(OSV NEWS) – Like any bona fide cat lover, Pope Benedict XVI’s face would light up and his hand would reach out at the sight of a fluffy feline – even when that soft bundle of fur was a squirming, feisty lion cub brought to the Vatican by visiting circus performers.
His comments about how animals must be respected as “companions in creation” earned him high marks with animal welfare groups, including the Humane Society of the United States and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
As cats are known to sense approaching cat lovers, Vatican kitties would apparently swarm around him. For example, one day after celebrating Mass at a small church near St. Peter’s Basilica, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger went to the church’s cemetery, which was full of cats, Konrad Baumgartner, an eyewitness and theologian, told Knight Ridder in 2005. “They all ran to him. They knew him and loved him.”
Pope Benedict XVI looks at a lion cub held by a performer of the Medrano Circus during his weekly general audience at the Vatican Jan. 28, 2009. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
A fellow cardinal who worked under the future pope at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith portrayed him as a kind of Dr. Doolittle.
“I tried to understand the language he used with cats, who were always enchanted when they met him. I thought maybe it was a Bavarian dialect, but I don’t know,” Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone told Vatican Radio in 2005.
While the pope never owned a cat, it was reported he fed the strays that lurked around the building he lived in as a cardinal in Rome.
Being pope, however, prevented him from such daily encounters. And yet he kept a white ceramic cat – crouched next to a silver icon of Our Lady – on his large desk in the papal apartments.
He and his brother, Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, also collected plates with images of cats.
His love for creatures and nature, the pope said, came from growing up in the Bavarian countryside. In the small town of Aschau am Inn, his childhood home, “I experienced the beauty of creation,” he said. He would hike and bike the surrounding hills and mountains and play with the many animals his neighbors kept.
Pope Benedict XVI pets Pushkin the cat, held by Father Anton Guziel, at the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in Birmingham, England, Sept. 19, 2010. The pope visited the oratory after beatifying Cardinal John Henry Newman. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano)
“I even herded cows,” which “brought me closer to nature, and it was important for me to have had this first experience with God’s creatures and to bond with animals,” he said.
When he later built a home in Pentling, near Regensburg, he became fast friends with the neighbor’s orange cat, Chico, who often wandered into his garden.
The neighbor, Rupert Hofbauer, said he also had a dog, Igor, who frequented the garden, “but the cardinal prefers Chico. There are dog and cat people in the world, and he is definitely a cat person.”
When Chico’s friend became famous as pope, the German “katz” became the ersatz narrator of a papal biography in the children’s book, “Joseph and Chico: The Life of Pope Benedict XVI as Told by a Cat.”
After the pope’s retirement, living at the Mater Ecclesiae monastery in the Vatican Gardens meant moving to kitty haven.
The good number of friendly, well cared for cats in the area – including Contessina, an often-photographed black-and-white female – meant finally being back among his feline friends.
By Msgr. Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo VATICAN – The shield chosen by Pope Benedict XVI is very simple: it is in the shape of a chalice. In each of the upper corners there is a “chape” in gold. The “chape” [cape] is a symbol of religion. It indicates an idealism inspired by monastic or, more specifically, Benedictine spirituality.
The principal field of the coat of arms is the central one which is red. At the point of honor of the shield is a large gold shell that has a triple symbolism.
Pope Benedict XVI chose the motto “Cooperatores Veritatis” (Cooperators of the Truth) for his coat of arms. The design of the shield takes inspiration from the monastic and Benedictine traditions of spirituality. Read the full description of his Coat of Arms on the Vatican’s website: https://bit.ly/PopeBenedictCoatofArms.
Its first meaning is theological. It is intended to recall a legend attributed to St. Augustine. Meeting a child on the beach who was trying to scoop up the sea into a hole in the sand, Augustine asked him what he was doing. The child explained his vain attempt and Augustine took it to refer to his own futile endeavour to encompass the infinity of God within the confines of the limited human mind.
The scallop shell, moreover, has been used for centuries to distinguish pilgrims.
Benedict XVI wanted to keep this symbolism alive, treading in the footsteps of John Paul II. The design of large shells that decorated the chasuble he wore at the solemn liturgy for the beginning of his Pontificate, Sunday, April 24, was most evident.
The scallop is also an emblem that features in the coat of arms of the ancient Monastery of Schotten near Regensburg (Ratisbon) in Bavaria, to which Joseph Ratzinger felt spiritually closely bound.
In the corner is a Moor’s head, the ancient emblem of the Diocese of Freising, founded in the eighth century, which became a Metropolitan Archdiocese with the name of München und Freising in 1818, subsequent to the Concordat between Pius VII and King Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria (June 5, 1817).
A brown bear is portrayed in the other corner of the shield, with a pack-saddle on its back. An ancient tradition tells that the first Bishop of Freising, St. Corbinian, set out for Rome on horseback. While riding through a forest he was attacked by a bear that tore his horse to pieces. Corbinian managed to tame the bear and make it carry his baggage. This explains why the bear is shown carrying a pack.
The shield carries the symbols connected to the person who displays it, to his ideals, traditions, programmes of life and the principles that inspire and guide him. The various symbols of rank, dignity and jurisdiction of the individual appear instead around the shield.
It has been a venerable tradition for the Supreme Pontiff to surround his shield with crossed keys, one gold and the other silver, in the form of a St. Andrew’s cross: these have been variously interpreted as symbols of spiritual and temporal power.
Matthew’s Gospel recounts that Christ said to Peter: “I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you declare bound on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you declare loosed on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19). The keys are therefore the typical symbol of the power that Christ gave to St. Peter and his Successors.
The Papal mitre shown in his arms, is silver and bears three bands of gold (the three powers: Orders, Jurisdiction and Magisterium), joined at the centre to show their unity in the same person.
There is also a completely new symbol in the arms of Pope Benedict XVI: the “pallium.” It is not part of the tradition, at least in recent years, for the Supreme Pontiffs to include it in their arms. It stands for the Pope’s responsibility as Pastor of the flock entrusted to him by Christ.
In general, it is customary to place a ribbon or cartouche below the shield, bearing a motto or a heraldic device. It expresses in a few words an ideal or a programme of life.
In his Episcopal arms, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had chosen the motto “Cooperatores Veritatis.” This remains his aspiration or personal programme but does not appear in his Papal arms, in accordance with the tradition common to the Supreme Pontiffs’ arms in recent centuries.
Pope St. John Paul II would often quote his motto, “Totus Tuus,” although it did not feature in his Papal arms. The absence of a motto in the arms implies openness to all ideals that may derive from faith, hope and charity.
By Gina Christian (OSV NEWS) – Catholic evangelizers are recalling the profound impact the late Pope Benedict XVI had on the Church’s mission of evangelization – a legacy that placed Jesus Christ at the heart of any effort to share the Gospel. “A personal relationship with Jesus – he always came back to that,” said Sherry Weddell, author of “Forming Intentional Disciples” and executive director of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Catherine of Siena Institute, which provides parish resources for faith formation in discipleship and evangelization. “Before we can go out and proclaim God, we must first know God ourselves. Pope Benedict XVI knew this was key to evangelize,” said Curtis Martin, founder and CEO of FOCUS, a Catholic outreach to college and university students. In an email to OSV News, Martin noted Pope Benedict significantly advanced the evangelization initiatives of Pope St. John Paul II, seeking to “reawaken the Christian faith in areas where it (had) once thrived, but had declined.”
Pope Benedict XVI arrives for a rally with young people outside St. Joseph Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., April 19, 2008. (CNS photo/Nancy Wiechec)
Martin said he was honored to have been appointed by the late pope, whom he had known “for more than 30 years,” as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, which Pope Benedict established in his 2010 motu proprio “Ubicumque et Semper.” (In June 2022, the council was merged with the former Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to create the Dicastery for Evangelization.) Pope Benedict “understood the connection between solid faith formation and evangelization,” said Father Hezekias Carnazzo, a Melkite Catholic priest and founding executive director of the adult catechetical Institute of Catholic Culture based in McLean, Virginia. For the late pope, that dynamic required “always required asking the question of who God is,” said Father Carnazzo, noting that Pope Benedict “very clearly answered that question with his encyclical ‘Deus Caritas Est’ (‘God is Love’), in which he reminds us that God is love, and love is the giving of ourselves to the beloved.” That message radiated in the late pope’s writings, said Weddell, who “quoted him extensively” in her book “Forming Intentional Disciples: the Path to Knowing and Following Jesus,” an updated edition of which was published in November by OSV Books. “The language he used was so clear,” Weddell said. “He talked about Jesus as living, present and active in his life, and was seeking … to help others have that same encounter.” Saul Keeton, a former Episcopalian who came into full communion with the Catholic Church, said Pope Benedict’s election marked “the true beginning” of his Catholic formation. “His papacy and his writings on the liturgy helped me to find my own voice,” said Keeton, now the advancement director for Family Missions Company in Abbeville, Louisiana. “I deeply appreciated the way he explained the beauty of the liturgy, and how important it was for us as humans to tap into that.” For many young people, particularly those of post-Millennial or “Gen Z” demographic, “Pope Benedict’s papacy and evangelization was foundational and formative,” said Martin. “He loved young people and brought them … to Jesus. He was their calm shepherd – his trust and his peace, which came from Our Lord, led the way.” Keeton pointed to Pope Benedict’s “very logical approach to exegesis and the fact that it began from a place of faith.” Keeton admitted he was “binging on Benedict podcasts” during his travel to the Jan. 2-6 SEEK23 conference in St. Louis. Yet the late pope’s greatest proclamation of the Gospel may well have been a silent one, said Keeton. Pope Benedict, the first pope to resign in 600 years, “spent the majority of his post-election years primarily as a contemplative intercessor,” said Keeton. “I have to imagine at times it was very lonely for him; he had to have known (his resignation) would be misunderstood. He took on this mystical element, and the suffering was unique.” The late pope’s final years witnessed to all that he had written about the faith, said Weddell. “What we have in him is a brilliant theologian who had lived it,” she said. “He had prayed it through, and you could tell by the way he talked about Jesus, his friend.”
(Gina Christian is a National Reporter for OSV News.)
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Pope Benedict XVI “spread and testified to” the Gospel his entire life, Pope Francis told tens of thousands of people gathered Jan. 5 for his predecessor’s funeral Mass.
“Like the women at the tomb, we too have come with the fragrance of gratitude and the balm of hope, in order to show him once more the love that is undying. We want to do this with the same wisdom, tenderness and devotion that he bestowed upon us over the years,” Pope Francis said in his homily.
The Mass in St. Peter’s Square was the first time in more than 200 years that a pope celebrated the funeral of his predecessor. Pope Pius VII had celebrated the funeral of Pius VI in 1802 when his remains were returned to Rome after he died in exile in France in 1799.
Pope Benedict, who had retired in 2013, had requested his funeral be simple; the only heads of state invited to lead delegations were those of Italy and his native Germany.
However, many dignitaries – including Queen Sofia of Spain and King Philippe of Belgium – and presidents and government ministers representing more than a dozen nations were in attendance, as were most of the ambassadors to the Holy See.
Pope Benedict XVI poses in Alpeggio Pileo near his summer residence in Les Combes, at the Valle d’Aosta in northern Italy, July 14, 2005. Pope Benedict died Dec. 31, 2022, at the age of 95 in his residence at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Reuters/Vatican Pool)
Members of the College of Cardinals sat on one side of the casket, while, on the other side, sat special guests, including the late pope’s closest collaborators and representatives of the Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican, Protestant and U.S. evangelical communities. Jewish and Muslim organizations also sent delegations.
Pope Francis presided over the Mass and Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, was the main celebrant at the altar. Some 120 cardinals, another 400 bishops and 3,700 priests concelebrated. The vestments and stoles were red in keeping with the color of mourning for deceased popes.
Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, who turns 91 Jan. 13, was allowed to leave China to attend the funeral of Pope Benedict, who had made him a cardinal in 2006. The retired cardinal was arrested in May and fined in November together with five others on charges of failing to properly register a now-defunct fund to help anti-government protesters.
More than 1,000 journalists, photographers and camera operators from around the world were accredited to cover the funeral in St. Peter’s Square.
An estimated 50,000 people filled the square for the Mass, and a number of visitors told Catholic News Service that banners and flags were being confiscated by security upon entrance. Of the few flags and banners that did make it past security was a white cloth with “Santo Subito” (“Sainthood Now”) written in red and a “Thank you, Pope Benedict” written in light blue in German.
Just as Pope Benedict dedicated his pontificate to directing the faithful’s focus to the person of Christ, Pope Francis dedicated his homily to Christ’s loving devotion and suffering witness as the “invitation and the program of life that he quietly inspires in us,” rather than on a summary of his predecessor’s life. Pope Francis spoke of Jesus’ grateful, prayerful and sustained devotion to God’s will and how Jesus’ final words on the cross, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit,” summed up his entire life, “a ceaseless self-entrustment into the hands of his Father.”
“His were hands of forgiveness and compassion, healing and mercy, anointing and blessing, which led him also to entrust himself into the hands of his brothers and sisters,” he said.
“Father into your hands I commend my spirit,” the pope said, is the plan for life that Jesus quietly invites and inspires people to follow.
However, he said, the path requires sustained and prayerful devotion that is “silently shaped and refined amid the challenges and resistance that every pastor must face in trusting obedience to the Lord’s command to feed his flock.”
“Like the Master, a shepherd bears the burden of interceding and the strain of anointing his people, especially in situations where goodness must struggle to prevail and the dignity of our brothers and sisters is threatened,” said the pope.
“The Lord quietly bestows the spirit of meekness that is ready to understand, accept, hope and risk, notwithstanding any misunderstandings that might result. It is the source of an unseen and elusive fruitfulness, born of his knowing the One in whom he has placed his trust,” he said.
“Feeding means loving, and loving also means being ready to suffer. Loving means giving the sheep what is truly good, the nourishment of God’s truth, of God’s word, the nourishment of his presence,” Pope Francis said, quoting his predecessor’s homily marking the start of his pontificate April 24, 2005.
“Holding fast to the Lord’s last words and to the witness of his entire life, we too, as an ecclesial community, want to follow in his steps and to commend our brother into the hands of the Father,” he said of Pope Benedict. “May those merciful hands find his lamp alight with the oil of the Gospel that he spread and testified to for his entire life.”
“God’s faithful people, gathered here, now accompany and entrust to him the life of the one who was their pastor,” the pope said. “Together, we want to say, ‘Father, into your hands we commend his spirit.'” “Benedict, faithful friend of the Bridegroom, may your joy be complete as you hear his voice, now and forever!” he concluded, as the crowd prayed in silence.
Pope Francis touches the casket of Pope Benedict XVI at the conclusion of his funeral Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Jan. 5, 2023. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Among the people in the crowd was Georg Bruckmaier who traveled nearly 10 hours by car to come to the funeral from his home in Bavaria, not far away from where the late pope was born.
Wearing a Bavarian flag around his back, he told CNS, “There are a lot of Bavarians here today, I’ve seen people I know from university. I wanted to be here for the atmosphere.”
“People felt very close to him, because he is a Bavarian, so this is a really big event to be here,” Bruckmaier said, adding that being able to pay his last respects before the pope’s remains in St. Peter’s Basilica, “is a different thing than seeing it on television. It’s something I won’t forget in my whole life.” Fiona-Louise Devlin told CNS she and her companions were wearing scarves from the late pope’s visit to Scotland in 2010. She said they traveled to Rome from Scotland specifically for the funeral, booking their flight the day the pope passed away.
“He’s the pope of our generation. Like, how so many people say that John Paul II was their pope, he was mine. I’ve traveled around the world to go to celebrations that he’s been a part of, so I wanted to be here for this,” she said.
As the day began, the thick morning fog obscuring the cupola slowly began to lift as 12 laymen emerged from the basilica carrying the pope’s casket. The crowd applauded as the cypress casket was brought into the square and placed before the altar.
The pope’s master of liturgical ceremonies, Msgr. Diego Giovanni Ravelli, and Archbishop Georg Gänswein, the late pope’s longtime personal secretary, together placed an opened Book of the Gospels on the casket. The simple casket was decorated with his coat of arms as archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany, which depicts a shell, a Moor and a bear loaded with a pack on his back.
The Bible readings at the Mass were in Spanish, English and Italian, and the prayers of the faithful at the Mass were recited in German, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Italian.
The prayers included petitions for “Pope Emeritus Benedict, who has fallen asleep in the Lord: may the eternal Shepherd receive him into his kingdom of light and peace,” followed by a prayer “for our Holy Father, Pope Francis, and for all the pastors of the church: may they proclaim fearlessly, in word and deed, Christ’s victory over evil and death.”
The other prayers were for justice and peace in the world, for those suffering from poverty and other forms of need, and for those gathered at the funeral.
At the pope’s funeral, like any Catholic funeral, Communion was followed by the “final commendation and farewell,” asking that “Pope Emeritus Benedict” be delivered from death and “may sing God’s praises in the heavenly Jerusalem.”
Pope Francis prayed that God have mercy on his predecessor, who was “a fearless preacher of your word and a faithful minister of the divine mysteries.”
While the funeral was based on the model of a papal funeral, two key elements normally part of a papal funeral following the farewell prayer were missing: there were no prayers offered by representatives of the Diocese of Rome and of the Eastern Catholic churches, since those prayers are specific to the death of a reigning pope, who is bishop of the Diocese of Rome and is in communion with the leaders of the Eastern-rite churches.
A bell tolled solemnly and the assembly applauded for several minutes – with some chanting “Benedetto” – as the pallbearers carried the casket toward St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis blessed the casket and laid his right hand on it in prayer, then bowed slightly in reverence before it was taken inside for a private burial in the grotto of St. Peter’s Basilica, in the same tomb that held the remains of St. Pope John Paul II before his beatification.
The evening before the funeral Mass a small assembly of cardinals, officials of St. Peter’s Basilica and members of the late pope’s household gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica to witness Pope Benedict’s body being placed into a cypress casket and closed. The ceremony took place Jan. 4 after about 195,000 people had paid their respects to the pope over three days of public viewing.
The “rogito,” a document rolled up and placed in a tube, was placed in the casket with the body. In addition to containing his biography, the legal document, written in Latin, also attested to his death and burial. Medals and coins minted during his pontificate also were placed in the casket.
Archbishop Gänswein and Msgr. Ravelli extended a white silk cloth over the deceased pope’s face. The pope was wearing a miter and the chasuble he wore for Mass at World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008; between his clasped hands were a rosary and small crucifix.
After the funeral Mass, the pope’s casket was taken to the chapel in the crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica where he was to be buried.
Although the burial was private, images supplied by Vatican Media showed Cardinal Re leading prayers and blessing the remains during the burial rite attended by a small number of senior cardinals, the retired pope’s closest aides and others.
The cypress casket was wrapped with red ribbon, which was affixed to the wood with red wax seals, then placed inside a zinc casket soldered shut and put inside a larger casket made of oak. The tops of both the zinc and oak caskets were decorated with a simple cross, a bronze plaque with the pope’s name and dates of birth, papacy and death, and his papal coat of arms.
His tomb is located between the only two women buried in the grotto under the basilica: the 15th-century Queen Charlotte of Cyprus and the 17th-century Queen Christina of Sweden.
The burial ceremony ended before 1 p.m. but Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said he thought the crypt would not be open to the public until Jan. 8.
(Contributing to this story was Justin McLellan at the Vatican. available to all of us through the sacraments and in loving union with one another.)
On the weekend of Jan. 21-22 the Catholic Church will mark for the fourth consecutive year, Sunday of the Word of God. Pope Francis dedicated the third Sunday in January on the feast of St. Jerome, Sept. 30, 2019, as such with his Apostolic Letter, Aperuit Illis taken from the Emmaus story when the two disciples recognized the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread and how with hearts burning, he “opened the Scriptures for them” as they walked along the road.
Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz, D.D.
We celebrated the culmination of the Christmas season last weekend with the feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ to the nations. The Magi in St. Matthew’s Gospel remain the pioneers for us as we seek our path in life, led by the star of God’s grace, into the presence of Jesus Christ.
A favorite Christmas card is the image of the Magi following the star with the caption, “The Wise still seek Him.” Their love for and study of the heavens led them into the presence of Christ. May our love for and study of the Word of God, a lamp for our feet, be the star that brings us into the presence of Jesus Christ, to adore, to open ourselves up in generosity, and to live with his mind and heart in this world. This encounter of worship and wisdom is God’s gift to us at the Eucharist, the source and summit of our life in Jesus Christ. The Word of God can open the eyes of faith to know the risen One in his Body and Blood upon the altar and in one another.
During this 60th anniversary year of the opening of Vatican II, let the timeless teaching of the Council reinvigorate in us the treasures of God’s Word, and the sacrament of the Eucharist. Sacrosantum Concilium, the exemplary document on the Mass, states splendidly that “the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist is the outstanding means whereby the faithful may express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and the real nature of the church.” (S.C.2) Likewise, “the Sacred Scripture is of the greatest importance in the celebration of the liturgy. Thus, to achieve the restoration, progress, and adaptation of the sacred liturgy, it is essential to promote that warm and living love for scripture.”(24)
Dei Verbum (Word of God), the document on divine revelation, sought to restore a profound love for the sacred scriptures throughout the church. “The church has always venerated the divine Scriptures just as she venerates the body of the Lord, since especially in the sacred liturgy, she unceasingly receives and offers to the faithful the bread of life from the table both of God’s word and of Christ’s body.” (DV 21)
The daily reading and praying with the Word of God that is much more common today finds its impetus in Dei Verbum. “The sacred synod also earnestly and especially urges all the Christian faithful to learn by frequent reading of the divine Scriptures the “excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ.” (Phil 3:8) St. Augustine sheds further light over the divine-human dialogue. “Your prayer is the word you speak to God. When you read the Bible, God speaks to you; when you pray, you speak to God.”
Finally, let us call forth the wisdom of Pope Benedict of happy memory who was present at the Second Vatican Council. “God’s word is given to us precisely to build communion, to unite us in the Truth along our path to God.
While it is a word addressed to each of us personally, it is also a word that builds community, that builds the church … For this reason, the privileged place for the prayerful reading of sacred Scripture is the liturgy, and particularly the Eucharist, in which as we celebrate the Body and Blood of Christ in the sacrament, the word of God is present and at work in our midst.”
From personal experience over a long life seeking to know the living God, Benedict proposed that “the Word of God sustains us on our journey of penance and conversion, enables us to deepen our sense of belonging to the church, and helps us to grow in familiarity with God.”
As St. Ambrose puts it, “When we take up the sacred Scriptures in faith and read them with the church, we walk once more with God in the Garden.” May we encourage one another in our love for God’s Word, in season and out of season, and with special focus at this time of Eucharistic renewal in the church.
A photo of the late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI sits near the Tabernacle at the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle after a Memorial Mass for the Repose of the Soul was celebrated by Bishop Joseph Kopacz on Thursday, Jan. 5. (Photo by Tereza Ma)
(Jan. 1, 2023) – The Catholic Church throughout the world commends to God Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, one of her outstanding witnesses to the love of Jesus Christ, the Good News first announced by the Angel and the Heavenly Host to the Shepherds caring for their flocks.
From the center of the church in Rome for decades serving in critical ministries, culminating in the papacy, Pope Benedict was able to announce the Good News of the Gospel in many remarkable ways, and ultimately to care for his world-wide flock. The Gospel on the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God in the Christmas season portrays his life in exemplary fashion.
Like Mary he treasured the Lord in his arms and the wisdom of the Catholic Faith of nearly 2000 years. By the light of faith he followed the path of the Shepherds, glorifying and praising God, announcing the Good News and evangelizing all, in the church and in the world. He was a Good Shepherd after the heart of Jesus Christ, a faithful priest, prophet, and king, the marks of own Baptism whose legacy will endure in the church he cherished so dearly.
Eternal rest grant unto him O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May he rest in peace. Amen.
May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.
In his novel, “Oscar and Lucinda,” Peter Carey offers this colorful image of gossip. The setting is a small town where there are rumors about the priest and a particular young woman. Here’s his metaphor: “The vicar of Woolahra then took her shopping and society, always feeling shopping to be the most intimate activity, was pleased to feel the steam pressure rising in itself as it got ready to be properly scandalized – its pipes groaned and stretched, you could hear the noises in its walls and cellars. They imagined he paid for her finery. When they heard this was not so, that the girl had sovereigns in her purse – enough, it was reported, to buy the priest a pair of onyx cufflinks – the pressure did not fall, but stayed constant, so that while it did not reach the stage where the outrage was hissing out through the open valves, it maintained a good rumble, a lower note which sounded like a growl in the throat of a smallish dog.”
What an apt image! Gossip does resemble steam hissing from a radiator or the growl of a small dog, and yet it’s important. For most of our lives, we form community around it. How so?
Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Imagine going out for dinner with a group of colleagues. While there isn’t overt hostility among you, there are clear differences and tensions. You wouldn’t naturally choose go out to dinner together, but you have been thrown together by circumstance and are making the best of it.
You have dinner together and things go along quite pleasantly. There’s harmony, banter and humor at the table. How do you manage to get on so well despite and beyond differences? By talking about somebody else. Much of the time is spent talking about others on whose faults, eccentricities, and shortcomings we all agree. Alternatively, we talk about shared indignations. We end up having a harmonious time together because we talk about someone or something else whose difference from us is greater than our differences from each other. Of course, you are afraid to leave the table because you already suspect whom they will be talking about then! Your fear is well founded.
Until we reach a certain level of maturity, we form community largely around scapegoating, that is, we overcome our differences and tensions by focusing on someone or something about whom or which we share a common distancing, indignation, ridicule, anger or jealousy. That’s the anthropological function of gossip – and it’s a very important one. We overcome our differences and tensions by scapegoating someone or something. That’s why it’s easier to form community against something rather than around something and why it’s easier to define ourselves more by what we are against than by what we are for.
Ancient cultures knew this and designed certain rituals to take tension out of the community by scapegoating. For example, at the time of Jesus within the Jewish community a ritual existed that essentially worked this way: At regular intervals, the community would take a goat and symbolically adorn it with the tensions and divisions of the community. Among other things, they would drape it with a purple cloth to symbolize that it symbolically represented them and push a crown of thorns into its head to make it feel the pain of their tensions. (Notice how Jesus is draped in these exact symbols when Pilate shows him to the crowd before the crucifixion: Ecce homo … Behold your scapegoat!) The goat was then chased off to die in the desert. It leaving the community was understood as taking the community’s sin and tension away, leaving the community free of tension by its banishment.
Jesus is our scapegoat. He takes away our sin and division, though not by banishment from the community. He takes away our sins by taking them in, carrying them, and transforming them so as not to give them back in kind. Jesus takes away sin in the same way as a water filter purifies, by holding the impurities within itself and giving back only what is pure. When we say Jesus died for our sins, we need to understand it this way: He took in hatred and gave back love; he took in curses and gave back blessing; he took in bitterness and gave back graciousness; he took in jealousy and gave back affirmation; and he took in murder and gave back forgiveness. By absorbing our sin, differences, and jealousies, he did for us what we, in a less mature and less effective way, try to do when we crucify each other through gossip.
And that’s Jesus’ invitation to us: As adults, we are invited to step up and do what Jesus did, namely, take in the differences and jealousies around us, hold them, and transform them so as not to give them back in kind.
Then won’t we need scapegoats any more, and the steam-pipes of gossip will cease hissing and the low growl of that smallish dog inside us will finally be silent.
(Oblate Father Ron Rolheiser is a theologian, teacher and award-winning author. He can be contacted through his website www.ronrolheiser.com.)
By Cindy Wooden VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The theological writings and papal teaching of the late Pope Benedict XVI were and will continue to be a blessing to the Catholic Church, Pope Francis wrote.
“Benedict XVI’s thought and magisterium are and always will remain fruitful because he knew how to focus on the fundamental references of our Christian life: first of all, the person and the word of Jesus Christ, as well as the theological virtues, namely charity, hope and faith,” the pope wrote in the introduction to a new book.
The Vatican publishing house described the book “Dio è Sempre Nuovo,” (“God is Ever-New”), as a collection of the “spiritual thoughts” of the late pope, “an anthology of the principal themes of the Christian faith in the words of Pope Benedict XVI.”
The book was edited by Luca Caruso, communications officer for the Joseph Ratzinger-Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation, and was scheduled for release Jan. 14. The Vatican published Pope Francis’ introduction Jan. 4.
Pope Francis’ highest praise for theologians always has been that they “do theology on their knees” in prayer and with love for the church.
“Benedict XVI did theology on his knees,” the pope wrote in the book’s introduction. “His explanation of the faith was carried out with the devotion of a man who has surrendered all of himself to God and who, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, sought an ever-greater participation in the mystery of that Jesus who had fascinated him from his youth.”
This is the cover of the book, “Dio è Sempre Nuovo,” (“God is Ever New”). The book is a collection of the spiritual thoughts of the late Pope Benedict XVI. (CNS photo/courtesy Libreria Editrice Vaticana)
The new book’s title, Pope Francis said, “expresses one of the most characteristic aspects of my predecessor’s magisterium and vision of faith: yes, God is always new because he is the source and reason for beauty, grace and truth.”
“God is never repetitive, God surprises us, God brings newness,” the pope wrote, and the “spiritual freshness” of the late pope’s writings confirms those affirmations “with intensity.”
Pope Benedict, he said, offered all Christians a model showing how “heart and reason, thought and affection, rationality and emotion interact” in both living and explaining the power of the Gospel.
The selected quotations, Pope Francis said, offer “a sort of ‘spiritual synthesis’ of Benedict XVI’s writings,” and demonstrates “his ability to show the depth of the Christian faith ever anew.”
Quoting just six words of the late pope – “God is an event of love” – is enough to do “full justice to a theology that always shows the harmony between reason and affection,” the pope said.
Another book about the late pope also was scheduled for release in January.
The Italian publisher Piemme announced it would publish Jan. 12 a book, “Nient’altro che la Verità” (“Nothing but the Truth”) by the late pope’s longtime personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein. Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, said Jan. 4 he had not spoken to the archbishop about the book so could not say if the publisher’s description was hype or reflected the contents of the book.
Piemme had said that with the death of Pope Benedict, “the time has come” for the archbishop “to tell the truth about the blatant calumnies and dark maneuvers that tried in vain to cast shadows on the German pontiff’s magisterium and actions.”
In his book From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, Msgr. James Shea makes the argument that the Catholic Church must reconnect with her evangelical roots. He spends a couple of chapters in this short book explaining that structures within our society that used to be infused with Christianity no longer are, and college students who used to return to their religious roots after a few years away at school often no longer do so. Msgr. Shea does a great job explaining the reality that we are living in, and he also gives an encouraging and invigorating challenge to those who love Jesus and His church: be disciples first, and then become apostles.
FOCUS seeks to answer this call in an inspiring way. The Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) is a national network of missionaries who work on college campuses to help students become disciples of Jesus Christ. They also train those student-disciples to become apostles, encouraging them to go out and preach the Gospel after it has led them to change their own lives. The annual FOCUS conference, SEEK, was held in St. Louis earlier this month, and the fruits of their mission were on display. About 19,000 people attended the conference. It was amazing to witness the faith and dedication of these young people, and not just their faith, but their formation. In speaking with the attendees and spending time with them, it was clear that they didn’t just like coming to church, but on top of that they were in a living relationship with Jesus Christ, or they were at least on the road to having one. They were dedicated to the sacraments and they understood why the sacraments were important to their life.
As the head of FOCUS, Curtis Martin stated in one of the breakout sessions: our colleges and universities help to set the course of our culture, and the next generation is formed during these four critical years, so we must bring the Gospel to these campuses or risk young people losing their faith entirely before entering the work force. This conference was a very life-giving event for me, but it also has left me considering what I can do as a priest to support the young people I met and was inspired by. The young church needs priests who will accompany them and bring them into contact with the Lord through the sacraments. There were about 400 priests at FOCUS, and it was amazing to see how the students would regularly come up to us with big smiles and ask for various items to be blessed, or for prayers for a certain intention, or for one of us to hear their confession.
As vocation director, I am grateful for the work done by campus ministers across our diocese. About 80 students from our diocesan universities attended the conference. FOCUS serves at Mississippi State right now and they had about 60 attendees alone! But all of us share in the responsibility to form our young people in the faith, and I am grateful that I was able to attend this event, and it has led me to think seriously about the way that I evangelize. Nearly 19,000 people attended a conference centered on Jesus and the sacraments. The desire for God is in the hearts of young people — what are we doing to bring Him to them?
– Father Nick Adam
If you are interested in learning more about religious orders or vocations to the priesthood and religious life, email nick.adam@jacksondiocese.org.
GREENVILLE – Roury McCloyen, a St. Joseph Catholic School Greenville senior, is one of the nation’s best shot put and discus throwers.
McCloyen established his faith early in life as he was influenced by his father, who was a pastor. He is beyond grateful for the impact the Catholic faith has had on his life. From helping his community through acts of service to assisting at weekly Mass, McCloyen is the epitome of what it means to be not only a Christian athlete but a record-breaking Christian athlete.
In April 2022, McCloyen’s discus throw broke the old MAIS record. McCloyen has been throwing both the shot put and the discus since he was nine years old.
When we asked why he started this particular sport, he responded, “When I was 9 years old, my coach put a shot put in my hand, and it just felt like it was meant for me.” Over the past decade, he has learned how to improve at his sport.
This past summer, Roury McCloyen, representing St. Joseph Catholic School Greenville, won the men’s shot put for his first-ever Junior Olympic title at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California. (Photo by USATF)
This past summer, McCloyen won the men’s shot put for his first-ever Junior Olympic title at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California.
“It was the best competition I ever had and going against a college commit made it even more fun,” wrote McCloyen.
Coming from a small town in the south traveling to California and competing in the Junior Olympics is a lot to talk about and be proud of for McCloyen and his family. This experience is the type of accomplishment that most young athletes dream of having. For McCloyen, it became a reality.
On Wednesday, Nov. 9, in a gym full of his family and friends, McCloyen accepted a full scholarship to Mississippi State University. In true his style, he threw everyone off a little bit at first by picking up a University of Alabama hat but quickly swapped that one out for a different shade of red and a cowbell in hand. The gymnasium erupted in cheer as his classmates, family and community were delighted that McCloyen was staying close to home.
“I chose Mississippi State because when I visited there it just felt like family. I know I can be around people that will help me grow. My goal is to make it to the Olympics,” McCloyen stated. Of course, he thanked his parents, Royal and Maury McCloyen, for helping him every step of the way.
In the last few months, McCloyen has added another championship ring to his collection for football. In November, the Fighting Irish won the MAIS 4A State Championship in football, and McCloyen was an integral part of the team. He earned his third championship ring in football with this victory, and he also has earned additional championship rings for basketball and track.
McCloyen has a bright future ahead of him, both academically and athletically. “The staff at St. Joe, cannot wait to see him succeed at MSU. We know he will have tons of Irish support following him,” said principal, Craig Mandolini.
When McCloyen was asked what his fondest memories at St. Joseph Catholic School will be, he replied, “When I leave here, I will remember all of my coaches, my teammates, and especially my teachers that helped me get through my high school years. Their love and support of me throughout school did not go unnoticed.”
Mandolini says there is something to say about having a young man like McCloyen being a product of Catholic education. With that, Mandolini likes to think about Hebrews 11:1 that says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
“Faith is not something we talk about or write about in concept. Our faith is in every action we take and every in word we speak. Roury has grown up not only in an environment at home where he can actively practice his faith but also at school where it is nourished and grows exponentially. Without our faith, we are nothing, and because of Roury’s faith, he’s an awe-inspiring Christian athlete,” said Mandolini.
“Here at St. Joe, we can’t wait to see where this road leads Roury in the future, but until then, we will enjoy watching him in his final months as an Irish!”
