Interview with Benedict XVI on WYD

Extensive interview with the Pope on his upcoming visit to WYD...



From >>> AsiaNews.it <<< The first interview with Benedict XVI: Youths, it's beautiful to be Christians!:



"Holy Father, can you tell me what you would like to transmit to the youth of the world? What is the main issue you would like to "bring about"?



Yes -- I would like to show them how beautiful it is to be Christian, because the widespread idea which continues to exist is that Christianity is composed of laws and bans which one has to keep and, hence, is something toilsome and burdensome -- that one is freer without such a burden. I want to make clear that it not a burden to be carried by a great love and realization, but it is like having wings. It is wonderful to be a Christian with this knowledge that it gives us a great breadth, a large community: As Christians we are never alone -- in the sense that God is always with us, but also in the sense that we are always standing together in a large community, a community for The Way, that we have a project for the future - and in this way a Being which is worth believing in. This is the joy of being a Christian and is the beauty of believing."

The Problem with Cathoilc Bible Study by Michael Dubruiel

Stated well and right on the mark bySumma Contra Mundum:

When I taught scripture in high school, the students had a one-sentence summary of what they learned of the bible: "We learn that nothing that the bible says really happened really happened." That's the impression they got from four years of historical criticism.

I myself taught high school and heard exactly the same thing when I tried to present the "Fallen State" of humanity according to Genesis to Juniors who had Scripture as Freshman. I do find some hope that the current Pontiff writes about the deficiencies of the historical critical method and its effect on preaching and catechesis.

Michael Dubruiel - 2005

A Former Student of Mine

First a comment on the picture. I'm not a big fan of "resurrection images" but I do like this one...very powerful. It brings to mind the Pantocrater images found in ancient churches.

Second, I'm glad to read that Fr. Tim is doing well.

Late calling is a busy one - OrlandoSentinel.com: Volusia County News:

For most of his life, a pendulum swung back and forth in Tim Daly's head.When he was in fifth grade, Daly decided he wanted to be a priest, but as the years went on, he wasn't sure he was ready.

Daly graduated from Towson University in 1977 and joined the Franciscan Order.

He spent a year and a half with the Franciscans in New Jersey and Boston, but then he decided to drop out. He didn't like how much autonomy he had to give up and felt as if the church was increasingly playing the role of his parents.

Monsignor Clark Affair--Philip DeFillipo

Who knew you could make $100,000.00 a year as a parish secretary? I wonder if she pulled a knife on Clark (see below) to get that kind of a deal.

The irony of the Post story is that Clark wrote a letter of recommendation so that Philip could get a gun permit to "protect" priests during the abuse scandal. Did Clark have a death wish?

From New York Post Online Edition: news: HUSBAND'S NO SAINT, EITHER:

"DeFilippo told police that when he confronted his wife of 20 years about the trysts, she threatened to stab him.

'I fear for my safety and that of my children. She has been threatening me and the kids,' DeFilippo told police, adding that Laura has a 'history of alcohol-related incidents.'

DeFilippo obtained an order of protection barring Laura from the family home pending a court hearing.

Laura's lawyers charge DeFilippo made the 'false and outrageous' accusations to 'coerce' her into turning over their Eastchester home worth an estimated $1 million or more — and custody of their two kids, 14 and 10.

Laura refused his demands, they say.

DeFilippo, a former Allstate insurance adjuster for 15 years, seems to have made less money than Laura, who earned close to $100,000 a year as Clark's administrative assistant. She was 'the more significant breadwinner,' said a source."

Hallmark Channel August 15th at 8/7C

Check out the trailer for the filmhere

"The film presents scenes and episodes that, in their severity, awaken in the viewers an instinctive 'turning away' in horror and stimulates them to consider the abyss of iniquity that can be hidden in the human soul. At the same time, calling to the fore such aberrations revives in every right-minded person the duty to do what he or she can so that such inhuman barbarism never happens again. I express living gratitude to those who wanted to offer me the opportunity to view this moving film."

- Pope Benedict XVI

Pope's Angelus Message for Today

From AsiaNews.it:

"On this XX Sunday of ordinary time, the liturgy presents us with a singular example of faith: a Canaanite woman asks Jesus to heal her daughter “cruelly tormented by a demon”. As the evangelist Matthew tells us, the Lord resists her insistent pleas and does not seem to give in, even when his own disciples intercede for her. At the end, however, faced with the perseverance and humility of this stranger, Jesus consents: “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish” (cfr Mt 15: 21-28).

“Woman, great is your faith!” This humble woman is singled out by Jesus as an example of indomitable faith. Her insistence in calling for the intervention of Christ is an encouragement for us not to lose heart, not to despair even amid life’s greatest trials. The Lord does not close his eyes to the needs of his children and in times when he seems insensitive to their pleas, this is only to put them to the test and to strengthen their faith. This is the testimony of the saints, especially the witness of martyrs, who are linked in the closest way possible to the redeeming sacrifice of Christ. In recent days, we commemorated many: the popes Ponziano and Sixtus II, the priest Ippolito, the deacon Lawrence, killed with his companions in Rome at the dawn of Christianity. We also recalled a martyr of our times, St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, Edith Stein, co-patron of Europe, who died in a concentration camp; and today the liturgy presents us with a martyr of charity, who sealed his witness to the love of Christ in a bunker of starvation in Auschwitz: St Maximilian Maria Kolbe, who sacrificed himself voluntary in the place of a father, a family man.

I invite every baptized Christian and especially youths taking part in World Youth Day to look to these shining examples of gospel heroism. I invoke on all their protection and especially that of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross who spent the last years of her life right in the Carmel of Cologne. On each one let Mary’s maternal love reign, the queen of martyrs who we contemplate tomorrow in her glorious assumption into heaven."

White Wristbands Proclaim Solidarity with Pope for WYD

B16 We Come To Worship Him
JPII Be Not Afraid

The first is an allusion to Cologne being the final resting place of the Magi who followed the Star of Bethlehem to worship the new born King of the Jews...

You can purchase one for yourself at Youth For the World.