DONATE TO JCE NEWS

Saturday, November 20, 2010

CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD: SAT. NOV. 20, 2010


CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD: SAT. NOV. 20, 2010: HEADLINES-













VATICAN; POPE: CREATION OF 24 CARDINALS
RADIO VATICANA REPORT: Pope Benedict XVI created 24 new cardinals on Saturday, raising the number of Cardinals to 203, of whom 121 are under 80 and eligible to enter a conclave to elect a new pope. During a solemn public consistory in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict read the names of the 24 Cardinals in Latin.The new group of cardinals includes heads of Vatican dicasteries; archbishops of major cities in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas; and retired prelates honoured for their lifelong service to the church.Pope Benedict XVI told the men they must devote themselves totally to the church and to Christ. In his homily, he asked the faithful to pray for them, saying:“Let the Lord's spirit support these new cardinals in the commitment of service to the church, following Christ of the Cross even if necessary to shed their blood”The Pope reminded the Cardinals that all are called, and all are aided by Divine Grace, adding “this is [their] security. Just listen again to the words of Jesus, asking, "Come, follow me", only by returning to this original vocation is it possible to understand our mission in the Church as true disciples.”This is the third consistory in Pope Benedict’s pontificate. In the current Cardinals, he has named 59 members.
http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=440680
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:55 PM 0 comments





AMERICA: USA: RESOURCES FOR ADVENT AND CHRISTMAS
USCCB REPORT: Bishops’ Website Offers Resources for Advent and Christmas Seasons Including Book of Reflections from Pope Benedict XVIWASHINGTON (November 18, 2010) — The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is continuing its tradition of providing online resources for the Advent and Christmas seasons with suggestions for daily prayer, reading, reflection and action.As a special spiritual gift this season, USCCB is providing a downloadable book of scriptural reflections for Advent and Christmas featuring the words of Pope Benedict XVI from his homilies, speeches and other addresses during his papacy.The 37-page document includes a scripture quote and a reflection from the Holy Father for every day of Advent, which begins on Sunday, November 28, through the seventh day in the Octave of Christmas, December 31. "Advent & Christmas with Pope Benedict XVI" is a preview of the upcoming Vatican publication "A Year with Pope Benedict XVI," which will be available from USCCB.“This has become one of the more popular features on the bishops’ website,” said Helen Osman, secretary of communications for USCCB. “It is a great one-stop resource for families and individuals seeking ways to enter more deeply into the spirit of the Advent and Christmas seasons.”Other material highlighted in the interactive online Advent and Christmas calendars is from the Vatican publication “Advent and Christmas with the Church Fathers” and “Reflections on Advent and Christmas: Cultivating the Gift of Self,” new releases which are available from USCCB. A Festival of Lesson and Carols, which is a service of Scripture and song that dates to the late 19th century, can be heard live online or downloaded for later listening. The audio program features music performed by the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.The USCCB Advent/Christmas website also features videos in which Catholics discuss their favorite Old Testament stories, passages and characters.Other resources on the website include a list of recommended holiday-themed movies, prayers and blessings from the USCCB publication Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, and suggestions for remembering the immigrants and the poor throughout the season.The Advent/Christmas site (http://www.usccb.org/advent/) was created by the USCCB Department of Communications with funding from the Catholic Communication Campaign.--- http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2010/10-218.shtml
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:55 PM 0 comments





EUROPE: IRELAND: POPE JPII AWARD PROGRAMME
REPORT BISHOPS OF IRELAND: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin launches Pope John Paul II Awards Programme in DublinCatholic Youth Care (CYC), in association with the Dublin Archdiocesan office of Evangelisation, is delighted to announce a new pastoral programme for young people. The Pope John Paul II Awards will be run by CYC in Dublin. CYC will be supporting parishes, schools and young people in this new Award Programme. The programme was officially launched by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (address attached) with Dublin GAA star, Alan Brogan in the Mansion House this morning (Tuesday)Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's Homily Notes follow:As a Bishop one of my greatest concerns is the lack of interaction between the Church and young people. I refer in particular to the lack of contact between young people and their parishes. This is a concern shared by many within the Catholic Church and indeed within other Christian confessions. How do we react? It is interesting that the first thing we do is to look around to find someone or something to blame. We blame secularism, we blame scandals in the Church; it may be simply a question that young people have so many commitment between their academic life and sport that they do not have time for Church activity. It may be that our Churches and the way we worship are not attractive to young people.In all this analysis we tend to look for the blame and the solutions everywhere without talking with young people themselves. Our young people today are if anything more idealistic, generous and committed than in the past. The answers to the question of dialogue between young people and the Church has to begin with listening to young people and showing them that the Church wants them to take responsibility within the Church itself for their faith life and formation, and that the Church is willing to facilitate their taking on that responsibility.That is one of the reasons why I am happy to be present here on this occasion of the launch of the Pope John Paul II awards in the Archdiocese of Dublin. It is a project that places young people at its centre. I congratulate the Order of the Knights of Saint Columbanus for this initiative. I congratulate Catholic Youth Care for launching it in Dublin diocese. I congratulate and thank all of you present here.Young people are idealistic but idealism needs focus. Young people are trapped in two worlds, indeed in many different worlds. Alongside their idealism, they belong to the society in which they live, where power and possession and celebrity are considered the signs of success. Inevitably that dominant culture shapes part of their identity and vision of life and rightly so. Young people want to be successful and being successful in today’s society will not be attained without the risk of rubbing alongside negative aspects of the current culture.We need to find counter-cultural examples within our Church: witnesses – especially young witnesses – to show that consumer values do not have to have a monopoly on our lives. Power and possession are attractive, but not absolutes.I have rarely in my life been involved in difficulties with the police. One such occasion is very much in my mind in these days. About fifteen years ago I was on a mission from the Vatican in Burma. One of the first things I did on my arrival was to be asked to be shown the house where Aun Sang Suu Kyi was under house arrest. Doing so did not involve any great de-tour from our route. We drove past the house discretely, without wanting to draw any attention, without even slowing down our speed. Five minutes later we got back to the Archbishop’s residence, to find heavily-armed and angry police and military already there telling us in very clear terms that we should not have done such a thing and suggesting that we might be heading home earlier than we imagined.Aun Sang Suu Kyi was under house arrest for fifteen of the past twenty years. She was and is a person of principle. Who will be remembered in history, this clear minded woman of principle, or the military leaders who had all the power? Power is not the only way to be successful. Power without principle is a dangerous combination in Burma, in Ireland - anywhere. Principle may lack the trappings of power, but can leave those with all the trappings of power anxious and in fear.I said that I was concerned about the lack of contact between young people and the Church. You might ask, how can you say that when in this diocese over 90% of primary schools are under your patronage as Catholic Archbishop of Dublin and most young people attend either Catholic voluntary secondary schools or schools with guaranteed Catholic ethos? Somewhere there are fault lines in a system of Catholic education which does not foster a real relationship between young people and their parish faith community.The Christian faith is not an ideology or spirituality or a value system which I can adopt personally as an inspiration of life. The Father of the Church Tertullian who notes that: “The Christian alone is no Christian”. Being a Christian is about being a member of a believing and worshipping community. The characteristic of the early Church, we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was that they gathered. They gathered to listen to the teaching of the apostles and for the celebration of the Eucharist and that sacramental gathering gave rise to a different form of community, one in which all things were shared. Eucharist is communion with Christ, but also with one another. We need renewal in our system of Catholic education. We need renewal in our parishes. We need a strong injection of the generosity and idealism of our young people as an integral part of that renewal. I hope that the John Paul II Awards will become a strong starting point in that renewal. http://www.catholicbishops.ie/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2018:16-november-2010&catid=17:news
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:46 PM 0 comments





ASIA: PAKISTAN: GERMAN NUN WHO HELPED POOR FLOOD VICTIM
ASIA NEWS REPORT: In Pakistan, they call her the new "Mother Teresa" because she takes care of the poor and forgotten, the lepers and - these days - the flood victims of the Hindu minority. Karachi (AsiaNews) - Ruth Pfau is a small frail woman, with gray hair swept into a bun under a white veil with a border of flowers, standing in a refugee camp that she herself has created for people in flood-devastated Pakistan that has been deprived of everything. She is an 81 year-old German nun of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and she cares for hundreds of people whose homes were swept away by floods. For the past two months she and her team have been looking after all those who have sought refuge in a vacant lot near a bus station, Ruth and her aides supply tents, food, water, medicine, and run a school."We are the only ones who go into these camps where, for one reason or another, no one else seems to want or to be able to help these poor people," says Ruth Pfau. Ruth Pfau, who is also a trained doctor, has opened clinics for lepers in Pakistan. She is also one of the few to help the Hindu minority affected by the flood of. She began her work more than 50 years ago, confronting the problem of leprosy, saving children hidden in caves and barns, abandoned by parents shocked and terrified they were contagious, while their suffering and illness worsened.Ruth Pfau has trained doctors from Pakistan and obtained donations from abroad. " Working with Dr Pfau is very, very difficult, because she has such immense stamina, that I don't think anyone can match ", says national coordinator Merwyn Lobo, who has travelled with her for over eleven years. Born in Germany, in Leipzig, in 1929, Ruth Pfau grew up fearing for her life first from allied bombing, and then when the Russians arrived in the city. She risked he life to flee from East Germany. She says: " If I give any sense to these years, it is a preparation to be ready to help others”. After completing a medical degree and joining a French Order, she decided to leave for India. But she was forced to stop in Pakistan due to an issue over visas, and in that time saw Leprosy, a disease that she did not know existed. http://www.asianews.it/news-en/A-German-Mother-Teresa-among-the-flood-victims-of-Pakistan-19971.html
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:45 PM 0 comments





AFRICA: NIGERIA: CATHOLIC CATHEDRAL ATTACKED BY ARMED BANDITS
ALL AFRICA REPORT: Bandits, armed with various dangerous weapons including guns and cutlasses yesterday invaded the Catholic Cathedral in Jalingo, carting away items and valuables worth several millions of naira.The bandits, who arrived the Cathedral situated along Mile 6 in the ancient town at about 3.00am held residents of the cathedral, who are mainly priests and clergymen hostage before dispossessing them of their valuables at gunpoint.Speaking to THISDAY in Jalingo, the Parish Priest, Reverend Charles Nyame, said the bandits gained entrance into one of the flats through the ceilings from where they eventually gained access into the other flats in the cathedral.Nyame, who is also one of the victims of the attack, expressed dismay and wondered why clergymen would become susceptible to attacks from bandits particularly within the church cathedral.He listed the items carted away by the bandits in the operation which lasted over one hour, to include laptops, mobile phones an undisclosed sum of money and various other valuables while they left their victims with varying degree of injuries particularly on their wrists as they were overpowered by the men of the underworld and tied to their beds.Nyame, who is also the Secretary to the Bishop, said the robbers, who were armed to the teeth threatened to kidnap him if he fails to cooperate with them adding that no security operative was seen throughout the period the operation lasted.Also speaking, some of the parishioners who rescued the victims from where they were strapped to their beds said they became wary and suspicious when the Priest failed to show up for the morning mass which commences at 5.00am daily just as they expressed fear of another attack by the robbers.Another victim, Reverend Felix Gobi, who also narrated his ordeal to THISDAY said he could not fathom how the robbers gained entrance into the apartments saying "Frankly speaking, I am not suspecting anybody but as I am talking to you now, the police have already taken our statements and they promised to swing into investigation and I believe they would uncover those behind this "Confirming the incident, a senior police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the absence of the DPO who was supposed to confirm the incident said the matter has been reported and that the police command would do everything possible to arrest those behind the dastardly act.According to him "we are very much aware of what happened at the cathedral because the priest came here to report and our men were drafted to the scene to ascertain the gravity of the theft"
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:42 PM 0 comments





AUSTRALIA: CATHOLIC SCHOOLTEACHER TO REPLACE TRIPODI
Cath News report: A Catholic schoolteacher will replace the former minister Joe Tripodi as Labor's candidate in Fairfield, NSW, reports the Sydney Morning Herald.Guy Zangari, the pastoral care co-ordinator at Freeman Catholic College in the western suburb of Bonnyrigg, was the sole nomination in Fairfield.Mr Tripodi's retirement is seen as key to achieving renewal in the NSW Labor ranks. But the party is unable to claim a complete break from him in the seat, the report added.Mr Zangari, 39, is the brother of the former ministerial adviser Peter Zangari, who worked for Mr Tripodi for 12 months when he was the minister for housing.http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=24242
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:40 PM 0 comments





TODAY'S SAINT: ST. EDMUND THE MARTYR: NOV. 20
St. Edmund the MartyrKING AND MARTYRFeast: November 20Information:Feast Day:November 20Born:841 probably at Nuremburg, GermanyDied:Hoxne, Suffolk, England 20 November 870Patron


:against plague, kings, torture victims, wolvesThough from the time of King Egbert, in 802, the Kings of the West-Saxons were monarchs of all England, yet several kings reigned in certain parts after that time, in some measure subordinate to them. One Offa was King of the East-Angles, who, being desirous to end his days in penance and devotion to Rome, resigned his crown to St. Edmund, at that time only fifteen years of age, but a most virtuous prince, and descended from the old English-Saxon kings of this isle. The saint was placed on the throne of his ancestors, as Lydgate, Abbo, and others express themselves, and was crowned by Humbert, Bishop of Elman, on Christmas Day, in 855, at Burum, a royal villa on the Stour, now called Bures, or Buers. Though very young, he was by his piety, goodness, humility, and all other virtues, the model of good princes. He was a declared enemy of flatterers and informers, and would


see with his own eyes and hear with his own ears, to avoid being surprised into a wrong judgment, or imposed upon by the passions or ill designs of others. The peace and happiness of his people were his whole concern, which he endeavoured to establish by an impartial administration of justice and religious regulations in his dominions. He was the father of his subjects, particularly of the poor, the protector of widows and orphans, and the support of the weak. Religion and piety were the most distinguishing part of his character. Monks and devout persons used to know the psalter without book, that they might recite the psalms at work, in travelling, and on every other occasion. To get it by heart St. Edmund lived in retirement a whole year in his royal tower at Hunstanton (which he had built for a country solitude), which place is now a village in Norfolk. The book which the saint used for that purpose was religiously kept at St. Edmundsbury till the dissolution of abbeys.The holy king had reigned fifteen years when the Danes infested his dominions. Hinguar and Hubba, two brothers, the most barbarous of all the Danish plunderers landing in England, wintered among the East-Angles; then, having made a truce with that nation, they in summer sailed to the north, and landing at the mouth of the Tweed, plundered with fire and sword Northumberland, and afterwards Mercia, directing their march through Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, and Cambridgeshire. Out of a lust of rage and cruelty, and the most implacable aversion to the Christian name, they everywhere destroyed the churches and monasteries; and, as it were in barbarous sport, massacred all priests and religious persons whom they met with. In the great monastery of Coldingham, beyond Berwick, the nuns, fearing not death but insults which might be offered to their chastity, at the instigation of St. Ebba, the holy abbess, cut off their noses and upper lips, that appearing to the barbarians frightful spectacles of horror, they might preserve their virtue from danger; the infidels accordingly were disconcerted at such a sight, and spared their virtue, but put them all to the sword. In their march, amongst other monasteries, those of Bardney, Crowland, Peterborough, Ely, and Huntingdon were levelled with the ground, and the religious inhabitants murdered. In the Cathedral of Peterborough is shown a monument (removed thither from a place without the building) called Monks'-Stone, on which are the effigies of an abbot and several monks. It stood over the pit in which fourscore monks of this house were interred, whom Hinguar and Hubba massacred in 870. The barbarians, reeking with blood, poured down upon St. Edmund's dominions, burning Thetford, the first town they met with, and laying waste all before them. The people, relying upon the faith of treaties, thought themselves secure, and were unprepared. However, the good king raised what forces he could, met the infidels, or at least a part of their army near Thetford, and discomfited them. But seeing them soon after reinforced with fresh numbers, against which his small body was not able to make any stand, and being unwilling to sacrifice the lives of his soldiers in vain, and grieving for the eternal loss of the souls of his enemies, who would be slain in a fruitless engagement, he disbanded his troops and retired himself towards his castle of Framlingham, in Suffolk. The barbarian had sent him proposals which were inconsistent both with religion and with the justice which he owed to his people. These the saint rejected, being resolved rather to die a victim of his faith and duty to God, than to do anything against his conscience and religion. In his flight he was over taken and surrounded by infidels at Oxon, upon the Waveney: he concealed himself for some short time, but, being discovered, was bound with heavy chains and conducted to the general's tent. Terms were again offered him equally prejudicial to religion and to his people, which the holy Icing refused to confirm, declaring that religion was dearer to him than his life, which he would never purchase by offending God. Hinguar, exasperated at this answer, in his barbarous rage caused him to be cruelly beaten with cudgels, then to be tied to a tree and torn a long time together with whips. All this he bore with invincible meekness and patience, never ceasing to call upon the name of Jesus. The infidels were the more exasperated, and as he stood bound to the tree, they made him a mark wantonly to shoot at, till his body was covered with arrows like a porcupine. Hinguar at length, in order to put an end to the butchery, commanded his head to be struck off. Thus the saint finished his martyrdom on the 20th of November, in 870, the fifteenth of his reign, and twenty-ninth of his age; the circumstances of which St. Dunstan learned from one who was armour-bearer to the saint and an eye-witness. The place was then called Henglesdun, now Hoxon, or Hoxne; a priory of monks was afterwards built there which bore the name of the martyr.The saint's head was carried by the infidels into a wood and thrown into a brake of bushes; but miraculously found by a pillar of light and deposited with the body at Hoxdon. These sacred remains were very soon after conveyed to Bedricsworth, or Kingston, since called St. Edmundsbury, because this place was St. Edmund's own town and private patrimony; not on account of his burial, for in the English-Saxon language signified a court or palace. A church of timber was erected over the place where he was interred, which was thus built according to the fashion of those times. Trunks of large trees were sawn lengthways in the middle and reared up with one end fixed in the ground, with the bark or rough side outermost. These trunks being made of an equal height and set up close to one another, and the interstices filled up with mud or mortar, formed the four walls, upon which was raised a thatched roof. Nor can we be surprised at the homeliness of this structure, since the same was the fabric of the royal rich abbey of Glastonbury, the work of the most munificent and powerful West-Saxon kings, till in latter ages it was built in a stately manner of stone. The precious remains of St. Edmund were honoured with many miracles. In 920, for fear of the barbarians under Turkil the Dane, in the reign of King Ethelred, they were conveyed to London by Alfun, bishop of that city, and the monk Egelwin, or Ailwin, the keeper of this sacred treasure, who never abandoned it. After remaining three years in the Church of St. Gregory, in London, it was translated again with honour to St. Edmundsbury in 923. The great church of timberwork stood till King Knute, or Canutus, to make reparation for the injuries his father Swein, or Sweno, had done to this place and to the relics of the martyr, built and founded there, in 1020, a new most magnificent church and abbey in honour of this holy martyr. The unparalleled piety, humility, meekness, and other virtues of St. Edmund are admirably set forth by our historians. This incomparable prince and holy martyr was considered by succeeding English kings as their special patron, and as an accomplished model of all royal virtues. The feast of St. Edmund is reckoned among the holidays of precept in this kingdom by the national council of Oxford in 1222; but is omitted in the constitutions of Archbishop Simon Islep, who retrenched certain holidays in 1362.
SOURCE http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/E/stedmundthemartyr.asp
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:38 PM 0 comments





TODAY'S GOSPEL: NOV. 20: Luke 20: 27 - 40
Luke 20: 27 - 4027There came to him some Sadducees, those who say that there is no resurrection,28and they asked him a question, saying, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for his brother.29Now there were seven brothers; the first took a wife, and died without children;30and the second31and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died.32Afterward the woman also died.33In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."34And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage;35but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage,36for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.37But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.38Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living; for all live to him."39And some of the scribes answered, "Teacher, you have spoken well."40For they no longer dared to ask him any question.
Posted by JesusCaritasEst at 4:37 PM 0 comments





Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)