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In the years preceding the Great Jubilee of 2000, John Paul II held a series of continental synods to help the Church in different locales reflect on its distinctive situation at the end of the second millennium and to plan for a future of evangelical vigor in the third.
These special assemblies were easily named in the case of the Synods for Africa, Asia, and Europe. But when it came to the synod for the western hemisphere, John Paul threw a linguistic curve ball that made an important point.
MADISON — Pope Francis’ universal prayer intention for the month of April this year is “That people may learn to respect creation and care for it as a gift of God.”
This summer the pope is expected to issue an encyclical on ecology.
In synch with the pope’s prayer intention and in anticipation of his encyclical, Steve Coleman, a parishioner of St. Dennis Parish in Madison and a retired mechanical engineer, will present “A Catholic Response to Global Warming” on Thursday, April 16, from 7 to 8:30 p.m., at St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 602 Everglade Dr.
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The reputations of the great often diminish over time. Ten years after his holy death on April 2, 2005, Karol Wojtyla, St. John Paul II, looms even larger than he did when the world figuratively gathered at his bedside a decade ago.
Tens of millions of men and women around the world felt impelled, and privileged, to pray with him through what he called his “Passover” — his liberation through death into a new life of freedom in the blazing glory of the Thrice-Holy God.
On this anniversary, as at his canonization last year, what seems most memorable about the man, at least at this historical moment, was that he refused to accommodate to the “tyranny of the possible:” the idea that some things just can’t be put right; that we’re stuck with the way things are, however much we may dislike them.
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60 Minutes, the CBS News “magazine” that helped redefine television journalism, prides itself on challenging conventional wisdom, discomfiting the comfortable, kicking shibboleths in the shins, and opening new arguments.
No such challenge, alas, was evident in the program’s recent segment on Pope Francis.
One of the principal interviewees in that piece was Robert Mickens, formerly of the London-based Tablet and currently of the National Catholic Reporter. Here’s a part of what Mickens had to say about the “Francis effect”:
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| Pope Francis arrives to lead an audience at the Vatican recently. (CNS photo/Paul Haring) |
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis said he would attend the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia in September of 2015, making it the first confirmed stop on what is expected to be a more extensive papal visit to North America.
The pope made the announcement November 17, in a speech opening an interreligious conference on traditional marriage.
“I would like to confirm that, God willing, in September 2015, I will go to Philadelphia for the eighth World Meeting of Families,” the pope said.
The announcement had been widely expected, since Pope Benedict XVI had said before his retirement that he hoped to attend the Philadelphia event. Popes typically fulfill their predecessors’ publicly known travel plans, as Pope Francis did in July 2013, when he attended World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro.
Philadelphia Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, who was in Rome for the families meeting, told Catholic News Service the announcement was “a surprise in the sense that it was announced so early; you know usually they don’t make these announcements — four months out is the typical and here we are 10 months away, and the Holy Father said he is coming to Philadelphia.”
Dear Friends,
Just as the final documents of the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops were being voted upon and final messages released, I was blessed with the opportunity of meeting with our Diocesan Pastoral Council (DPC) this past weekend.
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An emergency tends to focus one’s mind and energies and to clarify one’s priorities.
If a dangerous fire breaks out in a home, the inhabitants thereof will lay aside their quarrels, postpone their other activities, and together get to the task of putting out the flames. If a nation is invaded by an aggressor, politicians will quickly forget their internal squabbling and put off their legislative programs in order to work together for the shared purpose of repulsing the enemy.
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Pope Francis’ bold decisions to canonize Blessed John XXIII without the normal post-beatification miracle and to link good Pope John’s canonization ceremony to that of Blessed John Paul II just may help re-orient Catholic thinking about modern Catholic history.
For what Francis is suggesting, I think, is that John XXIII and John Paul II are the twin bookends of the Second Vatican Council — and thus should be canonized together.
On January 25, 1959, less than three months after his election, John XXIII surprised the Catholic world by announcing that he would summon the 21st ecumenical council in history.
“Forty days in the desert” describes Jesus at the start of his ministry and the Christian community during Lent.
For me, henceforth, it will also bring to mind migrants who make a dangerous journey through Mexico to the United States. I learned on a tour with the organization Witness for Peace that the trip for those who start in southern Mexico or Central America can take one to two months and often includes walking through treacherous stretches of desert.
Last year the Catholic Church had something almost unprecedented happen: a pope resigned his office. Pope Benedict XVI said that due to his advanced age, he was “no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry.” He was the first pope to resign in more than 600 years.
On March 13, 2013, the cardinals gathered in their conclave elected Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the 266th successor of St. Peter. He took the name Francis after St. Francis of Assisi.
