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| Cardinal George - Oblate of Mary Immaculate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_George |
As papal conclave draws near, American cardinals grow silent - chicagotribune.com:
ROME ——
A day after Chicago's Cardinal Francis George extolled the virtues of communication during the pre-conclave process, the American cardinals decided Wednesday to fall silent.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops canceled a news conference featuring George and retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C. Colleen Dolan, the archdiocese's director of communications, added that George would no longer offer separate interviews as he has done since he arrived in Rome.
"We are not dealing with a congress or a synod during which you would try to get as much information as possible about what's taking place," the Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said at a news conference Wednesday. "We are dealing with a journey, and part of that journey are the pre-meetings, the pre-conclave meetings that are taking place right now and then the conclave itself. So there's a certain respect that grows among the participants in the conclave as they get deeper into the conversations."
Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the American bishops conference, said the precaution was taken based on "concerns expressed in the general congregation about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers."
Wednesday's La Stampa reported who said what in Tuesday's general congregation but did not say who provided the information. No other national bishops conference had offered news conferences separate from the daily Vatican briefings, Rosica said. But individual cardinals have given interviews and even continued to do so Wednesday.
John Thavis, retired Rome bureau chief for the Catholic News Service, said he was surprised and disappointed by the American cardinals' decision. He said there are people working inside the Vatican for and against transparency.
"I thought the balance had swung a little, but more on the transparency side — and I guess that isn't true," said Thavis, author of "The Vatican Diaries," a behind-the-scenes book.
"What inevitably happens is there's an order to not talk to the press, and that just guarantees information will come through leaks," Thavis said. "It seems counterproductive. And in this case, it's pretty sad that the Americans who do things out in the open, on the record, are being punished."
George has made a point of being available to the media daily. On Monday he appeared with Cardinal Donald Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., to field questions about the first day of meetings. He made it clear then that they couldn't say much but wanted to at least be available to reporters.
On Tuesday George said communication has become a bigger priority among cardinals than it was eight years ago.
"It's really clear that the pope has to be a great communicator," he said. "That's really come out in conversations."
George pointed to the pope's Twitter account and Facebook as examples of the Vatican's inroads into social networking as evangelization.
"That's what preaching the gospel is about," George said. "It's about communicating."
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GJ - My friend in the pastoral theology program at Notre Dame is an OMI - Oblate of Mary Immaculate. The official name is Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, but that spells MOMI. Most of those in religious orders at Notre Dame were crypto-Unitarians, perhaps because of superstitions like this:
A small Oblate mission played a large role in shaping devotion to one of the Church’s most prominent saints.
The link between St. Therese of Lisieux and the Oblates began with a connection several thousands of miles away from her native France.
In 1912 two Oblate priests, Frs. Arsene Turquetil and Armand Le Blanc, arrived in the Hudson Bay region of Canada to establish a ministry among the Inuit people. The priests didn’t know the local language or customs when they arrived. It took them nearly three years to learn the native language well enough to preach their first sermon.
[GJ - Tim Glende would diagnose their problem as "Inuitu Fidei," the faith of the Inuits.]
The Oblates tried for four years to convert the Inuits, but without success. They were about to give up, especially after two other Oblates were murdered by the Inuits in a similar ministry. Bishop Ovide Charlebois, O.M.I. of Keewatin gave the Oblates one year to make the mission a success, or they would have to leave.
In the autumn of 1916 an Inuit brought Fr. Turquetil two envelopes addressed to him. There was no return address. The first contained a booklet: La Petite Fleur de Lisieux (The Little Flower of Lisieux). Father Turquetil had never heard of the Carmelite nun who, ironically, happened to be from his native diocese in France. The second envelope contained a bit of soil, along with the note: “Soil taken from under the first coffin of the Little Flower of Lisieux.”
That night Fr. Turquetil and his new confrere, Bro. Prime Girard, O.M.I. prayed fervently to St. Therese. The following Sunday an Inuit asked Fr. Turquetil, “We knew that you were speaking the truth, but we didn’t want to listen. Right now our sins frighten us. Could you remove them?”
Three Inuit men asked Fr. Turquetil if they, along with their wives and children, could be baptized. After eight months of instruction they were baptized on July 2, 1917. Father Turquetil credited St. Therese for saving the mission.
Father Turquetil’s mission quickly grew after the first converts. Bishop Charlebois was so impressed that he sent a request to the Vatican, signed by 226 missionary bishops from all over the world, asking that St. Therese be named the patroness of all the missions. Pope Pius XI approved the request in 1927.
Today millions of the faithful pray to St. Therese to intercede on behalf of missionaries and poor people around the world. They are carrying on a tradition begun nearly 100 years ago by two Missionary Oblates in northern Canada.
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| Snooki Bronzer guarantees a man-tan, even among the Inuits in the frozen north. |
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| Glende's two blogs left his two or three readers heaving with laughter. In rare displays of self-criticism, he erased both of them...twice. |
