Atheist Leaves Books to Pope

Who she greatly admired--Pope Benedict!

Saw him as an ally against the Muslim crusade against the Christian West.

From the Toronto Sun:

A prominent Italian journalist and self-described atheist who died last month has left most of her books and notes to a pontifical university in Rome because she admired Pope Benedict, a school official said yesterday.

Oriana Fallaci had described the Pontiff as an ally in her campaign to rally Christians in Europe against what she saw as a Muslim crusade against the West. As she battled breast cancer last year, she had a private audience with Benedict, who had been elected only a few months earlier, at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo.

In one of her final interviews, Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal: "I am an atheist, and if an atheist and a Pope think the same things, there must be something true."

Benedict was surprised by the gift of the books, some of which date to the 17th century and included volumes about the formation of modern-day Italy, philosophy and theology, said Msgr. Rino Fisichella, rector of the Pontifical Lateranense University in Rome.

St. Gaspar del Bufalo

From The Church's Most Powerful Novenas:

Antonio and Annunziata Del Bufalo named their child after one of the three magi when he was born on the Feast of the Epiphany in 1786 in Rome, Italy. Yet when at the age of two young Gaspar was threatened with blindness due to a serious eye ailment it was to St. Francis Xavier (whose partial relics were contained in the nearby Gesu (Jesus) Church) that they turned—and were heard as Gaspar was healed.
Early in Gaspar's life he showed himself to be a great friend of the poor and the sick. He would teach the catechism to orphans and bring meals to the hospitalized as well as setting up a shelter for those who had no place to sleep at night. At the same time he was pursuing the priesthood in Rome to which he was ordained in1808.
A year after Gaspar's ordination the French Emperor Napoleon took over the Papal States and imprisoned the Pope. The clergy were ordered to take an oath of loyalty to the emperor and when Gaspar came before the magistrate and was given the oath he replied, "I would rather die, or suffer evil than to take such an oath. I cannot, I ought not. I will not." He was sent to Piacenza, in exile and during this time he became gravely ill and received the Last Rites from his friend Monsignor Albertini.
Monsignor Albertini encouraged his friend that he was sure this could not be the end for Gaspar for some years earlier a saintly nun Maria Agnese had told him that he would meet a young priest with whom he would form a close friendship during a time of oppression by the Church's enemies. She had said, "He will distinguish himself by a special devotion to St. Francis Xavier. He will become an apostlic missionary and will found a new congregation of missionary priests under the invocation of the Divine Blood who purpose shall be to reform customs, to save souls, to foster decorum among the secular clergy, to arouse the people back from their apathy and lack of faith, bringing them back to love of the Crucifix." Monsignor Albertini told Gaspar that God had much for him to do and so he would.
In 1811 after refusing the loyalty oath a second time he was imprisoned for the next four years until Rome was liberated from Napoleon's rule. In 1814 Pope Pius VII granted Gaspar a church and convent that had been abandoned by another religious order as a place where he could house a new congregation that would bear the name of Most Precious Blood of Christ. On August 15, 1815 the first house of this new congregation opened with four members.
The congregation founded by Gaspar was to be a charitable fraternity of priests who would take no vows but dedicate themselves to preaching missions and spreading devotion the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. He wrote to a priest friend at the time, "Those who do evangelical work, do so by ensuring that the Blood of Jesus is used to save souls, and they must do this continuously, asking that sinners be forgiven."
Gaspar went about preaching missions to the most obstinate groups. One time when a dying man, a sinner refused to convert—Gaspar began to scourge himself until the dying man came to his senses and died with his faith intact. Sent by the pope to preach to the most difficult souls, essentially gansters some of who intended to kill the priest, miracles were worked where the knife of a would be attacker fell out of the hand, a bullet intended for Gaspar fell harmlessly at his feet—while those who set out to persecute ended being captured by the Lord. Such was the power of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus and his apostle.
Gaspar suffered throughout his life. Some of this suffering came from the Church he loved and obeyed. He died in 1837. He was canonized a saint by Pope Pius XII in 1954.
Blessed Pope John XXIII, himself a great modern apostle of devotion to the precious blood added the phrase "Blessed be his most precious blood" to the Divine Praises commonly recited at the conclusion of Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament. In an Apostolic Letter on promoting the devotion of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus entitled Inde a Primis he shared that he had been a devotee of this devotion begun by St. Gaspar since his infancy and encouraged others to promote this devotion by using a litany developed by the Congregation of Rites at the time. He wrote in his Apostolic Letter that devotion to the Most Precious Blood owed its modern diffusion to St. Gaspar del Bufalo.

Witness the Risen Christ to the World

The Pope to Italian Catholics today in Bentegodi, from Zenit:

To communicate to others what a Christian believes, "it is necessary that this faith become life in each one of us," the Holy Father said. A great effort "is necessary so that every Christian becomes a 'witness,' is able and willing to assume the commitment to always give a reason to everyone for the hope that encourages him."

To achieve this, Benedict XVI said, one must "announce with vigor and joy the event of the death and resurrection of Christ, [the] heart of Christianity, essential fulcrum of our faith, powerful spring of our certainties, impetuous wind that sweeps away all fear and indecision, all doubt and human calculation."

"Only from God can the decisive change of the world come," the Pontiff said. "Only from the Resurrection is the authentic nature of the Church and of her testimony, understood."

To grasp what it means to be "witnesses of the risen Jesus, the 'of' must be well understood," stressed the Pope. "It means that the witness is 'of' the risen Jesus, namely, that he belongs to him, and precisely because of this, can give a valid testimony, can speak of him, make him known, lead others to him, transmit his presence."

In this way, the Holy Father added, "Christians can give the world hope, as they are of Christ and of God in the measure that they die with him to sin and rise with him to the new life of love, forgiveness, service and nonviolence."

A Sign? Pope's Ring Keeps Falling Off

I couldn't resist the Spirit Daily angle (without a doubt one of my favorite sites!)

From IOL:

Pope Benedict may have to have his ring tightened.

According to Italian media reports, the papal ring slipped off his finger twice while he was shaking hands with well-wishers as he left Verona's Bentegodi stadium on Thursday.

The faithful into whose palms the gold ring fell promptly gave it back each time.

Two Metro Trains Collide in Rome

From the BBC:

One person was killed and about 110 were injured when two metro trains
collided during the morning rush hour in Rome, officials say.
The crash
took
place at Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II station in the centre of the
Italian
capital. The trains were travelling on metro line A.
The square
above has
been cordoned off. Police and firemen are at the scene.

How Much More Good Will They be Able to Do?

Hopefully the canonization of their founder will spur the Sisters of Providence to new heights.

The words of Pope Benedict XVI from the Tribune Star:

“‘Go and sell everything you own, and give the money to the poor … then
come, follow me.’ These words have inspired countless Christians throughout the
history of the church to follow Christ in a life of radical poverty, trusting in
divine providence. Among these generous disciples of Christ was a young
Frenchwoman, who responded unreservedly to the call of the Divine Teacher.
Mother Theodore Guerin entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Providence in
1823, and she devoted herself to the work of teaching in schools. Then in 1839,
she was asked by her superiors to travel to the United States to become the head
of a new community in Indiana. After their long journey over land and sea, the
group of six sisters arrived at St. Mary-of-the-Woods. There they found a simple
log-cabin chapel in the heart of the forest. They knelt down before the blessed
sacrament and gave thanks, asking God’s guidance upon the new foundation. “With
great trust in divine providence, Mother Theodore overcame many challenges and
persevered in the work that the Lord had called her to do. By the time of her
death in 1856, the sisters were running schools and orphanages throughout the
state of Indiana. In her own words, ‘How much good has been accomplished by the
sisters of St. Mary-of-the-Woods. How much more good they will be able to do if
they remain faithful to their holy vocation.”

A Married Catholic Priest Extolls the Gift of Celibacy

Father Ray Ryland...in Crisis Magazine:

“You're a married priest? I didn't know we had married priests. I think the
Church should let all her priests marry.”

Words like these have greeted me frequently since my ordination to the priesthood in 1983, with dispensation from the rule of celibacy. I always assure those who favor optional celibacy that both my wife and I strongly support the Church's discipline of priestly celibacy. While I'm deeply grateful that the Church has made an exception for certain former Protestant clergy like me, the exception is clearly a compromise.
The priesthood and marriage are both full-time vocations. The fact is, no one
can do complete justice to both simultaneously.

T he objection usually persists. “But surely a married man is better qualified to teach people about marriage than is a celibate priest.” Again, I disagree (politely, of course). The purpose of marriage preparation is not to teach couples what the priest has experienced. Catholic couples need and have the right to be instructed in the
Church's revealed truth about the meaning of human sexuality and holy matrimony.
If both a married and a celibate priest are reasonably mature, and if each teaches in harmony with the Church, the married priest has no essential advantage over the celibate priest in giving marriage instruction.

Then comes the final argument. “Yes, that may be, but if priests could marry, it
would solve our priest shortage.” I reply that this is an assumption with no
evidence to support it. If the rule of celibacy is keeping men out of the priesthood, how do we account for the dioceses in this country that have an abundance of priests? As Pope Paul VI said 40 years ago, the decline in priestly vocations is due to lack of faith on the part of our people. The dissent that has been rampant in recent decades has created widespread confusion about the Church's teaching, especially with regard to the priesthood.

Saints Behaving Badly

Tom Craughwell gives hope to all of us--who as we alone know are the worst of sinners, that there is still a chance that if we turn to God we can be saints! I know what you're thinking, "How could I ever be a saint?" Or maybe you're thinking "How could he ever be a saint?" Good questions.

In Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints,just published by Doubleday, Tom Craughwill gives the answers.The list of the evils that some saints engaged in before their conversion is long: thievery, embezzling, satanists, promiscuity, idolatry, drunkedness and even anti-popery. The list brings to mind St. Paul "Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor railers, nor extortioners, shall possess the kingdom of God" and what follows "And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God" (1 Corinthians 6: 9-11). Indeed!

Craughwell's book is filled with both the well known (Augustine, Patrick, Francis of Assisi,Ignatius of Loyola) and the lesser known (Callixtus, Pelagia, Genesius, Fabiola). From the latter group is the story of St. Pelagia, an actress who before her conversion lived a life of rather loose morals. One can readily think of a number of similar actors, actresses, rock stars, politicians who might be the Pelagia's of today--whose popularity is matched by the wanton lifestyle they lead--leading others down a path of self-destruction. What keeps them and us from following Pelagia's path to saintdom--perhaps this event related by Craughwell provides a hint:

That night the devil woke Pelagia. "What evil have I ever done to you?" he asked. "Tell me how I have offended, and I will give you whatever you want. Only do not leave me. Do not make me a laughingstock."

Most of us would probably believe that lie--and if you do you might need to read another book that has just been published by Ascension Press, Interview With an Exorcist. Pelagia didn't need that book, but she knew what to do:

Pelagia made the sign of the cross and drove the devil away.

Of course this exactly what Saints Behaving Badly does for the reader, it gives them a solid lesson in Christian spirituality by showing them how the great saints have overcome the very evils that plague many of us. It is a catechism of a different source, a real page turner and in the end a book that can change your life.

Freddie Fender is Dead

From USA Today:

Freddy Fender, the "Bebop Kid" of the Texas-Mexico border who later turned his twangy tenor into the smash country ballad Before the Next Teardrop Falls, died Saturday. He was 69.

Fender, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in early 2006, died at noon at his Corpus Christi home with his family at his bedside, said Ron Rogers, a family spokesman.

Over the years, he grappled with drug and alcohol abuse, was treated for diabetes and underwent a kidney transplant.

Fender hit it big in 1975 after some regional success, years of struggling — and a stint in prison — when Before the Next Teardrop Falls climbed to No. 1 on the pop and country charts.

St Théodore (Anne-Thérèse) Guerin

Indianapolis Star blog

Criterion Blog

From the Indianapolis Star:

Pope Benedict, seated on a gold-trimmed throne in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, accepted gifts from Hoosiers Phil McCord, Sisters of Providence Marie Kevin Tighe and Denise Wilkinson, giving each a personal blessing.

It was the medically unexplained healing on McCord’s eye in 2001 that was deemed as the second miracle necessary for Guerin to be declared a saint.
McCord, now 60, offered up a prayer asking Guerin to seek God’s favor in healing.
Tighe, who promoted the cause of sainthood for 10 years, said: “It was like it is sealed, it is finished,” she said of a cause that has been in the works for nearly a century.

Wilkinson, who presented the pope with a picture of Mother Theodore and a check for $5,000 for to serve the needs of women and children, is the current leader of the Sisters of Providence, the order that Guerin founded northwest of Terre Haute in 1840.

Feast of St. Gerard Celebrated at Shrine

From the NJ Star-Ledger:

Thousands of people, many of them expectant mothers, are expected to descend this weekend on St. Lucy's Roman Catholic Church for the Feast of St. Gerard, a colorful, spiritual 107-year-old tradition that continues today.

St. Gerard is widely revered by Catholics as a protector of aspiring and expectant mothers.

The highlight of the festival - located in the heart of Newark's Old Little Italy - is the procession of the church's St. Gerard statue through the streets of the neighborhood. The procession will be held today, tomorrow and Monday afternoons.

As the statue is marched in the street on a pedestal, the faithful pin dollar bills and donation envelopes on it, covering it almost entirely in green. The church usually makes about $200,000 from the festival, enough for about a quarter of its annual budget, Granato said.

The novena to St. Gerard is included in my novena prayer book, which for some reason has jumped into the top 100 Catholic bestseller's at Amazon today:

The Return of the Latin Mass?

Not really a return, it has been around. If you live in a big city, you can attend it every Sunday. Typical misreporting on this--a "widening" of its use would no doubt lead to it being done in a few more places, but it is hard to concieve that it will be many and if it so one can only hope that the young priests will have had lessons in Church Latin.

What I long for is the experience that I had as a young student at Saint Meinrad in the 1980's where in the monastic chapel the reformed rite of the Mass was celebrated exactly the way it is in the ritual. Only one hymn, a post communion thanksgiving hymn. The antiphons chanted at the entrance and other places, the psalm chanted, most of the prayers chanted, incense used, the homily on target with the Readings--something that if others experienced would have made the longing for the old days totally unnecessary...but what we all have experienced is a far cry from that and therefore the crisis in the liturgy continues...

From Time magazine:

The new permission, or "indult," would most immediately address a longstanding schism with the ultra-traditionalist group founded in 1969 by the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, who opposed the Vatican II reforms. Lefebvre was excommunicated in 1988 after he consecrated four bishops without Rome's consent. But Benedict is believed to want to bring the Lefebvrites back in the fold.

Yet his olive branch may complicate matters in the American Church. Certainly, traditionalists who had to drive a hundred miles to find a priest with permission will be thrilled. More theologically liberal Catholics, however, may see it as a Lefebvrite-tinged step back from the principles they feel inspired Vatican II. "This would make it much more difficult for people to engage in full conscious and active participation, which was the goal of the Council," says Rev. James Martin, an editor at the Jesuit magazine America. Congregations could theoretically split on the issue, and many current priests would have to learn the old Mass (and more Latin, if they wanted to understand it).

Or buy a missal and follow along like they did in the old days.

For a real concise and excellent review of the issues surrounding this issue. Check out More Catholic Than The Pope: An Inside Look At Extreme Traditionalism by Pete Vere and Pat Madrid:

Pope's Audience: St. Simon and St. Jude

From Asia News Italy:

Pressing ahead with his illustration of the personalities of the apostles, the pope today dealt with Simon the Canaanite and Jude Thaddeus. Coming as they did from totally different social realities, they “are an evident sign that Jesus calls his disciples and collaborators from the most diverse social and religious strata, without any preclusion. He is interested in people, not social categories or labels! And the great thing is that within the group of his followers, all lived together although they were different, overcoming the imaginable difficulties. It was Jesus himself, in fact, who was the reason for their cohesion, in who all came together. This clearly is a lesson for us, who are often inclined to stress differences and perhaps contradictions, forgetting that in Jesus Christ is given to us the strength to calm our conflicts.”
The pope then turned to a letter, attributed to Jude Thaddeus, that harshly criticizes “those who use the grace of God as a pretext to excuse their debauchery and to lead their brothers astray with unacceptable teachings, introducing division within the Church”. Benedict XVI said “such controversial” language is no longer used today to “state very clearly both what remains distinctive in Christianity as well as that which is incompatible with it. The way of indulgence and dialogue, which the Second Vatican Council happily took up, should surely be followed with firm constancy. All the same, it should not make one forget the duty to hark back to, and to highlight with the same force, the main and irrefutable lines of our Christian identity. On the other hand, we must bear in mind that this identity of ours is not only expressed on a merely cultural or superficial level. Rather it calls for the strength, clarity and courage of provocation that belong to the faith.”
The pope added: “It is clear that the author of these lines fully lives his faith, to which belong considerable realities like moral integrity and joy, faith and finally praise, all motivated solely by the goodness of our unique God and the mercy of Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why both Simon the Canaanite and Jude Thaddeus help us to rediscover anew and to live tirelessly the beauty of the Christian faith, capable of bearing strong and at the same time serene witness.

The Miracle that Makes a Saint

From the Indianapolis Star:

Phil McCord was at a composting convention in New Mexico making small talk when a guy asked him what was the weirdest thing that's ever happened to him.
A shy man, McCord smiled. When the Roman Catholic Church has declared the unexplained healing of your eye to be a miracle that proves a 19th century nun is worthy of sainthood -- this is a question you can answer.
McCord, who has been asked to recount his experience a lot lately, leaves Thursday for Rome, where he will participate in the canonization of Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin, whose coming recognition as a saint is due in no small part to what happened to McCord's eye.
On Sunday, he will be part of a delegation from the religious order Guerin founded -- the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods -- that will present the pope with a gift during the canonization ceremonies.
And McCord -- who isn't Catholic, doesn't consider himself devout and can't figure out how he wound up in the middle of all this -- will come face to face with a pope.
"I've got to tell you there is this whole big fuzzy circle around the whole thing that is unreal," he said.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

The First Joyful Mystery: The Annunciation to Mary

The angel's greeting to Mary is one of joy as the hoped-for Messiah's coming is announced. Ask Our Lady to help you pray this decade, pondering the joy of God's coming to save His people.

--from Praying the Rosary: With the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and & Mysteries by Michael Dubruiel and Amy Welborn.

Repent or Perish Luke 13:3

To experience the joy of the joyful mysteries of the rosary one must truly repent, change their way of thinking--and learn a new what is really important in life. What should you and I really be awaiting? What is the ultimate event we should be looking forward to in our lives?

Isn't it interesting how the day that commemorates the birth of Jesus has been poluted in modern times as an event that is looked forward to for material gifts that in the end disappoint? Isn't this our first lesson in that not to repent leads to a life that is constantly passing where a final perishing is the end result?

Most of us can remember the many times that we have finally received what we thought would bring us ultimate happiness only in the end to realize that there is something more, something beyond what any of the earthly desires and fulfillment can bring. But the game goes on and we continue to replace one fantasy with another, thinking that this new "thing" will be "it."

This can happen even in religion, when one thinks the perfect liturgy, preacher, pope, spiritual director, (fill in your blank) will bring us to the heights that hitherto we haven't accomplished. This is a far cry from Jesus' admonition not to go off in search of the false messiahs, but rather to die to oneself. Repentance is hard. Most of us don't repent we just change our addictions, replacing one for the other--and experience the same disappointments over and over because X has let us down.

Imagine the joy of Mary as she hears the announcement that a savior is coming. The joy of a St. Paul when he realizes "wretched man that I am, who will save me?" "Thanks be to God, Jesus Christ!" (See Romans) Imagine your joy, my joy when we finally repent, turn away from Satan and all his empty promises and place our hope in God alone.

Thursday's Forecast

For all of you who live in the south, here is what we are already looking at for this week (although it is supposed to be in the 70's today), from the Weather Channel:

Mix of rain and snow. Highs in the upper 40s and lows in the upper 20s.

Irish Priests and the Florida Missions

From the Sun Sentinel:

In 1914, none of the four Catholic pastors in South Florida was Irish born, according to the Rev. Michael McNally's book, Catholicism in South Florida. By 1940, Irish clergy predominated.

About 1,250 Irish-born priests were serving in the United States in 1997, according to a study by sociologist William Smith of Georgia Southern University.

The very uncertainty of a religious frontier was a lure for the Irish, said the Rev. Gerald Grace of Highland Beach, one of 16 foreign-born Irish still serving in the Diocese of Palm Beach. "It was the missionary endeavor, never knowing what you're going to find."

For Grace, pastor of St. Lucy church in Highland Beach and a theology instructor at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary west of Boynton Beach, the appeal of South Florida so far has lasted 41 years.

"Any time you serve the needs of others -- seeing their perspective, affirming their goodness -- it's always fulfilling," he said. "That's at the heart of the gospel."

Pope: The Family Against Hedonism and Relativism

From Asia News Italy:

Citing Gaudium et Spes and Vatican Council II, the pope recalled that “God himself is the author of marriage”. And it is precisely from this Origin that the definition of marriage is born as “no longer two, but one flesh”. For this reason, any division or breaking of the marital bond is excluded: ‘Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate’ (Mk 10:8-9).

So the pope exhorted Christian spouses “to remain faithful to their vocation in every stage of life, ‘in joy and sorrow, in health and sickness’, as they promised to do in the sacramental rite. Aware of grace received, may Christian spouses build families open to life and capable of confronting together the many complex challenges of our time.”

Overcoming hedonism and relativism, parents are “true ‘missionaries’ of love and of life (cfr n.54).This mission is directed within the family – especially in reciprocal service and children’s education – and outside: the domestic family, in fact, is called to be a sign of God’s love towards all. It is a mission, this, that the Christian family can bring to fulfillment only if sustained by divine grace.”

Feast of the Holy Rosary

Commemorating a different type of crusade, reminiscent of the one that engaged most of the 20th century against the spread of communism and needed today to overcome new battles of the decline of faith in the West.

The rosary book that Amy and I wrote:

Feast of St. Bruno

Founder of the Carthusians...a great English Cathusian site