MESSAGE FOR TWENTY-FIFTH WORLD YOUTH DAY

VATICAN CITY, 4 MAR 2009 (VIS) – The Message of the Holy Father for twenty- fifth World Youth Day has just been published. The Day, which is due to be celebrated in all the dioceses of the world on Palm Sunday 28 March, has as its theme this year: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Extracts from the Message are given below:

“The present 25th Youth Day represents a stage on the journey towards the next World Youth Day, which will take place in August 2011 in Madrid, Spain, where I hope many of you will come to experience that event of grace.

“To prepare ourselves for this celebration, I would like to suggest some reflections on this year’s theme: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”, taken from the Gospel account of Jesus’ meeting with the rich young man, a topic already considered in 1985 by Pope John Paul II in a most beautiful Letter, addressed to young people for the first time”.

1. Jesus Meets a Young Man

“The Gospel narrative effectively expresses Jesus’ great concern for young people. … His desire is to meet with you personally and establish a dialogue with each one of you”.

2. Jesus Looked at Him and Loved Him

“In the evangelical narrative, St. Mark stresses how ‘Jesus looking at him, loved him’. The Lord’s gaze was at the core of that very special encounter, and of all Christian experience. In fact, Christianity is not primarily an ethic, but an experience of Jesus Christ Who loves us personally, young and old, poor and rich; He loves us even when we turn our backs on Him”.

“The awareness that … Christ loves everyone and always … enables us to overcome any trial: … sins, suffering or discouragement. In this love lies the source of all Christian life and the fundamental reason for evangelisation; for if we have truly found Jesus, we cannot but bear witness to Him to those people who have not yet encountered His gaze”.

3. Discovering a Plan for Life

“The rich young man asks Jesus: ‘What must I do?’ The stage of life you are currently experiencing is a time of discovery: discovery of the gifts that God has lavished on you, and of your responsibilities. It is, moreover, a time of fundamental choices to create a plan for your lives. It is a moment, therefore, to question yourselves about the authentic meaning of existence and to ask: ‘Am I satisfied with my life? Is there something lacking?’”

“Do not be afraid to address these questions! … They await answers, answers that are not superficial but able to satisfy your authentic expectations of life and happiness. To discover the life plan that can make you fully happy, listen to God, Who has a plan of love for each one of you.

4. Come and follow me!

“The Christian vocation springs from a proposal of love from the Lord, and can only be fulfilled through a response of love. … Dear friends, following the example of so many disciples of Christ, joyfully accept His invitation to follow, in order to live intensely and fruitfully in this world.

“The sadness of the rich young man of the Gospel is that which arises in the heart when a person does not have the courage to follow Christ, to make the right choice. However, it is never too late to respond to Him!

“In this Year for Priests, I would like to exhort boys and young men to be attentive as to whether the Lord is inviting them to a greater gift … in ordained ministry, and generously and enthusiastically to make themselves ready to accept this sign of special predilection, undertaking with a priest or spiritual director the necessary path of discernment. Do not be afraid, dear young people, if the Lord calls you to the religious, monastic or missionary life, or to a life of special consecration: He is able to give profound joy to those who respond with courage.

“Moreover, I invite all those who feel the vocation to marriage to accept it with faith, committing themselves to laying solid foundations for a love that is great, faithful and open to the gift of life, which is a source of richness and grace for society and the Church”.

5. Oriented to Eternal Life

“To ask ourselves about the definitive future awaiting each of us gives full meaning to existence, because it orients our life plan toward horizons that are not limited or fleeting, but broad and profound; horizons which lead us to love the world so loved by God himself, to dedicate ourselves to its development, but always with the freedom and joy born of faith and hope. These horizons help us not to make absolute values of earthly realities, aware that God is opening greater prospects for us. … Dear young people, I exhort you not to forget this perspective in your own lives: We are called to eternity”.

6. The Commandments, the Way of Authentic Love

“Jesus also asks you if you know the commandments, if you are concerned to form your conscience according to divine law and if you will put it into practice. These are certainly questions that go against the tide of the present-day mentality, which presents freedom as disconnected from values, rules and objective norms, and invites us to reject any limitation to momentary desires”.

“God gave us the commandments because He wants to educate us to true freedom, because He wants to build with us a Kingdom of love, justice and peace. To listen to them and to put them into practice does not mean to be alienated, but to find the path of authentic freedom and love, because the commandments do not limit happiness, but show how to find it”.

7. We Have Need of You

“Young people today find themselves facing many problems arising from unemployment, and from the lack of solid ideals, and of concrete prospects for the future. … Despite the difficulties, do not let yourselves be discouraged and do not give up your dreams! Rather, cultivate great desires of fraternity, justice and peace in your hearts. The future is in the hands of people who know how to seek and discover powerful reasons for life and hope”

“In my recent Encyclical ‘Caritas in Veritate’ on integral human development, I listed some of the great modern challenges, which are urgent and essential for the life of this world: the use of the resources of the earth, respect for ecology, the just division of wealth, the control of financial mechanisms, solidarity with poor countries, … the struggle against hunger in the world, the promotion of the dignity of human work, service to the culture of life, the building of peace between peoples, inter-religious dialogue, and the correct use of the social communications media.

“These are challenges to which you are called to respond in order to build a more just and fraternal world; challenges that call for an exacting and passionate life plan, into which to pour all your richness according to the design that God has for each one of you”.

“In this Year for Priests, I invite you to study the lives of the saints, especially those of saintly priests. You will see that God guided them and that they found their path day after day, in faith, hope and love. Christ calls each of you to commit yourselves, with Him, and to assume your responsibilities to build a civilisation of love”.

BENEDICT XVI VISITS ROME’S EVANGELICAL-LUTHERAN CHURCH

VATICAN CITY, 14 MAR 2010 (VIS) – This afternoon, Benedict XVI visited the Evangelical-Lutheran church of Rome, a building inaugurated in 1922, where he was welcomed by Jens-Martin Kruse, pastor of the city’s Lutheran community. John Paul II visited the same church in December 1983, for the fifth centenary of the birth of Martin Luther.

As the Pope and the Lutheran pastor advanced towards the altar, a choir of Lutherans and Catholic seminarians sang Mozart’s “Jubilate Deo”.

Following a greeting from the president of the Lutheran community, Pastor Kruse and the Pope both delivered homilies. Benedict XVI gave thanks for the fact that “we are gathered here on this Sunday, singing together, listening to the Word of God, listening to one another and looking towards the One Christ, bearing witness to the One Christ”.

Continuing his homily, delivered off-the-cuff in German, the Holy Father noted how “we hear many complaints about the fact that there are no longer any new developments in ecumenism. Yet”, he insisted, “we can say with gratitude that there are many elements that unite us”.

“We must not content ourselves with the successes of ecumenism over recent years, because we still cannot drink from the same chalice or gather together around the same altar”, he said.

“This”, he went on, “cannot but make us sad because it is a situation of sin; and yet unity cannot be achieved by men. We must entrust ourselves to the Lord, because He is the only one Who can give us unity. Let us hope that He brings us to that goal”.

Recalling words used by Pastor Kruse in his homily, the Holy Father agreed that the main common ground between Lutherans and Catholics “must be the joy and hope we are already experiencing, and the hope that our current unity may become even deeper”.

At the end of his visit the Pope gave the Lutheran community of Rome, which is made up of 350 faithful, a mosaic depicting Jesus Christ, reproduction of an original located under the Altar of the Confession in St. Peter’s Basilica.

ANGELUS: PARABLE OF PRODIGAL SON IS A PEAK OF SPIRITUALITY

VATICAN CITY, 14 MAR 2010 (VIS) – At midday today, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with faithful gathered below in St. Peter’s Square.

Before the Marian prayer the Holy Father reflected on today’s Gospel reading, saying that St. Luke’s narrative “represents an all-time literary and spiritual high point.

“What indeed would our culture, our art and, more generally, our civilisation be without this revelation of a Father God full of mercy?” he added. “Once Jesus told us of the merciful Father, things were not as they were before: now we know God. … Our relations with Him are constructed over the course of time, just as happens with a child and his parents. At first he is dependent on them, then he claims his own autonomy and finally – if there is a positive development – the relationship matures, based on recognition and authentic love”.

The Pope went on to point out that these stages in human relations reflect the various moments in a human being’s relationship with God, which “may also have a phase similar to infancy: a religion inspired by need and dependency”. Then, as a person grows, “he wishes to free himself from this submission” and “to become capable of looking after himself, of making his own independent choices, sometimes thinking he can do without God”.

This delicate phase, noted the Holy Father, “can lead to atheism, but that too, not infrequently, conceals a need to discover the true face of God. Luckily for us, God never fails in His faithfulness and, even if we move away and become lost, He continues to follow us with His love, forgiving our errors and speaking to our conscience in order to call us back to Him”.

“Only by experiencing forgiveness, by recognising that we are loved with a gratuitous love that is greater than our own abjection, and than our justice, do we finally enter into a truly filial and free relationship with God”, Benedict XVI concluded.

POPE TO SPEND THE ENTIRE SUMMER AT CASTELGANDOLFO

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAR 2010 (VIS) – The Holy See Press Office has announced that in summer this year the Holy Father will travel directly from Rome to Castelgandolfo, where he will spend the entire summer period.

Benedict XVI, the text continues, “greatly appreciates all the invitations he has received to spend several weeks in alpine locations and sincerely thanks the bishops who sent them, but this year he prefers to start the summer period of rest and study immediately, without the commitment of further transfers”.

Rhode Island woman who survived earthquake in Haiti says crisis still ‘not over’

Providence, R.I., Mar 14, 2010 / 01:53 pm (CNA).- Watching news reports of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday, Nicole Jean-Gilles was drawn back to that fateful day seven weeks ago when she was nearly killed during the quake that rocked Haiti.

Jean-Gilles is a nurse at Fatima Hospital, and a member of the diocese’s Black Catholic Ministry. She had returned to Haiti, her homeland, for a post-holiday visit with several family members who still reside there, when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck the island nation on Jan. 12.

She was riding with family members in a car through the capital, Port-Au-Prince, when the earth began to shake violently just before 5 p.m. local time.

“I survived, thank God,” says Jean-Gilles, 49. “We had stopped. A bus in front of us broke down. That saved us.”

She says she couldn’t believe what she was seeing as a house at the side of the road in front of them suddenly collapsed onto itself, spreading debris everywhere. She says she felt like she was part of a movie.

“If it weren’t for the bus, we would have been further down the road and the car would have been crushed,” she says.

As the dust began to settle, panic ensued in the streets, she recalls, with people scurrying around and crying, not knowing what to do as they ran for their lives.

It would be another five hours before Jean-Gilles, and those riding with her, would make it back to her mother Lucinne’s home, which was about 20 minutes away.

Jean-Gilles stayed on to assist the relief efforts with her medical skills until she finally boarded an American military flight back to the U.S.

While she is able to stay in contact with her family in Haiti now by telephone, Jean-Gilles says relief efforts there still have a long way to go.

It was her mother’s preparedness that allowed the family to survive following the quake, according to Jean-Gilles. Lucinne was fortunate to have cupboards full of food to help take care of the family and others. Many thousands of others were not as fortunate.

Days turned into weeks as people in the neighborhood waited in vain for relief convoys to come and distribute much-needed food and water.

“They weren’t going through the streets. Not everybody was getting the help,” Jean-Gilles says.

Despite the passage of seven weeks since the disaster, conditions have not been greatly improved for many thousands who are barely surviving there.

“They still need a lot of help now,” Jean-Gilles says, relaying information she is continually receiving from her family in Haiti.

“It’s not over.”

Aid has begun flowing from diocesan collections across the United States and around the world to Catholic Relief Services, which was already on the ground in Haiti doing humanitarian work even before the quake literally leveled the playing field for a range of social classes even before the quake struck.

Jean-Gilles, whose husband Frantz is a driver for RIPTA, says she would like to bring at least one of her nephews to Providence to help him escape the terrible situation they are forced to live in there as a result of the disaster.

“It’s so sad to see the country like that,” she says.

Printed with permission from The Rhode Island Catholic, newspaper for the Diocese of Providence.

PROMOTER OF JUSTICE AT DOCTRINE OF FAITH ON PAEDOPHILIA

VATICAN CITY, 13 MAR 2010 (VIS) – Given below is the text of an interview, published today by the Italian newspaper “Avvenire”, with Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna, promoter of justice of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, concerning the investigative and judicial activities of that dicastery in cases of “delicta graviora”, which include the crime of paedophilia committed by members of the clergy:

Msgr. Charles J. Scicluna is the “promoter of justice” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He is effectively the prosecutor of the tribunal of the former Holy Office, whose job it is to investigate what are known as “delicta graviora”; i.e., the crimes which the Catholic Church considers as being the most serious of all: crimes against the Eucharist and against the sanctity of the Sacrament of Penance, and crimes against the sixth Commandment (”thou shall not commit impure acts”) committed by a cleric against a person under the age of eighteen. These crimes, in a “Motu Proprio” of 2001, “Sacramentum sanctitatis tutela”, come under the competency of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In effect, it is the “promoter of justice” who deals with, among other things, the terrible question of priests accused of paedophilia, which are periodically highlighted in the mass media. Msgr. Scicluna, an affable and polite Maltese, has the reputation of scrupulously carrying out the tasks entrusted to him without deferring to anyone.

Question: Monsignor, you have the reputation of being “tough”, yet the Catholic Church is systematically accused of being accommodating towards “paedophile priests”.

Answer: It may be that in the past – perhaps also out of a misdirected desire to protect the good name of the institution – some bishops were, in practice, too indulgent towards this sad phenomenon. And I say in practice because, in principle, the condemnation of this kind of crime has always been firm and unequivocal. Suffice it to recall, to limit ourselves just to last century, the famous Instruction “Crimen sollicitationis” of 1922.

Q: Wasn’t that from 1962?

A: No, the first edition dates back to the pontificate of Pius XI. Then, with Blessed John XXIII, the Holy Office issued a new edition for the Council Fathers, but only two thousand copies were printed, which were not enough, and so distribution was postponed sine die. In any case, these were procedural norms to be followed in cases of solicitation during confession, and of other more serious sexually-motivated crimes such as the sexual abuse of minors.

Q: Norms which, however, recommended secrecy…

A: A poor English translation of that text has led people to think that the Holy See imposed secrecy in order to hide the facts. But this was not so. Secrecy during the investigative phase served to protect the good name of all the people involved; first and foremost, the victims themselves, then the accused priests who have the right – as everyone does – to the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. The Church does not like showcase justice. Norms on sexual abuse have never been understood as a ban on denouncing the crimes to the civil authorities.

Q: Nonetheless, that document is periodically cited to accuse the current Pontiff of having been – when he was prefect of the former Holy Office – objectively responsible for a Holy See policy of covering up the facts…

A: That accusation is false and calumnious. On this subject I would like to highlight a number of facts. Between 1975 and 1985 I do not believe that any cases of paedophilia committed by priests were brought to the attention of our Congregation. Moreover, following the promulgation of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, there was a period of uncertainty as to which of the “delicta graviora” were reserved to the competency of this dicastery. Only with the 2001 “Motu Proprio” did the crime of paedophilia again become our exclusive remit. From that moment Cardinal Ratzinger displayed great wisdom and firmness in handling those cases, also demonstrating great courage in facing some of the most difficult and thorny cases, “sine acceptione personarum”. Therefore, to accuse the current Pontiff of a cover-up is, I repeat, false and calumnious.

Q: What happens when a priest is accused of a “delictum gravius”?

A: If the accusation is well-founded the bishop has the obligation to investigate both the soundness and the subject of the accusation. If the outcome of this initial investigation is consistent, he no longer has any power to act in the matter and must refer the case to our Congregation where it is dealt with by the disciplinary office.

Q: How is that office composed?

A: Apart from myself who, being one of the superiors of the dicastery, also concern myself with other matters, there are the bureau chief Fr. Pedro Miguel Funes Diaz, seven priests and a lay lawyer who follow these cases. Other officials of the Congregation also make their own vital contribution depending upon the language and specific requirements of each case.

Q: That office has been accused of working little and slowly…

A: Those are unjustified comments. In 2003 and 2004 a great wave of cases flooded over our desks. Many of them came from the United States and concerned the past. Over recent years, thanks to God, the phenomenon has become greatly reduced, and we now seek to deal with new cases as they arise.

Q: How many have you dealt with so far?

A: Overall in the last nine years (2001-2010) we have considered accusations concerning around three thousand cases of diocesan and religious priests, which refer to crimes committed over the last fifty years.

Q: That is, then, three thousand cases of paedophile priests?

A: No, it is not correct to say that. We can say that about sixty percent of the cases chiefly involved sexual attraction towards adolescents of the same sex, another thirty percent involved heterosexual relations, and the remaining ten percent were cases of paedophilia in the true sense of the term; that is, based on sexual attraction towards prepubescent children. The cases of priests accused of paedophilia in the true sense have been about three hundred in nine years. Please don’t misunderstand me, these are of course too many, but it must be recognised that the phenomenon is not as widespread as has been believed.

Q: The accused, then, are three thousand. How many have been tried and condemned?

A: Currently we can say that a full trial, penal or administrative, has taken place in twenty percent of cases, normally celebrated in the diocese of origin – always under our supervision – and only very rarely here in Rome. We do this also in order to speed up the process. In sixty percent of cases there has been no trial, above all because of the advanced age of the accused, but administrative and disciplinary provisions have been issued against them, such as the obligation not to celebrate Mass with the faithful, not to hear confession, and to live a retired life of prayer. It must be made absolutely clear that in these cases, some of which are particularly sensational and have caught the attention of the media, no absolution has taken place. It’s true that there has been no formal condemnation, but if a person is obliged to a life of silence and prayer, then there must be a reason…

Q: That still leaves twenty percent of cases…

A: We can say that in ten percent of cases, the particularly serious ones in which the proof is overwhelming, the Holy Father has assumed the painful responsibility of authorising a decree of dismissal from the clerical state. This is a very serious but inevitable provision, taken though administrative channels. In the remaining ten percent of cases, it was the accused priests themselves who requested dispensation from the obligations deriving from the priesthood, requests which were promptly accepted. Those involved in these latter cases were priests found in possession of paedophile pornographic material and, for this reason, condemned by the civil authorities.

Q: Where do these three thousand cases come from?

A: Mostly from the United States which, in the years 2003-2004, represented around eighty percent of total cases. In 2009 the United States “share” had dropped to around twenty-five percent of the 223 cases reported from all over the world. Over recent years (2007-2009), the annual average of cases reported to the Congregation from around the world has been two hundred and fifty. Many countries report only one or two cases. There is, then, a growing diversity and number of countries of origin of cases, but the phenomenon itself is much reduced. It must, in fact, be borne in mind that the overall number of diocesan and religious priests in the world is four hundred thousand, although this statistic does not correspond to the perception that is created when these sad cases occupy the front pages of the newspapers.

Q: And in Italy?

A: Thus far the phenomenon does not seem to have dramatic proportions, although what worries me is a certain culture of silence which I feel is still too widespread in the country. The Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) offers an excellent technical-juridical consultancy service for bishops who have to deal with these cases. And I am very pleased to observe the ever greater commitment being shown by Italian bishops to throw light on the cases reported to them.

Q: You said that a full trial has taken place in around twenty percent of the three thousand cases you have examined over the last nine years. Did they all end with the condemnation of the accused?

A: Many of the past trials did end with the condemnation of the accused. But there have also been cases in which the priest was declared innocent, or where the accusations were not considered to have sufficient proof. In all cases, however, not only is there an examination of the guilt or innocence of the accused priest, but also a discernment as to his fitness for public ministry.

Q: A recurring accusation made against the ecclesiastical hierarchy is that of not reporting to the civil authorities when crimes of paedophilia come to their attention.

A: In some English-speaking countries, but also in France, if bishops become aware of crimes committed by their priests outside the sacramental seal of Confession, they are obliged to report them to the judicial authorities. This is an onerous duty because the bishops are forced to make a gesture comparable to that of a father denouncing his own son. Nonetheless, our guidance in these cases is to respect the law.

Q: And what about countries where bishops do not have this legal obligation?

A: In these cases we do not force bishops to denounce their own priests, but encourage them to contact the victims and invite them to denounce the priests by whom they have been abused. Furthermore, we invite the bishops to give all spiritual – and not only spiritual – assistance to those victims. In a recent case concerning a priest condemned by a civil tribunal in Italy, it was precisely this Congregation that suggested to the plaintiffs, who had turned to us for a canonical trial, that they involve the civil authorities in the interests of victims and to avoid other crimes.

Q: A final question: is there any statue of limitation for “delicta graviora”?

A: Here you touch upon what, in my view, is a sensitive point. In the past, that is before 1889, the statue of limitations was something unknown in canon law. For the most serious crimes, it was only with the 2001 “Motu Proprio” that a statute of limitations of ten years was introduced. In accordance with these norms in cases of sexual abuse, the ten years begin from the day on which the minor reaches the age of eighteen.

Q: Is that enough?

A: Practice has shown that the limit of ten years is not enough in this kind of case, in which it would be better to return to the earlier system of “delicta graviora” not being subject to the statue of limitations. On 7 November 2002, Venerable Servant of God John Paul II granted this dicastery the power to revoke that statue of limitations, case by case following a reasoned request from individual bishops. And this revocation is normally granted.

PRIESTS: COMPLETE ADHERENCE TO CHRIST AND HIS CHURCH

VATICAN CITY, 12 MAR 2010 (VIS) – At midday today, the Holy Father received participants in a theological congress promoted by the Congregation for the Clergy, and which is being held on 11 and 12 March in the Pontifical Lateran University on the theme: “Faithfulness of Christ, faithfulness of Priests”.

In a time such as our own, said the Pope, “it is important clearly to bear in mind the theological specificity of ordained ministry, in order not to surrender to the temptation of reducing it to predominant cultural models. In the context of widespread secularisation which progressively tends to exclude God from the public sphere and from the shared social conscience, the priest often appears ‘removed’ from common sense”. Yet , the Pope went on, “it is important to avoid a dangerous reductionism which, over recent decades … has presented the priest almost as a ’social worker’, with the risk of betraying the very Priesthood of Christ.

“Just as the hermeneutic of continuity is revealing itself to be ever more important for an adequate understanding of the texts of Vatican Council II”, he added, “in the same way we see the need for a hermeneutic we could describe as ‘of priestly continuity’, one which, starting from Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, and over the two thousand years of history, greatness, sanctity, culture and piety which the Priesthood has given the world, comes down to our own day”.

Benedict XVI affirmed that “it is particularly important that the call to participate in the one Priesthood of Christ in ordained Ministry should flower from the ‘charism of prophecy’. There is great need for priests who speak of God to the world and who present the world to God; men not subject to ephemeral cultural fashions, but capable of authentically living the freedom that only the certainty of belonging to God can give. … And the prophecy most necessary today is that of faithfulness” which “leads us to live our priesthood in complete adherence to Christ and the Church”.

Priests, the Holy Father continued, “must be careful to distance themselves from the predominant mentality which tends to associate the value of Ministry not with its being, but with its function”. Our “ontological association with God”, he said “is the right framework in which to understand and reaffirm, also in our own time, the value of celibacy which in the Latin Church is a charism imposed by Holy Orders, and is held in great esteem by the Oriental Churches. … It is an expression of the gift of the self to God and to others”.

“The vocation of priests is an exalted one, and remains a great mystery. … Our limitations and weaknesses must induce us to live and safeguard this precious gift with great faith, a gift with which Christ configured us to Himself, making us participants in His mission of salvation. Indeed, the understanding of priestly ministry is linked to faith and requires, ever more strongly, a radical continuity between formation in seminaries and permanent formation”.

The Holy Father concluded by telling his audience that “the men and women of our time ask us only to be priests to the full, nothing else. The lay faithful will be able to meet their human needs in many other people, but only in the priest will they find that Word of God which must always be on his lips, the Mercy of the Father abundantly and gratuitously distributed in the Sacrament of Penance, and the bread of new life”.

ST. BONAVENTURE: UNIQUENESS AND CONTINUITY OF THE CHURCH

VATICAN CITY (VIS) – During today’s general audience, celebrated in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope turned his attention to the written works and doctrine of St. Bonaventure of Bagnoregio.

St. Bonaventure “authentically and faithfully interpreted the figure of St. Francis of Assisi”, said the Holy Father. He reacted against the “Spirituals” in the Franciscan Order who, drawing on the ideas of Joachim of Fiore, held that “with St. Francis the final phase of history had begun”, and looked to the creation of a new Church of the Holy Spirit, “no longer tied to the structures of old”.

St. Bonaventure dealt with this question in his last work, “Hexaemeron”, in which he explained that “God is one throughout history. … History is one, even if it is a journey, a journey of progression. … Jesus is the last word of God” and “there is no other Gospel, no other Church to be awaited. Thus the Order of St. Francis must also insert itself into this Church, into her faith and her hierarchical order.

“This does not mean”, Benedict XVI added, “that the Church is immobile, fixed in the past, that there is no room in her for novelty”. With his famous expression “the works of Christ are not lacking but prospering”, St. Bonaventure “explicitly formulated the idea of progress”, certain “that the richness of the word of Christ is never ending and that it can also being new light to new generations. The uniqueness of Chris is also a guarantee of novelty and renewal in the future”.

The Holy Father noted how “today too opinions exist according to which the entire history of the Church in the second millennium is one of constant decline. Some people see this decline as having begun immediately after the New Testament”. Yet, the Pope asked, “what would the Church be without the new spirituality of the Cistercians, the Franciscans and the Dominicans, the spirituality of St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross? … St. Bonaventure teaches us … how to open ourselves to the new charisms given by Christ, in the Holy Spirit, to His Church”.

“Following Vatican Council II some people were convinced that all was new, that a new Church existed, that the pre-conciliar Church had come to an end and that there would be another, completely different Church, an anarchic utopia. Yet thanks to God the wise helmsmen of the ship of Christ, Paul VI and John Paul II, defended on the one hand the novelty of the Church and, at the same time, the uniqueness and continuity of the Church, which is always a Church of sinners, and always a place of grace”.

Going on then to comment of some of the saint’s mystical and theological writings, “which were the core of his governance” of the Franciscan Order, the Pope identified the most important work as “Itinerarium mentis in Deum” (The Journey of the Mind to God). In that book St. Bonaventure explained that knowledge of God is a six-stage journey, culminating “in the full union with the Trinity through Jesus Christ, in imitation of St. Francis of Assisi”.

In St. Peter’s Basilica, before today’s general audience in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope met with a group of pilgrims from the Italian Don Carlo Gnocchi Foundation, who were marking last October’s beatification “of that outstanding Milanese priest”.

Referring to the “extraordinary activities” they undertake on behalf of “children in need, the disabled, the elderly, the terminally ill and in the vast field of assistance and healthcare”, the Holy Father noted how “through your projects of solidarity you seek to continue the meritorious work begun by Blessed Carlo Gnocchi”.

“In this Year for Priests”, the Pope concluded his remarks to the group, “the Church once again looks to him as a model to imitate. May his shining example support the efforts of those who dedicate themselves to serving the weakest, and arouse in priests the desire to rediscover and reinvigorate their awareness of the extraordinary gift of Grace that ordained ministry represents for the person who receives it, for the entire Church and for the world”.

Diocese of Hong Kong to receive 3,000 catechumens

Hong Kong, China, Mar 10, 2010 / 03:36 am (CNA).- About 3,000 catechumens will be received into the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Hong Kong. Two of their first Rites of Election were held this coming Sunday. During his homily at one service in St. Francis Parish, Fides reports, Hong Kong Bishop John Tong spoke on the theme of living water, saying that constant prayer is the best way to receive the “living water” of Jesus.

He encouraged the catechumens to always reflect on the Word of God and to distance themselves from “all things that are incompatible with the faith.”

Only in this manner, he said, can Christians “get closer and closer to Christ and Our Heavenly Father, and bear witness to Jesus.”

During the service the bishop handed over the Scriptures to the catechumens in order that the Word of God can become their life’s companion and keep the flame of faith alive in their hearts.

The next Rites of Election will be held March 14 in St. Andrew and St. Benedict Parishes, according to Fides. Two more services will be held March 21 in St. Andrew and Christ the King parishes.

Last year, over 2,700 catechumens took part in Lenten Rites of Election in the diocese.

According to the diocese’s web site, there were about 250,000 Catholics in Hong Kong in 2007. Hong Kong’s population numbers almost seven million people, according to the World Bank’s 2008 figures.

SOLUTIONS THAT RESPECT THE DIGNITY OF WOMEN

VATICAN CITY, 9 MAR 2010 (VIS) – Archbishop Celestino Migliore, Holy See permanent observer to the United Nations in New York, yesterday addressed the fifty-fourth session of the Economic and Social Council’s Commission on the Status of Women, which was meeting to discuss “Item 3: Follow-up to the Fourth World Conference on Women and to the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly entitled ‘Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century’”.

Addressing the commission in English, Archbishop Migliore said: “From the successive interventions in these days, … it seems that the assessment is not entirely positive: It includes some light, but also many and disturbing shadows.

“The advancements achieved regarding the status of women in the world in the last fifteen years include, among others, improvements in the education of girls, the promotion of women as key to eradicating poverty and fostering development, growth of participation in social life, political reforms aimed at removing forms of discrimination against women and specific laws against domestic violence”, he added.

“In particular, among the many parallel events, some have stressed the indispensable role played by civil society in all its components, in highlighting the dignity of women, their rights and responsibilities. This having been said, women continue to suffer in many parts of the world”.

The permanent observer highlighted the importance of not overlooking “violence in the form of female feticide, infanticide, and abandonment”, as well as “discrimination in health and nutrition”. He noted, moreover, how “girls and women 15 years of age and over account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate population”.

The archbishop went on: “It is a sad fact that three quarters of those infected by HIV/AIDS are girls and women between the ages of 15 and 24″, and that, among the victims of human trafficking, “minors account for up to fifty percent and approximately seventy percent are women and girls”.

The reasons for this situation are to be found “in cultural and social dynamics as well as delays and slowness of policy”, he explained.

“Achieving equality between women and men in education, employment, legal protection and social and political rights is considered in the context of gender equality. Yet the evidence shows that the handling of this concept … is proving increasingly ideologically driven, and actually delays the true advancement of women. Moreover, in recent official documents there are interpretations of gender that dissolve every specificity and complementarity between men and women. These theories will not change the nature of things but certainly are already blurring and hindering any serious and timely advancement on the recognition of the inherent dignity and rights of women”.

Archbishop Migliore stressed the fact that the final documents of international conferences and committees often “link the achievement of personal, social, economic and political rights to a notion of sexual and reproductive health and rights which is violent to unborn human life and is detrimental to the integral needs of women and men within society”.

“A solution respectful of the dignity of women does not allow us to bypass the right to motherhood, but commits us to promoting motherhood by investing in and improving local health systems and providing essential obstetrical services”, he said.

“Fifteen years ago the Beijing Platform for Action proclaimed that women’s human rights are an inalienable, integral and indivisible part of universal human rights. This is key not only to understanding the inherent dignity of women and girls but also to making this a concrete reality around the world”, he concluded.

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