Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for April is: “That the Lord may bless farmers’ work with an abundant harvest and sensitise the richer populations to the drama of hunger in the world”.
His mission intention is: “That the Christians who operate in the territories where the conditions of the poor, the weak and the women and children are most tragic, may be signs of hope, thanks to their courageous testimony to the Gospel of solidarity and love”.
Oremus!
I have two thoughts on this. First, Deo gratias! Second, it’s about time! We need our priests, and they need our prayers, and that reciprocal need has not been so keenly felt in a long, long time. The full announcement from the Vatican is here.
Benedict XVI highlighted the “indispensable struggle for moral perfection which must dwell in every truly priestly heart. In order to favour this tendency of priests towards spiritual perfection, upon which the effectiveness of their ministry principally depends, I have”, he said, “decided to call a special ‘Year for Priests’ which will run from 19 June 2009 to 19 June 2010″. This year marks “the 150th anniversary of the death of the saintly ‘Cure of Ars’, Jean Marie Vianney, a true example of a pastor at the service of Christ’s flock”.
This comes immediately on the heels of the Year of St. Paul. I think that makes a very interesting compare and contrast exercise, but even more so that it strengthens different parts of the priestly identity. Thank you, Holy Father. Let us always pray for our Priests!
I’m a little late on this, but that’s no reason not to post them anyway. They’re particularly good this month:
Pope Benedict’s general prayer intention for March is: “That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world”.
His mission intention is: “That, in the light of the Letter addressed to them by Pope Benedict XVI, the bishops, priests, consecrated persons and lay faithful of the Catholic Church in the Popular Republic of China may commit themselves to being the sign and instrument of unity, communion and peace”
There’s an awful lot packed in there.
I’m a couple of days late in posting this, but even with the lag I think it’s too important to just skip. From AsiaNews:
Following the example of St. Paul, Lent should be marked by a more frequent listening to the word of God, “by more intense prayer, by an austere and penitential style of life, it should be an encouragement to conversion and sincere love for our brothers, especially those who are most poor and in need.” In the Pauline Year, the life of the Apostle of the Gentiles was offered by Benedict XVI as a model of how the Christian should live Lent, in today’s celebration of Ash Wednesday at the ancient Roman basilica of Santa Sabina.
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“St. Paul,” he continued, “recognizes that everything in him is the work of divine grace, but he does not forget that one must cooperate freely with the gift of new life received in Baptism. In the text of chapter 6 of the Letter to the Romans, which will be proclaimed during the Easter vigil, he writes, ‘Therefore, sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness’ (6:12-13). We find contained in these words the program for Lent according to its intrinsic baptismal perspective. On the one hand, it affirms Christ’s victory over sin, which took place once and for all with his death and resurrection; on the other, we are urged not to give our members up to sin, meaning not to concede, so to speak, room for sin to make a comeback.
Great things can happen during Lent. It’s up to us whether we’re willing to cooperate with the Grace God is offering us.
CNS has the story:
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has asked the former head of the Vatican’s worship and sacraments congregation, Nigerian Cardinal Francis Arinze, to lead his 2009 Lenten retreat.
During the March 1-7 retreat, the 76-year-old cardinal will focus on the theme “The Priest Encounters Jesus and Follows Him.”
I do find the trailing comment in the story regarding Cdl. Arinze’s position on inculturation rather interesting in light of his other remarks suggesting that a false inculturation is indeed damaging both to Catholicism and the person it is intended to attract. Am I missing something here or does that seem out of place?
…that I’m proud of our Pope, but yet there is tremendous pride when you read a simple story like this:
Following the General Audience the Holy Father briefly greeted Mrs Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, together with her entourage.
His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church’s consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development.
Why does the Church need a Pope? To remind people that there is always someone to whom you are answerable – even, indeed, if that Someone be only God Himself. Though they may not fear their pastors or Bishops, the Pope in his role as Supreme Shepherd still shoulders the responsibility of pointing the right way. May she, and those with her, take his message to heart, reform their ways, and become defenders of all innocent life.
Update: John Allen of NCReporter chimes in:
Not only was it unusual to issue a statement after a meeting with an official who’s not a head of state, routine Vatican declarations after diplomatic meetings also generally sum up the range of issues discussed rather than concentrating on a particular point.
In that sense, the statement can only be read as a rejection of Pelosi’s statements last summer, and, in general, of her argument that it’s acceptable for Catholics in public life to take a pro-choice position.
So while the fact he met with her signals an expected continuation of contact between the Vatican and the U.S. government, it cannot be said that her positions were given any leeway at all. Despite any protests to the contrary, the defense of all life from conception to natural death is not a complicated issue.
Because, you know, in a way it does. Certainly we can live without prayer, but as for me, life without talking to God and doing my best to listen to Him just doesn’t quite measure up. I’ve been reading through Pope Benedict’s The Church Fathers: From Clement of Rome to Augustine, the collation of his addresses on the early Fathers of the Church and came across a quote so good that I’m not going to wait until I write up a review of the book for it. In his address on St. Gregory Nazianzen, we find:
Gregory teaches us first and foremost the importance and necessity of prayer. He says: “It is necessary to remember God more often than one breathes” (Orationes 27, 4: PG 250, 78), because prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with our thirst. God is thirsting for us to thirst for him (cf. Orationes 40, 27: SC 358, 260). In prayer, we must turn our hearts to God, to consign ourselves to him as an offering to be purified and transformed. In prayer we see all things in the light of Christ; we let our masks fall and immerse ourselves in the truth and in listening to God, feeding the fire of love.
I just love those twin images – “let our masks fall” and “feeding the fire of love.” It’s like drawing a picture with words.
Fr. Z pointed out the below story, carried by LifeSiteNews. I think it’s very important to realize that not all Jewish reaction to the controversy surrounding SSPX Bishop Williamson and the Pope’s lifting of the excommunications fo the SSPX Bishops. We must never allow ourselves to believe there is only one side to a story and remember, in media stat virtus.
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ROME, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The dissident, leftist movement in the Catholic Church over the last forty years has severely undermined the teaching of the Catholic Church on the moral teachings on life and family, a prominent US Orthodox rabbi told LifeSiteNews.com. Rabbi Yehuda Levin, the head of a group of 800 Orthodox rabbis in the US and Canada, also dismissed the accusations that the Holy See had not sufficiently distanced itself from the comments made by Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) on the Holocaust.
“I support this move” to reconcile the traditionalist faction in the Church, he said, “because I understand the big picture, which is that the Catholic Church has a problem. There is a strong left wing of the Church that is doing immeasurable harm to the faith.”
Rabbi Levin said that he understands “perfectly” why the reconciliation is vital to the fight against abortion and the homosexualist movement.
“I understand that it is very important to fill the pews of the Catholic Church not with cultural Catholics and left-wingers who are helping to destroy the Catholic Church and corrupt the values of the Catholic Church.” This corruption, he said, “has a trickle-down effect to every single religious community in the world.”
“What’s the Pope doing? He’s trying to bring the traditionalists back in because they have a lot of very important things to contribute the commonweal of Catholicism.
“Now, if in the process, he inadvertently includes someone who is prominent in the traditionalist movement who happens to say very strange things about the Holocaust, is that a reason to throw out the baby with the bathwater and start to condemn Pope Benedict? Absolutely not.”
During a visit to Rome at the end of January, Rabbi Levin told LifeSiteNews.com that he believes the media furore over the lifting of the excommunications of the four bishops of the Society of Saint Pius X is a red herring. He called “ridiculous” the accusations that in doing so Pope Benedict VXI or the Catholic Church are anti-Semitic and described as “very strong” the statements distancing the Holy See and the Pope from Williamson’s comments.
Rabbi Levin was in Rome holding meetings with high level Vatican officials to propose what he called a “new stream of thinking” for the Church’s inter-religious dialogue, one based on commonly held moral teachings, particularly on the right to life and the sanctity of natural marriage.
“The most important issue,” he said, is the work the Church is doing “to save babies from abortion, and save children’s minds, and young people’s minds, helping them to know right and wrong on the life and family issues.”
“That’s where ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue has to go.”
Although numbers are difficult to determine, it is estimated that the Society of St. Pius X has over a million followers worldwide. The traditionalist movement in the Catholic Church is noted for doctrinal orthodoxy and enthusiasm not only for old-fashioned devotional practices, but for the Church’s moral teachings and opposition to post-modern secularist sexual mores. Liberals in the Church, particularly in Europe, have bitterly opposed all overtures to the SSPX and other traditionalists, particularly the Pope’s recent permission to revive the traditional Latin Mass.
The Vatican announced in early January that, as part of ongoing efforts to reconcile the breakaway group, the 1988 decree of excommunication against the Society had been rescinded. Later that month, a Swedish television station aired an interview, recorded in November 2008, in which Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four leaders of the Society, said that he did not believe that six million Jews were killed in the Nazi death camps during World War II.
At that time, the media erupted with protests and accusations that the Catholic Church, and especially Pope Benedict XVI, are anti-Semitic.
Rabbi Levin particularly defended Pope Benedict, saying he is the genius behind the moves of the late Pope John Paul II to reconcile the Church with the Jewish community.
“Anyone who understands and follows Vatican history knows that in the last three decades, one of the moral and intellectual underpinnings of the papacy of Pope John Paul II, was Cardinal Ratzinger.
“And therefore, a lot of the things that Pope John Paul did vis-à-vis the Holocaust, he [Benedict] might have done himself, whether it was visiting Auschwitz or visiting and speaking in the synagogues or asking forgiveness. A lot of this had direct input from Cardinal Ratzinger. Whoever doesn’t understand this doesn’t realise that this man, Pope Benedict XVI, has a decades-long track record of anti-Nazism and sympathy for the Jews.”
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