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.

VATICAN CITY — As a participant in Villanova University’s Vatican internship program, I had the opportunity to be a part of a groundbreaking project.

This Monday, in celebration of the feast of the dedication of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Vatican website launched a state-of-the-art virtual tour of the basilica.

Paul Wilson working on the virtual tour of the Basilica of St. John Lateran in October. (Photo by Villanova intern, Heather West)

The tour of St. John Lateran is only a small part of a monumental project in which a team of Villanova University professors and students photographed the Sistine Chapel, the newly resorted Pauline Chapel, the Basilica of St. Mary Major and the Necropolis of St. Rosa.

Having labored long and hard on the virtual reality tour, the launch is a sort of personal triumph for me.

To allow the Villanova team to photograph everything in peace, officials kept the public out of the buildings, except at St. John Lateran. The Villanova interns and I worked as the photographer’s personal police squad. We made sure no curious tourists or aspiring models got in the way of the cameras. This was particularly difficult because people in St. John Lateran had no qualms about walking right up to the lens and inspecting the state-of-the-art equipment.

I was assigned to help Villanova Digital Media Coordinator Chad Fahs photograph the front entrance of the basilica. Shooting the outside of the basilica had a different set of challenges; the open space and large crowds make crowd control more difficult. It seemed as though every time Chad was about to begin the shooting process a large herd of tourists was walking right in front of the camera on their way into the basilica.

The highlight of the photo shoot was Paul Wilson’s face after he finished the apse. Paul is the director of the Villanova University’s Vatican project. He is a seasoned veteran who has more than 40 years of experience in photography. After the shoot, he was physically unable to suppress the huge smile on his face. The only words he could let out were, “We got it.”

“It’s monumental. Michelangelo and other artists created these masterpieces and we are showing them to the world.” Paul’s words capture the work he and the team of Villanova students and professors are doing to create virtual tours of important sites throughout the Vatican.

Wilson was, right we got it. The Villanova team captured what it is like to be inside the basilica. Save the motion-sensitive controls that could cause some headaches and nausea before you get accustomed to them, the virtual tour is quite impressive. The photographs are crystal clear and the people actually add perspective to the basilica’s size.

The launch of the tour of St. John Lateran is not the end of the story. One can’t help but think how impressive the virtual tours of the Sistine Chapel, the Pauline Chapel, St. Mary Major and the Necropolis of St. Rosa will turn out.

(Gustavo Solis currently works as an intern in the CNS Rome bureau.)

UPDATE: Our story on the statement.

The following statement was issued this evening by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops:

Over the weekend, the US House of Representatives advanced major legislation to provide adequate and affordable health care to all. The Catholic Bishops of the United States have long advocated that adequate health care be made available to everyone. In an essential step, the House voted overwhelmingly to reaffirm the longstanding and widely supported precedent that no federal funds will be used to pay for elective abortions. In doing so, the Representatives honored President Obama’s commitment to the Congress and the nation that health care reform would not become a vehicle for expanding abortion funding or mandates. The Conference will remain vigilant and involved throughout this entire process to assure that these essential provisions are maintained and included in the final legislation. We will work to persuade the Senate to follow the example of the House and include these critical safeguards in their version of health care reform legislation. We also thank the members of the House who took this courageous and principled step to oppose measures that would force Americans to pay for the destruction of unborn children, and the Democratic leadership for allowing the Representatives to vote on this amendment that protects the common good.

In the national discussion on how to provide the best kind of health care, we bishops do not claim or present ourselves as experts on health care policy. We are not prepared to assess every provision of legislation as complex as this proposal. However, health care legislation, with all its political, technical and economic aspects, is about human beings and hence has serious moral dimensions. Our focus is the concrete realities of families with children and their access to doctors, the poor and the elderly, those with limited means and those with few or even no means, such as the mother carrying a child in her womb. Our Catholic commitment to health care picks up the pieces of our failing system in our emergency rooms, clinics, parishes and communities. This is why we believe our nation’s health care system needs reform which protects human life and dignity and serves the poor and vulnerable as a moral imperative and an urgent national priority.

We remain deeply concerned about the debate that now moves to the Senate, especially as it will affect the poor and vulnerable, and those at the beginning and end of life. We will continue to insist that health care reform legislation must protect conscience rights. We support measures to make health care more affordable for low-income people and the uninsured. We remain deeply concerned that immigrants be treated fairly and not lose the health care coverage that they now have. We will continue to raise our voices in public and in prayer; we ask our people to join us in making the moral case for genuine health care reform that protects the life, dignity, consciences and health of all.

By Basilian Father Chris Valka
One in a series

A couple of weeks ago, an older gentleman, who I will name Steve, approached me after Mass, convinced that I was the right person to answer a question that he has been unable to answer for the past 30 years.   He would go on to warn me that many people have tried, thinking they were up to the task, but failed to satisfy the logical mind of a retired Ford engineer.

“What are some of the rational and logical explanations that could explain WHY a “Good & Kind & Loving & All-Powerful God” would create an Earth populated by emotional & greedy humans who have free will to do as they please only to watch them destroy each other and eventually die to never be heard from again at which time they will be judged for their sins he already knew they would commit and shuttle them off to Heaven or Hell?”

After handing me a printed copy of the question above, we agreed that I would come to his house for dinner and discuss the question.

This past week, Steve and I met as planned. After the usual small talk, Steve told me about the God who saved him from the depths of darkness.  He also rattled off tenets of the Baltimore Catechism as he described a Catholic faith that provided his life with necessary parameters, rules and categories.  Later, Steve would describe the great hurt he felt when he was laid off by Ford, and the great joy he felt when he married his wife 40 years ago this year.

As Steve spoke, I prayed that God might use me to give him the answers he so desperately longed to have. At the same time, I wished that my high school students could be with me that evening to hear someone speak with such meaning about life’s deepest longings and most simple blessings.

When it was finally my turn to respond, I prayed and started to speak.

When it comes to our faith, many of us start off on the wrong foot — mostly likely because that is what we were taught to do.  We have approached our relationship with God in categories:  this equals that; that equals this; and this has such and such consequence that requires such and such to remedy it.  The difficulty with this approach is that our faith is first and foremost a relationship; therefore, it does not fit so neatly into categories, nor is it easily mapped out into problem-and-solution statements.

Thus, our relationship with God is not defined by our devotions and obligations; rather, by its gifts and communication.  Rabbi Abraham Heschel wrote, “Prayer may not save us, but it makes us worth saving.”  I have always loved that quote because it puts the emphasis on the process.  What we learn simply by being in this relationship is that we are not nearly as independent as we believe.  The very act of praying reminds us that we are connected to something bigger than ourselves.

In response to Steve’s question, I think its answer lies in our very ability to ask the question.  Ultimately, Steve’s question concerns the meaning of our lives.  Yes, God could have made humanity without the capacity to sin, but the meaning of our life is increased because of our potential — in either direction.  I believe a fulcrum is a good metaphor:  the greater the distance between the poles, the greater our ability to rise to greatness.  Our dignity is found in the tension we hold along the spectrum of good and evil, and our challenge is see ourselves as God sees us.  Ultimately, we are worth saving because we are not only greedy, but also generous; not only selfish, but also selfless.

As for Steve, he was more than satisfied with my answer (which I have greatly condensed for this blog).  After I finished my explanation, I watched him think to himself for at least 10 minutes with his eyes closed and head tilted back.  Much like a computer processing through equations, Steve tried to find holes in the logic.  Somewhere along the way, he accepted that God could not not have created us, because love, in its essence, is generative.  God creates, and what God creates is great.  Amen.

Father Chris Valka, CSB, was ordained a priest for the Congregation of St. Basil in May and is teaching at Detroit Catholic Central High School in Michigan.

Click here for more in this series.

“Today all members of Congress were afforded the opportunity to vote their conscience and represent the wishes of their constituents on the issue of federal funding for the abortion,” U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, a Catholic and pro-life Democrat from Michigan, said Nov. 7. He was the leading sponsor of an amendment to the House’s landmark health care reform proposal. The amendment passed 240-194. The House bill passed 220-215.

Like the Hyde amendment it prohibits the use of federal funding for abortion under the public health insurance option and prohibits using government affordable-health-coverage credits for any policy that covers abortion.

The same day, before the House vote, the U.S. bishops in a letter urged House members to support the Stupak amendment to “keep in place current federal law on abortion funding and conscience protections” in the House bill. The letter was signed by Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, chairman of the Committee on Pro-life Activities and Bishop William F. Murphy of Rockville Centre, N.Y., chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development.

“Our bishops’ conference has been working for many years to support health care reform legislation that truly protects the life, dignity, health and consciences of all. Adopting this amendment will help move us toward this essential national priority and moral imperative,” Cardinal Rigali and Bishop Murphy wrote.

A day before the vote the bishops sent a letter to House members reiterating their position on how the legislation deals with abortion and immigrants.

The Nov. 6 letter to House leaders – signed by Cardinal Justin Rigali, Bishop Murphy and Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, chairman of the Committee on Migration — emphasized points that have been made often and firmly by the U.S. bishops.

It urged members to:

“– Support an amendment to keep in place current federal law on abortion funding and conscience protections and to oppose a closed rule that would prevent the House from voting on this crucial matter;

– Oppose measures that would leave immigrants, especially legal immigrants, worse off as a result of health reform;

 – Support access for immigrants to the health-insurance exchange, regardless of legal status, and support removal of the five-year ban on legal immigrants accessing Medicaid and other federal health-care programs; and

 – Support strong provisions that would make health care more affordable and accessible, especially for the poor and vulnerable, by expanding Medicaid to adults who are living at 150 percent or lower of the Federal Poverty Level and offering adequate affordability credits for households up to 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Level.”

The bishops’ full remarks are available here.

One thing I learned during my 2007 trip to China is that the situation of Catholics living there is very complex.  As a result, I have learned to rely on those much more familiar with the situation there and to respect their opinions.

One of those people is Belgian Missionhurst Father Jeroom Heyndrickx, who directs the Verbiest Institute at the Catholic University of Leuven and is one of the most authoritative experts on Catholicism in China. His text, which follows, illustrates the complexity of the situation.

Respect and Prayerful Support for Most Rev. Francis An Shuxin, Coadjutor Bishop of Baoding Diocese

Recently, there have been widely circulated and conflicting reports about the situation of Bishop An Shuxin, coadjutor bishop of the Baoding Diocese in Hebei province, China. Whether we agree or disagree with Bishop An Shuxin’s purported move to have recently accepted membership in the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association, as a zealous pastor who has long witnessed his fidelity to the Holy See, Bishop An deserves not only our prayerful support, but complete respect for his pastoral judgments. I doubt whether those outside China who criticize Bishop An have ever met him. I know the bishop personally well and had several long conversations with him in recent years. I have learned to respect him and to understand the complexity of his situation. In any case, before making any public criticism one should be better informed. Did Bishop An really sign any document? And if he did, what was the content of the document and how is “membership” in this case understood? The interpretation of this word in China is often quite different from what is understood in Italy or in other countries outside of China. We all are far removed from the harsh realities under which many church leaders have lived in China for decades. At very least, we in the sister churches abroad must refrain from setting out our own nonnegotiable terms and conditions for their ministry and thereby increasing the heavy burdens they already bear.

Since the time of Pius XII in 1958 and more recently since the teaching of Pope Benedict XVI, all Chinese Catholics know very well that being a member of the CCPA is “incompatible with Catholic faith.” They know this association seeks to separate the Chinese Catholic Church from the pope and, in effect, to establish a Catholic Church in China completely independent of the Holy See. This is why all of us in the sister churches around the world admire the courage of Catholics in China, some of whom, because of this incompatibility cited by the Holy Father, long ago opted to remain in “underground communities,” enduring all the opprobrium and suffering entailed. This is the great and historically meritorious contribution to the Chinese Church of the so-called “unofficial bishops” and the faithful under their jurisdiction. It is also the road long followed by Bishop An Shuxin.

At the same time, also since 1958, Catholics inside of China have long sought yet another way to assure the viability and future of their church. Some bishops opted to follow this third way and succeeded very well. They perfunctorily accepted to be members of the CCPA, not because they freely chose, but because they were compelled to do so. It was commonly understood that they paid mere lip-service to the association in order to carve out space for the church to not only re-emerge in open society, but to expand, grow and develop in every dimension — both as a community of faith and as an ecclesial institution. Without the courageous stand of the “unofficial church community” on one side and that of the “official church community” on the other, the church in China would not be what it is today; nor could it have offered such a sterling witness of meritorious sacrifice and fidelity to the universal church. When speaking about the church in China, one must always take into consideration this dual reality — thereby avoiding gross errors in judgment based on a biased and partial view.

In most cases, after being named bishop by the PRC government, many priests who were appointed “official bishops” succeeded in secretly securing validation and approval of their appointments from the pope prior to episcopal ordination. Among these so called “official bishops,” all per force members of the CCPA, were a few very highly respected and famous pastors known to us all. p It is unnecessary to rehearse their names here; we all remember “Bp X, Bp Y, Bp Z” … and we remember them with respect. They were loved by tens of thousands of Catholics, by bishops and by many priests and religious. We need only recall reports of the thousands of Catholic faithful who filled cathedrals and even rural graveyards to participate in each of their funerals! These pastors gave a magnificent witness and service to their church. It is also well known that even the recent popes and past and present officials of the Holy See, through these decades, admired the testimonies of both the “unofficial” and “official” communities in China. Of course, it is inconceivable that the Holy See would ever have encouraged these official bishops to freely become members of the CCPA. In the same way, despite questionable news reports of late, it is also inconceivable that the Holy See would have encouraged Bishop An Shuxin of Baoding to accept membership in the CCPA. It is unjust and a grave failure in charity to spread such accusations in the media, thereby causing serious harm to the Chinese Catholic Church, and, in effect, exacerbating its suffering and existing internal divisions.

Most all Chinese Catholics (and even government officials!) know in their hearts that these so called “official bishops” have remained faithful to the Holy See; as admonished by both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, they strive to be good Chinese citizens, patriotically serving their country. Those outside of China, who truly have the cause of the Catholic Church in China at heart, need to walk in the shoes of their Chinese sisters and brothers in the faith, to listen with their hearts, to see with their eyes, to open their minds to understand from their perspective the reasons why these bishops took the path they did.

As we all respected and admired the well known “official” bishops who went before him, so, too, Bishop An Shuxin deserves our respect and admiration. Naturally, just as we never agreed that “Bps X, Y and Z” should be members of the CCPA, so too at this juncture we cannot agree in principle (if reports are true) that Bishop An has joined the CCPA as a condition of his being openly recognized by the PRC authorities. At the same time we question the wisdom of certain articles in the media quoting “Vatican sources” without further specifying them. Nonetheless, whoever would venture to speak publicly about the church in China must take into account the merits of both China church communities (“underground and “official”) and the harsh reality in which both sides have been forced to live for many, many years. Whoever professes to follow the instructions of Pope Benedict XVI — seeking to foster reconciliation and unity in the Chinese Catholic Church — must understand the extreme ambiguity in which this church lives. In solidarity and in union of prayer, we must all respect the judgments and ecclesial decisions of these courageous pastors in China who bear the heat of the day. Above all, we must refrain from imposing our own judgments on situations and people of whom we cannot have first-hand knowledge. “Judge not and you shall not be judged.” That is the spirit of Pope Benedict XVI’s letter. That letter and its compendium show us the way as he discusses such situations (cfr Par. 7): “… all this should be lived out in communion and in fraternal understanding, avoiding judgments and mutual condemnations …” and “… in order to evaluate the morality of an act it is necessary to devote particular care to establishing the real intentions of the person concerned, in addition to the objective shortcoming. Every case, then, will have to be pondered individually, taking account of the circumstances and guidelines which we all follow.”

Jeroom Heyndrickx cicm

November 6, 2009

UPDATE: Here is our Nov. 10 story after the pastoral was released.

As the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference prepares to issue a pastoral reflection on Christian responsibility to care for the environment on Nov. 10, they are laying groundwork with material posted on their Web site.

In one piece, Archbishop Dermot Clifford of Cashel is interviewed about the church’s environmental stewardship role and people’s individual responsibilities.

The patron saint of the environment is not “St. Al Gore,” as one 12-year-old student suggested when the archbishop made a recent school visit, but St. Francis of Assisi, Archbishop Clifford notes.

He called all people to do even simple things, like recycling and not wasting water.

“Everybody plays a part,” he said. “It’s not just the American government or the other world governments.”

In a second video on the page, John Sweeney, director of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units, is interviewed about global warming, its consequences and individual responsibility.