AMERICA: USA: OVER 46,000 JOIN AS GROUPS UNITE-END HARMS OF PORNOGRAPHY WEEK
ASIA: CHINA: UNAPPROVED ORDINATION OF BISHOP
TODAY'S SAINT: JULY 14: BL. KATERI TEKAKWITHA
TODAY'S SAINT: JULY 14: ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS
VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2011 (VIS) - An exhibition entitled "the Man, the Face, the Mystery" was presented this morning in the Vatican Museums. The exhibition is due to be inaugurated in the State Museum of theRepublic of San Marino on 20 August. Participating in today's presentation were Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums; Romeo Morri, secretary for culture and education of the Republic of San Marino; Sante Carlucci, ambassador of the Republic of San Marino to the Holy See, and Giovanni Gentili, an art historian and curator of the exhibition. (image source: radio Vaticana)
The works on display in the exhibition, which was organised in the light of the Holy Father's recent visit to San Marino, all come from the Vatican Museums. They "document how artists (from Greeks to Romans and moderns) have represented the facial features of men and women in an attempt to portray the soul which, together with the countenance, makes up the identity of each individual". According to a communique released today, such attempts were characterised in portraiture "by the imitation of models - either gods or heroes of the classical age - until that crucial moment of history when the 'model' par excellence appeared. With His face Christ revealed the face of the Father, God the Creator, and since then man's history, also as documented in the figurative arts, has been played out in the acceptance or rejection of that fact".
The Vatican Museums' Department of Classical Antiquities has provided a number of masterpieces such as the famous "head of Athena", an original Greek work from the fifth century BC; the "bust of Antinous" from Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli, and the "portrait of Claudia Semne in the guise of Venus". Other pieces have come from the Department of Etruscan-Italic Antiquities (two extraordinary terracotta heads, one masculine and one feminine), from the Department of Paleochristian Art (the rare fourth century mosaic "portraits of Flavius Julianus and his wife Simplicia Rustica"), and from the Department of Oriental Antiquities (the "portrait of a woman from Palmyra" formerly in the collection of art critic Federico Zeri).
Other depictions of man in the classical age have been provided by the Department of Decorative Arts, including the "bust of Trajan" and the "portraits of Peter and Paul". The latter date from the fifth century and are considered to be among the oldest of their kind in the world. A large number of the works on display in the exhibition come from the Department of Mediaeval Art; they include the twelfth-century painting of "Christ delivering a blessing" and the mosaic "portrait of St. Luke", which decorated the facade of the Vatican Basilica in the Middle Ages. Among the paintings and sculptures from the modern age are various works by Guercino and Guido Reni, as well as the "portrait of a man" by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
The last section of the exhibition is dedicated to the "Holy Face". It includes a seventeenth-century copy of the image of "Christ acheiropoieta" from the Lateran (the original being impossible to move); the famous veil of the "Veronica" from the Pontifical Sacristy, normally inaccessible to the public and the only surviving reproduction of that venerated relic which was held in the Vatican but lost in the Sack of Rome in 1527, and the "Sainte Face" by George Rouault. The exhibition ends with works by a number of twentieth-century artists including Fausto Pirandello, Francesco Messina and Graham Sutherland.
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VATICAN CITY, 14 JUL 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Bishop Mario Alberto Molina Palma O.A.R. of Quiche, Guatemala, as metropolitan archbishop of Los Altos Quetzaltenango - Totonicapan (area 3,012, population 1,404,000, Catholics 1,123,000, priests 52, permanent deacons 1, religious 166), Guatemala.
- Msgr. Jean-Marie Mate Musivi Mupendawatu, under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, as secretary of the same council.
- Fr. Augusto Chendi M.I., official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, as under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care.
AMERICA: USA: OVER 46,000 JOIN AS GROUPS UNITE-END HARMS OF PORNOGRAPHY WEEK
PORN HARMS RELEASE: The Be Aware: PORN HARMS National Awareness Campaign is a four-week united effort by many national and local organizations to educate the public on the harms of pornography and provide tools for support. Each week will focus on a specific harm of pornography:
- July 11-17: Pornography Addiction
- July 18-24: Harms to Children
- July 25-31: Links to Sex Trafficking
- August 1-7: Violence Against Women
Nearly all of the 110 members in the War on Illegal Pornography Coalition, as well as many other groups, will work together to share facts about these areas of harm. This campaign will reach tens of thousands of people. There will be well over 25 events during the month, from local rallies to webinars to live online conferences that can be viewed right on our Facebook page. Participating groups will provide hundreds of free subscriptions to addiction recovery services and for filtering software. We will provide billboards, signs and web posters at no cost to all supporters. Much of the material can be downloaded from our website. Check back often for new events and more as we will be adding throughout the campaign!
Pornography is silently and secretly destroying men, women, and children. It is a pandemic ruining lives, marriages and families. Our now Pornified society has eroded the cultural norms in America to the point that even a major TV network, using the public airwaves, is planning programming with a known pornographer and exploiter of women. This harm must end.
That is why we are launching the Be Aware: PORN HARMS campaign. It provides an overview of the damages caused by pornography use.
Every day we receive messages from the victims of pornography – men caught in the ravages of addiction since childhood, accounts of women and children raped, women trafficked against their wills to perform the most degrading of all sexual acts on tape, broken families and devastated hearts. These links between the rise of a porn culture and these specific harms are undeniable. It is time we speak up about them and help others realize the consequences of pornography.
Just like the pornographers, we will harness the power of the Internet, with extensive use of social media. We will feature a series of Livestream Conferences on Facebook and our websites that will enable the viewers to participate with questions and discussion in real time.
ASIA: CHINA: UNAPPROVED ORDINATION OF BISHOP
UCAN REPORT: Father Joseph Huang Bingzhang of Shantou was ordained today without a papal mandate.
Eight Vatican-approved bishops attended the ordination that took place at St. Joseph’s Cathedral in Shantou city, southern Guangdong province.
Bishop Johan Fang Xingyao of Linyin, president of the government-sanctioned Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association (CCPA), was the main celebrant.
Four of the consecrating bishops were from Guangdong: Bishops Joseph Gan Junqiu of Guangzhou, Paul Liang Jiansen of Jiangmen, Joseph Liao Hongqing of Meizhou and Paul Su Yongda of Zhanjiang.
The rest were Bishops Paul He Zeqing of Wanzhou, Joseph Shen Bin of Haimen and Coadjutor Bishop John Baptist Li Suguang of Nanchang.
The Shantou ordination took place just 10 days after the Holy See excommunicated Father Paul Lei Shiyin of Leshan, who was ordained a bishop without papal mandate.
The July 4 statement also stated that the consecrating bishops, including Bishops Fang and He, have exposed themselves to grave canonical sanctions.
In Shantou this morning, police sealed off all roads around the cathedral. Nobody could get near without an entry card. Only designated photographers were allowed to bring cameras or video recorders.
About 30 priests and more than 1,000 people were present. However, Church sources said fewer than half of the 20 diocesan priests attended. They hid away separately days ago but a few were found by officials and had to attend to the ceremony.
Vatican-approved Bishop Peter Zhuang Jianjian of Shantou, whom the government recognized as a priest, is watched by dozens of plainclothes officers at his rural church.
Bishop Zhuang will not recognize Father Huang as a bishop, saying he violated Church law and principles. “Before Father Huang repents wholeheartedly, we will not have any contact in sacraments as he chose not to be in communion with the pope,” said a source quoting the old prelate.
The bishop has called on the faithful to recite the rosaries for God’s help to overcome the difficulties.
A Shantou priest who attended the ordination said he hoped the new bishop could unite the priests for the good of the local Church. “Forgiveness, tolerance and mutual support are more important,” said the priest on condition of anonymity.
Even if the Holy See excommunicates Bishop Huang, “I will work with him except for sacramental communion and continue to serve my parishioners who are innocent in this incident,” he said.
The priest recalled that the new bishop said after the ceremony that he knows his road ahead is very difficult. “Today is an unforgettable day for me. I am a humble man, who hoped to contribute for the country, the Church and society,” the new bishop was quoted as saying.
In internet chatrooms, many Catholics across China have expressed their sadness, sorrow and helplessness at the second illicit ordination in two weeks.
Born in 1967, Father Huang entered the seminary in 1985 and became a priest in 1991. He has been a deputy of the National People’s Congress (China’s parliament) since 1998 and is a vice-chair of the CCPA.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/07/14/bishops-attend-unapproved-ordination/
EUROPE: GREAT BRITAIN: BISHOP EVANS REST IN PEACE- DIES OF CANCER
Bishop Evans persevered in service as a bishop even in the later stages of his cancer (Mazur/catholicchurch.org.uk)
CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: Bishop Michael Evans of East Anglia has died after a long battle with prostate cancer.
The 59-year-old bishop passed away on Monday evening in hospital six years after he was diagnosed with an advanced and aggressive strain of the disease. Throughout his illness he continued his work right up until his admission to hospital a few days before his death.
His death was greeted with sadness across the Catholic and wider Christian community, with Archbishop Peter Smith of Southwark saying: “Bishop Michael will be very much missed by so many people in the Archdiocese of Southwark and the Diocese of East Anglia – family, friends, laity, religious and clergy.”
Born on August 10 1951 in south London, Michael Charles Evans grew up in Kent and attended Simon Langton Grammar School in Canterbury, going on to study for the priesthood at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, in Surrey.
He was ordained in the Archdiocese of Southwark in 1975 and spent two years as assistant priest at St Elizabeth’s in Richmond, London, and then studied for a theology degree at London University before going back to St John’s Seminary, where he lectured in doctrine.
He spent two years as vice-rector at the seminary, with the then Mgr Peter Smith, later the second Bishop of East Anglia and now Archbishop of Southwark, as rector.
He then served as parish priest at St Augustine’s in Tunbridge Wells for eight years before Pope John Paul II appointed him as the third Bishop of East Anglia in 2003. On his appointment he said he was “astonished” and felt “unworthy”.
In 2006 he was told that he was suffering from an aggressive form of prostate cancer, which affects many men in late middle age. But he continued to work tirelessly in the diocese despite worsening health.
In January 2011 Bishop Evans broke the news to his diocese that he did not have long to live. He wrote: “Rather than resign, I would like to continue among you as your bishop and the father of our diocesan family until this stage of my life ends. I do not know how long that will be. I am most grateful for the ways you have cared for and so prayerfully supported me in recent years. You remain very much in my thoughts and care.
“As I live now under the shadow of death, my prayer is very much that of St Paul that I may know something of the power of Christ’s Resurrection and a share in his sufferings, trusting that the Lord is with me. I pray that even now I can joyfully witness something of the good news we are all called to proclaim.”
Archbishop Smith said: “As a priest of the archdiocese, Michael was totally committed to his priestly ministry both as a pastoral priest and professor of theology for many years at St John’s seminary.
“Having known him as a fellow student, a friend and brother priest involved in the formation of future priests, I was delighted when he was appointed as the third Bishop of East Anglia. There Bishop Michael continued that dedication, emphasising the bishop’s role as a teacher of the faith and spending himself in building up the diocesan family of East Anglia.
“He was unstinting in using his time and great talents in the service of the clergy, religious and people of the diocese.”
He added: “Even during his long period of ill-health, although increasingly restricted in what he was able to do, he refused to give up. I have no doubt that he will be greeted by the Lord he served so faithfully, with the words: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the Kingdom prepared for you.’ ”
The Rt Rev Stephen Conway, Anglican Bishop of Ely, also paid tribute. “I am very sad to learn of the death of Bishop Michael Evans,” he said.
“Like Pope John Paul II, Michael’s living with his illness was more eloquent than any sermon about living through human weakness the joy of Christ’s Resurrection.
“He will be remembered in our prayers across the Diocese. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.”
A regular writer of articles and pamphlets on theological issues, Bishop Evans always focused on ecumenical dialogue as an important part of his ministry.
From 1991 he was a member of the British Methodist/Roman Catholic Committee and in 1997 was appointed by the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity to be one of the eight Catholic members of the International Joint Commission for Dialogue.
Bishop Evans was also one of the four Christian co-presidents of the Christian-Muslim Forum established by the Archbishop of Canterbury.
A life-long supporter of Amnesty International, he left the organisation in 2007 after it came out in support of abortion, saying that “it cannot expect those of us who are just as passionate about the human rights of the unborn child to feel at ease being part of such an organisation”.
Much of his priestly ministry was spent working with young people, especially older teenagers and young adults, and every year from 1984 he spent a week’s retreat at the ecumenical community at Taizé in France, and as a bishop invited young adults from the diocese to accompany him.
From 1989 to 2003, he was a member of the Catholic bishops’ conference Committee for priestly formation, and from 1995-2003 he was chairman of the Archdiocese of Southwark justice and peace coordinating committee.
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/news/2011/07/13/bishop-michael-evans-loses-fight-against-cancer/
AUSTRALIA: LONGEST-MARRIED COUPLES RENEW VOWS
Image from The Record of Noreen and Don Dickinson, the longest-married of the couples
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CATH NEWS REPORT: Eighteen couples in a parish near Perth will renew their vows in a Special Wedding Anniversary Mass to be held in August this year, reports the Record.
Noreen and Don Dickinson are the longest-married of the couples, from the parish of of Sts John and Paul in Willetton south of Perth, who will renew their vows on August 21 in the parish. The couple married on in 1957 and are celebrating 54 years of marriage this year.Every year since 2007, couples celebrating their Silver (25th), Pearl (30th), Coral (35th), Ruby (40th), Sapphire (45th) or Golden (50th) Wedding anniversary during the year are invited to be the special Mass.
Any couple celebrating a wedding anniversary of more than 50 years is also invited, as each year after 50 is considered 'significant', one of the organisers, Su Goh, said.
Since 2008, at least one couple celebrating their first wedding anniversary has participated in the occasion. Two newly married couples will join in this year.
Su said she was inspired to organise the event at Sts John and Paul Parish in Willetton when she attended a special Wedding Anniversary Mass at St Thomas More parish in Bateman with her husband in 2004.
Su and David Goh, who were married in 1974 in Singapore and emigrated to Perth in 1991, now have two grown up sons, celebrated their Pearl Anniversary that year. This experience inspired her to approach her parish priest in 2007 and ask if he would be prepared to celebrate a special Mass at Willetton too.
AFRICA: KENYA: NEW BISHOP FOR MALINDI DIOCESE
Fr Barbara, a missionary from the congregation of Capuchin Franciscan Friars, was appointed bishop of Malindi on July 9, 2011. The Bishop was born on October 27, 1949 in Gzira parish in the Archdiocese of Malta. On September 19, 1965, he entered the novitiate. On September 26, 1966, he did his first religious profession.
After finishing his studies in Malta, he was ordained deacon on August 5, 1973 and ordained a priest on July 20, 1974, in the Cathedral de la Valletta in Malta.
The bishop-elect has held the following positions: 1974-1976: vicar priest at San Gwann, in Malta; 1976-1978: Studies for the Licentiate in Moral Theology at the Alfonsianum; 1976-1989: Teacher at INSERM (National Institutum Studiorum Ecclesiasticorum Religiosorum Melitensium), Malta; 1978-1980: Chaplain at St. Luke’s Hospital in Malta;
In 1980-1983: local Superior in Xemxija, Malta; 1981-1983: Rector of INSERM, Malta; 1983-1989: Provincial Minister, Malta; 1990-1996: Director of Formation, Nairobi, Kenya; 1990-1992: Caretaker of the formation house in Lang’ata, Kenya; 1990-1992: Professor at Tangaza College, Nairobi;
In 1992-1994 he studied doctorate in Moral Theology at the Alfonsianum in Rome. From 1994-1999 became a professor at Tangaza College in Nairobi and in 1996-1999 became the first vice-provincial of their congregation in Kenya.
In 1999-2008: Professor of the Faculty of Moral Theology at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA), Nairobi. Since 2008 he returned to Malta where he has been the spiritual director in a secondary school, and at the same time a teacher of young religious foreigners in Malta.
Before his appointment he was the Provincial Minister for the Province of Malta, and President of the European Capuchins Conference (CENOC) from 2010.
The diocese of Malindi was created in 2000 from the Archdiocese of Mombasa. It has an area of 33,254 square kilometres and a population of 539,000 inhabitants, of whom 25,509 are Catholic.
There are 17 parishes, 35 priests (11 diocesan and 24 religious), 30 religious brothers, 44 nuns and 8 major seminarians.
TODAY'S SAINT: JULY 14: BL. KATERI TEKAKWITHA
Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha
VIRGIN
Feast: July 14
| Known as the "Lily of the Mohawks", and the "Genevieve of New France" an Indian virgin of the Mohawk tribe, born according to some authorities at the Turtle Castle of Ossernenon, according to others at the village of Gandaouge, in 1656; died at Caughnawaga, Canada, 17 April, 1680. Her mother was a Christian Algonquin who had been captured by the Iroquois and saved from a captive's fate by the father of Tekakwitha, to whom she also bore a son. When Tekakwitha was about four years old, her parents and brother died of small-pox, and the child was adopted by her aunts and an uncle who had become chief of the Turtle clan. Although small-pox had marked her face and seriously impaired her eyesight and her manner was reserved and shrinking, her aunts began when she was yet very young to form marriage projects for her, from which, as she grew older, she shrank with great aversion. In 1667 the Jesuit missionaries Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron, accompanying the Mohawk deputies who had been to Quebec to conclude peace with the French, spent three days in the lodge of Tekakwitha's uncle. From them she received her first knowledge of Christianity, but although she forthwith eagerly accepted it in her heart she did not at that time ask to be baptized. Some time later the Turtle clan moved to the north bank of the Mohawk River, the "castle" being built above what is now the town of Fonda. Here in the midst of scenes of carnage, debauchery, and idolatrous frency Tekakwitha lived a life of remarkable virtue, at heart not only a Christian but a Christian virgin, for she firmly and often, with great risk to herself, resisted all efforts to induce her to marry. When she was eighteen, Father Jacques de Lamberville arrived to take charge of the mission which included the Turtle clan, and from him, at her earnest request, Tekakwitha received baptism. Thenceforth she practised her religion unflinchingly in the face of almost unbearable opposition, till finally her uncle's lodge ceased to be a place of protection to her and she was assisted by some Christian Indians to escape to Caughnawaga on the St. Laurence. Here she lived in the cabin of Anastasia Tegonhatsihonga, a Christian Indian woman, her extraordinary sanctity impressing not only her own people but the French and the missionaries. Her mortifications were extreme, and Chauchtiere says that she had attained the most perfect union with God in prayer. Upon her death devotion to her began immediately to be manifested by her people. Many pilgrims visit her grave in Caughnawaga where a monument to her memory was erected by the Rev. Clarence Walworth in 1884; and Councils of Baltimore and Quebec have petitioned for her canonization. On 22 June 1980, she was beatified by Pope John Paul II; her feast day is celebrated on 14 July. |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/K/blkateritekakwitha.asp#ixzz1S6S5r600
TODAY'S SAINT: JULY 14: ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS
St. Camillus de Lellis
FOUNDER
Feast: July 14
| THE early years of Camillus gave no sign of sanctity. At the age of nineteen he took service with his father, an Italian noble, against the Turks, and after four years’ hard campaigning found himself, through his violent temper, reckless habits, and inveterate passion for gambling, a discharged soldier, and in such straitened circumstances that he was obliged to work as a laborer on a Capuchin convent which was then building. A few words from a Capuchin friar brought about his conversion, and he resolved to become a religious. Thrice he entered the Capuchin novitiate, but each time an obstinate wound in his leg forced him to leave. He repaired to Rome for medical treatment, and there took St. Philip as his confessor, and entered the hospital of St. Giacomo, of which he became in time the superintendent. The carelessness of the paid chaplains and nurses towards the suffering patients now inspired him with the thought of founding a congregation to minister to their wants. With this end he was ordained priest, and in 1586 his community of the Servants of the Sick was confirmed by the Pope. Its usefulness was soon felt, not only in hospitals, but in private houses. Summoned at every hour of the day and night, the devotion of Camillus never grew cold. With a woman's tenderness he attended to the needs of his patients. He wept with them, consoled them, and prayed with them. He knew miraculously the state of their souls; and St. Philip saw angels whispering to two Servants of the Sick who were consoling a dying person. One day a sick man said to the Saint, "Father, may I beg you to make up my bed? it is very hard." Camillus replied, "God forgive you, brother! You beg me! Don't you know yet that you are to command me, for I am your servant and slave." "Would to God," he would cry, "that in the hour of my death one sigh or one blessing of these poor creatures might fall upon me!" His prayer was heard. He was granted the same consolations in his last hour which he had so often procured for others. In the year 1614 he died with the full use of his faculties, after two weeks' saintly preparation, as the priest was reciting the words of the ritual, "May Jesus Christ appear to thee with a mild and joyful countenance!" |
SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/C/stcamillusdelellis.asp#ixzz1S6RcNuIs
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