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WORLD YOUTH DAY, MADRID SPAIN, AUGUST 16TH - 21ST, 2011
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Youth is a time of great decisions
The Holy Father invites us to reflect on the direction we are taking in life
Dear friends, it is not hard to see that in every young person there is an aspiration towards happiness, sometimes tinged with anxiety: an aspiration that is often exploited, however, by present-day consumerist society in false and alienating ways. Instead, that longing for happiness must be taken seriously, it demands a true and comprehensive response. At your age, the first major choices are made, choices that can set your lives on a particular course, for better or worse. Unfortunately, many of your contemporaries allow themselves to be led astray by illusory visions of spurious happiness, and then they find themselves sad and alone.
Yet there are also many young men and women who seek to transform doctrine into action, as your representative said, so as to give the fullness of meaning to their lives. I invite you all to consider the experience of Saint Augustine, who said that the heart of every person is restless until it finds what it truly seeks. And he discovered that Jesus Christ alone is the answer that can satisfy his and every person's desire for a life of happiness, filled with meaning and value (cf. Confessions, I.1.1).
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WOMEN'S CONTRIBUTION TO CHURCH
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US Bishops Affirm Women's Contribution to Church
Reiterate Seriousness of Offenses Against Holy Orders
WASHINGTON, D.C., JULY 16, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The U.S. bishops are affirming the contribution of women to the Church after the Vatican included the attempted ordination of a woman in a revised list of the Church's "more grave crimes."
The Holy See published the revisions Thursday, which are an update to the 2001 apostolic letter "Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela" that outlines the norms for addressing cases of "gravioribus delictis" (grave crimes).
Archbishop Donald Wuerl of Washington, chairman of the Committee on Doctrine of the U.S. bishops, published a statement the same day in which he welcomed the Vatican clarification "of the seriousness with which it holds offenses against the Sacrament of Holy Orders."
"The seven sacraments are an integral and identifying part of the Catholic Church and the faith life of each Catholic," the prelate said. "To feign any sacrament would be egregious. The Catholic Church through its long and constant teaching holds that ordination has been, from the beginning, reserved to men, a fact which cannot be changed despite changing times."
Having said that, the archbishop affirmed that "all Catholics are called to Christian service," and noted in particular that "women have responded with extraordinary generosity."
"Historically, women have had an essential role in the life of the Church," Archbishop Wuerl continued. "This is true especially through their volunteer work in parishes, their professional service and their membership in religious communities, lay movements and other organizations, where they serve in a range of areas such as health care and education.
"Today women serve in Church leadership positions at all levels. Women hold nearly half of diocesan administrative and professional positions -- a fact that compares favorably to the U.S. workforce as a whole. Women also hold about one-quarter of the top diocesan positions, such as chancellor, school superintendent or chief financial officer. About 80 percent of lay parish ministers are women."
"The Church’s gratitude to women cannot be stated strongly enough," he concluded. "Women offer unique insight, creative abilities and unstinting generosity at the very heart of the Catholic Church. Their activity and determinative participation explains much of what makes the Catholic Church the powerful force for goodness and holiness that it is."
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WORLD YOUTH DAY LETTER FROM DIOCESE OF WILLEMSTAD
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I greet you in the name of Jesus and I do hope that everything is fine with you and all your pastoral works.
The reason for this e-mail is to inform you that a letter (which is also attached in this e-mail) has been send to you where the bishop and Fr. Morrison express their desire that next year for World Youth Day 2011 in Spain we as a Diocese can participate. In this regard I have been appointed by the bishop to organize as much as possible so that we can participate together as a Diocese.
In Curacao we held our first meeting on June the 4th and with great enthusiasm the whole committee is willing to give their all for this event, hence our second meeting is today. I am not aware if on your respective Islands/parishes preparations have begun. If so I would appreciate that you can send me the person responsible so that we can communicate and arrange things in such a way so that the groups/islands can join as a Diocese.
With this in mind I will keep in contact with you too as the priest responsible for youth on the Island of your residence. If I am mistaken in thinking that you are the one responsible please forgive me and forward this message to the priest responsible and inform me of this. Thank you.
The idea this year is that as i mention above that the youth of the whole Diocese can go together. Hence we would like that the formation takes place in the same way and forum as this is done on all the other Islands. We do already posses the Catechetical formation that the organizers of World Youth Day provide for all participants. It is also our desire that we will use one Flag with the emblem of the Bishop on it together with all the other flags comprising the islands of our Diocese on it. In this way we can create unity within the Diocese but also respecting the individual flags of each of the Islands.
In a next e-mail and or meeting I would continue to inform you on the plans and proposals as we try to unite the youth of our Diocese. If you do have any question please do not hesitate in asking me.
I do pray and hope that we can continue to work together in a Spirit of cooperation and unity as we proclaim Jesus Christ as saviour and Lord.
May God Bless you!
Deacon Curtis Meris
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VICARIATE MEETING WITH THE PRIESTS OF SABA, ST. EUSTATIA AND SINT MAARTEN
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PRIESTS PRESENT:
Fr. Danilo Pastor, Saba
Fr. Rafael Cananea, St. Eustatia
Fr. Manuel Antao, SVD Sint Maarten
Fr. Miguel Lopez Flores, SVD Sint Maarten
Fr. Bob Johnson, SVD Sint Maarten (Episcopal Vicar)
1) Began with Scripture: Hebrews 12:14-28
Our theme for our vicariate meeting came from the last verse: “Our God is indeed a consuming fire.” How is God indeed a consuming fire in our lives as priests, within our parishes, within our vicariate, keeping in mind the Diocesan Pastoral Plan. A discussion followed.
2) The following quotation was read for reflection: (The Changing Face of the Priesthood by Donald B. Cozzens, The Order of St. Benedict, Inc. Collegeville, Minnesota. All rights reserved.)
“The priest, then, is both pastor and parishioner, both preacher and listener. Maintaining the healthy tension of this dialectic is challenging. It is made easier, however, by the priest’s experience of failure and weakness, by his human limitations, by the suffering that touches everyone’s life. Perhaps that is why depth of soul and extraordinary compassion are found in those priests who have borne the heat of the day. These men are ordinarily in their middle years or beyond. Decades of priestly service have tempered their spirits—they have come to treat both praise and criticism with a certain indifference. At home with themselves, they have come to terms with their own demons and have not lost heart or their nerve. Grounded in the mystery of grace, they are both men of hope and men without illusions. They have sustained the dyad and in doing so discovered their truth, that core of their being where they mystery of grace in the midst of the faithful, confirms in wordless and image-less silence their call to priestly service.”
A lively and thought-provoking discussion by all the priests then occurred after reading this quotation.
3) Welcome and Acceptance of Agenda
4) Accepted Agenda:
1) The School of Evangelization
2) Ways of working closer together
3) Youth Ministry and World Youth Day Discussion
4) The New English Translation of the Sacramentary
5) Parish Reports/Updates/Projects: Saba, St. Eustatia, Sint Maarten
6) Vicariate Website
7) Diocese of Willemstad Priests’ Gathering in October
8) Pastoral Plan Review/Update from all three parishes
9) Sharing of where each priest presently is at (physically, mentally, spiritually, etc.)
10) Diaconate program
11) Pulpit Switching
12) Diocesan Commission for Sexual Abuse and Misconduct
13) Next Vicariate Meeting; and how often? Where?
14) Marriage Cases for Judicial Vicar
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POPE BENEDICT SPEAKS...
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Pope says God can be understood through harmony of faith, reason
By Sarah Delaney
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Christians can come to an understanding of God and his plan through reason that is enlightened by faith, Pope Benedict XVI said as he explained the works of St. Thomas Aquinas.
At the weekly general audience June 23 at the Paul VI audience hall, the pope said the 13th-century saint and doctor of the church showed in his writings how the intellect and faith come together to bring Christians closer to the mystery of God.
The pope, continuing his weekly lessons on the teachings of theologians from the Middle Ages, praised St. Thomas' monumental unfinished work, the "Summa Theologica." He said that in it St. Thomas posed questions that are relevant today. Through methods of inquiry inspired by ancient Greek philosophers, the pope said, he was able to "arrive at precise and lucid conclusions about the truth of faith that are accessible to all of us."
Pope Benedict said St. Thomas had taught that man's free will and thought must be "illuminated by prayer, enlightened from above."
He said that, according to St. Thomas, moral nature lies in the "free will of man to perform acts of good, integrating reason, will and passion," but to which must be added "the grace of God through the virtue and gifts of the Holy Spirit."
To those who doubt faith because it cannot be explained through the senses, St. Thomas answered that human intelligence cannot know everything, and that faith and acknowledgment of the mystery of God were necessary, Pope Benedict explained.
In writing about the apostles, the pope said, St. Thomas said that man cannot live and learn without the experience of others. The saint taught that wise, noble and rich people listened to the apostles even though they were poor and simple because their words had been inspired by Jesus Christ, the pope said.
St. Thomas taught that "the soul unites with God and becomes a sprout of eternal life," the pope said.
He said St. Thomas placed great importance on the sacraments, especially the Eucharist.
"Brothers and sisters," said the pope, "let us love this sacrament, nourishing ourselves with the body and blood of the Lord, to be everlastingly fed by divine grace."
The Eucharist shows the "the great mystery of incarnation" and the faith that God appeared to man, in the body of Jesus Christ, "as one of us," the pope said.
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