May 9, 2013 / Maria News

Headlines from Apollo: Senior Vatican Official condemns Mexican Death Saint as “Blasphemous”

BBC - The president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, said worshipping Santa Muerte was a “degeneration of religion”.

Cardinal Ravasi spoke at a series of events for believers and non-believers in Mexico City.

The cult, which reveres death, has been growing rapidly in Mexico.

It is represented by a cloaked female skeleton clutching a scythe.

It is particularly popular in areas of Mexico that have suffered from extreme violence carried out by the country’s drug cartels.

The cult is believed to date back to colonial times.

It merges indigenous beliefs with the tradition of venerating saints introduced by Christian missionaries after the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Devotees pray to the saint at home-made altars and often offer votive candles, fruit and tequila in the hope Santa Muerte will grant their wishes.

Cardinal Ravasi said the practice was “anti-religious”. “Religion celebrates life, but here you have death,” he said.

“It’s not religion just because it’s dressed up like religion; it’s a blasphemy against religion”, he said.

The cardinal also referred to the fact that the cult is particularly popular among members of Mexico’s drug cartels and accused “criminals” of invoking it.

Read More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22462181

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April 16, 2013 / Maria News

Pope Francis calls on Bostonians to “not be overcome by evil”

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has sent his “sympathy and closeness in prayer” to the people of Boston in a telegram sent on his behalf.

The telegram reads “In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, His Holiness invokes God’s peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response. At this time of mourning the Holy Father prays that all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.”

The full text of the telegram is below

His Eminence Cardinal Sean O’Malley
Archbishop of Boston

Deeply grieved by news of the loss of life and grave injuries caused by the act of violence perpetrated last evening in Boston, His Holiness Pope Francis wishes me to assure you of his sympathy and closeness in prayer. In the aftermath of this senseless tragedy, His Holiness invokes God’s peace upon the dead, his consolation upon the suffering and his strength upon all those engaged in the continuing work of relief and response. At this time of mourning the Holy Father prays that all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone
Secretary of State

More news from Vatican Radio

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April 12, 2013 / Maria News

Pope: The Unbreakable Unity Between Scripture and Tradition

Vatican Radio -  On Friday Pope Francis received members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission at the end of their plenary assembly here at the Vatican on ‘inspiration and truth in the Bible’. Emer McCarthy reports:

Pope Francis told them “the Holy Scriptures are the testimony in written form of God’s Word, the canonical memorial that attests to the event of Revelation. The Word of God, therefore, precedes and exceeds the Bible. It is for this reason that the center of our faith is not only a book, but a history of salvation and especially a Person, Jesus Christ”.
Citing the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium, he said: “The interpretation of the Holy Scriptures cannot be only an individual scientific effort, but must always confront itself with, be inserted within and authenticated by the living tradition of the Church…. The texts inspired by God were entrusted to the Community of believers…to nourish the faith …respect for this profound nature of Scripture conditions the very validity and effectiveness of biblical hermeneutics”.

Thus the Holy Father concluded, any interpretation that is either “subjective or simply limited to an analysis incapable of embracing the global meaning that has constituted the Tradition of the entire People of God over the centuries” is simply insufficient.

In short there is an unbreakable unity between Scripture and Tradition.

Below a Vatican Radio translation of the full text of Pope Francis’ discourse to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, April 12, 2013.

Venerable Brother,
Dear Members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission,
I am pleased to welcome you at the end of your annual Plenary Assembly. I thank the President, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, for his greeting and summary of the topic that has been the subject of careful consideration in the course of your work. You have gathered again to study a very important topic: the inspiration and truth of the Bible. It is a matter that affects not only the individual believer, but the whole Church, for the life and mission of the Church is founded on the Word of God, which is the soul of theology and the inspiration of all Christian life .

As we know, the Holy Scriptures are the testimony in written form of God’s Word, the canonical memorial that attests to the event of Revelation. The Word of God, therefore, precedes and exceeds the Bible. It is for this reason that the center of our faith is not only a book, but a history of salvation and especially a Person, Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh. Precisely because the Word of God embraces and extends beyond Scripture to understand it properly we need the constant presence of the Holy Spirit who “guide us to all truth” (Jn 16:13). It should be inserted within the current of the great Tradition which, through the assistance of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Magisterium, recognized the canonical writings as the Word addressed by God to His people who have never ceased to meditate and discover its inexhaustible riches. The Second Vatican Council has reiterated this with great clarity in the Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum: “For all of what has been said about the way of interpreting Scripture is subject finally to the judgment of the Church, which carries out the divine commission and ministry of guarding and interpreting the word of God “(n. 12).

As the aforementioned conciliar Constitution reminds us, there is an unbreakable unity between Scripture and Tradition, as both come from the same source: “There exists a close connection and communication between sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that led by the light of the Spirit of truth, they may in proclaiming it preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence “(ibid., 9).

It follows, therefore, that the exegete must be careful to perceive the Word of God present in the biblical texts by placing them within the faith of the Church. The interpretation of the Holy Scriptures cannot be only an individual scientific effort, but must always confront itself with, be inserted within and authenticated by the living tradition of the Church. This norm is essential to specify the correct relationship between exegesis and the Magisterium of the Church. The texts inspired by God were entrusted to the Community of believers, the Church of Christ, to nourish the faith and guide the life of charity. Respect for this profound nature of Scripture conditions the very validity and effectiveness of biblical hermeneutics. This results in the insufficiency of any interpretation that is either subjective or simply limited to an analysis incapable of embracing the global meaning that has constituted the Tradition of the entire People of God over the centuries, which “in credendo falli nequit” [cannot be mistaken in belief – ed](Conc Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. VAT. II, Dogmatic Cost. Lumen Gentium, 12).

Dear Brothers, I wish to conclude my talk by expressing my thanks to all of you and encouraging you in your important work. May the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, the Divine Teacher who opened the minds and hearts of his disciples to understand the Scriptures (cf. Lk 24:45), guide and support you always in your endeavors. May the Virgin Mary, model of docility and obedience to the Word of God, teach you to accept fully the inexhaustible riches of Sacred Scripture not only through intellectual pursuits, but in prayer and throughout your life of believers, especially in this Year of the Faith, so that your work will help to shine the light of Sacred Scripture in the hearts of the faithful. Wishing you a fruitful continuation of your activities, I invoke the light of the Holy Spirit and impart my Apostolic Blessing upon you all.

Source: http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-the-unbreakable-unity-between-scripture-and-t#

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3 / 13 / 13 – MariaNews.com

Live Feeds from Conclave

MariaNews.com – Maria News and our sister site CM1 TV have teamed up to bring you a posted dedicated solely to live feeds from Conclave.

As the world braces for the announcement as to who will be the next Pope, the Catholic church is enjoying some much needed good-press for a change.  Scandals aside, the true nature of the Church is one of love and hope.  

Right now the whole world is watching the Catholic Church.  Who will the next Supreme Pontiff be?  Where will he be from?  What are his views on divisive issues?   Will he be a reformer?   So many questions.   As St. Padre Pio said “pray, hope and don’t worry.”   It’s all in God’s hands.

Here is a link to the CM1 TV Feed page (which features play buttons and links to various live coverage of Conclave).   Coverage includes: Radio Vaticana, Time, CBS and The Guardian.

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March 12, 2013 / MariaNews.com 

The Church That the New Pope Will Govern

By Chiesa

ROME, Italy (Chiesa) – The pope whom the cardinals are preparing to elect will guide a Church that over the past century has experienced the most impetuous numeric growth of its history, and at the same time a very strong change in its geographic dislocation. With the United States as the focal point of the shift.

Catholics were and remain one sixth of the global population. They were and remain half of all Christians. But in absolute numbers they have quadrupled. In 1910 they were 291 million. In 2010 1.1 billion.

What is most arresting, however, is the geographical revolution. This has been presented by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in a recent survey:

The Global Catholic Population

A century ago, 70 percent of Catholics lived in Europe and North America. Today just 32 percent, less than one third of the total.

More than two thirds of Catholics today therefore live in Latin America, in Africa, in Asia and Oceania.

In Latin America, they have grown in one century from 70 million to 425 million.

In Asia and Oceania from 14 million to 131 million.

The most astonishing increase has been in sub-Saharan Africa. Catholics were just 1 million in 1910. A hundred years later 171 million. In one century they have gone from less than one percent to 16 percent of the population.

The ranking of the countries with the largest number of Catholics has also been revolutionized.

In 1910 the leaders of the pack were France and Italy, with 40 and 35 million Catholics respectively. Brazil followed with 21 million. There were more Catholics in Germany than in Mexico: 16 million versus 14 million.

In 2010 Brazil jumped into the lead with 126 million Catholics, followed by Mexico with 96 million and the Philippines with 75 million. And for the first time one of the top ten was an African country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 31 million Catholics.

Among the countries of Europe and North America, only the United States has seen over the past century a clear percentage increase of Catholics in the overall population. They were 14% in 1910, now they are 24%. In absolute numbers, with 75 million Catholics, the United States today is tied with the Philippines for third place in the general ranking.

In various countries of ancient Christian tradition, including those high in the rankings, Catholics no longer make up almost the whole of the population, as was the case a century ago. For example, in Brazil in 1910 Catholics were 95 percent of the population. Today 65 percent. This reduction has taken place above all in recent decades.

In the United States as well, where changing from one religion to another is very common, Catholics have undergone an erosion over the past century. Those who have left the Church turn out to be more numerous than those who have entered.

In compensation, however, a great number of immigrants to the United States, especially from Latin America, have come to increase the overall presence of Catholics. “Latinos” are today almost one third of Catholics in the United States and half of those under the age of 40.

The United States is in short a focal point of the new dislocation of Catholics in the world.

The cardinals who will enter into conclave Tuesday are aware of this. In the new century – if not already – an “American” pope will no longer be a surprise.

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March 13, 2013 / MariaNews.com

Cardinals Gather in Conclave, Church Gathers in Prayer, Come Holy Spirit

By Catholic Online

VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) – The eyes of the world look to Rome, most with great interest in an institution which has endured for over 2,000 years, the Catholic Church. Rome is filled with a sense of hopeful anticipation. We will soon have a new Pope.

The speculation is over. The self styled experts have had their day in the sun. Now, the real work begins, in prayer – and by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Cardinal Electors gather to select the 265th successor of the Apostle Peter to govern the Church of Jesus Christ in this critical moment in history.

The Cardinal Electors will first concelebrate a pro eligendo Romano Pontifice Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the morning. The Holy See has released the order of Service which can be read here.Who will preach? It is presumed it will be the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano.

It may be of interest that, in the traditional Catholic liturgical calendar, the Conclave falls on the Feast of St Gregory the Great. That Feast is celebrated in the revised liturgical calendar on September 3. No matter when it is celebrated, Gregory the Great would be a great model for our next Pope.

The last pro eligendo Romano Pontifice Mass celebrated was on April 18, 2005, following the death of Blessed John Paul II. Then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who went on to be elected and take the name Benedict XVI, gave a homily wherein he proclaimed these often quoted words:

“Today, having a clear faith based on the Creed of the Church is often labeled as fundamentalism. Whereas relativism, that is, letting oneself be “tossed here and there, carried about by every wind of doctrine”, seems the only attitude that can cope with modern times. We are building a dictatorship of relativism that does not recognize anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one’s own ego and desires.”

“We, however, have a different goal: the Son of God, the true man. He is the measure of true humanism. An “adult” faith is not a faith that follows the trends of fashion and the latest novelty; a mature adult faith is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ. It is this friendship that opens us up to all that is good and gives us a criterion by which to distinguish the true from the false, and deceit from truth. We must develop this adult faith; we must guide the flock of Christ to this faith. And it is this faith – only faith – that creates unity and is fulfilled in love.”

Catholics around the world, joined by other Christians who know the significance of this vote and the important office it will fill, are praying for the Holy Spirit to guide the entire election process. How desperately we need a holy, hearty, humble, naturally and supernaturally gifted, dynamically orthodox and courageous Pope to steer the Barque of Peter.

Tuesday afternoon, the 115 Cardinal Electors will come together in the Pauline Chapel where they will pray and reflect upon the momentous task with which they are entrusted by the Lord, who still works through His Church. They will then process, singing together the Litany of the Saints followed by the singing of the ancient hymn, Veni Creator Spiritus, invoking the Holy Spirit, into the Sistine Chapel, where they will be formally seated.

Cardinal Prospero Grech, an Augustinian friar from Malta, will present a biblical meditation on the grave duty entrusted to the Cardinals. Afterward, the 115 cardinals will take an oath pledging to be faithful to the rules of the conclave, maintain secrecy and not interfere with the process of electing the next Pope.  Cardinal Angelo Sodano will read the oath and each Cardinal will lay his hand upon the Book of the Gospels, and individually pronounce the oath.

After all the 115 Cardinals have taken the oath, the Master of the Papal Ceremonies, Msgr. Guido Marini ,will order anyone other than the Cardinal Electors and conclave participants to leave the Sistine Chapel. He takes his position at the wooden doors of that beautiful chapel and proclaims “Extra omnes!”  the, the doors close and the process begins.

We invite our readers around the world to spend tomorrow in a reflective and prayerful posture. We ask, wherever possible, that you attend Holy Mass or, at least make a visit to the Blessed Sacrament, to pray for the Cardinal Electors to be guided in their service to the Church. This papal election has profound importance in bot the Church and the world into which she is sent.

Faithful Catholics know that what may be perceived by some as an ancient or outdated process by some is, in reality, a vehicle through which the Lord will manifest His plan for the Church. It has immense implications for the Church - and the world into which she is sent to continue in time the work of her head and founder, Jesus Christ. The Church is Christ’s plan for the whole human race.

We do not make the Church in our image; the Church re-makes us into Christ’s Image through the grace which is mediated through the Sacraments, revealed in His Word and experienced in our ecclesial life together as members of the mystical Body of Christ. We are invited to exercise our human freedom and respond to the Lord’s continual gifts of grace.

The Church is the vine into which we are to be grafted. There we receive the nourishment we need to grow in holiness. The Church is the Risen Jesus, Sacramentally made present in the world. One of the most quoted sayings of the early Church fathers is from Cyprian of Carthage who wrote, “He cannot have God for his father who has not the church for his mother”.

The Church is where we learn to love as we enter into the communion of the Love of the Trinity by participation. Birthed from the wounded side of the “New Adam” on the altar of the Cross, the Church is His Body. He has been raised and the Head and the Body cannot be separated.

The early Christians believed that to belong to Jesus was to belong to His Church. They believed that just as we were all born from our mother’s womb – so we are invited by God, in and through Jesus Christ, to be born again into the Church, the new humanity being re-created in Him.

Catholic Christians still believe this. The process of redemption begins when we pass through the Sacramental Waters of the font of Holy Baptism. It continues as we cooperate with the Grace given to us in our life within the Church. We are called to grow in holiness, revealing the very life of Christ to a world waiting to be born again in Him.

Redemption will only be fully completed when the Lord Returns and we are raised in Resurrected Bodies and live in a new heaven and a new earth! This understanding of the Church as a real participation in Christ and entry into the Trinitarian Communion runs throughout the writings of the early Church Fathers.

Origen wrote: “Christ has flooded the universe with divine and sanctifying waves. For the thirsty he sends a spring of living water from the wound which the spear opened in His side. From the wound in Christ’s side has come forth the Church, and He has made her His bride”

Bishop Ireneaeus of Lyons, a disciple of Polycarp, who was himself a disciple of the Apostle John, wrote: “We need to take refuge with the Church, to drink milk at her breast, to be fed with the scriptures of the Lord. For the Church has been planted in the world as a paradise” The early Christians did not see the Church as something onerous or optional, they saw it as normative for every Christian and life giving.

The decision which could be made as early as tomorrow evening has extraordinarily important implications. We need to pray intensely and fervently. I close by inviting my readers to join with me in reciting this prayer, written by Archbishop William Lori of the Diocese of Baltimore, Maryland:

“O Lord Jesus Christ, Supreme Pastor of Your Church, we thank you for the ministry of Pope Benedict XVI and the selfless care with which he has led us as Successor of Peter, and Your Vicar on earth. Good Shepherd, Who founded Your Church on the rock of Peter’s faith and have never left Your flock untended, look with love upon us now, and sustain Your Church in faith, hope, and charity. Grant, Lord Jesus, in Your boundless love for us, a new Pope for Your Church who will please You by his holiness and lead us faithfully to You, who are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.”

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March 9, 2013 / MariaNews.com 

Paging ‘Peter the Roman’: Debunking the Prophecy of St. Malachy

By Catholic Online

HUNTINGTON, IN (Catholic Online) – With all the intrigue over the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI and the upcoming conclave, there has been a renewed public interest in the so-called Prophecy of St. Malachy.

Surely you’ve heard of it before. Malachy was an Irish bishop of the 12th century who allegedly received a revelation and subsequently wrote a series of brief cryptic phrases describing the 112 popes who would succeed the then-current pontiff, Innocent II. As luck would have it, the pontiff who is elected in this month’s conclave would be the last in the series at No. 112.

But it’s really nothing to get worked up about, as credibility is a serious issue here. These prophecies are about as reliable as the Mayan Calendar.

When the Prophecy of St. Malachy was first published by a Benedictine monk in 1595, St. Malachy had been dead already for 447 years. There is no record of anyone ever as much as mentioning the prophecy before that time. Furthermore, the monk, who incorporated the alleged prophecy in his book about the history of the Benedictine order, included notations indicating the names of the 74 “popes” who supposedly fulfilled the first 74 prophecies. That list in itself is erroneous; in several instances, it leaves out legitimate popes in favor of antipopes, those false claimants to the papacy who surfaced at various troubled moments in the history of the Church.

The mysterious phrases of the supposed prophecy – including specimens like “Sign of Ostia,” “snaky man,” and “the fruit of Jupiter will help” – seem far more explicit and accurate when applied to those 74 popes (and antipopes) who reigned between Innocent II’s immediate successor, Celestine II, and the year 1590. After that, the majority of these papal descriptions make little or no sense in relation to the corresponding heirs to the Chair of St. Peter. Usually the attempt is made to connect the prophecy to the pontiff’s name, family, place of origin, or symbols on his coat of arms, but it usually takes quite an imagination to make that leap.

The relative accuracy of the papal descriptions leading up to 1590 and the complete lack of historical evidence that the Prophecy of St. Malachy even existed before that time leads most historians to consider it a forgery. The theory goes that the prophecy was conveniently compiled in 1590 in order to influence the papal conclave of that year in favor of Cardinal Girolamo Simoncelli, who as bishop of Orvieto (from a Latin word meaning “old city”) would have been a perfect match for the prophecy of Pope No. 75, Ex antiquitate Urbis (“from the old city”).

If that was the ruse the forgers had in mind, it didn’t work, as the cardinal-electors went for a reluctant candidate named Niccolò Sfondrati, who became Pope Gregory XIV in December 1590 after a two-month conclave. (Interestingly, although he reigned less than a year, one if his first official acts was to forbid, under pain of excommunication, all wagering on papal elections and the duration of pontificates.) Still, St. Malachy fans today rationalize Gregory as a fulfillment of the prophecy, noting that Sfondrati’s father was born in Milan, and Milan is an “old city” in its own right. So there.

Consideration of our popes of recent memory illustrates the difficulty even true believers face in making these prophecies stick. “Shepherd and sailor” is said to apply to Pope John XXIII because he hailed from Venice, a port city. “Flower of flowers” is claimed to fit Pope Paul VI because of the fleur-de-lis on his coat of arms. Pope John Paul I, “of the half moon,” is said to have been elected on a night when there was a half-moon in the sky. “From the labor of the sun” is a stretch for Pope John Paul II, who came from the East (Poland), from which the sun rises. Pope Benedict XVI is “the glory of the Olive”; the Benedictine order (of which Pope Benedict was never a member) was once known as the Olivetans.

Which brings us to Pope No. 112, “Peter the Roman.” Here, St. Malachy and/or the forgers give us a full-blown prophecy:

In the final persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations, and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the dreadful judge will judge his people. The End.

Now if only it were that simple. A cursory scan of the list of papal electors reveal several cardinals whose names include Peter, Pierre, or Pedro, all of whom would qualify as “Roman” by the simple fact they are prelates of the Church of Rome. (And if the cardinals were to buy into the Prophecy of St. Malachy but wish to forestall the destruction of Rome – “the city of seven hills” – and the Final Judgment for as long as possible, they might want to consider selecting the youngest and healthiest Peter among them. I’m just sayin’.)

We can rest assured that the cardinal-electors won’t be giving these so-called “prophecies” as much as a fleeting thought in their deliberations. This forgery didn’t sway the conclave in 1595, and it won’t be a factor in 2013, either. I’d even be willing to wager on that – if it were not an excommunicable offense.

—–

Gerald Korson is a career Catholic journalist with more than 30 years’ experience as an editor and writer, including nine years as editor of Our Sunday Visitor national newsweekly (1998-2007). In addition to OSV, he has been published in numerous Catholic print and online journals including The Catholic Answer, Lay Witness, This Rock, Columbia, The Catholic Voice, Catholic San Francisco, The Montana Catholic, Extension, Catholic Almanac, Mercatornet, Catholic Pulse, and Catholic Online. He and his wife, the parents of 11 children, make their home in Indiana.

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March 5, 2013 / MariaNews.com 

Cardinals Send Their Telegram of Gratitude to His Holiness Benedict XVI 

By Vatican Information Service

VATICAN CITY (VIS) – Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., director of the Holy See Press Office, in a press conference, gave updated information on the development of the General Congregations.

“On Monday afternoon from 5:00pm until 7:00pm,” he said, “the second General Congregation of the College of Cardinals took place, during which Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, OFM Cap., preacher of the Pontifical Household, gave the first of the meditations provided for by the Apostolic Constitution.”

“Additionally, a further five Cardinal electors who had arrived in Rome swore the oath: Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon; Cardinal Joachim Meisner, archbishop of Cologne, Germany; Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, archbishop of Berlin, Germany; Cardinal Théodore-Adrien Sarr, archbishop of Dakar, Senegal; and Cardinal Dominik Jaroslav Duka, O.P., archbishop of Prague, Czech Republic.”

The cardinals are free to address the gathering, having only to sign up and then presenting in the order that they have signed in. Nine cardinals spoke and it was also decided that, on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Congregations will only be held in the morning.

Referring to the third Congregation that took place this morning from 9:30am until 12:40pm, Fr. Lombardi reported that two Cardinal electors-Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid and Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Catholic Education-and five cardinals who are over the age of 80 arrived and swore the oath. In total there were 148 cardinals present.

There were 11 speeches given by cardinals representing each of the continents and the topics discussed were: activities of the Holy See and its relations with bishops throughout the world; Church renewal in light of Vatican Council II; the Church’s position and the need for the New Evangelization in today’s world with its diverse cultural environments. Number 37 of Benedict XVI’s Motu Proprio concerning the beginning of the Conclave was presented to the prelates but no decision regarding its date was made.

There was also a proposal, endorsed by the Particular Congregation, to dedicate tomorrow afternoon to prayer in St. Peter’s Basilica. The Cardinal Dean, Angelo Sodano, will lead the prayers. This initiative will also serve as an invitation to the entire Church to pray at this important moment. The ceremony is open to the public so any faithful who so desire may attend.

In conclusion, the text of a telegram for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, which was signed by Cardinal Dean Sodano, was approved. It reads: “To His Holiness, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Castel Gandolfo.”

“The Cardinal Fathers, gathered at the Vatican for the General Congregations in view of the next conclave, send you their devoted greetings and express their renewed gratitude for all your illustrious Petrine ministry and for your example of generous pastoral care for the good of the Church and of the world. With their gratitude they hope to represent the recognition of the entire Church for your tireless work in the vineyard of the Lord. In conclusion, the members of the College of Cardinals trust in your prayers for them, as well as for the whole Church.”

Fr. Lombardi reported that the preparations for the Conclave have begun in the Sistine Chapel so it is now closed to visitors. He also presented data on the media coverage of the events of the Holy See in these days: 4,432 temporarily accredited journalists have joined the 600 permanently accredited journalists. The more than 5,000 journalists represent 1,004 news outlets, 65 nations, and 24 languages.

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March 1, 2013 / MariaNews.com 

520-million-year-old sea creature discovered

By Catholic Online

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – The fuxhianhuiid lived nearly 50 million years before animals first emerged from the sea onto land, during the early part of the Cambrian explosion. The recent discovery is one of the earliest animal fossils ever found, according to a new study.

The fuxhianhuiid has primitive limbs under its head, as well as the earliest example of a nervous system that extended past the head. The fuxhianhuiid may have used the limbs to push food into its mouth as it crept across the seafloor. The limbs may shed light on the evolutionary history of arthropods, which include crustaceans and insects.

“Since biologists rely heavily on organization of head appendages to classify arthropod groups, such as insects and spiders, our study provides a crucial reference point for reconstructing the evolutionary history and relationships of the most diverse and abundant animals on Earth,” study co-author Javier Ortega-Hernández says. An earth scientist at the University of Cambridge, Ortega-Hernández said in a statement “This is as early as we can currently see into arthropod limb development.”

Ortega-Hernández and his colleagues had begun excavating in a fossil-rich region of southwest China around Kunming called Xiaoshiba. The team unearthed several specimens of fuxhianhuiid where the bodies had been flipped before fossilization. Researchers had unearthed an amazingly preserved arthropod, as well as eight additional specimens.

These primeval creatures probably spent most of their days crawling across the seabed trawling for food and may have also been able to swim short distances. The sea creatures, are believed to be the earliest arthropods or jointed animals, probably evolved from worms with legs.

The discovery sheds light on how some of the earliest ancestors of today’s animals may have evolved.

“These fossils are our best window to see the most primitive state of animals as we know them – including us,” Ortega-Hernández said in a statement.

“Before that there is no clear indication in the fossil record of whether something was an animal or a plant – but we are still filling in the details, of which this is an important one.”

© 2013, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.

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