ASIA : INDONESIA : 200 POOR COUPLES MARRY IN MASS WEDDING PROGRAM
More than 200 poor couples tied the knot today at a free mass wedding organized by the Catholic Church in East Nusa Tenggara province.
The newly-weds exchanged vows in what is to be a twice-yearly event at a chapel in St Joseph the Worker Parish inKupang archdiocese aimed at helping poor Catholic couples start married life without having the burden of paying for an expensive wedding.
The sheer number of couples who turned up today shows how much this service is being appreciated, said Father Kristoforus Bob Muda, the parish’s assistant priest.
“We had to accommodate them all,” he said of the 201 couples who were married.
“All expenses were and will be met by the parish. Couples need only join the program and all will get a marriage certificate,” he added.
Simon Seran, one of the bridegrooms, said the mass wedding took away a key financial worry and was exciting at the same time.
“If we managed the wedding ourselves the expenses would have been huge. Praise must go to the Church for taking care of everything,” he said.
The fact there were so many other couple there also made it a very special day, he added.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/11/23/catholic-couples-in-mass-wedding/
AMERICA : USA : BISHOPS PROVIDE GRANTS FOR LATIN AMERICA CHURCH
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America approved funding for 174 projects, worth over $2.7 million in grants, to aid the pastoral work of the Church in 19 countries throughout the hemisphere. The decision was made during the subcommittee’s meeting November 12, in Baltimore.
“Determining how the money donated by parishioners in a collection will be used to assist the Church is serious and important work. We had lively discussions as we reviewed and approved funding for many important pastoral projects to support the Church in Latin America,” said Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, chair of the subcommittee. “We also have worked diligently to support the Church in Haiti and in Chile as they begin to rebuild infrastructures for the communities of faith that were impacted by the earthquakes last year.”
The first grants for reconstruction projects of the Church in Haiti were approved at the meeting. Among these are the structural repairs to a secondary diocesan school in Jacmel and the design phase of repairs to the co-cathedral in Miragoanes, totaling close to $100,000. The subcommittee has been assisting the Haitian bishops since the earthquake to put the necessary rebuilding structures in place to assure safety and efficiency. All USCCB aid for reconstruction work in Haiti will flow through PROCHE (Partnership for Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti), the Haitian Bishops’ Conference construction entity developed for this purpose.
The subcommittee also approved funding for numerous pastoral projects, formation of pastoral ministers and some extraordinary projects. For example, a special grant of $95,500 was made to the Prelature of Yauyos, in Peru, to assist in finalizing the rebuilding of churches following a devastating earthquake in 2007, and grants totaling over half a million dollars to assist the Church in Cuba were approved. Funding to assist the formation of religious, seminarians, clergy and permanent deacons totaled almost 1.8 million dollars of total funds awarded year to date.
The Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America oversees the Collection for the Church in Latin America as part of the USCCB Committee on National Collections. It provides support for the USCCB grant-making programas well as the Conference’s international policy work. More information on the Collection for the Church in Latin America and the projects it funds can be found at http://www.usccb.org/catholic-giving/opportunities-for-giving/latin-america/
EUROPE : ITALY : BENETTON WITHDRAWS FAKE IMAGE OF POPE
CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: By JOHN THAVIS on Thursday, 17 November 2011
The Benetton store in central London: their advertising campaign features world leaders kissing one another
CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: The Italian fashion house Benettonhas withdrawn an advert depicting Pope Benedict XVI kissing a Muslim leader hours after it was condemned by the Vatican.
The campaign is entitled “Unhate” and features doctored images of supposedly antagonistic world leaders in kissing scenes. The Vatican said the image of Pope Benedict embracing Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, president of al-Azhar University in Cairo, who announced the suspension of dialogue with the Vatican earlier this year, was offensive.
The ads were unveiled yesterday and a few hours later the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Fr Federico Lombardi, registered a strong protest. He condemned what he called “a completely unacceptable use of the image of the Holy Father, manipulated and exploited in the context of a publicity campaign for commercial ends”.
Shortly afterward, the image was gone from the website of theUnhate Foundation. The Italian news agency ANSA reported that a company spokesman said it had withdrawn the image.
Fr Lombardi said the image represented “a serious lack of respect for the Pope, an offence to the sentiments of the faithful and a clear demonstration of how fundamental rules of respect for people can be violated by advertising, in order to attract attention through provocation”.
Fr Lombardi said the Vatican’s Secretary of State was considering what steps to take in order to guarantee “respect for the figure of the Holy Father”.
In the past, Benetton has employed shocking images in its advertising campaigns. One ad in 1991 depicted a priest kissing a nun.
Other images in the current campaign portray President Barack Obama kissing Chinese leader Hu Jintao and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu embracing Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.
AUSTRALIA : PERTH BISHOP ORDAINS 3 PRIESTS
ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH REPORT: 22 Nov 2011
Archbishop Barry James Hickey ordained three deacons to the priesthood for the Perth Archdiocese on 18 November in a filled St Mary’s Cathedral in Perth.
The newly-ordained priests Fr Antonio Scala, Fr Marcelo Parra Gonzalez and Fr Wilson Donizzetti Martins were trained at the Redemptoris Mater Seminary in Morley, which forms men for the priesthood under the auspices of the Neo-Catechumenal Way.
Fr Donizetti Martins, 28, from Brazil will serve at the parishes of Star of the Sea in Cottesloe and Corpus Christi in Mosman Park.
Fr Parra Gonzalez, originally from Chile, will serve at Good Shepherd in Kelmscott while Italian born Fr Scala will serve at St Gerard’s in Mirrabooka.
Archbishop Hickey has ordained 94 priests for the Archdiocese of Perth since 1991.
http://www.perthcatholic.org.au/news-events/view_article.cfm?loadref=10&id=132
AFRICA : GUINEA BISSAU : THOUSANDS ATTEND ORDINATION OF BISHOP
According to information sent to Agenzia Fides from the Curia of Bissau, the rite of episcopal ordination, celebrated in the Cathedral of Bissau, was considered a "historic" event for the faithful of the local Church, as it was the first consecration of a Bishop which took place there. Of the thousands of people who attended the celebration, about 2000 wore T-shirts made for the occasion, decorated with the face of the new Bishop. Everyone expressed their delight with songs, dances and prolonged applause that touched Mgr. José Lampra Cá. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 22/11/2011)
TODAY'S SAINT: NOV. 22: ST. CECILIA
St. CeciliaMARTYR, PATRONESS OF CHURCH MUSIC
Feast: November 22
Information:
Feast Day:
November 22
Born:
Rome
Major Shrine:
Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, Rome, Italy
Patron of:
Church music,great musicians, poets
The name of St. Cecilia has always been most illustrious in the church, and ever since the primitive ages is mentioned with distinction in the canon of the mass, and in the sacramentaries and calendars of the church. Her spouse Valerian, Tiburtius, and Maximus, an officer, who were her companions in martyrdom, are also mentioned in the same authentic and venerable writings. St. Cecilia was a native of Rome, of a good family, and educated in the principles and perfect practice of the Christian religion. In her youth she by vow consecrated her virginity to God, yet was compelled by her parents to marry a nobleman named Valerian. Him she converted to the faith, and soon after gained to the same his brother Tiburtius. The men first suffered martyrdom, being beheaded for the faith. St. Cecilia finished her glorious triumph some days after them. Their acts, which are of very small authority, make them contemporary with Pope Urban I, and consequently place their martyrdom about the year 230, under Alexander Severus; others, however, place the triumph of these martyrs under Marcus Aurelius, between the years 176 and 180. Their sacred bodies were deposited in part of the cemetery of Calixtus, which part, from our saint, was called St. Cecilia's cemetery. Mention is made of an ancient Church of St. Cecilia in Rome in the fifth century, in which Pope Symmachus held a council in the year 500. This church being fallen to decay, Pope Paschal I began to rebuild it; but was in some pain how he should find the body of the saint, for it was thought that the Lombards had taken it away, as they had many others from the cemeteries of Rome, when they besieged that city under King Astulphus in 755. One Sunday, as this pope was assisting at matins as was his wont, at St. Peter's, he fell into a slumber, in which he was advertised by St. Cecilia herself that the Lombards had in vain sought for her body, and that he should find it; and he accordingly discovered it in the cemetery called by her name, clothed in a robe of gold tissue, with linen cloths at her feet, dipped in her blood. With her body was found that of Valerian, her husband; and the pope caused them to be translated to her church in the city; as also the bodies of Tiburtius and Maximus, martyrs, and of the popes Urban and Lucius, which lay in the adjoining cemetery of Praetextatus, on the same Appian road. This translation was made in 821. Pope Paschal founded a monastery in honour of these saints, near the Church of St. Cecilia, that the monks might perform the office day and night. He adorned that church with great magnificence, and gave to it silver plate to the amount of about nine hundred pounds—among other things a ciborium, or tabernacle, of five hundred pounds weight; and a great many pieces of rich stuffs for veils and such kinds of ornaments; in one of which was represented the angel crowning St. Cecilia, Valerian, and Tiburtius. This church, which gives title to a cardinal priest, was sumptuously rebuilt in 1599 by Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati, nephew to Pope Gregory XIV, when Clement VIII caused the bodies of these saints to be removed under the high altar, and deposited in a most sumptuous vault in the same church called the Confession of St. Cecilia; it was enriched in such a manner by Cardinal Paul Emilius Sfondrati as to dazzle the eye and astonish the spectator. This church of St. Cecilia is called In Trastevere, or Beyond the Tiber, to distinguish it from two other churches in Rome which bear the name of this saint.
St. Cecilia, from her assiduity in singing the divine praises (in which, according to her Acts, she often joined instrumental music with vocal), is regarded as patroness of church music. The psalms, and many sacred canticles in many other parts of the holy scripture, and the universal practice both of the ancient Jewish and of the Christian church, recommend the religious custom of sometimes employing a decent and grave music in sounding forth the divine praises. By this homage of praise we join the heavenly spirits in their uninterrupted songs of adoration, love, and praise. And by such music we express the spiritual joy of our hearts in this heavenly function, and excite ourselves therein to holy jubilation and devotion.
TODAY'S GOSPEL AND MASS ONLINE: NOV. 22: Luke 21: 5 - 11
| Luke 21: 5 - 11 | |
| 5 | And as some spoke of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, |
| 6 | "As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." |
| 7 | And they asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign when this is about to take place?" |
| 8 | And he said, "Take heed that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, `I am he!' and, `The time is at hand!' Do not go after them. |
| 9 | And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once." |
| 10 | Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; |
| 11 | there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. |
No comments:
Post a Comment