AMERICA: NATIONAL MEMORIAL OF MARTIN LUTHER KING
EUROPE: RUSSIA: INFLATABLE CHURCH FROM POLAND TO RUSSIA
ASIA: INDIA: VANDALS DAMAGE CHURCH AND BURN SACRED BOOKS
AFRICA: MOZAMBIQUE: MISSIONARIES HOLD YEAR OF PRAYER AND REFLECTION
AUSTRALIA: FR. EDWARDS, OMI CELEBRATES JUBILEE
TODAY'S SAINT: AUG. 27: ST. MONICA, DIED 387
TODAY'S GOSPEL: AUG. 27: Matthew 25: 14- 30
Here is the message of condolence for the death yesterday, Em. Cardinal Aloysius Matthew Ambrozic, the title of Sts Marcellinus and Peter, Archbishop Emeritus of Toronto (Canada), sent by the Holy Father Benedict XVI SE Archbishop Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto: (IMAGE SOURCE: RADIO VATICANA)
THE MOST Reverend Thomas Collins
Archbishop of Toronto
I WAS DEEPLY SADDENED TO HEAR OF THE DEATH OF CARDINAL ALOYSIUS Ambrozic, Archbishop Emeritus of Toronto. I OFFER YOU, THE Clergy, Religious and Faithful Of The Archdiocese LAY MY heartfelt CONDOLENCES AND THE ASSURANCE OF MY prayers. THE RECALL WITH THE CARDINAL'S Dedication Gratitude AND SERVICE TO THE CHURCH IN HIS COUNTRY Adopted. YOU AND ALL WHO IJOIN Mourn HIM, INCLUDING THE MEMBERS OF THE LATE CARDINAL'S FAMILY IN COMMENDING HIS NOBLE SOUL TO THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD OUR LOVING FATHER. ASSEMBLED TO ALL FOR THE FUNERAL RITES Solemn, I GIVE MY APOSTOLIC BLESSING Cordially AS A PLEDGE OF PEACE AND CONSOLATION IN THE LORD.
Benedictus PP XVI
The Pope appointed Archbishop of Ciudad Bolívar (Venezuela) Archbishop Ulises Antonio Gutiérrez Reyes, O.M. de, now Bishop of Carora (Venezuela).
Archbishop Ulises Antonio Gutiérrez Reyes, O. M. de
Archbishop Ulises Antonio Gutiérrez Reyes, O. M. de was born in El Pedregal, Archdiocese of Coro, April 29, 1951. He studied philosophy at the Monastery of Santa Maria de El Puig in Valencia, Spain and the theological seminary in Santa Rosa de Lima in Caracas.
He was ordained a priest in choir December 27, 1977.
As a priest, then played the following positions: Priest in Maracaibo, Director of the Board of Tirso de Molina Caracas, Caracas Mercedario charge of the seminary, Provincial of his Order from 1994 to 2000, founder of the Seminary Rector Mercedario in Palmyra in the diocese of San Cristobal .
Appointed Bishop of Carora December 5, 2003, he was ordained February 27, 2004.
[01210-01.01]
The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral governance of the diocese of Nevers (France), presented by Bishop Francis Deniau, in accordance with canon 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law.
The Pope has appointed Bishop of Nevers (France) Archbishop Brac de la Perriere Thierry, now auxiliary bishop of Lyon (France).
Archbishop Thierry Brac de la Perriere
Archbishop Thierry Brac de la Perriere was born June 17, 1959 in Lyon. He completed his secondary education at the ' Externat Saint-Joseph , and higher ones at the University of Lyon, obtaining a licentiate in Modern Literature. In 1982 he entered the Seminary-Saint Irenaeus of Lyon. In 1987 he obtained a Baccalaureate in Canon Law and a Licentiate in Theology with a study on Cardinal Newman.
He was ordained a priest June 19, 1988 for the Archdiocese of Lyon.
He began his ministry at the parish of Sainte-Bernadette Caluire as a deacon, and after his ordination, even at the Parish of the ' Immaculate Conception in Caluire. In 1994 he became parish priest ofNotre-Dame-du-Point-du-Jour , in Lyon, in 1997, and also pastor of Sainte-Anne Ménival . In addition to these duties, the same year, she played the ministry of the diocesan chaplain of the Guides de France and Foi et Lumiere . In 2001 he became parish priest of Sainte-Trinité , and in November 2002 he was appointed Vicar General and has been entrusted with the Continuing Education of the young priests.
Elected titular bishop of Lyon and Auxiliary Zalla April 15, 2003, was consecrated on May 25 next.
Within the Episcopal Conference is a member of the French Council for the movements and associations of the faithful.
TELEGRAMS ON THE BOMBING IN NIGERIA
HIS EXCELLENCY BAN KI-MOON
SECRETARY-GENERAL
UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION
NEW YORK
HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI WAS DISTRESSED TO LEARN OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK UPON THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICES IN ABUJA, AND OF THE TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE AMONG BOTH LOCAL CITIZENS AND UNITED NATIONS PERSONNEL. HE SENDS YOUR EXCELLENCY AND THOSE YOU REPRESENT HIS SINCERE SYMPATHY AND APPEALS AGAIN TO THOSE WHO CHOOSE DEATH AND VIOLENCE TO EMBRACE INSTEAD LIFE AND RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE. THE HOLY FATHER EARNESTLY PRAYS FOR THE REPOSE OF THOSE WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN CUT SHORT SO DRAMATICALLY, AND HE CORDIALLY INVOKES GOD'S BLESSINGS OF COURAGE AND STRENGTH UPON THE INJURED AND THOSE WHO MOURN.
CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE
[01205-02.01] [Original text: English]
EXCELLENCY GOODLUCK JONATHAN
PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA
ABUJA
HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI WAS DISTRESSED TO LEARN OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK UPON THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICES IN ABUJA, AND OF THE TERRIBLE LOSS OF LIFE AMONG BOTH LOCAL CITIZENS AND UNITED NATIONS PERSONNEL. HE SENDS YOUR EXCELLENCY AND THOSE YOU REPRESENT HIS SINCERE SYMPATHY AND APPEALS AGAIN TO THOSE WHO CHOOSE DEATH AND VIOLENCE TO EMBRACE INSTEAD LIFE AND RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE. THE HOLY FATHER EARNESTLY PRAYS FOR THE REPOSE OF THOSE WHOSE LIVES HAVE BEEN CUT SHORT SO DRAMATICALLY, AND HE CORDIALLY INVOKES GOD'S BLESSINGS OF COURAGE AND STRENGTH UPON THE INJURED AND THOSE WHO MOURN.
CARDINAL TARCISIO BERTONE
SECRETARY OF STATE
AMERICA: NATIONAL MEMORIAL OF MARTIN LUTHER KING
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| The new national memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is located between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials on the National Mall in Washington. (CNS/Bob Roller) |
She hopes visitors take time to reflect on the words of the civil rights leader carved in stone at the memorial, which opened to the public Aug 22. Or better yet, she hopes these words and the 30-foot likeness of Rev. King carved in stone will prompt some soul searching.
"If we have to keep talking about keeping the dream alive, then what have we been doing for it still to be a dream?" said Sister Antona. "Martin was our dreamer; his dream was for his time. Who are our dreamers today? You have to search kind of hard to find people with new dreams appropriate for our time," she told Catholic News Servicein an Aug. 24 telephone interview.
Sister Antona isn't one to mince words, showing the same spirit she demonstrated in 1965 when she marched with Rev. King in a legendary protest for voting rights in Selma, Ala. The march took place just days after what has been called "Bloody Sunday" when state troopers assaulted demonstrators with clubs and tear gas.
Although she lives in St. Louis, Sister Antona visited the King memorial a month before it opened during a special preview for members of the National Black Sisters' Conference and the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus.
The official dedication was scheduled to take place Aug. 28 -- 48 years after Rev. King's famous "I have a dream speech" -- but it was postponed until September or October once weather forecasts showed Washington to be in Hurricane Irene's path.
The memorial has been in the works for more than two decades. It cost $120 million, most of which has already been raised through private and corporate donations. It is the only memorial on the National Mall not dedicated to a war or a U.S. president.
It includes a 450-foot curved wall with quotations from Rev. King's speeches, but snippets from the March on Washington address are missing from the wall because its designers wanted to promote his lesser-known statements.
Words from that famous speech set the tone though since visitors enter the memorial by going through a passageway of two granite rocks one of which is inscribed with the words: "Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." After the passageway, visitors come to the huge statue of Rev. King, which appears to be have been carved out of a pushed-out section of the two rocks.
The symbolism was not lost on Msgr. Ray East, pastor of St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Washington, who said it was powerful to walk through the passageway and come to the other side where crowds assembled at the foot of the King statue.
He likened it to walking through despair to new life or finding light in darkness and love in hate to view a statue that conveys the sense of greatness of a "preacher who rose up when no one else would and spoke of hope and healing."
Rev. King's strong sense of hope even amid racism has long inspired Father Patrick Smith, pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Washington, the oldest black Catholic church in Washington and a parish that housed many of the marchers that came to Washington in 1963.
Father Smith, who was born two months after the March on Washington, said he was always inspired by Rev. King "for believing in something so much that he was willing to die for it."
He also said Rev. King's words have had staying power because his dream was "clearly not just something for the African American community" but instead a "vision of the kingdom of God. That's why it's endured," he told CNS.
And today, nearly 50 years after Rev. King spoke of his hope for racial equality, Americans are closely divided about the extent that dream has being fulfilled. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll released Aug. 26, 51 percent feel this vision has been achieved while 49 percent say it has not. The poll, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, was conducted Aug. 4-7 surveying 1,319 adults.
Just visiting the memorial provides a pointed reminder of the work that still needs to be done, some say.
"We've come a mighty long way," said Sister Roberta Fulton, a member of the Sisters of St. Mary of Namur and president of the National Black Sisters' Conference, "but there is still a lot of work to be done."
The sister, who is principal of St. Martin de Porres School in Columbia, S.C., took part in the preview tour of the memorial this summer and said she intends to visit it every time she comes to Washington.
She described the memorial as a "blessing to African American people and to the nation" because it will enable people to "see what tremendous strength and faith Dr. King really had to keep moving forward."
Now she said the key to keeping that momentum going is to inspire young people with Rev. King's message.
Msgr. East agreed and said he is urging people to visit the memorial as part of a pilgrimage. Personally, he knows he "stands on the shoulders" of his parents and other relatives who attended the 1963 March on Washington and he asks himself what he needs to do to continue Rev. King's work which echoes so many aspects of Catholic social teaching.
Beverly Carroll, assistant director of the Subcommittee on African-American Affairs for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, likewise said the work Rev. King started remains undone.
She said Rev. King's "presence on the National Mall reminds us the job is not finished and calls us to leadership through service and love."http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1103428.htm
EUROPE: RUSSIA: INFLATABLE CHURCH FROM POLAND TO RUSSIA
Moscow (AsiaNews / Agencies) - An inflatable and itinerant church from Poland to Kamchatka, the Russian Far East. It is the idea of the Catholic parish priest of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsk, Father Krzysztof Kowal, who having failed to obtain permits and funding to build a place of worship has availed of this sort of "ploy". The initiative was proposed to him by a long-time friend in Poland who builds inflatable toys for children.
"Many people – he told the BBC Russian service- do not even know that there is a Catholic priest in the city and there is not a single Catholic church in the peninsula, so when we meet in homes, the people think that we are a sort of cult ". Before the arrival of the travelling parish, the local community gathered for prayer in hotel rooms, or outdoors near rivers or lakes.
The new church (pictured), exposed in Poland before leaving for Russia, "weighs" 100 pounds and will be available for the faithful as of September 15, reports Interfax-Religion. Fr. Kowal also plans to move with his parish to different places depending to meet the needs of the faithful, regardless of weather conditions. In Kamchatka, winter temperatures can drop to -40 degrees.
ASIA: INDIA: VANDALS DAMAGE CHURCH AND BURN SACRED BOOKS
Police are guarding a Catholic Oriental church in Hyderabad after unidentified people vandalized it yesterday.
“They put the tabernacle, the Bible, missal and other items on the altar and burnt them,” said Father Felix Thondalil, pastor of the Syro Malankara Catholics in the southern city today.
Mother Mary Malankara Catholic Church is in Secunderabad, which with Hyderabad forms Andhra Pradesh state’s twin capitals.
Father Thondalil said the church, established five years ago, has some 110 parishioners but nobody stays there.
After the parishioners complained, senior police officials visited and posted guards for the church, the priest said.
Four years ago, Hindu radicals had attacked the church and damaged property.
He said parish officials informed top Church leaders in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.
This is the second Syro-Malankara church in the country to come under attack this month. On August 15, suspected devil worshippers vandalized a church in Pune, western India.
Police have not yet arrested the culprits.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/08/26/vandals-smash-malankara-church/
AFRICA: MOZAMBIQUE: MISSIONARIES HOLD YEAR OF PRAYER AND REFLECTION
Suggesting some steps to live this particular year of memory (monthly Eucharistic adoration, the recitation of the prayer composed for the occasion, publication of a book on the historical Comboni presence in the country, the celebration of the provincial assembly for the analysis of the current reality of Mozambique ...), Fr. Jose Luis Rodriguez Lopez recalls that "Mozambique was marked by the shedding of blood of many martyrs, priests, religious men and women and lay people" this is why the year of the memory will end with a celebration on the spot of Brother Alfred Fiorini’s martyrdom.
On August 29, 1992 Fides wrote, "the Comboni missionary doctor Brother Alfred Fiorini was killed around noon on August 24, by rounds of machine-gun fire. He was returning to the mission in Namapa, where he directed the hospital. While he was driving down the road between Nacala and Carapira in Miraval area, Monapo district, province of Nampula, he was shot, by unknown people. Brother Alfredo worked in Mozambique for two years, not only as a missionary doctor, but as an all-rounder missionary, sharing the fate and suffering of the hungry and the sick, committed to supporting and promoting the people ". (SL)
AUSTRALIA: FR. EDWARDS, OMI CELEBRATES JUBILEE
On 19 August 2011, Fr Mark Edwards OMI celebrated 25 years of priestly life with a concelebrated Mass and dinner with his family, friends and fellow Oblates at St Mary’s Seminary in Mulgrave. Fr Mark had worked at the seminary for more than ten years at as Pre-Novice Master, Novice Master and Rector before taking up his present position as Rector of Iona College in Brisbane at the start of this year.
Born in Balikpapan in Indonesia, Fr Mark completed his secondary school education at Mazenod College in Mulgrave, Victoria. In 1980, he entered the Oblate novitiate at St Mary’s and was ordained to the priesthood in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne on 16 August 1986 by the late Archbishop Frank Little.
A gifted teacher and academic, Fr Mark has Bachelor degrees in Science, Theology, Letters (Hons.) and a Diploma of Education. He has worked as a teacher of maths and religion at two Oblate Colleges - Iona in Brisbane and Mazenod in Victoria. In 2007, he graduated from Monash University with a Doctorate in Philosophy and was a regular lecturer at Catholic Theological College in Melbourne before moving to Brisbane.
“Fr Mark has a real enthusiasm and dedication for all that comes his way and this spirit is infectious for people who have come to know and love him,” reflected Oblate Provincial, Fr Harry Dyer OMI.
“Certainly his teaching experience, academic prowess and detailed attention to pastoral care held him in good stead as he left family and friends to take up the position of Rector at Iona College in Brisbane this year and live out another Oblate charism of “leaving nothing undared for the Kingdom of God,” Fr Dyer said.
http://www.cam.org.au/news/silver-jubilee-for-fr-mark-edwards-omi.html
TODAY'S SAINT: AUG. 27: ST. MONICA, DIED 387
Feast: August 27
Information: Feast Day: August 27
Born: 322 at Tagaste (Souk Ahrus), Algeria
Died: 387 at Ostia, Italy
Major Shrine: Sant'Agostino, Rome
Patron of: patience, married women, homemakers and housewives, mothers, wives, widows, alcoholics, difficult marriages, disappointing children, victims of adultery or unfaithfulness, and victims of (verbal) abuse
Widow; born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa, in 333; died at Ostia, near Rome, in 387. We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his religion was no more than a name; his temper was violent and he appears to have been of dissolute habits. Consequently Monica's married life was far from being a happy one, more especially as Patritius's mother seems to have been of a like disposition with himself. There was of course a gulf between husband and wife; her almsdeeds and her habits of prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to exercise a veritable apostolate amongst the wives and mothers of her native town; they knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example had a proportionate effect.
Three children were born of this marriage, Augustine the eldest, Navigius the second, and a daughter, Perpetua. Monica had been unable to secure baptism for her children, and her grief was great when Augustine fell ill; in her distress she besought Patritius to allow him to be baptized; he agreed, but on the boy's recovery withdrew his consent. All Monica s anxiety now centred in Augustine; he was wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was sent to Madaura to school and Monica seems to have literally wrestled with God for the soul of her son. A great consolation was vouchsafed her -- in compensation perhaps for all that she was to experience through Augustine -- Patritius became a Christian. Meanwhile, Augustine had been sent to Carthage, to prosecute his studies, and here he fell into grievous sin. Patritius died very shortly after his reception into the Church and Monica resolved not to marry again. At Carthage Augustine had become a Manichean and when on his return home he ventilated certain heretical propositions she drove him away from her table, but a strange vision which she had urged her to recall him. It was at this time that she went to see a certain holy bishop, whose name is not given, but who consoled her with the now famous words, "the child of those tears shall never perish." There is no more pathetic story in the annals of the Saints than that of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, wither he had gone by stealth; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found St. Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of resistance. Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Cassiacum, after which time Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Civit' Vecchia and at Ostia. Here death overtook Monica and the finest pages of his "Confessions" were penned as the result of the emotion Augustine then experienced.
St. Monica was buried at Ostia, and at first seems to have been almost forgotten, though her body was removed during the sixth century to a hidden crypt in the church of St. Aureus. About the thirteenth century, however, the cult of St. Monica began to spread and a feast in her honour was kept on 4 May. In 1430 Martin V ordered the relics to be brought to Rome. Many miracles occurred on the way, and the cultus of St. Monica was definitely established. Later the Archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal d'Estouteville, built a church at Rome in honour of St. Augustine and deposited the relics of St. Monica in a chapel to the left of the high altar. The Office of St. Monica however does not seem to have found a place in the Roman Breviary before the sixteenth century. In 1850 there was established at Notre Dame de Sion at Paris an Association of Christian mothers under the patronage of St. Monica; its object was mutual prayer for sons and husbands who had gone astray. This Association was in 1856 raised to the rank of an archconfraternity and spread rapidly over all the Catholic world, branches being established in Dublin, London, Liverpool, Sidney, and Buenos Ayres. Eugenius IV had established a similar Confraternity long before.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmonica.asp
TODAY'S GOSPEL: AUG. 27: Matthew 25: 14- 30
| Matthew 25: 14 - 30 | |
| 14 | "For it will be as when a man going on a journey called his servants and entrusted to them his property; |
| 15 | to one he gave five talents, to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. |
| 16 | He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them; and he made five talents more. |
| 17 | So also, he who had the two talents made two talents more. |
| 18 | But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. |
| 19 | Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. |
| 20 | And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, `Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.' |
| 21 | His master said to him, `Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.' |
| 22 | And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, `Master, you delivered to me two talents; here I have made two talents more.' |
| 23 | His master said to him, `Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master.' |
| 24 | He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, `Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not winnow; |
| 25 | so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours.' |
| 26 | But his master answered him, `You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sowed, and gather where I have not winnowed? |
| 27 | Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. |
| 28 | So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has the ten talents. |
| 29 | For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away. |
| 30 | And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.' |
