secular Institute for the laity under religious vows

February 19th, 2006
by
Larry Gillick, S.J.
Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 43:18-19, 21-22, 24b-25
Psalm 41:2-3, 4-5, 13-14
2 Corinthians 1:18-22
Mark 2:1-12
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer





PRE-PRAYERING

As we live toward the Sabbath liturgy, we are invited to consider a longer "Penance Rite" theme. When we pray, "Lord have mercy" at the beginning of the Eucharistic liturgy, we are not praying as if God's mercy were in doubt on our part nor on the part of God. It is a kind of petition and proclamational boast as well. God is not ambiguous toward us.

We pray with our letting go of the past deeds and watchfully consider the new ways of God as the One Who is faithful in all ways. We pray with the truth of our needs for forgiveness as well as the temptations to doubt our personal forgiveness.

We pray as well with our desires to walk into God's future and our own expecting peace in our hearts and praise for that peace on our lips and in our actions.

REFLECTION

There are several sections to today's First Reading from the Prophet Isaiah. The words of the prophet are directed to the people of Israel who are in captivity in Babylon. These are great words of hope for the hearers. Their religious history is not centered on the creation of the world, but the creation of Israel as a blest and Holy people, chosen as such through the "first exodus." The "second exodus" is about to happen.

The first verses of our reading are a reminder not to count the "first exodus" as the central mystery of their history. No need to recall the past to understand and celebrate their being God's Holy People. The "something new" is even more a dramatic revelation of God's faithful love. As they sit in captivity they are prodded to imagine how God is going to give them a way through the desert, with rivers to nourish and guide them. All this saving of Israel is to continue their growth as God's people formed so that they might praise their living and saving God.

There is a sudden change of tone and direction. God calls them to remember, not God's wonderful deeds, but remember that they had "burdened" God with their sins and their failure to practice strictly the religious obligations of the law. They had grown tired of the practices of worship and failed in the calling upon God for help. God was burdened with their sins and tired of their crimes.

With this as a background once more, God proclaims again that God alone wipes away their "offenses" and "your sins I remember not." In brief, God is saying, remember what I did no more long ago, imagine what I am going to do. Then remember what you, Israel did in your ungrateful past so that you Israel will know that God has not forgotten you, but your sins.

At times, Jesus was quite the spectator sport. Crowds came to see, view, marvel at what He might do next. Such a crowd was gathered around His house to see and hear Him in today's Gospel. Within this context, four men bring a fifth person to be healed. We might ask why Jesus did not come out, do the main event and get on with His preaching. Why does Mark do the "roof thing", it seems so unnecessary.

The main event might be the faith of the men bringing the paralytic to the house and their intensity of faith moved them to hit the roof. The main event might not be the healing, but the forgiveness of the man's sin. The sin is symbolized by its resultant paralysis. The main event might be the ironical statement by the ever-present scribes," Who but God alone can forgive sins". Their words affirm what Jesus is doing and Who He is.

The main event is that Jesus has come, not to recall the past, but be the present presence of the loving and forgiving God in this old world. C. S. Lewis, in The Magician's Nephew, (one of the Chronicles of Narnia), has one of the characters say, "For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing and also depends on what sort of person you are." Jesus was standing in the middle, saw the man's being lowered through the roof and heard the murmurings of the scribes. What sort of person is Jesus?

The scribes see Jesus heal a man, and hear His words of forgiveness. They are standing in a protective posture against anything new over which they can not legislate. They hear threatening words to their authority. What sort of characters do they possess? The crowds are standing around the healing event and they see something new and amazing. They had never seen anything like this before. They hear His words of healing, rising and sending. Among them must be the four men who lowered their friend down into the house. They may have seen and heard Jesus before so perhaps they are less amazed. Their faith brought them and their friend to be part of the main event.

So where we stand in this picture does determine what we see and hear as well as what sort of character we are. We are probably parts of the crowd, the scribes the four carriers and the one presented to Jesus. We may resist Jesus' being able to forgive sins, even our own sins. Perhaps we are a bit of the crowd who watch others being healed. We are the man as well who is bidden to rise and get on with it, with living a new way. Where we stand in a scene such as this and many others from the Gospels will determine what and how we see and hear Jesus. From where Jesus stands, the main event is His hearing and seeing faith and His sending forth this man. Missioning is what healing is all about for Jesus. They laid the man down in faith and Jesus raised Him up and sent him out.

"I will tell all your marvelous works. I will rejoice and be glad in you, and sing to your name, Most High." Ps. 9, 2-3


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February 21st, 2006
by
Joan Blandin Howard
Christian Spirituality Program
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.
James 4:1-10
Psalm 55:7-8, 9-10a, 10b-11a, 23
Mark 9:30-37
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer



I am not sure just how I would feel had I been one of the disciples power-walking behind Jesus.

I'm just trying to keep up! He almost sprints from village to village. Once in the midst of the people, he heals the sick with a gentle touch, softens hearts with an encouraging insightful word. The minds of others are enraged and tangled by his truths.

Today Jesus began by telling us that the "Son of Man would die and then three days later rise." So what can that mean? I'm not asking. At times it is best just to keep quiet. But, I do think that my loyalty and longtime friendship should count for something in the end. Not sure why I bothered to mention it. It just led to an argument among the fellas. Each of us thinks he is the "greatest!" We should have known better than to let Jesus hear that discussion! "If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all." Just when it gets really confusing being with Jesus, he does something that I can understand and then I sort of get what he is all about.

Today Jesus gathered a child into his arms. The child was dirty and tired and seemed to be wandering all alone. There did not seem to be a parent or grandparent or anyone around who even knew him. Her hair had not been washed in days and most likely he had not eaten recently. Jesus gently coaxed her into his arms and lifted him onto his lap. He spoke quietly, gently to her. Gradually the fear softened from his eyes and the strain lifted from her tear-stained face. I was some distance away, so could not hear what he was saying to her. But what I did hear were the words spoken to me by my parents. My heart heard the loving words of long ago. Words that told me I was loved and would be protected and had nothing to fear. I heard the funny stories my uncle told. I heard the laughter that filled our home. I heard the family stories my grandmother told and retold over the years. I felt the warmth of my mother's arms and the strength of my father's. I knew I was loved and was lovable. Echoing in the wind were other words - slurred, harsh and cruel. Guttural sounds blanketing the whimpering and sobbing of an abused, fearful child and the maternal pleadings of a distraught mother.

Jesus invites us into the truth of who he is, but lures me into the experience of who he is. Intimacy and vulnerability; hope and fear; comfort and struggle, healing. Jesus is present. Am I the loved child or the lost, lonely, bedraggled and forgotten child? Am I the abused child or the cherished child? Where do I experience that comfort and love? Who in my life speaks the healing words of love and acceptance, of affirmation and encouragement? And the child? Do I notice the lost, lonely, hungry, laughing, or crying child? What about the soldier child, the homeless, sick or abused child? To whom do I speak the loving words of joy, love, comfort and encouragement?

It is not about me, it's about us. Jesus and me and you and me. Sometimes I get it and sometimes I don't. Interesting how often the image of the child appears in scripture. At any age I am God's child.


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from "american catholic"

am a young adult and a devout Catholic. Do you have any books, booklets, leaflets, prayers or pamphlets on Prayers of Reparation?

Please explain to me what reparation is, and please give me ideas or examples to make reparation to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.


In general, reparation means repairing or making up for damages done. For example, after World War I, Germany was made to pay reparations for damages done to France and Great Britain in the war. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation a person who has done an injustice to another will be required to make reparation, if that is possible. One who has slandered or libeled another is required to repair the damage done to that person's reputation. A thief is required to make reparation by restitution--paying back or returning the money or property stolen.

In a spiritual sense, we sinners make reparation for our sins and the sins of others through voluntary acts of penance or works of piety and devotion done in the spirit of reparation.

To make reparation for acts of blasphemy and profanity, Catholics recite the divine praises ("Blessed be God, Blessed be his holy name," etc.), especially after Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.

Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as promoted by St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, calls for prayers and acts of reparation as well as Communions (especially on First Fridays) received in the spirit of reparation and atonement.

The old Roman Raccolta contained prayers of reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. So do some prayer manuals and books of prayers and devotions in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The present Enchiridion of Indulgences (which superseded the Raccolta) contains an Act of Reparation, "Most Sweet Jesus," which carries with its recitation a partial indulgence, whenever it is prayed, and a plenary indulgence, if it is publicly re-cited on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

And the Roman Ordo (a calendar and daily guide with directives for the celebration of the liturgy) reminds pastors that Pope Pius XI required special prayers on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. In all churches there is to take place a re-newal of consecration to the Sacred Heart, and a prayer of consecration and reparation is to be recited. Also, the Litany of the Sacred Heart is to be prayed during exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.

New York bishops, parents rally for education tax credits


ALBANY, N.Y. (CNS) -- With thousands of parents from across the state rallying to their call, and New York Gov. George Pataki offering support, New York Cardinal Edward M. Egan, Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio and other proponents of school choice took their campaign for education tax credits to Albany Feb. 14. They challenged state legislators to take the opportunity to "help all of the children of New York." "This morning, I want to rejoice in all of the people who have come to the city of Albany to say they want everyone to have a chance," the cardinal said, "a chance at sending their children to schools of their choice, schools that are what they want -- academically, spiritually and morally." Speaking at a Feb. 14 news conference where 300,000 postcards supporting the credits were on display, the cardinal said working- and middle-class families deserve to give their children the educational opportunities "that wealthy people have without even trying." He also thanked elected officials who support credits. While the cardinal and other religious leaders spoke at the news conference, busloads of parents, many with their children, and other tax credit supporters gathered at the steps of the New York state Capitol.




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Arkansas parish coping with murders, charges filed against mother


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (CNS) -- A priest in the Diocese of Little Rock said he is trying to walk spiritually with his parishioners as they grieve the loss of three young members who were murdered. Father Salvador Marquez-Munoz, pastor of St. Barbara Church in De Queen, is also serving as a spiritual counselor to parishioner Eleazar Paula Mendez after she was arrested Jan. 29 for allegedly smothering and possibly poisoning her three children -- 7-year-old Elvis and 5-year-old twins, Samantha and Samuel. The priest said his appointment calendar is filled for several weeks with private meetings he has scheduled with parishioners who are grieving and wanting to express their own traumas. He said some members want to discuss "different wounds that were never closed completely. ... Many of them have mixed feelings." Mendez and her children relocated to De Queen last May but the children's father, Arturo Morales, remained in New York, where he was a construction worker. Father Marquez-Munoz also counseled Morales during his visit to De Queen for the children's funeral Feb. 2 and burial Feb. 8.




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Intimacy not about sex, speaker tells Catholic singles' conference


DENVER (CNS) -- Although 98 percent of pop culture references to intimacy today are about sex, intimacy is not about sex but about relationships -- not just between husband and wife but between friends, author and retreat leader Matthew Kelly told Catholic singles Feb. 10. "Sex doesn't mean intimacy, it doesn't guarantee intimacy, it isn't necessary for intimacy," he said at the second National Catholic Singles Conference, held Feb. 10-12 in Denver. Noting that half of all marriages end in divorce, Kelly told the crowd that what was missing in most of these relationships was a common underlying purpose. People know that their relationships can be better, but most don't have a clue as to how to begin, Kelly said.




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Youth ministers discuss education for lay ministry, budget cutbacks


PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Good formation for Catholic laypeople is essential as the number of lay ecclesial ministers in the U.S. continues to grow, an official of the U.S. bishops' conference told some 200 diocesan youth ministers meeting in Portland. Richard McCord, director of the bishops' Secretariat for Family, Laity, Women and Youth, spoke on the bishops' recent document "Co-workers in the Vineyard of the Lord," which acknowledges the huge number of laypeople with official positions in the church. He was addressing the annual meeting of the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, held Jan. 25-28 in Portland. The youth ministers also focused on doing more with less. With budget cutbacks in most U.S. dioceses and younger Catholics tending to give less, diocesan youth offices that once had a half dozen staff members now make do with one or two.




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Good liturgy, sense of social mission part of black parish's success


WASHINGTON (CNS) -- What makes a successful African-American parish tick? In the case of St. Augustine Parish in Washington, key elements are good liturgy, which includes good preaching and good music, plus a sense of social mission and a "family" feeling that encourages parishioners to return to the church, which describes itself as "mother church of black Catholics in the nation's capital." They even drive great distances to come back. On any given Sunday, the pews are usually filled to their 600-person capacity. The neighborhood surrounding St. Augustine faces two distinctly different pressures. To the south, booming real estate prices have boosted gentrification, putting pressure on the neighborhood's longtime black base. To the north, Spanish-speaking immigrants occupy many apartment buildings.




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Don't let cartoon controversy stoke culture clash, says expert


WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A "clash of civilizations" between the West and the Islamic world is possible but not inevitable, said an expert in Muslim-Christian relations in discussing the controversy over Danish cartoons caricaturing the prophet Mohammed. Although some people in the West and in the Muslim world are trying to stoke the fires of a clash, the reasons behind the violent protests in Muslim countries are more complex than pitting respect for religion against freedom of expression, said John L. Esposito, founding director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University in Washington. The controversy must be seen within the context of Muslims' smoldering anger at what they perceive as Western stereotyping of them as terrorists because of the actions of a few extremists, he said. The war on terrorism is often seen by Muslims as a war against Islam and an effort to redraw the political map of the Middle East, he said Feb. 16. Esposito spoke at a meeting of the Alpha Sigma Nu Alumni Club of Washington. Alpha Sigma Nu is the honor society for students of U.S. Jesuit colleges and universities.




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Bishop urges more attention to schools, health in foreign aid program


WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Funding from the Millennium Challenge Corporation has not gone very far toward health and education projects, the head of the U.S. bishops' international policy committee observed in a letter to the new head of the corporation. In an early February letter to John Danilovich, CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla., pointed out that the projects selected so far to receive funding from the account have gone toward improving agricultural productivity and infrastructure that links producers to markets. "We believe these are very important investments, particularly when they reach the poor directly," Bishop Wenski said. Nevertheless, "we remain deeply concerned about the overall dearth of ... funds for health and education," he said. A copy of the letter was released by the Department of Social Development and World Peace at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.




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WORLD



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Vatican says number of priests increases, but varies by continent


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The number of priests and seminarians in the world continues to increase, but the situation varies widely from continent to continent, the Vatican said. The most positive signs come from Asia and Africa, while Europe has shown a marked decline in priestly vocations, according to a Feb. 18 statement from the Vatican press office. The statistics were released in connection with the presentation of the 2006 edition of the Vatican yearbook, known as the Annuario Pontificio, which catalogs the church's pastoral presence diocese-by-diocese. Pope Benedict XVI met with editors of the volume and praised them for their work. It was the first edition of the yearbook issued under his pontificate. In its statement, the press office referred to data on church population, priests and seminarians through 2004, the last year for which statistics are available. It said the number of priests in the world was 405,891 at the end of 2004, an increase of 441 from 2003. About two-thirds were diocesan priests and one-third members of religious orders.




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Filipinos remain hopeful as they help search after landslide


MAASIN, Philippines (CNS) -- Relatives of victims of a massive landslide in the central Philippines remained hopeful as they helped survivors and aided rescue efforts, church officials said. U.S. Marines joined the rescue effort in Guinsaugon village Feb. 20 as high-tech equipment detected sounds at the site of an elementary school buried in the mud Feb. 17, but rescue officials said they could not determine if the sounds were made by survivors or shifting mud. Bishop Precioso Cantillas of Maasin observed rescue operations in the village on the overcast morning of Feb. 20, reported UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. From there he proceeded to St. Augustine Parish, about three miles away in Catmon village, to help coordinate aid and relief work. "You can really feel the people's strong faith -- even reporters and rescuers are commenting about it," Bishop Cantillas told UCA News.




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Lack of justice, peace shows sin still paralyzes people, pope says


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The lack of justice and peace in the world is a sign that despite people's good intentions, sin still paralyzes many of them, Pope Benedict XVI said. Reciting the Angelus Feb. 19, Pope Benedict said the day's Gospel reading about Jesus forgiving the sins of the paralyzed man and healing him demonstrates that Christ's primary mission is to heal souls. "The paralyzed man is the image of every human being impeded by sin from moving freely, from walking on the path of goodness, from giving the best of himself," the pope said. "Evil, nesting in the soul, binds man with the ropes of lies, anger, envy and the other sins, and paralyzes him little by little," he said. The presence of sin prevents humanity from fully developing "those values of brotherhood, justice and peace" which are celebrated and proclaimed in solemn declarations signed by most countries in the world, he said.




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Pope says religions must be respected, but cannot promote violence


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- In the midst of continuing violence provoked by satirical cartoons of the prophet Mohammed, Pope Benedict XVI criticized those who use the wounded feelings of their faithful to promote violence. "Religions and their symbols must be respected," the pope said Feb. 20, but "intolerance and violence never can be justified as a response to the offense, since they are not responses compatible with the sacred principles of religion." The pope made his comments during an audience to welcome Ali Achour as the new ambassador of Morocco to the Vatican. While no violence has been reported in Morocco, news agencies said at least 15 Christians were killed and more than a dozen Christian churches burned Feb. 18 in Maiduguri, Nigeria, after an anti-cartoon demonstration turned violent. Among those killed was Father Michael Gajere, a Nigerian priest. A protest in Libya Feb. 17 claimed the lives of at least 11 people. Pope Benedict told the Moroccan ambassador that while no one had the right to purposefully denigrate the faith of another, "one cannot but deplore the actions of those who deliberately profit from the offense of religious sentiments in order to foment violent actions."




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Cuban church reflects on internal life, pastoral goals


HAVANA (CNS) -- Twenty years after the first meeting of bishops allowed following the Cuban revolution, the Catholic Church on the Caribbean island reflected on its internal life and main pastoral goals, with support from the Vatican. During the celebrations marking the February 1986 meeting, a milestone for Cuba's Catholic Church, the country's bishops unveiled their pastoral plan for 2006-2010. For Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cuba was the first stop on a trip that included the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, where he was presenting the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church. The Vatican official even gave a copy to Cuban President Fidel Castro. In presenting the compendium to the Cuban bishops, the cardinal noted that the church's social doctrine takes into consideration people's material and spiritual needs and underscores "the deep sense of our common life, of our struggle for justice."




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Pope tells African bishops work with Muslims can promote harmony


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Working with Muslims in charity and development projects can promote harmony while also serving the poor, Pope Benedict XVI told bishops from four West African nations. The pope met Feb. 20 with the bishops of Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde at the end of their "ad limina" visits, which heads of dioceses make every five years. Pope Benedict praised Catholics in the West African countries for giving witness to the fact that "love for one's neighbor, rooted in the love of God, is an essential part of the Christian life." While Christians have an obligation to engage in charitable and social work, he said, "Christianity must not be reduced to mere human wisdom or confused with social service, because it is rather a spiritual service." At the same time, he said, "for the disciples of Christ, the exercise of charity cannot be a means of proselytism, because love is gratuitous."




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Catholic presence felt daily at WCC assembly in Brazil


PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (CNS) -- Catholic presence at the Ninth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches in mid-February was a daily and visible dimension of the international gathering. Bishop Brian Farrell, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, headed a 19-member Catholic delegation that occupied a front row in the assembly's plenary hall. The delegation included Vatican officials as well as representatives of bishops' conferences and Catholic religious and lay movements. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the council, conveyed a message of greeting from Pope Benedict XVI at the assembly's opening session. "Mindful of our shared baptismal faith in the triune God," the message said, Catholics "seek ways to cooperate ever more effectively in the task of witnessing to God's divine love."




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PEOPLE



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More than 100,000 gather at Fatima to watch reburial of Sister Lucia


FATIMA, Portugal (CNS) -- Despite a persistent rain, more than 100,000 people gathered at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima to pray and witness the reburial of Carmelite Sister Lucia dos Santos, the last of three Fatima visionaries. Sister Lucia died Feb. 13, 2005, in her cloistered convent in Coimbra, Portugal, at the age of 97. She had been buried temporarily at the Carmelite convent while preparations were made for final burial alongside her two cousins, Blesseds Francisco and Jacinta Marto, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima. On May 13, 1917 -- when Lucia was 10 years old, Francisco was 9 and Jacinta was 7 -- the children claimed to have seen the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, near their home. The apparitions continued once a month until October 1917 and later were declared worthy of belief by the Catholic Church. In 2000 Pope John Paul II beatified Sister Lucia's cousins, who died as children.




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Professor, students have special relationship with death-row inmate


BALTIMORE (CNS) -- When Gertrude D. "Trudy" Conway visited convicted murderer Vernon L. Evans Jr. on death row in downtown Baltimore Feb. 4, the philosophy professor at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg thought it would be the last time she would see her friend alive. Evans was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection the week of Feb. 5, but his life was spared temporarily by a last-minute stay of execution granted by the Maryland Court of Appeals Feb. 6. Conway has been corresponding and visiting with Evans ever since Gwendolyn Bates, one of Evans' sisters, told the professor during a national convention of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty in 2004 that her brother would welcome interaction with the Emmitsburg professor and her students. Evans was convicted of the 1983 contract murders of David Scott Piechowicz and Susan Kennedy. While he acknowledges that he played a role in the circumstances that led to their murders, Evans insists that he did not do the killing, according to Conway.




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Minnesota teen's book aims to give voice to Muslim women


ST. PAUL, Minn. (CNS) -- In February 2005, when most teen girls were hoping for roses or chocolates, 17-year-old Chiara Kovarik received her dream valentine: the acceptance of her book manuscript by a Minneapolis publishing company. The teen stands out from her peers in many ways, including the subject she chose to explore in her 174-page book, "Interviews With Muslim Women of Pakistan." "Most young adult books focus on teen body image or dating tips," Kovarik said. Her book offers a fresh perspective on a nation that became a partner in the war on terror. Kovarik, a senior at Convent of the Visitation School in Mendota Heights, spent a month in Pakistan in the summer 2001. "I'd gone with the typical ideas that the women were oppressed and they're all covered up and they don't have the right to speak, and I was finding that a lot of those previous notions I had were not true, or at least were a bit skewed in the way they had been presented to me," she said.




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Retired Vatican official faces more sexual abuse charges in Canada


OTTAWA (CNS) -- A retired Vatican official who returned to Canada to face two charges of sexual abuse faces 14 additional sex abuse charges. The 16 charges against Msgr. Bernard Prince, an official of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith from 1991 to 2004, involve seven individuals and alleged incidents dating back more than 30 years. Sgt. Kristine Rae-Cholette, spokeswoman for the Ontario Provincial Police, said Feb. 17 there were "more investigations on the go." Msgr. Prince was released after a bail hearing in Pembroke, Ontario, Feb. 16, on the conditions that he remain in Canada and avoid contact with the complainants.

from "creighton univerisity"

What Can I Do Before Lent Begins?


Anything worth doing is worth preparing for.

Just imagine that this Lent is going to be different from every other Lent we've experienced. Imagine that there will be many graces offered me this year. Let's even imagine that God is going to help transform our lives, with greater freedom, greater joy, deeper desires for love and service.

If we want it, we will choose it.

Lent will be this wonderful season of grace for us if we give ourselves to it. And, we will give ourselves to it to the degree we really want it badly. So, in these days before Lent, we need to prepare our hearts. We need to prepare by realizing how much we want to grow in freedom, how much we need to lighten our spirits and experience some real joy, and how much some parts of our lives really need changing.

So, preparing our hearts is a process of preparing our desires. This means practicing our sense of anticipation. If I imagine Lent as an "ordeal" or a time I dread in some way, then I've already pre-disposed myself to not get very much out of it. These days before Lent are a time to start anticipating something wonderful that is about to happen.

Our Focus: On what God wants to give us.

Our sense of excitement and anticipation will grow more easily if we begin to imagine what God wants to give us. There is really something coming that we can truly look forward to. If we get too focused on ourselves, and what we are going to do or not do, we could risk missing the gift God wants to give us. We have to keep aware of the fact that grace comes from God. This is about God's great desire to bless us. Then, it is easier for us to imagine that we really want to do is place ourselves in a space to receive what God wants to give us.

Not starting from a dead stop.

Taking some time to get ready for Lent will ensure that we aren't going to miss the first week or two of Lent, because we are just getting started. Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, but we want to be ready to really take off on that day, rather than just beginning to think about Lent on that day. Part of what makes a vacation or a special anniversary so special is the build-up to it.

Before we get to Ash Wednesday, we should start asking ourselves some questions and we should start with some preparations. "What does God want to give me this year?" This question may require that I slow down a bit and listen to my inner spirit. For example, even if I'm very busy, I realize I'm hungry when I hear my stomach start "growling." "What am I going to be doing on Ash Wednesday?" Too often, Ash Wednesday is like every other day, except that I manage to get to church and get ashes on my forehead. Is there anything else I can do on Ash Wednesday? How will fasting and abstaining happen for me, for my family on that special day?

Lent is not something I need to do alone.

If I have a spouse, or children, or some close friends, or distant e-mail companions, I can begin now to talk about how we will support each other in this Lenten journey. The anticipation and the preparation is transformed with the companionship of family and close friends. We shouldn't be deterred by the fear that our spouse or children or friends "won't be into it." Jesus said, "Fear is useless; what's needed is trust." Let's begin now to tell others about our desires. Let's help support others' expectations. Let's help others see that Lent doesn't have to be something I avoid, and certainly can't be reduced to "giving up candy." We can help our loved ones to begin to imagine what they could receive from God in these days.

Ash Wednesday is great place to start with our planning. "What are we going to eat?" We shouldn't be embarrassed if we really haven't fasted in a long time, or perhaps ever before. We can plan to intentionally have only one full meal on Ash Wednesday. We can make that meal very meaningful and symbolic. (See the Cooking Lent pages.)

Getting ready, means getting my house ready, too. And, it can means lots of choices.

In the days before Lent, we can read some of the resources here that give concrete ideas of ways to get ready to begin. Choosing Lent, Acting Lent gives a number of ways we can enter Lent with our whole selves, - as body-persons, who use our senses to help us experience things deeply. The symbols in our home, and the concrete choices we make can shape the way we will begin Lent, as individuals and as a family.

And, it doesn't take much time.

It doesn't a lot of time to prepare for the beginning of Lent. It just takes desire and focus. God can do so much with that. We can give God more of a space to touch our hearts if we begin to establish some simple patterns. We could wake up each morning, and for something like a half a minute to a minute, stand by the edge of our beds, and just ask the Lord for the grace to let this day be one in which I long for the beginning of Lent. Perhaps we need to ask for specific helps or graces to get ready to begin Lent. Whatever we try to say, our Lord can understand the Spirit trying to speak through our simple words. And all it takes is the time to find and put on our slippers. And each night, in the days ahead, we can practice giving thanks to God before I go to bed. This simple pattern, in the morning and evening can stir our spirits to look forward to and prepare for Lent, as a season of grace.

May our Lord bless us all on this journey ahead.

from "americancatholic.org"

Q: We are considering a trip to Europe, traveling from Rome, north and west to France and into Switzerland. Are there any monasteries or convents that put up travelers, and how can we obtain that information?

A: You can write the Office for United States Visitors to the Vatican (North American College, Casa Santa Maria, Via dell' Umilta 30, 00187 Rome, Italy) for a list of some pensiones and small hotels run by religious communities and others in the city of Rome and near the Vatican.

U.S. and Worldwide Guide to Retreat Center Guest Houses is available from CTS Publications (P.O. Box 8355, Newport Beach, CA 92660). It covers Europe from Great Britain and Ireland to France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Netherlands, Malta and Sweden.

Alaska and N.Y. courts dismiss abuse lawsuits; claims settled in Iowa

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Judges in New York and Alaska have dismissed clergy sex abuse lawsuits because they were filed too late and two Iowa dioceses have reached financial settlements with abuse victims. The Vatican permanently barred an abusive priest in Seattle from ministry and a California jury found a retired Los Angeles priest guilty of child molestation. In Kentucky a prominent Catholic media executive and a judge were named to oversee distribution of $85 million set aside for victims of sexual abuse in the Covington Diocese. The New York and Alaska court decisions were setbacks for victims and victim advocacy groups. But they could serve as further spurs to ongoing efforts by victim groups and plaintiffs' attorneys in several states to seek suspension of the statute of limitations, allowing victims of clerical abuse that occurred decades ago to sue church authorities.

San Antonio program 'mothers the mothers' to give babies a good start

SAN ANTONIO (CNS) -- Once Suzanne de Leon found out what a doula was, she was "totally hooked." It was the same for April Todd. Doula, a Greek word meaning "to mother the mother" or "to be a servant," is something more San Antonians are becoming familiar with, thanks to de Leon and Todd and their work with San Antonio Birth Doulas, now part of Catholic Charities. A doula is a woman trained to offer emotional and physical support and comfort to a woman having a baby, to facilitate early bonding between mother and infant and teach good parenting skills. A doula is not a midwife, nor does she take over the role of the father or family members in the delivery room. De Leon, founder and executive director of San Antonio Birth Doulas, started the local program in 1999 to "address the high incidences of abuse and neglect that our young babies were receiving at the hands of their teenage parents." People sometimes question helping pregnant teenagers, feeling it advocates teen pregnancy, de Leon said. "We don't advocate that, but once it happens, this is our future," she said. "These babies are going to be the future of San Antonio. Let's give them a good start."

Homeless get soup, sandwiches and 'gold' through Providence program

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (CNS) -- Every other Friday night, between 5:45-8:30 p.m., the homeless find their way onto Kennedy Plaza in Providence for soup, sandwiches and "gold" -- what some have dubbed the socks that volunteers distribute. For some, the socks, donated by a man who buys them wholesale, are a bigger draw than the food. The food distribution efforts are part of the "And You Fed Me" program, one of several initiated by Father James T. Ruggieri, pastor of St. Patrick and St. Casimir parishes, after a homeless man approached him and asked for some food on a Saturday more than five years ago, when the priest was part of a regular vigil outside a Providence abortion clinic. Father Ruggieri realized, after buying the man a sandwich, that the needs of those living on the streets were not being entirely met by area soup kitchens. Initially, a group began distributing soup, later adding sandwiches and, three years ago, the socks. In January, two East Providence communities -- Our Lady of Loreto Parish and St. Margaret School -- collected 874 scarves, hats and gloves for the homeless. "We want to let people know how appreciative these people are" for what they receive, said Anne Pari, 65, of St. Brendan Parish in Riverside, who volunteers at Kennedy Plaza.

WORLD

As killings increase, church official says all of Iraq is in danger

ROME (CNS) -- As killings increased in retribution for the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Iraq, the Rome-based representative of Baghdad's Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate said all of Iraq is in danger. "It's not just about Sunni and Shiite, because they started three weeks ago on Christians," said Father Philip Najim referring to the near-simultaneous attacks in late January in Baghdad and Kirkuk, a northern Iraqi city, launched just as some Sunday services had ended. Father Najim said he believed the people behind the mid-February attacks "came from outside Iraq and they (coalition forces) are doing nothing about it." He said that as an Iraqi, he could assure people "100 percent that no Iraqi man would ever do this. Not a Sunni, not a Shiite." The people behind the mid-February attacks "want to create division and chaos. They want to stop the process of a new political situation" of democracy and peace, Father Najim said, adding that he did not understand what U.S. and British forces were doing to help keep order. "Before we can talk about a constitution and democracy, we have to bring stability and unity," he said. "Instead, there is Iraq being divided and creating different camps. Each group is like a country in itself" with its own leader, people and army.

China warns church not to interfere after pope names Chinese cardinal

HONG KONG (CNS) -- Chinese church officials welcomed Pope Benedict XVI's appointment of Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun as cardinal Feb. 22, but the Chinese government warned that church leaders should not interfere in the country's politics. "We have taken note that Joseph Zen was appointed as a cardinal by the Vatican," Liu Jianchao, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told journalists. "We advocate that religious figures should not interfere with politics." Liu also said he hoped the appointment would not disrupt social stability in Hong Kong. Liu added that Beijing's position on refraining from establishing diplomatic ties with the Vatican had not changed because of the appointment of Cardinal-designate Zen, who is know for his outspoken appeals for maintaining democratic freedoms in Hong Kong and human rights on the mainland. In mainland China, which is estimated to have 12 million Catholics, Bishop Luke Li Jingfeng of Fengxiang said China needed another cardinal, considering the country's large Catholic population. "If the pope did not appoint a cardinal for such a large population," he told UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand, "I would feel that the Chinese Catholic communities do not have any status in the (universal) church."

Bosnian bishops say Catholics in some regions near extinction

ROME (CNS) -- Catholics in the Balkan nation of Bosnia-Herzegovina have become "second-class" citizens and, in some regions, are on the verge of extinction, said a group of Bosnian bishops visiting Rome. While the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords brought an end to ethnic violence and bloodshed between Serbs, Muslims and Croats, the bishops said the accords were flawed and unfairly enforced, resulting in a lack of true peace, justice and adequate human rights protections in the country. On the eve of the start of their weeklong "ad limina" visit to the Vatican, Bosnian Cardinal Vinko Puljic of Sarajevo, Bishop Franjo Komarica of Banja Luka, and Auxiliary Bishop Pero Sudar of Sarajevo spoke to journalists at a Feb. 22 press conference hosted by Italy's Catholic Action movement. The bishops appealed to the international community to help transform Bosnia-Herzegovina from its current two-government existence to a unified, decentralized democracy that would no longer be split along ethnic lines. The bishops said they would be informing Pope Benedict XVI about their appeal and the situation of the country's Catholics.

Polish bishops urge Catholic media not to be political instruments

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish bishops urged their country's largest Catholic radio and TV stations to respect church teaching and told them not to be used as political tools. "Politicians have a natural right to use the mass media -- but this doesn't mean media run by church institutions can let themselves be used instrumentally by some political option," the bishops' conference said in a letter to the provincial of the Redemptorist order, which owns the stations. "We feel a duty to remind you the mission Christ bequeathed the church wasn't a political, economic or social one. The purpose he assigned it was religious." In the letter, published Feb. 15 by a Catholic online agency, www.wiara.pl, the bishops said they had been concerned about Radio Maryja and TV Trwam's live coverage of a Feb. 2 meeting in which Poland's governing Law and Justice Party signed a "stability pact" with two right-wing groups. Covering the political acts "meant the church was regarded as one-sidedly supporting a single political party," the bishops said in the letter that was also printed in the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.

PEOPLE

Hong Kong bishop says pope named him to show love for China

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Hong Kong Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun said his nomination to the College of Cardinals is a sign of Pope Benedict XVI's love for China and his approval of the bishop's approach to the Chinese government and to the Catholic Church on the mainland. Pope Benedict announced Feb. 22 that he would make the 74-year-old bishop a cardinal during a March 24 consistory at the Vatican. "This appointment is a sign of the pope's good will and love for the whole of China," Cardinal-designate Zen told the Rome-based AsiaNews immediately after the papal announcement. Bishop Zen is known for his outspoken defense of maintaining democratic liberties, particularly the rights of the church, in Hong Kong and for expanding human rights on the mainland. The bishop also has been persistent in encouraging Catholics inside and outside of the country to recognize the faith of those mainland Catholics who practice their faith clandestinely and those who participate in the life and services of the government-approved Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.

Belgian nun discusses plight of child domestic workers in India

NEW YORK (CNS) -- They are called domestic workers, but many of them are better described as slaves. They are children who work in private households, they do arduous labor from before dawn until after dark, and they are vulnerable to abuse -- physical, emotional, sexual. Sister Jeanne Devos, a Belgian member of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who has served in India for more than 40 years, has devoted herself to helping them and also women who are domestic workers. In 1985 she founded the National Domestic Workers Movement, based in Mumbai, to call attention to the appalling circumstances in which they are trapped and to work for change. A key part of her mission is to fight trafficking, the abduction or "buying" of children for domestic work. Sister Jeanne said trafficking agents often make false promises to poor families that a child sent into domestic work will receive care and education. Parents learn nothing of the actual conditions the children endure, and in reality, most child domestic workers are not sent to school.

Catholic college graduate to compete on 'The Apprentice'

ARLINGTON, Va. (CNS) -- Tarek Saab does not even own a television, but the Catholic college graduate is about to appear on television screens across the nation in the fifth season of NBC's "The Apprentice," where he will compete with 17 other men and women for a chance to work for Donald Trump. The fifth season premieres Monday, Feb. 27, on NBC at 9 p.m. EST. Saab, a 27-year-old Maronite Catholic and the son of a Lebanese father and an American mother, lived in war-torn Lebanon as a child before he and his family came to the U.S. and moved into public housing projects in New Bedford, Mass. He earned a scholarship to a boarding school in Massachusetts and then studied engineering at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H., where he obtained a bachelor of arts degree in 2000. A year later, he earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from The Catholic University of America in Washington. Saab now lives in Dallas and works as a global marketing manager for Texas Instruments, where he started in sales. In an interview for "The Apprentice," Saab said he has lived the American dream because he achieved a successful business career "with little guidance and without a dime" in his pocket.

www.creighton.edu.org

February 24th, 2006
by
Eileen Wirth
Journalism Department

James 5:9-12
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8-9, 11-12
Mark 10:1-12


Preparing for Lent
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer

"The Lord is kind and merciful."

This line from today's Psalm is one of my favorites in Scripture, especially when juxtaposed with the first sentence of today's first reading. "Do not complain, brothers and sisters, about one another, that you may not be judged. Behold the Judge is standing before the gates."

Mentally I go back about 10 years to when my children were teen-agers and I survived by complaining about them to two dear friends who shared the same frustrations and pressures.

One friend and I met every Tuesday for "sanity breakfast" while the other and I met for a weekend workout at the gym. The breakfasts followed a format. Whichever of us had had the worse week got to recite her litany of complaints first while the other gave sisterly affirmation. Then we swapped roles before walking out to "pick up our crosses." The walks in the gym followed much the same pattern. My gym friend and I still meet at least weekly and we vent frustrations about our respective students in addition to airing occasional complaints about our now-grown children and spouses. We scheduled these activities into our jam-packed schedules as religiously as any business meeting. They were our lifelines.

Was the Lord listening in as we complained about our kids over coffee or griped about our spouses as we walked laps around the gym? No doubt. But I believe that "the Lord is kind and merciful" and will forgive - if forgiveness is even necessary.

I can still recall the relief with which I would drive away from "sanity breakfast" and the gym. They allowed me to go on loving - the real message of today's first reading. Besides, if the" kind and merciful Lord" has any questions, I'll urge him to talk with His mother. I'm sure SHE gets it!


[email protected]

February 26th, 2006
by
Larry Gillick, S.J.
Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
2 Corinthians 3:1b-6
Mark 2:18-22


Preparing for Lent
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer


PRE-PRAYERING

This is the last Sunday of Ordinary time until June 25th. Next Sunday will be the First Sunday of Lent. We are invited to pray for the grace of receiving Christ's ways as always new and always re-forming our minds and hearts.

We can pray for a desire for the Lent experience which begins on Ash Wednesday. We pray with our holy desires for purity of heart, sincerity of mind, and generosity of action.

REFLECTION

To more fully understand and enjoy these verses from the prophet Hosea, it would be helpful to read the first chapter and the verses preceding our First Reading of the liturgy for this week. Israel has been an unfaithful wife and has conceived three children whose names reflect God's growing attitude of disfavor and divorce. All "her" vines, lands, abundance will be ravaged and all "her" false riches will be destroyed.

When all these things happen she will say, "I will go back to my first husband, I was happier then than I am now." What we hear in today's reading is the Lord's response to "her" conversion away from the false and toward the true and holy. God, Who has been so violent and threatening as a jilted husband. Now this injured husband makes protestations of love, fidelity and mercy. God's love surpasses God's words of anger and rejection.

Israel, for "her" part must be attracted out into the desert so that freed from, stripped from, all "her" distractions, God would be able to speak directly to "her" heart. Empty is not nothing. Being stripped is the beginning of being re-dressed. These coming days of the Lenten call, are days of reflecting on those things which dress us up as anything or anybody else than who God has formed us to be.

The Gospel seems to have two distinct sections, but actually it is one whole cloth. Jesus is asked why His disciples do not fast, but those of John the Baptist and the Pharisees do. I would like to know why Jesus did not ask in return whether or not the disciples of John and the Pharisees knew why they are fasting rather than why Jesus' disciples are not.

Instead of my response, Jesus made a more direct reply. He poses Himself to be the "bridegroom," who, while with His friends, is the cause of great celebration. When the day comes for the "Bridegroom" to be taken away, then there is cause for sadness and fasting. This practice of fasting would be a protest of longing and waiting. Jesus is saying that the One longed-for right in their midst and His disciples were learning this slowly. This is very new, different and to take it all in there has to be a different kind of heart and receptivity. His teachings, His ways, His very presence demands hearing, seeing, and believing.

Jesus follows the "bridegroom"/fasting saying with two practical examples explaining what He was telling them, not about fasting, but about discipleship. He is the "new cloth" and the "new wine" and those who can take Him on and take Him in will be His disciples. If the disciples of John and the Pharisees cannot adapt to Him as Messiah and His teachings as the new revelation from God, then they are old cloth and old wineskins who cannot receive what is being offered.

There is no doubt but that the disciples of John and the Pharisees were devout and religious people. There is also no doubt but that Jesus was a religious radical and difficult for the religious people of His time to welcome and understand Him and His ways. The Sabbath is a holy day and there are laws and customs about doing things on that day. What does Jesus do, but work miracles besides. Immediately before these verses, the Pharisees notice the He is eating with tax collectors and sinners. Immediately after these same verses, the disciples of Jesus will be walking with Jesus through a corn field and actually picking and eating some of the corn, on the Sabbath. Of course the Pharisees see this too and have a very difficult time believing and accepting Jesus as anything, but a rebellious unreligious fellow from the hills.

Ash Wednesday is this week and Lent's beginning. I would suggest a new kind of fasting. I have an old Green Bay Packer sweat shirt; definitely a true religious article. I am going to drag it out of its reliquary and hang it on my cabinet door. It represents what is old, customary in my safe relationship with Jesus and life itself. I also received for Christmas a new Packer shirt. I think I will hang that up as well to remind me of the new self whom Jesus is calling into life. I would not put patches from the new shirt on the old. Instead of wearing a hair shirt or sackcloth, I will wear the old traditional, comfortable and secure old shirt as a reminder of the old-self, to whom Jesus comes, compassionately, to change. I am not sure I will wear my new Packer shirt at the liturgy for Easter Vigil and Sunday mass. I suspect there will still be much of the old Packer within me, but perhaps, by God's grace, the new Packer shirt will feel a bit more comfortable.

I will be giving a parish mission here in Omaha next month on the topic of the relationship between the Gospel and "Social Justice". At the beginning of each-night's conference I am going to have everybody stand on one foot while I talk and they can sit down when they get too uncomfortable. That's the first night. Kneeling on one knee will begin the second night. I am not sure what discomfort I will use the third night. What Jesus has come to change in me, about me, within me comes directly from the ways and teachings of Jesus. As He made the Pharisees and disciples of John uncomfortable, when Jesus really meets me, He seems always to be encouraging me to stand on one foot, the foot of Justice and care for the poor. I would rather stay seated in my Lazyboy chair, with my old Packer shirt on and let go of His call to be up and at 'em. The new fasting is from the sweet addiction to avoidance and disinterest.

"I will sing to the Lord for His goodness to me, I will sing to the Name of the Lord Most High." Ps. 13, 6

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South Dakota Legislature bans nearly all abortions

PIERRE, S.D. (CNS) -- By adopting legislation that would prohibit all intentional abortions except those to save a mother's life, the South Dakota Legislature moved toward a direct challenge of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. If signed into law it would become the most sweeping ban on abortion adopted in any state since 1973. The South Dakota House of Representative passed the bill Feb. 24 by a vote of 50-18. The Senate had approved it Feb. 22, by a vote of 23-12, after slightly amending an earlier version adopted by the House. The House vote Feb. 24 incorporated the Senate's amendment. The amendment, an addition to the introductory legislative findings of the bill, said the Legislature finds that "the guarantee of due process of law under the constitution of South Dakota applies equally to born and unborn human beings" and that the mother and her unborn child "each possess a natural and inalienable right to life." The bill, called the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, specifically exempts women from any criminal conviction or penalty for obtaining an abortion. But it says that anyone who performs an abortion except to save a mother's life commits a Class 5 felony, which is punishable by a fine up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.

Albertines prepare for Lent in culinary fashion -- making paczki

HAMMOND, Ind. (CNS) -- Things are heating up in the kitchen at the Albertine Home in Hammond where the sisters are preparing for Lent in Polish culinary fashion. In a word, that's paczki. A pastry associated with pre-Lenten activities, paczki are very popular with the Albertines, and Sister Patrycja Bryniarska is the unofficial "pro" at making them. She came to this country several years ago from Poland. Having learned cooking from other sisters, Sister Patrycja is now in charge when it comes to paczki. Working with Sister Donata Stachowiak as her interpreter, Sister Patrycja told the Northwest Indiana Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Gary, that paczki are not just for "fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday. That, the sisters said, is more of an American tradition. In their native Poland, paczki are prepared on the previous Thursday. So, in keeping with the traditions of two paczki-loving countries, Sister Patrycja may make up to 100 on each of two days. "No one knows how this tradition got started," said Sister Donata, noting that paczki may go back to the 17th century.

Catholic newspaper lets students produce its children's page

PARMA, Ohio (CNS) -- Following the retirement of the longtime writer of a children's column in Horizons, newspaper of the Byzantine Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma, its editor, Loretta Nemeth, contacted the eparchy's two elementary schools to see if the students wanted to take over providing the content for the page. Her proposal was greeted with enthusiasm by both schools. "From discussions with the pastor and staff, the feeling was that one of the positives about this endeavor will be that we would assist the students in making their faith life more reality-based," said Rita Basalla, principal of St. Mary Elementary School in Cleveland. "The hope is that the students will see how what is taught really does affect our daily lives." Basalla added, "The students will become active participants rather than simply receptors of information." St. Mary seventh- and eighth-graders will be the primary writers, but some things will be included from the lower grades, too. The school has 207 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. St. Nicholas Academy in Lorain will prepare the children's page a few times each year.

WORLD

Manila prelate urges prayer after president declares emergency

MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Gaudencio Rosales of Manila called for prayers and calm after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placed the country under a state of emergency after an attempted coup. "We are in a delicate situation now. First of all, let us pray for calm emotions, calm movements, humility," Cardinal-designate Rosales said Feb. 24 after a Mass honoring the outgoing nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Antonio Franco. His remarks were reported by UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Arroyo said she declared the emergency because of "clear and present danger to our republic that we have discovered and thwarted." Cardinal-designate Rosales urged the opponents to "talk humbly, face to face," and said nonviolence was the "essence of EDSA." EDSA, or Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue, is where prayer vigils were held over four days in February 1986 for a nonviolent resolution of an attempted coup against then-president Ferdinand Marcos, who fled the country Feb. 25, 1986. The bishops had declared that Marcos had no moral basis to rule after winning a fraudulent presidential election that month.

Protesters plunder, burn Libyan church, convent; religious evacuate

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic church and convent in Benghazi, Libya, were plundered and burned just days after anti-Italian protests in Libya turned violent. The Feb. 20 attacks against the two religious properties forced the apostolic vicar of Benghazi, the rest of his Franciscan community, and the religious men and women who lived and worked in the diocese to be evacuated to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Bishop Sylvester Magro of Benghazi told Vatican Radio Feb. 23 that "everything has gone up in smoke." Everything inside the church and friary was destroyed; "everything that could be set on fire was set on fire," he said. The blaze came just a few days after protests Feb. 17 targeting the Italian Consulate in Benghazi left at least 10 people dead. Demonstrators were condemning a recent incident in which an Italian government minister had unbuttoned his shirt on Italian television to display a T-shirt bearing an image of one of the Danish cartoons that have sparked condemnations and demonstrations in many Muslim communities.

Participants at Rome seminar warn gay marriage poses risk to children

ROME (CNS) -- Gay marriage and gay adoption would undermine society's traditional configuration and pose risks to the children raised by same-sex couples, warned participants at a Rome seminar. Participants at the Feb. 20-24 seminar, offered for course credit by the Pontifical Lateran University, studied the topic: "The Homosexual Question: Psychology, Rights and the Truth of Love." In a public conference Feb. 23, professors teaching the seminar spoke at length about the threats posed by the gay rights movement and said current legislative proposals around the world could have far-reaching effects on how society is structured. French Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a psychoanalyst and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family, said gay couples were unable to give children the model of sexual difference that any child needs to develop his or her own sexual identity. He referred to one recent study, which he said showed that 40 percent of children raised by homosexuals became homosexuals themselves. Msgr. Anatrella said there were other psychological "collateral effects" of being raised by a same-sex couple that show up only in adulthood, including anxiety over sexual differentiation. When it comes time for these young people to form their own families, they suffer because they have not learned to accept the sexual difference between two adults, he said.

Even before implantation, embryos are human, says Vatican official

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While some scientists, legislators and even some parents see the human embryo as material that can be studied, frozen or destroyed, for the Catholic Church an embryo is human and has "a special relationship with God," said Bishop Elio Sgreccia. The bishop, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that before allowing scientists to study the possibilities for manipulating human embryos, wider society should be asking itself when does life begin and when does life begin to have value. Bishop Sgreccia and other experts from the academy met the press Feb. 24 to introduce a Feb. 27-28 conference titled, "The Human Embryo Before Implantation: Scientific Update and Bioethical Considerations." Only when the basic questions are answered, Bishop Sgreccia said, can one really discuss the ethical implications of creating embryos in a laboratory, performing experiments on them, selecting certain embryos for implantation and freezing or destroying the others.

WCC assembly invites churches to renew commitment to unity, dialogue

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (CNS) -- Delegates at the Ninth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches adopted a document inviting churches to renew their commitment to Christian unity and dialogue. Prepared by the council's Faith and Order Commission, the document, "Called To Be One Church," recapitulates previous work and statements on unity as a divine gift and calling, based on the common faith expressed in the Nicene Creed and on common baptism. It concludes by addressing 10 questions to be considered by the churches between now and the next assembly. Days earlier at the Feb. 14-23 assembly, the document was the centerpiece of reflection in a plenary session titled "Church Unity: Claiming a Common Future." A prominent Argentine theologian, Dominican Father Jorge Scampini, who serves as a resource person to the Faith and Order Commission, urged the World Council of Churches to continue to strengthen its role as a "privileged instrument" of the ecumenical movement in the quest for increasingly visible unity.

British religious leaders agree to teach many faiths in schools

LONDON (CNS) -- In an attempt to spread tolerance among people of different religions, English and Welsh bishops have publicly committed themselves to ensuring that children in Catholic schools are taught about non-Christian faiths. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, signed an agreement with other faith leaders as part of an initiative by the British government's Department for Education and Skills to address the failure of some faith schools to teach about religions other than their own. In a Feb. 22 statement, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist schools committed to supporting the National Framework for Religious Education, introduced in 2004 but not legally binding. In the statement, the leaders said that teaching about a range of faiths enabled children to "develop respect for and sensitivity to others, in particular those whose faith and beliefs are different from their own."

Ruling party blocks Ugandan Catholic radios from election reporting

KAMPALA, Uganda (CNS) -- A high-ranking government official who ran for re-election in northern Uganda ordered a Catholic-owned radio station to stop broadcasting election coverage during national elections Feb. 23. Two days earlier, armed police stormed a Catholic radio station and shut down a political talk show. On Feb. 23, Health Minister Mike Mukula ordered Kyoga Veritas FM to stop broadcasting election updates from around Soroti, said the station manager, Wilson Kaija. Kaija told Catholic News Service that the minister, who is part of the governing National Resistance Movement, told the station that reporters were breaking the law by broadcasting news the day of the elections. Ugandan law only calls for an end to campaigning two days prior to the election, not a blackout of news coverage. Kaija told CNS that the station stopped broadcasting for two hours, then began taking updates from its reporters.

PEOPLE

U.S. bishop condemns attacks on mosque in Iraq

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy condemned the bombing of a major Shiite mosque in Iraq and urged an end to retaliatory attacks that have caused at least 200 deaths. "Attacks on holy sites can only add to the insecurity, division and misery of the people of Iraq and risk further violence and destabilization," said Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla. "We are also alarmed and deeply disturbed by retaliatory attacks on other mosques and the loss of life that followed the attack on the Golden Mosque," said Bishop Wenski in a Feb. 24 statement released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. Noting that the U.S. bishops have criticized attacks on Christian sites and communities in Iraq, the bishop said that "we now strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack" on an important Muslim site. The Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, which is north of Baghdad, was bombed Feb. 22. Retaliatory attacks against many Sunni mosques and other violence have left at least 200 people dead in Baghdad alone, reported the British news agency Reuters. The violence caused the Iraqi government to impose a daytime driving curfew Feb. 24 in Baghdad and in three provinces where major violence erupted.

Pope calls Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to unity

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to strengthening a spirit of unity, mercy, understanding and forgiveness in their country. The pope told the four bishops from Bosnia-Herzegovina who were on their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican that he understood their work was difficult in a nation still recovering from its brutal ethnic-based war. "Certainly the difficulties are numerous, but the faith in divine providence on your part and on the part of your priests and faithful is great," he said in his Feb. 24 address. The pope said, "After these sad years of the recent war, you today, as workers for peace, are called to strengthen communion and spread mercy, understanding and forgiveness in the name of Christ," both among all Christians and the whole of Bosnian society. A Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims was triggered after the mostly Muslim Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. A NATO-led military campaign and subsequent peace deal ended the violence among Serbs, Muslims and Croats in 1995, but more than 200,000 Muslims had been killed.

Art commentator Sister Wendy Beckett honored by St. John's University

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (CNS) -- Internationally renowned art commentator and television host Sister Wendy Beckett received St. John's University's 13th annual Colman J. Barry Award for distinguished contributions to religion and society during a private reception recently at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. The presentation coincided with the opening of an international exhibition tour of The Saint John's Bible, which was to be on display at the London museum until May 1. Sister Wendy, who was born in South Africa, has appeared on BBC television documentaries about art since 1991 and is the author of more than 15 books, including "Sister's Wendy's 1,000 Masterpieces" and "Sister Wendy's Story of Painting." She joined the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1946 but has lived in the cloistered Carmelite convent in Quidenham, England, since 1970. She leaves the convent only when necessary to make her television shows.

"a moment in prayer"
by the jesuits
creighton university

The Presence of God

I pause for a moment
and think of the love and the grace that God showers on me,
creating me in his image and likeness, making me his temple.

February 26th, 2006
by
Larry Gillick, S.J.
Deglman Center for Ignatian Spirituality
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.

Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hosea 2:16b, 17b, 21-22
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
2 Corinthians 3:1b-6
Mark 2:18-22


Preparing for Lent
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer


PRE-PRAYERING

This is the last Sunday of Ordinary time until June 25th. Next Sunday will be the First Sunday of Lent. We are invited to pray for the grace of receiving Christ's ways as always new and always re-forming our minds and hearts.

We can pray for a desire for the Lent experience which begins on Ash Wednesday. We pray with our holy desires for purity of heart, sincerity of mind, and generosity of action.

REFLECTION

To more fully understand and enjoy these verses from the prophet Hosea, it would be helpful to read the first chapter and the verses preceding our First Reading of the liturgy for this week. Israel has been an unfaithful wife and has conceived three children whose names reflect God's growing attitude of disfavor and divorce. All "her" vines, lands, abundance will be ravaged and all "her" false riches will be destroyed.

When all these things happen she will say, "I will go back to my first husband, I was happier then than I am now." What we hear in today's reading is the Lord's response to "her" conversion away from the false and toward the true and holy. God, Who has been so violent and threatening as a jilted husband. Now this injured husband makes protestations of love, fidelity and mercy. God's love surpasses God's words of anger and rejection.

Israel, for "her" part must be attracted out into the desert so that freed from, stripped from, all "her" distractions, God would be able to speak directly to "her" heart. Empty is not nothing. Being stripped is the beginning of being re-dressed. These coming days of the Lenten call, are days of reflecting on those things which dress us up as anything or anybody else than who God has formed us to be.

The Gospel seems to have two distinct sections, but actually it is one whole cloth. Jesus is asked why His disciples do not fast, but those of John the Baptist and the Pharisees do. I would like to know why Jesus did not ask in return whether or not the disciples of John and the Pharisees knew why they are fasting rather than why Jesus' disciples are not.

Instead of my response, Jesus made a more direct reply. He poses Himself to be the "bridegroom," who, while with His friends, is the cause of great celebration. When the day comes for the "Bridegroom" to be taken away, then there is cause for sadness and fasting. This practice of fasting would be a protest of longing and waiting. Jesus is saying that the One longed-for right in their midst and His disciples were learning this slowly. This is very new, different and to take it all in there has to be a different kind of heart and receptivity. His teachings, His ways, His very presence demands hearing, seeing, and believing.

Jesus follows the "bridegroom"/fasting saying with two practical examples explaining what He was telling them, not about fasting, but about discipleship. He is the "new cloth" and the "new wine" and those who can take Him on and take Him in will be His disciples. If the disciples of John and the Pharisees cannot adapt to Him as Messiah and His teachings as the new revelation from God, then they are old cloth and old wineskins who cannot receive what is being offered.

There is no doubt but that the disciples of John and the Pharisees were devout and religious people. There is also no doubt but that Jesus was a religious radical and difficult for the religious people of His time to welcome and understand Him and His ways. The Sabbath is a holy day and there are laws and customs about doing things on that day. What does Jesus do, but work miracles besides. Immediately before these verses, the Pharisees notice the He is eating with tax collectors and sinners. Immediately after these same verses, the disciples of Jesus will be walking with Jesus through a corn field and actually picking and eating some of the corn, on the Sabbath. Of course the Pharisees see this too and have a very difficult time believing and accepting Jesus as anything, but a rebellious unreligious fellow from the hills.

Ash Wednesday is this week and Lent's beginning. I would suggest a new kind of fasting. I have an old Green Bay Packer sweat shirt; definitely a true religious article. I am going to drag it out of its reliquary and hang it on my cabinet door. It represents what is old, customary in my safe relationship with Jesus and life itself. I also received for Christmas a new Packer shirt. I think I will hang that up as well to remind me of the new self whom Jesus is calling into life. I would not put patches from the new shirt on the old. Instead of wearing a hair shirt or sackcloth, I will wear the old traditional, comfortable and secure old shirt as a reminder of the old-self, to whom Jesus comes, compassionately, to change. I am not sure I will wear my new Packer shirt at the liturgy for Easter Vigil and Sunday mass. I suspect there will still be much of the old Packer within me, but perhaps, by God's grace, the new Packer shirt will feel a bit more comfortable.

I will be giving a parish mission here in Omaha next month on the topic of the relationship between the Gospel and "Social Justice". At the beginning of each-night's conference I am going to have everybody stand on one foot while I talk and they can sit down when they get too uncomfortable. That's the first night. Kneeling on one knee will begin the second night. I am not sure what discomfort I will use the third night. What Jesus has come to change in me, about me, within me comes directly from the ways and teachings of Jesus. As He made the Pharisees and disciples of John uncomfortable, when Jesus really meets me, He seems always to be encouraging me to stand on one foot, the foot of Justice and care for the poor. I would rather stay seated in my Lazyboy chair, with my old Packer shirt on and let go of His call to be up and at 'em. The new fasting is from the sweet addiction to avoidance and disinterest.

"I will sing to the Lord for His goodness to me, I will sing to the Name of the Lord Most High." Ps. 13, 6
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February 25, 2006
Blessed Sebastian of Aparicio
(1502-1600)



Sebastian's roads and bridges connected many distant places. His final bridge-building was to help men and women recognize their God-given dignity and destiny.

Sebastian's parents were Spanish peasants. At the age of 31 he sailed to Mexico, where he began working in the fields. Eventually he built roads to facilitate agricultural trading and other commerce. His 466-mile road from Mexico City to Zacatecas took 10 years to build and required careful negotiations with the indigenous peoples along the way.

In time Sebastian was a wealthy farmer and rancher. At the age of 60 he entered a virginal marriage. His wife's motivation may have been a large inheritance; his was to provide a respectable life for a girl without even a modest marriage dowry. When his first wife died, he entered another virginal marriage for the same reason; his second wife also died young.

At the age of 72 Sebastian distributed his goods among the poor and entered the Franciscans as a brother. Assigned to the large (100-member) friary at Puebla de los Angeles south of Mexico City, Sebastian went out collecting alms for the friars for the next 25 years. His charity to all earned him the nickname "Angel of Mexico."

Sebastian was beatified in 1787 and is known as a patron of travelers.

Comment:

According to the Rule of St. Francis, the friars were to work for their daily bread. Sometimes, however, their work would not provide for their needs; for example, working with people suffering from leprosy brought little or no pay. In cases such as these, the friars were allowed to beg, always keeping in mind the admonition of Francis to let their good example commend them to the people. The life of the prayerful Sebastian, still hard at work in his 90's, certainly drew many closer to God.

Quote:

St. Francis once told his followers: "There is a contract between the world and the friars. The friars must give the world a good example; the world must provide for their needs. When they break faith and withdraw their good example, the world will withdraw its hand in a just censure" (2 Celano, #70).

Preparing for Lent
This page is an introduction to our Praying Lent site. It's an opportunity for us to prepare for Lent. Getting ready for Lent involves some thinking, praying and setting the stage for the changes that we hope to introduce into our lives in the weeks ahead.

Specifically, we offer resources to reflect on prior to Lent as well as simple prayers for Mardi Gras, ideas about beginning our Lenten journey and ways to integrate the symbols of Lent into our family lives.

Feel free to explore the site index and see what resources are currently available and return often to see what resources are added during Lent. Of course if you have any questions or feedback for us, don't hesitate to contact us at [email protected].

February 27th, 2006
by
Robert Heaney
John A. Creighton University Chair
Click here for a photo of and information on this writer.
1 Peter 1:3-9
Psalm 111:1-2, 5-6, 9 and 10c
Mark 10:17-27
Preparing for Lent
Weekly Guide for Daily Prayer



"What must I do to inherit eternal life?" The young man speaks for all of us.

At the end of John's Gospel we read: "Were every one of the things Jesus did written, I suppose the world itself would not contain the books that would be written", and
". . . these are written that . . . you may have life . . ."

It is important to realize that all three of the synoptic Gospels contain this story of the exchange between Jesus and the rich young man. I think we can safely conclude that Matthew, Mark, and Luke all thought it was important for the life of their communities to hear and ponder its message.

Jesus' response to the young man's question is revealing. He starts with a variant listing of the last seven commandments - those governing our relations with one another. He saves the first three commandments till last - those dealing with our relationship to God. Interestingly, He sums them up by saying, in effect: "Get rid of your riches and follow Me. You cannot give God His due if you are consumed with concern for money and possessions."

This exchange is of one piece with the many other sayings of Jesus on wealth - "You cannot serve God and money"; "It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich person to enter the kingdom". Over the centuries we have delegated these counsels to persons in religion, those who take a vow of poverty. For the rest of us, well, they are just not practical. Great ideals, certainly, but not very realistic.

But that is a cop-out. We are to be disciples of Jesus, all of us, not just a special few. I cannot so easily duck what Jesus says.

It is mind boggling, actually, to realize that our entire duty to God can be summed by "Sell what you have; give to the poor; follow Me". What this means will vary from person to person. God may give back our possessions and say "Here, manage this for Me. Use it to take care of my little ones". We would perhaps prefer religion to consist of ritual observances, or rules and regulations. Then we would know whether or not we have discharged our duty. But open-ended self-giving? Too amorphous. Too threatening.

But it could not be otherwise. The God Jesus reveals is precisely self-giving, personified. Made in God's image, as we are, that is what Jesus shows us it means to be fully human. Imitating God is the way we discharge our duty to Him. Nothing else can substitute. Anything else is idolatry.*

*See March 2nd reflection.


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South Dakota Legislature bans nearly all abortions


PIERRE, S.D. (CNS) -- By adopting legislation that would prohibit all intentional abortions except those to save a mother's life, the South Dakota Legislature moved toward a direct challenge of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. If signed into law it would become the most sweeping ban on abortion adopted in any state since 1973. The South Dakota House of Representative passed the bill Feb. 24 by a vote of 50-18. The Senate had approved it Feb. 22, by a vote of 23-12, after slightly amending an earlier version adopted by the House. The House vote Feb. 24 incorporated the Senate's amendment. The amendment, an addition to the introductory legislative findings of the bill, said the Legislature finds that "the guarantee of due process of law under the constitution of South Dakota applies equally to born and unborn human beings" and that the mother and her unborn child "each possess a natural and inalienable right to life." The bill, called the Women's Health and Human Life Protection Act, specifically exempts women from any criminal conviction or penalty for obtaining an abortion. But it says that anyone who performs an abortion except to save a mother's life commits a Class 5 felony, which is punishable by a fine up to $5,000 and up to five years in prison.




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Albertines prepare for Lent in culinary fashion -- making paczki


HAMMOND, Ind. (CNS) -- Things are heating up in the kitchen at the Albertine Home in Hammond where the sisters are preparing for Lent in Polish culinary fashion. In a word, that's paczki. A pastry associated with pre-Lenten activities, paczki are very popular with the Albertines, and Sister Patrycja Bryniarska is the unofficial "pro" at making them. She came to this country several years ago from Poland. Having learned cooking from other sisters, Sister Patrycja is now in charge when it comes to paczki. Working with Sister Donata Stachowiak as her interpreter, Sister Patrycja told the Northwest Indiana Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Gary, that paczki are not just for "fat Tuesday," the day before Ash Wednesday. That, the sisters said, is more of an American tradition. In their native Poland, paczki are prepared on the previous Thursday. So, in keeping with the traditions of two paczki-loving countries, Sister Patrycja may make up to 100 on each of two days. "No one knows how this tradition got started," said Sister Donata, noting that paczki may go back to the 17th century.




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Catholic newspaper lets students produce its children's page


PARMA, Ohio (CNS) -- Following the retirement of the longtime writer of a children's column in Horizons, newspaper of the Byzantine Ruthenian Eparchy of Parma, its editor, Loretta Nemeth, contacted the eparchy's two elementary schools to see if the students wanted to take over providing the content for the page. Her proposal was greeted with enthusiasm by both schools. "From discussions with the pastor and staff, the feeling was that one of the positives about this endeavor will be that we would assist the students in making their faith life more reality-based," said Rita Basalla, principal of St. Mary Elementary School in Cleveland. "The hope is that the students will see how what is taught really does affect our daily lives." Basalla added, "The students will become active participants rather than simply receptors of information." St. Mary seventh- and eighth-graders will be the primary writers, but some things will be included from the lower grades, too. The school has 207 students from kindergarten through eighth grade. St. Nicholas Academy in Lorain will prepare the children's page a few times each year.




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WORLD



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Manila prelate urges prayer after president declares emergency


MANILA, Philippines (CNS) -- Cardinal-designate Gaudencio Rosales of Manila called for prayers and calm after Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo placed the country under a state of emergency after an attempted coup. "We are in a delicate situation now. First of all, let us pray for calm emotions, calm movements, humility," Cardinal-designate Rosales said Feb. 24 after a Mass honoring the outgoing nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Antonio Franco. His remarks were reported by UCA News, an Asian church news agency based in Thailand. Arroyo said she declared the emergency because of "clear and present danger to our republic that we have discovered and thwarted." Cardinal-designate Rosales urged the opponents to "talk humbly, face to face," and said nonviolence was the "essence of EDSA." EDSA, or Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue, is where prayer vigils were held over four days in February 1986 for a nonviolent resolution of an attempted coup against then-president Ferdinand Marcos, who fled the country Feb. 25, 1986. The bishops had declared that Marcos had no moral basis to rule after winning a fraudulent presidential election that month.




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Protesters plunder, burn Libyan church, convent; religious evacuate


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A Catholic church and convent in Benghazi, Libya, were plundered and burned just days after anti-Italian protests in Libya turned violent. The Feb. 20 attacks against the two religious properties forced the apostolic vicar of Benghazi, the rest of his Franciscan community, and the religious men and women who lived and worked in the diocese to be evacuated to the Libyan capital, Tripoli. Bishop Sylvester Magro of Benghazi told Vatican Radio Feb. 23 that "everything has gone up in smoke." Everything inside the church and friary was destroyed; "everything that could be set on fire was set on fire," he said. The blaze came just a few days after protests Feb. 17 targeting the Italian Consulate in Benghazi left at least 10 people dead. Demonstrators were condemning a recent incident in which an Italian government minister had unbuttoned his shirt on Italian television to display a T-shirt bearing an image of one of the Danish cartoons that have sparked condemnations and demonstrations in many Muslim communities.




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Participants at Rome seminar warn gay marriage poses risk to children


ROME (CNS) -- Gay marriage and gay adoption would undermine society's traditional configuration and pose risks to the children raised by same-sex couples, warned participants at a Rome seminar. Participants at the Feb. 20-24 seminar, offered for course credit by the Pontifical Lateran University, studied the topic: "The Homosexual Question: Psychology, Rights and the Truth of Love." In a public conference Feb. 23, professors teaching the seminar spoke at length about the threats posed by the gay rights movement and said current legislative proposals around the world could have far-reaching effects on how society is structured. French Msgr. Tony Anatrella, a psychoanalyst and consultant to the Pontifical Council for the Family, said gay couples were unable to give children the model of sexual difference that any child needs to develop his or her own sexual identity. He referred to one recent study, which he said showed that 40 percent of children raised by homosexuals became homosexuals themselves. Msgr. Anatrella said there were other psychological "collateral effects" of being raised by a same-sex couple that show up only in adulthood, including anxiety over sexual differentiation. When it comes time for these young people to form their own families, they suffer because they have not learned to accept the sexual difference between two adults, he said.




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Even before implantation, embryos are human, says Vatican official


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- While some scientists, legislators and even some parents see the human embryo as material that can be studied, frozen or destroyed, for the Catholic Church an embryo is human and has "a special relationship with God," said Bishop Elio Sgreccia. The bishop, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said that before allowing scientists to study the possibilities for manipulating human embryos, wider society should be asking itself when does life begin and when does life begin to have value. Bishop Sgreccia and other experts from the academy met the press Feb. 24 to introduce a Feb. 27-28 conference titled, "The Human Embryo Before Implantation: Scientific Update and Bioethical Considerations." Only when the basic questions are answered, Bishop Sgreccia said, can one really discuss the ethical implications of creating embryos in a laboratory, performing experiments on them, selecting certain embryos for implantation and freezing or destroying the others.




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WCC assembly invites churches to renew commitment to unity, dialogue


PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil (CNS) -- Delegates at the Ninth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches adopted a document inviting churches to renew their commitment to Christian unity and dialogue. Prepared by the council's Faith and Order Commission, the document, "Called To Be One Church," recapitulates previous work and statements on unity as a divine gift and calling, based on the common faith expressed in the Nicene Creed and on common baptism. It concludes by addressing 10 questions to be considered by the churches between now and the next assembly. Days earlier at the Feb. 14-23 assembly, the document was the centerpiece of reflection in a plenary session titled "Church Unity: Claiming a Common Future." A prominent Argentine theologian, Dominican Father Jorge Scampini, who serves as a resource person to the Faith and Order Commission, urged the World Council of Churches to continue to strengthen its role as a "privileged instrument" of the ecumenical movement in the quest for increasingly visible unity.




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British religious leaders agree to teach many faiths in schools


LONDON (CNS) -- In an attempt to spread tolerance among people of different religions, English and Welsh bishops have publicly committed themselves to ensuring that children in Catholic schools are taught about non-Christian faiths. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster, England, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, signed an agreement with other faith leaders as part of an initiative by the British government's Department for Education and Skills to address the failure of some faith schools to teach about religions other than their own. In a Feb. 22 statement, Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Evangelical, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist schools committed to supporting the National Framework for Religious Education, introduced in 2004 but not legally binding. In the statement, the leaders said that teaching about a range of faiths enabled children to "develop respect for and sensitivity to others, in particular those whose faith and beliefs are different from their own."




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Ruling party blocks Ugandan Catholic radios from election reporting


KAMPALA, Uganda (CNS) -- A high-ranking government official who ran for re-election in northern Uganda ordered a Catholic-owned radio station to stop broadcasting election coverage during national elections Feb. 23. Two days earlier, armed police stormed a Catholic radio station and shut down a political talk show. On Feb. 23, Health Minister Mike Mukula ordered Kyoga Veritas FM to stop broadcasting election updates from around Soroti, said the station manager, Wilson Kaija. Kaija told Catholic News Service that the minister, who is part of the governing National Resistance Movement, told the station that reporters were breaking the law by broadcasting news the day of the elections. Ugandan law only calls for an end to campaigning two days prior to the election, not a blackout of news coverage. Kaija told CNS that the station stopped broadcasting for two hours, then began taking updates from its reporters.




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PEOPLE



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U.S. bishop condemns attacks on mosque in Iraq


WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The head of the U.S. bishops' Committee on International Policy condemned the bombing of a major Shiite mosque in Iraq and urged an end to retaliatory attacks that have caused at least 200 deaths. "Attacks on holy sites can only add to the insecurity, division and misery of the people of Iraq and risk further violence and destabilization," said Bishop Thomas G. Wenski of Orlando, Fla. "We are also alarmed and deeply disturbed by retaliatory attacks on other mosques and the loss of life that followed the attack on the Golden Mosque," said Bishop Wenski in a Feb. 24 statement released by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Washington. Noting that the U.S. bishops have criticized attacks on Christian sites and communities in Iraq, the bishop said that "we now strongly condemn this heinous terrorist attack" on an important Muslim site. The Shiite Golden Mosque in Samarra, which is north of Baghdad, was bombed Feb. 22. Retaliatory attacks against many Sunni mosques and other violence have left at least 200 people dead in Baghdad alone, reported the British news agency Reuters. The violence caused the Iraqi government to impose a daytime driving curfew Feb. 24 in Baghdad and in three provinces where major violence erupted.




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Pope calls Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to unity


VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI called on Bosnian bishops to be peacemakers dedicated to strengthening a spirit of unity, mercy, understanding and forgiveness in their country. The pope told the four bishops from Bosnia-Herzegovina who were on their "ad limina" visits to the Vatican that he understood their work was difficult in a nation still recovering from its brutal ethnic-based war. "Certainly the difficulties are numerous, but the faith in divine providence on your part and on the part of your priests and faithful is great," he said in his Feb. 24 address. The pope said, "After these sad years of the recent war, you today, as workers for peace, are called to strengthen communion and spread mercy, understanding and forgiveness in the name of Christ," both among all Christians and the whole of Bosnian society. A Serb campaign of ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims was triggered after the mostly Muslim Bosnia-Herzegovina declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1992. A NATO-led military campaign and subsequent peace deal ended the violence among Serbs, Muslims and Croats in 1995, but more than 200,000 Muslims had been killed.




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Art commentator Sister Wendy Beckett honored by St. John's University


COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. (CNS) -- Internationally renowned art commentator and television host Sister Wendy Beckett received St. John's University's 13th annual Colman J. Barry Award for distinguished contributions to religion and society during a private reception recently at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. The presentation coincided with the opening of an international exhibition tour of The Saint John's Bible, which was to be on display at the London museum until May 1. Sister Wendy, who was born in South Africa, has appeared on BBC television documentaries about art since 1991 and is the author of more than 15 books, including "Sister's Wendy's 1,000 Masterpieces" and "Sister Wendy's Story of Painting." She joined the Sisters of Notre Dame in 1946 but has lived in the cloistered Carmelite convent in Quidenham, England, since 1970. She leaves the convent only when necessary to make her television shows.

Two Americans among
15 new cardinals named


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By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.

In a long-awaited move, Benedict XVI named 15 new cardinals on Feb. 22, putting his personal stamp for the first time on the most senior leaders in the Catholic church.

He named two Americans, Archbishop William J. Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston. The nominations will likely be taken as a papal vote of confidence in the American church, given what many consider the over-representation of Americans among the ranks of the cardinals and that this is a small group of new cardinals.

The United States has 13 cardinals, 11 of whom are voting age, the largest national block in the college after the Italians.

In a choice sure to be scrutinized closely for its diplomatic ramifications, Benedict also named Archbishop Joseph Zen of Hong Kong, a prelate known for his outspoken concerns regarding political and religious freedom in China.

By naming just 12 new cardinals of voting age, Benedict signaled his determination to remain within the ceiling of 120 cardinals under the age of 80 set by his predecessors, but frequently ignored by Pope John Paul II.

Benedict also named three "honorary" cardinals, men already over the age of 80, in recognition of their service to the church.

The nominees will be formally inducted in the College of Cardinals in a Rome ceremony on March 25.

The new cardinals are:

Archbishop William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
Archbishop Franc Rode, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life
Archbishop Agostino Vallini, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
Archbishop Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino of Caracas
Archbishop Gaudencio Rosales of Manila
Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux
Archbishop Antonio Canizares Lloveda of Toledo
Archbishop Nicholas Cheong Jin-Suk of Seoul
Archbishop Sean O'Malley of Boston
Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz of Krakow
Archbishop Carlo Caffara of Bologna
Bishop Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong
The three honorary appointments are:
Archbishop Andrea Cordero Lanza de Montezemolo, Archpriest of St. Paul's Outside the Walls
Archbishop-emeritus Peter Proeku Dery of Tamale, Ghana
Jesuit Fr. Albert Vanhoye, former rector of the Pontifical Biblical Institute
Watch for updates to this story.

[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Vatican correspondent. His e-mail address is [email protected].]

February 22, 2006, National Catholic Reporter

GUEST COLUMN
Please Don't Bless My Children

February 2006By Larry A. Carstens

Sometimes a practice creeps into the Mass that nobody seems to notice, and upon which nobody comments. But for those to whom their Catholic faith really matters, the barely noticed and gradually ubiquitous practice is a source of discomfort and concern. Take, for example, the distracting and uncomfortable custom of peer-pressured hand-holding during the Our Father. A number of orthodox voices were raised against it and, in some parishes, the inappropriate hand-holding diminished.

Nowadays, another practice has crept into the Mass in various dioceses throughout the country. It seems a very sensitive area, and objections to it are likely to offend a large number of people. But my concern is the proper worship of God, not approval among men. But how do you tell a sweet little old lady who loves the Lord and cheerfully does her best to assist at Mass that what she's doing might not be the best way to honor God?

Quite some time ago, there developed among priests distributing Communion at Mass the custom of placing their hands on the heads of children too young to receive the Sacrament to bless them. I have no objection to this practice at Mass, as long as the person blessing the children is an ordained priest (or deacon). However, as time has passed and more and more Eucharistic ministers have been distributing Communion at Mass, these helpful, but non-ordained, persons have taken it upon themselves -- or have been instructed -- to bless children in the manner of an ordained priest. And herein lies the rub: It does not seem appropriate for the non-ordained to bless children at Mass.

Information on Secular Institute for Laity
Hello Nancyann;

I am interested in the Secular Institute for Laity Under Religious Vows. How can I get more information? Is there an easier way of communication than this site, (after registering it took awhile to locate this site)? I am currently doing retreats of various communities.
Thanking you in advance for your reply.

Blessings,
Mary F.

Hello Mary:

Call me at 781-925-5971 and I will put you on that day in touch with our superior in Michigan and he will speak with you about the process!


God Bless,

Nancyann