BOOK ON BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE SEVENTH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS PONTIFICATE
Vatican City, 24 April 2012 (VIS) - The "Osservatore Romano" and the Italian newspaper "Il Sole e 24 Ore" are paying homage to the Holy Father for the seventh anniversary of his election with a book entitled "Benedict XVI, Theologian and Pontiff". The volume is being distributed with today's edition of "Il Sole e 24 Ore" and will shortly be available in digital format on the newspaper’s website, with addition multimedia content and English and Spanish translations. The Spanish newspaper "La Razon" will place the book on its own website on 26 April. (image source: RADIO VATICANA)
In the prologue to the work Giovanni Maria Vian, director of the "Osservatore Romano", explains that, for the Holy Father's eighty-fifth birthday and the beginning of the eighth year of his pontificate, it was decided to publish a book bringing together a number of little-known texts on the figure of Benedict XVI. These include a dialogue on secularism and religion between the philosopher Armando Massarenti and the journalist Giuliano Ferrara, some suggestions for reading the works of Joseph Ratzinger by the historiographer Lucetta Scaraffia, and a chronological summary of the life of "the theologian who became pontiff".
This initiative, Vian writes, "aims above all to contribute to an understanding of the person and works of an intellectual who has dedicated, and continues to dedicate his life to the tireless search for truth, engaging in continuous dialogue between faith and reason, and using a language accessible to everyone".
MORE THAN 22,000 BAPTISMS IN CHINA ON EASTER SUNDAY
Vatican City, 24 April 2012 (VIS) - The Catholic news agency Fides has reported that 22,104 people were baptised in China on Easter Sunday. The statistics were collected by the Study Centre of Faith in the Chinese province of He Bei. The newly-baptised Catholics, 75 per cent of whom are adults, belong to 101 dioceses. In He Bei itself 4,410 people were baptised on Easter Day, 615 more than last year, while in Hong Kong, which has more than 360,000 faithful, there were 3,500 baptisms.
In evaluating these figures, it should be borne in mind that some dioceses do not celebrate all their baptisms at Easter. For example, in Shang Hai there were 379 Easter baptisms but the total figure could exceed 1,500 by the end of the year. According to Sr. Li Guo Shuang of the Study Center, "there are still some dioceses or communities which, due to communication difficulties, have not yet reported data to us. So we must emphasise that the figures are not complete, they may still increase".
Vatican City, 24 April 2012 (VIS) - The "Osservatore Romano" and the Italian newspaper "Il Sole e 24 Ore" are paying homage to the Holy Father for the seventh anniversary of his election with a book entitled "Benedict XVI, Theologian and Pontiff". The volume is being distributed with today's edition of "Il Sole e 24 Ore" and will shortly be available in digital format on the newspaper’s website, with addition multimedia content and English and Spanish translations. The Spanish newspaper "La Razon" will place the book on its own website on 26 April. (image source: RADIO VATICANA)
In the prologue to the work Giovanni Maria Vian, director of the "Osservatore Romano", explains that, for the Holy Father's eighty-fifth birthday and the beginning of the eighth year of his pontificate, it was decided to publish a book bringing together a number of little-known texts on the figure of Benedict XVI. These include a dialogue on secularism and religion between the philosopher Armando Massarenti and the journalist Giuliano Ferrara, some suggestions for reading the works of Joseph Ratzinger by the historiographer Lucetta Scaraffia, and a chronological summary of the life of "the theologian who became pontiff".
This initiative, Vian writes, "aims above all to contribute to an understanding of the person and works of an intellectual who has dedicated, and continues to dedicate his life to the tireless search for truth, engaging in continuous dialogue between faith and reason, and using a language accessible to everyone".
MORE THAN 22,000 BAPTISMS IN CHINA ON EASTER SUNDAY
Vatican City, 24 April 2012 (VIS) - The Catholic news agency Fides has reported that 22,104 people were baptised in China on Easter Sunday. The statistics were collected by the Study Centre of Faith in the Chinese province of He Bei. The newly-baptised Catholics, 75 per cent of whom are adults, belong to 101 dioceses. In He Bei itself 4,410 people were baptised on Easter Day, 615 more than last year, while in Hong Kong, which has more than 360,000 faithful, there were 3,500 baptisms.
In evaluating these figures, it should be borne in mind that some dioceses do not celebrate all their baptisms at Easter. For example, in Shang Hai there were 379 Easter baptisms but the total figure could exceed 1,500 by the end of the year. According to Sr. Li Guo Shuang of the Study Center, "there are still some dioceses or communities which, due to communication difficulties, have not yet reported data to us. So we must emphasise that the figures are not complete, they may still increase".
AMERICA : BRAZIL : ACTOR PLAYING JUDAS ACCIDENTAL SUICIDE
Klimeck, 27, an actor from Brazil
was accidentally hanged during a performance of the Passion and Death of Jesus.
During the play the character of Judas Iscariot commits suicide by hanging for
his betrayal of Jesus Christ.. It was during this scene that Tiago was
accidentally hung. This took place on Good Friday in the city of Itarare,
Brazil. It was after 4 minutes of hanging that the performers noticed the actor
was not conscious. He was taken to hospital but died on Easter Sunday. A polic
investigation is underway; it seems the knot on the rope might have been wrongly
tied.He was pronounced dead in the Santa Casa de Itapeva hospital. (image source: google.com)
EUROPE : POLAND : 20000 AT PROTEST FOR CATHOLIC TV CHANNEL
WARSAW VOICE REPORT:
More than
20,000 demonstrators from all over Poland rallied in downtown Warsaw on Saturday
to protest the decision of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) to deny the
right to broadcast on a free public digital network to a conservative Catholic
Trwam TV channel.
KRRiT has denied TV Trwam the broadcast license because of lack of transparency in its funding. The channel, available on satellite and private cable, belongs to a Catholic media holding run by a priest, Tadeusz Rydzyk.
The protest was organized by the main opposition conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and started with an open-air mass.
Then protesters from, carrying Polish flags and anti-government placards marched to the seat of government and to the residence of President Bronislaw Komorowski.
Kaczynski, speaking outside the office of PM Donald Tusk, said: "The people in this building must be ashamed to have raised a hand against the Polish Church, against democracy, against national dignity."
He also used the opportunity to call on the right-wing opposition to unite against the liberal government of Tusk.
Kaczynski appealed to right-wing Solidary Poland (SP) party leader Zbigniew Ziobro to come back to PiS (SP party was formed after its leaders were expelled from PiS). Ziobro later dismissed the proposal, however his first reply on Saturday was more emotional, suggesting the unity is possible. Kaczynski's call might be seen as a strategic move to marginalize SP and gain stronger position, the Polish dailies wrote.
SHARED FROM: http://www.warsawvoice.pl/WVpage/pages/article.php/20624/news
KRRiT has denied TV Trwam the broadcast license because of lack of transparency in its funding. The channel, available on satellite and private cable, belongs to a Catholic media holding run by a priest, Tadeusz Rydzyk.
The protest was organized by the main opposition conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and started with an open-air mass.
Then protesters from, carrying Polish flags and anti-government placards marched to the seat of government and to the residence of President Bronislaw Komorowski.
Kaczynski, speaking outside the office of PM Donald Tusk, said: "The people in this building must be ashamed to have raised a hand against the Polish Church, against democracy, against national dignity."
He also used the opportunity to call on the right-wing opposition to unite against the liberal government of Tusk.
Kaczynski appealed to right-wing Solidary Poland (SP) party leader Zbigniew Ziobro to come back to PiS (SP party was formed after its leaders were expelled from PiS). Ziobro later dismissed the proposal, however his first reply on Saturday was more emotional, suggesting the unity is possible. Kaczynski's call might be seen as a strategic move to marginalize SP and gain stronger position, the Polish dailies wrote.
SHARED FROM: http://www.warsawvoice.pl/WVpage/pages/article.php/20624/news
ASIA : INDIA : MOTHER FORCED TO ABORT 6 GIRLS BY HUSBAND
ASIA NEWS REPORT: by Nirmala
Carvalho
The husband and his family were "dissatisfied". The woman, 36, has denounced them and the doctors. A network of clandestine clinics uncovered, the government has already withdrawn the licenses of two gynecologists. Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life: "The female sex-selective abortions are altering the Indian population."
_0423_-_AbortiSMALL.jpg)
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Forced to abort six times, because "incapable" of giving her husband a male heir: it happened in the district of Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to Amisha Bhatt, 36. The woman reported all her captors: her partner and his family for harassment, the doctors and other clandestine clinics in which she suffered first the test to find out the sex of the fetus, and then the six abortions. "With my gesture - Amisha said - I hope I have helped many other women who are in the same condition." Meanwhile, thanks to her complaint, the State of Gujarat has launched detailed investigations and already withdrawn the licenses to two doctors.
Since 1994, with the approval of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technologies (Pndt) Act in India it is illegal to use special tests - such as amniocentesis or ultrasound - to determine the sex of the fetus. By law, doctors are required to submit a list of patients who, for reasons of health, have conducted these tests. However, the Pndt was not enough to curb the spread of selective female abortions, and over the years clandestine clinics have spread. After having made a complaint, Amisha Batt has discovered that her name was not listed in any of the lists of gynecologists who carried out the six abortions on her.
Pascoal Carvalho, a physician and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told AsiaNews that "selective female abortions, feticide and violence against women and girls" are the only thing in India "beyond the barriers of caste and class." This, he adds, "reveals the brutal instances of widespread prejudice against girls."
These practices have become a plague, tied the archaic cultural preference for male children. But this situation, says Carvalho, a member of the Commission for human life of the Archdiocese of Mumbai, "is altering the composition of the population. According to the latest government census (2011), an average of 914 girls born for every 1,000 males." This is alarming, because in the very years in which the government has taken various measures and awareness campaigns on the theme, the gap between males and females has widened even more. In 2001, in fact, the sex ratio was 927 females per 1,000 males.
According to the doctor to change this situation and reverse the trend we need to first change people's mentality. "Mother Teresa said: If we accept that a mother kills her child, how can we tell others not to do it?".
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Gujarat:-forced-to-abort-by-her-husband-six-times,-they-were-all-female-fetuses-24580.html
The husband and his family were "dissatisfied". The woman, 36, has denounced them and the doctors. A network of clandestine clinics uncovered, the government has already withdrawn the licenses of two gynecologists. Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life: "The female sex-selective abortions are altering the Indian population."
_0423_-_AbortiSMALL.jpg)
Mumbai (AsiaNews) - Forced to abort six times, because "incapable" of giving her husband a male heir: it happened in the district of Ahmedabad (Gujarat) to Amisha Bhatt, 36. The woman reported all her captors: her partner and his family for harassment, the doctors and other clandestine clinics in which she suffered first the test to find out the sex of the fetus, and then the six abortions. "With my gesture - Amisha said - I hope I have helped many other women who are in the same condition." Meanwhile, thanks to her complaint, the State of Gujarat has launched detailed investigations and already withdrawn the licenses to two doctors.
Since 1994, with the approval of the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Technologies (Pndt) Act in India it is illegal to use special tests - such as amniocentesis or ultrasound - to determine the sex of the fetus. By law, doctors are required to submit a list of patients who, for reasons of health, have conducted these tests. However, the Pndt was not enough to curb the spread of selective female abortions, and over the years clandestine clinics have spread. After having made a complaint, Amisha Batt has discovered that her name was not listed in any of the lists of gynecologists who carried out the six abortions on her.
Pascoal Carvalho, a physician and member of the Pontifical Academy for Life, told AsiaNews that "selective female abortions, feticide and violence against women and girls" are the only thing in India "beyond the barriers of caste and class." This, he adds, "reveals the brutal instances of widespread prejudice against girls."
These practices have become a plague, tied the archaic cultural preference for male children. But this situation, says Carvalho, a member of the Commission for human life of the Archdiocese of Mumbai, "is altering the composition of the population. According to the latest government census (2011), an average of 914 girls born for every 1,000 males." This is alarming, because in the very years in which the government has taken various measures and awareness campaigns on the theme, the gap between males and females has widened even more. In 2001, in fact, the sex ratio was 927 females per 1,000 males.
According to the doctor to change this situation and reverse the trend we need to first change people's mentality. "Mother Teresa said: If we accept that a mother kills her child, how can we tell others not to do it?".
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Gujarat:-forced-to-abort-by-her-husband-six-times,-they-were-all-female-fetuses-24580.html
AFRICA : SENEGAL : 4TH BISHOP ORDAINED
Agenzia Fides REPORT - "My call to the Episcopate happens
in the context of the crisis in Casamance that lasts and there does not seem to
be a solution. This may lead many to a certain weariness and discouragement.
This motto wants to give new courage and once again remind all men of good will
that all things are possible to who believes in God. "With these words, the new
Bishop of Ziguinchor (Senegal), Mgr. Paul Abel Mamba, explained the meaning of
his episcopal motto "Nothing is impossible for God" (Lc.1, 37), during the
solemn rite of his episcopal ordination, which took place on Saturday, April
21.
The war for secession of the Casamance (of which Ziguinchor is the capital), broke out in 1982 and has left hundreds of victims and forced thousands of refugees to flee. In the region, one of Senegal's most fertile, different ethnicities and faiths live together: Muslims, Christians and animists. Before the war it was the most important tourist center of Senegal.
According to information sent to Fides from the Curia of Bissau, the Mass of ordination of Mgr. Abel Mamba was presided by Cardinal Thédore Adrien Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar, there was also His Exc. Mgr. Jean-Noel Diouf , Bishop of Tambacounda, and His Exc. Mgr. Jean Pierre Bassène, Bishop of Kolda. Mgr. Paul Abel Mamba, who was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Ziguinchor after the death of his predecessor, Bishop Maixent Coly, who died on August 24, 2010, and Bishop of the Diocese on January 25, 2012 (see Fides 26/01/2012) thus became the fourth Bishop of Ziguinchor.
The three Bishops of Guinea-Bissau, His Exc. Mgr. José Câmnate na Bissign, Bishop of Bissau, His Exc. Mgr. Pedro Carlos Zilli, Bishop of BafatḠand His Exc. Mgr. Jose Lampra Cá, Auxiliary Bishop of Bissau, accompanied by a good number of priests and faithful of the Diocese of Bissau and Bafata, participated in this moment so solemn and so important for Ziguinchor and also for the whole sub-region. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/4/2012)
The war for secession of the Casamance (of which Ziguinchor is the capital), broke out in 1982 and has left hundreds of victims and forced thousands of refugees to flee. In the region, one of Senegal's most fertile, different ethnicities and faiths live together: Muslims, Christians and animists. Before the war it was the most important tourist center of Senegal.
According to information sent to Fides from the Curia of Bissau, the Mass of ordination of Mgr. Abel Mamba was presided by Cardinal Thédore Adrien Sarr, Archbishop of Dakar, there was also His Exc. Mgr. Jean-Noel Diouf , Bishop of Tambacounda, and His Exc. Mgr. Jean Pierre Bassène, Bishop of Kolda. Mgr. Paul Abel Mamba, who was appointed Apostolic Administrator of Ziguinchor after the death of his predecessor, Bishop Maixent Coly, who died on August 24, 2010, and Bishop of the Diocese on January 25, 2012 (see Fides 26/01/2012) thus became the fourth Bishop of Ziguinchor.
The three Bishops of Guinea-Bissau, His Exc. Mgr. José Câmnate na Bissign, Bishop of Bissau, His Exc. Mgr. Pedro Carlos Zilli, Bishop of BafatḠand His Exc. Mgr. Jose Lampra Cá, Auxiliary Bishop of Bissau, accompanied by a good number of priests and faithful of the Diocese of Bissau and Bafata, participated in this moment so solemn and so important for Ziguinchor and also for the whole sub-region. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 24/4/2012)
AUSTRALIA : ST. VINCENT'S HELPS PAY POOR FAMILIES BILLS
ARCHDIOCESE OF SYDNEY RELEASE:
24 Apr 2012
Pensioners, sole parents, those with disabilities
and the unemployed have been hit hard by steep rises in electricity and water
bills with an increasing number forced to turn to St Vincent de Paul Society for
help.
In the past 12 months, Vinnies NSW has experienced a 20% increase in those needing assistance with food, debt management and their utility bills, says Dr John Falzon, Chief Executive of the National Council of St Vincent de Paul Society.
Traditionally, the biggest demand for Vinnies services has come from welfare recipients, according to Dr Falzon there is a "new alarming trend in poverty" with more and more low income workers turning to Vinnies for assistance.
A report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) entitled, "Life on Struggle Street," released two weeks ago, found that over past year, one in three low income households had been unable to pay a utility bill on time, with one in 10 of these households forced to seek help from charitable agencies such as Vinnies.
"It is a very worrying picture that so many Australians are struggling to meet the cost of basic needs," Dr Falzon says.
Over the past five years the cost of living has escalated
leaving many households across NSW battling to survive.
Water costs have shot up by 58% , rents by at least 39%, food by 21%, health costs up by 32% and the fares on public transport have risen by 20% or more with train fares increasing at a rate of 7% per year.
But it is NSW electricity costs that seem to be impacting households the most.
Over the past five years electricity bills risen sharply by more than 64% and are set to increase by a further 17% from 1 July this year with further increases set for 2013 and 2014.
"Energy is a social good. But sadly, it is treated as a commodity with households in NSW forced to bear the burden of price increases as a result of the need for infrastructure renewal to bring power to people's homes," Dr Falzon says. "The injustice of this is felt most sharply by people on low incomes. And it is these households that are being disproportionately impacted."
While the Government continues to congratulate itself on Australia's low unemployment figures, what the monthly statistics don't show are those who are under-employed. Instead the monthly employment figures encompass not only the fully-employed but any man or woman who has had some form of paid employment including those who work for just a couple of hours per week.
This masks the true picture, says Dr
Falzon, explaining that under employment and job insecurity are becoming a
massive problem that negatively impacts a wide spectrum of Australians across
all industries.
"The latest ABS Labour Market figures show that 2 million workers- or almost one quarter of all employees in Australia - are employed as casuals," he says. "The ABS figures also show there are only around 60% of all Australian workers engaged in full or part-time ongoing employment."
Against this, he says, are more than 850,000 Australians working part-time hours and wishing to work more hours and to have additional shifts.
For most of these casual workers there are not only too few hours of work available or only irregular hours of work on offer, but no paid annual or personal leave and no ongoing job insecurity.
"This puts enormous pressure on individuals and families and we fully understand why the underemployed might turn to us for help," Dr Falzon says.
Vinnies and other members of the Australian Council
of Social Services (ACSS) have called on the Government to urgently increase
income support payments.
"People on unemployment benefits are living in abject poverty," Dr Falzon says and believes this and other allowances are needed to ease the pressure on low income families as they struggle to meet the spiralling costs of food, rent, utilities and transport.
But with Treasurer, Wayne Swan flagging tough measures to bring the Government back into surplus, there is little chance of society's battlers receiving any increases to entitlements or allowances when the Federal Budget 2012-13 is handed down on Monday, 8 May.
SHARED FROM; http://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2012/2012424_1362.shtml
24 Apr 2012
Vinnies helping children, families and parents
on the margins
on the margins
In the past 12 months, Vinnies NSW has experienced a 20% increase in those needing assistance with food, debt management and their utility bills, says Dr John Falzon, Chief Executive of the National Council of St Vincent de Paul Society.
Traditionally, the biggest demand for Vinnies services has come from welfare recipients, according to Dr Falzon there is a "new alarming trend in poverty" with more and more low income workers turning to Vinnies for assistance.
A report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) entitled, "Life on Struggle Street," released two weeks ago, found that over past year, one in three low income households had been unable to pay a utility bill on time, with one in 10 of these households forced to seek help from charitable agencies such as Vinnies.
"It is a very worrying picture that so many Australians are struggling to meet the cost of basic needs," Dr Falzon says.
Dr John Falzon,
CEO St Vincent de Paul Society
CEO St Vincent de Paul Society
Water costs have shot up by 58% , rents by at least 39%, food by 21%, health costs up by 32% and the fares on public transport have risen by 20% or more with train fares increasing at a rate of 7% per year.
But it is NSW electricity costs that seem to be impacting households the most.
Over the past five years electricity bills risen sharply by more than 64% and are set to increase by a further 17% from 1 July this year with further increases set for 2013 and 2014.
"Energy is a social good. But sadly, it is treated as a commodity with households in NSW forced to bear the burden of price increases as a result of the need for infrastructure renewal to bring power to people's homes," Dr Falzon says. "The injustice of this is felt most sharply by people on low incomes. And it is these households that are being disproportionately impacted."
While the Government continues to congratulate itself on Australia's low unemployment figures, what the monthly statistics don't show are those who are under-employed. Instead the monthly employment figures encompass not only the fully-employed but any man or woman who has had some form of paid employment including those who work for just a couple of hours per week.
Underemployment and lack of job security
is becoming a massive problem
is becoming a massive problem
"The latest ABS Labour Market figures show that 2 million workers- or almost one quarter of all employees in Australia - are employed as casuals," he says. "The ABS figures also show there are only around 60% of all Australian workers engaged in full or part-time ongoing employment."
Against this, he says, are more than 850,000 Australians working part-time hours and wishing to work more hours and to have additional shifts.
For most of these casual workers there are not only too few hours of work available or only irregular hours of work on offer, but no paid annual or personal leave and no ongoing job insecurity.
"This puts enormous pressure on individuals and families and we fully understand why the underemployed might turn to us for help," Dr Falzon says.
One in three of all Australian workers
are casually employed
are casually employed
"People on unemployment benefits are living in abject poverty," Dr Falzon says and believes this and other allowances are needed to ease the pressure on low income families as they struggle to meet the spiralling costs of food, rent, utilities and transport.
But with Treasurer, Wayne Swan flagging tough measures to bring the Government back into surplus, there is little chance of society's battlers receiving any increases to entitlements or allowances when the Federal Budget 2012-13 is handed down on Monday, 8 May.
SHARED FROM; http://www.sydneycatholic.org/news/latest_news/2012/2012424_1362.shtml
TODAY'S MASS ONLINE : TUES. APRIL 24, 2012
| John
10: 11 - 16
| |
| 11 | I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. |
| 12 | He who is a hireling and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. |
| 13 | He flees because he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. |
| 14 | I am the good shepherd; I know my own and my own know me, |
| 15 | as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. |
| 16 | And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd. |
TODAY'S SAINT : APRIL 24 : ST. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN
St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
MARTYR
Feast: April 24
 Information:
|
|
He was born in 1577, at Sigmarengen, a town in Germany, in
the principality of Hoinvenzollen. The name of his father was John Rey. The
saint was christened Mark, performed his studies in the university of Fribourg
in Switzerland, and while he taught philosophy, commenced doctor of laws. He at
that time never drank wine, and wore a hair-shirt. His modesty, meekness,
chastity, and all other virtues, charmed all that had the happiness of his
acquaintance. In 1604, he accompanied three young gentlemen of that country on
their travels through the principal parts of Europe. During six years, which he
continued in this employment, he never ceased to instil into them the most
heroic and tender sentiments of piety. He received the holy sacrament very
frequently, particularly on all the principal holidays: in every town where he
came, he visited the hospitals and churches, passed several hours on his knees
in the presence of the blessed sacrament, and gave to the poor sometimes the
very clothes off his back. After this he practiced the law in quality of
counsellor or advocate, at Colmar, in Alsace, with great reputation, but with
greater virtue. Justice and religion directed all his actions. He scrupulously
forbore all invectives, detractions, and whatever might affect the reputation of
any adversary. His charity procured him the surname of counsellor and advocate
for the poor: but the injustices of a colleague in protracting lawsuits for
gain, and his finding fault with our saint for producing all his proofs for his
clients in the beginning, in order to the quicker dispatch, gave him a disgust
of a profession which was to many an occasion of sin, and determined him to
enter among the Capuchin friars. He first received holy orders, and having said
his first mass in their convent at Fribourg, on the feast of St. Francis, in
1612, he consecrated himself to God by taking the habit. The guardian gave him,
in religion, the name of Fidelis, or Faithful, alluding to that text of the
Apocalypse which promises a crown of life to him who shall continue faithful to
the end. From that moment humiliations, macerations, and implicit obedience were
his delight. He overcame temptations by discovering them to his director, and
submitting to his advice with regard to his conduct under them. By his last
will, he bequeathed his patrimony to the bishop's seminary, for the
establishment of a fund for the support of poor students, to whom he also left
his library; and gave the remainder of his substance to the poor.
In regard to dress and furniture, he always chose that for
his own use which was the least valuable and convenient. He fasted Advent, Lent,
and Vigils, on bread and water, with dried fruits, tasting nothing which had
been dressed by fire. His life was a continued prayer and recollection, and at
his devotions he seemed rather like an angel than a man. His earnest and
perpetual petition to God was, that he would always preserve him from sin, and
from falling into tepidity or sloth in his service. He sought the most abject
and most painful employments even when superior; knowing that God exalts those
highest who have here humbled themselves the lowest and the nearest to their own
nothingness. He had no sooner finished his course of theology, than he was
employed in preaching and in hearing confessions; and being sent superior to the
convent of Weltkirchen, that town and many neighboring places were totally
reformed by his zealous labors, and several Calvinists converted. The
congregation de propaganda fide, sent to father Fidelis a commission to go and
preach among the Grisons; and he was the first missionary that was sent into
those parts after that people had embraced Calvinism. Eight other fathers of his
order were his assistants, and labored in this mission under his direction. The
Calvinists of that territory, being incensed at his attempt, loudly threatened
his life, and he prepared himself for martyrdom on entering upon this new
harvest. Ralph de Salis, and another Calvinist gentleman, were converted by his
first conferences. The missionary penetrated into Pretigout, a small district of
the Grisons, in 1622, on the feast of the Epiphany, and gained every day new
conquests to Christ; the conversion of which souls ought to be regarded as more
the fruit of the ardent prayers in which he passed great part of the nights,
than of his sermons and conferences in the day. These wonderful effects of his
apostolic zeal, whereof the bishop of Coire sent a large and full account to the
congregation de propaganda, so enraged the Calvinists in that province, who had
lately rebelled against the emperor. their sovereign, that they were determined
to bear with them no longer. 'The holy father having notice of it, thought of
nothing but preparing himself for his conflict, passing whole nights in fervent
prayer before the blessed sacrament, or before his crucifix, and often prostrate
on the ground. On the 24th of April, 1622, he made his confession to his
companion with great compunction, said mass, and then preached at Gruch, a
considerable borough. At the end of his sermon, which he delivered with more
than ordinary fire, he stood silent on a sudden, with his eyes fixed on heaven,
in an ecstasy, during some time. He foretold his death to several persons in the
clearest terms, and subscribed his last letters in this manner: "Brother
Fidelis, who will be shortly the food of worms." From Gruch he went to preach at
Sevis, where, with great energy, he exhorted the Catholics to constancy in the
faith. A Calvinist having discharged his musket at him in the church, the
Catholics entreated him to leave the place. He answered, that death was his gain
and his joy, and that he was ready to lay down his life in God's cause. On his
road back to Gruch, he met twenty Calvinist soldiers with a minister at their
head. They called him false prophet, and urged him to embrace their sect. He
answered: "I am sent to you to confute, not to embrace your heresy. The Catholic
religion is the faith of all ages, I fear not death." One of them beat him down
to the ground by a stroke on the head with his backsword. The martyr rose again
on his knees, and stretching out his arms in the form of a cross, said with a
feeble voice "Pardon my enemies, O Lord: blinded by passion they know not what
they do. Lord Jesus, have pity on me. Mary, mother of Jesus, assist me." Another
stroke clove his skull, and he fell to the ground and lay wetering in his blood.
The soldiers, not content with this, added many stabs in his body, and hacked
his left leg, as they said, to punish him for his many journeys into those parts
to preach to them. A Catholic woman lay concealed near the place during this
butchery; and after the soldiers were gone, coming out to see the effects of it,
found the martyr's eyes open, and fixed on the heavens. He died in 1622, the
forty-fifth year of his age, and the tenth of his religious profession. He was
buried by the Catholics the next day. The rebels were soon after defeated by the
imperialists, an event which the martyr had foretold them. The minister was
converted by this circumstance, and made a public abjuration of his heresy.
After six months, the martyr's body was found incorrupt, but the head and left
arm separate from the trunk. These being put into two cases, were translated
from thence to the cathedral of Coire, at the earnest suit of the bishop, and
laid under the high altar with great pomp; the remainder of the corpse was
deposited in the Capuchin's church at Weltkirchen. Three miracles performed by
his relics and intercession, out of three hundred and five produced, are
inserted in the decree of his beatification, published by pope Benedict XIII.,
in 1729. Other miracles were proved, and the decree of his canonization was
published by Benedict XIV., in 1746. The 24th of April is appointed the day of
his festival, and his name is inserted in the Roman Martyrology. See the acts of
his canonization: also his life, written by Dom. Placid, abbot of Weissenau, or
Augia Brigantina, published by Dom. Bernard Pez, librarian in the famous abbey
of Melch, in Austria, in his Bibliotheca Ascetica, t. 10, p. 403.
To contribute to the conversion of a soul from sin is
something far more excellent than to raise a dead body to life. This must soon
fall again a prey to death; and only recovers by such a miracle the enjoyment of
the frail and empty goods of this world. But the soul which, from the death of
sin, is raised to the life of grace, is immortal, and, from a slave of the devil
and a firebrand of hell, passes to the inestimable dignity and privileges of a
child of' God; by which divine adoption she is rescued out of the abyss of
infinite misery, and exalted to the most sublime state of glory and happiness,
in which all the treasures of grace and of heaven are her portion forever.
Hunger, thirst, watchings, labors, and a thousand martyrdoms, ought to seem
nothing to one employed in the sacred ministry, with the hopes of gaining but
one sinner to Christ. Moreover, God himself will be his recompense, who is
witness, and keeps a faithful account of all his fatigues and least
sufferings.
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source: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/F/stfidelisofsigmaringen.asp#ixzz1sz6IyiSh
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