October 31, 2007
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** DAILY READINGS:
First Reading:
Rom 8:26-30
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/reading.php?n=2396
Psalm:
Ps 13:4-5,6
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/reading.php?n=2397
Gospel:
Lk 13:22-30
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/reading.php?n=2398
** SAINT OF THE DAY:
St. Foillan
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/saint.php?n=641
** TOP STORIES:
- To be a good Christian is to be a good citizen, explains the Holy Father
- Granddaughter recounts moving story of grandmother's martyrdom in Spain
** MORE HEADLINES
- Holy Father's prayer intentions for November
- Church faces difficult times, says Nuncio in Mexico
- Chavez reforms would restrict freedom and make power of State absolute, warns Venezuelan archbishop
- Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez defends massive march for life
- Family groups denounce lawmakers for refusing to help pregnant women
- Clergy organization denounces calls for a less accurate Missal translation
- Illinois moment-of-silence law unconstitutional, lawsuit alleges
- Georgetown University bows to homosexual activists' demands
- Evictions rattle tenants in Church-owned apartments
- Archbishop to UN: "life is not at anyone's disposal"
- Green Party in Germany distances itself from statements by leader against Cardinal Meisner
- Britney's newest publicity stunt involves inappropriate photos with "priest"
- Lefebrivists demand Council be "corrected," not interpreted
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TOP STORIES
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To be a good Christian is to be a good citizen, explains the Holy Father
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10838)
VATICAN CITY, October 31 (CNA) - Steady rain fell on St. Peter's Square today, but that did not stop 30,000 people from attending the Pope's Wednesday audience. He pointed the gathered pilgrims to the example of St. Maximus of Turin, who teaches Christians that they are called to be good citizens of earth and of Heaven.
Maximus became bishop of the Italian city of Turin in the year 398 just as it was being threatened by various barbarian tribes. Since Turin was protected by a military garrison, it served as a safe haven for people fleeing rural areas.
Faced with such a situation the activities of Maximus, "bear witness to his commitment to react to the degradation and break-up" of civil society, said the Pope. The bishop censured the faithful when they sought to turn another's disadvantage to their own benefit, thus highlighting "the profound relationship between a person's duties as a Christian and as a citizen." And Maximus was concerned "not only with people's traditional love for their hometown" but also proclaimed "the specific duty of paying taxes."
A historical and literary analysis of the figure of St. Maximus, said the Pope, "demonstrates his growing awareness of the political responsibility of the ecclesiastical authorities at a time in which they were, in effect, substituting civil authority."
"It is clear that today's historical, cultural and social context is completely different," the Holy Father went on, "but in any case, ... the duties of believers towards their city and their homeland remain the same. The link between the obligations of the 'honest citizen' and those of the 'good Christian' has not changed in the least."
Pope Benedict then pointed the faithful to the Vatican Council II Pastoral Constitution "Gaudium et spes" which had the aim "of illuminating one of the most important aspects of the unity of Christian life: coherence between faith and life, between Gospel and culture."
Vatican Council II, he concluded, "exhorts Christians, as citizens of two cities, to strive to discharge their earthly duties conscientiously and in response to the Gospel spirit. They are mistaken who, knowing that we have here no abiding city but seek one which is to come, think that they may therefore shirk their earthly responsibilities. For they are forgetting that by the faith itself they are more obliged than ever to measure up to these duties, each according to his proper vocation."
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Granddaughter recounts moving story of grandmother's martyrdom in Spain
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10836)
MADRID, October 30 (CNA) - Pilar Caballero, granddaughter of Teresa Cejudo, who was beatified last Sunday with hundreds of other martyrs of the Spanish Civil War, said her grandmother was remembered most for her spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Caballero, one of 2,500 family members of the 498 martyrs beatified this past Sunday in St. Peter's Square, recalled that her grandmother was a Salesian cooperator in Pozoblanco and mother of a 10 year-old daughter at the time of her death.
"This experience has been very emotional and intense for my entire family," says Caballero, "because since the 1970s, when the Salesian school began to push the cause of the beatifications, at home we always said that perhaps someday we would be lucky enough to see my grandmother beatified." Therefore, "it has been a tremendous joy to be here, with my mother who is still living, thank God, and her eleven children."
Caballero said Blessed Teresa Cejudo was very active at the Salesian school in her town and "helped distribute food to poor families and taught children unable to attend school to read and write." She was put in prison for over a month in Pozoblanco and was shot at the cemetery together with seventeen others. "She was very strong at that time," Caballero continued. "She said goodbye to her only daughter, my mother, and she was shot last because that was what she requested. She asked not to have her eyes covered, she wanted to die looking at death in the face, which she did not fear, because she was dying for God. She encouraged her seventeen companions not to deny God or their faith."
"My mother always told us about the visits to the prison during that month. She said she never imagined something so traumatic was going to happen. When they told her to say goodbye to her mother, she thought they were going to move her somewhere else. In fact, they told my mother they were going to move her. The only thing she said, being a small girl of course, was that she wanted to go with her," Caballero said.
"What I have learned most from my mother is that she has never held a grudge. I've never once heard her say any such thing. She never complained about anything. She always said she had the misfortune of being orphaned at the age of 10 and of her mother being shot, but she never conveyed spitefulness to her eleven children nor did she ever speak about the war in a political sense."
"I have to thank her for that for the rest of my life. She never conveyed anger or ill-will to us, being in a town so small as Pozoblanco, where the war was very hard," Caballero said.
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MORE HEADLINES
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Holy Father's prayer intentions for November
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10848)
VATICAN CITY, October 31 (CNA) - Today, the press office of the Vatican made public the Holy Father's intentions for November.
Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for this month is: "That those dedicated to medical research and all those engaged in legislative activity may always have deep respect for human life, from its beginning to its natural conclusion."
His mission intention is: "That in the Korean peninsula the spirit of reconciliation and peace may grow."
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Church faces difficult times, says Nuncio in Mexico
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10849)
MEXICO DF, October 31 (CNA) - After a meeting this week with the governor of Sonora, Eduardo Bours, the Apostolic Nuncio in Mexico, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, said that while the Church is not in crisis, she is facing difficult times.
Speaking to local reporters, the archbishop pointed to the world's changing values that are leading to the conflict between the culture of life and the culture of death and how the Church has an important role to play in the fight.
"It is a call to the Church, to the bishops, to the priests to study some issues better and to really know where we are at in order to reclaim some values that society is tending to lose at this time of transition," he said.
Archbishop Pierre was invited by the Archdiocese of Hermosillo to ordain nine priests and two deacons at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption.
"This has been a very important event for me," he said. "In my own country there is a crisis of priestly vocations, and so I am thrilled that the archbishop (Jose Ulises Macias Salcedo) has invited me to ordain nine young priests. It means the Pope has sent me to a country where there is a response to the call of God," Archbishop Pierre said
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Chavez reforms would restrict freedom and make power of State absolute, warns Venezuelan archbishop
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10847)
CARACAS, October 31 (CNA) - Archbishop Reinaldo Del Prette of Valencia reaffirmed the recent statements by the bishops of Venezuela calling President Hugo Chavez's constitutional reform "morally unacceptable" because they restrict the rights of citizens and grant absolute power to the State, "with a president who is re-elected indefinitely."
In speaking to local media, the archbishop referred to the recent document by the Bishops' Conference of Venezuela in which the bishops said the reforms Chavez seeks to impose will not give "Venezuelans the country they aspire to have, and for this reason we felt obliged in conscience to express our opinion."
"It is clear that, when we speak of the Constitution, we are referring to the social contract of all Venezuelans. We are not acting as representatives of any party," the archbishop said. "We must continue saying we are speaking as pastors. This is not a problem between the opposition and the government, between the rich and the poor. This is the social contract in order for us to live in peace," he said.
Archbishop Del Prette said constitutional reform is not needed in Venezuela. He pointed to Argentina and Brazil as examples, noting that in Argentina Cristina Fernandez, the wife of Nestor Kirchner, was elected president without "a reform of constitution or the creation of a Socialist State monopolizing all power." "And Lula in Brazil, a politician with a broad 21st century mentality, opposes indefinite re-election and said the changing of power is obligatory for the country to progress democratically," he added.
Therefore, he continued, "the attacks on Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino by some members of the government are totally unjustified and irrational."
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Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez defends massive march for life
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10846)
SANTO DOMINGO, October 31 (CNA) - During a pro-life march organized by the Catholic Church last weekend in protest of a bill that would legalize abortion in the Dominican Republic, Cardinal Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez of Santo Domingo defended the march as necessary for expressing the position of the Catholic majority in the country.
"The defense of life began two thousand years ago," the cardinal said, noting that "although the work must be left to Congress, the protest on Sunday was specific regarding the position of the Church."
"We must be clear that we must fight against that which cannot be accepted," the cardinal added. "The unscrupulous doctor does not need laws to kill. He does it hidden from the entire world, with or without the law," he continued, noting that because a crime is committed does not mean its legalization is justified.
Cardinal Lopez Rodriguez also criticized the United Nations for promoting abortion and said the major producers of contraceptives and the promoters of abortion are only seeking "useful fools" to follow them.
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Family groups denounce lawmakers for refusing to help pregnant women
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10845)
MADRID, October 31 (CNA) - Socialists and leftists in the parliament of the Spanish region of Andalusia have rejected a proposal to establish an initiative that would assist pregnant women and provide them with alternatives to protect them and their children from abortion.
Benigno Blanco, president of the Spanish Forum for the Family, called it "unfortunate that ideological prejudices have led the majority of Andalusian parliamentarians to be unconcerned with the problems of pregnant women. It is a true shame that they insist on abortion as the only solution for a woman who becomes pregnant in difficult situations."
Even though the initiative was supported by 92,000 voters, it was rejected by the Andalusian parliament. Blanco said the voters should not be ignored and that their support indicated that such a program is needed in the region.
Pointing out that data from the Ministry of Health in 2005 showed the number of abortions to be 91,664, the Forum explained that seventeen different legislative initiatives are being considered throughout Spain in order to create a true network of solidarity to support pregnant women and help them find alternatives to abortion.
"The idea is to extend to all of Spain through law an experience that has already functioned successfully in the Community of Madrid," the Forum reported.
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Clergy organization denounces calls for a less accurate Missal translation
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10844)
CNA STAFF, October 31 (CNA) - The Confraternity of Catholic Clergy voiced its support for a literal and accurate English translation of the 2000 Roman Missal.
In a recent announcement the confraternity denounced a letter that the National Coalition of American Nuns sent to the United States Council of Catholic Bishops. The letter encouraged rejecting literal accuracy in the upcoming translation of the Missal.
The Missal is the official altar book used by priests to celebrate the Mass.
Defending literal accuracy, the Confraternity called for the liturgy to be celebrated "worthily, with attention and devotion." This can only be done, the group claimed, through an accurate and literal translation from the typical Latin text.
The group responded to criticism that the laity would not understand more literal translations. "The congregation is more educated and sophisticated than purported by those who insist accurate and literal translations from the Latin into English would be confusing at best and frustrating at worst."
The confraternity defended the literal translation of the Nicene Creed, especially the words translated as "one in being." The Nicene Creed in its original languages uses a word whose literal translation is "consubstantial."
The group also endorsed restoring the descriptions of Christ that have a sense of divinity, words such as "holy," "sacred," "venerable," and "immaculate."
In a vigorous call for an elevated liturgy, the confraternity explained the need for a dignified translation. "We live in a culture where the vulgar, crass and obscene are part of everyday conversation. It proliferates the media at all levels: radio, television, movies, theater, magazines, and the internet. Yet, good taste and graceful language are not archaic. Sacred worship requires a sacred vocabulary and nomenclature which expresses the value and need for reverence for 'the Holy' and which transcends the secular world and allows the worshipper to approach the threshold of heaven."
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Illinois moment-of-silence law unconstitutional, lawsuit alleges
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10842)
CHICAGO, October 31 (CNA) - A 14-year-old girl and her outspoken atheist father have filed a federal lawsuit Friday challenging an Illinois law requiring a brief period of prayer or reflective silence at the start of the day, the Associated Press reports.
Dawn Sherman, a high school freshman, and her father Robert Sherman, a radio talk show host, are asking the court to rule the law unconstitutional. Their attorney Gregory Kulis claimed the law attempts to inject religion into the public schools and is a violation of the First Amendment. The suit also seeks a temporary restraining order preventing schools from following the law until the case is decided.
"What we object to is Christians passing a law that requires the public school teacher to stop teaching during instructional time, paid for by the taxpayers, so that Christians can pray," Mr. Sherman said.
The Illinois law was initially vetoed by Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who doubted its constitutionality. Lawmakers overrode the veto this month.
Mr. Sherman has in the past filed various lawsuits seeking to remove religious symbols from city seals and to ban Boy Scout meetings at public schools.
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Georgetown University bows to homosexual activists' demands
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10843)
WASHINGTON DC, October 31 (CNA) - The president of Georgetown University, the oldest Catholic university in the United States, has promised funding by next fall for a campus center for homosexual activists.
President John DeGioia explained his decision to the press: "How do we respond to legitimate requests for a more supportive environment? We can continue to do this in a somewhat informal manner … or we can move forward in a more organized way, through more formal and institutional structures and processes. In this case, it is time for the latter."
The campus activist group GU Pride began pressing for concessions from the administration after an alleged hate crime in September when a Georgetown sophomore was arrested for assaulting another student. They have demanded a full-time staff member for their concerns and the elimination of what they consider the college's "intolerance" of homosexuality.
The group was supported by four faculty professors and the Georgetown Voice. In an editorial the Georgetown Voice asked its readers to e-mail the president in protest. The editorial made a vague recommendation, saying that if the university did not act to meet activists' demands, "GU Pride should look to more direct means of enacting change."
President DeGioia made some remarks about preserving Georgetown's Catholic character. "At a Catholic and Jesuit university, [we] cannot advocate for policies or practices that are counter to Catholic teaching. Part of my responsibility as an administrator … is to ensure that nothing can compromise the integrity of our mission and identity," he said.
However, he expressed to the activist group "sadness" that Georgetown has been "hostile" toward the homosexual community. An editorial in the campus newspaper The Hoya reports that DeGioia "repeatedly committed himself" to the demands made by GU Pride.
The co-president of GU Pride, Scott Chessare, responded to the president's remarks, saying "We won!" "I don't think we would have believed less than two months ago that there would be so much institutional change in such a short amount of time," he added.
In September many Catholics protested the Georgetown law school's funding for students to engage in pro-abortion lobbying with groups like Planned Parenthood. Georgetown has been repeatedly criticized for poorly maintaining a Catholic identity.
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Evictions rattle tenants in Church-owned apartments
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10841)
ROME, October 31 (CNA) - Several thousand residents in Rome face eviction from their homes rented from the Vatican and other Catholic organizations.
Appealing in a letter to Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco, the head of the Italian bishops' conference, a committee formed by tenants said: "We have always paid the rent and taken care of our flats. None of the evictions is for non-payment of rent; they are all because of expired leases."
Last month Archbishop Bagnasco decried in a speech the shortage of low-cost housing, sympathizing with evicted tenants who cannot find alternative housing.
The former Archbishop of Siena, Gaetano Bonicelli, who advises the bishops' conference on social policy, stressed the evictions were being carried out, not by the church directly, but by the property agents of organizations linked to it. He said the agents' conduct was "certainly not in line with the teachings of the popes on the right to housing."
He added: "It would be better to take below-market rents than to refuse to give a hand to those who can't make alternative arrangements."
The organizations behind the property agents include religious orders and papal colleges, but also certain charitable foundations with only tenuous links to the Church.
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Archbishop to UN: "life is not at anyone's disposal"
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10839)
NEW YORK, October 31 (CNA) - Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Apostolic Nuncio leading the Holy See's permanent observer mission to the United Nations, gave an address to the UN Tuesday stressing the importance of human rights in forming a culture of peace.
The archbishop connected human rights to transcendent sources, saying that the recognition of human rights presupposes "a universal and transcendent truth about man that is not only prior to all human activity, but also determines it." He described the Golden Rule "do unto others what you want others to do unto you" as conveying a principle of fundamental equality, and highlighted the importance of the right to life.
"Respect for the right to life at every stage, from conception to natural death, firmly establishes the principle that life is not at anyone's disposal," he said
Explaining the need to respect the interests of other states, he nonetheless exhorted all governments to promote and defend the common good. In his view forgetting this responsibility is the origin of conflicts, environmental degradation, and social and economic injustices. He further emphasized the importance of moral concerns in guiding human advancement, saying "progress in every field cannot be measured by what is possible, but by its compatibility with human dignity."
Archbishop Migliore gave special attention to religious liberty. "In the same manner that the right to life cannot be disposed of at will, the right to religious freedom cannot be subject to human caprice." Difficulties for those trying to exercise religious freedom are a symptom of a lack of true peace. A fundamental human right is violated both by religious regimes that impose a single religion upon everyone and by secular regimes that denigrate religious belief and deny public space to religion.
He concluded his address with a request that all religions work for peace and reconciliation.
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Green Party in Germany distances itself from statements by leader against Cardinal Meisner
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10833)
BERLIN, October 30 (CNA) - Leaders of the Green Party decided to distance themselves from statements by the organization's parliamentary secretary, Volker Beck, who called Cardinal Joachim Meisner of Cologne a "preacher of hate" for his statements against the homosexual lifestyle as a legitimate alternative.
"The so-called alternative human models of sexual relationships are not authentic and therefore are corrupt in their essence. Humanity only destroys itself with them," the cardinal warned during a visit to Switzerland.
In response, Beck told the German weekly Der Spiegel, "Cardinal Meisner is again simply acting as a preacher of hate who denies the right to exist to whole groups of human beings."
Renate Kunast, Parliament leader in Bundestag, and Katrin Goring-Eckardt, vice president of Germany's lower house, told the Der Tagespiegel daily that the statements by Beck were "inappropriate and disproportionate." However, while they said they disagreed with his choice of words, they said they were in agreement that the cardinal "should be criticized."
Sources with the Archdiocese of Cologne said officials are considering legal action against Beck, similar to those taken several months ago when a court prohibited a comedian from using the same phrases to slander Cardinal Meisner.
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Britney's newest publicity stunt involves inappropriate photos with "priest"
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10837)
LOS ANGELES, October 30 (CNA) - Britney Spears is attempting to stir-up controversy with her new album "Blackout" by posing suggestively in a confessional with a priest. The Catholic League's president of Media Relations, Kiera McCaffrey, has dismissed Britney's antics as "cheap tricks" that won't really influence people's image of the Church.
Spears' album photos show her leaning suggestively against a confessional wall while a "priest" listens to her sins. Another shows her sitting on the same "priest's" lap clad in fishnet leggings.
When asked by CNA if she thought Britney's marketing ploy would affect people's perceptions of the Catholic Church, McCaffrey said " No I certainly don't think that people are going to think this happens in confessionals…and most people looking at this will think that she's trying to just get attention."
McCaffery characterized the pop star's photos as a product of her personal life and bad advice from her record label: "it looks sad, it looks that this is a troubled girl, whose handlers are giving her this bright idea… and that is really no way to take care of somebody."
Echoing earlier comments by Bill Donahue, she noted, "If everything were going well, not only in her personal life but in her career, this sort of thing wouldn't be necessary. Britney Spears has certainly had hits before… and back before she had this crash…she didn't need to resort to this kind of nonsense."
Spears has garnered a lot of media attention during the last year. Most recently, she was stripped of all but monitored visitation with her two young sons after the presiding judge called her a "habitual" user of drugs and alcohol.
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Lefebrivists demand Council be "corrected," not interpreted
(http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=10831)
ROME, October 30 (CNA) - In an interview with Italian journalist Paolo Luigi Rodari, the author of the blog "Palazzo Apostolico," Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Pius X, said the schismatic movement demands not only a "correct interpretation" of Vatican II, but that the Council documents actually be changed.
Fellay defended his fellow excommunicated bishop, Ricard Williamson, identified by some in the media as leader of the "intransigent wing" of the fraternity. Fellay said, "Williamson and I are in agreement that it would be difficult to re-enter to the Church as it currently is."
"The reasons are simple," Fellay said, because "Benedict XVI has liberalized the ancient rite," yet he has been criticized "by the majority of the bishops." "What should we do? Re-enter the Church just to be insulted by these people?" he said.
"In addition to the ancient rite," he continued, "the problem for us is the words Pope Benedict has dedicated to Vatican II," because "the rupture with the past is directly related, unfortunately, to some texts of Vatican II and these texts, in some way, should be revised."
"Ratzinger should prepare for a direct revision of the Council texts and not just denounce their incorrect hermeneutic (interpretation)," Fellay went on. He cited as an example the declaration on religious freedom, Dignitatis Humanae. According to Fellay, the document subjects the Church to the authority of the State. "In my opinion it should be the opposite: the State should submit to the Catholic faith and recognize that it is the religion of the State."
Fellay said he has maintained ongoing correspondence with Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, president of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei, "but no common working document exists yet." "I remain confident, however, because all of our contact up to this point has been excellent," he said.
(END)
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