In his annual address to the Roman Curia, the Holy Father said; "The Crisis of the Church is the Crisis of Faith."

Dear Cardinals,
Brother Bishops and Priests,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The occasion that brings us together today is always particularly moving. The holy feast of Christmas is almost upon us and it prompts the great family of the Roman Curia to come together for a gracious exchange of greetings, as we wish one another a joyful and spiritually fruitful celebration of this feast of the God who became flesh and established his dwelling in our midst (cf. Jn 1:14). For me, this is an occasion not only to offer you my personal good wishes, but also to express my gratitude and that of the Church to each one of you for your generous service; I ask you to convey this to all the co-workers of our extended family. I offer particular thanks to the Dean of the College, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, who has given voice to the sentiments of all present and of all who work in the various offices of the Curia and the Governorate, including those whose apostolate is carried out in the Pontifical Representations throughout the world. All of us are committed to spreading throughout the world the resounding message that the angels proclaimed that night in Bethlehem, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to people of good will" (Lk 2:14), so as to bring joy and hope to our world.

As this year draws to a close, Europe is undergoing an economic and financial crisis, which is ultimately based on the ethical crisis looming over the Old Continent. Even if such values as solidarity, commitment to one’s neighbour and responsibility towards the poor and suffering are largely uncontroversial, still the motivation is often lacking for individuals and large sectors of society to practise renunciation and make sacrifices. Perception and will do not necessarily go hand in hand. In defending personal interests, the will obscures perception, and perception thus weakened is unable to stiffen the will. In this sense, some quite fundamental questions emerge from this crisis: where is the light that is capable of illuminating our perception not merely with general ideas, but with concrete imperatives? Where is the force that draws the will upwards? These are questions that must be answered by our proclamation of the Gospel, by the new evangelization, so that message may become event, so that proclamation may lead to life.

The key theme of this year, and of the years ahead, is this: how do we proclaim the Gospel today? How can faith as a living force become a reality today? The ecclesial events of the outgoing year were all ultimately related to this theme. There were the journeys to Croatia, to the World Youth Day in Spain, to my home country of Germany, and finally to Africa – Benin – for the consignment of the Post-Synodal document on justice, peace and reconciliation, which should now lead to concrete results in the various local churches. Equally memorable were the journeys to Venice, to San Marino, to the Eucharistic Congress in Ancona, and to Calabria. And finally there was the important day of encounter in Assisi for religions and for people who in whatever way are searching for truth and peace, representing a new step forward in the pilgrimage towards truth and peace. The establishment of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization is at the same time a pointer towards next year’s Synod on the same theme. The Year of Faith, commemorating the beginning of the Council fifty years ago, also belongs in this context. Each of these events had its own particular characteristics. In Germany, where the Reformation began, the ecumenical question, with all its trials and hopes, naturally assumed particular importance. Intimately linked to this, at the focal point of the debate, the question that arises repeatedly is this: what is reform of the Church? How does it take place? What are its paths and its goals? Not only faithful believers but also outside observers are noticing with concern that regular churchgoers are growing older all the time and that their number is constantly diminishing; that recruitment of priests is stagnating; that scepticism and unbelief are growing. What, then, are we to do? There are endless debates over what must be done in order to reverse the trend. There is no doubt that a variety of things need to be done. But action alone fails to resolve the matter. The essence of the crisis of the Church in Europe is the crisis of faith. If we find no answer to this, if faith does not take on new life, deep conviction and real strength from the encounter with Jesus Christ, then all other reforms will remain ineffective.

On this point, the encounter with Africa’s joyful passion for faith brought great encouragement. None of the faith fatigue that is so prevalent here, none of the oft-encountered sense of having had enough of Christianity was detectable there. Amid all the problems, sufferings and trials that Africa clearly experiences, one could still sense the people’s joy in being Christian, buoyed up by inner happiness at knowing Christ and belonging to his Church. From this joy comes also the strength to serve Christ in hard-pressed situations of human suffering, the strength to put oneself at his disposal, without looking round for one’s own advantage. Encountering this faith that is so ready to sacrifice and so full of happiness is a powerful remedy against fatigue with Christianity such as we are experiencing in Europe today.

A further remedy against faith fatigue was the wonderful experience of World Youth Day in Madrid. This was new evangelization put into practice. Again and again at World Youth Days, a new, more youthful form of Christianity can be seen, something I would describe under five headings.

1. Firstly, there is a new experience of catholicity, of the Church’s universality. This is what struck the young people and all the participants quite directly: we come from every continent, but although we have never met one another, we know one another. We speak different languages, we have different ways of life and different cultural backgrounds, yet we are immediately united as one great family. Outward separation and difference is relativized. We are all moved by the one Lord Jesus Christ, in whom true humanity and at the same time the face of God himself is revealed to us. We pray in the same way. The same inner encounter with Jesus Christ has stamped us deep within with the same structure of intellect, will and heart. And finally, our common liturgy speaks to our hearts and unites us in a vast family. In this setting, to say that all humanity are brothers and sisters is not merely an idea: it becomes a real shared experience, generating joy. And so we have also understood quite concretely: despite all trials and times of darkness, it is a wonderful thing to belong to the worldwide Church, to the Catholic Church, that the Lord has given to us.

2. From this derives a new way of living our humanity, our Christianity. For me, one of the most important experiences of those days was the meeting with the World Youth Day volunteers: about 20,000 young people, all of whom devoted weeks or months of their lives to working on the technical, organizational and material preparations for World Youth Day, and thus made it possible for the whole event to run smoothly. Those who give their time always give a part of their lives. At the end of the day, these young people were visibly and tangibly filled with a great sense of happiness: the time that they gave up had meaning; in giving of their time and labour, they had found time, they had found life. And here something fundamental became clear to me: these young people had given a part of their lives in faith, not because it was asked of them, not in order to attain Heaven, nor in order to escape the danger of Hell. They did not do it in order to find fulfilment. They were not looking round for themselves. There came into my mind the image of Lot’s wife, who by looking round was turned into a pillar of salt. How often the life of Christians is determined by the fact that first and foremost they look out for themselves, they do good, so to speak, for themselves. And how great is the temptation of all people to be concerned primarily for themselves; to look round for themselves and in the process to become inwardly empty, to become "pillars of salt". But here it was not a matter of seeking fulfilment or wanting to live one’s life for oneself. These young people did good, even at a cost, even if it demanded sacrifice, simply because it is a wonderful thing to do good, to be there for others. All it needs is the courage to make the leap. Prior to all of this is the encounter with Jesus Christ, inflaming us with love for God and for others, and freeing us from seeking our own ego. In the words of a prayer attributed to Saint Francis Xavier: I do good, not that I may come to Heaven thereby and not because otherwise you could cast me into Hell. I do it because of you, my King and my Lord. I came across this same attitude in Africa too, for example among the Sisters of Mother Teresa, who devote themselves to abandoned, sick, poor and suffering children, without asking anything for themselves, thus becoming inwardly rich and free. This is the genuinely Christian attitude. Equally unforgettable for me was the encounter with handicapped young people in the Saint Joseph Centre in Madrid, where I encountered the same readiness to put oneself at the disposal of others – a readiness to give oneself that is ultimately derived from encounter with Christ, who gave himself for us.

3. A third element, that has an increasingly natural and central place in World Youth Days and in the spirituality that arises from them, is adoration. I still look back to that unforgettable moment during my visit to the United Kingdom, when tens of thousands of predominantly young people in Hyde Park responded in eloquent silence to the Lord’s sacramental presence, in adoration. The same thing happened again on a smaller scale in Zagreb and then again in Madrid, after the thunderstorm which almost ruined the whole night vigil through the failure of the microphones. God is indeed ever-present. But again, the physical presence of the risen Christ is something different, something new. The risen Lord enters into our midst. And then we can do no other than say, with Saint Thomas: my Lord and my God! Adoration is primarily an act of faith – the act of faith as such. God is not just some possible or impossible hypothesis concerning the origin of all things. He is present. And if he is present, then I bow down before him. Then my intellect and will and heart open up towards him and from him. In the risen Christ, the incarnate God is present, who suffered for us because he loves us. We enter this certainty of God’s tangible love for us with love in our own hearts. This is adoration, and this then determines my life. Only thus can I celebrate the Eucharist correctly and receive the body of the Lord rightly.

4. A further important element of the World Youth Days is the sacrament of Confession, which is increasingly coming to be seen as an integral part of the experience. Here we recognize that we need forgiveness over and over again, and that forgiveness brings responsibility. Openness to love is present in man, implanted in him by the Creator, together with the capacity to respond to God in faith. But also present, in consequence of man’s sinful history (Church teaching speaks of original sin) is the tendency that is opposed to love – the tendency towards selfishness, towards becoming closed in on oneself, in fact towards evil. Again and again my soul is tarnished by this downward gravitational pull that is present within me. Therefore we need the humility that constantly asks God for forgiveness, that seeks purification and awakens in us the counterforce, the positive force of the Creator, to draw us upwards.

5. Finally, I would like to speak of one last feature, not to be overlooked, of the spirituality of World Youth Days, namely joy. Where does it come from? How is it to be explained? Certainly, there are many factors at work here. But in my view, the crucial one is this certainty, based on faith: I am wanted; I have a task in history; I am accepted, I am loved. Josef Pieper, in his book on love, has shown that man can only accept himself if he is accepted by another. He needs the other’s presence, saying to him, with more than words: it is good that you exist. Only from the You can the I come into itself. Only if it is accepted, can it accept itself. Those who are unloved cannot even love themselves. This sense of being accepted comes in the first instance from other human beings. But all human acceptance is fragile. Ultimately we need a sense of being accepted unconditionally. Only if God accepts me, and I become convinced of this, do I know definitively: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being. If ever man’s sense of being accepted and loved by God is lost, then there is no longer any answer to the question whether to be a human being is good at all. Doubt concerning human existence becomes more and more insurmountable. Where doubt over God becomes prevalent, then doubt over humanity follows inevitably. We see today how widely this doubt is spreading. We see it in the joylessness, in the inner sadness, that can be read on so many human faces today. Only faith gives me the conviction: it is good that I exist. It is good to be a human being, even in hard times. Faith makes one happy from deep within. That is one of the wonderful experiences of World Youth Days.

It would take too long now to go into detail concerning the encounter in Assisi, as the significance of the event would warrant. Let us simply thank God, that as representatives of the world’s religions and as representatives of thinking in search of truth, we were able to meet that day in a climate of friendship and mutual respect, in love for the truth and in shared responsibility for peace. So let us hope that, from this encounter, a new willingness to serve peace, reconciliation and justice has emerged.

As I conclude, I would like to thank all of you from my heart for shouldering the common mission that the Lord has given us as witnesses to his truth, and I wish all of you the joy that God wanted to bestow upon us through the incarnation of his Son. A blessed Christmas to you all! Thank you.

Magnificent "Canticle"

B

lessed are You,

Lord our God,

who has filled creation with light and splendour

Radiant Lord,

we rejoice with hearts filled with gratitude

that You are not a hidden God

for You reveal Yourself daily

through the majesty of light.

Your majesty and glory

shine out from within all creation

as well as from the sun, moon and stars.

We walk by their light,

and we also feed upon that light

as it is transformed into our food.

Blessed are You, Illuminator of All Creation,

                for the gifts of sunrise, high noon and sunset.

In the splendour of the sun,

the sky-wheel of energy and light

we see Your splendour, O Light of Lights.

 Your Son, Jesus called Himself

the Light of the World

and invited us to be His luminous brothers and sisters

and Your children of light.

We are grateful for the daily light of insight

                that gift by which we see our way to You.

 We are also grateful for shadows and nightfall

                which serve as a background for this light.

In our lives, we often stand

                in the darkness of failings and suffering.

May Your Divine Light

                penetrate the murky overcast of these times,

                and radiate outward from the horizons of our hearts .

May Your Divine Presence

                be a shining star in the midst of gloom

Like the plants of the earth

                may we lean toward You,

                Eternal Source of All Light and Energy.

Help us, this day

                to be light to all we meet.

Blessed are You, Lord our God,

                who has filled creation with light and splendour.

Amen

Author unknown - please advise us should you know who did write this magnificent praise.

Submitted by Sr Fabiola Krausert OP - Thanks, it is magnificent!

Ubuntu? Whatever is happening to Africa's values?

This post is taken from a Catholic News Paper in South Africa, and is written by an African priest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  

Every time I pass that spot, the skeleton recalls the same story – a story that is just the opposite of the of The Good Samaritan.

Indeed, it shows the extent of erosion of Ubuntu (our Parish Housekeeper describes Ubunto as “making something nice for the people”) in our cities. We shall return to the scene of the skeleton later. In the Good Samaritan story we shudder as we imagine the men of God - a priest and a Levite--making a detour to leave a wounded person bathing in his own blood, with no one to help. One might still indulge them in light of the purity laws which might have prompted their inhumane reaction. I wonder how we can excuse the characters in our own version of the Good Samaritan story - that, dear reader is your prerogative.

Recently a priest in a neighbouring parish in Kinshasa asked me to preside at one of the monthly youth Masses. The proposed theme was "Serving with Char­ity", with the Gospel reading being the parable of the Good Samaritan. At Mass I read the parable, and in the homily I centred on a version of the story that the youth knew well; some probably were even actors in it.

The event of our story took place on the sloppy road linking two townships: Kisenso at the hilltop and Matete at the foot. This road has a history.

Several lives have been lost on this road. Besides being steep, it used to be very narrow and sandy. A little more than a year ago', only four-wheel drive vehicles could, dare to take on that road. If a lorry was stuck on it, which hap­pened often the one driving behind would know immediately what to do: switch off the engine of his car, remove the key, open the door, get out, lock the door, and start walking to his destination. He would come back for his car only when the lorry would finally clear the road.

Fortunately, that is now only history. Still, despite this significant develop­ment, there are still a number of acci­dents, mainly due to drunk drivers and the poor conditions of cars.

So recently there was this mini-bus going up the road. Halfway up the hill, it just couldn't pull up any further. It began descending in reverse at a speed the driver could not control. It fell into a deep drain. Six people died at the spot, and nine were seriously injured (don't ask about the capacity of the mini-bus).

Given that the accident took place in a high density suburb, and therefore in full view of people, one might presume, almost naturally, that people would rush to the scene of the accident to help.

Indeed, by the time the bus had stopped rolling down and got stuck in the trench, people already were at the spot. What good luck for the injured! One would think so. It wasn't.

White the dead |ay in eternal silence and the injured were crying for help, some of the people who rushed at the scene were busy combing the pockets of both the injured and the dead. Others still were unscrewing parts of the bus.

Calculating from a cell-phone video taken on the scene, in less than 15 min­utes the mini-bus had all its wheels removed, except the one on which it was leaning. The vehicle was looted while the dead were shoved aside and the injured were crying for help but ignored.

Once the police had removed the bod­ies and rushed the injured to hospital, some people took the opportunity to turn the bus to remove even the remain­ing wheel, as well as having a go at some parts of the engine too. By the following morning only the skeleton remained, and it's stilt there to tell the story.

This is our latest version of the Good Samaritan story, no longer a Palestine parable, but a real experience, fresh and close to us, just on our street.

Coming face to face with such an experience leaves little room for the illusion that African society paints its land­scapes with the virtues of solidarity.

Maybe once upon a time it did, but now we have got to accept the fact that we are suffering a grave erosion of our values.

By Fr Evans Chama M. Afr

Published by the Southern Cross (Southern African Catholic News Paper)


This content was submitted by Sr Fabiola Krausert OP - Thanks sister! 

Pakistani Catholic Didn't Burn Quran, Says Archdiocese

KOENIGSTEIN, Germany, DEC. 15, 2011 (Zenit.org).- With the plight of Asia Bibi drawing international attention, another Pakistani Christian is facing accusations of blasphemy. A 24-year-old man, Khuram Masih, was arrested Dec. 6 after his girlfriend accused him of burning the Quran. However, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Lahore told Aid to the Church in Need that the charges are fabricated. The spokesman explained that Masih had been living with his Hindu girlfriend out of wedlock, as his parents had not consented to a wedding. According to the archdiocese, the family of the Muslim owner of the house in which the unmarried couple was living put pressure on the young woman and blackmailed her after she declared unwillingness to convert to Islam. She was threatened with stoning for "living in sin." Under these threats, she was forced to call the police to accuse her boyfriend of burning Quran pages to warm tea. The young man is now in jail awaiting trial. A Pakistani Muslim attorney who defends victims against accusations of blasphemy and whose name cannot be mentioned for security reasons told ACN that 95% of all blasphemy allegations are false and intended to harm or take revenge on someone. Pakistan's blasphemy law was enacted in 1986. Insulting the Quran can be punished by life imprisonment, and insulting the Prophet Mohammed is punishable by death. According to the Commission for Justice and Peace of the Catholic Church in Pakistan, which documents these cases, 38 persons, including 14 Christians, were accused of blasphemy last year.

The Holy Father Invites Students to Consider What Christmas Is About

VATICAN CITY, DEC. 15, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is inviting university students to ask themselves "What does Christmas mean to me?" But the question, as the Pope posed it today at a vespers service with university students of Rome, seeks an answer that is anything but trite. "Is [Christmas] really important for my life, for the building up of society?," he said. "There are many persons in our time, especially in the halls of the universities, who ask whether we are to expect something or someone; whether we must look for another messiah, another god; if it is worthwhile to entrust ourselves to that Child whom we find in the manger between Mary and Joseph on Christmas night." The Holy Father went on to say, "We do not need a generic, indefinite god, but the living and true God, who opens the horizon of man's future to the prospect of a firm and sure hope, a hope that is rich with eternity and that permits us to face the present in all its aspects with courage. But we must ask ourselves then: where does my seeking find the true face of this God? Or better still: where does God himself come to show me his face, revealing his mystery, entering into my history?" The Pontiff proposed that Jesus, who "experienced human time, his growth, his immersion in history" is the "sign of the patience of God." The Holy Father invited the students to rekindle their hope, "because the Word of God reminds us that the coming of the Lord is near, indeed, the Lord is with us and it is possible to build together with him. In the stable of Bethlehem man's solitude is overcome, our existence is no longer at the mercy of impersonal natural and historical forces, our house can be built upon the rock: we can plan our history, the history of humanity, not as a utopia but in the certainty that the God of Jesus Christ is present and walks with us." Thanks again to Sr Fabiola OP

Advent Meditation

Advent Programme 2011 Waiting for Jesus WEEK FOUR: LOVE Jesus: God’s love made visible Sunday 18 December Scripture 2 Samuel 7: 1 – 5; 8 – 12; 16; Luke 1: 26 – 38 “I will build a House for you” Reflection In his final years as King of Israel, David was aware of many problems facing the kingdom: hostility on his borders, tensions amongst the Israelites themselves, and rivalry amongst his own sons over who would succeed him as king. He was also uncomfortable with the fact that he lived in a palace, while God, housed in the Ark of the Covenant, is living in a simple shepherd’s tent. He decides that he will build a “house for the Lord”, and he puts this idea to the prophet Nathan, who originally encourages him. However, Nathan then receives a message from the Lord and goes back to tell David that he, David, is not the “one to build a house for Yahweh” – that it will be David’s son, who will do this. The message that Nathan gives David settles his fears about the continuation of his dynasty, for he is assured that “his house and his sovereignty will always stand secure before me and your throne be established forever.” The Jewish people waited for the promised Messiah, and expected, as had been prophesied, that He would be of the line of David. God, in His own time, sends His messenger to a young virgin in Nazareth, with news of an extraordinary birth that is to take place, and of the mission of that child. Mary, betrothed to Joseph, who is of the house of David, accepts to be the mother of He, who is to be called “Son of the Most High”. The prophecy is fulfilled once Joseph accepts that the child which Mary is carrying has been brought into being by the Holy Spirit. Mary becomes the “house for God” – the house that will carry Him to birth, and then nurture Him until the time is right for His mission to begin. She becomes the Christ-bearer. She presents Him to the world when the time is right. In the Ark of the Covenant were kept three things – the staff of Aaron, the priest to the people of Israel on their Exodus journey; a dish of manna (the bread sent down from heaven); and the Law, given to Moses on Sinai. Symbols of priesthood, bread from heaven, and the Word of God. Mary, when she agrees to become the temple that houses the Son of God, carries within her He who is the supreme High Priest, the Living Bread come down from Heaven, and the Word Incarnate. Like Mary, we are asked to be temples for the Living God – to be Christ-bearers in our world today. Are we willing, as she was, to say, “Yes, Lord, let it be done to me”? Practical Suggestion Find a way, this week, to go and share Jesus with someone – in the parish, in your family, or amongst your circle of friends and acquaintances. Do this in some practical way – cook a meal, spend time with them, take someone out, take someone shopping who is not able to get about easily – there are many ways. Prayer Help me, Lord, to be willing to say “Yes” to what You ask of me – even when I do not fully understand what that “Yes” might mean. Let me be content in knowing that You will be there with me each day and in every way. Amen. Monday 19 December Scripture Ps 71: 8 “My lips are filled with your praise, with your glory all the day long.” Reflection We have now entered the last holy days of preparation for the celebration to help us remember not only the first coming of our Lord Jesus but also his second coming. Are our lips filled with praise as the psalmist says? So often we can catch ourselves not singing praises to God and especially when we are distracted with worldly, material activities. We need to be very careful especially in this Christmas season when even Muslims and many other people of different non-Christian faiths also have holidays - do we truly witness to them of the holiness of this season? When non-Christians see us about our Christmas business are we inspiring them with the message of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. One of the best ways to do this is to be happy, joyful and sing Christian praises in a deeply loving, humble and merciful way. An important measure of this is to take note of the words that leave our lips – are they praising Jesus or embarrassing Jesus? Practical Suggestion Meditate for a few minutes on the words that have come out of your mouth today or even yesterday. Were they praising Jesus or embarrassing Jesus? Prayer Heavenly Father as I prepare to celebrate the gift you gave me of your Son and the promise of his second coming help me to sing your praises rather than embarrass you with my lips. Amen Tuesday 20 December Scripture Luke 1: 26 - 38 “Let what you have said be done to me.” Reflection St Bernard wrote a beautiful reflection about the suspense in heaven, on earth and in the underworld as all of creation waited with eager longing for Mary’s response to God’s messenger. What would she say? If she were to say “yes,” she would conceive the Saviour and humanity would be set free and be recalled to life. On her word depended the salvation of the human race. “Answer quickly, O Virgin.” Mary could have said “no” out of fear, or out of humility (‘I’m not worthy’), or to avoid the responsibilities of such an onerous role (‘ask someone else; I prefer not to get involved’). From the time of Adam and Eve people have said “no” to God’s call. Mary’s answer came: “Let what you have said be done to me” – “Yes!” The infinite, eternal, immortal God, who created the universe, humbled himself to ‘come down,’ enter time and be enclosed in the womb of the Virgin Mary. The divine Word became flesh because of her willing and committed consent. Her words changed the course of human history. God speaks to each of us, through his Holy Scriptures, through the Church and through his ‘angels’ – people who are close to him in faith, love and Christian living. God asks us, as he asked Mary, to trust him and to co-operate with him. God’s plans for us and the world can be very challenging, daunting, even disturbing and our consent to his will may entail some suffering as it did for Mary (‘a sword of sorrow will pierce your heart’), but there can be no greater sense of fulfilment than doing God’s will faithfully. Let us be courageous and committed and renew our “Yes!” to God every day, never consenting even to small things that are not good. Practical Suggestion Do you sense that God is calling you to the priesthood, the diaconate, or the religious life, or to a particular ministry or service in the Church or the community? God and his angels and perhaps some people are waiting with eagerness for your response. Will you say “Yes”? Will you bring Christ to a waiting world? Take the next courageous step. Prayer Loving Father, help me to be prayerful and attentive to your presence as Mary was. Grant me the courage and commitment of Mary to abandon myself to you and to trust in your plans, even though I don’t know exactly where you may lead me. Let it be done to me, according to your will. Amen. Wednesday 21 December Scripture: Luke 1:39-45 “For the moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leapt for JOY” Reflection How much joy will we bring into the lives of the people whom we will greet today and not only today but every day? Mary, our mother, has many titles attributed to her. One that moves me the most is the title “Theotokos” – meaning God bearer. It was her total surrender to the will of the Father that allowed God to enter her in the form of Jesus Christ. It is without a doubt that it was the presence of Christ within her that brought joy to Elizabeth and her expectant child, and indeed all whom she met. Do you know that you are a God bearer? Do you believe that you walk around with Christ wherever you go? Does the presence of Christ within you bring Joy to others? Practical Suggestion: Make a conscious effort today to bring joy, peace and love to all whom you meet – focus on the presence of Jesus within you and allow his beautiful spirit to uplift you and all with whom you come into contact. Prayer Loving Father, thank you for coming into my life – help me to feel your presence with me everyday, especially when there are so many distractions in my life, my home, my world. Allow me to share your Love, Peace, Joy and Hope with all. Amen. Thursday 22 December Scripture Luke 1: 46 - 56 Reflection Alleluia! This song of Mary is called the Magnificat, the first word in this passage from the Latin translation of the Bible. Mary glorifies God, not only for the great things he has done for her, but also for the great things he is going to do for the world through her. Do you realize that like Mary, God has done great things in your life? Are you aware of all the blessings and graces he has bestowed upon you? Every good thing in your life comes from God. “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1: 17). Like Mary, we should praise God for his many gifts and use them for his glory, not forgetting the Greatest Gift of all – Jesus. Someone once wrote: “In Christ we have a love that can never be fathomed, a life that can never die, a peace that can never be understood, a rest that can never be disturbed, a joy that can never be diminished, a hope that can never be disappointed, a glory that can never be clouded, a light that can never be darkened, and a spiritual resource that can never be exhausted.” Ponder the wonder of Jesus! Practical Suggestion Is there something or someone in your life for whom you can give God thanks and praise today? This can be your own Magnificat! Prayer Father God, I praise and thank you for your kindness to me – you forgive my sins, heal me when I am sick, protect me from harm, fill my life with good things, give me strength to do your will and bless me with love and mercy. Without you I cannot live, with you I cannot die. May I continue to bless you and praise you all the days of my life. Amen. (Based on Psalm 103: 1-5). Friday 23 December Scripture Luke 1: 57 - 66 Reflection All week we have been following the extraordinary work of God in the lives of Elizabeth and Mary and the encounter between these two great women of faith. The Birth of John the Baptist today is a prelude to the Birth of Jesus. Those who joined Elizabeth and Zechariah for the naming and circumcision of John and their neighbours were filled with awe at the circumstances surrounding the birth of this child. “What will this child turn out to be?” they wondered. They could not possibly have known what he would turn out to be and how close they were to the dawn of salvation. Mary and Joseph would wonder the same at the birth of Jesus. This is where we find ourselves today. The Saviour’s birth is very near. The voice of John the Baptist must resound deep within us this day “Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight.” It is easy to get caught up in the many preparations for Christmas and to miss out on preparing ourselves; our hearts and our lives. To hear the voice of the Baptist we must have a certain stillness within us. This is why today and tomorrow we need to take some ‘time out’ to prepare for the coming of Jesus – most especially for him to be born again within us. John’s call to preparation was a call of repentance. Despite confessions earlier this week in preparation for Christmas there are many faults and failings – as well as temptations that plague each day. A good and sincere Act of Contrition today and tomorrow will help us to prepare our hearts for the Saviour’s birth. We have the joy of knowing what John turned out to be and what Jesus turned out to be. Now we are invited to share in that same extraordinary work of God in Mary and Elizabeth by entering into the real spirit of this Christmas. May the coming of Jesus find you at peace and ready, waiting and prepared. May you be filled with his all-powerful presence. Practical Suggestion Take a little ‘time out’ today. In the stillness and quiet of your heart make a good examination of conscience. Then pray the Act of Contrition or use your own words to ask for forgiveness as you promise to try not to sin again. Then pray the prayer below – let this prayer come from the very depth of your being – in real, sincere invitation and with a genuine desire for the presence of Jesus. Prayer Come Lord Jesus, come into my heart, come into my life, come and be born again within me. Come fill me with your Love. Amen. Saturday 24 December Scripture Luke 1: 67-79 Reflection When the Lord comes to redeem us he fills us with the Holy Spirit, the source of our hope and joy in the promises of God. John the Baptist was born some six months before Mary delivered her son, Jesus. And John’s father, Zechariah, was “filled with the Holy Spirit” and with great joy. The Holy Spirit gave Zechariah a vision for his own son as a prophet and forerunner who would prepare the way for the Messiah. Every devout Jew longed for the day when the Messiah would come. Now Zechariah knew beyond a doubt that the day was very near. Like Zechariah, the Holy Spirit wants to give us vision, joy and faith in the knowledge of God’s love, protection, and care which he offers us through his Son Jesus Christ. Like the Baptist, we too are called to prepare the way that leads to Christ. Those who hunger for the Lord will not be disappointed. He will draw them to himself and show them his light and peace. After four weeks of Advent in preparation for the coming of the Lord, does the proclamation of today’s Gospel fill us with Hope and Joy? Practical Suggestion Pray for someone, and/or invite him or her to join you at a Christmas Day Mass, someone you know is finding it difficult to accept the message of hope, joy, love and peace that is manifested at the birth of Christ our Redeemer. Prayer Lord, you have been gracious and merciful towards your people. Fill me with your Holy Spirit that I may bear witness to the joy of the birth of the Saviour. These Daily Reflections for Advent 2011 have been written by Irene Helsdon, Fr. Stephen Tully, Fr. Justin Stirton, Fr. Grant Emmanuel, Deacon Henry Blair, Fr. Desmond Nair and Deacon Peter Venter. We encourage you to copy and distribute these Daily Reflections to anyone you think may benefit from them. We wish you a Blessed Christmas. May Jesus in his coming find you at Peace, filled with Joy and ready to welcome the gift of Love.

MURDERED NUN WAS FEARLESS

CARDINAL SAYS MURDERED NUN WAS FEARLESS

Coal Mining Companies Suspected in Gruesome Death

MUMBAI, India, NOV. 29, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Oswald Gracias, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India, praised Sister Valsa John for being "fearless" and said she was "a person of courage and faith who gave her life in the service of the Gospel."

The 52-year-old nun was hacked to death on Nov. 15. She had been working among the tribal communities in a coal mining region near the city of Dumka in the Indian state of Jharkands, for the last 20 years.

Cardinal Gracias, who is archbishop of Mumbai, spoke to the organization Aid to the Church in Need after having visited Sr. John's family and friends. He said that the nun had received death threats, but was not deterred from her work of defending the local population against the acquisition of their land by coal mining companies.

The cardinal also said there were "question marks" hanging over the handling of the murder case by local police.

Police have arrested a number of Maoist extremists following the murder, but there is widespread speculation that the coal companies were involved.

The killing was strongly condemned by many groups. The Kerala Council of Churches (KCC) issued a statement deploring the murder.

According to a Nov. 22 article published in the newspaper the Hindu the KCC general secretary, Philip N. Thomas, said Sister John was fighting to protect the rights of the local tribal community. He said that activists such as Sister John were frequently attacked by what he termed a "mafia" that does the bidding of the mining companies.

According to Amnesty International the nun was the fourth social activist to have been killed in unexplained circumstances in India this year.

"Indian authorities must take all necessary measures to guarantee that human rights defenders and other social activists are able to carry out their legitimate and peaceful activities without fear of harassment and intimidation," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific director.

Submitted by Sr Fabiola Krausert OP

Proud to be Catholic

Excerpts of an article written by non-Catholic; Sam Miller - a prominent Cleveland Jewish businessman:

"Why would newspapers carry on a vendetta on one of the most important institutions that we have today in the United States, namely the Catholic Church?

Do you know - the Catholic Church educates 2.6 million students everyday at the cost to that Church of 10 billion dollars, and a savings on the other hand to the American taxpayer of 18 billion dollars. The graduates go on to graduate studies at the rate of 92%.

The Church has 230 colleges and universities in the U.S. with an enrollment of 700,000 students.

The Catholic Church has a non-profit hospital system of 637 hospitals, which account for hospital treatment of 1 out of every 5 people - not just Catholics - in the United States today.

But the press is vindictive and trying to totally denigrate in every way the Catholic Church in this country. They have blamed the disease of pedophilia on the Catholic Church, which is as irresponsible as blaming adultery on the institution of marriage.

Let me give you some figures that Catholics should know and remember. For example, 12% of the 300 Protestant clergy surveyed admitted to sexual intercourse with a parishioner; 38% acknowledged other inappropriate sexual contact in a study by the United Methodist Church, 41.8% of clergy women reported unwanted sexual behavior; 17% of laywomen have been sexually harassed. Meanwhile, 1.7% of the Catholic clergy has been found guilty of pedophilia. 10% of the Protestant ministers have been found guilty of pedophilia. This is not a Catholic problem.

A study of American priests showed that most are happy in the priesthood and find it even better than they had expected, and that most, if given the choice, would choose to be priests again in face of all this obnoxious PR the church has been receiving.

The Catholic Church is bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. The agony that Catholics have felt and suffered is not necessarily the fault of the Church. You have been hurt by a small number of wayward priests that have probably been totally weeded out by now and a number of bishops who failed to act.

Walk with your shoulders high and your head higher. Be a proud member of the most important non-governmental agency in the United States.

Then remember what Jeremiah said: 'Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is and walk in it, and find rest for your souls'. Be proud to speak up for your faith with pride and reverence and learn what your Church does for all other religions.

“Be proud that you're a Catholic."

Received by email from Sr Fabiola OP

The Quest to Know

The Quest to Know November 2011By Tom Martin Thomas Martin is the O.K. Bouwsma Chair in Philosophy at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Along with his fellow colleagues who are dedicated to the study of the Great Books, he teaches the works of Plato, Aristotle, G.K. Chesterton, Dostoyevsky, and Solzhenitsyn, to mention a few. “Who you? Why you here?” Grace Rose Mar­­tin, my three-year-old granddaughter, asked Anna Martin, her 91-year-old great-grandmother, at a family reunion. Lo and behold, Grace is a philosopher: She has a sense of wonder and the desire to know. Philosophy begins in wonder when we affirm that sentiment is anterior to reason. In fact, if I did not know better, I would have thought Grace knew her purpose by having read the first sentence of Aristotle’sMetaphysics, “All men by nature desire to know.” Grace’s questions are as fundamental to being human as childhood is to becoming an adult. Her questions were answered on the literal level: “I am Anna Martin, and I am here for the wedding.” My mother’s answers satisfied Grace — for the moment — but they will not stop her from continuing to ask a plethora of questions as she seeks to weave coherence out of her surroundings. As Grace matures, the philosophical muse of the examined life must turn inward if she is ever to fulfill herself as an adult. In other words, her questions must become “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?” Grace is currently untroubled by self-examination as she bounces about in play. She is, as all children are, “in the now,” a state of innocence in which each moment is sparkling new. Philosophers have long thought the present moment — this moment — to be the least occupied of places, as most adults live in memories or in anticipation of future events. The ancient Greeks had two different senses of time. There is Kronos, which is time relating before to after, time as the future passing through the present to become the past. From this Greek word we derive such terms as “chronic” and “chronology.” An illness is chronic if it lasts a long time. Chronology is the arrangement of events or dates in the order of their occurrence. In addition to Kronos, there is Kairos, which is used when speaking of the time, appropriate time, or seasonal time. This time cannot be measured. In weaving, for example, it is the time for the weaver to draw the yarn through a gap that momentarily opens in the warp of the cloth being woven. In politics it is the speech needed to capture the eternal significance of the moment in which something needs to be said before the moment passes and the opportunity is gone forever. Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” is an example of how words are drawn down to fix the moment that transcends the wear of time by the person who grasps the eternality of the moment in which the human spirit stands still:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Kairos is not measurable; it is an eternal quality rather than a quantity that intersects with Kronos. Lin­coln’s words still ring true. So there is the time span of a person’s life, which can be measured chronologically from beginning to end, and there is also the span of time when the timeless intersects with the temporal, weaving context into what would otherwise be disconnected moments in an aimless life. Baptism is an example of a moment when the timeless enters time and starts a person on a spiritual journey for the sake of his soul. Thomas Merton, in New Seeds of Contemplation, notes, “What is really new is what was there all the time. I say, not what has repeated itself all the time; the really ‘new’ is that which, at every moment, springs freshly into new existence. This newness never repeats itself. Yet it is so old it goes back to the earliest beginning. It is the very beginning itself, which speaks to us.” In wonder, Grace is on the edge of her unique “newness,” looking out on her world for the first time. The joy of being a child is that you do not know you are a child. Grace, according to G.K. Chesterton, is in her own cosmos: “Each one of us is living in a separate cosmos. The theory of life held by one man never corresponds exactly to that held by another. The whole of man’s opinions, morals, tastes, manners, hobbies, work back eventually to some picture of existence itself which, whether it be a paradise or a battlefield, or a school or a chaos, is not precisely the same picture of existence which lies at the back of any other brain.” While Ptolemy was wrong to assume that the earth was the centre of the cosmos, Grace is the centre of her universe; she is a “micro-cosmos” of the cosmos. As a part, she mirrors the whole. When Grace looks out from the windows of her soul, she draws a bead that begins with herself and ends on the horizon or upon whatever she is looking. Man is the starting point of any line that can be drawn between any two points in space; it was he who drew stars into constellations. There are no points in the universe from which to measure that do not begin in a living soul. But Grace is not drawing from scratch; she is endowed with an intellect and is forming her mind each time she looks out from herself and wants to know the who, what, and why of everything in her search for order. Grace’s quest — Who you? Why you here? — shows that she has a soul that is meant to know its end. She is being brought up in the moral virtues, which are the sinews, as it were, of family life. As Aristotle says, “Intellectual virtue or excellence owes its origin and development chiefly to teaching and for that reason requires experience and time. Moral virtue, on the other hand, is formed by habit…[and] none of the moral virtues is implanted in us by nature, for nothing which exists by nature can be changed by habit.” Grace is not moral by nature, any more than she speaks by nature; however, everyone has the potential to be moral and to speak by nature. In Aristotle’s terms, we are provided with the capacity first and display the activity afterwards. Grace is Everyman: She has fallen into a net, a context, in which she is woven to her parents and relatives, her lifelines. It is fitting that Grace asked her questions of her great-grandmother: The progeny standing before the oldest living source of her life, asking for an explanation, youth in need of tradition. Ludwig Wittgenstein noted, “Tradition is not something a man can learn; not a thread he can pick up when he feels like it; any more than a man can choose his relatives.” Each person is a continuation of his thread on a continuum. A first name is uniquely individual and a last name ties a man to his people. Tradition is our skin. We do not choose our parents, nationality, or the century in which we are born — the context of our lives. We are woven bodily to the earth and spiritually to our parents in our adventure that continues their history. Our parents are our lifelines, entrusted with setting the tension for the formation of the virtuous life that is essential for our spiritual growth and the achievement of our potential. Aristotle taught that the primary source of moral virtues is their presence in other beings. Grace has fallen onto a moving platform yet is at the centre of her household. In time, she will get over the shock of being in the world, as her parents bring her down to earth, schooling her in the language of household virtues through fairy tales, parables, and chores, which she currently demonstrates when she suggests, “Let’s play family.” Moving from childhood to adulthood includes the awareness of the timelessness of the opportunities that are present in each moment. Each moment presents itself as a virtuous opportunity. There is a right choice in each moment that is relative to each person. Being virtuous requires having one’s string pulled. Good parents start pulling a child’s string by teaching him to sit up, say please and thank you, be kind to others, and take pride in himself. The intellectual virtues start at home and are continued in school. The word “leisure” in Greek is Skole, and in Latin scola, from which comes the English word “school.” Given that man is born ignorant and by nature desires to know, Aristotle states that man sets about learning only after “all the necessities of life and things that make for comfort and recreation” have been achieved. In order to satisfy the quest to know, man needs to have the opportunity for leisure. In this respect, school is the harbour where one is outfitted for the journey of life. The university is a playground, the leisure ground in the formation of a person’s self-discovery. It is at this point that a student decides to focus on a specific course of study and centre his life on being a nurse, builder, banker, EMT, radiologist, exercise physiologist, farmer, teacher, and so on. This is well and good. In fact, Aristotle noted in the fourth century B.C. that each person by nature has a function, which is his calling in life. A well-governed state would be one in which everyone is suited to his function, the job he is meant to do by nature, and in which work is done for the higher stakes of the greater good. This, Aristotle thought, is a good of the soul as opposed to a good of the body, an external good like a house, which, though useful, is not an end in and of itself, as are the ends of life. The individual’s function should follow his formation if his life is to be virtuous. And the virtues are eternal truths, the light emanating from Kairos that presents a mindful person with the right thing to do in this, the Kronos of his life. There are permanent moments in every man’s life. There is a right thing to do in every moment. In effect, college is set up like a loom where the past is woven into the present. Everything we learn is behind us and a good memory is essential for a developed mind. Within education, the purpose of being a teacher on the playground of the cosmos is to transmit the truth of disciplined thought to the next microcosm, whose soul is endowed with the faculty of reason. Being a teacher is like being a grandparent who is asked by his grandchild “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?” So, “Who you? Why you here?”

Egypt: Christian student murdered for refusing to remove crucifix

Ayman Nabil Labib, a 17-year-old Coptic Christian student, was murdered by Muslim classmates after refusing to remove a crucifix he was wearing, the Assyrian International News Agency is reporting.

The murder, which took place on October 16 in the central Egyptian town of Mallawi, took place after a teacher asked Labib to cover up a tattooed cross on his wrist. Labib refused, instead uncovering a cross necklace.

“The teacher nearly choked my son, and some Muslim students joined in the beating,” said Labib’s father.

“They beat my son so much in the classroom that he fled to the lavatory on the ground floor, but they followed him and continued their assault,” the victim’s mother added. “When one of the supervisors took him to his room, Ayman was still breathing. The ambulance transported him from there dead, one hour later.”

May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace.

Ascension Day Mass Times

Thursday 2nd June

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD- SOLEMNITY (Holy Day of Obligation)

ASCENSÃO DO SENHOR- SOLENIDADE (Dia de Obrigação)

7:45am – with the Dominican Convent School

10 horas – em Portugês Schoenstatt Bedfordview

3:30pm – Children’s Mass (All welcome)

6:30pm

Go to our website for map and directions

Readings are proper to the solemnity.

(Adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament after the School Mass)

The next Rwanda? ‘In all districts of Abidjan there is gunfire’

A massacre in a Roman Catholic mission compound in the heart of the Ivory Coast’s cocoa-producing region could come to be seen as a crucial moment in the West African state’s escalating civil war.

Reports are mounting of atrocities by both sides in the conflict − those loyal to head of state Laurent Gbagbo, besieged in his presidential residence in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s commercial capital, and those who follow northern leader and president-elect Allasane Ouattara.

Events at the Italian Salesian Roman Catholic mission in Duekoue increasingly echo a notorious church massacre during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Early reports suggested that more than 800 people, largely from the Gbagbo-supporting Gueré tribe, were killed in a single day at the sprawling Salesian Saint Teresa of the Child Jesus mission in Duekoue, 300 miles west of Abidjan towards the Liberian border. The attackers seem to have been largely soldiers descended from Burkina Faso immigrant Muslim families loyal to Ouattara.

Late yesterday the Roman Catholic charity Caritas said more than 1000 people were massacred in Duekoue. A Caritas spokesman said Caritas workers visited the town and reported seeing a neighbourhood filled with bodies of people who had been shot and hacked to death with machetes.

More than 5000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus sheltering in the Roman Catholic church at Nyarubuye were massacred by Hutu militiamen on April 12, 1994. Nyarube became the supreme symbol of the Rwandan genocide, in which some 800,000 people were murdered in just a hundred days.

The Duekoue massacre seemed to have stiffened the resistance, at least temporarily, of Gbagbo. His 10-year grip on power in Ivory Coast looked as though it was in its final hours on Friday after Outtara’s New Forces (NF) northern army encircled both his residence and the presidential palace, battling to unseat the man who has refused to recognise his defeat in last year’s election.

But yesterday forces loyal to Gbagbo – a southern Roman Catholic who has vowed not to step down in spite of being narrowly defeated by Outtara in a presidential election last November – put up stiff resistance to the New Forces and re-established control of the headquarters of the state TV station, RTI. It went off the air for 24 hours after it fell to Outtara’s soldiers, but by yesterday was again broadcasting pro-Gbagbo propaganda, calling on people to “resist the enemy”.

With control of RTI back in the hands of Gbagbo and updated reports being received intermittently from Duekoue, human rights organisations raised fears of widespread killings in a situation described in a United Nations document obtained by Reuters as “one of generalised chaos”.

Corinne Dufka, senior Africa researcher of Human Rights Watch, said: “We’re extremely concerned about the potential for mass atrocities.” She added: “Given Gbagbo’s prominent use of violent militia groups and the state-controlled media’s incitement to violence, we are asking UN peacekeepers to do everything in their power to protect non-combatants.”

However, the early evidence reported by Italian media from Duekoue suggests the Saint Teresa mission massacre was carried out by Outtara’s NF forces. “The incident is particularly shocking by its size and its brutality,” said Dominique Liengme, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Ivory Coast.

“Red Cross representatives themselves have seen a huge number of bodies [at the mission station],” said ICRC spokeswoman Dorothea Krimitsas in Geneva. “There is no doubt that something on a large scale took place in this city, on which the ICRC is continuing to gather information. Everything indicates that this was inter-ethnic violence.”

Duekoue was one of the many centres overwhelmed by the NF as its soldiers, wearing “magic” amulets, neckbands and masks, swept through the country last week in a well-organised assault, bringing more than 80% of Ivory Coast under fragile control.

For days the national army, under Gbagbo’s control, put up almost no resistance and its head, General Phillippe Mangou, fled to the home of the South African ambassador with his wife and five children. However, after several days of easy progress, the NF is now facing Gbagbo’s most reliable fighters, the roughly 2500-strong elite Republican Guard, clustered in Abidjan along with remaining regular army troops.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the fighting around Duekoue and Oxfam reports more than 120,000 people from the area have crossed the nearby border with Liberia in the last week-and-a-half.

At times the Saint Teresa mission station in Duekoue has housed as many 20,000 refugees fleeing the fighting. Since late last year there have been innumerable killings in the area prior to the recent slaughter, with hundreds of shops in the city centre set ablaze.

The cocoa economy around the city has collapsed as a result of an embargo imposed by the European Union following Gbagbo’s refusal to accept the presidential election result. According to official figures, Ouattara won with 54% of nearly five million votes cast nationally. But the head of the Constitutional Council alleged vote-rigging in the Ouattara-controlled north and declared Gbagbo the victor with 51% of the votes cast. The country then returned to civil war after enjoying a tenuous peace since 2005.

The inter-ethnic violence around Duekoue that has driven the Gueré tribal people into the mission station mirrors the kind of ethnic tensions that prevail throughout most of Ivory Coast. The Gueré ancestors had possessed the land for centuries before people from the arid north and from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Mali began settling there 40 years ago, seeking work as cocoa prices boomed on world markets. Ivory Coast historically has produced more than 40% of the world’s supply of beans for production of the developed world’s chocolate products.

Ethnic tensions and xenophobic killings began when the world price of cocoa nosedived in the 1990s and some five million immigrant workers were suddenly perceived as a burden. The southern-dominated Government introduced a new xenophobic concept of “Ivorité”, or Ivorianess. Vigilantes began killing “foreigners” – the majority of them Muslims and many of them third-generation immigrants – on plantations and in shanties on the edges of the towns as the country, once the richest in West Africa, descended into civil war.

The mission killings began the day after Outarra’s fighters overwhelmed the town. A thousand UN peacekeeping soldiers, mainly from Pakistan and Vietnam and based in Duekoue, did nothing to stop the killing, according to aid workers. The aid workers spoke by phone to news agencies on condition of anonymity for fear of endangering relations between the NF forces and the UN.

Outtara yesterday issued a statement in Abidjan blaming the killings on retreating Gbagbo forces, a version of events contradicted by aid workers and missionaries. Spokesmen for Gbagbo in turn rejected Outtara’s allegations.

Krimitsas said: “There is a risk that this kind of event can happen again and hope that by calling today again for protection for the civilian population, we hope that such events can be avoided in the future.”

Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “We’ve had unconfirmed reports of quite serious human rights violations committed by the pro-Ouattara forces.”

A spokesman for the Saint Teresa Salesians said so many refugees were arriving at mission compounds it was impossible to provide them all with shelter from seasonal rains.

Peter Pham, director of the Africa Centre at the Atlantic Council in Washington DC, said Duekoue was an important strategic gain for Outtara as it sits along a major north-south transit corridor linking the cocoa heartland with the cocoa exporting port of San Pedro. It also controls access to northeastern Liberia which has supplied men and arms to Gbagbo’s forces, he said.

As heavy fighting continued yesterday for a third day in Abidjan, Africa’s sixth largest city with more than four million people, Gbagbo’s location was unclear. The heaviest fighting seemed to be around the Gbagbo-controlled Agban military base in the city centre.

A soldier accompanied by a dozen members of Gbagbo’s Defence and Security Forces, appeared on RTI-TV and read a statement calling for the mobilisation of troops to protect state institutions, asking for “all the staff of the armed forces” to join five units in Abidjan.

The broadcast suggests forecasts of Gbagbo’s imminent defeat and exile are wide of the mark.

Residents of Abidjan said yesterday they are scared to leave their homes. Many reported running out of food, with shops closed and widespread looting. Valerie Bony, a correspondent for the BBC in Abidjan, reported: “In all districts of Abidjan there is sporadic gunfire. There is a lot of looting going in the city.”

She added that young, pro-Gbagbo supporters in several districts have been armed by Gbagbo forces, according to witnesses.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/world-news/the-next-rwanda-in-all-districts-of-abidjan-there-is-gunfire-1.1094251

Exorcists are overwhelmed by requests to evaluate claims of possession.

As of late 2008 the two most requested articles at our website were “The Physical Dimensions of Spiritual Warfare” (Dec. 1994) by Bobby Jindal and “A Case of Demonic Possession” (Mar. 2008) by Dr. Richard E. Gal­lagher. Both articles are real-life accounts of their authors’ experiences with supernatural phenomena; Jin­dal’s case involves untrained college students and Dr. Gallagher’s highly trained professionals. As we wrote in a New Oxford Note in our November 2008 issue, “One is, at first blush, inclined to dismiss the popularity of these two articles” as being the result of “a type of voyeuristic curiosity.” But upon further consideration, we wrote, “we see in the enduring popularity of these articles a more reaching need.” In a word, “Catholics have an intense hunger for proper catechesis on how to ‘fight the good fight.’”

And so we published more articles on exorcism, the nature of evil, and related topics, each of which was well received, including “Peering Into the Abyss” (Oct. 2008) and “Perfect Possession” (May 2009) by Maria Hsia Chang, “The Primeval Struggle” (Jul.-Aug. 2009) by Terence J. Hughes, “Why Is There Evil in the World?” (Dec. 2009) by Arthur C. Sippo, and Fr. Thomas J. Eute­neuer’s six-part Líbera Nos a Malo column series, which ran from December 2009 to June 2010. All this time we were virtually alone in identifying and trying to counteract the Church-wide silence on the topic of demonic evil and its presence in our world. No longer. Finally, someone of rank in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has also identified and is trying to address this “more reaching need.” That someone is Bishop Thomas Pap­rocki of Springfield, Illinois, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance. Bishop Paprocki sponsored the Conference on the Liturgical and Pastoral Practice of Exorcism, which took place in Baltimore on November 12-13, just prior to the U.S. bishops’ annual fall meeting.

Only a tiny number of American priests are trained in the rite of exorcism — reportedly only five or six nationwide — and these few have been overwhelmed by requests to evaluate claims of possession. Exorcism training falls under the jurisdiction of Bishop Paprocki’s canonical affairs committee, which he says has been receiving increasing numbers of inquiries from priests about the rite. Paprocki explained that the conference was organized primarily to provide guidance for bishops because, according to canon law (specifically can. 1172), exorcisms cannot be performed without the express permission of the local ordinary. The two-day conference consisted entirely of closed-door sessions — one of which was open only to bishops — that touched on the spiritual, theological, and practical dimensions of the rite. Speakers included Daniel Cardinal Di Nardo, archbishop of Houston-Galveston; Fr. Dennis McManus, assistant to New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan; and Fr. Jeffrey Grob, associate vicar for canonical services and the official exorcist of the Archdiocese of Chicago. At the close of the registration period, sixty-six priests and fifty-six bishops had signed up. It is not Bishop Paprocki’s intention to regularize the use of exorcisms in the life of the Church. Demonic possession is “rare, it’s extraordinary,” he told The New York Times (Nov. 12), “so the use of exorcism is also rare and extraordinary.” But, he maintained, “we have to be prepared.” Preparation is the first step toward victory. The goal, said Bishop Pap­rocki, is to have a priest in each diocese who, at the very least, can competently screen requests for exorcisms.

Due to its closed-door policy, there is no information available to the public about the goings-on at the conference. The organizers and participants surely were wary of the dual threats of the sensationalism that surrounds the topic of exorcism and the ridicule they might receive not only from the secular media, which associates the rite with spinning heads and pea-soup vomit, but from some members of the Church who see exorcism as a relic from an unenlightened, superstitious era they’d prefer to forget. Leave it to good ol’ Fr. Richard Mc­Bri­en to pan the conference a full four monthsbefore it took place. In a July 12 column in the National Catholic Reporter he dismissed the notion of a conference to educate priests and bishops on the nature of exorcism as “embarrassingly dumb” in this day and age. Fr. McBrien wasn’t alone in his embarrassment over one of the Church’s most ancient sacramentals: Fr. Richard Vega, president of the National Federation of Priests’ Councils (a liberal group that has fostered an adversarial relationship with the USCCB), told the Times that when he first heard about the conference, “My immediate reaction was to say, why?” He claims that in his capacity as president of the priests’ council he has never heard of any request for exorcisms. “This is another of those trappings we’ve pulled out of the past,” he concluded.

But according to R. Scott Appleby, professor of American Catholic history at Notre Dame, the timing of the conference makes perfect sense. “What they’re trying to do,” he told the Times, “is to strengthen and enhance what seems to be lost in the church, which is the sense that the church is not like any other institution. It is supernatural, and the key players in that are the hierarchy and the priests who can be given the faculties of exorcism. It’s a strategy for saying: ‘We are not the Federal Reserve, and we are not the World Council of Churches. We deal with angels and demons.’” In that sense the conference is consistent with Pope Benedict XVI’s program of restoring traditional practices to the modern Church, and ultimately of re-establishing the Church’s unique identity and clarifying her unique mission in the world.

“For the longest time, we in the United States may not have been as much attuned to some of the spiritual aspects of evil because we have become so attached to what would be either physical or psychological explanations for certain phenomena,” Cardinal Di Nardo told the Associated Press (Nov. 12). “We may have forgotten that there is a spiritual dimension to people.”

Spiritual warfare is real, and as the eminent Fr. John Hardon, S.J., once said, “Whether we like it or not, whether people even believe it or not, we are all conscripted. And, we better know the enemy.” Knowledge of the Enemy — nay, mere belief in the reality of the Enemy — is something the Church has let slip through her fingers in recent decades. Could the Conference on the Liturgical and Pastoral Practice of Exorcism signal a renewed recognition of our role and responsibilities as the Church Militant? Let’s pray that this is the case.

http://www.newoxfordreview.org/note.jsp?did=0111-notes-soldiers January/February 2011