Rosary and Lepanto

By Elizabeth Lev

Remembering Lepanto The same week we remember St. Francis' example, we also celebrate the important contributions of St. Dominic, contemporary of Francis and founder of the Dominicans. Notable among his contributions was the praying of the rosary. St. Dominic received the rosary from the Blessed Virgin in a vision while trying to convert the Albigensians in 1208. Mary told the great saint that the rosary was a "weapon the Blessed Trinity wants to use to reform the world." At the Battle of Muret on Sept. 12, 1213, the Marian prayer brought about the defeat of the Albigensians and saw the first shrine built to Our Lady of Victory. Throughout the centuries, the rosary has been recited especially in times of danger to implore the aid of the Blessed Virgin. This Oct. 7 will be the 435th anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, the event which gave the liturgical feast of the rosary to the world. Throughout the 16th century, naval clashes with the Turkish fleet had been increasing. Having taken Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman Turks were building a fleet with the intention of conquering all of Europe, first by sea, then by land. The Turkish fleet was seemingly invincible -- well appointed, superbly led and unflinchingly aggressive. They had captured Cyprus, Rhodes and had only been narrowly repelled at Malta. Pope St. Pius V, zealous Dominican reformer and friend of St. Charles Borromeo, hoped to stave off the next inevitable attack before it happened and managed to bring together the king of Spain and the republics of Venice and Genoa as well as the papal fleet to stop the Turkish fleet from leaving its own waters. This remarkable alliance was comprised of many traditional enemies who succeeded in putting aside their differences to aid their common cause. They set sail 200 ships strong to engage the 220 ships of the Turkish fleet. Pius V, besides his personal penances, enjoined the entire Catholic world to pray the rosary and organized processions throughout the city for the Marian prayer. On Oct. 7, 1571, while working with his cardinals, Pius V looked up and said, "A truce to business; our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which he has just given the Christian army." Indeed, in a few short hours Don John of Austria, commander of the Holy Alliance, had won the day, not only defeating the Turkish fleet but also freeing almost 20,000 Christian galley slaves from the Turkish boats. Thus began the feast of Our Lady of Victory, later changed by Pope Gregory XIII to the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary and extended to the whole church by Clement XI in 1716. Pope John Paul II of blessed memory reminded Catholics that in our modern age we are in more need than ever of the rosary. In the wake of the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, he declared, "Within the current international context, I invite all -- individuals, families, communities -- to pray this Marian prayer, possibly every day, for peace, so that the world can be preserved from the wicked scourge of terrorism." A year later, he added the luminous mysteries to the rosary to focus on Christ's public ministry. In these troubled times of unexpected dangers and flare-ups of hostility, Christians can remember that while might fails, and reason breaks down, the most effective weapon in the Christian's arsenal is prayer.

Rite of degradation of a Bishop (or Archbishop)

Milingo's act of schism which caused his automatic excommunicaton has sent a buzz round some websites about the "Rite of Degradation of a Bishop", it was ordered to be printed for the first time in 1862 on the instruction of another Benedict, Benedict XIV.
Though one might suggest names, even those who qualify seem loathe to come forward to be publicly degraded, so I do not know when it was last used.

THE RITE OF DEGRADATION of a BISHOPIf the degradandus be an archbishop, the degrading prelate removes his pallium, saying:
We deprive thee of the rights and privileges of the episcopal dignity, symbolized in this pallium, since thou hast abused them.
Then, even if the degradandus be a mere bishop, the degrading prelate removes his mitre, saying:
We strip thy head of this miter, emblem of the episcopal dignity, since thou hast befouled it by thy ill government.
Then one of the ministers brings the Book of the Gospel to the degradandus, which the degrading prelate takes from his hands, saying;
Give us back the Gospel! Since thou hast spurned the grace of God and made thyself unworthy of the office of preaching, we rightly deprive you of this office.
Then the degrading prelate removes the ring from the finger of the degradandus, saying:
Rightly do we pull off thy ring, the sign of fidelity, since thou hast made bold to rape God's own bride, the Church.
At this time one of the ministers brings the degradandus a crosier, which the degrading prelate takes from his hands, saying;
Thy shepherd's staff we take from thee, that thou shalt be powerless henceforward to exercise that office of correction, which thou hast brought to disarray.
Then the ministers take off the gloves of the degradandus, and the degrading prelate lightly scrapes thumbs and hands with a knife blade or a shard of glass, saying:
We hereby deprive thee, to the extent of our powers, of the grace of spiritual blessing and of sacramental anointing, that thou shouldst forfeit the office of sanctifying and of blessing, and their effects.
With the same knife blade or shard the degrading prelate lightly scrapes the head of the degradandus, saying:
We utterly erase and eradicate the consecration, blessing and anointing bestowed upon thee, and we put thee out of the episcopal order, whence thou returnest unclothed.
The ministers remove the shoes from the degradandus Thus ends the ceremony.

He was then hand over to the civil authorities for secular punishment with the plea that blood should not be spilt nor should he be treated harshly.

Maltz Meseum of Jewish Heritage: Cradle of Christianity Exhibition

Maltz Meseum of Jewish Heritage: Cradle of Christianity Exhibition
Mike Aquilla has visit this exhibition
"It’s an overwhelming experience. In one large room, we saw the casket of Caiaphas, the only surviving inscription of Pontius Pilate, a very early Christian altar and baptismal font, plus reliquaries, chalices, crosses — and a very large portion of the Temple Scroll from Qumran. The exhibit closes soon. If you can drive there, please do. You don’t want to miss this rare opportunity to stand so close to the material remains of Christianity’s origins. "



Caiaphas' casket

Persecution by Romans -from The Way of the Fathers

The Empire had no official policy on Christianity. There were local persecutions, but nothing so far had been dictated by the Emperor himself. But Nero needed someone to blame. Since the Christians were an unpopular cult, he accused them of setting the fire. Then he set about killing as many as he could get his hands on. Some were crucified in the usual way, but Nero could be much more imaginative than that. He liked to think of himself as an artist, and he applied all his creativity to the art of killing Christians.
Some of them were sewn up in animal skins and thrown to hungry wild dogs. Others were doused with pitch and became human torches for Nero’s garden parties. Even Tacitus, the pagan historian who hated Christians and thought they all deserved to die, was appalled by Nero’s cruelty. Tacitus pointed out that Nero’s methods had one effect no one had counted on: ordinary Romans started to have sympathy for the Christians, who met such horrible and unjustified punishments so heroically.
In the midst of these horrors, Peter and Paul both came to Rome—Paul in chains, Peter willingly. Eusebius tells us that they both died on the same day.

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