Dr. Alan Schreck on Pope Benedict

CatholicMediaJournal has posted a useful audio interview with Dr. Alan Schreck, chairman of the Department of Theology at Franciscan University of Steubenville, highlighting the upcoming Papal visit and some insights on Pope Benedict's ideas regarding authentic Church renewal. It's a shame that more secular media sources don't turn to Dr. Schreck. He's extremely knowledgeable about the Church.

Children at Our Lady of Good Counsel Have a Gift for the Holy Father

Under the direction of Chris Gillespie a group of children at Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in New York have a gift for the Holy Father - the Ave Maria, composed by Gillespie. They're sharing their gift of music not only with Pope Benedict, but also with others via this video. Go take a look. It's a beautiful expression of their love. Make sure you have the volume on your speakers turned up. As time goes on, I suspect we'll be seeing other efforts, but this is among the first like it that I've seen.

Exclusive: White House Welcoming Ceremony Invite

A colleague who has been invited to attend the White House shared this official invitation with me (click on the image at left), minus the particular details. Regarding the White House Welcoming Ceremony, another source told me that she had received a ticket for the event through her local Congresswoman. One commenter told me this is President Bush's opportunity to pay back all those Catholics who were involved in the Catholic-outreach effort during the election.

Ecumenical Leaders Who Will Greet the Pope

A press release has the details on the ecumenical leaders who've been invited to greet Pope Benedict XVI during the April 18 ecumenical prayer service. Here's the release:

       Pope Benedict XVI will lead an ecumenical prayer service April 18, at St. Joseph's Church in the Yorkville area of Manhattan.
    Participants at the service will include 250 national and local Protestant and Orthodox Church leaders.
    St. Joseph's Church was built in the 19th century by the immigrant German community that settled in the area and today serves a diverse population. A Sunday Mass is still celebrated in German.
    The pope will address the group after a reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians (4:1-6) and before the congregation prays the Lord's Prayer.
    At the end of the ceremony, the pope will greet ten national and five local ecumenical leaders.
    The national leaders include:
    Archbishop Demetrios of America, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in America and Exarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In June 2003, the Archbishop led the delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Vatican for the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. He serves as Chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas.
    Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. Archbishop Barsamian is a member of the international dialogue between the Catholic Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, and is Chairman of the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches in the United States.
    Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, legate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern) in Washington and ecumenical officer. He became President of the National Council of Churches USA January 1, 2008.
    Rev. Dr. Donald McCoid, representing Presiding Bishop Mark Hanson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is Director of the Ecumenical and Inter-Religious Relations Office of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
    Bishop Jeremiah J. Park, Bishop of the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.
    Rev. Dr. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, General Secretary of the Reformed Church in America since 1994, and one of the five Presidents of Christian Churches Together in the USA, representing the historic Protestant family.
    Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA) since 1996.
    Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., since 1999. Dr. Shaw serves as one of the five Presidents of Christian Churches Together in the USA, representing the Racial/Ethnic family of churches.
    Bishop James Leggett, General Superintendent of the International Pentecostal Holiness Church, a position he had held since 1997. Bishop Leggett is the Evangelical/Pentecostal President of Christian Churches Together in the USA.
    Dr. Leith Anderson, President of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and senior pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota since 1977.

Leaders from the New York area who will personally greet the pope include:
    Bishop David H. Benke, president of the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Rev. Benke was elected president of the Atlantic District in 1991, and has been re-elected five times, most recently in 2006. He is also the primary ecumenical leader for the Nehemiah Project which provides housing for the poor in New York City.
    Rev. Dr. A. R. Bernard Sr., President of the Council of Churches of the City of New York and founder and Senior Pastor of The Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, New York. He is also host of two weekly television programs, Faith in Practice with A. R. Bernard and The A. R. Bernard Show.
    Elder Bernice A. King, the second daughter and youngest child of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. With her brother Martin Luther King III, she has been active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference once led by their father. She is currently an elder at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia.
    Rev. Jimmy Seong G. Lim, Executive Director of the Council of Churches of the City of New York. Rev. Lim has served the Council of Churches of the City of New York since 1999. Rev. Lim is an ordained minister in The Reformed Church in America.
    The Right Rev. Mark S. Sisk, the 15th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. Bishop Sisk was consecrated Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of New York in 1998. Prior to his election as coadjutor, Bishop Sisk served as President and Dean of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
   
       The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has been in ecumenical dialogue with a broad spectrum of Christian churches and communities for decades and has embarked with them on many ventures. One of the most recent is establishment of the Christian Churches Together in the USA. Members include Catholics, Orthodox, mainline Protestants, Evangelicals and Pentecostals. For the first time in U.S. history there is a structure to enable the great majority of Christians in the United States to speak together with a common voice on the issues that face both church and society.

Exclusive: A Chair Fit for the Pope

Click on the photo at left and you'll be given a close up view of the chair that Pope Benedict will be using during his visit to the National Shrine in Washington, D.C. when he addresses the U.S. bishops. The chair was designed by St. Jude Liturgical Arts Studio. For more details on the chair, visit here.

It's a bit blurry, but here's the hand-embroidered Papal seal on the chair's back.

A Papal Gift-bearer

Baltimore's WJZ-TV has a story on 15-year-old Elizabeth Kane, who has the honor of being one of the gift bearers during the offertory at the Papal Mass in Washington, D.C.

Like more and more of the individuals I'm running across, it's not the first papal run-in for the Kane family. According to the story, the Kane family - parents and nine children - were chosen to sit front and center for Pope John Paul II's Mass on the Mall.

I wish the reporter had dug a bit harder to find out how these selections get made.

Seeing the Church through Political Eyes

It's a shame that the media cannot seem to look at the Church without seeing it through political eyes. By doing so, anyone who supports the Church's teachings in all areas will, by extension, be labeled "conservative," carrying all of the baggage that goes along with that word.

The big U.S. News and World Report story on the pope's visit heavily utilizes political language to describe the Church. As if it weren't bad enough to use such terms to describe an a-political organization, like so many stories, it also uses the terms in an unbalanced way. It's quick to describe those who it sees as conservative, while avoiding the liberal label.

That CUA Address

It's not only Father Benedict (see previous entry) who's speculating on what Pope Benedict will have to say at Catholic University of America. That address has been receiving a fair amount of press coverage and speculation.

This Reuters' article seems to follow the lines of the previous Washington Post article. It doesn't use the word "stern," but uses the words "rebuke" and "reprimand." Writers would do well to ask themselves whether Pope Benedict has "rebuked" or "reprimanded" anyone since his election as Pope.

Terry Mattingly provides a historical look back at Pope John Paul II's words to Catholic educators in his recent "On Religion" column.

Mattingly also quotes Pope Benedict:

"Today, the ecclesiastical disciplines, especially theology, are subjected to new questions in a world tempted on the one hand by rationalism which follows a falsely free rationality disconnected from any religious reference, and on the other, by fundamentalisms that falsify the true essence of religion with their incitement to violence and fanaticism," he said. "Schools should also question themselves on the role they must fulfill in the contemporary social context, marked by an evident educational crisis."

The Pope's Chair

Pope Benedict XVI will be using several chairs during his visit, but the Philadelphia Inquirer has this story on the chair being used by the Pope at his meeting with U.S. bishops at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

The wooden chair was designed by the DiCocco Family's St. Jude Shop in Havertown and was commissioned by the Shrine's rector, Monsignor Walter Rossi. After its use, it will be displayed at the Shrine.

The Inquirer has these details about the chair:

Rossi laid out the specifications: The chair had to reflect the pope's status as global leader of the Catholic church. It had to blend with the crypt of the basilica, which would act as backdrop.

"It had to have [the pope's] coat of arms," DiCocco said. "It had to be stately. It had to suggest that he is the shepherd, the leader. It had to be unique - and worthy."

At the same time, the chair couldn't be too massive or ostentatious, the men agreed.

The two finally settled on a chair 5 feet, 9 inches high with a simple back and rounded arms. On the sides would be the raised image of a cross in matching wood.

The two flanking chairs would be similar, but not as tall or ornate. The kneelers would be plain, with cushioning for the pope's knees.

The men picked American walnut for its strength and beauty. They selected elegant ivory damask, a mixture of silk and wool imported from Belgium, for the seat and back cushions.

For the wood finish, the two decided on a quick-drying lacquer, with a hard surface.

"We didn't want anything glossy," DiCocco said. "It really complements the wood."

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the Pope

The Washington Times' Julia Duin has this story on the big birthday party being held for Pope Benedict on April 16 at the Italian Embassy. According to Duin, world-famous tenor Placido Domingo will be in attendance. One can only surmise that he'll be singing "Happy Birthday" to Pope Benedict who is turning 81.

Duin notes that the party is being sponsored by all eight former and current U.S. ambassadors to the Vatican. Several hundred people have been invited.

Whether the Pope will attend the party or not is uncertain.

Writes Duin:

In fact, he's not even been officially invited, said Thomas P. Melady, ambassador to the Vatican from 1989 to 1993. But the papal nunciature on Massachusetts Avenue Northwest — where the pope will be spending the night — has been notified of the event in case he wishes to drop by. The embassy is on Whitehaven Street, within walking distance of the nunciature.

"It's really not in his tradition to attend parties," explained Mr. Melady, now senior diplomat in residence at the World Institute of Politics. "His happiest days were when he was a young priest and teaching at the seminary."