2016
#BREAKING Official Exorcist of Rome Father Gabriel Amorth dies at the age of 91 - RIP
#PopeFrancis "May the Lord give you all the grace to stay current..." #Homily to #Nuncios
#BreakingNews more than 133 Killed as Severe Floods covers North Korea and displaces over 100,000 - Please PRAY
#PopeFrancis "You are God’s eyes, mouth, hands and heart in this world." FULL TEXT on #Refugees
Father Amorth was born in Modena, Emilia. He was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1954 and became an official exorcist in June 1986. Fr. Gabriele was a member of the Society of St. Paul, the congregation founded by James Alberione in 1914. In 1990, Fr. Amorth founded the International Association of Exorcists and was president until he retired, in 2000. In 2013 Fr. Amorth said he had performed 160,000 exorcisms in the course of his ministry.
The two books he wrote are "An Exorcist Tells His Story" and "An Exorcist: More Stories" of his personal accounts as an Exorcist.
#PopeFrancis "May the Lord give you all the grace to stay current..." #Homily to #Nuncios
In remarks following the Readings of the Day, the Holy Father thanked the Papal diplomats for their willingness to renew their commitment to service in new and different countries with joy and enthusiasm, and encouraged the members of the corps to get out of their comfort zones and go beyond the limits of their own strengths and abilities in order to carry the Gospel of Christ to every corner of the globe.
Taking the Gospel parable of the sower as his focal point, Pope Francis reflected on how Apostolic Nuncios sow the Good News everywhere in the world. The Pope acknowledged that often the life of the Nuncios is a “gypsy life” spent constantly on the road: “Just when you have learned the language well,” in one post, “a phone call from Rome and ... ‘Oh, look, how are you?’ – ‘Well ...’ – ‘You know, the Holy Father, who loves you so much ... he thought ...’ - because these calls, these calls are made of sugar, is it not so? – ‘... he thought of you for this .... and so you pack your bags and go to another place, leaving friends, leaving habits, leaving many things one has done ... to get out of yourselves, get out of that place to go to another,’ and there, to begin again.”
“When you arrive in a new country,” the Holy Father continued, “the Nuncio must make another” exit”:
“[He must get out of the – even only very lately acquired – comfort of his own skin] to learn, to dialogue, to study the culture, the way of thinking.
“[He must get out of the – even only very lately acquired – comfort of his own skin] to learn, to dialogue, to study the culture, the way of thinking.
Sow the Word of God without getting caught up in mundane sophistication
Pope Francis went on to note how, “getting out” can often mean “attending receptions” – some of which are “rather boring” – but even so, “you can sow there,” too. “The seed is always good, the grain is good.” Someone, he noted, may think it is a job that is, “too functional, even administrative,” work many qualified lay people might do:
“The other day, talking about this, I heard the Secretary of State who said, ‘But, look, at receptions, the many people who seem superficial look for the collar – and you all know what you have done in so many souls: in that mundane society, but without taking on the worldliness, only taking people as they are, hearing them, talking with them ... this is also [one way in which] the Nuncio gets out of himself, to understand the people, to talk ... it IS a cross.”
“The other day, talking about this, I heard the Secretary of State who said, ‘But, look, at receptions, the many people who seem superficial look for the collar – and you all know what you have done in so many souls: in that mundane society, but without taking on the worldliness, only taking people as they are, hearing them, talking with them ... this is also [one way in which] the Nuncio gets out of himself, to understand the people, to talk ... it IS a cross.”
The Pope went on to recall that Jesus says that we – that the sower – sows the seed, and then he rests, for it is God who makes it sprout and grow.” The Nuncio, too, he said, “must come out of himself and go toward the Lord who makes the seed grow and germinate – and he must go beyond himself before the tabernacle, in prayer, in worship.”
Always begin anew with joy and enthusiasm, even amid difficulties
It is a “great witness”, this, he reiterated, “the lone Nuncio adoring the One who makes things grow, the One who gives life”:
“These are the three ways in which a Nuncio must be called to ‘go beyond’ himself: there is the physical going beyond of the Nuncio’s ‘gypsy life’; there is the cultural skin that he must shed: to learn the culture, learn the language ... ‘Tell me’ - in that phone call – ‘tell me, what languages do you speak?’ – ‘I speak good English, French, I get along with him Spanish ...’ – ‘Ah, well, well ... But listen: the Pope has decided to send you to Japan, eh!’ – ‘But I do not know even one letter, of Japanese!’ – ‘But, you'll learn!’. I was edified by one of you, before submitting credentials, in two months had learned a difficult language, and had learned how to celebrate [Mass] in that language: he started over with enthusiasm and with joy. This is the third ‘way of being for others’: prayer, worship.”
Thanks to Nuncios for their service to the Church, and may they always be ‘outward bound’
This, he said, “is stronger in emeriti nuncios.” It is also a task of “brotherhood”, the “Nuncio emeritus prays more, he must pray more for the brothers who are there, out in the world.” The Nuncio who is still in service, Pope Francis explained, must not forget this adoration, “that the Master might prosper that, which he has sown”:
“Three ways of being ‘outward bound’ and three ways to serve Jesus Christ and the Church: and the Church thanks you for all three of these. Thanks so much. And I, personally, want to thank you. I admire so often, when I, early in the morning, receive your communications: look how this fellow is getting on ... May the Lord give you all the grace to stay current in these three ways of being for others – these three ways of getting out of yourselves.”
“Three ways of being ‘outward bound’ and three ways to serve Jesus Christ and the Church: and the Church thanks you for all three of these. Thanks so much. And I, personally, want to thank you. I admire so often, when I, early in the morning, receive your communications: look how this fellow is getting on ... May the Lord give you all the grace to stay current in these three ways of being for others – these three ways of getting out of yourselves.”
#BreakingNews more than 133 Killed as Severe Floods covers North Korea and displaces over 100,000 - Please PRAY
August floods are North Korea’s "worst disaster” since Second World War
The regime acknowledges hundreds of people dead or missing, as well as tens of thousands of displaced people. The United Nations estimates that about 107,000 people are homeless. Countless buildings, roads and bridges have been destroyed. With everything going into its nuclear programme, the regime has no money and so it has ordered the deportation of 100,000 “volunteers” from other provinces to help people affected by typhoon Lion Rock.
Seoul (AsiaNews) – Hundreds of people have been killed or gone missing in the worst flood to hit North Korea. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced, the country's state media said Wednesday.
North Korea’s official news agency KCNAdescribed the rains that began on 29 August as the "worst disaster" since the end of World War II.
Typhoon Lion rock devastated the country for three days, destroying more than 11,600 buildings, severely damaged some 180 sections of road and more than 60 bridges, and disconnected electricity and communication lines, this in a country where they were not well developed.
The mining sector suffered serious damages. Provincial coal mines have been turned into lakes.
For the first time, KCNA provided figures on the flood damage and those displaced, saying that 68,900 people had been forced to flee their homes, compared with a UN figure of 107,000.
The regime ordered an exceptional mobilisation to help the affected areas, which has turned into mass deportation from other parts of the country. The North Korean regime is in fact set to deploy 100,000 people to the northeast region of North Hamgyong Province, the most affected by flooding.
“The scale of the mobilization is being seen as an attempt by the regime to assuage potential anger from the public that may erupt, in light of the astronomical funding that has been diverted toward nuclear weapons development,” wrote theDailyNK.
From a practical standpoint, the central government has issued a directive to local governments to send 5,000 people to assist in the disaster area. In turn, local officials have turned to state factories to select and pay for the “volunteers”.
A source told AsiaNews that “it is normal in cases of emergency for civilian labour to be drafted, but an exodus like this has never seen." Shared from AsiaNewsIT
|
#PopeFrancis "You are God’s eyes, mouth, hands and heart in this world." FULL TEXT on #Refugees
The Jesuit group had been participating in a 14-16 September conference in Rome entitled “Global Migration and Refugee Crisis: Time to Contemplate and Act”.
Please find the official translation of Pope Francis’ address below:
Address of His Holiness Pope Francis
To Members of the European Confederation
And World Union of Jesuit Alumni and Alumnae
Saturday 17 September 2016
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Members of the European Confederation and of the
World Union of Jesuit Alumni and Alumnae,
I am pleased to receive you today as part of your conference on migration and the refugee crisis. Graduates of Jesuit schools, you have come to Rome as “men and women for others” to explore on this occasion the roots of forced migration, to contemplate your responsibility in response to the current situation and to be sent forth as promoters of change in your home communities.
Tragically, more than sixty-five million persons are forcibly displaced around the globe. This unprecedented number is beyond all imagination. The displaced population of today’s world is now larger than the entire population of Italy! If we move beyond mere statistics, however, we will discover that refugees are women and men, boys and girls who are no different than our own family members and friends. Each of them has a name, a face, and a story, as well as an inalienable right to live in peace and to aspire to a better future for their sons and daughters.
You have dedicated your world association to the memory and example of Father Pedro Arrupe, who was also the founder of the Jesuit Refugee Service, the organization that has been accompanying you during this past week in Rome. More than thirty-five years ago, Father Arrupe was moved to act in response to the plight of the South Vietnamese boat people who were exposed to pirate attacks and storms in the South China Sea, while trying desperately to flee from violence in their homeland. Sadly, the world today still finds itself embroiled in countless conflicts. The terrible war in Syria, as well as civil conflicts in South Sudan and elsewhere throughout the world, can seem irresolvable. This is precisely why your gathering “to contemplate and act” on the issue of refugees is so important.
More than ever today, as war rages across God’s creation, as record numbers of refugees die trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, and refugees spend years and years languishing in camps, the Church needs you to draw on the bravery and example of Father Pedro Arrupe. Through your Jesuit education, you have been invited to become “companions of Jesus” and, with Saint Ignatius Loyola as your guide, you have been sent into the world to be women and men for and with others. At this place and time in history, there is great need for men and women who hear the cry of the poor and respond with mercy and generosity.
At the close of World Youth Day in Krakow a few weeks ago, I told the youth gathered there to be brave. As graduates of Jesuit schools, you also must know how be brave in responding to the needs of today’s refugees. It will help you to recall your Ignatian roots as you address the problems experienced by refugees. You must offer the Lord “all your liberty, your memory, your understanding and your entire will” as you continue to understand the causes of forced migration and serve refugees in your countries.
Throughout this Year of Mercy, the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica has remained open as a reminder that God’s mercy is offered to all those in need, now and always. Millions of the faithful have made the pilgrimage to the Holy Door here and in churches throughout the world, recalling that God’s mercy lasts forever and reaches out to all. Also with your help, the Church will be able to respond more fully to the human tragedy of refugees through acts of mercy that promote their integration into the European context and beyond. And so, I encourage you to welcome refugees into your homes and communities, so that their first experience of Europe is not the traumatic experience of sleeping cold on the streets, but one of warm human welcome. Remember that authentic hospitality is a profound gospel value that nurtures love and is our greatest security against hateful acts of terrorism.
I urge you to draw on the joys and successes that your Jesuit education has given you by supporting the education of refugees throughout the world. It is a disturbing truth that less than fifty percent of child refugees have access to primary education. Unfortunately, that number drops to twenty-two percent for adolescents enrolled in secondary schools and less than one percent who have access to a university education. Together with the Jesuit Refugee Service, put your mercy in motion and help transform this educational reality. In doing so, you will build a stronger Europe and a brighter future for refugees.
Sometimes we can feel that we are alone as we try to put mercy into action. Know, however, that you join your work with that of many ecclesial organizations which work for humanitarian causes and which dedicate themselves to the excluded and marginalized. Yet more important, remember that the love of God accompanies you in this work. You are God’s eyes, mouth, hands and heart in this world.
I thank you for stepping into the difficult issues involved in welcoming refugees. Many doors have been opened for you through your Jesuit education while refugees find many doors closed to them. You have learned much from the refugees you have met. As you leave Rome and return home, I urge you to help transform your communities into places of welcome where all God’s children have the opportunity not simply to survive, but to grow, flourish and bear fruit.
And as you persevere in this faithful work of providing welcome and education for refugees, think of the Holy Family — Mary, Joseph, and the Child Jesus — on their long journey to Egypt as refugees, fleeing violence and finding refuge among strangers. Remember as well the words of Jesus: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me” (Mt 25:35). Take these words and gestures with you today. May they bring you encouragement and consolation. As for me, assuring you of my prayers, I ask you also, please, do not forget to pray for me.
Today's Mass Readings and Video : Saturday September 17, 2016
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 448
Reading 11 COR 15:35-37, 42-49
Brothers and sisters:
Someone may say, “How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they come back?”
You fool!
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be
but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.
So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.
It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.
It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.
So, too, it is written,
“The first man, Adam, became a living being,”
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Someone may say, “How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body will they come back?”
You fool!
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be
but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.
So also is the resurrection of the dead.
It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.
It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.
It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.
So, too, it is written,
“The first man, Adam, became a living being,”
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.
Responsorial PsalmPS 56:10C-12, 13-14
R. (14) I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
Now I know that God is with me.
In God, in whose promise I glory,
in God I trust without fear;
what can flesh do against me?
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
I am bound, O God, by vows to you;
your thank offerings I will fulfill.
For you have rescued me from death,
my feet, too, from stumbling;
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
Now I know that God is with me.
In God, in whose promise I glory,
in God I trust without fear;
what can flesh do against me?
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
I am bound, O God, by vows to you;
your thank offerings I will fulfill.
For you have rescued me from death,
my feet, too, from stumbling;
that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
R. I will walk in the presence of God, in the light of the living.
AlleluiaSEE LK 8:15
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
journeying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.
“This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”
Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
GospelLK 8:4-15
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after anotherjourneying to Jesus, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled,
and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew,
it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew,
it produced fruit a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he called out,
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Then his disciples asked him
what the meaning of this parable might be.
He answered,
“Knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of God
has been granted to you;
but to the rest, they are made known through parables
so that they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.
“This is the meaning of the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
Those on the path are the ones who have heard,
but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts
that they may not believe and be saved.
Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear,
receive the word with joy, but they have no root;
they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.
As for the seed that fell among thorns,
they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along,
they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life,
and they fail to produce mature fruit.
But as for the seed that fell on rich soil,
they are the ones who, when they have heard the word,
embrace it with a generous and good heart,
and bear fruit through perseverance.”
Saint September 17 : St. Robert Bellarmine : Patron of #Catechists, #Canon #Lawyers and #Catechumens : Doctor
(Also, "Bellarmino"). A distinguished Jesuit theologian, writer, and cardinal, born at Montepulciano, 4 October, 1542; died 17 September, 1621. His father was Vincenzo Bellarmino, his mother Cinthia Cervini, sister of Cardinal Marcello Cervini, afterwards Pope Marcellus II. He was brought up at the newly founded Jesuit college in his native town, and entered the Society of Jesus on 20 September, 1560, being admitted to his first vows on the following day. The next three years he spent in studying philosophy at the Roman College, after which he taught the humanities first at Florence, then at Mondovì. In 1567 he began his theology at Padua, but in 1569 was sent to finish it at Louvain, where he could obtain a fuller acquaintance with the prevailing heresies. Having been ordained there, he quickly obtained a reputation both as a professor and a preacher, in the latter capacity drawing to his pulpit both Catholics and Protestants, even from distant parts. In 1576 he was recalled to Italy, and entrusted with the chair of Controversies recently founded at the Roman College. He proved himself equal to the arduous task, and the lectures thus delivered grew into the work "De Controversiis" which, amidst so much else of excellence, forms the chief title to his greatness. This monumental work was the earliest attempt to systematize the various controversies of the time, and made an immense impression throughout Europe, the blow it dealt to Protestantism being so acutely felt in Germany and England that special chairs were founded in order to provide replies to it. Nor has it even yet been superseded as the classical book on its subject-matter, though, as was to be expected, the progress of criticism has impaired the value of some of its historical arguments.
In 1588 Bellarmine was made Spiritual Father to the Roman College, but in 1590 he went with Cardinal Gaetano as theologian to the embassy Sixtus V was then sending into France to protect the interests of the Church amidst the troubles of the civil wars. Whilst he was there news reached him that Sixtus, who had warmly accepted the dedication of his "De Controversiis", was now proposing to put its first volume on the Index. This was because he had discovered that it assigned to the Holy See not a direct but only an indirect power over temporals. Bellarmine, whose loyalty to the Holy See was intense, took this greatly to heart; it was, however, averted by the death of Sixtus, and the new pope, Gregory XIV, even granted to Bellarmine's work the distinction of a special approbation. Gaetano's mission now terminating, Bellarmine resumed his work as Spiritual Father, and had the consolation of guiding the last years of St. Aloysius Gonzaga, who died in the Roman College in 1591. Many years later he had the further consolation of successfully promoting the beatification of the saintly youth. Likewise at this time he sat on the final commission for the revision of the Vulgate text. This revision had been desired by the Council of Trent, and subsequent popes had laboured over the task and had almost brought it to completion. But Sixtus V, though unskilled in this branch of criticism, had introduced alterations of his own, all for the worse. He had even gone so far as to have an impression of this vitiated edition printed and partially distributed, together with the proposed Bull enforcing its use. He died, however, before the actual promulgation, and his immediate successors at once proceeded to remove the blunders and call in the defective impression. The difficulty was how to substitute a more correct edition without affixing a stigma to the name of Sixtus, and Bellarmine proposed that the new edition should continue in the name of Sixtus, with a prefatory explanation that, on account of aliqua vitia vel typographorum vel aliorum which had crept in, Sixtus had himself resolved that a new impression should be undertaken. The suggestion was accepted, and Bellarmine himself wrote the preface, still prefixed to the Clementine edition ever since in use. On the other hand, he has been accused of untruthfulness in stating that Sixtus had resolved on a new impression. But his testimony, as there is no evidence to the contrary, should be accepted as decisive, seeing how conscientious a man he was in the estimation of his contemporaries; and the more so since it cannot be impugned without casting a slur on the character of his fellow-commissioners who accepted his suggestion, and of Clement VIII who with full knowledge of the facts gave his sanction to Bellarmine's preface being prefixed to the new edition. Besides, Angelo Rocca, the Secretary of the revisory commissions of Sixtus V and the succeeding pontiffs, himself wrote a draft preface for the new edition in which he makes the same statement: (Sixtus) "dum errores ex typographiâ ortos, et mutationes omnes, atque varias hominum opiniones recognoscere cœpit, ut postea de toto negotio deliberare atque Vulgatam editionem, prout debebat, publicare posset, morte præventus quod cœperat perficere non potuit". This draft preface, to which Bellarmine's was preferred, is still extant, attached to the copy of the Sixtine edition in which the Clementine corrections are marked, and may be seen in the Biblioteca Angelica at Rome. In 1592 Bellarmine was made Rector of the Roman College, and in 1595 Provincial of Naples. In 1597 Clement VIII recalled him to Rome and made him his own theologian and likewise Examiner of Bishops and Consultor of the Holy Office. Further, in 1599 he made him Cardinal-Priest of the title of Santa Maria in viâ, alleging as his reason for this promotion that "the Church of God had not his equal in learning". He was now appointed, along with the Dominican Cardinal d'Ascoli, an assessor to Cardinal Madruzzi, the President of the Congregation de Auxiliis, which had been instituted shortly before to settle the controversy which had recently arisen between the Thomists and the Molinists concerning the nature of the concord between efficacious grace and human liberty. Bellarmine's advice was from the first that the doctrinal question should not be decided authoritatively, but left over for further discussion in the schools, the disputants on either side being strictly forbidden to indulge in censures or condemnations of their adversaries. Clement VIII at first inclined to this view, but afterwards changed completely and determined on a doctrinal definition. Bellarmine's presence then became embarrassing, and he appointed him to the Archbishopric of Capua just then vacant. This is sometimes spoken of as the cardinal's disgrace, but Clement consecrated him with his own hands--an honour which the popes usually accord as a mark of special regard. The new archbishop departed at once for his see, and during the next three years set a bright example of pastoral zeal in its administration.
In 1605 Clement VIII died, and was succeeded by Leo XI who reigned only twenty-six days, and then by Paul V. In both conclaves, especially that latter, the name of Bellarmine was much before the electors, greatly to his own distress, but his quality as a Jesuit stood against him in the judgment of many of the cardinals. The new pope insisted on keeping him at Rome, and the cardinal, obediently complying, demanded that at least he should be released from an episcopal charge the duties of which he could no longer fulfil. He was now made a member of the Holy Office and of other congregations, and thenceforth was the chief advisor of the Holy See in the theological department of its administration. Of the particular transactions with which his name is most generally associated the following were the most important: The inquiry de Auxiliis, which after all Clement had not seen his way to decide, was now terminated with a settlement on the lines of Bellarmine's original suggestion. 1606 marked the beginning of the quarrel between the Holy See and the Republic of Venice which, without even consulting the pope, had presumed to abrogate the law of clerical exemption from civil jurisdiction and to withdraw the Church's right to hold real property. The quarrel led to a war of pamphlets in which the part of the Republic was sustained by John Marsiglio and an apostate monk named Paolo Sarpi, and that of the Holy See by Bellarmine and Baronius. Contemporaneous with the Venetian episode was that of the English Oath of Alliance. In 1606, in addition to the grave disabilities which already weighed them down, the English Catholics were required under pain of prœmunire to take an oath of allegiance craftily worded in such wise that a Catholic in refusing to take it might appear to be disavowing an undoubted civil obligation, whilst if he should take it he would be not merely rejecting but even condemning as "impious and heretical" the doctrine of the deposing power, that is to say, of a power, which, whether rightly or wrongly, the Holy See had claimed and exercised for centuries with the full approval of Christendom, and which even in that age the mass of the theologians of Europe defended. The Holy See having forbidden Catholics to take this oath, King James himself came forward as its defender, in a book entitled "Tripoli nodo triplex cuneus", to which Bellarmine replied in his "Responsio Matthfi Torti". Other treatises followed on either side, and the result of one, written in denial of the deposing power by William Barclay, an English jurist resident in France, was that Bellarmine's reply to it was branded by the Regalist Parlement of Paris. Thus it came to pass that, for following the via media of the indirect power, he was condemned in 1590 as too much of a Regalist and in 1605 as too much of a Papalist. Bellarmine did not live to deal with the later and more serious stage of the Galileo case, but in 1615 he took part in its earlier stage. He had always shown great interest in the discoveries of that investigator, and was on terms of friendly correspondence with him. He took up too--as is witnessed by his letter to Galileo's friend Foscarini--exactly the right attitude towards scientific theories in seeming contradiction with Scripture. If, as was undoubtedly the case then with Galileo's heliocentric theory, a scientific theory is insufficiently proved, it should be advanced only as an hypothesis; but if, as is the case with this theory now, it is solidly demonstrated, care must be taken to interpret Scripture only in accordance with it. When the Holy Office condemned the heliocentric theory, by an excess in the opposite direction, it became Bellarmine's official duty to signify the condemnation to Galileo, and receive his submission. Bellarmine lived to see one more conclave, that which elected Gregory XV (February, 1621). His health was now failing, and in the summer of the same year he was permitted to retire to Sant' Andrea and prepare for the end. His death was most edifying and was a fitting termination to a life which had been no less remarkable for its virtues than for its achievements. His spirit of prayer, his singular delicacy of conscience and freedom from sin, his spirit of humility and poverty, together with the disinterestedness which he displayed as much under the cardinal's robes as under the Jesuit's gown, his lavish charity to the poor, and his devotedness to work, had combined to impress those who knew him intimately with the feeling that he was of the number of the saints. Accordingly, when he died there was a general expectation that his cause would be promptly introduced. And so it was, under Urban VIII in 1627, when he became entitled to the appellation of Venerable. But a technical obstacle, arising out of Urban VIII's own general legislation in regard to beatifications, required its prorogation at that time. Though it was reintroduced on several occasions (1675, 1714, 1752, and 1832), and though on each occasion the great preponderance of votes was in favour of the beatification, a successful issue came only after many years. This was partly because of the influential character of some of those who recorded adverse votes, Barbarigo, Casante, and Azzolino in 1675, and Passionei in 1752, but still more for reasons of political expediency, Bellarmine's name being closely associated with a doctrine of papal authority most obnoxious to the Regalist politicians of the French Court. "We have said", wrote Benedict XIV to Cardinal de Tencin, "in confidence to the General of the Jesuits that the delay of the Cause has come not from the petty matters laid to his charge by Cardinal Passionei, but from the sad circumstances of the times" (Études Religieuses, 15 April, 1896). [Note: St. Robert Bellarmine was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1930, and declared a Doctor of the Universal Church in 1931. He is the patron saint of catechists.] Text from The Catholic Encyclopedia
Saint September 16 : St. Cornelius : #Pope : Patron of #Fever, #Pets and #Earache
Martyr (251 to 253). We may accept the statement of the Liberian catalogue that he reigned two years, three months, and ten days, for Lipsius, Lightfoot, and Harnack have shown that this list is a first-rate authority for this date. His predecessor, Fabian, was put to death by Decius, 20 January, 250. About the beginning of March, 251 the persecution slackened, owing to the absence of the emperor, against whom two rivals had arisen. It was possible to assemble sixteen bishops at Rome, and Cornelius was elected though against his will (Cyprian, Ep. lv, 24), "by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the vote of the people then present, by the consent of aged priests and of good men, at a time when no one had been made before him, when the place of Fabian, that is the place of Peter, and the step of the sacerdotal chair were vacant". "What fortitude in his acceptance of the episcopate, what strength of mind, what firmness of faith, that he took his seat intrepid in the sacerdotal chair, at a time when the tyrant in his hatred of bishops was making unspeakable threats, when he heard with far more patience that a rival prince was arising against him, than that a bishop of God was appointed at Rome" (ibid., 9). Is he not, asks St. Cyprian, to be numbered among the glorious confessors and martyrs who sat so long awaiting the sword or the cross or the stake and every other torture?
A few weeks later the Roman priest Novatian made himself antipope, and the whole Christian world was convulsed by the schism at Rome. But the adhesion of St. Cyprian secured to Cornelius the hundred bishops of Africa, and the influence of St. Dionysius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria, brought the East within a few months to a right decision. In Italy itself the pope got together a synod of sixty bishops. (See NOVATIAN.) Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, seems to have wavered. Three letters to him from Cornelius were known to Eusebius, who gives extracts from one of them (Church History VI.43), in which the pope details the faults in Novatian's election and conduct with considerable bitterness. We incidentally learn that in the Roman Church there were forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two ostiarii, and over one thousand five hundred widows and persons in distress. From this Burnet estimated the number of Christians in Rome at fifty thousand, so also Gibbon; but Benson and Harnack think this figure possibly too large. Pope Fabian had made seven regions; it appears that each had one deacon, one subdeacon and six acolytes. Of the letters of Cornelius to Cyprian two have come down to us, together with nine from Cyprian to the pope. Mgr. Merrati has shown that in the true text the letters of Cornelius are in the colloquial "vulgar-Latin" of the day, and not in the more classical style affected by the ex-orator Cyprian and the learned philosopher Novatian. Cornelius sanctioned the milder measures proposed by St. Cyprian and accepted by his Carthaginian council of 251 for the restoration to communion, after varying forms of penance, of those who had fallen during the Decian persecution (see CYPRIAN).
At the beginning of 252 a new persecution suddenly broke out. Cornelius was exiled to Centumcellæ (Civita Vecchia). There were no defections among the Roman Christians; all were confessors. The pope "led his brethren in confession", writes Cyprian (Ep. lx, ad Corn.), with a manifest reference to the confession of St. Peter. "With one heart and one voice the whole Roman Church confessed. Then was seen, dearest Brother, that faith which the blessed Apostle praised in you (Romans 1:8); even then he foresaw in spirit your glorious fortitude and firm strength." In June Cornelius died a martyr, as St. Cyprian repeatedly calls him. The Liberian catalogue has ibi cum gloriâ dormicionem accepit, and this may mean that he died of the rigours of his banishment, though later accounts say that he was beheaded. St. Jerome says that Cornelius and Cyprian suffered on the same day in different years, and his careless statement has been generally followed. The feast of St. Cyprian was in fact kept at Rome at the tomb of Cornelius, for the fourth century "Depositio Martirum" has "XVIII kl octob Cypriani Africæ Romæ celebratur in Callisti". St. Cornelius was not buried in the chapel of the popes, but in an adjoining catacomb, perhaps that of a branch of the noble Cornelii. His inscription is in Latin: CORNELIUS* MARTYR* whereas those of Fabian and Lucius are in Greek (Northcote and Brownlow, "Roma sotteranea", I, vi). His feast is kept with that of St. Cyprian on 14 September, possibly the day of his translation from Centumcellæ to the catacombs.
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)