Catholic News Agency

Rome, Italy, Feb 4, 2012 / 06:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Currently on an “ad limina” visit to the Vatican, Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda is taking the Michigan faithful along with him by means of his blog.
“My blog is for all of my people in the Archdiocese of Detroit who can actually follow every single movement that I do,” Bishop Arturo Cepeda told CNA Feb. 3. “I call it a ‘virtual pilgrimage.’”
“So I’m blogging every single day, every meeting I go to. I take pictures and send them to my blog. I’m able to text and tell them what my feelings are and what’s going on.”
Ordained in May 2011 as an auxiliary bishop for Detroit, 42-year-old Bishop Cepeda is making the pilgrimage required of all dioceses every five years to meet with the Pope.  
The current visit allows the bishops of Detroit and Cincinnati to update the Pope and the Vatican on the health of the Church in their regions of the U.S.
For Bishop Cepeda, the “updating” goes two ways.
“For example, when I go to meetings with the different Vatican congregations, I give those reading the blog some idea of the issues we’ve just discussed,” he explained.
The auxiliary bishop's relative youth places him in a generation more at ease with the world of new media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.
“I’m a product of the 70s, and that was when that particular technological revolution began,” he said, “so I’ve always been on top of all the technological gadgets that are out there and I feel very comfortable with it all – and I believe that our future generations of Catholics feel very comfortable with it too.”
As the Church approaches Pope Benedict XVI’s “Year of Faith” which begins in October 2012, Bishop Cepeda also believes that such technologies can aid in the “New Evangelization” of the traditionally Christian West.
“I do believe in the new media and I do believe in communication. It’s a gift not only for society but it’s also a gift for our Church.”
“We want to communicate our feelings, we want to communicate our thoughts. We want to communicate faith, and truth, and how the truth can change our culture.”
Recent blog entries by the bishop have covered his Feb. 3 audience with Pope Benedict, as well as the unusually heavy snow covering Rome.
“Let me tell you, I lived here in Rome for five years and never saw snow fall once. So this is the first time I’ve seen snow in my life here in Rome and it is coming down pretty heavy.”
Detroit Catholics, of course, got an update about it at http://aodonline.wordpress.com/.
“I have already taken pictures and sent them to my blog,” Bishop Cepeda said, clutching his smartphone. “I told them: ‘Guess what! Right after our meeting with the Holy Father it began to snow – so it seems that Detroit is following me all the way to Rome!’”

Vatican City, Feb 4, 2012 / 06:09 pm (CNA).- The director of the Vatican Observatory said that the Church is open to the scientific theory that the world began from a cosmic explosion billions of years ago.

“The Big Bang is not in contradiction with the faith, ” Father Jose Gabriel Funes said during a Feb. 2 announcement of a Vatican exhibit that will feature photos, research tools and minerals from the Moon and Mars.

The exhibit titled “Stories from another world: The Universe within us and outside us,” will be on display March 10 - July 1 in Pisa, the birthplace of Galileo, the father of modern astronomy. 

Fr. Funes told CNA at the event that the Big Bang explanation “is the best theory we have right now about the creation of the universe.”

The theory holds that creation began some 14 billion years ago with a colossal explosion in which space, time, energy and matter were created, and galaxies, stars and planets – which are in continual expansion – came to be.

“We know that God is the creator,” he added, “that He is a good Father who has a providential plan for us, that we are his children, and that we everything we can learn by reason about the origin of the universe is not in contradiction with the religious message of the Bible.”

Fr. Funes said that as an astronomer and a Catholic, he is open to this explanation of the creation of the universe, despite “some yet unanswered questions.”

He noted, for example, that while there is no proof of other intelligent life in the universe, “we cannot rule it out,” since studies show that there are nearly 700 planets orbiting other stars.

“If in the future it was established that life, and intelligent life, exists, which I think would be very difficult, I don’t think this contradicts the religious message of creation because they would also be creatures of God,” he said.

Ultimately, Catholics “should see the cosmos as a gift of God” and should “admire the beauty that exists in the universe.”

“This beauty we see in some way leads us to the beauty of the creator,” he said.

 “And also, because God has granted us intelligence and reason, we can find the logos, that rational explanation that exists in the universe that allows us to engage in science as well.”

The Church’s official interest in astronomy dates back to the 16th century. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII decided to officially create the Vatican Observatory to show that the Church is not against scientific development, but rather promotes it.

Since then, the Vatican Observatory has operated out of Castel Gandolfo and uses a telescope located in Tuscon, Arizona, for research.

Vatican City, Feb 3, 2012 / 08:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Being Catholic in 2012 involves “paying a price” for loving Jesus Christ and his Church, says Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.

“If we are not willing to pay a price for the grace of the revelation then it is a sign that we don’t really treasure it,” the archbishop told CNA Feb. 3.

“And maybe that is what God is asking us to do – to re-appropriate our own conviction about how precious the knowledge of Jesus is to us.”

Archbishop Vigneron is currently in Rome with 16 other bishops from the Provinces of Detroit and Cincinnati to update the Vatican and Pope Benedict on the health of their dioceses. As part of their “ad limina” visit, the group has also made pilgrimages to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.

“When I see those tombs,” said Archbishop Vigneron, “I immediately think of Our Lord’s big recruitment speech to the apostles when he said ‘I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves’ and I imagine them looking around at one another and saying ‘Is he talking to us?’”

And yet, Christ's prediction that “if they rejected me they’ll reject you,” is present for Catholics “in every age” even if “it differs in how it takes its shape,” he said.

He believes that one clear manifestation of this is the Obama administration’s decision to force all health insurance to cover sterilization and contraception services, including abortifacient drugs. The “price to be paid,” he said, could be in terms of religious freedom and also financially.

“If I think about these fines that it seems the government will impose upon us, well that is money I could use in my Catholics schools, it’s money I could use for feeding the hungry, providing services to people with addiction. I expect we’ll have to pay a price like that.”

The one price that Archbishop Vigneron said he will refuse to pay is any violation of Catholic moral teaching. As Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York recently said, “they’ve given us a year to figure out how we can violate our principles – it’s not going to happen.”

On Friday morning, Archbishop Vigneron led the bishops of the Detroit Province as they met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience. During the seminar-style discussion, the Pope was asked about how to authentically interpret the Church’s mind as regards the liturgy.

“The Pope’s way of talking about it was to say that the liturgy is the experience of the Church and what should happen is that people experience at the Mass the existence of the Church as it is true through all time. I thought that was a very good way to talk about it,” said Archbishop Vegneron

He added that he has “heard the Pope make this point before. The liturgy isn’t something we do. It’s something we inherit and enter into.”

Archbishop Vigneron said the meeting with the Pope also “confirmed” the bishop’s own intuition “that we really have to focus ourselves on the new evangelization,” which involves giving “intentionally focused energy on bringing the Gospel to people who think they’ve already heard.”

That doesn’t involve “some sort of miracle program,” he contended, but does involve “helping people who are strong in their faith to share their faith.”

The archbishop said he took inspiration from the 19th century English cleric, Cardinal John Henry Newman, who saw faith as growing “from being passed from one heart to another heart.”

In modern society, there is immense opportunity to evangelize those “parts of our culture that look upon the Gospel and Gospel way of life as a burden which they seem to think they are fortunate to have escaped,” he noted.

“What we bring is not an onerous burden – we bring a liberation,” he said, “and people may not know they do want this good news from Jesus but it really is what they’re looking for.”

Archbishop Vigneron and the other bishops conclude their “ad limina” visit on Monday Feb 6. He said they return home full of “new encouragement” after a week that has helped them to “take stock of our lives and to find some new breath to go back to reapply ourselves to our task.”

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2012 / 07:16 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI marked the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord with vespers and explained that the presentation of Jesus in the temple reveals Christ as the light of the world.

“In the encounter between the old man Simeon and Mary, a young mother, the Old and New Testaments come together in a wondrous way in giving thanks for the gift of the light that shone in the darkness and has prevented it from prevailing: Christ the Lord.”

The Pope presided over solemn vespers at St Peter’s basilica for the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, Feb. 2. 

The feast recalls the occasion when Mary and Joseph, in observance of Jewish custom, presented their first born son to the priest in the temple in Jerusalem 40 days after his birth.

There they were met by the old priest Simeon who was promised that “he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.” It is he who declared the infant to be “the light to enlighten the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”  

This “ritual act” of the parents of Jesus is in the “style of humble obscurity that characterizes the Incarnation of the Son of God,” said the Pope. 

He noted that the feast is “one of the cases in which the liturgical season reflects the historical because today is precisely 40 days from the feast of Christmas.”

“The theme of Christ the Light, which has characterized the series of Christmas feasts and culminated in the Feast of the Epiphany, is taken up and extended to the celebration today.”

Indeed, one of the traditional names given to today’s feast is “Candlemas” denoting the blessing of candles which often takes place and the candlelit procession that begins and concludes the liturgy of vespers.

Pope Benedict also noted that today is the World Day for Consecrated Life. The term “consecrated” applies to those Christians who have taken public vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Many monks, nuns and others who live consecrated lives were present in St. Peter’s basilica for vespers.

The Pope told them that the presentation of Jesus “is a significant icon” for those who serve both Church and world “through the evangelical counsels, the characteristic traits of Jesus, chaste, poor and obedient, the Anointed of the Father.”

He recalled how the day had been instituted by Blessed Pope John Paul II in 1987 to give “praise and thanks to the Lord for the gift of this state of life, which belongs to the Church’s holiness.”

He also said that the day is an occasion for those who live the consecrated life to give “testimony” to the world and to “renew and revitalize” their own vocation.

“This we do today, this is the commitment that you are called to carry out every day of your life,” he told them. 

He concluded by looking ahead to his Year of Faith which begins in October 2012. He told those living the consecrated life that the “most important and distinctive element” of their existence was their “deep closeness to the Lord” and that this would have a “positive influence” on everybody during the Year of Faith.

His hope was that they will “engage enthusiastically in the new evangelization,” through “the contribution of your gifts, in fidelity to the Magisterium, in order to be witnesses of faith and of grace, credible witnesses for the Church and for the world today.”

 

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2012 / 06:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican’s Observatory is helping organize an exhibition that will delve into the history of the universe at both the human and celestial levels.
 
“Stories from another world: The universe inside and outside us,” will run from March 10 to July 1 in the Italian city of Pisa.
 
“This exhibition will tell the story of the universe outside us, the galaxies and stars, and the universe that is within us,” explained Jesuit Father José Gabriel Funes, Director of the Vatican Observatory, in remarks to CNA on Feb. 2.

The exhibition was announced at the Vatican’s press office this morning. It is being organized in conjunction with the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics, Pisa University and the “Palazzo Blu” cultural foundation, which will host the event at their headquarters in Pisa.

“The history of the universe could not be told without our ‘small’ human stories,” said Fr. Funes, a 49-year-old Argentinean priest and astronomer. He believes the city of Pisa has “a privileged place” in this story about the “intersection of cosmic history and human history.”

Pisa is the birthplace of the famous astronomer Galileo Galilei, but it is also the hometown of Cardinal Pietro Maffi. He was both archbishop of the city and president of the Vatican Observatory in the early 20th century.

“Cardinal Maffi lived a dual existence: the world of the Church and that of science,” said Fr. Funes, explaining how the cardinal always saw “an opportunity for cooperation and growth between these two aspects of human experience,” since they work in harmony “in the search for the deeper meaning of human existence.”

Fr. Funes stressed that the complementarity of faith and science is a message Pope Benedict XVI is particularly keen to impart to young people.

He recalled that in 2010 the Pope encouraged school children in the United Kingdom to remember that “every subject you study is part of a broader horizon.”

With that perspective in mind, Fr. Funes said the exhibition will be aimed at young people. It will attempt to “make complex and difficult knowledge accessible, while at the same time avoiding the risk of superficiality.”
 
Cosimo Bracci Torsi, the President of the “Palazzo Blu” Foundation, told journalists that the event “is the outcome of fruitful collaboration between lay scientists and religious scientists – all members of scientific institutions of great prestige but with very different origins.”

And he promised that the exhibition will include “spectacular images, instruments and exhibits, such as Lunar and Martian minerals.” Torsi said visitors will embark “on a fascinating journey which begins in the solar system and our material nature, reaching the stars of this and other galaxies, up to the spatial and temporal confines of the universe and of our current knowledge.”

Today’s announcement comes only two weeks after Pope Benedict established a new foundation aimed at building a “philosophical bridge” between science and theology. The Science and Faith Foundation will be headquartered within the Vatican, under the auspices of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
 
“Catholics must see in the cosmos a gift from God,” explained Fr. Funes, adding that everybody, Catholic or otherwise, can clearly “admire the beauty in the universe, the cosmos, beauty that somehow leads us to the beauty of the creator.”

“Also, because God has endowed us with intelligence and reason, we can find the logos, the rational explanation in the universe that allows us to do science ... and which also explains to us the creative plan of God.”

Vatican City, Feb 2, 2012 / 01:45 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Nobody is “worthy” of the call of Christ, and yet, Jesus still calls everybody to him, Archbishop Dennis M. Schnurr of Cincinnati said at the tomb of St. Peter on Feb. 1.

Archbishop Schnurr said he often hears young men who think they are called to the priesthood exclaim, “Archbishop, I’m not worthy of that!”

“But that’s the point isn’t it?” he said, “none of us is worthy to be considered an instrument of God shaping his Church, shaping his people, making them into the livings stones upon which the Church is built.”

Yet “in humility we accept that role,” especially since anything can be achieved by a person “filled with Christ and filled with confidence in faith.”

Archbishop Schnurr was joined by 16 other bishops from the Provinces of Detroit and Cincinnati at the start of their ad limina visit to Rome. The visits take their name from the Latin phrase “ad limina apostolorum” (to the threshold of the apostles), which indicates that one of the main purposes for the visits is to pray at the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul.

Over the next six days the bishops will also meet with Pope Benedict and various Vatican departments to discuss the health of the Church in their dioceses.

As is traditional, the bishops began their visit with Mass at the tomb of St. Peter.

In his homily, Archbishop Schnurr drew inspiration from the numerous papal tombs surrounding the bishops in the crypt, which is situated below the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica.

“Today as we celebrate Mass in this crypt we realize the call to faith, the faith upon which the Church is built,” he said, noting, “we are surrounded by the mortal remains of individuals who have surrendered their life for the faith and have built up the Church in significant ways.”

He said that many saintly Popes had managed to achieve great things despite their human frailties – including St. Peter.

“We know how his faith was tested and how, in fact, Peter did fail at times.

“But ultimately he triumphed by his martyrdom for the faith,” thanks to the grace he received from Christ, Archbishop Schnurr said.

The example of St. Peter and his successors should remind the bishops that they “are not the ones who are achieving things in our own churches,” he said. Instead, they are “instruments through which Christ is working.”

The bishops will spend their first day of their ad limina in meetings with the Congregations for Bishops, Clergy, and Institutes of Consecrated Life.

The bishops were also treated on the evening of Feb. 1 to a reception at the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, hosted by Ambassador Miguel Díaz.

Vatican City, Feb 1, 2012 / 03:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Christians should trust in the loving providence of God, even when going through dark periods in life, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Feb. 1 general audience.

“In prayer we must be able to bring before God our fatigue, the suffering of certain situations and of certain days, our daily struggle to follow him and to be Christians, and even the weight of evil we see within us and around us, because he gives us hope, makes us aware of his nearness and gives us a little light on the path of life,” he said.

Pope Benedict offered his reflections to thousands of pilgrims who gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.

His address continued an ongoing series on the subject of prayer and focused on the prayer of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, just prior to his arrest, passion and death.

Jesus’ Company
 
While Jesus previously withdrew from the crowds and his disciples to pray in the wilderness or on a mountain, the Pope noted that this time Jesus did not want to be alone and called Peter, James and John to be closest to him. They were the same disciples who were chosen by Jesus to be with him during his Transfiguration.

“This proximity of the three during prayer in Gethsemane is significant,” explained the Pope, because “their presence is an invitation to every disciple to draw near to Jesus along the way of the Cross.”
 
Christ’s Fear and Anguish
 
Christ’s anguish, the Pope said, is articulated in his words to the three disciples – “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Stay here and watch.” His statement is foreshadowed throughout the Old Testament, the Pope taught, highlighting the suffering of the prophets Elijah and Moses. They experienced the same emotion after “finding hostility, rejection, persecution” following God entrusting certain tasks to them.

In the case of Jesus, his words show that he was experiencing the “fear and anguish at that ‘hour’ … the ultimate profound solitude as God’s plan was being accomplished,” said the Pope.
 
Christ’s fear and anguish also “summarizes all the horror that man feels at the prospect of his own death, its inexorable certainty and the perception of the burden of evil which affects our lives.”

Praying on the Ground
 
Jesus then moves away from the disciples and lays on the ground. The Pope noted that Christ’s prostration is “a position for prayer which expresses obedience to the Father’s will, an abandonment of self with complete trust in Him.”
 
Similarly, this is a position assumed by monks when professing vows, or by bishops, priests and deacons at their ordination. It is also the position priests assume when they begin the service for Christ’s passion on Good Friday. As a posture it expresses “in prayer, even bodily, complete reliance on God,” said the Pope.

Christ then asks that, if possible, he be spared his impending ordeal. “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want but what you want.”

Pope Benedict explained that this episode “is not just the fear and anguish of man in the face of death.” It is also the “distress of the Son of God Who sees the terrible accumulation of evil He must take upon Himself, in order to overcome it and deprive it of power.”

Revealing Passages
 
The Pope then highlighted three “revealing passages,” contained in this particular Gospel scene.

He first said that Jesus’ use of the Aramaic word “Abba,” which was used by children to informally address their fathers, expresses “Jesus relationship with God the Father, a relationship of tenderness, affection and trust.”

Jesus also teaches people about his Father’s omnipotence, the Pope noted, when he makes “a request in which, once again, we see the drama of Jesus’ human will in the face of death and evil.”
 
Most importantly, said the Pope, we see that ultimately Christ’s “human will adheres fully to the divine will.” In doing so “Jesus tells us that only by conforming their will to the divine will can human beings achieve their true stature and become ‘divine.’”

Pope Benedict said that if Christians pray the Our Father and ask that God’s will is done, “a little of heaven” is brought to earth as a “place where love, goodness, truth and divine beauty are present” but “only if the will of God is done.”

He concluded by telling the pilgrims that in daily prayer they “must learn to have greater trust in Divine Providence, to ask God for the strength to abandon our own selves in order to renew our ‘yes,’ to repeat to Him ‘your will be done,’ to conform our will to His.”

Vatican City, Jan 31, 2012 / 09:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of several southern U.S. states say they are returning home from their “ad limina” visit to Rome refreshed and ready to evangelize.

“I think we just felt so energized by being present with the Holy Father,” Archbishop Thomas J. Rodi of Mobile, Ala. told CNA on Jan. 27.
 
“He is such a gracious man, a great man, a welcoming man. And I just feel very affirmed in my role as a bishop and now look forward to returning to Alabama so I can share that with the people of God.”
 
Archbishop Rodi and 21 of his fellow bishops have been in Rome since Jan. 22 for discussions with Pope Benedict and Vatican officials on the health of the Church in their dioceses. The group comes from the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky. They are the fifth delegation of U.S. bishops to visit to Rome in recent months, and on Feb. 1 they will return home.

“The Holy Father is obviously very concerned by evangelization in our world that is becoming increasingly secular and at the same time so hungry for the Word of God,” said Archbishop Rodi, who was part of a group that met Pope Benedict on Jan. 27.

“He made it so beautifully clear,” recalled Archbishop Rodi, “that the foundation of evangelization must be the calling of people into a personal relationship with Christ – those were his words, a personal relationship with Christ.”
 
He said the Pope told them that he knows their “flocks are small but they are important,” and that he wants them to be welcoming all those who seek to enter the Catholic Church.

Bishop Robert Baker of Birmingham, Ala. said the meeting with Pope Benedict gave him inspiration for the forthcoming Year of Faith, which begins Oct. 2012.

“I mentioned to him that he has already written encyclicals on hope and on charity and that we look forward to his next one on faith so that trilogy shall be complete,” he said.

Bishop Baker explained how his diocese is already “cranking up in different ways,” ahead of the Year of Faith. The diocese’s preparations include the creation of a new “catechetical institute” to help certify those who teach the Catholic faith in schools and elsewhere.
 
Pope Benedict was also eager to hear from Bishop Baker about the Eternal Word Television Network, the global Catholic broadcaster based in the Diocese of Birmingham.

He said the Pope was particularly interested in the “efforts towards the new evangelization that are going on through EWTN.”

Pope Benedict also asked Bishop Baker to encourage the station in its “continued collaboration with the Holy Father, the Vatican and bishops across the United States.”

Bishop Baker explained to Pope Benedict how “the flavor of Catholicism in the South is drastically changed” because of the increased numbers of Latinos migrating to the area in recent years.

He related to the Pope how the local Church has stood in solidarity with the immigrant population, particularly over proposed new immigration laws in Alabama which he feels need to be “softened in terms of religious freedom.”

They also discussed the challenge that changing demographics present to the Church’s mission to evangelize.
 
“It calls us bishops into responding ourselves by learning Spanish and about the cultures of Latin America. And then having our priests and seminarians learn the Spanish language, too,” said Bishop Baker.

The challenge is “not just to learn the language but embrace the peoples and the cultures,” he explained.

Vatican City, Jan 29, 2012 / 04:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The power of Jesus Christ is manifested in humble service and love, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Sunday Angelus address on Jan. 29.

“For man, authority often means possession, power, control, success,” the Pope said to thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.

“For God, however, authority means service, humility, love,” he continued, “it means entering into the logic of Jesus who stoops to wash the disciples’ feet, who seeks the true good of man, who heals wounds, who is capable of a love so great as to give up his life, because he is Love.”

The Pope’s made his comments as part of a reflection on today’s Gospel reading in which an unclean spirit identifies Jesus Christ as the “Holy One of God,” during his travels in Galilee. The Pope observed how Jesus heals both spiritually and physically through his teaching and miracles.

“In a short time, his fame spread throughout the region, which he travels announcing the Kingdom of God and healing the sick of all kinds: word and action.”

He then quoted the fifth-century Church father St. John Chrysostom, who noted that Jesus “alternates the speech for the benefit of those who listen, moving on from wonders to words and again passing from the teaching of his doctrine to miracles.”

The Pope suggested that Jesus’ use of words immediately opened up most of those listening to “the will of the Father and the truth about themselves.” However,  the scribes who “struggled to interpret the Holy Scriptures with countless reflections” were not open to his words.

Therefore, Jesus also united to his words to miraculous actions as “signs of deliverance from evil,” the pontiff explained.  He further recalled how St. Athanasius, the third-century Church father, would say that the “commanding and driving out demons is not human but divine work” and demonstrates how Jesus “distanced men from all diseases and infirmities.”

“Divine authority is not a force of nature." Instead, it is “the power of the love of God who created the universe and, in becoming incarnate in His only begotten Son, in coming down to our humanity, heals the world corrupted by sin.”

Pope Benedict finished with a quotation from Romano Guardini, the 20th-century Italian-German philosopher and theologian, who wrote that “the whole life of Jesus is a translation of power in humility ... Here is the sovereignty that lowers itself to the form of a servant.”

Rome, Italy, Jan 28, 2012 / 07:03 am (CNA).- U.S. Military Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio says the collapse of Iraq’s Christian population is among the legacies of America's invasion in 2003.

“Yes, you can say in a certain sense that the invasion of Iraq did provoke this tremendous diminution of the Christian population in that country. And what the future holds, that still remains to be seen,” the archbishop for the armed forces told CNA during his visit to Rome on Jan. 16.

His comments come only a month after the final pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq, where they remained following the invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein. Aid agencies estimate that over the course of eight years, the Catholic population of Iraq fell from over 800,000, to less than 150,000 now

Archbishop Broglio believes Catholicism suffered after the invasion because of a perceived closeness to its previous ruler. He said Saddam Hussein tended “to trust Catholics, and gave them positions of responsibility.” One prominent Iraqi Catholic was Hussein’s Foreign Minister Tarik Aziz.

And even if Catholics “weren’t particularly part of the regime, they became identified with the regime,” Archbishop Broglio said.

“Before, they were a minority that was protected, but now they are a minority that is not protected.”

As President Barack Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops from Iraq on Dec. 15, he said they were leaving behind a “sovereign, stable and self-reliant,” country.

But there are signs that Iraqi Christians' plight has worsened since then.

“At a time of increased political instability, we continue to receive disturbing reports,” said John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need on Jan. 20.

He said an attack took place earlier in the month against security personnel outside the residence of Kirkuk's Archbishop Louis Sako.

Archbishop Sako, who was indoors at the time, told Aid to the Church in Need that the situation is less stable now that U.S. troops are gone, with much of the turmoil stemming from the power struggle between Sunni and Shiite Muslims.

Pontifex says there is a “ticking bomb regarding Christianity in Iraq.”

“Few Christians, no matter how deep their roots are in the local society, feel able to withstand the pressure to leave.”

Fear of an attack forced Archbishop Sako to cancel the Chaldean Catholics' midnight Christmas celebration last month. Services were moved to the daytime, and Christians were warned not to display decorations outside their homes.

Nevertheless, it appears that many of the Catholics who fled Iraq would return if safety improved.

Monsignor John Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, recently spoke of the “strong determination” some Iraqi Catholics have to go back home. He recently visited Jordan, where many Christians from Iraq now reside.

“I think they have a yearning to return to the homeland, and that homeland for them means practicing their Chaldean-rite Christianity,” the monsignor said. “That has become very, very important to them.”

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2012 / 07:26 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski told those affected by leprosy that God's love will never fail them.

In statement for the 59th World Leprosy Day, which will be observed on Jan. 29, the archbishop addressed survivors of the disease and those still suffering from it around the globe.

“He who is in suffering and … prays to the Lord is certain that God's love will never abandon him,” the Archbishop told those who are suffering from the disease.

Archbishop Zimowski, who heads the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, said that those currently being treated for leprosy can and must “express all the riches of their dignity and spirituality.” He also counseled them to be in solidarity with others who have been “equally afflicted and have been marked indelibly by this infection.”

Those who have been cured of the disease can “communicate their gratitude in a practical way” by providing moral support to those still suffering from leprosy and contributing to the identification and prevention of the disease, he said.

“Those who have attained a cure can in this way communicate all their interior riches ... as people touched by suffering and involved in working for the health of the community to which they belong.”

Leprosy, which is also called Hansen’s Disease, has not been eradicated from the modern world, although it continues to decrease every year. The World Health Organization estimated a total of about 200,000 cases in 2010 – 2011.

Archbishop Zimowski said that God's love and the love of the Church, which is an extension of God's work, “will never fail” them.

Pope Benedict XVI recently chose the gospel passage of Luke 17:19, “Stand and go; your faith has saved you” as the theme for the 20th World Day of the Sick, to be held on Feb. 11.

The archbishop pointed out that those afflicted by leprosy can find particular comfort in the Pope's scripture selection because it speaks of Christ's healing of the 10 lepers who were “readmitted to the community and reintegrated into the social occupational fabric.”

He expanded on the scripture passage by pointing out that the leper who returned to thank Jesus showed that “reacquired health is a sign of something more precious that mere physical healing.” The healing that the leper experienced was also a sign of salvation through Christ.

Archbishop Zimowski noted the many volunteer organizations that have helped in reducing the number of cases of leprosy, especially the Raoul Follereau Foundation based in Bologna, Italy.

He urged those involved in treating leprosy to fight against the disease and to continue their work “tenaciously” to reduce relapse cases.

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2012 / 01:48 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The upcoming 2012-2013 “Year of Faith” seeks to awaken humanity at a critical moment, Pope Benedict XVI said as he addressed the Church's highest doctrinal office on Jan. 27.

“In vast areas of the earth the faith risks being extinguished, like a flame without fuel,” the Pope told assembled members of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who met in a plenary session on Friday.

“We are facing a profound crisis of faith, a loss of a religious sense which represents one of the greatest challenges for the Church today.”

Pope Benedict hopes the Year of Faith, which will run from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013, will contribute “to restoring God's presence in this world, and to giving man access to the faith, enabling him to entrust himself to the God who, in Jesus Christ, loved us to the end.”

“The renewal of faith,” the Pope announced, “must, then, be a priority for the entire Church in our time.”

His remarks to the doctrinal congregation came two days after the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the final day of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The Pope spoke about the quest to reunite all Christians, as he acknowledged that ecumenical efforts had not always served to strengthen believers' faith.

Along with the “many good fruits that have emerged from ecumenical dialogue,” there are also “risks of indifference and of false irenicism” – which give the appearance of unity, without regard for truth.

In today's world, the Pope observed, there is an “increasingly widespread” perception “that truth is not accessible to man, and that, therefore, we must limit ourselves to finding rules to improve this world.”

“In this scenario,” he noted, “faith comes to be replaced by a shallow-rooted moralism,” which can cause the dialogue between Christian groups to become superficial.

“By contrast, the core of true ecumenism is faith, in which man encounters the truth revealed in the Word of God.”

Pope Benedict told officials of the doctrine congregation, the office he led before his election to the papacy, that controversial issues cannot be downplayed or ignored in talks between the Catholic Church and other Christian churches and communities.

Matters of faith and morals, he said, “must be faced courageously, while always maintaining a spirit of fraternity and mutual respect …  In our dialogues we cannot overlook the great moral questions about human life, the family, sexuality, bioethics, freedom, justice and peace.”

By defending the Church's authentic tradition, he observed, “we defend man and we defend the creation.”

Rome, Italy, Jan 26, 2012 / 05:59 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Today's world can learn a lot from St. John of Avila, according to those who have studied the life of the next Doctor of the Catholic Church.

"St. John of Avila is far from us in time, but nearby for his figure, his life, his evangelizing witness and for his teaching," Archbishop Juan del Río Martín of Spain's Archdiocese for Military Services told CNA.

Archbishop del Río Martín was one of three experts on the Spanish saint who gathered in Rome on Jan. 20 for the presentation of a new book in Spanish that explores the writings of St. John of Avila.

The archbishop, who wrote his doctoral thesis on St. John of Avila’s teachings, believes that Pope Benedict made an investment in the future of the Church by choosing the 16th-century saint as the Church's newest doctor.

The Pope has called the Church to a new evangelization, he notes, and in the “Apostle of Andalusia” she has a “model of how to evangelize."

St. John of Avila was born in 1500 in the town of Almodovar del Campo, 155 miles south of Madrid. A Christian of Jewish descent, he studied law at the University of Salamanca, before being ordained a priest. He went on to become a great preacher, author and mystic, writing works that influenced St. Theresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and St. Francis Borgia, among others.

He is credited with re-evangelizing the southern Spanish region of Andalusia after it was reclaimed from the Moors.

The Apostle of Andalusia is now venerated in Spain as the patron of the nation's priests.

In fact, Pope Benedict chose a meeting with priests and seminarians during World Youth Day celebrations this past August in Madrid to declare that the saint would become a Church "doctor."

He hoped that "the word and the example of this outstanding pastor will enlighten all priests and those who look forward to the day of their priestly ordination."

The recognition places St. John of Avila among 33 others, such as Sts. Thomas Aquinas, Augustine and Therese of Lisieux, whose contributions have been declared a source of truth and of value to Christians in all times. Church "doctors" are also required to have manifested "eminent learning" and "great sanctity" in their lives.

María de la Encarnación González, the postulator of the saint's cause for being declared a Church doctor, said that John of Avila truly lived out his faith and knew how to share it.

"St. John of Avila was a great communicator. Therefore, the work he did has led him to this point where the Pope considers that he demonstrated all of the requisites to become a Doctor of the Church," she said.

Though no date has been announced for his installation, it is significant that the Pope has chosen him to be a doctor as a "new evangelization" movement gears up in the Catholic Church.

Not only has a special Vatican department been created to oversee these efforts in the West, but bishops from around the world will come to Rome in Oct. 2012 to discuss the topic for three weeks.

"How do we evangelize in the 21st century?" asked Archbishop del Río Martín. Catholics must learn to express their love for Jesus Christ the way St. John of Avila did when he said he felt “leased by Christ,” the archbishop remarked.

"In Jesus Christ," he said, "was revealed a God of love, who preaches and sends out love. And that love must be shown to men through the word, the sacraments and charity."

Vatican City, Jan 26, 2012 / 04:11 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The official Vatican spokesman says an Italian television broadcast claiming to disclose financial corruption at the Vatican exaggerated the situation. 

Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., questioned the “debatable” journalistic methods employed in the broadcast’s “diffusion of private documents.”

The information in the program stretched “well beyond reality,” he said in a Jan. 26 statement, adding that “the general situation of the government is not as negative as they want to make people believe.”

Accusations of financial mismanagement in the Vatican were broadcast Jan. 25 on a prominent Italian television network in a show entitled “Gli intoccabili.”

The program claimed that Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò – now the Pope’s official representative to the U.S. – wrote a private letter to Pope Benedict XVI on March 27, 2011, asking not to be transferred to the U.S. while new measures aimed at cleaning up the Vatican’s financial situation were being implemented.

Archbishop Viganò was serving as the second in command for the Governatorate of Vatican City, before he was appointed as the new nuncio to the United States in October 2011.

In his work at the Holy See, he introduced financial controls and accountability procedures that transformed a multi-million dollar deficit into a significant surplus in just one year. 

In a Jan. 26 statement, Fr. Lombardi responded to the broadcast, lamenting that it has become “all too familiar” to find biased reporting about the Catholic Church. 

He stressed that governing the Vatican City-State is very complex, and said that the situation was presented in “a partial and banal way” so as to exalt “the negative aspects.”

Fr. Lombardi noted the many positive effects of Archbishop Viganò’s actions as Secretary General of the Government. He said that an accurate analysis of the financial changes within the Holy See must take into account changing markets and economic situations, as well as a notable increase in visitors to the Vatican Museums.

He also commented on the “significant expenses” required to meet the Vatican’s important non-economic goal of supporting the universal Church.

The Vatican spokesman also underscored that Archbishop Viganò’s appointment as the apostolic nuncio to the United States showed Pope Benedict’s great trust in him.

Holy See officials, Fr. Lombardi said, continue to be guided by the standards of “healthy administration and of transparency” to which Archbishop Viganò committed himself.

Fr. Lombardi also said that the Vatican government is willing to “pursue all appropriate options,” including possible legal action to defend the reputation of the Vatican officials mentioned in the broadcast. 

Vatican City, Jan 25, 2012 / 02:15 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Jesus’ “priestly prayer” at the Last Supper for Christian unity should inspire Catholics to pray and work for it, Pope Benedict XVI said on Jan. 25.

“His priestly prayer can thus be seen as instituting the Church, the community of the disciples who, through faith in him, are made one and share in his saving mission,” the Pope said at his weekly general audience.

He also urged Catholics to pray “for the gift of the visible unity of all Christ’s followers, so that the world may believe in the Son and in the Father who sent him.”

The Pope addressed his remarks to thousands of pilgrims gathered in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall on today’s Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, the day that brings the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to a close.

The “priestly prayer” of Christ is recalled most vividly in Chapter 17 of the Gospel of St. John. In order to understand “its immense richness,” said Pope Benedict, it must be seen “against the backdrop of the Jewish feast of expiation, Yom Kippur.”

During Yom Kippur, he explained, the Jewish High Priest sought “atonement first for himself, then for the order of priests and finally for the community as a whole.”

In an identical fashion, “Jesus, as priest and victim, prays that the Father will glorify him in this, the hour of his sacrifice of reconciliation.” Jesus also “asks the Father to consecrate his disciples, setting them apart and sending them forth to continue his mission in the world.”

The Pope then broke down the prayer into its three main parts.

Benedict XVI first touched on Jesus’ prayer that he would be glorified, when he said “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you.” 

The Pope pointed out that this prayer is “more than a request.” It is “a declaration of willingness to enter freely and generously into the Father's plan, which is accomplished through death and resurrection.”

As the new High Priest, the glory Jesus seeks for himself “is to be fully obedient to the Father, an obedience which leads Him to fulfill His filial status.”

The second prayer Jesus prays to his Father is for his disciples, who “do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth.”

“To sanctify means to transfer something – a person or thing – to God,” explained Pope Benedict. This involves two complementary aspects of “segregation” or being “set apart” from the world, and then “being sent out” to evangelize the world. 

For the disciples of Christ, this meant continuing “Jesus’ mission,” he said.

Finally, Jesus prays for future generations of Christians, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” In this “Jesus prays for the Church in all times, he also prays for us,” said the Pope.

“The main element in Jesus’ priestly prayer for his disciples,” he taught, “is his request for the future unity of those who will believe in him.”

Christian unity is “not a worldly achievement” and “derives exclusively from divine unity and comes down to us from the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit,” the Pope said.

Today was the latest installment in the Pope’s weekly catechesis on prayer. He concluded today’s gathering by leading those present in singing the Our Father in Latin, before imparting his apostolic blessing.

Rome, Italy, Jan 25, 2012 / 01:56 pm (CNA).- Father Ricardo Reyes Castillo, a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, said Pope Benedict XVI’s approval of the movement’s non-liturgical celebrations “has changed absolutely nothing.”

The Panamanian priest told CNA on Jan. 23 that the papal approval of the celebrations contained in the Neocatechumenal Catechetical Directory means “simply that the Church has confirmed that the rites used in the different stages of formation in the Neocatechumenal Way are in accord with the tradition of the Church.”

“This is just another step in the process through which the Church lovingly follows the faithful who belong to this experience of faith,” he added.

The Pontifical Council for the Laity approved the ceremonies outlined in the Catechetical Directory of the Neocatechumenal Way, specifying that this approval applied to those celebrations “which are not, by their nature, already regulated by the liturgical books of the Church.”

Fr. Reyes said the members of the movement “are grateful because they feel guided and protected under the wings of the Church, which has always shown herself to be a mother.”

On Jan. 20, Pope Benedict XVI met with more than 7,000 members of the Neocatechumenal Way and thanked them for their valuable service to the Church. He encouraged them to proclaim Christ and reminded them of the public nature of the Eucharist, saying their communities should be integrated into the local parishes where they are present.

Rome, Italy, Jan 25, 2012 / 11:57 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Israeli-built wall between Jerusalem and the West Bank is deterring staff and students from attending Bethlehem Catholic University, officials from the school say.
 
“We lose students but we also lose faculty who have been teaching at the University and who come from Jerusalem but don´t want to go through that humiliation every day,” Brother Jack Curran, the university’s Vice President for Development, told CNA on Jan. 18 during a two-day visit to Rome.

“The young people are very resilient and are willing to put up with a lot but it does concern us for the future,” he said.
 
The barrier is a 26 foot wall erected by Israel to separate itself from the Palestinian-controlled West Bank. Israel says the wall protects them from Palestinian terrorism. Opponents of the wall say it breaks international law and illegally annexes parts of Palestinian territory.

Bethlehem Catholic University sits close to the wall on the Palestinian side, but many of its students come from East Jerusalem, which lies on the Israeli side.

“There are students, now about 20 percent of students, who go through the checkpoints of the wall every day, twice a day, coming and going,” explained Br. Curran, an American from upstate New York, who has been in Bethlehem for nine years.

“Bethlehem is the only Catholic university in the Holy Land, so any Christian or Catholic students in Jerusalem who want to go to a Catholic university have to do that,” he explained.

Br. Curran said that many of the students find the routine of checkpoints and searches “wearing and tearing on their spirits.”

“They tell us the hardest part is not going through the wall but the thoughts about what happens when you’re on your way to the wall: ‘Will I be strip searched or taken off the bus and forced to sit in the sun for an hour or two, or will it be that I’m waved through?’”
 
Bethlehem Catholic University was founded in 1973 as a joint venture between the Vatican and the De La Salle Christian Brothers. Initially the school only had 112 students enrolled, but this year it has over 3,000 attending classes.

Br. Curran finds his students are remarkably resilient in the face of adversity.
 
“Amazingly, their spirits are still very positive and upbeat and they come every day,” he said. “They have a choice to come or not. But they do come and we’re grateful that they do.”

Br. Curran is more concerned about losing staff members who find the extra difficulties created by teaching in Bethlehem simply “too much for their spirits to bear.”

He offered the example of Palestinian academics who are not allowed to fly out of Tel Aviv Airport in Israel to attend international conferences but, instead, have to travel to Amman, Jordan. The trip to Amman involves an overnight stay on both the outgoing and return journey.

“It practically doubles the expense of any travel that has to happen, and so when a faculty member has to think about going to a conference they have to think about the extra burden,” he explained.

“Meanwhile, the staff who live in Jerusalem have to go through that wall twice a day. And after a few years of doing that many decide to look for a job elsewhere, regrettably so.”
 
Br. Curran said Pope Benedict XVI’s visit in 2009 was extremely helpful to the university because he said “tough things” to the leaders in Israel and Palestine.

In his meetings with Vatican officials in recent days, Br. Curran has been urging the Holy See to continue speaking out, because “their words do have an impact.”
 
“We look forward to the rest of the international community to be likewise critical of the injustices wherever they occur, whether they are on the Israeli side or the Palestinian side,” he stated.
 
“In many ways, it seems to me that it boils down to issues of human rights – justice – and then when these are addressed, we will see peace and prosperity being possible.”

Vatican City, Jan 24, 2012 / 02:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Benedict XVI believes that in a noisy world of constant communication people need silence more than ever.

He outlined his thoughts in his message for World Communications Day 2012, which is entitled “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization.” The Pope’s letter was released Jan. 24 at the Vatican press office by Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

“When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary,” the Pope says in a statement that will be read in Catholic churches around the world on May 20, 2012.

“This makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge,” he writes.

Pope Benedict recommends making this interchange possible by developing “an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds.”

He suggests that silence is required to make sense of the constant stream of information that people now receive via television, radio, the Internet and various forms of social media.

“In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves,” he says.

He also observes that silence can allow other people to express their thoughts. In this way “we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested,” and therefore, “space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible.”

Pope Benedict believes that this use of silence is “often more eloquent than a hasty answer,” because it “permits seekers to reach into the depths of their being and open themselves to the path towards knowledge that God has inscribed in human hearts.”

The Pope sees this need for silence as a part of Christian life from the earliest times. He points to the “eloquence of God’s love, lived to the point of the supreme gift,” which is seen “in the silence of the Cross,” when, after Christ’s death “there is a great silence over the earth.”

Silent contemplation also “immerses us in the source of that Love who directs us towards our neighbors so that we may feel their suffering and offer them the light of Christ, his message of life and his saving gift of the fullness of love,” he writes.

Archbishop Celli summed up the Pope’s message as reminding everyone that real communication involves pairing “words and silence” so that people are not “overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communication itself.”

Monsignor Paul Tighe, Secretary of the social communications council, explained to CNA that the Pope’s message “reminds us that the relevance of silence is equally important within the context of a digital environment.”

“Especially when we now find ourselves continually bombarded by messages, by ideas, by opinions, by news.

“And so the Pope is saying we need silence if we’re going to judge that, integrate it, make it our own and not simply be caught up in a flow of information.”

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2012 / 09:28 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- St. Peter should be the model for all bishops because he allowed God to use his strengths and weaknesses, Archbishop Gregory M. Aymond of New Orleans said early this morning in Rome.

“My brothers, as we come to this tomb, as we have the privilege to stand before the remains of Peter, this great man, we certainly pray for ourselves as shepherds of the Church, that we can have the mind and heart of Christ to follow the example of Peter,” he said in his Jan. 23 homily.

The Mass in the Crypt of St. Peter’s Basilica marked the start of an official visit to the Vatican by the bishops of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Archbishop Aymond focused his reflections on the Gospel passage in which St. Peter declares Jesus is “the Christ.” He said the passage displays the apostle’s “profession of faith, his leap of faith, the courage, the boldness to step out into the deep and to say ‘You are indeed the messiah, you are the one who was promised.’”

But Archbishop Aymond also contrasted the strengths of St. Peter’s character with other times in his life when he failed to follow Jesus, even to the point of betraying him.

“It is important for all of us in ministry, in particularly for those of us in the episcopal ministry, that we look at the entire profile of Peter’s personality – his gifts as well as his weaknesses,” Archbishop Aymond told his fellow bishops.

“Peter’s weakness do not minimize his holiness ... because we see that Jesus uses both Peter’s strength as well as his weaknesses,” he observed.

Through this experience, the archbishop explained, St. Peter “learns humility and learns obedience,” giving an example for all bishops.

Archbishop Aymond is making the “ad limina” visit to Rome with 21 other bishops between Jan. 23 and 31.

The trips take place every five years and involve a meeting in which the bishops brief the Pope on the Church in their individual dioceses, visit with various Vatican departments, and make a pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The group is the fifth delegation of U.S. bishops to make their way to Rome in recent months, leaving 10 more groups on the American roster.

After this morning’s Mass, the bishops met with officials at the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for Clergy. Six of the bishops also had an audience with Pope Benedict.

In the evening they attended at reception at the United States Embassy to the Holy See, hosted by Ambassador Miguel H. Diaz.

Vatican City, Jan 23, 2012 / 04:12 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A visit by Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this year is “very possible,” according to the Vatican’s official spokesman.

The Pope would use the visit to deliver a document – known as an apostolic exhortation – that is the fruit of the discussions that took place at last October’s Synod for the Middle East.
 
“In the context of the publication of a synod document, it is very possible and reasonable for the Pope to go to Lebanon and deliver this message,” Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., told CNA on Jan. 23.

“Lebanon is certainly a country that desires the Pope’s presence. Given that the Pope has already been to the Holy Land, Lebanon is a place that would be an option to host the Pope for this purpose,” Fr. Lombardi said.

The Italian media is already speculating that the Pope will travel to the country in mid-September. Possible dates include Sept. 13, the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross, and the following weekend, Sept. 22-23.

Pope Benedict could make stops in Lebanon’s capital city of Beirut and the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate, Bkerké, as part of his trip.
 
“Well that’s very much the hope there at the moment,” said Monsignor John Kozar, president of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, who recently visited Lebanon.

“There is a lot that would have to go into such a decision, and there are a lot of parties that will have to weigh in on that,” he told CNA, adding that a papal trip “certainly would be a most welcome sign to the people and to the Church there.”

Just over a quarter of the Lebanese population is Catholic, with the majority of those belonging to the Maronite Catholic Church, an Eastern Church in communion with Rome.

Blessed Pope John Paul II made a two-day visit to Lebanon in 1997 to sign the apostolic exhortation “A Hope for Lebanon,” which drew together the work of the Special Assembly for Lebanon of the Synod of Bishops in 1995.
 
A papal visit later this year would be Pope Benedict’s first journey to the Middle East since the emergence of the “Arab Spring,” a series of popular uprisings across the region that have toppled a number of dictatorships over the past year.