CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: TUES. APRIL 20, 2010-HEADLINES-
VATICAN: POPE: CARDINAL SPIDLIK, A GREAT MAN OF FAITH-
ASIA: CHINA: VATICAN APPROVED ORDINATIONS OF BISHOPS-
AMERICA: USA: DOROTHY HEIGHT LEADING FEMALE NEGRO VOICE DIES AGE 98-
EUROPE: IRELAND: SURVEY SHOWS THAT 70% ARE PRO-LIFE-
AUSTRALIA: CATHOLIC CARE HELPS THOSE WITH LEARNING DISABILITY-
AFRICA: TANZANIA: POPE DISMISSES BISHOP FROM DIOCESE-
VATICAN
POPE: CARDINAL SPIDLIK, A GREAT MAN OF FAITH
VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2010 (VIS) - This morning Benedict XVI delivered the eulogy at the end of the funeral of Cardinal Tomas Spidlik S.J., who died on 16 April at the age of 90. The funeral Mass was celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, dean of the College of Cardinals.
"The will of Jesus coincides with the will of God the Father and, along with the action of the Holy Spirit, represents a kind of secure, strong and sweet 'embrace' of man, leading him to eternal life", said the Pope.
"I believe that the great men of faith live immersed in this grace, that they have the gift of perceiving this truth particularly clearly, and that they can thus undergo harsh trials, just as Fr. Tomas Spidlik did, without losing their trust; rather, they retain a sense of humour, which is certainly a sign of intelligence but also of inner freedom".
Benedict XVI went on: "In this context, there was an evident resemblance between the late cardinal and the Venerable John Paul II: both were wont to make jokes though having suffered difficult, and in some ways similar, personal circumstances in their youth. Providence led them to meet and work together for the good of the Church, with the particular aim that she might learn to breathe fully 'with both her lungs', as the Slavic Pope liked to say.
"This free and ready spirit had its objective foundation in the Resurrection of Christ", the Holy Father added. "The hope and joy of the risen Jesus are also the hope and joy of His friends, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Spidlik demonstrated this regularly in the way he lived, and his witness became ever more eloquent with the passing of the years because, despite his advanced age and inevitable health problems, his spirit remained fresh and youthful. What is this, if not friendship with the risen Lord?"
In choosing "ex toto corde" (with all my heart) as his motto, the cardinal placed "his life within the commandment to love, inscribing his entire existence in the primacy of love and of charity". The words "phos" and "zoe" (light and life) on the cardinal's coat-of-arms "are names of God", the Pope explained. "Thus the man who fully 'ex toto corde' accepts the love of God, accepts light and life, and becomes in his turn light and life in humankind and in the universe".
Benedict XVI concluded his eulogy by recalling Cardinal Spidlik's membership of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). "In other words", he said, "he was a spiritual son of St. Ignatius who placed the contemplation of God in the mystery of Christ at the centre of faith and spirituality. In this symbol of the heart, East and West come together, not in a devotional but in a profoundly Christological sense".
PROGRAMME OF BENEDICT XVI'S VISIT TO TURIN
VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2010 (VIS) - On Sunday 2 May the Holy Father will travel to the Italian city of Turin for the exposition of the Holy Shroud, which began on 10 April and is due to last until 23 May.
The Pope will depart from Rome's Fiumicino airport at 8.15 a.m. on that day, arriving in Turin an hour later. At 9.45 a.m. he will meet with the local population in the city's Pizza San Carlo where, at 10.15 a.m., he will concelebrate the Eucharist then pray the Regina Coeli.
At 1.30 p.m. he will lunch with bishops of the Piedmont region in the archbishopric of Turin before returning to Piazza San Carlo at 4.30 p.m. for a meeting with young people. At 5.30 p.m. Benedict XVI will visit the cathedral of St. John where he will venerate the Holy Shroud and, an hour later, travel to the church of the Little House of Divine Providence - Cottolengo where he will meet with sick people.
The Pope's return flight to Rome is due to leave at 7.30 p.m., arriving at Ciampino airport at 8.30 p.m. whence a helicopter will carry him back to the Vatican.
ACTIVITIES AND TRIPS OF THE HOLY FATHER: MAY - SEPTEMBER
VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2010 (VIS) - Following are highlights of the activities and trips due to be undertaken by Pope Benedict XVI between the months of May and September.
MAY
- Sunday 2: Pastoral visit to Turin, Italy, for the exposition of the Holy Shroud.
- Tuesday 11 to Friday 14: Apostolic trip to Portugal.
- Sunday 23: Solemnity of Pentecost: Mass at 10 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica.
JUNE
- Thursday 3: Solemnity of Corpus Christi. Mass at 7.00 p.m. in the basilica of St. John Lateran, procession to the basilica of St. Mary Major and Eucharistic blessing.
- Friday 4 to Sunday 6: Apostolic trip to Cyprus.
- Thursday 10: Prayer vigil with priests at 6 p.m. in St. Peter's Square.
- Friday 11: Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. At 10 a.m. in St. Peter's Square, Mass for the close of the Year for Priests.
- Sunday 20: At 9 .30 a.m. in the Vatican Basilica, priestly ordination of deacons from the diocese of Rome.
- Monday 28: First Vespers for the Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles, at 6 p.m. in the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls.
- Tuesday 29: Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul Apostles. Mass at 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica and imposition of the pallium on new metropolitan archbishops.
JULY
- Sunday 4: Pastoral visit to Sulmona, Italy, for the eighth centenary of the birth of Pope St. Celestine V.
AUGUST
- Sunday 15: Solemnity of the Assumption. Mass at 8 a.m. in the parish church of St. Thomas of Villanova in Castelgandolfo.
SEPTEMBER
- Sunday 5: Pastoral visit to Carpineto Romano, Italy, for the second centenary of the birth of Pope Leo XIII.
- Thursday 16 to Sunday 19: Apostolic trip to the United Kingdom.
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 20 APR 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:
- Appointed Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, U.S.A., as metropolitan archbishop of Miami (area 12,836, population 4,299,000, Catholics 860,000, priests 397, permanent deacons 119, religious 415), U.S.A. The archbishop-elect was born in West Palm Beach, U.S.A. in 1950, he was ordained a priest in 1976 and consecrated a bishop in 1997. He succeeds Archbishop John C. Favalora, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.
- Appointed Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Chicago, U.S.A., as bishop of Springfield in Illinois (area 39,195, population 1,176,000, Catholics 164,000, priests 157, permanent deacons 23, religious 661), U.S.A.
NER:RE/
ASIA
CHINA: VATICAN APPROVED ORDINATIONS OF BISHOPS
Asia New report: This is the second ordination in recent days. The Holy See recognises all the ordaining bishops, except for one. Joining the nation to mourn the victims of the Qinghia quake, Mass participants observe a moment of silence at the end of the service. No wine is served during the banquet that followed the ordination.
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Nantong (AsiaNews) – Bishop Shen Bin of Haimen (Nantong) was ordained today as the new official bishop of the diocese of Haimen (Nantong), Jiangsu province, on China’s east coast. The ceremony was held in the cathedral of Nantong City. His ordination has been approved by the Holy See. Following the event, which began at 8.30 am, all those present observed a moment of silence at 10 am in memory of Qinghai quake victims. Mgr Shen is the second bishop to be recognised by the government and approved by the Holy See in four days. Last Sunday, Mgr Paul Meng Qinglu became the bishop of Hohhot.
Hitherto, Episcopal appointments in China had been held up for almost two years. The Haimen bishopric had been vacant since 2006 when Bishop Yu Chengcai passed away.
Mgr Fang Xinyao, bishop of Linyi, presided over the ceremony. Three other bishops from Jiangsu were present, namely Mgr Lu Xinping of Nanking, Mgr Xu Honggen of Suzhou and Wang Renlei of Xuzhou. All of them except Wang, who was ordained in November 2006 without papal approval, are lawfully in communion with the Holy See.
Some 20 priests and two thousand faithful also took part in the celebration.
Speaking to AsiaNews, Mgr Shen said that his priorities include strengthening formation and social services. He hopes he can help priests and nuns deepen their knowledge of the Bible, as well as spirituality and culture. He also intends to help the laity better understand the Church and play a role in evangelisation. Likewise, the new bishop wants to help the poorest students get an education and set up charity groups to assist the poor, orphans, widows and disaster victims.
Mgr Shen, who is 40, has been a priest since 1996. For a long time, he was the vicar general to his predecessor.
Mass participants joined the nation in a silent prayer to mourn the people who died in the Qinghai earthquake. During the banquet that followed the service, wine was not served.
Some of those who attended the ceremony came away with the impression that the ordination was rushed. However, Bishop Shen said that the period that follows Easter is the best time for ordinations because the diocese in May is busy organising pilgrimage to Our Lady of Langshan, a local shrine, whilst the month of June tends to be too hot and humid.
The diocese of Haimen has a Catholic population of 30,000, and served by 9 priests and 21 nuns.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/New,-Vatican-approved-Episcopal-ordination-in-Jiangsu-18200.html
AMERICA
USA: DOROTHY HEIGHT LEADING FEMALE NEGRO VOICE DIES AGE 98
CBN report: Dorothy Height, who as longtime president of the National Council of Negro Women was the leading female voice of the 1960s civil rights movement, died Tuesday. She was 98.
Height, who continued actively speaking out into her 90s, had been at Howard University Hospital for some time. The hospital said in a statement she died of natural causes.
It was the second death of a major civil rights figure in less than a week. Benjamin L. Hooks, the former longtime head of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, died Thursday in Memphis at 85.
The late activist C. DeLores Tucker once called Height an icon to all African-American women.
"I call Rosa Parks the mother of the civil rights movement," Tucker said in 1997. "Dorothy Height is the queen."
Height was on the platform at the Lincoln Memorial, sitting only a few feet from King, when he gave his famous "I have a dream" speech at the March on Washington in 1963.
He spoke longer than he was supposed to speak," Height recalled in a 1997 Associated Press interview. But after he was done, it was clear King's speech would echo for generations, she said, "because it gripped everybody."
Height became president of the National Council of Negro Women in 1957 and held the post until 1997, when she was 85. She remained chairman of the group.
"I hope not to work this hard all the rest of my life," she said at the time. "But whether it is the council, whether it is somewhere else, for the rest of my life, I will be working for equality, for justice, to eliminate racism, to build a better life for our families and our children."
Height received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 from President Bill Clinton
To celebrate Height's 90th birthday in March 2002, friends and supporters raised $5 million to enable her organization to pay off the mortgage on its Washington headquarters. The donors included Oprah Winfrey and Don King.
Height was born in Richmond, Va., and the family moved to the Pittsburgh area when she was four. She earned bachelor's and master's degrees from New York University and did postgraduate work at Columbia University and the New York School of Social Work. (She had been turned away by Barnard College because it already had its quota of two black women.)
In 1937, while she was working at the Harlem YWCA, Height met famed educator Mary McLeod Bethune, the founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who had come to speak at a meeting of Bethune's organization. Height eventually rose to leadership roles in both the council and the YWCA.
One of Height's sayings was, "If the time is not ripe, we have to ripen the time." She liked to quote 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who said that the three effective ways to fight for justice are to "agitate, agitate, agitate."
http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2010/April/Dorothy-Height-Civil-Rights-Activist-Dies-at-98/
EUROPE
IRELAND: SURVEY SHOWS THAT 70% ARE PRO-LIFE
Cath News report: A survey commissioned by the Pro-Life Campaign in Ireland shows that 70 percent of respondents support the constitutional protection for the unborn, including the prohibition of abortion.
The survey, conducted by Millward Brown Lansdowne on a quota-controlled sample of 950 people over the age of 18, asked respondents if they favor or oppose "constitutional protection for the unborn that prohibits abortion but allows the continuation of the existing practice of intervention to save a mother's life in accordance with Irish medical ethics", said the Catholic News Agency.
Seventy percent supported the constitutional protections while only 13 percent opposed it. Another 16 percent of respondents did not know or had no opinion.
The Pro-Life Campaign's Dr. Berry Kiely said the poll is distinguished from other polls showing support from abortion by its distinction between necessary medical interventions in pregnancy and induced abortion "where the life of the unborn child is directly targeted".
"This is a critical ethical distinction which abortion advocates constantly seek to blur," she charged.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=20802
AUSTRALIA
CATHOLIC CARE HELPS THOSE WITH LEARNING DISABILITY
Cath News report: Nhan Chanh, a 29-year-old Vietnamese Australian with learning disability, is grateful to CatholicCare's disability employment services arm, Direct Employment, for changing his life by finding him a job.
After three years of unsuccessful job hunting and trying everything - answering classified ads, queueing at Centrelink for a job, sitting through countless interviews, knocking on doors - he was in despair, according to a report by Sydney archdiocese's Catholic Communications.
Prospective employers seemed to reject him because of his learning disability. Nhan felt isolated and his confidence was at rock bottom when Centrelink referred him to Direct Employment. He has since been employed by the Ashfield Council.
"That's when my life suddenly changed," he says today with a wide smile.
Nhan said he has regained his trust in people and lost much of his shyness. Having a job and regular income has also helped rebuild his self esteem and sense of independence. But what he is most proud of is the fact that he has not only learned to drive, but now has a NSW Driver's License and has just bought himself a car.
Direct Employment has in the past five years alone the specialist agency has helped more than 3500 Australians with disabilities successfully find sustainable mainstream employment.
In operation for 30 years, the agency was established back in 1980 when the Federal Government asked CatholicCare to trial what would become the country's first-ever disability employment program.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=20798
AFRICA
TANZANIA: POPE DISMISSES BISHOP FROM DIOCESE
Cath News report; The Vatican has sacked Tanzanian Bishop Jakob Koda for alleged violation of church moral teachings.
Vatican Apostolic Nuncio to Tanzania, Archbishop Joseph Chennoth, told the Daily News that Bishop Koda of Same diocese in the Kilimanjaro region has now been "advised to take time for rest, reflection and personal study".
Following Bishop Koda's removal, Archbishop Chennoth said that the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Fr Rogath Kimaryo CSSp to be Apostolic Administrator.
Without elaborating, Archbishop Chennoth said that the Catholic Church normally grants such occasion to its leaders "when necessary".
"We have advised him to leave the Diocese, and Fr Kimaryo will lead the See for a short while, until the Holy Father announces (the appointment of) a new bishop," he said.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=20774
TODAY´S SAINT
St. Agnes of Montepulciano
NUN AND FOUNDRESS
Feast: April 20
Information: Feast Day: April 20
Born: 1268 at Gracchiano-Vecchio, Tuscany, Italy
Died: 20 April 1317
Canonized: 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII
Born in the neighbourhood of Montepulciano in Tuscany about 1268; died there 1317. At the age of nine years she entered a monastery. Four years later she was commissioned by Pope Nicholas IV to assist in the foundation of a monastery at Proceno, and became its prioress at the age of fifteen. At the entreaty of the citizens of her native town, she established (1298) the celebrated convent of Dominican nuns at Montepulciano which she governed until the time of her death. She was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726. Her feast is celebrated on 20 April.
SOURCE http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/A/stagnesofmontepulciano.asp
TODAY´S GOSPEL
John 6: 30 - 35
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30 So they said to him, "Then what sign do you do, that we may see, and believe you? What work do you perform?
31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, `He gave them bread from heaven to eat.'"
32 Jesus then said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
33 For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world."
34 They said to him, "Lord, give us this bread always."
35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.
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