Nuncio Ordained, New Cardinals Announced

Cardinal-designate, Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York

As I mentioned earlier, Mgr Charles Brown, our new Nuncio, was ordained Archbishop in St Peter's Basilica today, by Pope Benedict - EWTN covered the ceremony, and it was beautiful.   May the Lord grant him every grace as he prepares for his mission to Ireland.

The Vatican have also just annouced the names of those who are to receive the red hat in February - the Consistory is to be held on the 18th.  Among the future Cardinals is Archbishop Tim Dolan of New York: there will be great celebrations there.  He is a regular visitor to Ireland and often visited us in Drogheda.  He is also one of the Apostolic Visitators to Ireland, investigating the seminaries, which was no easy task.  May the Lord bless him as he is raised to the Cardinalate.   Here is his reaction to his elevation: as always - humble, self-effacing and practical. 

Here is the list of Cardinals designate. 

First the Curial/Roman Appointments:

1. Msgr. Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples;
2. Msgr. Manuel Monteiro de Castro, Major Penitentiary;
3. Msgr. Santos Abril Y Castellò, Archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major;
4. Msgr Antonio Maria Veglio, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People;
5. Msgr. Giuseppe Bertelli, President of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and President of the Governorate of the same State;
6. Msgr Francesco Coccopalmerio, President of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts;
7. Msgr JOÃO Braz de Aviz, Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life;
8. Msgr Edwin O'Brien, Pro Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem;
9. Msgr. Domenico Calcagno, President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See;
10. Msgr Giuseppe Versaldi, President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See.

The Metropolitan Archbishops, Primates, etc:

11. His Beatitude GEORGE Alencherry, Major Archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the Syro Malabar (India);
12. Msgr Thomas Christopher Collins, Archbishop of Toronto (Canada);
13. Msgr Dominik Duka, Archbishop of Prague (Czech Republic);
14. Msgr Willem Jacobus Eijk, Archbishop of Utrecht (Netherlands);
15. Msgr. Giuseppe Betori, Archbishop of Florence (Italy);
16. Msgr Timothy Michael Dolan, Archbishop of New York (United States);
17. Msgr. Rainer Maria Woelk, Archbishop of Berlin (Federal Republic of Germany);
18. Msgr John Tong Hon, Bishop of Hong Kong (China).

The Holy Father is also raising another prelate and three priests to the Cardinalate, all of whom are over eighty:

1. His Beatitude Lucian Muresan, Major Archbishop of Fagaras and Alba Julia of the Romanians (Romania);
2. Rev. Julien Ries, priest of the Diocese of Namur and professor emeritus of history of religions at the Catholic University of Louvain;
3. Fr. Prospero Grech, OSA, Professor Emeritus of various Roman universities and Consultant to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith;
4. Fr. Karl Becker, SJ, Professor Emeritus of the Pontifical Gregorian University, Consultant for many years the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Call To Endure

That violent movie Gangs of New York is on TV this evening.  It is a hard one to watch and it questionable whether faint hearts should look at it - there are better things to be doing.  That said, it reveals an ugly side of American history where, in what was called "the land of the free", a minority group were persecuted for their religious faith and ethnic background - the so-called natives and the Catholic immigrants.  The violent fiction of the movie tries to portray the battles between the two groups in the Five Points area of New York.

Catholics in the US were discriminated against.  A reading of the life of St Elizabeth Anne Seton reveals that all too well - her conversion brought her many enemies, though she eventually won hearts by her heroic charity and deep love for the poor and sick whom she served without any regard for distinction: they were all the children of God in need.

That love of St Elizabeth Anne is present in many Catholics who serve the common good in New York and the US, but will these examples of pure charity touch the hearts of those intent on persecuting the Catholic faith and its teachings?  The new motivation for persecution of Catholics in New York and the US will be, as it is becoming in many other countries notably Canada, Spain, the UK and soon, Ireland, is homosexualism.  I note with particular interest the sermon delivered by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York (see here). 

The Archbishop seems to be rallying Catholics and Christians in general, to the defence of the faith and to prepare for the worst.  If he is right, then the "land of the free" will, in historical terms, have guaranteed Catholics a very short period of freedom, respect and toleration given that Catholics were only accepted as real citizens in the early decades of the 20th century.  The "land of the free"?  Sometimes it is dangerous to proclaim such titles, they may prove ironic (and untrue) in the long run.

Of course the same could be said for Europe.  The EU, or the organisation which became the EU, was founded by good Catholics, one of whom is being considered for sainthood, and yet now the powers that be in the EU are radically secular and determined to diminish the freedoms of the Catholics. 

How do we respond?  With fidelity and charity, and with the resolution to carry whatever cross comes for Christ's sake.  I am impressed by the Archbishop's final words: they remind me of what Blessed Jerzy Popieluszko would have said, indeed Oscar Romero, Shahbaz Bhatti and St John Fisher.

“Like St. Thomas More, we’re willing to take the heat and even lose our head from following a conscience properly formed by God’s revelation and the teaching of His Church, even if it is politically incorrect, and clashes with the King’s demands to re-define marriage,”

Time to stick together, to support each other, to rally around those bishops who are being faithful and speaking out, and time for prayer and sacrifice.

There Is No Forgiveness For Them

Related to a post I wrote last week on the feast of Blessed Edmund Rice,  I see an article in the Catholic Herald on the future of the Christian Brothers.  The Superior, Br Philip Pinto says the future looks bleak, and financially they are broke.    Some of the comments in the combox are interesting. I presume they are written by Christians, though by the attitude there seems to be little Christianity in any of them.  One commenter puts it well -

By what I see from the comments, that this order has done nothing good at all. Then this order should be put down/disbanded because it seem that the sin of some is the sin of all. Yes, there is no forgiveness for them. They have betrayed the trust of the people and the faith, we never sinned at all, that's why we should hurl rocks at them... Remember... Jesus came down, much for the sinner than for the just.

That hits the nail on the head.  There is so much self-righteousness out there, there is no mercy.  I see the same with the reaction to the Mass for Osama bin Laden - it appears we must all consign him to hell.  Yet, if we remember what the Lord teaches us in the Gospel, and even in the prayer he taught us:  "Forgive us our trespasses AS we forgive those who trespass against us."  God's mercy is conditional  - it will be given on the condition we forgive others "from the heart".  Many of us seem to forget that.  But we need to take that seriously, our salvation, literally, depends on it.

That said, with regard to the Christian Brothers and the abuse crisis in general, I agree with Baroness Nuala O'Loan.  The Catholic Church is a scapegoat for a greater problem in Irish society, and in the world in general.  The vast amount of abuse is committed by the non-celibate, by the laity, yet to point that out is to bring condemnation on your head.  At the moment society is not willing to hear that fact, perhaps because, among other things, there are many in society who want to distract attention from their crimes and concentrating on the Church takes the heat off them.  But it also means that their victims are forced into silence: they are the silent majority who suffer abuse and neither governement nor media are interested because it is too dangerous for either party to try and scratch the surface of that problem.  There are a number of reasons for that, and I suspect one of them may be that when you start looking you never know who you will find among the guilty. 

No doubt you have read it already, but Archbishop Timothy Dolan's airport encounter is worth reading with regard to this.