Jews alarmed by Messianic movement boom

SOS fake Messiah. 

Alarm bells have been raised within the Jewish population, in light of the boom in Messianic movements. 

The “Messiah” is different from the prophet, in that contrary to the latter, he does not proclaim himself to be a simple intermediary, but a direct incarnation of the divinity or of another divine principle. 

However, the difference between the two is not always clear. 

Indeed, it is not unusual for some prophets, who have gained a certain notoriety, to declare that they are of divine descent or considered by the followers as the Messiah.

Among those who condemn the risk posed by these Messianic movements, is Riccardo Di Segni, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Community of Rome (the oldest Jewish Diaspora) who aired his opinions in an interview with Italian Catholic magazine 30 Giorni. 

“These Messianic movements present themselves to the Jewish world as something new; their mission is aimed solely at Judaism  – Chief Rabbi Di Segni said. 

Judaism does not carry out any missions outside the Jewish community and our traditions are conserved through experimental and ancient mechanisms: schools, synagogues and the family.” 

One element which is new - Di Segni said - is that “outreach” movements, as they are called in America have been widely promoted and are trying to export the religious message. Judaism - he added - is full of cases of pseudo-Messianism, which history has proven to be false, but which nevertheless still have secret followers. 

“History is constantly presenting the Jewish population with fatal challenges, and people try to understand these by asking questions – Di Segni explained. This has occurred on many occasions; important answers have been given to important questions and vice versa; there have been great escapes from reality, great illusions, reinterpretations and movements.” 

These Messianic movements “take a rigid approach to tradition, in the sense that whatever the master says can never be questioned.” Whereas in other Orthodox Jewish denominations of the Jewish faith, there is still a certain pluralism, certain dynamics and there is a contrasting between possible solutions. 

“Here, however, there is a sort of doctrinal toughness – Di Segni underlined. Charisma is personal in that it belongs to the chief. This also applies to Messianic movements. What is most shocking is that in some of these movements, the waiting for the Messiah does not involve waiting for a person but for a principle. There is a great deal of debate over this. Orthodox Judaism tends to favour the idea of waiting for a person over waiting for a principle. The debate is not over yet. But to say that Messianism is an era rather than a person, is an idea that is foreign to Orthodoxy.”

It was also a form of rationalisation, Messianism not as a person but as an era, a concept which Italian Judaism also dabbled in: the most significant Messianism comes from within Christianity. Christians say that Christ is the Messiah, that Christianity is Messianism by definition. Judaism sees the Messianic idea as one of many ideas. It is characterised by a tension, a waiting and Judaism could theoretically exist without the Messianic prophesy being fulfilled. 

“But one of the ways in which Judaism is seen and lived, there are groups in which the Messianic waiting becomes stronger and stronger. And this can either translate into an intense religiosity or into intense politics,” Di Segni explained. 

And there is a great risk in this. Messianism pushes humanity vigorously through history, but without any idea of where this leads to. Marxism and the movements that grew out of it are also political experiences that have a religious, Messianic undercurrent.

“If Messianism gives religion impetus, its impact is positive, but if it becomes an interpretative key, with some people even being conscious of a fulfilled Messianic prophesy, then we are faced with a dangerous situation,” Di Segni warned.

The Hasidic tradition represents a very strong undercurrent in these movements. Hasidism was born in the mid 18th Century as a movement composed of one charismatic leader, who rediscovered the emotive and spiritual dimension of Judaism; this was in contrast, or at least in addition to the intellectual component which had come to dominate throughout the centuries. 

This movement has a great popular impact and is organised through leaders, who become dynastic leaders of groups that are tied to their master, the Rebbe.  But – Di Segni pointed out – even over time, these groups, who also had a significant impact on people, continued to remain closed, they only diffused spirituality within the group. One of the latest ideas was to use the strong influence of this charismatic and authoritative movement, to send people across the world to spread Judaism. 

“It is a type of mission that was rare in past centuries: perhaps there was no need for such missions because Jews had other ways of organising themselves, whilst today, they feel the need for organisation in order to deal with the dispersion of the Jewish faith,” Di Segni said in conclusion.

Kosovo PM mixes up Christmas and Easter in message to Vatican

The Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci has congratulated the official Vatican and all Catholics on the occasion of Easter instead of Christmas.

According to the Prime Minister’s statement distributed on Sunday by the press service of Thaci, "Easter is one of the most important holidays of the Catholic world. Congratulations to all believers on the Resurrection of Christ, especially those members of the international community in Kosovo."

The Prime Minister hoped that Easter would bring the Kosovar Catholics more warmth, hope and success, and progress in society, as well as harmony and peace.

Later a revised version of the greeting appeared on the site of the Prime Minister.

The Republic of Kosovo is a partially recognized state, located in the former Yugoslavia. Currently, the vast majority of its population consists of Albanians who profess Islamic faith.

Vatican: No plans to limit Sistine visitors

The Vatican is determined to avoid limiting the number of visitors to the Sistine Chapel with its Michelangelo frescoes, despite harmful buildup of dust and other pollutants, the director of the Vatican Museums said Wednesday.

"We will try to keep it open" without putting a limit on the growing number of visitors to the chapel, "in the conviction that it is possible to do so without risk to the paintings," Antonio Paolucci wrote in the Holy See's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Paolucci, who also is one of Italy's most renowned art restoration experts, said the Vatican was working to give the chapel where popes are elected an "updated and efficient air conditioning system able to ensure the refreshing of the air and the combating of pollutants in both solid and gas forms."

Some 4 million people visit the Museums annually, with the chapel the highlight — or even the sole aim of the visit — for countless numbers of them. Ticket sales are a big moneymaker for the Vatican.

Dust, sweat, humidity and carbon dioxide exhaled by visitors who jam into the chapel to crane their neck to look at the frescoed ceiling can build to unwanted levels.

Last year, a high-tech monitoring system was installed in the chapel to obtain data, and the monitoring "is a good way along," Paolucci said.

The monitors register temperature and relative humidity at various heights in the chapel as well as the temperature of the frescoes themselves, dust levels, and the concentration of carbon dioxide, as well as the direction and speed of air currents in the cavernous room, he noted.

One surprising result of the study is the finding that many visitors loop back for another look at the chapel during their tour of the sprawling museums, Paolucci said.

"You would think that the number of visitors in the celebrated chapel would be equal to those who enter the Vatican Museums," Paolucci said. "Instead, no. They are more."

"This means that some, after having visited the chapel a first time, return, before leaving" the Museums, he said. "This makes us understand how impracticable and perhaps even inopportune it would be to put a cap on the number" of chapel visitors, Paolucci wrote.

In 1993, an air conditioning system was installed after the conclusion of the restoration of the "Last Judgment," Michelangelo's masterpiece on one of the chapel's walls, which he painted after his frescoed work on the ceiling.

The chapel, which also features works by Botticelli and Perugino, underwent an ambitious restoration that spanned two decades and ended in the 1990s. Some critics found the cleaning made the colors look too bright for their tastes, but defenders said the restoration removed centuries of accumulated dirt and candle smoke, making it possible to marvel at the original vividness.

Heritage Protestant churches in Quebec threatened as congregations fade

Three-week-old Nolan Lambert cried lustily on Dec. 11 when Rev. Jeff Barlow dabbed water on his forehead to welcome him into the flock at St. Andrew’s United Church in the Montreal borough of Lachine.

Nolan was too little to know it, but his introduction to religious life was the last goodbye for Montreal’s oldest United Church.

Facing dropping attendance, rising repair bills and little prospect of renewal, the stone church closed its doors on Dec. 18 after almost two centuries of existence.

Founded in 1818 by Scottish Presbyterians, St. Andrew’s dates back to the fur-trade era, when Lachine was the gateway to the continent.

Now, the heritage structure, built in 1832 by famed architect John Wells, faces an uncertain future.

“I wish it would just stay a church,” said Nolan’s mother, Jenny Rich, 32, who was married in the sanctuary three years ago and felt strongly about having her son baptized there. We really like the minister and the atmosphere. You just feel like you’re coming home,” said Rich.

St. Andrew’s is among dozens of English-speaking congregations in Quebec facing agonizing choices over buildings that no longer suit their shrinking numbers and limited means.

Hit by a double whammy of declining anglophone communities and falling religious observance, Protestant denominations are shuttering places of worship from the Gaspe to 

western Quebec.

But as organized religions walk away from their heritage buildings, the question is who will step forward to preserve that architectural legacy.

Faced with the sheer enormity of the problem, main-line denominations increasingly view their landmark buildings more as liabilities than assets.

“Many congregations have developed what we call an edifice complex,” said Fred Braman, a member of the United Church’s Montreal Presbytery and chair of the United Church of Canada Foundation.

“They spend a lot of their human capital and money capital in preserving a building that is no longer sustainable,” he said. “They’ve become white elephants to maintain.”

Fewer than 5% of Quebecers were Protestants in 2001, a 6.7-point drop from 1991, according to Statistics Canada.

Hard hit by the exodus of anglophones from Quebec in the 1970s and 80s, many Protestant churches have managed to survive against all odds, Braman said.

But there is only so long you can postpone the inevitable, he said.

“Now we’re arriving at a point where the old folks have got very old and they’re having to let go. They’ve managed to struggle through the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s and the first part of the century and now they’re just at the end, where they just don’t have the energy to continue to maintain this building,” he said.

The United Church’s Montreal Presbytery, covering the western half of the province, has 70 churches — half as many as 25 years ago, Braman said. The number of traditional church buildings will drop precipitously in the next decade, he predicted.

One in five Canadians attended religious services weekly in 2005 — down from one in three 20 years earlier, according to Statistics Canada.

Braman, who talks about “preaching places” rather than “churches,” believes the Christian faith must shake off its association with pews, organ music and buildings with steeples and reach out to people who are not comfortable in the traditional church, like gays, lesbians, single women and men in distress.

He envisages a future where worshippers gather in homes and shopping-mall storefronts, and focus on outreach and community work instead of on raising funds to repair the church roof.

“The only people comfortable with a church in a nice building with a service at 10 o’clock and organ music are the people who are there, not the people who are not there. And there are an awful lot more people that aren’t there than are there,” Braman said.

Even though church attendance has fallen to all-time lows — especially in Quebec, North America’s most secular society — it would be a mistake to assume that people don’t care about church buildings, said Jocelyn Groulx, director of the Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Quebec, which provides expertise and funding to preserve the province’s religious heritage. 

“There is a great preoccupation on the part of citizens towards these buildings,” Groulx said.

St. Andrew’s is an exceptional heritage site and a rare example of Regency Gothic architecture, said David Hanna, a professor of urban geography at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal and past member of the religious-heritage council.

In such a case, the local municipality should work hand-in-hand with the church to find an appropriate use for the building and ensure its protection, he said.

The religious-heritage council helped restore the church in the 1990s, so the public has a stake in ensuring it is preserved, Hanna said.

“You cannot allow a key building like this to be tossed aside as if it were nothing,” he said.

Closing St. Andrew’s was a painful decision for the 25 to 30 members who regularly attend services there, said pastor Barlow, 79, a former English teacher who was ordained four years ago. 

Most are pensioners with an average age of almost 80.

“People have been worshipping there and praying there for 190-odd years. It is sort of holy ground,” he said.

The congregation simply couldn’t afford to fix the leaky roof, said Barlow, who hopes the church will be preserved as a cultural centre, museum or library.

“The money is just dwindling month by month. Financially, it’s become inevitable,” he said.

The same drama is playing out across the province.

In Trois-Rivieres, Que., in November, the Anglican Church turned over its oldest church in the province to the municipality, which will restore it as a cultural centre. 

The French-speaking congregation of about 30 was unable to come up with the $2.5-million needed to repair the historic building, built in 1754 by the Roman Catholic Recollet order.

In return for ceding St. James Anglican Church to the city, the parish retains the right to use the sanctuary in perpetuity.

But in rural areas, where many congregations have as few as 12 members, the outlook is grim, said Dennis Drainville, the Anglican bishop of Quebec City, whose diocese stretches from Trois-Rivieres to the Lower North Shore and from the Maine border to Schefferville. 

The diocese counted 25,000 members 50 years ago; now the total is about 3,000.

Rural depopulation particularly affects English-speaking communities, Drainville said. “All numbers are declining in the region but the anglophone population is declining at a 50% faster rate than the French-speaking population,” he said.

Eight churches in the diocese closed this year and Drainville predicted that 50 of the remaining 80 will shut down over the coming decade.

While selling urban real estate can help boost church coffers, there are few takers for isolated country churches, Drainville said.

“I sell a church in the Diocese of Quebec and I’m lucky if I have 50 cents for a coffee,” he said.

In the Lower North Shore, near Labrador, 10 isolated Anglican churches are dotted along a coastline accessible only by air or water, Drainville said.

“Some of those communities have almost no children left in them. So the handwriting is on the wall. Those communities are going to die,” he said.

Kansas City diocese sued again

New lawsuits accuse Roman Catholic priests in Kansas City, Mo., of plying boys with alcohol and drugs and sexually molesting them.

The Kansas City diocese has been the target of more than 20 suits this year, The Kansas City Star reported Tuesday. 

Most involve allegations of abuse decades ago and name priests who have been targeted in other lawsuits.

Two plaintiffs were sued last month.

Gilbert Padilla, 48, says he was molested by Bishop Joseph Hart, who is now retired, when Hart was the pastor at St. John Francis Regis Catholic School.

Another plaintiff, identified as John Doe 101, now 53, says he was abused by the Rev. Michael Tierney when he was an altar boy at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church.

Both lawsuits name a retired monsignor, Thomas J. O'Brien. Doe says Tierney and O'Brien got boys drunk and charges that the basement at the St. Elizabeth Rectory "looked like a liquor store," while Padilla says Hart and O'Brien were friends and gave boys alcohol and marijuana.

Tierney and O'Brien have been targeted by earlier suits. Tierney was removed from active priesthood earlier this year.

More Anglicans to defect to Rome

Hundreds of disaffected Anglicans will cross over to the Roman Catholic Church this year as the Church of England prepares to take another step towards the ordination of women bishops.

At least 20 clergy and several hundred of their parishioners are already lined up to join the Ordinariate, the new structure set up by the Pope a year ago that allows them to retain some of their Anglican heritage while entering into full communion with the Holy See.

But many more members of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England are likely to defect after a meeting of its governing body, the General Synod.

They will switch if traditionalists, who cannot accept the ordination of women, are denied special provision.

The head of the Ordinariate, Mgr Keith Newton, said: “There are 15 to 20 people who I think will be coming over this year. These are ordained Anglicans who wish to petition the Holy See for ordination.”

He said they were likely to bring a “couple of hundred” worshippers with them in a second wave of defections, following the 60 clergy and about 1,000 lay people who switched last year.

Mgr Newton, a former Anglican “flying bishop”, who is now officially known as the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, said: “Next year it depends on what the Synod decides to do. But you can’t become a Catholic because you simply want to escape the problems of the Church of England – you have to want to become a Catholic.”

Mgr Newton believes that the Synod poll on women bishops is on a “knife-edge” with only a handful of votes needed to swing it either way.

However, he warned Anglo-Catholics trying to oppose the change that even a victory in July would likely be short-lived.

“If anybody thinks if it doesn’t go through that the issue will go away, they’re fooling themselves,” he said.

Mgr Newton said the provision made for opponents of women priests in the 1990s, the flying bishops of which he was one, was only a “short-term solution”.

None of the elaborate proposals suggested for those who do not wish to be under the care of a female bishop would be “adequate” for him, he said. “If you’re longing to stay in the Church of England, then you’ll stay,” he said.

“But if you’re actually longing for that greater goal of being in communion with the Holy See, then what is the point of waiting?”

On New Year’s Day an Ordinariate will be created in America, followed by another in Australia in the spring, both of which are likely to have more members than the British one.

Vatican goes high-tech to preserve fragile ancient tomes

One of the world's oldest libraries in Rome faces a huge problem — how to preserve 1,800-year-old manuscripts in a digital format that's readable for next-generation computers. 

A format designed to store images taken by satellites and orbital telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope could offer a solution to the Holy See's Vatican Library.

Archivists have already begun scanning the fragile, ancient tomes in the Vatican's collection with software that can transform old pages pressed against glass into an accurate, flat digital image. Such images saved in the flexible image transport system (FITS) format — designed by NASA and European space scientists in the 1970s — will allow computers built even 100 years from now to decode whatever information is stored.

 

"If you have a tool that can read FITS today, you can read FITS files from 20 years ago," said Pedro Osuna, head of the European Space Agency's scientific archives. "It's always backwards compatible."

The FITS open-source approach stores all instructions about how to read and process the data in a text header on top of the data. 

That allows FITS to be read without conversions to different formats that might become incompatible with future computers.

FITS already stores astronomy data collected by space missions such as NASA's Hubble and Europe's Herschel Space Observatory.

Now Giuseppe Di Persio of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics is helping the new effort to digitize the Roman Catholic Church's library collection. 

"It's very dangerous for the manuscripts every time someone touches them," said Luciano Ammenti, director of the Vatican's Information Technology Center and head of the new project.

Ammenti chose FITS because of its open-source approach, its longevity over several decades and the fact that it's not owned by any one company. 

All of that may help the Vatican Library — founded in 1475 — preserve manuscripts and codices that in some cases originated before the invention of the printing press.

Nigerians fear more attacks as cleanup at St. Theresa Catholic Church where 39 died begins

Women returned to clean the blood from St. Theresa Catholic Church on Monday and one man wept uncontrollably amid its debris as a Nigerian Christian association demanded protection for its churches. 

At least 35 people died at St. Theresa and dozens more were wounded as radical Muslim militants launched coordinated attacks across Africa’s most populous nation within hours of one another.

Four more people were killed in other violence blamed on the group known as Boko Haram.

Crowds gathered among the burned-out cars in the church’s dirt parking lot Monday, angry over the attack and fearful that the group will target more of their places of worship.

It was the second year in a row that the extremists seeking to install Islamic Shariah law across the country of 160 million staged such attacks. Last year, a series of bombings on Christmas Eve killed 32 people in Nigeria.

Rev. Father Christopher Jataudarde told The Associated Press that Sunday’s blast happened as church officials gave parishioners white powder as part of a tradition celebrating the birth of Christ. Some already had left the church at the time of the bombing, causing the massive casualties.

In the ensuing chaos, a mortally wounded man had cradled his wounded stomach and begged a priest for religious atonement. “Father, pray for me. I will not survive,” he said.

At least 52 people were wounded in the blast, said Slaku Luguard, a coordinator with Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency. Victims filled the cement floors of a nearby government hospital, some crying in pools of their own blood.

Pope Benedict XVI denounced the bombing at his post-Christmas blessing Monday, urging people to pray for the victims and Nigeria’s Christian community.

“In this moment, I want to repeat once again with force: Violence is a path that leads only to pain, destruction and death. Respect, reconciliation and love are the only path to peace,” he said.

The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms” and called for the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors “of these reprehensible acts” to be brought to justice.

The African Union also condemned the attacks and pledged to support Nigeria in its fight against terrorism.

“Boko Haram’s continued acts of terror and cruelty and absolute disregard for human life cannot be justified by any religion or faith,” said a statement attributed to AU commission chairman Jean Ping.

On Sunday, a bomb also exploded amid gunfire in the central Nigeria city of Jos and a suicide car bomber attacked the military in the nation’s northeast. Three people died in those assaults.

After the bombings, a Boko Haram spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria’s Muslim north. The sect has used the newspaper in the past to communicate with public.

“There will never be peace until our demands are met,” the newspaper quoted the spokesman as saying. “We want all our brothers who have been incarcerated to be released; we want full implementation of the Sharia system and we want democracy and the constitution to be suspended.”

Boko Haram has carried out increasingly sophisticated and bloody attacks in its campaign to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria. 

The group, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the local Hausa language, is responsible for at least 504 killings this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.

Last year, a series of Christmas Eve bombings in Jos claimed by the militants left at least 32 dead and 74 wounded. 

The group also claimed responsibility for the Aug. 26 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Nigeria’s capital Abuja that killed 24 people and wounded 116 others.

While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes after the 2009 riot, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties.

That has fueled speculation about the group’s ties as it has splintered into at least three different factions, diplomats and security sources say. They say the more extreme wing of the sect maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia.

Targeting Boko Haram has remained difficult, as sect members are scattered throughout northern Nigeria and the nearby countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Analysts say political considerations also likely play a part in the country’s thus-far muted response: President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the south, may be hesitant to use force in the nation’s predominantly Muslim north.

Speaking late Sunday at a prayer service, Jonathan described the bombing as an “ugly incident.”

“There is no reason for these kind of dastardly acts,” the president said in a ceremony aired by the state-run Nigerian Television Authority. “It’s one of the burdens as a nation we have to carry. We believe it will not last forever.”

However, others don’t remain as sure as the president. The northern state section of the powerful Christian Association of Nigeria issued a statement late Monday night demanding government protection for its churches, warning that “the situation may degenerate to a religious war.

“We shall henceforth in the midst of these provocations and wanton destruction of innocent lives and property be compelled to make our own efforts and arrangements to protect the lives of innocent Christians and peace loving citizens of this country,” the statement read.

“We are therefore calling on all Christians to be law abiding but defend themselves whenever the need arises.”

Day sought to honour John Paul II

Catholics in Canada's largest city want the federal government to declare a day to honour Pope John Paul II, one of the most popular pontiffs in history.

More than 25,000 postcards have been mailed by Canadians to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling for April 2 to be recognized as Pope John Paul II Day, organizers said.

 

The cards, which require no postage if mailed to MPs, have been distributed to stores, offices and churches in the Toronto area by members of the Toronto-Warsaw Friendship Committee, which is spearheading the campaign.

"Pope John Paul II was a man of peace who reached out to young people," said committee chairman and former city councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczinski. "We are hoping to celebrate or commemorate his life every April in Canada."

Korwin-Kuczinski said John Paul had special ties to Canada and visited several times, including in July 2002 for a World Youth Day festival in that attracted 500,000 young people to a Toronto park.

"He was a very brilliant man, and we want to remember him," he said. "He was a very popular pope and people want to celebrate his life."

Tory MP Ted Opitz said the proposal has received first reading in the House of Commons.

"We are hoping for a second reading early next year because we hope to have this in place by April," Opitz said.

"I was involved in World Youth Day, and it was the greatest experience of my life."

He said the day will be one for people to remember John Paul and the work he did in helping dismantle communism in Europe and reaching out to disenchanted youth.

John Paul, born Karol Jozef Wojtyla, reigned as pope of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City from 1978 until his death in 2005, at 84.

WYD 2013: Río is more than just football, carnival celebrations and violence

Confirmation came from the Holy See’s Pontifical Council for the Laity during a recent meeting in Rome with the organising committee. The president of the committee, Archbishop Orani João Tempesta sent out a very clear message: there is much more to the Brazilian city than football, carnivals and violence. And he plans to prove this at the 2013 World Youth Day event.

Extraordinary efforts are being made in this South American country, to coordinate the world’s most important Catholic event, where the total number of people attending is expected to exceed one million. The final plans have been sent to the Vatican, following a competition involving almost 200 proposals for the selection of the official location for World Youth Day 2013, with many initiatives being placed on the table.

The symbolic items of the meeting – the cross and an icon – have been making their way across the country since September. They will pass through 268 Brazilian dioceses, inhabited by one of the world’s largest Catholic communities: just over 145 million. The next World Youth Day will be the second one to be held in a Latin American Country. The first gathering took place in Buenos Aires in the mid ‘80s. The impact of WYD 2013 will be felt throughout the entire region; for this reason, it was decided that icons would not just travel around Brazil but also to other Countries.

In February 2012, a commission of the Pontifical Council for the Laity will travel to Río de Janeiro to visit the places where the event’s main public activities are expected to take place.

In an interview with VaticanInsider.LaStampa.it, the Cardinal of Río de Janeiro, Tempesta, spoke about the choice of his city and about how it aims to prepare to welcome the world youth gathering. The archbishop is well aware of the challenges the city faces, ahead of the huge world events it will be hosting over the next five years.

WYD 2013. Why Río de Janeiro?

 

The Pope chose Río de Janeiro. It is a great gift from God. When Brazil was selected as the host for the next World Youth Day, we considered the possibility of Río hosting it. We hoped it would be chosen because it is a very welcoming city, it is known worldwide and it will be have the capacity to host thousands of people because over the coming years it will be the venue for sports events. But above all, we wanted it to host a Catholic event.  

Three years of huge challenges for the Church you lead, given that the eyes of the world will be focused on Río

 

That is true. Next year the city will host Río+20, the world summit on ecology; then in 2013, the American Continent’s World Championships; in 2014 it will host the World Cup and in 2016 the Olympic Games. This proves Río’s natural flair for welcoming people and above all youngsters. In 2013, we expect the presence of over one million young people from all over the world for the WYD.

You don’t have much time left to organise it 

 

This is true as well; we have a year less than all other hosting Countries to prepare for the event: we have two years which means we need to step the pace up.

Río de Janeiro has, on a number of occasions, made the news because of the violence in the city’s favelas. Can these events show another side to Río?

 

Violence occurs across the world and in Río de Janeiro too. I think the government is doing a good job to achieve peace but we are aware that the problem of violence is always just around the corner. I believe that youngsters from all over the world who will come to Río, will have the chance to promote peace and show that youngsters want harmony just as other do, in order to do good. The event will be very important for our city and Country for all these reasons.

Bishops will work collectively towards WYD 2013. Will the event be celebrated by the entire Brazilian Catholic Church?

 

Initially, the Brazilian Episcopal Conference held a vote and all bishops approved the Country’s candidacy for WYD. Only at that point did we start searching for an archdiocese that could host the meeting; that is when our Río diocese was called forth.

Is Río de Janeiro just about the carnival and football? What can the WYD event bring to the city? 

The youngsters and the people that follow the Catholic faith have many beautiful gifts to offer to the world. Those who come to Río will of course see that football and the carnival are present here. But they will also be able to see the beauty of this city, its Catholics and the Church. They will be able to reflect and pray, so that they can delve deep within themselves and find God.

Kirill on standby

The upcoming Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church is an important test to decipher the hold of the Patriarch's leadership, among recurring rumors about his health and uncertainties about the future of Putin’s power system.

Finally, he spoke. But "too little, too late", like more than a few whisper in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill, influential and usually interventionist leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, waited more than two weeks to say something in his own words on the political convulsions that followed the legislative elections of last December 4. 

A few days after an important meeting of the Synod, scheduled for December 27 to 29 - that should further strengthen his power on paper, formalizing the creation of new dioceses to be entrusted to bishops friends -, the strong man of Russian Orthodoxy has calibrated the alert words expressed on the troubled times his country is experiencing, without exasperating the tones and without taking an explicit position with respect to protests against Putin's power.

On 17 and 18 December, for two consecutive evenings, Russian TVs have selected and re-broadcast the passages of two sermons in which Kirill urged his fellow citizens, "heirs of the great Russia, who survived the terrible trials of the 20^th century" to "learn from the lessons of the past and avoid repeating the mistakes made "by our ancestors in 1917" and "by those people who, in the Nineties, suddenly changed the lives of our people." 

The Patriarch has warned people on media manipulation and subversive impulses that could "destroy the lives of people," but also called for God's protection on a perspective of national convergence in which the parties struggling in the furious post-election climate may "enter a sincere, civil dialogue" without destroying the country's unity. 

The authorities were called by the Patriarch to "show more confidence in the people, and facilitate dialogue and communication", necessary elements to prevent conflicts from degenerating into chaos. "The blood shed in the 20^th century", insisted Kirill, "does not give us the right to separate."

The unusual elongation of Kirill's reaction time and the tone of cautious alarm showing through his recent moves prove that even the strong-willed head of the powerful Moscow Patriarchate is faced with the difficult task of repositioning, following the instability that shakes the Russian geopolitical space. With the emergence of the anti-Putin dissent front, the Patriarch and his men have so far adhered to a well-established practice in high-ecclesiastical spheres, that is to express considerations that each contestant can read as a public support to its position. 

Before the elections, his speech manifested with more clarity the patriarchal endorsement of the Putin-Medvedev axis and concerns about the first cracks in approval around Putin's system. The Patriarch chose solemn words to let everyone know that elections were crucial for the fate of Russia, and that, according to him, the Russian nation "can exist only as a large multi-national state, or otherwise cease to exist." In October, in his wishes for Putin's birthday, he paid tribute to the "integrity" and to the "deep love for the homeland" thanks to which the current prime minister had prevailed on trends "that could push our country towards collapse."

In this neo-imperial perspective, Kirill recalled in mid-November the twentieth anniversary of the USSR's collapse, including among its triggers "the void of self-consciousness and national pride."

Several factors concurred to draw the new "fence-sitting" phase of Kirill's leadership. The Patriarch has to take into account the fact that political polarization is releasing centrifugal forces also within the church community. If the militants of the Association of Russian Orthodox Experts - signature of the neo-identitarian, religion-inspired Russian movement - bless in advance the idea of military repression of protests, some familiar faces from the clergy - such as Archpriest Vladimir Vigiljanskij, director of the Patriarchate's press office, archdeacon Andrey Kuraiev and priest Fëdor Liudogovsky - have expressed interest and appreciation for the "outraged" Russians. 

Vigiljanskij also took part to protests against electoral fraud in Bolotnaya Square, while father Liudogovsky wrote a fiery note on "self-righteous-style elections", where the last election cycle is defined as "a rare example of falsehood and hypocrisy".

In this climate, the open chapters within Russian Orthodoxy will reappear at the Synod, scheduled in the coming days. The Bishops' meeting, convened to formalize the creation of 13 new dioceses in the Siberian territories, should strengthen on paper Kirill's position within the increasingly reluctant Orthodox hierarchies, ensuring him the appointment of new bishops of his choice. But the ecclesiastical-political prominence of the head of the Orthodox Church continues to be unwillingly accepted by many of his colleagues in the episcopate. 

This hostility amplifies the rumours on the Patriarch's health. Kirill was already hospitalized for ten days between July and August. The medical bulletins had reported an acute viral infection, but according to reconstructions relaunched by Ukraine, it was because of a myocardial infarction, due to the stress of his previous visit in that country. 

Also on November 20, the day of his 65^th birthday, during a Mass for the arrival in Moscow of the Holy Virgin's belt (the relic preserved at Mount Athos, revered by hundreds of thousands of believers just in a few days), the Patriarch would not feel good, and days later had to cancel his visit to Kyrgyzstan, even though the official statements from the Patriarchate tried to dispel any alarm.

It's a fact that Kirill's tactical and strategic skills are called to cope with new scenarios. After sharing years of approval with Putin, the Patriarch will have to avoid being weakened by a possible tear within Putin's power system. An open game that fatally intersects with the destiny of ecumenism. 

Among the current leaders of Christian Churches, Kirill seemed to have the most forward-moving temper and the most extended perspectives of reaffirming his role. His possible weakening could affect unpredictably the already rugged path towards the recovery of a sacramental unity between Catholics and Orthodox.

Cuba to free 2,900 prisoners ahead of visit by Pope Benedict XVI

Cuba will release 2,900 prisoners ahead of a visit next spring by Pope Benedict XVI, the Cuban government reportedly said Friday, citing humanitarian reasons.

President Raul Castro called the move was a goodwill gesture prompted by appeals from relatives of the prisoners — many of them unwell, women or elderly — and religious institutions, the BBC reported.

Castro, in a speech to the National Assembly, also said he had "taken into account" the upcoming papal visit, Reuters reported.

Top Roman Catholic Church officials in Cuba had reportedly been among those requesting the release of prisoners.

Castro reportedly said the amnesty demonstrated the "generosity and strength" of the Cuban revolution.

However American Alan Gross, who according to Reuters is "serving 15 years in prison for setting up Internet equipment on the island under a secretive U.S. program in a case that stalled progress in US-Cuba relations," will reportedly not be released, despite his case being a sticking point in Havana-Washington relations.

Cuba charged that the programs sought to overthrow the government.

Anyone convicted of a serious crime like murder, espionage or drug trafficking were also not part of the amnesty.

However, those convicted of political crimes — viewed by Havana as "crimes against state security" will be, The Guardian reported, citing the news agency Prensa Latina. "All of them have completed an important portion of their sentence and shown good behavior," Prensa Latina reportedly wrote.

Cuba in 2010 released more than a 100 political prisoners in a deal brokered by the Catholic Church.

Amnesty International no longer includes any Cuban prisoners on its list of "prisoners of conscience" around the world.

Naomh An Lae - Saint of the Day

St John-Francis Regis SJ (1597–1640) apostle of the Auvergne and Languedoc

There are some similarities between St John-Francis Regis SJ and St John Vianney - holiness, devotion to prayer and pastoral care for souls.  

Early life

John-Francis Regis was born into a family of some wealth in the diocese of Narbonne in the Languedoc region of southern France. He was educated by the Jesuits at Beziers. At the age of eighteen, he considered becoming a Buddhist, but at nineteen he entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse on 8 December 1616.

Studies in the Jesuits 

After finishing his course in rhetoric at Cahors, John-Francis was sent to teach grammar at several colleges: Billom (1619-1622), Puy-en-Velay (1625-1627), and Auch (1627-1628). While he was teaching, he also pursued his studies in philosophy at the scholasticate at Tournon. He began his study of theology at Toulouse in 1628 and was ordained in 1631. 

During his time studying theology his room-mate became concerned he was spending much of his nights in prayer and approached his superior who said: "Don't disturb his devotions. If I'm not greatly mistaken, this man is a saint".

At Montpellier: an itinerant retreat-giver

The rest of John-Francis's life was devoted to preaching missions in rural areas, part of the great effort to re-Christianise Europe after the Council of Trent. His direct way of speaking and his manifest sincerity attracted people from every class of society. For the first two years he made the Jesuit College of Montpellier the centre. 

He visited prisons in the afternoon and set up a committee to help in this work. He also concerned himself with rescuing women from prostitution and set up girls so they could earn an income for themselves as lacemakers.

In the Auvergne (1633-40) 

In 1633, the bishop of Viviers invited him to give missions throughout his diocese. From 1633-1640 he evangelised more than fifty districts in le Vivarais, le Forez, and le Velay where church structures had collapsed. He was able to speak to the people in their own dialect which won the people's confidence.

Longing to be a missionary in Canada 

John-Francis had a longing to go with his brother Jesuits to Canada to preach to the North American Indians there, but he remained in France all his life. Often in winter he suffered many hardships in the snow as he moved around over rugged mountains. He is described as spending the day preaching on top of a heap of snow and then hearing confessions through the night.

At Le Puy 

John-Francis spent the last four summers in Le Puy, the chief town of le Velay where thousands flocked to fill the church to overflowing.

Death and inspiration

His last retreat was during Advent at La Louvesc. He preached three times on Christmas Day and and three times the following day, then fainted while hearing confessions.

He died at the priest's house at La Louvesc on New Year's Eve. He was just forty-three. He was canonized in 1737. 

The town became a great place of pilgrimage. It is even today a centre which attracts many young people to the faith. 

It was on a visit to this place that the Curé of Ars, St John Vianney, became convinced of his own vocation and later wrote a life of John-Francis Regis and found in it an inspiration for his own.

Defiance and fear of Mary Queen of Scots revealed in letter to Vatican sent months before execution

The fragile parchment text, bearing royal insignia, was sent in hope to a pope by a deposed monarch begging for her life.

Yet while the letter addressed to Sixtus V failed to save Mary, Queen of Scots, from the executioner’s axe, the document itself did survive buried in the depths of the Vatican’s so-called Secret Archives.

Jealously guarded for centuries, it is now among 100 of the most historically significant items of confidential correspondence due to go on public display for the first time in a special exhibition in Rome.

The priceless collection spans more than a millennium, from the 8th century to modern times and features a cast of historical characters who have crossed swords with a succession of Pontiffs, from Knights Templar to Galileo, Martin Luther and Henry VIII.

Mary Queen of Scots wrote her missive from her prison cell at Fotheringay Castle, in Northamptonshire, just three months before she was executed following her long incarceration.

Written in French on November 23, 1586, the Catholic Mary asks forgiveness for her sins, but also rails against perceived falsehoods perpetrated by her enemies in England and warns the pope of treacherous cardinals.

She claims that the tribunal that condemned her to death was illegitimate and also recounts the suffering she had undergone during nearly 20 years of imprisonment under the rule of her Protestant cousin, Elizabeth I.

Mary had fled to England after an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne in Scotland. She initially sought protection from Elizabeth, but because of the perceived threat she posed as the focus of Catholic plotters who considered her the rightful ruler of England, she was instead imprisoned before being tried for treason.

Any hopes that the pope would come to her rescue were dashed when Mary was put to death at Fotheringay at 8am on February 8, 1587.

The priceless document is normally kept with tens of thousands of others on 50 miles of shelves in climate-controlled rooms in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace as well as in a high-security underground bunker.

Archivists have gathered them together for an exhibition to be held in Rome’s Capitoline Museums to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Secret Archives in the present form.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s official spokesman, said: 'It’s an exceptional event. 

Never have so many documents from the Secret Archives been allowed to leave the Vatican.'

Organisers of the exhibition, entitled Lux in Arcana: The Vatican Secret Archives Revealed, said it will “recount history through its sources'.

British visitors to the exhibition may be equally interested by an appeal by the Westminster Parliament, bearing the red wax seals of more than 80 English lords, cardinals and bishops, asking the Pope to annul Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherione of Aragon.

Sent to Pope Clement VII in 1530, it failed to resolve the dispute, which eventually led to religious schism and the founding of the Church of England.It will be displayed alongside documents from the heresy trial of Galileo Galilei, whose scientific theories that the Earth revolved around the Sun attracted the hostility of the Catholic Church in the early 17th century.

One of the most unusual documents is a letter written on birch bark in 1887 by the Ojibwe Indians of Ontario, Canada, to Pope Leo XIII.

Other previously unseen documents relate to Pope Pius XII, who was pope between 1939 and 1958 and who has been accused of not doing enough to speak out against the Holocaust during the Second World War.

The Vatican has until now stubbornly resisted calls from historians and Jewish groups to release papers from Pius XII’s controversial papacy.

All the papers, stamped with seals which read ‘Archivio Segreto Vaticano’, are normally stored in the fortress-like building tucked behind St Peter’s Basilica, its approach lined with Swiss Guards in ceremonial uniform.

Pope says Christmas shows God’s will to save people from sin, violence

God sent his son into the world to save it from evil, pride and violence, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Christmas message “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world).

“The child whom we contemplate is our salvation! He has brought to the world a universal message of reconciliation and peace,” the pope said Dec. 25 as he stood on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica and gave his solemn Christmas blessing.

Tens of thousands of people were gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the noon address and blessing. Under bright sunny skies, they listened to the music of military bands, admired the Vatican’s Nativity scene and snapped pictures of the Swiss Guards, who were wearing armor over their colorful medieval uniforms.

In his Christmas message, like in his homily at Mass the night before, Pope Benedict spoke about God’s desire to save humanity and his decision to do that by being born in Bethlehem, living among people, dying for them and rising from the dead.

“Come to save us! This is the cry raised by men and women in every age, who sense that by themselves they cannot prevail over difficulties and dangers,” the pope said. Jesus “is the hand God extends to humanity to draw us out of the mire of sin and to set us firmly on rock, the secure rock of his truth and love.”

Pope Benedict said most of the world’s problems are caused by human sin, “the evil of separation from God, the prideful presumption of being self-sufficient, of trying to compete with God and to take his place, to decide what is good and evil, to be the master of life and death.”

Jesus came to earth to bring people back to God, to turn them from their sin and to promote reconciliation, dialogue and cooperation, he said.

As is customary, Pope Benedict used his message to ask Christians to pray and offer concrete help to people who are suffering this Christmas: from famine in the Horn of Africa; flooding in Thailand and the Philippines; tensions between Israelis and Palestinians; violence in Syria; a lack of peace and security in Iraq and Afghanistan; the struggle for democracy and human rights in across North Africa and the Middle East; and for the people of Myanmar, South Sudan and Africa’s Great Lakes region.

Just before the pope appeared at the balcony, news agencies reported a bomb blast at a Catholic Church on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria. Initial reports said there were more than 10 dead.

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said the blast, “precisely on the occasion of the celebration of Christmas, unfortunately once again is a sign of the ruthlessness of a blind and absurd hatred that has no regard for human life and tries to create and increase more hatred and confusion.”

“We are close to the suffering of the church and the entire Nigerian people so harshly tried by terrorist violence, even in these days that should be days of joy and peace,” Father Lombardi said.

At midnight Mass Dec. 24 in St. Peter’s Basilica, the pope said, “God has appeared — as a child. It is in this guise that he pits himself against all violence and brings a message that is peace.”

At the beginning of the two-hour liturgy, children from Italy, Guatemala, Gabon, Burkina Faso, South Korea and France brought white flowers up to a statue of the baby Jesus near the altar.

The 84-year-old pope processed in on a mobile platform.

Children carried the gifts of bread and wine to the pope during the offertory. The procession was led by two very young Korean boys, and the pope, with a big smile, watched them approach, blessed them and patted their heads.

At the end of the Mass, the children took the flowers to the Nativity scene in St. Peter’s Basilica, where a deacon placed the statue of baby Jesus. The pope followed behind them on his mobile platform and when everything was in place, fake snow began to fall on the scene. It was the first time, according to L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

In his homily, Pope Benedict said the birth of Jesus was something completely new in salvation history: God became visible.

“No longer is he merely an idea, no longer do we have to form a picture of him on the basis of mere words,” he said.

Before Christ’s birth, ancient people feared that God might be “cruel and arbitrary,” and instead, Christmas proves that “God is pure goodness,” the pope said.

“At this hour, when the world is continually threatened by violence in so many places and in so many different ways,” he said, the world cries out to God.

They pray that God’s “peace may triumph in this world of ours,” he said.

Pope Benedict said Christmas is about the birth of the savior, the prince of peace, and not some sappy sentimentality.

“Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light,” he said.