+Listecki to lead Rome pilgrimage as part of Vatican visit

Wisconsin’s Catholic bishops, including Milwaukee Archdiocese Jerome Listecki, will head to Rome in February for his quinquennial ad limina trip, in which prelates provide the Vatican a full accounting of their ministries and operations every five years.

As part of that pilgrimage, Listecki will meet with Pope Benedict XVI and individual offices of the Roman Curia, or Vatican administration, and discussions will range from pastoral priorities and initiatives to the bankruptcy, said spokeswoman Julie Wolf. Some of the meetings, including the visit with the Pope, are likely to be group sessions that include other the bishops in the region -- Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana.

Listecki will be in Rome from Feb. 10 to 17, and local Catholics are invited to travel with him, according to a post on the archdiocese web site.

MJS FaithWatch

I just have to say that the new Journal Sentinel FaithWatch blog is being done really well!  I've been pleasantly surprised.  I just wish they had an RSS feed for it so I could put it on the side bar.  When I tried it before it was showing all stories, not just FaithWatch.  The sports one seems to work fine though.  Okay I just tried it again and it looks like it's working.  I need to clean up that side bar a bit I think....  Oh but I have found these posts to actually be more interesting to me than the feature articles on religion.  They did a big writeup on women's ordination when Call to Action was in town.  Those stories tend to be a bit more boring when the editor just has an axe to grind.  Rah, rah, rah, Church needs to get a clue.. zzzzzzzzzzzz.  If they start their own church, or have an honest debate, that would be interesting but otherwise it's the same old story I've read 100 times. 

Photo

Milwaukee's Bishop Hying on EWTN news

HT Anne @ Imprisoned

Vatican Aims to ‘Weed Out Dissenting Voices’ from Journal at Marquette Univ.

The National Catholic Reporter reports that sources have said that the Vatican began pressuring policy changes at the Jesuit journal Theological Studies with aims to “weed out dissenting voices” and “stick more closely to official church teachings” not long after a controversial 2004 essay arguing for “a change in church teachings on divorce and remarriage.”  The journal Theological Studies is hosted by Jesuit Marquette University and its authors are very frequently Catholic university professors.

NCR indicated that Fr. David Schultenover, SJ, editor of Theological Studies and theology professor at Marquette, wrote in his editor’s column last year that when “theses that contravene official church” are in the journal “our policy will be to alert readers and clearly state the current authoritative church teaching”.

more at Cardinal Newman Society

Madison Herald: Closing World Youth Day

Pilgrims pray before the beginning of Mass.

In addition to all of this, during the winds of the night before, many of the chapels had had to be dismantled. The Blessed Sacrament reserved in these places had had to be moved, and we were now told that there would be no Communion available for the crowds. It was a blow. On top of all of the sacrifices of the past day, we would not be able to join in physical communion with the Holy Father. One more thing to offer up.

But then, the joy. As Pope Benedict XVI came through the avenues, waving to the hundreds of thousands who had stayed the night, to the hundreds of thousands who had joined us this morning, it seemed no more than a small trifle to bury the troubles of the day. We were again together as a Church, celebrating our love for Christ and his vicar.

The Mass was incredible. To hear the Holy Father greet us, “Dominus Vobiscum” and to answer “Et cum spiritus tuo” and realize this was the response we gave not only today, to the pope, the vicar of Christ, but to every priest in every church around the world, was deeply impactful.

We sang, we prayed the “Pater Noster,” we listened as he spoke to us in his homily and in his address after the Mass. And during Communion, as we waited for the pope and the concelebrating clergy to receive, we prayed for the Church, that we could all be united in spiritual communion.

Journey of Faith

All eyes on Madrid

World Youth Day 2011

Guadalupe Shrine now affiliated with Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome

St. Mary Major, Rome

LA CROSSE, WI (August 4, 2011) - His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, announced on July 31 that the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI has affiliated the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse to his Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome.

With this affiliation comes the opportunity for pilgrims visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe to gain plenary indulgences, under the usual conditions. The announcement came on the third anniversary of the dedication of the Shrine Church.

“Today, we also have a particular cause to rejoice because our Holy Father has affiliated, has bonded, this church to his Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major, the great pilgrimage church of Rome, dedicated to the honor of the Mother of God," said Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke.

"With the affiliation comes a most generous grant of indulgences, so that pilgrims to this church of Our Lady of Guadalupe may draw more fully upon the rich treasury of the merits of the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His Sorrowful Mother and of all the saints who have shared with Him, to an heroic degree, in His Suffering and Dying,” continued Cardinal Burke. “In gratitude, let us pray, in a special way today, for the intentions of our Holy Father. Let us also hasten to draw upon his rich gift to us for the sake of the salvation of souls, especially the souls of our brothers and sisters in Purgatory.”

A plenary indulgence is the entire remission of temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven.

“This is an extraordinary gift from our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI to pilgrims visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” said Eugene J. Diamond, Director of Communications and Development. “Now the faithful from near and far who visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe on organized pilgrimage, and other specific solemnities and feasts during the year, may obtain a plenary indulgence.”

Plenary indulgences may be gained at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe:

1. On the patronal feast day of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome: August 5[That would be today folks.  The Shrine is open until 7pm], with which the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe is now affiliated;

2. On the patronal feast day of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse: December 12;

3. On all solemnities of the Virgin Mother of God: January 1, March 25, August 15, December 8;

4. On any day chosen by a pilgrim once a year; [Such as a baptismal anniversary]

5. As many times during the year as the faithful are part of an organized pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse for the purposes of devotion, reform of life, growth in holiness and greater communion with the Holy Father and all the members of the Church through the intercession of the Virgin Mother of God and Mother of the Church, each of the participants in the pilgrimage may gain a plenary indulgence.

Conditions for gaining the Plenary Indulgence: visit to the Shrine Church, sacramental Confession (within eight days of fulfilling the other conditions), Holy Communion (within eight days of fulfilling the other conditions) and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father (e.g., Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be; or the Creed and an Our Father) during the visit to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

www.guadalupeshrine.org

Chaput appointment confirms Burke’s role as the Pope’s trusted man in the US

The nomination of Charles Chaput, Native American bishop from Denver, to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia confirms Raymond Leo Burke, prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, as Benedict XVI’s top advisor in the United States. One of the first signs of his role as a bridge between the influential United States Conference of Bishops and the pontifical apartment was the appointment of Timothy Michael Dolan as successor to Cardinal Edward Egan in New York.

Dolan, who is currently conducting a vigorous and efficient battle against the increasingly anti-Catholic positions of the New York Times (which a few months ago refused to publish his reply to a polemical article against the Church) is certainly in sympathy with Burke, and with the American bishops who must face new initiatives from the Obama presidency every day. 

But someone (or Someone with a capital “S”) in the Vatican holds the frankness and clarity of vision of the head of the Vatican Supreme Court, in high esteem.

Someone knows - and benefits from - his deep knowledge of people and things overseas, and his ability to identify solutions in terms of candidates for dioceses that are gradually freeing themselves, in a Church still shaken by the financial and public relations aftershocks of the paedophilia scandal.

Charles Chaput was initially supposed to be appointed as Archbishop of Chicago, replacing the ill Cardinal George in the great lakeside diocese. But fortunately, the head of the diocese still feels able to manage his role with dignity and efficiency, when his illness is not acting up. Thus it is not at all certain when he will need to be replaced.

This uncertainty has not escaped many in the Curia: it is believed, especially by Burke, that Chaput will shortly be assured a diocese that will rather rapidly (some sources say a Consistory will be held at the end of this year or the beginning of the next) win him the cardinal’s berretta.

According to rumours flying around, behind the Leonine Wall during John Paul II’s pontificate, and in the first years of Benedict XVI’s pontificate, one of the great “puppeteers” of the appointment of overseas bishops was the current prefect of the Pontifical Household, Archbishop James Michael Harvey. He seems to still be hanging onto the role, but - if one believes certain sources – it has been greatly reduced with the arrival of Raymond Leo Burke. The next few months brings a deadline for many American bishops; then we will see what influence the new prefect for bishops - Canadian Marc Ouellette - and Burke himself will have in changing the episcopal face of the Stars and Stripes.

full article at Vatican Insider

My understanding is that "puppeteer" is meant as a compliment.

HT ED