Bishop Welby says farewell to Durham

A service of farewell was held on Monday for the Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of Canterbury Elect, the Right Reverend Justin Welby.

The service at Durham Cathedral was Bishop Welby's last public engagement in the diocese before he receives his legal title as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bishop Welby will have the legal title of Archbishop of Canterbury bestowed on him at a formal service in St Paul's Cathedral in London on 4 February.

His public ministry will be inaugurated at an enthronement service at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March.

Speaking in an interview before the service, Bishop Welby said becoming Archbishop of Canterbury was "a huge privilege".

Reflecting on the prospects for Durham Diocese in the face of a possible triple-dip recession, Bishop Welby admitted there were "huge" challenges but added that the Church was there to be a source of light and peace in communities.

"Whether we go into a triple-dip or not, whatever does happen it’s going to go on being pretty dark economically," he said.

"However, at the centre of the Church is Jesus Christ, who is described as the light of the world, and the darker the world, the more obvious the light."

He praised the work of churches that are supporting those in need by running food distribution centres across England.

"That’s the light of the world in the dark times in very practical ways," he said. "The church has often been at its best at times of difficulty because, as people are drawn into worship, they find someone who is faithful, whatever happens."
 
Acknowleding the disputes on women bishops and differences of opinion on sexuality, Bishop Welby said the Church of England needed to find a way forward in spite of these challenges.

"The Church at a national level has to be outward-looking and a body that is engaging, not looking inwards and consumed by its own problems," he said. "I am optimistic that we can make progress.”
 
The Right Revd Mark Bryant, Bishop of Jarrow, thanked Bishop Welby for leaving a "legacy of hope" despite leading the diocese for only a year.

“There is a sadness. People in the North-East feel we are losing someone in the corridors of power who understands them," he said. ”If you were told that you only had a bishop for a year, Bishop Justin is an example of what that bishop would have done. There is a real sense in the Diocese that the future must be about continuity of the work that he has done. There is a real sense of a church that is growing in the region. He leaves us with a legacy of hope.”

Churches unite for tax justice

Church leaders from across the denominations are calling for political action to end tax evasion.

In a letter to Yorkshire MPs and MEPs, they say that tax dodging is allowing some to get richer while others are kept in poverty.

The church leaders want the UK to take a lead in promoting tax transparency and ensure companies and individuals are not able to avoid tax through legal loopholes.

The call coincides with Poverty and Homeless Action Week and comes just days after a coalition of development organisations launched the IF campaign to end hunger around the world.

Christian Aid estimates that tax dodging by multinational companies is costing developing countries at least $160 billion a year – more than the global aid budget.

Signatories of the letter include the Bishop of Pontefract and chair of the West Yorkshire Ecumenical Council, the Right Reverend Tony Robinson, Pastor Gloria Hanley of the West Yorkshire African Caribbean Council of Churches, The Salvation Army’s Lt Col Bill Heeley, and the Reverend Graham Ensor of the Yorkshire Baptist Association.

Bishop Robinson said: “Tax avoidance denies help to the poorest and most vulnerable people both here in the UK and in developing countries. This is morally unacceptable. As representatives of the churches of West Yorkshire we call on our politicians to take action to ensure multinational corporations pay their rightful share of tax in the countries they operate.”

Pope to lead full slate of Holy Week, Easter liturgies

Pope Benedict XVI will lead a full slate of Holy Week and Easter liturgies in Rome and at the Vatican, keeping pace with a usually busy papal schedule.

Publishing the pope's schedule Jan. 29, the Vatican said his Holy Week activities will begin with a procession and Mass in St. Peter's Square on Palm Sunday, March 24.

Pope Benedict will celebrate a morning chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Holy Thursday and that evening will preside over the Mass of the Lord's Supper in Rome's Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of Rome.

On Good Friday, he will celebrate the liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica in the late afternoon, and then will lead a nighttime Way of the Cross at Rome's Colosseum.

As a way to recall his 2012 visit to Lebanon and invite the whole church to pray for the Middle East -- its tensions and its beleaguered Christian community -- the meditations read during the Way of the Cross will be written by two young Lebanese. Each year, the pope asks a different person to write the meditations, and this year he asked Lebanon's Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai to choose the youths and guide their preparation of the texts.

On Holy Saturday, the pope will preside over the Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica. On Easter, March 31, he will celebrate Mass in St. Peter's Square and give his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city of Rome and the world).

The Vatican also released the pope's Lenten schedule. He will celebrate Mass at Rome's Basilica of Santa Sabina on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, and begin his weeklong spiritual retreat Feb. 17.

Italian Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, will preach the papal retreat this year.

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said the cardinal will focus on "Ars orandi, ars credendi" (the art of praying, the art of believing), looking particularly at "the face of God and the face of man in the Psalm prayers."

The pope's February schedule begins with a Mass Feb. 2 with men and women religious in St. Peter's Basilica to mark the feast of the Presentation of the Lord and World Day for Consecrated Life.

On Feb. 11, the pope will lead a brief "ordinary public consistory," a formal ceremony opened and closed with prayer, during which cardinals present in Rome will express their support for the pope's decision to create several new saints.

Church defection website seeks records

The founder of a website formerly used to allow people leave the Catholic Church is asking people who still wish to defect to retrieve their records from their parish.

Paul Dunbar, who runs countmeout.ie, is asking people to request a copy of their records from the parish they were born in. 

Mr Dunbar hopes that data protection legislation can be used to force the church to amend their records to reflect the member’s desire to leave the organisation.

Catholics may no longer formally defect from the Church after a change in canon law that took place in 2010. 

Before that, countmeout.ie said more than 12,000 copies of its online form to defect had been downloaded.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Dublin would not comment on Mr Dunbar’s campaign, but reiterated the statement issued in 2010, saying it was a change that did not just affect the Church in Ireland, but also the world.

“The Archdiocese of Dublin plans to maintain a register to note the expressed desire of those who wish to defect. Details will be communicated to those involved in the process when they are finalised,” she said.

Despite this, Mr Dunbar says people are still unable to leave the church of their own accord, even through excommunication. 

“During April 2011, we assisted 16 people in their effort to have an Act of Apostasy recognised as a formal declaration of their wish to leave the church," he said.

However, the Archdiocese of Dublin has decided it cannot accept these declarations, meaning those who wish to leave the church "continue to be denied this option”, he said.

“We have sent letters to Archbishop Martin Moreso and the Vatican over the last few months and we never got reply. If people don’t wish to be a part of the institution, it has no right to bind them there. It’s frustrating.”

World Day of the Sick, rediscovering and experiencing the spirit of "being a good neighbour"

The World Day of the Sick, which, according to tradition, is celebrated every February 11, "is not meant to be reduced to a mere external focus on laudable initiatives, but wants to reach out to consciences."

This Year of Faith is " a favourable opportunity to rediscover and experience the spirit and being a good neighbor in imitation of the Good Samaritan " in being able to see "with compassion" and love those who need help and care, in being able to bend down and take care of the needs of others with loving care".

The Day is both "for the patients themselves and their families, for health professionals, for Christians and all people of good will.  It is a particular moment of reflection, renewed attention and commitment by all to the problems related to the care of life, health and suffering". 

This was the central meaning of the recent message by Pope Benedict XVI, as pointed out this morning in the Vatican by Msgr. Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for health care professionals (for the Pastoral Care of Healthcare workers), at the presentation of the program for the upcoming World Day, which this year will be celebrated at the Marian shrine of Altötting, Germany.

The Pope's message, centred on the Good Samaritan "emphasizing the conclusion of the parable, when Jesus after leading his party to recognize who had acted as a" neighbour" towards the injured and abandoned on the street, ends with a mandate: 'Go and do likewise".

"An incisive 'mandate', because with these words the Lord today shows us the attitude and behaviour his disciples should have towards others, especially when in need of care."

"As a result, it is both the calling and duty of every Christian to be a Good Samaritan, which is every man who stops beside the suffering of another man, every man who is sensitive to the suffering of others, who is moved by the misfortune of another, every man who seeks and wants to be 'God's hands.' "

In the 20 years since the establishment of the World Day, said Msgr. Jean-Marie Mupendawatu, secretary of the Pontifical Council, the global situation is still beset by the problems outlined at the time by Pope John Paul II, "problems specific to different continents but united together by the neglect of the centrality of the patient: if in Africa, Latin America and Asia it is still possible to die from serious and persistent deficiencies in health care, the same can not be said for Europe, North America and Oceania, where, in the face of high-tech care, a fair and equal access to health care is denied. "

Bishop Mupendawatu, particularly noted what Benedict XVI had said in November, when he called the Christian medical world to bear witness to a new evangelization, saying that "This commitment to a new evangelization also in times of economic crisis, which diverts resources from health care. Precisely in this context, hospitals and health care facilities must rethink their role to ensure that healthcare,  does not become a mere 'commodity', reserved for the few, subject to the laws of the market, rather than a universal right to secure and defend. The close attention due to the dignity of the suffering person, in the context of health policy the principle of subsidiarity and solidarity must never be forgotten (cf. Enc. Caritas in Veritate, 58) . "

For this reason, as part of the World Day visits to the sick and their families in care and suffering are also planned, as well as meetings with chaplains and health professionals and the voluntary associations and movements.

Patriarch warns: too few pupils studying Orthodox religion in school

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill says he is concerned about the low number of students in schools in the capital who take lessons in the Fundamentals of Orthodox culture.

The module is part of the course Fundamentals of religious cultures and secular ethics, which is mandatory in all Russian schools as of September 2012. 

Within the course structure students can choose different modules depending on their beliefs (orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist) and, according to the Patriarch of Moscow there is pressures on parents to choose more 'neutral' modules, such as Fundamentals of secular ethics or Basics of religious cultures in the world, rather than the module on the orthodox religion.

As reported by the Ria Novosti agency, speaking at a conference in mid-January, the Patriarch said that only 23.4% of the students in the Diocese of Moscow has chosen Orthodox Culture. This is the lowest level in the Central Federal District. 

Kirill raised the alarm, also on the fact that parents are not free to pick and choose the course of religion for children. Some school principals, he said, have a mistaken view of the secular state and therefore encourage the parents of the students not to opt ​​for the lessons on Orthodox Culture.

The head of the Russian church then acknowledged that the Patriarchate, which had pushed for the introduction of courses on "secular ethics" in respect of non-religious families, did not expect that would be used to "deprive the Orthodox of the opportunity to study their own culture. " 

"I believe that these distortions will be corrected," he said, addressing the representatives of the institutions, then at the same time ensuring that the concerns about the quality of teachers will soon be addressed and resolved by the Church.

For his part, the Minister of Culture, Vladimir Medinsky, speaking in the same conference, said that "support for organizations that promote and practice the traditional historical and cultural values ​​is one of the main objectives of the government" and promised that his ministry will solve the problem posed by the Patriarch, thus confirming the close cooperation that currently links the political power and the Orthodox Church in Russia.

The head of the presidential administration, Sergey Ivanov, then recalled that the obligation of religious education in secondary schools has been introduced to ensure "not only the intellectual development of children, but also their moral maturity, with the aim to preserve national independence and promote ethical standards of behavior in a multi-cultural country like ours".

According to data from the Ministry of Education, 47% of pupils at a national level have chosen the course in  Fundamentals of secular ethics, 28.7% of the Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture and 20.3% the basics of religious cultures in the world . Those who have chosen other courses are in a minority, such as the cultural foundations of Islam (5.6%), Buddhist culture (1.2%) and Jewish culture (0.1%).

According to recent polls, 79% of Russians identify themselves as Orthodox Christian.

Archbishop of San Fran: Allowing gays to marry ‘is like legalising male breastfeeding’

According to the Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco ,Salvatore Cordileone, legalising same-sex marriage is like legalising “male breastfeeding”.

Archbishop Cordileone told The Catholic Herald: “Truth is clear. Wanting children to be connected to a mother and father discriminates against no one. Every child has a father and a mother, and either you support the only institution that connects a child with their father and mother or you don’t.

“Adoption, by a mother and father, mirrors the natural union of a mother and father and provides a balanced, happy alternative for when a child may not be reared by their biological parents.”

The archbishop went on to say, “if you use theology, you will play into their hands and they will say you use religion to control people. Marriage isn’t primarily in theology; marriage is in nature. Theology builds on the natural institution, giving us a deeper mystical and supernatural sense of its meaning.”

Iran's eight-year sentence for Christian pastor draws outcry

Christian pastor Saeed Abedini's sentence of eight years in prison by an Iranian judge for allegedly threatening local security with his leadership of house churches has been met with harsh criticism.
“This is a real travesty – a mockery of justice,” said Jordan Sekulow, the director of the American Center for Law and Justice which represents Abedini's family living in the U.S.
“Iran has not only abused its own laws, it has trampled on the fundamentals of human rights. We call on the citizens of the world to rise up in protest. We call on governments around the world to stand and defend Pastor Saeed.”
On Jan. 27 judge Pir-Abassi of the Iranian Revolutionary Court convicted and verbally sentenced Abedini.
His trial began Jan. 21, and both Abedini and his attorney were allowed to attend only one day. His sentence was approved by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, according to the American Center for Law and Justice.
Nasser Sarbazi, Abedini's attorney, defended his Christian activities the single day he was allowed at the trial. He argued they do not threaten Iran's national security, and are motivated not by politics but by religion.
Abedini is a native of Iran, but has United States citizenship. He was granted citizenship in 2010 through marriage to his American wife.
“Here’s the troubling reality,” Sekulow added. “We have a U.S. citizen, who has been beaten and tortured since him imprisonment last fall, now facing eight years in Evin Prison, one of the most brutal prisons in Iran. A harsh sentence in a notorious prison – likely facing life-threatening torture and abuse at the hands of the Iranian regime.”
The U.S. state department stated at a Jan. 25 press briefing that “we remain very concerned” about Abedini, and about “the fairness and transparency of his trial.”
“We condemn Iran’s continued violation of the universal rights of freedom of religion, and we call on the Iranian authorities to respect Mr. Abedini’s human rights and to release him. We are in close contact with his family as well and we’re actively engaged in the case.”
Abedini converted from Islam to Christianity in 2000, and in 2008 became an evangelical pastor.
Iran had demanded that he stop working with house churches. Though they are technically legal, the regime claims that he had tried to turn young Iranians from Islam, the state religion.
Abedini agreed to this in 2009, moving his focus from churches to non-religious orphanages. Despite this, he was arrested in September while on a trip to work with these orphanages and to visit his family.
On Jan. 21 a semi-official Iranian news agency stated Abedini would be released for a $116,000 bail, but this proved to be false.  
“The promise of his release was a lie,” said Naghmeh, Abedini's wife. “We should not trust the empty
words or promises put out by the Iranian government.”
Several members of the U.S. House and Senate, along with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, have called for Abedini’s freedom.

Pope examines society's acceptance of unstable relationships

As he spoke to the Church’s highest court, which often deals with issues related to marriage, Pope Benedict highlighted the growing acceptance of instability in relationships.
 
Contemporary culture “poses serious challenges to the person and the family,” he began, underscoring that it calls into question “the very capacity of human beings to bond themselves to another and whether a union that lasts an entire life is truly possible.”

Modern culture, Pope Benedict XVI told the members of the Tribunal of the Roman Rota, promotes the idea that people can “become themselves while remaining ‘autonomous,’” leading to the “widespread mentality” that relationships “can be interrupted at any time.”

His speech to the Tribunal for the opening of the judicial year took place Jan. 26 in the Clementine Hall and focused on the relationship between faith and marriage.

Pope Benedict observed that the world's current crisis of faith brings with it a crisis in the understanding and experience of marriage.

Rejecting the divine proposal, he explained, leads to a profound imbalance in all human relationships, including in marriage.

It also "facilitates an erroneous understanding of freedom and self-realization" that operates under the belief one can flourish while remaining autonomous in a relationship, he said.

"Contemporary culture, marked by a strong subjectivism and an ethical and religious relativism, poses serious challenges to the person and the family," the Pope told the judges.

On the other hand, he said, accepting faith makes humans capable of giving themselves, allowing them to discover the extent of being a human person.

The Code of Canon Law – the set of laws by which the Church is governed and which the Tribunal is charged with upholding– defines the natural reality of marriage as the "irrevocable covenant between a man and a woman," he noted.

Pope Benedict then reflected on how "a human being's choice to bind themselves with a bond lasting an entire life influences each person's basic perspective according to which they are either anchored to a merely human plane or open themselves to the light of faith in the Lord."

Divorced or abandoned spouses were also not far from the Pope’s mind as he spoke to the Tribunal.

"Being well aware that the valid marriage bond is indissoluble and refraining from becoming involved in a new union, in such cases their example of fidelity and Christian consistency takes on particular value as a witness before the world and the Church," he remarked.

The Pope asserted that "faith is important in carrying out the authentic conjugal good, which consists simply in wanting always and in every case the welfare of the other."

"With these considerations I certainly don't wish to suggest any facile relationship between a lack of faith and the invalidity of a marital union," he said.

"I wish to highlight how such a deficiency may, but not necessarily, damage the goods of marriage, since the reference to the natural order desired by God is inherent to the conjugal covenant.”

Vatican’s demands ‘too high a price’

A Galway priest has said the Vatican’s demand for silence is “too high a price” for a return to his priestly duties.

Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery from Attymon in Athenry spoke out amid threats from the Vatican that he could be excommunicated from the Catholic Church if he continued to air his controversial views. 

The local priest said he had received a letter from Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith instructing him to refrain from publishing any further articles outlining his views and to have no further involvement with the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP).

Fr Flannery, who has been prevented from ministering as a priest for the last year, was also instructed to write, sign and publish a article accepting that the Catholic Church can never ordain women to the priesthood, accepting all Church stances on contraception and homosexuality, and the refusal of the sacraments to people in second relationships.

However, in a public statement on Monday, Fr Flannery reiterated that he would not put his name to a document “that would be a lie” and “impugn my integrity and my conscience” and said he was now facing the reality of “never again ministering as a priest”.

“This was the beginning of what is now almost a year of tension, stress and difficult decision-making in my life. Initially, my policy was to see if some compromise was possible, and it seemed in early summer this was a real possibility. But I gradually became aware that the CDF continually raised the bar, until it got to the point where I could no longer negotiate,” he said.

He revealed that he was now temporarily stepping down from his position of leadership with the ACP and that he made the decision to speak on his censorship in order to “take back my voice”.

“I have always believed in the church as the community of believers and as an essential element in promoting and nourishing the faith. I have enjoyed my years of preaching, the main work of Redemptorists, and never had any doubt that Christ’s message was one worth proclaiming. But to give up on freedom of thought, freedom of speech and most especially freedom of conscience is too high a price for me to pay to be allowed minister in today’s church.”
 
Responding to Fr Flannery’s actions, the Irish Redemptorist Community said it was “deeply saddened by the breakdown in communication”, adding that the 66-year-old priest was “highly regarded and respected by many in Ireland”.

They added that it was of “immense regret” that structures had not been yet found to provide a “greater capacity to engage with challenging voices from among God’s people”.

Swiss Guard celebrates 507 years at the Vatican

Vatican celebrates 30 anniversary of Code of Canon Law

Mary McAleese: Good Friday and the future of peace in Northern Ireland

“The Good Friday agreement never was a promise that the fighting was over; it was a promise that the two sides involved would come together and work together to try to end the fighting," says Mary McAleese, President of the Republic of Ireland from 1997 to 2011. 

McAleese was guest speaker last Friday evening in the last in a series of public lectures organised by the Pontifical Gregorian University, titled: "A spirituality for dialogue and reconciliation".

The former President is a native of Belfast and is the first person born in Northern Ireland to have been Head of State in the Republic. As a Catholic, a law graduate, journalist, law professor and later President, she has been closely involved in cross community peace building, which she describes as an ongoing process of dialogue powered by “the greatest commandant: to love one another”.

“It’s easy to love your friends; the challenge is to seek out those people who won’t talk to you. That’s where you start. We are neighbours, living cheek-by-jowl; no-one’s going anywhere”.

The political deal known as the Good Friday Agreement which aimed to form the lasting settlement following the 1994 paramilitary ceasefires in Northern Ireland, was signed on 10 April 1998, one year after McAleese assumed office.

“The parties who signed the Good Friday agreement knew when signing it that peace was not going to come the next day,” she says. “They had a vested interest in it and it was an expression of their desire for peace. But they also knew that you cannot turn your back on 900 years of received history and bitterness and division and mountains of accumulated hurt. It takes time. That’s why it was always called a process”.

In fact, if bringing Northern Ireland’s nationalist and unionist factions to the negotiating table was a long and difficult journey, the implementation of its details has, at times, been even more gruelling. The agreement established a Northern Ireland assembly with a power-sharing executive, and new cross-border institutions involving the Irish Republic and the UK. 

But other proposals, such as the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, the future of policing in Northern Ireland, and the early release of paramilitary prisoners have met with greater resistance. And at times embedded tensions have boiled over. This was seen in the recent rioting in Belfast against the council's decision to restrict the flying of the Union flag over Belfast City Hall.

“Flags and emblems are very neuralgic; the agreement gave a way of being able to honour the commitment to accepting that the flag of Northern Ireland for the time being – until the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise – is the Union Jack [The Union Flag of UK – ed] . But also to give people the right to create a society where everybody feels comfortable. So I can understand when they change the pattern of usage from 365 days a year to 17 it can give people pause of thought. Tragically I think, those who are rioting are very much the people who were never brought on board on the Good Friday agreement; they were probably always anti-the Good Friday agreement. Others who opposed the flags decision expressed their opposition in a democratic way”.

Many of those involved in the recent riots were young people, she notes, a “new generation who really do not know the cost of violence”. So is the passing on of a historic memory of the ‘Troubles’ to younger generations important in the peace building process?

“There is a real dilemma here, because in the past, both sides handed on that baton of historic memory in order to hand on the hatred; it was the conduit for the toxin of sectarianism, of political hatreds as both sides gave their children and their children’s children, their own edited version of history. So we have to be careful about how we hand history on and why we hand it on. There’s a big difference in handing on the historic memory of, for example, the Shoah in order that Europe never ever descends again into that madness, that extraordinary evil. And similarly in Northern Ireland, I think it’s importance that we hand on the memory of suffering: what price was paid for the Good Friday Agreement, why the need for compromise, why was it so important. When I think back to all my years involved in peace building, I never ever was without the memory of my friends who died. There is a generation now who don’t know what it was like to live with bombs and bullets and the army presence on the roads, the abnormality of all that…So I think we all have to put our heads together to see what we can do to try to calm the waters and see that these young people – there are manifest elements of string sectarianism here – but we obviously have work to do here now. I’m thinking here of the Protestant paramilitaries who are under enormous pressure at the moment. And I think they are key to any solution because they know who these young people are and have a link to them that other people don’t have so we are relying on them to do the talking and persuading to get the young people off the streets and into some more meaningful way of living”.

Vatican’s strong defense of the Jews

The head of a schismatic Roman Catholic sect known as the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) recently labeled Jews “enemies of the Church.”
 
The comments from Bishop Bernard Fellay could have triggered a public clash between Catholics and Jews, as in 2009 when then-SSPX Bishop Richard Williamson denied that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust.

But rather than spark a crisis, Fellay has instead motivated Catholic Church officials to directly repudiate him and his teaching with strongly worded pledges of friendship with Jews.

“It is absolutely unacceptable, impossible, to define the Jews as enemies of the Church,” said the Vatican’s top spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi. “Anti-Semitism in all its forms is a non-Christian act and the Catholic Church must fight this phenomenon with all her strength.”

Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Vatican’s Commission on Religious Relations with Jews, lambasted Fellay: “The Jews are our older brothers,” he declared. “We are inseparably linked with the Jews.”

Auxiliary Bishop Denis Madden of Baltimore, chair of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, wrote to some involved in Catholic-Jewish dialogue: “I wish to assure you as both colleagues and friends that the Holy See and the USCCB find the statements of Bishop Fellay both false and deeply regrettable. ... The Catholic Church deeply values the friendship of the Jewish people and looks forward to the day when bias against them is eliminated everywhere.”

Such statements reflect decades of Jewish-Catholic rapprochement, which the SSPX rejects. It began in 1965 when the Second Vatican Council issued a groundbreaking declaration, Nostra Aetate, in 1965. That document reversed 1,800 years of Christian teaching that Jews were collectively cursed by God to wandering and suffering because of the crucifixion of Jesus, condemned anti-Semitism and affirmed that Jews remain “beloved of God.”

During Vatican II’s deliberations, French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre had strongly opposed Nostra Aetate. Although defeated by an overwhelming vote of the world’s Catholic bishops, Lefebvre later established the SSPX in protest of many Vatican II documents, and one of the group’s defining traits is its rejection of Vatican II’s reforms.

In 1988, Lefebvre disobeyed Pope John Paul and ordained four SSPX bishops, including Fellay and Williamson, because he wanted his movement to survive his death. This resulted in their automatic excommunication. Hoping to woo the SSPX back into the fold, Pope Benedict XVI lifted their excommunications in 2009 so that conversations between the Vatican and the SSPX could begin.

Fellay summarized those ongoing talks in an address posted on YouTube in December. He declared that Jews and other enemies “from outside the Church” were “the most opposed that the Society would be recognized as Catholic.” This shows, he argued, “that Vatican II is their thing. Not the church’s. They see, the enemies of the church see their benefit in the Council. Very interesting.”

Hostility to Jews seems inextricably woven into the SSPX’s opposition to Vatican II. An analysis conducted last year by the Anti-Defamation League found various SSPX websites around the world that were riddled with anti-Semitic themes from the past.

The forcefulness of the church’s reactions to Fellay’s comments indicates that Nostra Aetate, the sapling planted nearly 50 years ago, has put down sufficient roots to resist storm winds of lingering anti-Semitism.

However, Fellay’s rhetoric also has deep-seated theological aspects. And efforts to reverse or rein in Nostra Aetate are not restricted to external schismatic groups; they arise occasionally from within the Catholic community.

Koch recently called for “the Catholic Church to conduct a deeper theological reflection ... to throw light theologically on the new relationship with Judaism which has developed after Nostra Aetate.” This new relationship also poses unprecedented questions for the Jewish community.

In 2000, in an iconic moment for the new relationship, Pope John Paul II prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, according to a Jewish custom. He inserted into the Wall a signed prayer formally committing the Catholic Church to “genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

As we approach the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, that’s a major task for both Jews and Catholics who seek to follow John Paul’s call to forge “genuine brotherhood.”

Holy See holds out its hand to China

2013 mission China. 

The Year of Faith has just begun in the Celestial Empire as Benedict XVI gets tweeting in Chinese. 

From a geopolitical and religious point of view Beijing is for Benedict XVI what Moscow was for his predecessor Karol Wojtyla. 

In recent days, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization posted the logo and calendar for the Year of Faith in Chinese to spread the word to communities and Churches across the great Asian country, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation told L’Osservatore Romano. 

Meanwhile, China’s great wall no longer seems as impenetrable as it once did, despite the fact that the country’s systematic repression of all dissent and voices that oppose the regime.
 
In recent days, for example, Zhu Chengzhi, an activist from Hunan who is investigating the death of a Tiananmen dissident, was put in a secret residence that placed was under surveillance for six months. Neither friends, parents nor lawyers are allowed to visit him.
 
 “Yet, from January 1st, Beijing has implemented the reform of the Penal Code, which states that the police must inform the family of the suspect within 48 hours to allow the lawyer to meet his client,” missionary news agency AsiaNews remarked. 

“In the world of dissidence there is also scepticism towards the reform of the labour camps. In recent days, Meng Jianzhu, Secretary of the legal and political system of the Chinese Communist Party, said that by the end of 2013 China will have "stopped" the laojiao, "re-education through labour", a method of detention and labour forced that lasts from the time of Mao Zedong.” According to China Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), the so-called “reform” is merely cosmetic as it is just a change of name from laojiao to “Illegal Behaviour Correction."
 
Similarly, even the "stations of custody," where those who present petitions are held prisoners since 2003 have been called "custody and repatriation stations", the notorious "black jails" where people disappear for months and which have multiplied dramatically in recent years. According to AsiaNews sources, in Beijing alone, the "black jails" can contain up to 70-80 thousand prisoners. 
 
During the Southern Weekend, another of the big Chinese newspapers decided to fight against the Communist regime’s imposed censorship. On the very day the Guangdong weekly was on the verge of reaching an agreement with the provincial government, the Beijing News editor and his team refused to print an editorial published by the Global Times (the Party’s official newspaper) which attacked Guangzhou’s “rebel” newspaper. 

Beijing News’ editors and staff say they are furious at the intervention of the vice director of the capital’s propaganda office, Yan Liqiang, who had asked the newspaper to print the article which had been approved by the Party. The editor of Beijing News, Dai Zigeng, preferred to resign rather than satisfy this request and his staff fully supported him.
 
In the meantime, the China train is slowing down. Its growth rate is still on the rise but is much lower than that of previous years: GDP growth in 2011 was at 9, 35 %, touching on 10, 4% in 2010. According to data from Beijing’s Central Statistical Office and published by AsiaNews, there was a 7, 9% growth in the fourth quarter, indicating a slight recovery after a slow year.
 
These figures exceed the expectations of the Beijing government which in its latest estimations had spoken of a growth rate of 7, 5 %. In absolute terms, China’s GDP totalled 8280 billion U.S. dollars in 2012. 

Rajiv Biswas, an analyst at Ihs Global, explained that “the days of China’s relentless growth seem to be over because its status is changing from that of a country with low salaries to one with medium salaries.
 
These went up by an average of 10% a year for 30 years but are now in a transitional phase. 

It is also important to remember that the population is getting older and the marginal productivity of capital is dropping. These long-term indicators exclude the possibility of a continuous growth compared to that of recent decades, in the future. 

The one-child law, corruption and the uneven distribution of wealth in society are the main factors that are holding China back.
 
AsiaNews said that as a result of these phenomena which are directly linked to the Communist regime’s single-party dictatorship, there are thousands of social protests every year. 

The advent of the Internet and an increased social awareness has amplified single cases and the wealth gap seems to be the main contentious issue for citizens. Many analysts and dissidents stress that without an improved redistribution of domestic wealth and an average salary increase, the country is doomed to become divided and collapse.

Pope’s prayer intentions for February 2013

General: That migrant families, in particular mothers, may be sustained and accompanied in their difficulties.

Missionary: That peoples experiencing war and conflicts may be the protagonists in the building of a future of peace.

Feast Of St Brigid - 1st February

St Brigid - Mary of the Gael - is second only to St Patrick in the esteem of the Irish people.

She is, of course, specially associated with Kildare and the whole area of Magh Life (The Liffey Plain).

It would appear that the veneration of St Brigid incorporates elements of a much older tradition.

When the Celts came to Ireland, maybe around 500 B.C., they brought with them their Druidic religion. They had many gods, who interacted with the people, sometimes for good, and sometimes for evil.

Many of the gods and goddesses were associated with cult sites at particular places.

The pagan religious framework of the Celts is not well documented, and what details we have, are mainly of the religious practices of the continental Celts as described by Roman writers, who most likely never visited Ireland.

So their accounts would not relate directly to the practices in Ireland, though there must have been broad similarities. The pagan religious practices of the Irish Celts were not encouraged by the Christians, and when they did record them, they would not have wished to present a balanced picture, even if they fully understood the rituals.

So we actually have very little knowledge of the religious practices and rituals of the Druidic religion.

On the other hand, the early Christian Church in Ireland did not seem to associate the Druidic religion with cruel and barbarous practices, which would have to be eliminated entirely.

The names, and many of the attributes, of the Celtic Irish gods were preserved in an oral tradition though the Gods themselves were reduced to the ranks of fairies; they were not gods, but they were greater than human, they were the Sidh or the Tuath de Danann.

The Christian traditions treated the Tuath de Danann with a certain sympathy and they are frequently shown as coming forth from their pagan world, being embraced in the Christian fold, and entering into heavenly bliss e.g. the stories of the Children of Lir, Oisin, and the tale of Eithne.

It was not so easy to get the ordinary people to completely forget the pagan Celtic gods and elements of paganism survived for hundreds of years after Christianity became firmly established.

Indeed there is evidence to suggest that some of the more popular deities were absorbed into the Christian tradition as local saints, and the rituals associated with their worship survived as folk customs right up to very recent times. This would appear to have happened, at least to some extent, in the case of St Brigid.

The head God of the Irish Celts was The Dagda. The Dagda Mor was the father and chief of the people of Dana (the Tuath de Danann). He was a master of music, as well as other magical endowments, and owned a harp that came flying through the air at his call.

Dana was the greatest of the de Danann goddesses; she was the mother of the Irish gods. Daughter of the Dagda, and like him associated with the ideas of fertility and blessing, Dana was also known as Brid "the poetess".

Brid is identified with the goddess Brigantia, territorial deity of the Brigantes, a powerful Celtic tribe of North Britain. Brigantia was associated with water and gives her name to rivers; the Brighid in Ireland; the Braint in Wales; and the Brent in England.

Place name evidence would also suggest that the goddess Brid was known in Celtic Europe.

The name Brid was originally an epithet meaning "the exalted one". She is sometimes mentioned as a triple goddess i.e. three sister goddesses named Brid; one goddess associated with poetry and traditional learning in general; one associated with the smith's art; and the third associated with healing.

However over time the separate attributes of the three goddesses became merged in the one figure. The Irish goddess Brid was specially concerned with the arts and with poetry.

As such she was venerated by the filidh who were poets and prophets, and who had perhaps a rather academic interest in her. The Christian approach to the filidh seems to have been to allow them to maintain their literary, historical and legal responsibilities while suppressing their ritualistic role.

However, it is mainly as a goddess of the ordinary people, concerned with healing, with flocks and stock and the yield of the earth, that she has survived to become a Christian saint.

So what of the Christian St Brigid? Brigid's father was Dubtach descendant of Con of the Hundred Battles, her mother Brotseach of the house of O'Connor. Her mother was said to have been a slave of Dubtach and she was sold, shortly before Brigid was born, to a Druid who lived at Faughart, a few miles from Dundalk.

The date of Brigid's birth is disputed, but may be between 451 and 458; commonly it is taken as 453. Memories of the saint still linger around her birthplace. Her father's family were natives of the Province of Leinster and Fr. Swayne, late Parish Priest of Kildare, claims that they were from Umaras, between Monasterevin and Rathangan in Co. Kildare. Another explanation of how she came to be born in Faughart was that her mother was visiting some relatives at the time.

In any case she was baptised in the Christian faith, receiving the name Brid or Brigid. It is said that she was reared on the milk of a white red-eared cow, the colour of the beasts of the Tuath de Danann.

From earliest childhood the stories of her kindness and miracles associated with her are told. While still a child she was put in charge of the dairy by her mother. One day she had given away so much milk and butter to poor people that none remained for the family. She feared her mother's displeasure and so resorted to prayer. When her mother visited the dairy she found such an abundance of milk and butter that she praised the dairy maids for their industry. Brigid was also renowned for her love of animals and many stories were told of her kindness to stray and starving dogs.

The Tripartite Life of St Patrick mentions her meeting with St Patrick. We are told that while still a child she was brought to hear him preach, and that as she listened to him she fell into an ecstasy.

When Brigid came to marriageable age she decided to enter the religious life. Accompanied, it is said, by seven other young girls she left her home and travelled to Co. Meath where St Maccaille was Bishop. At first St Maccaille hesitated to take them into the religious life as they were very young, and he rather doubted their motives. However there was a great congregation in the church when Brigid and her companions entered to pray. They were all astonished when they saw a column of fire that reached to the roof of the church resting on Brigid's head. When the Saint heard of this miracle he hesitated no longer but gave the veil to the eight young girls.

St Maccaille's church was on Croghan Hill, in Co. Westmeath and it is here that St Brigid founded the first convent in Ireland. A large number of noble ladies entered the convent as postulants and here Brigid and her companions completed their novitiate. 

At the end of the novitiate Brigid and her original seven companions, journeyed to Ardagh where they made their final vows to St Mel, bishop of Ardagh and nephew of St Patrick. 

Here in Ardagh she founded another convent and remained for twelve years, during which time the convent flourished. 

At the request of many bishops she sent sisters to various parts of Ireland to establish new foundations.

St Brigid now went on a journey around Ireland. On her way she visited St Patrick who was preaching at Taillte or Telltown in Co. Meath. Having obtained St Patrick's blessing she continued on her journey. Many stories are told of miracles and the foundation of convents in various parts of the country during that journey.

The Leinstermen were always conscious that Brigid was from their province, and they constantly asked her to return and make her home amongst them. She was offered any site in the province. 

She decided to make her foundation on Druim Criadh (the ridge of clay) near the Liffey, in what is now the town of Kildare. On the ridge grew a large oak tree and Brigid decided to build her oratory beneath its branches.

The new foundation prospered and developed rapidly. Soon, it is said, Drum Criadh was covered with the cells of the community. From all parts of Ireland and even from abroad girls came to join the community. 

Bishops and priests went to Cill Dara (the Church of the Oak), as it was now named, seeking Brigid's advice and guidance. 

The poor, the sorrowful, and the afflicted flocked there in search of help and consolation, which was never refused. 

Kings showered gifts on the convent, and the privilege of sanctuary was conferred on the foundation, so that any who had offended against the law were safe within the precincts.

A most unusual community developed with both monks and nuns on the one site. It became necessary to have a bishop appointed to the foundation, as only a bishop could ordain priests.

However the story is also told that St Mel was old, and a bit doddery, when he professed Brigid, and instead of professing her as a nun he consecrated her as a Bishop. St Brigid for that reason had all the privileges of a bishop.

In any case, St Brigid chose Conleth, a saintly hermit who lived at Old Connell (Connell of the Kings) near Newbridge.

St Conleth visited St Brigid in Kildare where they first met. He stayed some days preaching to the congregation and made a good impression. When the time came for him to return to Old Connell he mounted his chariot and asked Brigid for her blessing. 

He journeyed home across the Curragh plains, and it was only when he got home that he discovered that the wheel of his chariot had been loose throughout his journey, and it was a miracle brought about by Brigid that it had not fallen off and killed him.

About the year 490 St Conleth was consecrated the first Bishop of Kildare. He may also have been Abbot of the community of monks in the foundation. Brigid and Conleth seemed to have worked well together though they had a somewhat complex relationship.

A story is told of Brigid having given away the vestments which Conleth used for saying Mass, when she had nothing else to give the poor. These were vestments he had got from Italy. It appears that he was none too pleased. Brigid prayed to God with "great fervour". Vestments exactly resembling those given away immediately appeared, and Conleth was appeased.

Despite her anxiety about Conleth's vestments, it appears however that St Brigid continued to hold the reins firmly in her own hands and ruled over both communities, monks and nuns. 

Her authority is well illustrated by the story of how St Conleth met his end. 

He decided to go on a pilgrimage to Rome without obtaining Brigid's permission. He did not get very far as he was attacked and killed by a wolf near Dunlavin in Co. Wicklow in 519 a.d..

There is no exact date for St Brigid's death. It is said that she died at the age of seventy, which would make the date of her death somewhere between 521 and 528.

After her death the monastery flourished. The first Life of St Brigid was written not much later than 650, and perhaps even within a hundred years of her death. The author was a monk of the foundation in Kildare named Cogitosus. 

The "Life" was not really a biography as we would understand it, but rather a compilation of stories of St Brigid. It gives us a fascinating glimpse of life in Kildare some 1400 years ago.

He describes the great church of Kildare where the bodies of Sts Brigid and Conleth were:

"laid on the right and left of the ornate altar and rest in tombs adorned with a refined profusion of gold, silver, gems and precious stones, with gold and silver chandeliers hanging from above and different images presenting a variety of carvings and colours"

The Annals record that in the year 836 a Danish fleet of 30 ships arrived in the Liffey and another in the Boyne. 

They plundered every church and abbey within the territories of Magh Liffe and Magh Breagh. 

They destroyed the town of Kildare with fire and sword, and carried off the shrines of St Brigid and St Conleth.

It is said that in fact in the previous year, 835, the remains of St. Brigid were removed for safe keeping to Down. 

However Down suffered too from the "Danes". 

Accordingly her body was removed from Down and buried in a place known only to a few priests so that eventually all knowledge of her burial place was lost.

In 1185 St. Malachy was bishop of Down, and wanting to discover the burial place of St. Brigid who was supposed to have been buried with St Patrick and St Columba, prayed hard to the Lord to reveal the burial place.

A beam of light settled over a spot on the floor of the church and sure enough when St. Malachy dug at this spot he found the graves of Saints Patrick, Brigid and Columcille. 

Malachy petitioned Pope Urban 111 for permission to move the bodies to Down Cathedral. 

The move took place on 9 Jun 1186, the Feast of St. Columcille.

At the dissolution in the reign of Henry VIII, the sacred shrine was despoiled and the relics of the Saints were scattered. Luckily some were saved from destruction.

The head of St. Brigid now rests in Portugal, in a chapel devoted to her in the Church of St. John the Baptist in Lumiar, near Lisbon, where her feast is celebrated yearly.

The farmers in the locality are said to regard St Brigid as their special patroness.

Let's take a look at the similarities between the pagan Celtic Goddess Brid and the Christian Saint Brigid:

• St Brigid's Day
  
  Celebrated on 1st February, the pagan feast of Imbolg, the festival of Spring, the coming of fertility to the land. Even today it is still the occasion of popular and patently un-Christian rituals such as the Bridoge and the Biddy doll.
  
  
• St Brigid's Fire
  
  Described by Giraldus Cambrensis in the 12th century, as having been tended by twenty "servants of the Lord", at the time of St Brigid; Brigid herself being the twentieth. When Brigid died the number stayed at nineteen. Each of the nineteen nuns took their turns at night and on the twentieth night the nineteenth nun puts the logs on the fire and St Brigid miraculously tends the fire, which never goes out. Although the fire had been burning for some 600 years, by the time of Giraldus, the ashes had never had to be cleaned out and had never increased. He goes on to describe the fire being surrounded by a hedge which no man may cross. One archer who was with Strongbow is said by Giraldus to have crossed the hedge, and he went mad. Another had put his leg over the hedge when he was restrained by his companions. However the leg he put across was maimed and he was crippled for the rest of his life. There is another legend associating Brigid with fire. When she was a child, her mother had gone out one day leaving the child asleep. The neighbours saw the house on fire but when they went to rescue the child there was no fire. The cult of fire is very ancient indeed, going back into pre-history. The fire continued to be tended for at least 1,000 years, with one interruption in the 1200s when Henry of London, Norman arch-bishop of Dublin, ordered it to be extinguished as he considered the tending of the fire to be a pagan practice. It was soon re-lit, by the locals, but was finally extinguished at the Reformation.
  
  
• The Oak Tree
  
  As with many other peoples, certain trees and groves of trees were sacred to the Celts and treated with veneration. The Druids appear to have been specially concerned with the oak tree, and they are described by a Roman writer as being dressed in white while climbing the oak with golden sickles to cut mistletoe. They then sacrificed a white bull and held a feast. We may assume that a special tree was associated with many of the cult sites. The place-names and literature of the Celtic world contain much evidence about the use of single sacred trees and sacred groves as the focal points for ritual and tribal assembly. One such tree would appear to have been sacred on the hill of Kildare, and it was under this tree that Brigid built her cell. The stump of this tree is said to have still been there in the 10th century and it was held in great veneration as many miracles were wrought through it. No one dare cut it, but might break off a bit with the fingers.
  
  
• St Brigid's Crosses
  
  These might actually be symbols of sun worship representing the sun in the centre with rays of light coming from it in the shape of the arms of the cross. A story of St Brigid miraculously hanging her wet clothes on a sunbeam to dry may also be associated with an older tradition of sun worship.
  
  
• St Brigid's Wells
  
  We have numerous wells associated with the Saint, not alone in Ireland but in Britain also. Wells were also often the sites of veneration in the Druidic religion. Sometimes the wells had an associated sacred tree, and this is still to be seen in the association of particular trees with holy wells around the country. Votive offerings (still seen nowadays as the custom of hanging rags on trees at holy wells) have been recovered from some of these sacred Celtic wells which seemed to have a healing function, as they still have. St Brigid is associated with healing, her girdle being capable of curing all disease and illness. Many of the miracles attributed to her are to do with healing - the blind man seeing, the dumb girl speaking etc.
  
  
• Widespread Veneration
  
  Finally it is worth noting that while St Brigid was not a missionary saint, nor widely travelled, yet in Ireland she is second only to St Patrick in popular favour, and dedications to her are found throughout Britain as well as Ireland. As far away as the Hebrides, she was popular in Catholic areas until recent times and was invoked as patron of childbirth by the women, and revered as the midwife of the Virgin Mary. It would appear that the cult of Brid was established in Celtic Britain before the coming of Christianity and to have made the transition from pagan goddess to Christian saint in the areas associated with her.

So, was the Christian Saint Brigid a real historical person, or the mythical Celtic pagan goddess in another form?

The truth is that we don't know.

Somebody established a Christian foundation on the hill of Kildare.

That foundation prospered and became the great and unique Celtic Christian monastery of monks and nuns.

There is, on the other hand, no doubt that the legends of the Christian saint contain elements of a far older tradition.

Does it really matter?

Perhaps what does matter is that the site of Kildare Cathedral has been the site of unbroken worship for over 1,500 years in the Christian faith and may very well have been a sacred site for many hundreds of years more.

It is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, sites of continuous worship in Ireland.

Prayer For The Purification Of Mary

Almighty and beneficent God! who didst impose upon our mother Eve, in punishment for her sin, that she should give birth to her children in pain:

I offer to Thee all the pains which I have thus suffered in atonement for my sins, and thank Thee, that I have safely brought a child into the world, whom I now offer to Thee, according to the example of the Mother of Thine only-begotten Son, for Thy holy service, whom I shall zealously endeavor to educate for Thy honor.

Give me but this grace through the intercession and merits of this most blessed Mother.

Bless me and my child, and grant, that we may here live in accordance with Thy divine will, and receive eternal salvation.

Through Christ, our Lord.

Amen.