ZE071012
ZENIT
The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - October 12, 2007
VATICAN DOSSIER
506 More to be Beatified This Year
WORLD FEATURES
Holy See Glad U.N. Peace Group Exists
Argentina's Bishops Lament Priest's Crimes
NEWS BRIEFS
Insecurity Forces Caritas Relocation in Sudan
Muslim Scholars Send Note to Pope
SPIRITUALITY
What Use Are Miracles?
DOCUMENTS
Holy See Address on Peacebuilding Commission
MESSAGE TO READERS
No Service Oct. 13 and 14
506 More to be Beatified This Year
Papal Schedule Confirmed for October-NovemberVATICAN CITY, OCT 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org ">Zenit.org</A>).- Benedict XVI has approved the beatification rites of 506 more people for this year, the vast majority of them martyrs from the religious persecution in 1930s Spain.
The Vatican released Wednesday a schedule of the liturgical celebrations over which the Pope will preside for October and November, as well as news of the approval of beatifications.
On Sunday, Oct. 21, the Holy Father will travel to Naples for a pastoral visit, during which he will open the 21st International Encounter of Peoples and Religions.
On Monday, Nov. 5, at 11:30 a.m., Benedict XVI will celebrate a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the repose of the souls of cardinals and bishops who died during the course of the year.
For this month, the Holy Father approved five rites of beatification.
The Albertina Berkenbrock will be beatified on Oct. 20 in Tubarao, Brazil. The native Brazilian laywoman, born in 1919, was martyred in 1931.
Also in Brazil, the following day, Manuel Gómez González -- a Spanish diocesan priest, born in 1877 -- and Adílio Daronch -- a Brazilian layman, born in 1908 -- will be beatified. Both were martyred in Feijao Miudo in 1924.
Defending the faith
Another martyr, Franz Jägerstätter, will be beatified in Linz, Austria, on Oct. 26. The 36-year-old husband and father of three was decapitated on Aug. 9, 1943, because of his public opposition to Hitler and Nazism.
The beatification of Celina Chludzinska (1833-1913) will be held at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome on Oct. 27. The widowed native of Poland founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
On Oct. 28, in St. Peter's Square, 498 martyrs of the religious persecution in Spain (1936-1939) will be beatified. It will be the largest ever group of people to be beatification at the same time.
There will be two rites of beatification in November.
On Nov. 11 in Argentina, Ceferino Namuncurá (1886-1905) -- layman and student of the San Francisco de Sales Society -- will be beatified.
One week later, on Nov. 18, the Italian priest Antonio Rosmini, theologian and philosopher, will be beatified in Novara, Italy. Father Rosmini (1797-1855) founded the Institute of Charity and the Sisters of Providence.
In Brazil in December, Lindalva Justo de Oliveira will be beatified. The sister of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul died a martyr defending her virginity in 1993. She was 39.
Holy See Glad U.N. Peace Group Exists
Hopes for Results in Burundi and Sierra LeoneNEW YORK, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- Though the U.N. Peacebuilding Commission is still in a stage of growth, the Holy See welcomes the existence of the group, which aims to establish peace in countries recovering from conflict.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the Holy See's permanent observer to the United Nations, said this Wednesday at an address before the 62nd U.N. General Assembly, when he spoke about the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) at the end of its inaugural year.
He said: "My delegation believes that the best guarantee against conflict is the individual and collective enjoyment of durable peace. To achieve this in a post-conflict country, it is necessary to recognize the special needs of that country, so it can be assisted accordingly in laying the foundation of a sustainable peace.
"The Holy See therefore warmly welcomed the creation of the PBC, as a response to the need for greater coherence and coordination of international peacebuilding efforts in post-conflict situations."
Archbishop Migliore said, though, that the success of the mission will be measured based on the results it obtains in its first two countries, Burundi and Sierra Leone.
"The PBC's emphasis on strong national ownership and responsibility gives us reason to hope for success in those first two focus countries, as well as in other post-conflict states that will be considered in the future," he said.
"My delegation is aware of the continuing debates on what the PBC should be, on its relation with peacekeeping operations and on its procedures and methods," the archbishop continued. "While this is part of the commission’s growth process, these debates should not distract nor derail it from its mandate of making a difference in the lives of peoples and countries, lest it become just another debating forum."
Archbishop Migliore confirmed the Holy See's "continuing interest in the work of the PBC," and said he encourages it "in the pursuit of its challenging task of helping rebuild individual lives and entire countries ravaged by war."
"It shall have fully achieved this task," he added, "when development, peace and security, and human rights will finally be interlinked and mutually reinforcing in a country which knew the devastations of armed conflict."
Argentina's Bishops Lament Priest's Crimes
Convicted for Felonies During DictatorshipBUENOS AIRES, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org ">Zenit.org</A>).- The Argentinean episcopate says that it regrets the crimes committed by a priest during Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship. The priest has been condemned to life in prison.
Former Buenos Aires police force chaplain Father Christian Von Wernich was convicted Tuesday of complicity in seven homicides, 31 cases of torture and 42 kidnappings. An estimated 30,000 disappeared during the military junta's rule.
After the sentence was made public, the Argentinean bishops' conference said that "the steps that justice is taking to clarify these facts must help us renew the efforts of all citizens toward the path of reconciliation and they are a call to stay away from both impunity and hate."
The text, signed by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, president of the conference, added: "If any member of the church, no matter his condition, would have endorsed with his recommendation or complicity some of these acts -- the violent repression -- he would have acted under his personal responsibility, in a wrong way and committing a sin against God, humanity and his conscience.
"We pray for him, so God helps him and gives him the grace he needs to understand and amend the harm he has caused."
Bishop Martín de Elizalde of the Diocese Nueve de Julio, to which Father von Wernich belonged, said that he regrets "that we have found in our country so much division and hate, which we could not prevent or heal as a Church."
The fact "that a priest, by act or omission, was so far from the requirements of the mission that was given to him ... leads us to ask for forgiveness with sincere regret, while praying to our Lord to enlighten us in order to accomplish our vocation of unity and service."
Insecurity Forces Caritas Relocation in Sudan
DARFUR, Sudan, OCT. 12, 2007 (<a href="http://www.zenit.org"> Zenit.org</a>).- Caritas Internationalis and Action by Churches Together aid agencies are relocating staff as insecurity in the region heightens.The organizations announced today that they are moving a number of the Darfur Emergency Response Operation program staff in Sudan's South Darfur.
The joint faith-based operation, operating sine 2004, has channeled the resources of over 60 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox organizations into one of the largest humanitarian programs in South and West Darfur.
John Distefano, the director of the ACT-Caritas operation said, "This is a precautionary measure in line with standard procedures and we hope to have our staff back in the field after the Eid holiday [the end of the annual fasting month of Ramadan] to continue their work to support the seriously affected communities of Darfur."
Over the last three months, the situation in Darfur has continued to be unpredictable with increased insecurity challenges for humanitarian operations.
Muslim Scholars Send Note to Pope
LONDON, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- Muslim scholars have written to Benedict XVI and the heads of Christian churches to propose that the two faiths cooperate in creating peace and understanding in the world.Thursday's text comes a year after 38 Muslim scholars sent an open letter to the Pope in the wake of his address given at the University of Regensburg in September. The discourse had sparked controversy among some Muslim circles.
The 138 signatories of this year's letter offer an open invitation to Christians to unite with Muslims over what is most essential to their respective faiths -- the commandment of love.
With over a half of the world's population consisting of Muslims and Christians, the letter's authors believe that easing world tensions can only come from peace and justice between these two faiths.
The document calls for tolerance, understanding and moderation, and is signed by Muslim leaders, politicians and academics.
Commentary for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
ROME, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- While Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, 10 lepers met him at the entrance to a village. Staying at a distance they call out to him, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" Jesus has pity on them and says to them: "Go and show yourselves to the priests."
Along the way the 10 lepers discover themselves to be miraculously cured. The first reading also tells of a miraculous healing of a leper: that of Naaman the Syrian by the prophet Elisha. The liturgy's intention is clearly to invite us to reflect on the meaning of miracles and in particular of miracles that bring about the cure of a sickness.
Let us say that prerogative to do miracles is one of the most attested in Jesus' life. Perhaps the most dominant idea that the people had of Jesus during his life, more dominant than that of a prophet, was that of a miracle worker. Jesus himself presents this fact as proof of the Messianic authenticity of his mission: "The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised" (cf. Matthew 11:5). Miracles cannot be eliminated from Jesus' life without destroying the plot of the whole Gospel.
Together with accounts of the miracles, Scripture offers us criteria for judging their authenticity and purpose. In the Bible, miracles are never ends in themselves; much less are they supposed to elevate the person who does them and show off his extraordinary powers, as is almost always the case with healers and wonder workers who advertise themselves. Miracles are rather an incentive for and a reward of faith. It is a sign and it must serve to draw attention to what it signifies. This is why Jesus is saddened when, after having multiplied the loaves of bread, he sees that they did not understand what this was a sign of (cf. Mark 6:51).
In the Gospel itself, miracles are ambiguous. Sometimes they are regarded positively and sometimes negatively -- positively, when they are welcomed with gratitude and joy, when they awaken faith in Christ and hope in a future world without sickness and death; negatively, when they are asked for or demanded for faith. "What sign do you do that we might believe in you?" (John 6:30). This ambiguity continues in a different form in today's world. On the one hand, there are those who seek out miracles at all costs; it is always a hunt for the extraordinary, and people stop at their immediate utility. On the other hand, their are those who deny miracles altogether; indeed they look upon miracles with a certain irritation, as if it were a manifestation of degenerate religiosity, without recognizing that in doing so they are pretending to teach God himself what is true religiosity and what isn't.
Some recent debates that have arisen around the Padre Pio phenomenon have shown how much confusion is still around today about miracles. It is not true, for example, that the Church considers every unexplainable event a miracle (we know that even the medical world is full of this!). It considers as miracles only those unexplainable facts that, because of the circumstances in which they take place (which are rigorously ascertained), have the character of a divine sign, that is, they give confirmation to someone or an answer to a prayer. If a woman, who is without pupils from birth begins to see at a certain point while still being without pupils, this can be cataloged as an unexplainable fact. But if this happens while she is confessing to Padre Pio, as did in fact happen, then it is no longer possible to speak simply of an unexplainable fact.
Our atheist friends with their critical attitude in regard to miracles make a contribution to faith itself because they make us attentive to easy falsifications in this area. But they too must guard against an uncritical attitude. It is just as mistaken always to believe whatever is claimed as a miracle as it is always to refuse to believe without looking at the evidence. It is possible to be credulous but it is also possible to be ... incredulous, which is not very different.
* * *
Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher. The readings for this Sunday are 2 Kings 5:14-17; 2 Timothy 2:8-15; and Luke 17:11-19.
Holy See Address on Peacebuilding Commission
"Breaking Uncharted Areas of Action"NEW YORK, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- Here is a statement given Wednesday by Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, to the 62nd U.N. General Assembly on the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC).
* * *
Mr. President,
At the very outset, my delegation wishes to express appreciation to Ambassador Ismael Gaspar Martins, permanent representative of Angola, for his able chairmanship during the inaugural year of the Peacebuilding Commission. At the same time, I would like to express best wishes to Ambassador Yukio Takasu, permanent representative of Japan, as he assumes the chairmanship of the commission.
My delegation believes that the best guarantee against conflict is the individual and collective enjoyment of durable peace. To achieve this in a post-conflict country, it is necessary to recognize the special needs of that country, so it can be assisted accordingly in laying the foundation of a sustainable peace. The Holy See therefore warmly welcomed the creation of the PBC, as a response to the need for greater coherence and coordination of international peace-building efforts in post-conflict situations.
The commission’s success will be measured on the ground, based on whether or not it makes a difference to communities and countries it works with. Expectations on what it can deliver in countries emerging from armed conflicts continue to rise. This is especially true in Burundi and Sierra Leone. There the PBC is breaking uncharted areas of action, but the PBC's emphasis on strong national ownership and responsibility gives us reason to hope for success in those first two focus countries, as well as in other post-conflict states that will be considered in the future.
The PBC debates and documents suggest that one of the main challenges facing it is to prove that it is not a superfluous superstructure cast over the various stakeholders and actors already working on the ground. Rather, it is meant to bring added value to the overall effort of helping post-conflict states and societies successfully manage the difficult transition from war to sustainable peace and development. This task is made even more daunting by the fact that post-conflict situations pose multiple and particularly complex problems, all competing for immediate attention. To enable the PBC to respond adequately to this, the international community is equally challenged to equip it with the necessary mandate and resources.
I wish to commend the Working Group on Lessons Learned in its efforts in accumulating best practices and lessons on critical peacebuilding issues, thus helping the PBC make decisions more swiftly while avoiding past mistakes.
The Holy See was pleased with the approval of guidelines for civil society participation in the PBC. This participation would be decisive on the ground where, among other stakeholders, faith-based organizations are fully engaged in human development and are at the forefront in fostering dialogue, in peacemaking and in post-conflict reconciliation.
My delegation is aware of the continuing debates on what the PBC should be, on its relation with peacekeeping operations and on its procedures and methods. While this is part of the commission’s growth process, these debates should not distract nor derail it from its mandate of making a difference in the lives of peoples and countries, lest it become just another debating forum.
My delegation is pleased to assure of its continuing interest in the work of the PBC, and to encourage it in the pursuit of its challenging task of helping rebuild individual lives and entire countries ravaged by war. It shall have fully achieved this task when development, peace and security, and human rights will finally be interlinked and mutually reinforcing in a country which knew the devastations of armed conflict.
Thank you, Mr. President.
[Text adapted]
ROME, OCT. 12, 2007 (<A href="http://www.zenit.org">Zenit.org</A>).- Due to the annual ZENIT meeting, there will no published news service Saturday or Sunday. Services will resume as normal Monday.
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