The Tampa Tribune

A LOOK BACK

April 19, 2005: Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected. He will be known as Pope Benedict XVI.

June 10, 2005: The pope criticizes the use of condoms and says the church is leading the battle against HIV/AIDS by teaching chastity.

Nov. 29, 2005: In his first major ruling, Benedict and the Vatican impose restrictions on homosexuals becoming priests.

Jan. 25, 2006: Benedict releases his first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” (God is Love).

Sept. 12, 2006: Benedict quotes a Byzantine emperor to criticize fanaticism in Islam, sparking protests from Muslims.

Sept. 17, 2006: The pope apologizes and says the medieval quotes did not reflect his personal views.

Oct. 11, 2006: Benedict eases restrictions on the Latin Mass.

April 11, 2007: Benedict publishes a new book, “Creation and Evolution,” in which he claims Darwin’s theory of evolution cannot be proved.

May 13, 2007: In Brazil, Benedict says that colonial-era evangelization in the New World did not represent “the imposition of a foreign culture.”

May 23, 2007: Although he does not apologize, Benedict says it is impossible to ignore the “unjustified crimes” that accompanied evangelization in the New World.

Nov. 6, 2007: Benedict becomes the first pope to meet with a reigning Saudi king.

March 22, 2008: Italy’s most prominent Muslim commentator converts to Catholicism and is baptized by Benedict.

Research by MICHAEL

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NCR Staff

The Vatican has acknowledged the sexual abuse of women religious by priests in a declaration posted March 20 on the Vatican website by spokesman Joaquín Navarro-Valls.

The problem to which the declaration refers was the subject of an extensive report in the March 16 issue of NCR. That story and the documentation upon which it was based are also available on this website.

The Vatican statement reads:

In relation to the news of cases of sexual abuse of women religious on the part of priests or missionaries, the director of the Sala Stampa of the Holy See, Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls, has released this morning the following declaration:

“The problem is known, and is restricted to a geographically limited area.The Holy See is dealing with the question in collaboration with the bishops, with the Union of Superiors General (USG) and with the International Union of Superiors General (USIG). The work has two sides, the formation of persons and the solution of single cases.

Certain negative situations cannot cause to be forgotten the frequently heroic fidelity of the great majority of male religious, female religious and priests.”

The statement, in Italian, is on the Vatican website at www.vatican.va The above is a translation by NCR.The statement did not specify what geographic area is involved nor what was being done to deal with the problem.

Further details on the issue will appear in the March 30 issue of NCR.

The declaration was issued following publication of a long report – based on NCR’s March 16 cover story – in the March 20 issue of La Repubblica, Italy’s largest-circulation daily. The piece was written by leading Vaticanologist Marco Politi.

National Catholic Reporter, March 20, 2001

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First Sunday of Lent:

Satan Exists and

Christ Defeated Him

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
2/9/2008

“The most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not that demons exist, but that Christ has defeated them.”

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - The readings for this First Sunday of lent are Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11. Father Cantalamessa’s commentary follows:

“Demons, Satanism and other related phenomena are quite topical today, and they disturb a great part of our society.

Our technological and industrialized world is filled with magicians, wizards, occultism, spiritualism, fortune tellers, spell trafficking, amulets, as well as very real Satanic sects.

Chased away from the door, the devil has come in through the window. Chased away by the faith, he has returned by way of superstition.

The episode of Jesus’ temptations in the desert that is read on the First Sunday of Lent helps us to have some clarity on this subject. First of all, do demons exist?

That is, does the word “demon” truly indicate some personal being with intelligence and will, or is it simply a symbol, a manner of speaking that refers to the sum of the world’s moral evil, the collective unconscious, collective alienation, etc.?

Many intellectuals do not believe in demons in the first sense. But it must be noted that many great writers, such as Goethe and Dostoyevsky, took Satan’s existence very seriously. Baudelaire, who was certainly no angel, said that “the demon’s greatest trick is to make people believe that he does not exist.”

The principal proof of the existence of demons in the Gospels is not the numerous healings of possessed people, since ancient beliefs about the origins of certain maladies may have had some influence on the interpretation of these happenings. The proof is Jesus’ temptation by the demon in the desert.

The many saints who in their lives battled against the prince of darkness are also proof. They are not like “Don Quixote,” tilting at windmills. On the contrary, they were very down-to-earth, psychologically healthy people.

If many people find belief in demons absurd, it is because they take their beliefs from books, they pass their lives in libraries and at desks; but demons are not interested in books, they are interested in persons, especially, and precisely, saints.

How could a person know anything about Satan if he has never encountered the reality of Satan, but only the idea of Satan in cultural, religious and ethnological traditions? They treat this question with great certainty and a feeling of superiority, doing away with it all as so much “medieval obscurantism.”

But it is a false certainty. It is like someone who brags about not being afraid of lions and proves this by pointing out that he has seen many paintings and pictures of lions and was never frightened by them.

On the other hand, it is entirely normal and consistent for those who do not believe in God to not believe in the devil. It would be quite tragic for someone who did not believe in God to believe in the devil!

Yet the most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not that demons exist, but that Christ has defeated them. For Christians, Christ and demons are not two equal, but rather contrary principles, as certain dualistic religions believe to be the case with good and evil. Jesus is the only Lord; Satan is only a creature “gone bad.”

If power over men is given to Satan, it is because men have the possibility of freely choosing sides and also to keep them from being too proud (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7), believing themselves to be self-sufficient and without need of any redeemer. “Old Satan is crazy,” goes an African-American spiritual. “He shot me to destroy my soul, but missed and destroyed my sin instead.”

With Christ we have nothing to fear. Nothing and no one can do us ill, unless we ourselves allow it. Satan, said an ancient Father of the Church, after Christ’s coming, is like a dog chained up in the barnyard: He can bark and lunge as much as he wants, but if we don’t go near him, he cannot harm us.

In the desert Jesus freed himself from Satan to free us! This is the joyous news with which we begin our Lenten journey toward Easter.”

Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher.

 Facts or Contra’ Thoughts
    “The Fallen Angels”       
 By : Amjoe

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First Sunday of Lent: Satan Exists and Christ Defeated Him

By Father Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap
2/9/2008

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

“The most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not that demons exist, but that Christ has defeated them.”

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - The readings for this First Sunday of lent are Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11. Father Cantalamessa’s commentary follows:

“Demons, Satanism and other related phenomena are quite topical today, and they disturb a great part of our society.

Our technological and industrialized world is filled with magicians, wizards, occultism, spiritualism, fortune tellers, spell trafficking, amulets, as well as very real Satanic sects.

Chased away from the door, the devil has come in through the window. Chased away by the faith, he has returned by way of superstition.

The episode of Jesus’ temptations in the desert that is read on the First Sunday of Lent helps us to have some clarity on this subject. First of all, do demons exist?

That is, does the word “demon” truly indicate some personal being with intelligence and will, or is it simply a symbol, a manner of speaking that refers to the sum of the world’s moral evil, the collective unconscious, collective alienation, etc.?

Many intellectuals do not believe in demons in the first sense. But it must be noted that many great writers, such as Goethe and Dostoyevsky, took Satan’s existence very seriously. Baudelaire, who was certainly no angel, said that “the demon’s greatest trick is to make people believe that he does not exist.”

The principal proof of the existence of demons in the Gospels is not the numerous healings of possessed people, since ancient beliefs about the origins of certain maladies may have had some influence on the interpretation of these happenings. The proof is Jesus’ temptation by the demon in the desert.

The many saints who in their lives battled against the prince of darkness are also proof. They are not like “Don Quixote,” tilting at windmills. On the contrary, they were very down-to-earth, psychologically healthy people.

If many people find belief in demons absurd, it is because they take their beliefs from books, they pass their lives in libraries and at desks; but demons are not interested in books, they are interested in persons, especially, and precisely, saints.

How could a person know anything about Satan if he has never encountered the reality of Satan, but only the idea of Satan in cultural, religious and ethnological traditions? They treat this question with great certainty and a feeling of superiority, doing away with it all as so much “medieval obscurantism.”

But it is a false certainty. It is like someone who brags about not being afraid of lions and proves this by pointing out that he has seen many paintings and pictures of lions and was never frightened by them.

On the other hand, it is entirely normal and consistent for those who do not believe in God to not believe in the devil. It would be quite tragic for someone who did not believe in God to believe in the devil!

Yet the most important thing that the Christian faith has to tell us is not that demons exist, but that Christ has defeated them. For Christians, Christ and demons are not two equal, but rather contrary principles, as certain dualistic religions believe to be the case with good and evil. Jesus is the only Lord; Satan is only a creature “gone bad.”

If power over men is given to Satan, it is because men have the possibility of freely choosing sides and also to keep them from being too proud (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:7), believing themselves to be self-sufficient and without need of any redeemer. “Old Satan is crazy,” goes an African-American spiritual. “He shot me to destroy my soul, but missed and destroyed my sin instead.”

With Christ we have nothing to fear. Nothing and no one can do us ill, unless we ourselves allow it. Satan, said an ancient Father of the Church, after Christ’s coming, is like a dog chained up in the barnyard: He can bark and lunge as much as he wants, but if we don’t go near him, he cannot harm us.

In the desert Jesus freed himself from Satan to free us! This is the joyous news with which we begin our Lenten journey toward Easter.”

Father Raniero Cantalamessa is the Pontifical Household preacher.

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Vatican minister to attend Doha church opening
Web posted at: 2/9/2008 2:23:11
Source ::: The Peninsula Doha • The Vatican Foreign Minister will attend the official opening ceremony of the first Catholic Church in Qatar, an Arabic daily reported yesterday. The opening ceremony will take place in mid-March, the daily said, quoting Jordan Abouna website which is managed by International Catholic Union of the Press in Jordan. The church covers an area of 22,000 sq m and can accommodate 1,800 people at a time.

the peninsula OPEC may switch to euro, but will ‘take time’

dubai • Oil producer group OPEC may abandon the dollar for pricing oil and adopt the euro but any such switch will “take time”, OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah Al Badri was quoted as saying by a weekly magazine. “Maybe we can price the oil in the euro,” the London-based Middle East Economic Digest quoted Badri as saying in an interview. “It can be done, but it will take time.”

“Badri tells MEED … that the producers’ cartel may switch to the euro within a decade to combat the dollar’s decline,” the magazine said without providing a direct quote about the time frame. “It took two world wars and more than 50 years for the dollar to become the dominant currency. Now we are seeing another strong currency coming into the [frame], which is the euro,” he said.

Iran and its anti-U.S. ally Venezuela have pressed for OPEC to abandon the dollar and perhaps price oil in a basket of currencies.

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 VATICAN CITY, FEB. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Through the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, Benedict XVI showed his solidarity with flood-drenched Bolivia, giving some $50,000 to the relief effort.

The Pontifical Council Cor Unum is the agency that coordinates and promotes the world’s Catholic institutions of assistance and volunteering.

Bolivia, along with Argentina and Ecuador, has been soaked with torrential rains since November. Dozens of deaths have been reported and thousands have lost their homes.

In his Lenten message, the Holy Father invited the Church “to reflect about the value and the practice of almsgiving.”

“Gospel almsgiving is not simple philanthropy: Rather it is a concrete expression of charity, the theological virtue which demands interior conversion to love of God and of our brothers,” he wrote.

According to Bishop Jesús Juárez Párraga, secretary-general of the Bolivian episcopal conference, “The Holy Father’s donation is an eloquent sign of his concern for and closeness to the Bolivian people. This aid will be distributed in the upcoming days, through the bishops of the most affected dioceses.”

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VATICAN CITY, FEB. 7, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI proposes that Lent be a time to fast from words and images, and to create a space for silence.

The Pope said this today in the Vatican upon receiving the parish priests of the Diocese of Rome, a meeting he said is organized to “mutually help each other,” reported L’Osservatore Romano.

When asked how to live Lent, the Pope answered: “It seems to me that the time of Lent should be a time of fasting from words and images, because we need a little silence, a little space, without being constantly bombarded with images.

“We need to create spaces of silence […] to open our hearts to the true image, to the true word.”

The Pontiff also underlined the importance of the clergy giving witness that “we can truly know God. That we can be his friends, and walk with him.”

Other themes that were discussed included interreligious dialogue, almsgiving and the loss of the sense of sin that characterizes society.

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by The Associated Press

Posted: February 7, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET

(Madrid) The Spanish government is protesting a veiled statement from Roman Catholic bishops that voters should shun the ruling Socialists in elections next month, the Spanish foreign minister says.

The Spanish ambassador to the Holy See, Francisco Vazquez, met Feb. 2 with a Vatican official to express “perplexity and surprise” over the bishops’ comments, Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said.

The Spanish Bishops Conference had released a statement indicating that voters should not back parties that support gay marriage or other policies contrary to church teaching, nor should they support talks with armed Basque militants - clearly references to the governing Socialists.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero legalized same-sex marriage, streamlined divorce, and tried in vain to negotiate a peace accord in 2006 with the armed Basque group ETA.

Moratinos, speaking in the southern city of Cordoba, criticized Spain’s church hierarchy as “fundamentalist and neo-conservative.” He said the church does not represent a majority of Spanish Catholics and is “using terrorism politically to divide all Spaniards.”

“We want to maintain a better level of relations with the Holy See, but we do not understand this posture,” Moratinos said.

In Spain, leaders of the Catholic Church have long sided with the right. They supported the fascist forces of late Gen. Francisco Franco in the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War and his near four-decade dictatorship. Under democracy, church leaders, without naming a political party, have consistently indicated support for conservatives in elections.

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By NICOLE WINFIELD,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 5th 2008 @ 5:22 PM ET

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican on Tuesday issued a new version of a Roman Catholic prayer that had long offended Jews, but some said the changes don’t go far enough.

Jewish groups said they interpreted the new version of the prayer for Jews as requiring members of their faith — and all of humanity — to convert to Christianity in order to find salvation.

The prayer for Jews is recited during Good Friday services of Easter Week, the most solemn week in the Christian calendar, in which the faithful commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ before his resurrection on Easter.

The prayer is part of the old Latin rite, also known as the Tridentine rite, which was celebrated before the liberalizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s paved the way for the New Mass used widely today in local languages.

Last summer, Pope Benedict XVI allowed wider use of the old Latin rite. That prompted criticism from Jewish groups who had long been offended by the Good Friday prayer and lamented that it might be celebrated more broadly.

To answer their concerns, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, No. 2 at the Vatican, said last summer the issue would be resolved and on Tuesday his office published the new text of the prayer, in Latin, on the front page of the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

According to an unofficial translation, the prayer now reads:

“Let us pray for the Jews. May the Lord our God illuminate their hearts so that they may recognize Jesus Christ savior of all men. … Almighty and everlasting God, you who wants all men to be saved and to gain knowledge of the truth, kindly allow that, as all peoples enter into your Church, all of Israel be saved.”

The prayer removes key words that Jews had found particularly offensive in the earlier version, including a reference to their “blindness” and the need to “remove the veil from their hearts.”

The paper said the new text would be used starting on Good Friday this year, which falls on March 21.

Vatican officials had said previously that the prayer would continue to urge Jews to convert, since Catholics always pray for the conversion of all Christians and non-Christians alike.

Rabbi David Rosen, a key Jewish-Vatican liaison and head of inter-religious relations at the American Jewish Committee, said he was disappointed by the new text.

“It’s pretty clear that there’s no fullness of salvation outside the Church” under the prayer’s language, he said.

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Source : The Vatican

The Vatican has reported a further dramatic fall in the number of Roman Catholic monks and nuns worldwide.                        Women form the majority of the “members of the consecrated life”          New Published statistics showed that thenumber of men and women belonging to religious orders fell by 10% to just under a million between 2005 and 2006. During the pontificate of the late Pope John Paul II, the number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by a quarter. The downward trend accelerated despite a steady increase in the membership of the Catholic Church to more than 1.1bn. However, correspondents say even this failed to keep pace with the overall increase in world population. Dramatic fall On the back page of its official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican published on Monday new statistics revealing that between 2005 and 2006 the number “members of the consecrated life” fell by just under 10%. The number of members, predominantly women, some engaged only in constant prayer, others working as teachers, health workers and missionaries, fell 94,790 to 945,210. The membership of the Roman Catholic Church has risen to 1.1bn Of the total, 753,400 members were women, while 191,810 were men, including 136,171 priests and 532 permanent deacons. The figures were published next to a report of Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting with nuns, monks and priests from many countries gathered in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome last weekend. The BBC’s David Willey in the Italian capital says the accelerating downward trend must have caused concern to the Pope. The Roman Catholic Church has an aging and diminishing number of parish and diocesan clergy and this latest fall is quite dramatic, our correspondent says. The number of Catholic nuns worldwide declined by about a quarter during the reign of Pope John Paul, and this further drop shows that new recruits are failing to replace those nuns who die, or decide to abandon their vows, he adds.

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A meeting which the Holy See stressed did not necessarily represent its approval for Kosovo’s attempts to win independence from Serbia. The pontiff’s audience with Sejdiu, described in a Vatican statement as “the highest institutional authority of the current autonomous province of Serbia, administered by the United Nations” did not represent “any change in the position of the Holy See vis-a-vis the definitive juridical status of Kosovo”.

Benedict’s meeting with Sejdiu marked an opportunity for the pontiff “to express his closeness to the entire population of that land, where Christianity has been present since the first centuries of our era,” said the Vatican, referring to Kosovo whose ethnic Albanian majority is mostly Muslim. The Vatican estimates that Catholics in Kosovo number some 65,000 out of a population of around two million.

The meeting also allowed Benedict to receive first-hand information on the current situation and future prospects, the Vatican statement said. “As for any possible declaration of independence by Kosovo, the Holy See will follow developments on the ground with particular attention and, in her appraisal thereof, will bear in mind the position of the international community,” it added. “The Holy See neglects no opportunity to exhort everyone to reconciliation, justice and peace,” the Vatican statement said referring to remarks made by Benedict earlier this month in which he expressed the hope that “security and respect for the rights of those who live” in Kosovo be guaranteed.

Kosovo is expected to announce soon a date when it will declare its independence a move which is opposed by Serbia and which some experts warn could trigger further conflicts, with Albanians in Serbia and Serbs in northern Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina following suit.

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