This weekend our digital network will feature primetime encores of the past weeks major events from the KofC Supreme Convention in
On Sunday night at
The text in its entirety can be found at:
http://www.kofc.org/un/eb/en/convention_2007/skreport/introduction.html
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State and distinguished guest at the 125th Supreme Knights Convention in Nashville, Tennessee held a press conference on Wednesday, August 8th, where he spoke openly on several important issues facing the Church.
I had the opportunity to be present at the press conference along with more than a dozen other journalists from both the Catholic and secular media. Bertone is an engaging and charming figure with a ready smile, a quick wit, and a strong faith and conviction which he is able to powerfully convey to all in his presence.
Bertone said he was impressed with the “alive” church he found in the United States. In particular he credited the Knights of Colombus for their “huge identification with the Catholic Church.” He also shared his deep appreciation for the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, the fastest growing religious order in the U.S. The Sisters are based in Nashville, and Bertone visited their Motherhouse earlier in the day Wednesday. He brought laughter to the press conference when he said many of them were “young and beautiful.”
A reporter from the Italian news agency ANSA asked Bertone about what message he had for the Church in the U.S. regarding the recent scourge of sex abuse. Here is an English translation of most of that article which has been widely distributed throughout Italy:
“The business that has been created around this problem,” said the Secretary of State, “is shameful and has nothing to do with the desire to clean up the situation and with respect to the people (involved). This is an unbearable business.” Bertone strongly underlined the strong way that the Catholic Church in these past years dealt with the matter, adding that he would now like to see how “other institutions, all institutions that provide social services of any kind, have the courage to do what the Church has done.”
“It seems that only the Catholic Church has this problem,” said the Cardinal “and this presumption needs to be strongly condemned publicly” even through legal measures. Notwithstanding the seriousness of the matter added Bertone, “we are speaking in any case about a small percentage (of priests) in the American Church. This is scandalous, but it is a small percentage.”
The American Church has already suffered for this problem and has faced it with great dignity” said Bertone, recalling that he has been involved in this situation even while he was still at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. “I accompanied the American Church,” he said “through all of its suffering and I witnessed the dignity, the courage and patience that it had in this matter.”
“The Church,” added Bertone, “instituted assistance to victims and also to the guilty, because we must never abandon the guilty to hell and damnation. And now the time has come for other institutions to show that they know how to do the same thing.”
When asked about the war in Iraq, Bertone referred to the previous comments of the Holy Father. However, he did propose international discussions to bring about an end to hostilities. He said we are not in a “blind alley” but that the situation in Iraq was “critical.”
Before arriving in Nashville Bertone communicated with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. According to the Cardinal their discussion focused on the plight of Christian minorities throughout the middle east, especially in Iraq and Lebanon. He thanked Condoleeza Rice for her efforts to bring peace to the region and told her that the angels accompanied her flights:
“If the angels did not accompany her, then she would not be able to knit back together all of these relationships that have been so fragile.”
As many of you have probably noticed by the coverage on Salt + Light Television, the Knights of Columbus 125th Supreme Convention is well underway in Nashville, Tennessee.
One of the highlights on Tuesday was the Opening Mass with the Holy See’s Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. In his homily, Cardinal Bertone praised Father Michael McGivney, the American priest who established the Knights of Columbus.
Father McGivney is currently considered a Servant of God and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is examining his life with, as Cardinal Bertone stated in his homily, “a view to recognizing his sanctity and presenting him to the faithful as a model Christian, worthy of imitation. ” As Salt + Light associate producer Michele Nuzzo reported from Nashville on Tuesday’s Zoom, Cardinal Bertone even veered from his homily text adding that he was personally going to endorse Father McGivney ’s cause. As expected, this drew great applause from those in attendance! Father McGivney is a hero to the Knights, and an excellent role model to all the faithful.
The Cardinal drew comparisons between Father McGivney and the Apostle Peter in the day’s Gospel. The Gospel account (Matthew 14:22-36) tells us of Peter’s ability to walk on water while focusing on Christ. When Peter’s faith wavers for a moment, and he loses focus on our Lord, Peter sinks. The Cardinal said:
In many respects the storm-tossed boat on the Sea of Galilee seems an apt image for the situation of the local Church at the time of Father McGivney, when the plight of Catholics in America was far from easy. This holy priest, however, like Peter in the Gospel story, found the faith and the courage to walk steadfastly towards Christ, and to inspire others by his leadership. Everyone who had the privilege of knowing Father McGivney was impressed by the dynamism of his personality and his pastoral zeal. He guided the organization he founded with prudence and wisdom, firmly trusting in Christ. He recognized the need to promote the mutual support and solidarity of the Catholic community, and nothing would deter him from pursuing this noble goal.
The support and solidarity that Father McGivney promoted was also a means to sanctity for the faithful. Cardinal Bertone continued:
This was the key to his apostolic vision in founding the Knights. He recognized the material and spiritual poverty of so many members of the Catholic community, and he understood that it was part of the lay vocation to become actively involved in offering assistance to brothers and sisters in need. He knew that it is not only priests and religious who have a vocation, but that every Christian is called by Christ to carry out a particular mission in the Church. He left a lasting legacy in the organization that he founded which has continued to provide opportunities for countless lay Catholics to play their part in building up the Kingdom of God.
It’s a strong lesson, and an important reminder to all of us: that each of us is called to holiness and that “every Christian is called by Christ to carry out a particular mission in the Church.”
In these humid days in August, when many of us take life a little easier, and relax a little bit more, perhaps we should look to Father McGivney’s example, take some of our down time and evaluate what God is asking of us. What mission is God calling us to… and how well are we responding?
Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger of Paris died on Sunday evening, August 5 after a long battle with cancer. He was 80 years old. Cardinal Lustiger was a wonderful friend and mentor to me, and a great friend and supporter of World Youth Day 2002 and the Salt and Light Television Network.
Aaron Lustiger was born in 1926 to a Polish Jewish family. In 1937 he realized what the Nazi regime was all about and decided to become Catholic. His mother Gisèle was deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943 and died there with millions of other Jews in the Holocaust. His father Charles refused to accept his son’s new faith for many years.
I first met the Cardinal in 1980 when I was a young postulant (associate) teaching at the Basilian Collège du Sacré-Coeur in Annonay, France and he had just been named Bishop of Orléans in France after having served as a university chaplain in Paris before his appointment to Orléans.
In 1981 Pope John Paul II appointed Lustiger Archbishop of Paris and elevated him to Cardinalate in 1983. As I did my theological studies for priesthood, and then graduate studies in Sacred Scripture in Rome and Jerusalem, the Cardinal always kept in touch. In 1999 when the Bishops of Canada appointed me to World Youth Day 2002, our friendship took on a whole new dimension. He invited me travel to Paris later that month and walked me through the archives of World Youth Day 1997. We discussed many aspects of World Youth Day, and together with Bishop Michel Dubost (head of WYD 1997), we examined files, books, etc. to get an idea of the magnitude of the project.
Over the next two years, it happened that each time I was in Rome for meetings, Cardinal Lustiger was also there. We met each time and he offered me excellent advice on nearly every aspect of World Youth Day. Every bit of counsel he offered was not only helpful, but it proved to be true.
In May 2002, he had me travel to Paris and join him for the famous Sunday evening Mass in Notre Dame Cathedral. We “shared” the homily before a packed Cathedral of young people from throughout the “Ile de France.”
I invited the Cardinal to come to Canada one week earlier than the WYD 2002 week in order to take part in the special young priests and seminarians’ gathering at St. Peter’s Seminary in London. The Cardinal was one of the keynote speakers at this significant international gathering.
In November 2002, I was a guest of the Cardinal in Paris and we discussed at length the new proposal of Salt and Light Television Network in Canada. The Cardinal had founded in Paris “Radio Notre Dame” and “KTO Catholic Television Network.” He strongly urged me to accept the new challenge and promised the full cooperation with us of the French Catholic Radio and Television Networks. He kept his promise and the cooperation of KTO and Radio Notre Dame have been constant with us.
I will miss him and we at Salt and Light owe him a debt of gratitude for his interest, encouragement and wonderful collaboration with us. His life is a symbol of the inherent unity between Jews and Christians. I am confident that he will now intercede for all of us at Salt and Light Television, and will continue to reconcile Christians and Jews by giving us the courage, integrity and truth to work together for justice and peace.
Shalom Père Lustiger! Adieu Eminence! Merci beaucoup cher ami, pour ce précieux don de ton amitié fidèle et ton grand dévouement pendant ces 27 dernières années! Maintenant nous te demandons humblement, “prie pour nous.”
Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B.,
C.E.O., Salt and Light Catholic Television Network
Canada
During my years in the Holy Land, my frequent visits to Mount Tabor always left me with a great sense of awe, wonder, mystery, fear, and reverence before Jesus. Each time I visited Mt. Tabor and the beautiful church depicting the three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, I was also very aware of the memory of Pope Paul VI who climbed Tabor as a pilgrim in 1964, and had a very special place for the mystery of the Transfiguration in his own prayer and pontificate.The theological meaning of the Transfiguration is central to our understanding of the mission of Jesus of Nazareth. In the past, every icon painter began his or her career by reproducing the scene of the Transfiguration. It has been said that the destiny of every Christian is written between two mountains: from Calvary to the mountain of the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration is celebration of the presence of Christ which takes charge of everything in us and transfigures even that which disturbs us about ourselves. God penetrates those hardened, incredulous, even disquieting regions within us, about which we really do not know what to do. God penetrates them with the life of the Spirit and acts upon those regions and gives them his own face.
Today marks the twenty-ninth anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI. He closed his eyes on “this stupendous, dramatic temporal and earthly scene” on the very feast that so marked his life and Petrine ministry in the Church. I was on a Basilian Formation Retreat on Strawberry Island in 1978 when we got word that Paul VI had died at Castelgandolfo. The era of excitement and newness that so marked Vatican II seemed to be coming to an end. At his funeral, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Carlo Cardinal Confalonieri described him with these words:
His greatness of soul was seen in his lively intelligence and a heart filled with goodness that opened up to the spiritual needs of his sons and daughters… He became a real prince of peace. He established with pressing solicitude a continuing dialogue with all peoples. He gave his attention with all affection and hope to the weak and defenseless, the poor and those in want of every assistance. He conversed with all in order to strengthen them in faith…
At times we are very critical of the Church, and even dismiss Church leaders and their messages without giving them a fair hearing. History is now teaching us that the patience and wisdom of Pope Paul VI, especially in the aftermath and implementation of the Second Vatican Council, was a great gift to God’s people and to the world. Pope Paul VI did not see dialogue merely as an instrument but as a method. He was so close to people, especially to those who were distant or who opposed him in theory or in practice. He also loved the Holy Land, and desired that the greatest possible number of people should have the experience that was his as a pilgrim to the Land of Jesus in 1964.
Now this great Servant of the Lord lives in the Resurrection of Jesus, in whose glorious Transfiguration sign he closed his eyes some 29 years ago. Paul let us feel on earth the joy and glory that awaits each of us in the New Jerusalem. Christ’s transfiguration was in the past. The God, whose Light breaks into the earth on this feast, is present. Let our prayers today be that the world will see the Light, the Light of healing and reconciliation. Let us strive to be counted among those who listen to Christ’s Word and are transfigured by it.
Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B.,
C.E.O., Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation
It’s hard to believe it’s August already, but many folks in Halifax are greeting the new month with great anticipation, as this weekend marks the Steubenville Atlantic conference. What’s the Steubenville Atlantic conference? Let me cut and paste from the official website:
Steubenville Atlantic is a high school youth conference attended by over 1200 young Catholics co-sponsored by the Archdiocese of Halifax and the Franciscan University of Steubenville, OH. The conferences feature lively music, dynamic speakers, powerful liturgies, entertainment, and opportunities for prayer and fellowship.
This is the first time the Steubenville High School Youth Conference has been held outside the United States. Thirty years ago, a group of youth and young adults gathered on the Franciscan University Campus in Steubenville, Ohio for the first conference. Their purpose was to focus on bringing high school students into a life changing relationship with God. Last summer, 30,000 teens attended one of 14 youth conferences across the United States.
That happens all this weekend, August 3rd-5th, at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia . To find out more information on it, particularly registration information and a list of speakers, visit the official website by clicking HERE.
Also, stay tuned to Zoom on Friday and Tuesday of next week for updates, sights, and sounds, on the conference!
From the Toronto Sun
Five years ago, the world came to Toronto to take part in what was the largest celebration ever held in our country. Toronto played host to the 17th International World Youth Day.
And along with young people from 172 nations who descended upon our city came an elderly and infirm Pope who, defying all odds and stunning all critics, kicked off the week as he slowly walked down the steps of that Alitalia plane at Pearson International Airport on July 23, 2002, instead of using the lift prepared for him.
The eyes of the world were fixed on that old man dressed in the white robes, step by step. The Pope of great surprises, the pastor, actor, shepherd, courageous leader, and friend of young people, entered a representative assembly of the nation and the Church in Canada. World Youth Day began on a grand note. The Holy Father spoke these words to Government officials and the people of Canada at the welcome ceremony that day:
“Canadians are heirs to an extraordinarily rich humanism, enriched even more by the blend of many different cultural elements… In a world of great social and ethical strains, and confusion about the very purpose of life, Canadians have an incomparable treasure to contribute — on condition that they preserve what is deep, and good and valid in their own heritage.”
The genius of Pope John Paul II was evident in his granting World Youth Day to Canada in 2002. Toronto may have lost the Olympic bid, but it struck gold with World Youth Day. Canada needed this event to call us back to our deeply Christian origins and heritage.
The sheer numbers of people taking part in the WYD 2002 ceremonies astounded all of us. At the welcome ceremony for Pope John Paul II, more than 350,000 people packed Exhibition Place on a Thursday afternoon. The following evening, University Avenue was transformed into the Via Dolorosa of Jerusalem as more than half a million people took part in the Stations of the Cross in the modern city. CBC said the worldwide television audience that night was more than one billion people in 160 countries of the world.
The moving candlelight Saturday evening vigil at Downsview Park drew together over 600,000 people. And the concluding Papal mass on Sunday five years ago, with its atmospheric special effects, gathered 850,000 people on the tarmac of a former military base.
Through World Youth Day, Pope John Paul II unleashed something new and unthinkable some 25 years ago. The phenomenon of World Youth Day has become a fertile seedbed for vocations to the priesthood, consecrated life, marriage and lay ministries in the Church.
Even the most cynical among us could not help but be impressed or moved by the streams of young people who expressed their joy at being Catholic Christians in a complex and war-torn world. The events of July 2002 were not a show, nor a protest or photo opportunity staged by some big marketing company hired by the Catholic Church to restore its image in the light of scandals and difficulties.
Against a world background of global terror and fear, economic collapse in many countries and ecclesial scandals, World Youth Day presented an alternative vision of compelling beauty.
A timely reminder
The summer of 2002 woke up the country and the Church in Canada, reminding us that the Church is alive and young. As we bask in the glorious memories of World Youth Day in Toronto, one thing is clear for the Catholic Church in Canada after the summer of 2002: We have much work to do in reaching out to young people across this vast land.
July 2002 was not simply the accomplishment of some fete; it was the beginning of a new adventure of faith and hope for the entire Canadian Church. The memories of 2002 give us the courage to set out into the deep and help future generations to “preserve what is deep, and good and valid in their own heritage.”
A most fearsome alarm clock, the cold rain simultaneously woke hundreds of thousands of pilgrims camping at Downsview Park. You can imagine the sight of groggy pilgrims hurriedly hunting for the rain gear they forgot to bring. And, as biology dictates, the second item on the morning itinerary was the search for a bathroom.
As I needed to make this trek myself, I volunteered to also pick up breakfast for my diocesan group. But though I knew the crowd would move slowly, I couldn’t predict the interruption that would come.
The problem wasn’t the food service, which, clearly in top form after nearly a week of practice, ran with remarkable efficiency. I grabbed two bags of breakfast and reentered the masses, hoping to get the meal to my group while still hot.
It wasn’t long, however, before my progress ground to a halt. Those around me, all sharing the same mission, asked each other why we were no longer moving forward. Then, pilgrim-to-pilgrim, the answer filtered back: the Pope’s travel route cut through our path, the walkways were now closed, and there was no detour.
So, with literally no where to go, we resigned ourselves to our predicament. When the rain picked up once more, a lovely French pilgrim shared her poncho. Some older ladies nearby needed water, so we opened our food bags passed around the contents. And an hour later, the Popemobile drove right by our barricade, offering us an ideal vantage point of the Holy Father. It was perfect.
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This week, I hope we’ve all taken a moment to think back to World Yourh Day in Toronto. Watch anew the images of this historic event for Canada and our Church: our retrospective special, Reliving WYD 2002, is now online and can be accessed by clicking HERE.
Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Magenta (Milan), Italy, on October 4, 1922, the 10th of 13 children. From her earliest youth, Gianna accepted the gift of faith and received an excellent Christian education from her parents. After earning degrees in medicine and surgery from the University of Pavia in 1949, she opened a medical clinic in Mesero (near Magenta) in 1950. She specialized in pediatrics at the University of Milan in 1952 and gave special attention to mothers, babies, the elderly and the poor.On September 24, 1955, Gianna Beretta married Pietro Molla, an engineer, in St. Martin’s Basilica in Magenta. Together they would have four children: Pierluigi, Mariolina, Laura and Gianna Emaunela. Gianna met the demands of mother, wife, medical doctor with simplicity and great balance. She loved culture, fashion and beauty. She played piano, was a painter, enjoyed tennis, mountain climbing, skiing and traveling.
In September 1961, towards the end of the second month of pregnancy with her fourth child, physicians diagnosed a serious fibroma in the uterus that required surgery. One of the options given to Gianna by her doctors was an abortion in order to save her own life. Gianna had to make a heroic decision. Gianna entrusted herself to prayer and Providence said to her doctor: “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child–I insist on it. Save the baby.”
On Holy Saturday morning, April 21, 1962, her daughter Gianna Emanuela was born. Despite all efforts and treatments to save both of them, one week later on Easter Saturday, April 28, amid unspeakable pain and after repeated exclamations of “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you,” Gianna died. The young mother was only 39 years old. Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1994 during the International Year of the Family, she was canonized ten years later by the same Pope on May 16, 2004 at the Vatican.
In an age when permanent commitment is widely discouraged, when human life is cheap and disposable and family life is under siege, when abortion is all too available, when sacrifice and virtue are absent in so many lives; when many in the medical profession have little concern for the dignity and sacredness of every human life; when suffering is seen as a nuisance without any redemptive meaning; when goodness, joy, simplicity and beauty are suspect; St. Gianna Beretta Molla shows this world, gripped by a culture of death, an alternative gospel way of compelling beauty. Her action at the end of her life, in saving young Gianna Emanuela, her daughter, was heroic in that she prepared for her final action every day of her life. Her final decision for life was the natural flowering and culmination of an extraordinary life of virtue and holiness, selflessness and quiet joy. St. Gianna Molla continues to remind the church and the world of the necessity of a consistent ethic of life, from the earliest to the final moments of human life.
Prayer to Saint Gianna Beretta Molla
God, you who are Father, we give you praise and we bless you
because in Gianna Beretta Molla
You have given and have made known a woman who witnessed the Gospel
As a young person, as a bride, as a mother and a doctor.
We thank you because through the gift of her life,
We learn to accept and honor every human being.
You, Lord Jesus, were for her privileged reference;
She was able to know you in the beauty of nature
As she questioned her choice of life she was in search of You
and of the best way to serve You.Through her married love she became a sign of your love
for the Church and for humanity;
Like you, Good Samaritan,
she stopped at the side of every sick person, small and weak;
After your example and for love,
she gave herself entirely, generating new life.Holy Spirit, font of every perfection,
Give also to us wisdom, intelligence and courage
after the example of Gianna, [my mother,] and through her intercession,
In her personal, family and professional life,
we are able to put ourselves at the service of every person
and grow in this way in love and in holiness. Amen.
Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B.
Former National Director and C.E.O., World Youth Day 2002
C.E.O., Salt and Light Catholic Television Network, Canada
Called the “Madre Moretta” (the Black Mother), Josephina Bakhita was a former slave who became a Canossian Sister (Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa) in Italy. She was born in the Sudan, in northeastern Africa, about 1870, and at the age of nine was stolen by slavers. The slave traders gave her the name Bakhita, meaning “the Lucky One.” She escaped from these slavers only to be caught by another, who took her as a gift to his daughter in El Obeid. There she was treated well until she broke a vase. Then she was sold to a Turkish officer who sold her again in the market in Khartoum. She was brought by the Italian vice-council, who returned to Italy, taking Josephine with him. There she was given to a Signora Michieli in Genoa. She was sent to a convent by her new owner, to be educated in the school operated by the Daughters of Charity of Canossa. Josephina became a Christian on January 9, 1890, and was baptized by the cardinal patriarch. She refused to leave the convent after discovering her religious vocation, despite the demands of Signora Michieli, who claimed ownership. The cardinal patriarch and the king’s procurator were called upon to mediate the matter, and they decided in favor of Josephina’s vocation. Josephina was welcomed into the Canossian convent, and she made her novitiate and took religious vows. Her holiness and devotion were demonstrated in her labors as a cook, gate keeper, and keeper of linens. It was obvious that God had brought Josephina out of Africa to glorify him among the Europeans. With this in mind, Josephina, the Madre Moretta, traveled throughout Italy to raise funds for the missions. She served as a Canossian for half a century, dying in Schio, Italy, on February 8, 1947, and was revered by the people of her adopted land. She has not been forgotten by the Sudanese either. Her portrait hangs in the cathedral at Khartoum.
Pope John Paul II beatified Josephina on May 17, 1992, in the presence of three hundred Canossian Sisters and pilgrims, many from the Sudan. The Holy Father declared:
In our time, in which the unbridled race for power, money, and pleasure is the cause of so much distrust, violence, and loneliness, Sister Bakhita has been given to us once more by the Lord as a universal sister, so that she can reveal to us the secret of true happiness: the Beatitudes….Here is a message of heroic goodness modeled on the goodness of the Heavenly Father.
During his homily at her canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope John Paul II said that in St. Josephine Bakhita:
We find a shining advocate of genuine emancipation. The history of her life inspires not passive acceptance but the firm resolve to work effectively to free girls and women from oppression and violence, and to return them to their dignity in the full exercise of their rights.
Fr. Thomas Rosica, C.S.B.
Former National Director and C.E.O., World Youth Day 2002
C.E.O., Salt and Light Catholic Television Network, Canada
