I’ll just make this a catch-all post.
First, today’s General Audience:
Rich countries must increase their aid to the development of the world’s nations in need, by upholding the right to education which is the real platform for progress among peoples; the Church knows this well from its lengthy experience at the forefront in this field. This was Benedict XVI’s appeal to the leaders of the worlds industrial powers gathered in Germany for the annual G8 summit which opened today. The Pope has asked those gathered in Heligendamm to “maintain their promises to substantially increase development aid in favour of the world’s needy nations, above all those in Africa”.
“Special attention – he continued – needs to be paid to the millennium goals: to access to basic education for all; the promise that by 2015 every boy and girl will be able to complete a primary school cycle. This is a fundamental factor in achieving all of the other millennium goals. It is a guarantee of the consolidation of the objectives to be reached; it is the starting point for autonomous and sustainable development”.Benedict XVI concluded by recalling that the Catholic Church “has always been at the forefront of education” along with “other Christian churches, religious groups and civil organisations”. It is a reality – he added – which in line with the principal of subsidiarity, the governments and international organisations is called to recognise, evaluate and support, also by means of adequate financial contributions”.
Before his appeal, delivered to the 30 thousand pilgrims and visitors taking part in the audience, Benedict XVI spoke of the unity of the Church founded on Peter, and of the “heart” as “the place where God speaks to man and man listens to God”.
The two themes were discussed by the Pope in light of his reflections on the figure of Saint Cyprianus, the next in Benedict XVI’s cycle of catechesis on the early fathers of the Church.
The Pope recalled that Cyprianus, the first African bishop to be martyred, was born in fourth century Carthage to rich pagan family. After a misspent youth he converted to Christianity at 35, an experience he described as: “A sovereign light spreading through my heart, a second birth”. As a bishop he faced the first two waves of persecution of Decimus and Valerian. After the particularly cruel oppression of Decimus, he strove to “bring about a return to discipline in the community”: many had renounced the faith or failed to maintain its precepts: “they were the ‘lapsed’, and fallen” who wanted to return to the community, divided by liberals and rigorists. Cyprianus foresaw the possibility of forgiveness after an exemplary penitence.
In his letters, the bishop from Carthage, “strongly affirms that the Church is one, founded on Peter. Those who abandon it elude themselves in the belief that they remain in the Church”. “There is no salvation outside the Church, those who do not have the Church as their mother, cannot have God as their Father”. “The unity which the Church finds in its foundation on Peter and the perfect realization it obtains in the Eucharist” are the inalienable characteristics of the Church.
In case you’re thinking…Cyprianus? Cyprianus? you might know him better as St. Cyprian of Carthage.
The end of the AsiaNews article says a woman tried to leap the barrier keeping the crowds managed, but the AP says it was a man:
A man tried to jump into Pope Benedict XVI ‘s uncovered popemobile as the pontiff began his general audience Wednesday and held onto it for a few seconds before being wrestled to the ground by security officers.
The pope was not hurt and didn’t even appear to notice that the man — who was between 20 or 30 years old — had jumped over the protective barrier in the square and toward the white popemobile as it drove by. The pontiff kept waving to the audience.
At least eight security officers who were trailing the vehicle as it moved slowly through the square grabbed the man and wrestled him to the ground. The pope didn’t even look back.
The man "looked a little crazy," said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman. He said the man was being held for questioning by Vatican police.
The man, whose nationality was unknown, was wearing a pink T-shirt and dark shorts, a beige baseball cap and sunglasses. He appeared to have vaulted himself up and over the barricade from the second or third row back. He got as far as the back of the jeep, holding onto it for a few seconds, before being wrestled to the ground.
Just before I came back I had a chat with some Vatican security folks about the difficulties they are experiencing because of the increasingly large crowds coming to see the Holy Father for audiences, recitation of the Angelus, and Masses.
A while back I found a story which I didn’t post, but it is appropriate now. If anyone wondered whether the crowds were really increasing. It was an interview with the commandant of the Swiss Guard (my translation from Italian):
The number of hours of work of the (Swiss) Guards has increased with the election of Benedict XVI… According to our statistics each Guard assumes about 10 hours of extraordinary duty each month, for a total of about 185 hours. During the Wednesday general audiences with John Paul II, there were present between 15,000 and 20,000 pilgrims. Now, there are present between 30,000 and 40,000 faithful. Consequently we have needed about 20 supplementary Guards in uniform to assure order in St. Peter’s Square.
Yesterday, Cardinal Bertone gave a speech in defense of Pope Pius XII:
In what may amount to a preemptive strike ahead of the beatification of Pope Pius XII, the Vatican’s Secretary of State today issued a strong defense of the wartime pope, saying that the “black legend” around his alleged silence on the Nazi Holocaust reflects “violent and false ideology.”
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the number two official in the Vatican after the pope himself, spoke during a Rome presentation of a new book on Pius XII by Italian journalist Andrea Tornielli.
snip
Far from acquiescing in the Holocaust, Bertone argued, Pius XII presided over an “enormous work of charity … opening the doors of seminaries and religious institutes, welcoming refugees and the persecuted, helping all.”
Bertone argued that while Pius XII made his anti-Nazi sentiments clear, he avoided dramatic public confrontations in order to spare both Jews and Catholics more dire persecution, and to protect the Church’s ability to work behind the scenes.
“When popes speak, they’re not thinking about assembling a positive image for posterity,” Bertone said. “They know that their every word could affect the destiny of millions of Christians, and they take to heart the welfare of men and women of flesh and bone, not the applause of historians.”
In early May, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Cause of Saints voted to approve a “decree of heroic virtue” for Pius XII. If signed by Pope Benedict XVI, the move would leave only the need to document a miracle in his path to beatification.
A "rush" translation of the speech is here. Zenit is publishing a translation in pieces. The first part is here.
As you probably know, President Bush will be in Rome on Saturday. The schedule for President and Mrs. Bush is given graphically here.
(Click for a larger version. Mrs. Bush’s day is in black, the President’s in red.)
As you can see from the map, after the audience with the Pope, the President will head to Trestavere to Santa Maria in Trestavere to meet with members of the Community of Sant’Egidio, which I’ve got to say might end up being one of the more bizarre encounters of the Bush presidency. I’m guessing he’s meeting with them because they are quite involved with work with immigrants, but I can’t imagine they won’t take the moment to discuss other things.
The meeting is perhaps most striking for its strange-bedfellows dynamic. Sant’Egidio’s Web site calls war "the mother of every poverty" and the "absence of every justice" and is also an outspoken opponent of the death penalty.
In the lead-up to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, the late Pope John Paul II used a speech to Sant’Egidio to voice his opposition to the war. "We must not be resigned almost that war is inevitable," he said.
Marazziti said the meeting was requested by the White House several weeks ago and is scheduled to last 50 minutes. Topics of discussion will certainly include "Africa, AIDS and a global strategy for world peace," Marazziti said.
Asked if their discussion might touch on Iraq or the alleged abuse of terrorism suspects in U.S. custody — topics for which the Bush administration has been fiercely criticized in Europe — Marazziti said only: "We know that we can’t discuss the whole world in one meeting."
Sant’Egidio has helped broker agreements to reduce or end civil conflict in the Balkans, Africa and Central America, and is currently working to lay the groundwork for peace negotiations in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Many of the organization’s programs have involved collaboration with U.S. government agencies.
"This meeting has its roots in years of Sant’Egidio’s working with the American administration on several world issues," Marazziti said. Then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited the community’s headquarters in 1998, when she praised its work to reduce strife in the Serbian province of Kosovo.
Among those areas in which Sant’Egidio’s work has been of particular interest to the Bush administration, Marazziti pointed to AIDS, Darfur and the Ivory Coast, where after five years of civil war the community helped negotiate a peace agreement signed in March 2007.
Bush, who is visiting Rome for one day en route from Poland to Albania, will also meet with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano and Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
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