When Congressional leaders, ambassadors and others gathered in a U.S. Senate hearing room to honor St. Damien de Veuster Nov. 19, Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva compared the work of the Belgian-born saint to that of public servants.

Bishop Silva noted that St. Damien — known for his work in Hawaii with victims of Hansen’s disease, or leprosy — was a healer, community organizer and advocate, builder, engineer, band leader and funeral director.

Mosaic of St. Damien de Veuster

“He worked tirelessly for 16 years in a place most people would not even think of visiting for fear of being touched by the dread disease of leprosy,” Bishop Silva said. “Even when he himself contracted the disease, he went on working, never feeling sorry for himself or thinking of his own needs, because the needs of those he served were paramount in his mind and heart.”

The bishop said it was fitting that, for decades, a statue of the newly ordained saint had stood in the U.S. Capitol.

“His image reminds all who come here as public servants of the tireless dedication that is required of those who offer themselves to lead the people as legislators,” he said. “The tasks and issues here are at least as complex and overwhelming as those that faced Father Damien. His statue reminds our public servants to keep going and to never lose hope, even when they seem to be overwhelmed and discouraged. His heroism inspires a similar heroic service in all of us.”

Even though it was published about a month ago, a column by Father Mark Goldasich, editor of  The Leaven, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., is still worth a read. He dedicated his Oct. 23 column “Mark My Words” to a reflection on the ministry of priests, timed for the Oct. 25 observance of World Priest Day. 

Father Goldasich told a Hasidic tale about a watchman’s thoughtful question to a rabbi: “For whom do you work?”

In his column (page 14), Father Goldasich said, “Obviously priests are not perfect. … We can be cantankerous, lazy, distracted, stubborn, weary and impatient — qualities shared by all flawed human beings. But hopefully, we balance out those less desirable qualities with an abundance of humility, humor, support, encouragement, generosity, simplicity, availability and compassion.”

He suggested parishioners “become priests’ watchmen, to watch over us through prayer.”

“While the workload for priests has increased dramatically, our numbers have not,” Father Goldasich wrote. “On those days when I can’t pray as much as I want (and should), it’s comforting to know that my watchmen are out there praying for me and protecting me from hard.”

(CNS/Bob Roller)

Here, posted this morning on the USCCB Web site, is the text of Cardinal Francis E. George’s presidential address opening the U.S. bishops’ fall general meeting yesterday.

Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of Charleston, S.C., prays during the U.S. bishops' general meeting in Baltimore Nov. 16. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we won’t be able to liveblog today’s sessions of the general meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops as we did yesterday. For minute-to-minute updates from the floor of the meeting in Baltimore, check out the USCCB media office’s Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/usccbmedia. Or, watch the livestream at http://telecaretv.org (click on “Watch Telecare Live”).

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York shares a Tastykake with Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia during a break at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' fall meeting in Baltimore Nov. 16. The two presented each other with T-shirts after making good on a wager after the Yankees won their 27th World Series. (CNS/Bob Roller)

You may recall reading about the friendly World Series wager between the archbishops of New York and Philadelphia — some Tastykakes to New York if Philadelphia lost the series; some New York bagels to Philly if the Yankees lost. (Who knew that Tastykakes are known as the “taste of Philadelphia”? Not me — I prefer Philly cheesesteaks, but I digress.)

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of New York and Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia had already made good on their bet. But the two good friends (Archbishop Dolan is a St. Louis native; Cardinal Rigali used to be archbishop there) shared some tasty Tastykakes just the same during the U.S. bishops’ general meeting in Baltimore this week.

UPDATE: There are additional photos of the two bishops on the Facebook page of the USCCB.

SECOND UPDATE: On his blog, Archbishop Dolan has his own set of photos on his “sweet victory.”

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, addresses the bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore Nov. 16. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

Here we are again, ready to liveblog the fall general meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, just as we did last year. (If you’ve opened this page mid-session, make sure you refresh your browser often to get the latest updates.)

Our thanks to Telecare, the television ministry of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y., for livestreaming the meeting from Baltimore.

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4:50 p.m.: Wrapping up for the day with Our Father and Hail Mary, then adjournment.

4:46 p.m.: “A principled position, not a political one,” he says. Also criticizes NYTimes editorial decrying bishops’ efforts.

4:44 p.m.: Bishop Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chair of the committee most responsible for formulating USCCB position on health care reform, now addressing bishops. Thanks staff for hard work.

4:43 p.m.: And it is endorsed by the bishops.

4:39 p.m.: Presenting his statement issued last week after House vote for backing by the entire body of bishops. (Full text here.)

4:37 p.m.: Not on agenda, but Cardinal George is thanking members of the House of Representatives who voted to maintain restrictions on abortion funding in health care bill.

4:35 p.m.: Archbishop Dolan concludes by thanking bishops for listening to him “brag” about CRS.

4:21 p.m.: Another annual report, this time on Catholic Relief Services, presented by the chairman of the board, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of Las Cruces, N.M., and Chicago Auxiliary Bishop John R. Manz chat prior to Mass on the first day of the U.S. bishops' general meeting in Baltimore Nov. 16. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

4:10 p.m.: Cardinal Rigali of Philadelphia now giving presentation on proposed document, “Life-Giving Love in an Age of Technology.” Here’s our preview story.

4:02 p.m.: Preliminary discussion on the bishops’ proposed pastoral letter on marriage.

3:53 p.m.: Here again we have a preview on what the bishops are trying to revise in their health care directives.

3:49 p.m.: Now on to preliminary discussion on a proposed revision to “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care.”

3:41 p.m.: Here’s our story on Cardinal George’s address this afternoon opening the meeting.

3:37 p.m.: If you’re having a hard time following the liturgy issues being discussed right now, here’s a backgrounder on these five action items.

3:24 p.m.: Back in session. First up, preliminary presentations on five liturgy-related action items. The bishops will not vote today — this is just preliminary discussion.

3:01 p.m.: Related to the meeting, we’ve just posted our story on the bishops’ commemoration of the assassination 20 years ago today of six Salvadoran Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

2:57 p.m.: Coffee break. Cardinal George wants everyone back at 3:20 to resume.

2:53 p.m.: Father O’Connell gets a standing ovation as he says good-bye and thanks the bishops for the privilege of serving them as president of “your university.”

2:43 p.m.: President of The Catholic University of America, Father David O’Connell, giving his annual update to the bishops. Notes that this is his last address to the bishops before stepping down next August.

2:42 p.m.: Archbishop Sambi concluding his talk. Hope to get the full text later.

Auxiliary Bishops James D. Conley of Denver and Daniel E. Thomas of Philadelphia share a light moment with Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, Calif., following Mass on the opening day of the U.S. bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore Nov. 16. (CNS photo/Bob Roller)

2:27 p.m.: If you’re looking for background on the meeting agenda, here’s our preview story. And the bishops’ media office last Friday published this backgrounder called “What’s What at the Bishops’ Meeting.”

2:18 p.m.: Cardinal George concludes his address. Now up is the annual address by the pope’s representative to the U.S., Archbishop Pietro Sambi.

2:15 p.m.: Quotes his predecessor, Cardinal Bernardin, on the importance of health care protecting all people, including the unborn.

2:10 p.m.: Cardinal George is emphasizing the importance of the priesthood in this Year for Priests.

2:07 p.m.: VP of bishops’ conference, Bishop Kicanas of Tucson, is introducing Cardinal George for the latter’s presidential address, a sort of a “state of the church” speech that always opens the bishops’ fall meeting.

2:02 p.m.: You can also follow the meeting on the Twitter page of the USCCB media relations office.

1:58 p.m.: National Advisory Council report being given now. Council is a body of laity, religious, priests and bishops that give advice to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on issues facing the bishops. Here’s some background on the council.

Cardinal Francis E. George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, gives Communion to U.S. bishops during Mass this morning at the opening of the bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore. (CNS/Bob Roller)

1:45 p.m.: Routine opening business, intro of new members, intro of retired bishops who are attending. There’ll be a prayer for deceased bishops, approval of agenda, approval of minutes from previous meeting, before any other action takes place.

1:40 p.m.: That’s Bishop Edward J. Burns, of Juneau, Alaska, leading the opening prayer.

(UPDATE: Full story.)

By Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI has named Bishop Jerome E. Listecki of La Crosse, Wis., to be the archbishop of Milwaukee and Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Harrisburg, Pa., to be the bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind.

He also accepted the resignation of Bishop John M. D’Arcy, who has headed the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend since 1985. He is 77 years old, two years past the age at which canon law requires bishops to turn in their resignation.

The appointments and resignation were announced in Washington Nov. 14 by Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States.

In Milwaukee Archbishop Listecki, 60, succeeds Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, who was appointed to head the New York Archdiocese in February.

Bishop Rhoades, who will turn 52 Nov. 26, succeeds Bishop D’Arcy, who earlier this year was at the forefront of strong criticism of the University of Notre Dame in South Bend for inviting President Barack Obama to give the commencement address and its decision to give him an honorary degree.

More than 70 bishops and other critics of Obama said his support of legal abortion and embryonic stem-cell research made him an inappropriate choice to be commencement speaker at a Catholic university and to receive an honorary degree.

Later in the year, in an article in America magazine, Bishop D’Arcy said the controversy was not about Obama, a replay of the 2008 elections or “whether it is appropriate for the president of the United States to speak at Notre Dame or any great Catholic university on the pressing issues of the day.”

“This is what universities do,” he said. “No bishop should try to prevent that.”

The central question, Bishop D’Arcy said, is: “Does a Catholic university have the responsibility to give witness to the Catholic faith and to the consequences of that faith by its actions and decisions — especially by a decision to confer its highest honor?”

Bishop D’Arcy said that, in his 24 years as head of the diocese in which Notre Dame is located, “I have never interfered in the internal governance of Notre Dame or any other institution of higher learning within the diocese.”

But he said a bishop “must be concerned that Catholic institutions do not succumb to the secular culture, making decisions that appear to many, including ordinary Catholics, as a surrender to a culture opposed to the truth about life and love.”

MORE TO COME

Moderating comments on a blog like this is not exactly rocket science, and lots of mainstream sites don’t even publish their policy, but we’ve decided to go ahead and write a comments policy of our own. They’re posted on the top of this blog for easy reference.

Pope John Paul II “wanted so much for the family, the young, the sick and elderly, deacons and priests and bishops to learn and adopt his new method of praying the rosary so that the rosary would be come more of a contemplative prayer and therein have its true beauty and depth discovered,” author and educator Robert Feeney wrote in a recent note to CNS.

He wanted to make us aware of a new book he has written, “The Rosary: The John Paul II Method,” released by Aquinas Press and distributed by Ignatius Press. He covers the history of the rosary; writings about Mary by Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict XVI; Our Lady of Fatima and the rosary; and the mysteries of the rosary. But the book’s centerpiece is how Pope John Paul recited the rosary, including his suggestion that after each mystery, a person used a picture or icon to “open up a scenario,” to visualize being part of that mystery.

The pope also suggested a person pray for a virtue with each mystery and pause briefly to meditate “on the word of God and the content of the mystery.”

“The pope always saw the young as the future and hope of the church and wanted to, in spirit, pass the rosary beads on to them,” said Feeney. He added that during the Year of the Rosary, declared by the late pope from October 2002 to October 2003, Feeney taught his own students how the pope prayed the rosary. “They were very impressed with the contemplative dimension and interjections of silence,” he said.

Feeney said he wrote the book because he wants to help the young to discover the rosary to help them “in their trials and tribulations,” like it did for him as a young man serving in the Vietnam War.  He was seriously wounded and nearly died, he said, but he called on Mary, whom he credits for his recovery. 

Feeney’s book on the pope and the rosary follows an earlier one he wrote titled “The Catholic Ideal: Exercise & Sports.” He has been told that it’s being used as a textbook in the PE department at some Catholic colleges and universities.

ROME — Geffen Records UK, which teamed up with the Pauline Fathers’ Multimedia San Paolo to set Pope Benedict’s voice to music, is going all out with publicity for the album “Alma Mater” in anticipation of its Nov. 30 worldwide release.

Msgr. Pablo Colino directing the choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome last evening. (CNS/Paul Haring)

The record company, a division of Universal Music Group, hosted a press conference yesterday in the chambers of the Rome city council and a 20-minute concert in the nearby Basilica of St. Mary Ara Coeli.

Geffen has set up a Web site promoting the album and is giving away 100 pairs of free tickets to a concert of music from the album. The concert will be held Dec. 2 in London’s Westminster Cathedral and will feature the choir of the Philharmonic Academy of Rome, which sings on the album.

Geffen’s Web site for the album features a video whose soundtrack includes the full clip of Pope Benedict XVI singing the “Regina Coeli” Marian prayer May 1, 2005.

But Geffen also has cast its net farther, posting “the making of” video on YouTube.