tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-97040112024-03-13T03:58:56.991-04:00Whispers in the LoggiaRocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comBlogger7483125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-26669703159229477952021-09-29T06:00:00.013-04:002021-09-29T14:00:23.932-04:00For Brooklyn, “Columbus” Day Comes Early – In NY Homecoming, Pope Taps Brennan to Succeed “The Czar”<p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b>n the first Stateside move of the Vatican’s new working year, the most significant opening on the current US docket is off the table… and as Mets fans can always use good news, for once they’re in luck – the new shepherd of Citi Field is already one of their number.
</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQ3MNA9TLcMBdqPOVqSzlkLBs-3uqgWZHvvI_R7Cq3yNJdspq0udvqb66gzUH0sXfIz7t9gIPJyLBsIA67q2A6iLsqJHudQbIfl4etmR_WOSRHy-sTfwUbzxuEf3HI34u60Cdnw/s2000/bbcol3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmQ3MNA9TLcMBdqPOVqSzlkLBs-3uqgWZHvvI_R7Cq3yNJdspq0udvqb66gzUH0sXfIz7t9gIPJyLBsIA67q2A6iLsqJHudQbIfl4etmR_WOSRHy-sTfwUbzxuEf3HI34u60Cdnw/w400-h266/bbcol3.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At Roman Noon on this feast of the Archangels, the Pope named Long Island’s own Bishop Robert Brennan – the 59 year-old head of Ohio’s capital church in Columbus – as the eighth bishop of Brooklyn: the US’ fifth-largest diocese, its 1.8 million members comprising the nation’s largest non-metropolitan see.
<p>After less than three years in Buckeye Nation, Brennan succeeds one of the bench’s most formidable players, Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, who reached the retirement age of 75 in June 2019. Arguably the “central casting” image of a Brooklyn prelate – down to a hard-charging style that’s seen him widely referred to at home as “The Czar” – today’s move comes a month after DiMarzio was cleared by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of two allegations of sexual abuse dating to the 1970s in his native Newark, making him the only US prelate to date to emerge unscathed from an investigation under <i>Vos estis lux mundi</i>, the 2019 norms for cases of direct abuse or mishandling of cases by bishops. Nick being Nick, however, another piece of his final lap is an even bigger point of pride: never one to shy away from war (and the louder it is, the better), late last year DiMarzio took his longtime nemesis, now-former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, to the Supreme Court, winning a unanimous “shadow docket” ruling that overturned the state’s pandemic capacity limits on church attendance as a violation of religious freedom.
</p><p>Well beyond the transition at hand, the Brooklyn church itself has undergone a remarkable evolution over DiMarzio’s 18-year tenure, headlined by a torrent of gentrification that’s upended long-standing ethnic bastions with a stratospheric infusion of wealth and development, and the tensions that come with it. At the same time, while the diocese’s long history as the ultimate nexus of the American “melting pot” – which saw Brooklyn launch the global church’s first diocesan-level ministry for immigrants 50 years ago – has continued unabated, the reality of African, Asian and Caribbean emigres overtaking the earlier waves of Europeans and Hispanics has put new demands on the ecclesial talent pool, all as the aging infrastructure of the “city of churches” makes the solvency of its famously complex and sprawling apparatus an ever more urgent concern. Yet on the whole, much as the diocese has traditionally prided itself on being the church of “the peripheries” in the nation’s largest city well before Francis popularized the term, if anything, today’s Brooklyn and Queens is more at the center of New York power and consequence than at any time in living memory, a clout underscored by the pending handoff of the mayor's office from one Brooklynite to another.
</p><p>Given the host of changes and challenges facing the outer boroughs, the Brooklyn succession could’ve been handled any number of ways. In that light, it’s telling that Francis has opted for a very comfortable choice, both in terms of the administrative and pastoral dynamics that make up what might just be the most unique diocese in the US church.
</p><p>Beyond having spent his life in the neighboring diocese of Rockville Centre, Brennan has already lived in his new charge, having attended the Vincentian-run St John’s University in Queens. Marked out early as a rising star, he was vicar-general of Long Island’s 1.5 million-member fold by 40, then raised to the bench as Bishop William Murphy’s hand-picked auxiliary a day after turning 50. In the context of Brooklyn, while anyone taking DiMarzio’s place would inevitably be seen as an octane-lowering choice in terms of personality, Brennan in particular is decidedly not a headline machine. Nonetheless, his considerable skillset in terms of nuts-and-bolts governance has long been admired by Francis’ current crop of hat-makers, so much so that, until now, his name was atop the credible field of contenders to succeed Cardinal Seán O’Malley OFM Cap. as archbishop of Boston when the handover of the nation’s fourth-largest diocese is eventually broached. (Though O’Malley and DiMarzio turned 75 in the same month, to date, the Boston process has not yet been initiated.)
</p><p>Once he takes the reins at 310 Prospect Park West, Brennan’s familiarity with the turf will come even more in handy as he inherits an outsized crucible of issues that border on the existential. For starters, as New York state's two-year “window” suspending the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases closed last month, only now will its dioceses face the brunt of addressing the largest flood of litigation the US church has seen since the eruption of the scandals. Already, however, while four of the New York province's eight sees – led by Rockville Centre – have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Brooklyn has not yet made that call despite an even larger caseload; just on his own, the celebrated plaintiffs’ attorney Jeffrey Anderson has lodged over 700 suits against the diocese under the Child Victims Act.
</p><p>Bankruptcy or not, the resolution of the crush of cases – for context, a larger docket than that which the archdiocese of Los Angeles paid $660 million to settle in 2007 – will determine the extent of the fiscal crunch which, in turn, will shape the contours of Brennan’s tenure. And that picture plays into the other looming crisis on deck... or one of them: the challenge of broad-scale pastoral planning, which has only been tackled at the edges to date, with 30 parishes (of an original 216) slimmed out in the first decade of DiMarzio’s tenure. The need for a more concrete and diocese-wide approach is underscored by the recent development of several Brooklyn pastors now being assigned to two parishes at once. Even beyond the basics, meanwhile, this month’s historic flooding of much of the diocese by the remnants of Hurricane Ida portends a future of tackling the fallout of increasing, and far more damaging, natural disasters, with the diocese's coastal location and population density exacerbating the effects of climate change.
</p><p>In accord with the norms of the canons, Brennan must be installed within two months. With today’s move now opening Columbus, four US dioceses stand vacant, and another 12 led by (arch)bishops serving past the retirement age.
</p><p><b>SVILUPPO:</b> With DiMarzio hailing his successor as "a perfect choice," Brennan's installation has been set for Tuesday, 30 November in <a href="https://dioceseofbrooklyn.org/homepage/co-cathedral-st-joseph/" target="_blank">St Joseph's Co-Cathedral</a>, the gentrifying "downtown" parish which became the diocese's <i>de facto</i> seat in 2013.
</p><p>Meanwhile, even before today's 10am press conference, the incoming bishop issued a soothing first message to his new presbyterate, the state of its morale cited as a key priority over the course of the process: </p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VIK8hK3uZxM" title="YouTube video player" width="425"></iframe>
<p>...and here, fullvideo of the presser, featuring Brennan as steeped in his new gig as a non-native could be on Day One:</p><p>
<iframe allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="290" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FCurrentsNews%2Fvideos%2F143674604648759%2F&show_text=0&width=425" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="425"></iframe><p><b>–30–</b></p></span></span>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-9159045559580122612021-05-10T15:02:00.008-04:002021-05-10T17:50:26.075-04:00Amid US Bench's Communion Clash, The "Holy Office" Flashes A Red Light<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>s some US bishops advocate levying <i>de facto</i> sanctions on President Biden and other Catholic politicians for their support of legal abortion, the Holy See's distinct, but veiled skepticism over a Communion clash has taken a marked leap in volume, with the church's lead doctrinal official warning that the push would be "misleading if [it] were to give the impression that abortion and euthanasia alone constitute the only grave matters of Catholic social teaching that demand the fullest level of accountability on the part of Catholics."</p><p>Dated Friday, 7 May, the message came in a letter from the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Spanish Cardinal Luis Ladaria SJ, to the USCCB President, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles. <i>Whispers</i> has obtained the three-page missive, which was shared with the body of bishops over the weekend at Ladaria's behest. (As this piece goes to press, the text was similarly leaked to the Jesuit-run <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2021/05/10/vatican-communion-bishops-biden-catholic-politicians-abortion-240627" target="_blank"><i>America</i> magazine</a> and <i><a href="https://www.catholicnews.com/cardinal-ladaria-cautions-us-bishops-on-politicians-and-communion/" target="_blank">Catholic News Service,</a> </i>the USCCB-owned wire.)</p><p>With the bench slated to vote next month on empowering its own Doctrine Committee to craft national guidelines on "Eucharistic coherence" on the part of public officials – and a few of its top conservatives <a href="https://sfarch.org/inthewomb" target="_blank">urging</a> an officeholder's support for abortion <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/03/archbishop-naumann-biden-abortion/618249/" target="_blank">to disqualify them</a> from receiving Communion – in his letter, the CDF chief expresses several stark reservations, leading with one apparently made by Rome during the 2019-20<i> ad limina</i> visit: namely, that a "national policy" would "only" be useful "if this would help the bishops maintain unity." </p><p>By contrast, Ladaria writes, "given its contentious nature," the proposal "could have the opposite effect and become a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States." What's more, echoing recent informal comments from allies of Pope Francis on both sides of the Atlantic, the cardinal stipulated as a "prerequisite" that any attempted norms – which, he said, should not be pursued unless and until the public officials in question have been "engage[d]" in dialogue – "would respect the rights of individual ordinaries in their dioceses and the prerogatives of the Holy See," the latter aspect a geopolitical necessity given the bilateral relations between the church's central administration and the United States government, to which the episcopal conference is not a party.</p><p>"Furthermore," the cardinal said, "the Congregation advises that any statement of the Conference regarding Catholic political leadership be framed within the broad context of worthiness for the reception of Holy Communion on the part of all the faithful, rather than only one category of Catholics, reflecting their obligation to confirm their lives to the entire Gospel of Jesus Christ as they conform their lives to receive the sacrament."</p><p>In a parting tweak, the prefect urged the conference to make "every effort... to dialogue with other episcopal conferences" in order that any American plan "preserve unity in the universal church." Given appeals to universal practice by Stateside conservatives amid a defiant push by German progressives to undermine the CDF's recent Note banning liturgical blessings of same-sex couples, the same principle's employment on this issue is extraordinarily pointed.</p><p>As with last November's plenary – where Biden's Catholicism <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/11/fearing-attack-on-fundamental-values.html" target="_blank">was first broached</a> in the election's wake – next month's meeting will be virtual. Should the bishops charge the Doctrine Committee by majority vote to prepare draft guidelines, such a text would ostensibly be presented at the November meeting in Baltimore, which is expected to be the body's first in-person gathering since late 2019. </p><p>As a doctrinal statement, the finished draft would need a two-thirds margin for passage, then require the subsequent <i>recognitio</i> of the Holy See for it to be binding in the US church. Notably here, as CDF would be the very organ tasked with granting Rome’s consent to the text, Ladaria’s letter effectively constitutes the roadmap of conditions any finished document would need to satisfy to secure his office’s approval. </p><p>In any case, in the two dioceses where Biden spends most of his weekends, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington has <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/12/11/cardinal-wilton-gregory-on-joe-biden-race-and-covid-19/" target="_blank">consistently rejected</a> any push to bar the second Catholic President from the Eucharist, and with the Democrat's home-church of Wilmington now in transition upon Bishop Fran Malooly's retirement, the Pope's Wilmington pick, now Bishop-elect Bill Koenig, said on his 30 April appointment that he looked forward to "a conversation" with Delaware's most prominent church-goer after his ordination in mid-July. </p><p>Yet echoing today's letter a week ahead of time, Koenig added that, "as a bishop, I'm called to teach the beauty and the fullness of the Catholic faith."</p><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-86045529679891646882020-12-24T13:17:00.011-05:002020-12-24T16:35:39.920-05:00"A Child Can Teach Us How To Love" – Despite COVID and Curfews, Christus Natus Est<b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbHMWOAdyubJItzR-ZtRRQXaPsxg4lEhy7tWtMZ7MYsQLUHwyUo4l2jMuSJF9RHBcRHOET7q3ZG5P2CA_crjyaJLckn8X1Q9ZzU-U9nAiiDFA2MF_qspLpC5xb514TGukedcLjQ/s800/f1na20b.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="800" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMbHMWOAdyubJItzR-ZtRRQXaPsxg4lEhy7tWtMZ7MYsQLUHwyUo4l2jMuSJF9RHBcRHOET7q3ZG5P2CA_crjyaJLckn8X1Q9ZzU-U9nAiiDFA2MF_qspLpC5xb514TGukedcLjQ/w400-h268/f1na20b.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;">B</span></b>efore anything else, especially amid all the sorrows, fears, loss and disorientation of a brutal year across the globe, <i>Buon Natale a tutti</i> – to one and all, a Blessed Christmas... may all its light, hope and richness fill each of us in ways we've never known.<p></p><p>Always the world's most-watched religious event, the Pope's Mass on this Holy Night takes place under circumstances without modern precedent. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7RX2ofkIX5ccQPCtFTOh8VgKXbjOSeHJ2NDjMI1TJM0v5xyU1HUBMHBDONyeGNtuFJB_SxnPA_1W8NwTQ3nkNJEix1uaJ62k-wsjtYXzKYNR1Zf2-dK7ETBWccnQMEIWzZtFyA/s800/f1na20c.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR7RX2ofkIX5ccQPCtFTOh8VgKXbjOSeHJ2NDjMI1TJM0v5xyU1HUBMHBDONyeGNtuFJB_SxnPA_1W8NwTQ3nkNJEix1uaJ62k-wsjtYXzKYNR1Zf2-dK7ETBWccnQMEIWzZtFyA/s320/f1na20c.jpg" /></a></div>A far cry from the usual overflow crowd spilling into St Peter's Square, this Eve's liturgy begins at the record early hour of 7.30pm Rome time (1.30pm US Eastern) in deference to Italy's monthlong 10pm curfew, the nation's latest drastic effort to curtail the virus' second major wave there. <p></p><p>As for the setting itself, yet again – keeping the practice begun with Holy Week's curtailed observance in the first round of lockdowns – the Altar of the Confession (the central axis of the Vatican Basilica) is being replaced by the far smaller Altar of the Chair in the apse, with the attendance capped at roughly 100.</p><p>Here, the <strike>livefeed</strike> on-demand video (with English translation)...</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vuQKnKaS4Lc" width="425"></iframe>
<p>...and the fulltext of the Pope's homily – a reiteration of Francis' call for Christians <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/12/23/201223a.html" target="_blank">to live "the way of tenderness"</a> amid the many human tolls of the pandemic, all the more as we mark the Savior's birth: </p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">T</span></b>onight, the great prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given” (</span><em data-reader-unique-id="4" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;">Is </em><span style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b;">9:6).</span></span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="5" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em data-reader-unique-id="6" style="max-width: 100%;">To us a son is given. </em>We often hear it said that the greatest joy in life is the birth of a child. It is something extraordinary and it changes everything. It brings an excitement that makes us think nothing of weariness, discomfort, and sleepless nights, for it fills us with indescribable and incomparable happiness. That is what Christmas is: the birth of Jesus is the “newness” that enables us to be reborn each year and to find, in him, the strength needed to face every trial. Why? Because his birth is for us – for me, for you, for everyone. <em data-reader-unique-id="7" style="max-width: 100%;">“For” </em>is a word that appears again and again on this holy night: “<em data-reader-unique-id="8" style="max-width: 100%;">For us </em>a child is born”, Isaiah prophesied. “<em data-reader-unique-id="9" style="max-width: 100%;">For us </em>is born this day a Saviour”, we repeated in the Psalm. Jesus “gave himself <em data-reader-unique-id="10" style="max-width: 100%;">for us</em>” (<em data-reader-unique-id="11" style="max-width: 100%;">Tit </em>2:14), Saint Paul tells us, and in the Gospel, the angel proclaims: “<em data-reader-unique-id="12" style="max-width: 100%;">For to you </em>is born this day a Saviour” (<em data-reader-unique-id="13" style="max-width: 100%;">Lk </em>2:11).</span></p><p class="clear" data-reader-unique-id="14" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); clear: both; color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><ins data-ad-client="ca-pub-2750605928273933" data-ad-format="auto" data-adsbygoogle-status="done" data-reader-unique-id="15" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><ins data-reader-unique-id="17" style="max-width: 100%;"></ins></span></ins></p><p data-reader-unique-id="19" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Yet what do those words – <em data-reader-unique-id="20" style="max-width: 100%;">for us </em>– really mean? They mean that the Son of God, the one who is holy by nature, came to make us, as God’s children, holy by grace. Yes, God came into the world as a child to make us children of God. What a magnificent gift! This day, God amazes us and says to each of us: “You are amazing”. Dear sister, dear brother, never be discouraged. Are you tempted to feel you were a mistake? God tells you, “No, you are my child!” Do you have a feeling of failure or inadequacy, the fear that you will never emerge from the dark tunnel of trial? God says to you, “Have courage, I am with you”. He does this not in words, but by making himself a child with you and for you. In this way, he reminds you that the starting point of all rebirth is the recognition that we are children of God. This is the undying heart of our hope, the incandescent core that gives warmth and meaning to our life. Underlying all our strengths and weaknesses, stronger than all our past hurts and failures, or our fears and concerns about the future, there is this great truth: we are beloved sons and daughters. God’s love for us does not, and never will, depend upon us. It is <em data-reader-unique-id="21" style="max-width: 100%;">completely free love</em>, pure grace. Tonight, Saint Paul tells us, “the grace of God has appeared” (<em data-reader-unique-id="22" style="max-width: 100%;">Tit </em>2:11). Nothing is more precious than this.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="23" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em data-reader-unique-id="24" style="max-width: 100%;">To us a son is given. </em>The Father did not give us a thing, an object; he gave his own only- begotten Son, who is all his joy. Yet if we look at our ingratitude towards God and our injustice towards so many of our brothers and sisters, a doubt can arise. Was the Lord right in giving us so much? Is he right still to trust us? Does he not overestimate us? Of course, he overestimates us, and he does this because he is madly in love with us. He cannot help but love us. That is the way he is, so different from ourselves. God always loves us with a greater love than we have for ourselves. This is his secret for entering our hearts. God knows that we become better only by accepting his <em data-reader-unique-id="25" style="max-width: 100%;">unfailing love</em>, an unchanging love that changes us. Only the love of Jesus can transform our life, heal our deepest hurts, and set us free from the vicious circles of disappointment, anger, and constant complaint.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="26" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em data-reader-unique-id="27" style="max-width: 100%;">To us a son is given. </em>In the lowly manger of a darkened stable, the Son of God is truly present. But this raises yet another question. Why was he born at night, without decent accommodation, in poverty and rejection, when he deserved to be born as the greatest of kings in the finest of palaces? Why? To make us understand the immensity of his love for our human condition: even to touching the depths of our poverty with his <em data-reader-unique-id="28" style="max-width: 100%;">concrete love</em>. The Son of God was born an outcast, in order to tell us that every outcast is a child of God. He came into the world as each child comes into the world, weak and vulnerable so that we can learn to accept our weaknesses with tender love. And to discover something important. As he did in Bethlehem, so too with us, God loves to work wonders through our poverty. He placed the whole of our salvation in the manger of a stable. He is unafraid of our poverty, so let us allow his mercy to transform it completely!</span></p><p class="clear" data-reader-unique-id="29" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); clear: both; color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><ins data-ad-client="ca-pub-2750605928273933" data-ad-format="auto" data-adsbygoogle-status="done" data-reader-unique-id="30" style="max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><ins data-reader-unique-id="32" style="max-width: 100%;"></ins></span></ins></p><p data-reader-unique-id="34" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This is what it means to say that a son is born <em data-reader-unique-id="35" style="max-width: 100%;">for us</em>. Yet we hear that word <em data-reader-unique-id="36" style="max-width: 100%;">“for” </em>in another place, too. The angel proclaims to the shepherds: “This will be <em data-reader-unique-id="37" style="max-width: 100%;">a sign for you</em>: a baby lying in a manger” (<em data-reader-unique-id="38" style="max-width: 100%;">Lk </em>2:12). That sign, the Child in the manger, is also a sign for us, to guide us through life. In Bethlehem, a name that means “House of Bread”, God lies in a manger, as if to remind us that, in order to live, we need him, like the bread we eat. We need to be filled with his <em data-reader-unique-id="39" style="max-width: 100%;">free, unfailing, </em>and <em data-reader-unique-id="40" style="max-width: 100%;">concrete </em>love. How often instead, in our hunger for entertainment, success, and worldly pleasures, do we nourish life with food that does not satisfy and leaves us empty within! The Lord, through the prophet Isaiah, complained that, while the ox and the donkey know their master’s crib, we, his people, do not know him, the source of our life (cf. <em data-reader-unique-id="41" style="max-width: 100%;">Is </em>1:2-3). It is true: in our endless desire for possessions, we run after any number of <em data-reader-unique-id="42" style="max-width: 100%;">mangers </em>filled with ephemeral things and forget the manger of Bethlehem. That manger, poor in everything yet rich in love, teaches that true nourishment in life comes from letting ourselves be loved by God and loving others in turn. Jesus gives us the example. He, the Word of God, becomes an infant; he does not say a word but offers life. We, on the other hand, are full of words, but often have <em data-reader-unique-id="43" style="max-width: 100%;">so little to say </em>about <em data-reader-unique-id="44" style="max-width: 100%;">goodness</em>.</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="45" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em data-reader-unique-id="46" style="max-width: 100%;">To us a son is given. </em>Parents of little children know how much love and patience they require. We have to feed them, look after them, bathe them, and care for their vulnerability and their needs, which are often difficult to understand. A child makes us feel loved but can also teach us how to love. God was born a child in order to encourage us to care for others. His quiet tears make us realize the uselessness of our many impatient outbursts. His disarming love reminds us that our time is not to be spent in feeling sorry for ourselves, but in comforting the tears of the suffering. God came among us in poverty and need, to tell us that in serving the poor, we will show our love for him. From this night onward, as a poet wrote, “God’s residence is next to mine, his furniture is love” (EMILY DICKINSON, <em data-reader-unique-id="47" style="max-width: 100%;">Poems</em>, XVII).</span></p><p data-reader-unique-id="48" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><em data-reader-unique-id="49" style="max-width: 100%;">To us a son is given. </em>Jesus, you are the Child who makes me a child. You love me as I am, not as I imagine myself to be. In embracing you, the Child of the manger, I once more embrace my life. In welcoming you, the Bread of life, I too desire to give my life. You, my Saviour, teach me to serve. You who did not leave me alone, help me to comfort your brothers and sisters, for, from this night forward, all are my brothers and sisters.</span></p></blockquote><p data-reader-unique-id="48" style="caret-color: rgb(27, 27, 27); color: #1b1b1b; max-width: 100%;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></p><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-17996120447259047912020-12-21T15:40:00.015-05:002020-12-22T12:14:10.118-05:00"The Poor Are The Center of The Gospel" – At Vatican "Festivus," The Church's Choice: "The Docility of the Shepherds, or the Defensiveness of Herod"<p><span style="font-size: large;"><b></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqGQJ87C3sbvtJTZaeb7J69EfnL86C2Eo8_cL_HFU_vfheJ4HLs6GCuYJWPEoGwAM0SxuKe5QZ34fhwcZQ6kiaqQohDxN-SUWzIzYQP6bRS0oniKLJCYKmNdF0JGIJAY_ulJ7-9A/s800/f1an20b.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="533" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqGQJ87C3sbvtJTZaeb7J69EfnL86C2Eo8_cL_HFU_vfheJ4HLs6GCuYJWPEoGwAM0SxuKe5QZ34fhwcZQ6kiaqQohDxN-SUWzIzYQP6bRS0oniKLJCYKmNdF0JGIJAY_ulJ7-9A/s320/f1an20b.jpg" /></a></b></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"><b>F</b></span>ifteen years (less a day) since Benedict XVI <a href="http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2005/december/documents/hf_ben_xvi_spe_20051222_roman-curia_en.html" target="_blank">revolutionized</a> the Roman Pontiff's Christmas "greeting" to the leaders of his Curia – transforming the holiday pleasantry into a Pope's ultimate programmatic address of the calendar – for everything that's changed since, the distinction remains.<p></p><p>Even so, of course, 2020 has been no ordinary year: not merely in terms of a pandemic that's only <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/10/fratelli-tutti.html" target="_blank">bolstered Francis' standing</a> as the premier spiritual leader <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-rome-blessing-for-world.html" target="_blank">of a world under lockdown</a> (one left all the more to watch him over a livefeed), but likewise in a tenuous feeling on the homefront, whether in the loss of the crowds and travel that define the nature of a Church gathered around Peter, or the ongoing throes of a Curial reform which doesn't seek mere structural tweaks, but the spiritual conversion of its players – the latter marked in epochal form by September's <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/09/breaking-form-pope-decapitates-cardinal.html" target="_blank">"decapitation" of a cardinal,</a> the first such move in the modern era for reasons apart from sexual abuse.</p><p>Where B16 made the Christmas speech a premier moment of the governing <i>munus</i> of the Universal Pastor, his successor has brought his own unique facet to the exercise. </p><p>Indeed, as any "Seinfeld" fan has <a href="https://twitter.com/roccopalmo/status/678883688101318656" target="_blank">easily recognized</a> over the last eight years, under Papa Bergoglio, the Yuletide address has become the Vatican equivalent of <a href="https://youtu.be/bR3S690EF2U?t=138" target="_blank">"Festivus,"</a> as Francis has routinely deployed this singular event as <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-15-sicknesses-to-curia-pope-lobs.html" target="_blank">his foremost "airing of grievances"</a> at his top officials – in the sight of the world, no less – its extraordinary sweep over time making for several striking instances of <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2015/12/we-are-servants-not-messiahs-at-curial.html" target="_blank">"feats of strength."</a></p><p>If only a pole were brought in for the occasion, the tableau would be complete. While that was again absent from today's edition and the talk still featured the traditional litany of the Curia's troubles, this time around saw a decided shift to the latter element of the sitcom observance, making for a lengthy reflection on how the Church can survive – and surmount – a moment of "crisis," referencing the state of the fold and the wider world alike.</p><p>All that said, however, this year's "greeting" was arguably overshadowed within minutes of its delivery by a midday <a href="https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2020/12/21/0681/01591.html#ing" target="_blank">Note from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith</a> which affirmed (with emphasis) that <i>"it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process." </i></p><p>A salient point as cell-lines from decades-old abortions have figured significantly in the first several COVID vaccines to attain regulatory approval worldwide – which has yielded significant protests (and calls to resist the shot) among the anti-abortion lobby – the CDF statement's publication was ordered by Francis and issued under his enhanced authority over and above that of the "Holy Office."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlO_yGmmruUKliLZImjotkLBRgfjhEWLP9YLXZHXxtlGY2BmSYK0_mDDGdJ63ShgFLbdB9V9JQ7nnEXMWJ6LNP8jJsLcCY0LXheajU0xy4AyciLkmrAZ4jRNOo7DcDwFdOtSFKGA/s800/f1an20c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlO_yGmmruUKliLZImjotkLBRgfjhEWLP9YLXZHXxtlGY2BmSYK0_mDDGdJ63ShgFLbdB9V9JQ7nnEXMWJ6LNP8jJsLcCY0LXheajU0xy4AyciLkmrAZ4jRNOo7DcDwFdOtSFKGA/w400-h266/f1an20c.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Back to the Main Event, moved from its traditional venue in the Sala Clementina in the Apostolic Palace (the site of a dead Pope's wake) to the simpler, larger Hall of Blessings over the frontage of St Peter's to better enable social distancing, here below is the full English translation of this morning's address, which featured no shortage of evocative lines sure to outlast the current shape of things. <p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>* * *</b></p><div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">D</span></b><span style="font-size: small;">ear brothers and sisters,</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth is the mystery of a birth which reminds us that “men, though they must die, are not born in order to die, but in order to begin”,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[1] </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">as the Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt observed in a way as striking as it is incisive. Arendt inverted the thought of her teacher Heidegger, according to whom human beings are born to be hurled towards death. Amid the ruins of the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, Arendt acknowledged this luminous truth: “The miracle that saves the world, the realm of human affairs, from its normal, ‘natural’ ruin is ultimately the fact of natality... It is this faith in and hope for the world that found perhaps its most glorious and most succinct expression in the few words with which the Gospels announced their ‘glad tidings’: ‘A child has been born unto us’”.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[2]</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">2. Contemplating the mystery of the Incarnation, before the child lying in a manger (cf. Lk 2:16), but also the Paschal Mystery, in the presence of the crucified one, we find our proper place only if we are defenceless, humble and unassuming. Only if we follow, wherever we live and work (including the Roman Curia), the programme of life set forth by Saint Paul: “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31-32). Only if we are “clothed with humility” (cf. 1 Pet 5:5) and imitate Jesus, who is “gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29). Only after we put ourselves “in the lowest place” (Lk 14:10) and become “slaves of all” (cf. Mk 10:44). In this regard, Saint Ignatius, in his Spiritual Exercises, even asks us to imagine ourselves as part of the scene before the manger. “I will become”, he writes, “a poor, lowly and unworthy slave, and as though present, gaze upon them, contemplate them and serve them in </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">their needs” (114, 2).</span></span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 2"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">I thank the Cardinal Dean for his Christmas greetings on behalf of all. Thank you, Cardinal Re.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">3. This is the Christmas of the pandemic, of the health, economic, social and even ecclesial crisis that has indiscriminately struck the whole world. The crisis is no longer a commonplace of conversations and of the intellectual establishment; it has become a reality experienced by everyone.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">The pandemic has been a time of trial and testing, but also a significant opportunity for conversion and renewed authenticity.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On 27 March last, on the esplanade of Saint Peter’s Basilica</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, before an empty Square that nonetheless brought us together, in spirit, from every corner of the world, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I wished to pray for, and with, everyone</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">. I spoke clearly about the potential significance of the “storm” (cf. Mk 4:35-41) that struck our world: “The storm has exposed our vulnerability and uncovered those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits and priorities. It has shown us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest has laid bare all our prepackaged ideas and our forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts to anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We have lost the antibodies we needed to confront adversity. In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away, uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, which we cannot evade: our belonging to one another as brothers and sisters”.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">4. Providentially, it was precisely at that difficult time that I was able to write </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Fratelli Tutti</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, the Encyclical devoted to the theme of fraternity and social friendship. One lesson we learn from the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth is that of the solidarity linking those who were present: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Magi and all who, in one way or another, offered their fraternity and friendship so that, amid the darkness of history, the Word made flesh (cf. Jn 1:14) could find a welcome. As I stated at the beginning of the </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Encylical</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">: “It is my desire that, in this our time, by acknowledging the dignity of each human person, we can contribute to the rebirth of a universal aspiration to fraternity. Brotherhood between all men and women. ‘Here we have a splendid secret that shows us how to dream and to turn our life into a wonderful adventure. No one can face life in isolation... We need a community that supports and helps us, in which we can help one another to keep looking ahead. How important it is to dream together... By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages, things that are not there. Dreams, on the other hand, are built together’.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[3] </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all” (No. 8).</span></span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 3"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">5. The crisis of the pandemic is a fitting time to reflect briefly on the meaning of a crisis, which can prove beneficial to us all.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">A crisis is something that affects everyone and everything. Crises are present everywhere and in every age of history, involving ideologies, politics, the economy, technology, ecology and religion. A crisis is a necessary moment in the history of individuals and society. It appears as an extraordinary event that always creates a sense of trepidation, anxiety, upset and uncertainty in the face of decisions to be made. We see this in the etymological root of the verb krino: a crisis is the sifting that separates the wheat from the chaff after the harvest.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">The Bible itself is filled with individuals who were “sifted”, “people in crisis” who by that very crisis played their part in the history of salvation.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">The crisis of Abraham, who left his native land (Gen 21:1-2) and underwent the great test of having to sacrifice to God his only son (Gen 22:1-19), resulted, from a theological standpoint, in the birth of a new people. Yet this did not spare Abraham from experiencing a dramatic situation in which confusion and disorientation did not get the upper hand, due to the strength of his faith.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">The crisis of Moses can be seen in his lack of self-confidence. “Who am I”, he says, “that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11); “I am not eloquent... I am slow of speech and of tongue” (Ex 4:10), “a man of uncircumcised lips” (Ex 6:12.30). For this reason, he tried to evade the mission entrusted to him by God: “Lord, please send someone else” (cf. Ex 4:13). Yet out of this crisis God was to make Moses the servant who would lead his people out of Egypt.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Elijah, the prophet whose strength was like that of fire (cf. Sir 48:1), at a moment of great crisis longed for death, but then experienced the presence of God, not in a rushing wind or an earthquake or fire, but in a “still small voice” (cf. 1 Kings 19:11-12). The voice of God is never the tumultuous voice of the crisis, but rather the quiet voice that speaks in the crisis.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">John the Baptist was gripped by uncertainty about whether Jesus was the Messiah (cf. Mt 11.2-6) because he did not come as the harsh vindicator that John was perhaps expecting (cf. Mt 3:11- 12). Yet John’s imprisonment set the stage for Jesus’ preaching of the Kingdom of God (cf. Mk 1:14).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Then there is the “theological” crisis experienced by Paul of Tarsus. Overwhelmed by his dramatic encounter with Christ on the way to Damascus (cf. Acts 9:1-19; Gal 1:15-16), he was moved to leave everything behind to follow Jesus (cf. Phil 3:4-10). Saint Paul was truly one open to being changed by a crisis. For this reason, he was to be the author of the crisis that led the Church to </span><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">pass beyond the borders of Israel and go forth to the very ends of the earth.</span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 4"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">We could continue with this list of biblical figures, in which each of us could find his or her own place. There are so many of them...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Yet the most eloquent crisis was that of Jesus. The Synoptic Gospels point out that he began his public life by experiencing the crisis of temptation. It might seem that the central character in this situation was the devil with his false promises, yet the real protagonist was the Holy Spirit. For he was guiding Jesus at this decisive moment in his life: “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Mt 4:1).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">The Evangelists stress that the forty days Jesus spent in the desert were marked by the experience of hunger and weakness (cf. Mt 4:2; Lk 4:2). It was precisely from the depths of this hunger and weakness that the evil one sought to make his final move, taking advantage of Jesus’ human fatigue. Yet in that man weak from fasting the tempter experienced the presence of the Son of God who could overcome temptation by the word of God, and not his own. Jesus never enters into dialogue with the devil. We need to learn from this. There can be no dialogue with the devil. Jesus either casts him out or forces him to reveal his name. With the devil, there can be no dialogue.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Jesus was then to face an indescribable crisis in Gethsemane: solitude, fear, anguish, the betrayal of Judas and abandonment by his Apostles (cf. Mt 26:36-50). Finally, there was the extreme crisis on the cross: an experience of solidarity with sinners even to the point of feeling abandoned by the Father (cf. Mt 27:46). Yet with utter confidence he “commended his spirit into the hands of the Father” (cf. Lk 23:46). His complete and trusting surrender opened the way to the resurrection (cf. Heb 5:7).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">6. Brothers and sisters, this reflection on crisis warns us against judging the Church hastily on the basis of the crises caused by scandals past and present. The prophet Elijah can serve as an example. Giving vent to his frustrations before the Lord, Elijah presented him with a tale of hopelessness: “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they are seeking my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:14). Often our own assessments of ecclesial life also sound like tales of hopelessness. Yet a hopeless reading of reality cannot be termed realistic. Hope gives to our assessments an aspect that in our myopia we are often incapable of seeing. God replied to Elijah by telling him that reality was other than what he thought: “Go, return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus... Yet I will leave seven thousand in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:15.18). It was not true that Elijah was alone; he was in crisis.</span></p></div></div><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God continues to make the seeds of his kingdom grow in our midst. Here in the Curia, there are </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">many people bearing quiet witness by their work, humble and discreet, free of idle chatter, unassuming, faithful, honest and professional. So many of you are like that, and I thank you. Our times have their own problems, yet they also have a living witness to the fact that the Lord has not abandoned his people. The only difference is that problems immediately end up in the newspapers; this has always been the case, whereas signs of hope only make the news much later, if at all.</span></span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 5"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Those who fail to view a crisis in the light of the Gospel simply perform an autopsy on a cadaver. They see the crisis, but not the hope and the light brought by the Gospel. We are troubled by crises not simply because we have forgotten how to see them as the Gospel tells us to, but because we have forgotten that the Gospel is the first to put us in crisis.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">[4] </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If we can recover the courage and humility to admit that a time of crisis is a time of the Spirit, whenever we are faced with the experience of darkness, weakness, vulnerability, contradiction and loss, we will no longer feel overwhelmed. Instead, we will keep trusting that things are about to take a new shape, emerging exclusively from the experience of a grace hidden in the darkness. “For gold is tested in the fire and those found acceptable, in the furnace of humiliation” (Sir 2:5).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">7. Finally, I would urge you not to confuse crisis with conflict. They are two different things. Crisis generally has a positive outcome, whereas conflict always creates discord and competition, an apparently irreconcilable antagonism that separates others into friends to love and enemies to fight. In such a situation, only one side can win.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Conflict always tries to find “guilty” parties to scorn and stigmatize, and “righteous” parties to defend, as a means of inducing an (often magical) sense that certain situations have nothing to do with us. This loss of the sense of our common belonging helps to create or consolidate certain elitist attitudes and “cliques” that promote narrow and partial mind-sets that weaken the universality of our mission. “In the midst of conflict, we lose our sense of the profound unity of reality” (Apostolic Exhortation </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Evangelii Gaudium, 226</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">).</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">When the Church is viewed in terms of conflict – right versus left, progressive versus traditionalist – she becomes fragmented and polarized, distorting and betraying her true nature. She is, on the other hand, a body in continual crisis, precisely because she is alive. She must never become a body in conflict, with winners and losers, for in this way she would spread apprehension, become more rigid and less synodal, and impose a uniformity far removed from the richness and plurality that the Spirit has bestowed on his Church.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The newness born of crisis and willed by the Spirit is never a newness opposed to the old, but one that springs from the old and makes it continually fruitful. Jesus explains this process in a simple and clear image: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12:24). The dying of a seed is ambivalent: it is both an end and the beginning of something new. It can be called both “death and decay” and “birth and </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">blossoming”, for the two are one. We see an end, while at the same time, in that end a new beginning is taking shape.</span></span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 6"><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">In this sense, our unwillingness to enter into crisis and to let ourselves be led by the Spirit at times of trial condemns us to remaining forlorn and fruitless, or even in conflict. By shielding ourselves from crisis, we hinder the work of God’s grace, which would manifest itself in us and through us. If a certain realism leads us to see our recent history only as a series of mishaps, scandals and failings, sins and contradictions, short-circuits and setbacks in our witness, we should not fear. Nor should we deny everything in ourselves and in our communities that is evidently tainted by death and calls for conversion. Everything evil, wrong, weak and unhealthy that comes to light serves as a forceful reminder of our need to die to a way of living, thinking and acting that does not reflect the Gospel. Only by dying to a certain mentality will we be able to make room for the newness that the Spirit constantly awakens in the heart of the Church. The Fathers of the Church were well aware of this, and they called it “metanoia”.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">8. Every crisis contains a rightful demand for renewal and a step forward. If we really desire renewal, though, we must have the courage to be completely open. We need to stop seeing the reform of the Church as putting a patch on an old garment, or simply drafting a new Apostolic Constitution. The reform of the Church is something different.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">It cannot be a matter of putting a patch here or there, for the Church is not just an item of Christ’s clothing, but rather his Body, which embraces the whole of history (cf. 1 Cor 12:27). We are not called to change or reform the Body of Christ – “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13:8) – but we are called to clothe that Body with a new garment, so that it is clear that the grace we possess does not come from ourselves but from God. Indeed, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us” (2 Cor 4:7). The Church is always an earthen vessel, precious for what it contains and not for how it looks. Later, I will have the pleasure of giving you a book, a gift of Father Ardura, which shows the life of one earthen vessel that radiated the greatness of God and the reforms of the Church. These days it seems evident that the clay of which we are made is chipped, damaged and cracked. We have to strive all the more, lest our frailty become an obstacle to the preaching of the Gospel rather than a testimony to the immense love with which God, who is rich in mercy, has loved us and continues to love us (cf. Eph 2:4). If we cut God, who is rich in mercy, out of our lives, our lives would be a lie, a falsehood.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">In times of crisis, Jesus warns us against certain attempts to emerge from it that are doomed from the start. If someone “tears a piece from a new garment to put it upon an old garment” the result is predictable: he will tear the new, because “the piece from the new will not match the old”. Similarly, “no one puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. New wine must be put into new wineskins” (Lk 5:36-38).</span></p></div></div></div></div><div class="page" title="Page 7"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The right approach, on the other hand, is that of the “scribe, who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven”, who “is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old” (Mt 13:52). That treasure is Tradition, which, as </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Benedict XVI </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">recalled, “is the living river that links us to the origins, the living river in which the origins are ever present, the great river that leads us to the gates of eternity” (</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Catechesis, 26 April 2006</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">). I think of the saying of that great German musician: “Tradition is the guarantee of the future, not a museum, an urn of ashes”. The “old” is the truth and grace we already possess. The “new” are those different aspects of the truth that we gradually come to understand. No historical form of living the Gospel can exhaust its full comprehension. There are those words from the fifth century: “Ut annis scilicet consolidetur, dilatetur tempore, sublimetur aetate”: that is what tradition is, and how it grows. If we let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit, we will daily draw closer to “all the truth” (Jn 16:13). Without the grace of the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, we can even start to imagine a “synodal” Church that, rather than being inspired by communion with the presence of the Spirit, ends up being seen as just another democratic assembly made up of majorities and minorities. Like a parliament, for example: and this is not synodality. Only the presence of the Holy Spirit makes the difference.</span></span></p></div></div><div class="section" style="background-color: white;"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">9. What should we do during a crisis? First, accept it as a time of grace granted us to discern God’s will for each of us and for the whole Church. We need to enter into the apparent paradoxical notion that “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). We should keep in mind the reassuring words of Saint Paul to the Corinthians: “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Cor 10:13).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">It is essential not to interrupt our dialogue with God, however difficult this may prove. Praying is not easy. We must not tire of praying constantly (cf. Lk 21:36; 1 Thess 5:17). We know of no other solution to the problems we are experiencing than that of praying more fervently and at the same time doing everything in our power with greater confidence. Prayer will allow us to “hope against all hope” (cf. Rom 4:18).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">10. Dear brothers and sisters, let us maintain great peace and serenity, in the full awareness that all of us, beginning with myself, are only “unworthy servants” (Lk 17:10) to whom the Lord has shown mercy. For this reason, it would be good for us to stop living in conflict and feel once more that we are journeying together, open to crisis. Journeys always involve verbs of movement. A crisis is itself movement, a part of our journey. Conflict, on the other hand, is a false trail leading us astray, aimless, directionless and trapped in a labyrinth; it is a waste of energy and an occasion for evil. The first evil that conflict leads us to, and which we must try to avoid, is gossip. Let us be attentive to this! Talking about gossip is not an obsession of mine; it is the denunciation of an evil that enters the Curia. Here in the Palace, there are many doors and windows, and it enters and we get used to this. Gossip traps us in an unpleasant, sad and stifling state of self-absorption. It turns crisis into conflict. The Gospel tells us that the shepherds believed the angel’s message and set out on the path towards Jesus (cf. Lk 2:15-16). Herod, on the other hand, closed his heart before the story told by the Magi and turned that closed-heartedness to deceit and violence (cf. Mt 2:1- 16).</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">Each of us, whatever our place in the Church, should ask whether we want to follow Jesus with the docility of the shepherds or with the defensiveness of Herod, to follow him amid crisis or to keep him at bay in conflict.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span><span style="font-size: small;">Allow me to ask expressly of all of you, who join me in the service of the Gospel, for the Christmas gift of your generous and whole-hearted cooperation in proclaiming the Good News above all to the poor (cf. Mt 11:5). Let us remember that they alone truly know God who welcome the poor, who come from below in their misery, yet as such are sent from on high. We cannot see God’s face, but we can experience it in his turning towards us whenever we show respect for our neighbour, for others who cry out to us in their need. For the poor, who are the centre of the Gospel. </span>I think of what that saintly Brazilian bishop [<i>Ed.:</i><span style="font-size: small;"> the late Archbishop </span></span>Helder Camara of Recife] used to say: “When I am concerned for the poor, they call me a saint; but when I keep asking why such great poverty exists, they call me a communist”.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Let no one willfully hinder the work that the Lord is accomplishing at this moment, and let us ask for the gift to serve in humility, so that he can increase and we decrease (cf. Jn 3:30).</span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: 12pt;">I offer my best wishes to each and all of you, and to your families and friends. Thank you, thank you for your work, thank you so very much. And please, continue to pray for me, so that I can have the courage to remain in crisis. Happy Christmas! Thank you.</span></p><p><b>–30–</b></p></div></div></div></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-67897969573605115332020-11-28T09:44:00.009-05:002020-11-28T12:15:02.121-05:00<b><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOo03ywu_ZT0UcCxgMxrU8XhLioWHRtGoYKoEV0SNqjHmxo1BgcByqaxjbSeP33U1vKS9GFnsW4EinIPGMtcFPCU9G6M9YYXes0m9R3rxQS2doE4eiVVPJqsqZ4OGkaXcSKG5pQ/s800/pc20a.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOOo03ywu_ZT0UcCxgMxrU8XhLioWHRtGoYKoEV0SNqjHmxo1BgcByqaxjbSeP33U1vKS9GFnsW4EinIPGMtcFPCU9G6M9YYXes0m9R3rxQS2doE4eiVVPJqsqZ4OGkaXcSKG5pQ/w400-h266/pc20a.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>W</span></b>hether you’ve been waiting three decades or just three weeks for this, the “mountaintop” is at hand. <div><p>From 4pm Rome (10am US ET), the livefeed of a Public Consistory like no other – from the Altar of the Chair in St Peter’s, an unusually sparse rite for the elevation of <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/10/red-hats-black-history-because-he-can.html" target="_blank">13 new Cardinals</a>... and with it, a watershed for American Catholicism as Washington’s Archbishop Wilton Gregory receives his red hat: </div><div><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ob7p2I5gkvg" width="425"></iframe><br /></div><div>Due to the pandemic, the customary packed house of global pilgrims and full-on turnout of the 200-member College have been severely whittled to a crowd of roughly 100. And indeed, for the first time since 1998, a voting pick won’t be present for the conferral of the biretta and ring – both this intake’s Asian designates (Brunei’s Cornelius Sim and the Filipino José Advincula) have been forced to stay home in light of travel restrictions. Though the insignia will be sent to them and received in local ceremonies, they will have full membership in the Pope's "Senate" when their names are read out by the Pope alongside the others, thus "publishing" the list of his choices.</div><div>Among other concessions in the name of safety, the traditional evening "courtesy visits" to the incoming class will not take place, nor will the sign of peace among the cardinals after the new picks are invested. However, the standard close of the event – the Pope's concelebrated Mass with the new cardinals – will be held Sunday morning.</div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>* * *</b></div><div><b>SVILUPPO: </b>Having chosen Jesus' warning against ambition in St Mark's Gospel and its exhortation to be "servant of all," as the reading for today's rites, in his homily, Francis urged the new intake to avoid any sense of "a worldly spirit" and – citing the title that comes with the rank – the temptation to become "secular eminences": </div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; font-size: 18px; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;"></i></span></p><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">The road</i>. The road is the setting of the scene just described by the Evangelist Mark (10:32-45). It is always the setting, too, for the Church’s journey: the road of life and history, which is salvation history insofar as it is travelled <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">with Christ</i> and leads to his paschal mystery. Jerusalem always lies ahead of us. The cross and the resurrection are part of our history; they are our “today” but also and always the goal of our journey.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This Gospel passage has often accompanied consistories for the creation of new Cardinals. It is not merely a “backdrop” but also a “road sign” for us who today are journeying together with Jesus. For he is our strength, who gives meaning to our lives and our ministry.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Consequently, dear brothers, we need carefully to consider the words we have just heard.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Mark emphasizes that, on the road, the disciples were “amazed” and “afraid” (v. 32). Why? Because they knew what lay ahead of them in Jerusalem. More than once, Jesus had already spoken to them openly about it. The Lord knew what his followers were experiencing, nor was he indifferent to it. Jesus never abandons his friends; he never neglects them. Even when it seems that he is going his own way, he is always doing so <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">for our sake</i>. All that he does, he does for us and for our salvation. In the specific case of the Twelve, he did this <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">to prepare them</i> for the trials to come, so that they could be <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">with him</i>, now and especially later, when he would no longer be in their midst. So that that they could always be <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">with him, on his road.</i></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Knowing that the hearts of his disciples were troubled, Jesus “once more” called the Twelve and told them “what was to happen to him” (v. 32). We have just heard it ourselves: the third announcement of his passion, death and resurrection. This is <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">the road taken by the Son of God. </i>The road taken by <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">the Servant of the Lord. </i>Jesus <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">identifies</i> himself with this road, so much so that he himself <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">is</i> the road. “I am the way” (<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Jn</i> 14:6), he says. <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">This </i>way, and none other.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">At this point, a sudden shift takes place, which enables Jesus to reveal to James and John – but really to all the Apostles – the fate in store for them. Let us imagine the scene: after once again explaining what will happen to him in Jerusalem, Jesus looks the Twelve squarely in the eye, as if to say: “Is this clear?” Then he resumes his journey, walking ahead of the group. Two of his disciples break away from the others: James and John. They approach Jesus and tell him what they want: “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory” (v. 37). They want to take <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">a different road</i>. Not Jesus’ road, but a different one. The road of those who, perhaps even without realizing it, “use” the Lord for their own advancement. Those who – as Saint Paul says – look to their own interests and not those of Christ (cf. <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Phil</i> 2:21). Saint Augustine speaks of this in his magnificent sermon on shepherds (No. 46). A sermon we always benefit from rereading in the Office of Readings.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Jesus listens to James and John. He does not get upset or angry. His patience is indeed infinite. He tells them: “You do not know what you are asking” (v. 38). In a way, he excuses them, while at the same time reproaching them: “You do not realize that you have gone <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">off the road</i>”. Immediately after this, the other ten apostles will show by their indignant reaction to the sons of Zebedee how much <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">all of them </i>were tempted to go <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">off the road</i>.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Dear brothers, all of us love Jesus, all of us want to follow him, yet we must always be careful to remain <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">on the road</i>. For our bodies can be with him, but our hearts can wander far afield and so lead us <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">off the road</i>. The scarlet of a Cardinal’s robes, which is the colour of blood, can, for a worldly spirit, become the colour of a secular “eminence”.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">In this passage of the Gospel, we are always struck by the <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">sharp contrast between Jesus and his disciples</i>. Jesus is aware of this; he knows it and he accepts it. Yet the contrast is still there: Jesus is <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">on</i> the road, while they are <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">off</i> the road. Two roads that cannot meet. Only the Lord, through his cross and resurrection, can save his straying friends who risk getting lost. It is for them, as well as for all the others, that Jesus is journeying to Jerusalem. For them, and for everyone, will he let his body be broken and his blood shed. For them, and for all, will he rise from the dead, and forgive and transform them by the gift of the Spirit. He will at last put them back <i style="box-sizing: border-box;">on his road</i>.</span> </p></blockquote><blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Saint Mark – like Matthew and Luke – included this story in his Gospel because it contains a saving truth necessary for the Church in every age. Even though the Twelve come off badly, this text entered the canon of Scripture because it </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">reveals the truth</i><span style="font-family: georgia;"> about Jesus and about us. For us too, in our day, it is a message of salvation. We too, Pope and Cardinals, must always see ourselves reflected in this word of truth. It is a sharpened sword; it cuts, it proves painful, but it also heals, liberates and converts us. For conversion means precisely this: that we pass from being </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">off the road </i><span style="font-family: georgia;">to journeying </span><i style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: georgia;">on God’s road</i><span style="font-family: georgia;">.</span></p><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(102, 102, 102); color: #666666;">May the Holy Spirit give us this grace, today and forever.</span> </span></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: georgia;"></span></div><div><b>–30–</b></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-50390668282696549682020-11-17T19:32:00.054-05:002020-11-18T22:30:54.743-05:00Fearing "Attack" On "Fundamental Values," The Bishops Warn Biden's White House<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>s the US bishops face a moment unseen in most of their lifetimes – the nation's <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/11/from-pews-to-peoples-house-biden-wins.html" target="_blank">election of a Catholic to the Presidency</a> – the issue of Joe Biden's faith emerged by surprise at today's public close of the USCCB plenary, as the bench's leadership suddenly moved to draw a line in the sand with the incoming Democratic administration over its support of legal abortion.</p><p>Five days since the President-elect received a congratulatory phone call from the Pope – during which the two <a href="https://buildbackbetter.com/press-releases/readout-of-president-elect-bidens-call-with-his-holiness-pope-francis/" target="_blank">discussed the common causes</a> of "caring for the marginalized and the poor, addressing the crisis of climate change, and welcoming and integrating immigrants and refugees" – while Archbishop José Gomez made a passing nod of hope that Biden's "faith commitments will move him to support some good policies," the conference president quickly pivoted to underscore that the new White House "will support policies that attack some fundamental values we hold dear as Catholics... [which] undermine our 'preeminent priority' of the elimination of abortion."</p><p>In an unannounced statement that revealed a new working group led by the USCCB vice-president, Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, rounded out by several key committee chairs, Gomez said that "when politicians who profess the Catholic faith support" abortion and a concept of religious freedom that allows enforcement of protections for civil rights, "there are additional problems. </p><p>"Among other things, [the scenario] creates confusion with the faithful about what the church actually teaches on these questions."</p><p>Much as the election of a Catholic adds a deeply potent aspect to the calculus – and with it, the cited fears of a competing influence over the 70 million members of the nation's largest religious body – there is precedent for an intervention of this kind, but only with a prior Democratic administration. </p><p>At its November plenary following Barack Obama's 2008 election – which, <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/01/hail-columbia-and-holy-communion.html" target="_blank">with Biden as his Vice-President,</a> likewise inflamed a sizable bloc of the bishops – the conference <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/11/fundamental-good-is-life-itself.html" target="_blank">approved a statement</a> written by its then-president, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George OMI, warning that the new administration would attempt to codify the Supreme Court's 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade into US law; a move that, some predicted, would result in the closing of Catholic hospitals forced to comply with a legislated abortion mandate.</p><p>At the time, the bishops said they were "single-minded" on the issue "because they are, first of all, single-hearted."</p><p>For context, then-candidate Obama signaled that he would sign a proposed Freedom of Choice Act in a speech to Planned Parenthood during the 2008 primary season, but such a bill was never introduced in Congress once he took office. At the time, Democrats notably enjoyed majorities in both houses and a filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate.</p><p>By contrast, the full bench's reaction upon President Trump's 2016 win was palpably more muted. Originated as a statement of the Committee on Migration (as opposed to the conference president) and only <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2016/we-are-you-say-us-bishops-calling-elected-officials-and-americans-work-together-welcome" target="_blank">subsequently adopted by the entire body,</a> the message focused less on Trump than as a gesture of solidarity with migrants given the former's incendiary rhetoric and proposals on immigration – a platform which, of course, had already scored an <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/02/pope-on-plane-person-who-thinks-only-of.html" target="_blank">explicit condemnation</a> from the Pope during the campaign itself. </p><p>On the whole, today's statement signals that, while several leading moderate and progressive prelates indicated tacit support for Biden during the campaign despite Trump's anti-abortion stance, the conference as an institution is preparing to take a more aggressive line toward the incoming administration. </p><p>This dynamic reportedly stretched into the closed-door executive session that closed Tuesday's business. According to <i>Whispers</i> ops, a steady chorus of conservative prelates rose in the private talks to urge a unified opposition to a Biden White House, lest any cooperation with it be perceived as undermining the church's pro-life witness on abortion. </p><p>In practical terms, however, the first test of the coming church-state dynamic might be a matter where the prelates have little choice but to play ball. With plans for a further round of COVID-related economic stimulus effectively dead on arrival in the waning days of the Trump Administration – despite the President-elect urging a stopgap agreement as the pandemic's biggest wave causes further havoc for workers and businesses – after the springtime CARES Act and its Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dab8261c68c93f24c0bfc1876518b3f6" target="_blank">served as a mammoth lifeline</a> which allowed a broad range of Catholic entities to survive without mass layoffs or furloughs, the bishops have <a href="https://www.usccb.org/news/2020/bishop-chairman-calls-congress-white-house-reach-deal-covid-relief-prioritizes-urgent" target="_blank">voiced concerted support</a> for a new round of stimulus, without which no shortage of dioceses, parishes and schools would be forced into insolvency, or significant downsizing at best. </p><p>Along those lines, as the first round of PPP funding expired without being renewed, only in recent weeks have several dozen local churches needed to make their most drastic cuts of ministries and staff over the course of the pandemic – a reality which threatens to become ever more widespread as the status quo persists.</p><p>Below, the fulltext of Gomez's statement, the push for which reportedly unfolded over the last 48 hours:</p><p><i></i></p><blockquote><p><i> Brothers, the Chairmen of several Committees have come to me recently to express a particular
concern in the wake of the election. I had the opportunity to consult with the Executive
Committee about this concern, and I found unanimous support for what I am about to present. </i></p><p><i>We are facing a unique moment in the history of the Church in this country. For only the second
time, we are anticipating a transition to a President who professes the Catholic faith. This
presents certain opportunities, but also certain challenges. </i></p><p><i>The President-elect has given us reason to believe that his faith commitments will move him to
support some good policies. This includes policies in favor of immigration reform, refugees, and
the poor; and against racism, the death penalty, and climate change. </i></p><p><i>But he has also given us reason to believe that he will support policies that attack some
fundamental values we hold dear as Catholics. These policies include the repeal of the Hyde
amendment and the preservation of Roe v. Wade. Both of these policies undermine our
“preeminent priority” of the elimination of abortion. These policies also include restoration of
the HHS mandate, the passage of the Equality Act, and the unequal treatment of Catholic
schools. </i></p><p><i>These policies pose a serious threat to the common good whenever any politician supports
them. We have long opposed these policies strongly, and we will continue to do so. But when
politicians who profess the Catholic faith support them, there are additional problems. Among
other things, it creates confusion with the faithful about what the Church actually teaches on
these questions. </i></p><p><i>This is a difficult and complex situation. In order to help us navigate it, I have decided to
appoint a Working Group, Chaired by Archbishop Vigneron, and consisting of the Chairmen of
the Committees responsible for the policy areas at stake, as well as Doctrine and
Communications. I will provide more information about this initiative shortly after the
conclusion of our meeting. </i></p><p><i>But for now, I will note that this follows the precedent of four years ago. Cardinal DiNardo,
then-President of the Conference, similarly faced a transition to a new Administration
threatening grave and imminent harm on critical issues. </i></p><p><i>Then as now, Committees already existed to address those issues, and the goal was to emphasize
our priorities and enhance collaboration. Thank you, brothers, for raising this concerns, and
please stay tuned as this develops further.</i></p></blockquote><p><b>–30–</b></p><p></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-31247157061698714302020-11-17T12:31:00.018-05:002020-11-17T12:50:07.564-05:00On Day Two, The "Viruses" Take Center Stage<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">S</span></b>et to begin at 1pm Eastern, this final day of a virtual – and heavily curtailed – USCCB Plenary will be underpinned by what've arguably been the two key threads of American life in 2020: the bench's free-form discussions on COVID-19's impact on the nation's largest religious body, and the shape of the church's witness against racism.</p><p>To be sure, these aren't debates leading up to a vote, simply pastoral talks to compare notes on best practices and possible areas of improvement. In that light, these conversations tend to be even more revealing of the mind of the body than exchanges over specific policy questions.</p><p>Yet again, here's the livefeed....</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GivKHy8-aP8" width="425"></iframe><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-32484725302960864832020-11-16T14:01:00.003-05:002020-11-16T14:29:36.252-05:00Amid COVID and Ted, The Bench "ZOOMs" Forward<p><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>nd now, for something completely different – a hundred forty years since the collegial governance of American Catholicism began with a November meeting of its archbishops, a full century since the entire bench convened as the global church's first episcopal conference, the leadership of the nation's religious body has never experienced a moment like this... quite possibly in more ways than one.</p><p>Due to COVID-19, the annual five-ring circus in Baltimore has fallen by the wayside, with the 250 voting members and 50-odd retirees gathering from home via <i>Zoom</i> – a platform with which the prelates have become all too familiar since the pandemic's initial lockdowns began in March. On the bright side, however, as a good few bishops have long griped about the outlays of money and logistics that go into in-person meetings, their thesis that the bench can sufficiently handle its business with an online plenary can finally be put to the test.</p><p>Of course, the setting of the two-day talks isn't the only exceptional matter at hand. The timing of last week's release of the Vatican's <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/11/in-vatican-report-many-faces-of-ted.html" target="_blank">McCarrick Report</a> was dictated by this meeting – largely as its continued absence would've made for a fiasco, even among the broad middle of the conference given the two-year delay. Accordingly, today's planned 1pm start has been delayed by 90 minutes to allow for an initial discussion of the 450-page text and its findings in closed-door executive session. </p><p>Beginning with the customary twin addresses by the Nuncio to Washington, Archbishop <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FkHTwf96GvBatAoAPF_bwlBzcIzFjFhI/view" target="_blank">Christophe Pierre,</a> and the first speech by Archbishop <a href="https://angelusnews.com/voices/a-vision-for-the-church/" target="_blank">José Gomez</a> of Los Angeles as the conference president, the virtual public "Floor" – which will likewise include open-mic time on McCarrick – opens at 2.30pm Eastern (11.30 Pacific/1830 Rome).</p><p>Livefeed below... and as ever, more to come.</p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RfZdx8H1n7I" width="425"></iframe><div><b>–30–</b></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-46341283315500969682020-11-10T10:35:00.049-05:002020-11-10T13:53:56.392-05:00In Vatican Report, The Many Faces of Ted<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3csi1cpnRXqj8BgGC7iaV56AY_41JQLxxni17rs3cYprUcNkJcVxV__JSzQfQ1mRKtchUjeP41Zug186GVIU4G7RI6M8ivfUWTJAQ73yaqqiOz8RpB_yKWH96qLDWobwdjrt6_A/s543/Screen+Shot+2020-11-10+at+1.38.45+PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="543" data-original-width="397" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3csi1cpnRXqj8BgGC7iaV56AY_41JQLxxni17rs3cYprUcNkJcVxV__JSzQfQ1mRKtchUjeP41Zug186GVIU4G7RI6M8ivfUWTJAQ73yaqqiOz8RpB_yKWH96qLDWobwdjrt6_A/s320/Screen+Shot+2020-11-10+at+1.38.45+PM.png" /></a></div><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>nd so, almost two years since the former cardinal-archbishop of Washington Theodore McCarrick became the highest-ranking cleric <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/02/theodore-mccarrick-ex-cleric.html" target="_blank">ever to be dismissed from orders</a> amid serial credible reports of sexual abuse, the Holy See's report has finally arrived – <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZCu6k2N16Rpjb81kDCp0IaSLEAPS1s3n/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">the 449-page whopper was released this morning</a>, underpinned by testimonies from 17 victims of the 90 year-old ex-prelate.<p></p><p>As no advance copies were circulated ahead of the 2pm Rome (8am ET) publish time – not even to practically any senior figures in either Rome or the US – the findings of the intense, exhaustive probe are just being absorbed across the board. Still, as for the major element in McCarrick's five-decade ascent, to repeat, if you're surprised, <a href="https://twitter.com/roccopalmo/status/1324919079719886848" target="_blank">start paying attention.</a></p><p>Though it's not exactly the internet's strong-suit, with a product as sprawling as this, it's best to read it first and only react once one has... and as with any major Vatican document, but even more here, <i>don't skip the footnotes.</i></p><p>Processing this will take a while. But for something of this gravity and scope, it deserves nothing less. Ergo, more in due course.</p><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-33676540856145298382020-11-07T15:34:00.016-05:002020-11-09T00:48:29.854-05:00From the Pews to "The People's House" – Biden Wins, Becoming US' Catholic-in-Chief<b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><i>(Ed. Note: Updated with statements from competent ecclesial authority.)</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietJJcGaWIWEJ54BaAZ-Fi0mCI37odVCx0TLRt6cqoC9UOFMDEOXoO5eUUCsyUcZQhToc3pKICllOO2lIO8XUl9rgJTjVU05t7f_4-uZbWMi9od3sE96kkVoHQryLbSHdvV7Iv7A/s1627/jb0nd.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1220" data-original-width="1627" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEietJJcGaWIWEJ54BaAZ-Fi0mCI37odVCx0TLRt6cqoC9UOFMDEOXoO5eUUCsyUcZQhToc3pKICllOO2lIO8XUl9rgJTjVU05t7f_4-uZbWMi9od3sE96kkVoHQryLbSHdvV7Iv7A/w400-h300/jb0nd.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;">Y</span></b>et again, the votes of the nation's largest religious body held the keys to the White House. And for just the second time in the 231-year history of the Republic, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be home to an American Catholic.<p></p><p>After 87 hours of counting across several states, at 11.30am today, the nation's major news outlets <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-wins-white-house-ap-fd58df73aa677acb74fce2a69adb71f9" target="_blank">called the election</a> of Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr of Delaware, 77, as the 46th President of the United States, defeating the incumbent Donald Trump. </p><p>The projection came as the Democratic nominee widened his lead in Pennsylvania, one of the three heavily-Catholic states that flipped to Trump in 2016 by a combined 77,774 votes. (At top, Biden is seen accepting the University of Notre Dame's <a href="https://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/03/in-polarized-age-prize-for-partnership.html" target="_blank">2016 Laetare Medal</a> – the most prestigious honor for a US Catholic – receiving it jointly with the Republican House Speaker John Boehner.)</p><p>Already the first Catholic <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/01/hail-columbia-and-holy-communion.html" target="_blank">ever to be elected Vice-President</a> over two terms at Barack Obama's side, the Scranton-born Biden – taught by his hometown's Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Norbertines of Archmere Academy in his adopted First State – now takes his place alongside John F. Kennedy (1961-63) as the lone members of the faithful to ascend to the Oval Office. A five-decade member of <a href="https://www.stjosephonthebrandywine.org" target="_blank">St Joseph on the Brandywine parish</a> at the suburban edges of Wilmington, the President-elect is a weekly attendee at Sunday's 9am Mass in the quaint church, built in 1841 by the Dupont family for their chemical company's immigrant laborers.</p><p>According to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/votecast-trump-wins-white-evangelicals-d0cb249ea7eae29187a21a702dc84706" target="_blank">exit polling</a> by the <i>Associated Press,</i> Biden wiped out the GOP's usual dominance with white Catholics nationwide – a feat last accomplished by Bill Clinton in his two victories in the 1990s – but took the church's at-large vote on the back of a 2-to-1 split among Hispanics, who were the largest minority bloc in this election for the first time. With the Democratic ticket on pace to win roughly 300 electoral votes (clearing the requisite threshold of 270), the ongoing popular tally has made Biden the first presidential contender ever to attain 75 million votes.</p><p>In a year marked by titanic upheavals of American society amid the COVID-19 pandemic and a national reckoning on race relations, Trump sought to shift his re-election from being a referendum on his polarizing, disaster-prone first term, hitching his bid for Catholic support on the basis of his opposition to abortion – a push fueled by his surrogates' baseless, but no less concerted attempts to portray Biden as out of communion with his own church. </p><p>While the Democrats' increasingly dogmatic abortion policy has exacerbated tensions between the party and much of the church's leadership over the last two decades, the incoming President has never been sanctioned by any ecclesiastical authority – as Biden's home-ordinary, Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington <a href="http://thedialog.org/national-news/former-vice-president-joe-biden-denied-communion-during-south-carolina-campaign-swing/" target="_blank">reiterated</a> at the campaign's start last year that he "has consistently refrained from politicizing the Eucharist, and will continue to do so."</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrFuyQcDL98q1T7T3HFXU6FLjiB9onOSTRo5CekFLVlBPrbEGYPMtvZ9hhxUd9SCa4LbVh6ZY9-Cz5RhTPO_PuBlgaSXACun2zrw3fiFXfHYR1NY94HvlFHtO-3DdkCoiB8ZOng/s600/jb1p6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="600" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNrFuyQcDL98q1T7T3HFXU6FLjiB9onOSTRo5CekFLVlBPrbEGYPMtvZ9hhxUd9SCa4LbVh6ZY9-Cz5RhTPO_PuBlgaSXACun2zrw3fiFXfHYR1NY94HvlFHtO-3DdkCoiB8ZOng/w400-h266/jb1p6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Despite the significant divide on the unborn, Biden has formed a solid bond with Pope Francis since the pontiff's election in 2013, finding common cause on several key concerns of the latter's social Magisterium opposed by Trump's nationalist base, among them climate change, racial and economic justice and the plight of migrants. <div><br />Though he was quietly received by then-Pope Benedict XVI as Vice-President <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2011/06/benedict-meets-biden-and-silence.html" target="_blank">in 2011</a>, in a <a href="https://time.com/4047605/joe-biden-pope-francis-is-challenging-us/" target="_blank">2015 tribute to Francis</a> he penned for <i>TIME</i> magazine, Biden said that the reigning Pope began their first meeting by pointedly telling him "You are always welcome here" at the Vatican. <div>Even as global travel is severely complicated amid the pandemic, it's virtually certain that a historic encounter between an American Pope and the US' "Catholic-in-Chief" would be at the top of a Biden Administration's wish-list of road stops as soon as circumstances allow. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBwvpHGOKPeN125O_GMnxGtEYdiaun_0OMcNuo5RosIK3YpMCi7JGYIiF6VI8VAcrJqHM0ZI1mElpZeWGPG_nyvNqctOXT-lFGBibbOWspgnJOtdzukAp8AaOFWWE1QuFpUC2TA/s840/EmK7fbKWkAED2Xz.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="840" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYBwvpHGOKPeN125O_GMnxGtEYdiaun_0OMcNuo5RosIK3YpMCi7JGYIiF6VI8VAcrJqHM0ZI1mElpZeWGPG_nyvNqctOXT-lFGBibbOWspgnJOtdzukAp8AaOFWWE1QuFpUC2TA/s320/EmK7fbKWkAED2Xz.jpeg" /></a></div>For its part, odds are the Holy See will have a better rapport with the incoming White House than the departing one. Beyond the Pope's longstanding and <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/02/pope-on-plane-person-who-thinks-only-of.html" target="_blank">explicit revulsion</a> at Trump's immigration policy, just last month, the Vatican's two lead diplomats made a rare expression of <a href="https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/national_world/article_53fd4679-2f21-5e7f-9a99-691558bd0b0d.html" target="_blank">public displeasure</a> after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was seen <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2020/09/chinas-catholics-and-the-churchs-moral-witness" target="_blank">as openly pressuring Francis</a> against renewing the church's provisional accord with China's Communist government over the appointment of bishops. </div><div>The Sino-Vatican pact was extended shortly after a visit to Rome by Pompeo, during which the secretary was not granted a private audience with the Pope.</div><div><p></p><p>As for the nation's hierarchy, while it is customary for the president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to issue a statement congratulating the POTUS-to-be once the election is called, no reaction has yet emerged. (<b>SVILUPPO:</b> A statement was released Saturday evening – text below) In any case, though the bench's conservative flank leaned heavily on opposition to abortion and the GOP's advocacy for Christians' religious liberty as the linchpin of their people's discernment, this campaign was marked by a notable pushback <a href="https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2020/09/28/bishop-seitz-el-paso-catholics-single-issue-voting-election-2020-biden-trump" target="_blank">against "single-issue voting"</a> by an unusually <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/cardinal-tobin-person-good-conscience-could-vote-biden">sizable bloc</a> of prelates largely seen <a href="https://www.ncronline.org/news/justice/bishop-laments-questioning-bidens-faith-due-abortion-policies" target="_blank">as key allies of Francis.</a></p><p>How the dynamic will translate to the church's relations with a Catholic White House remains to be seen, but experience indicates a warmer ride than the transactional, whiplash-like nature of Trump's one term in office, capped by last month's confirmation of now-Justice Amy Coney Barrett – a favorite of pro-life activists – to the Supreme Court.</p><p>While supporters of the winning ticket have taken to the streets of major cities to celebrate the election's outcome, the mood doesn't lessen the mountain of challenges Biden will inherit upon his Inauguration on January 20th. Nonetheless, that day will begin with a special touch of history, as the President-elect attends early Mass at the Jesuit-run Holy Trinity Church in Georgetown before heading to the Capitol for his oath of office.</p><p>It will be 60 years to the day since JFK opened his swearing-in at the same altar. </p><p><b>SVILUPPO:</b> At 6pm Washington time, the USCCB President, Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, released the bench's customary statement congratulating the President-elect.</p><p>Notably, however, the text conspicuously ducked the term in reference to Biden – ostensibly in light of Trump's refusal to concede and Republican threats of legal challenges to the result.</p><p>Here, Gomez's full comment:</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif;"></span></span></span></span></span></p><blockquote><p style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span>We thank God for the blessings of liberty. The American people have spoken in this election. Now is the time for our leaders to come together in a spirit </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span>of national unity and to commit themselves to dialogue and compromise for the common good.</span></span></i></span></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>As Catholics and Americans, our priorities and mission are clear. We are here to follow Jesus Christ, to bear witness to His love in our lives, and to build His Kingdom on earth. I believe that at this moment in American history, Catholics have a special duty to be peacemakers, to promote fraternity and mutual trust, and to pray for a renewed spirit of true patriotism in our country. </i></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>Democracy requires that all of us conduct ourselves as people of virtue and self-discipline. It requires that we respect the free expression of opinions and that we treat one another with charity and civility, even as we might disagree deeply in our debates on matters of law and public policy. </i></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>As we do this, we recognize that Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has received enough votes to be elected the 46<sup>th</sup> President of the United States. We congratulate Mr. Biden and acknowledge that he joins the late President John F. Kennedy as the second United States president to profess the Catholic faith. We also congratulate Sen. Kamala D. Harris of California, who becomes the first woman ever elected as vice president. </i></span></span></span></span></span></p><p style="font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: georgia;"><i>We ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of this great nation, to intercede for us. May she help us to work together to fulfill the beautiful vision of America’s missionaries and founders — one nation under God, where the sanctity of every human life is defended and freedom of conscience and religion are guaranteed. </i></span></span></span></span></span></p></blockquote><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; margin: 0in 0in 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="line-height: normal;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, serif;"></span></span></span></span></span></p><p><b>SVILUPPO 2: </b>While several US bishops have issued their own responses to the outcome – with all the variation you can imagine – Sunday afternoon brought a statement from Biden's local hierarch, Wilmington's aforementioned Bishop Fran Malooly.</p><p>Soon to be three years past 75, as <i>Whispers</i> reported in July, the Vatican <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/08/hail-columbia-hello-controversy.html" target="_blank">delayed the retirement</a> of Delaware's statewide prelate until the campaign was completed. Even so, the Baltimore native now becomes the second prelate to be the bishop of an American President, joining Boston's legendary Cardinal Richard Cushing, the chaplain to the Kennedys, who died <a href="https://twitter.com/roccopalmo/status/1324146727633473537" target="_blank">50 years ago this week.</a></p><p>Named to lead the 250,000-member Wilmington fold in summer 2008 – just as Biden <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/08/hail-columbia-hello-controversy.html" target="_blank">was tapped as Obama's running mate</a> – given Malooly's usual reticence for public comment on his most prominent parishioner, to use <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/richard-adams-blog/2010/mar/23/joe-biden-obama-big-fucking-deal-overheard" target="_blank">a famous Biden-ism,</a> his bishop's statement "is a BFD":<br /><i></i></p><blockquote><i>“St. Paul reminds us <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110820.cfm" target="_blank">in today’s second reading</a> that as Christians, we are called to be people of hope. No matter where we might fall on the political spectrum, we must seize this moment as an opportunity to begin to heal the crippling divisions in our great nation. These fractures were forged over decades and reconciliation will take time and patience. It begins with each of us. Today I congratulate President-elect Biden. We all must pray for the President-elect and President Trump during this time of transition and we look to the future with hope that as one Nation under God, we will continue be a beacon of freedom and prosperity to the world.”</i></blockquote><p>...and speaking of Wilmington, today's morning after brought this: </p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">President-elect Joe Biden attended mass and visited the grave of his son Beau Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, the day after winning the U.S. election. <a href="https://t.co/gCFYTttbDL">https://t.co/gCFYTttbDL</a> <a href="https://t.co/OibtZokBzQ">pic.twitter.com/OibtZokBzQ</a></p>— The New York Times (@nytimes) <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1325503377141346305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 8, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p><b>–30–</b></p></div></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-13279012016126425262020-11-03T19:01:00.017-05:002020-11-03T19:19:04.133-05:00"We Vote As Many... We Pray As One"<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="295" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0lwgLWy8OEw" width="425"></iframe><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>nd so, waged against the backdrop of a cataclysmic year for the Union, the long, bitter campaign has reached its end... and the nation's largest religious body might just be standing at the threshold of history.</p><p>It's going to be a long night – according to some indicators, it might end up being a long couple days. But regardless of the outcome, per custom on these nights, we return again to the foundational prayer of American Catholicism: the Prayer for the Nation written and given in 1791 by John Carroll of Baltimore – the nation's founding bishop, a cousin of the lone Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.</p><p><i><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.899999618530273px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></span></i></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-size: 16.899999618530273px;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span></span>e pray, Thee O Almighty and Eternal God! Who through Jesus Christ hast revealed Thy glory to all nations, to preserve the works of Thy mercy, that Thy Church, being spread through the whole world, may continue with unchanging faith in the confession of Thy Name. </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><i>We pray Thee, who alone art good and holy, to endow with heavenly knowledge, sincere zeal, and sanctity of life, our chief bishop, Pope <b>Francis</b>, the Vicar of Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the government of his Church; our own bishop, <span style="color: red;"><b>N</b>.</span>, all other bishops, prelates, and pastors of the Church; and especially those who are appointed to exercise amongst us the functions of the holy ministry, and conduct Thy people into the ways of salvation.</i></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><i><span>We pray Thee O God of might, wisdom, and justice! Through whom authority is rightly administered, laws are enacted, and judgment decreed, assist with Thy Holy Spirit of counsel and fortitude the President of these United States, that his administration may be conducted in righteousness, and be eminently useful to Thy people over whom he presides; by encouraging due respect for virtue and religion; by a faithful execution of the laws in justice and mercy; and by restraining vice and immorality. Let the light of Thy divine wisdom direct the deliberations of Congress, and shine forth in all the proceedings and laws framed for our rule and government, so that they may tend to the preservation of peace, the promotion of national happiness, the increase of industry, sobriety, and useful knowledge; and may perpetuate to us the blessing of equal liberty. </span><span></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><i>We pray for his excellency, the governor of this state, for the members of the assembly, for all judges, magistrates, and other officers who are appointed to guard our political welfare, that they may be enabled, by Thy powerful protection, to discharge the duties of their respective stations with honesty and ability. <span>We recommend likewise, to Thy unbounded mercy, all our brethren and fellow citizens throughout the United States, that they may be blessed in the knowledge and sanctified in the observance of Thy most holy law; that they may be preserved in union, and in that peace which the world cannot give; and after enjoying the blessings of this life, be admitted to those which are eternal.</span><span></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><i>Finally, we pray to Thee, O Lord of mercy, to remember the souls of Thy servants departed who are gone before us with the sign of faith and repose in the sleep of peace; the souls of our parents, relatives, and friends; of those who, when living, were members of this congregation, and particularly of such as are lately deceased; of all benefactors who, by their donations or legacies to this Church, witnessed their zeal for the decency of divine worship and proved their claim to our grateful and charitable remembrance.</i></p><p><i><span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif;"></span></i></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><span><i>To these, O Lord, and to all that rest in Christ, grant, we beseech Thee, a place of refreshment, light, and everlasting peace, through the same Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Savior. Amen.</i></span></p></blockquote><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><span><i></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><span>As ever, more to come as things allow. For now, hope everyone's hanging in there... and buckle up.</span></p><p style="margin: 0.75em 0px;"><span><br><b>–30–</b></span></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-78809318746875352902020-10-25T21:37:00.046-04:002020-10-26T07:00:36.224-04:00Red Hats... Black History – Because He Can, The Pope Packs His "Senate"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiBEpKlmkK8m_ZSFwuSVkIXGzUU24hB4pLcMQRCTOCoIJpoL3Zp-SOatuFmbgLZaC8RZjwuKQtNt4qyKLuehAuMb_Q8IyvD1C_Cr_v07nXebKD0zBb0UfG26RjqQFvUSvH973Lw/s500/f1bir4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="327" data-original-width="500" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfiBEpKlmkK8m_ZSFwuSVkIXGzUU24hB4pLcMQRCTOCoIJpoL3Zp-SOatuFmbgLZaC8RZjwuKQtNt4qyKLuehAuMb_Q8IyvD1C_Cr_v07nXebKD0zBb0UfG26RjqQFvUSvH973Lw/w400-h261/f1bir4.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;">F</span></b>irst it was coming, then it wasn't....<p></p><p>But, finally, it's here – <i>finally</i>, in more ways than one.</p><p>At the close of today's noontime <i>Angelus</i>, the Pope announced his seventh intake of new cardinals – 13 in all; nine younger than 80 and thus eligible to enter a Conclave – who'll receive the red hat and <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2012/02/this-time-theres-whole-new-ring-to-it.html" target="_blank">cruciform ring</a> on Saturday, 28 November, the eve of the First Sunday of Advent.</p><p>Here, the names of the cardinals-designate, listed in the strict order of precedence that dictates their seniority in the papal "Senate" – first, the electors:</p><p>–Bishop Mario Grech, 63, Secretary-General of the Synod for Bishops (Maltese);<br />–Bishop Marcelo Semeraro, 72, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (Italian);<br />–Archbishop Antoine Kambanda, 62, of Kigali (Rwanda);<br />–Archbishop Wilton Daniel Gregory, 72, of Washington DC;<br />–Archbishop José Advincula, 68, of Capiz (Philippines);<br />–Archbishop Celestino Aós Braco OFM Cap., 75, of Santiago de Chile;<br />–Bishop Cornelius Sim, 69, vicar-apostolic of Brunei;<br />–Archbishop Paolo Lojudice, 56, of Siena (Italy);<br />–Fr Mauro Gambetti OFM Conv., 55, custodian of the Convent of Assisi (Italian)</p>
...and alongside them, the four picks older than 80, given the red hat for "lifetime achievement": <div><br /></div><div>–Bishop Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel, 80, emeritus of San Cristobal de las Casas (Mexico);<br />–Archbishop Silvano Tomasi CS, 80, retired Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN Offices in Geneva;<br />–Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap., 86, preacher of the Papal Household <br />–Msgr Enrico Feroci, parish priest of Rome, 80, pastor of Our Lady of Divine Love at Castel di Leva</div><div><br /></div><div>The Holy See <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2020-10/pope-new-cardinals-biographies-consistory-november.html" target="_blank">has provided biographical notes</a> on each of the designates.</div><div>With today's picks, the College will have 128 voting cardinals once the Consistory is held – eight over the customary limit set by St Paul VI in 1975, but nowhere near the 135 to which the group was ballooned by John Paul II in 2001, when he created 37 electors in one fell swoop.</div><div>Upon the new class' entrance, Francis will have chosen 73 voters in a hypothetical Conclave, comprising just shy of 60 percent of the total. </div><div>For context, the Roman Pontiff is elected by a supermajority of two-thirds. Yet far more significantly, the electors don't merely choose the next Pope – one of them <i>will be next the Pope</i>.</div><div>In light of the ongoing travel restrictions due to the pandemic, it's worth noting that cardinals-designate need not be present at the Roman ceremonies to formally take their places in the College. Regardless of their whereabouts, the designees enjoy the title "Eminence" and the right to enter a Conclave upon the Pope's publication of the <i>biglietto</i> – literally, the "ticket" – listing their names, which currently takes place at the beginning of the Consistory itself. </div><div><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1xxikCPU1pgbdTtboo0VxpJKVKglFd5D3gsxxQfQYk363soQ57Q9vswlsa8n4iONwrOS_jErnm500HZaCmQJW6wIvFMzckXO4o0v04KYWEPNhqC8_q5j4LPrYzpYlU1cSsuWCg/s438/ronaur3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="374" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgP1xxikCPU1pgbdTtboo0VxpJKVKglFd5D3gsxxQfQYk363soQ57Q9vswlsa8n4iONwrOS_jErnm500HZaCmQJW6wIvFMzckXO4o0v04KYWEPNhqC8_q5j4LPrYzpYlU1cSsuWCg/s320/ronaur3.jpg" /></a></div>It remains to be seen whether, as in times past, Francis will need to send the scarlet </span><i>birette</i><span> and rings to at least some of the new cardinals for them to receive at home. While, today, the insignia would ostensibly be conferred on the pontiff's behalf by the local Nuncio or another nearby cardinal, in Catholic countries that privilege was historically carried out by the head of state. (Above right, the future St John XXIII – then-Archbishop Angelo Roncalli, the Nuncio to Paris – is seen receiving his biretta from the French President Vincent Auriol, a Socialist, on his elevation in 1953.)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>* * *</b></div><div>Before anything else, given Cantalamessa's invariable presence in his brown Capuchin habit – to say nothing of <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2018/10/into-woods-heeding-popes-call-us-bench.html" target="_blank">his penchant for controversy</a> over four decades as the household preacher – the sight of Padre Raniero in cardinal red is going to give more than a few natives the vapors. On a related front, the friar's deluxe following among the Catholic Charismatic renewal is likewise set to make next month's rites the first "Scarlet Bowl" to feature <i>en masse</i> speaking in tongues among the moment's usual kaleidoscope of the church's universality.</div><div>And speaking of the church's Catholicity... here at home, this Sunday is nothing short of a watershed. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNqvsQ7SlwEb8KTJx33yvm4dtgFce64qCTyMJT4Qi0SCItvapc_pxQxbsDGLhRur-qnic2A6J5rA4OtUkOBh-SUILnKIfaaYuMVUBfuvilEUjOaEqwfU_yP3JuwFNmw2zUyWCMw/s1920/wdg0ha.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmNqvsQ7SlwEb8KTJx33yvm4dtgFce64qCTyMJT4Qi0SCItvapc_pxQxbsDGLhRur-qnic2A6J5rA4OtUkOBh-SUILnKIfaaYuMVUBfuvilEUjOaEqwfU_yP3JuwFNmw2zUyWCMw/w400-h266/wdg0ha.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Of course, the elevation of <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/04/for-crisis-hit-capital-healer-in-chief.html" target="_blank">Wilton Gregory</a> gives Stateside Catholicism its first African-American ever to don the red hat – indeed, the first US cardinal of non-European descent. </div><div>For Francis, the call is legacy-defining. For the cardinal-designate, it's simply been <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/05/in-capital-change-of-era.html" target="_blank">a long time coming.</a></div><div>Appointed a bishop at 35 – the youngest possible age under canon law – the DC prelate (a favorite <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/09/pope-to-wilt-come-to-rome.html" target="_blank">of the last three pontificates</a>) now becomes the oldest American to be elevated to a Conclave seat since St Paul VI limited the electoral age to 80 in 1975. Having echoed the meteoric rise of <a href="https://twitter.com/roccopalmo/status/1140000955389435905" target="_blank">his own mentor</a> in many ways – among them, becoming the first Black president of the US bishops at all of 53 – while today's announcement has been gleefully received across all sorts of divides, if anything, it comes as an overdue recognition of a ministry that, by any standard, has been one of the landmark tenures in American Catholic history, one often saddled with equally historic and unique burdens.</div><div>To be sure, there is a poetic – and, even more, a Providential – timing to the news, coming <a href="https://catholicsocialthought.georgetown.edu/events/racism-in-our-streets-and-structures" target="_blank">amid a societal reckoning</a> over systemic racism and the ties that bind the body politic. Yet while much of the wider world will make the mistake of conflating the man with the moment, anyone who's watched Gregory's ascent onto the national, then global stage over the last 30 years knows the extraordinary blend of skill, dignity, self-effacement and, yes, tolerance for pain that have paved the road to today, and how this elevation is the most merited of any these shores have seen in living memory.</div><div>Three decades ago, the walk began with his arrival in rural Southern Illinois, an early hotbed of abuse scandals, which saw him take the then unheard-of move to suspend one-sixth of the priests he inherited. Not long after, within six weeks of Gregory's election as USCCB chief in late 2001, the crisis' national eruption began in Boston, and despite the resistance of many of the young president's elders on the bench – let alone potent opposition in Rome – <a href="https://vimeo.com/328968165" target="_blank">"one strike and you're out"</a> didn't just become the church's buzzword, <a href="https://vimeo.com/284051727" target="_blank">but national law.</a> And now, just when he was beginning to coast toward retirement after 15 years leading Catholicism's emergence as the dominant religious bloc in the "Capital of the South" – seeing Atlanta's 69-county church <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/06/hotlanta-grain-once-scattered-now.html" target="_blank">more than double in size</a> to 1.3 million members, usually featuring the nation's largest RCIA classes of adult converts (<a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2010/02/in-hotlanta-class-of-2015.html" target="_blank">2,000 or more</a> each year) – not only did <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/04/for-crisis-hit-capital-healer-in-chief.html" target="_blank">another atomic-grade cleanup</a> come calling, but one to be carried out in the hyper-polarized, omni-media glare <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/05/our-sorrow-and-shame-do-not-define-us.html" target="_blank">of the nation's capital.</a></div><div>Far from the hurricane-like experience of the <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2018/10/in-capital-cardinal-resigns-yet-for-now.html" target="_blank">long, torrid summer of 2018,</a> these days, nary a peep is heard out of Washington. And that's pretty much what was hoped on his arrival – as no shortage of the designate's confreres remarked upon his appointment, "Thank God it's him... and (even more) thank God it isn't me." </div><div>Lest it sounded easy, accomplishing any of these was no mean feat. What's more, however, doing so while Black has required the churchman's equivalent of tackling it "Backwards and in heels." And all the while, from those early days in Belleville and the conference – as Atlanta received, then quickly lost, the first two African-American archbishops – the expectations grew, gradually yet widely, that Wilton would be "the one."</div><div>For any man, that can be a crushing weight to live with. But most of us can't imagine being the vessel of an aspiration that isn't your own, yet held by a community of 3.5 million – the US' Black Catholic population, itself larger than the entire Episcopal Church. </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdT8F8q-7hxDKr5ROa13j-2oNgQaGo7Cy9zxQEIeffuTzcwwxr5osb8GSqdDQBrq3hrKBfv634RbSdwNzXrqUM_uCMPtlQzoASkty8_52LoSb17ZqSwe8TmN8Hm_sn7Pj8ERZLTg/s919/wiltadw.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="919" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdT8F8q-7hxDKr5ROa13j-2oNgQaGo7Cy9zxQEIeffuTzcwwxr5osb8GSqdDQBrq3hrKBfv634RbSdwNzXrqUM_uCMPtlQzoASkty8_52LoSb17ZqSwe8TmN8Hm_sn7Pj8ERZLTg/w400-h266/wiltadw.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>By every account, the man has never sought the scarlet for himself. Yet if the day never came, there would still be the weight – of wondering whether the "wrong" thing was said or done somewhere along the way, of somehow letting down those for whom his red hat would've been perceived as their church's way of seeing them and speaking their name.</div><div>But we don't have to worry about that now. And on top of the grace of the news, knowing that we don't – that he doesn't – is a gift and a balm all its own.</div><div>For longer than most folks can remember, many have believed that, more than any other man in red, Wilton Gregory was born for it. Maybe now, he might begin to believe that. Either way, the decades of expectation placed upon Miss Etta Mae's son are behind him... and as Wilton Cardinal Gregory, he can finally be himself.</div><div><br /><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="236" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/337911669?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="425"></iframe><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>* * *</b></div><div>National monument aside, today's class builds upon several of Francis' now well-burnished traits among his intakes: only two of the designates – Gregory and Aós (himself leading the Chilean church's <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2018/06/with-prime-targets-ouster-popes-chilean.html" target="_blank">sprawling post-scandal cleanup</a>) – come from the customary "cardinalatial sees," with the bulk hailing yet again <a href="https://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2017/05/another-scarlet-jolt-with-firsts-all.html" target="_blank">from "the peripheries,"</a> albeit in several senses of the word. </div><div>Beyond the duo who'll be the first-ever cardinals from their respective countries (Rwanda's Kambanda and Brunei's native-born Sim), while technically a Curial cardinal in light of his new post, Grech – who recently <a href="http://www.synod.va/content/synod/en/news/an-interview-of-civilta-cattolica-to-bishop-mario-grech--new-sec.html" target="_blank">gave a notable, extended reflection</a> on the shape of a post-COVID church – becomes the first Maltese prelate with a Conclave vote <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/10/at-synod-central-future-comes-early.html" target="_blank">in two centuries.</a> </div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIikCRNIDUil6Uxh7S5SppWkRzf-T9u5-WHrlgJSrZWPi271VBab2COY9ikaX90QdpxWhfqzn_kynEIhE4iMkmRiY9AnAEyFN8saRfoxIvO6scpMiO1N2TupwVKKSoSxsCmFtPbA/s620/mgamf1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="620" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIikCRNIDUil6Uxh7S5SppWkRzf-T9u5-WHrlgJSrZWPi271VBab2COY9ikaX90QdpxWhfqzn_kynEIhE4iMkmRiY9AnAEyFN8saRfoxIvO6scpMiO1N2TupwVKKSoSxsCmFtPbA/w400-h220/mgamf1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>In addition, Papa Bergoglio has continued his practice <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/09/to-everyones-surprise-scarlet-is-served.html">begun last time</a> in elevating a simple priest – here, Gambetti (above), the superior of the Assisi complex containing the Basilica and tomb of St Francis – to an electoral seat. </div><div>Given how the friar's role as <i>custos</i> (guardian) is subject to his Franciscan superiors, and the reality that cardinals answer only to the Pope, the 55 year-old is certain to receive a new assignment determined by the pontiff. (As now-Cardinal <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-canadian-cardinal-seen-as-key-to-pope-francis-s-reform-vision-1.5307743" target="_blank">Michael Czerny SJ</a> was already a Vatican official on being catapulted from priest-to-cardinal elector last year, a similar change of his day-job wasn't similarly needed.)</div><div>As none of the priests on today's list are Jesuits, Gambetti and the trio of 80-something designates will all be ordained bishops before the Consistory, in accord with the 1962 stipulation of John XXIII now inserted into the canons.</div><div><b>–37–</b></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-78866120450467390392020-10-04T07:04:00.046-04:002020-10-04T23:22:18.972-04:00<p style="text-align: center;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYEyjYAh0fbIVChv8zwmLH5l1GiUtG56PKChimrqX3r7Q59_sqxpIjE7cXCQQ-DoMx3T3afy-Reedqc2VaAZvE280avJKhw6fwejRZ59sMP1AquZ7kwIsth4JYBIDPwMrwamglg/s485/f1stm.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="485" data-original-width="389" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNYEyjYAh0fbIVChv8zwmLH5l1GiUtG56PKChimrqX3r7Q59_sqxpIjE7cXCQQ-DoMx3T3afy-Reedqc2VaAZvE280avJKhw6fwejRZ59sMP1AquZ7kwIsth4JYBIDPwMrwamglg/w257-h320/f1stm.jpg" width="257" /></a></b></div><b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b>ENCYCLICAL LETTER</b></div></b><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><i><b><span style="font-size: large;">FRATELLI TUTTI
</span></b></i></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>OF THE HOLY FATHER
</b></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">FRANCIS
</span></b></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>ON THE FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP</b></p><br /><i>“FRATELLI TUTTI”</i>. With these words, Saint Francis of Assisi addressed his brothers and sisters and proposed to them a way of life marked by the flavour of the Gospel. Of the counsels Francis offered, I would like to select the one in which he calls for a love that transcends the barriers of geography and distance, and declares blessed all those who love their brother “as much when he is far away from him as when he is with him”. In his simple and direct way, Saint Francis expressed the essence of a fraternal openness that allows us to acknowledge, appreciate and love each person, regardless of physical proximity, regardless of where he or she was born or lives.<br /><br />This saint of fraternal love, simplicity and joy, who inspired me to write the Encyclical <i>Laudato Si’</i>, prompts me once more to devote this new Encyclical to fraternity and social friendship. Francis felt himself a brother to the sun, the sea and the wind, yet he knew that he was even closer to those of his own flesh. Wherever he went, he sowed seeds of peace and walked alongside the poor, the abandoned, the infirm and the outcast, the least of his brothers and sisters.<br /><br />There is an episode in the life of Saint Francis that shows his openness of heart, which knew no bounds and transcended differences of origin, nationality, colour or religion. It was his visit to Sultan Malik-el-Kamil, in Egypt, which entailed considerable hardship, given Francis’ poverty, his scarce resources, the great distances to be traveled and their differences of language, culture and religion. That journey, undertaken at the time of the Crusades, further demonstrated the breadth and grandeur of his love, which sought to embrace everyone. Francis’ fidelity to his Lord was commensurate with his love for his brothers and sisters. Unconcerned for the hardships and dangers involved, Francis went to meet the Sultan with the same attitude that he instilled in his disciples: if they found themselves “among the Saracens and other nonbelievers”, without renouncing their own identity they were not to “engage in arguments or disputes, but to be subject to every human creature for God’s sake”. In the context of the times, this was an extraordinary recommendation. We are impressed that some eight hundred years ago Saint Francis urged that all forms of hostility or conflict be avoided and that a humble and fraternal “subjection” be shown to those who did not share his faith.<br /><br />Francis did not wage a war of words aimed at imposing doctrines; he simply spread the love of God. He understood that “God is love and those who abide in love abide in God” (1 Jn 4:16). In this way, he became a father to all and inspired the vision of a fraternal society. Indeed, “only the man who approaches others, not to draw them into his own life, but to help them become ever more fully themselves, can truly be called a father”. In the world of that time, bristling with watchtowers and defensive walls, cities were a theatre of brutal wars between powerful families, even as poverty was spreading through the countryside. Yet there Francis was able to welcome true peace into his heart and free himself of the desire to wield power over others. He became one of the poor and sought to live in harmony with all. Francis has inspired these pages....<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">FULLTEXT – <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-francesco_20201003_enciclica-fratelli-tutti.html" target="_blank">WEB</a>/<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OAPwXKU9tGtgs0L7WSSIlIf1l0Fg0sj6/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">PDF</a></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-17258754566476837582020-10-01T21:45:00.043-04:002020-10-02T10:34:51.418-04:00A Distanced Al Smith, With COVID At The Door<p><i>(1.20am ET – Updated with further developments.</i>) </p><p><b><span style="font-size: large;">E</span></b>very fourth year, what's normally the third Thursday in October is always a moment to remember. But both in terms of its setting and the turmoil of a brutal campaign amid a crisis-ridden national scene, there's never been an Al Smith Dinner like this one.</p><p>Far from its usual home before a white-tie and ballgown-ed crowd at the Waldorf-Astoria in Midtown Manhattan before a crowd approaching 2,000, what was planned as a 50-person gathering in light of the ongoing pandemic was scrapped following concerns expressed by the New York state government. In its place, the ultimate church-state moment of six decades of presidential campaigns – by tradition, <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/10/in-catholic-gotham-final-showdown.html" target="_blank">the nominees' lone joint appearance</a> outside the debates – went all-virtual, with Cardinal Timothy Dolan performing livefeed "host" duties from his Madison Avenue residence.</p><p>Surreal as the context already was, it entered even more uncharted territory not long after – some five hours after President Trump used his remarks to declare that the end of COVID-19 "is in sight," the Republican contender announced just before 1am Eastern Friday that he and First Lady Melania Trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-donald-trump-health-archive-hope-hicks-7fece2838ff7a9bd91ccf5ac287348b3" target="_blank">had contracted the virus</a>. In that light, with the First Couple now set to be quarantined in the White House residence, Trump's pre-recorded remarks from Washington likely made for his last appearance for at least several days as the bruising campaign enters its home-stretch.</p><p>For the Democratic nominee's part, after days of strange silence by aides on whether he'd accept his invitation, Vice President Joe Biden's campaign only announced that he would participate an hour or so before the event took place. </p><p>Named for the first Catholic nominated for the Presidency – whose faith saw him subjected to bigotry and suspicion in his 1928 run – while the Al Smith is customarily the candidates' final appearance, coming after their last debate, even for this edition's earlier place in the calendar and the virtual setup, the shape of this race (underscored by the visceral nature of Tuesday's opening debate) made the tension of the moment already higher than its predecessors. Add in the conventional wisdom that a small slice of Catholic voters – mostly across the Rust Belt, but quite possibly in the "New South" as well – will determine the outcome, and what's always a significant pitch to the pews might just be more electorally significant than it's ever been.</p><p>All that said, here below is fullvideo of tonight's event, headlined by speeches lacking this night's usual lighthearted, roast-like tone, while still vividly underscoring the divergence between the contenders:</p><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="242" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/464028547?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0" width="430"></iframe><p>On a final church-state note, the nexus of the Catholic world and the political scene continues into the weekend: as ever on the eve of the First Monday in October, Sunday morning brings the Red Mass in Washington's St Matthew's Cathedral to mark the Supreme Court's new term.</p><p>Usually not filmed in keeping with SCOTUS' ban on cameras, the 10am liturgy will be live-streamed for the first time due to restrictions on attendance. While the capital's Archbishop Wilton Gregory <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-wiltons-supreme-turn-new-season-full.html" target="_blank">took the preaching duties</a> last year – as is custom for a new DC prelate in his first and last years in office – this 68th edition of the rites returns to the norm of a visiting homilist, this time Bishop <a href="https://www.arlingtondiocese.org/coverage-of-the-bishop/" target="_blank">Michael Burbidge</a> of Arlington, the USCCB Communications chair.</p><p>Like the Al Smith, this year's Red Mass comes amid a more charged backdrop than usual given last month's death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett – a figure hailed by conservatives for an especially intense Catholic identity – in her stead, with Barrett's mid-month confirmation hearings set to make for not just a societal flashpoint, but one within the church's walls, to boot.</p><p>While the Mass normally draws a majority of the Court – which would comprise six Catholics (of nine) upon Barrett's likely confirmation – only Chief Justice John Roberts is expected to attend this year in light of COVID precautions. A committed member of his suburban Maryland parish, the Chief was active in the capital's <a href="https://www.johncarrollsociety.org" target="_blank">John Carroll Society</a>, the guild of Catholic lawyers which organizes the liturgy, long before his 2005 elevation to the bench.</p><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-3150606210549386102020-09-25T15:22:00.007-04:002020-09-26T01:03:30.111-04:00Breaking Form, Pope "Decapitates" A Cardinal – With Becciu's Exile, A Monster Vatican Precedent<p><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4XpdLVh1twvrt4nQZWaCjNDhBlNReYDSTT3dWeNr5-_wpLM2wd9je3us-dLN2mFTSV4MXhGYFvoe7s1khl_YDitPWAHkIPFL8I9zOdHO20rQ6GIKsg3CYmb67PQZa283_vmdJg/s678/gab3f1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="678" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG4XpdLVh1twvrt4nQZWaCjNDhBlNReYDSTT3dWeNr5-_wpLM2wd9je3us-dLN2mFTSV4MXhGYFvoe7s1khl_YDitPWAHkIPFL8I9zOdHO20rQ6GIKsg3CYmb67PQZa283_vmdJg/w400-h225/gab3f1.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b>n a 2016 interview with his hometown paper, Pope Francis <a href="https://cnstopstories.com/2016/07/05/pope-says-critics-wont-stop-him-from-pursuing-vision-for-church/" target="_blank">told <i>La Nación</i></a> one key to his governing style: <p></p><p>"I don't cut off heads," he said. "I've never liked doing that."</p><p>Yet now, the pontiff has done just that, effectively stripping one of his inner circle of the red hat in stunning, dramatic fashion.</p><p>At 8pm Thursday in Rome, the Holy See Press Office slipped out a very late, one-sentence addendum to the noontime <i>Bollettino,</i> stating that Francis had "accepted the resignation of the office of Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and of the rights connected to the Cardinalate presented by His Eminence Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu." </p><p>Unaccompanied by any explanation – and likened by many to either a "lightning bolt" or an "earthquake" – what the announcement lacked in length, it made up for in impact... and, at least at first, a flood of unanswered questions.</p><p>In modern times, three other men have either been forced to renounce either the prerogatives of membership in the papal "Senate" or the rank altogether. In each of those cases – the Austrian Hans Hermann Groer in 1998, the Scotsman Keith O'Brien in 2015 and, in 2018, the American Theodore McCarrick – the move was taken after multiple allegations of sexual abuse were levied against each. </p><p>That is not the case here: in a first, Becciu's ouster owes itself to financial misconduct, which in itself creates a monster of a precedent for an institution that's seen its share of fiscal scandal at very high levels. Yet just as much, while the prior trio of <i>de facto</i> ex-cardinals were figures in the distant trenches (albeit prominent ones in their respective countries), this time, Francis moved on a key Vatican figure in a way not seen in memory, exiling Becciu not just from his Roman office, but a seat in the next Conclave. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIi-OVzY1Va4W1OJA7h5tOuBRyRlz48aJymaHFQxbLV2VVud9fPG8pf4_6LH_Q1bdiV4_R-F5BEYjtlKr0znVhdOKoAN1e2CStd8QAnJ9IejflJVC5mef_llybNiL0ZUe4mQ3Fg/s2048/abe3bc.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1421" data-original-width="2048" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZIi-OVzY1Va4W1OJA7h5tOuBRyRlz48aJymaHFQxbLV2VVud9fPG8pf4_6LH_Q1bdiV4_R-F5BEYjtlKr0znVhdOKoAN1e2CStd8QAnJ9IejflJVC5mef_llybNiL0ZUe4mQ3Fg/w400-h278/abe3bc.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>A lifer in papal diplomacy, the Sardinian-born prelate was brought to the pinnacle of the Vatican by Benedict XVI, who named him <i>Sostituto</i> of the Secretariat of State (effectively the Holy See's "chief of staff") in 2011, after a brief but formidable stint as Nuncio to Cuba. Upon Francis' election two years later, Becciu's combination of background and skill won a quick admirer in the new Pope, who famously crashed a lunch at his aide's apartment on his first Holy Thursday in office, having learned that the then-archbishop was hosting rank-and-file parish priests. <p></p><p>Accordingly, while Papa Bergoglio took less than six months to replace Benedict's "Vice-Pope," Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, at the Secretariat's helm, Becciu remained atop the power structure alongside Francis and Cardinal Pietro Parolin past the pontificate's five-year mark, going to the saint-making office in 2018 with the post's traditional red hat. Before departing, however, his prior experience had helped the pontiff rack up two legacy-defining achievements – thanks to his time in Cuba and its resulting contacts, Becciu played a role in brokering what became the US' watershed 2014 <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2014/12/whatever-francis-wants-francis-gets.html" target="_blank">"opening" to the Communist-run island</a> under President Barack Obama, as well as securing Havana <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/02/blog-post.html" target="_blank">as the site of the first-ever meeting</a> between a Roman pontiff and the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church in 2016, the latter <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2016/02/in-ecumenical-quake-pope-scores.html" target="_blank">a coveted ecumenical goal</a> of the Popes for over a half-century.</p><p>While most outside guessing in the wake of Thursday's move focused on long-simmering rumblings over Becciu's potential role in an investment of over €100 million (US$116 million) of Vatican funds into a high-end apartment building in London (dubbed the "palace of luxury" in the Italian press), only after the announcement did the ostensible cause surface, as the Italian outlet <i>L'Espresso </i>– the Sunday magazine of the country's largest newspaper, the leftist <i>La Repubblica</i> – revealed that this weekend's edition <a href="https://espresso.repubblica.it/plus/articoli/2020/09/25/news/vaticano-elemosine-fratello-cardinale-becciu-1.353520?ref=RHPPTP-BH-I268420531-C12-P5-S1.8-T2&preview=true" target="_blank">would allege a "real and proper method" of financial corruption</a> on the part of the cardinal. Among the claims: Becciu's authorization of spending from the Holy See's charitable accounts (most pointedly, the Peter's Pence collection from the world's faithful) for speculative investments, among them with entities involving his brothers. (As a point of context, it bears noting that Francis himself is close to the leadership of <i>La Repubblica,</i> above all the paper's co-founder and longtime editor, the atheist Eugenio Scalfari, whose multiple, loosely-constructed interviews with the Pope have garnered fury among church conservatives.)</p><p>Adding to the furore, barely 12 hours after telling a handful of reporters that he "prefer[red] silence" in the wake of Francis' decision, Becciu abruptly changed tack Friday morning, holding a press conference to profess his innocence and reaffirm his "confidence" in the Pope. </p><p>According to Italian reports, the cardinal thought he was going to a standard 6pm audience to present Francis with decrees on causes of canonization when, Becciu said today, the Pope <a href="https://www.repubblica.it/vaticano/2020/09/25/news/vaticano-268487120/?ref=RHPPTP-BH-I268420531-C12-P5-S1.8-T1" target="_blank">told him "that he no longer trusts me." </a></p><p>"I felt a little dazed," Becciu said. "Until 6.02, I thought I was his friend, a faithful executor for the Pope.... I don't think I'm corrupt." </p><p>In light of "the good done" over his years of service, the cardinal added that Francis had permitted him to keep his Vatican apartment.</p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><b>* * *</b></div>Again, the sweeping nature of the move itself doesn't mean we've heard the entirety of what's happened. At least, not yet.<p></p><p>Even as the effective "decapitation" of a cardinal is among the most potent tools in a Pope's arsenal of clerical punishment, it remains to be seen whether Becciu will face charges in Vatican City's justice system, or if Francis – the sovereign of the city-state – will see the cardinal's exile as having sent enough of a message. Just as much, given years of claims surrounding abuse of resources by other top prelates, the million-dollar question is whether this is a one-off penalty, or something the pontiff will see fit to extend to other egregious instances. </p><p>Either way, as the closest analog to Becciu – the Chicago-born Archbishop Paul Marcinkus, hounded by a long trail of seedy allegations from the Vatican's banking scandals of the 1970s and '80s – was permitted to depart Rome for a golf course in Arizona and live a quiet, un-punished life for some two decades until his 2006 death, yesterday's move makes for a sizable game-changer on one of the Curia's keenest weak-spots, and arguably signals a turning point in Francis' pontificate halfway through its eighth year.</p><p>While Becciu retains the title of cardinal, his renunciation of "the rights connected to it" goes well beyond a vote in an eventual Conclave, which he would've enjoyed through 2028. </p><p>As the pontiff's principal advisers – and given the sensitive missions on which they're often sent – the members of the College enjoy universal faculties in the law (in other words, they are not subject to a local bishop when traveling and ministering), as well as the prerogatives to advise the Pope and collaborate with him in the universal governance of the church, whether as a group in consistories or through their membership of the dicasteries of the Roman Curia. All that said, as the move on Becciu did not include the imposition of sanctions upon his ministry as priest and bishop, he may celebrate Mass and the sacraments publicly without any issue.</p><p>In that light, the cardinal's ouster has significantly complicated at least one top-level coming event – on 31 October, Becciu was slated to be in Hartford, presiding in his role as Saints Czar at the Beatification Mass of Fr <a href="https://www.fathermcgivney.org/fmcgs/en/index.html" target="_blank">Michael McGivney,</a> the Connecticut-born founder of the Knights of Columbus. </p><p>With his departure from the post, another figure must now be tapped as papal legate to lead the rites. As of press-time,<i> </i>no developments have emerged in light of the sudden change.</p><p><b>–30–</b></p>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-41393655102972922092020-08-25T14:31:00.000-04:002020-08-25T17:46:24.298-04:00On St Louis' Day, The Arch's Call – "We Must Be 'Gateways,' Not Gatekeepers" <i>(Updated with homily.)</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">O</span></b>ne hundred sixty years ago, on the eve of a Civil War whose echoes have eerily resurfaced in these days, the bond between Catholicism's oldest diocese in these States and the mother-church of the American West was created when Baltimore and St Louis were respectively led by Dublin-born brothers named Kenrick.<br />
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Today, as the Premier See's own <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/06/mitch-st-louis.html" target="_blank">Mitch Rozanski</a> crosses the Mississippi to become the ninth successor of the younger of the siblings, the MetroLink comes full-circle. And much like Peter Richard – the founding archbishop who would hold office for 52 years (the record tenure of any US prelate) – the nation's newest metropolitan now outranks his "older brothers," becoming the first Baltimore priest named to an archdiocese in nearly four decades.<br />
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Gratefully, there is no need today to say <i>"Noli Irritare Leonen" </i>– the Kenrick motto once memorably translated by a successor as "Don't mess with the lion." Here, if anything, facing a roiled scene of pandemic-induced turmoil, one of the nation's outsize venues of civil unrest over racial injustice – and, indeed, a local ecclesiology encrusted by history that has led to strong perceptions of a disconnect with the people it's supposed to serve – the more fitting opening line is drawn <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2017/07/this-is-dignity-of-america.html" target="_blank">from the 1791 prayer</a> of Baltimore's John Carroll, the nation's founding shepherd: namely, <i>"[T]hat they may be preserved in union and in peace."</i><br />
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With that in mind, it's Arch-time – from the sumptuous "New Cathedral" named for the city's patron on his feast-day, the livefeed of the Installation Mass, beginning at 2pm Central – and, here, <a href="https://bit.ly/STLArchX" target="_blank">the rite's ample <i>libretto</i>:</a><br />
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...and in a potent answer to the call given by today's papal legate for the event – that is, Rome's wish for a ministry of "unity and prophecy" (citing Francis' <a href="http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2020/documents/papa-francesco_20200629_omelia-pallio.html" target="_blank">loaded Peter and Paul preach</a> in June) – here below, the new Arch's opening word.<br />
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<b>HOMILY OF </b><br />
<b>THE MOST REVEREND MITCHELL THOMAS ROZANSKI<br />
TENTH ARCHBISHOP OF ST LOUIS </b></div>
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MASS OF INSTALLATION<br />
THE CATHEDRAL-BASILICA OF SAINT LOUIS<br />
25 AUGUST 2020 </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b>t is with a heart that is deeply humbled that I am in your midst this day: grateful to God for calling me to priesthood; grateful to Pope Francis for calling me to shepherd this Church of St. Louis; grateful to his representative in our country, Archbishop Christophe Pierre, who has shown me such great kindness over these past two months. </div>
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As Archbishop Pierre could not be with us, I thank Msgr. Dennis Kuruppassery, the <i>Chargé d’Affaires</i> of the Apostolic Nunciature, who so graciously bestowed the Pallium earlier in our celebration in the name of our Holy Father. This past Sunday’s Gospel reminds us powerfully how our Lord built his Church on the “rock” of Peter’s faith. And so as a Catholic, even more as a pastor, I pledge my own fidelity and unity, and that of God’s People in this “Rome of the West,” to Peter’s successor among us, without whom we cannot know the Lord who sent him, the Lord who seeks to send us. </div>
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As we are graced with the presence of our Seventh Archbishop, Justin Cardinal Rigali, Your Eminence, welcome home. And to all my brother Bishops who honor us with your presence here today, many of you sons of this illustrious local Church we now share, I offer not only my personal gratitude, but that of all of us here. What a joy it is to gather with brother priests, deacons, women and men in consecrated life, seminarians and the good people of this venerable Church of St Louis – it is a privilege, it is my joy, to be able to serve the Lord with you! </div>
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Bishop Mark Rivituso and Bishop Robert Hermann have been so welcoming in sharing with me their great love of our archdiocese and her people; I pray that I may have that same share of enthusiasm and joy in serving here for which they are so well loved. </div>
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On the day I received the phone call from Archbishop Pierre with the surprising news that the Holy Father had appointed me to St. Louis, the next person I spoke with was Archbishop Robert Carlson. Serving here as Archbishop for the past eleven years, he is a shepherd truly dedicated to the Lord Jesus and His people. We are all so grateful to Archbishop Carlson for his generous response to the call of Jesus to serve as priest of fifty years, and a remarkable 37 years as bishop across no less than four dioceses. Archbishop, please know of the gratitude of the entire Church for your solicitous care for everyone in this Archdiocese and beyond! </div>
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I thank our friends in the media who are sharing this Mass of Installation with the wider world, and I look forward to working closely with you. But for now, please know how your work is allowing two very, very special people to watch this Mass from their home in Baltimore, Maryland. My Mom and Dad, Jean and Alfred, are united with us here in prayer. Throughout their sixty-four years of married life, they have made a home where God is the center of who we are as family; living out the vocation of marriage in a heroic way. I would not be living out my vocation if they first did not show me the way of love, faith, devotion and gratitude. My two brothers, Ken and Albert, and my nephews, Kyle and Dalton, join with me in thanking you for everything, Mom and Dad! </div>
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And now, I look to my new home. Alongside our Stanley Cup Champion Blues, baseball’s Eminent Cardinals, and delicious ribs, the defining symbol of St. Louis to the world is the Arch. A tangible symbol of this “Gateway to the West,” the span of the Arch reminds us of the hopes and dreams of so many, who either settled here in the early history of our country, or those who passed through here to move to a life on the great western frontier. They came with many hopes: for a better life, for a place to raise their families and to be a part of that great adventure in the growth of this nation. </div>
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How much that hope is needed in our world today! Back in late February, just six months ago, could any of us have imagined how, within days, we would be plunged into the greatest pandemic to affect the human race in over a hundred years? As we mourn the passing of tens of thousands of our fellow citizens, and offer prayers for the millions among us who are still struggling with the impact of the coronavirus, we share in the frustration of its devastating impact on all of our lives, be they physical, emotional or economic. As one person remarked to me, “How much longer can we take all this?” </div>
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But sisters and brothers, COVID-19 is not the only urgent cross facing us today. As a nation – and, indeed, as a Church – we find ourselves still struggling with the scars of systemic racism in our society. To quote a brother bishop who this area knows well, this crime against human life and dignity is another, no less devastating virus, this one a man-made plague that also isolates us from one another and diminishes the God-given humanity that we all must cherish if we are to be His children. </div>
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Our civil discourse these days is not very civil; when a person shares a differing opinion, the tendency to demonize the other, often in deeply personal ways, eclipses any type of dialogue, common ground or understanding. And as Catholics – as Christians – we need to ask: <i>Where is God in all this?</i> </div>
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We need only look at the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel:<i> “Love one another as I have loved you.”</i> How many times have we heard these words of Jesus from the Gospel of John? That Jesus wanted his own to “Love one another as he has loved us.” In the midst of a pandemic, a societal reckoning on the life issue of race relations, an atrophied civic discourse – and, yes, the often-sinful polemics we now face within our Church – loving one another seems to be a tough thing to do these days. Yet, my friends, we are called to be a people of hope! </div>
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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI helps us to understand Jesus’ command when he wrote in <i>Deus Caritas Est</i> that “Love of neighbor, grounded in the love of God, is first and foremost a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful, but it is also a responsibility for the entire ecclesial community at every level: from the local community to the particular Church and to the Church universal in its entirety. As a community, the Church must practice love.” </div>
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I am humbly called to be with you in this ecclesial community of St. Louis. This “Gateway City” provides us a rich imagery – for in order for us to live out this fundamental command to love one another, it must be carried out in action. <i>We ourselves must be gateways, not gatekeepers</i>: Gateways to healing, to evangelization, to mercy, to compassion – gateways to listening with the ears of Jesus. As Pope Francis has so clearly and repeatedly taught: “We must build bridges and not walls.” </div>
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How do we put our love of others into action? How do we serve the Lord with gladness? How do we rejoice in the Lord always? It’s simple: Jesus calls us to encounter people just as He did. Jesus never shied away from anybody – but rather He knew how significant and fundamental it is to meet people face to face no matter their history, their sinfulness, their sanctimoniousness, their abilities or their shortcomings. And so we are called to do the same. </div>
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Shortly after being elected Pope, our Holy Father Francis found and elevated Fr Konrad Krajewski – a junior staff-member at the Vatican – to be the papal almoner, the bishop who oversees the distribution of alms and goods to those in need. Having heard of Fr Konrad’s nightly ritual of feeding the poor of Rome with leftovers he was given from the city’s restaurants, Pope Francis gave him a very clear description for his new job: he said, “Here is your office and here is your desk and I don’t want to see you behind that desk because if you do you will not have this job very long.” </div>
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On the feast-day of this illustrious city, how poignant a message this is for a diocese and community named for a saint who was holy not for the crown he wore, but the service it allowed him to give. My friends, in the spirit of St Louis, let us remember: <i>parishes are not built from behind desks; communities are not built from behind desks; as a Church, evangelization does not happen from behind a desk. </i></div>
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During this pandemic, most of us have been confined to Zoom calls and virtual “meetings.” Thank God we have these, but, like most of you, I yearn for the day when we can meet safely face to face and not through our TVs, computers or phones. While we are compelled to be our brother’s keeper and so live within these necessary public safety parameters for the time being, let us nonetheless be visible and encounter people as best we can to spread the joy of the Gospel. </div>
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The call to leadership in the Church today is a call to a deeper love: a love for God and for His people, who are the Body of Christ in the world. This calling is a challenge to all of us to pour out our lives in service. Pope Francis reminds us of this in the <i>Joy of the Gospel.</i> Our Holy Father beautifully sets forth the way a bishop <i>ought to be present and ceaseless in his pastoral activity and conversion:</i> “The bishop must always foster [a] missionary communion in his diocesan Church, following the ideal of the first Christian communities, in which the believers were of one heart and one soul. To do so, he will sometimes go before his people, pointing the way and keeping their hope vibrant. At other times, he will simply be in their midst with his unassuming and merciful presence. At yet other times, he will have to walk after them, helping those who lag behind and – above all – allowing the flock to strike out on new paths. In his mission of fostering a dynamic, open and missionary communion, he will have to encourage and develop the means of participation proposed in the Code of Canon Law and other forms of pastoral dialogue, out of a desire to listen to everyone and not simply those who would tell him what he would like to hear. Yet, the principal aim of these participatory processes should not be Ecclesial organization but rather the missionary aspiration of reaching everyone." </div>
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My brothers and sisters, let us walk together on this path – I need your help and your prayers. </div>
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As we are encouraged to do so, let us be bold and creative in the task of rethinking goals, structures, style and methods of evangelization. With your prayers, voices and commitment, let us work together in wise pastoral discernment. </div>
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In all our words and deeds – in everything we hope to do – may we remember the words of the prophet Sirach: <i>“Compassionate and merciful is the Lord.”</i><br />
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So must we be “compassionate and merciful.” So must we be! </div>
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<b>–30–</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-46748567839022899732020-06-10T06:01:00.002-04:002020-06-15T12:54:08.949-04:00Bishop Mitch Goes to “Rome” – Pope Taps Mass. Prelate For St Louis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>s the Vatican’s working year wends toward its close at month’s end, a cycle interrupted by a historic outbreak is making up for lost time, and wrapping up with more than one bang.<br />
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Accordingly, Roman Noon this Wednesday brings another “end-of-school” treat, as the Pope named 61 year-old Bishop <b>Mitchell Rozanski</b> of Springfield (Mass.) as the <b>Tenth Archbishop of St Louis. </b><br />
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The first East Coast figure to inherit the “Rome of the West” since the Brooklyn-born John Joseph Carberry – the last of three (non-baseball) cardinals on Lindell Blvd. – arrived in 1968, the archbishop-elect succeeds Archbishop Robert Carlson, who reached the retirement age of 75 last June after 35 years on the bench. <br />
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Now home to some 550,000 Catholics, the 175 year-old archdiocese – the mother church of the American West: a vaunted center of Catholicity dating to its initial settlement by the French – might not have much in common with Rozanski’s most recent assignment in the Berkshires, but indeed bears a stark resemblance to his hometown of Baltimore: similar in size and the inflections of Southern culture, both titanic venues of Catholic history on these shores, with the enduring legacy of a massive institutional presence to prove it. And the similarities don’t end at the church’s walls, either – with Ferguson just over St Louis’ western line, six years since Michael Brown was murdered by a police officer there, the current national moment merely underscores the cities’ shared thread of high-profile racial injustice, the brutality and tensions of which have extended into our own time.<br />
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In that light, it’s especially notable that Francis has sent a prelate with a warm and fuzzy pastoral style, an empathetic listener with a premium on conciliation – traits already well-affirmed by the bench, which chose Rozanski to helm its ecumenical and interfaith efforts over the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation. Yet earthy as he is, Mitch – a "lifer" in the trenches before becoming an auxiliary to Cardinal <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-last-prince-of-baltimore-cardinal.html" target="_blank">William Keeler</a> at 45 – won’t so much sweep onto the Mississippi's western bank with a flourish as much as he’ll be overawed by it.<br />
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Indeed, in the thinking of some, Rozanski’s healing traits had marked him out over recent months as a contender for the <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/12/with-malone-ouster-buffalo-is-vacant.html" target="_blank">roiled, bankrupt</a> diocese of Buffalo – an idea bolstered by his Polish heritage given the community’s prominence in Western New York. That he’s instead been sent to a far more prominent and happier charge (and the pallium that comes with it) isn’t simply a vote of confidence in his talents, but likewise a reflection of St Louis’ ongoing need for bridge-building of a different sort.<br />
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A solid moderate in the tradition of his hometown mentors – Keeler and his Baltimore predecessor, Archbishop William Borders – the notion of Mitch Rozanski as successor to now-Cardinal Raymond Burke (who led the St Louis church <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/06/chief-justice-st-louis-cardinal.html" target="_blank">for four tumultuous years,</a> 2004-08) is enough to make one’s head spin. Not that the archbishop-elect is some sort of raving leftist – far from it – but simply that the excoriating style with which Burke polarized the archdiocese to the point of instability, outrage (and, in the case of one parish, <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2008/05/boom-lowered.html" target="_blank">a formal schism</a>) would be antithetical to Rozanski’s low-key, dialogue-heavy approach. On this front, as the remnants of Burke’s high-octane, Francis-skeptic ecclesiology endure in influential pockets of St Louis Catholicism, reinforcing the cohesion in diversity of the local church remains a formidable challenge.<br />
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Much as the destination is a surprise, Rozanski’s name has been floated for several major openings over the last year, including Washington and Philadelphia, yet as recently as three weeks ago, another name was tipped for this appointment. <br />
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Even so, St Louis hit “jackpot” with this pick – Cardinal fans, you’re gonna love this guy. He’s coming to you with an open hand and a heart of gold, and this scribe knows you’ll respond in kind, just as <i>Whispers</i>’ STL crew always has for this shop. It’s simply a wonderful match – the only thing missing is a branch of Royal Farms (Baltimore’s home of the World’s Best Fried Chicken)... all told, be good to him, and he will assuredly be good to you.<br />
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Having first flown to Baltimore to tell his parents of the move, the archbishop-elect will be in St Louis this morning for the usual 10am press conference (<a href="https://youtu.be/XltueCiVKNE?t=1830" target="_blank">video</a>), which have now resumed after the COVID-induced lockdowns. Per the norms of the canons, Rozanski must be installed within two months of today’s appointment. <div><br /></div><div>(<b>SVILUPPO:</b> Per the in-house <i>Review</i>, the handover <a href="https://www.archstl.org/archbishop-carlson-5399" target="_blank">is slated for August 25th,</a> the diocese's patronal day as the feast of St Louis, King of France.)<br />
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At said installation in the mammoth, all-mosaic "jewel-box" named for the city's patron, it’s likely that the Tenth Archbishop will likewise be invested with his pallium as head of the church in Missouri – a rare doubling-up of the twin rites.<br />
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While the world's newly-named metropolitans are usually expected to join the Pope on the 29th’s feast of Saints Peter and Paul to receive the symbol of their office, the hurdles of international travel mid-pandemic is set to prevent most of this year’s class from being on hand for the moment. Regardless, the US’ contingent of five new archbishops – <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/04/from-midnight-sun-to-emerald-city-pope.html" target="_blank">Paul Etienne</a> of Seattle, <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/02/in-philly-begin-to-hope.html" target="_blank">Nelson Pérez</a> of Philadelphia, Atlanta’s <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/03/with-popes-pick-francis-comes-to-atlanta.html" target="_blank">Gregory Hartmayer</a> OFM Conv., the Vincentian <a href="http://www.catholicanchor.org/alaska-news/pope-francis-names-bishop-andrew-bellisario-c-m-archbishop-of-the-archdiocese-of-anchorage-juneau/" target="_blank">Andrew Bellisario</a> of Alaska’s newly-merged archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau, and now the “Arch-Mitch” – is Francis’ largest to date over his seven years in office.<br />
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With today’s move, the reigning pontiff has named 13 of the nation’s 32 Latin-church metropolitans.<br />
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Of course, today’s handoff isn’t this week’s only blockbuster for the Stateside bench – capping years of anticipation among not a few church-folks, yesterday saw Francis give the hat to the longtime top prospect to enter the nation’s episcopal ranks.<br />
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All of 49, Msgr David Toups of St Petersburg has established himself as a <i>bona fide</i> rockstar, from a well-regarded stint at the national church’s Clergy office, to pastoring one of the Southeast’s marquee parishes (Tampa’s booming Christ the King), to nearly a decade as rector of the region’s lone major seminary, where he oversaw a rare expansion of a US formation-house in recent times – and raising the eight-figure construction budget to make it happen. <br />
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To be sure, the “if” of Toups becoming a bishop was never in question – it was only a matter of “where”… and after years of sparring among the Great Powers, we have our answer: he’s taking his talents to Beaumont, Texas, an extremely comfortable fit given its place on his native Gulf Coast, and a tight-knit, diverse community that’ll make for an ample proving ground for his considerable skill-set, all the more given its not-so-seldom experience of damaging hurricanes, to which he’s already well-accustomed.<br />
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In contrast to Rozanski, Bishop David <i>will</i> take Beaumont by storm – and the rest of Churchworld will be watching. Indeed, looking at his path to this point – Roman formation, a critical DC posting that put him on the wider radar, then presiding over marked growth and vitality at an A-list American seminary (and turning his charismatic Rector’s Conferences <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Priests-Need-Rector-Speaks-Seminarians/dp/0998116483" target="_blank">into a book</a>) –the parallels are almost eerie to the trajectory of his own rector at the NAC: Tim Dolan, who likewise was rocketed onto the bench at the close of his seminary tenure. One significant difference, however, is that Toups is two years younger than was Dolan at his own appointment in 2001 – and unlike the now-cardinal-archbishop of New York, he’s starting out as a diocesan bishop as opposed to an auxiliary.<br />
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With public worship already well resumed in Texas, the bishop-elect will be ordained on August 21st. Yesterday’s press conference in the Cathedral-Basilica of St Anthony was notably the first in-person rollout since the COVID lockdowns pushed the events to virtual form: <br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="285" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8utbWIQJXsQ?start=739" width="425"></iframe><br />
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<b>–30–</b></div>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-70896322908791741072020-05-06T11:45:00.000-04:002020-05-06T12:03:50.950-04:00"True Shepherds Don't Live For Themselves" – In Atlanta, "A Call To Action"<b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>lways slated to be American Catholicism's <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/03/with-popes-pick-francis-comes-to-atlanta.html" target="_blank">Main Event of 2020</a> – yet now, an even more poignant and notable one amid the pandemic that's robbed it of a congregation – from Atlanta's empty Cathedral of Christ the King, the homecoming of Friar <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ztfpD_8z6KEJN0fSguamqyuCKe48oioQ/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Gregory Hartmayer</a> as the Seventh Archbishop of <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2009/06/hotlanta-grain-once-scattered-now.html" target="_blank">what's become a 1.2 million-member church</a> in the "Capital of the South."<br />
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The Installation Mass set to begin at 12.30pm Eastern, here's the livefeed:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="242" id="ls_embed_1588779920" scrolling="no" src="https://livestream.com/accounts/3320827/events/9049878/player?width=430&height=242&enableInfoAndActivity=false&defaultDrawer=&autoPlay=false&mute=false" width="430"> </iframe><br />
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...and the worship aid for the drastically slimmed-down rites:<br />
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As ever, more to come.<br />
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<b>–30–</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-21956945105683354122020-05-01T14:14:00.000-04:002020-05-02T13:20:20.146-04:00Same "Mother"... Different Church<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">F</span></b>ifty days into a Stateside Church in lockdown, this first of May brings the latest edition of a ritual as old as American Catholicism itself.<br />
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A practice employed both in hours of celebration and crisis over the last four centuries, the throes of a pandemic that’s now claimed 65,000 lives across the US will see the nation’s bishops re-consecrate these shores to Our Lady, this time as "Mother of the Church" – a title declared by now-St Paul VI at the close of Vatican II and re-emphasized by the reigning Pope, who <a href="https://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2018/05/a-new-marian-feast-another-montini.html" target="_blank">gave <i>Mater Ecclesiae</i> a universal feast</a> on the Monday after Pentecost.<br />
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The distinct linkage of the Stateside fold to the Mother of God dates to the settlement of Maryland (the lone Catholic colony) on Annunciation Day 1634, a tie bolstered nearly two centuries later under the nation's founding bishop, John Carroll of Baltimore, who dedicated the new people's first Cathedral <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2006/11/out-of-darkness-resurrection-of.html" target="_blank">to Mary Assumed into Heaven,</a> the venue in which Immaculate Conception would be declared the national patroness in 1846.<br />
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Yet even for reflecting that vaunted heritage, today's rite likewise underscores a markedly different era: far from the hierarchy's Anglo cradle, the consecration will be led on the opposite coast, in Los Angeles – another place named for the Madonna, whose 5 million faithful (their number doubled in three decades) now comprise the largest US diocese of all time – due to last year's ascent of the first Latino ever to lead the national bench, the Mexican-born Archbishop José Gomez.<br />
<br />
With many, if not most diocesan bishops set to replicate the act from their respective quarantines, <a href="http://www.usccb.org/about/communications/upload/consecration-usa-mary-mother-of-church.pdf" target="_blank">the brief liturgy</a> in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels begins at Noon Pacific (3pm Eastern); as ever, here's the livefeed:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1dWdoKFB6XI" width="430"></iframe><br />
<br />
...and the text of the Prayer of Consecration itself:<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">M</span></b><i>ost Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, you are the fairest fruit of God’s redeeming love; <br />
you sing of the Father’s mercy and accompany us with a mother’s love.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>In this time of pandemic we come to you, our sign of sure hope and comfort.</i><br />
<i>Today we renew the act of consecration and entrustment carried out by those who have gone before us.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>With the love of a Mother and Handmaid,</i><br />
<i>embrace our nation which we entrust and consecrate once again to you, together with ourselves and our families.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>In a special way we commend to you</i><br />
<i>those particularly in need of your maternal care.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Health of the Sick,</i><br />
<i>sign of health, of healing, and of divine hope for the sick, we entrust to you all who are infected with the coronavirus.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Mother of Consolation,</i><br />
<i>who console with a mother’s love all who turn to you,</i><br />
<i>we entrust to you all those who have lost loved ones in the pandemic.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Help of Christians,</i><br />
<i>who come to our rescue in every trial,</i><br />
<i>we entrust to your loving protection all caregivers.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Queen and Mother of Mercy,</i><br />
<i>who embrace all those who call upon your help in their distress,</i><br />
<i>we entrust to you all who are suffering in any way from the pandemic.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Seat of Wisdom,</i><br />
<i>who were so wonderfully filled with the light of truth,</i><br />
<i>we entrust to you all who are working to find a cure to this pandemic.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Mother of Good Counsel,</i><br />
<i>who gave yourself wholeheartedly to God’s plan for the renewing of all things in Christ, we entrust to you all leaders and policymakers.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Accept with the benevolence of a Mother</i><br />
<i>the act of consecration that we make today with confidence, and help us to be your Son’s instruments</i><br />
<i>for the healing and salvation of our country and the world.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary, Mother of the Church,</i><br />
<i>you are enthroned as queen at your Son’s right hand:</i><br />
<i>we ask your intercession for the needs of our country,</i><br />
<i>that every desire for good may be blessed and strengthened, that faith may be revived and nourished,</i><br />
<i>hope sustained and enlightened,</i><br />
<i>charity awakened and animated;</i><br />
<i>guide us, we pray, along the path of holiness.</i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Mary our Mother,</i><br />
<i>bring everyone under your protection</i><br />
<i>and entrust everyone to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. </i><br />
<i><br />
</i> <i>Amen.</i></blockquote>
<b>–30–</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-145513027306057362020-04-12T05:01:00.002-04:002020-04-14T14:40:57.244-04:00On Easter Day, "This Is A Different 'Contagion'"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></b>gain, <i>Buona Pasqua</i> – Happy Easter – to one and all, especially those among us seeking its light, joy and hope all the more this year.<br />
<br />
A couple hundred feet, but really a world away from its usual site in the flower-laden "garden of the Resurrection" outside, again from a starkly empty Altar of the Chair, here's the video of the final event of this extraordinary Holy Week at the Vatican – the Pope's Mass of this Easter Day...<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ptop33_yhjQ" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
...which, as ever, was followed by the traditional <i>Urbi et Orbi</i> message and blessing – again, one which took place against the kind of backdrop never before seen, an all the more staggering visual (top) as it made for Francis' lone moment of the week in the mammoth nave of the Basilica:<br />
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<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">D</span></b>ear brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!<br />
<br />
Today the Church’s proclamation echoes throughout the world: “Jesus Christ is risen!” – “He is truly risen!”.<br />
<br />
Like a new flame this Good News springs up in the night: the night of a world already faced with epochal challenges and now oppressed by a pandemic severely testing our whole human family. In this night, the Church’s voice rings out: “Christ, my hope, has arisen!” (Easter Sequence).<br />
<br />
This is a different “contagion”, a message transmitted from heart to heart – for every human heart awaits this Good News. It is the contagion of hope: “Christ, my hope, is risen!”. This is no magic formula that makes problems vanish. No, the resurrection of Christ is not that. Instead, it is the victory of love over the root of evil, a victory that does not “by-pass” suffering and death, but passes through them, opening a path in the abyss, transforming evil into good: this is the unique hallmark of the power of God.<br />
<br />
The Risen Lord is also the Crucified One, not someone else. In his glorious body he bears indelible wounds: wounds that have become windows of hope. Let us turn our gaze to him that he may heal the wounds of an afflicted humanity.<br />
<br />
Today my thoughts turn in the first place to the many who have been directly affected by the coronavirus: the sick, those who have died and family members who mourn the loss of their loved ones, to whom, in some cases, they were unable even to bid a final farewell. May the Lord of life welcome the departed into his kingdom and grant comfort and hope to those still suffering, especially the elderly and those who are alone. May he never withdraw his consolation and help from those who are especially vulnerable, such as persons who work in nursing homes, or live in barracks and prisons. For many, this is an Easter of solitude lived amid the sorrow and hardship that the pandemic is causing, from physical suffering to economic difficulties.<br />
<br />
This disease has not only deprived us of human closeness, but also of the possibility of receiving in person the consolation that flows from the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and Reconciliation. In many countries, it has not been possible to approach them, but the Lord has not left us alone! United in our prayer, we are convinced that he has laid his hand upon us (cf. Ps 138:5), firmly reassuring us: Do not be afraid, “I have risen and I am with you still!” (cf. Roman Missal, Entrance Antiphon, Mass of Easter Sunday).<br />
<br />
May Jesus, our Passover, grant strength and hope to doctors and nurses, who everywhere offer a witness of care and love for our neighbours, to the point of exhaustion and not infrequently at the expense of their own health. Our gratitude and affection go to them, to all who work diligently to guarantee the essential services necessary for civil society, and to the law enforcement and military personnel who in many countries have helped ease people’s difficulties and sufferings.<br />
<br />
In these weeks, the lives of millions of people have suddenly changed. For many, remaining at home has been an opportunity to reflect, to withdraw from the frenetic pace of life, stay with loved ones and enjoy their company. For many, though, this is also a time of worry about an uncertain future, about jobs that are at risk and about other consequences of the current crisis. I encourage political leaders to work actively for the common good, to provide the means and resources needed to enable everyone to lead a dignified life and, when circumstances allow, to assist them in resuming their normal daily activities.<br />
<br />
This is not a time for indifference, because the whole world is suffering and needs to be united in facing the pandemic. May the risen Jesus grant hope to all the poor, to those living on the peripheries, to refugees and the homeless. May these, the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters living in the cities and peripheries of every part of the world, not be abandoned. Let us ensure that they do not lack basic necessities (all the more difficult to find now that many businesses are closed) such as medicine and especially the possibility of adequate health care. In light of the present circumstances, may international sanctions be relaxed, since these make it difficult for countries on which they have been imposed to provide adequate support to their citizens, and may all nations be put in a position to meet the greatest needs of the moment through the reduction, if not the forgiveness, of the debt burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations.<br />
<br />
This is not a time for self-centredness, because the challenge we are facing is shared by all, without distinguishing between persons. Among the many areas of the world affected by the coronavirus, I think in a special way of Europe. After the Second World War, this continent was able to rise again, thanks to a concrete spirit of solidarity that enabled it to overcome the rivalries of the past. It is more urgent than ever, especially in the present circumstances, that these rivalries do not regain force, but that all recognize themselves as part of a single family and support one another. The European Union is presently facing an epochal challenge, on which will depend not only its future but that of the whole world. Let us not lose the opportunity to give further proof of solidarity, also by turning to innovative solutions. The only alternative is the selfishness of particular interests and the temptation of a return to the past, at the risk of severely damaging the peaceful coexistence and development of future generations.<br />
<br />
This is not a time for division. May Christ our peace enlighten all who have responsibility in conflicts, that they may have the courage to support the appeal for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. This is not a time for continuing to manufacture and deal in arms, spending vast amounts of money that ought to be used to care for others and save lives. Rather, may this be a time for finally ending the long war that has caused such great bloodshed in beloved Syria, the conflict in Yemen and the hostilities in Iraq and in Lebanon. May this be the time when Israelis and Palestinians resume dialogue in order to find a stable and lasting solution that will allow both to live in peace. May the sufferings of the people who live in the eastern regions of Ukraine come to an end. May the terrorist attacks carried out against so many innocent people in different African countries come to an end.<br />
<br />
This is not a time for forgetfulness. The crisis we are facing should not make us forget the many other crises that bring suffering to so many people. May the Lord of life be close to all those in Asia and Africa who are experiencing grave humanitarian crises, as in the Province of Cabo Delgado in the north of Mozambique. May he warm the hearts of the many refugees displaced because of wars, drought and famine. May he grant protection to migrants and refugees, many of them children, who are living in unbearable conditions, especially in Libya and on the border between Greece and Turkey. And I do not want to forget the island of Lesvos. In Venezuela, may he enable concrete and immediate solutions to be reached that can permit international assistance to a population suffering from the grave political, socio-economic and health situation.<br />
<br />
Dear brothers and sisters,<br />
<br />
Indifference, self-centredness, division and forgetfulness are not words we want to hear at this time. We want to ban these words for ever! They seem to prevail when fear and death overwhelm us, that is, when we do not let the Lord Jesus triumph in our hearts and lives. May Christ, who has already defeated death and opened for us the way to eternal salvation, dispel the darkness of our suffering humanity and lead us into the light of his glorious day, a day that knows no end.<br />
<br />
With these thoughts, I would like to wish all of you a happy Easter.</blockquote>
<b>-30-</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-44704113529291346532020-04-11T21:51:00.000-04:002020-04-12T05:06:39.065-04:00On A Unique Easter Night, "Be Strong, For With God Nothing Is Lost!"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">S</span></b><i>urrexit Dominus Vere, Alleluia – Buona Pasqua a tutti!</i><br />
<br />
Happy Easter to all... yet even if the event and its message is the same, this time the feeling and the scene are all too different.<br />
<br />
Again from an empty – and, per this night's custom, darkened – St Peter's, the fullvideo of tonight's "Mother of all Vigils":<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="290" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/88X2c4turW8" width="425"></iframe><br />
<br />
...and the Pope's homily – a call for a virus-stricken world to "not yield to fear":<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">“A</span></b>fter the Sabbath” (Mt 28:1), the women went to the tomb. This is how the Gospel of this holy Vigil began: with the Sabbath. It is the day of the Easter Triduum that we tend to neglect as we eagerly await the passage from Friday’s cross to Easter Sunday’s Alleluia. This year however, we are experiencing, more than ever, the great silence of Holy Saturday. We can imagine ourselves in the position of the women on that day. They, like us, had before their eyes the drama of suffering, of an unexpected tragedy that happened all too suddenly. They had seen death and it weighed on their hearts. Pain was mixed with fear: would they suffer the same fate as the Master? Then too there was fear about the future and all that would need to be rebuilt. A painful memory, a hope cut short. For them, as for us, it was the darkest hour.<br />
<br />
Yet in this situation the women did not allow themselves to be paralyzed. They did not give in to the gloom of sorrow and regret, they did not morosely close in on themselves, or flee from reality. They were doing something simple yet extraordinary: preparing at home the spices to anoint the body of Jesus. They did not stop loving; in the darkness of their hearts, they lit a flame of mercy. Our Lady spent that Saturday, the day that would be dedicated to her, in prayer and hope. She responded to sorrow with trust in the Lord. Unbeknownst to these women, they were making preparations, in the darkness of that Sabbath, for “the dawn of the first day of the week”, the day that would change history. Jesus, like a seed buried in the ground, was about to make new life blossom in the world; and these women, by prayer and love, were helping to make that hope flower. How many people, in these sad days, have done and are still doing what those women did, sowing seeds of hope! With small gestures of care, affection and prayer.<br />
<br />
At dawn the women went to the tomb. There the angel says to them: “Do not be afraid. He is not here; for he has risen” (vv. 5-6). They hear the words of life even as they stand before a tomb... And then they meet Jesus, the giver of all hope, who confirms the message and says: “Do not be afraid” (v. 10). <i>Do not be afraid, do not yield to fear:</i> This is the message of hope. It is addressed to us, today. These are the words that God repeats to us today, this very night.<br />
<br />
Tonight we acquire a fundamental right that can never be taken away from us: the right to hope. It is a new and living hope that comes from God. It is not mere optimism; it is not a pat on the back or an empty word of encouragement, with a passing smile. No. It is a gift from heaven, which we could not have earned on our own. Over these weeks, we have kept repeating, “All will be well”, clinging to the beauty of our humanity and allowing words of encouragement to rise up from our hearts. But as the days go by and fears grow, even the boldest hope can dissipate. Jesus’ hope is different. He plants in our hearts the conviction that God is able to make everything work unto good, because even from the grave he brings life.<br />
<br />
The grave is the place where no one who enters ever leaves. But Jesus emerged for us; he rose for us, to bring life where there was death, to begin a new story in the very place where a stone had been placed. He, who rolled away the stone that sealed the entrance of the tomb, can also remove the stones in our hearts. So, let us not give in to resignation; let us not place a stone before hope. We can and must hope, because God is faithful. He did not abandon us; he visited us and entered into our situations of pain, anguish and death. His light dispelled the darkness of the tomb: today he wants that light to penetrate even to the darkest corners of our lives. Dear sister, dear brother, even if in your heart you have buried hope, do not give up: God is greater. Darkness and death do not have the last word. Be strong, for with God nothing is lost!<br />
<br />
Courage. This is a word often spoken by Jesus in the Gospels. Only once do others say it, to encourage a person in need: “Courage; rise, [Jesus] is calling you!” (Mk 10:49). It is he, the Risen One, who raises us up from our neediness. If, on your journey, you feel weak and frail, or fall, do not be afraid, God holds out a helping hand and says to you: “Courage!”. You might say, as did Don Abbondio (in Manzoni’s novel), “Courage is not something you can give yourself” (I Promessi Sposi, XXV). True, you cannot give it to yourself, but you can receive it as a gift. All you have to do is open your heart in prayer and roll away, however slightly, that stone placed at the entrance to your heart so that Jesus’ light can enter. You only need to ask him: “Jesus, come to me amid my fears and tell me too: Courage!” With you, Lord, we will be tested but not shaken. And, whatever sadness may dwell in us, we will be strengthened in hope, since with you the cross leads to the resurrection, because you are with us in the darkness of our nights; you are certainty amid our uncertainties, the word that speaks in our silence, and nothing can ever rob us of the love you have for us.<br />
<br />
This is the Easter message, a message of hope. It contains a second part, the sending forth. “Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee” (Mt 28:10), Jesus says. “He is going before you to Galilee” (v. 7), the angel says. The Lord goes before us, he goes before us always. It is encouraging to know that he walks ahead of us in life and in death; he goes before us to Galilee, that is, to the place which for him and his disciples evoked the idea of daily life, family and work. Jesus wants us to bring hope there, to our everyday life. For the disciples, Galilee was also the place of remembrance, for it was the place where they were first called. Returning to Galilee means remembering that we have been loved and called by God. Each one of us has our own Galilee. We need to resume the journey, reminding ourselves that we are born and reborn thanks to an invitation given gratuitously to us out of love, there, in my own Galilee. This is always the point from which we can set out anew, especially in times of crisis and trial. With the memory of my own Galilee.<br />
<br />
But there is more. Galilee was the farthest region from where they were: from Jerusalem. And not only geographically. Galilee was also the farthest place from the sacredness of the Holy City. It was an area where people of different religions lived: it was the “Galilee of the Gentiles” (Mt 4:15). Jesus sends them there and asks them to start again from there. What does this tell us? That the message of hope should not be confined to our sacred places, but should be brought to everyone. For everyone is in need of reassurance, and if we, who have touched “the Word of life” (1 Jn 1:1) do not give it, who will? How beautiful it is to be Christians who offer consolation, who bear the burdens of others and who offer encouragement: messengers of life in a time of death! In every Galilee, in every area of the human family to which we all belong and which is part of us – for we are all brothers and sisters – may we bring the song of life! Let us silence the cries of death, no more wars! May we stop the production and trade of weapons, since we need bread, not guns. Let the abortion and killing of innocent lives end. May the hearts of those who have enough be open to filling the empty hands of those who do not have the bare necessities.<br />
<br />
Those women, in the end, “took hold” of Jesus’ feet (Mt 28:9); feet that had travelled so far to meet us, to the point of entering and emerging from the tomb. The women embraced the feet that had trampled death and opened the way of hope. Today, as pilgrims in search of hope, we cling to you, Risen Jesus. We turn our backs on death and open our hearts to you, for you are Life itself.</blockquote>
<b>-30-</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-88160093048232334902020-04-09T11:41:00.000-04:002020-04-10T07:45:40.584-04:00For A Scattered Church, The "Supper" Awaits<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">E</span></b>ven as the liturgical shutdown of most of the Western church <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/03/amid-virus-spread-church-in-lockdown.html" target="_blank">approaches the one-month mark,</a> in a particular way, this is the night when the hit really sinks in.<br />
<br />
With a disorienting Lent now completed on this Holy Thursday afternoon, the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper opens the Paschal Triduum – always the summit of the Christian year, but this time with an even greater intensity and range of emotion due to <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2020/03/from-rome-blessing-for-world.html" target="_blank">circumstances without precedent in modern times.</a><br />
<br />
Again, here's hoping you and yours are all getting through OK – as ever, all prayers from here toward that end. While the livestreams abound for tonight's rites, we return to the focal point of this one Body: an empty St Peter's Basilica, as the Pope leads the Evening Mass at the Altar of the Chair from 6pm Rome (Noon Eastern).<br />
<br />
For reference, <a href="http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/libretti/2020/20200409-libretto-messa-in-cena-domini.pdf" target="_blank">here's the <i>libretto</i></a>, and here, the on-demand feed:<br />
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As ever, more to come – for now, may these days be as graced as they're surreal for each of us.<br />
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<b>SVILUPPO:</b> As Francis kept to his custom for this night of giving an unscripted homily, a full English text isn't immediately available. That said, the spontaneous text focused <a href="http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Pope:-doctors,-nurses-and-priests-who-died-from-the-epidemic-are-next-door-saints'-49793.html" target="_blank">on the witness of priests and medical workers</a> amid the pandemic. <br />
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While the Pope's message to the priests of the world would normally be given at the morning Chrism Mass on this day, the COVID spread led the Holy See last month to postpone the annual rite past Easter for the diocese of Rome, extending the same ability to every local church worldwide.<br />
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<b>-30-</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-57939328404968707522020-04-05T08:48:00.000-04:002020-04-05T09:36:48.898-04:00On Palm Sunday, "Life Is Of No Use If Not Used To Serve Others"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">I</span></b>t is a Palm Sunday – the beginning of a Week – like the Christian world has never seen: far from the usual teeming crowds, full choirs and vivid scenes, this time, the pandemic-induced lockdown of most of the world has necessitated a feast of sparseness.<br />
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Above all, that was the case this morning in Rome, where the Pope's usual outdoor Mass for over 100,000 pilgrims packed into St Peter's Square – led by scores of prelates <a href="http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2019/04/in-jesus-passion-meekness-of-silence.html" target="_blank">toting 4 foot-tall branches</a> – was all stripped away, replaced by a small group of "essential" ministers (above) at the Altar of the Chair, the secondary "chapel" space in the apse of the Basilica, where Francis will celebrate all the rites of this Holy Week effectively by himself.<br />
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Here, the video of today's liturgy (with English translation):<br />
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...and Papa Bergoglio's homily – notably a longer text than the "brief" meditation demanded by today's rubrics, but extended here so as to address the newly-emerged suffering of the wider world.<br />
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(Emphases original:)<br />
<blockquote>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">J</span></b>esus “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7). Let us allow these words of the Apostle Paul to lead us into these holy days, when the word of God, like a refrain, presents Jesus as <i>servant</i>: on Holy Thursday, he is portrayed as the servant who washes the feet of his disciples; on Good Friday, he is presented as the suffering and victorious servant (cf. Is 52:13); and tomorrow we will hear the prophecy of Isaiah about him: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold” (Is 42:1). God saved us by serving us. We often think we are the ones who serve God. No, he is the one who freely chose to serve us, for he loved us first. It is difficult to love and not be loved in return. And it is even more difficult to serve if we do not let ourselves be served by God.<br />
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But – just one question – how did the Lord serve us? By giving his life for us. We are dear to him; we cost him dearly. Saint Angela of Foligno said she once heard Jesus say: “My love for you is no joke”. His love for us led him to sacrifice himself and to take upon himself our sins. This astonishes us: God saved us by taking upon himself all the punishment of our sins. Without complaining, but with the humility, patience and obedience of a servant, and purely out of love. And the Father upheld Jesus in his service. He did not take away the evil that crushed him, but rather strengthened him in his suffering so that our evil could be overcome by good, by a love that loves to the very end.<br />
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The Lord served us to the point of experiencing the most painful situations of those who love: <i>betrayal</i> and <i>abandonment</i>.<br />
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<i>Betrayal</i>. Jesus suffered betrayal by the disciple who sold him and by the disciple who denied him. He was betrayed by the people who sang hosanna to him and then shouted: “Crucify him!” (Mt 27:22). He was betrayed by the religious institution that unjustly condemned him and by the political institution that washed its hands of him. We can think of all the small or great betrayals that we have suffered in life. It is terrible to discover that a firmly placed trust has been betrayed. From deep within our heart a disappointment surges up that can even make life seem meaningless. This happens because we were born to be loved and to love, and the most painful thing is to be betrayed by someone who promised to be loyal and close to us. We cannot even imagine how painful it was for God who is love.<br />
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Let us look within. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see our infidelities. How many falsehoods, hypocrisies and duplicities! How many good intentions betrayed! How many broken promises! How many resolutions left unfulfilled! The Lord knows our hearts better than we do. He knows how weak and irresolute we are, how many times we fall, how hard it is for us to get up and how difficult it is to heal certain wounds. And what did he do in order to come to our aid and serve us? He told us through the Prophet: “I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them deeply” (Hos 14:5). He healed us by taking upon himself our infidelity and by taking from us our betrayals. Instead of being discouraged by the fear of failing, we can now look upon the crucifix, feel his embrace, and say: “Behold, there is my infidelity, you took it, Jesus, upon yourself. You open your arms to me, you serve me with your love, you continue to support me… And so I will keep pressing on”.<br />
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<i>Abandonment</i>. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says one thing from the Cross, one thing alone: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46). These are powerful words. Jesus had suffered the abandonment of his own, who had fled. But the Father remained for him. Now, in the abyss of solitude, for the first time he calls him by the generic name “God”. And “in a loud voice” he asks the question “why?”, the most excruciating “why?”: “Why did you too abandon me?”. These words are in fact those of a Psalm (cf. 22:2); they tell us that Jesus also brought the experience of extreme desolation to his prayer. But the fact remains that he himself experienced that desolation: he experienced the utmost abandonment, which the Gospels testify to by quoting his very words.</blockquote>
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<blockquote>
Why did all this take place? Once again, it was done for our sake, to serve us. So that when we have our back to the wall, when we find ourselves at a dead end, with no light and no way of escape, when it seems that God himself is not responding, we should remember that we are not alone. Jesus experienced total abandonment in a situation he had never before experienced in order to be one with us in everything. He did it for me, for you, for all of us; he did it to say to us: “Do not be afraid, you are not alone. I experienced all your desolation in order to be ever close to you”. That is the extent to which Jesus served us: he descended into the abyss of our most bitter sufferings, culminating in betrayal and abandonment. Today, in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled, in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts, Jesus says to each one of us: “Courage, open your heart to my love. You will feel the consolation of God who sustains you”.<br />
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Dear brothers and sisters, what can we do in comparison with God, who served us even to the point of being betrayed and abandoned? We can refuse to betray him for whom we were created, and not abandon what really matters in our lives. We were put in this world to love him and our neighbours. Everything else passes away, only this remains. The tragedy we are experiencing at this time summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less; to rediscover that<i> life is of no use if not used to serve others</i>. For life is measured by love. So, in these holy days, in our homes, let us stand before the Crucified One – look upon the Crucified One! – the fullest measure of God’s love for us, and before the God who serves us to the point of giving his life, and, – fixing our gaze on the Crucified One – let us ask for the grace to live in order to serve. May we reach out to those who are suffering and those most in need. May we not be concerned about what we lack, but what good we can do for others.<br />
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<i>Behold my servant, whom I uphold</i>. The Father, who sustained Jesus in his Passion also supports us in our efforts to serve. Loving, praying, forgiving, caring for others, in the family and in society: all this can certainly be difficult. It can feel like a via crucis [a "way of the cross"]. But the path of service is the victorious and life giving path by which we were saved. I would like to say this especially to young people, on this Day which has been dedicated to them for thirty-five years now. Dear friends, <i>look at the real heroes</i> who come to light in these days: they are not famous, rich and successful people; rather, they are those who are giving themselves in order to serve others. Feel called yourselves to put your lives on the line. Do not be afraid to devote your life to God and to others; it pays! For life is a gift we receive only when we give ourselves away, and our deepest joy comes from saying yes to love, without ifs and buts. To truly say yes to love, without ifs and buts. As Jesus did for us.</blockquote>
<b>–30–</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-11578186703604558072020-04-01T16:14:00.000-04:002020-04-01T17:09:20.814-04:00From The Scribe's Desk<span style="font-size: large;"><b>L</b></span>est anyone hasn't heard it before, there's an old line in this business – indeed, both sides of it – about keeping things together with "Band-Aids and spit," or some variation thereof.<br />
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As these days are giving that reality fresh meaning on any number of fronts, that's nonetheless how <i>Whispers</i> has plugged through the last 15 years... and while a good few are only now getting a sense of what it's like, such are the times that even this shop needs to go beyond its usual comfort zone:<br />
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<b>–30–</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9704011.post-86109997048632446092020-03-27T12:29:00.001-04:002020-12-21T17:55:40.295-05:00“You Are Calling Us To Seize This Trial As A Time of Choosing” – From Rome, A Blessing For the World<i>(Updated with Pope’s homily.)</i><br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVReTtN5M2C3LSEjjKvuwca-PsZfLT3-WamrqOwN2avunxCJn0UxVt0KNJY0P6Iv9_w-EWXXcZx1qqa4VWDlBwZ7zOYTvWa2HonTDJ1xWwu6Z4q5gNlqHLHnFsYAZK0TE9UxV0Ig/s800/f1u20p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVReTtN5M2C3LSEjjKvuwca-PsZfLT3-WamrqOwN2avunxCJn0UxVt0KNJY0P6Iv9_w-EWXXcZx1qqa4VWDlBwZ7zOYTvWa2HonTDJ1xWwu6Z4q5gNlqHLHnFsYAZK0TE9UxV0Ig/w400-h266/f1u20p.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>A</span></b> unique act underscoring the gravity of the global crisis at hand, this evening brings an extraordinary <i>urbi et orbi</i> on the steps of St Peter’s at which the Pope will call down God’s blessing from an empty Square on a virus-wracked city and the anxious world beyond.<br />
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With the bishops of the world unusually urged by the Vatican to circulate the event to their people, the rite takes place at 6pm Rome, 1pm US Eastern – here’s the livefeed:<br />
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Per custom for major papal benedictions – an act normally reserved to Christmas and Easter – tonight’s blessing carries a plenary indulgence for those participating by television, radio or over the internet. As the spreading COVID-induced lockdowns prevent the usual conditions of going to Confession and receiving the Eucharist within a week, the Holy See has already clarified that the intent to fulfill these as soon as reasonably possible is sufficient to obtain the indulgence.<br />
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<b>SVILUPPO</b>: A striking reflection drawn from the Gospel passage on the apostles’ fear in a storm-tossed boat, below is the English text of the Pope’s message at tonight’s rite:<blockquote>“When evening had come” (Mk 4:35). The Gospel passage we have just heard begins like this. For weeks now it has been evening. Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets, and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost. Like the disciples in the Gospel, we were caught off guard by an unexpected, turbulent storm. We have realized that we are on the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other. On this boat… are all of us. Just like those disciples, who spoke anxiously with one voice, saying “We are perishing” (v. 38), so we too have realized that we cannot go on thinking of ourselves, but only together can we do this.<br />
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It is easy to recognize ourselves in this story. What is harder to understand is Jesus’ attitude. While his disciples are quite naturally alarmed and desperate, he stands in the stern, in the part of the boat that sinks first. And what does he do? In spite of the tempest, he sleeps on soundly, trusting in the Father; this is the only time in the Gospels we see Jesus sleeping. When he wakes up, after calming the wind and the waters, he turns to the disciples in a reproaching voice: “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” (v. 40).<br />
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Let us try to understand. In what does the lack of the disciples’ faith consist, as contrasted with Jesus’ trust? They had not stopped believing in him; in fact, they called on him. But we see how they call on him: “Teacher, do you not care if we perish?” (v. 38). Do you not care: they think that Jesus is not interested in them, does not care about them. One of the things that hurts us and our families most when we hear it said is: “Do you not care about me?” It is a phrase that wounds and unleashes storms in our hearts. It would have shaken Jesus too. Because he, more than anyone, cares about us. Indeed, once they have called on him, he saves his disciples from their discouragement.<br />
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The storm exposes our vulnerability and uncovers those false and superfluous certainties around which we have constructed our daily schedules, our projects, our habits, and priorities. It shows us how we have allowed to become dull and feeble the very things that nourish, sustain and strengthen our lives and our communities. The tempest lays bare all our prepackaged ideas and forgetfulness of what nourishes our people’s souls; all those attempts that anesthetize us with ways of thinking and acting that supposedly “save” us, but instead prove incapable of putting us in touch with our roots and keeping alive the memory of those who have gone before us. We deprive ourselves of the antibodies we need to confront adversity.<br />
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In this storm, the façade of those stereotypes with which we camouflaged our egos, always worrying about our image, has fallen away, uncovering once more that (blessed) common belonging, of which we cannot be deprived: our belonging as brothers and sisters.<br />
“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” Lord, your word this evening strikes us and regards us, all of us. In this world, that you love more than we do, we have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste. We did not stop at your reproach to us, we were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick. Now that we are in a stormy sea, we implore you: “Wake up, Lord!”.<br />
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“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?” Lord, you are calling to us, calling us to faith. Which is not so much believing that you exist, but coming to you and trusting in you. This Lent your call reverberates urgently: “Be converted!”, “Return to me with all your heart” (Joel 2:12). You are calling on us to seize this time of trial as a time of choosing. It is not the time of your judgment, but of our judgment: a time to choose what matters and what passes away, a time to separate what is necessary from what is not. It is a time to get our lives back on track with regard to you, Lord, and to others. We can look to so many exemplary companions for the journey, who, even though fearful, have reacted by giving their lives. This is the force of the Spirit poured out and fashioned in courageous and generous self-denial. It is the life in the Spirit that can redeem, value and demonstrate how our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people – often forgotten people – who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines nor on the grand catwalks of the latest show, but who without any doubt are in these very days writing the decisive events of our time: doctors, nurses, supermarket employees, cleaners, caregivers, providers of transport, law and order forces, volunteers, priests, religious men and women and so very many others who have understood that no one reaches salvation by themselves. In the face of so much suffering, where the authentic development of our peoples is assessed, we experience the priestly prayer of Jesus: “That they may all be one” (Jn 17:21). How many people every day are exercising patience and offering hope, taking care to sow not panic but a shared responsibility. How many fathers, mothers, grandparents, and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday gestures, how to face up to and navigate a crisis by adjusting their routines, lifting their gaze and fostering prayer. How many are praying, offering and interceding for the good of all. Prayer and quiet service: these are our victorious weapons.<br />
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“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith”? Faith begins when we realize we are in need of salvation. We are not self-sufficient; by ourselves, we founder: we need the Lord like ancient navigators needed the stars. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.<br />
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The Lord asks us and, in the midst of our tempest, invites us to reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support, and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering. The Lord awakens so as to reawaken and revive our Easter faith. We have an anchor: by his cross, we have been saved. We have a rudder: by his cross, we have been redeemed. We have hope: by his cross, we have been healed and embraced so that nothing and no one can separate us from his redeeming love. In the midst of isolation when we are suffering from a lack of tenderness and chances to meet up, and we experience the loss of so many things, let us once again listen to the proclamation that saves us: he is risen and is living by our side. The Lord asks us from his cross to rediscover the life that awaits us, to look towards those who look to us, to strengthen, recognize and foster the grace that lives within us. Let us not quench the wavering flame (cf. Is 42:3) that never falters, and let us allow hope to be rekindled.<br />
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Embracing his cross means finding the courage to embrace all the hardships of the present time, abandoning for a moment our eagerness for power and possessions in order to make room for the creativity that only the Spirit is capable of inspiring. It means finding the courage to create spaces where everyone can recognize that they are called, and to allow new forms of hospitality, fraternity, and solidarity. By his cross, we have been saved in order to embrace hope and let it strengthen and sustain all measures and all possible avenues for helping us protect ourselves and others. Embracing the Lord in order to embrace hope: that is the strength of faith, which frees us from fear and gives us hope.<br />
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“Why are you afraid? Have you no faith”? Dear brothers and sisters, from this place that tells of Peter’s rock-solid faith, I would like this evening to entrust all of you to the Lord, through the intercession of Mary, Health of the People and Star of the stormy Sea. From this colonnade that embraces Rome and the whole world, may God’s blessing come down upon you as a consoling embrace. Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts. You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm. Tell us again: “Do not be afraid” (Mt 28:5). And we, together with Peter, “cast all our anxieties onto you, for you care about us” (cf. 1 Pet 5:7). </blockquote><b>-30-</b>Rocco Palmohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17672864588299796053noreply@blogger.com