Posts Tagged ‘Pope John Paul II’

CTS authors reflect on Pope Benedict – Abbot Cuthbert Johnson OSB

Continuing our posts from CTS authors on Benedict XVI, Abbot Cuthbert Johnson OSB gives a personal memory of Benedict’s first days in office.

“About six months after the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI, I had to attend a meeting in Rome. As I was crossing Saint Peter’s Square I met some of the vendors of small religious objects. I knew several of them from the time when I worked in Rome. I asked one of them how things were and his impressions of the new Pope. Whether it was his own observation or he had heard it from others I do not know, but he said, ‘The pilgrims used to come to see Pope John Paul II but now they come to listen to Pope Benedict XVI’. This observation was both profound and prophetical.

I believe that Pope Benedict XVI through his writings and discourses has left the Church a rich patrimony of wisdom and sound teaching.”

Abbot Cuthbert Johnson OSB has written several CTS booklets on the Mass and the new English translation.

Of related interest:

Election of a Pope Election of a Pope (revised ed.) -This booklet explains the new norms promulgated by John Paul II in 1996 and combines the technical with the historical and spiritual elements of the process to produce a unique and highly informative summary.
Benedict XVI Benedict XVI Biography – revised ed – Here we discover a ‘humble and thoroughly kind man’, a leading thinker very much in touch with this modern age.
Monday, 18 February 2013 09:28

Pray for the success of World Youth Day

YouCat

With World Youth Day coming up, the Holy Father has invited the whole Church to pray that it may be, for young people, a meeting with Jesus.

His general prayer intention for this August is that:

“That World Youth Day in Madrid may encourage young people throughout the world to have their lives rooted and built up in Christ.”

Fr Eric Jacquinet – who heads up the Youth Office at the Vatican’s Council for the Laity, in giving his ideas on meeting the Lord and how the Church can spread the message of Jesus, points out that some of the best missionaries now come from young converts and here, the Vatican Insider offers a breakdown of what the Pope will be doing during the five-day event, including using a 3-metre-high gold and silver monstrance, a 16th-century piece from Toledo, for the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament during the Saturday night’s customary prayer vigil.

Some have decried World Youth Day as a Catholic festival that John Paul II made successful simply because he was a megastar, but this is an over-simplification based on a skewed view of what the Polish pontiff wanted to achieve. Certainly, I can remember a moment at World Youth Day in Canada in 2003 which involved monks playing electric guitars at unearthly hours, but these episodes have been, in my experience, rare. What Benedict is inviting people to do – and YouCat mentioned in the Vatican radio’s report can certainly lend a helping hand – is to come and meet him; and he, who is himself “Rooted in Christ and firm in the faith” – the World Youth Day motto – will present Christ as the answer to all the questions and desires young people, and the not-so-young, have.

YouCat is published by the CTS in the UK & Ireland and priced £9.95

Of related interest:

Love and purity True Love – Passion & Purity - This booklet helps the reader gain an insightful understanding of our deepest need to love and be loved, and what place our sexuality has in this important aspect of our lives.
Way A Way of Life for Young Catholics – Written for young Catholics who want to live their faith more deeply but are not sure what steps to take, this booklet contains practical, down-to-earth advice on many aspects of daily life.
How to Discover Vocation How to Discover your Vocation - This booklet will help you to think and pray about your vocation and become clearer about where God is leading you. It answers many of the practical questions you may be asking: What are the different Christian vocations? How does God guide us and speak to us? How can I be more open to my vocation, and come to a decision?
Thursday, 28 July 2011 14:45

Blessed John Paul II: A third patron for Europe?

JPII

Just a few days ago, we celebrated the feast of St Benedict, patron of Europe. St Catherine of Siena was also given that title, and some are suggesting we should have a third: Blessed Pope John Paul II.

Poland took over the presidency of the European Union at the beginning of July, and yesterday Zenit reported on a Mass organized by the Polish embassy to the Holy See at the beginning of these important 6 months. Priorities for the presidency are said to be energy and the EU budget, but at
yesterday’s Mass, very different things were being talked of:

“Hanna Suchocka, Polish ambassador to the Holy See, thanked the participants and expressed the wish that the Polish Pope will be considered by all as the ‘patron of a united Europe able to breathe fully with her two lungs.’”

A set of lungs was an analogy which the Polish Pope used to ridicule the division of Europe into east and west, under which he lived for most of his life, and which he helped destroy. This he did, by offering the peoples behind the Iron Curtain a new, better vision of the human person, who does not exist to service either the state or capitalism/consumerism, but because he or she was brought into being by a loving, good Creator.

As Jim Gallagher puts in his biography, John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood :

“While the German National-Socialists (Nazis) had proclaimed that ‘work makes you free’, for the Communists the human person was just another cog in the great collective. Only the Catholic Church has consistently proclaimed that the human person is of intrinsic value and dignity, each individual made in the image and likeness of God.”

John Paul lived this idea out in his Papacy, taking it across Europe and the world, yet he was far from unaware of the problems facing Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall, as his constant invitations to remember God in the European constitution bear witness.

This holy man, steeped in Europe’s Christian intellectual and prayerful traditions, would be a fantastic patron for the continent. We will have to wait and see if this honorary title will be added to the others he will surely, and most deservedly receive.

John Paul II – The Road to Sainthood by Jim Gallagher is available from CTS at £2.95

Of related interest:

JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Saints made How Saints are Canonised - Through baptism, all Christians are called to be saints, and yet there are also ‘saints’ who are ‘canonised’ by the Church. This booklet gives an overview of the history and process of beatification and canonisation in the Catholic Church.
Thursday, 14 July 2011 11:17

Remember the human person in this age of the internet – world communications day

DO506

You may wonder why, in a post on the 45th World Communications Day marked yesterday, there is a picture of Pope John Paul II’s first encyclical Redemptor Hominis.

It set out the blessed Polish Pope’s Christian humanism; a humanism which always put the dignity of the human person first, and that was a central theme of Pope Benedict’s message for the day.

Last week, Fr Federico Lombardi warned against the dangers of a now all-pervasive internet and the relationships people construct there.

“”What kind of ‘friendships’ are we building online?” Is the network a place where we can convincingly and credibly give ‘testimony,’ or is it only an environment of noncommittal presences, fictitious profiles where we fail to admit the truth about ourselves?”

This sentiment was echoed yesterday by the Holy Father himself, in his special message for the occasion, speaking particularly about young people, he said:

“Their ever greater involvement in the public digital forum, created by the so-called social networks, helps to establish new forms of interpersonal relations, influences self-awareness and therefore inevitably poses questions not only of how to act properly, but also about the authenticity of one’s own being. Entering cyberspace can be a sign of an authentic search for personal encounters with others, provided that attention is paid to avoiding dangers such as enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual world. In the search for sharing, for ‘friends’, there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful, and not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself.”

You can read the full address here.

He also called on Christians to bear witness in this latest arena:

“In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history, the one in whom all things find their fulfilment (cf. Eph 1:10). The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive, which stimulates the heart and moves the conscience.”

Let’s hope that these tools can be put at the service of what is good, remembering that our desire for relationships is a desire for communion, the communion which is ultimately found in Jesus. It is the mission of every Christian in every age to do what they can to make that communion a real possibility. To return to the redeemer of man:

“The Church wishes to serve this single end: that each person may be able to find Christ, in order that Christ may walk with each person the path of life, with the power of the truth about man and the world that is contained in the mystery of the Incarnation and the Redemption and with the power of the love that is radiated by that truth.”

(Redemptor Hominis 13)

Of related interest:

A Way in Catholic Social Teaching – A Way In - The Common Good’, ‘option for the poor’ ‘subsidiarity’- concepts like these have become part of the currency of Catholic teaching, but what do they mean? What are their foundations in scripture and tradition which make them distinctively Catholic?
Ex30 Global Warming – How should we respond? – Global warming is seen as the defining issue of our generation. Does the Church believe that it is really happening, and what should Catholics do to care for our planet?
S400 Sollicitudo Rei Sociali – “There is a better understanding today that the mere accumulation of goods and services, even for the benefit of the majority, is not enough for the realisation of human happiness,” wrote John Paul II on the twentieth anniversary of Paul VI’s revolutionary encyclical Populorum Progressio.
Monday, 06 June 2011 15:30

Celebrating Blessed John Paul II’s 91st birthday

JPII

Yesterday, May 18 would have been Pope John Paul II’s 91st birthday, and it seems the new blessed is working as hard from his new ‘headquarters’ as he ever did in the Apostolic Palace.

To celebrate the occasion, there are two news stories we would like to bring to your attention.

Maternal Protection

The first is about the mosaic of Our Lady that was prominent during his beatification ceremony, alongside the moving photograph of the smiling Pontiff.

Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, told how, since the assassination attempt made on the Holy Father in 1981, there had been a desire to show a symbol of Our Lady’s divine protection in the square.

“John Paul II, convinced that the Virgin Mary had protected him on that day, immediately expressed the desire that an image of the Madonna be placed in the square.”

December 8th 1981 saw John Paul II bless the new mosaic, its image taken from an ancient painting of the Madonna and child with a long history. It was housed in the old St. Peter’s Basilica, built in the 4th century by the Emperor Constantine, and is known as ‘Mary, Mother of the Church’.

You can read the whole story here.

Demons fear John Paul

The second story is about revelations by Rome’s diocesan exorcist, Fr. Gabriele Amorth, that demons are frightened by the name of John Paul II.

David Kerr reported that Fr. Amorth points to two aspects of the new blessed’s work which have infuriated the Devil.

“I have asked the demon more than once, ‘Why are you so scared of John Paul II and I have had two different responses, both interesting. One, ‘because he disrupted my plans.’ And, I think that he is referring to the fall of communism in Russia and Eastern Europe. The collapse of communism.”

“Another response that he gave me, ‘because he pulled so many young people from my hands.’ There are so many young people who, thanks to John Paul II, were converted. Perhaps some were already Christian but not practising, but then with John Paul II they came back to the practice. ‘He pulled so many young people out of my hands.’”

You can read the full story here.

Fr. Amorth also drew attention to the fact that people need to be reminded that the devil is real and is powerful – but clearly the man born on May 18th 1920 in Poland is another proof that the battle against the old adversary has been won, and we just have to pick the winning side.

Blessed John Paul II, pray for us.

Of related interest:

JPII John Paul II: The Pope who Made History – A unique and monumental 5-DVD collection that chronologically follows Pope John Paul II’s life, including his childhood in Poland, his appointment as Pope, his most important foreign visits, and his last days.
JPII's Life John Paul II: His Life his Pontificate – his DVD contains two feature-length documentaries: His Life (30 mins) and His Pontificate (60 mins). They consider the two parts of John Paul’s life, before and after his election as Pope.
Saints made How Saints are Canonised - Through baptism, all Christians are called to be saints, and yet there are also ‘saints’ who are ‘canonised’ by the Church. This booklet gives an overview of the history and process of beatification and canonisation in the Catholic Church.
Thursday, 19 May 2011 15:30
« Older Entries

Login