Pope Benedict XVI spoke about the Sunday Gospel reading of the Raising of Lazarus during his Angelus address. He said the reading gives us the opportunity to think of our own resurrection at the end of time. He said death is for us like a wall that keeps us from seeing what is beyond. Yet, the Pope says, our heart reaches out beyond this wall, and although we can not know what it hides, we think about it and imagine it.
The Holy Father said Christ breaks down the wall of death, and the resurrection of Lazarus is a sign of his complete mastery over physical death. But, the Pope reminded us, there's another death – sin, the spiritual death which threatens to ruin the life of every man. To defeat death Christ died, and his Resurrection is not a return to the previous life, but the opening of a new reality, finally reunited with the God of Heaven.
AMERICA: MEXICO: OVER 3,000 DRUG RELATED MURDERS
CATHOLIC ONLINE REPORT: More mass graves uncovered in Tamaulipas
With the discovery of new mass graves in Tamaulipas, the Mexican drug was has been tied to about 3,220 murders in the first three months of 2011. These grim statistics are in fact a decline from the 3,690 killings in the last quarter of 2010. The Mexican government has yet to publish an official estimate.
Authorities are still not sure about the origin of the victims found in the pits, but suspect at least some had been abducted from buses
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Investigators uncovered 13 more bodies in mass graves in the violent northeastern state of Tamaulipas, where 59 dead were exhumed earlier this week. Seventy-two bodies have now been discovered since authorities began pursuing reports that gunmen had kidnapped people off of passenger buses travelling to towns near the U.S. border.
State Interior Secretary Morelos reported that nine of the bodies were discovered in one newly found grave, four others in another this week in the area around the city of San Fernando. The total now matches the number of migrants who died in a massacre near that town last August. Investigators are combing for more graves in the area.
Federal authorities said they have detained 14 people in connection with the crimes.
Officials began receiving reports late last month that gunmen were pulling men off buses on the stretch of road that runs through the municipality of San Fernando.
Relatives of people who have gone missing have begun showing up at a morgue in border city of Matamoros across from Brownsville, Texas, looking for friends and relatives. The victims have been reported missing anywhere from a couple of weeks, others a few months, some as long as three years.
Authorities are still not sure about the origin of the victims found in the pits, but suspect at least some had been abducted from buses.
The recent discovery comes just days after thousands of Mexicans protested the country's raging drug war. On the day of the march, dozens of bodies were found in graves near the country's border with the United States.
Demonstrators marched in cities across Mexico, holding signs condemning the wave of killing that has claimed more than 37,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006 and launched a military-led crackdown against drug cartels.
Body counts published by Mexican media indicate the death toll has fallen for two consecutive quarters for the first time since Calderon began his campaign.
http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=40986
ASIA: SYRIA: DEMONSTRATIONS IN DERAA
Damascus (AsiaNews/Agencies) – At least four people, some say seven, were killed in Deraa during another protest agaiinst the Assad regime.In the past few weeks, attempts in various Syrian cities to imitate the ‘Jasmine Revolution’ in Tunisia and Egypt have been suppressed violently. The centre of resistance is Deraa, a town in southern Syria.
Protests have occurred today in various Syrian cities following Friday prayers despite some changes made by President Assad liking forcing his cabinet to resign and sacking two governors.
Despite promising changes, he has not repeal emergency rule in place since 1963.
In addition to Deraa, demonstrations were held in Qamishli, Deir e-Zor, Banias, and Dummar, a Damascus suburb.
According to eyewitnesses, police in Deraa fired on crowds, killing and wounding several people.
Perhaps fearing further disorder, Assad today issued a decree granting Syrian citizenship to about 200,000 Kurds living in the eastern part of the country.
Until now they were considered as foreigners.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/More-protests-and-deaths-in-Deraa-21255.html
EUROPE: POLAND: GIFT OF THE HEART FOR CHILDREN
AUSTRALIA: PONTIFICAL COUNCIL OF MIGRANTS VISIT
AFRICA: ANGOLA: BISHOP CALLS FOR PEACEFUL MESSAGES IN MEDIA
ALL AFRICA REPORT: The bishop of the M'banza Kongo Diocese, Vicente Carlos Kiaziku, on Tuesday in this city defended the need for major divulging of peace messages in society, through the mass media.
Speaking to ANGOP, the Catholic prelate said that the gospel has to be announced to a greater and greater number of citizens, aiming for peace of mind and retrieval of moral and civic values.
In view of this, the bishop defended that it is necessary that the signal of Radio Ecclésia (Catholic radio station), so that the message of the gospel can reach the whole country.
The prelate was speaking on the occasion of the celebrations of the Peace and National Reconciliation Day, marked on April 04."With the radio we reach a great part of the Angolan population and our contribution to a better Angola would be greater", he stressed.
TODAY'S SAINT: APR. 10: ST. FULBERT
St. Fulbert
BISHOP
Feast: April 10
| Bishop, b. between 952 and 962; d. 10 April, 1028 or 1029. Mabillon and others think that he was born in Italy, probably at Rome; but Pfister, his latest biographer, designates as his birthplace the Diocese of Laudun in the present department of Gard in France. He was of humble parentage and received his education at the school of Reims, where he had as teacher the famous Gerbert who in 999 ascended the papal throne as Sylvester II. In 990 Fulbert opened a school at Chartres which soon became the most famous seat of learning in France and drew scholars not only from the remotest parts of France, but also from Italy, Germany, and England. Fulbert was also chancellor of the church of Chartres and treasurer of St. Hilary's at Poitiers. So highly was he esteemed as a teacher that his pupils were wont to style him "venerable Socrates". He was a strong opponent of the rationalistic tendencies which had infected some dialecticians of his times, and often warned his pupils against such as extol their dialectics above the teachings of the Church and the testimony of the Bible. Still it was one of Fulbert's pupils, Berengarius of Tours, who went farthest in subjecting faith to reason. In 1007 Fulbert succeeded the deceased Rudolph as Bishop of Chartres and was consecrated by his metropolitan, Archbishop Leutheric of Sens. He owed the episcopal dignity chiefly to the influence of King Robert of France, who had been his fellow student at Reims. As bishop he continued to teach in his school and also retained the treasurership of St. Hilary. When, about 1020, the cathedral of Chartres burned down, Fulbert at once began to rebuild it in greater splendour. In this undertaking he was financially assisted by King Canute of England, Duke William of Aquitaine, and other European sovereigns. Though Fulbert was neither abbot nor monk, as has been wrongly asserted by some historians, still he stood in friendly relation with Odilo of Cluny, Richard of St. Vannes, Abbo of Fleury, and other monastic celebrities of his times. He advocated a reform of the clergy, severely rebuked those bishops who spent much of their time in warlike expeditions, and inveighed against the practice of granting ecclesiastical benefices to laymen. Fulbert's literary productions include 140 epistles, 2 treatises, 27 hymns, and parts of the ecclesiastical Office. His epistles are of great historical value, especially on account of the light they throw on the liturgy and discipline of the Church in the eleventh century. His two treatises are in the form of homilies. The first has as its subject: Misit Herodes rex manus, ut affligeret quosdam de ecclesia, etc. (Acts 12:50); the second is entitled "Tractatus contra Judaeos" and proves that the prophecy of Jacob, "Non auferetur sceptrum de Juda", etc. (Genesis 49:10), had been fulfilled in Christ. Five of his nine extant sermons are on the blessed Virgin Mary towards whom he had a great devotion. The life of St. Aubert, bishop of Cambrai (d. 667), which is sometimes ascribed to Fulbert, was probably not written by him. Fulbert's epistles were first edited by Papire le Masson (Paris,1585). His complete works were edited by Charles de Villiers (Paris, 1608), then inserted in "Bibl. magna Patrum" (Cologne,16l8) XI, in "Bibl. maxima Patri." (Lyons, 1677), XVIII, and with additions, in Migne, P.L., CXLI, 189-368. |
source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/F/stfulbert.asp#ixzz1J8vtKV6X
TODAY'S MASS READINGS: 5th SUN. OF LENT: YEAR A
| Ezekiel 37: 12 - 14 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 | And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 | And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it, says the LORD."
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