Pope Francis at the Vatican cafeteria - Another seat at the table

2014-07-26 L'Osservatore Romano

 

It doesn't happen every day that someone can by chance eat lunch with the Pope. But it happened today. This morning, 25 July, workers and personnel of Vatican City State walked into the lunch room at noon and found the Pope eating lunch with the rest of them.

Such a visit has been thrown around as a joke, of course, but no one could have imagined it possible. It was a normal day walking into the "mensa" at noon, some workers were already seated eating their lunch, others in line for the self-service buffet. It was a day like any other, until this unexpected guest walked in at about 12:10.

Amid the sudden air of surprise, Pope Francis got in line and picked up a tray. "He chose plain white pasta with a little olive oil, cod fish, vegetables au gratin and some french fries", the visibly moved cashier, Claudia Di Giacomo, said.

Immediately surrounded by those present, that number growing steadily by the minute, Pope Francis shook the hands of his colleagues with a smile. He then seated himself at a table with five warehouse workers from the Vatican pharmacy wearing short-sleeve blue polo shirts. "We described our work to him, how many of us there are and what we do. And he talked to us about his Italian origins", one fellow diner explained. One of his colleagues quickly added that they also talked about football – the Pope is a passionate fan of the Argentinian team, San Lorenzo de Almagro – and even the economy. Every now and then someone would approach the table for the inevitable "selfie". Cameras, mobiles, tablets started to appear. Pope Francis showed absolute patience and continued to smile and eat, carrying the conversation forward with his interlocutors.

When lunch was over, close to 12:50, the Pope rose from the table and posed for a few pictures – the classic momento of a Francis-sighting – in a relaxed and familiar atmosphere. Finally, before bidding farewell, he took one last picture with the cafeteria's personnel at the entrance. Pope Francis then climbed into the car with his assistant, Sandro Mariotti, who had accompanied him, and the two returned to the Santa Marta residence.

The visit lasted about 40 minutes. It was brief but sufficient for him to get to know another little corner of the Vatican world and the people who work here. Last year on 9 August, the Pope had paid another surprise visit to this section of town, arriving inconspicously that morning in a black car at the industrial centre of the Vatican and walking into the workshops of the City State's carpenters, blacksmiths, plumbers and electricians, greeting employees of L'Osservatore Romano as well, whose headquarters are located there in that tiny industrial corner of the Vatican.

Evangelicals Praise Pope Francis’ Promotion of the Gospel - NCR

Evangelicals Praise Pope Francis' Promotion of the Gospel (2948)

As Pope Francis makes a historic visit to a Pentecostal church in Italy, U.S. evangelicals reflect on the Pope's challenge to all Christians to have an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ.

by PETER JESSERER SMITH 07/28/2014 Comments (8)

– CNA file photo

WASHINGTON — As Pope Francis visits a evangelical Protestant church in Italy today and is expected to offer an apology for the sins of Catholics, evangelical leaders in the United States who met him recently have praised him for promoting deeper understanding between Christians and focus on having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis is set to  preach at the Evangelical Church of Reconciliation in Caserta, a church about 130 miles south of Rome, which is run by pastor Giovanni Traettino, whom he knew from Buenos Aires,.
After the visit was announced, Brian Stiller, global ambassador for the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), revealed on his blog that the Holy Father had privately informed them during a meeting in late June organized by the late Evangelical bishop Tony Palmer with evangelical leaders at the Vatican, that he was going to make this visit and why.
"He listened and then told a remarkable story," Stiller recounted. "In his years in and out of Rome, he became friends with an Italian pastor. In time he came to learn that the church and pastor felt the power and presence of the Catholic Church, with its weighty presence, obstructing their desire to grow and be a witness. So he decided to visit the church and offer an apology for the difficulty brought to their congregation."
James Robison, a founding pastor and televangelist with his wife Betty of the LIFE Outreach International, was there as well. He told the Register he believed the Pope wanted to correct and see healing for the wrongs treated against any person.
"He thinks there was reason to apologize to this group, and I clearly got the impression [he seeks to apologize] to Evangelicals and Protestants in other parts of the world where Catholics had in any way been unkind [to them]," he said.
Robison said he and the others went back and forth with the Pope through a translator. He emphasized that they communicated to the Pope that they are encouraging fellow Christians to build Christ-filled relationships with Catholics.
"One of the things that we try to do, and I think the Pope appreciated that, is to stop the unkind attacks from Protestants on Catholics, and really seek understanding," he said.
Robison added, "Both sides still need to learn, both sides have repentance to do to answer for their very un-Christlike attitude toward one another."
"We need understanding of the times like the men of Issachar under King David, and in order to do that we need to have a better understanding of one another."
Rev. Geoff Tunnicliffe, secretary general and CEO of the WEA, said opportunity to spend personal time with Pope Francis was helpful.
"I have discovered through years of building relationships of trust and friendship that you can have a deeper and more authentic dialogue," he said. Tunnicliffe said he could not speak for the Italian evangelicals, but he saw the gesture as a positive reminder for Catholics and evangelicals to work for greater respect and understanding of each other.
"On the wider front, there are countries in which evangelicals are marginalized, and in some real cases, maligned and hurt by bishops and those in power who are Roman Catholic," he said.
"It really matters to us at this global level, to have understanding on what each of us can do when one group is harassed by the other," Tunnicliffe added. "This we will seek to do in our growing working relationship with the Vatican."
 
Personal Relationship With Jesus
Part of the evangelical leaders' discussion with Pope Francis emphasized the need for all Christians to develop a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
"It was obvious in his language that his personal sense of following Christ was high on his priorities," Tunnicliffe said. "I've always suspected that he was a devotional person."
Robison said he and Pope Francis spent much time discussing that true Christians, whether Protestant or Catholic must "have a real relationship with Christ."
"And this Pope wants everyone to have a personal encounter, and personal relationship with Christ — and not just be satisfied with being christened, baptized or confirmed. … Because you can have a religion and miss Christ," he said.
"That was a very strong impression, and that was the reason for our high five! He gave the first papal high five to me, saying he wants everybody to know Christ. I think that's wonderful."
Tunnicliffe said the discussion was "more personal" than discussing any action agenda, which he expected would come in later meetings.
"We did connect at a heart level of some issues of deep mutual concern, including persecuted Christians, the poor and the marginalized," he said.
Robison said he told Pope Francis that many people in the United States had been claiming that his apostolic letter, The Joy of the Gospel (Evangelii Gaudium) was "promoting socialism, statism and collectivism."
"He made very clear with great conviction that was absolutely not the case," he said. "In other words, no new pharaoh to depend on. We depend on God, and in order for people to succeed, he understood that freedom is an imperative for us to be prosperous and to have the ability to alleviate suffering and help the poor."
"He thoroughly understood my concern, which is you can't gain wealth and hand it off to a government entity to then become the source and all-provident care-taker of the people," Robison said, "where they depend on that source rather than looking to God. And the people, who have handed off personal responsible responsibility to really care for their neighbor and love them, they never have personal contact with the very people they made feel entitled."
 
Daring Pushback
A meeting of this kind, however, is not without risks for the evangelical leaders, who face criticism from some in Christian churches of compromising their beliefs by meeting with the Pope.
Stiller anticipated the criticism in his blog post and said that while their doctrines differ from the Catholic Church, evangelicals should not "dismiss friendship with the Pope."
"For Evangelicals and Protestants, of all shapes and sizes, the state and condition of the Roman Catholic Church matters," he said, adding that when "its spiritual and ethical authority is diminished it affects the entire world and "when she fades from view in strongly declaring the nature of faith we all lose."
"A vibrant pope, spiritually vital, tough in ethical leadership and competent in overseeing his world communion is critical. What he says and does has a profound effect on us all."
Robison said he has heard the charge from some evangelicals that the Pope is trying to pull the wool over their eyes and just wants them to become members of the Catholic Church.
"I don't agree with that assessment," Robison said. "I hear him saying to really love Christ."
He said the focus that he and the Pope shared was on "making disciples of Christ."
"He wants everyone to come to Christ personally," Robison said, adding that the Pope has reminded Catholics to recognize that non-Catholic Christians are also part of Christ's Church.
"Everybody who knows Christ is part of his body, which is his Church."
 
Bishop Palmer's Legacy
But at the Pope's historic visit, one important evangelical leader will be missing, although no doubt present in spirit. Evangelical Bishop Tony Palmer, a member of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, was expected to accompany Pope Francis to the Pentecostal church in Caserita, when he died July 20 in a head-on collision with a motorist driving the wrong way down the highway.
In January, Palmer shared a video message from Pope Francis taken on his iPhone in which the Holy Father gave a heartfelt message to Pentecostal televangelist Kenneth Copeland and his church.
Pentecostal leader Kenneth Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries said in a statement provided to the Register that Palmer "became a bridge between Catholics and Protestants in the Body of Christ."
He noted that Palmer and Pope Francis developed a strong friendship during their time in Argentina that they became "spiritual father and son in the Lord."
Copeland said the video message from Pope Francis that Bishop Palmer brought to his congregation was "a marvelous and very anointed moment in all our lives" and eventually led to the Pope's invitation for him and seven others to meet with Pope Francis.
"We all, hosted by Tony, had one of the most anointed and wonderful experiences of our lives," he said. "The bridge was built, and we stood on it together in the glorious presence of a very pleased Lord and Savior."
Tunnicliffe said that while Palmer has passed from this life into the next, others will continue to carry on the work of building spiritual unity among Christians despite differences of doctrines or organizations.
"There are many, like Bishop Tony, whose legacy has been to inspire new levels of understanding, and true fellowship."
Robison said the crash that cost Palmer his life showed that the Devil, "the deceiver and the destroyer" seeks to stop the prayer of Christ for "true believers becoming one with the Father and with one another, in supernatural unity."
"I just pray that Christians will fearlessly and faithfully seek to learn what it really means to love one another, and God the Father, and the lost world that Jesus came to redeem."

Peter Jesserer Smith is a Register staff writer.

Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/evangelicals-praise-pope-francis-promotion-of-the-gospel/#ixzz38rdaJdiR

'Fire of Love' - Peter J. Leithart

Poets have always known that love is a fire. It burns, it melts, it consumes, it heats; it can smolder and burn low, only to burst out again with new energy. Lovers give themselves to the flames, risk and hazard all they have. "Love is a spirit all compact of fire," Shakespeare wrote, "Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire." One of our own poets, Johnny Cash, agreed: "Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring."

Theologians have known that love is fire too, so long as they paid attention to the Bible's founding texts. Adam and Eve were created in sinless marital harmony, but since the Fall the only path back to Eden passes by the cherubim armed with flaming swords (Genesis 3:24). "Thus have I shunned the fire for fear of burning," says Shakespeare's aptly named Proteus.

The fiery death that threatens love does not come from external pressure so much as from lovers' own protean fears and anxieties, from their own mercurial, disordered desires. In some marriages, perversion and infidelity dampen and quench the fire of passion, but in most it runs out in boredom, busyness, exhaustion, drudgery, familiarity, and habit, not to mention resentment and bitterness.

Behind those daily threats lurks a more fundamental danger, a more visceral fear. Octavio Paz defines eros as "a thirst for otherness." Love is "an act of union or merging with a beloved," and that is a terrifying prospect. As Diane Ackerman puts the question, "What if [I] get suffocated, swallowed up, dismantled?" In the sacrificial language of Solomon's Song: What if the fire doesn't just burn me but burns me up? What if I lose myself in the flame of desire? If love is a fire, then we have some insight into the reluctance of many to walk the path back to Eden. If the path of love runs through a circle of fire, then we are forced to ask if the reward is worth the risk, forced to ask whether we are ready to lose ourselves in loving another.

Failures in love"whether spectacular or banal"all, Ackerman notes, amount to "defenses against intimacy." Infidelity, often a false sacrifice, is a shield against the sacrificial fire. So too is the cool indifference that characterizes many marriages.

This has been true since Eden, but the natural post-Fall instinct to recoil from intimacy is reinforced by a culture that in its most basic assumptions and habits is a massive, systematic defense against intimacy, and this is, paradoxically, most obvious in what it tells us about will and desire. The world tells me that my choices are free only if they are entirely and completely mine. If any other person influences my decision, it is no longer free, no longer valid. Other people are obstacles to my freedom, threats to my will. The flame only consumes.

As Rowan Williams has argued in his recent book Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction , the aspiration to unqualified freedom can only kill desire. Desire is directed outward, toward another, but if union with every other, even a beloved other, ends my freedom, then desire itself enslaves.

Besides, it's not only others who threaten my freedom. I am a threat to my own freedom. To be entirely free, my choices cannot even be constrained by my own earlier choices; my desires must remain untrammeled by earlier decisions driven by previous desires. What I said and did yesterday cannot determine what I say and do today without robbing me of my freedom.

In a world like this, there can be no narrative, no accumulation of choices, no pilgrimage, because all options must forever remain open options. No wonder marriage has become virtually impossible for many today: A lover seals his heart and arm with the name of beloved, but modern lovers reserve the right to remove the seal and choose a different beloved whenever they want another.

Dostoevsky discerned the diabolical impulse behind the nihilist claim that "all is permitted," but he recognized also that this was only a symptom of a more fundamental diabolism: The original Satanic promise that we will be as gods, which is a promise of infinite freedom that can only end in the murder of intimacy, time, narrative, and desire.

If love is to flourish in a world organized as a defense against intimacy, a world devoted to killing love, the church must reaffirm and rearticulate its classic understanding of will and desire. It must teach lovers to give themselves to the flames, to be willing to be consumed in their union with another.

In classic Christian theology, desire and will are free when directed toward a suitable end, an end that will bring genuine happiness. I choose freely when I am pursuing a goal for my life that I should pursue. In our world, teleology is just another form of slavery, since it chains desire to a fixed end and an object outside me. As soon as I say "I choose for the sake of . . . ." I have submitted to something other than my own desires.

Our culture stokes up eros to infernal temperatures, but gives us no reason to prefer one object of desire to any other. We have no grounds for distinguishing "I want a Coke" from "I want you" from "I want to kill you." Freedom thus paralyzes us and numbs. Our culture encourages motiveless eros , eros without object or end, which is finally indistinguishable from motiveless malignancy.

Jesus endured the cherubim's fiery swords because he knew that on the other side was the Edenic joy of the garden and the love feast. He ascended the tree of the cross because he was confident that the sweet fruits of his bride hung ripe at the top. Burning with zeal, he threw himself onto the altar in the expectation that he would be consumed in love and joined to his bride. Jesus lost his life to gain it, and called us to follow him into the flames.

Jesus demonstrates that only desire that risks losing itself in another is strong enough to endure. Only desire that longs to be consumed in its consuming can fulfill the erotic promise articulated in the Bible"in the Song of Songs, in Ephesians, in the descent of the Bride at the end of Revelation. Only love that embraces self-immolation can bind lovers in one flesh, one spirit, one love stronger than death, one flame fiercer than Sheol.

Peter J. Leithart is pastor of Trinity Reformed Church in, Moscow, Idaho, and Senior Fellow of Theology and Literature at New St. Andrews College . His most recent book is Defending Constantine (InterVarsity Press).

Time to Stand Against Rome? - FIRST THINGS

A recent joint statement by a number of Italian evangelical groups indicts the Roman Catholic Church as an "imperial" church and its call for evangelicals to "unionist initiatives that are contrary to Scripture and instead renew their commitment to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the whole world."
Writing for the Gospel Coalition, Leonardo De Chirico offers an interpretation that does not do full justice to the complexities of Italian evangelicalism and its history with the Catholic Church. The statement was issued by both the more reformed Alleanza Evangelica Italiana, to which de Chirico, a Reformed Baptist, belongs and various Pentecostal groups with greater numbers. To interpret the statement as a straightforward affirmation of reformed commitments, as de Chirico does, smacks of the way Pentecostal and holiness churches were initially invited to join the National Association of Evangelicals for their numbers, not their theology, a history Molly Worthen has chronicled in her Apostles of Reason.
The document's description of the Catholic Church as "imperial" is no doubt meant to conjure Constantinian images, but for Italian evangelicals it has a more immediate historical context. From 1929 Italian Pentecostals, along with other small Protestant groups, were persecuted by the government. During the late 1920s and early 1930s there was concern on the part of Catholic politicians in Italy and also the Vatican about proselytism by Protestant minority groups. This concern led to harassment of Pentecostals at the hands of local police. This was decades before Catholic experiences of spirit baptism, like that experienced by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, began to break down prejudices against Pentecostals.
When one is the object of persecution, it is difficult to differentiate between militant local priests, Catholic politicians, and the church hierarchy. Pope Pius XI may well have not wanted any persecution, but the average Italian Pentecostal during the 1930s would not have differentiated between him and local expressions of Catholicism. I might add that this complicated history in Italy is still being played out in certain parts of Latin America. Under these conditions, holding up the banner of the Protestant Reformation is less about affirming the theology of Italian Reformed Protestants (as de Chirico's commentary implies) and more about past issues over religious freedom for Pentecostals who had only been in Italy for twenty years in 1928.
What is the way forward? First, we should pray that the private meeting between Pope Francis and Giovanni Traettino during the Holy Father's visit to Caserta this past weekend bear fruit. Traettino, a personal friend of the pope, is a leading advocate for dialogue between Catholic and Protestant charismatics and he knows well the history of Pentecostal and Catholic relations in Italy.
Second, we should become more historically and theologically sensitive to the differences between parts of global evangelicalism. All ecumenical statements issued by groups of evangelicals should be viewed as speaking from parts of evangelicalism to the evangelical world. They should not be interpreted as speaking for the communities from which they come. This is how Evangelicals and Catholics Together understand all of their documents since there is no ecclesial authority governing evangelicalism as a whole.
To take one example, at the end of June there was a joint conference between European Pentecostals and charismatics and the Catholic community of Chemin Neuf at St. Niklausen. Italian Pentecostals were part of this meeting, the theme of which was the ecumenical challenge of Pentecostalism. Such meetings represent a very different approach to ecumenical relations. Even with a magisterium, Catholicism has its own internal debates as to what weight to give to what authorities and how to interpret them in light of one another. In ecumenical conversations, it matters immensely who sits across the table and how that person understands his or her own tradition.
Finally, we should be mindful of the pitfalls of reading online. Historical contexts and theological nuances can be easily lost when debates in one place guide debates elsewhere. This puts a responsibility on all of us to become more sensitive to global dynamics and the local histories that inform them.
Most of all, the statement by Italian evangelicals reminds us to pray that God might use these conversations to demonstrate to the broader culture how persons of faith can have deep disagreements and yet remain committed to one another. We have a common witness and a common mission to bear in the world. Let us do so as friends who bandage one another's wounds and hear one another's hurts, even as we work toward a common future. After all, we all are members of the City of God. 
Dale M. Coulter is associate professor of historical theology at Regent University School of Divinity.
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Francis's Secret [Pentecostal] Friend in Caserta

Francis's Secret Friend in Caserta

He is not Catholic, but Pentecostal, a part of those Christian communities which are in breathtaking expansion all over the world. Little by little the pope is meeting with their leaders. From rivals he wants to become friends, to the point of asking their forgiveness

by Sandro Magister




ROME, July 23, 2014 – When the news got out, and was confirmed by Fr. Federico Lombardi, that Pope Francis intended to make a private visit to Caserta to meet with a friend, the pastor of a local Evangelical community, the city's bishop, Giovanni D'Alise, was thunderstruck. He hadn't been told a thing.

Moreover, the pope had planned his visit to Caserta for the same day as the feast of Saint Anne, the city's patron. Seeing themselves snubbed, some of the faithful threatened an uprising. It took a good week to convince the pope to change his schedule and divide the trip into two phases: the first a public one with the faithful of Caserta on Saturday, July 26, and the second in private with his Evangelical friend on the following Monday.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio had made arrangements to meet with this person months in advance. He mentioned this to a group of faithful from Caserta on January 15, after a general audience in Saint Peter's Square. And he spoke of it again on June 19, during a meeting in Rome with some Evangelical pastors, including the very same friend from Caserta, Giovanni Traettino, whom he had met in Buenos Aires in 2006 for a debate when he was the archbishop of the Argentine capital.

The meeting with Pastor Traettino in Caserta is not, in fact, an isolated episode, but part of a broader effort that Pope Francis is making to win the favor of the worldwide leaders of those "Evangelical" and Pentecostal movements which especially in Latin America are the most fearsome competitor of the Catholic Church, from which they are snatching enormous masses of faithful.

"Evangelical" and Pentecostal Christians, who emerged a century ago from Protestant circles, have seen spectacular expansion. It is estimated that today they are almost one third of the approximately two billion Christians present in the world, and three fourths of Protestants. But they are also found in the Catholic Church. Last June 1 Pope Francis met in the Olympic stadium of Rome with 50,000 members of Renewal in the Spirit, the most important Catholic Charismatic group in Italy.

Three days later, on June 4, the pope had a long meeting at his residence of Santa Marta with some "Evangelical" leaders of the United States, including the famous televangelist Joel Osteen, California pastor Tim Timmons, and the president of the Evangelical Westmont College, Gayle D. Beebe.

On June 24, another meeting. This time with Texas televangelists James Robinson and Kenneth Copeland, with Bishop Anthony Palmer of the Communion of Evangelical Episcopal Churches, with John and Carol Arnott of Toronto, and with other prominent leaders. There were also Geoff Tunnicliffe and Brian C. Stiller, respectively the secretary general and "ambassador" of the World Evangelical Alliance. The meeting lasted for three hours and continued through lunch, in the refectory of Santa Marta, where the pope, amid loud laughter, gave Pastor Robinson a high five (see photo).

Copeland and Osteen are proponents of "prosperity theology," according to which the more faith grows the more wealth grows. They themselves are very wealthy and live an extravagant lifestyle. But Francis spared them the sermon on poverty.

Instead - according to what "ambassador" Stiller reported - the pope assured them: "I'm not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let's be about showing the love of Jesus."

But he also told them that he had learned from his friendship with Pastor Traettino that the Catholic Church, with its imposing presence, acts too much as an obstacle to the growth and witness of these communities. And for this reason as well he thought of visiting the Pentecostal community in Caserta: "to offer an apology for the difficulty brought to their congregation."

During the pontificates of John Paul II and even more with Benedict XVI, the American "Evangelicals," generally rather conservative, attenuated their traditional anti-papism and found points of encounter with the Catholic Church in the shared battle for the defense of religious freedom, life, and the family.

Pope Francis did not dwell on these issues in his conversations in recent weeks.

But last March the pope also met briefly, in the Rome, with the highly religious and "Evangelical" Green family, owners of Hobby Lobby, with whom the United States Supreme Court sided in a landmark decision handed down at the end of June in the lawsuit they filed against the law backed by Barack Obama that required businesses to include coverage for contraception and abortion in their employee health care plans.

___________


Other details in the account of the meeting with the pope written by Brian C. Stiller of the World Evangelical Alliance:

> Lunch with the Pope

__________


The website of the Pentecostal community founded in Caserta by Pastor Giovanni Traettino:

> Chiesa Evangelica della Riconciliazione

On Traettino's role in the wave of Pentecostalism and the problems that it has created in ecumenical relations among Christians, a commentary by Massimo Introvigne in La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana:

> L'incontro "segreto" di papa Francesco a Caserta

Introvigne published in 1996, through Edizioni Messaggero of Padua, a book-length interview with none other than Pastor Traettino: "Aspettando la Pentecoste. Il quarto ecumenismo".

Lunch with the Pope: Brian Stiller - World Evangelical Alliance

Lunch with the Pope: Brian Stiller - World Evangelical Alliance

Posted by brianstiller on July 9, 2014 · Leave a Comment 

The inevitable question I'm asked when one knows I've been with the pope is, "And what is he like?" Here are some personal observations from a recent visit.
Impressions in the first moments so frame how we see an individual. This, my second meeting with Pope Francis, an almost three-hour conversation and lunch, allowed me to more carefully form impressions.
From the outset his charm set us all at ease. As we moved from the greeting hall to the conversation room, he stood by the door to turn out the lights. I noticed that gone were the papal slippers and instead shoes with dangling laces. At lunch, eaten in the cafeteria, it wasn't the waiters who served us drinks; Pope Francis served Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the WEA and me. His presence undermines pomp or circumstance. One has to remind themself that sitting across the lunch table, smiling through moments of joy is one of the most influential persons in the world. His celebrity is muted by his kindly ordinariness. His influence is corralled by his loving affection for people. His power leans towards the poor, those trampled underfoot.
Two dominant gifts showed. First his pastoral instincts and gifts are so evident. I asked, "When you were presented on the balcony in St Peter's Square after your election, did you plan to ask those in the square to pray for you and then bow in silence?" He laughed. "No," he said, "in that moment I sensed the Spirit leading me to do that." So I asked, "When you did so, how did you feel?" He looked at me and smiled, "I was so at peace."
We talked about Christians marginalized, pressed under the weight of government power or the majority presence of other faiths. He listened and then told a remarkable story. In his years in and out of Rome, he became friends with an Italian pastor. In time he came to learn that the church and pastor felt the power and presence of the Catholic Church, with its weighty presence, obstructing their desire to grow and be a witness. So he decided to visit the church and offer an apology for the difficulty brought to their congregation.
Offsetting his loving and endearing pastoral gift is the prophetic: not in foretelling the future but speaking forth the word of God.
Our lunch was just days after he had announced a shocking judgment in Calabria, south Italy, condemning the mafia for their "adoration of evil," declaring all mobsters effectively excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Of earthquake proportion, this declaration will surely rattle communities where the Catholic Church and mobsters have for centuries lived along side each other. They are finding that Francis is more than just a cordial, pastoral priest from South America.
In the coming days we will hear of his determination to bring the administration of the Vatican under control, replacing leadership, cleaning up the Vatican Bank and speaking to the unspeakable matter of sexual abuse. His prophetic vision sees through haze and hears past chants, cutting open hypocrisy of religious self-interest.
I know some will wonder if we lack discernment, dining as we did with the head of a church many see as heretical. As an Evangelical, I'm clear in the importance of the Reformation and the role our community plays in announcing the Good News. I celebrate our understanding of the Scriptures as our only and final authority, the priesthood of every believer, the life-giving moment of rebirth and freedom for churches and ministries to spring up under the inspiration of the Spirit. No one is interested in rewinding the clock. Also to construct a united church isn't doable and neither is it in our interest. Such plans do not lead us to fulfill Jesus' prayer in John 17 that we be one in Christ.
My counter argument to those who might dismiss friendship with the pope is this. For Evangelicals and Protestants, of all shapes and sizes, the state and condition of the Roman Catholic Church matters. Of the over 2 billion Christians, one-half are linked to the Vatican. About 600 million are Evangelicals and another 550 million members of the World Council of Churches, (which includes the Orthodox Churches). As a world body, it is our calling to have contact with other major Christian communities and faiths. Conferencing with Rome no more compromises our doctrinal commitments than it would by meeting with the heads of other religions. We do that as a natural and important role of our calling. In places where Evangelicals are marginalized, having this official connection allows us to raise issues and ask for responses we would never otherwise get.
In a worldwide community of faith, the work and role of each Christian community matters. Given that 50 percent of those who call themselves Christian affiliate with Rome, when its spiritual and ethical authority is diminished it affects the entire world. When Rome loses her way, when corruption characterizes her financial dealings, when sexual scandals rob her of moral influence, when she fades from view in strongly declaring the nature of faith we all lose.
It's fair to ask what kind of Catholic Church we as Evangelicals want to see. At lunch I asked Pope Francis what his heart was for evangelism. He smiled, knowing what was behind my question and comment was, "I'm not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. I want people to find Jesus in their own community.  There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let's be about showing the love of Jesus." (Of course Evangelicals do evangelize Catholics and Catholics do the same to us. However, that discussion we will raise another day.)
We spoke about how in our diversity we might find unity and strength. Borrowing from Swiss Protestant theologian Oscar Cullman, we reflected how "reconciled diversity" allows us to stand within our own understandings of how Christ effects salvation. And then we press on to deal with global issues like religious freedom and justice and other matters, which affect our wellbeing.
We are in the middle of a major religious shakeup worldwide. The Middle East is on the edge of what we know not. Islam is on the rise. The Gospel witness permeates much of the global south. So what of the future?
A vibrant pope, spiritually vital, tough in ethical leadership and competent in overseeing his world communion is critical. What he says and does has a profound affect on us all.
Evangelicals need not hide behind fear of engagement.  Working on human suffering and matters of injustice with Christians who have a different tradition and read the biblical text differently does not violate who we are or what we believe
Working on the world stage, it is evident there is respect for our distinctive evangelical message and regard for our responsibility and calling to represent our Christian community. International cooperation among Christians is built on that respect.
Brian C Stiller
Global Ambassador
World Evangelical Alliance
July 2014

A PARABLE - 'The Man Who Planted Trees'

CARMEL: Blessed Feast of Sts. Anna and Joachim!

Blessed Feast of St Bridget!

Blessed Feast of St Bridget of Sweden !
from: http://www.wf-f.org/WFFResource/StBridgetSweden.jpg

Syriac Catholic Church

The Syriac Catholic Church

For much of church history, especially during the time of the Crusades, Catholic and Syriac Orthodox bishops enjoyed warm relations. In 1444, the Council of Florence even issued a special degree of unity between Catholics and Syriac Orthodox. In the early 17th century, Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries began working in Syriac Orthodox communities. Their activities inspired many Orthodox faithful to seek
full communion with Rome, which in turn, prompted a Catholic-Orthodox split among Syriac Christians.
In 1782, the Syriac Orthodox Holy Synod elected Metropolitan Michael Jarweh of Aleppo as patriarch. Shortly after he took office, he declared himself Catholic and fled to Lebanon where he built Our Lady of Sharfeh monastery. From Jarweh onward, an unbroken succession of Syriac Catholic patriarchs has headed the emergent Syriac Catholic Church. Since the 1920's, the patriarch of Syriac Catholic Church resides in Beirut.
Location: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, diaspora
Head: (Vacant)
Title: Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians
Residence: Beirut, Lebanon
Membership: 132,000
 
From: http://www.cnewa.org/default.aspx?ID=414&pagetypeID=1&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1

Pope Francis calls Patriarch in solidarity with Iraqi Christians

2014-07-23 Vatican Radio

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis has reassured the Patriarch of the Syriac Catholic Church Ignatius Youssef III Younan that he is following news out of Iraq with concern, particularly the dramatic situation of Christians in Mosul who have been threatened with death and seizure of their homes by Islamic militants demanding they leave or convert to their form of Islamic belief.  Christians have lived in Iraq's second largest city for nearly two thousand years;  there are few, if any, left now in Mosul. 
The Patriarch told the Italian Catholic news agency SIR (Religious Information Service), that Pope Francis called him Sunday 20 July to express his solidarity with Iraqi Christians.  During the 9 minute phone call, the Patriarch thanked the Pope and asked him to intensify his efforts to engage world leaders, putting them face to face with the facts on the ground: that in the province of Nineveh a massive religious "cleansing" campaign is underway to rid the region of those who do not share the beliefs of the new occupiers.
At the end of the call, Pope Francis bestowed his Apostolic Blessing upon all the eastern Christians with the assurance that he "will always keep them in his prayers for peace and security."  At his traditional Angelus blessing also on Sunday, the Pope offered prayers for Iraqi Christians who `'are persecuted, chased away, forced to leave their houses without the possibility of taking anything'' with them" and called for dialogue to resolve armed conflicts.
Just recently, Patriarch Younan had denounced an arson attack by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) militants on the Episcopal headquarters of the Syriac-Catholic Church in Mosul.
 
(From archive of Vatican Radio)

'The West's Silence is Persecution of Iraqi Christians': FRANCE

French Daily Suggests West's Silence Is Persecuting Iraqi Christians

'Le Figaro' Front Page Editorial Chastises Westerners for Indifference

Vatican City, July 23, 2014 (Zenit.org)

The silence of world leaders and the media in the face of the ethno-religious cleansing taking place in Iraq is becoming increasingly noticed.

Today, Le Figaro, France's oldest and largest daily, questioned on its front page how long people in the West can ignore the persecutions of Christians taking place there. The editorial ran with the headline: "The Calvary of the Christians of Iraq." 
Its author, Étienne de Montety, called for the West to speak up, to not remain in silence and wondered how Christians and non-Christians can remain indifferent to the "terrifying procession of horrors, expulsions, murders in Mosul."
De Montety pointed out that the Christians of Iraq were 1 million before the American intervention and now there are less than 400,000. "With each wave of vexations, violence, persecutions, they take the path of exodus," he said.
He noted that both Pope Francis and the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki Moon, have spoken out against the persecution and foreign ministries are worried and have been raising their tone.
But he pointed out the irony that Europeans are usually "so eager" to have "mobilizations, petitions, demonstrations of every kind, but "in this case, nothing!"
He wondered if the West will only be prompted to act if a massacre takes place outside the summer vacation period.
Through silence, the writer stated, "we are persecuting."
The newspaper article was first cited by the Rorate Caeli blog which said it was to Le Figaro's "greatest honor" that it chose to put the story on its front page. (D.C.L.)

(July 23, 2014) © Innovative Media Inc.

Congress of Lay Ecclesial Movements, new communities 2014

Preparations for November Congress of Lay Ecclesial Movements, new communities

2014-07-22 Vatican Radio

 












(Vatican Radio) Preparations are underway for the Third World Congress of Ecclesial Movements and New Communities to be held in Rome from 20 to 22 November 2014.   The Congress, whose theme will be "The joy of the Gospel: a missionary joy…" (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 21), is being organized by the Pontifical Council for the Laity and will be held at the International Pontifical College Maria Mater Ecclesiae.  The Council for the Laity has invited members of large, officially recognized international associations and others involved "in ongoing dialogue" with the Dicastery to participate.
Under the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI, previous editions of the World Congress (1998 and 2006) brought together ecclesial movements and new communities to discuss issues such as the identity and mission of associations of the lay faithful in the Church and in the world.
The Pontifical Council for the Laity hopes that the November Congress "will encourage the joyous adherence of ecclesial movements and new communities to answering the pressing invitation of the pope to enter into a 'dynamism of missionary outreach'".
Delegates from more than eighty ecclesial movements and new communities are expected to attend as well as a number of bishops coming from dioceses and Holy See offices.
Bishop Josef Clemens, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, explains that the character of the meeting will be that of mutual listening, sharing and dialogue. The gathering will not be a special academic meeting where speakers demonstrate their knowledge to an audience, but rather a meeting where the reflections and experiences of the participants will be the core of the event.
For more information from the Pontifical Council for the Laity website click here
(From archive of Vatican Radio)

Bishop Tony Palmer – A Man of Faith and Unity: KENNETH COPELAND

Celebrating Bishop Tony Palmer – A Man of Faith and Unity

A dear friend of KCM and the church has joined the host of saints in heaven. On Sunday, July 20^th, Bishop Tony Palmer passed away after undergoing hours of surgery following a motorcycle accident in the UK.
The Lord has used Tony's many ministerial friendships across the globe to bring a new level of kingdom bonding among Evangelicals and Catholics. His personal relationship with Pope Francis, Kenneth Copeland and other world Christian leaders has resulted in strengthening the brotherhood in the church and bringing glory to the Lord. He was instrumental in this call to unity and the impact of his faithfulness will be felt for generations to come.
We join the family of God in praying for the Palmer family during this time. His years with the KCM South African office brought him close to our family and we stand in agreement with Tony's faith that his heart and vision for unity in the church worldwide will increase until the day of Jesus' return. We will miss our friend!
(You may read more about Tony's life and work and leave a message of condolence at http://thearkcommunity.org.)

Late Evangelical leader Tony Palmer's friendship with Pope Francis

Pope's friendship with late Evangelical Anglican leader Tony Palmer

2014-07-22 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) The Vatican's Council for Christian Unity has sent a message of condolences following the sudden death of an Evangelical leader with whom Pope Francis became friends during his time as archbishop of Buenos Aires. Bishop Tony Palmer, the international ecumenical officer of the Communion of Episcopal Evangelical Churches and founder of the online Ark Community, died on Sunday following a motorbike accident near his home in the south of England.
Listen to Philippa Hitchen's report:

In the message to his widow, Council President Cardinal Kurt Koch says Bishop Palmer's meetings with Pope Francis over recent months "have given great impetus to ecumenical relations between the Catholic Church and Evangelical Christians." His strong faith and his passion for unity, the Cardinal says, "reached a global audience of Christians with the message that there is no time to be wasted in division, the time for unity is now."
During one of his visits to the Vatican in February this year, Bishop Palmer recorded an iphone message that Pope Francis wished to send to a Pentecostal group meeting in the United States. In that off-the-cuff video message, the Pope speaks frankly of his longing for unity and reconciliation, saying that all Christians share the blame for the sins of division.
Mgr Juan Usma Gomez heads the Pontifical Council desk for relations with Pentecostals, Evangelicals and Charismatic groups. He talked to us about the significant impact that Bishop Palmer's friendship with Pope Francis has had on the worldwide ecumenical movement, saying that they first met in Argentina when Tony Palmer was part of a delegation of Pentecostals and Evangelicals that was holding talks with the Catholic Church in Buenos Aires....."when Tony Palmer was ordained bishop in the Communion of Episcopal Evangelical Churches, they received greetings from the then archbishop Bergoglio...."
Mgr Usma Gomez says Pope Francis teaches us that "to work for Christian unity you need brotherhood....and you realise that all the friends he had in Argentina continue to be his friends.......he's trying to build up not only relations of friendship but also relations of churches trying to look for the promotion of Christian unity..."
He says that the iphone message recorded by Bishop Palmer for the Pentecostal community "opened a door because it reached a really significant number of people...it's an adventure that Pope Francis is asking us to establish.....he started it, he's way ahead of us and we're trying to follow this pattern!"
(From archive of Vatican Radio)

MARY MAGDELENE Blessed Feast !

From: http://www.galerie-creation.com/sandro-botticelli-la-lamentation-sur-le-corps-du-christ-mort-detail-de-marie-madeleine-et-les-pieds-du-christ-1490-n-1348694-0.jpg




Jul 22, Evening Prayer – Memorial for Mary Magdalene, Hw [Holy women]
from: http://divineoffice.org/


Antiphon: Mary [Magdalene] ran and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, alleluia.


INTERCESSIONS
Through the intercession of holy women, let us pray for the Church in these words:
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.
Through all the holy women martyrs who conquered bodily death by their courage,
– strengthen your Church in the hour of trial.
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.
Through married women who have advanced in grace through holy matrimony,
– make the apostolic mission of your Church fruitful.
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.
Through widows who ease their loneliness and sanctified it by prayer and hospitality,
– help your Church reveal the mystery of your love to the world.
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.
Through mothers who have born children for the kingdom of God and the human community,
– help your Church bring all man to a rebirth in life and salvation.
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.
Through all your holy women who have been worthy to contemplate the light of your countenance,
– let the deceased members of your Church exult in that same vision forever.
Be mindful of your Church, Lord.


Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.


Concluding Prayer
O God,
whose Only Begotten Son
entrusted Mary Magdalene before all others
with announcing the great joy of the Resurrection,
grant, we pray, that through her intercession
and example we may proclaim the living Christ
and come to see him reigning in your glory.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

Pope Francis marks Day for Life in UK, Ireland

Pope Francis marks Day for Life in UK, Ireland with call to cherish life

2014-07-22 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis is marking the upcoming Day for Life in the UK and Ireland with a call to all people of good will to cherish life, particularly the life of society's most vulnerable.
In a message sent to the Church in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, signed by the Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Pope urges Catholics to "to bring the merciful love of Christ as a life-giving balm to those troubling "new forms of poverty and vulnerability" increasingly evident in contemporary society (cf. Evangelii Gaudium 210)."
The theme of this year's Day for Life – celebrated on July 27^th - is #livelife Protect and Cherish Life from its beginning to its natural end. It invites young people in particular to get involved in caring for, nurturing and protecting life at every stage and in every condition.
Message from Pope Francis
"As the Church in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales celebrates the 2014 Day for Life, the Holy Father expresses his confidence that this annual witness to the sanctity of God's gift of life will inspire the faithful, and young Catholics in particular, to combat the culture of death, not only by working to ensure adequate legal protection for the fundamental human right to life, but also by seeking to bring the merciful love of Christ as a life-giving balm to those troubling "new forms of poverty and vulnerability" (cf. Evangelii Gaudium 210) which are increasingly evident in contemporary society.
"To all involved in the Day for Life celebrations, His Holiness imparts his Apostolic Blessing as a pledge of wisdom, joy and peace in the Risen Lord."
Cardinal Pietro Parolin
Secretary of State
Day for Life is celebrated yearly by the Catholic Church in Scotland, England and Wales and Ireland. It's a day dedicated to raising awareness about the meaning and value of human life at every stage and in every condition.
The proceeds of the Day for Life collection to be held in parishes in England and Wales on Sunday 27 July 2014 assist the work of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre and other life-related activities supported by the Church.
(From archive of Vatican Radio)

Evangelicals and Catholics to meet Pope Francis in Caserta

Pope Francis to visit Catholics and Evangelicals in Caserta

2014-07-18 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis will visit the southern Italian city of Caserta later this month to meet with both Catholic and Evangelical leaders there. Fr Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See's press office, announced on Thursday that the Pope will travel by helicopter to the city on the afternoon of Saturday July 26th for a meeting with the clergy of the diocese, followed by an open-air Mass in front of the famous Royal Palace known as the Reggia di Caserta.
Listen to our report 
On Saturday evening Pope Francis will return to the Vatican but on Monday the 28th he will travel down to the city again for a private visit with the leader of the Italy's Evangelical Church of Reconciliation, Rev. Giovanni Traettino. Pope Francis became friends with the Pentecostal pastor when, as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, he took part in ecumenical events alongside Catholics from the charismatic renewal movement. The then-Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, along with Traettino and Capuchin Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household, were the principal speakers at a large ecumenical charismatic gathering in the Argentinian capital in 2006. Last month, the Pope met privately with a group of evangelical pastors and televangelists at his Vatican residence.
The Catholic bishop of Caserta, Giovanni D'Avise spoke to Vatican Radio following the announcement of the visit, saying that although 9 days is not long to prepare for a papal visit, the people of the diocese will welcome the Holy Father with joy and gratitude. Bishop D'Avise said Pope Francis will be celebrating Mass to mark the feast day of St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary and co-patron of the city of Caserta.
(From archive of Vatican Radio)

Crucifix unearthed in Newfoundland after 400 years

Crucifix unearthed in Ferryland after 400 years underground

CBC News Posted: Jul 21, 2014 6:00 AM NT Last Updated: Jul 21, 2014 9:19 AM NT

A 400-year-old copper crucifix discovered in the ground in Ferryland, N.L., is an exciting archeological discovery that sheds light on the religious dynamics of colonial Newfoundland. (CBC)

An archeology student made a small discovery on Newfoundland's Avalon Peninsula earlier in July that has made a big splash for early Canadian history.

Anna Sparrow, an undergraduate student at Memorial University in St. John's, unearthed a 400-year-old copper crucifix at the site of the former colony of an early Newfoundland governor, Baron George Calvert of Baltimore, in Ferryland.

Archeology student Anna Sparrow unearthed the copper crucifix during a dig in early July at the site of an English settlement. (CBC)

She spent hours painstakingly sifting through dirt at the site, and while there are plenty of broken pieces of pottery and glass there from the 1600s, Sparrow's discovery is unique.
"As I was sifting, I was cleaning off a clump of dirt and in that clump of dirt was this crucifix — this little tiny crucifix," Sparrow said.
"I wasn't expecting to find something quite so spectacular, especially not in my second week. It was very exciting."
The copper cross is just three centimetres wide, with the top portion missing. It depicts the crucifixion of Christ on one side and the Virgin Mary on the reverse.

'My heart sort of stopped'

But while the artifact is small, it garnered quite a response from her professor Barry Gaulton, who said the Catholic cross in an otherwise English settlement is a significant discovery.

Barry Gaulton, an associate professor of archeology at Memorial University in St. John's, says the discovery of the crucifix is an important part of North American history. (CBC)

The colony was originally settled by Calvert in the early 1600s as a place where Christians could openly practise their religion without fear or persecution, making the colony the birthplace of religious tolerance in British North America.
"When Anna first found it, my heart sort of stopped for a minute and I knew it was a crucifix," he said.
"Back in England, you could be fined, imprisoned or put to death for practising Catholic faith, so Calvert had different plans for Newfoundland and one of his plans was religious toleration, religious freedom. This artifact is a direct manifestation of that toleration, so it's an important part of Canadian history."
Decades of work remain to uncover what is considered the best preserved early English colony in North America, but this new discovery has created more motivation in students like Sparrow to continue digging.

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IRAQ: URGENT APPEAL By Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako

Urgent Appeal

DONATIONS SUPPORTING IRAQI REFUGEES CAN BE SENT VIA: http://www.cnewa.ca/donation.aspx?ID=1525&sitecode=CA&pageno=1

An urgent message of 

Patriarch Louis Raphael I Sako

Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Baghdad

To all who have a living conscience in Iraq and all the world

To the voice of moderate brother Muslims who have a voice in Iraq and all the world

To all who have a concern that Iraq could remain a country for all His Children

To all leaders of thought and opinion

To all who announce the freedom of the human being

To all protectors of the dignity of human beings and of religion

PEACE AND MERCY FROM GOD!

The control exercised by the Islamist Jihadists upon the city of Mosul, and their proclamation of it as an Islamic State, after several days of calm and expectant watching of events, has now come to reflect negatively upon the Christian population of the city and its environs.

The initial sign was in the kidnapping of the two nuns and 3 orphans who were released after 17 days. At the time, we experienced it as a flash of hope and as a clearing of the sky after the appearance of storm clouds.
Suddenly we have been surprised by the more recent outcomes which are the proclamation of an Islamic state and the announcement calling all Christians and clearly asking them to convert to Islam or to pay the jizyah (the tax all non- Muslims must pay while living in the land of Islam) – without specifying the exact amount. The only alternative is to abandon the city and their houses with only the clothes they are wearing, taking nothing else. Moreover, by Islamic law, upon their departure, their houses are no longer their properties but are instantly confiscated as property of the Islamic state.

In recent days, there has been written the letter ‘N’ in Arabic on the front wall of Christian homes, signifying ‘Nazara’ (Christian), and on the front wall of Shiite homes, the letter ‘R’ signifying ‘Rwafidh’ (Protestants or rejecters). We do not know what will happen in future days because in an Islamic state the Al-sharia or Islamic code of law is powerful and has been interpreted to require the issuance of new I.Ds for the population based on religious or sectarian affiliation.

This categorization based upon religion or sect afflicts the Muslims as well and contravenes the regulation of Islamic thought which is expressed in the Quran which says, “You have your religion and I have my religion” and yet another place in Quran states, “There is no compulsion in religion”. This is exactly the contradiction in the life and history of the Islamic world for more than 1400 years and in the co-existence with other different religions and nations in the East.

With all due respect to belief and dogmas, there has been a fraternal life between Christians and Muslims. How much the Christians have shared here in our East specifically from the beginnings of Islam. They shared every sweet and bitter circumstance of life; Christian and Muslim blood has been mixed as it was shed in the defense of their rights and lands. Together they built a civilization, cities, and a heritage. It is truly unjust now to treat Christians by rejecting them and throwing them away, considering them as nothing.
It is clear that the result of all this discrimination legally enforced will be the very dangerous elimination of the possibility of co-existence between majorities and minorities. It will be very harmful to Muslims themselves both in the near and the distant future.

Should this direction continue to be pursued, Iraq will come face to face with human, civil, and historic catastrophe.

We call with all the force available to us; we call to you fraternally, in a spirit of human brotherhood; we call to you urgently; we call to you impelled by risk and in spite of the risk. We implore in particular our Iraqi brothers asking them to reconsider and reflect upon the strategy they have adopted and demanding that they must respect innocent and weaponless people of all nationalities, religions, and sects.

The Holy Quran has ordered believers to respect the innocent and has never called them to seize the belongings, the possessions, the properties of others by force. The Quran commands refuge for the widow, the orphaned, the poor, and the weaponless and respect "to the seventh neighbor."

We call Christians in the region to act with reason and prudence and to consider and to plan everything in the best way possible. Let them understand what is planned for this region, to practice solidarity in love, to examine the realities together and so be able together to find the paths to build trust in themselves and in their neighbors. Let them stay close to their own Church and surround it; endure the time of trial and pray until the storm will be over.

 † Louis Raphael Sako 

Patriarch of Babylon for the Chaldean

 17 July 2014

- See more at: http://papastronsay.blogspot.ca/2014/07/urgent-appeal.html#sthash.1mr2cTRe.dpuf

DONATIONS SUPPORTING IRAQI REFUGEES CAN BE SENT VIA: http://www.cnewa.ca/donation.aspx?ID=1525&sitecode=CA&pageno=1

MIDEAST CHRISTIANS: YOUR TEARS AND HOPES ARE OURS

CARDINAL SANDRI TO THE ORIENTAL CHRISTIANS: YOUR TEARS AND HOPES ARE OURS

Vatican City, 21 July 2014 (VIS) – Yesterday Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, celebrated Mass in the Maronite Cathedral of Our Lady of Lebanon in Los Angeles, United States, on the occasion of the festivity of Sts. Charbel and Elias, commemorated by Lebanese Maronites all over the world on the third Sunday of July. Around four hundred faithful of the Oriental Churches participated in the celebration.

According to a communiqué from the dicastery, the cardinal spoke in his homily of the immense suffering caused by the desperate fate of many innocent people and remarked that, while the Christians in Mosul in Iraq and Aleppo in Syria are the most afflicted, the entire area is in a state of insecurity, unfortunately maintained by widespread indifference. He also made reference to those affected by current events in Palestine, "who are in tears, unable to be men and Christians in serenity and dignity. We tell them that their tears are ours, nonetheless we share the same hope, and its name is Christ; and Jesus Christ is faithful. For this, we persevere together in the same journey".

After reading the appeal in support of persecuted Christians, launched by Pope Francis during yesterday's Angelus, the Cardinal invited the faithful to pray in silence and emphasised the Church's closeness to the Patriarchs, the bishops and the people of the Syriac-Catholic and Chaldean Churches. He emphasised the Church's participation in their suffering and urged them to persevere in the defence of human rights and religious freedom, "particularly where Christians have been living for two thousand years since the beginning of Christianity" to the benefit of society, and where they may continue to offer their contribution to the human community.

GAZA: Christians invited to pray for end to conflict

Christians invited to pray for end to Gaza conflict

DONATIONS OF CHARITABLE SUPPORT TO GAZA: http://www.cnewa.org/donations.aspx?ID=2494&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1



2014-07-20 Vatican Radio

(Vatican Radio)  Christians around the world are invited this Sunday to join in prayers for peace in the Holy Land where an Israeli ground offensive is underway in Gaza to root out Hamas militants responsible for rocket fire into Israel.  The conflict, which has entered its 13th day, has claimed hundreds of Palestinian lives and those of several Israelis.

Not long into the conflict, leaders of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, the Catholic Ordinaries, issued a strong statement condemning the hostilities, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and the series of injustices they say lay at the root of the unrest.

The Director of Caritas Jerusalem, Fr. Raed Abusahliah asks Christians everywhere to join him Sunday to pray for an end to the conflict and explains that in their statement, the Catholic Ordinaries offer a Christian perspective…

Listen to the report by Tracey McClure...  

CARMEL: Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace, (m)

Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace, (m)

COMMEMORATED July 23, 2014 (Wednesday)  

 

This feast concludes the octave of the Solemnity of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. We honor Mary as Our Lady, Mother of Divine Grace since she is the Mother of the Son of God, the Author of Grace.

'The Blessed Virgin Mary was eternally predestined, in the context of the Incarnation of the divine Word, to be the Mother of God. As decreed by divine Providence, she served on earth as the loving Mother of the divine Redeemer, His associate, uniquely generous, and the Lord's humble servant. She conceived, bore, and nourished Christ; presented Him to the Father in the Temple; and was united with Him in His suffering as He died on the cross. In a completely unparalleled way she cooperated, by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity, with our Savior's work of restoring supernatural life to souls. For this reason she is Mother to us all in the order of grace' (Lumen Gentium, the Constitution on the Church, 61).

Prayer
God of eternal wisdom, in Your providence You willed that the Blessed Virgin Mary should bring forth the Author of Grace, and take part with Him in the mystery of man's redemption. May she obtain for us grace in abundance and bring us to the haven of everlasting salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, Who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

CARMEL: Elijah, Prophet (Solemnity); Elijah in the History of the Order

St. Elijah, Prophet (Solemnity)

Sunday, July 20, 2014  

Elijah is the solitary Prophet who cultivated the thirst of the only God and lived in His presence. He is the contemplative enraptured by the ardent passion for the absolute of God, whose "word burnt like a torch". He is the mystic who, after a long and tiresome road, learns and reads the new signs of the presence of God.

He is the prophet who is involved in the life of the people and, fighting against the false idols, he brings them back to the fidelity of the Covenant with the only God. He is the prophet in solidarity with the poor and those far away and he defends those who suffer violence and injustice. From the origin of the Order of the Carmelites inspiration is found in his person, who then permeates the whole history, so much so that justly the Prophet can be considered its ideal Founder.

 

---

ELIJAH AND THE CARMELITES

At the time of the Crusades some warriors, attracted by the beauty of Carmel, by its geographical position and also by the memory of the prophet, retired to the mount. At the beginning of the XIII cent. James de Vitry traced a retrospective picture of the spiritual rebirth of the Holy Land after the Crusades of the XI and XII centuries: «Pilgrims devoted to God and religious men streamed to the Holy Land from the various parts of the world... Some holy men, however, renounced the world, drawn as they were by various affections and desires and inflamed with religious fervor; they chose for themselves places more suited to their purpose and devotion. ... Others, after the example and in imitation of the holy and solitary man, Elias [Elijah] the prophet, led a solitary life on Mount Carmel, and especially on that part which overlooks the city of Porphyria, which today is called Haifa, near the fountain, which is called the fountain of Elias, not far from the monastery of the blessed virgin Margaret. Like bees of the Lord, they produced the honey of spiritual sweetness in their honeycombs of modest cells» (Historia orientalis sive hierosolymitana I, capp. 15-52; ed. J. Bongers, Gesta Dei per Francos, Hanover, 1611, p. 1075).

Between the years 1206-14 a group of Latin hermits, who lived «near the fountain on Mount Carmel» received from the hands of Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, a «formula of life,» confirmed in 1226 by Pope Honorius HI. They are the Carmelites, the Friars of Our Lady of Carmel and the sons of Elias. It is not certain whether it was veneration of the prophet Elias that led these hermits to Carmel. The rule does not speak of the Carmelite life as inspired by Elias. Later, in his Fiery Arrow, Nicholas of Gaul, wishing to bring the Carmelites back to the purity of the hermitical life, will not evoke the example of the great solitary of the Old Testament. More probably, the fact of finding themselves on Mount Carmel and, later, the memory of this fact contributed to the birth and development of the hermits' devotion to St. Elias. Only in the course of their history did the theme of Elias become an «integral part» of Carmelite spirituality. Some allusion to the progressive legend of an hermitical life continued on Mount Carmel, from the times of Elias until the Crusades, is found in the first rubric of the Constitutions of the chapter of London in 1281: «We declare, therefore, in order to witness to the truth, that, beginning with the prophets Elias [Elijah] and Eliseus [Elisha], who were devout dwellers on Mount Carmel, a number of saintly fathers of both the Old and New Testaments, duly impressed by the solitude of this mountain so well adapted to the contemplation of heavenly things, have doubtlessly lived there, near the fountain of Elias, in a laudable manner in uninterrupted, holy penance with holy results. During the time of Innocent III, Albert, patriarch of the church of Jerusalem, united their successors into one community (collegium) and wrote a rule for them which Pope Honorius, the successor of Innocent, and numerous others after him, in approving this Order, confirmed. This devout approval of the Order is evidenced by their various bulls. It is in this profession that we, their disciples, serve the Lord until today in various parts of the world» (Latin text in Anal. 0. C, XV /1950/, p. 208).

There was still a difference between the first hermits of the Old and New Testaments, and their successors in the epoch of Pope Innocent III. In the first rubric of the constitutions of 1324, however, the successors already appear at the time of Christ. It is thus that the idea was formed of the uninterrupted hereditary succession of the Carmelite Order. This conviction will lead to the sad struggle between the Carmelites and D. Papenbroeck. Meanwhile the figure of Elias became ever more significant in the spirituality of the Order; in the XV cent. Thomas of Walden wrote, without any further distinctions: «Our profession spurs us on to his outlook» (Mhc, p. 446).

It seems that it was John Baconthorp, who died in 1346, who for the first time united the Marian devotion of the Order of Carmel with the memory of the prophet Elias: «According to the prophets (prophecies?), the friars of Carmel originated especially for the veneration of the blessed Mary... And since /the blessed Mary/ is honored and preached through Carmel, it is fitting that on Carmel, which is dedicated to her, she should have the Carmelites who venerate her in a special way. This is how it was in ancient times; in reality, prophecies are understood in the light of subsequent facts... How many prophets and kings has Carmel had who through their deeds rendered honor to the Lady of the place, the blessed Mary! It was in order to continue the cult of the blessed Mary on Carmel that the Order of the Friars of Carmel had its origin. For, veneration given in places sacred to the saints is attributed, after God, to the saints themselves... But even if all those who were to be saved at the time of the prophets rendered honor to the Son Who was to come through the blessed Mary..., nevertheless, it was the friars of Carmel, venerating Him Who was to come at the time of Elias and Eliseus, who began their Order of the blessed Mary on Carmel... Therefore, it is by reason of this veneration that they took root» (Speculum de institutione Ordinis /Mirror on the institution of the Order/, cap. 1; the Latin text also in Élie, t. II, pp. 42-43).

The most complete form of this Elian and prophetic spirituality is found in a book of the XIV century, the Liber de Institutione Primorum Monacharum/; the text also in Anal. O. C, III /1914-16/, pp. 347-49.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Élie le prophete, (etudes carmelitaines), 2 voll. (Bruges-Paris) 1956; E. Magennis, The Life and the Times of Elias, the Prophet of Carmel, Dublin 1925; Soeur Jeanne d'Arc Élie dans I'histoire du salut, VS, LXXXVII, 1952, pp. 136-147; Élie et nous, p. 289-295; T. Brandsma, Canines, in DS II, coll. 157 ff.