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Wednesday, May 26, 2010

CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: WED. MAY 26, 2010









CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: WED. MAY 26, 2010: HEADLINES-
VATICAN: THE PRIEST MUST GOVERN WITH THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST-
EUROPE: 37 LAW PROFESSORS WRITE TO EU COURT PROTESTING CRUCIFIX BAN-
AFRICA: SOUTH AFRICA: DIOCESE CREATES WEBSITE FOR SOCCER WORLD CUP-
AMERICAUSA: PRO-LIFE GROUPS NATIONWIDE PROTEST AGAINST THE PILL ON JUNE 5-
ASIA: THAILAND: INTER-FAITH PRAYER FOR RECONCILIATION-
AUSTRALIA: GEN. COSGROVE TO BE NEW CHANCELLOR OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY-


VATICAN
THE PRIEST MUST GOVERN WITH THE AUTHORITY OF CHRIST

VATICAN CITY, 26 MAY 2010 (VIS REPORT) - In today's general audience, celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope focused his remarks on the duty of the priest to "govern and guide - with the authority of Christ, not with his own - that portion of the people which God has entrusted to his care".
In the last of three catechesis on the essential tasks of priestly ministry, the Holy Father asked: "how, within contemporary culture, can we understand this dimension which implicates the concept of authority and has its origin in the Lord's command to feed His sheep?"
"The regimes which spread death and terror last century are a powerful reminder that authority, in all fields, when exercised without reference to the transcendent, when it ignores the supreme authority that is God Himself, inevitably ends up by turning against man. It is important, then, to recognise that human authority is never an end but always and only a means, and that, necessarily and at all times, the end is always the person".
"In order to be pastors after God's heart, we need to be profoundly rooted in a living friendship with Christ (not only of our minds, but also of our freedom and will), clearly aware of the identity we received at priestly ordination, and unconditionally ready to lead our flock where the Lord wills, not in the direction which seems most convenient and easy. This requires, first and foremost, a continuous and progressive willingness to allow Christ Himself to govern the priestly lives of clergy. No-one, in fact, is truly capable of feeding the flock if they do not live in profound and authentic obedience to Christ and the Church; and the docility of the people towards their priests depends on the docility of priests towards Christ".
Referring then to the concept of "hierarchy" in the Church, the Pope noted how a prevalent idea among the public is of "an element of subordination, ... and for many people this contrasts with the flexibility and vitality of pastoral service. ... This is an erroneous interpretation which has its origins in the abuses of history", he explained. "The true meaning is of a sacred origin, it is an authority that comes from another, and subjects the person to the mystery of Christ, making him His servant. Only as His servant can he govern and guide, for Christ and with Christ".
Thus "the Pope, who is a point of reference for the communion of all the pastors of the Church, cannot do as he pleases; quite the contrary, he is the custodian of obedience to Christ and His word".
"Without this clear and explicit supernatural vision, priests' duty to govern cannot be understood. It is however, when supported by true concern for the salvation of each member of the faithful, a particularly important and necessary duty, also in our own time".
"Where", the Pope asked, "can a priest today draw the strength to exercise his ministry in complete faithfulness to Christ and to the Church, with total dedication to his flock? There is", he said, "only one answer: in Christ the Lord".
Benedict XVI told priests: "Do not be afraid to guide to Christ each of the brothers and sisters He has entrusted to you, certain that each word, each action, if they come from obedience to God's will, will bear fruit. Appreciate the advantages and recognise the limits of the culture in which we live, in the firm certainty that announcing the Gospel is the greatest service we can do mankind. In fact, there is no greater good in this earthly life than to lead man to God, to reawaken the faith, to raise mankind from inertia and desperation, and infuse the hope that God is close and guides the history of individuals and of the world. This is the profound and ultimate meaning of the task of government the Lord has entrusted to us".
The Pope concluded by inviting priests to participate in the closing celebrations of the Year for Priests, due to take place in Rome from 9 to 11 June when, he said, "we will meditate on conversion and mission, on the gift of the Holy Spirit and on our relationship with the Blessed Virgin; and we will renew our priestly promises, supported by the entire People of God".AG/ VIS 20100526 (730)


PAPAL GIFT TO VICTIMS OF FLOODING IN POLAND
VATICAN CITY, 26 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council "Cor Unum" released the following English-language communique:
"In the wake of the floods provoked by torrential rains in Poland, a disaster on an unprecedented scale that has led to many victims and massive evacuations, the Pontifical Council 'Cor Unum' has sent Archbishop Jozef Michalik, president of the Polish Episcopal Conference, a papal gift to assist the flood victims and evacuees in the worst hit ecclesiastical areas.
"The Holy Father's gesture through 'Cor Unum' is intended to show his closeness and his paternal encouragement to those who are generously offering aid relief".
CON-CU/ VIS 20100526 (110)


OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 26 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:
- Appointed Bishop Celio de Oliveira Goulart O.F.M. of Cachoeiro de Itapemirim, Brazil, as bishop of Sao Joao del Rei (area 9,503, population 552,000, Catholics 470,000, priests 66, religious 109), Brazil. He succeeds Bishop Waldemar Chaves de Araujo, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
- Appointed Bishop Wilson Tadeu Jonck S.C.J., auxiliary of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as bishop of Tubarao (area 4,531, population 349,000, Catholics 305,000, priests 53, permanent deacons 1, religious 99), Brazil.



AFRICA
SOUTH AFRICA: DIOCESE CREATES WEBSITE FOR SOCCER WORLD CUP

New Website from Diocese of South Africa for Soccer World Cup:
CHURCH ON THE BALL REPORT- Dear Soccer Fans, We are very pleased to welcome you to our website dedicated to the presence of the Catholic Church in South Africa, on the occasion of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

The World Cup has offered a unique opportunity, one we don't want to miss!
For the first time in history of football, a World Cup is organized in Africa. This is an opportunity to highlight the important role that sport plays in our African cultures. Sport requires patience, perseverance, respect ... all values which our societies, and particularly Africa, much need! All values that the Church does not cease to advocate: Charity, dialogue with other religions and cultures, love of neighbour ...
Let us seize this opportunity to offer the world an example of a living church and sports. Let us not be afraid to move forward, has often recalled John Paul II. Let us not be afraid to go full tilt, with faith and courage as athletes!
You will find here regularly updated information regarding the parishes nearby the stadiums where matches will be played, various events offered by the Church, the most important spiritual sites not to miss, as well as reflections on human trafficking, HIV & AIDS, Sport and the Church, etc.
Remember that the only true victory is one that enshrines the dignity of the person!
Enjoy your visit on http://www.churchontheball.com/  and... that the best team win!

Cardinal Wilfrid Napier OFM

Archbishop of Durban

Soccer World Cup prayer

Almighty God,

creator of all, as people from

every nation gather with excitement

and enthusiasm for the 2010 World Soccer

Cup may South Africans be good hosts, our

visitors welcomed guests and the players from

every team be blessed with good sportsmanship

and health. May your Spirit of fairness, justice and

peace prevail amongst players and all involved. May

each contribute in his own positive ways to prevent,

control and fight crime and corruption, hooliganism of

any kind and exploitation and abuse, especially of

those most vulnerable. May those far away from

home and those in their families find much joy

in this occasion to celebrate the beautiful

game of soccer and the beautiful

game of life according to Your

plan for the common good

of all. Amen

http://www.churchontheball.com/index.php

EUROPE
37 LAW PROFESSORS WRITE TO EU COURT PROTESTING CRUCIFIX BAN

CNA report: Thirty-seven law professors from countries around the globe have written to the European Court of Human Rights, urging them to overturn a ruling that banned crucifixes from Italian classrooms.

In their comments to the court, professors from 11 countries throughout the world cautioned that failing to overturn the ruling could incite a hostile relationship between the government and religion in Europe and could even threaten to unravel the “tapestry” of European civilization, according to the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty.
In November of last year, the court ruled in favor of local mother Soile Lautsi's case to remove religious symbols, including crucifixes, from public schools in Italy to ensure her children's right to a secular education.
On March 2 of this year, the European Court accepted an appeal from the Italian government, thereby temporarily allowing crucifixes to remain in classrooms throughout the country while the appeal is pending. The Grand Chamber of the Court, located in Strasbourg, France, will hold a hearing in the case on June 30.
The professors stressed in their comments to the court that the “attempt to exile religious symbols and ideas from the public square would be foolhardy, because religious symbols and religious ideas are an integral part of the tapestry of European civilization.”
“Pull out that thread,” they warned, “and the entire tapestry unravels.”
Eric Rassbach, national litigation director at the Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty, who helped draft the submissions to the court, said on Tuesday that a “ban on religious symbols that offend someone, somewhere, is a ban on all religious symbols.”
Speaking on the upcoming June 30 ruling, Rassbach said that rather “than announcing a State crusade against religion, the Court should recognize that religion and government can be harmonious with each other.”
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/law-professors-from-11-countries-urge-repeal-of-ban-on-crucifixes/



AMERICA
USA: PRO-LIFE GROUPS NATION-WIDE PROTEST AGAINST THE PILL ON JUNE 5

LifeSiteNews.com REPORT - A large coalition of pro-life groups has announced plans to protest the damage wreaked by the morning-after pill, the "hormonal bomb" whose effects on women, their unborn children, and the environment have gone largely unreported by the mainstream media.

"This year, birth control advocates are celebrating 50 years of decriminalized hormonal contraceptives," announced the coalition in a press release Tuesday. "American Life League and our co-sponsors don't think half a century of contaminating our waterways is something to celebrate." The release points out a number of studies that have found devastating effects of the high levels of estrogen released into water supplies thanks to the pill, which have been linked to declining male fertility and mutations in male fish.
In addition, while the morning-after pill is usually billed as a contraceptive, the drug can also cause abortion by changing a woman's uterine lining so that a newly-conceived unborn child cannot attach and receive nourishment from its mother. In addition, the pill has been linked to the deaths of otherwise healthy women, through fatal blood clots, heart attacks, strokes.
"The Pill Kills Day," the largest nationwide protest of its kind, will include activists, scientists and educators in planned protests all across the nation on June 5. They say that they will demand “honesty” from America's pharmaceutical companies and government about how birth control is hazardous to children, women's health and the environment.
One group will assemble at the Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington D.C. on 16th street at 11 a.m.
"How long will we stand by and ignore the fact that hormonal contraception wreaks havoc on our children, women's health and the planet?" said Judie Brown, president of American Life League.
Katie Walker, Communications Director for ALL, said that the protest represented a key front for pro-lifers striving to recapture the culture.
“Too often pro-lifers are silent on birth control, but the silence has to end if we’re serious about establishing human rights for all human beings," Walker told LifeSiteNews.com Tuesday. "The contraceptive mindset that was ushered in with the decriminalization of the birth control pill paved the way for a culture and society that degrades human sexuality, ignores human dignity and treats human beings’ lives as optional and disposable."
Walker noted that "birth control and abortion have gone hand in hand from the very beginning – perhaps because birth control can often act as an abortion."
The Pill Kills project, said Walker, is meant to educate both pro-lifers and others on the often hidden negative effects of the morning-after pill - including its impact on the ecosystem. "In a world obsessed with 'going green,' we hope to use this hypocritical acceptance of birth control – which is a notorious pollutant – to open up a conversation about the pill that you won’t hear anywhere else," she said.
The protest is co-sponsored by:
American Life League
Human Life International
Pro-Life Wisconsin
Pharmacists for Life International
Archdiocese of Mobile Respect Life
Operation Rescue
Jill Stanek
Generation Life/Brandi Swindell
Life Education Ministry
Pro-Life Unity
Movement for a Better America
AMEN (Abortion Must End Now)

Pro-Life Action of Oregon

Children of God for Life

Expectant Mother Care/Chris Slattery

Mother and Unborn Baby Care

Defenders of the Unborn

California Right to Life Education Fund

Delaware Pro-Life Coalition

Life Guard

Homeschoolers for Life

Focus Pregnancy Center

Central Texas Voices for Life

Dubuque County Right to Life
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10052509.html

ASIA
THAILAND: INTER-FAITH PRAYER FOR RECONCILIATION

Asia News report: Christians, Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus gather at dawn at ten points in the capital to renew an appeal for reconciliation. Analysts say divisions are deep; only major socio-political reforms can re-unify the country. The red shirts’ surrender does not mean peace.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) – Thousands of Bangkok residents woke up at dawn this morning to take part in inter-faith prayers for peace and reconciliation, organised in at least 10 locations across the capital. The voices of more than a thousand Buddhist monks blended with the litanies of Muslim imams, Christian clergymen and leaders and Hindu believers. In the past few weeks, this metropolis of 15 million people was the scene of demonstrations by red shirt protesters, which left 83 people dead and more than 1,900 injured.
For analysts, without major reforms to a political system that protesters claim favours an "establishment elite" over rural masses, such prayers and calls for reconciliation will not end a polarising crisis.
Those who back the red shirts, supporters of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra (now in exile), will try to develop new forms of protests, which will cost billions of dollars to the economy.
In the last few days, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva reiterated his plan for reconciliation, including political reforms and greater social justice. However, nine weeks of protests, the worst in the country’s recent history, have left their mark.
Many political observers note that the prime minister’s plan is not likely to work without input from the opposition, which is still led by Thaksin.
In an editorial in the Bangkok Post, Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and Internet, said, “Picking up the pieces from the last two months will be arduous, and this is all just a beginning.”
For him, it was a mistake to allow Thaksin to unify opposition groups under his wing. Now it is necessary to work with the reds’ “more moderate leaders”. At the same time, if Abhisit appears “too compromised” with the recent crackdown, he should “make a personal sacrifice to enable others to be put in place for the healing.”
For the Daily Newspaper, “The surrender of the red-shirt leaders is still not the end”. Nothing can guarantee that it can bring peace to the country; time is still needed.
Sadly, “How many people die does not trouble the Godfather of the red;” indeed, Thaksin once said, “If I do not survive, no one else will survive.”
Buddhist leaders turned to AsiaNews to give their appeal for peace a broader audience.
Phra Phaisarn Visalo, a monk from the Erawan temple (Chaiyapoom province), said, “Dharma can end the violence based on social justice.” This can be done if people are invited “to share resources and help the poor.” But “peace will take time,” he added, for “we must learn from the mistakes of the past.”
Phramahawuthichai Vachiragaethee, director of Vimuttayalai Buddhist Institute Phramahawuthichai, suggests, “We at least try to avoid making matters worse by claiming to be right and others wrong—no one is totally right or totally wrong. Each side has its own lot of errors”. Instead, it is better to seek a solution “with a conscience and wisdom”.
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/In-Bangkok,-thousands-pray-for-peace-18514.html

AUSTRALIA
GENERAL COSGROVE TO BECOME NEW CHANCELLOR OF CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

Cath News report: General Peter Cosgrove will be the next chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, according to The Australian. "I've spent most of my working life working with brilliant young Australians," he is cited saying. "Now, that brilliance may not have been expressed academically, intellectually, because often they were salt-of-the-earth soldiers."
The man who was commander in East Timor, chief of the defence force and Australian of the Year, brings another mark of distinction to the university.
He acknowledges ACU is not a "polymath" place, as old sandstone universities are reputed to be, but feels "it's better to be deeply proficient in a few areas than to spread available resources quite thinly".
More than half of ACU's 18,806 students are preparing for careers in a classroom or hospital.
"This thought of churning out teachers and nurses for Australia and many of our neighbours is a fantastic thing - two very practical but professional walks of life where you want people with the keenest possible minds," General Cosgrove says.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21541

TODAY´S SAINT

St. Philip Neri

MISSIONARY AND FOUNDER
Feast: May 26
Information: Feast Day: May 26
Born: 22 July 1515 at Florence, Italy
Died: 27 May 1595
Canonized: 12 March 1622 by Pope Gregory XV
Philip Neri was born in Florence in the year 1515, one of four children of the notary Francesco Neri. The mother died while the children were very young, her place being filled by a capable stepmother. From infancy Philip had a docile, merry disposition. They called him "Pippo buono," "good little Phil," for he was a dutiful, attractive, cheerful lad, popular with all who knew him.
At eighteen Philip was sent to the town of San Germano, to live with a childless kinsman who had a business there and would be likely to make Philip his apprentice and heir. It is hard to imagine anyone with less aptitude for business than Philip. Soon after his arrival he had a mystical experience which in after years he spoke of as his "conversion," and which radically changed his life. He left his kinsman's house, to set out for Rome without money or plan, trusting entirely to God's providence. In Rome he found shelter under the roof of a former Florentine, one Galeotto Caccia, a customs official, who offered him an attic and the bare necessaries of life, in return for which Philip was to give lessons to Caccia's two small sons. Under his tutoring the little boys improved rapidly in all respects, according to their grateful mother. This promised well for Philip's future human relationships. Indeed, as we shall see, he had a natural talent for bringing out the best in people of all ages and conditions.
Except for the hours he devoted to his pupils, Philip seems to have passed his first two years at Rome as a recluse, spending much time in prayer in his bare, uncomfortable attic. He ate frugal meals of bread, water, and a few olives or vegetables. It was a period of intense preparation, and at its dose he emerged from obscurity with his spirit strengthened, his resolve to live for God confirmed. He now took courses in philosophy and theology at the Sapienza and at St. Augustine's monastery. For three years he worked so hard that he was considered an unusually promising scholar. Then, quite suddenly, moved by some inner prompting, he put an end to classes and studying, sold most of his books, and launched on a mission to the people of Rome.
Religion was at a low ebb in the papal city, which had not yet recovered from the atrocious depredations of the German and Spanish armies of 1527, a decade earlier. There were also grave abuses within the Church, and although they had long been recognized, too little was being done to cure them. Elections to the Sacred College were controlled by the Medici family, with the result that the cardinals, with a few notable exceptions, were princes of the state, worldlings who thought in terms of power and politics, rather than men dedicated to God and the Church. The enthusiasm for classical writers and the tendency towards scepticism, fostered by the humanists of the Renaissance, had gradually substituted pagan for Christian ideals in Italian intellectual circles. Indifference and luxury, if not corruption, were rife among the clergy, many of whom allowed their churches to fall into disrepair, seldom said Mass, and completely neglected their flocks. Little wonder that the laity were lapsing into cynicism and disbelief ! To fill the people of Rome with new ardor, to re-evangelize the city, became Philip Neri's life work.
He began in the most direct way possible, making acquaintances on street corners and in the public squares, where people were inclined to loiter. At first he interested himself especially in the young Florentines who were employed in the banks and shops of the busy Sant'Angelo quarter near the Vatican. He has been compared to Socrates for the way he could seize on opportunities for engaging in conversation and then lead his hearers on by questions and suggestions to consider a better way of life. His warm friendliness and lively sense of humor would quickly catch the attention of passersby, and once caught, they found it difficult to break away. By this warm, personal approach he gradually prevailed on many to give up their careless way of life. His customary question, "Well, brothers, when shall we begin to do good?" soon brought a response, provided he led the way. Losing no time in converting good intentions into action, he would take them to wait on the sick in the hospitals or to pray in the Seven Churches, one of Philip's own favorite devotions. His days were wholly given up to others, but towards evening it was his habit to retire into solitude, to spend the night in a church porch or in the catacombs beside the Appian Way, gathering strength for another day's work.
In one of the grottoes along the Appian Way he had an experience which affected him profoundly. He was praying on the eve of Pentecost, 1544, when there appeared to him what seemed to be a globe of fire; it entered his mouth and afterwards he felt a dilation of the heart. Immediately he was filled with such paroxysms of divine love that he fell to the ground exclaiming, "Enough, enough, Lord, I can bear no morel " When he had come to himself and risen up, he discovered a swelling over his heart, though neither then nor later did. it give him pain. From that day on, under stress of spiritual emotion, he was apt to be seized with palpitations; at such times he would ask God to mitigate His visitations lest he should die of love.
In the year 1548, when Philip had been carrying out his informal mission for some ten years, he founded, with the help of his confessor, Father Persiano Rossa, a confraternity of poor laymen who met for spiritual exercises in the church of San Salvatore in Campo. He popularized the devotion of the Forty Hours, and undertook to provide for needy pilgrims, a work which led to the building of the famous hospital Santa Trinita. During the Year of Jubilee of 1575 it cared for no less than a hundred and forty-five thousand pilgrims. Later it received convalescents also.
Thus by the time he was thirty-four, Philip had accomplished a great deal. His confessor, however, was convinced that as a priest his work would be even more effective. Philip's humility made him shrink from taking Holy Orders, but at last, on May 23, 1551, he was ordained. He went to live with Father Rossa and other priests at San Girolamo and thereafter carried on his mission mainly through the confessional. Starting before daybreak and continuing hour after hour, he sat in the tribunal of penance, while men and women of all ages and ranks flocked to him. Sometimes he conducted informal discussions with those who desired to lead a better life, or he would read aloud to them, choosing the lives of the saints, martyrs, and missionaries. The story of the heroic life and death of St. Francis Xavier so inspired Philip that he himself considered service in the foreign mission field: a Cistercian whom he consulted persuaded him that Rome was to be his Indies.
To accommodate the increasing number of those who attended Philip's discussions, a large room was built over the nave of San Girolamo. Several other priests were appointed to assist him. The people called them "Oratorians" because they rang a little bell to summon the faithful to prayers in their "oratory." The actual foundation of the Congregation of the Priests of the Oratory was laid a few years later, when Philip presented five of his young followers for ordination and sent them to serve the church of San Giovanni, which had been put in his charge by fellow Florentines living in Rome. The future cardinal and Church historian, Caesar Baronius, was among them. Philip drew up for them some simple rules: they were to share a common table and perform spiritual exercises under his direction, but they were not to bind themselves to the life by vow or to renounce their property. The organization grew rapidly, although it met with opposition in certain quarters. In 1575, the Congregation received the formal approbation of Pope Gregory XIII, who later bestowed on it the ancient church of Santa Maria in Vellicella. The building was in a ruinous condition and far too small. Philip was not long in deciding to demolish it and rebuild on a large scale.
He had no money, but contributions poured in from his friends, rich and poor. Pope Gregory and Charles Borromeo gave generously, as did other prominent men. Cardinals and princes were now among Philip's disciples, though he sometimes shocked them by his impulsiveness. His desire was always to establish a close, human bond with others, even though it meant indulging in a wine-drinking contest, practical joking, or other undignified behavior. He acted in a jocular manner to conceal his deep emotion, or to put himself on a level with those around him. Humility was the virtue he strove most of all to practice, but of course he could not conceal his extraordinary gifts or sanctity. More than once he foretold events which later came to pass. He lived in such a state of spiritual exaltation that at times it was with difficulty that he carried on his daily labors. Men declared that his face often glowed with a celestial radiance.
By April, 1577, work on the Nuova Chiesa, or New Church, had advanced sufficiently for the Congregation of the Oratory to be transferred there. Philip stayed at San Girolamo for another seven years before he moved to quarters in the New Church. Although he ate his meals apart from the group, he was far from leading the life of a solitary. Not only did his spiritual sons have free access to him, but his room was constantly crowded by others. Rich and poor mounted the steps that led to his refuge at the top of the house, with its balcony looking over the roofs of Rome. The Italian people loved and venerated him, and visitors came from other countries to speak with him. Thus he continued his apostolate when the infirmities of age prevented him from leading an active life. The College of Cardinals frequently sought his advice, and although he refrained from becoming involved in political matters, he broke this rule when he persuaded Pope Clement VII to withdraw the excommunication and anathema laid on Henry IV of France. In the words of one of his biographers, "He was all things to all men.... When he was called upon to be merry, he was so; if there was a demand upon his sympathy, he was equally ready.... In consequence of his being so accessible and willing to receive all comers, many went to him every day, and some continued for the space of thirty, nay, forty years, to visit him very often both morning and evening, so that his room went by the agreeable nickname of the "Home of Christian mirth." The tradition of this genial saint was very much alive two hundred years later, when the German poet Goethe was living in Rome. He heard so much of Neri that he studied the sources and wrote a highly appreciative essay about him, entitled, "The Humorous Saint."
Two years before his death Neri retired from his office of Superior in favor of his disciple, Caesar Baronius. He obtained permission from the Pope to celebrate Mass daily in a little Oratory adjoining his room. So enraptured did he become at such times that it was the practice of those who attended to retire respectfully at the . On the Feast of Corpus Christi, May 25, 1595, Philip was in a radiantly happy mood, and his physician told him that he had not looked so well for ten years. He alone realized that his hour had come. All day he heard confessions and saw visitors as usual, but before retiring he said: "Last of all, we must die." About midnight, he had a severe haemorrhage and the fathers in the house were called to his bedside. He was dying, and Baronius read the commendatory prayers, and then besought him to say a parting word or at least to bless his sons once more. Unable to speak, Philip raised his hand, and in the act of benediction passed to his reward. He had reached the ripe age of eighty and his work was done. His body rests in the New Church, which the Oratorians still serve. Six years later he was beatified; Pope Gregory XV canonized him in 1622. Even during his lifetime he had received the title of "Apostle of Rome.One of the most famous members of the Oratorian order, Cardinal Newman, wrote of Neri nearly three hundred years after his death, "he contemplated as the idea of his mission, not the propagation of the faith, nor the exposition of doctrine, nor the catechetical schools; whatever was exact and systematic pleased him not; he put from him monastic rule and authoritative speech, as David refused the armor of his king.... He came to the Eternal City and he sat himself down there, and his home and his family gradually grew up around him, by the spontaneous accession of materials from without. He did not so much seek his own as draw them to him. He sat in his small room, and they in their gay, worldly dresses, the rich and the wellborn, as well as the simple and the illiterate, crowded into it. In the mid-heats of summer, in the frosts of winter still was he in that low and narrow cell at San Girolamo, reading the hearts of those who came to him, and curing their souls' maladies by the very touch of his hand.... And they who came remained gazing and listening till, at length, first one and then another threw off their bravery, and took his poor cassock and girdle instead; or, if they kept it, it was to put haircloth under it, or to take on them a rule of life, while to the world they looked as before."
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/P/stphilipneri.asp

TODAY´S GOSPEL

Mark 10: 32 - 45

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32 And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; and they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him,

33 saying, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles;

34 and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and kill him; and after three days he will rise."

35 And James and John, the sons of Zeb'edee, came forward to him, and said to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you."

36 And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?"

37 And they said to him, "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory."

38 But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"

39 And they said to him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized;

40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared."

41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John.

42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, "You know that those who are supposed to rule over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them.

43 But it shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant,

44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.

45 For the Son of man also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: TUES. MAY 25, 2010










CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: TUES. MAY 25, 2010: HEADLINES-
VATICAN: CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF RELIGION IN HAMBURG-
AUSTRALIA: JAMES GRIFFIN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR DIES AGE 80-
AMERICAS: COLOMBIA: FORMER MODEL CONVERTS AFTER SICKNESS-
EUROPE: FRANCE: FILM ON MARTYRED MONKS WINS AWARD AT CANNES FESTIVAL-
ASIA: KATHMANDU: NEW ORPHANGE DONATED BY GERMAN CATHOLIC COUPLE-
AFRICA: NIGERIA: 2010 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE RESERVATIONS FOR 1,500-

VATICAN
CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF RELIGION IN HAMBURG
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS REPORT) - On 18 May, the Holy See and the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany, signed an agreement concerning the creation of a centre of formation for Catholic theology and the pedagogy of religion at Hamburg University.
The agreement was signed in Hamburg by Archbishop Jean-Claude Perisset, apostolic nuncio to Germany, on behalf of the Holy See, and by Herlind Gundelach, minister for science and research of the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, on behalf of the city.
The ceremony was also attended by Archbishop Werner Thissen of Hamburg accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke, while the University of Hamburg was represented by Holger Fischer, vice president, and by the dean of the Evangelical theological faculty.OP/ VIS 20100525 (130)


PROCESSION AND MASS FOR CORPUS CHRISTI
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff today announced that at 7 p.m. on Thursday 3 June, Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass on the square in front of Rome's St. John Lateran Basilica. Following this he will preside at the traditional Eucharistic procession from the basilica, along Via Merulana, to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.OCL/ VIS 20100525 (80)



JOINT INITIATIVE: COUNCIL FOR CULTURE AND NEOSTEM INC.
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The international biopharmaceutical company NeoStem Inc. and the Pontifical Council for Culture have announced a joint initiative between their charitable organisations to expand research and raise awareness of adult stem cell therapies, according to a communique made public today.
NeoStem's Stem for Life Foundation, formed to create awareness about the promise of adult stem cells to treat disease, and the pontifical council's STOQ Foundation (Science Theology and the Ontological Quest), will work to advance research on adult stem cells, to explore their clinical applicability in the field of regenerative medicine, and the cultural relevance of such research especially with its impact on theological and ethical issues.
"As part of the collaboration, NeoStem and the pontifical council will make efforts to develop educational programs, publications and academic courses with an interdisciplinary approach for theological and philosophical faculties, including those of bioethics, around the world. One of the initiatives will be a three-day international conference at the Vatican on adult stem cell research, including VSEL technology (which uses very small embryonic-like stem cells) that will focus on medical research presentations and theological and philosophical considerations and implications of scientific achievements", the communique says.

AUSTRALIA
JAMES GRIFFIN- CATHOLIC SCHOLAR DIES AGE 80
 
Cath News report: James Thomas Griffin, one of the country's best-known independent scholars, died on May 9 and was buried last Monday alongside his father and brother in Warrnambool on the southwest Victorian coast. He was 80.

Jim Griffin, who grew up in an Irish Catholic home, became an inspirational schoolteacher at Xavier College, Melbourne, a history professor in Papua New Guinea, a lecturer in Townsville where he made many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander friends, and then at the Australian National University, an analyst at the top secret Office of National Assessments, said The Australian in an obituary.
He was the author of a well-reviewed revisionist biography of John Wren, an irrepressible tenor, and father of six after marrying Helga Girschik at St Peter's in the Vatican.
He died at home in Canberra after a long illness, leaving his biography of Archbishop Daniel Mannix almost completed. When it is published, it will almost certainly create the kind of controversy that Griffin - an intensely cultural though not devoutly religious Catholic - relished, the report adds.
Old friend Father Ed Campion presided over his funeral at St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra, which was attended by hundreds, including many former students, and a large representation of those Australians who have sustained an interest in PNG. The PNG high commissioner, Charles Lepani, was present.
Jim leaves his wife, Helga; children James, Justin, Denis, Anthea, Cathleen and Gabrielle; and grandchildren Julian, Laura, Patrick, Priscilla, Uriel, Sam and Giovanna.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21542

AMERICAS
COLOMBIA: FORMER MODEL CONVERTS AFTER SICKNESS

CNA report: Amada Rosa Pérez was one of Colombia’s top models before she disappeared from the public eye five years ago. Now she is making headlines once again, but this time by sharing her conversion story.

Amada explained to the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo,” that she had been diagnosed with a disease that left her with only 60 percent of her hearing in her left ear. The news caused her to question her lifestyle. “I felt disappointed, unsatisfied, directionless, submerged in fleeting pleasures ...” she said. “I always sought answers and the world never gave them to me.”
“Before I was always in a hurry, stressed out, and got upset easily," she continued. "Now I live in peace, the world doesn’t appeal to me, I enjoy every moment the Lord gives me. I go to Mass, I pray the Holy Rosary daily, as well as the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m.
“I go to confession frequently,” she added.
Amada now works tirelessly with a Marian religious community in Colombia.
“Being a model means being a benchmark, someone whose beliefs are worthy of being imitated, and I grew tired of being a model of superficiality. I grew tired of a world of lies, appearances, falsity, hypocrisy and deception, a society full of anti-values that exalts violence, adultery, drugs, alcohol, fighting, and a world that exalts riches, pleasure, sexual immorality and fraud.
“I want to be a model that promotes the true dignity of women and not their being used for commercial purposes,” Amada said.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/former-colombian-model-shares-conversion-story/

EUROPE
FRANCE: FILM ON MARTYRED MONKS WINS AWARD AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Cath News report: Of Gods and Men, a film about a group of martyred French monks, has taken the second highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival.

The movie by the French director Xavier Beauvois took the Grand Prix prize at the film festival, reports the Catholic News Agency.
It features the true story of seven Cistercian monks who were taken hostage and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists in 1996 in Africa.
They had chosen to remain in the conflict-torn region of the Algerian mountains, despite having been told to return to their native France - knowing that they would be martyred.
Kate Muir, a film critic for the London-based Times Online, called the film the "most intensely passionate" one of the Cannes event, and according to her, during the movie's premier the "audience wept".
"The deep humanity of the monks, their respect for Islam and their generosity towards their village neighbours make (up) the reason for our choice," stated the festival jury who issued the award, said the news report.
"This movie of great artistic value benefits from a remarkable group of actors and follows the daily rhythm of work and liturgy."
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21543

ASIA
KATHMANDU: NEW ORPHANGE DONATED BY GERMAN CATHOLIC COUPLE

UCAN report: A new orphanage run by the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has opened its doors to 27 children on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

A German Catholic couple, Manfred and Martina Brenneisen, who led fundraising efforts to build Karuna Kinderhaus in Tupikhel village, 10 kilometers south of the city center, cut the red ribbon formally opening the orphanage on May 25.
They then attended an inaugural Mass led by Bishop Anthony Sharma, apostolic vicar of Nepal.
“They have understood the vulnerability of children in a changing Nepal and made their love for Nepali children a reality,” Bishop Sharma said.
“We plan to live here whenever we come to Nepal – and to continue raising funds to keep the home running. A good education is now the most important thing for these children to build a good future,” Martina Brenneisen said.
The new solar-powered orphanage can offer a home to 50 children. Presently almost all the 27 children are girls aged 3 to 15.
The children will study in local schools and a school run by the Sisters of St.Joseph’s of Cluny situated nearby.
“In the last six years conditions in Kathmandu and in western Nepal for children have become unimaginable. So many children do not stand a chance if they have no protection,” Martina Brenneisen told UCA News.
Apart from accommodation, Karuna Kinderhaus also has a computer room, library and recreation rooms
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/05/26/new-orphanage-provides-refuge-to-lucky-few


AFRICA
NIGERIA: 2010 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE RESERVATIONS FOR 1,500

All Africa report: In order to make the 2010 Christian pilgrimage to the holy land hitch-free, the FCT Administration has made accommodation reservations for 1,500 intending pilgrims.

FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, stated this on Monday after the monthly FCT operations briefing in Abuja.
The minister said the reservations was meant for 1,500 intending FCT pilgrims in Jerusalem, Tel-Avi, Nazareth, Tiberius, Elat, St, Katherine (Egypt), Rome (Italy) as well as Greece.
Senator Mohammed assured that payment for the accommodation will be made next month so as to confirm the booking.
According to him, 12 tour agents were interviewed for handling FCT contingents out of which Immanuel Tours Limited and Tailor-Made Tours were recommended.
The minister disclosed that application forms for the 2010 Christian Pilgrimage is still on sale and directed that mobilization of intending pilgrims from the FCT for the year 2010 should start as soon as possible.
He also directed that the screening of intending pilgrims be conducted early to check potential absconders and to fish-out undesirable ones; insisting that FCT will remain a shining example for other 36 states of the federation to emulate.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201005260217.html

 
 
TODAY´S SAINTS
 
St. Bede

DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, HISTORIAN
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25

Born: 672 at Wearmouth, England

Died: 25 May 735

Canonized: 1899 by Pope Leo XIII
Major Shrine: Durham Cathedral
Patron of: lectors ;english writers and historians; Jarrow
Historian and Doctor of the Church, born 672 or 673; died 735. In the last chapter of his great work on the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" Bede has told us something of his own life, and it is, practically speaking, all that we know. His words, written in 731, when death was not far off, not only show a simplicity and piety characteristic of the man, but they throw a light on the composition of the work through which he is best remembered by the world at large. He writes:Thus much concerning the ecclesiastical history of Britain, and especially of the race of the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from the traditions of the elders, or from my own knowledge. I was born in the territory of the said monastery, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [St. Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated. From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St. John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation.
After this Bede inserts a list or Indiculus, of his previous writings and finally concludes his great work with the following words:
And I pray thee, loving Jesus, that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of Thy knowledge, so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.
It is plain from Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert that the historian occasionally visited his friends for a few days, away from his own monastery of Jarrow, but with such rare exceptions his life seems to have been one peaceful round of study and prayer passed in the midst of his own community. How much he was beloved by them is made manifest by the touching account of the saint's last sickness and death left us by Cuthbert, one of his disciples. Their studious pursuits were not given up on account of his illness and they read aloud by his bedside, but constantly the reading was interrupted by their tears. "I can with truth declare", writes Cuthbert of his beloved master, "that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the living God." Even on the day of his death (the vigil of the Ascension, 735) the saint was still busy dictating a translation of the Gospel of St. John. In the evening the boy Wilbert, who was writing it, said to him: "There is still one sentence, dear master, which is not written down." And when this had been supplied, and the boy had told him it was finished, "Thou hast spoken truth", Bede answered, "it is finished. Take my head in thy hands for it much delights me to sit opposite any holy place where I used to pray, that so sitting I may call upon my Father." And thus upon the floor of his cell singing, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost" and the rest, he peacefully breathed his last breath.
The title Venerabilis seems to have been associated with the name of Bede within two generations after his death. There is of course no early authority for the legend repeated by Fuller of the "dunce-monk" who in composing an epitaph on Bede was at a loss to complete the line: Hac sunt in fossa Bedae . . . . ossa and who next morning found that the angels had filled the gap with the word venerabilis. The title is used by Alcuin, Amalarius and seemingly Paul the Deacon, and the important Council of Aachen in 835 describes him as venerabilis et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda. This decree was specially referred to in the petition which Cardinal Wiseman and the English bishops addressed to the Holy See in 1859 praying that Bede might be declared a Doctor of the Church. The question had already been debated even before the time of Benedict XIV, but it was only on 13 November, 1899, that Leo XIII decreed that the feast of Venerable Bede with the title of Doctor Ecclesiae should be celebrated throughout the Church each year on 27 May. A local cultus of St. Bede had been maintained at York and in the North of England throughout the Middle Ages, but his feast was not so generally observed in the South, where the Sarum Rite was followed.
Bede's influence both upon English and foreign scholarship was very great, and it would probably have been greater still but for the devastation inflicted upon the Northern monasteries by the inroads of the Danes less than a century after his death. In numberless ways, but especially in his moderation, gentleness, and breadth of view, Bede stands out from his contemporaries. In point of scholarship he was undoubtedly the most learned man of his time. A very remarkable trait, noticed by Plummer (I, p. xxiii), is his sense of literary property, an extraordinary thing in that age. He himself scrupulously noted in his writings the passages he had borrowed from others and he even begs the copyists of his works to preserve the references, a recommendation to which they, alas, have paid but little attention. High, however, as was the general level of Bede's culture, he repeatedly makes it clear that all his studies were subordinated to the interpretation of Scripture. In his "De Schematibus" he says in so many words: "Holy Scripture is above all other books not only by its authority because it is Divine, or by its utility because it leads to eternal life, but also by its antiquity and its literary form" (positione dicendi). It is perhaps the highest tribute to Bede's genius that with so uncompromising and evidently sincere a conviction of the inferiority of human learning, he should have acquired so much real culture. Though Latin was to him a still living tongue, and though he does not seem to have consciously looked back to the Augustan Age of Roman Literature as preserving purer models of literary style than the time of Fortunatus or St. Augustine, still whether through native genius or through contact with the classics, he is remarkable for the relative purity of his language, as also for his lucidity and sobriety, more especially in matters of historical criticism. In all these respects he presents a marked contrast to St. Aldhelm who approaches more nearly to the Celtic type.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/B/stbede.asp

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi

DISCALCED CARMELITE MYSTIC AND HEALER
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25

Born: April 2, 1566, Florence, Italy

Died: May 25, 1607, Florence, Italy

Canonized: April 28, 1669, Rome by Pope Clement X

Patron of: Naples (co-patron)
Carmelite Virgin, born 2 April, 1566; died 25 May, 1607. Of outward events there were very few in the saint's life. She came of two noble families, her father being Camillo Geri de' Pazzi and her mother a Buondelmonti. She was baptized, and named Caterina, in the great baptistery. Her childhood much resembled that of some other women saints who have become great mystics, in an early love of prayer and penance, great charity to the poor, an apostolic spirit of teaching religious truths, and a charm and sweetness of nature that made her a general favourite. But above all other spiritual characteristics was Caterina's intense attraction towards the Blessed Sacrament, her longing to receive It, and her delight in touching and being near those who were speaking of It, or who had just been to Communion. She made her own First Communion at the age of ten, and shortly afterwards vowed her virginity to God. At fourteen she was sent to school at the convent of Cavalaresse, where she lived in so mortified and fervent a manner as to make the sisters prophesy that she would become a great saint; and, on leaving it, she told her parents of her resolve to enter the religious state. They were truly spiritual people; and, after a little difficulty in persuading them to relinquish their only daughter, she finally entered in December, 1582, the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degl' Angeli, founded by four Florentine ladies in 1450 and renowned for its strict observance. Her chief reason for choosing this convent was the rule there followed of daily Communion.
Caterina was clothed in 1583, when she took the name of Maria Maddalena; and on 29 May, 1584, being then so ill that they feared she would not recover, she was professed. After her profession, she was subject to an extraordinary daily ecstasy for forty consecutive days, at the end of which time she appeared at the point of death. She recovered, however, miraculously; and henceforth, in spite of constant bad health, was able to fill with energy the various offices to which she was appointed. She became, in turn, mistress ofexterns--i.e. of girls coming to the convent on trial--teacher and mistress of the juniors, novice mistress (which post she held for six years), and finally, in 1604, superior. For five years (1585-90) God allowed her to be tried by terrible inward desolation and temptations, and by external diabolic attacks; but the courageous severity and deep humility of the means that she took for overcoming these only served to make her virtues shine more brilliantly in the eyes of her community.
From the time of her clothing with the religious habit till her death the saint's life was one series of raptures and ecstasies, of which only the most notable characteristics can be named in a short notice.
* First, these raptures sometimes seized upon her whole being with such force as to compel her to rapid motion (e.g. towards some sacred object).
* Secondly, she was frequently able, whilst in ecstasy, to carry on work belonging to her office--e.g., embroidery, painting, etc.--with perfect composure and efficiency.
* Thirdly--and this is the point of chief importance--it was whilst in her states of rapture that St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi gave utterance to those wonderful maxims of Divine Love, and those counsels of perfection for souls, especially in the religious state, which a modern editor of a selection of them declares to be "more frequently quoted by spiritual writers than those even of St. Teresa". These utterances have been preserved to us by the saint's companions, who (unknown to her) took them down from her lips as she poured them forth. She spoke sometimes as of herself, and sometimes as themouthpiece of one or other of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. These maxims of the saint are sometimes described as her "Works", although she wrote down none of them herself. This ecstatic life in no wise interfered with the saint's usefulness in her community. She was noted for her strong common-sense, as well as for the high standard and strictness of her government, and was most dearly loved to the end of her life by all for the spirit of intense charity that accompanied her somewhat severe code of discipline. As novice-mistress she was renowned for a miraculous gift of reading her subjects' hearts--which gift, indeed, was not entirely confined to her community. Many miracles, both of this and of other kinds, she performed for the benefit either of her own convent or of outsiders. She often saw things far off, and is said once to have supernaturally beheld St. Catherine de' Ricci in her convent at Prato, reading a letter that she had sent her and writing the answer; but the two saints never met in a natural manner. To St. Mary Magdalen's numerous penances, and to the ardent love of suffering that made her genuinely wish to live long in order to suffer with Christ, we can here merely refer; but it must not be forgotten that she was one of the strongest upholders of the value of suffering for the love of God and the salvation of our fellow-creatures, that ever lived. Her death was fully in accordance with her life in this respect, for she died after an illness of nearly threeyears' duration and of indescribable painfulness, borne with heroic joy to the end. Innumerable miracles followed the saint's death, and the process for her beatification was begun in 1610 under Paul V, and finished under Urban VIII in 1626. She was not, however, canonized till sixty-two years after her death, when Clement IX raised her to the altars in 28 April, 1669. Her feast is kept on 27 May.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmarymagdalendepazzi.asp

St. Madeline Sophie Barat

FOUNDRESS
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25

Born: 12 December 1779, Joigny, France

Died: 25 May 1865, Paris, France

Canonized: 24 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI
Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, born at Joigny, Burgundy, 12 December, 1779; died in Paris, 24 May, 1865. She was the youngest child of Jacques Barat, a vine-dresser and cooper, and his wife, Madeleine Foufé, and received baptism the morning after her birth, her brother Louis, aged eleven, being chosen godfather. It was to this brother that she owed the exceptional education which fitted her for her life-work. Whilst her mother found her an apt pupil in practical matters, Louis saw her singular endowments of mind and heart; and when, at the age of twenty-two, he returned as professor to the seminary at Joigny, he taught his sister Latin, Greek, history, natural science, Spanish, and Italian. Soon she took delight in reading the classics in the original, and surpassed her brother's pupils at the seminary.
After the Reign of Terror, Louis called Sophie to Paris, to train her for the religious life, for which she longed. When he had joined the Fathers of the Faith, a band of fervent priests, united in the hope of becoming members of the Society of Jesus on its restoration, he one day spoke of his sister to Father Varin, to whom had been bequeathed by the saintly Léonor de Tournély the plan of founding a society of women wholly devoted to the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to prayer and sacrifice, and destined to do for girls what the restored Society of Jesus would do for boys. Father Varin had vainly sought a fitting instrument to begin this work; he now found one in this modest, retiring girl of twenty. He unfolded the project, which seemed to satisfy all her aspirations, and she bowed before his authoritative declaration that this was for her the will of God. With three companions she made her first consecration, 21 November, 1800, the date which marks the foundation of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In September, 1801, the first convent was opened at Amiens, and thither Sophie went to help in the work of teaching. It was impossible yet to assume the name "Society of the Sacred Heart", lest a political significance be attached to it; its members were known as Dames de la Foi or de l'Instruction Chrétienne. Father Varin allowed Sophie to make her vows, 7 June, 1802, with Genevieve Deshayes.
The community and school were increasing, and a poor school had just been added, when it became evident to Father Varin that Mademoiselle Loquet, who had hitherto acted as superior, lacked the qualities requisite for the office, and Sophie, although the youngest, was named superior (1802). Her first act was to kneel and kiss the feet of each of her sisters. Such was ever the spirit of her government, November, 1804, found her at Sainte-Marie-d'en-Haut, near Grenoble, receiving a community of Visitation nuns into her institute, One of them, Philippine Duchesne, was later to introduce the society into America. Grenoble was the first of some eighty foundations which Mother Barat was to make, not only in France but in North America (1818), Italy (1828), Switzerland (1830), Belgium (1834), Algiers (1841). England (1842), Ireland(1842), Spain (1846), Holland (1848), Germany (1851), South America (1853) Austria (1853), Poland (1857).
Mother Barat was elected superior-general in January, 1806, but a majority of one vote only, for the influence of an ambitious priest, chaplain at Amiens, wellnigh wrecked the nascent institute. Prolonged prayer, silent suffering, tact, respect, charity, were only means she used to oppose his designs. With Father Varin, now a Jesuit, she elaborated constitutions and rules grafted on the stock of the Institute of St. Ignatius. These rules were received with joy in all the houses, Amiens alone excepted; but Mother Barat's wisdom and humility soon won submission even here. In 1818 she sent Mother Duchesne, with four companions, to the New World; her strong and holy hand was ever ready to support and guide this first missioner of the Society. She called all the superiors together in council at Paris in 1820, to provide a uniform course of studies for their schools. these studies were to be solid and serious, to fit the pupils to become intelligent wives and devoted mother; to give that cultivation of mind. that formation of character, which go to make up a true women; all was to stamped and sealed with strong religious principles and devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Foundations multiplied, and Mother Barat, seeing the necessity of a stronger guarantee of unity, sought it in union with Rome. The solemn approbation was obtained much sooner than usual, owing to a memoir drawn up by the foundress and presented to Leo XII in May, 1826. The decree of approbation was promulgated in December. The society being now fully organized and sealed by Rome's approval, for forty years Mother Barat journeyed from convent to convent, wrote many thousand letters, and assembled general congregations, so as to preserve its original spirit. The Paris school gained European repute; Rome counted three establishments, asked for and blessed by three successive pontiffs. At Lyons Mother Barat founded the Congregation of the Children of Mary for former pupils and other ladies. in he same year (1832), she began at Turin the work of retreats for ladies of the world, an apostleship since widely and profitably imitated. Numerous foundations brought Mother Bart onto personal contact with all classes. We find her crossing and recrossing France, Switzerland, Italy, often on the eve of revolutions; now the centre of a society of émigrés whose intellectual gifts, high social position, and moral worth are seldom found united; now sought out by cardinals and Roman princesses during her vicits to her Roman houses; at another time, speaking on matters educational with Madame de Genlis; or again, exercising that supernatural ascendency which aroused the admiration of such men as Bishop Fraysinous, Doctor Récamier, and Duc de Rohan.
These exterior labours were far from absorbing all Mother Barat's time or energies; they coexisted with a life of ever-increasing holiness and continual prayer; for the real secret of her influence lay in her habitual seclusion from the outside world, in the strong religious formation of her daughters which this seclusion made possible, and in the enlightened, profound, ans supernatural views on education which she communicated to the religious engaged in her schools. She worked by and through them all, and thus reached out to the ends of the earth. In spite of herself she attracted and charmed all who approached her. New foundations she always entrusted to other hands; for, like all great rulers, she had the twofold gift of intuition in the choice of persons fitted for office, and trust of those in responsible posts. Allowing them much freedom of action in details, guiding them only by her counsels and usually form afar. Prelates who now and them ventured to attribute to her the successes of the society, saw that instead of pleasing, they distressed her exceedingly.
Beloved by her daughters, venerated by princes and pontiffs, yet ever lowly of heart, Mother Barat died at the mother-house in Paris, on Ascension Day, 1865, as she had foretold, after four days' illness. She was buried at Conflans, the house of novitiate, where her body was found intact in 1893. In 1879 she was declared Venerable, and the process of beatification introduced. [Note: Mother Barat was canonized in 1925.]
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmadelinesophiebarat.asp

TODAY´S GOSPEL
 
Mark 10: 28 - 31

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 Peter began to say to him, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you."

29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,

30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

31 But many that are first will be last, and the last first."