|
September
27,
2006 — Vol.
5, No. 9
| |
IRL's
Boston,
MA Regional Meeting
will be held Nov. 11 in Jamaica
Plain. It has as its theme: "Prayer:
Pathway to Holiness." Read
more.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
|  New IRL Vocations Novena Booklet
A
new novena, by Msgr. Charles
Mangan, is available
in
a
31-page booklet from the IRL.
Read
more below. | | |
Read this on the IRL website. Click here.
CONTENTS:
- Pope
Provides “Key” to
Awaken Vocations
to the Priesthood
and Consecrated
Life
- Dominican Named Acting
Director of
JPII Cultural
Center
- Divine Word Priest
Who Ministered
to McVeigh Speaks
of God’s
Transforming
Grace
- Groundbreaking Ceremony for
New Community
of Priests
and Laity to
End Abortion
- Benedict XVI Thanks
God for Community
of St. John
Founder Who
Dies at 93
- U.S. Seminaries
Get New Program
of Priestly
Formation
- Chicago Nun Begins
Her 51st
Year in the
Classroom
- Priests Reconcile
with Vatican,
Establish
New Religious
Community
- Boston Regional
IRL Meeting To Feature
Three Top Speakers on
Nov. 11
- New IRL Vocations
Novena Booklet
Aims to Encourage
Prayers for Vocations
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To Top
Pope
Provides “Key” to
Awaken Vocations
to the Priesthood
and Consecrated Life
Benedict XVI stressed that if
Catholics pray with profound
faith the Church will receive
the vocations to the priesthood
and consecrated life that it
needs. The Pope expressed this
conviction when celebrating Vespers
this evening with religious and
seminarians of Bavaria and members
of the Society for Spiritual
Vocations in the Basilica of
St. Anne in the Marian shrine
of Altoetting.
“God's harvest is indeed great,
and it needs laborers,” said the
Holy Father. “In the so-called
Third World -- in Latin America,
in Africa and in Asia -- people
are waiting for heralds to bring
them the Gospel of peace, the good
news of God who became man.
“But also in the so-called West,
here among us in Germany, and in
the vast lands of Russia it is
true that a great harvest could
be reaped. But there is a lack
of people willing to become laborers
for God's harvest.”
Benedict XVI noted: “The Lord
seeks laborers for his harvest.
He himself said as much: ‘The
harvest is plentiful, but the
laborers are few; therefore ask
the Lord of the harvest to send
out laborers into his harvest.'
That is why we are gathered here:
to make this urgent request to
the Lord of the harvest.”
The meeting with the Pontiff
thus became a prayer for vocations.
“We knock.”
“Today it is as then,” he said, “when
the Lord was moved with pity for
the crowds which seemed like sheep
without a shepherd -- people who
probably knew how to do many things,
but found it hard to make sense
of their lives.
“Lord, look upon our troubled times,
which need preachers of the Gospel,
witnesses to you, persons who can
point the way toward ‘life in abundance'!
Look upon our world and feel pity
once more! Look upon our world
and send us laborers!
“With this petition we knock on
God's door; but with the same petition
the Lord is also knocking on the
doors of our own heart. Lord do
you want me? Is it not perhaps
too big for me? Am I too small
for this? ‘Do not be afraid,' the
angel said to Mary. ‘Do not fear:
I have called you by name,' God
says through the Prophet Isaiah
to us -- to each of us.”
This morning, the Pope celebrated
Mass in the square of the shrine,
which every year receives more
than 1 million pilgrims. Some
60,000 people attended today's
Mass.
In his homily, dedicated to Mary,
Benedict XVI explained that Christ
and his Mother are united in
their acceptance of the will
of God which the Blessed Virgin
makes evident during the annunciation.
At the end of the Mass, the
Holy Father inaugurated the
shrine's new Adoration Chapel,
which he called the “treasury,” as “the
Church's true treasure” is “the
permanent presence of the Lord
in the Blessed Sacrament.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Dominican Named
Acting Director of
JPII Cultural Center
Dominican Father
Steven Boguslawski,
rector of Sacred Heart Major
Seminary in Detroit for the past
three years, has taken up a new
post in Washington as acting
director of the Pope John Paul
II Cultural Center. He had already
been appointed regent of studies
for the Dominican House of Studies
in Washington before beginning
his Aug. 1 position with the
cultural center. The priest,
who plans to work both jobs concurrently,
said his work at the cultural
center will be similar to his
duties at Sacred Heart because
of the educational component,
just on a larger scope. Father
Boguslawski is currently working
on a five-year strategic plan
for the center, planning to marshal
its resources and form strategic
relationships to allow it to
fulfill its mission. “I have
great hope for the future,” he
told The Michigan Catholic ,
Detroit's archdiocesan newspaper.
The Pope John Paul II Cultural
Center, which opened in 2001
near The Catholic University
of America, has been experiencing
financial difficulties. Because
of low attendance, center officials
discontinued its museum activities
and shifted the focus to its
Intercultural Forum -- a think
tank on the philosophy of Pope
John Paul II.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Divine Word Priest
Who Ministered to
McVeigh Speaks of
God's Transforming
Grace
When he ministered
to Oklahoma City
bomber Timothy McVeigh,
Divine Word Father Charles Smith
found that his faith, instilled
in him by loving parents despite
the childhood pain of discrimination,
enabled him to be Christ's representative
even as the inmate verbally assaulted
him. “When I first came in (to
see him) I thought ‘God is the
owner of my life,' and I went
to him and he threw his feces
on me and called me all types
of names and said, ‘You can't
be a priest because I've never
seen a you-know-what as a priest,'” Father
Smith said Aug. 5. “The devil
was messin' with me.” He made
the comments in a workshop he
led during the 2006 Interregional
African-American Catholic Evangelization
Conference, which was held Aug.
4-6 in Atlanta. Other priests
and Southern Baptist ministers
had previously worked -- unsuccessfully
-- with the man found guilty
of bombing the Oklahoma City
federal building in 1995 and
murdering the 168 people who
died from the blast. But Father
Smith persevered in his ministry
to McVeigh and the convicted
murderer, who was a baptized
Catholic, began to repent. “He
did a lot of things, but in the
end we had confession, reconciliation.
In the end he asked me a question
a lot of people ask me. He asked, ‘Father
Charles, can I still get to heaven?'”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Groundbreaking Ceremony
for New Community
of Priests and Laity
to End Abortion
Priests for
Life held
a groundbreaking
ceremony on August
24th in Amarillo,
Texas, for its
new international
headquarters and
the formation house
for its seminarians
of the new Society,
the Missionaries
of the Gospel of
Life. Cardinal
Renato Martino,
the President of
the Vatican's Pontifical
Council for Justice
and Peace is to
preside over the
ceremonies, which
will include a
Mass in which Fr.
Frank Pavone will
officially become
the first member
of the Missionaries
of the Gospel of
Life, and also
received the promises
of the first group
of Lay Associates.
The Most Rev. John
Yanta, Bishop of
Amarillo, has welcomed Priests
for Life into
Amarillo, and officially
established its new
community in December.
The second group
of seminarians for
the Society arrived
on August 17. “This
is an historic day,” the
Bishop commented, “and
only God knows how
significant it will
prove to be for the
pro-life movement
in this country and
around the world.
Our diocese is proud
to partner with Priests
for Life in
this work of the
Holy Spirit.”
Last
December, Cardinal
Martino commented
that this “community
founded for the purpose
of working to protect
human life may seem
like a sign of contradiction—but
it may just be what
the world of today
needs! The call to
protect life is not
only a foundation
of our faith as Catholics,
but it is the very
basis of our recognition
of human rights and
the right to life.”
Priests for Life
is the nation's largest
Catholic pro-life
organization dedicated
to ending abortion
and euthanasia. For
more information,
visit www.priestsforlife.org .
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Benedict XVI Thanks
God for Community
of St. John Founder
Who Dies at 93
Benedict XVI sent a message to
the Family of St. John in which
he thanked God for the life of
their founder, Father Marie-Dominique
Philippe, who died on August
26, 2006. He was 93.
In a telegram sent in his name
by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican
secretary of state, the Pope “gives
thanks for the life of Father
Marie-Dominique, totally given
to the Lord and his brothers,
rooted in meditation of the Word
of God, in search of passionate
contemplation of truth.” Benedict
XVI hopes that “his testimony
will infuse in all those he has
guided the necessary drive so
that the Gospel of Christ will
always be proclaimed, accepted
and lived,” and he ends by offering
his apostolic blessing to the
Family of St. John.”
The Community of St. John is
comprised of 930 men, half of
whom are priests or deacons,
and active and contemplative
women religious, as well as more
than 3,000 lay oblates of more
than 34 nationalities. It is
present in 21 countries. The
Brothers of St. John are recognized
as a religious congregation,
under the bishop of the Autun
Diocese, in France, where their
motherhouse is located.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
U.S. Seminaries
Get New Program of
Priestly Formation
A new Program of Priestly Formation
has been issued for use in all
U.S. Catholic seminaries. It
places more emphasis on the human
formation of seminarians, and
especially on formation for celibacy,
than did the fourth edition of
the program, which had been in
effect since 1992. The 98-page
revised version of the program,
the fifth edition, has been posted
on the Web site of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org .
The Program of Priestly Formation
has governed seminary formation
in the United States since the
bishops issued the first edition
in 1971. The new version, reflecting
the bishops' recent response
to the scandal of clergy sexual
abuse of minors, says explicitly
for the first time that no seminary
applicant is to be accepted if
he has been involved in sexual
abuse of minors. It also incorporates
stricter norms, adopted by the
bishops in 1999, on evaluating
an application for seminary admission
from someone who previously left
or was dismissed from a seminary
or a formation program for religious
life.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Chicago Nun Begins
Her 51st Year in
the Classroom
Sister Rosemary Gira,
a first-grade teacher
at St. Mary of the
Angels in Chicago
and a Sister of the
Resurrection, is beginning her
51st year of doing what she loves
best -- teaching. For the past
20 years she has been teaching
at St. Mary's, where her order
started teaching more than 100
years ago. She now is the only
one in her congregation who still
teaches in an elementary school. “I
always wanted to be a teacher,” said
Sister Rosemary, who would not
reveal her age. “I especially
love teaching first-graders.
They are so enthusiastic, want
to learn and love doing homework.” She
also enjoys teaching religion,
noting that she loves “teaching
the little children about Jesus
and how he loves them.” Sister
Rosemary has seen many changes
in the classroom over the years.
These days, students have a variety
of teachers for different subjects,
but as she points out, that wasn't
always the case. “Back then we
didn't send our students to other
classrooms,” she said. “We did
it all in our own room.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Priests Reconcile
with Vatican, Establish
New Religious Community
A group of traditionalist
priests and seminarians
has reconciled with
the Vatican and established
a new religious community in
southwestern France. Five priests
and a number of seminarians,
the majority of whom were members
of the schismatic Society of
St. Pius X, founded the Good
Shepherd Institute, a society
of apostolic life that will use
the traditional Mass in Latin
according to the Tridentine rite.
On Sept. 8 the Vatican approved
the society, located within the
Archdiocese of Bordeaux, France.
Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard of
Bordeaux said that the decision
was made by Pope Benedict XVI
who "has wanted to make
a sign of welcome" to those
who once belonged to the schismatic
society. In a Sept. 8 statement
on the archdiocese's Web site,
the cardinal said that ever since "the
beginning of his pontificate,
Pope Benedict XVI has been concerned
about the return to full communion
of those who followed Archbishop
(Marcel) Lefebvre," who
was excommunicated in 1988 after
ordaining four bishops against
papal orders.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top
Boston
Regional IRL Meeting
To Feature Three
Top Speakers
on Nov.
11
The
president of Holy
Cross Family Ministries,
Rev. John
Phalen, C.S.C., will
speak at the IRL's
Boston, MA Regional
Meeting Nov. 11 in
Jamaica Plain, MA.
Holy
Cross Family Ministries
was founded by Fr.
Patrick Peyton, "The
Rosary Priest. Also
speaking will be
Rev. Philip Merdinger,
B.H., founder of
the Brotherhood of
Hope, in Somerville,
MA, and Sr. Mary
Cora Uryase, R.S.M.,
of the Religious
Sisters of Mercy
in Alma, MI.
The
theme of the meeting
will be "Prayer:
Pathway to Holiness."
Religious, priests,
consecrated persons,
seminarians, students
and laity are invited. Learn
more about the
meeting. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++To
Top New
IRL Vocations
Novena Booklet Aims
to Encourage
Prayers
for Vocations
Jesus gave only
one commandment regarding
vocations: pray.
A new novena available
in a 31-page booklet
is now available
from the IRL. It
is meant to encourage
all members of the
Church to pray for
consecrated persons,
for the strengthening
of consecrated life
and the increase
of vocations to the
consecrated life.
Inspired by Pope John Paul II's
establishment of the World Day
of Consecrated Life, this 31-page
booklet contains selections from
the annual messages/homilies
of the Holy Father, along with
short meditations for each day,
commemorating this annual event.
The booklet
is $1, and can be purchased
on the online
catalog . To get
the bulk rate for many
booklets , please contact
the IRL toll-free:
877-267-1195, or 773-267-1195.
Bulk rates: 1-9 copies,
$1 ea.; 10-25, 0.80
ea.; 26-39, 0.75 ea.;
pack of 40, $24; pack of 80, $40;
pack of 120, $54; pack of 240,
$96; + S&H. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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