It is either feast or famine, it seems. Today is a feast. There are several news stories, including the breaking story about Pope Benedict’s Letter to the world’s bishops about the remission of the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops, and my pilgrimage diary from Turkey in the footsteps of St. Paul. Lots of interesting topics – I hope you enjoy them all!
AUDIENCE FOCUSES ON ST. BONIFACE
“Christianity is promoting human progress by supporting the spreading of culture. It is up to us to understand the remarkable value of this patrimony, so that it can bear fruit, thus benefiting future generations,” said Pope Benedict at the Wednesday general audience. Addressing the 20,000 pilgrims in a sun-splashed St. Peter’s Square during the only weekly audience scheduled for March, he spoke of Boniface “a great 8th century missionary” who by his evangelizing work became “the father of all German inhabitants.” The Pope compared St Boniface’s faith to “our faith which is often tentative and politicized” and he encouraged the faithful to look at Boniface “to see how we can renew our faith and pass on the precious gift of the Gospel to the contemporary man.”
Speaking off-the-cuff, Benedict noted that Boniface, “At the age of 80, went back to Frisia, where he had started his evangelizing mission, and predicted his martyrdom.” Boniface “knew his mission was to evangelize and humanize culture,” said the Pope extemporaneously. Through Boniface and his monks, “a human culture flourished that was inseparable from faith,” he added, quoting “the remarkable intellectual works” left by the bishop, starting with his “rich treasure of letters, in which pastoral letters, official letters and other private correspondence reveal social facts and, above all, his human temperament.” The Pope said Boniface’s first legacy is “the centrality of the Word of God, that he lived, preached and witnessed to, up to the supreme gift of martyrdom.” “He was so excited about the Word of God that he felt the need and the duty of passing it on to the others, even by putting his life at risk.” His second legacy is “the faithful communion with the Apostolic See” which Boniface “kept until the end as a rule for his mission and that can be considered as his will.”
POPE APPEALS FOR END TO VIOLENCE IN NORTHERN IRELAND
At the end of the Wednesday general audience, Pope Benedict appealed for an end to violence in Northern Ireland, saying, “It was with deep sorrow that I learned of the murders of two young British soldiers and a policeman in Northern Ireland. I assure the families of the victims and the injured of my spiritual closeness, and I condemn in the strongest possible terms these abominable acts of terrorism which, apart from desecrating human life, seriously endanger the ongoing peace process in Northern Ireland and risk destroying the great hopes generated by this process in the region and throughout the world. I ask the Lord,” he said, “that no one will again give in to the horrendous temptation of violence and that all will increase their efforts to continue building – through the patient effort of dialogue – a peaceful, just and reconciled society.”
BENEDICT WRITES WORLD’S BISHOPS ABOUT EXCOMMUNICATIONS
The Holy See Press Office Wednesday announced that Pope Benedict has written a Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church Regarding the remission of the excommunication of the four bishops consecrated by Archbishop LeFebvre. This letter will be made public Thursday morning, March 12, followed by a briefing with Holy See Press Office Director Father Federico Lombardi. The January 24 announcement of the Pope’s lifting of the excommunications angered Jews and upset many Catholics as well because one of the bishops, Richard Williamson, has denied the holocaust. While the bishops were excommunicated for a canonical matter and not for their political beliefs, many who did not understand the Pope’s reasons for lifting the excommunications and for showing a perceived insensitivity to the feelings of Jews. Vatican officials later said the Pope did not know of William’s opinions on the Holocaust when he lifted the excommunication, and Williamson has been asked to recant.
Even though the Vatican is publishing the Letter in six languages tomorrow, a German newspaper, Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung, has already published the Letter and a website called New Liturgical Movement is translating the German version into English. Excerpts appeared today in the Italian daily, “Il Foglio” and on the blog of Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli who writes for “Il Giornale.”
That unofficial translation says in part, “The lifting of the excommunication of the four bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988 without a mandate of the Holy See has led, both within and outside the Catholic Church, from a variety of reasons, to a discussion of such vehemence as we had not experienced anymore for a long time. Many bishops felt at a loss before an event which came unexpectedly and could barely be integrated positively in the questions and tasks of the Church of today.”
“One misfortune for me unforeseeable,” says the Pope in the unofficial translation, “was the fact that the Williamson case has superimposed itself on the remission of the excommunication. The discreet gesture of mercy towards the four bishops ordained validly but not legitimately, suddenly appeared as something entirely different: as a disavowal of the reconciliation between Christians and Jews, and therefore as the revocation of what in this area the Council had clarified for the way for the Church. … Another misfortune which I sincerely regret, is that the scope and limits of the measure of 21 January 2009 have not been set out clearly enough at the time of the publication of the procedure. The excommunication affects persons, not institutions. Episcopal consecration without papal mandate means the danger of a schism, because it calls into question the unity of the Bishops’ College with the Pope.”
Benedict stresses that “That the Fraternity of Saint Pius X does not possess a canonical position in the Church is not based ultimately on disciplinary grounds but on doctrinal ones. As long as the Fraternity does not possess a canonical position in the Church, its officials do not exercise legitimate offices in the Church. One has therefore to distinguish between disciplinary level affecting the persons as persons, and the level of doctrine, at which office and institution are concerned. To say it once again: As long as the doctrinal issues are not resolved, the Fraternity has no canonical status in the Church and its ministers, even if they are free from ecclesiastical censure, do not exercise in a legitimate way any ministry in the Church.”
The Pope says, “Given this situation, I intend to connect the Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”, which since 1988 is responsible for those communities and individuals who, coming from the Fraternity of Pius X or similar groups, want to return into full communion with the Pope, in the future with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.”
He explains at length the reasons for lifting the communication and he signs his Letter to the world’s bishops, “With a special Apostolic Blessing, I remain Yours in the Lord.”
JERUSALEM CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS PAPAL VISIT TO HOLY LAND
A press conference was held Tuesday in Jerusalem by the assembly of the Catholic ordinaries of the Holy Land, to illustrate Benedict XVI’s apostolic journey here from May 8 to 15. The apostolic nuncio to Israel, Archbishop Antonio Franco, said the specific aims of the papal visit were to pray for peace and to encourage the local Christians. He said Pope Benedict expressed the desire to “celebrate Masses outdoors, instead of at the Cenacle or the Sepulchre, so that many more faithful could be accommodated. The highlight of this trip will be the three Masses in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth.”
During his pilgrimage, said Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, also present at the conference, Benedict XVI will visit the al-Aqsa Mosque, the Wailing Wall and the Yad Vashem memorial, adding “we still do not know if he will be allowed to enter” the mosque. As for the Yad Vashem, he will visit the memorial, but not the museum” that hosts a controversial image of Pius XII. “A bilateral Holy See-Yad Vashem commission is currently examining this issue. The Pope will pay a visit to the memorial like all heads of state do.”
Unlike John Paul, he noted, “Pope Benedict will not visit Capernaum or the Beatitudes. He is going to Nazareth, to Bethlehem and to Jerusalem instead. Before departing, he will also pay a visit to Aida refugee camp.” Fr. Pizzaballa said, “Gaza is not on the program, but some faithful will come from the Gaza Strip. Israel is likely to grant some visas as it happens on feast days. But this issue is going to be dealt with in the next few weeks.” “The Pope is coming here to encourage the small Christian community,” he said, adding, “his visit will not be politically exploited.”
ST. PAUL PREACHES IN ICONIUM, WINS CONVERTS TO CHRISTIANITY
This is what greeted us the morning of our third full day in Turkey, as we left our hotel in Konya – the Biblical Iconium, where Paul and Barnabas preached, where they were rejected, where they persisted and where they won many converts to Christianity.
We started the day with Mass in St. Paul’s Church. Once a growing center for early Christians Konya/Iconium now has a Muslim majority (99 percent of Turks are Muslims). This was the second time – and final time – we celebrated Mass inside a Church.
Here is our small pilgrimage congregation.
Yvonne Hennigan, head of Marymount International School, does a reading while Fr. Tom Holahan looks on.
And Fr. Phil DeRea, the main celebrant, looks on as Yvonne reads.
Fathers Tom and Phil at the consecration:
There is no resident priest at St. Paul’s but the church does have two guardian angels, two consecrated women from Trento, Italy, who are members of the Fraternity of the Risen Jesus. I cannot find the notes I took where I wrote down their names and so I cannot introduce them to you by name but here are two photos: the women are on the left in the first photo and the right in the second photo.
I asked how many Catholics there were today in Iconium and almost fell over when they told me “three.” I asked them to repeat and they said “three” – three older people who had lived their lives in Konya. The only time these people can go to Mass in Konya is when pilgrim groups like ours come to visit. And it is the offerings of visiting pilgrims that allow these two women to survive – to pay rent, to buy food, to buy candles, etc.
The Fraternity web page notes that St. Paul came to Iconium after having been chased away from Antioch in Pisidia (as we saw on our visit there and in Acts 13:51). Its geographical position as a crossroads for major trade routes as well as its abundant water supply made Iconium the capital city for this region. Here, St. Paul proclaimed the Gospel and a fervent Christian community was born. The Jews became divided over this message so St. Paul stayed some time, with the result that many believed. Eventually, under threat of his life he left the city but later returned on several occasions to encourage and exhort the people (Acts 14:1-6, 21).
The memory of St. Paul is still alive in Konya, thanks to a small church dedicated to him. This church was constructed in 1910 by the Assumption priests who came here to spiritually assist the families of the French community working in the region. St. Paul’s Konya Church is unique to this region as it is still standing after the passage of time, during which a large number of churches were demolished or turned into mosques when numbers of Christians decreased.
In this church St. Thecla, the first female martyr, and St. Timothy are remembered as well.
One of Konya’s very first converts to Christianity, St. Thecla determined to remain a virgin out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. After suffering numerous persecutions she died in Seleucia. She is remembered in the Cathedral of Milan and her Saints Day is September 23.
St. Timothy was a disciple of Paul’s from Lystra, a small town about 24 miles away, who “had a good reputation among the believers at Lystra and Iconium” (Acts 16:1-2). He joined St. Paul as a companion during his journeys and later was made Bishop of Ephesus. Two of St. Paul’s letters to St. Timothy are included in the New Testament.
Now this small church, with its French Gothic facade, offers hospitality to groups of pilgrims travelling the paths of St. Paul in Anatolia, thanks to the concern and oversight of the Bishop of Izmir/ Konya and to the presence of two resident Sisters from the “Fraternity of the Risen Jesus” in Tavodo, Trento, Italy. Today’s small community of Catholic Christians gather here once a week to pray and listen to the Word of God as transmitted by the Apostles.
Write to Joan at:
joansrome@ewtn.com
