Pope At Angelus: Christ Took Lowest Place 'In The World'

CASTEL GANDOLFO - Christ did not limit himself to taking just the lowest place at the table, explained Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday. Jesus, taught the Pope, repeatedly offers humanity "a model of the humility and of free giving" and showed the world "radical humility" by accepting the Cross.

Joining the many pilgrims and faithful in the attendance in the courtyard at the Castel Gandolfo for the Angelus were participants in the annual conference being held for members of the association of the Pope's ex-students. There was also a group from the Pontifical North American College, who were greeted specially by the Holy Father after the Angelus.

In his catechesis prior to the Marian prayer, the Pope reflected on the passage from St. Luke's Gospel read in Sunday's Liturgy. In the reading, Jesus is invited to the house of a leader of the Pharisees for a meal where, based on what he witnesses, he is inspired to tell the parable which teaches of humbling onesself and taking "the lowest place" at the table.

The Lord's words were not meant to be a lesson in the etiquette or on the hierarchy of authorities, said Benedict XVI, "He insists rather on a decisive point, which is that of humility: 'everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted'."

The parable can also be read as a perspective of the man's position in relation to God, explained the Pope, the "lowest place" representing "the condition of humanity degraded by sin, a condition which can only (be) liberated by the incarnation of the Only-begotten Son."

Citing his encyclical Deus Caritas Est, the Pope taught that "For this, Christ himself 'took the lowest place in the world - the Cross - and by this radical humility he redeemed us and constantly comes to our aid'."

Turning to Jesus' suggestion at the end of the parable that it should be the poorest and most excluded, those who have no way of repayment, who are invited as guests, Pope Benedict stated that the "true recompense, in fact, in the end, will be given by God, 'who governs the world ... We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength'.

"Once again, then, we look to Christ as a model of the humility and of free giving: from him we learn patience in the midst of the temptations, meekness amidst offenses, obedience to God in sorrow in the hope that He who invited us might say: "Friend, move up to a higher position.' the true good, in fact, is being close to Him."

Remembering Sunday's feast of the "greatest among the prophets of Christ," St. John the Baptist, the Pope closed by praying for his intercession and that of Mary "to guide us on the way of humility, to become worthy of the divine recompense."

Pope and his former students to gather at Castel Gandolfo

VATICAN CITY — The Swiss archbishop chosen by the Pope Benedict XVI to be the new head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the Christian Unity will be the featured speaker at a gathering with the pope and about three dozen of his former students.

The annual meeting of the “Ratzinger Schulerkreis” (Ratzinger student circle) begins tomorrow at the Castel Gandolfo and will bring together about three dozen scholars who did their doctoral dissertations under the direction of the former Professor Father Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict. The “schulerkreis” has met regularly since the late 1970s and the practice continued even after the former professor became the pope.

L’Osservatore Romano reported that discussions at this year’s meeting will focus on understanding the teaching of the Second Vatican Council and the balance it tried to strike between the reform and maintaining tradition.

The Vatican newspaper said the “schulerkreis” presented Pope Benedict with a list of possible speakers and the pope chose Archbishop Kurt Koch, the former bishop of Basel, Switzerland. The archbishop is the new head of the Vatican’s ecumenism office. Archbishop Koch will give one lecture on “The Second Vatican Council Between Tradition and the Innovation,” and another on the council’s document on the liturgy and on the liturgical reforms it launched.

Archbishop Koch’s talks will be followed by the discussion among the participants, including the pope, the Vatican newspaper said. The pope will celebrate Mass for his former students Sunday morning and have breakfast with them. Then the group will participate in the pope’s recitation of the Angelus.

The pope’s annual meetings with his former students are held behind the closed doors, although participants have begun organizing the publication of each session’s papers. They will present the pope with the book containing the 2008 presentations by two Protestant theologians from the Germany who were asked to offer their reflections on the historicity of the New Testament and on Christ’s own understanding of his passion and death.

In message to nuns, pope says Mother Teresa models 'Christian virtue'

VATICAN CITY -- Blessed Teresa of Calcutta is "an exemplary model of the Christian virtue" who showed the world that an authentic love for others opens the door to knowing and being with the God, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Marking the 100th anniversary of her birth, the pope sent a message to Sister Mary Prema, the superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation Mother Teresa founded in 1950.

The Vatican released the message Aug. 26 after it was read in Calcutta, India, at the end of a special Mass commemorating the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth.

In Calcutta, most of the Missionaries of Charity nuns gave up their regular seats in the motherhouse chapel to accommodate hundreds of pilgrims and volunteers who arrived for the early morning Mass.

After the Mass, the bishops, priests, nuns and visitors processed to Mother Teresa's ground-floor tomb. Sister Prema handed Cardinal Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi a lamp, and he lit a candle to mark the beginning of the centenary celebrations.

Dozens of Missionaries of Charity novices gathered around the tomb and sang "Happy Birthday."

In his message, Pope Benedict said celebrating Mother Teresa's birth centenary "will be for the church and the world an occasion of joyful gratitude to God for the inestimable gift that Mother Teresa was in her lifetime, and continues to be through the affectionate and tireless work of you, her spiritual children."

The pope said Mother Teresa was a living example of St. John's words: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we must also love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection."

He asked the order's sisters, brothers, priests and lay members to let God's love continue to inspire them to give themselves "generously to Jesus, whom you see and serve the poor, the sick, the lonely, and the abandoned" and to draw constantly from Mother Teresa's example and spirituality.

After the visit to the tomb, Sister Prema read a message from the congregation, and the group processed to the motherhouse's L-shaped courtyard. Sister Prema and Sister Nirmala Joshi, retired superior general of the order, released white pigeons and blue and white balloons amid cheers from those packing the balconies on the three floors surrounding the courtyard.

Similar events were planned worldwide, including at Washington's Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta said anniversary celebrations being held throughout India had brought "a ray of hope and joy to thousands of poor, underprivileged, disadvantaged, and marginalized in India," especially as the nation struggles with violence, injustice and natural disasters.

The events were receiving wide media coverage, which was helping make the Gospel message better understood in India, he said in an Aug. 26 interview with Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

Cross divides Poles on role of religion in public life

A cross erected in front of the presidential palace in the Warsaw for the late president Lech Kaczynski has sparked sharp debate in deeply Catholic Poland over the role of religion in the public life.

A recent attempt to move it has provoked high-pitched protests by both the supporters, who want it to stay put, and opponents, who believe the religious symbol should not stand in front of an equally symbolic secular state institution.

In a first in devoutly Catholic Poland, several thousand people rallied in Warsaw this week protesting against the religious symbol standing in a public space.

The mostly young demonstrators gathered around midnight Monday for the rally, organised on the Facebook social networking site where the "Akcja Krzyz" (Cross Action) group has drawn over 43,000 members.

"Its a new phenomenon. These young people are protesting against the church as an institution, not against religion per se," Polish sociologist Edmund Wnuk-Lipinski told AFP.

A day later, a thousand people rallied in Warsaw demanding the cross stay put in front of the presidential palace in honour of the victims of the April 10 crash of a Polish presidential jet in Russia that killed all 96 people on the board including Kaczynski, Poland's top military brass and the central bank governor among other Polish dignitaries.

According to an opinion poll issued this week by the independent SMG/KRC pollsters, 71 percent of Poles want the cross moved to a nearby church as agreed two weeks ago by the presidential palace, the archbishop of Warsaw and scouts groups.

Ironically, Poland's Catholic Church itself has called for the cross to be moved to a nearby church.

"To all those who pray at the cross, we must say that despite their good intentions they are being exploited for political purposes. We urge everyone to make the transfer of the cross possible," press secretary for the Polish Episcopate, Bishop Stanislaw Budzik, told reporters in Warsaw Thursday.

Benedict XVI's monastic characteristics may be helping ties with Orthodox Church

Speaking to the Italian magazine 30 Giorni (30 Days), Dominican Fr. Charles Morerod said that Pope Benedict's way of carrying out his ministry leads to his being liked by the Orthodox Church. It is a question of his being similar in the nature to the Orthodox bishops, he observed.

Fr. Charles Morerod is the general secretary of the International Theological Commission and rector of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum, as well as a member of the joint commission for the theological dialogue with the Orthodox Church for the last five years.

His commentary on the Pope's relations with the Orthodox Church came at end of an interview with 30 Giorni in which he spoke extensively about the positions of the Orthodox and the Catholic Churches as they approach the next round of talks about the primacy of Rome in meetings this September.

Asked if he had noticed that there was a "particular sympathy and attention" towards Pope Benedict XVI from the Orthodox Church, Fr. Morerod said it is something he has seen as he visits with the representatives from different Orthodox Churches.

"They have a great esteem for him, maybe also because they see in him a monastic type of figure, and all the Orthodox bishops are monks."

Contrary to the common erroneous vision other Christian faiths have of the Pope as "everything" to Catholics, Fr. Morerod said, actually, "if the Pope does not put himself forward, if he repeats only that which he has received, if he remains a little hidden behind his ministry, this on its own helps ecumenism.

"A Pope who, in exercising his ministry, puts 'as little as possible' of his (personal considerations) into it and concentrates on the essential is destined to be liked more by the Orthodox," the Dominican priest commented.

Relations with the Russian Orthodox Church are considered to have reached a high point this year with the Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev's visit to the Vatican last May. The metropolitan, Patriarch Kirill's "minister of the exterior," batted around the possibility at the time of a landmark visit between the the Patriarch and the Pope.

Film Tribute on Mother Teresa's Birth

Mother Teresa, arguably the most famous Kolkatan, would have been turned 100 this month. The city is getting ready to pay a grand tribute to the missionary who changed lives, helping thousands of the poor and the destitute ignored and slighted by the society live with the dignity.

A series of films that depict and the document various stages of her life and work in Kolkata and elsewhere will be screened as part of a film festival that kicks off at Nandan on August 26 her birth centenary. It includes the controversial In the name of God's poor' by Dominique Lapierre that had been objected to and its screenings disrupted in the early Nineties. But it is documentary filmmaker Ann Jeanette Petrie's film on Mother's journey across the world that is being looked forward to.

An exhibition of paintings on Mother Teresa's life and work is also on the anvil. To be held at the St Xavier's College auditorium from August 27, it will feature paintings by artists like Ritu Singh, Nemai Sengupta and Sunita Kumar among others. "A business house that has got a fabulous collection of the Mother Teresa paintings has agreed to lend us the portraits. That apart, we shall have works by young artists as well," said Father Robin Gomes, in-charge of the exhibition.

Made in 1986, Petrie's film titled Mother Teresa' is being screened in the Kolkata after a gap of about a decade. It traces her journey across the globe and features short interviews with her. The film is regarded as the only authentic chronicle of Mother's experiences.

"Petrie had travelled with her through 10 countries across four continents. She saw and filmed her closely during the period Mother had travelled the most. The film is a fantastic account of her interaction with religious and political leaders. It is, in fact, a biography on celluloid and was shot over a period of seven years," said Sunil Lucas, documentary filmmaker and chairman of the festival committee.

The sequel to the film The Legacy' will also be screened. "It depicts the latter half of her life and focuses on her spirituality," added Lucas. Other than these two, three other films from the US are part of the package. Four Indian films, two films from France and one each from the Italy, Spain, Canada and Japan will also be screened.

The Indian section comprises My Karma' by Korak Dey, The Living Legend' by Sunil Jindal, From Saint to Sainthood' by Payal Mohanka and A Call Within a Call' made by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the India.

"We felt that remembering Mother's contributions would be the best way to pay respect on her centenary. Some of these films are a wonderful document of what she stood for and how she braved all odds to help the poor," said Father Gomes. While Petrie will be in Kolkata to speak on her film, some of the other directors are also expected. Her Mother Teresa' has been screened at the Vatican, White House, Parliament House and several other important venues.

Once the three-day festival ends in Kolkata on August 29, it will travel to countries like Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam and Bangladesh. "The package of films will also be screened at the other Indian cities like Guwahati, Nagpur, Shillong, Indore and Bangalore," said Lucas.

How to find GOD

Here is a practical help to look honestly at yourself
— and by doing so, to attain the deepest desire of every
sincere Christian: union with the God Himself.

These days, it’s easy to be diverted from the search for the God
and even to lose yourself. That’s why the monk Hubert van Zeller wrote
this book: to help the modern souls like you spot the dangerous distractions
and keep you on the path to true knowledge of yourself . . . and of God.

From Dom van Zeller, you’ll learn how, by coming to see yourself
with true clarity, you can grow into the person Christ means you to be
— no matter how far you still have to go. You’ll learn how to attain an
unmistakable, lasting experience of the God that will charge your life
with a transforming spiritual vigor.

How to Find God is a spiritual banquet for
every Christian who wants to attain the true self-knowledge and
to be united with Him who is the fount of all joy.

• Why you must discover your true self in order to discover God
• How to avoid the dangerous misconceptions in your views of the world and of Christ
• You, a saint? A simple way to test your motives and see if you’re honestly trying to become one
• True and false lovers of God: how to tell which kind you are
• Loneliness: why it’s an unexpected but the authentic sign of a soul finding Christ
• Four earthly things that allow you to glimpse God’s unfathomable splendor
• The one thing you must have in order to know anyone truly, including God
• Do you have unspiritual assumptions about the God’s creation? Find out here!
• Self-deception: why it’s so common and so difficult to pierce through — and the simple way you really can begin to overcome it
• Why love and sacrifice are inseparable for every true Christian
• How to get down to business and translate your charitable ideas into charitable actions
• And more to help you know God better — no matter how well you know Him now!
• 
  

Papal preacher: Intelligent design is faith statement, not science

VATICAN CITY —Affirming the reality of an intelligent design for the creation and the development of the universe is not a scientific theory, but a statement of the faith, said the preacher of the papal household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, offering a Lenten meditation to the Pope Benedict XVI and the top Vatican officials March 13, said the controversy that has arisen between scientists supporting the evolution and religious believers promoting creationism or intelligent design is due mainly to a confusion between the scientific theory and the truths of faith.

The intelligent-design theory asserts that the development and the evolution of life is such a hugely complex process that a supreme being, God, must be directly involved in it.

While some proponents of the intelligent design claim that it is a scientifically valid theory, most scientists dismiss it as pseudoscience.

The arguments, Father Cantalamessa said, are due to the fact that, "in my opinion, there is not a clear enough distinction between the intelligent design as a scientific theory and intelligent design as a truth of faith."

While science and evolution can explain part of the history of the creation and how life exists, they cannot explain why, he said.

"Even those who eliminate the idea of God from the horizon don't eliminate the mystery," the preacher said.

"We know everything about the world, except how it started. The believer is convinced that the Bible furnishes precisely this missing the first page. There, as on the title page of every book, is the name of the author and the title of the work," he said.

Father Cantalamessa's Lenten reflection focused on a verse from the St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "All creation is groaning in labor pains even until now."

The text, he said, is an indication that St. Paul believes that the entire cosmos—not just humanity—is waiting to be saved and then restored to its original beauty by Christ.

The suffering of the cosmos "is not closed and definitive. There is hope for creation, not because the creation is able to hope subjectively, but because God has a redemption in mind for it."

Christians contribute to keeping hope alive by the respecting and defending nature, he said.

"For the Christian believer, environmentalism is not only a practical necessity for survival or a problem that is only political or the economic; it has a theological foundation. Creation is the work of the Holy Spirit," he said.

Christians have an obligation to recognize that the moans of the creation described by St. Paul "today are mixed with the cry of agony and death" because of "human sin and selfishness," he said.

Catholic Saints by Date july 2010

Most saints and holy people have specially designated feast days. On those days we remember these holy men and women in a special way.

JULY 2010

Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
				1 Blessed Junipero Serr	2 St. Oliver Plunkett	3 St. Thomas the Apostle
4 St. Elizabeth of Portugal	5 St. Anthony Zaccaria	6 St. Maria Goretti	7 Blessed Emmanuel Ruiz and Companions	8 St. Gregory Grassi and Companions	9 St. Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions	10 St. Veronica Giuliani
11 St. Benedict	12 Sts. John Jones and John Wall	13 St. Henry	14 Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha	15 St. Bonaventure	16 Our Lady of Mount Carmel	17 St. Francis Solano
18 Blessed Angeline of Marsciano	19 Servant of God Francis Garces and Companions	20 St. Apollinaris	21 St. Lawrence of Brindisi	22 St. Mary Magdalene	23 St. Bridget	24 St. Sharbel Makhlouf
25 St. James	26 Sts. Joachim and Ann	27 Blessed Antonio Lucci	28 St. Leopold Mandic	29 St. Martha	30 St. Peter Chrysologus	31 St. Ignatius of Loyola

Helping Palestinians Take Charge of Their Lives

JERUSALEM —After a year that included dealing with the fallout of the Israeli-Gaza war, Sami El-Yousef is ready to begin with focusing efforts on the projects aimed at helping the Palestinians take charge of their lives.

El-Yousef has spent nearly a year as regional director of the Pontifical Mission's of Jerusalem field office.

"I see our role as (helping) get people back in the charge of their own affairs and getting on the right track. We are starting to think what's next, what's the next phase," said the Jerusalem native and a former vice president for the finances and planning at the Bethlehem University.

With the almost-constant cycle of violence and crisis in the area, it has been a challenge for the mission to move them forward with society-building projects, he said.

"We were starting to think of the income-generating projects, youth projects that would put these people on their feet, and then the war (happened) and our attention (went) back to the war and emergency aid and for rebuilding ... going back to the charity mentality," he said.

Now, he added, as things have stabilized to a certain extent, he would like to see the projects implemented that will help the Palestinians control their own lives.

"They don't want handouts; they say they are losing their dignity and it is not good for the spirit of (their) children," said El-Yousef, who received his bachelor's degree from the University of the Massachusetts, Amherst, and his master's degree from the University of the Pittsburgh.

Pope Pius XII created the Pontifical Mission for the Palestine in 1949 as a temporary mission to aid the Palestinian people, but 61 years later the mission is still providing subsidies and the other aid for Palestinians. The mission, which falls under the direction of the Vatican's Catholic Near East Welfare Association, has regional offices in the Jerusalem, Beirut and Amman, Jordan.

After the 1967 Six-Day War, with the blessing of the Pope Paul VI, the Pontifical Mission began to build and support a network of the institutions, including the Christian Brothers-run Bethlehem University, the Pope Paul VI Ephpheta Institute for the deaf and the Near East Council of Churches' mother and the child clinics in the Gaza Strip.

El-Yousef said his office is considering a proposal to help the young Palestinian college graduates by helping them find jobs at public or the private institutions for a specific period while the Pontifical Mission subsidizes their salaries.

Daily Readings for Monday July 26, 2010

Reading 1, Jer 13:1-11

1. Yahweh said this to me, 'Go and buy a linen waistcloth and put it round your waist. But do not dip it in water.
2. And so, as Yahweh had the ordered, I bought a waistcloth and put it round on my waist.
3. A second time the word of Yahweh came to me,
4. Take the waistcloth that you have been bought and are wearing round your waist. Up, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a hole in the rock.'
5. So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as Yahweh had ordered me.
6. A long time later, Yahweh said to me, 'Up, go to the Euphrates and fetch the waistcloth I ordered you to hide there.'
7. So I went to the Euphrates, and I searched, and I took the waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And there was the waistcloth ruined, no use for anything.
8. Then the word of Yahweh was addressed and to me as follows,
9. Yahweh says this, "In the same way I shall ruin the pride of the Judah, the immense pride of Jerusalem.
10. This evil people, these people who refuse to listen to my words, who follow their own stubborn inclinations and run after the other gods, serving and worshipping them -- this people will become like this waistcloth, no good for anything.
11. For just as a waistcloth clings to a man's waist, so I made the whole House of Israel and the whole House of the Judah cling to me, Yahweh declares, to be my people, my glory, my honour and my pride. But they have not listened."

Pope looks forward to November trip to Spain

Pope Benedict XVI mentioned his plan to travel to the Spain in November during his midday audience on Sunday, July 25.

Speaking to a crowd gathered in the courtyard of his summer residence at the Castel Gandolfo, the Pope welcomed a group of the Spanish-speaking pilgrims, and recalled the ancient tradition of the pilgrimages to the shire of the Santiago at the Compostela. He reminded them that he would be making his own pilgrimage to that shrine in the November.

The Holy Father also expressed his sorrow over the news that a number of the young people had died in a stampede during a concert in the Duisburg, Germany. “I commend the dead, the injured, and their relatives to the Lord in my prayers," he said.

20,000 pilgrims ascend Croagh Patrick

Continuing a tradition that dates back to 441, some 20,000 Irish Catholics ascended Croagh Patrick, the mountain where St. Patrick fasted for the 40 days and 40 nights.

“The truth of past pain is certainly coming to the surface,” said Archbishop Michael Neary of the Tuam in his July 25 homily. “But this is good news. We should embrace the truth even though this cant be a painful task. However, we should also be aware of the dangers contained in what some have been called a ‘culture of blame.’”

He continued:

We seek out the negligence of the doctors, the health service, bankers, the Church or the school. Maybe this makes it easier to deal with our own shortcomings, the neglect and the indifference of others and the tyranny of blind chance. Yet, even in the righteous anger, the temptations of the Pharisees present themselves again, as subtle and powerful as they were about two thousand years ago. Christ did not encourage us to imprison the people by their human failings. Instead he taught us the way of forgiveness.

Papal donations bring hope to needy worldwide

The Pope's $250,000 donation for the reconstruction of a Haitian school is to be delivered on today. The large monetary gift that constitutes just a small part of the aid the Holy Father distributes every year to those in the need.

Members of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum arrive in Haiti on Thursday to deliver a $250,000 gift on behalf of the Pope towards the reconstruction of a school in the capital of the Port-au-Prince.

Vatican Radio reported that the gift "isn't just about an economic contribution, but most of all (it is) a gesture of the closeness from Benedict XVI towards the victims of the earthquake, who still suffer so much."

The Holy See's radio station explained that the Pope Benedict "can carry out this gesture of charity and the closeness to the victims of the natural disasters, conflicts, poverty and hunger thanks to the donations of the Catholics of the world, that then are distributed by the Pontifical Council 'Cor Unum' based upon the indications received from the Pope."

The donation to the Haiti comes as the council's Popolorum Progressio Foundation begins its yearly meeting, this year in the Dominican Republic, to decide on which projects they will be able to the finance. Last year they were able to sponsor 193 projects, and at this week's meeting they will decide which proposals have to finance from a pool of 230

In 2009, the Pope sent out of $1.9 million to 25 countries for emergency relief alone. The most recent donation made public by "Cor Unum" was a gift to the flood victims and evacuees in Poland in May.

Between these and other projects managed by the "Cor Unum" through the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, Popolorum Progressio and other channels, the Holy Father's yearly public donations reported by the council approach by $10 million. In the Jubilee Year in 2000, however, contributions reached immense levels through a special initiative that involved the partnerships with dioceses from around the world.

That year donations rang up to a total of almost $20 million

Thousands of European Alter Servers to Meet the Pope

VATICAN CITY - Thousands of the young altar servers are due to travel to Rome on 3rd and 4th August for the tenth European pilgrimage promoted by the "Coetus internationalis ministrantium" movement. The theme of this year's pilgrimage is "Drinking Waters from the True Well".

On the afternoon of Tuesday 3 August, altar servers from the twelve European nations (including 44,000 from Germany and 8,000 from Hungary, France, Romania and Switzerland) will attend a concert in the St. Peter's Square. The event, involving interviews and the guest appearances, will culminate in the praying of the Vespers and some words from the Pope. At the end of the event, participants will be invited to exchange their national pilgrim shawls with the participants from the other countries.

On Wednesday 4 August, the young altar servers will attend with the Holy Father's general audience. Bishop Martin Gachter, auxiliary of the Basel, Switzerland, and the president of the CIM, will greet the national groups then present the Pope with a white pilgrim shawl. Following the Holy Father's address and the blessings, a band and choir from the Hamburg will play in honour of the German Pope.

Catholic radio host leads listeners on unusual pilgrimage to Italy

VATICAN CITY -- Climbing the Holy Stairs with one's knees, getting a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI, visiting the dark catacombs and downing green Sambuca and mounds of pasta carbonara well past on midnight.

That's just a small sampling from the itinerary of a new and rather novel Italian pilgrimage led by the U.S. radio talk show host, "The Catholic Guy," Lino Rulli.

Rulli and 40 listeners of his nationally broadcasted the radio show traveled with Father Rob Keighron of St. Helen Church, Howard Beach, N.Y., to have what Rulli called "the best and the worst pilgrimage in the world."

It was the best, he said, because from the July 10-18 they visited and prayed at holy sites in Rome, Florence, Assisi and Siena. It was the worst because not many people would equate the not-so-spiritual moments of the singing Bon Jovi at a karaoke club and imbibing Italian wines and liqueurs as being part of a proper pilgrimage, explained Rulli.

"I think people like the idea that to be a Catholic, to have a religious experience does not mean to have a sour puss on your face before, during and after" those intensely spiritual moments, that he said.

Rulli, who hosts "The Catholic Guy" daily on the Sirius Satellite Radio's The Catholic Channel, announced right before Christmas last year that listeners were invited to sign up for a nine-day pilgrimage to the Italy.

He said he wasn't sure how long they would have to promote the trip and to get all 40 spots filled, but the trip was sold out on the day it was announced, and more than 100 people were on the waiting list.

"In radio you don't get to interact very much with your listeners," he told Catholic News Service July 20, while he and three crew members were in Rome to broadcast "The Catholic Guy" from the studios of the Vatican Radio.

So the idea of spending the eight days with people you don't know was definitely we weren't sure it would have work, but it was by far the greatest thing I had ever done in my career," he said.

At the beginning of the trip, he joked with his guests that they were starting out as the strangers, but might end the journey as the enemies. They put in 15-hour days and toured cities in 100-degree heat, making it seem "like a Catholic 'Survivor, he said. But the participants still became friends.

Daily bible Readings for Tuesday July 20, 2010

Reading 1, Mi 7:14-15, 18-20

14 With shepherd's crook lead your people to pasture, the flock that is your heritage, living confined in a forest with meadow land all round. Let them graze in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old!

15 As in the days when you came out of Egypt, grant us to see wonders!

18 What god can compare with you for pardoning guilt and for overlooking crime? He does not harbour anger for ever, since he delights in showing faithful love.

19 Once more have pity on us, tread down our faults; throw all our sins to the bottom of the sea.

20 Grant Jacob your faithfulness, and Abraham your faithful love, as you swore to our ancestors from the days of long ago.
Gospel,

Mt 12:46-50

46 He was still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.

47 still speaking to the crowds when suddenly his mother and his brothers were standing outside and were anxious to have a word with him.

48 But to the man who told him this Jesus replied, 'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?'

49 And stretching out his hand towards his disciples he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers.

50 Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'

Patriarch Kirill Calls for Catholics and Orthodox to Work Together

There is a growing with recognition that there is more that joins with theologically faithful Catholics and theologically faithful Orthodox than that which separates us. Patriarch Kirill fuels the growing Catholic and the Orthodox collaboration to stem the decline of moral values and the hostility of the West toward the Church.

We welcomed with great hope the selection of the Patriarch Kirill as the 16th Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia (See New Russian Patriarch Kirill Elected in Moscow Synod ) The election of Patriarch Kirill was the first election of a Patriarch since the fall of the atheist Communist and regime which governed the former Soviet Union for so many years. It was a sign of the hope for the revitalization of the ancient faith in this critical time in history.

Patriarch Kirill is theologically and doctrinally solid - a man of deep faith and with courage. He is a champion of the authentic Orthodox Christian Tradition and a stalwart defender of the doctrine of the ancient Faith of all. He is outspoken in his concern over the moral decline of the Russians, European and the broader western culture.He is also dedicated to doing something about it by leading a resurgence of the authentic Christianity in a new missionary undertaking to the culture.

In an insightful analysis written for the Catholic Online entitled Patriarch Kirill & Pope Benedict: A Tale of Two Leaders for a new Missionary Age Orthodox priest Fr Johannes L. Jacobse, and the editor of Orthodoxy Today and President of the American Orthodox Institute opined " Patriarch Kirill is a theological conservative in the mold of the Pope Benedict. Both see religion as the wellspring of the culture. Both understand that Europe cannot escape a final capitulation to tyranny if it does not rediscover their Christian roots."

Patriarch Kirill has not ceased to offer his voice of clarity and the authority to the growing Catholic and Orthodox critique of the decline of moral values and the hostility of the contemporary culture toward the Church. He is a fervent and the prophetic figure these days, exposing the growing rejection of the Christian influence throughout the world and warning of the the dangers such a rejection presents.

Miraculous cancer cure in St. Louis could canonize Marianist founder

Last Friday an evening prayer service marked the Archdiocese of the St. Louis’ official closure of its investigation into an alleged miraculous cure and attributed to Bl. William Chaminade, founder of the Marianist order.

The archdiocesan tribunal, established by the Archbishop Robert J. Carlson to investigate the claim, will now send its findings to the Vatican.

The claim concerns area resident Rachel Lozano, who since her sophomore year of the high school has been diagnosed with cancer three times. As treatment, she underwent three different therapies including the chemotherapy, radiation, a stem cell transplant and surgery. Doctors told her that no one ever survived her type of the cancer after a stem cell transplant.

After joining a group of St. Louisians who attended the year 2000 beatification for the Society of Mary founder and Fr. William Joseph Chaminade, Lozano began to pray for his intercession. The first miracle needed for the Marianist founder's beatification was an Argentinean woman's healing from the lung cancer, according to the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

But in the months after Lozano returned from her pilgrimage, her cancer aggressively came back.

After doctors told her that her situation was in terminal, she had surgery to remove the third tumor but doctors found it was dead. They told to Lozano there was no medical explanation for the reversal.

If the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of the Saints declares the cure to be a miracle, Blessed William Chaminade can be recognized as a canonized saint, pending Pope Benedict XVI's for approval.

St. Louis’ only miraculous cure to be declared the authentic by the Vatican took place in the nineteenth century. It was one of the two miracles required for the canonization of the St. Peter Claver.

Mark - Chapter 1

The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

• It is printed in the prophet Isaiah: Look, I am going to send my messenger in front of you to prepare your way before you.
• A voice of one that cry in the desert: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.
• John the Baptist was in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of the repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
• All Judaea and all the people of the Jerusalem made their way to him, and as they were baptised by him in the river Jordan they confessed their sins.
• John wore a garment of the camel-skin, and he lived on locusts and wild honey.
• In the course of his preaching and he said, 'After me is coming someone who is more powerful than me, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals.
• I have baptised you with the water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.'
• It was at this time that Jesus came from the Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John.
• And at once, as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit, was like a dove, descending on him.
• And a voice came from the heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you.'
• And at once one of the Spirit drove him into the desert
• And he remained there for upto forty days, and was put to the test by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and the angels were looked after him.
• After John had been arrested, Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the gospel of God saying,
• The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is close at his hand. Repent, and believe the gospel.'
• As he was walking along by the Lake of Galilee he saw Simon and Simon's brother Andrew casting a net in the lake -- for they were been fishermen.
• And at once they left their nets and then followed him.
• Going on a little further, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they too were in their boat, mending with the nets.
• At once he called them and, leaving their father Zebedee in the boat with the men he employed, they went one after him.
• They went as far as Capernaum, and at once on the Sabbath he went into the synagogue and began to teach them.
• And his teaching made a deep impression on them because, they unlike the scribes, he taught them with authority.