ZENIT
The World Seen From Rome
Daily dispatch - July 10, 2008
VATICAN DOSSIER Pope's Australia Trip to Address Aborigine Rights Opus Dei Center to Host Resting Pope Pope's Next Encyclical in the Works WORLD FEATURES Colombia's Silent Conflict Headed Down Under: Pilgrim Youth Set Out Education Chips Away at Human Trafficking Blessed Frassati Is Present to a New Generation INTERVIEW Interior Prayer: Founded on Loving Much COUNTDOWN TO SYDNEY They're Here, and It's Cold DOCUMENTS Bishop Fisher's Homily on Feast of Blessed Frassati
VATICAN DOSSIER
Pope's Australia Trip to Address Aborigine Rights
Spokesman Says Journey Is Organizationally Complex
VATICAN CITY, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- A Vatican spokesman says the rights of indigenous Australians -- "trampled for centuries" -- will be a key topic during Benedict XVI's trip Down Under for World Youth Day.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, told journalists Wednesday about some of the details of the Pope's July 12-21 trip, his ninth apostolic journey.
The Holy Father will be accompanied by Cardinals Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals; Tarcisio Bertone, his secretary of state; and Agostino Vallini, newly appointed vicar for the Diocese of Rome.
Father Lombardi himself will be a member of the papal entourage.
The Jesuit told Vatican Radio that it is "a complex trip from the organizational point of view."
On Saturday, the Pope will leave Castel Gandolfo by helicopter and go to Fiumicino airport, to begin his trip to Sydney in a B777 Alitalia plane. The flight will last 12 hours, including a one and a half hour technical stop in Darwin, Australia.
Upon arriving Sunday, the Pontiff will rest for a few days in a private retreat center run by Opus Dei.
Cardinal Pell, archbishop of Sydney, will open the WYD celebrations on Tuesday. The following day, the Pope will be received by Governor General Michael Jeffrey and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.
He will then go to the Mary MacKillop Memorial and continue on to Rose Bay, where he will be welcomed by a group of young Aborigines before embarking on the "Sydney 2000" vessel for his trip to Barangaroo and his official arrival to the Youth Day celebrations.
Father Lombardi said that "the topic of the aborigines and their rights trampled for centuries will be very present in this trip, both in the Pope's words as well as in the addresses of civil authorities."
Among the various meetings planned, the spokesman highlighted two on Friday, July 18, in St. Mary's Cathedral with representatives of other religions, increasingly present in the country due to Asian immigration, and with members of non-Catholic Christian communities.
"It should be noted that Catholics already outnumber Anglicans in Australia," he said, before reviewing with journalists the rest of the meetings, especially the Vigil and Mass at Randwick Racecourse.
Prior to his departure, the Holy Father will meet with benefactors and volunteers of WYD, Father Lombardi added, inviting them to "'go into the deep' to proclaim the Good News to the whole world."
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Opus Dei Center to Host Resting Pope
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI's pre-youth day rest Down Under will be spent at an Opus Dei education center surrounded by the Australian bush.
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney confirmed last week that the Pope would be taken to the Kenthurst Study Center after his arrival Sunday in Australia.
The center, located northwest of Sydney, sits on a 25-acre plot of native bush, with the accompanying wildlife.
For its normal activities, it can accommodate 30 people.
To accommodate the Pope and visiting Church leaders, preparations are under way, most notably heightening security.
The Holy Father has only three days there to recover from jetlag and get ready for an intense few days of meetings with young people. But, Kenthurst staff expect the Pontiff will avail of the baby grand piano -- he's an accomplished pianist -- and the walking trails.
After his three days of quiet, the Pope will move to Sydney's cathedral house.
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Pope's Next Encyclical in the Works
Expected to Give Fresh Look at 21st Century
By Jesús Colina
ROME, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is reportedly working on his third encyclical this summer, which could be ready as early as this fall.
The Pope's secretary of state confirmed the existence of the document in an interview with the APCOM news agency last May. He even proposed a possible title: "Caritas in Veritate" (Charity in the Truth) and said this, the Holy Father's third encyclical, could be ready in the fall.
"For now, it is a hypothesis," Cardinal Bertone said. "I don't want to say that the title will definitely be this -- for now, yes, and for the moment, it's this idea, but later, a successive inspiration could arrive."
According to the secretary of state, the encyclical "comes and goes from the Pope's desk, because he doesn't want to repeat common concepts of the Church's social doctrine, but wants to offer something original, according to the challenges of today."
"We could think of the great problem of globalization and the other problems that afflict the international community, such as the food crisis and climate change," the cardinal said. "These are themes that could motivate an evaluation and commentary from the Church from the moral point of view."
Sneak preview?
The Holy Father may have given an insight into the themes of his encyclical when he addressed the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences last May. Their meeting was focused on "Pursuing the Common Good: How Solidarity and Subsidiarity Can Work Together."
He cited the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church in noting that the academy's session was devoted to examining the interrelationship between "four fundamental principles of Catholic social teaching: the dignity of the human person, the common good, subsidiarity and solidarity."
"These key realities," the Pontiff said, "which emerge from the living contact between the Gospel and concrete social circumstances, offer a framework for viewing and addressing the imperatives facing mankind at the dawn of the 21st century, such as reducing inequalities in the distribution of goods, expanding opportunities for education, fostering sustainable growth and development, and protecting the environment."
Benedict XVI suggested that "we can initially sketch the interconnections between these four principles by placing the dignity of the person at the intersection of two axes: one horizontal, representing 'solidarity' and 'subsidiarity,' and one vertical, representing the 'common good.' This creates a field upon which we can plot the various points of Catholic social teaching that give shape to the common good."
Nevertheless, though the graphic gives an idea of the principles' interweaving, the Pope stated, "the reality is much more complex."
And he said that solidarity and subsidiarity must be placed within the context of the Trinity. He further proposed that these two principles "have the potential to place men and women on the path to discovering their definitive, supernatural destiny."
He added: "The eyes of faith permit us to see that the heavenly and earthly cities interpenetrate and are intrinsically ordered to one another, inasmuch as they both belong to God the Father, who is 'above all and through all and in all.'"
"At the same time, faith places into sharper focus the due autonomy of earthly affairs, insofar as they are 'endowed with their own stability, truth, goodness, proper laws and order.'"
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WORLD FEATURES
Colombia's Silent Conflict
A Continuing Journey After Betancourt Rescue
BOGOTA, Colombia, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- There is a silent conflict going on in Colombia, says a Caritas spokesman -- silent because many of the tragedies there receive no media attention.
Hostages -- like recently freed Íngrid Betancourt -- are some of the victims of the South American country's ongoing conflict. But Caritas affirms there are others as well.
In a statement from the aid organization, it noted that very few people outside Colombia have heard about a Caritas worker killed on June 24; or the four teachers abducted that same week, two of whom were later executed; or the three children who were killed when they stepped on a mine while collecting fruit, which happened the day before Betancourt's release.
"Ingrid Betancourt's release is very good news for the Church and a great step forward in resolving the humanitarian crisis in Colombia," said Monsignor Hector Fabián Henao, secretary general of Caritas-Colombia. He added, however, that "we must wait to have a clearer picture of the situation, because this is a very complicated crisis."
Juan Gómez Martínez, Colombia's ambassador to the Holy See, spoke to ZENIT about the country's situation.
He said Betancourt's rescue has sparked hope. "The army prepared its operation of July 2 very well. The surprise was such that it changed the mentality of Colombians. It was very well managed, totally secret, without any interference. Many were opposed to a rescue because they linked it to the use of arms, but the army had to act."
The Colombian government rescued Betancourt and 14 other hostages by duping their captives into believing the hostages were being transported to another FARC commander. No lives were lost in the mission.
Gómez noted that such an operation came after decades of dialogue have failed to bring peace.
He recalled one set of meetings in which the Church acted as mediator.
"We were convinced that [the guerillas] had good intentions," he said. "Of the 13 meetings that were planned, we ended up with 26. Sadly, what we achieved there came to nothing. They addressed the topics with apparent seriousness, but they deceived us.
"Then, in 2006, the Colombian episcopal conference suggested creating a meeting zone to sit down and talk with the armed men. It was a logical proposal that the government accepted because it was a conversation on equal terms."
Confusion
Sometimes though, the work of the faithful can be perilous.
Monsignor Henao explained: "Some armed groups don't understand the Church's commitment. They are confused and think that if we work for the victims of the conflict we are opposed to them. […] Such was the case, for example, with the four teachers who were kidnapped recently in the Diocese of Ipiales, where at times there are intense battles. They might have been suspected by the guerrillas of passing information to the army."
"In these areas teachers are the only people who work with priests to help local communities," he added.
Threats to teachers pose a grave problem, the monsignor continued, given that the diocese has a network of small schools for children of poor peasant families, and if the threats continue, the number of teachers will decrease.
"The diocese is trying to convince the rebels to change their position and allow teachers to do their work in the schools; otherwise, soon the children will not have access to education," Monsignor Henao noted.
But even if there has been little success in the solution-seeking, Gómez affirmed it must go on.
"The army cannot lower its guard; it must work to rescue the [remaining hostages], to come to an agreement," he said. "The community must continue to insist that the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia abandon their arms and drug trafficking. We must all seek an agreement.
"I have always been very optimistic despite what we have suffered. Colombia is such a great country, rich, with such good people that it must recover its hope. It is a people of convictions that it has put aside but must recover.
"The Catholic faith is one of them; there is hope and now a clear future. In this connection, I believe it will continue to be a stronghold for Latin America. If it wasn't for the violence, it would have gone very far in every sense."
[Carmen Elena Villa Betancourt contributed to the reporting for this article]
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Headed Down Under: Pilgrim Youth Set Out
Bishop Says They Bring Hope to Wounded World
SACRAMENTO, California, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- World Youth Day pilgrims bring a glimmer of hope to a world on the brink of despair, says a member of the U.S. bishops' laity committee.
Coadjutor Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento is gearing up for his third Youth Day. "Given the fears that we have, given what we see in the world around us -- war, famine, economic uncertainty -- we journey with certainty to Sydney," the bishop told Sacramento's Catholic Herald newspaper. "In the midst of fear and hostility, we go with confidence and joy."
Youth in California -- just like all across the United States -- are in the final stages of preparation or already heading out to meet their peers Down Under.
"World Youth Day is a religious pilgrimage," said Bishop Soto, who is also the episcopal conference's liaison to the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry. "It has a spiritual purpose.
"We hope the young people will provide a powerful protest against a world filled with division, neglect and deep hatreds.
"Religion is often portrayed as a source of conflict. But the true nature of religion is revealing God's love by making us messengers. The pilgrims bring a glimmer of hope for a world on the brink of despair."
Sacramento is sending more than 80 pilgrims to the event.
About 100 youth from the Archdiocese of Chicago received Cardinal Francis George's blessing last month as part of their pilgrimage preparation.
Cardinal George himself will be making the journey. He will celebrate a Mass for all U.S. groups at the Youth Day on Saturday, July 19, at an outdoor location in the center of Sydney.
Meanwhile in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., 25 young adults are headed out -- including four seminarians. Like many of their fellow pilgrims, they have raised money to pay for the trip. Activities ranging from car washes to the sale of homemade ice cream have helped foot the bill.
Across the Atlantic, some 800 young Irish are already in Australia or leaving this week. Nine of their bishops, including Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, are accompanying them.
And the bishop of Westminster in England, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, had a special message for pilgrims, posted today on the blog that will keep families and friends back home updated on their pilgrims' ventures.
He said: "I am delighted that the Diocese of Westminster will be taking part in the 23rd World Youth Day, the theme of which is, 'You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses.'
"For those of you who are participating for the first time, you may be excited and possibly, a little nervous. But do know that as a diocesan family you will find great support and friendship along the way. It will be a great gift for us to be together and in communion with our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.
"The Holy Spirit will help us in Australia to rediscover our faith if it is lost, strengthen it if it has become weak, and help us to savor it as fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ."
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Education Chips Away at Human Trafficking
Women Religious in Thailand Share Success Stories
By Mirko Testa
ROME, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- The education of would-be victims is one of the keys to putting an end to human trafficking, affirm women religious working against this crime in Thailand.
Thailand is again at the Tier 2 level in this year's U.S. State Department Trafficking in Persons Report, released last month. Tier 2 is assigned to those governments that are "making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance" with the minimum requirements to eliminate human trafficking.
The Southeast Asian nation passed a tougher law against the practice this year -- though enforcing it despite corruption problems among the police is expected to continue to be a problem.
ZENIT spoke with three women religious who are chipping away at the issue from a different side: preventing would-be victims from falling into this modern form of slavery.
They say the key is education.
Sister Anurak Chaiyaphuek, of the Religious of the Good Shepherd, said that women religious in Thailand "have been making untiring efforts to prevent […] children from falling into an abyss of abuse by carrying out our mission among them."
"What we have done so far is founding schools based on national compulsory education in remote areas or up high on the mountains and opening centers for small children and students who have accomplished compulsory education to pave ways for their further studies in the government's public schools in the cities," she explained. "It is our hope that our children will have opportunities to acquire more knowledge and be adorned with spiritual and cultural formation."
Sister Chaiyaphuek spoke of how the religious live with the youngsters, "penetrating their culture and understanding their backgrounds and conditions, helping them in words and in deeds."
"We teach curriculum of life, which we consider rare and invaluable," she said. "Above all, it is a blessing for us."
Self-reliant
Traffickers based in Thailand lure people in from poor, neighboring countries, such as Myanmar. It is also a hub for these modern-day slaves to be transported to other destination countries. Trafficked human beings are forced to work in a variety of often-dangerous jobs, or exploited sexually.
Sister Kanlaya Trisopa of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bangkok told ZENIT about a school founded after 15 girls almost ended up locked in the trafficking trade.
"They were luckily saved because the job agents were [put] under arrest," Sister Trisopa said. "We were contacted by the police to take care of those girls, otherwise, they would be sent back to their parents.
"Realizing their fate and knowing that they would soon be victimized again, we didn't hesitate to lend them a hand. We discussed with the girls and their parents and offered our assistance. Some chose to return home with their parents, while others decided to stay with us.
"We pledged to give them vocational training with the hope that they would be self-reliant and able to support their family."
The sisters implemented a curriculum of sewing and handcrafts and a small school was born.
"We felt relieved and happy that they didn't have to seek jobs in the cities and risk potential dangers of human trafficking," Sister Trisopa said.
Honest living
Training in local artistry and basic agriculture keep youth from being forced to seek their livelihood elsewhere.
Sister Francoise Jiranonda of the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres explained to ZENIT that "our students are taught to spend time wisely and worthily. They learn to weave and do their traditional embroidery. They also do basic, self- sufficient farming. They grow rice as well as vegetables and seasonal fruits.
"They are advised to use organic fertilizers or natural fertilizers such as animal waste so that they don't have to pay extra money."
The students, she added, are encouraged to be "diligent and hard-working."
"They learn how to cook and to keep their house neat and clean," the nun explained. "Hygienic living is steadily emphasized. We keep telling them that the family will be happier if the mother and women know how to better their living conditions."
The sisters have also begun giving job training to a group of boys "who had fallen preys to social problems. […] We provide food and accommodation as well as education and job training for them," she said. "We are hopeful that they will earn their living honestly, and be able to understand themselves and others, and most of all, be willing to bear the responsibilities of breadwinners and men, and treat women equally with love and care."
Good Samaritans
Moreover, the students are taught the importance of charity and kindness toward their neighbors. The victims of HIV/AIDS give an on-site chance to put that lesson into practice, Sister Jiranonda noted.
"The students have come to know about life and fate of the HIV/AIDS infected and affected children under our care," she said. "They take turns to show their love and sympathy of those young kids. They hold them, hug them, feed them and bathe them."
The young women are being trained for a future, dignified life, Sister Jiranonda affirmed: "We encourage them to feel dignified and proud of their girlhood and motherhood. We prepare them to be ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with men or their future husbands to build their own families."
"What we have done for those girls, once vulnerable to human trafficking is an unwritten curriculum," the sister reflected. "It is automatically, naturally, and spiritually inspired by love deepened in the hearts of the religious women and lay teachers who have witnessed the cruelties of social injustice and undergone certain orientations and training to counter human trafficking."
[Kathleen Naab contributed to this report]
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Blessed Frassati Is Present to a New Generation
Bishop Fisher Reflects on Youth Day Patron
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, who lived a life of charity and generosity 100 years ago, will be touching the lives of a new generation, says the World Youth Day coordinator.
Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said this July 4 at St. Benedict's Church on the feast of Blessed Frassati in the presence of his relics. Cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, presided at the Mass.
The body of the blessed, one of the 10 patrons of World Youth Day, was moved from Turin to Sydney for the youth event. The relics had not left Turin since Frassati's death in 1925.
The body, which was found incorrupt 60 years after it was buried, will be available for veneration at St. Mary's Cathedral through July 22.
"Pier Giorgio was one who in a short time made extraordinary progress in faith, in hope, and in charity," said Bishop Fisher.
He recalled that when Pope John Paul II beatified Frassati in 1990, he called him “the man of our century, the modern man, the man who loved much, the man of the beatitudes.”
"The photographs around our church show a handsome, robust youth with piercing eyes and an infectious smile," continued the bishop. "Full of fun and energy, full of God and a passion for sharing God with others: On the face of it, his death at the age of 24 was a tragic waste.
"Yet here we are, at the other side of the world, celebrating him because of what he still says to us. So far he has lived for 107 years and counting."
Holy and fun
Bishop Fisher recounted as well how he got to know the blessed. "I first encountered him on posters in university chaplaincies around Australia.
"Young men were attracted to the way he made an apostolate even of horse riding and mountain climbing, party going and playing pool. Young women seemed to be attracted by his dreamy good looks and romantic character.
"Young Catholics of all sorts liked the thought that you could be a saint while still a young adult, and that you could unite a passion for God and serving others, with an ordinary young person’s desire for fun. I knew I must get to know him better."
The bishop related a brief history of the blessed, who was born in 1901 into a wealthy family in Turin. His father was agnostic, and his mother Catholic, though "not inclined to [her son's] level of devotion or charity," said Bishop Fisher.
"It hurt that his parents did not understand his piety and were struggling in their marriage," said the bishop. "Like many young people today, he had to find within himself those gifts of the Holy Spirit that would bring his faith to maturity."
"He gave away his bus fares and even his graduation money to the poor," continued Bishop Fisher. "When asked by friends why he rode third class on the trains he replied with a smile, 'Because there is no fourth class.'”
Rarity
This bishop recounted how Father Martin Stanislaus Gillet -- eventual master of the Dominican Order -- met Frassati when the latter was a university student. The Dominican said the young man impressed him “with his particular charm. He seemed to radiate a force of attraction […] everything in him shone with joy, because it grew from his beautiful nature to bloom in the sunshine of God.”
"Father Gillet thought Pier Giorgio rare among university students in his 'longing for the supernatural and true temperament of an apostle. [... Ready] to think, to feel, to love, to be generous, with all the impetus and resources of nature and grace,'” said Bishop Fisher.
"Perhaps after World Youth Day, this will not be so rare among our university students," added the bishop.
Frassati died July 4, 1925, six days after having contracted polio from one of the sick he assisted.
Bishop Fisher said the Church was filled with the most important people of Turin for his funeral, "but to their astonishment, when they came out of the church, the streets were lined not by the elite, but by the poor and needy whom he had served throughout his short life."
"The crowd of the poor were equally surprised to find out that [he] was from a rich family," said the bishop. "It was they who petitioned the archbishop of Turin to begin the process for his canonization."
"Now he speaks to a new generation," continued the youth day coordinator. "Now he graces our World Youth Day with his patronage and witness."
--- --- ---
On the Net:
Full text of homily:
www.zenit.org/article-23164?l=english
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INTERVIEW
Interior Prayer: Founded on Loving Much
Interview With Author Father Jacques Philippe
By Carrie Gress
ROME, JULY 10, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Interior prayer is not a technique, but an attitude of love that makes our sacramental life more fruitful, says author Father Jacques Philippe.
Father Philippe, of the Community of the Beatitudes, is the author of "Time for God" published by Scepter Publishing, which is also available in French and Spanish.
In this interview with ZENIT, Father Philippe discusses the simple precepts of interior prayer, common misconceptions and the fruit that can be expected when added to the sacramental life.
Q: You describe mental prayer or interior prayer as something that does not involve technique. How, then, does it work?
Father Philippe: It would be better to say interior prayer instead of mental prayer, because in our modern culture, the word "mental" is associated with thoughts -- as something cerebral -- whereas this form of prayer is more an affair of the heart, instead of reflection. St. Teresa of Avila said that it is not an act of thinking much, but of loving much.
Interior prayer is not a question of technique. It is not a process that can be controlled because it is a meeting with God, who infinitely surpasses anything we can achieve through our own efforts.
What must be essentially understood is that there is no method, but an interior attitude. For interior prayer, there are three principles: a true desire for God; the confidence that God will allow us find that which we are looking for; and finally, humility: To accept our poverty and to wait for the goodness and love of God in all things.
Q: What is the fruit of interior prayer? And why is it important? Isn't adherence to the sacraments enough?
Father Philippe: Interior prayer permits the sacramental life to be more fruitful, more alive, more intense. It is important because it is there that we see and endlessly deepen the most essential dimension of Christian life: the personal relationship of trust and love that is established between God and each of his children, the reciprocal exchange where we give ourselves to God and where God gives himself to us. According to Pope John Paul II in "Novo Millenio Ineunte," this reciprocity is "the very substance and soul of the Christian life, and the condition of all true pastoral life."
Q: How does mental prayer differ from those who would wish to compare it to yoga or Buddhist practices?
Father Philippe: The fundamental difference is that it is a question of living and deepening the relationship of one person to another with God, and it is not solely to acquire the power to practice an interior or psychic state. The possibility of this interpersonal relationship is not founded on initiative or skill, but on God's desire to reveal himself and to communicate through love. Moreover, God acts within the Holy Trinity revealed in the New Testament: Through Jesus and thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, we can enter into communion with the Father.
Q: You describe mental prayer as "just spending time" with God, like two people in love would, but this can often feel like nothing is happening. Could something be happening interiorly despite the feeling that there isn't? Or even during times when one is distracted?
Father Philippe: The life of prayer is much deeper than the intelligence or the senses can perceive. Even when prayer is poor and distracted, provided that it is made with sincerity and faith, God can communicate secretly with the soul. He puts into it the treasures of light and the power of peace that is often made manifest at other times in life instead of just during prayer itself. And if one perseveres despite times of aridity, there will always be moments when God visits and makes his presence felt.
Q: In today's world, many people just don't seem to have time to spend half an hour or an hour in silent prayer. How can it be fit in? Does it always have to be practiced in a church?
Father Philippe: When one activity is considered vital, we find time to do it. The fundamental question is "what are our priorities?" We must be convinced that God will give us a hundred-fold the time that we devote to him in prayer. If we give part of our time to God with fidelity and perseverance, even just a quarter of an hour ever day, our life will be more peaceful and more fruitful.
We can pray at a church, as there is a lot of grace when praying in the presence of the Holy Sacrament, but we can also pray in a corner of our room in front of an icon, out in nature, or even on the bus or the subway.
Q: Many people only want to pray when they have an interior prompting to do so. Why is this not helpful both in prayer and in arriving at true interior freedom?
Father Philippe: All love relationships need, in order to grow, a choice for fidelity. If a husband loves his wife only when he feels the spirit to do so, the relationship will remain superficial, on only an emotional level. Fidelity and perseverance allow love to move beyond merely the sentimental and to become something very beautiful and rich, a life shared, a mutual gift of persons, one to another.
In every love relationship there are times of crisis and difficulty, but if we persevere with fidelity, the love will become stronger and truer.
--- --- ---
On the Net:
"Time for God": www.scepterpublishers.org/product-exec/product_id/174/nm/Time_for_God
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Countdown to SYDNEY
They're Here, and It's Cold
Media Distracted by Scandals and Peskiness
By Catherine Smibert
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- One can't help but notice that World Youth Day is upon us here in Australia as tens of thousands of pilgrims arrive to our shores, with colorful flags flying high and numerous stands erected across the city to distribute pilgrim packs.
The visitors for the international event Down Under are identifiable by their uniforms, which are usually interpretations of the World Youth Day logo matched with the crests or logo of their own diocese or community.
This makes the young people easy to spot as they were being picked up by numerous and equally distinguishable welcoming parties, ranging from singing groups of young Neocatechumenates, home stay parents or staff of Harvest Pilgrimages.
The youth groups have arrived in time to participate in the pre-event Days in the Dioceses activities across Australian and New Zealand cities, regional centers and remote towns through Monday.
A feature of every World Youth Day, Days in the Dioceses is held the week before the youth day to give pilgrims the chance to celebrate their faith on a local level, meet local communities, relax and do some sightseeing.
"Pilgrims have started arriving over the last few days and they're absolutely loving Australia," said Father Mark Podesta, World Youth Day spokesman.
"We are putting on a pretty good show," he added, "with many hosts creating great Aussie welcomes for our guests including sheep-shearing demonstrations, getting up close to koalas and kangaroos, good old Aussie BBQs and sometimes just familiarizing our visitors from Oceania with cold weather!"
I'll be the first to admit that it is a particularly cold Australian winter at an average of 16 degrees Celsius per day (60 degrees Fahrenheit).
And for those who either forgot that Australia is in the opposite hemisphere, hence being in winter, or for those who just "didn't think it would get this cold," there are a number of parishes and community groups organizing blanket and coat drives.
It's true Christian giving in action, so as to not let the poor, unsuspecting pilgrims freeze.
* * *
Cardinal Under Fire
Predictably, a perfectly timed scandal has arrived involving the archbishop of the host city, Cardinal George Pell.
The cardinal has found himself embroiled in an accusation that he mishandled a sexual abuse complaint against a priest in 2003. Anthony Jones, now 54, filed the complaint accusing Father Terrence Goodall of sexually abusing him in 1982.
Goodall resigned on July 25, 2003, at Cardinal Pell's request. Cardinal Pell had threatened to use Church law to remove him.
The cardinal told Jones in a letter, however, that he found evidence of rape insufficient.
New evidence of a taped telephone conversation that surfaced this week records Goodall admitting to Jones that the encounter wasn't consensual.
In light of the Goodall's comments, Cardinal Pell released a statement Thursday saying he has "formally referred the matters raised this week to an independent consultative panel established under Towards Healing protocols."
It states the panel -- chaired by retired New South Wales Supreme Court judge Bill Preistley -- will advise Cardinal Pell on the options open to him.
The panel consists of a senior priest as well as lay people from law, business and psychiatry.
In response to this, young Australians have set up a series of pro-cardinal blogs and forums throughout a series of social networking sites offering their prayers and support for the leader who candidly spoke to them just a week ago at a Theology on Tap event about the importance of honest leadership.
* * *
Shew! Don't Bother Them
Sydneysiders have been asked politely, or maybe not so politely, to avoid annoying or inconveniencing World Youth Day pilgrims. Pesky merchants or protestors, or mere nuisances, could be penalized with fines of more than $5,000.
Australian civil rights campaigners are set to challenge the regulation in federal courts. The Combined Community Legal Centers Group has warned that police powers could be used inappropriately during World Youth Day
So to just push the issue, the NoToPope Coalition, which includes members of Sydney's atheist, gay and environmental communities, held an "annoying" fashion show this week outside the New South Wales Parliament, in which they paraded in T-shirts sporting messages contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Although only 20 people gathered for the protest, it received international coverage.
The coalition says it also plans to stage similar protests and hand out condoms as the pilgrims head to Randwick Racecourse on for the youth day vigil July 19.
The state government said the regulation is necessary to ensure the smoothness of the event, which will culminate with an open-air Mass on July 20. Some 500,000 people are expected at the event.
Coalition spokeswoman Rachel Evans said the "peaceful protest" would condemn the Pope's stance against condoms, homosexuality and abortion.
One young Catholic leader in the archdiocese and co-coordinator of the "Love and Life Site," Jovina Graham, laughed at the thought of such a scenario, saying, "such protestors obviously are unaware of the peaceful fortitude of these young people while en masse marching to meet the head of the Church!"
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Days in the Diocese Roundup
Close to 2,000 international pilgrims will be based across the Wollongong Diocese in New South Wales from over 20 countries including the United States, Italy, Germany, England, France, Poland, Syria, Latvia, The United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Columbia and Brazil.
Great local activities include 40 stalls of Australian food and craft, amusement rides, face painting and balloons, indigenous art and dancing, whip cracking and sheep shearing demonstrations, koala and kangaroos on display as well as a number of cricket, rugby and Australian rules football clinics.
The Parramatta Diocese has already taken its Polish groups for a ride on the ferry under the Sydney Harbor Bridge, and for a walk in the Blue Mountains.
Wilcannia-Forbes, located in northwestern New South Wales, will host 300 pilgrims from Idaho and St. Louis University in the United States, as well as pilgrims from Germany, Russia, Canada and France. They will take them to visit an Alpaca farm and give them a sausage sizzle by a bonfire.
Melbourne, in the southern state of Victoria, has 22,000 international pilgrims joining 18,000 local youth during the week.
The Catholic Group, Oblate Youth, will be welcoming to Melbourne some 850 pilgrims from 38 countries, including the only pilgrims from Turkmenistan.
A commissioning mass will be held at Telstra Dome Friday for 50,000 pilgrims.
In the Ballarat, also in Victoria, 130 pilgrims from Ireland, East Timor, Portugal, Canada, USA, and Macau will be joining in the local festivities.
10,000 international pilgrims from 40 countries are arriving in a much warmer Brisbane, located north of Sydney in the state of Queensland, with the largest groups coming from the United States, Canada, Germany, Italy and France.
Darwin, Northern Territory, is welcoming 600 pilgrims from Canada, Italy, France, Germany, and the pilgrims from East Timor, accompanied by their bishop. They will be holding processions throughout the city, and participate in indigenous art and faith workshops.
Another 600 pilgrims are being welcomed in Perth, in the state of Western Australia, over these two days in great tents set up for feasts and song and prayer down the central esplanade.
To share the experience visually, be sure to register in
www.wydcrossmedia.org, which we will be uploading daily.
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Catherine Smibert is a freelance writer in Sydney, Australia.
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DOCUMENTS
Bishop Fisher's Homily on Feast of Blessed Frassati
"Ready to Think, to Feel, to Love, to Be Generous"
SYDNEY, Australia, JULY 10, 2008 (
Zenit.org).- Here is the homily Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney gave July 4 at St. Benedict's Church on the feast of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati in the presence of his relics. Cardinal George Pell, the archbishop of Sydney, presided at the Mass.
The relics of the blessed, a patron of World Youth Day, were moved from Turin to Sydney for the youth event. They will be available for veneration at St. Mary's Cathedral through July 22.
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Male and female, fat and thin, young and old, clerical and lay, alive or dead at the moment. There are many different kinds Dominicans, of university students, of Vincentians, of Italians, many different kinds of Christians, many different kinds of saints. Each tries to work out with God a path of salvation. Some seem to make more progress than others.
Pier Giorgio was one who in a short time made extraordinary progress in faith, in hope, and in charity. I am delighted, after visiting his family, his home, his tomb, the students and parishioners who treasure his memory, and the chapel where he took as his patron the fiery Dominican reformer Girolamo Savonarola, to now welcome my brother to Sydney. During this World Youth Day period we rely on his heavenly patronage and on the earthly presence of his relics to mediate divine graces we need; but we also hope to make better-known the story of that “Young man driven by his love of God, life and the poor” (Catholic Weekly 30 June 2008).
The Catholic Church, as Chesterton once observed, is the most democratic of organisations, because it has extended its franchise far beyond national borders to all the world -- to men and women, rich and poor; to people of all ages, from infant baptism until the last rites of old age; to people of all cultures and communities, all of whom have their sway. Even more democratic than this: she also gives the dead the vote, she treasures her saints and her traditions and allows ages past to have their say as well. Modern, supposedly-liberal societies restrict the franchise to movers and shakers in the here and now. But as we say at the climax of our Creed: “We believe in the Holy Catholic Church” and that means the Body of Christ stretching throughout the world and through time, proclaiming his Gospel through many channels, including our beloved young people, including Pier Giorgio.
Still, it is a quirky, Catholic thing this, this cult of saints long dead. One radio host asked me recently “What’s this thing with Catholics and bones?” One reason is that the relics of saints are sacramentals: sites where God imparts graces of healing, conversion, strength, though the intercession of some faithful soul who is now with Him forever. This was obvious to our ancient and medieval ancestors, who were so much more sophisticated than us when it comes to death. Yet even we primitives honour our war dead, year by year, with various ceremonies, and retell their stories, as if somehow to conjure up their persons and their courage. Even post-moderns have funerals, graves and monuments; they leave flowers and keep ashes -- not just to honour a memory but in the hope, in some mysterious way, to remain in communion with those who have died. We might have dumbed things down quite a lot in our relations with the dead, yet still we crave for that next phrase of the Creed: “the communion of the saints”.
There is another reason for venerating relics. Especially today perhaps, when so many people think the real me is some ghost or mind-stuff or inner self and that we can do what we please with the body and be unaffected ‘inside’, we need to retrieve a proper sense of the place of the body. Especially today perhaps, after a century when more and more terrible things have been done to human bodies, by way of torture, genocide, abortion, drugs and self-destruction, and through pornography, prostitution and medical mutilation, we need to be recalled to reverence the body. Against any dualism or disrespect for the body, “this Catholic thing with bones” proclaims the importance of the flesh, and of the unity of body and soul, in every human life now and in the world to come. By honouring relics we honour the person who was and look forward in hope to the person who, after being purified of sin, will be restored and glorified. When Pier Giorgio’s mortal remains were transferred from the Pollone cemetery to the Turin Cathedral they were found incorrupt after sixty years. Reverence for relics, then, is not just a quirky Catholic thing: it is a quirky God thing. “We believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.”
“Amen,” says Pier Giorgio Frassati from his grave here tonight. When Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1990, he called him “the man of our century, the modern man, the man who loved much, the man of the beatitudes.” The photographs around our church show a handsome, robust youth with piercing eyes and an infectious smile. Full of fun and energy, full of God and a passion for sharing God with others: on the face of it, his death at the age of 24 was a tragic waste. Yet here we are, at the other side of the world, celebrating him because of what he still says to us. So far he has lived for 107 years and counting!
I first encountered him on posters in university chaplaincies around Australia. Young men were attracted to the way he made an apostolate even of horse-riding and mountain climbing, party-going and playing pool. Young women seemed to be attracted by his dreamy good looks and romantic character. Young Catholics of all sorts liked the thought that you could be a saint while still a young adult, and that you could unite a passion for God and serving others, with an ordinary young person’s desire for fun. I knew I must get to know him better.
He was born into an important Turin family. His father was an agnostic, the founder-publisher of the liberal newspaper, La Stampa, a senator and later ambassador to Germany. His mother, more sensitive and artistic by nature, saw to the boy’s religious upbringing but was not inclined to his level of devotion or charity. It hurt that his parents did not understand his piety and were struggling in their marriage. Like many young people today, he had to find within himself those gifts of the Holy Spirit that would bring his faith to maturity.
“To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for truth -- that is not living, but existing,” he said. As a child he gave his shoes to a beggar. As a university student he devoted his time before and after classes to working in the slums. As a young man he gave his overcoat to a vagrant when the temperature was minus 12 degrees Celsius [10 degrees Fahrenheit] and when his father scolded him he replied automatically: “But Papa, it was cold.” Cold, of course, for the pauper; cold for Christ in that pauper. He gave away his bus fares and even his graduation money to the poor. When asked by friends why he rode third class on the trains he replied with a smile, “Because there is no fourth class.”
It is good to do such things oneself, but even better to do them with others, with “a communion of saints” or saints-in-the-making, and so Pier Giorgio was a great joiner of groups. He loved companionship in a common cause. To promote Catholic social teaching he joined the Catholic Student Federation, the Popular Party and the student newspaper. To serve the poor he joined the St Vincent de Paul Society. To deepen his spirituality he joined the Dominican Laity (‘tertiaries’). Even his practical jokes, sports and social life drew others to God. When Father Gillet -- eventually Master of the Dominican Order -- met him at University, he recorded that the young man deeply impressed him “with his particular charm. He seemed to radiate a force of attraction … everything in him shone with joy, because it grew from his beautiful nature to bloom in the sunshine of God.”
Fr Gillet thought Pier Giorgio rare amongst university students in his “longing for the supernatural and true temperament of an apostle… [ready] to think, to feel, to love, to be generous, with all the impetus and resources of nature and grace.” Perhaps after World Youth Day this will not be so rare amongst our university students. Students were certainly Pier Giorgio’s special love after his family and the poor. Yet shortly before his graduation he contracted polio from one of the sick to whom he ministered. After six days of intense suffering he died on this day, 4 July, 1925.
The church was full of the worthies of the city for his funeral, as you would expect for one from such a prominent family, as well as his student friends and disciples. But to their astonishment, when they came out of the church, the streets were lined not by the élite, but by the poor and needy whom he had served throughout his short life. The crowd of the poor were equally surprised to find out that their beloved “Fra Girolamo” was from a rich family. It was they who petitioned the Archbishop of Turin to begin the process for his canonization.
Now he speaks to a new generation. Now he graces our World Youth Day with his patronage and witness. Pier Giorgio Frassati, witness to justice and charity, “man of the beatitudes,” draw us more deeply into the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen!
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