Pope Benedict XVI to Cut Back on Foreign Trips

So says his brother.

“I think he won’t travel that much anymore, because it’s more and more of an effort,” Rev Georg Ratzinger said of Pope Benedict XVI, who has looked frail in recent weeks.

Rev Ratzinger, who is three years older than his brother, made the remarks during an interview with a Catholic news agency in Germany, KNA.

In a book published last week, he recalled how upset he was when his brother was made pope because he was afraid the role would impose too much mental and physical stress.

In ‘My Brother, the Pope’, published in German and English, he said he was “crestfallen” and “depressed” over his brother’s election as head of the Roman Catholic Church.

“I was seriously worried. I didn’t think of the honours or the positive aspects, but only of the toil and the burden which that responsibility meant for my brother.”
The Pope, who turns 85 on April 16, looked tired during Easter services in Rome.

His duties included leading the annual Way of the Cross procession around the Colosseum on Good Friday and celebrating Mass on Sunday in St Peter’s Basilica.

During his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (Latin for “to the city and to the world”) Easter speech he called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and for a return to peace in Mali, which was recently hit by a military coup.

During his trip to Mexico and Cuba last month, he used a walking stick publicly for the first time, amid long-standing concerns for his physical wellbeing.

Instead of walking down the long central aisle of St Peter’s, he travels on a platform on wheels which is pushed by Vatican aides.

The Pope, who succeeded John Paul II in 2005, has just one more foreign trip planned this year – to Lebanon in September, where he will celebrate Mass in Beirut.

 

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter Keeps Busy During Holy Week and Easter

“The journey to full communion, for both individuals and groups of the  Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, seems not to be unlike [the  journey of Moses and the Chosen People in their journey from captivity  to the Promised Land].  In these first three months, I have heard  stories of faith and courage that humble and inspire…” Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson.

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Ordinary for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter has been busy with visits to new and emerging communities for the new jurisdiction established by Pope Benedict in January 2012.

In his Holy Week message, Msgr. Steenson reflected on the choices being made by those who are coming into the Church.

“The journey to full communion, for both individuals and groups of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, seems not to be unlike [the journey of Moses and the Chosen People in their journey from captivity to the Promised Land].  In these first three months, I have heard stories of faith and courage that humble and inspire; but there have also been disappointing stories of those who have come to the doorstep but then for one reason or another do not step through the portal. These stories always bring sadness and sometimes scandal, when they involve an unwillingness to embrace wholeheartedly Catholic teaching and discipline. This is, according to Lumen Gentium 14, to those who know ‘that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ,’ a matter of salvation.

“On Palm Sunday I had the great privilege of visiting one of the happy stories of the Ordinariate, the Cathedral of the Incarnation, Orlando, which has been superbly shepherded over the years by Bishop Louis Campese.  Here are people who have been well catechized, with the right disposition, who have already built good relationships with the local Catholic Church, well poised to grow, and they are an excellent model for what an Ordinariate congregation can be.”

“In this infinite mercy, God watched over the reluctant pilgrims as they wandered through the wilderness for the next forty years.  But it was a severe mercy, a difficult penance, and many were not ultimately able to see the Promised Land before they died.  I pray that if you are on this journey, if you are persuaded that the Catholic Church is the will of Christ and the keys have been given to St. Peter and his successors, nothing will deter you from this holy goal, which is the principal mission of the Ordinariate.”

An Anglican priest and members of his parish from a suburb of Philadelphia were received into the Catholic Church during Holy Week

The rector and 25 members of St. Michael the Archangel Anglican parish in Philadelphia were received into full communion with the Catholic Church on April 2. This is the first Anglican community in Pennsylvania to join a new national structure created by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy who are becoming Catholic. The rector, Fr. David Ousley, is preparing to be ordained a Catholic priest later this year.

Monsignor Steenson will celebrate Mass and preach for the new Catholic community on Holy Thursday, April 5, 6 p.m. at Holy Cross Church, 140 E. Mount Airy Avenue in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia.

“We are very grateful to Pope Benedict for giving us this opportunity to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining our identity as Anglicans,” said Ousley.

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia said, “It’s my pleasure to prayerfully welcome David Ousley and the faithful of Saint Michael the Archangel Anglican Parish as they enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church. We will support our brothers and sisters in Christ on their spiritual journey. May the Lord grant them peace and every blessing.”

St. Michael’s traces its roots to the Episcopal Church of St. James the Less, founded in East Falls in 1846. For the past five years, the parish has been part of the Anglican Church of America. The community will be moving its Sunday services to Holy Cross Parish at 9 a.m. after Easter. Weekday services are at the St. Michael’s Rectory in Mount Airy.

An Indianapolis Anglican Community will join the Church at the Easter Vigil

Eighteen members of the St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican community in Indianapolis will be received into full communion with the Catholic Church during the Easter Vigil on Saturday, April 7, 9 p.m., at Ss. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian Street. Bishop Christopher Coyne, Apostolic Administrator for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, will be principal celebrant.

The St. Joseph of Arimathea Anglican Use Society is the first community in Indiana to join a new Ordinariate. Luke Reese, an Anglican priest who leads the group, is studying for ordination as a Catholic priest.

“We are very grateful to Pope Benedict for giving us this opportunity to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church while retaining our Anglican heritage, and to the Archdiocese of Indianapolis which has been very welcoming and kind to our group during this journey,” said Reese.

Msgr. Steenson noted, “I deeply appreciate the support that Bishop Coyne and the Archdiocese have given to this community. This has been a wonderful example of Christian unity and what I believe Pope Benedict intended when he created the Ordinariate.”

These two communities are among more than 1,400 people in 20 communities across the United States who have asked to join the Ordinariate and the third community in the United States to be received since January. The others are in Baltimore, MD and Philadelphia, PA. Nearly 40 former Anglican priests currently are studying to be ordained Catholic priests.

The first ordination now scheduled in the Ordinariate

In another exciting development, on Wednesday April 11, 2012, Jon David Chalmers will be the first of the Ordinariate candidates ordained to the diaconate. Jon has been called to Holy Orders by the Ordinary, Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson, and will be ordained by the Most Reverend Robert E. Guglielmone, Bishop of Charleston, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

An ordinariate is similar to a regular Catholic diocese, but national in scope. Pope Benedict XVI established it on January 1 in response to repeated requests by Anglicans seeking to become Catholic, and appointed Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop based in Houston, TX, as the leader. Ordinariate parishes will be fully Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage and traditions, including liturgical traditions.

For more information on the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, one of only two ordinariates in the world, visit www.usordinariate.org.

St. Michael’s Community in Philadelphia is online at http://anglicanphiladelphia.org and St. Joseph of Arimathea can be found at www.stjoearimatheasociety.org.

The above was here.

To it, sadly, I must add a nasty piece in Virtue Online, one of Virtue’s so-called ‘Exclusives’: TAC Bishop Moyer Serves Subpoena on Good Friday to Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. It’s Easter Day and I have no intention of dwelling on the article. Whatever is going on, it is despicable!

… Why is Moyer trying to uncover information about Steenson? What is he looking for? Is he so aggrieved at being rejected by Steenson for the Ordinariate that he is launching an investigation into Steenson – an investigation that plainly has no relationship to Lewis’s lawsuit?

… Moyer has hit the self destruct button, not unlike his leader, TAC Archbishop John Hepworth…

In the end, Rome declined to offer Hepworth the Ordinariate, inviting him to be laicized instead. Hepworth declined and is now in the process of trying to rebuild his denomination after being tossed out as Archbishop and Primate by TAC’s House of Bishops. Moyer has likewise been offered laicization. He appears likewise to be self-destructing.

Moyer has burned all his bridges having been cast out of The Episcopal Church, resigned from the Diocese of Pittsburgh, the Anglican Province of Central Africa, and lastly the Anglican Church in America, a Continuing Anglican group. It would appear that in filing a subpoena against Steenson, Moyer has burned his final bridge and is left with a small unaffiliated congregation that makes him little more than the leader of a cult.

On a more positive note, however, the Ordinariate’s decision not to admit Moyer proves beyond a fair peradventure that it has worked carefully to select only true men of God to serve the Roman Catholic Church, and that its decision-makers have exquisitely good instincts about those they may permit to be ordained as Catholic priests.  This writer, at least, finds this to be a hopeful and comforting thought on this Easter Week.

 

US Navy Declares Virginia Beach F-18 Crash ‘Easter Miracle’

US Navy Admiral John Harvey says the fact no one was seriously hurt when a fighter jet hit an apartment complex is a miracle.

The Telegraph:

Fire department officials said that all the residents of the complex have been accounted for. The crash injured seven people in all, including both crew members, and damaged six buildings. Everyone has now been discharged from hospital.

“We’re so blessed and truly believe a miracle has occurred here with us not having any victims,” Virginia Beach mayor Will Sessoms said at a brief news conference.

Standing next to him, US Navy Admiral John Harvey said he was impressed by the courage displayed by the residents.

“It was citizens that dragged our aircrew to safety, out of the fire zone. It was citizens who stepped up and helped move those hoses. It was citizens who evacuated the other inhabitants of the apartment complex and got that going and saved them from the fires that went through those buildings.

“It was a pretty amazing display in Virginia Beach of what citizenship really means and it came from an awful lot of people who didn’t have an awful lot,” he said.

The US Navy F/A-18 jet fighter crashed shortly after take-off on a training mission. Both crew members ejected and one was found still strapped into his ejection seat.

Officials said that many of the 60 or so residents are now seeking somewhere to live after spending last night in a Red Cross shelter.

Admiral Harvey said the US Navy will meet with the residents to help them find long term housing and discuss their options.

There is a video here.

 

The Resurrection of Christ

 

Easter Sunday!

Our Savior Jesus Christ is Risen, the grave could not contain Him…

¹Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary from Magdala went to the tomb. She saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb’s entrance. ²So she ran to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved. She told them, “They have removed the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they’ve put him.”³So Peter and the other disciple headed for the tomb. ⁴The two were running side by side, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. ⁵He bent over and looked inside the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there but didn’t go inside.

⁶Simon Peter arrived after him and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there. ⁷He also saw the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head. It wasn’t lying with the strips of linen but was rolled up separately. ⁸Then the other disciple, who arrived at the tomb first, went inside. He saw and believed. ⁹They didn’t know yet what Scripture meant when it said that Jesus had to come back to life.

- John 20:1-9