Sept 2013 - four - abbey

20. 'Hello, it's Pope Francis': Italian teenager gets surprise phone call

An Italian teenager was amazed to pick up the telephone and hear the voice on the other line say "Hello, it's Pope Francis here." Pope Francis told the student to address him as 'tu' rather than use the much more formal 'lei' during the conversation. Stefano Cabizza, 19, an information technology student from near Padua in northern Italy, wrote a letter to the new Pope a few weeks ago in which he described his life and expressed hopes that he would find a job at the end of his studies. He then thought nothing more of it.
So he was stunned to have the leader of the world's 1.2bn Catholics phone him up for a chat. In fact the Pope could not reach him on his first attempt – Mr Cabizza was not at home – and had to try a second time. "I couldn't believe it. We laughed and joked for about eight minutes. He called me around five o'clock after finding that I was not at home the first time around.
"He asked me to pray for him and then he gave me a blessing. It was the most beautiful day of my life." Pope Francis told the student to address him as 'tu' rather than use the much more formal 'lei' during the conversation. "He said to me, do you think the Apostles would have used the polite form with Christ? "Would they have called him your excellency? They were friends, just as you and I are now, and with friends I'm accustomed to using 'tu'." Mr Cabizza said it had been "a fantastic experience" to talk one-to-one with the Argentine Pope and that he was struck by his "humility and his closeness to ordinary Catholics".

21. Rape victim consoled, encouraged by call from Pope Francis

Pope Francis called a 44-year old rape victim in his native Argentina, who had written to him, assuring her she is not alone. “The Pope told me he receives thousands of letters each day, but that what I wrote moved him and touched his heart,” Alejandra Pereyra said in an interview with the National University of Cordoba’s Canal 10 TV station. “When I heard the Pope’s voice, it was like feeling the hand of God,” she said. The woman explained that in her letter, she asked the Holy Father for help and explained that she had been raped on two occasions by a police officer, who later threatened her. On Sunday afternoon, her cell phone rang, and when she asked who it was, the voice said, “It’s the Pope.” “I was petrified,” Pereyra confessed. The conversation lasted about half an hour and centered on “faith and trust.”

“The Pope listened attentively to my story,” the woman said. “I’ll do anything now to go to the Vatican. He told me he would meet with me.” The woman told the television station that justice has been thwarted because local officials have covered up the crime, refusing to hear her story and even giving a promotion to the alleged perpetrator. “Now I know that I am not alone and I will pick myself up again,” Pereyra said. “The Pope told me that I am not alone and that I should have faith that justice will be done.” The phone call is the latest in a series of similar personal phone calls that Pope Francis has made since he became Pope in March.

22. IOR launches website
On Wednesday July 31, the Institute for Religious Works – otherwise know by the acronym of its Italian title, IOR – launched its website: www.ior.va
In an interview with Vatican Radio’s Bernd Hagenkord, IOR president Ernst von Freyberg (pictured) spoke about the objectives of this new website. “In May we said we would focus over the coming months on transparency and on the Moneyval process, that is the anti-money laundering obligations which the Vatican has accepted in the EU reparative framework."
“It is an important part of transparency to launch a website,” he said, explaining that its purpose “is to tell our customers, the Church, the interested public, what we are doing, how our reform efforts are progressing, and what the scope of our work is.” Von Feyberg said that he and all employees have worked hard in recent weeks “to have the IOR as transparent, efficient, completely compliant institute following the highest regulatory and professional standards.”
“We wish to create options for the Holy Father to decide later in this year how he wishes to organize our activities going forward,” he said. He continued: “We consider the journalists and the media our key intermediaries with the public, but also with those in the church who are interested in our work. And we hope that this website will also create a platform to communicate with journalists and the media.”
“On our website you will find an explanation of our activity, a brief summary of our history, a description of our reform efforts, and details of those who are in charge of the governance of IOR.”

23. Vatican orders slight change in text for Baptism
To emphasis that the sacrament of baptism formally brings a person into the church of God and not just into a local Christian community, the Vatican has brought about a slight change of wording in the baptismal rite. At the beginning of the rite, instead of saying, "the Christian community welcomes you with great joy," the officiating minister will say, "the church of God welcomes you with great joy. Baptism is the sacrament of faith in which people are incorporated into the one church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and the bishops in communion with him," said the decree from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.

The decree is dated Feb. 22 and was published in the latest issue of "Notitiae," the congregation's newsletter. Signed by Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, congregation prefect, and Archbishop Arthur Roche, congregation secretary, the decree said the change to the wording in Latin and all local languages was approved Jan. 28 by Pope Benedict XVI, who resigned a month later.
The new wording, the decree said, better emphasizes Catholic doctrine that through baptism a person is incorporated into the universal church and not just into a parish.
Although the rest of the formula remains the same, by beginning with an affirmation of the entire church welcoming the one about to be baptized, the minister also makes clear that the sacrament is being administered in the name of the church and not just in the name of the local community. Before the change, the approved English text read: "The Christian community welcomes you with great joy. In its name I claim you for Christ our savior by the sign of his cross." The decree said the change was to have gone into effect in the Latin text March 31.

24. Pope calls for anti-human trafficking meeting at Vatican

On the request of Pope Francis, Catholic Church experts will gather in November with the aim of better tackling the growing scourge of human trafficking. “We must be grateful to Pope Francis for having identified one of the most important social dramas of our time and that he has had enough trust in our Catholic institutions to ask us to arrange this working group,” said Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, (Pictured) chancellor of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The academy along with the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and the World Federation of Catholic Medical Associations will meet to discuss a Vatican action plan to help combat what is often referred to as the modern slave trade. “Trafficking in human beings is a terrible offense against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights,” Bishop Sánchez Sorondo told Vatican Radio on Thursday. “In this century, it acts as a catalyst in the creation of criminal assets.” The group will meet at the headquarters of both the academies in Vatican City.
Bishop Sánchez Sorondo observed that the United Nations has begun to be aware of this growing crime “only in 2000,” together with the effects of globalization. “The alarming increase in the trade in human beings is one of the pressing economic, social and political risks associated with the process of globalization,” he said. “It’s a serious threat to the security of individual nations and a question of international justice.”

A 2012 report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on human trafficking says around 20.9 million victims are forced into labor globally. Each year, about two million people are victims of sex trafficking, 60 percent of whom are girls. The practice is not limited to poor and underdeveloped areas, but extends to all world regions. “Some observers argue that, in a few years, trafficking in persons will exceed the trafficking of drugs and arms, making it the most lucrative criminal activity in the world,” the bishop warned.

25. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI visits Castel Gandolfo

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI made a short visit to Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of Popes, on Sunday August 18, afternoon. He recited the rosary there and then attended a short concert of classical music. He returned to the Vatican in the evening. This was the first time Pope emeritus, Benedict XVI, left Vatican City since he arrived there on Thursday, 2nd May 2013, after a short stay in Castle Gandolfo.
Pope Benedict, who retired at the end of February this year, now lives in a former convent in the Vatican gardens. The sparsely decorated Mater Ecclesiae is just a few hundred meters from the Vatican guesthouse where Pope Francis has opted to live.
Pope Emeritus shares the refurbished building with his personal secretary, Archbishop Georg Gänswein, and the four women – members of the Catholic fellowship Communion and Liberation – who cook the pope's meals and look after his household.

26. Canonization date for JP II, John XXIII to be known on Sept 30

Pope Francis will host a meeting of cardinals Sept. 30 to formally approve the canonization of Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII and the date for the canonization will be announced at that time, said Cardinal Angelo Amato, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Cardinal Sodano told Vatican Radio Aug. 20 that only Pope Francis knows for sure the date he will proclaim the two popes saints, although he already implied that it is likely to be in 2014. Speaking to reporters travelling with him from Brazil to Rome July 28, Pope Francis said he had been considering Dec. 8, but the possibility of icy roads could make it difficult for Polish pilgrims who would travel by bus to Rome for the ceremony. Another option, he said, would be April 27, which is the Sunday after Easter and the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, a celebration instituted worldwide by Pope John Paul II.

Asked to describe the two late popes, Pope Francis said Blessed John was "a bit of the country priest,” a priest who loves each of the faithful and knows how to care for them; he did this as a bishop and as a nuncio. He was holy, patient, had a good sense of humour and, especially by calling the Second Vatican Council, was a man of courage,” Pope Francis said and added he was a man who let himself be guided by the Lord.
As for Blessed John Paul, he told the reporters on the plane, "I think of him as 'the great missionary of the church," because he was "a man who proclaimed the Gospel everywhere." Pope Francis signed a decree recognizing the miracle needed for Blessed John Paul's canonization July 5; the same day, the Vatican announced that the pope had agreed with the cardinal members of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints' that the canonization of Blessed John should go forward, even without a second miracle attributed to his intercession.
Before declaring new saints, the pope consults with cardinals around the world and calls a consistory, where those present voice their support for the pope's decision. A date for a canonization ceremony is announced formally only during or immediately after the consistory. Except in the case of martyrdom, Vatican rules require one miracle for a candidate's beatification and a second for canonization, as confirmations that the candidate really is in heaven with God.