Pope released from hospital

The Pope was released from hospital this afternoon, his ring is on his left hand, his right wrist in a cast.

Mass before the relic of the Martyrs of Compiegne

Andrew our EF Master of Ceremonies suggests we celebrate the Martyrs of Compiegne whose feastday is today, we have a 2nd class relic of the veil of one of them in the base of a rather beautiful crucifix we will use at Mass.

These martyrs were Carmelite nuns who were guillotined by the Jacobins during the Terror, they went to there deaths rejoicing, singing God's praises.

There is a record of the Prince Regent entertaining refugee Carmelite nuns to dinner at the Ship Hotel in Brighton during The Terror, where they actually stayed I have never discovered, during that time Brighton was awash with emigre priests and religious

Out of the Depth

Nick, Lawrence and I went down into the depths of the crypt today, nowadays there is a trap door. There used to be stairs that opened up into the church and a rather grand door way in the crypt onto what is now the school playground which was bricked up years ago. I presume that the playground was originally bought to be a cemetery, but never consecrated. Older parishioners remember it as a field where the parish priest kept his horse.

We found the pillar that used to be used for the statue of our Glorious Patron and this piece of stone beautifully gilded, I don't know what it was for, I presume it was the base for the pulpit though it is not quite in keeping with carving elsewhere in the Church.

Pope suffers a small fracture

Pope Benedict XVI has suffered a small fracture to his wrist after falling while on holiday in northern Italy, the Vatican and hospital officials say.

The Pope, 82, went for a check-up at a hospital in the alpine town of Aosta.

read more

Italian Police officers, foreground, patrol outside the Regional Hospital in Aosta, Italy, Friday, July 17 2009, where Pope Benedict XVI was hospitalized after he broke his right wrist in a fall during his vacation in the Italian Alps. The Pope, 82, fell in his room in a chalet overnight and despite the accident, celebrated Mass and had breakfast before going to the hospital, a Vatican statement said.

The Real Winslow Boy

Tribunus reports on the real Winslow Boy, George Archer-Shee, a naval cadet at Osbourne accused of stealing a five shilling postal order.

Italian Parliament presss UN on forced abortions

John Allen reports:
[T]he Italian parliament, currently controlled by center-right parties, approved a resolution introduced by a close friend [Rocco Buttiglione] of the late Pope John Paul II to press the United Nations to condemn the use of compulsory abortions as part of population control programs.

The most commonly cited example of compulsory abortion in the world is usually China, where the country's one-child policy was strictly enforced as recently as the late 1990s, especially in urban areas. More recently, however, declining fertility and rapid aging have induced China to relax the policy somewhat.

Approved!

What is.


What will be.

I am pleased to report the Historic Churches Committee approved much of what we proposed.

We can clear the floor of the horrible lino!
We can restore the sanctuary to its original dimensions!
We can put in steps for the altar!
We can move the altar back!
We can move the font to the back of the Church!
We can put the organ console in the organ loft!
We can get rid of the old confessional which obscures the beautiful Hardman windows of Coronation and Assumption!

Oh yes, and I met the diocesan financial secretary who said we can have a loan of £50,000, anyone out there with some spare money?
When I pointed out to my parishioners last week that they give an average of 80p each, with the suggestion a little more might help, the average went down to 60p!

To Douai

I have to go to Douai Abbey today, to a meeting of the Historic Churches Committee to present the plans for the restoration of our church.
The HCC is the body that is supposed to stop the wonton destruction of historic churches and oversee alterations to them. They were sorely necessary in the 80s when so much damage was done to our Catholic heritage.
Apparently the presentation is in front of 25 experts from English Heritage and diocesan bodies, it sounds a bit intimidating, fortunately it is our architect Diedre Waddington doing the presentation.
Say a prayer our plans are accepted.

Diedre transformed the church in Crawley from this

To this

Newman beatification: a date

Cardinal John Henry Newman will be beatified in Birmingham, England, on 2nd May next year!

This is what the Vatican proposes, agreement from the Bishop's Conference is awaited.

Blair: Government Choice for President of Europe

"Brown backs Blair as British choice for President of Europe" is the headline for a piece in The Times. The news was given by Baroness Kinnock.

"The UK government is supporting Tony Blair's candidature for President of the Council," Mrs Kinnock told journalists in Strasbourg today.
...
"I am not saying there has been any formal confirmation or statement from Tony but it is certainly is the Government's position. I am sure they would not do it without asking him."
...
She added: "Tony Blair is seen by many as someone who has the strength of character, the stature, people know who he is and he would be someone who would have this role and step into with a lot of respect and I think would be generally welcomed."

Apart from his grossly anti-life and anti-family policies when in office, I am not sure that many EU governments would want to be associated with the cause of so much destruction in Iraq.
John Smeaton has this take on the story:

Pro-life/pro-family supporters must make it clear to their political representatives that Mr Blair's nomination is totally unacceptable. People in the UK can contact their MP via http://www.spuc.org.uk/mps Click here for my previous blogs on Tony & Cherie Blair and their anti-life/anti-family record. In particular, click here for a masterly analysis of the Obama-Blair anti-life/anti-family agenda to undermine both law and religion respectively.

A few notes on homosexuality

I had a brief encounter recently with a man I knew sometime ago, subsequently he had left his wife and children and moved in with a young man a few years older than one of his sons. He had discovered his homosexuality! Say a prayer.
It seems quite unacceptable nowadays to speak of men who had previously had a homosexual life style to then discover their heterosexuality, even more so for Christian groups to help homosexual men make the transition. There is a definite bias towards homosexual orientation. I was amused to read on The Bones about a couple in Brighton who were asked to leave a "gay" club.

As Brighton advertises as the the "gay capital of Britain", it is not surprising I recently had a conversation with a young journalist who was quite convinced "the Catholic Church hates gays". Certainly we have a very serious problem with the hedonism of "gay culture" but the Catholic Church doesn't divide people up according to sexual attractions, people are people, we have attractions and repulsions we are called to control these. Chastity and self control are at the heart of the Church's understanding of human sexuality.

However I think it is important to say the Church is not against:

• Having a deep love for someone of the same sex, we call that friendship


• Living with someone of the same sex is not a problem as brother or sister


• Showing affection to someone of the same sex within the normal boundaries of chastity

What the Church does have problems with is:

• Equating a same sex relationship with marriage


• Sexual acts between members of the same sex (or for that matter any sexual act outside of marriage)

Bastille Day

Inspired by the American revolution, came that of the French. Revolution begets revolution. Violence and usurpation begets violence and usurpation. Lawlessness begets lawlessness.

The ancient regime with all its injustices was supplant by the rule of a group of bandits who sought to overthrow everything, the injustices of the Revolutionaries made pale all that had gone before.

The Revolution brought forth the rule of the mob, the ascension of relatavism and the overthrow of God. In the name of liberty, equality and brotherhood a little boy, the Dauphin was depraved and abused, Leon destroyed, its citizens slaughtered, the Vendee devastated its people massacred, whole areas of the country devasted, so many thousands massacred. Here was killing on a mechanised industrial scale, the guillotine, the killing fields, were the chained were bombarded by artilliary, the innocent in chains, here is an object lesson for the mass murderers of the twentieth century.

Long live the Revolution, in the minds of all men, as reminder of the wickedness of the human heart when it seeks to be released from the experience of history.

Holiday

The Vicar of Christ is welcomed by children with flowers as he arrives in Introd, near Aosta, northern Italy, today. The pontiff will spend a period of rest in the Aosta Valley until July 29, when he will travel to the papal residence in the ancient town of Castel Gandolfo in the Alban Hills, south of Rome.

Where can I get a pontifical dalmatic?

The Pope's MCs vesting him during Mass

I am not sure why I should be asked such a question but twice in the last couple of months I have had emails from priests asking me where they can get a pontifical dalmatic.
Recently the Pope has started wearing the pontifical dalmatic more or less regularly, it is one of the official (though optional) vestments of a Bishop, it is normally made of thin silk and is unlined. It signifies the fullness of the priesthood and that both the order of presbyter and deacon are expressed in their fullness the office of the bishop.
Obviously it is fitting that a bishop wears it at the ordination of a deacon, at the last diaconate ordination I attnded in Rome I was pleased to see my own bishop wore one, but also expresses that the bishop is the chief "minister of charity " within his diocese. It is an expression that he is not just concerned with the sacramental economy of the Church, the inner mysteries, but is also with the Churches outreach to the poor the needy, the outer mysteries.

Rome Experience

This sounds like a good thing, it is an American initiative, giving students from American seminaries a two month experience of studying in the Eternal City.

It would be a good thing to introduce with our English seminarians.

h/t RCV

The bells, the bells

St Patrick's Bell Shrine

St Senan's bell

Tea at Trianon has an interesting article on Irish bells:

The Irish for a bell is cloc, clocc, or clog, akin to the English clock. The diminutive form cluccene is used to denote a small bell, called also lam-chlog, 'hand-bell. St. Patrick and his disciples constantly used consecrated bells in their ministrations. How numerous they were in Patrick's time we may understand from the fact, that whenever he left one of his disciples in charge of a church, he gave him a bell: and it is recorded that on the churches of one province alone - Connaught - he bestowed fifty. To supply these he had in his household three smiths, whose chief occupation was to make bells. The most ancient Irish bells were quadrangular in shape, with rounded corners, and made of iron: facts which we know both from the ecclesiastical literature, and from the specimens that are still preserved....

I like the use of handbells during Mass, we use them as normal in England at the epiclesis, elevation and priests communion, and we ring the tower bell at the elevation too. I keep thinking we should ring bells at the Sanctus in the Ordinary Form as in the Extraordinary Form.

I remember being told that before the Reformation in England tower bells were rung during the proclmation of the Gospel on solemn occassions. If this were so it would fit in well with the idea of the bell as being "the voice" that comes from on high saying, "This is my Son...".

One of my predecessors used to take Viaticum to the local sick preceded by a boy with bell and candle, a custom I am inclined to revive one day. I think it is still the norm, isn't it?

I have always wondered whether the ringing of the bell in ancient excommunication rites -bell, book and candle- was connected a sign of divine approval for excommunication -loosing in heaven as on earth- or was about ringing the death knell for the excommuicated. I suspect this has some connection with St Patrick's numerous bells.

Secularist Ignorance

A recent survey showed how successful our educational system has been in passing on one of the central cultural texts of European culture.

Fewer than one in 20 are able to name all Ten Commandments, while 62% did not know the parable of the Prodigal Son and 60% could not name anything about the Good Samaritan.
The initial research findings from The National Biblical Literacy Survey 2009 also revealed that 40% did not know that among Christians the tradition of giving Christmas gifts came from the story of the Wise Men bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh to the infant Jesus.
While only 5% of people could name all the Ten Commandments, 16% could not name any.

So many of our schools, despite the legal requirement to supply some religious education, actually actively promote a secularist agenda. The result is not only ignorance of Christianity and Judaism but an inability to understand their cultural roots.

Through Williamson to Ecumenism

I thought that Bishop Williamson had been silenced but apparently not, there is a video interview with him here, (h/t Fr Z) it is rather long. I must confess I haven't had the patience to listen to more than half of it. As the work of the Holy Father for the reconcilliation of the SSPX progresses to a new stage with the incorporation of Ecclesia Dei into the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it is interesting to see the mindset of this particular dissident Bishop. From what he has to say, not just about his own opinions but those of fellow SSPX bishops shows the mountain that needs to be overcome. Williamson of course was never part of the mainstream Church for more than a few months, having been received into the Church after a short period of instruction, he went to join Brompton Oratory but was soon asked to leave, more or less immediately he went off to the SSPX at Econe and was ordained priest and then bishop.

Williamson is typical of many of the followers of Lefebrve who not only are suspicious of everything that the Church has to say or done since Vatican II but actually are incapable of "thinking with the Church", many of the young followers, including the priests have never been in "full" communion with Peter.

Some of you might wonder why the reconcilliation of the SSPX is important, some of my brother priests think me a little suspect for showing too much interest in it. The reconcilliation of this group of four Bishops and 500 priests is a crucial part of Benedict's vision of the Church. It is certainly about their reconcilliation and the reconcilliation of the Church of today with that of the past, overcoming the hermeneutic of rupture, it is also about clarifying the teaching of Vatican II.

This however I think is just an experiment, and a paradigm for other reconcilliations, there are still the talks about trying to find a home for "traditional" Anglicans going on quietly but the real object is reconcilliation with Orthodoxy. The questions regarding the teachings of Vatican II with the SSPX are smallfry compared with what will be necessary for negotiations with the East, in which it will be necessary to look at not just that council but Vatican I and Trent too. Here the prejudices and a negativity of Williamson will appear to be wet liberalism compared to our seperated brothers of the Byzantine world.

Benedict's agenda was laid out in his sermons in the first few days of his Pontificate, at the top of the list was the gathering into one flock the scattered sheep of Christ, his is a true catholic ecumenism, one which addresses differences and is capable of seeing beyond them to a common understanding which does not deny revealed Truth but affirms it. What happens here will be watched closely by the Eastern Churches and should be closely monitored by all who have an interest ecumenism.

Negotiations with the SSPX will alter the thinking of the CDF and the Church as a whole for the far more exacting task of making the See of Rome the true locus of unity and restoring the Dominically instituted office of Peter to the whole Church.

Obama's gift

In a previous age the idea of an Emperor investing a Pope with a stole, the sign of priestly authority would be taken as definite sign of the subjection of the Church to the secular authority.

Obama's Liberal Catholics do not understand signs and symbols.





Today President Obama will give a stole to the Pope which was for awhile placed on the relics of St John Neuman.

During President Barack Obama’s July 10 meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, he will present the pope with a stole that was placed on the remains of St. John Neumann.

“It’s a delight that something of one of our Redemptorist saints would be given to our Holy Father,” said Father Patrick Woods, provincial of the Redemptorists’ Baltimore province, which is headquartered in Brooklyn, N.Y. “We’re delighted as Americans that our president is visiting the Holy Father and delighted that something belonging to our province would be given to him.”

Father Woods said in a statement that the stole was an appropriate gift because it symbolizes the priesthood that was “at the heart of St. John Neumann’s life as a Redemptorist.” He also said the stole, placed on the saint who had worked extensively with immigrants, was symbolic of the new wave of immigration in the United States and the Redemptorists’ continued service to these groups.

A stole is a long, narrow strip of cloth, draped over the neck and falling to about the knees, worn by a priest or bishop when celebrating Mass or presiding at other liturgical ceremonies.

Louis DiCocco, president of St. Jude Liturgical Arts Studio, an architecture and design firm based in Pennsylvania that specializes in building and restoring churches, was instrumental in obtaining the stole for the president, according to the Redemptorists.

His firm designed and built a chair used by Pope Benedict at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington during his visit in April 2008.

DiCocco was approached by the Obama administration about a possible gift for the pope.

“They wanted to find an antique chalice, but I suggested it was important to get something more personable,” DiCocco said in a statement. “I told them about this stole that was something that belonged to an immigrant who was so instrumental in serving immigrants and building Catholic schools. What better than the stole that represents the priest?”

Shared difficulties with Newman

People ask me about my conversion to the Catholic Church, I tend to avoid talking about simply because it was a long and complex process, it was not one thing but many, not one moment but many. Two keys to it were connected to Newman, one was an etching of the young John Henry Newman languishing in his cabin becalmed in the Mediterranean. I am not quite sure what happened to it, but as an adolescent the torpid Newman resonated with me. The second key was reading his Apologia Pro Vita Sua. To me as a fifteen year old Newman's analysis of the Church of England in 1864 echoed and increased my own growing difficulties with its various claims to being One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic almost a hundred years later. I did not understood fully what Newman was saying but the very fact that someone with Newman's integrity and intelligence had these difficulties sewed serious doubts in my mind.

My difficulties were that the Catholic Church of the late 60s and 70s was in flux, it seemed visibly breaking from its past, casting off much that marked it out as being "the" Church. For a rather confused adolescent I could see Newman's difficulty and doubts about Anglicanism but not his solution in the Catholic Church. For me the acorn was not recognisable in the mature tree.

Newman was one of my youthful heroes, now, with what I hope will be his imminent beatification, I have to learn to make him the object of my devotion. To let his heart speak to my heart as I suppose it did in my youth.

There is a very good piece on Newman by Dr Ian Kerr in the Herald.

Maria Fitzherbert's house

The Bones reports that the YMCA in Brighton was set on fire making 60+ people homeless. The house which is on the edge of this parish on the Steine has an interesting history, it belonged to Maria Fitzherbert and was the first place Mass was celebrated consistantly in Brighton since the Reformation, there was a small chapel in the house.

Even so this house along with the nearby Royal Pavillion are responsible for Brighton's reputation as a place of unconventional living.

It was Brighton that Charles II after being handed on from family to family along the Catholic underground negotiated his passage to exile in France. It was the last little town along the coast before the more heavily watched harbour at Shoreham, and it was most probably here that many of the recusant priests landed from ships bound for Shoreham. Where people were smuggled so were goods, like many Sussex towns there was a tendency to make up ones own laws. It is interesting that Tom Payne the French revolutionary and American rebel was actually a revenue officer in nearby Lewes, the County Town of Sussex, this part of Sussex was capable of discretion and turning a blind eye.

The Prince Regent gentrified Brighton but it was really to live with, or rather close to Maria Fitzherbert, who was known as the Prince's mistress. However, there is pretty good evidence that they were actually married, the marriage was secret, she was a good Catholic girl, but the appearance was that he was his mistress. This "appearance" of unconventionality in their relationship gave rise to a loosening of morality amongst the Regency Court. Contact with Brighton leads Jane Austin's Lydia to downfall. Brighton was a place for the mistresses and for unconventional living, it was Brighton (well ultimately Hove actually) that led to Parnell's downfall in the arms of Kitty O'Shea. With the coming of the London-Brighton railway Brighton became the place for keeping mistresses, many of the grander houses have access to gardens through narrow discreet alley ways.
By the end of the 19th prostitution seems to have become almost an industry second to tourism, many cheap hotels and boarding house hired rooms by the hour, with clean sheets extra. In the 20th century increasingly the town became the home of many people involved in the entertainment world, whose lives off stage brought as much entertainment in the yellow press as did their on stage antics. Along with this, the contrast of wealth and poverty gave rise to an under current of crime and violence that we see in Brighton Rock.

Pell's Stem Cell Grant

HOPING to contribute to the end of the use of embryos in research, the Catholic Church is offering a $100,000 grant for research into the medical use of adult stem cells.
The Sydney Archdiocese announced the grant today, saying it is still vehemently opposed to embryonic stem cell research but approves of the use of adult stem cells.
Sydney Archbishop Cardinal George Pell says adult stem cells can already be used in the treatment of heart and liver disease.
"The Catholic Church promotes and encourages medical research and we strongly support stem cell research and other forms of biotechnology that respect the dignity of every human life," Cardinal Pell said in a statement.
"Advances in adult stem cell research have been extremely impressive."
The Catholic Church says the grant will be awarded by an independent assessment panel.
This is the fourth adult stem cell grant the Church has awarded since 2002, with $300,000 already given.

The Australian

Does wear, does care

Andrew Cusack has this picture of Cardinal O'Brien at Brompton Oratory earlier this year, the Cardinal seems to wearing Cappa Magna quite often apparently but not this far south of the border.

A friend of mine who now teaches liturgy and dogma in a foreign seminary coined the phrase "won't wear, won't care" to so describe some of his less liturgically minded students. I think he also used to apply it to a few bishops and clergy.

Pope on Caritas in Veritate

Speaking at the General Audience today the Holy Father said:

Caritas in Veritate, he said, "is inspired in its vision by passage from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, which talks about" acting according to truth in charity. " "Truth in charity is the main driving force for every person and for all humanity" and is the foundation around which " the entire social teaching of the Church rotates ", because it is the only way in which "you can achieve the goals of a humanizing development”. The encyclical, he stressed, "immediately recalls two fundamental criteria: justice and the common good. Justice is an integral part of “that love in action and in truth that we are called to by the apostle John”, "loving someone means devotion to his being". "We love our neighbours so much more effectively when we work towards the common good”, which is the "charity towards others", to which every Christian is called.

Afterwards he met the wives of those attending the G8 Summit who meet in L'Aquilla this week, amongst those in attendance was Sarah Brown.

Today a Motu Proprio

July is a busy month, starting with the words,

"The goal of guarding the UNITY OF THE CHURCH, with the solicitousness of offering to all the aid to responding in opportune manner to this vocation and divine grace, belongs in a particular way to the Successor of the Apostle Peter, ....

The Holy Father has just issue a new Motu Proprio entitled: ECCLESIAE UNITATEM it places the Ecclesia Dei Commision under the control of CDF and establishes it to deal with reconcilliation with the followers of the SSPX.

Times are changing

I was so pleased that Archbishop Nichols himself presented Caritas in Veritate at a press conference yesterday and the website for the Bishop's of England and Wales had a brief commentary and link up and running last night.

SUMMARY OF ENCYCLICAL "CARITAS IN VERITATE"

This is the Vatican Information Service summary of Caritas in Veritate

VATICAN CITY, 7 JUL 2009 (VIS) - Given below is a summary of Benedict XVI's new Encyclical "Caritas in veritate" (Charity in Truth) on integral human development in charity and truth.

The Encyclical published today - which comprehends an introduction, six chapters and a conclusion - is dated 29 June 2009, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.

A summary of the Encyclical released by the Holy See Press Office explains that in his introduction the Pope recalls how "charity is at the heart of the Church's social doctrine". Yet, given the risk of its being "misinterpreted and detached from ethical living", he warns how "a Christianity of charity without truth would be more or less interchangeable with a pool of good sentiments, helpful for social cohesion, but of little relevance".

The Holy Father makes it clear that development has need of truth. In this context he dwells on two "criteria that govern moral action": justice and the common good. All Christians are called to charity, also by the "institutional path" which affects the life of the "polis", that is, of social coexistence.

The first chapter of the Encyclical focuses on the message of Paul VI's "Populorum Progressio" which "underlined the indispensable importance of the Gospel for building a society according to freedom and justice. ... The Christian faith does not rely on privilege or positions of power, ... but only on Christ". Paul VI "pointed out that the causes of underdevelopment are not primarily of the material order". They lie above all in the will, in the mind and, even more so, in "the lack of brotherhood among individuals and peoples".

"Human Development in Our Time" is the theme of the second chapter. If profit, the Pope writes, "becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty". In this context he enumerates certain "malfunctions" of development: financial dealings that are "largely speculative", migratory flows "often provoked by some particular circumstance and then given insufficient attention", and "the unregulated exploitation of the earth's resources". In the face of these interconnected problems, the Pope calls for "a new humanistic synthesis", noting how "development today has many overlapping layers: ... The world's wealth is growing in absolute terms, but inequalities are on the increase", and new forms of poverty are coming into being.

At a cultural level, the Encyclical proceeds, the possibilities for interaction open new prospects for dialogue, but a twofold danger exists: a "cultural eclecticism" in which cultures are viewed as "substantially equivalent", and the opposing danger of "cultural levelling and indiscriminate acceptance of types of conduct and lifestyles". In this context Pope Benedict also mentions the scandal of hunger and express his hope for "equitable agrarian reform in developing countries".

The Pontiff also dwells on the question of respect for life, "which cannot in any way be detached from questions concerning the development of peoples", affirming that "when a society moves towards the denial or suppression of life, it ends up no longer finding the necessary motivation and energy to strive for man's true good".

Another question associated with development is that of the right to religious freedom. "Violence", writes the Pope, "puts the brakes on authentic development", and "this applies especially to terrorism motivated by fundamentalism".

Chapter three of the Encyclical - "Fraternity, Economic Development and Civil Society" - opens with a passage praising the "experience of gift", often insufficiently recognised "because of a purely consumerist and utilitarian view of life". Yet development, "if it is to be authentically human, needs to make room for the principle of gratuitousness". As for the logic of the market, it "needs to be directed towards the pursuit of the common good, for which the political community in particular must also take responsibility".

Referring to "Centesimus Annus", this Encyclical highlights the "need for a system with three subjects: the market, the State and civil society" and encourages a "civilising of the economy". It highlights the importance of "economic forms based on solidarity" and indicates how "both market and politics need individuals who are open to reciprocal gift".

The chapter closes with a fresh evaluation of the phenomenon of globalisation, which must not be seen just as a "socio-economic process". Globalisation needs "to promote a person-based and community-oriented cultural process of world-wide integration that is open to transcendence" and able to correct its own malfunctions.

The fourth chapter of the Encyclical focuses on the theme: "The Development of People. Rights and Duties. The Environment". Governments and international organisations, says the Pope, cannot "lose sight of the objectivity and 'inviolability' of rights". In this context he also dedicates attention to "the problems associated with population growth".

He reaffirms that sexuality "cannot be reduced merely to pleasure or entertainment". States, he says, "are called to enact policies promoting the centrality and the integrity of the family".

"The economy needs ethics in order to function correctly", the Holy Father goes on, and "not any ethics whatsoever, but an ethics which is people-centred". This centrality of the human person must also be the guiding principle in "development programmes" and in international co-operation. "International organisations", he suggests, "might question the actual effectiveness of their bureaucratic and administrative machinery, which is often excessively costly".

The Holy Father also turns his attention to the energy problem, noting how "the fact that some States, power groups and companies hoard non-renewable energy resources represents a grave obstacle to development in poor countries. ... Technologically advanced societies can and must lower their domestic energy consumption", he says, at the same time encouraging "research into alternative forms of energy".

"The Co-operation of the Human Family" is the title and focus of chapter five, in which Pope Benedict highlights how "the development of peoples depends, above all, on a recognition that the human race is a single family". Hence Christianity and other religions "can offer their contribution to development only if God has a place in the public realm".

The Pope also makes reference to the principle of subsidiarity, which assists the human person "via the autonomy of intermediate bodies". Subsidiarity, he explains, "is the most effective antidote against any form of all-encompassing welfare state" and is "particularly well-suited to managing globalisation and directing it towards authentic human development".

Benedict XVI calls upon rich States "to allocate larger portions of their gross domestic product to development aid", thus respecting their obligations. He also express a hope for wider access to education and, even more so, for "complete formation of the person", affirming that yielding to relativism makes everyone poorer. One example of this, he writes, is that of the perverse phenomenon of sexual tourism. "It is sad to note that this activity often takes place with the support of local governments", he says.

The Pope then goes on to consider the "epoch-making" question of migration. "Every migrant", he says, "is a human person who, as such, possesses fundamental, inalienable rights that must be respected by everyone and in every circumstance".

The Pontiff dedicates the final paragraph of this chapter to the "strongly felt need" for a reform of the United Nations and of "economic institutions and international finance. ... There is", he says, "urgent need of a true world political authority" with "effective power".

The sixth and final chapter is entitled "The Development of Peoples and Technology". In it the Holy Father warns against the "Promethean presumption" of humanity thinking "it can re-create itself through the 'wonders' of technology". Technology, he says, cannot have "absolute freedom".

"A particularly crucial battleground in today's cultural struggle between the supremacy of technology and human moral responsibility is the field of bioethics", says Benedict XVI, and he adds: "Reason without faith is doomed to flounder in an illusion of its own omnipotence". The social question has, he says, become an anthropological question. Research on embryos and cloning is "being promoted in today's highly disillusioned culture which believes it has mastered every mystery". The Pope likewise expresses his concern over a possible "systematic eugenic programming of births".

In the conclusion to his Encyclical Benedict XVI highlights how "development needs Christians with their arms raised towards God in prayer", just as it needs "love and forgiveness, self-denial, acceptance of others, justice and peace".

CARITAS IN VERITATE

Here are some excerpts from CARITAS IN VERITATE published earlier today.

"Profit is useful if it serves as a means towards an end that provides a sense both of how to produce it and how to make good use of it. Once profit becomes the exclusive goal, if it is produced by improper means and without the common good as its ultimate end, it risks destroying wealth and creating poverty."

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Some non-governmental Organizations work actively to spread abortion, at times promoting the practice of sterilization in poor countries, in some cases not even informing the women concerned. Moreover, there is reason to suspect that development aid is sometimes linked to specific health-care policies which de facto involve the imposition of strong birth control measures. Further grounds for concern are laws permitting euthanasia as well as pressure from lobby groups, nationally and internationally, in favour of its juridical recognition.

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Populous nations have been able to emerge from poverty thanks not least to the size of their population and the talents of their people.

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The acceptance of life strengthens moral fibre and makes people capable of mutual help. By cultivating openness to life, wealthy peoples can better understand the needs of poor ones, they can avoid employing huge economic and intellectual resources to satisfy the selfish desires of their own citizens, and instead, they can promote virtuous action within the perspective of production that is morally sound and marked by solidarity, respecting the fundamental right to life of every people and every individual.

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"The current crisis obliges us to re-plan our journey, to set ourselves new rules and to discover new forms of commitment, to build on positive experiences and to reject negative ones. The crisis thus becomes an opportunity for discernment, in which to shape a new vision for the future."

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"Today, as we take to heart the lessons of the current economic crisis, which sees the state's public authorities directly involved in correcting errors and malfunctions, it seems more realistic to re-evaluate their role and their powers, which need to be prudently reviewed and remodelled so as to enable them, perhaps through new forms of engagement, to address the challenges of today's world. Once the role of public authorities has been more clearly defined, one could foresee an increase in the new forms of political participation, nationally and internationally."

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"In the list of areas where the pernicious effects of sin are evident, the economy has been included for some time now. We have a clear proof of this at the present time. The conviction that man is self-sufficient and can successfully eliminate the evil present in history by his own action alone has led him to confuse happiness and salvation with immanent forms of material prosperity and social action. Then, the conviction that the economy must be autonomous, that it must be shielded from "influences" of a moral character, has led man to abuse the economic process in a thoroughly destructive way. In the long term, these convictions have led to economic, social and political systems that trample upon personal and social freedom, and are therefore unable to deliver the justice that they promise."

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"Today's international economic scene, marked by grave deviations and failures, requires a profoundly new way of understanding business enterprise. Old models are disappearing, but promising new ones are taking shape on the horizon. Without doubt, one of the greatest risks for businesses is that they are almost exclusively answerable to their investors, thereby limiting their social value."

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"Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers. Right intention, transparency, and the search for positive results are mutually compatible and must never be detached from one another."

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"To manage the global economy; to revive economies hit by the crisis; to avoid any deterioration of the present crisis and the greater imbalances that would result; to bring about integral and timely disarmament, food security and peace; to guarantee the protection of the environment and to regulate migration: for all this, there is urgent need of a true world political authority, as my predecessor Blessed John XXIII indicated some years ago.

Such an authority would need to be regulated by law, to observe consistently the principles of subsidiarity and solidarity, to seek to establish the common good, and to make a commitment to securing authentic integral human development inspired by the values of charity in truth.

Furthermore, such an authority would need to be universally recognized and to be vested with the effective power to ensure security for all, regard for justice, and respect for rights.

Obviously it would have to have the authority to ensure compliance with its decisions from all parties, and also with the coordinated measures adopted in various international forums. Without this, despite the great progress accomplished in various sectors, international law would risk being conditioned by the balance of power among the strongest nations."

Seventh of the Seventh

The seventh day of the seventh month seems to be significant in the mind of our theoligian/liturgist Pope. Two years ago it was the publication of Summorum Pontificum, today it is the publication of his long awaited encyclical Charity in Truth.

I am sure there is a significance in the 7th of the 7th, the Pope is concerned about symbolism and has written about "sacred time". Seven is the number of signifying perfection or completion. The seventh day is last day of Creation, the day on which God rested, according to the rabbinic tradition to enjoy all he done. Possibly it is one of those little flashes of papal humour saying, "I have done the work, now is the time for rest, its holiday time".

I suspect we will see in the encyclical something of a milestone in this pontificate, a seed that is planted that will come to fruit in decades to come, just as the Motu Proprio will prove to be.

Saints Legal Aid

A decade ago the cost of St Jose Maria Escriva's canonisation was estimated to be in the region of $150,000, plus a huge number of man hours preparing the rigorous documentation of the candidates life, writings and miracles every thing has to be checked and rechecked, scrutinised, criticised and defended. In the case of St Jose Maria there were countless interviews and personal reports to be examined. It is specialised work that needs training and expertise.

Someone posted a link to the site of the Dr Ambrosi's Legal Firm on an earlier story, it is an Italian legal firm that specialises in canonisations. Check it out

On October 1, 1971 within The Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Dr. Ambrosi began his then mandatory training in the Office of the General Promoter of Faith, widely known as the “advocatus diaboli”. Here his duties included preparing the animadversions super fama sanctitatis when the Cause was being introduced, super virtutibus during the phase of concession of the title of Venerable as well as the super miris which is the overview of the cause of beatification and canonization. The Promoter at that time, Father Rafael Perez, O.S.A., awarded him his decree of qualification on December 20, 1974.

For the first seven years he worked as a Procurator for the Lawyers Valente and Vitale then from November 22, 1978 and on as an attorney for The Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Before this role and then on after 1992, as a Postulator he has taken into jurisdiction and completed many Causes internationally ...

Saints

I have saints in my parish, people of outstanding holiness, people in who's presence the goodness of God shines through.
The problem is that they are not plaster saints but real human beings, flesh and blood creatures, often with deep "problems" in their lives. One or two have a natural innocence, which could be seen as naivety. The majority are the men and women struggling with their sexuality, or their mental health, or guilt about some great sin in their pasts, there is a woundedness about them, a consciousness of their own unworthiness of God's love. A common factor is that they trust in God, they cling to him like a man cast adrift in boiling sea clings to a piece of driftwood. They live out St Paul's words, "My Grace is enough for you", despite the wounds, despite the hurt in their soul.
Fr Mark has the following:

God Chooses the Broken Man
Prophets are often held in contempt and rejected by those to whom they are sent. The choice of God rarely, if ever, meets the narrow and shortsighted criteria set up by men. God chooses the broken man and promises to repair him. He chooses the fallen man and promises to raise him up. He chooses the man deformed by sin and promises to reform him by grace. Even more surprising is that God does not wait until the broken are completely repaired, the fallen steady on their feet, and the deformed totally reformed, before using them. He chooses his prophets, entrusts them with a mission, and sends them out while they are still imperfect.