiastics which so frequently caused the churches to be practically abandoned day after day. When kneeling before the altar, the face of Fr. Francis appeared to be lighted up with celestial glory, while he ejaculated from time to time a favourite sentence from the Scripture: "the zeal of Thy house hath eaten me up!" (Ps. lxviii. 10.)
The first house of the Clerks was one at Naples, known as St. Mary Major's, which had been made over to them by Sixtus V, but the expansion of the Congregation soon made it imperative to found others elsewhere. Spain early extended its welcome to the newest arrivals in the monastic field, and St. Francis undertook no fewer than three journeys to that most Catholic country under the special protection first of Philip II and afterwards of his son, Philip III. On one of these voyages, the ship that bore the holy Founder and his fortunes was nearly wrecked, but the vessel was saved by the prayer of our Saint. Of course, there was the opposition of the good to be met and overcome, but the spiritual methods and perseverance of Francis were rewarded by the establishment of three branches-the House of the Holy Ghost at Madrid (20th January, 1599), that of Our Lady of the Annunciation at Valla, closed (9th September, 1601), and St. Joseph at Alcala (1601). This last was opened in the University for the purpose of study and the requirements of the usual academic courses, and many of the aspirants to the Order in Spain spent some years there as part of their preparation for Holy Orders. Before this the Clerks obtained in Rome the Church of St. Leonard afterwards exchanged for that of St. Agnes in the Piazza Navona, the famous Church built on the traditional site of the martyrdom of St. Agnes. It was entirely rebuilt in 1642, at the expense of the Pamfili family, and among the many monuments of artistic or historic interest is the tomb of the Princess Mary Talbot Doria-Pamfili, who died 1857. She was the beautiful daughter of the Sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, and one of the Maids of Honour to Queen Victoria at her Coronation in 1838.

In spite of the general knowledge as to the "fourth vow" of the Congregation against accepting or even seeking ecclesiastical honours, many desired to see the Founder exalted to what they considered a wider field of usefulness, and Pope Paul V, who greatly admired the heroic virtues and practical wisdom of Francis, wished to make him a bishop, but desisted at the earnest entreaty of the Saint. Besides his work for the Congregation, Francis unceasingly interested himself in the salvation of souls generally. He was much sought after as a confessor while his exhortations brought to repentance numerous public sinners, and he fortified the wavering and the despondent by personal encouragement and the recommendation of the two great Catholic devotions, those to the Blessed Sacrament and to Our Lady. He had the gift of discerning hearts and of prophecy, and his own approaching death was made known to him one day, when, according to custom, he was praying before the altar of the Church of St. Lauretana. He was at that time in negotiation with the Oratorian Fathers with reference to taking over their house at Agnone in the Abruzzi for the use of his Congregation, and he lost no time in going to that place. Arrived there, he was shortly after seized with fever, and having received all the last rites, he died surrounded by the Oratorian Community of the place on the Vigil of Corpus Christi, 4th June, 1608. His body was removed to the Church of St. Mary Major, Naples, where it remained till it was transferred to the Church of Montivergonella which had been made over to the Clerks Regular, 1893, apparently in exchange for the other seized during the occupation of Naples by the French Revolutionary Army.

The Saint was proclaimed patron of the City of Naples in 1838, but the devotion to him which was once so marked a feature of the spiritual life of the place is said now to be much less in evidence. In addition to the Rule which he drew up in conjunction with his two holy coadjutors, St. Francis Caracciolo also left a devotional treatise on the Passion, this work, apart from the inherent value of the subject, is precious as containing the holy reflections and aspirations of one of the outstanding notabilities of the Church in the last period of the Counter-Reformation—the lover of souls—who did so much to heal by his zeal and piety the wounds which heresy and iniquity had inflicted upon the Mystical Body of the Lord.


source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/F/stfranciscaracciolo.asp#ixzz1woocho5J

Monday, June 3, 2013