ASIA: VIETNAM: PRIEST BRINGS MASS TO HOMES - LACK OF CHURCHES
EUROPE: NEW FILM ON GROWTH OF CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS
AMERICA: USA: BISHOP RUNS MARATHON FOR PRO-LIFE FUNDRAISING
AUSTRALIA: SISTERS CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY OF MACKILLOP
AFRICA: LIBYA: GADDAFI KILLED BY REBELS AND SON CAPTURED
TODAY'S SAINT: OCT. 20: ST. IRENE
TODAY'S GOSPEL: OCT. 20: LUKE 12: 49-53
BENEDICT XVI INAUGURATES THE NEW "DOMUSAUSTRALIA"
VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS REPORT) - Yesterday afternoon the Pope travelled across Rome to inaugurate the "Domus Australia", a welcome centre for Australian pilgrims in the city. In his remarks he recalled the warm welcome he had received when he visited Australia for World Youth Day in 2008, and made mention of last year's canonisation of the first Australian saint, Mary MacKillop. (IMAGE RADIO VATICANA)
"Our earthly lives", the Holy Father said, "are spent journeying towards that ultimate goal, where 'no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him'. Here on earth, the Church's long tradition of pilgrimage to holy places serves to remind us that we are heavenward bound, it refocuses our minds on the call to holiness, it draws us ever closer to the Lord and strengthens us with spiritual food for the journey.
"Many generations of pilgrims", he added, "have made their way to Rome from all over the Christian world, in order to venerate the tombs of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, and thereby to deepen their communion in the one Church of Christ, founded on the Apostles. In so doing, they strengthen the roots of their faith; and roots, as we know, are the source of life-giving sustenance. In that sense, pilgrims toRome should always feel at home here, and the 'Domus Australia' will play an important part in creating a home for Australian pilgrims in the city of the Apostles. Yet roots are only a part of the story. According to a saying attributed to a great poet from my own country, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, there are two things that children should receive from their parents: roots and wings. From our holy Mother, the Church, we too receive both roots and wings: the faith of the Apostles, handed down from generation to generation, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, conveyed above all through the Sacraments of the Church".
Thus, the Holy Father concluded, "Pilgrims to this city return to their homelands renewed and strengthened in their faith, and borne aloft by the Holy Spirit in the journey onward and upward to their heavenly home".
.../
TO AUSTRALIAN PRELATES: CARE FOR CELEBRATION OF LITURGY
VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The positive results of World Youth Day (WYD) 2008, celebrated in Sydney, Australia, and the recollection of the first country's saint, Mary MacKillop, were the central themes of remarks made this morning by Benedict XVI to prelates of the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, who have just completed their "ad limina" visit.
The Pope mentioned the increased number of vocations to the priesthood and religious life in Australiain the wake of WYD 2008. This is proof, he said, of "the youthful vitality of the Church to which we all belong and the perennial relevance of the Good News which must be proclaimed afresh to every generation".
"St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop's "courageous response to the difficulties she faced throughout her life can also inspire today's Catholics as they confront the new evangelisation and serious challenges to the spread of the Gospel in society as a whole".
"It is true that yours is a pastoral burden which has been made heavier by the past sins and mistakes of others, most regrettably including some clergy and religious; but the task now falls to you to continue to repair the errors of the past with honesty and openness, in order to build, with humility and resolve, a better future for all concerned. I therefore encourage you to continue to be pastors of souls who, along with your clergy, are always prepared to go one step further in love and truth for the sake of the consciences of the flock entrusted to you, seeking to preserve them in holiness, to teach them humbly and to lead them irreproachably in the ways of the Catholic faith".
"You are conscious of your special duty to care for the celebration of the liturgy", Pope Benedict told the prelates in conclusion. "The new translation of the Roman Missal, which is the fruit of a remarkable cooperation of the Holy See, the bishops and experts from all over the world, is intended to enrich and deepen the sacrifice of praise offered to God by His people. Help your clergy to welcome and to appreciate what has been achieved, so that they in turn may assist the faithful as everyone adjusts to the new translation. As we know, the sacred liturgy and its forms are written deeply in the heart of every Catholic. Make every effort to help catechists and musicians in their respective preparations to render the celebration of the Roman Rite in your dioceses a moment of greater grace and beauty, worthy of the Lord and spiritually enriching for everyone".
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CHRISTIANS AND HINDUS: PROMOTING RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, has written a message to Hindus for the feast of Deepavali. The message, which also bears the signature of Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, secretary of the pontifical council, is entitled: "Christians and Hindus: together in Promoting Religious Freedom". Deepvali celebrates the victory of truth over falsehood, of light over darkness, of life over death, of good over evil. The celebrations, which being this year on 26 October, last three days and mark the beginning of a new year, a time for family reconciliation, especially among brothers and sisters, and adoration of the divine.
Religious freedom, the text reads, currently takes "centre stage in many places, calling our attention to those members of our human family exposed to bias, prejudice, hate propaganda, discrimination and persecution on the basis of religious affiliation. Religious freedom is the answer to religiously motivated conflicts in many parts of the world. Amid the violence triggered by these conflicts, many desperately yearn for peaceful coexistence and integral human development".
The Message continues: "Religious freedom is numbered among the fundamental human rights rooted in the dignity of the human person. When it is jeopardised or denied, all other human rights are endangered. Religious freedom necessarily includes immunity from coercion by any individual, group, community or institution. Though the exercise of this right entails the freedom of every person to profess, practise and propagate his or her religion or belief, in public or in private, alone or in a community, it also involves a serious obligation on the part of civil authorities, individuals and groups to respect the freedom of others. Moreover, it includes the freedom to change one's own religion".
CON-DIR/
VATICAN CITY, 20 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences eight prelates from the Australian Catholic Bishops' Conference, on their 'ad limina' visit:
- Archbishop Barry James Hickey of Perth, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Donald George Sproxton.
- Bishop Gerard Joseph Holohan of Bunbury.
- Bishop Justin Joseph Bianchini of Geraldton.
- Bishop Luc Julian Matthys of Armidale.
- Bishop Michael Joseph McKenna of Bathurst.
- Bishop David Louis Walker of Broken Bay.
- Bishop Geoffrey Hilton Jarrett of Lismore.
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ASIA: VIETNAM: PRIEST BRINGS MASS TO HOMES - LACK OF CHURCHES
A priest is evangelizing in remote mountainous areas with few churches by offering pastoral care to people in their homes.
“To evangelize effectively, priests have to reach out to people and offer them what they need,” Father Michael Nguyen Tien Quang, pastor of Mong Son parish in Luc Yen district of Yen Bai province, said.
On October 18, Fr Quang traveled 50 km by motorbike along hilly roads to visit Catholics in Sao village. There he baptized four adults, heard confessions from those who had not had the opportunity to go to confession for years, held rites for patients and celebrated Mass attended by 50 people in a local family’s home.
Noting there is only one church in the district, the 38-year-old priest said he has to reach out to local Catholics, offering religious rites and teaching catechism in their houses.
He said he also sends nuns and seminarians to work in local Catholic communities for one or two weeks a year.
Sister Trinh, who has just finished a week’s work in Sao village with 15 Catholic families, said she taught them how to make the sign of the cross, recite the rosary, confess and sing hymns, and offered catechism to catechumens. Local people there have had no priest in years.
The Lovers of the Holy Cross nun said local people offered her accommodation and food. “They were very happy to receive me in their homes,” she added.
Joseph Bui Van Dung, a villager, said Fr Quang has celebrated Mass at his house three times.
Dung, 41, said he moved to the area in 1985, married a non-Catholic and did not practice his faith until last year, when Fr Quang visited his family and blessed their marriage and baptized their two children.
He said local people have to notify the local government when Fr Quang or nuns visit them.
Fr Quang, who started serving the parish in 2006, said over the past five years around 100 marriages have been blessed, some 100 adults baptized, and hundreds who had stopped practicing their faith for years returned to the Church. He also offers scholarships to students from poor families.
He and local Catholics have also bought a 1,000-meter-square plot of land and plan to build a church in the future.
Fr Quang was ordained a priest in 2005 and serves some 5,000 Catholics among a total population of around 100,000.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/10/20/priest-brings-religion-home/
EUROPE: NEW FILM ON GROWTH OF CONTEMPLATIVE NUNS
CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT: A new film shows the amazing growth of a contemplative order whose convent stands near the notorious execution spot, says Simon Caldwell
By SIMON CALDWELL on Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Tyburn Nuns at a monastery at Largs on the west coast of Scotland
Tyburn Convent stands yards from the site of the former Tyburn Tree, the three-sided London gallows upon which 105 Catholics, including 20 canonised saints, were executed during the Protestant Reformation.
The convent’s very existence fulfils the prophecy made in 1585 by Fr Gregory Gunne when, during his own trial, he rebuked an Elizabethan court for having sentenced St Edmund Campion to death at Tyburn.
“You have slain the greatest man in England,” he said. “I will add that one day there, where you have put him to death, a religious house will arise, thanks to an important offering.”
Ever since March 4 1903, when the order’s French foundress, Mother Marie Adele Garnier, opened the convent, the Adorers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Montmartre OSB – also known as the Tyburn Nuns – have prayed at Tyburn in perpetual adoration of the Eucharist.
The order is now growing and is spreading rapidly around the world. In the last 15 years alone it has opened a succession of monasteries at the invitation of local bishops, most recently Blessed Pope John Paul II,who, in the 2005 Year of the Eucharist, invited the Tyburn Nuns to establish a house in Rome.
Yesterday, the Tyburn Nuns released the DVD Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo, a 90-minute film by Michael Luke Davies, a former West End fashion and beauty photographer, which offers a unique and fascinating window into life in their order’s nine monasteries.
London
Here, the viewer is introduced to the Tyburn Nuns and their foundress, Marie Adele Garnier, a French woman devoted to both the Sacred Heart of Jesus and adoration of the Eucharist.
She founded the order in Montmartre, Paris, in 1898 but fled to London three years later to evade anti-clerical laws. She re-established the order on England’s own “hill of martyrs” in 1903. The convent’s Crypt of the Martyrs has grown to become a centre of international pilgrimage.
Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff is filmed saying: “Whenever I think of Tyburn Convent I think of those beautiful words and that wonderful image of the English poet T S Eliot. He spoke about a still point in a turning world and that seems to me to sum up what Tyburn is. Tyburn Convent is situated at the very centre of the busiest city of our country, London, and it is situated at possibly the busiest junction, Marble Arch. But there is an invitation here from every walk of life, people in any need whatsoever, to participate in that wonderful world of heart speaking to heart in the silence of the heart.”
Ireland
The Tyburn Nuns are resident in St Benedict’s Priory, Cobh, a monastery in the colonial-style former Admiralty buildings of the Royal Navy, overlooking Cork Harbour, one of the most beautiful harbours in the world.
Here, the film examines the nuns’ life of prayer and work, under the Benedictine rule ora et labora. Devoted lay people are seen joining the nuns for Mass in the monastery church before nuns are filmed at work in the library, kitchen and garden.
Filming also takes place in the monastery’s Oratory of St Oliver Plunkett, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland and the last of the Tyburn martyrs.
It includes footage of the Bible garden and of Veronica Brennan, who tragically lost her son, David, speaking in the Leanbh garden, which was specially constructed as a place of peace and reflection for the bereaved parents of deceased children.
Australia
Michael Luke Davies captures the extraordinary moment when 26-year-old Sister Mary Justin of the Divine Child, who grew up in Bordertown, South Australia, sings her solemn vows during her profession as a nun, having entered the convent at the age of 17, and receiving a ring from the Mother General with the solemn proclamation that she “is now forever espoused to Christ”.
“It was the first time I have ever attended one of those ceremonies and to be so close was very involving, and she had a beautiful voice,” said Davies. “Because of her voice, because of the light at the windows, the whole ceremony was just fantastic and very moving.”
The monastery at Riverstone in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney, is one of the order’s oldest houses, dating back to 1956. Cardinal Norman Gilroy invited the nuns to New South Wales. As is typical of Tyburn Nuns’ houses, it enjoys the active support of local Catholics, some of whom not only attend early morning Mass but also join the nuns to help them with their work in their gardens, simply because they “want to be where the nuns are and close to God”.
Peru
The Monastery of the Sacred Heart in the fishing town of Sechura, Peru, was the first foundation of the Tyburn Nuns in a developing country. The nuns went there in 1976 at the invitation of the Archbishop of Piura who asked them specifically to pray for priests and seminarians. The nuns built a convent on the highest sand dune of one of the most isolated regions of the country. It opened in July 1981 and the following year the nuns found themselves at the heart of a humanitarian effort to help the victims of floods caused by the Corriente Niño.
The filming in Peru demonstrates once again just how very close the nuns are to the communities in which they flourish. In Sechura, they have opened both a hospital and a museum. They and the priests who serve them are assisted in their works of mercy by lay oblates.
Every morning, before dawn, the chapel is crammed with fishermen who go to pray there before starting work, asking God’s protection before they set out on the Pacific Ocean in their boats.
Scotland
The filming at the Benedictine Monastery in Largs on the west coast of Scotland caught the nuns as they sang, played musical instruments and meditated in the quiet seclusion of their walled garden. It observes the “silent succession of Sisters replacing one another in the monastery church for periods of silent Eucharistic Adoration”, which is at the heart of the life of the order.
The film tells how the Bishop of Galloway formally petitioned the Tyburn Nuns to open a monastery in Scotland in the 1980s and how they amalgamated with the Benedictine convent at Dumfries, inheriting its rich musical tradition, museum of hand-embroidered vestments as well as valuable oak church furniture.
New Zealand
The Tyburn Nuns came to New Zealand just 15 years ago at the invitation of Bishop Patrick Dunn and they now have a thriving monastery supported by the active enthusiasm of local people, including a 92-year-old man who has created a series of bush walks modelled on the Stations of the Cross which have become a pilgrimage destination for tourists.
The nuns are filmed in the New Zealand countryside, nursing orphaned lambs, harvesting herbs and crops and in silent contemplation.
Michael Luke Davies, a non-Catholic, said that filming the prioress sitting beside a river bank was for him the high point in the entire production. “I come from a fashion and beauty background,” he said. “I had been filming models all my life and then suddenly I found myself waist-deep in water filming this religious person by this river and I felt to myself: ‘This is what I am supposed to be doing.’ It was a massive moment in my life.”
Ecuador
The Monastery of the Gate of Heaven at Vilcabamba, Ecuador, is situated 5,000 feet above sea level in the Andean mountains. It dates from 2002 when the Bishop of Loja asked the nuns to establish a contemplative community to pray for the priests of his diocese and to help the local people find a more prayerful way of Christian life.
The film reveals how the nuns have transformed a mountainside “full of rubbish and weeds” into a vast sculptured garden with walkways, containing walls and packed with indigenous plants and flowers and medicinal herbs.
The film features the admission to the novitiate of Mother Fatima, when she takes the veil and begins to live under the rule of St Benedict, and the monastic profession of Mother Caridad.
Colombia
The Monastery of the Divine Paraclete is one of the newest of the convents. The Tyburn Nuns established their third Latin American house at the urgent and insistent requests of a bishop who wanted the nuns to specifically pray for peace in a land bedevilled by civil conflict and drugs trafficking.
The monastery, situated at Antioquia, high in the northern lakelands, is in an Italian medieval style.
Italy
The film concludes at the order’s newest religious house, the Monastery of Madonna dell’ Eucharistia in Via Cardinal Bofondi, near St Peter’s Basilica.
The order was invited to Rome by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 2005 to pray perpetually before the Blessed Sacrament for the Holy Father and the Church in Rome.
A group of the nuns, led by the Mother General, kneel before the Blessed’s tomb in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica to offer prayers of gratitude for the pope’s invitation to open a monastery in the Eternal City and for the gifts of a chalice bearing his coat of arms.
Davies says the filming in the Vatican represented for him another of the “high points” of the experience of making Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo.
He explained that the Vatican closed the crypt to pilgrims so he could shoot the moment when the nuns prayed at Blessed John Paul’s tomb.
He said: “It was Mother’s very positive wish that they go back and thank Pope John Paul.”
We have five copies of the DVD to give away. Just send us a postcard marked “Tyburn competition” with the answer to this question: who was the first Tyburn martyr? You can also email the answer to editorial@catholicherald.co.uk. The competition has closed.
Copies of Tyburn Convent Gloria Deo can be purchased for £15 either directly from Tyburn Convent, 8 Hyde Park Place, London W2 2LJ (tel: 020 7723 7262) or from Catholic bookshops
http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2011/09/28/the-tyburn-tree-bears-abundant-fruit/
AMERICA: USA: BISHOP RUNS MARATHON FOR PRO-LIFE FUNDRAISING
Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois ran the Kansas City Marathon on Saturday to help raise money and awareness for pro-life work.
He finished the 26.2-mile marathon with a time of 4:08:39, placing 531st out of 1,330 finishers.
The race went “very well,” he told CNA Oct. 19. “It’s a little bit hilly out in Kansas City. It was a nice sunny day, and the weather was good.”
The bishop took part in the event with the LIFE Runners team, a national effort which brought together 170 runners from 20 states to run either the half-marathon or the full marathon.
“This is the first time that I’ve run with the LIFE Runners, that was definitely significant,” Bishop Paprocki said. “It was really very inspiring.”
He and other runners wore T-shirts with slogans to promote respect for life, such as “Remember the Unborn.”
Others at the race responded positively to the slogans, Bishop Paprocki said. There were no negative reactions.
The bishop has run 17 other marathons. He began running in high school because of concern over his family’s history of heart disease.
His Saturday run helped raise $12,500 for a Chicago legal clinic and $3,700 for respect life ministries. His donations will support youth scholarships to the January March for Life in Washington, D.C., multimedia educational resources for diocesan youth in schools and parishes, and internet publicity about post-abortion assistance and healing.
Soliciting donations for a marathon inspires people to be more generous compared to when someone simply asks for money, he noted.
“People see you make an effort.”
The LIFE Runners as a whole raised $35,000 for the Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based Alpha Center pregnancy help bus, which travels across South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota to offer free pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, and information about abortion and alternatives. Their contributions also helped the Kansas City Wyandotte Pregnancy Clinic help bus.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/illinois-bishop-runs-kansas-city-marathon/
AUSTRALIA: SISTERS CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY OF MACKILLOP
CATH NEWS REPORT: Screenshot from The Catholic Weekly
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The Sisters of St Joseph celebrated the first anniversary of the canonisation of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, with congregational leader Sr Anne Derwin saying it was "somehow important to just reconnect with this time last year and the joy it brought to so many people", reports the Catholic Weekly.
"When we were deciding who to ask, we felt we couldn't go past (sculptor Judith Rolevink), as a woman and as a woman of South Australia," Sr Anne said.
A bronze statue of the saint was unveiled in front of the chapel at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney.
"Judith approaches her work from a very reflective and meditative point of view, and so entered into the heart and mind of Mary MacKillop in this work.
"She asked lots of questions, she deepened her knowledge, and she has given us a beautiful image of Mary."
Sisters of St Joseph travelled to Sydney from overseas to join locally-based Sisters, other religious, and guests for the anniversary Mass.
The congregation applauded and murmured their appreciation as the statue of Mary at the age of 42, the age she arrived in North Sydney, was revealed to the public for the first time.
"She was still in the prime of life and mission, and you can see that by her stepping forward," Sr Anne said.
Mary MacKillop Place director, Sr Brigette Sipa, said the statue is a fitting tribute to Mary.
"We wanted to do something special for the one year anniversary of Mary's canonisation in Rome and the unveiling of a beautiful new stature is a fitting way to mark the occasion." eir financial support of this project.
AFRICA: LIBYA: GADDAFI KILLED BY REBELS AND SON CAPTURED
Tripoli (AsiaNews) – Libyan rebels have taken Sirte and killed Muammar Gaddafi. Mahmud Jibril, prime minister in the Transitional National Council (TNC), and Abdelhakim Belhadj, NTC military chief, have confirmed the death of Libya's former strongman.According to Libyan media, he was hiding in a hole in the ground and pleaded with the rebels not to shoot him. Until a few hours ago, the only evidence of his death was photo showing the Libyan leader lying in a pool of blood. Ahmed Ibrahim, Education minister in the old regime, and Mutassim Gaddafi, son and advisor to the fallen Libyan leader, were also arrested.
Hours before the official announcement was made, soldiers and civilians who had heard the news celebrated shooting in the air, lighting firecrackers, honking their horns and dancing in the streets of Libyan cities. “People are shooting in the air to celebrate Sirte’s capture and Gaddafi’s possible death,” said Tiziana Gamannossi, an Italian businesswoman living in Tripoli, who spoke to AsiaNews. “At the moment, the transitional government has not yet confirmed the news.”
Gaddafi’s last battle was quite bloody, she noted. “Tripoli hospitals are full of wounded coming in from Sirte, Sebha and Bani Walid, where nothing is working.”
“The Red Cross and Doctors without Borders are unable to cope with the volume. Money coming from the old regime is not enough to buy medicines. The only health care centres in operation are in the capital and they need everything, from drugs to gauze to dress the wounds.” (S.C.)
TODAY'S SAINT: OCT. 20: ST. IRENE
RELIGIOUS
Feast: October 20
Information:
Feast Day:
October 20
A nun of Portugal who is especially revered in Santarem. She is considered by scholars to be identical to Irene (f.d. April 5), despite the considerable differences in years between the accounts of their lives.
SOURCE http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/I/stirene.asp
TODAY'S GOSPEL: OCT. 20: LUKE 12: 49-53
| Luke 12: 49 - 53 | |
| 49 | "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! |
| 50 | I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! |
| 51 | Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; |
| 52 | for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; |
| 53 | they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." |
