New Bishop for Salt Lake City

Auxiliary Bishop John Charles Wester of San Francisco to take over the Salt Lake City Diocese.

Baptism of the Lord

Celebrated in the United States today-- but yesterday almost everywhere else in the world. The pope commemorated the occaision with a mass in the Sistine Chapel that included baptisms.

We'll commemorate the event by playing the BCS National Championship game tonight to officially end the Christmas season. Hopefully us Gator fans will have much to cheer about as we enter ordinary time (time without college football).

In Poland--Archbishop Resigns on Day of Installation

From Asia News Italy:

The resignation of Mgr Stanislaw Wielgus from his new post as archbishop of Warsaw is an “adequate solution” to the “confusion” created in Poland by accusations about his past collaboration with the secret services of the regime. But the resignation is also a new phase in the “war” declared against the Polish Church by a “strange alliance” that unites one-time Communists and “other adversaries” that could be the nationalists.

This was the gist of a statement released yesterday by the director of the Vatican press office, Fr Federico Lombardi, about the resignation of Mgr Wielgus whose “conduct in past years during the communist regime in Poland gravely compromised his authority, also towards the faithful”. However there is more to what happened than a mere personal episode that sparked “confusion” among the faithful and that was concluded – at least for now. A wider issue is at stake here that regards the entire Polish church. “The case of Mgr Wieglus is not the first and probably not the last case of an attack against a church official based on documentation from the services of the past regime,” said Fr Lombardi. “There is endless material and in seeking to assess its value and to draw credible conclusions, we must not forget that this is a product of officials from an oppressive and blackmailing regime.”

Pope Appeals to Today's Magi

Feast of the Epiphany, from Asia News Italy:

Benedict XVI dwelt on some features of the Magi (of then and now), namely
humility and passion to seek truth rather than wealth and power. The pope said:
“They prostrated themselves before a simple baby in his mother’s arms not in the
setting of a royal palace but instead in the poverty of a shed in Bethlehem (cfr
Mt 2:11). How was it possible? What convinced the Magi that that boy was the
‘king of the Jews’? Certainly they were persuaded by the sign of the star, which
they saw ‘rising’ and which stopped right on top of the place where the Boy was
(cfr Mt 2:9). But even that star would not have been enough had the Magi not
been people intimately open to the truth. As opposed to King Herod, who was
taken up by his interests of power and wealth, the Magi were looking towards the
end of their quest and when they found it, although they were cultured men, they
behaved like the shepherds of Bethlehem: they recognized the sign and adored the
Boy, offering him precious and symbolic gifts that they brought with
them.”

The mystery of the Epiphany “contains a demanding and ever
present message” for Christians too, who often whittle their faith and witness
down to activism or sentimentalism. The pope said: “The Church, reflected in
Mary, is called to show Jesus to men, nothing else but Jesus. He is the All and
the Church does not exist other than to remain united in Him and to make Him
known to the world. May the Mother of the Word incarnate help us to be docile
disciples of her Son, Light to the nations.”

"What Would Your Mother Think?"

One of the great preachers of our day is none other than the Archbishop of Milwaukee and again here he is at his greatest giving us a lesson on the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God...

From Archbishop Timothy Dolan:

I could not get out of my head the story I heard on Christmas Day from a good friend, Father Ron Ramson, now a missionary in Kenya, visiting me for the holidays.
Seems that a seventy-three year old Daughter of Charity, also a missionary in Kenya, walked into a burglary in process at a religious house in Nairobi. The thieves were rough, ruthless, vicious, driven by violence and probably drugs. After they had pillaged the house, one of the criminals turned to Sister and leered at her, “Pull up your dress.” His intention was clear: he was going to rape this seventy-three year old nun.
With all the calmness she could muster, she looked at him and replied, “What would your mother think of you?”
Can you imagine? To a raged, pillaging rapist, she says words you would use to chide a six-year old after he had said a nasty word: “What would your mother think of
you?”
And how did the potential rapist react? He stopped, looked at Sister, thought a moment, and left her alone . ..
Those simple words had worked. That appeal to his mother had been effective.
“What would your mother think of you?” It seems that, no matter how low we may sink in life, how many mistakes, sins, or crimes we may have committed, the thought of our mother brings back all that is right, good, decent, noble, and honorable.
Moms represent the way things should be, not how bad they are. Moms remind us that we are destined for greatness, for virtue.
Bring on Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, the Mother of us all. In her very person she reminds us of the dignity that God the Father intended for all of us: free from sin, close to Him, united to Jesus, taken body and soul to heaven. That’s God’s plan for us all, you know.

For more of Archbishop Dolan's writing, check out Called To Be Holy.

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton

National Shrine of St. Elizabeth in Maryland

Pope: Jesus not a Fairy Tale Character

From Asia News Italy:

From rejection to indifference, from scientific atheism to the depiction of a “post-modernized” Jesus: a mere “teacher of wisdom” or so “idealized” that he seems like a fairytale character. These are some forms of “rejection of God” of our times: perhaps more subtle and dangerous than those in the past, they go against the welcome of Jesus we are called to extend at Christmas. This was the subject tackled today by Benedict XVI before 8,000 people who attended the first general audience of 2007. Last year, according to statistics of the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, more than one million – precisely 1,031,500 – took part in 45 general audiences, while 3,222,820 people met Benedict XVI in Rome throughout 2006 in audiences, Angelus prayers and liturgical celebrations.

Music and choirs in different languages (five came from the USA) were all united in the Christmas spirit of the meeting that was mentioned by the pope who noted the Christmassy atmosphere of the audience. He said the atmosphere was an invitation to joy for the birth of the Redeemer who has “abundantly spread” goodness, mercy and love throughout the world.

The Pope coughed at times as he referred to the Gospel of John, dwelling upon the significance of Christmas as a manifestation of our being children of God, “because Jesus came to put up his tent among us”, to gather all peoples into one family, not into one people but farther still, into a single family.

But “the joy of Christmas should not make us forget the mystery of evil, the power of the shadows that seek to obscure the splendour of divine light”. And the “tragedy of rejection of Christ that expresses itself today in many different ways as it did in the past. Perhaps more subtle and dangerous are those forms of rejection of God in the modern era”, that range from “clear rejection to indifference to scientific atheism” to “the presentation of a modernized, or better still, post-modernized Jesus; Jesus as a man reduced to being a mere ‘teacher of wisdom’ and deprived of his divinity, or else a Jesus who has been so idealized that at times he seems like a fairytale character.”

But Jesus is “true God and true man” and he never tires of promoting his Gospel. At Christmas, then, it is clear that “now we know the face of God” and “the amazing announcement that God loves us”. “It was not we who loved God; it was he who loved us first”.

The Child who is born “asks that we make space for him in our hearts and society”. The pope added: “One cannot remain indifferent before Jesus” and “we too must take a stand all the time. What will our answer be?”