The Pope Teaches the Children

I hope the pope doesn't give up his day job.  See if you agree.

Pope’s Chat With Children, Other Groups at St. Mary Josephine of Heart of Jesus Parish on Outskirts of Rome Posted by ZENIT Staff on 21 February, 2017 Below is a Zenit working translation of Pope Francis’ chat with children and other groups during his visit to a parish on the outskirts of the city of Rome, the afternoon of Sunday, Feb. 19, the second of this type since the end of the Jubilee of Mercy, and the 13th visit of this nature. The parish of Saint Mary Josephine of the Heart of Jesus in Castelverde di Lunghezza, is six kilometers east of the circular highway around Rome: *** Pope Francis: I’ll ask question and you all answer. How many “Gods” are there? [“One”]. But … I know three! [“The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”]. Father, Son and Holy Spirit: one and two and three. They are three. What do you answer to this? Who can answer? [Someone says: They are three”] Are there three Gods or one?  [Someone says: [There is only one divided in three parts”] — in three parts? No, God is one [“He is only one but who represents more things”]. It doesn’t work … How many “Gods are there? [“Three”]. Three “Gods” or one? [“One”]. But if there is one … I ask you this question: Is the Father God? [“Yes”] Is the Son God? [Yes … No …”]. So, He’s not God? [Yes, He is God”] Is the Holy Spirit God? [“Yes”]. They are three, but this is something that’s not easy to understand: they are three Persons, have you understood this? They are three Persons, but the three Persons make only one God. Agreed? [“Yes”]. Aren’t you convinced? So, what three things are they? Three [“Persons”] and one [“God”]. Three … [“Persons”] and one [“God”]. And is Our Lady God? [“No’] What is Our Lady? [“The Mother …”]. The Mother of God. Why is she the Mother of God? Because she is the one who brought Jesus to the world. Agreed? [“Yes”]. Yes. And Joseph truly helped Our Lady. Is the Father God? Yes. Is the Son God? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit God? Yes. Three Persons, agreed? How many Persons? [“Three”]. How many “Gods”? [“One”]. Is Our Lady God? [“No”]. Our Lady is …? The Mother of God.. This is clear. Never forget this.  All right.

Responsible Journalism

picture from Zenit

Pope Francis must have finally gotten around to reading Monday's post about "news literacy,"  because he agrees with me. The silliness that passes for news is not worthy of consideration.  What has happened to the profession of journalism?

In an audience today with some journalists the pope expressed what I've been thinking for a long time.  Here are some of his points:

There are few professions that have so much influence on society as journalism does. The journalist has a role of great importance and, at the same time, of great responsibility.

The times change and the way of working of the journalist also changes. Though the printed paper or television lose relevance in respect to the new media of the digital world – especially among young people – when journalists have professionalism, they remain an important pillar, a fundamental element for the vitality of a free and pluralist society. 

I will pause on three elements: to love the truth, something essential for all, but especially for journalists; to live with professionalism, something that goes well beyond laws and regulations; and to respect human dignity, which is much more difficult that one might think at first sight.  

I hope that increasingly and everywhere journalism is an instrument of construction, a factor of common good, an accelerator of processes of reconciliation, which is able to reject the temptation to foment clashes, with a language that blows on the fire of divisions, and, instead, that it foster the culture of encounter. You journalists can remind all every day that there is no conflict that cannot be resolved by women and men of good will.

You have to remember that this is a translation so the written expression isn't as smooth as it should be.  To read the article in Zenit go to this link: https://zenit.org/articles/popes-address-to-italian-journalists/ 

Old Ladies and the Rosary

Did you read Zenit today?  Cardinal Schonborn was interviewed.  He is often in the news, both as a confident of the Pope, and as a much beleaguered prelate with many dissident priests.  He is as solid a traditionalist as the catechism he edited.  Yet he is a believer and supporter of Medjugorje.  He is very, and maybe too pastoral, in that he hasn't disciplined any of the dissident priests who want women priests, and to get married, besides other things.  He may be Pope some day.

But now he has another accolade to add to his list.  He is now in my heart because he said, " And whoever scorns the old ladies who pray (the Rosary)  has understood nothing of the Gospel."




Ah, words to warm the cockles of this simple old lady's heart, while she fingers her beads while praying the Rosary.

New App for Catholics

Immediately after reading about the new app to help Catholic voters, in Zenit, I ordered it.  It promises to inform you and allow you to send your representatives your thoughts.  Sounds great.

SOUTH BEND, Indiana, SEPT. 28, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The company that put confession preparation on the iPhone now has a tool for Catholic voters: CatholicVote Mobile, aimed to mobilize and unify those who want to get the Church's view to Congress.

Little i Apps, LLC, makers of Confession: A Roman Catholic App, collaborated with CatholicVote.org in the development of the new app.

The service provides a method to contact members of Congress, as well as offering mobile access to CatholicVote.org's blogs and news.

A one-touch method allows Catholic voters to more easily participate in the political forum. Based on a user's GPS location or zip code, the app generates the contact information for their representative and senators. Users can select to automatically add this information to their contact lists or simply tap to connect.

WYD Faces

Web Site Shows Living Faces of the Church

Pope2you.net Launches Photo Networking Initiative

By Jesus Colina

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Ahead of Madrid's World Youth Day, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications has launched a photo-based social networking Web site that demonstrates how all members of the Church form one body in Christ.

"Living World Faces" (www.pope2you.net/livingworldfaces), which was carried out with the support of the Italian Episcopal Conference, allows young people to share their pictures with other participants in the youth gathering, which is set to begin Thursday.

But that's not all. Once a photo is uploaded to the site, it becomes part of a mosaic of photos that forms either the image of Benedict XVI, an icon of Christ, or the logo of the 2011 World Youth Day.

Father Paolo Padrini, who is the director of the project, told ZENIT that the aim was to "offer young people a 'virtual square'" in which to participate in the event while they are "physically immersed in the sea of people."

He said that the experience of the site is "not only virtual, but real and virtual at the same time."

In addition, the priest said that the site "offers millions of young people present in Madrid the possibility of taking home in addition to a photographic memento."

"Thus, once again," Father Padrini added, "through the Web, young people will be able to become real evangelizers."

--- --- ---

On the Net:

Living Faces: www.pope2you.net/livingworldfaces

From today's Zenit

Living to the Very End

Image via Wikipedia

Back in the day when I worked in Human Services, I took a course on Death and Dying.  My friend Eileen and I worked on a project together.  We went to a home where a young man was dying of Aids.  We spent some time with him and were impressed with the amount of papalliative care he was given.  He was determined to live his life to the very end.

Today's article "Fighting to Live Versus Dying to Die," in Zenit, reminded me of that time.  The article gives us the USCCB's approved policy on Physician Assisted Suicide, and Euthanasia.  The Bishops' statement is called "To Live Each Day with Dignity: A Statement of Assisted Suicide."  This statement debunks the illusion that killing one's self is expressing freedom of choice.  That's a sad misconception.  Helping someone to die is not compassion; it's a delusion.  The Bishops propose a better way.  They make ten salient points:

1.     Those requesting to die are very vulnerable.  They commonly suffer from clinical depression.  They should be treated for depression, not allowed to kill themselves.
2.     Chronically and terminally ill patients are liable to suffer undue influence from the biases and expediencies of those who are impatient with their weaknesses and disabilities.
3.     Proposals to legalize Physician Assisted Suicides define a small class of people--those with "terminal illness"--as legally exempt from laws against assisting in the suicide of another.  But clinical definitions of "terminal illness" are nototiously unreliable and ambiguous and risk sweeping up into themselves chronically ill patients who could live a long time if given proper care.
4.     "The assisted suicide agenda promotes...an expectation that certain people, unlike others, will be served by being helped to choose death."
5.     But human life is always good and sacred.  "By rescinding legal protection for the lives of one group of people, the government implicitly communicates the message...that they may be better off dead."
6.     But we cannot devalue some lives by saying through law that they are better off dead.
7.     In countries where assisted suicide is legal, a dangerous lack of scrutiny and oversight exists.
8.     Mercy killing invites a slippery slope toward ended the lives of people with non-terminal conditions.
9.     Thus the bitter truth of the right-to-die movement is this: It ended up posing grave risks to those whom it claims to serve, namely, people with serious illness.
10.     Rather than investing in more efficient ways of killing infirmed patients, our society should invest in improving palliative care.

Choose the natural way, will you?  Reject the siren's call to "end it all."

It's Official

It's announced in Zenit.  My hero, my favorite friar, priest, spiritual guru...Pere Marie Jean-Joseph Lataste, O.P. will be proclaimed "Blessed."

15 Advance Toward Beatification or Canonization

VATICAN CITY, JUNE 28, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A Mexican nun who died just 30 years ago is among the newest group of canonization and beatification causes to advance with the approval of Benedict XVI.

At a meeting Monday with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, the Pope approved the following decrees: ;

Miracles attributed to the intercession of:

-- Mariano Arciero, Italian diocesan priest (1707-1788).

-- Jean-Joseph (born Alcide Lataste), French priest of the Order of Friars Preachers and founder of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic of Betania (1832-1869).

-- María Inés Teresa del Santísimo Sacramento (born Manuela de Jesús Arias Espinosa), Mexican founder of the Poor Clare Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and the Missionaries of Christ for the Universal Church (1904-1981).

-- Hildegard Burjan, German laywoman and founder of the Sisters of Social Charity (1883-1933).

The Pope recognized the martyrdom of:

-- Salvio Huix Miralpeix, bishop of Lleida, Spain, killed in hatred of the faith in 1936.

-- Karl Lampert, Austrian diocesan priest and pro-vicar of the apostolic administration of Innsbruck Feldkirch, killed in hatred of the faith in 1944.

-- Josefa Martínez Pérez of the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, and 12 companions, killed in hatred of the faith in 1936.

The Holy Father recognized the heroic virtue of:

-- Giovanni Marinoni (born Francesco), Italian professed priest of the Order of Theatine Clerics Regular (1490-1562).

-- José María García Lahiguera, archbishop of Valencia, Spain, and founder of the Congregation of Oblate Sisters of Christ the Priest (1903-1989).

-- Matthew Kadalikattil, Indian diocesan priest and founder of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1872-1935).

-- Raffaele Dimiccoli, Italian diocesan priest (1887-1956).

-- Sofia Czeska-Maciejowska, Polish founder of the Congregation of the Virgins of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (1584-1650).

-- Maria Giuseppina Benvenuti (born Zeinab Alif), Sudanese professed religious of the Order of St. Clare (1845/46-1926).

-- Laura Meozzi, Italian professed religious of the Institute of Daughters of Our Lady of Help (1873-1951).

-- Luigia (Gina) Tincani, Italian founder of the Union of St. Catherine of Siena of the Missionary Sisters of Schools (1889-1976).

For more information of Fr. Lataste, go to this site, with a biographical timeline.   

Wearing the Rosary

Zenit, this morning had an article about wearing Rosaries.  Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum University answers that it is appropriate to wear the Rosary as jewelry, if it's for the glory of God.  So my "cloistered brothers" who wear the rosary to show their faith would be OK, according to Father McNamara.  For me to wear the Rosary for devotional purposes is OK, too.  (I wear it to remind me to pray it.  If you see it on the outside of my clothing, I haven't prayed my Rosary, yet.  If my Rosary is worn under my clothing, then I've prayed.)

Of course, the Rosary Br. Vito made me for my habit, is of course, very appropriate.  Duh!

However, wearing the Rosary as fashion, is not.  Also bad, is wearing the Rosary as gang signature.  That I consider an abomination, unless you're part of Mary's gang. ;-)

 Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

The Sudan

The Sudan has suffered devastation by man and nature.  Lord have mercy.  A few years ago I was horrified by the confusing conflicts.  I still have a poster up in my room, that reads, "Stop the Genocide,"  Be a Voice for Darfur.

Presently, I am reading What is the What by Dave Eggers.  Eggers writes of his life as one of the "The Lost Boys."  The setting is the Sudan.  Then today I read in Zenit, that the Church is more than a little worried about the new border line drawn between North and South Sudan.  Violence is always feared.  What will happen to the Christian minority in Muslim North Sudan?  Prayers are needed.

A few years ago, when I first heard of the terrible trouble in Darfur, I wrote this poem.  Today, it all came back to me, as I pray for this poor country.

A Window into Darfur or a study of Complacency*

Ann's retirement home was idyllic:
water view, temperate climate, close to nature.
Stories of deer crossing through and salt licks,
co-hogging, bass fishing, trapping lobsters,
and a tale of predator and prey that'll
always walk inside and around my head.

She tells of putting up a bird feeder
placed high on the large dining room window.
Clever arrangement, don't you think, to watch
and dine and let nature entertain?
Sparrows would gently land and peck at seeds.

Image via Wikipedia

First one, then two and more would come to feast.

A veritable convention!
A union meeting of laborers, A.F.B.U.
Amalgamated Feather Bearers' Union.
Noisy, all clamoring for position.
It made her laugh, such raucous behavior.
No Robert Rules ruled here, just pure chaos.

Soon, the sparrows that came often became
individuals with familiar markings.
There was Bossy Bertha and Tiny Tim...
you get the idea, they became pets.
It became a study of comparison
between us and them, skin and feathers.

But in the Garden of Eden roamed
an insidious serpent.  Ann's didn't crawl
on its belly, rather it flew from high
and swooped down swiftly snatching smaller prey.
Hawks!  Yes, hawks invaded Ann's domain.
A veritable feast for predators.

Imagine the dining table that night--
conversation stopped with a thud.
a thud on the window and a red
feathered smear dripping down into steamers and broth.
What the hell?  Yes, what the hell.  What the hell!
The sparrows were gone, scattered in a shriek.

But sparrows have short memories and came back.
Only to be snatched up in grasping talons
and smashed against the idyllic opening.
The water view, the temperate clime so close
to nature, too close too much nature.
Naivety lured the innocent.

What started with such promise, a good idea;
even a mutual beneficial deal:
people provide food, and birds entertain,
ended with a twist from Mother Nature.
A cruel lesson on human interference:
an indictment of indifference.

That's just like the janjaweed,
who swooped down on the farmers,
killing, raping, looting a path;
shocking complacent diners who
are repulsed, but turn a blind eye and
yawn indifference and shrug helplessly.

After all, only the strong survive.
Ethnic cleansing is an exaggeration.
Genocide's not possible, states the UN.
What can one do against hawks, or
devils riding on horseback, leaving
trails of dripping blood and feathers?

*The Preacher Poets, ed. Mr. Robert Curtis, O.P., pp. 12-14.

I've got that Nagging Feeling

Master General of the Dominican Order
in prayer

Since I've been praying like a pirate, I read with interest the Zenit article reflecting on "humanity's innate religious sense."  Pope Benedict urges us to spend more time in prayer, which he said was an expression of man's profound need for meaning.

B16 said if we listen in silence God will reveal Himself.  We will learn to recognize His voice and open ourselves up to a relationship with Jesus.  The Holy Father explained that man is as much a "homo religiosus," as he is "homo sapiens" and "homo faber."

I liked the part when the Pope said that prayer is a mindset, not words.  It's a way of being before God, rather than worship.  That's different.

Interestingly, the Holy Father agrees with me, that it is difficult to pray.  It can be a challenge for anyone, especially during different periods of one's life.  But it is a grace for everyone, to seek.

Pope Benedict mentioned the gesture of kneeling.  He called it a "dynamic of prayer."  It is a position of supplication, like a man asking a woman to marry him.  It's a typical expression of one seeking.

What are we seeking?  What everyone seeks -- love, relationship, a feeling of worthiness.

But I know some who would deny this "innate need for meaning."  Personally, I think they do feel that desire, but don't pay attention to it.  Like some who are sick and try to ignore it.  With grace they do seek help.

Let us pray.

Missals at Mass

Today's Zenit, has an article written by Father Paul Gunter, on Using Missals.  I'm very interested in the current church opinion on missal usage.  Being a Lector, I know that we frown upon people reading the Readings, as we proclaim them.  I mean, the people should be listening to the Word.  What the Lector proclaims should be clear and loud and leave no need to want to read along.  In fact, it's rather insulting to the Lector.

That being said, I'm one of those pew sitters who follow along in my Magnificat.  I pray with the priest AND I read what the Lector proclaims.  That's because I'm a visual person--not auditory.  If I listen to a lecture I'll probably fall asleep.  I need the book to see what is said.  I guess I need both, because if I'm truthful, I will admit that seeing reinforces listening.

This is where I'm coming from.  This is why I've copied and pasted the article here. It's proof that reading along during Mass is perfectly acceptable.

The Use of Missals and Missalettes During Mass

Printed Aides Could Make a Comeback With New Liturgy Translation

ROME, MARCH 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The use of missals by the laity, at least on mainland Europe, extends for considerably more than two centuries, providing access to the riches of the liturgy for lay people increasingly interested in the liturgical action unfolding before them.

In countries where religious persecution was a reality, such as in Great Britain during penal times, the possession of such a book would have provided opponents of the Catholic faith with adequate evidence of adherence to "popery." It was not, in the British context, unknown in recusancy, for the texts of certain Masses as well as the ordinary of the Mass to be printed within a broader devotional manual aimed at a catechesis of the faithful.

In Italy, the influence of the Synod of Pistoia in 1786, three years prior to the French Revolution, had its effects on the Italian liturgical movement (1672-1750) begun by L.A. Muratori, which stressed the need for increased access to the texts as intrinsic to any process of liturgical reform. Between 1788 and 1792 there appeared translations into Italian of the Mass both in the Ambrosian and Roman rites with explanations given about principal feasts, which were contained within a guide to prayer for pious faithful.

Similar happenings were found in France and Germany that mushroomed when inspired by the liturgical initiatives of Dom Prosper Guéranger during the 19th century. The use of missals fostered a manifestly liturgical association with the liturgy which incorporated the literate into the intricacies of the liturgy celebrated in Latin and schooled them in liturgical prayer.  

Missals often included the texts of vespers for Sundays, which became a feature of many parishes especially in France, the Netherlands and Germany. During the 20th century, missals increasingly contained with catechetical material about the liturgical year, commentaries on sacred Scripture and about eucological texts. Responding to the Liturgical Movement heralded by Pope St Pius X, the Cabrol Missal and the Missal of St André were in the forefront.

Symbol of unity, identity

In our present day, at celebrations of the extraordinary form, missals are a considered pre-requisite, not only as a means of participating in texts which are often intentionally silent, but, more crucially, as a means of following the texts of Scripture as well as those of particular rites attached to certain days which would not be familiar. They contain an abridged version of the rubrics when compared to those contained in the altar missal. They also provide a collection of texts and illustrations of sacred art found conducive to prayer and meditation and which help to detract from inevitable distractions. Since missals could be as artistically beautiful as expensive, the faithful make sacrifices to possess one. Correspondingly, they have developed with time into a symbol of Catholic identity and pride.

In the context of the ordinary form, the purpose of a missal for participating at Mass is less clear. Though many people choose to possess one, maybe culturally inspired by the previous example, and who bring it diligently to Mass each week, the hermeneutic of participation has changed. This change has affected people to the extent that many have simply stopped using them. However, a missal remains a huge support to those who are deaf or hard of hearing and in situations where the proclamation of texts is, in practice, barely audible.

Speaking at cross-purposes about what is meant by a missal in the ordinary form is a risk. For laypeople, it is the book they use if they desire to follow the texts at Mass. In an updated style, a missal contains all that is needed in one volume, together with whatever liturgical and scriptural commentaries the edition decides to include. For the clergy, the missal is to be distinguished from the lectionary since the missal does not contain the scriptural readings proclaimed at Mass.

The majority of Catholics have grasped, if only from what they have witnessed in recent generations, that the Liturgical Movement of the 20th century strove to reform the liturgy. Few have necessarily appreciated that, when "Sacrosanctum Concilium" called for the reform of the liturgy, it did so by calling for its reform in partnership with its promotion ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," No. 1). Far from being diminished in importance, the liturgical life of the Church was to grow in prominence.

In order for it to do so, it was necessary that the liturgy communicate effectively what it celebrates so that the minds and hearts of those who celebrate it would be able to articulate themselves what was being promoted. That hermeneutic underpinned the direction of "Sacrosanctum Concilium": "Pastors of souls must therefore realize that when the liturgy is celebrated, something more is required than the mere observation of the laws governing valid and licit celebration; it is their duty also to ensure that the faithful take part fully aware of what they are doing, actively engaged in the rite and enriched by its fruits" (No. 11).

Set aside

Steadily, since Vatican II, missals have been depended on less in the promotion of liturgical life within the celebration as people have learned their responses and to make them together "as befits a community" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," No. 21). The readings are read aloud with the assistance of a sound system and from an ambo that faces the assembly. Many of those who once followed texts in missals became lectors, thus discovering a new and sincere piety as they found themselves exercising a genuine liturgical function.

Clergy, encouraged by "Sacrosanctum Concilium," based their preaching on the readings of the day, with the result that sermons gave way to homilies rooted in liturgical preaching. Consequently, as they grew familiar with the rites, people needed, less and less, to read accompanying material to give them structural indications. They would, in greater numbers, subsequently, set aside their missals.

Also, for the first name in centuries, they would begin to use the word "homily" as "homilists" spoke throughout the liturgical year, now moved by "Sacrosanctum Concilium" Nos. 51 and 52, whose opening phrases are "The treasures of the Bible" and "By means of the homily." Clergy were further reinforced by the centrality of a liturgical communication of Scripture by "Dei Verbum": "Clergy must hold fast to sacred Scriptures through diligent sacred reading and careful study […] so that none of them will become 'an empty preacher of the Word of God outwardly who is not a listener to it inwardly'" (No. 25).

Ironically, the use of missals and of missalettes are about to make a comeback as parishes grapple with the new translations of the third edition of the Roman Missal. It remains to be seen if the renewed publication of missals for the ordinary form in the light of forthcoming new translations will augur a new interest in their communal use in the liturgy in the long term. What is certain is that these publications need to be imbued with the spirit of the liturgy and encourage conformity to what the Church is asking of us in this renewed opportunity for an authentic catechesis on the Mass gleaned from insights of the new translations.  

In order that the faithful should be led anew to a genuinely "fully conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," 14), those entrusted with the implementation of the new missal will need a refresher on "how to observe the liturgical laws’ ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," 17). Then, missals and other supplementary material will bring forth the beacon of unity that is a celebrated liturgy, faithfully reformed and promoted, so that it is "taught under its theological, historical, spiritual, pastoral and juridical aspects" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium," No. 16).

* * *

Benedictine Father Paul Gunter is a professor of the Pontifical Institute of Liturgy Rome and Consulter to the Office of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Let's Make the Death Penalty Non-existent

Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-30545?l=english

AIDE: I DON'T WANT THE DEATH PENALTY FOR ANYONE

Spokesman Reflects on Church's Stance on Punishment

ROME, OCT. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The director of the Vatican press office says he is against recourse to the death penalty, and wants capital punishment for no one anywhere in the world.

This was the affirmation made by Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, as he offered his personal reflection on the Church's opposition to current recourse to capital punishment.

"I don't want it in China, or in Iran, or in the United States, or in India, or in Indonesia or in Saudi Arabia -- nowhere in the world," he asserted during the most recent episode of Vatican Television's "Octava Dies."

"I don't want it by stoning, or by shooting, or by decapitation, or by hanging, or by the electric chair, or by lethal injection," he continued. "I don't want it painful or painless. I don't want it in public or in secret.

"I don't want it for women, or for men; for the handicapped or for the healthy. I don't want it for civilians or military men, I don't want it in peace or in war. I don't want it for someone who might be innocent, but I don't want it for confessed criminals either. I don't want it for homosexuals. I don't want it for adulterers. I don't want it for anyone."

"I don't even want it for murderers, for the Mafiosi, for traitors or for tyrants," Father Lombardi added. "I don't want it out of vengeance, or to free ourselves from troublesome and expensive prisoners, not even for alleged mercy."

"Because," he said, "I seek a greater justice. And it is good to walk on this path to increasingly affirm, in favor of everyone, the dignity of the person and of human life, of which we are not the ones to dispose."

The Vatican spokesman referenced the Catechism of the Catholic Church, saying that cases in which the death penalty is the only means to protect human lives and public order are practically non-existent.

"Let us make [the cases] non-existent," he said. "It's better."

A Word of Hope

Prisoners Need Hope, Says Benedict XVI in the April 30, 2010 issue of Zenit. BXVI was talking about a new organization,the National Reinsertion and Work Agency, in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and the Monsignor Francesco Di Vincenzo Institute of Human Promotion Foundation, to help prisoners and ex-convicts to join the community after serving their sentences.

The Pontiff stated, "This project is all the more valuable in the present moment of difficulty of the prison world that has such need of hope and, hence, of the Gospel."
The agency is currently working in Catania, Sicily, to give a group of 12 prisoners an education in human, spiritual and professional topics. Salvatore Martinez, national president of the movement, stated that this project "represents an original operative prototype dedicated to the prison world." He explained that it is a "social system" that incorporates "four invariables:" family, church, culture and work. Martinez added that the agency is a "placement agency" that operates throughout the national territory in order to create ways of humanization and human redemption, professional formation and work reinsertion, through "personalized supervision" and operating as a "business incubator."

You can't help but see my "cloistered brothers" in this article. They are "hope" itself, in a very dark place. In fact, my brother, Dennis wrote a book called A Word About Hope, about my "cloistered brothers." It's free. It's on the net and downloadable.

Contest for Priests

Zenit is announcing this contest for priests. Why don't you copy and paste this announcement and send it to all the priest you know? Maybe one of them will win.

Priestly Contest: 1st Prize Is Free Trip to Rome

NORTH HAVEN, Connecticut, FEB. 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Catholic.net is sponsoring a contest, awarding a free trip to Rome or the Holy Land for the winner.

Any priest can enter the contest with multiple submissions at no fee.

Contestants are asked to narrate the "most inspiring moment of their priestly ministry," and submit it through the Catholic.net Web site.

A press release from the group noted that this initiative aims to "promote the beauty of the Catholic priesthood," especially during this Year for Priests.

Thus, the winner will be given a trip to Rome for the closing of the year in June 2010. For those who already live in that city, an alternate Holy Land pilgrimage is offered.

The contest organizers noted that this competition aims to help priests in this year to reflect upon the "extraordinary presence of God's Providence" in their lives and ministry.

It is also "a gift from priests to the Church" since "the best testimonies will be compiled into a book at the end of the contest for the enrichment of Catholics everywhere."

Contest entries must be received by March 19, at which time the best story will be chosen. Runner-ups will be selected for publication in a book, or online posting at the Catholic.net Web site.

Florida Bishops Ask to Close Death Row

Florida Bishops Asking to Close Down Death Row In Appeal for Life of Executed Tampa Man By Karna SwansonTALLAHASSEE, Florida, FEB. 11, 2009 (Zenit.org).- The bishops of Florida have asked Governor Charlie Crist to "set a new standard of decency" for the state by doing away with the death penalty.

In a letter sent last week by the state's episcopal conference, the bishops also appealed for the life of Wayne Tompkins, who was executed by lethal injection today in Tampa. Tompkins was found guilty of murdering 15-year-old Lisa DeCarr, who was his girlfriend's daughter."Set a new standard of decency for the State of Florida," the bishops appealed, "by abandoning executions and commuting death row sentences to life in prison without possibility of parole."

Sheila Hopkins, associate director for Social Concerns/Respect Life of the Florida episcopal conference, explained to ZENIT that the position of the bishops is not to say, "We should let people go free, but that they are being punished by being put in prison for the rest of their life." Hopkins also noted that there have been several cases of death row inmates who have been found innocent. "We have to ask ourselves if we are killing an innocent person. That would be a terrible tragedy."The letter of the bishops' conference, however, did not affirm Tompkin's innocence, but rather asked that Crist "replace the violence of death by execution with life long imprisonment in the penal system as a way to protect society and ensure punishment for offenders." "We pray for healing for DeCarr’s family and friends who have suffered the pain of losing their loved one. No punishment, no matter how severe, can ever erase the grief caused by her wrongful death," the prelates added. "You have the singular ability to change the course of action to be taken by the state in death penalty cases," the letter continued. "In pursuing justice for victims of violent crimes, the state must not be blinded by politics that diminish human dignity and the sacredness of all life, including that of convicted criminals. "Florida should join the ranks of other states which have abandoned executions because they have not been a deterrent to crime and have raised serious concerns about fairness of sentencing in the justice system."