Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Divine Mercy World Congress 2011

ZOOM

LAST NEWS :
JP II to be beatified May 1, Sunday of Divine Mercy !!!

continue >> March : Cracow Diocese will contact Continental or National coordinators for groups’ registration. Further details will be available soon !

SECOND WORLD APOSTOLIC CONGRESS ON MERCY

October, 1 - 5, 2011 Cracow Poland : WACOM 2011

In March 2011, a registration form for the upcoming World Congress on Mercy, Cracow., will be available on line.

continue >>


	The most recent article - A National Congress on Divine Mercy will be held in Vilnius from 30 April to May 1st. : Lithuanian Bishops, gathered in Vilnius on 14 November 2010 to the Feast of the Mother of Mercy, decided to proclaim 2011 the Year of Divine Mercy. During this year, the Bishops encourage believers to go deeper into the mystery of Divine Mercy, to venerate the Image of the Merciful Jesus and to learn about its history as well as the request of Jesus, made through St Faustina, to spread it throughout the world. The Bishops also encourage believers to make pilgrimages to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Vilnius and to meditate on the graces God is constantly pouring on us. Vilnius Archdiocesan Curia - SECOND WORLD APOSTOLIC CONGRESS ON MERCY CRACOW : October, 1 - 5, 2010 Cracow Poland : WACOM 2011 His Eminence Christoph Card. Schönborn’s invitation for the upcoming World Congress on Mercy, Cracow, Lagiewniki - Poland

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Pope Benedict on Pontius Pilate

Pope writes his own 'Passion of the Christ'

Wednesday, 09 March 2011

Analysis
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY - In his latest volume of Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict XVI says the condemnation of Christ had complex political and religious causes and cannot be blamed on the Jewish people as a whole.

The Pope also said it was a mistake to interpret the words reported in the Gospel, “His blood be on us and on our children,” as a blood curse against the Jews.
Those words, spoken by the mob that demanded Jesus’ death, need to be read in the light of faith, the Pope wrote. They do not cry out for vengeance, but for reconciliation, he said.
“It means that we all stand in need of the purifying power of love which is His blood. These words are not a curse, but rather redemption, salvation,” he said.
The Pope’s treatment of the events of the Passion form the core of his new book, Jesus of Nazareth. Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection. It was to be officially presented at the Vatican on 10 March, but excerpts from three chapters were released on 2 March.
The work is an extensive reflection on the Gospel texts and on the arguments of Scripture scholars, in effect offering Pope Benedict’s version of The Passion of the Christ.
In Chapter 7, the Pope examines the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor in Judea. The Pope said Pilate is presented realistically in the Gospels as a man who knew that Jesus posed no real threat to the Roman order, but who had to deal with political realities - including pressure from Jesus’ accusers.
“Now we must ask: Who exactly were Jesus’ accusers? Who insisted that He be condemned to death?” the Pope wrote. He noted that the Gospel of St John says simply it was “the Jews.”
“But John’s use of this expression does not in any way indicate - as the modern reader might suppose - the people of Israel in general, even less is it ‘racist’ in character. After all, John himself was ethnically a Jew, as were Jesus and all His followers,” he said.
What St John was referring to with the term “the Jews,” the Pope said, was the “temple aristocracy,” the dominant priestly circle that had instigated Jesus’ death.
In St Mark’s Gospel, the Pope said, this circle of accusers is broadened to include the masses or mob of people. But he said it also would be a mistake to see this, too, as referring to the Jewish people as a whole; more specifically, they were the followers of the imprisoned rebel, Barabbas, who were mobilised when Pilate asked the crowd to choose amnesty for one of the accused: Jesus or Barabbas.
The Pope said the trial and condemnation of Jesus was a classic conflict of truth versus power, posing questions that still reverberate in modern politics.
When Jesus said that His kingship consisted of bearing witness to the truth, Pilate - the representative of worldly power - did not know how to react, and asked pragmatically: “What is truth?”
“It is the question that is also asked by modern political theory: Can politics accept truth as a structural category? Or must truth, as something unattainable, be relegated to the subjective sphere?” the Pope said.
He said that when “truth counts for nothing,” justice is held hostage to the arbitrariness of “changing opinions and powerful lobbies.” The history of great dictatorships fed by ideological lies demonstrates that only truth can bring freedom, he said. In essence, he said, bearing witness to truth means giving priority to God.
The Pope drew a parallel between the condemnation of Jesus and the modern “failure to understand the meaning of creation ... the failure to recognise truth.”
“As a result, the rule of pragmatism is imposed, by which the strong arm of the powerful becomes the god of this world,” he said.
The Pope also examined the figure of Barabbas, saying Gospel accounts depict him as a “terrorist or freedom fighter” against Roman rule. In effect, the Pope said, Pilate was looking at two criminals accused of rebelling against the Roman Empire.
It is clear, the Pope said, that Pilate prefers the nonviolent “fanatic” that he saw in Jesus. But the crowd supports the rebel Barabbas because “they would like to see a different solution to the problem.”
“Again and again, humanity will be faced with this same choice: to say yes to God who works only through the power of truth and love, or to build on something tangible and concrete - on violence,” he said.
The Pope said the Barabbas scene and its many recurrences throughout history represent a challenge to Christians and should “tear open our hearts and change our lives.”
He went on to describe the physical cruelty of the Passion, including the “barbaric” practice of scourging, which left Jesus near death, and the crowning with thorns, which aimed to humiliate Jesus and His claims to be a king.
The Pope said the soldiers involved in these acts of brutality were scapegoating Jesus. “Whatever may be afflicting the people is offloaded onto Him: In this way it is to be driven out of the world,” he said.
When the beaten Jesus is presented to the crowd with his crown of thorns and reed scepter, He manifests his fully human nature, the Pope said.
“In Him is displayed the suffering of all who are subjected to violence, all the downtrodden. His suffering mirrors the inhumanity of worldly power, which so ruthlessly crushes the powerless,” he said.
In the end, the Pope wrote, Pilate may have convinced himself that he had defended Roman law and civil peace.
But at a later date, he said, it would become clear that “peace, in the final analysis, cannot be established at the expense of truth.”
In the book’s third chapter, Pope Benedict looks at the figure of Judas. He noted that the other disciples believed that in betraying Christ, Judas had come under the grip of Satan.
Judas did take a step toward conversion when he later acknowledged his sin and gave back the money he was paid for his betrayal, the Pope said. But Judas’ “second tragedy” was that he could no longer believe in forgiveness.
“He shows us the wrong type of remorse: the type that is unable to hope, that only sees its own darkness, the type that is destructive and in no way authentic,” the Pope said.
“Genuine remorse is marked by the certainty of hope born of faith.”
The second volume of the
Pope’s book Jesus of Nazareth will be available
from The Record Bookshop.

Next >

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Pope: "Temple aristocracy" Mainly Responsible for Death of Jesus

---

Pope Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, explaining biblically and theologically in his new book why there is no scriptural basis for it, said an AP report in the Herald Sun.

....

The Catholic Church issued its most authoritative teaching on the issue in its 1965 Second Vatican Council document Nostra Aetate, which revolutionised the church's relations with Jews by saying Christ's death could not be attributed to Jews as a whole at the time or today.

Pope Benedict comes to the same conclusion, but he explains how with a thorough, Gospel-by-Gospel analysis in his book, Jesus of Nazareth-Part II, that leaves little doubt that he deeply and personally believes it to be the case: That only a few Temple leaders and a small group of supporters were primarily responsible for Christ's crucifixion.

Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

Jewish scholars said the argument laid out by the German-born pontiff was a landmark statement from a pope that would help fight anti-Semitism today.

"Holocaust survivors know only too well how the centuries-long charge of 'Christ killer' against the Jews created a poisonous climate of hate that was the foundation of anti-Semitic persecution whose ultimate expression was realised in the Holocaust," said Elan Steinberg of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants.

The Pope's book, he said, not only confirms church teaching refuting the deicide charge "but seals it for a new generation of Catholics".

Taken from: http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=25274

And:

Pope exonerates Jews for Jesus' death

From correspondents in Vatican City
From: AP
March 03, 2011 5:24AM

POPE Benedict XVI has made a sweeping exoneration of the Jewish people for the death of Jesus Christ, tackling one of the most controversial issues in Christianity in a new book.

In Jesus of Nazareth-Part II excerpts released today, Benedict explains biblically and theologically why there is no basis in Scripture for the argument that the Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus' death.

Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

While the Catholic Church has for five decades taught that Jews weren't collectively responsible, Jewish scholars said today the argument laid out by the German-born pontiff, who has had his share of mishaps with Jews, was a landmark statement from a pope that would help fight anti-Semitism today.

The Pope's book, he said, not only confirms church teaching refuting the deicide charge "but seals it for a new generation of Catholics".

Benedict comes to the same conclusion, but he explains how with a thorough, Gospel-by-Gospel analysis that leaves little doubt that he deeply and personally believes it to be the case: That only a few Temple leaders and a small group of supporters were primarily responsible for Christ's crucifixion.

The book is the second instalment to Benedict's 2007 Jesus of Nazareth, his first book as pope, which offered a very personal meditation on the early years of Christ's life and teachings. This second book, set to be released March 10, concerns the final part of Christ's life, his death and resurrection.

In the book, Benedict re-enacts Jesus' final hours, including his death sentence for blasphemy, then analyses each Gospel account to explain why Jews as a whole cannot be blamed for it. Rather, Benedict concludes, it was the "Temple aristocracy" and a few supporters of the figure Barabbas who were responsible.

Benedict said Jesus' death wasn't about punishment, but rather salvation. Jesus' blood, he said, "does not cry out for vengeance and punishment, it brings reconciliation. It is not poured out against anyone, it is poured out for many, for all".

Benedict, who was forced to join the Hitler Youth as a child in Nazi Germany, has made improving relations with Jews a priority of his pontificate. He has visited the Auschwitz Nazi death camp in Poland and Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

But he also has had a few missteps that have drawn the ire of Jewish groups, most notably when in 2009 he lifted the excommunication of a traditionalist Catholic bishop who had denied the extent of the Holocaust by saying no Jews were gassed during World War II.

Taken from: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/pope-exonerates-jews-for-jesus-death/story-e6frf7jx-1226015059167