CATHOLIC NEWS WORLD: THURS. APRIL 28, 2011: Headlines-
VATICAN: POPE: EXHIBIT TO POPE JOHN PAUL II
AMERICA: MEXICO: MURDER OF PRIEST FR. DURAN, AGE 60
AFRICA: LIBYA: BISHOP CALLS FOR END OF MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
EXHIBIT DEDICATED TO JOHN PAUL II
VATICAN CITY, 28 APR 2011 (VIS REPORT) - Tomorrow morning the exhibit "John Paul II: Homage of Benedict XVI for the Beatification" will open in the Charlemagne Wing of Bernini's colonnades around St. Peter's Square and remain open until 24 July. (IMAGE SOURCE: RADIO VATICANA)
The exhibition, organized by the Governorate of the Vatican City State in collaboration with the Polish Embassy to the Holy See and the Polish Culture and Heritage Ministry, is divided into 15 sections illustrating the life and pontificate of Karol Wojtyla, from his infancy and childhood in Wadowice to the last stage of his life and solemn funeral on 8 April 2005. With a wealth of detail it presents all the moments and aspects of the life of the newly beatified pope.
During the exhibit's inaugural ceremony, in the presence of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and various other figures, the official stamps issued jointly by the Vatican City State and Poczta Polska (Polish Post) will be presented.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 28 APR 2011 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father appointed Fr. Virgilio do Nascimento Antunes, rector of Nossa Senhora de Fatima Sanctuary, as bishop of the Diocese of Coimbra (area , population , Catholics , priests , permanent deacons , religious ), Portugal. The bishop-elect was born in Sao Mamede, Batalha, Portugal in 1961 and ordained a priest in 1985. He succeeds Bishop Albino Mamede Cleto, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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VATICAN CITY, 28 APR 2011 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:
- Cardinal Varkey Vithayathil, C.SS.R., major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro-Malabars, on 1 April at the age of 83.
- Bishop Patrick Vincent Ahern, auxiliary bishop emeritus of New York, USA, on 19 March at the age of 92.
- Bishop William Henry Bullock, emeritus of Madison, USA, on 3 April at the age of 83.
- Bishop Louis Dufaux, emeritus of Grenoble, France, on 14 April at the age of 79.
- Bishop Ioan Sisestean, of Maramures of the Romanians, Romania, on 12 April at the age of 74.
AMERICA: MEXICO: MURDER OF PRIEST FR. DURAN, AGE 60
The Archdiocese of Mexico has condemned the killing of Father Francisco Sanchez Duran and urged the authorities to investigate this crime and punish the culprits. The statement by the archdiocese, signed by Cardinal Norberto Rivera, Archbishop of Mexico, invokes God for eternal rest for the soul of the priest Francisco Sánchez, and insists that "any act of violence is deplorable in itself and even more so if carried out against persons consecrated to God”, which makes the murderers fault even more seroius.
ASIA: SYRIA: MILITARY VIOLENCE AND PROTESTS
CNN REPORT: Syrian tanks and security forces swooped down hard Thursday on the restive city of Daraa, witnesses said.
Helicopters hovered overhead as security forces fanned out across the besieged city, breaking into homes and making arrests. Streets were littered with dead bodies and dwellings are bereft of water and electricity.
A southern city that sits near the Jordanian border, Daraa is where the anti-government protests began and took hold last month. Now it is a test for police and soldiers attempting to quell tenacious protests and a government trying to cope with angry unrest.
Human Rights Watch said army troops and other security forces have killed more than 300 protesters since March 16. Other sources are saying even more people have been slain, and the government reports security personnel have also been killed.
Many of the deaths have occurred in and around Daraa, where heavy firing could be heard Thursday and smoke was seen rising from homes, mosques and schools.
Hundreds of snipers were stationed on the roofs of several buildings and security forces are shelling the city with mortars and anti-aircraft weapons, an eyewitness said.
One witness said dozens of tanks rumbled across a bridge and fired shells, as people hurled rocks at the tanks and tried to stop them from moving into the old part of the city. Another witness said security forces making mass arrests detained a large number of young men.
A resident said injured people are in danger of dying because people are too scared to leave the shelter of their homes with the city under siege by security forces.
Residents have not had electricity, children's milk or medicine for the last four days, said the witness, who asked not to be named for security reasons.
CNN was not able to independently confirm the accounts.
The Syrian unrest began in Daraa in March after teens were arrested for scribbling anti-government graffiti. People protested the arrests, security forces greeted the demonstrators harshly, and that emboldened more rallies.
Protests spread to other parts of Daraa and other regions of Syria, and the same dynamic played out there despite promises and gestures of reform by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
There's been an outcry in many international quarters due to the use of force against the peaceful gatherings. Human Rights Watch Wednesday urged Arab countries to "join international efforts to establish an independent international inquiry" into the issue.
"In recent days President Bashar al-Assad's government cut off access and communications with several cities, sending in tanks and troops in an effort to crush widespread public dissent," the group said.
The U.N. Security Council debated Syria on Wednesday but failed to agree on a response to the crisis.
The situation has even made its way into the planning for Friday's royal wedding in Britain of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
The entire Syrian diplomatic corps was invited to the event as a matter of protocol, but the British Foreign Office said Thursday that Syria's ambassador to the United Kingdom is now not welcome "in the light of this week's attacks against civilians by the Syrian security forces, which we have condemned."
http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/04/28/syria.unrest/index.html
AFRICA: LIBYA: BISHOP CALLS FOR END OF MILITARY INTERVENTIONS
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Tripoli (AsiaNews) – “NATO’s war makes no sense. People want peace. What have people done to deserve all this?” asks Mgr Giovanni Innocenzo Martinelli, apostolic vicar of Tripoli. “Targeting military objectives” is crazy because “bombs are striking everywhere,” the prelate said. “We cannot sleep and people are panicking,” he added. “Just last night, there were some explosions just a few kilometres from our area.”The situation is desperate and the West should stop the war, Mgr Martinelli urged. “We can see women and children crying in the streets. Many Muslim women have come to church crying, asking the Pope to stop the conflict,” the prelate said.
“Bombs solve nothing. NATO and the rebels must stop the military intervention and accept diplomatic talks with the regime,” he explained.
The prelate is also very critical of the positions taken by the Italian government. After backing Gaddafi and his regime for years, now Rome has decided to take part in the air strikes.
“If this is the government’s choice, it would be better for everyone that it resign,” the bishop said.
“How can anyone say that everything is normal and right? If the war continues, the gap between the Libyan and Italian peoples could get bigger, with unforeseeable consequences.” (S.C.)
EUROPE: ENGLAND: UBI CARITAS FOR ROYAL WEDDING
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AUSTRALIA: EFFORTS TO BRING BACK LAPSED CATHOLICS
Cath news report- Lapsed Catholics and those who only come to Mass at Christmas and Easter outnumber practising Catholics, with only one in seven Australian Catholics going to Church every Sunday, reports the Age.
Many parishes use the Holy Week to reach out to occasional visitors. At the start of Lent, Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley launched this year's ''Catholics Come Home'' campaign - credited with persuading 200,000 Americans to return to the church.Of the five million-plus Australians who identified as Catholics in the 2006 census, only 13.8 percent go to church every Sunday - and local parishes ready themselves for this, the paper adds.
Sydney's Archbishop George Pell sent a research team to the US in January to see if the campaign, with its heavy use of FaceBook, Twitter and TV commercials, could work in Australia.
On a smaller scale, Brisbane's Liturgical Commission has published a guide to welcoming ''new and occasional Catholics'': ''Easter Masses are one of the key times for connecting with those who attend church infrequently,'' it reads.
The guide recommends ''hospitality ministers'' on the doors, and warns against filling the weekly parish newsletter with ''in-house'' news or ''churchy'' language.
There is no organised ''welcome back'' campaign in Melbourne, but many parishes make an extra effort to welcome the walk-ins.
''Most parishes at least double and sometimes treble'' over Easter, says Father John Salvano, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral. At Easter, the cathedral prints extra booklets ''with literally every response you need'' to follow the service.
''After all this time, the words still come back to you,'' says Nicole Mitchell, 35, who started going to Mass this year - for the first time since her teens - because her oldest daughter is in prep at a Catholic school.
Ms Mitchell brought both her daughters to St Patrick's ''so they could see something special, with the beautiful music and the candles''.
TODAY'S SAINT: APR. 28: ST. GIANNA BERETTA MOLLA
St. Gianna Beretta Molla
MOTHER
Feast: April 28
| Saint Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Magenta (Milan), Italy, on 4 October 1922, the 10th of 13 children. Already as a young girl she willingly accepted the gift of faith and the clearly Christian education that she received from her excellent parents. As a result, she experienced life as a marvellous gift from God, had a strong faith in Providence and was convinced of the necessity and effectivneess of prayer. |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/G/stgiannaberettamolla.asp#ixzz1KpQ6qWFm
TODAY'S SAINT: APR. 28: ST. LOUIS DE MONTFORT
St. Louis de Montfort
CONFESSOR, MARIAN DEVOTEE, FOUNDER
Feast: April 28
| Missionary in Brittany and Vendee; born at Montfort, 31 January, 1673; died at Saint Laurent sur Sevre, 28 April, 1716. From his childhood, he was indefatigably devoted to prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, and, when from his twelfth year he was sent as a day pupil to the Jesuit college at Rennes, he never failed to visit the church before and after class. He joined a society of young men who during holidays ministered to the poor and to the incurables in the hospitals, and read for them edifying books during their meals. At the age of nineteen, he went on foot to Paris to follow the course in theology, gave away on the journey all his money to the poor, exchanged clothing with them, and made a vow to subsist thenceforth only on alms. He was ordained priest at the age of twenty-seven, and for some time fulfilled the duties of chaplain in a hospital. In 1705, when he was thirty-two, he found his true vocation, and thereafter devoted himself to preaching to the people. During seventeen years he preached the Gospel in countless towns and villages. As an orator he was highly gifted, his language being simple but replete with fire and divine love. His whole life was conspicuous for virtues difficult for modern degeneracy to comprehend: constant prayer, love of the poor, poverty carried to an unheard-of degree, joy in humiliations and persecutions. The following two instances will illustrate his success. He once gave a mission for the soldiers of the garrison at La Rochelle, and moved by his words, the men wept, and cried aloud for the forgiveness of their sins. In the procession which terminated this mission, an officer walked at the head, barefooted and carrying a banner, and the soldiers, also barefooted, followed, carrying in one hand a crucifix, in the other a rosary, and singing hymns. Grignion's extraordinary influence was especially apparent in the matter of the calvary at Pontchateau. When he announced his determination of building a monumental calvary on a neighbouring hill, the idea was enthusiastically received by the inhabitants. For fifteen months between two and four hundred peasants worked daily without recompense, and the task had just been completed, when the king commanded that the whole should be demolished, and the land restored to its former condition. The Jansenists had convinced the Governor of Brittany that a fortress capable of affording aid to persons in revolt was being erected, and for several months five hundred peasants, watched by a company of soldiers, were compelled to carry out the work of destruction. Father de Montfort was not disturbed on receiving this humiliating news, exclaiming only: "Blessed be God!" This was by no means the only trial to which Grignion was subjected. It often happened that the Jansenists, irritated by his success, secure by their intrigues his banishment form the district, in which he was giving a mission. At La Rochelle some wretches put poison into his cup of broth, and, despite the antidote which he swallowed, his health was always impaired. On another occasion, some malefactors hid in a narrow street with the intention of assassinating him, but he had a presentiment of danger and escaped by going by another street. A year before his death, Father de Montfort founded two congregations -- the Sisters of Wisdom, who were to devote themselves to hospital work and the instruction of poor girls, and the Company of Mary, composed of missionaries. He had long cherished these projects but circumstances had hindered their execution, and, humanly speaking, the work appeared to have failed at his death, since these congregations numbered respectively only four sisters and two priests with a few brothers. But the blessed founder, who had on several occasions shown himself possessed of the gift of prophecy, knew that the tree would grow. At the beginning of the twentieth century the Sisters of Wisdom numbered five thousand, and were spread throughout every country; they possessed forty-four houses, and gave instruction to 60,000 children. After the death of its founder, the Company of Mary was governed for 39 years by Father Mulot. He had at first refused to join de Montfort in his missionary labours. "I cannot become a missionary", said he, "for I have been paralysed on one side for years; I have an affection of the lungs which scarcely allows me to breathe, and am indeed so ill that I have no rest day or night." But the holy man, impelled by a sudden inspiration, replied, "As soon as you begin to preach you will be completely cured." And the event justified the prediction. Grignion de Montfort was beatified by Leo XIII in 1888. |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/L/stlouisdemontfort.asp#ixzz1KpPuY7FV
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