Pope Receives Catholic Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians
22 June 2009
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Loading ...VATICAN CITY, 19 JUN 2009 (VIS) - In the Vatican this morning, Benedict XVI received His Beatitude Ignace Youssif III Younan, the new Catholic patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians, accompanied by various members of the Synod of that Church.
“Divine Providence”, said the Pope in his address, “has made us ministers of Christ and shepherds of His one flock. … Christ Himself, our Lord, appointed the Apostle Peter as the ‘rock’ upon which He founded the spiritual edifice of the Church, calling upon His disciples to remain in full unity with Peter, under his sure guidance and that of his Successors”.
“Over the course of your millenarian history”, he continued, “your communion with the Bishop of Rome has always been accompanied by faithfulness to the spiritual tradition of the Christian East. These are complementary aspects of a single heritage of the faith which your venerable Church professes”.
The Pontiff then recalled how, in order to emphasise “the Eucharistic roots” of this communion, he had granted “ecclesiastica communio” to the patriarch when he was elected head of the Synod. Addressing the patriarch directly, he added: “With a public sign - yesterday’s Eucharistic celebration in the basilica of St. Mary Major - you most appropriately demonstrated the close ties binding you to the bishop of Rome and the Universal Church”.
Pope Benedict went on: “In effect, the Eucharist fuses our different traditions in the unity of the one Spirit, making them a source of wealth for all God’s people. May the celebration of the Eucharist, source and summit of ecclesiastical life, keep you anchored in the ancient Syriac tradition which can claim to possess the language the Lord Jesus spoke, and at the same time open your horizons to ecclesial universality. … The Eucharist is the Bread of Life that nourishes our communities and makes them grow in unity and charity. In the Eucharist, Sacrament of unity and community, may you find the strength to overcome the difficulties your Church has faced over recent years, in order to rediscover the paths of forgiveness, reconciliation and communion”.
Finally the Holy Father expressed his satisfaction at the return to full activity of the Synod of this Church and encouraged “efforts being made to favour unity, understanding and forgiveness, which must always be considered as priorities for the edification of the Church of God”.
“I pray continuously, among other things, for peace in the Middle East, especially for Christians living in the blessed land of Iraq, whose sufferings I offer every day to God during the Eucharistic sacrifice”.
Pope’s visit to Padre Pio will inspire greater closeness to Christ, says Capuchin rector
.- On the eve of Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to the tomb of Padre Pio, Brother Francesco Dileo, Rector of the Shrine of Our Lady of Grace, where the Pope will celebrate Mass this Sunday, said his visit will encourage the faithful to imitate the saint from Pietrelcina and thus follow Christ with more devotion.
In an interview with L’Osservatore Romano, the rector noted how “Padre Pio once said, ‘I will make more noise dead than alive.’ And in fact, the number of pilgrims is much higher compared to the end of 1968,” with some seven million visiting the shrine annually.
Speaking about the number of faithful who come to San Giovanni Rotondo to pray to the saint for a miracle, Brother Dileo said he receives an enormous amount of letters from people praying for Padre Pio’s intercession. The letters are directly addressed to Padre Pio, “as if he were still alive, to ask for some physical or spiritual healing,” the brother said.
“I am firmly convinced that the grace of God that touches the hearts of men and makes the faith blossom and be reborn continues to work in this place, even after the death of Padre Pio,” he said. “I think it is difficult to encounter the life of this saint without sensing a desire to renounce sin and change one’s conduct.”
Referring to Pope Benedict XVI’s visit this coming Sunday, Brother Dileo said, “The picture of Benedict XVI in prayer in front of the remains of our beloved brother saint will certainly be more eloquent than many words.”
Love Mary like Padre Pio did, Pope Benedict urges
.- During his trip today to the town where St. Padre Pio lived and ministered, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass, visited a house dedicated to caring for the suffering and the tomb of the famous Italian saint. At the tomb of Padre Pio, the Pope recalled the devotion that the Capuchin saint, canonized in 2002, had to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“All his life,“ the Pope said, “his apostolate took place under the maternal gaze of the Blessed Virgin and by the power of her intercession. Even the House for the Relief of Suffering he considered to be the work of Mary, ‘Health of the sick.’”
“To the intercession of Our Lady and St. Pio of Pietrelcina, ” he continued, “I would like to entrust the Special Year for Priests, which I opened last Friday on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May it be a privileged opportunity to highlight the value of the mission and holiness of priests, to serve the Church and humanity in the third millennium!”
The Holy Father also briefly recalled the U.N.’s World Day for Refugees, held yesterday.
“There are many people who seek refuge in other countries fleeing from situations of war, persecution and natural disasters, and hosting them poses many difficulties, but is nevertheless necessary,” Benedict XVI stated.
“God grant that, with the commitment of everyone, we do as much as possible to remove the causes of such a sad phenomenon.”
Bhutanese helped by Catholic Church to speak at World Refugee Day
.- Two Bhutanese refugees resettled in the United States in 2008 through the U.S. bishops’ refugee resettlement program will speak at the World Refugee Day event on June 18. They show the problem of “statelessness” that thousands of Bhutanese, mainly ethnic Nepalis, face after being forced to leave their own country. Khagendra Baral, who was born and raised in Bhutan, recalled how he came to leave his home country.
“I still have fresh memories of my beautiful country and peaceful environment growing up. Then one day, I was forcefully evicted from my homeland with my family and left to become a refugee,” he explained.
In 1991,
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Catholic Church agrees to mediate in Peruvian Amazon conflict
.- The president of the Peruvian Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Miguel Cabrejos, announced this week that the Church has agreed to participate in mediation intended to re-establish order in the Amazon region, where confrontations between natives and police have left dozens dead.
After meeting with the head of the cabinet, Yehude Simon,
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Pope Benedict XVI teaches on ‘true authority’
.- Fifteen thousand people were present in St. Peter’s Square for today’s general audience with Pope Benedict XVI. In his address, the Pope summarized the work of St. John Scotus Erigena, an Irish theologian of the ninth century who taught that true authority and reason can never contradict each other.
Scotus had an intimate knowledge of both the Greek and Latin Patristic culture,
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Vatican newspaper editor to present new book on Pius XII
.- The director of L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, will present a new book entitled, “In Defense of Pius XII. The Reasons of History,” at the Luigi Sturzo Institute of Rome on June 10.
According to Vatican Radio, the book includes numerous texts and articles published by
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Cardinal Terrazas says Bolivians have no need for other gods
.- The Archbishop of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Cardinal Julio Terrazas Sandoval, said this week the Bolivian people are privileged because they have God present among them, and they have no need to seek out “other gods” or to be afraid “of others who think they are gods.”
The cardinal made his comments on the Feast of the Holy Trinity
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‘We live to love and be loved,’ teaches Pope while reflecting on Trinity
.- Twenty thousand people gathered in St Peter’s Square for the Angelus prayer on Sunday despite poor weather. Prior to the Marian prayer, Pope Benedict told those present that “the ‘name’ of the Holy Trinity is impressed on everything that exists, because everything comes from love, reaches out for love and is moved by the spirit of love.”
Benedict XVI began by explaining that following the Easter Season, which concluded with the Pentecost, the liturgy is marked by three solemnities of Our Lord: the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity; next Thursday, that of Corpus Domini and finally; the following Friday, the Church will celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The Pope explained that each of these days are all part of the mystery of salvation, “from the Incarnation to the Resurrection and the Ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
“Today,” the Pope continued, “we contemplate the Holy Trinity as it was made known to us by Christ. He revealed to us that God is love ‘not in the unity of a single person but in the Trinity of one substance.’”
“He is Creator and merciful Father; he is the only Son, eternal wisdom made flesh, who died and rose again for us; he is the Holy Spirit who moves everything, cosmos and history, towards the full and final recapitulation,” he added. “Three Persons who are one God alone because the Father is love, the Son is love and the Holy Spirit is love.”
He elaborated that God’s love is “pure, infinite and eternal.” God “does not live in splendid solitude, rather he is an inexhaustible source of life that ceaselessly gifts itself and communicates. We can, to some extent, perceive this by observing both the macro-universe, our earth, the planets, stars, galaxies, and by observing the micro-universe, cells, atoms and elementary particles.”
“The ‘name’ of the Sacred Trinity is impressed on everything that exists, because everything comes from love, reaches out for love and is moved by the spirit of love, naturally with differing degrees of awareness and freedom,” the Holy Father exclaimed.
“The greatest proof that we are all made in the image of the Trinity is that only love makes us happy, because we live to love and to be loved,” the Pontiff declared. “Borrowing an analogy from biology, we could say that the human ‘genome’ is profoundly imprinted with the Trinity of God who is Love.”
The Holy Father concluded by calling on Mary because “she welcomed the will of the Father and conceived the Son by the power of the Holy Sprit. The Omnipotent built a temple worthy of Him within her, and made her the model and image of the Church, mystery and home of communion for all mankind. Help us Mary, mirror of the Holy Trinity, to grow in faith in the Trinitarian mystery.”
The life of St. Barnabas
.- On Thursday, June 11 the Church will celebrate the feast day of St. Barnabas, one of the original 72 disciples who worked to convert the Gentiles.
St. Barnabas was a Levite Jew from the island of Cyprus. Although his original name was Joseph, the Apostles gave him the name Barnabas, meaning “son of exhortation,” after his conversion.
Barnabas is traditionally believed to have been one of Christ’s 72 disciples, and lived among the Apostles as a successful preacher in the early Church. Luke describes him in the Acts of the Apostles as “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith” (Acts 11:24).
Barnabas acted as mediator between St. Paul and the Apostles after Paul’s conversion, helping the early Church to see the authenticity of his conversion and accept him despite his past as a persecutor of Christians.
Later, Barnabas was sent to Antioch to investigate the conversions of the Gentiles there. He and Paul spent a year instructing the Church in Antioch. After this, he travelled with Paul to preach the Gospel in many cities including Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe. Although faced with opposition and even persecution, they succeeded in converting many more on this journey, and organized churches in these areas.
At the Council of Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul testified on their work of converting Gentiles and the experience of the new converts, as the early Church debated whether it was necessary for Gentile converts to first become Jewish and be circumcised before being accepted as Christians. The Council ultimately agreed that such measures were not imperative.
When Paul and Barnabas decided to revisit their missions, they strongly disagreed on whether John Mark, another disciple and previous deserter, should be allowed to accompany them. As a result of their disagreement, Paul and Barnabas separated. Barnabas travelled with John Mark to preach in Cyprus.
Little is known about the later life of Barnabas. He is believed to have been stoned to death in Salamis in the year 61.