Handing over of World Youth Day cross represents commitment to journey in the footsteps of Christ, says Pope
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - The
pilgrim World Youth Day cross--first commissioned in 1984 by John Paul
II--began its journey from Rome to Sydney Australia yesterday, where it
will arrive this summer just in time for the 22nd World Youth Day
celebration.
Following a
solemn Palm Sunday liturgy in St. Peter’s Square, presided at by Pope
Benedict XVI, the cross changed hands from a group of German youth to
pilgrims from Australia. Last year’s World Youth Day was celebrated in
Cologne, Germany.
Following his
weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Benedict reminded a crowd of thousands of
the spiritual and historical significance of the globe-trotting cross.
"This”, he said,
“is the cross that the beloved John Paul II entrusted to young people
in 1984 that they might carry it around the world as a sign of Christ's
love for humanity," together with another sign of WYD, an icon of the
Virgin Mary.”
Benedict said
that "This handing over of the cross has become a tradition, ... a
highly symbolic tradition to be practiced with great faith, and the
commitment to follow a journey of conversion in the footsteps of Jesus.”
"This faith is
taught us by Mary Most Holy,” he went on, “who was the first 'to
believe' and carried her own cross together with the Son, later tasting
with Him the joy of the resurrection.”
He told the
crowd that “For this reason the young people's cross is accompanied by
an icon of the Virgin, representing the image of Mary 'Salus Populi
Romani' which is venerated in the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major, the
oldest basilica dedicated to Mary in the West."
On its way to
Sydney, the cross and the Marian image will travel through various
African countries "in order to express the closeness of Christ and His
Mother to the people of that continent, tried by so much suffering."
It will arrive
in Oceania in February 2007, and from there, travel through various
Australian diocese before reaching Sydney in July of 2008.
Pope may grant wider use of Pius V Missal during Holy Week
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - A
source at the Vatican has told CNA that during Holy Week Pope Benedict
XVI may grant universal permission to use the Missal of St. Pius V, the
liturgical rite used in the Church before Vatican II.
According to the
source, the announcement could come “between Holy Thursday and Easter
Sunday,” but the exact day has not yet been set. Nevertheless,
the source said the decision has already been made by the Holy Father
and that it’s “only a matter of time” before it is publicly announced.
“A minor
official gesture by the Holy Father would be enough to allow the Mass
according to the 1962 Missal to celebrated by whoever desires to do so,
thus reiterating that this rite is still valid today simply because it
was not abolished,” the source told CNA.
The announcement
would be in the context of “the reform of the reform” that Pope
Benedict XVI is promoting, which includes norms and principles that
will be made public in the upcoming post-synod Apostolic Exhortation on
the Eucharist.
At the same
time, such a gesture by the Pope could contribute to ending the schism
with the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, founded by Archbishop
Marcel Lefebvre in 1988.
On Saturday,
Pope Benedict XVI named three new members to the Ecclesia Dei
Commission, created by Pope John Paul II in order to reach out to the
Lefebvrists. They are Cardinal William Levada, prefect of the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Jean-Pierre
Richard, Archbishop of Bordeaux of president of the Bishops’ Conference
of France, and Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera of Toledo, Spain.
Vatican confirms: Pope Benedict will visit Poland in May
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - Pope
Benedict XVI will travel to Poland--the home country of his predecessor
John Paul II--in May, according to a confirmation from the Vatican
press office earlier today.
Joaquin
Navarro-Valls, director of the Holy See Press Office officially
announced that the Holy Father will make an apostolic trip to Poland
from May 25 to 28, 2006.
During the trip, he is scheduled to visit Warsaw, Czestochowa, Krakow, Wadowice, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, and Auschwitz.
Pope Benedict: the cross is mankind’s sign of love which is stronger than death
Vatican City, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) -
Pope
Benedict XVI joined thousands of young pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square
yesterday to celebrate both Palm Sunday and the 21st World Youth Day.
Referring to Jesus‘ sacrifice on the cross, he said that real life is
gained not by seizing it, but by giving it.
The theme of
this year’s World Youth Day, which takes place in the Vatican during
odd years, was "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."
After the
traditional blessing of the palm branches, the Pope began his homily by
recalling how for 20 years, "thanks to John Paul II, Palm Sunday has
become a special day for young people; the day on which youth all over
the world go out to meet Christ in the desire to accompany Him into
their cities and countries, that He may remain among us and establish
His peace in the world.”
He stressed that
"If we want to go out and meet Jesus, and walk alongside Him on His
journey, we must however ask: along what path does He intend to lead
us? What do we expect from Him? What does He expect from us?"
Benedict cited
the words of Zechariah who prophesies in Luke’s Gospel about the coming
King Jesus, who "will be a king of the poor, a poor man among the poor
and for the poor."
The Pope pointed
out that "one can be materially poor and yet have one's heart full of
desire for wealth and for the power that derives from wealth. ...
Interior freedom is a necessary condition for overcoming the corruption
and avidity that are now devastating the world; and this freedom can be
found only if God becomes our wealth."
He said that the
Prophet Zechariah "also shows us that this king will be a king of
peace," and this fact "takes concrete form in the sign of the cross.
... The new weapon that Jesus puts in our hands is the cross, a sign of
reconciliation, a sign of the love that is stronger than death.”
“Every time we
make the sign of the cross”, he said, “we must remember not to meet
injustice with injustice, violence with violence; we must remember that
we can conquer evil only with good, and never by repaying evil with
evil."
Pope Benedict
said that Zechariah’s third assertion was "the announcement of
universality. ... Christ reigns by becoming our bread and giving
Himself to us. This is the way in which He builds His kingdom."
It is through
the Eucharist, Benedict said, that "we enter His kingdom of peace. In
Him we welcome, in some way, all our brothers and sisters to whom He
comes, in order truly to become a kingdom of peace in the midst of this
divided world."
He summed up by
saying that "These three characteristics announced by the prophet -
poverty, peace and universality - come together in the sign of the
cross. It is for this reason, and rightly so, that the cross has become
the focal point of World Youth Days.”
“There was a
time,” he pointed out, “a time that has not yet been completely left
behind, in which Christianity was rejected precisely because of the
cross. The cross represents sacrifice, it was said, the cross is a sign
of the negation of life. What we want, however, is life entire, without
restrictions or renunciation."
"And Palm
Sunday”, he stressed, “tells us that that the real great 'yes' is the
cross, that the cross is the real tree of life. We do not find life by
seizing it but by giving it.”
“Love is a giving of self and for this reason it is the way of true life symbolized by the cross."
Thousands of Americans to join Catholic Church on Holy Saturday
Washington D.C., Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - Thousands
of Americans will join the Catholic Church on Holy Saturday, April 15,
through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). They will be
baptized, confirmed and receive the Eucharist for the first time.
Others, who already have been baptized in another Christian church,
will embrace full membership in the Catholic Church.
At press time,
the total number of adults being welcomed into the Catholic Church in
2006 was not available. However, some dioceses have submitted their
reports. In Denver, 700 people will be baptized and 1,400 will come
into full communion. In Galveston-Houston in Texas, 1,090 will be
baptized and 905 will come into full communion. The Archdiocese for
Military Services reports it will baptize 425 and welcome 515 into full
communion.
“The Rite of
Election [which precedes baptism] is always a moving experience as new
life comes into the Church,” said Bishop Sam Jacobs of
Houma-Thibodeaux, Louisiana, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on
Evangelization.
“It is a sign of
the work of the Holy Spirit and of the witness of faith that Catholic
men and women give every day. Virtually all who come into the Church
note that they were drawn to the Catholic Church by a friend, relative
or acquaintance who quietly lives out the Christian life,” he said.
People come to
the Catholic Church in a variety of ways. Some are inspired by other
family members, including spouses, who already are Catholic. Others
find the Catholic Church during a spiritual search. Others seek to
return to the Church of their baptism. The RCIA candidates come from
all walks of life and are of all ages.
Martin White is
CEO of MDU Resources, a Fortune 500 company with earnings over one
billion dollars last year. He and his wife, Sheila, followed the RCIA
with the Benedictine Sisters at the University of Mary in Bismarck,
North Dakota, where he will soon become dean of the college’s new
school of business.
At St. Elizabeth
Parish in rural Richfield, Utah, one RCIA candidate is an 87-year-old
man whose daughter and family joined the Church a few years ago;
another is a young woman who was deeply touched by Pope John Paul II’s
death, and another is a 19-year-old man who graduated from high school
last year.
Adults will
enter the Church in every diocese of the country and in virtually every
parish. In 2005, 80,521 adults were baptized in the Catholic Church and
73,296 came into full communion.
The RCIA is an
ancient rite that was reinstituted in the Church following the Second
Vatican Council (1962-1965). It is the usual means for adults to come
into the Church.
Pope confirms visit Australia in 2008, says bishop
Sydney, Australia, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - Pope
Benedict XVI has confirmed he will be in Sydney, Australia, for World
Youth Day 2008, Bishop Anthony Fisher, auxiliary bishop of Sydney told
I-Media. It will be this Pope’s first visit to Oceania.
Pope Benedict
officially launched preparations for the 2008 event at Palm Sunday mass
yesterday in St Peter's Square, where six young Australians received
the World Youth Day Cross from German youth.
The ceremony at
the Vatican coincided with a special mass at St Mary's Cathedral in
Sydney to mark the handover, reported Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
WYD 2008 is expected to draw 130,000 foreign pilgrims.
Cuban bishops permitted to give Holy Week radio addresses for first time in 46 years
Holguin, Cuba, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - For
the first time in 46 years, the communist Cuban government has
permitted Catholic bishops in that country to address Catholic faithful
over the radio.
According to the
German organization, Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Emilio
Aranguren, head of the Diocese of Holguin, and Bishop Dionisio Garcia
Ibanez, head of the Diocese of Bayamo-Manzanillo addressed their
respective dioceses with messages for the beginning of Holy Week.
The group said
that when Bishop Aranguren informed faithful at the end of the Chrism
Mass on Saturday, April 8th of the historic event, those in attendance
erupted in a storm of applause and a standing ovation.
ACN quoted the
Bishop as saying, “When I visit the sick in their homes, I realize the
large majority of them pick up foreign radio stations in order to hear
religious messages because they need it for the faith they have and in
order to face the needs that they have in their daily life.”
“For this
reason”, he said, “I have asked the authorities to let me address the
sick in order to encourage them to celebrate the great events in the
life of Jesus Christ: His Passion, Death and Resurrection. God willing,
may I do that every week.”
During his
12-minute radio speech, broadcast on Palm Sunday, the bishop
specifically addressed the elderly, saying: “I want to bring you a
message of consolation, of strength, of hope. I know that you need this
just like all of us. When you hold a Crucifix in your hands or look at
Jesus Christ on the cross, I invite you to renew your trust in Him.”
“You will find”,
he stressed, “a new disposition, a spiritual aptitude to continue to
carry your cross with confidence, bravery, dignity and hope.”
Link to pro-life group on government website ruffles feathers
Sioux Falls, S.D., Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - Some
feathers were ruffled at Planned Parenthood in South Dakota last week
when it came to light that the State Health Department website includes
links to the Alpha Center, a pro-life organization.
The Alpha Center
is a nonprofit agency that provides services to women and couples
involved in an unplanned pregnancy. It is included among links to
similar organizations providing alternatives for women considering
abortion, such as counseling and adoption, reported the Associated
Press. The Alpha Center has lobbied in favor of the state's abortion
ban.
Planned Parenthood state director Kate Looby told the AP that the links to pro-life groups, and to Alpha Center, were unfair.
However, a 2003
law requires a state website for abortion alternatives, making links to
the Alpha Center and similar organizations perfectly legal. In this
case, the law trumps a policy that forbids links to politically
involved organizations.
"The statute
specifically requires information be provided about alternatives to
abortion, not abortion services. For that reason, the Alpha Center is
included," Doneen Hollingsworth, state Health Department secretary,
told the AP.
In 2004,
Connecticut Gov. Mike Rounds asked the State Library board to remove a
link to a Planned Parenthood site from a State Library website for
teens, based on the policy that links to sites run by organizations
that politically involved are inappropriate. Rounds' request had
followed a letter from Bishop Robert Carlson, now former bishop of the
Diocese of Sioux Falls.
Latin American bishops slam ‘Gospel of Judas’, accuse National Geographic of commercial opportunism
Mexico City, Mexico, Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - Four
leading Latin American archbishops, including three cardinals, have
expressed regret over National Geographic’s decision to publish a Palm
Sunday report on the so-called “Gospel of Judas,” presenting it as new
discovery that sheds light on the life of Jesus.
In reality, they
say, the text is one of a number of writings created by Gnostic sects
which were attributed to the Apostles but were never accepted by the
early Church. The oldest copy of the text dates back to the year
260, more than two centuries after the Gospels of Matthew and Mark were
written.
“The enemies of
the Church are drudging up old arguments, apocryphal writings in order
to confuse the people, and if people do not study their faith, they
will get confused,” said Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iñiguez of Guadalajara,
Mexico.
Speaking to more
than 300 young people gathered at the site of a new shrine dedicated to
a group of Mexican martyrs, the cardinal said, “If Catholics adequately
study their faith, nothing would be able to shake it, not even their
enemies.” He also called on the faithful to not be fooled by
“apocryphal writings that only carry with them a host of lies and
fables.”
Cardinal
Sandoval noted that the “Gospel of Judas,” which National Geographic
presented as a new discovery, was already known to the Church in 1945,
when scholars found the document in Egypt.
In Mexico City,
Cardinal Norberto Rivera called the National Geographic report
“sensationalist and lacking in credibility” saying it was historically
disconnected from the testimony of the Apostles and the witnesses of
the life of Jesus. “If we followed that logic, I could say that
what you have been told about our independence is not true and that I
am the one who has a secret revelation. It’s obvious that that
document is neither a gospel nor was it written by Judas,” the cardinal
said.
In Monterrey,
Mexico, Archbishop Francisco Robles criticized National Geographic’s
opportunism in presenting the so-called “gospel.” “What a
coincidence that they sat on the news until this week, when our
Christian sensibility is so out in the open,” he said.
Archbishop
Robles noted that the Christian community “came to a conclusion about
this text and others centuries ago and they were not accepted.
Therefore they do not form part of the canon of the Bible…The only
historical and authentic documents for the Christian faith are the
canonical Gospels, which from the beginning were approved by the
Church,” he added, saying Catholics should not be disturbed by these
types of reports.
In Chile,
Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Santiago reiterated that the
text belongs to the apocryphal writings that contradict the Gospels
that have always been accepted by the Church. “The Gospels which
the Church has always considered authentic were written by the Apostles
themselves or their close associates,” he said. “The Gospel of
Judas totally contradicts what we know of Christian history, which is
the result of a very precise and drawn-out discernment.”
“When did Judas
have time to write a gospel if he hung himself? Not only that,
but the first Christians noted that when he gave the silver coins back
they did not want to return them to the temple treasury and they used
them to buy a field which to this day is known as the Field of Blood,
because it was the fruit of the shedding of the blood of Christ and the
suicide of Judas. In other words, the document is contradictory
and late,” said Cardinal Errazuriz.
Catholic Church in US joins broad fellowship of Christian churches
Washington D.C., Apr 10, 2006 (CNA) - The
Catholic Church in the U.S. has joined national leaders from four other
Christian confessions — Evangelical/Pentecostal, Historic Protestant,
Historic Racial/Ethnic and Orthodox — to form the broadest Christian
fellowship in the country.
The mission of
Christian Churches Together in the USA (CCT) is to “enable churches and
Christian organizations to grow closer together in Christ in order to
strengthen [their] Christian witness in the world.”
It gives
priority to prayer and worship, to building relationships of trust, and
to discerning societal challenges that need to be addressed for more
faithful Christian witness.
Thirty-four churches and national Christian organizations, representing over 100 million Americans, belong to the fellowship.
“The Catholic
Church is deeply committed, as integral to her mission, to the full,
visible communion of all Christians,” said Bishop Stephen Blaire,
chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical
Relations and Interreligious Affairs.
“Participation
in Christian Churches Together is an important step forward in the
process towards Christian unity that Jesus Christ wills for us,” he
said in an April 7 press release.
The U.S.
Catholic bishops voted to participate in CCT in November 2004. They
selected Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, Bishop Blaire, and Fr.
Ronald Roberson, CSP, to serve on the CCT Steering Committee. Sr. Ana
María Pineda, RSM, professor at Santa Clara University, is an at-large
member. Cardinal Keeler serves as one of the CCT’s five presidents.
The vision of
CCT began when a diverse group of Christian leaders gathered in 2001
and expressed a longing for an expanded Christian conversation. At the
end of that meeting, which was hosted by Cardinal Keeler, the group
expressed the need for a new ecumenical forum in the U.S.
At a March 28-31
meeting near Atlanta, where the fellowship was finally formed, the
group focused on the issue of poverty in the U.S. They concluded that
overcoming poverty is “central to the mission of the Church and
essential to our unity in Christ,” and committed to work together to
address the causes of poverty.
For more information, go to: www.christianchurchestogether.org
