Columns
from issue no.09 - 2005
|
|
|
30Days in brief
OPUS DEI
The fifty years of priesthood of Javier Echevarría
The president of the Italian Parliament, Pier Ferdinando Casini, Minister Gianni Alemanno, Life Senator Giulio Andreotti, the Mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, were among the figures who attended the mass for the fiftieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of the Opus Dei prelate, Bishop Javier Echevarría Rodríguez, in the basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. The solemn liturgy was celebrated by Echevarría himself in the crowded Roman basilica, in the presence of numerous cardinals and bishops, among them the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano. At the beginning of the mass the letter sent by Pope Benedict XVI was read in which the Pontiff congratulates Echeverría on the «most happy anniversary», declares his «esteem and affection» and sends him the apostolic blessing. In his letter Benedict XVI recalls the stages of Echevarría’s priesthood speaking of «multiple commitments and difficulties overcome through the grace of God». The Pontiff emphasized in particular «the committment to evangelization» and in the field of culture and science, the activity undertaken with the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross «recently founded». «You have at heart», the message further reads, «the defense of life, of the family, of marriage, the training and pastoral care of youth». At the ceremony the president of the Italian Episcopal Conference Cardinal Camillo Ruini also spoke. In his homily, Echevarría often referred to the words and example of the founder of Opus Dei, Saint Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, and to his own predecessor as prelate, Álvaro del Portillo. «The Lord», Echevarría was quoted by ANSA as saying, «conceded me the gift of preaching His word, of representing Him before men, of being used by Him as an instrument. He then entrusted to me the pastoral guidance of Opus Dei, a small part of the great Church. Help me», he added, «so that I may carry this task on following the work of my predecessors».
Diplomacy/1
New nuncios to Africa, the Arabic Peninsula and Turkey
On 4 August George Antonysamy, a 53 year-old Indian, was elected archbishop and apostolic nuncio to Guinea, Liberia and Gambia. Antonysamy was ordained priest in 1980 and in 1987 entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He worked in the nunciatures of Indonesia, Algeria, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Lithuania and, lastly, Jordan. On 20 September Antonysamy was also nominated nuncio to Sierra Leone.
On 24 August the 56 year-old Vietnamese archbishop Pierre Nguyên Van Tot was nominated nuncio to the Central African Republic. He had been nuncio in Togo and Benin since 2002.
On 24 August also 59 year-old U.S. Divine Word priest Michael A. Blume, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants since 2000, was nominated new nuncio to Benin and Togo, From 1983 to 1990 Blume was provincial of his religious order in Ghana, Benin and Togo.
On 27 August the Libyan Maronite archbishop, 71 year-old Mounged El-Hachem, was nominated apostolic nuncio to Kuwait, Bahrein, Yemen and Qatar and apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula. El-Hachem, a priest since 1959, worked in the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications from 1970 to 1978, then served in the first section of the Secretariat of State, where in 1993 he became head of office. From 1995 he was bishop of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar of the Maronites.
On 27 August also 63 year-old Calabrian archbishop Antonio Lucibello was nominated nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan. He was nuncio to Paraguay since 1999.
Diplomacy/2
New ambassadors from Venezuela, Paraguay, Ecuador and Mexico
On 26 August the Pope received in Castel Gandolfo the letters of credential of the new ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: he is 55 year-old Guillermo Rincón Urdaneta, magistrate and jurist, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice from 2000 to 2005.
On 27 August it was the turn of the new representative of Paraguay, 61 year-old Geronimo Narváez Torres, career diplomat and former consul general in Milan (1996-2000) and San Paolo in Brazil (2000-2005). On 29 August the new ambassador from Ecuador presented himself, 75 year-old Francisco Salazar Alvarado, who had already held this position from 1984 to 1988.
On 23 September, still in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope received the letters of credential of the new ambassador from Mexico. He is 53 year-old Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, formerly lecturer in Political Philosophy and Senator of the Republic, president of the National Executive Committee of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) since 1999.
30DAYS IN THE WORLD
Pope/1
Four Chinese bishops invited to the Synod
Benedict XVI has nominated four Chinese bishops as members of the XI ordinary assembly of the Synod of bishops. They are Anthony Li Duan, Bishop of Xian; Aloysius Jin Luxian, Bishop of Shanghai; Luke Li Jingfeng, Bishop of Fengxiang; and Joseph Wei Jingyi, Bishop of Qiqihar. The names of the four ecclesiastics were published in L’Osservatore Romano on 8 September last, without making explicit reference to their episcopal title. Among them, Wei Jingyi is not recognized as bishop by the government of Peking. On the date of the beginning of the Synod (2 October) none of the four bishops invited had yet received the visa to leave China and come to Rome.
Pope/2
Diplomatic
contretemps
On 15 September the Turkish president Ahmed Necdet Sezer made public the official invitation sent by the Ankara government to Benedict XVI to visit Turkey in 2006, hoping that on the visit the Pope «may become aware in person of the climate of cultural tolerance» prevailing in that large Muslim country, awaiting acceptance into the European Union.
Benedict XVI was invited by the Ecumenic Patriarch Bartholomew I to Istanbul for 30 November next, for the the patronal feastday of Saint Andrew apostle. The unexpected government invitation made it in fact impossible to accept the invitation of Bartholomew I for this year.
Pope/3
The meeting
with Hans Küng
«Benedict XVI speaks for two hours at supper with the theologian critic and old university colleague Hans Küng: it happened Saturday at Castel Gandolfo, but the news was only announced yesterday. “The Pope was happy with the meeting”, they assure in the Vatican. “It was a mutual joy to see each other after so many years”, Küng declared». Thus Corriere della Sera of Tuesday 27 September gave the news of the meeting between the Pope and the German theologian.
Israel/1
The Synagogue
and the State
The intellectual Amos Oz in Corriere della Sera of 20 August, commented as follows on the withdrawal of the colonists from the Gaza Strip: «It is a battle between Church and State (to be precise between Synagogue and State). Many countries have had to face the question: what should the role and weight of religion and clergy be in the leading of a country? Some states found the solution centuries ago. Others are still looking for it… In Gaza we have been watching what in some tomorrow, a posteriori, may appear to us as the first battle between the Synagogue and the State in the history of Israel. The first chance to seek clarification of the meaning of Judaism in a single Jewish State. Are we first and foremost a religion or a nation? In this first phase it seems that the secular, rational, pragmatic component of Israel is painfully prevailing over that impregnated with fanaticism. Let us not forget, however, that it is only a first phase».
Israel/2
The metamorphosis of Sharon and
of the country
On 27 September Sandro Viola commented on the dramatic internal consultations of the Likud with an interesting article. It began as follows, «If the central committee of the Likud, full as it is of extremists, aligned itself with Sharon rather than with Benjamin Netanyahu it means that Israel has changed. The metamorphosis is not only that of Sharon, therefore: it is the transformation of the entire country, now decided to turn its back on the extremist and fanatic minority, on religious Zionism and the nationalist rights, to bring to an end as soon as possible the occupation of the territories. And to seek – if the fanatics of the other front, the armed bands of fundamentalists, allow it – the way of compromise with the Palestine people».
Iraq
Al-Zarqawi
does not exist
«I don’t believe that Al-Zarqawi exists as such. It is an invention of the occupiers to divide the people: he was killed in the north of Iraq at the beginning of the war, when he was with the Ansar al-Islam group in Kurdistan. His family, in Jordan, held a funeral ceremony in his memory. It is window dressing for the Americans, an excuse to continue to occupy us». Thus sheikh Jawad al-Khalessi, Shiite Imam of the al-Kazemiya mosque in Baghdad, in an interview granted to Le Monde on 17 September, while he was in Lyons at a conference organized by the community of Sant’Egidio. The interview was also published in La Stampa on 17 September 2005.
Nominations
New bishop in Cuneo and Fossano,
and also in Pozzuoli
On 24 August Monsignor Giuseppe Cavallotto, rector since last year of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, was nominated bishop of Cuneo and Fossano which continue to be united in persona episcopi. Sixty-five year old Cavallotto originally from the diocese and province of Asti has been a priest since 1964, and in the past held executive positions in Catholic Action and was a member of the Italian Episcopal Conference for the drafting of the Catechism for pre-adolescents (1973-1982).
On 2 September the coadjutor bishop 57 year-old Gennaro Pascarella succeeded Monsignor Silvio Padoin at the head of the diocese of Pozzuoli. Pascarella, nominated bishop of Ariano Irpino in 1988, was coadjutor of the Pozzuoli diocese from January 2004.
Diplomacy/1
New nuncios
to Africa,
the Arabic Peninsula and Turkey
On 4 August George Antonysamy, a 53 year-old Indian, was elected archbishop and apostolic nuncio to Guinea, Liberia and Gambia. Antonysamy was ordained priest in 1980 and in 1987 entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He worked in the nunciatures of Indonesia, Algeria, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Lithuania and, lastly, Jordan. On 20 September Antonysamy was also nominated nuncio to Sierra Leone.
On 24 August the 56 year-old Vietnamese archbishop Pierre Nguyên Van Tot was nominated nuncio to the Central African Republic. He had been nuncio in Togo and Benin since 2002.
On 24 August also 59 year-old U.S. Divine Word priest Michael A. Blume, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants since 2000, was nominated new nuncio to Benin and Togo, From 1983 to 1990 Blume was provincial of his religious order in Ghana, Benin and Togo.
On 27 August the Libyan Maronite archbishop, 71 year-old Mounged El-Hachem, was nominated apostolic nuncio to Kuwait, Bahrein, Yemen and Qatar and apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula. El-Hachem, a priest since 1959, worked in the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications from 1970 to 1978, then served in the first section of the Secretariat of State, where in 1993 he became head of office. From 1995 he was bishop of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar of the Maronites.
On 27 August also 63 year-old Calabrian archbishop Antonio Lucibello was nominated nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan. He was nuncio to Paraguay since 1999.
Diplomacy/2
New ambassadors from Venezuela,
Paraguay, Ecuador and Mexico
On 26 August the Pope received in Castel Gandolfo the letters of credential of the new ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: he is 55 year-old Guillermo Rincón Urdaneta, magistrate and jurist, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice from 2000 to 2005.
On 27 August it was the turn of the new representative of Paraguay, 61 year-old Geronimo Narváez Torres, career diplomat and former consul general in Milan (1996-2000) and San Paolo in Brazil (2000-2005).
On 29 August the new ambassador from Ecuador presented himself, 75 year-old Francisco Salazar Alvarado, who had already held this position from 1984 to 1988.
On 23 September, still in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope received the letters of credential of the new ambassador from Mexico. He is 53 year-old Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, formerly lecturer in Political Philosophy and Senator of the Republic, president of the National Executive Committee of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) since 1999.
Book
Radici umane e valori cristiani della famiglia
(Human roots and Christian values of the family) by Monsignor Di Felice
«What are known as unmarried couples is a worrying phenomenon. It has to do with people who join together but do not intend to contract permanent legal obligations: therefore stability, commitment to society and a public dimension are lacking. Despite this some countries have offered to grant a kind of legal recognition with consequent legal effects. Furthermore, some parliaments have legalized union between persons of the same sex, recognizing also (something even worse!) their rights to the legal adoption of children. Thus the principle of “the superior good of the child”, which is sanctioned by the convention of the United Nations on the Rights of the Child» is trampled on. So said the Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano in his introduction to the book Radici umane e valori cristiani della famiglia by Monsignor Francesco Di Felice, «one-time meritorious undersecretary» again the words are those of Cardinal Sodano «of the Pontifical Council for the Family». The book was recently published by the Vatican Bookshop Publications.
Four Chinese bishops invited to the Synod
Benedict XVI has nominated four Chinese bishops as members of the XI ordinary assembly of the Synod of bishops. They are Anthony Li Duan, Bishop of Xian; Aloysius Jin Luxian, Bishop of Shanghai; Luke Li Jingfeng, Bishop of Fengxiang; and Joseph Wei Jingyi, Bishop of Qiqihar. The names of the four ecclesiastics were published in L’Osservatore Romano on 8 September last, without making explicit reference to their episcopal title. Among them, Wei Jingyi is not recognized as bishop by the government of Peking. On the date of the beginning of the Synod (2 October) none of the four bishops invited had yet received the visa to leave China and come to Rome.
Pope/2
Diplomatic
contretemps
On 15 September the Turkish president Ahmed Necdet Sezer made public the official invitation sent by the Ankara government to Benedict XVI to visit Turkey in 2006, hoping that on the visit the Pope «may become aware in person of the climate of cultural tolerance» prevailing in that large Muslim country, awaiting acceptance into the European Union.
Benedict XVI was invited by the Ecumenic Patriarch Bartholomew I to Istanbul for 30 November next, for the the patronal feastday of Saint Andrew apostle. The unexpected government invitation made it in fact impossible to accept the invitation of Bartholomew I for this year.
Pope/3
The meeting
with Hans Küng
«Benedict XVI speaks for two hours at supper with the theologian critic and old university colleague Hans Küng: it happened Saturday at Castel Gandolfo, but the news was only announced yesterday. “The Pope was happy with the meeting”, they assure in the Vatican. “It was a mutual joy to see each other after so many years”, Küng declared». Thus Corriere della Sera of Tuesday 27 September gave the news of the meeting between the Pope and the German theologian.
Israel/1
The Synagogue
and the State
The intellectual Amos Oz in Corriere della Sera of 20 August, commented as follows on the withdrawal of the colonists from the Gaza Strip: «It is a battle between Church and State (to be precise between Synagogue and State). Many countries have had to face the question: what should the role and weight of religion and clergy be in the leading of a country? Some states found the solution centuries ago. Others are still looking for it… In Gaza we have been watching what in some tomorrow, a posteriori, may appear to us as the first battle between the Synagogue and the State in the history of Israel. The first chance to seek clarification of the meaning of Judaism in a single Jewish State. Are we first and foremost a religion or a nation? In this first phase it seems that the secular, rational, pragmatic component of Israel is painfully prevailing over that impregnated with fanaticism. Let us not forget, however, that it is only a first phase».
Israel/2
The metamorphosis of Sharon and
of the country
On 27 September Sandro Viola commented on the dramatic internal consultations of the Likud with an interesting article. It began as follows, «If the central committee of the Likud, full as it is of extremists, aligned itself with Sharon rather than with Benjamin Netanyahu it means that Israel has changed. The metamorphosis is not only that of Sharon, therefore: it is the transformation of the entire country, now decided to turn its back on the extremist and fanatic minority, on religious Zionism and the nationalist rights, to bring to an end as soon as possible the occupation of the territories. And to seek – if the fanatics of the other front, the armed bands of fundamentalists, allow it – the way of compromise with the Palestine people».
Iraq
Al-Zarqawi
does not exist
«I don’t believe that Al-Zarqawi exists as such. It is an invention of the occupiers to divide the people: he was killed in the north of Iraq at the beginning of the war, when he was with the Ansar al-Islam group in Kurdistan. His family, in Jordan, held a funeral ceremony in his memory. It is window dressing for the Americans, an excuse to continue to occupy us». Thus sheikh Jawad al-Khalessi, Shiite Imam of the al-Kazemiya mosque in Baghdad, in an interview granted to Le Monde on 17 September, while he was in Lyons at a conference organized by the community of Sant’Egidio. The interview was also published in La Stampa on 17 September 2005.
Nominations
New bishop in Cuneo and Fossano,
and also in Pozzuoli
On 24 August Monsignor Giuseppe Cavallotto, rector since last year of the Pontifical Urbaniana University, was nominated bishop of Cuneo and Fossano which continue to be united in persona episcopi. Sixty-five year old Cavallotto originally from the diocese and province of Asti has been a priest since 1964, and in the past held executive positions in Catholic Action and was a member of the Italian Episcopal Conference for the drafting of the Catechism for pre-adolescents (1973-1982).
On 2 September the coadjutor bishop 57 year-old Gennaro Pascarella succeeded Monsignor Silvio Padoin at the head of the diocese of Pozzuoli. Pascarella, nominated bishop of Ariano Irpino in 1988, was coadjutor of the Pozzuoli diocese from January 2004.
Diplomacy/1
New nuncios
to Africa,
the Arabic Peninsula and Turkey
On 4 August George Antonysamy, a 53 year-old Indian, was elected archbishop and apostolic nuncio to Guinea, Liberia and Gambia. Antonysamy was ordained priest in 1980 and in 1987 entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See. He worked in the nunciatures of Indonesia, Algeria, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Lithuania and, lastly, Jordan. On 20 September Antonysamy was also nominated nuncio to Sierra Leone.
On 24 August the 56 year-old Vietnamese archbishop Pierre Nguyên Van Tot was nominated nuncio to the Central African Republic. He had been nuncio in Togo and Benin since 2002.
On 24 August also 59 year-old U.S. Divine Word priest Michael A. Blume, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants since 2000, was nominated new nuncio to Benin and Togo, From 1983 to 1990 Blume was provincial of his religious order in Ghana, Benin and Togo.
On 27 August the Libyan Maronite archbishop, 71 year-old Mounged El-Hachem, was nominated apostolic nuncio to Kuwait, Bahrein, Yemen and Qatar and apostolic delegate to the Arabian Peninsula. El-Hachem, a priest since 1959, worked in the Pontifical Commission for Social Communications from 1970 to 1978, then served in the first section of the Secretariat of State, where in 1993 he became head of office. From 1995 he was bishop of Baalbek-Deir El-Ahmar of the Maronites.
On 27 August also 63 year-old Calabrian archbishop Antonio Lucibello was nominated nuncio to Turkey and Turkmenistan. He was nuncio to Paraguay since 1999.
Diplomacy/2
New ambassadors from Venezuela,
Paraguay, Ecuador and Mexico
On 26 August the Pope received in Castel Gandolfo the letters of credential of the new ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela: he is 55 year-old Guillermo Rincón Urdaneta, magistrate and jurist, president of the Supreme Tribunal of Justice from 2000 to 2005.
On 27 August it was the turn of the new representative of Paraguay, 61 year-old Geronimo Narváez Torres, career diplomat and former consul general in Milan (1996-2000) and San Paolo in Brazil (2000-2005).
On 29 August the new ambassador from Ecuador presented himself, 75 year-old Francisco Salazar Alvarado, who had already held this position from 1984 to 1988.
On 23 September, still in Castel Gandolfo, the Pope received the letters of credential of the new ambassador from Mexico. He is 53 year-old Luis Felipe Bravo Mena, formerly lecturer in Political Philosophy and Senator of the Republic, president of the National Executive Committee of the Partido Accion Nacional (PAN) since 1999.
Book
Radici umane e valori cristiani della famiglia
(Human roots and Christian values of the family) by Monsignor Di Felice
«What are known as unmarried couples is a worrying phenomenon. It has to do with people who join together but do not intend to contract permanent legal obligations: therefore stability, commitment to society and a public dimension are lacking. Despite this some countries have offered to grant a kind of legal recognition with consequent legal effects. Furthermore, some parliaments have legalized union between persons of the same sex, recognizing also (something even worse!) their rights to the legal adoption of children. Thus the principle of “the superior good of the child”, which is sanctioned by the convention of the United Nations on the Rights of the Child» is trampled on. So said the Cardinal Secretary of State Angelo Sodano in his introduction to the book Radici umane e valori cristiani della famiglia by Monsignor Francesco Di Felice, «one-time meritorious undersecretary» again the words are those of Cardinal Sodano «of the Pontifical Council for the Family». The book was recently published by the Vatican Bookshop Publications.
