Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Vatican News

As usual check out Hugh Hewitt's site for new blogs of note.Raplog is one of them and has a good commentary on the Prom.

Here are two events from the last week worth noting.

First, there is the Pope's nomination of his successor and secondly the Vatican's address to the council of Europe.

VATICAN CITY, MAY 13, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI named the archbishop of San Francisco to succeed him as the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

The Vatican announced today that Archbishop William Levada, 68, will fill the vacancy left by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger upon his election to the papacy.

The Pope and Archbishop Levada worked together from 1986 to 1993 on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The archbishop was the only American bishop on the editorial committee. He also authored the Catechism's glossary, which was published in the second English-language edition of the Catechism.

Archbishop Levada has been a bishop-member of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith since 2002, and worked under Cardinal Ratzinger as an official of the congregation when the cardinal became prefect in 1981.

Born William Levada in Long Beach, California, June 15, 1936, he attended entered the seminary in Los Angeles.


In 1958, he was sent to further his seminary formation in Rome at the North American College, and received a doctorate in sacred theology "magna cum laude" from the Gregorian University in Rome.

He was ordained a priest in St. Peter's Basilica Dec. 20, 1961, and worked five years in parishes in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

After receiving his doctorate, he taught theology at St. John's Seminary School of Theology, located at Camarillo, in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Father Levada was appointed as an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1976, and during his six years of service, he taught at the Gregorian University.

In 1982, he was assigned to be executive director of California's bishops' conference in Sacramento, the public policy arm of the Church in California. During his two years there, he was named auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, and was ordained May 12, 1983.

Returning to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles in 1984, he served as vicar for Santa Barbara until 1986, when he was appointed archbishop of Portland, Oregon.

Archbishop Levada returned to California in 1995 as coadjutor archbishop of San Francisco, and since then has been active on many committees of the U.S. bishops' conference, the Catholic University of America, the national shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the National Catholic Bioethics Center.

He participated in the special assembly of the Synod of Bishops for America in 1997, and was subsequently named to its post-synodal council.

He was designated bishop co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States in for the year 2000.

In November, 2000 the Vatican announced his appointment as a member of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, and two years later, in 2003, he began a 3-year term as chairman of the U.S. bishops' conference Committee on Doctrine.

Founded in 1542 by Pope Paul II, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition, as its duty was to defend the Church from heresy. It is the oldest of the curia's nine congregations.


VATICAN CITY, MAY 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Here is the address, delivered in English by Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, Vatican secretary for relations with states, at the third summit of heads of state and governments of the Council of Europe, held in Warsaw, Poland, from May 16-17.

* * *

1. European Unity and European Values

1. It is my honor to convey to all present the cordial greetings of the new Pope, Benedict XVI, who in the choice of his name intended to recall one of the great architects of European civilization. In some of his previous talks and publications he has proposed a number of considerations, both historical and doctrinal, on the subject of European unity and values, which remain relevant and worthy of attention.

2. This theme, to which the present session is dedicated, is something particularly important for the Holy See. Pius XII in his Christmas message of 1944 proposed to Europe a "true democracy founded on freedom and equality" ("Acta Apostolicae Sedis," 37 (1945)14), and on May 9, 1945 he spoke of "a new Europe ... founded on respect for human dignity, for the sacred principle of equality of rights for all peoples, all states, large or small, weak or strong" (ibid, 129-130). Pope Paul VI dedicated keen and increasing attention to the same subject. And all are aware of the incessant, passionate and active commitment of John Paul II to a Europe corresponding more fully to its geographical, and especially to its historical identity. Here in his Polish homeland, I am particularly pleased to recall his great and lovable personality.

3. Europe will be loved by its citizens and will serve as an agent of peace and civilization in the world only if it is animated by certain fundamental values:

a. The promotion of human dignity and fundamental human rights, among which in the first place freedom of conscience and religion.

b. The pursuit of the common good in a spirit of solidarity.

c. Respect for national and cultural identity.

These values obviously are shared by all, however, if they are to take on a clear focus and not remain generic, they must refer to Europe's own history because this is what constitutes Europe in its spiritual identity. For this reason the Holy See views with satisfaction the commitment expressed in the Preamble of the Declaration, paragraph 6, "to the universal values and principles which are rooted in Europe's cultural, religious and humanistic heritage." The pre-eminent role that Christianity has played in forming and developing this cultural, religious and humanistic patrimony is well known to all and cannot be ignored.

2. Challenges Facing European Societies

Europe is faced with challenges arising from its own internal dynamism as well as challenges in its encounter with world problems. It cannot address one set of challenges successfully without responding adequately to the other.

1. As to the first, the Council of Europe, as a guarantor of democratic security, based on respect for human rights and the rule of law, is confronted with two requirements:

a. The need to prevent the principle of equality from compromising the protection of legitimate diversity: justice in fact requires equal relationships to be treated equally and diverse relationships to be treated diversely;

b. The need to prevent the principle of individual freedom from being dislodged from its natural insertion in the totality of social relationships, and therefore from the principle of social responsibility, which in fact constitutes an essential component of its positive value.
The consequences of this confrontation on the level of international relations, as well as on the social, family and individual levels are evident.

2. On the other hand, many concrete challenges derive from the great world-wide problems handed down from the 20th century: the nuclear threat, which is now in danger of escaping from the exclusive historic responsibility of the great powers, the emergence of forms of political and religious fundamentalism, large-scale migration of peoples and certain situations of dangerous instability at the state level, even in the European arena. I am referring here particularly to the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the Kosovo region, both of which are in need of a reliable solution, which cannot be reached without providing effective guarantees for minorities.

3. In a spirit of service the Holy See offers her own support and that of the whole Catholic Church in order to respond adequately to these challenges. She is persuaded that the message of fraternity, proper to the Gospel, the vast charitable action of Catholic organizations, the commitment to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue can be conjoined naturally to the commitment to political, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, mentioned in the final declaration of this assembly which the Holy See willingly supports.

3. The Construction of Europe

I would like to say a few words about the construction of Europe. The delegation of the Holy See does not presume to propose technical solutions but would like to offer some simple considerations as a contribution to our common reflection.

1. A better coordination of European organizations is not only an imperative of political and conceptual coherence or financial considerations, but is required by the original creative spirit of the European project. The success of this project in fact does not require just the smooth functioning of each of the principal institutions, but their common balanced synergy which allows the citizens of Europe to see Europe as their "common home" at the service of the human person and society.

2. Given its widely recognized competence, acquired in the juridical area, the experience of the Council of Europe is particularly important because it sketches the outlines of what could become a blueprint for European society. The more than 150 conventions of the Council of Europe, dealing with education, culture, minorities, refugees, immigration, ecology, the media etc. cover a notable part of the sectors involved in the social dimension.

Furthermore the territorial extension acquired by the Council of Europe draws it close to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The OCSE, however, is also marked by its transatlantic dimension, something indispensable for maintaining peace in a globalized world and for fulfilling its mandate with regard to conflicts. From the three ways of European construction outlined in the three baskets of the OSCE -- concerning respectively security policies, economic and ecological cooperation, and the human dimension -- clearly it is this last factor which offers the broadest field of cooperation between the Council of Europe and the OSCE.

3. Regarding the European Union, it is in the juridical sector in relation to human rights that one finds further concrete possibilities for closer institutional cooperation. The common commitment to corroborate the human rights and the legal protection of European citizens -- reaffirmed by the will of the European Union to adhere to the European Convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental liberties -- must be given adequate expression in the propositions to be presented by the Coordination Group created in December 2004.

4. I would like to conclude by stating clearly that in the construction of the great European project the Holy See will not fail to continue to offer her cooperation.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Return of the Blog

After finally getting home last week and getting settled back in here in the Minny the posting should finally continue. A lot has gone on the past few weeks most notably Pope Benedict's appointing of his successor to the Congregation of the Doctrine of Faith. I will find some articles to post tomorrow on that and others. God Bless!!

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

Finals Are Over!!!!

Finals are finally over here at Ave so now I can finally get back to posting. Sorry for all of those that missed reading this blog over the past week or so. I will get some articles up soon as well as some more commentary. In the mean time check out some of the Catholic ads that have been put up. God Bless!