The pope’s “most important discourse”

By Robert Duncan
Catholic News Service

Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych is charged with proofing all of the speeches and texts submitted to Pope Benedict XVI to ensure they are free of doctrinal error. As theologian of the papal household, he plays a key role in the teaching mission of the pope.

In a recent interview with Catholic News Service, Father Giertych singled out Pope Benedict’s 2005 speech to the Roman Curia, a group of the pope’s closest collaborators, as the most important speech the pope has delivered in his pontificate. In that address, the pope said that the only correct understanding of the Second Vatican Council is one in continuity with the church’s perennial tradition.

Father Giertych also spoke about the debate taking place among historians regarding the correct interpretation of the council’s decisions.

One book that made waves in Italy in recent years was Roberto de Mattei’s Concilio Vaticano II: Una Storia Mai Scritta (The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story). Mattei’s history of the council was an Italian P.E.N. literary award finalist in 2011.

“He’s a historian who brings in a wealth of detail that was unknown, and I think that is done very seriously,” Father Giertych said,”but he interprets the council through a key, comparing it to the French Revolution”.

According to Mattei, in 1789, the French Estates-General was called in Paris and a small group of representatives “hijacked” the general assembly’s proceedings, Father Giertych said.

“Mattei seems to interpret what happened at Vatican II with this interpretative key,” Father Giertych said, meaning “a small group (of bishops) from northern Europe imposed their agenda at the council”.

“Maybe historically it is true,” Father Gierych said, because each council is located in a certain historical and geographical context. That means some “groups” are going to have more power and influence than others, he explained.

Nevertheless, the pope’s theologian said “we need to see the hand of the Holy Spirit working through even these human maneuverings”.

To learn more about the day-to-day proceedings and what actually happened on the floor of the Second Vatican Council, check out our blog Vatican II: 50 years ago today.

Robert Duncan is a multimedia journalist in the Catholic News Service Rome bureau.

Hoofin’ it to the Vatican: barnyard critters get special blessing

A donkey waits for a special blessing in front of St. Peter’s Square to celebrate the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot, patron saint of animals. (CNS photo/Carol Glatz).

VATICAN CITY — Luckily, on this cold and rainy winter day, many of today’s special guests at the Vatican came with their own thick fur coat, except the three little pigs, who just hunkered down and snuggled up tight.

The critters, large and small, have been coming every year the past six years for the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot, patron saint of animals. The initiative, called “The farm under heaven,” is sponsored by an Italian association of farmers and ranchers.

This year the temporary tent-stalls housed cows, an ox, a mule, a donkey, a handful of horses and several goats and sheep. A bunny, geese and other fowl were scratching for fallen kibbles in the mounds of soft sawdust in their cages.

Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, celebrated Mass in the basilica for the association’s members and then later blessed the livestock outside the square.

Roman residents were invited to bring their pets for the blessing and get a free check-up from local veterinarians.

If you’d like to see more pictures from today’s blessing and equestrian parade up the main boulevard to the Vatican, please click here.

Kazakh bishop: Western errors creeping eastward

By Robert Duncan
Catholic News Service

“According to my experience in the Western world,” wrote Bishop Athanasius Scheinder of Astana, Kazakhstan, in an e-mail exchange with Catholic News Service, “I (recognize) among Catholics from non-traditional or liberal parishes mainly the following doctrinal deviations or confusions”:

- The belief in a pre-conciliar church as opposed to a post-conciliar church.

- The belief that women can be ordained to the priesthood.

- The belief that Mass is primarily a “fraternal banquet” rather than a “sacrifice.”

Bishop Schneider also cited doubts about Mary’s perpetual virginity and an overemphasis on social activism, to the detriment of prayer and adoration of God as examples of misreadings of the Second Vatican Council.

“In Kazakhstan our faithful still are not contaminated with the mentioned errors,” Bishop Schneider wrote. However, in the case of some countries of Eastern Europe that have been integrated into the European Union, “some of the errors” have started slowly “spreading, especially among the clergy. Generally the Eastern people have in their mentality a natural and deep sense of reverence towards the sacred and readiness to obey religious authority,” Bishop Schneider wrote.

But some traditional parishes are not without problems of their own. Among the “deviations” to be found in these parishes, wrote the bishop, are:

- “A pathological piety.”

- “Exaggerated credulity towards alleged apparitions.”

- A tendency to isolate tradition from the teaching authority of the church.

Bishop Schneider wrote that “an arbitrary and ideological interpretation of Vatican II” had created the confusion, along with theologians and the media who took the documents “hostage.”

“I always accepted the texts of Vatican II as a son of the church, as texts of my mother,” the bishop wrote. Nevertheless, the bishop wrote he hopes that “some expressions” of the council’s documents ” will “be made more clear and unequivocal.”

To read about Bishop Schneider’s views on the Vatican II declaration on religious liberty, click here: http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/bishop-athanasius-schneider-on-religious-liberty/

Bishop Athanasius Schneider on religious liberty

By Robert Duncan
Catholic News Service

Bishop Athanasius Schneider is an auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Astana, Kazakhstan. On a recent trip to the United States, he granted an interview to Catholic News Service.

Bishop Schneider who was born in the former Soviet Union, recalled how atheism was taught to him in kindergarten and atheistic ideas permeated all strata of society.

Within that context, Bishop Schneider said, the Second Vatican Council’s document on religious liberty (“Dignitatis Humanae”) could be properly understood. Though the government didn’t believe in God, at least both Christians and the communists could dialogue “to save the human dignity,” and thereby promote religious liberty.

But the council’s document was not properly understood by everyone. Interpretations of the document that suggested a “rupture” with previous church teaching were many, the bishop said.

“Even human societies have to serve the Creator. … It is not always possible because of the consequences of original sin and the activity of the devil, but in theory we have to say this, and this is not a contradiction with ‘Dignitatis Humanae.’ We have to reconcile this.”

The bishop also said that in Catholic-majority countries, it is a matter of justice and also of democratic principle that the government respect this majority.

“It does not mean that other religions will be persecuted or discriminated, but it is an issue of justice for the majority,” Bishop Schneider said.

In Catholic countries, the bishop also said that the proselytizing actions of “false religions and sects” may be curbed.

“For example, in Latin America, the aggressive Protestant proselytisms (are) destroying large Catholic populations. We cannot as Catholics be content with this and cannot say this is an application of religious liberty. … In these cases we must defend Catholics,” Bishop Schneider said.

That defense is first the responsibility of the bishop and clergy through preaching, but the bishop did not rule out political defenses as well.

“When there is (a Catholic majority) then false religions and sects have not the right to make propaganda there.” That doesn’t mean that governments can “suppress them, they can live, but (governments) cannot give them the same right to make propaganda to the detriment of Catholics.”

Robert Duncan is a multimedia journalist in the Catholic News Service Rome bureau.

Come see the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square!

The Holy Family in this year’s Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square. The Vatican unveiled the scene Dec. 24. (CNS/Carol Glatz)

VATICAN CITY — Vatican officials unveiled the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Square today. Journalists were given a sneak peek a few days before to take come crowd-free shots.

The scene is more than 180 square yards and recreates the ancient Italian city of Matera and its famed “sassi” — cliff-clinging churches, buildings, streets and grottos carved out of the mountainside.

This was the first time the Vatican used a donated scene in the main square in front of St. Peter’s Basilica. Since 1982, when a creche was first erected in the square at the request of Blessed John Paul II, the Vatican covered the costs of creating and building a different scene each year using larger-than-life 19th-century figures.

In fact, what’s noticeable different is the size. The actual scene is smaller and the figures are barely a foot tall. There is a huge amount of detail, but you need to view it through your zoom lens to really see it.

Our gift to you this Christmas is to offer you some close-up shots of the creche. Follow the link, turn on some Christmas music and enjoy!!

US religion writers pick bishops’ battle with HHS as 2012 top news story

Members of the Religion Newswriters Association, the world’s oldest and largest professional non-denominational association for journalists who write about religion, picked the U.S. Catholic bishops’ opposition to national health care legislation mandating contraception coverage as the No. 1 religion story of 2012. They also chose Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York as the year’s top newsmaker in their annual poll

“As the nation reeled from the Dec. 14 killing of 20 first graders and six adults in Newtown, Conn., religious leaders sought to console a stunned public and to discern religion’s role in future debates about mental health and gun control. The No. 1 U.S. religion story in December 2012 was, without a doubt, the school attack and the mournful search for meaning that follows,” an RNA statement said this week. “However, before the shooting, professional journalists who cover religion voted on the year’s other significant religious events.”

The Top 10 poll of Religion Newswriters Association members took place Dec. 11- 15, 2012, in a confidential, online ballot. More than 100 members of the organization responded. RNA has conducted the poll for nearly 40 years.

Most RNA members are working journalists in secular media, though some work in media owned by specific denominations. (Full disclosure: I am a member of RNA.)

Cardinal Dolan, the president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, became the point man for Catholic objections to required coverage of contraception, sterilization and morning after drugs in Affordable Health Care Act.

The Top 10 Religion Stories of the Year are below:

1. U.S. Catholic bishops lead opposition to Affordable Health Care Act requirement that insurance coverage for contraception be provided for employees. The government backs down a bit, but not enough to satisfy the opposition.

2. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey shows that “nones,” that is people with no religious affiliation, is the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, rising to 19.6 percent of the population.

3. The circulation of an anti-Islam film trailer, “Innocence of Muslims,” causes unrest in several countries, leading to claims that it inspired the fatal attack on a U.S. Consulate in Libya. President Obama, at the U.N., calls for toleration tolerance of blasphemy, and respect as a two-way street.

4. Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith turns out to be a virtual non-issue for white evangelical voters, who support him more strongly than they did John McCain in the U.S. presidential race.

5. Msgr. William Lynn of Philadelphia becomes the first senior Catholic official in the U.S. to be found guilty of covering up priestly child abuse; later Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., becomes the first bishop to be found guilty of it.

6. The Vatican criticizes the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group of U.S. sisters, alleging they haven’t supported church teaching on abortion, sexuality or women’s ordination.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was selected as newsmaker of the year for 2012 by the Religion Newswriters Association. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)

7. Voters OK same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington, bringing the total approving to nine states and the District of Columbia. Also, Minnesota defeats a ban on same-sex marriage after North Carolina approves one.

8. The Episcopal Church overwhelmingly adopts a trial ritual for blessing same-sex couples. Earlier, the United Methodists fail to vote on approving gay clergy, and the Presbyterians (USA) vote to study, rather than sanction, same-sex marriage ceremonies.

9. Six people are killed and three wounded at worship in a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. The shooter, an Army veteran killed by police, is described as a neo-Nazi.

10. The Southern Baptist Convention elects without opposition its first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter of New Orleans.

Votes for the 2012 Religion Newsmaker of the Year ranked the five potential candidates in this order:

1. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York becomes a point man for Catholic objections to required coverage of contraception, sterilization and morning-after drugs in the Affordable Health Care Act. But the cardinal also takes heat from the right when he invites the president to the traditional Al Smith Dinner in New York.

2. Rev. Fred Luter, first black president of the sprawling Southern Baptist Convention, who is expected to help the SBC become more racially diverse.

3. Mark Basseley Youssef, an Egypt-born Christian whose work has been condemned by the Coptic Church, provoked rioting in the Muslim world with his film trailer “Innocence of Muslims.” He was jailed in California on probation violations.

4. Mormon voters, who enthusiastically backed one of their own for president, acted in ways that helped overcome suspicions of them by other faiths.

5. Pro football quarterback Tim Tebow, whose book about his faith was on the best-seller list, inspired the term “Tebowing” for kneeling in prayer and led to polarized discussions about the role of faith in sports.

‘You can’t pick and choose in Catholic moral teaching’

By Greg Watry

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The church must evolve with the times, and the clergy must stand by their faith in the face of animosity from the secular world, a Catholic philosopher said.

John Rist, a philosopher and professor at The Catholic University of America, said in the latest edition of Vatican Voices that in order for Catholicism to flourish the clergy “have got to be visible, they have to be unpopular in many cases.  If they don’t, they’ll be failing their job.”

(CNS Photo)

Rist recognizes the risks the clergy take when promoting Catholic philosophy.  “If you say you’re opposed to abortion you don’t get your head cut off, but you get abused.  You might be called a pedophile or something like that.”

But young people, who are idealistic, are drawn to morally brave behavior, he said.  Priests set a good example for the laity by defending their faith.

In order to defend the faith, Rist said, one must learn what secular culture says and why.  By not engaging with the secular world, the church alienates itself and “the outside world gets further and further away, and you get less and less chance to have contact with it or even understand what it’s doing.”

The church addressed the issue of secularism during the Second Vatican Council.  However the council fathers didn’t understand “the problem they were trying to solve,” Rist said.  “They knew somehow the church was out of sync with the modern world,” he said, but not why.

During Vatican II and still today, he said, the problem of disconnection with the modern world lies in stagnant thinking.

Theologians don’t understand that the church is allowed to evolve, Rist said.  “They think that if we open the door to thinking and considering change, we’re going to lose everything.”

The truth is the church is always in a state of flux, Rist said.  Dramatic changes, as those that occurred during Vatican II, have happened throughout the history of the church.

In the New Testament, Rist said, Jesus claims, “’I will lead you to all truth,’ not I’ll give it to you right now on a plate.”

Vatican II fathers OK’d languages people use daily

The first session of the Second Vatican Council ended Dec. 8, 1962, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, with a closing Mass and speech by Pope John XXIII. You read the speech and the CNS report on the closing congregation of the first session at our council daybook blog, Vatican II: 50 Years Ago Today.

What may surprise you is that one of the very first actions of the council fathers was to approve the use of the vernacular in Latin-rite liturgies. This surprised many Catholic around the world, too, because of the speed with which the fathers made this change. It seemed like overnight, the exclusive use of Latin in the Western rites had been supplanted with the languages people actually used in their daily lives.

Two of the entries in the blog discuss this change. One is the article explaining the approval; the other is a very good analysis by one of the council periti or experts in sacred liturgy, Benedictine Father Cipriano Vagaggini, who died in 1999.

A woman uses a hand missal in Swahili during a Mass in Kenya. (CNS Photo/Nancy Wiechec)

As Father Vagaggini noted in his article, the approval did not spring like Athena from the head of Zeus, from the minds of the council father or Pope John. Liturgical reform had been well under way for almost 50 years by the time the council had begun. Missionaries had been pressing for the use of the vernacular for many years, especially in Asia and Africa, since Latin had almost no resonance with people on those continents.

The Benedictines were among the most prominent of the liturgical reformers of the first part of the 20th century. Nowhere was liturgical reform more studied in North America than St. John’s Abbey and University in Collegeville, Minn., with its renowned School of Theology and Seminary. Today St. John’s is home to Liturgical Press, a pioneering publisher of liturgical resources since 1926.

Will either of these new Vatican releases be on your Christmas list?

VATICAN CITY — With Advent just a couple of weeks away and Christmas on the horizon, the Vatican is set to release two great works that will help people get in the right spirit.

The first is Pope Benedict XVI’s much-awaited final volume of his Jesus of Nazareth trilogy, “The Infancy Narratives,” which will use the Gospels to explore the infancy and childhood of Jesus.

The Vatican is presenting the book and handing out copies to the press Nov. 20, but it won’t go on sale to the public until the next day, Nov. 21, which is the feast of the presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The book can be pre-ordered from the English-language publisher, Image (a division of Random House) or from other online book outlets.

The first volume, published in 2007, covered the period from Jesus’ baptism to his Transfiguration; while the second, regarding his passion and death, came out in 2011.

The other new release from the Vatican is a special CD of Christmas music performed by the Pontifical Swiss Guard band.

The music features the Swiss harpist, Daniela Lorenz. While she is not a guard, she is accompanied by guards playing clarinet, horn, trombone and saxophone.

On the CD, Ms. Lorenz plays an instrument called the Paraguayan harp. The harp, which is the national instrument of Paraguay, was introduced to Latin America by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The Guard got the idea for a Christmas CD after members performed a benefit concert with Ms. Lorenz last year. Apparently the last time the guard produced a recording was in 1979. This year sound engineers from Vatican Radio helped with the production.

The CD, titled “Weihnachten mit der Schweizergarde,” will be released Nov. 22, the feast of St. Cecilia — the patron saint of musicians, and it can be ordered on the Swiss Guard’s website here.

Pope not bugged by small creatures

VATICAN CITY — This is not news, nor is it important in the scheme of things. This is just a simple blog post about a simple matter.

Today a bug landed on Pope Benedict XVI’s forehead during a visit to a home for the elderly in Rome.

The pope greets guests, ignoring the guest closest to him. (CNS/Paul Haring)

Instead of brushing his guest away, the pope stayed focused and continued greeting other guests. Five seconds later, the bug left on his own.

The small guest, right, flies away after spending five seconds meeting the pope. (CNS/Paul Haring)

This was not the pope’s first encounter with a wayward insect. In 2009, a spider took his time climbing on the pope’s cape as he gave a speech inside the presidential palace in the Czech Republic. While the pope seemed not to notice and did not react, the incident drew a lot of international media attention. In fact, the spider garnered more media coverage than the pope’s speech.

Pope Benedict XVI is known for his immense powers of concentration. This is likely why he seems to not be bothered by little creatures.