[Pope-John-Paul-II] Pope blesses crowd from studio at St. Peter's Square
http://www.etaiwannews.com/World/2005/02/15/1108432220.htm World Tuesday, February 15, 2005 Pope blesses crowd from studio at St. Peter's Square 2005-02-15 / Associated Press / Returning to the world's most storied pulpit for the first time since his health crisis, Pope John Paul II addressed a sea of worshippers from his studio in St. Peter's Square and gave with his presence what no cardinal's words could deliver: a strong assurance that he's on the rebound. An aide delivered most of the message Sunday, but at the very end the pope's voice rang out clearly - "Happy Sunday to everybody. Thank you." The 84-year-old pontiff looked alert as he waved to the crowd with a trembling hand. He gave a brief greeting before Argentine Archbishop Leonardo Sandri carried on with the message. Thousands of pilgrims broke into applause and some shouted "Viva il Papa" - Long live the pope. "We meet again in this place to praise the Lord," the pope said in his message. In a subtle rebuttal to rumors that he might step down, the pope told the crowd: "I always need your help before the Lord, for carrying out my mission that Jesus entrusted to me." The Pope's Sunday address at St. Peter's is a cherished weekly tradition for Roman Catholics and its resumption was certain to come as a big relief for believers around the world. Thousands of people packed the square to catch a glimpse of the pope, who gave the blessing in his own voice. "I thought he was amazing, given his age," said Catherine Kelly, visiting from Newcastle, England. Although John Paul's voice was weak "it was nice to hear him," said her brother, Terry Elsdon. His message included an appeal for a kidnapped Italian journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, and others held hostage in Iraq. John Paul's return to the Vatican coincided with his weeklong spiritual retreat that began Sunday, and had been scheduled before he fell ill. During that period all audiences will be suspended, including the pontiff's customary Wednesday public audience. Speculation has mounted that John Paul, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, might resign. The debate was fueled last week when the Vatican's No. 2, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, declined to rule out that possibility, saying it was up to the pope's "conscience." In an apparent effort to end such talk, a top cardinal said in remarks carried Saturday in an Italian newspaper that the pontiff was fully able to make decisions and that he probably would be able to travel to Cologne, Germany, in August for World Youth Day. "I am in fact sure that ... he will continue to have the real capacity to work. ... That is expressed not only in his speeches but in the decisions that are taken," Cardinal Camillo Ruini told La Repubblica. On Friday, the pope's first full day out of the hospital, the Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, also sought to quash resignation rumors with the headline: "The rudder is still in his hands." No pope has resigned for centuries, and John Paul repeatedly has said he intends to carry out his mission until the end. The 84-year-old pontiff was rushed to the Gemelli Polyclinic hospital on February 1 with flu and breathing difficulties. He returned to the Vatican on Thursday. The following day, the pope sent a message of support to the ailing on the church's World Day of the Sick, but did not attend the Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. In the message read out by Cardinal Ruini, the pope's vicar for Rome, John Paul said he felt "particularly close" to the sick. "Your suffering is never useless, dear sick ones," the pope's message said. Pain is precious, he said, because it has a mysterious link to Christ's trial on the cross. "For that reason the pope counts deeply on the importance of your prayers and your suffering," the message said. "Offer them up to the church and to the world, offer them also for me and for my mission as universal shepherd of the Christian people." Ruini said the pope followed the service on television. Since the pope's appearance this past Sunday from his hospital room window, some have worried about his future at the head of the church because his very brief words were almost entirely inaudible. The clearer delivery from his studio at St. Peter's was likely to help allay those fears. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/hjtSRD/3MnJAA/i1hLAA/wpWolB/TM ~-> "[M]y ministry is that of servus servorum Dei." --Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, no. 88) "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." --Matthew 16:18 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/
[Pope-John-Paul-II] Vatican tightens code for annulments
http://www.guardian.co.uk/pope/story/0,12272,1408899,00.html Vatican tightens code for annulments Sophie Arie in Rome Wednesday February 9, 2005 The Guardian Facing an increasing number of marriage annulments, the Vatican yesterday made its first move in 70 years to try to ensure that Catholics do not win the Church's blessing to end their marriages for the wrong reasons. "This code aims to help make it easier for the tribunals to ascertain the truth," said Cardinal Julian Herranz, head of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, presenting an updated book of legal guidelines called Dignitas Connubii (The Dignity of Marriage). The Catholic church does not recognise divorce, and annulment is the only way for Catholics to remarry before the church. More than 500,000 annulments are granted by Roman Catholic diocesan tribunals each year, most of them in America. [more at the link] Half a million RCC annulments a year! Wow. I wonder what that is as a percentage of married RCC members compared to the "average" divorce rate. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/hjtSRD/3MnJAA/i1hLAA/wpWolB/TM ~-> "[M]y ministry is that of servus servorum Dei." --Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, no. 88) "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." --Matthew 16:18 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pope-John-Paul-II/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[Pope-John-Paul-II] Death for the Pope
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=128&e=12&u=/ucwb/deathforthepope http://tinyurl.com/3n4al Death for the Pope By William F. Buckley Jr. At church on Sunday the congregation was asked to pray for the recovery of the pope. I have abstained from doing so. I hope that he will not recover. The seizure brought on by his dramatic trip to the hospital a week ago suggests the international sense of his indispensability. Pope John Paul (news - web sites) is a graphic figure in the lives of Catholics and many non-Catholics. He is, of course, a towering theological figure who has presided over the development of Catholic thought and practice for the 26 years of his papacy. He is a major historical figure, who began as a Catholic seminarian in a Poland subservient first to a Nazi overlord (they hanged him in Nuremberg), then to a communist overlord (nothing happened to him -- the communists are never prosecuted). From that scene he succeeded to the Holy See, where he was the symbol of hope and, after the communists fell, of triumph, distinctive in his bid for international recognition as a God-fearing man of good will. I remember him as he was leaving Havana to return to Rome. Fidel Castro (news - web sites) was there to recite the diplomatic amenities. The pope was standing on the gangway of his airplane and suddenly rain fell. As John Paul spoke under an improvised parasol, his three-minute farewell address evolved, in near-perfect Spanish, into a homily on water's purifying mission. All of Cuba watched on television, no doubt hoping, for an exhilarating moment, that Castro would melt away, Cuba shriven from the antipodal reign of a tyrant who came to power even before the pope did, and will outlast him. Unless it were to happen that Castro died tomorrow, and the pope a week later; but we must see through the blur of the rain to realities of the day, which are that the pope almost died the day that he was taken to the hospital. "We got him by a breath," one medico leaked the news, and another said, "If he had come in 10 minutes later, he would have been gone." The temptation is, always, to pray for the continuation of the life of anyone who wants to keep on living. The pope is one of these. In the past, he recorded that he did not plan ever to abdicate, that he would die on the papal throne. It is presumptuous, in thinking about John Paul, to suppose that in arriving at that decision he was motivated by vainglory. What exactly he had in mind we do not know, but can reasonably assume that he was asserting pride in physical fortitude, consistent with his days as a mountain climber and a skier. Perhaps there is an element of vanity there. Not many sovereigns leave the throne, except at the hands of embalmers. There is the further question, distinctive to the throne of St. Peter. To leave it before death can be construed as forsaking a mission charged by God almighty. That isn't the consensus of theologians. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican (news - web sites)'s secretary of state, said simply, "If there is a man who loves the Church more than anybody else, who is guided by the Holy Spirit ... that's him. We must have great faith in the pope. He knows what to do." What to do includes clinging to the papacy as a full-time cripple, if medicine, which arrested death by only 10 minutes, can arrest death again for weeks and even months. But the progressive deterioration in the pope's health over the last several years confirms that there are yet things medical science can't do, and these include giving the pope the physical strength to coordinate and to use his voice intelligibly. So, what is wrong with praying for his death? For relief from his manifest sufferings? And for the opportunity to pay honor to his legacy by turning to the responsibility of electing a successor to get on with John Paul's work? Muriel Spark commented in "Memento Mori": "When a noble life has prepared old age, it is not decline that it reveals, but the first days of immortality." That cannot be effected by the hospital in which the pope struggles. Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/wpWolB/TM ~-> "[M]y ministry is that of servus servorum Dei." --Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, no. 88) "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." --Matthew 16:18 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pope-John-Paul-II/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
[Pope-John-Paul-II] Sister Lucia\'s Death Stirs Memories at Vatican
Ryan Ignatius Pratt is sending this message -- == ZENIT News Agency, The World Seen from Rome == Sister Lucia's Death Stirs Memories at Vatican Papal Letter Arrived to Her on the Day She Died VATICAN CITY, FEB. 14, 2005 (Zenit.org).- The news of Sister Lucia's death, the last living witness of the Virgin Mary's apparitions in Fatima, Portugal, is "very sad" for John Paul II, says a Vatican prefect. "We know very well the profound friendship that existed" between the nun and the Pope, said Portuguese Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Sainthood Causes, in a report by the Catholic agency Ecclesia. The Holy Father is currently on a spiritual retreat at the Vatican. The cardinal was commenting on the nun's death, which occurred Sunday in the convent of Coimbra. Sister Maria Lucia of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart was 97. "They met several times, and for John Paul II they were always moments of great spirituality," the cardinal said. "The Pope has always said that the Virgin Mary saved him from the attack in St. Peter's Square on May 13, 1981. And Fatima and the little shepherds have a very special place in his heart." The Holy Father has credited the intervention of the Virgin of Fatima with saving his life in the 1981 attack by Mehmet Ali Agca. In thanksgiving, the Pope traveled to Fatima on May 13, 1982. There he placed the bullet that wounded him in the crown of the image of the Virgin of Fatima. Over the past few weeks, Sister Lucia's health condition had worsened. When receiving this news, John Paul II sent her a message last Saturday. Bishop Albino Cleto of Coimbra confirmed that Sister Lucia heard the reading of the papal message on Sunday and, being "very affected" by it, asked if she could personally read the text of the fax. "It was, perhaps, the last reaction she had in relation to the life around her," added the bishop in statements to Ecclesia. In his message, the Holy Father said that, on hearing of her illness, he prayed to God that the religious would be able to live "the moment of pain and suffering" with a "paschal spirit," and he ended his message imparting his blessing to her. Enclosed in her convent cell, Sister Lucia died surrounded by her sisters in religion, and by the bishop of Coimbra, her doctors, and the nurse attending her. Her death was due to her advanced age; she would have been 98 on March 22. John Paul II met with Sister Lucia on three visits to the Fatima shrine: in 1982, in 1991, and on May 13, 2000, the day he beatified the other Fatima visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta. ZE05021408 === ZENIT is an International News Agency. To receive ZENIT News Services by e-mail, FREE Subscription at: http://www.zenit.org/english/subscribe.html For reprint permission, please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] Visit our web page at http://www.zenit.org/ SEND US YOUR NEWS: Please send press releases, statements and other information to our international news desk at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Copyright (c) - Innovative Media, Inc. === You can send this news to a friend at the following link: http://www.zenit.org/english/send_friend/[EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]&sid=66360 Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? Network for Good is THE place to support health awareness efforts! http://us.click.yahoo.com/UwRTUD/UOnJAA/i1hLAA/wpWolB/TM ~-> "[M]y ministry is that of servus servorum Dei." --Pope John Paul II (Ut Unum Sint, no. 88) "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the powers of death shall not prevail against it." --Matthew 16:18 Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Pope-John-Paul-II/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
