John Paul II as a Pioneer of Woman's Human Rights

Interview With German Theologian Jutta Burggraf

PAMPLONA, Spain, APRIL 6, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Jutta Burggraf, professor of theology at the University of Navarre and specialist on woman and the Church, analyzes in this ZENIT interview the "feminine genius" that John Paul II so admired.

Source.

Bush, Former Presidents View Pope's Body

In this photo made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, from left, wife of US President George W. Bush Laura, President W. Bush, his father former President George H.W. Bush, former President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, pay their respects to late Pope John Paul II as he lies in state inside St. Peter's Baslica, at the Vatican, Wednesday, April 6, 2005. They knelt just a few feet (meters) from the pope's remains, dressed in a crimson robe with a white bishop's miter and will attend his funeral on Friday. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano,ho)

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Which qualities cardinals will look for in the next pope

Let's not forget the adage: "Those who know, don't talk; and those who talk, don't know".

We will be hearing more, no doubt, from various pundits of their 'predictions' about who the next pope might be. (BTW, I understand that somewhere in Ireland, the betting and book making has already started.) The problem is that we will now hear, for another 10 or 11 days, more of these papal conjectures and more opinions on how the Church must change to be 'relevant' in the future...

I look up and see buzzards flying overhead, anticipating the death of the Divine Law and of moral truths because the Pope has died...when I turn on the lights I see rats and roaches scurrying about, leaving their poisonous droppings all over the place. Perhaps, it's time to set some traps?

"John Paul II was such a towering figure that in a way he blotted out everything else," says John Allen, author of "Conclave," a guide to the next papal election. "In many parts of the world people knew all about the pope but they did not know the name of their local bishop."

I don't get the point of this...? Is he talking about Catholics or people in general. Whatever the case, let's take it a step further: can we assume that more people know of Christ than know of the local bishop? If so, is this not a good step, that one has knowledge of Christ-the Savior of mankind, or of his Vicar on earth?

After a period of top heavy, Rome-centric governance, many lay Catholics are hoping for some autonomy and a louder voice in Church debates.

Automony? As if they have no free will? No, what many Catholics want is not freedom or automony but LICENSE...And, of course, this means a relaxation of the teachings of the Church - people don't want to feel guilty for sexual sins...Actually, people don't want to feel guilty about ANY sins! We would be so much better off if the Church would just eliminate SIN...

I shudder to think of where the Church would be had we been deprived of of the leadership of the Holy Father and the Roman Curia. If anything, it seems, at least to me, that we need stronger centralization and leadership - the Church should have one head, Jesus, who is represented by His Vicar, the Pope. Some, it seems, would prefer that the Church evolve, or rather, mutate into some sort of hydra - a multiheaded beast. We have witnessed this to some extent here in the U.S. with some episcopal leaders acting as if they were popes, answerable to no one.

Article is here.

Please forgive my rant...

Jimmy Carter Wants to Lead Delegation to Oversee Election of the Next Pope

President Carter who calls himself “a goodwill ambassador” and often is monitoring elections in foreign countries. Carter said he would be glad to lead the monitoring of the Cardinals in the election for the new Pope. He said, "I just hope these Cardinals are as responsible as the leaders of Cuba and North Korea in electing their leaders."

For entertainment only....

Source.

Tin Foil Hat Alert - NPR on Opus Dei

Members of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei occupy leadership positions throughout the church. The late Pope John Paul II made the founder a saint in 2004. But critics of the movement accuse Opus Dei of unscrupulous brainwashing. (my emphasis)

Source-NPR

Three Senators Headed to Rome....

I wanted to say the "Three Stooges" but I figured it would not be a nice thing to do - It should be noted that these three Senators, Massachusetts Democrats Edward M. Kennedy and John F. Kerry and Connecticut Democrat Christopher J. Dodd, are listed as elite members of American Life League's "Deadly Dozen" for embracing the evil of abortion.

Kennedy, in recalling a meeting with the Holy Father, said:

"He told us that in God's eyes, we were all created equally, we all had creative gifts, and all of our talents were enlightened by God."

The Pope, no doubt, meant ALL, even the unborn, but to Kennedy those are minor 'technical' details...

Kerry somehow managed to recall suppressed memories of the Papal visit:

"My daughters still remember standing out in the rain to see him when he visited Boston in 1979. [Of course, his daughters rememebr - he doesn't apparently] We'll never forget the example he set by forgiving the man who tried to take his life, and by praying at the Western Wall to ask Jews for their forgiveness."

Missing from this "recollection" is that the Holy Father was constantly speaking out in defense of LIFE, especially that of the UNBORN...minor details to Kerry, I suppose.

Trusting in God's almighty power and providence, may these men be moved to repentance and conversion for their relentless support of murdering the most vulnerable among us. Perhaps, they will experience a spiritual rebirth while attending the funeral of our Holy Father. Lord, may your will be done.

Source for story.

Bishop Lynch Issues Statement on Death of Terri Schindler [Schiavo]

Read it here. Grant me patience, Lord...

Cardinals Set Date For Conclave

Navarro-Valls said cardinals would celebrate a morning Mass on April 18, and then be sequestered in the Sistine Chapel in the early afternoon to start the conclave. According to church law, prelates are expected to hold one ballot on the first day of a conclave.

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Hundreds Mourn Schiavo at Mass in Florida

GULFPORT, Fla. (Reuters) - Terri Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman whose fate sparked a bitter and highly politicized family feud, was sent by God to deliver a message about life's meaning, a priest said at a funeral Mass organized by her parents on Tuesday.

"God sends us people like Terri to remind us of the meaning of life," Father Frank Pavone, director of an anti-abortion [pro-life] group called Priests for Life, said in a homily.

I heard there were about 700 people in attendance - the church was overflowing - it holds about 600 people.

Also something missing in these stories was that an emotional Bobby Schindler, Terri's brother, received and held up a Purple Heart which was sent to the family for Terri - I did not hear who sent them the medal.

The Reuter's story is here. The Post Dispatch has an article here.

American cardinals are mum on successor

Gee...ya think?

American Cardinals Francis George of Chicago, Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington and Justin F. Rigali of Philadelphia would not speculate about the ideology, age, nationality or charisma-quotient of their ideal papal candidate.

More from the Post

Not even a lock of her hair....

[Judge] Greer ruled that Michael Schiavo would control the burial decisions [of Terri Schindler-Schiavo] and Greer also denied a request by her parents for a lock of her hair and share of her ashes.

This is pure evil, but then, it should not be surprising, considering he had no problem dehydrating and starving her to death. Those responsible for this murder are callous, merciless creatures. My heart aches for the Schindler family, may God bless them in their pain and sorrow.

Source.

The Most Beautiful Photos of the Pope

From "L'Osservatore Romano"

Live Feed from Vatican TV

Gospel for Wednesday, 2nd Week of Easter

From: John 3:16-21

The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)

(Jesus said to Nicodemus,) [16] "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. [18] He who believes in Him is not condemned; He who does not believe is condemned already, because He had not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [19] And this is the judgment, that the light has come into world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. [20] For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. [21] But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."
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Commentary:

16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ's death is the supreme sign of God's love for men (cf. the section on charity in the "Introduction to the Gospel according to John": pp. 31ff above). "`For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son' for its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of God's kindness, mercy and love for us. `God is love' (1 John 4:16), that is, love poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth, which explains and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be seen in this light. `(He) loved me', St. Paul writes. Each of us can and must repeat it for himself--`He loved me, and gave Himself for me' (Galatians 2:20)" ([Pope] Paul VI, "Homily on Corpus Christi", 13 June1976).

Christ's self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love for us: "If it is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed us, that He loves us so much that He has given up His only-begotten Son for us (John 3:16), that He waits for us--every day!--as eagerly as the father of the prodigal son did (cf. Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt that He wants us to respond to Him with all our love? The strange thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget Him, and busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant promptings of His grace" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 251).

"Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer `fully reveals man to himself'. If we may use the __expression, this is the human dimension of the mystery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity and value that belong to his humanity. [...] The one who wishes to understand himself thoroughly [...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weakness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must `appropriate' and assimilate the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself. If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself.

How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he `gained so great a Redeemer', ("Roman Missal, Exultet" at Easter Vigil), and if God `gave His only Son' in order that man `should not perish but have eternal life'. [...]

`Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ's mystery, the Church knows with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin. And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery, leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection" ([Pope] John Paul II, "Redemptor Hominis", 10).

Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to sharing in His love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light, and sets us on the road to salvation. "He who does not believe is condemned already" (verse 18).

"The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life and death. For it is only by putting to death that which is old that we can come to newness of life. Now, although this refers primarily to people, it is also true of various worldly goods which bear the mark both of man's sin and the blessing of God. [...] No one is freed from sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above himself or completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all have need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and giver of life. Even in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has acted as a leaven in the interests of liberty and progress, and it always offers itself as a leaven with regard to brotherhood, unity and peace" (Vatican II, "Ad Gentes", 8).
*******************
Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.

Heresy-St. Ignatius of Antioch

I exhort you, then, to leave alone the foreign fodder of heresy and keep entirely to Christian food. . . .For heretics mingle poison with Jesus Christ, as men might administer a deadly drug in sweet wine . . . so that without thought or fear of the fatal sweetness a man drinks his own death.

Letter to the Trallians, 6. (2nd century)

Father Frank Pavone on Terri Schiavo

April 4, 2005

My dear friends of Priests for Life,

What a week we have just been through! United in faith and in the pro-life cause, we are grieving the murder of Terri Schiavo. Likewise, whether Roman Catholic or not, we are mourning the passing of one of the greatest voices for the right to life, Pope John Paul II.

This is one of those times when I'm especially grateful to all of you for your fellowship, and wanted to share a few reflections on what has happened in these days.

First of all, thank God we are at the height of the Easter Season! Last week was the "Octave of Easter," that is, a special eight-day period which is all considered by the Church as "Easter Day," the Day of the Resurrection! Death, in all its forms, has been conquered by Christ! We are called to rejoice in that victory and keep it uppermost in our minds as we battle the Culture of Death. Isn't it amazing that both Terri and Pope John Paul II died so close to each other, and within the Easter celebration! Is God speaking to us? He certainly is!

You may have seen on the news that I was at Terri Schiavo's bedside during the last 14 hours of her earthly life, right up until five minutes before her death. During that time with Terri, joined by her brother and sister, I expressed your care, concern, and prayers. I told Terri over and over that she had many friends around the country, many people who were praying for her and were on her side. I had also told her the same things during my visits to her in the months before her feeding tube was removed, and am convinced she understood.
. . .
As you may have also seen, those who killed Terri were quite angry that I said so. The night before she died, I said to the media that her estranged husband Michael, his attorney Mr. Felos, and Judge Greer were murderers. I also pointed out, that night and the next morning, that contrary to Felos' description, Terri's death was not at all peaceful and beautiful. It was, on the contrary, quite horrifying. She was dehydrating to death, and looked it. Her face had an expression of dread and sorrow. In my 16 years as a priest, I never saw anything like it before.

After I said these things, Mr. Felos and others in sympathy with him began attacking me in the press and before the cameras. Some news outlets began making a story out of their attacks and said I was "fanning the flames" of enmity and hatred.

Actually, there's a simple reason why they are so angry with me. They had hoped that they could present Terri's death as a merciful and gentle act. My words took the veil of euphemism away, calling this a killing, and giving eyewitness testimony to the fact that it was anything but gentle. Mr. Felos is a euthanasia advocate, and like all such advocates, he needs to manipulate the language, to sell death in an attractive package.

Here he and his friends had a great opportunity to do so. But a priest, seeing their work close-up and then telling the world about it, just didn't fit into their plans.

One of the attacks they made was that a "spiritual person" like a priest should be speaking words of compassion and understanding, instead of venom. But compassion demands truth. A priest is also a prophet, and if he cannot cry out against evil, then he cannot bring about reconciliation. If there is going to be any healing between these families or in this nation, it must start with repentance on the part of those who murdered Terri and now try to cover it up with flowery language.

Another aspect of the Terri Schiavo tragedy is that many people misunderstand its cause and therefore its solution. They think the problem was that Terri did not leave any written instructions about whether she wanted to be kept alive. In order to avoid any such problem in their own lives, they are now told that they have to draw up a "living will." This is both erroneous and dangerous.

Terri's case is not about the withdrawal of life-saving medical treatment, but rather about the killing of a healthy person whose life some regarded as worthless. Terri was not dying, was not on life support, and did not have any terminal illness. Because some thought she would not want to live with her disability, they insisted on introducing the cause of death, namely, dehydration.

So what good is a living will supposed to accomplish, aside from saying, "Please don't argue about killing me, just kill me?"
. . .
Living wills try to predict the future, and people can argue over the interpretation of a piece of paper just as much as they argue about what they claim someone said in private.

The better solution is to appoint a health care proxy, who is authorized to speak for you if you are in a condition in which you cannot speak for yourself. This should be a person who knows your beliefs and values, and with whom you discuss these matters in detail. In case you cannot speak for yourself, your proxy can ask all the necessary questions of your doctors and clergy, and make an assessment when all the details of your condition and medical needs are actually known. That's much safer than predicting the future. Appointing a health care proxy in a way that safeguards your right to life is easy. In fact, the National Right to Life Committee has designed a "Will to Live," which can be found at

www.nrlc.org/euthanasia/willtolive/index.html and which I recommend highly.
. . .
Meanwhile, as we commend both Terri and the Pope to the Lord, and are reminded of the equal value of every life, no matter how prominent or obscure, healthy or sick. I will be writing more about the issues that have arisen in Terri's case, and about the teachings of Pope John Paul II on these matters. You'll be able to keep up on developments by checking in with us at www.priestsforlife.org. Meanwhile, be assured of my prayers.

Sincerely, Fr. Frank Pavone National Director, Priests for Life

Young People Love the Pope Because of His Moral Stands

TORONTO, April 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Since the death of Pope John Paul II, media is awash with commentators talking about his influence. An especially consistent theme is the surprise that the Pope, who is portrayed as a severe moralist, should be so especially loved by young people. Media commentators show a consistent tone of perplexity that a man who was known for his uncompromising stands on moral issues would have such wide appeal for youth who are portrayed as dedicated hedonists.

Far too many media commentators, as well as others, do not seem open to the beauty of truth or the wisdom of God as demonstrated in morality and the natural law.

People and the youth, especially, love the Holy Father because he challenged them to follow Christ Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. John Paul II constantly reminded us of Christ's love for us and that we should strive for the sacred, for the holy.

More here.

Partial birth abortion bill clears Arkansas committee

LITTLE ROCK -- A bill to ban the procedure popularly known as partial birth abortion was recommended by the House Public Health, Labor and Welfare Committee on Thursday, but not without the promise of changes to allow the procedure in an emergency.

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A Physician's Poem on the Death of Terri Schiavo

Advice the Pope Gave Cardinals in View of Conclave

VATICAN CITY, APRIL 5, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II left advice for the cardinals who would meet to elect his successor: to understand the lesson left by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel, where the conclave will take place.
...
"Michelangelo's vision must then speak to them," reflected the Pope.

Here is the Pope's poetic passage.

Judgment

In the Sistine the artist painted the Judgment,
The Judgment dominates the whole interior.
Here, the invisible End becomes poignant visibility.
This End is also the summit of transparency
such is the path of all generations.

"Non omnis moriar" (Not all of me will die).
What is imperishable in me
now stands face to face with Him Who Is!
This is what fills the central wall of the Sistine profusion of color.

Do you remember, Adam? At the beginning he asked you where are you?
And you replied: I hid myself from You because I was naked.
Who told you that you were naked?
The woman whom you put here with me gave me the fruit ...

All those who populate the central wall of the Sistine painting
bear in themselves the heritage of that reply of yours!
Of that question and that response!
Such is the End of your path.

Epilogue

It is here, at the feet of this marvelous Sistine profusion of color
that the Cardinals gather
a community responsible for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They come right here.
And once more Michelangelo wraps them in his vision.
In Him we live and move and have our being.

Who is He?

Look, here the creating hand of the Almighty Ancient One,
turned towards Adam ...
In the beginning God created ...
He, the all-seeing One ...

The Sistine painting will then speak with the Word of the Lord:
"Tu est Petrus" (you are Peter) as Simon, the son of Jonah, heard.
To you I will give the keys of the Kingdom.
Those to whom the care of the legacy of the keys has been entrusted
gather here, allowing themselves to be enfolded by the Sistine colors,
by the vision left to us by Michelangelo
so it was in August, and then in October,
of the memorable year of the two Conclaves,
and so it will be again, when the need arises after my death.
Michelangelo's vision must then speak to them.
Conclave: a joint concern for the legacy of the keys of the Kingdom.
They will find themselves between the Beginning and the End,
between the Day of Creation and the Day of Judgment.
It is given to man once to die and after that the judgment!

A final transparency and light.
The clarity of the events
the clarity of consciences
It is necessary that during the Conclave, Michelangelo teach them
Do not forget: "Omnia nuda et aperta sunt ante oculos Eius."
You who are in all, show the way!
He will teach you ...

[Copyright, Vatican Publishing House]

Source.

An awesome passage for reflection!