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Vatican City, Feb 1, 2012 / 03:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians should trust in the loving providence of God, even when going through dark periods in life, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Feb. 1 general audience.

“In prayer we must be able to bring before God our fatigue, the suffering of certain situations and of certain days, our daily struggle to follow him and to be Christians, and even the weight of evil we see within us and around us, because he gives us hope, makes us aware of his nearness and gives us a little light on the path of life,” he said.

Pope Benedict offered his reflections to thousands of pilgrims who gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

His address continued an ongoing series on the subject of prayer and focused on the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, just prior to his arrest, passion and death.

Jesus’ Company
 
While Jesus previously withdrew from the crowds and his disciples to pray in the wilderness or on a mountain, the Pope noted that this time Jesus did not want to be alone and called Peter, James and John to be closest to him. They were the same disciples who were chosen by Jesus to be with him during his Transfiguration.

“This proximity of the three during prayer in Gethsemane is significant,” explained the Pope, because “their presence is an invitation to every disciple to draw near to Jesus along the way of the Cross.”
 
Christ’s Fear and Anguish
 
Christ’s anguish, the Pope said, is articulated in his words to the three disciples – “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch.” His statement is foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament, the Pope taught, highlighting the suffering of the prophets Elijah and Moses. They experienced the same emotion after “finding hostility, rejection, persecution” following God entrusting certain tasks to them.

In the case of Jesus, his words show that he was experiencing the “fear and anguish at that ‘hour’ … the ultimate profound solitude as God’s plan was being accomplished,” said the Pope.
 
Christ’s fear and anguish also “summarizes all the horror that man feels at the prospect of his own death, its inexorable certainty and the perception of the burden of evil which affects our lives.”

Praying on the Ground
 
Jesus then moves away from the disciples and lays on the ground. The Pope noted that Christ’s prostration is “a position for prayer which expresses obedience to the Father’s will, an abandonment of self with complete trust in Him.”
 
Similarly, this is a position assumed by monks when professing vows, or by bishops, priests and deacons at their ordination. It is also the position priests assume when they begin the service for Christ’s passion on Good Friday. As a posture it expresses “in prayer, even bodily, complete reliance on God,” said the Pope.

Christ then asks that, if possible, he be spared his impending ordeal. “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want but what you want.”

Pope Benedict explained that this episode “is not just the fear and anguish of man in the face of death.” It is also the “distress of the Son of God Who sees the terrible accumulation of evil He must take upon Himself, in order to overcome it and deprive it of power.”

Revealing Passages
 
The Pope then highlighted three “revealing passages,” contained in this particular Gospel scene.

He first said that Jesus’ use of the Aramaic word “Abba,” which was used by children to informally address their fathers, expresses “Jesus relationship with God the Father, a relationship of tenderness, affection and trust.”

Jesus also teaches people about his Father’s omnipotence, the Pope noted, when he makes “a request in which, once again, we see the drama of Jesus’ human will in the face of death and evil.”
 
Most importantly, said the Pope, we see that ultimately Christ’s “human will adheres fully to the divine will.” In doing so “Jesus tells us that only by conforming their will to the divine will can human beings achieve their true stature and become ‘divine.’”

Pope Benedict said that if Christians pray the Our Father and ask that God’s will is done, “a little of heaven” is brought to earth as a “place where love, goodness, truth and divine beauty are present” but “only if the will of God is done.”

He concluded by telling the pilgrims that in daily prayer they “must learn to have greater trust in Divine Providence, to ask God for the strength to abandon our own selves in order to renew our ‘yes,’ to repeat to Him ‘your will be done,’ to conform our will to His.”

Vatican City, Jan 31, 2012 / 09:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of several southern U.S. states say they are returning home from their “ad limina” visit to Rome refreshed and ready to evangelize.

“I think we just felt so energized by being present with the Holy Father,” Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Ala. told CNA on Jan. 27.
 
“He is such a gracious man, a great man, a welcoming man. And I just feel very affirmed in my role as a bishop and now look forward to returning to Alabama so I can share that with the people of God.”
 
Archbishop Rodi and 21 of his fellow bishops have been in Rome since Jan. 22 for discussions with Pope Benedict and Vatican officials on the health of the Church in their dioceses. The group comes from the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. They are the fifth delegation of U.S. bishops to visit to Rome in recent months, and on Feb. 1 they will return home.

“The Holy Father is obviously very concerned by evangelization in our world that is becoming increasingly secular and at the same time so hungry for the Word of God,” said Archbishop Rodi, who was part of a group that met Pope Benedict on Jan. 27.

“He made it so beautifully clear,” recalled Archbishop Rodi, “that the foundation of evangelization must be the calling of people into a personal relationship with Christ – those were his words, a personal relationship with Christ.”
 
He said the Pope told them that he knows their “flocks are small but they are important,” and that he wants them to be welcoming all those who seek to enter the Catholic Church.

Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Ala. said the meeting with Pope Benedict gave him inspiration for the forthcoming Year of Faith, which begins Oct. 2012.

“I mentioned to him that he has already written encyclicals on hope and on charity and that we look forward to his next one on faith so that trilogy shall be complete,” he said.

Bishop Baker explained how his diocese is already “cranking up in different ways,” ahead of the Year of Faith. The diocese’s preparations include the creation of a new “catechetical institute” to help certify those who teach the Catholic faith in schools and elsewhere.
 
Pope Benedict was also eager to hear from Bishop Baker about the Eternal Word Television Network, the global Catholic broadcaster based in the Diocese of Birmingham.

He said the Pope was particularly interested in the “efforts towards the new evangelization that are going on through EWTN.”

Pope Benedict also asked Bishop Baker to encourage the station in its “continued collaboration with the Holy Father, the Vatican and bishops across the United States.”

Bishop Baker explained to Pope Benedict how “the flavor of Catholicism in the South is drastically changed” because of the increased numbers of Latinos migrating to the area in recent years.

He related to the Pope how the local Church has stood in solidarity with the immigrant population, particularly over proposed new immigration laws in Alabama which he feels need to be “softened in terms of religious freedom.”

They also discussed the challenge that changing demographics present to the Church’s mission to evangelize.
 
“It calls us bishops into responding ourselves by learning Spanish and about the cultures of Latin America. And then having our priests and seminarians learn the Spanish language, too,” said Bishop Baker.

The challenge is “not just to learn the language but embrace the peoples and the cultures,” he explained.

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2012 / 04:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The power of Jesus Christ is manifested in humble service and love, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Sunday Angelus address on Jan. 29.

“For man, authority often means possession, power, control, success,” the Pope said to thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

“For God, however, authority means service, humility, love,” he continued, “it means entering into the logic of Jesus who stoops to wash the disciples’ feet, who seeks the true good of man, who heals wounds, who is capable of a love so great as to give up his life, because he is Love.”

The Pope’s made his comments as part of a reflection on today’s Gospel reading in which an unclean spirit identifies Jesus Christ as the “Holy One of God,” during his travels in Galilee. The Pope observed how Jesus heals both spiritually and physically through his teaching and miracles.

“In a short time, his fame spread throughout the region, which he travels announcing the Kingdom of God and healing the sick of all kinds: word and action.”

He then quoted the fifth-century Church father St. John Chrysostom, who noted that Jesus “alternates the speech for the benefit of those who listen, moving on from wonders to words and again passing from the teaching of his doctrine to miracles.”

The Pope suggested that Jesus’ use of words immediately opened up most of those listening to “the will of the Father and the truth about themselves.” However,  the scribes who “struggled to interpret the Holy Scriptures with countless reflections” were not open to his words.

Therefore, Jesus also united to his words to miraculous actions as “signs of deliverance from evil,” the pontiff explained.  He further recalled how St. Athanasius, the third-century Church father, would say that the “commanding and driving out demons is not human but divine work” and demonstrates how Jesus “distanced men from all diseases and infirmities.”

“Divine authority is not a force of nature." Instead, it is “the power of the love of God who created the universe and, in becoming incarnate in His only begotten Son, in coming down to our humanity, heals the world corrupted by sin.”

Pope Benedict finished with a quotation from Romano Guardini, the 20th-century Italian-German philosopher and theologian, who wrote that “the whole life of Jesus is a translation of power in humility ... Here is the sovereignty that lowers itself to the form of a servant.”

Rome, Italy, Jan 28, 2012 / 07:03 am (CNA).- U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio says the collapse of Iraq’s Christian population is among the legacies of America's invasion in 2003.

“Yes, you can say in a certain sense that the invasion of Iraq did provoke this tremendous diminution of the Christian population in that country. And what the future holds, that still remains to be seen,” the archbishop for the armed forces told CNA during his visit to Rome on Jan. 16.

His comments come only a month after the final pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq, where they remained following the invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Aid agencies estimate that over the course of eight years, the Catholic population of Iraq fell from over 800,000, to less than 150,000 now

Archbishop Broglio believes Catholicism suffered after the invasion because of a perceived closeness to its previous ruler. He said Saddam Hussein tended “to trust Catholics, and gave them positions of responsibility.” One prominent Iraqi Catholic was Hussein’s Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz.

And even if Catholics “weren’t particularly part of the regime, they became identified with the regime,” Archbishop Broglio said.

“Before, they were a minority that was protected, but now they are a minority that is not protected.”

As President Barack Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops from Iraq on Dec. 15, he said they were leaving behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant,” country.

But there are signs that Iraqi Christians' plight has worsened since then.

“At a time of increased political instability, we continue to receive disturbing reports,” said John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need on Jan. 20.

He said an attack took place earlier in the month against security personnel outside the residence of Kirkuk's Archbishop Louis Sako.

Archbishop Sako, who was indoors at the time, told Aid to the Church in Need that the situation is less stable now that U.S. troops are gone, with much of the turmoil stemming from the power struggle between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Pontifex says there is a “ticking bomb regarding Christianity in Iraq.”

“Few Christians, no matter how deep their roots are in the local society, feel able to withstand the pressure to leave.”

Fear of an attack forced Archbishop Sako to cancel the Chaldean Catholics' midnight Christmas celebration last month. Services were moved to the daytime, and Christians were warned not to display decorations outside their homes.

Nevertheless, it appears that many of the Catholics who fled Iraq would return if safety improved.

Monsignor John Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, recently spoke of the “strong determination” some Iraqi Catholics have to go back home. He recently visited Jordan, where many Christians from Iraq now reside.

“I think they have a yearning to return to the homeland, and that homeland for them means practicing their Chaldean-rite Christianity,” the monsignor said. “That has become very, very important to them.”

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2012 / 07:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski told those affected by leprosy that God's love will never fail them.

In statement for the 59th World Leprosy Day, which will be observed on Jan. 29, the archbishop addressed survivors of the disease and those still suffering from it around the globe.

“He who is in suffering and … prays to the Lord is certain that God's love will never abandon him,” the Archbishop told those who are suffering from the disease.

Archbishop Zimowski, who heads the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, said that those currently being treated for leprosy can and must “express all the riches of their dignity and spirituality.” He also counseled them to be in solidarity with others who have been “equally afflicted and have been marked indelibly by this infection.”

Those who have been cured of the disease can “communicate their gratitude in a practical way” by providing moral support to those still suffering from leprosy and contributing to the identification and prevention of the disease, he said.

“Those who have attained a cure can in this way communicate all their interior riches ... as people touched by suffering and involved in working for the health of the community to which they belong.”

Leprosy, which is also called Hansen’s Disease, has not been eradicated from the modern world, although it continues to decrease every year. The World Health Organization estimated a total of about 200,000 cases in 2010 – 2011.

Archbishop Zimowski said that God's love and the love of the Church, which is an extension of God's work, “will never fail” them.

Pope Benedict XVI recently chose the gospel passage of Luke 17:19, “Stand and go; your faith has saved you” as the theme for the 20th World Day of the Sick, to be held on Feb. 11.

The archbishop pointed out that those afflicted by leprosy can find particular comfort in the Pope's scripture selection because it speaks of Christ's healing of the 10 lepers who were “readmitted to the community and reintegrated into the social occupational fabric.”

He expanded on the scripture passage by pointing out that the leper who returned to thank Jesus showed that “reacquired health is a sign of something more precious that mere physical healing.” The healing that the leper experienced was also a sign of salvation through Christ.

Archbishop Zimowski noted the many volunteer organizations that have helped in reducing the number of cases of leprosy, especially the Raoul Follereau Foundation based in Bologna, Italy.

He urged those involved in treating leprosy to fight against the disease and to continue their work “tenaciously” to reduce relapse cases.

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2012 / 01:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The upcoming 2012-2013 “Year of Faith” seeks to awaken humanity at a critical moment, Pope Benedict XVI said as he addressed the Church's highest doctrinal office on Jan. 27.

“In vast areas of the earth the faith risks being extinguished, like a flame without fuel,” the Pope told assembled members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who met in a plenary session on Friday.

“We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of a religious sense which represents one of the greatest challenges for the Church today.”

Pope Benedict hopes the Year of Faith, which will run from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013, will contribute “to restoring God's presence in this world, and to giving man access to the faith, enabling him to entrust himself to the God who, in Jesus Christ, loved us to the end.”

“The renewal of faith,” the Pope announced, “must, then, be a priority for the entire Church in our time.”

His remarks to the doctrinal congregation came two days after the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the final day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Pope spoke about the quest to reunite all Christians, as he acknowledged that ecumenical efforts had not always served to strengthen believers' faith.

Along with the “many good fruits that have emerged from ecumenical dialogue,” there are also “risks of indifference and of false irenicism” – which give the appearance of unity, without regard for truth.

In today's world, the Pope observed, there is an “increasingly widespread” perception “that truth is not accessible to man, and that, therefore, we must limit ourselves to finding rules to improve this world.”

“In this scenario,” he noted, “faith comes to be replaced by a shallow-rooted moralism,” which can cause the dialogue between Christian groups to become superficial.

“By contrast, the core of true ecumenism is faith, in which man encounters the truth revealed in the Word of God.”

Pope Benedict told officials of the doctrine congregation, the office he led before his election to the papacy, that controversial issues cannot be downplayed or ignored in talks between the Catholic Church and other Christian churches and communities.

Matters of faith and morals, he said, “must be faced courageously, while always maintaining a spirit of fraternity and mutual respect …  In our dialogues we cannot overlook the great moral questions about human life, the family, sexuality, bioethics, freedom, justice and peace.”

By defending the Church's authentic tradition, he observed, “we defend man and we defend the creation.”

Rome, Italy, Jan 26, 2012 / 05:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Today's world can learn a lot from St. John of Avila, according to those who have studied the life of the next Doctor of the Catholic Church.

"St. John of Avila is far from us in time, but nearby for his figure, his life, his evangelizing witness and for his teaching," Archbishop Juan del Río Martín of Spain's Archdiocese for Military Services told CNA.

Archbishop del Río Martín was one of three experts on the Spanish saint who gathered in Rome on Jan. 20 for the presentation of a new book in Spanish that explores the writings of St. John of Avila.

The archbishop, who wrote his doctoral thesis on St. John of Avila’s teachings, believes that Pope Benedict made an investment in the future of the Church by choosing the 16th-century saint as the Church's newest doctor.

The Pope has called the Church to a new evangelization, he notes, and in the “Apostle of Andalusia” she has a “model of how to evangelize."

St. John of Avila was born in 1500 in the town of Almodovar del Campo, 155 miles south of Madrid. A Christian of Jewish descent, he studied law at the University of Salamanca, before being ordained a priest. He went on to become a great preacher, author and mystic, writing works that influenced St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis Borgia, among others.

He is credited with re-evangelizing the southern Spanish region of Andalusia after it was reclaimed from the Moors.

The Apostle of Andalusia is now venerated in Spain as the patron of the nation's priests.

In fact, Pope Benedict chose a meeting with priests and seminarians during World Youth Day celebrations this past August in Madrid to declare that the saint would become a Church "doctor."

He hoped that "the word and the example of this outstanding pastor will enlighten all priests and those who look forward to the day of their priestly ordination."

The recognition places St. John of Avila among 33 others, such as Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Therese of Lisieux, whose contributions have been declared a source of truth and of value to Christians in all times. Church "doctors" are also required to have manifested "eminent learning" and "great sanctity" in their lives.

María de la Encarnación González, the postulator of the saint's cause for being declared a Church doctor, said that John of Avila truly lived out his faith and knew how to share it.

"St. John of Avila was a great communicator. Therefore, the work he did has led him to this point where the Pope considers that he demonstrated all of the requisites to become a Doctor of the Church," she said.

Though no date has been announced for his installation, it is significant that the Pope has chosen him to be a doctor as a "new evangelization" movement gears up in the Catholic Church.

Not only has a special Vatican department been created to oversee these efforts in the West, but bishops from around the world will come to Rome in Oct. 2012 to discuss the topic for three weeks.

"How do we evangelize in the 21st century?" asked Archbishop del Río Martín. Catholics must learn to express their love for Jesus Christ the way St. John of Avila did when he said he felt “leased by Christ,” the archbishop remarked.

"In Jesus Christ," he said, "was revealed a God of love, who preaches and sends out love. And that love must be shown to men through the word, the sacraments and charity."

Vatican City, Jan 26, 2012 / 04:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The official Vatican spokesman says an Italian television broadcast claiming to disclose financial corruption at the Vatican exaggerated the situation. 

Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., questioned the “debatable” journalistic methods employed in the broadcast’s “diffusion of private documents.”

The information in the program stretched “well beyond reality,” he said in a Jan. 26 statement, adding that “the general situation of the government is not as negative as they want to make people believe.”

Accusations of financial mismanagement in the Vatican were broadcast Jan. 25 on a prominent Italian television network in a show entitled “Gli intoccabili.”

The program claimed that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò – now the Pope’s official representative to the U.S. – wrote a private letter to Pope Benedict XVI on March 27, 2011, asking not to be transferred to the U.S. while new measures aimed at cleaning up the Vatican’s financial situation were being implemented.

Archbishop Viganò was serving as the second in command for the Governatorate of Vatican City, before he was appointed as the new nuncio to the United States in October 2011.

In his work at the Holy See, he introduced financial controls and accountability procedures that transformed a multi-million dollar deficit into a significant surplus in just one year. 

In a Jan. 26 statement, Fr. Lombardi responded to the broadcast, lamenting that it has become “all too familiar” to find biased reporting about the Catholic Church. 

He stressed that governing the Vatican City-State is very complex, and said that the situation was presented in “a partial and banal way” so as to exalt “the negative aspects.”

Fr. Lombardi noted the many positive effects of Archbishop Viganò’s actions as Secretary General of the Government. He said that an accurate analysis of the financial changes within the Holy See must take into account changing markets and economic situations, as well as a notable increase in visitors to the Vatican Museums.

He also commented on the “significant expenses” required to meet the Vatican’s important non-economic goal of supporting the universal Church.

The Vatican spokesman also underscored that Archbishop Viganò’s appointment as the apostolic nuncio to the United States showed Pope Benedict’s great trust in him.

Holy See officials, Fr. Lombardi said, continue to be guided by the standards of “healthy administration and of transparency” to which Archbishop Viganò committed himself.

Fr. Lombardi also said that the Vatican government is willing to “pursue all appropriate options,” including possible legal action to defend the reputation of the Vatican officials mentioned in the broadcast. 

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2012 / 02:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus’ “priestly prayer” at the Last Supper for Christian unity should inspire Catholics to pray and work for it, Pope Benedict XVI said on Jan. 25.

“His priestly prayer can thus be seen as instituting the Church, the community of the disciples who, through faith in him, are made one and share in his saving mission,” the Pope said at his weekly general audience.

He also urged Catholics to pray “for the gift of the visible unity of all Christ’s followers, so that the world may believe in the Son and in the Father who sent him.”

The Pope addressed his remarks to thousands of pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on today’s Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the day that brings the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to a close.

The “priestly prayer” of Christ is recalled most vividly in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of St. John. In order to understand “its immense richness,” said Pope Benedict, it must be seen “against the backdrop of the Jewish feast of expiation, Yom Kippur.”

During Yom Kippur, he explained, the Jewish High Priest sought “atonement first for himself, then for the order of priests and finally for the community as a whole.”

In an identical fashion, “Jesus, as priest and victim, prays that the Father will glorify him in this, the hour of his sacrifice of reconciliation.” Jesus also “asks the Father to consecrate his disciples, setting them apart and sending them forth to continue his mission in the world.”

The Pope then broke down the prayer into its three main parts.

Benedict XVI first touched on Jesus’ prayer that he would be glorified, when he said “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you.” 

The Pope pointed out that this prayer is “more than a request.” It is “a declaration of willingness to enter freely and generously into the Father's plan, which is accomplished through death and resurrection.”

As the new High Priest, the glory Jesus seeks for himself “is to be fully obedient to the Father, an obedience which leads Him to fulfill His filial status.”

The second prayer Jesus prays to his Father is for his disciples, who “do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth.”

“To sanctify means to transfer something – a person or thing – to God,” explained Pope Benedict. This involves two complementary aspects of “segregation” or being “set apart” from the world, and then “being sent out” to evangelize the world. 

For the disciples of Christ, this meant continuing “Jesus’ mission,” he said.

Finally, Jesus prays for future generations of Christians, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” In this “Jesus prays for the Church in all times, he also prays for us,” said the Pope.

“The main element in Jesus’ priestly prayer for his disciples,” he taught, “is his request for the future unity of those who will believe in him.”

Christian unity is “not a worldly achievement” and “derives exclusively from divine unity and comes down to us from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said.

Today was the latest installment in the Pope’s weekly catechesis on prayer. He concluded today’s gathering by leading those present in singing the Our Father in Latin, before imparting his apostolic blessing.

Rome, Italy, Jan 25, 2012 / 01:56 pm (CNA).- Father Ricardo Reyes Castillo, a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, said Pope Benedict XVI’s approval of the movement’s non-liturgical celebrations “has changed absolutely nothing.”

The Panamanian priest told CNA on Jan. 23 that the papal approval of the celebrations contained in the Neocatechumenal Catechetical Directory means “simply that the Church has confirmed that the rites used in the different stages of formation in the Neocatechumenal Way are in accord with the tradition of the Church.”

“This is just another step in the process through which the Church lovingly follows the faithful who belong to this experience of faith,” he added.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the ceremonies outlined in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way, specifying that this approval applied to those celebrations “which are not, by their nature, already regulated by the liturgical books of the Church.”

Fr. Reyes said the members of the movement “are grateful because they feel guided and protected under the wings of the Church, which has always shown herself to be a mother.”

On Jan. 20, Pope Benedict XVI met with more than 7,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way and thanked them for their valuable service to the Church. He encouraged them to proclaim Christ and reminded them of the public nature of the Eucharist, saying their communities should be integrated into the local parishes where they are present.

Rome, Italy, Jan 25, 2012 / 11:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Israeli-built wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank is deterring staff and students from attending Bethlehem Catholic University, officials from the school say.
 
“We lose students but we also lose faculty who have been teaching at the University and who come from Jerusalem but don´t want to go through that humiliation every day,” Brother Jack Curran, the university’s Vice President for Development, told CNA on Jan. 18 during a two-day visit to Rome.

“The young people are very resilient and are willing to put up with a lot but it does concern us for the future,” he said.
 
The barrier is a 26 foot wall erected by Israel to separate itself from the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. Israel says the wall protects them from Palestinian terrorism. Opponents of the wall say it breaks international law and illegally annexes parts of Palestinian territory.

Bethlehem Catholic University sits close to the wall on the Palestinian side, but many of its students come from East Jerusalem, which lies on the Israeli side.

“There are students, now about 20 percent of students, who go through the checkpoints of the wall every day, twice a day, coming and going,” explained Br. Curran, an American from upstate New York, who has been in Bethlehem for nine years.

“Bethlehem is the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, so any Christian or Catholic students in Jerusalem who want to go to a Catholic university have to do that,” he explained.

Br. Curran said that many of the students find the routine of checkpoints and searches “wearing and tearing on their spirits.”

“They tell us the hardest part is not going through the wall but the thoughts about what happens when you’re on your way to the wall: ‘Will I be strip searched or taken off the bus and forced to sit in the sun for an hour or two, or will it be that I’m waved through?’”
 
Bethlehem Catholic University was founded in 1973 as a joint venture between the Vatican and the De La Salle Christian Brothers. Initially the school only had 112 students enrolled, but this year it has over 3,000 attending classes.

Br. Curran finds his students are remarkably resilient in the face of adversity.
 
“Amazingly, their spirits are still very positive and upbeat and they come every day,” he said. “They have a choice to come or not. But they do come and we’re grateful that they do.”

Br. Curran is more concerned about losing staff members who find the extra difficulties created by teaching in Bethlehem simply “too much for their spirits to bear.”

He offered the example of Palestinian academics who are not allowed to fly out of Tel Aviv Airport in Israel to attend international conferences but, instead, have to travel to Amman, Jordan. The trip to Amman involves an overnight stay on both the outgoing and return journey.

“It practically doubles the expense of any travel that has to happen, and so when a faculty member has to think about going to a conference they have to think about the extra burden,” he explained.

“Meanwhile, the staff who live in Jerusalem have to go through that wall twice a day. And after a few years of doing that many decide to look for a job elsewhere, regrettably so.”
 
Br. Curran said Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2009 was extremely helpful to the university because he said “tough things” to the leaders in Israel and Palestine.

In his meetings with Vatican officials in recent days, Br. Curran has been urging the Holy See to continue speaking out, because “their words do have an impact.”
 
“We look forward to the rest of the international community to be likewise critical of the injustices wherever they occur, whether they are on the Israeli side or the Palestinian side,” he stated.
 
“In many ways, it seems to me that it boils down to issues of human rights – justice – and then when these are addressed, we will see peace and prosperity being possible.”

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2012 / 02:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI believes that in a noisy world of constant communication people need silence more than ever.

He outlined his thoughts in his message for World Communications Day 2012, which is entitled “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization.” The Pope’s letter was released Jan. 24 at the Vatican press office by Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

“When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary,” the Pope says in a statement that will be read in Catholic churches around the world on May 20, 2012.

“This makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge,” he writes.

Pope Benedict recommends making this interchange possible by developing “an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds.”

He suggests that silence is required to make sense of the constant stream of information that people now receive via television, radio, the Internet and various forms of social media.

“In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves,” he says.

He also observes that silence can allow other people to express their thoughts. In this way “we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested,” and therefore, “space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible.”

Pope Benedict believes that this use of silence is “often more eloquent than a hasty answer,” because it “permits seekers to reach into the depths of their being and open themselves to the path towards knowledge that God has inscribed in human hearts.”

The Pope sees this need for silence as a part of Christian life from the earliest times. He points to the “eloquence of God’s love, lived to the point of the supreme gift,” which is seen “in the silence of the Cross,” when, after Christ’s death “there is a great silence over the earth.”

Silent contemplation also “immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbors so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love,” he writes.

Archbishop Celli summed up the Pope’s message as reminding everyone that real communication involves pairing “words and silence” so that people are not “overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communication itself.”

Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the social communications council, explained to CNA that the Pope’s message “reminds us that the relevance of silence is equally important within the context of a digital environment.”

“Especially when we now find ourselves continually bombarded by messages, by ideas, by opinions, by news.

“And so the Pope is saying we need silence if we’re going to judge that, integrate it, make it our own and not simply be caught up in a flow of information.”

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2012 / 09:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Peter should be the model for all bishops because he allowed God to use his strengths and weaknesses, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans said early this morning in Rome.

“My brothers, as we come to this tomb, as we have the privilege to stand before the remains of Peter, this great man, we certainly pray for ourselves as shepherds of the Church, that we can have the mind and heart of Christ to follow the example of Peter,” he said in his Jan. 23 homily.

The Mass in the Crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica marked the start of an official visit to the Vatican by the bishops of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Archbishop Aymond focused his reflections on the Gospel passage in which St. Peter declares Jesus is “the Christ.” He said the passage displays the apostle’s “profession of faith, his leap of faith, the courage, the boldness to step out into the deep and to say ‘You are indeed the messiah, you are the one who was promised.’”

But Archbishop Aymond also contrasted the strengths of St. Peter’s character with other times in his life when he failed to follow Jesus, even to the point of betraying him.

“It is important for all of us in ministry, in particularly for those of us in the episcopal ministry, that we look at the entire profile of Peter’s personality – his gifts as well as his weaknesses,” Archbishop Aymond told his fellow bishops.

“Peter’s weakness do not minimize his holiness ... because we see that Jesus uses both Peter’s strength as well as his weaknesses,” he observed.

Through this experience, the archbishop explained, St. Peter “learns humility and learns obedience,” giving an example for all bishops.

Archbishop Aymond is making the “ad limina” visit to Rome with 21 other bishops between Jan. 23 and 31.

The trips take place every five years and involve a meeting in which the bishops brief the Pope on the Church in their individual dioceses, visit with various Vatican departments, and make a pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The group is the fifth delegation of U.S. bishops to make their way to Rome in recent months, leaving 10 more groups on the American roster.

After this morning’s Mass, the bishops met with officials at the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Clergy. Six of the bishops also had an audience with Pope Benedict.

In the evening they attended at reception at the United States Embassy to the Holy See, hosted by Ambassador Miguel H. Diaz.

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2012 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this year is “very possible,” according to the Vatican’s official spokesman.

The Pope would use the visit to deliver a document – known as an apostolic exhortation – that is the fruit of the discussions that took place at last October’s Synod for the Middle East.
 
“In the context of the publication of a synod document, it is very possible and reasonable for the Pope to go to Lebanon and deliver this message,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., told CNA on Jan. 23.

“Lebanon is certainly a country that desires the Pope’s presence. Given that the Pope has already been to the Holy Land, Lebanon is a place that would be an option to host the Pope for this purpose,” Fr. Lombardi said.

The Italian media is already speculating that the Pope will travel to the country in mid-September. Possible dates include Sept. 13, the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, and the following weekend, Sept. 22-23.

Pope Benedict could make stops in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut and the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, Bkerké, as part of his trip.
 
“Well that’s very much the hope there at the moment,” said Monsignor John Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, who recently visited Lebanon.

“There is a lot that would have to go into such a decision, and there are a lot of parties that will have to weigh in on that,” he told CNA, adding that a papal trip “certainly would be a most welcome sign to the people and to the Church there.”

Just over a quarter of the Lebanese population is Catholic, with the majority of those belonging to the Maronite Catholic Church, an Eastern Church in communion with Rome.

Blessed Pope John Paul II made a two-day visit to Lebanon in 1997 to sign the apostolic exhortation “A Hope for Lebanon,” which drew together the work of the Special Assembly for Lebanon of the Synod of Bishops in 1995.
 
A papal visit later this year would be Pope Benedict’s first journey to the Middle East since the emergence of the “Arab Spring,” a series of popular uprisings across the region that have toppled a number of dictatorships over the past year.

Vatican City, Jan 22, 2012 / 12:17 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI said that Christian unity can be achieved only through personal conversions rooted in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“We are called to contemplate the victory of Christ over sin and death, that his resurrection is an event that transforms those who believe in him and opens them up to them a incorruptible and immortal life,” said the Pope during his Sunday Angelus address from the window of his Apostolic Palace on Jan 22. 

He told the pilgrims gathered in St. Peters Square to “recognize and accept the transforming power of faith in Jesus Christ that sustains Christians also in the search for full unity among themselves.”

The Pope’s comments come in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which runs from Jan. 18-25. It is being marked by over 300 churches and Christian communities around the world.

Pope Benedict paid particular attention to the words of St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians, which state that “we will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The phrase was chosen as the motto for this year’s Christian Unity Week by the Polish Ecumenical Council.

“Poland has known a long history of courageous struggles against various adversities and has repeatedly shown great determination, animated by faith,” the Pope observed.

“Over the centuries, Polish Christians have instinctively perceived a spiritual dimension in their desire for freedom,” and have realized that “true victory can only come in accompanied by a profound inner transformation.”

The experience of the Polish nation should illustrate to everybody, the Pope suggested, that “our search for unity can be conducted in a realistic manner if change occurs primarily within ourselves.”

Christian unity can be more readily achieved if “we allow God to act, if we let ourselves be transformed in the image of Christ, if we enter into new life in Christ, which is the real victory,” he said.

The “visible unity,” of all Christians “is always a work that comes from above, from God, by asking for the humility to recognize our weakness and to accept the gift.”

The Pope then reminded pilgrims of the words of his predecessor, Blessed Pope John Paul II, who used to say that “every gift also becomes a commitment.”

Thus, he added, “our daily commitment is to be open to one another in charity.”

The Pope concluded by looking forward to the Vespers of the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul which he will preside over at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Jan. 25. There he will be joined by the leaders of numerous other Christian Churches and communities.

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2012 / 05:15 pm (CNA).- The Vatican’s approval of the Neocatechumenal Way’s forms of “celebration” only applies to non-liturgical prayers within their catechesis and not to the Mass or other liturgies of the Church.

“With respect to the celebrations of the Holy Mass and the other liturgies of the Church,” communities of the Neocatechumenal Way must “follow the norms of the Church as indicated in the liturgical books – to do otherwise must be understood to be a liturgical abuse,” a Vatican official who requested anonymity told CNA on Jan. 21.

Pope Benedict XVI met with around 7,000 members of the movement in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall on Jan. 20 for an annual event to send families to mission destinations worldwide.

The invitation issued by the movement to bishops for yesterday’s event stated that “the purpose of this meeting is that His Holiness will sign a Decree from the Congregation of Divine Worship recognizing the full approval of the liturgies of the Neocatechumenal Way.”

Instead, approval for the non-liturgical practices of the group came by way of another source. It was Pontifical Council for the Laity that issued a decree of approval – after having consulted the Congregation for Divine Worship – for those “celebrations” present in their Catechetical Directory. 

In this process “the Neocatechumenal Way obtained no new permissions whatsoever,” said the official, who is familiar with the approval process for prayers and liturgies.

“Essentially, the Pontifical Council is only approving these things that are found in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way, and in no way touches those things contained in the liturgical books.”

He said that the decree served merely as an assurance that “there is nothing erroneous to the prayers that they use in the context of their catechetical sessions.”

The Neocatechumenal Way was founded in 1964 in Spain by Francisco “Kiko” Argüello and Carmen Hernández. It draws its inspiration from the practices of the early Catholic Church, providing “post-baptismal” Christian formation in small, parish-based communities. The movement is present all over the world, and has an estimated membership of more than 1 million people.

Since its foundation, however, the group has been cautioned by the Vatican for inserting various novel practices into Masses organized by the movement. These include lay preaching, standing during Eucharistic Prayer, the reception of Holy Communion while sitting down, as well as the passing of the Most Precious Blood from person to person.

“The Neocatechumenal Way has no such permission for any of these kinds of things,” said the Vatican official. He claimed that the Vatican still receives complaints about the group’s “non-compliance with the universal norms of liturgy.”

He added that it should be clear that “yesterday’s decree has nothing to do with the widely seen liturgical innovations of the Neocatechumenal Way,” which “should be stopped immediately because they don't correspond to the law about the way the Mass and the sacraments are to be celebrated.”

The only exceptions are two permissions granted which allow the group to move the sign of peace to before the presentation of the gifts and also to have communion under both kinds. Even these changes, though, still require the permission of the local bishop.

“The Church’s liturgy is narrowly defined as the public worship of the Church” such as Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, the official explained to CNA. Church norms for the liturgy, he said, are “found in the approved liturgical books and the Neocatechumenal Way is bound to observe these no differently than any other group within the Catholic Church.”

What yesterday’s decree approved are “those things in the Directory not included in liturgical books,” which is “the equivalent of approving the prayers of, for example, the meetings of the Knights of Columbus or of a confraternity or perhaps of the prayers that a group like the Missionaries of Charity pray after Mass.” 

During Pope Benedict's meeting with the movement on Jan. 20, he praised them for helping “those who have already been baptized to rediscover the beauty of the life of faith, the joy of being Christian.”

He also cited their statutes as he gave them guidelines for the celebration of the liturgy, saying that for members of the Neocatechumenal Way, “the progressive growth in faith of the individual and of the small community should promote their integration into the life of the greater ecclesial community, which finds its ordinary form in the liturgical celebration of the parish, in which and for which the Neocatechumenate is implemented.

“But also during the way, it is important not to separate oneself from the parish community, and particularly in the celebration of the Eucharist which is the true place of universal unity, where the Lord embraces us in our various states of spiritual maturity and unites us in the one bread that makes us one body.”

The Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way were given approval by the Vatican in 2008, while its Catechetical Directory was approved two years later, after consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Vatican City, Jan 21, 2012 / 07:38 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI advised the seminarians of his diocese that it takes “integrity, maturity, asceticism, constancy and heroic fidelity” to be a good seminarian and become a great young priest.
 
As Bishop of Rome, the Pope addressed the students and staff of the Almo Collegio Capranica, one of the oldest seminaries of Rome, on Jan. 20 in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall.
 
The seminary is celebrating its 555th anniversary on Jan. 21, the Feast of St. Anges of Rome.

Pope Benedict explained that seminary life must be founded on “a solid spiritual life animated by an intense relationship with God, as individuals and in the community, with a particular care for liturgical celebrations and frequent recourse to the sacraments.”

And once ordained, he added, priestly life “requires an ever-increasing thirst for sanctity, a clear 'sensus Ecclesiae' and an openness to fraternity without exclusion or bias.”
 
St. Agnes was a young Roman woman who lived between the 3rd and 4th century. She chose to die, rather than surrender her virginity. The Pope pointed to her example as one for the seminarians to follow.

“For St. Agnes martyrdom meant agreeing to spend her young life, generously and freely, completely and without reserve, so that the Gospel could be announced as the truth and beauty which illuminates existence.”

As well as her piety and bravery, the Pope also praised the virginity of St. Agnes as worthy of imitation.
 
“Her path to the complete gift of self in martyrdom was, in fact, prepared by her informed, free and mature choice of virginity, a testimony of her desire to belong entirely to Christ.”

Pope Benedict also raised a constant them of his pontificate with the seminarians by telling them that they need to develop not only their souls but also their minds.

“Part of a priest’s journey of sanctity,” he proposed, “is his decision to develop, with God’s help, his own intellect, his own commitment: an authentic and solid personal culture which is the fruit of constant and impassioned study.”

Being at the heart of the universal Church, the Pope said, should allow them to “learn to understand the situations of the various countries and Churches of the world,” to ensure that “no culture is a barrier to the word of life, which you must announce even with your lives.”
 
“The Church expects a lot from young priests in the work of evangelization and new evangelization,” he said, before imparting his apostolic blessing.

“I encourage you in your daily efforts, that rooted in the beauty of authentic tradition and profoundly united to Christ, you may bring him into your communities with truth and joy.”

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2012 / 08:10 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Jan. 20 that the Neocatechumenal Way’s prayers and non-liturgical celebrations have been approved.

“This is a great grace, after so much suffering and work, today is a great relief,” said the cofounder of the movement, Francisco “Kiko” Argüello, in a Jan. 20 interview with CNA in Rome.

Argüello was joined in Rome today by his fellow cofounder, Carmen Hernández, and 7,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way for a meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Vatican’s Paul VI audience hall.

“Over these decades of life of the Way, your firm commitment has been to proclaim the Gospel of the risen Christ,” the Pope said to gathering.

“You achieve this on a path which helps those who have already been baptized to rediscover the beauty of the life of faith, the joy of being Christian.”

The Neocatechumenal Way draws its inspiration from the practices of the early Catholic Church, providing “post-baptismal” Christian formation in small, parish-based communities. The movement is present all over the world, and has an estimated membership of more than 1 million people.

But the way the movement works in parishes has led some critics to accuse it of being divisive. One common complaint is that members of the Way celebrate Mass together on Saturday evening, thereby separating them from the rest of the parish, even though the liturgies are open to all.

The Pope used his address today to stress that the Way should always be fully engaged in mainstream parish life.

“It is important not to separate oneself from the parish community, and particularly in the celebration of the Eucharist which is the true place of universal unity, where the Lord embraces us in our various states of spiritual maturity and unites us in the one bread that makes us one body,” he said.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity made public on Jan. 20 that the prayers contained in the movement’s Catechetical Directory received a “nulla osta” or “no impediment” stamp of approval from the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Pope Benedict said during his audience with the group that while the approved practices are “not strictly liturgical,” they are “part of the itinerary of growth in the faith.”

The Church, he said, has accompanied the Neocatechumenal Way “attentively and with patient discernment,” so that “she understands your richness but also looks to the communion and harmony of the entire ‘Corpus Ecclesiae’ (Body of the Church).”

During today’s ceremony, Pope Benedict also sent out more than a dozen new Neocatechumenal missions to three different continents. Each mission consists of three or four families who, accompanied by a priest, go to live in an area where Christian practice has lapsed or never been established.

“Sometimes you find yourselves in places in which a first announcement of the Gospel is needed: the ‘missio ad gentes,’” said the Pope, “at other times you are present in areas which, though they have known Christ, have become indifferent to the faith, areas in which secularism has eclipsed the sense of God and obscured Christian values.”

“May your commitment and witness be as a leaven which - patiently, respecting times and with a ‘sensus Ecclesia’ causes the dough to rise.”

The Statutes of the Neocatechumenal Way were given approval by the Vatican in 2008, while its Catechetical Directory was approved two years later, after consultation with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Vatican City, Jan 20, 2012 / 09:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The person of Jesus Christ should give all Christians hope that historic divisions can be overcome, says a top official at the Vatican department responsible for promoting Christian unity.

“I think we have to start with theological hope and it’s the prayer of Christ himself that really grounds all the other hopes that we might have,” said Bishop Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, in a Jan. 17 interview with CNA.

“If we participate in the prayer of Christ, who at the Last Supper prayed that all his disciples might be one so that the world would believe, then we have to be convinced that the Church is not able to fulfill its mission because of the sin of division,” he said.

Bishop Farrell, who hails from Ireland, is one of the primary coordinators of the Vatican’s annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year’s week of prayer began Jan. 16 and will be marked by over 300 churches and Christian communities around the world.

In Rome, Bishop Farrell’s department has lined up a series of events that culminate in solemn vespers at the papal basilica of St. Paul Outside-the-Walls on Jan. 25, the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. Pope Benedict XVI will lead the service and be joined in prayer by representatives of other Christian bodies.

Their basic aim, the bishop explained, is to break through “the old polemics and controversies and prejudices” and to heal “some of the sad memories of history,” so that “a new brotherhood of Christians can come about” where “we can rediscover ourselves as disciples of the Lord together.”

The cornerstone of all they do must be prayer, he says, because “we can’t build Christian unity on our human effort, it’s a gift and witnesses to the victory of Christ.”

Ecumenical Efforts Worldwide

Because of his involvement with so many Christian communities, Bishop Farrell is able to speak about ecumenical developments across of broad spectrum of belief.

He strikes a hopeful note when discussing relations with the Orthodox churches to whom, he said, the Catholic Church is “very close theologically.” The biggest problem is a cultural one, he observed, based upon “our perception of each other.”

“So it requires a great of reflection, study and conversation to get to the point where we really understand why we have ‘such and such’ an idea of each other and where we stand on the fundamental faith that we have together.”

This includes discussions on “the big question” – the role of the Bishop of Rome. Orthodox Christians recognize the Pope has “a special role,” but how he exercises that role is the big question, said Bishop Farrell.

He explained how much progress has already been achieved on many related issues since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), such that he now has “great hope that if we are patient and we work to overcome the misconceptions that we have of each other, and of each others’ thought, that there is not too much to overcome.”

Conversely, he said, relations with the Anglican Communion have been made more difficult in recent times by their stance on “moral questions and questions regarding life issues.”

But Bishop Farrell is not overly pessimistic. He thinks that such hurdles “make dialogue more difficult but at the same time more intense, and we must continue.”

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI paved the way for the creation of “personal ordinariates” within the Catholic Church. They are a home for former Anglicans who wish to maintain the liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions of the Anglican Communion within the Catholic Church.

Two ordinariates have been created since the Pope made his announcement in 2009. They are the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in England and Wales, and the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter in the United States, which was created Jan. 1, 2012.

“Well, I think, like all things, you have to give it a chance to work itself out,” said Bishop Farrell of the Anglican ordinariates concept.

“It’s only at the very beginning and I think that Anglicans generally understand that the Catholic Church has decided to allow this, or create this ordinariate, precisely because some Anglicans have asked for it.”

“In that sense,” he said, “it is partly ecumenical … these are Anglicans who want to become Catholics.” At the same time, Bishop Farrell said, “it is no longer an ecumenical question but a question of their personal conviction.”

In recent years the cultural changes of the West have also led to a new ecumenical phenomenon of Catholics and evangelical Christians joining forces in addressing the many social and moral issues that have presented themselves.

“On life issues, on moral issues, we are very much in harmony with them – or they with us,” said Bishop Farrell. But, he qualified, “on ecclesiological issues we are very distant” because “we have radically different ideas of what the Church is and how it should be organized.”

Bishops Farrell thinks that “people may be surprised to know” the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity has been in “continuous dialogue” with various evangelical groups, including Pentecostals, over the past 30 years.

And this dialogue has led to “some very interesting results,” he said.

Bishop Farrell said that describing a unified Christian Church would be “very difficult” to do, but “theologically speaking, one thing is certain it will have to do with the point at which we can celebrate the Eucharist together.”

Vatican City, Jan 19, 2012 / 07:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI launched a new foundation at the Vatican aimed at building a “philosophical bridge” between science and theology.

“I don’t think most people necessarily see science and faith as being opposed but I do think there is confusion as to where to put faith and where to put science in their life,” said executive director Father Tomasz Trafny.

“So the question for us is how to offer a coherent vision of society, culture and the human being to people who would like to understand where to put these dimensions – the spiritual and religious and the scientific,” he told CNA on Jan. 19. 

The Science and Faith Foundation will be headquartered at the Holy See under the leadership of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.

The new foundation builds on the work of the STOQ project – Science, Theology and the Ontological Quest – which was created by Pope John Paul II in 2003. For the past 9 years it has promoted a dialogue between theology, philosophy and the sciences working in collaboration with the Pontifical Council for Culture and Rome’s pontifical universities.

Their stated aim is to explore “the possibility of being believers at the dawn of the Third Millennium without renouncing scientific progress.” Together they have initiated study programs and research projects as well as highlighting the fruit of their work through such vehicles as publications and conferences.

STOQ created headlines last year when helped broker the Vatican’s first ever commercial agreement with an outside company in June 2011. The deal saw the Catholic Church and U.S. based bio-pharmaceutical firm Neostem come together to advance ethical stem cells research.

The new Science and Faith Foundation will now have its own “legal personality” in both Church and civil law.

“This is an important step,” said Fr. Trafny, “because we are moving from being a simple project to merge learning between the pontifical universities in Rome to being a new entity recognized by the Holy Father as a reference point for all dialogue involving science and faith.”