Pope prays for victims of New Zealand earthquake

During today's general audience, the Pope recalled how "a new and powerful earthquake, even more devastating than the one last September, has struck the city of Christchurch, in New Zealand, causing considerable loss of life and the disappearance of many people, to say nothing of the damage to buildings.

The Holy Father went on to say: "At this time my thoughts turn especially to the people there who are being severely tested by this tragedy. Let us ask God to relieve their suffering and to support all who are involved in the rescue operations. I also ask you to join me in praying for all who have lost their lives".

Source: VIS

With great joy, the Heralds of the Gospel welcome former Church Of England Bishops ordained as Catholic Priests

On Saturday 15 January 2011, Keith Newton, John Broadhurst, and Andrew Burnham, three former Anglican Bishops, were ordained to the Catholic priesthood at Westminster Cathedral by the Most Rev. Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. They are the founding members of the world’s first Personal Ordinariate for Anglicans coming into full communion with the See of Peter, erected on the same occasion. Two brothers of the Heralds of the Gospel were present at the historic event. Their comments are reproduced below, as many of our readers throughout the world wish to know our opinion about this highly significant moment in the life of the UK.

"Witnessing this unprecedented event made us feel that we were touching Church history with our own hands. The Cathedral was full to capacity, with some 1,500 to 2,000 people. The congregation was not composed, as usual, only of Catholics; there were also a large number of Anglicans in attendance.

There were hundreds of priests from the Diocese of Westminster, along with Bishop Alan Hopes, Archbishop Bernard Longley from Birmingham, and some seminarians. Three former Anglican nuns who were also recently received into the Catholic Church took part in the event: Sister Caroline Joseph, Sister Jane Louise and Sister Wendy Renata.

A message from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, His Eminence Cardinal William Levada was read at the start of the Mass, establishing the first Personal Ordinariate, known as “The Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham.” Fr. Keith Newton was announced as the first Ordinary.

Archbishop Vincent Nichols began his homily saying: “Many ordinations have taken place in this Cathedral during the 100 years of its history. But none quite like this. Today is a unique occasion marking a new step in the life and history of the Catholic Church. This morning the establishment of the first Personal Ordinariate under the provision of the Apostolic Constitution ‘Anglicanorum Coetibus’ has been announced in our hearing. So I too salute John Broadhurst, Andrew Burnham and Keith Newton who are to be the first priests of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. In particular I offer my prayers and best wishes to Keith, chosen by the Holy Father to be its first Ordinary. This is indeed an historic moment.”

The Archbishop, who became visibly moved at moments, added: “I thank so many in the Church of England who have recognised your sincerity and integrity in making this journey and who have assured you of their prayers and good wishes[…] We thank our Holy Father Pope Benedict for not only placing this Ordinariate under the protection of Our Lady of Walsingham but also for giving it Blessed John Henry Newman as its patron.”

During his homily he quoted Blessed Newman: “In January 1863 he wrote in his diary these distressing words: As a Protestant, I felt my religion dreary, but not my life – but, as a Catholic, my life dreary, not my religion.”

He also said: “The Pope’s ministry to the visible unity of the Church is central to the faith of the Catholic Church. It is central to the faith of those who enter into full communion in this Ordinariate. It is central to the welcome, encouragement and support the Catholic community in England and Wales gives to this development and to all who seek to be part of it […]
“The mission they receive, the mission of reconciliation, comes from the wounds of Christ. This is the mission we share and at every Mass we once again gaze on the wounded, broken body of the risen Lord. Our mission is characterised by woundedness: a mission to a wounded world; a mission entrusted to a wounded Church, carried out by wounded disciples. The wounds of sin are our business. The wounds of Christ, even though we have caused them, are also our consolation and strength.”

He concluded by saying: “The first to witness these wounds, the first, perhaps, to grasp their true significance, was Mary, Mother of Jesus. Standing at the foot of the cross she witnessed the inflicting of those wounds. Holding his dead body she must have been marked by the blood shed from them. Now she looks down on our new priests from the other side of this Cathedral crucifix above me. Mary always holds before us her Son, presenting him to us as our hope and salvation. Nowhere does she do so with more grace and elegance than in the image of Our Lady of Walsingham. As this Ordinariate, her Ordinariate, comes into being so may we entrust to her the work of bringing it to fulfilment.”

The prolonged applause with which the whole congregation at Westminster Cathedral greeted the newly ordained Catholic priests at the close of the celebration expressed the joy and happiness which filled our hearts. The stirring ceremony called to mind a vision that St. Dominic Savio received regarding England, which marked him deeply. His words to St. John Bosco are written in the famous book, The Life of St. Dominic Savio:

“If I could speak to the Pope, I would tell him that in the midst of the great trials that await him, he should not cease to work with special solicitude for England. God is preparing a great triumph for Catholicism in that Kingdom. [...] Listen carefully. One morning as I was making my thanksgiving after Communion, a very strong distraction took hold of me. I thought I saw a great plain full of people enveloped in thick fog. They were walking about like people who had lost their way and did not know which way to turn. Someone near me said: ‘This is England’. I was just going to ask some questions, when I saw Pope Pius IX just like I have seen him in pictures. He was robbed magnificently and carried in his hand a torch alive with flames. As he walked slowly toward that immense gathering of people, the leaping flames from the torch dispelled the fog, and the people stood in the splendour of the noonday sun. ‘That torch’, said the one beside me, ‘is the Catholic Faith, which is going to light up England.’”

And, out of the mists of history, comes another story, which dates to the first conversion of England: One day Pope Saint Gregory the Great (540 – 604) was walking through the Roman market when he saw some slaves for sale. They were prisoners of war, very fair and of a good appearance. The Pontiff inquired about the ancestry of those men. He was informed, “sunt angli” (“they are Anglos”). And the Pope exclaimed, “non sunt angli, sed angeli” (“they are not Anglos, but angels”). Shortly afterwards, Saint Gregory the Great sent a mission to convert the Anglos, led by St. Augustine of Canterbury.

Nearly a thousand years later, Henry VIII caused an awful wound in the beautiful face of this land, through his role in the separation of the Church of England from the Universal Church. Yet for everything there is a season, and now the time for healing is nigh. So let us continue to pray fervently for its second conversion, that is, for the complete return of the former ‘Island of Saints’ to the bosom of the Mystical Spouse of Christ.

The Ordinariate seems to be the first big step in that direction. Benedict XVI speaks of its establishment as “a prophetic gesture”, allowing Anglo-Catholics to fulfil their long cherished dream of coming corporately into full communion with the Universal Church.

Together with the more than 6 million Roman Catholics of the UK, the Heralds of the Gospel wish to express their joy and tell these brothers and sisters in Christ: “Welcome home!”

Our Lady of Walsingham: pray for us.
Blessed John Henry Newman: pray for us.

Br. Arturo Hlebnikian,
Sr. Beth MacDonald
Br. José M.L. Brandao

In Persona Christi Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

"A man offers his humanity to Christ, so that Christ may use him as an instrument of salvation, making him, as it were, another Christ. In our world is there any greater fulfillment of our humanity than to be able to re-present every day in the Person of Christ, ("in persona Christi"), the redemptive sacrifice, the same sacrifice which Christ offered on the cross?"

Holy Father John Paul II

The Heralds´s Charism and its activities all over the world.

The Heralds of the Gospel is an International Association of Pontifical Right, the first established by the Holy See in the third millennium, on the liturgical feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22nd, 2001.

Comprised mainly of young people, this Association is established in 57 countries. Its members practice celibacy, and are entirely dedicated to apostolate, living in separate houses designated for young men and young women.Their life of recollection, study and prayer alternates with evangelizing activities in dioceses and parishes, with special emphasis placed on the formation of youth.

Three essential pillars: The spirituality of the Heralds is based on three essential points: The Eucharist, Mary and the Pope. These points are represented in the emblem that distinguishes them.

Their charism leads them to strive for perfection, while always searching for beauty in all their daily actions, even in the most private ones.

Seeing in culture and art efficacious tools of evangelization, the Heralds characteristically place special emphasis on both choral and instrumental music. Hence, the Heralds have formed various choirs and symphonic bands to bring their message of faith, incentive and confidence to today's humanity.

Be ready for martyrdom

In today's Epistle: Hebrews 12: 1-4, we are reminded that if we are requested to deny God or to act against the divine will, e.g., to kill an innocent person, we must rather sacrifice our own life than contradict the supreme claims of God upon us.

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us 2 and persevere in running the race that lies before us
2 while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him he endured the cross, despising its shame, and has taken his seat at the right of the throne of God.
3 Consider how he endured such opposition from sinners, in order that you may not grow weary and lose heart.
4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

According to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the official martyrology contains the names of 132 Catholics who have died for the faith since 2001. But this is not a complete list. Its 2005 report acknowledges that there are “many more possible ‘unknown soldiers of the faith’ in remote corners of the planet whose deaths may never be reported.”

In the West today, most people think that dying for ones faith in Jesus Christ is something which only happens in history books. In modern Europe, we are used to Christianity being mocked or defamed, but we have not yet, thank God, had the experience of Christian martyrdom. “Three things distinguish anti-Christian persecution and discrimination around the world,” said Denver’s Archbishop Charles Chaput to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. “First, it’s ugly. Second, it’s growing. And third, the mass media generally ignore or downplay its gravity.”

Witness and martyrdom in the Bible

The mission of Jesus was too difficult and too great to be accomplished by simple force. "It had to be accomplished through the much harder way of courageous suffering and dying in witness of the truth. Hence the New Testament model is not the warrior but the martyr, of which Jesus on the Cross is the supreme example, accompanied by his mother Mary, her heart pierced spiritually by the same lance that pierced the heart of her Son (cf. Lk 2:34-35)."

The strict concept of martyrdom is first clearly stated in the Bible in the story of the seven brothers and their mother (2 Macc 7) who died rather than eat pork which the Greek oppressors tried to force upon them to indicate their renunciation of the law and the covenant with God. But in the same persecution, Judas Maccabeus was not a martyr — although he died fighting for the Jewish Law — because he died fighting, not as one submitting to being killed.

Jesus Himself prophetically exhorted His disciples to be the witnesses of His life and His words. He even predicted in detail their lot: they will be chased from the Synagogue, betrayed by their own relatives, accused and hauled before kings and governors, and put to death for His name (Mt 10:17, 24; Lk 21:12).
The first Christian martyr after Jesus Himself was St Stephen, stoned to death in Jerusalem for preaching the Gospel. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:59-60). Even during Our Lord's Public Ministry, St John the Baptist died a martyr's death, in witness to the law of God regarding marriage.

Not out of hatred of the enemy

Thus the Christian martyr does not die out of hatred of the enemy as a soldier might, but out of love for his killers, as Jesus taught and lived (Mt 5:43-48). "No man has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (Jn 15:13), but for the Christian our enemies are also our friends as long as their conversion is possible. After Stephen: St Peter, St Paul, and St James the Apostle (Acts 12:2) were all martyrs, and following them a "great cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1). In the liturgy of the Church, special honour is given to the Virgin Martyrs (women and men, Rev 14:4) who are models of both the virtues of chastity and courage.

Christians who do not die for the faith, may yet share in martyrdom, as the Virgin Mary did, by being ready to die for it. Christians are engaged in a spiritual warfare:
Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand. — Eph 6:11-13
Be sober, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering is required of your brotherhood throughout the world. — 1 Pet 5:8-9

As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, martyrdom is the highest form of witness to the faith. One contemporary moral theologian writes: "The suffering and death of so many Christian martyrs up to the present time in confession of their religion is the most eloquent witness to the conviction of the Church that the faith may never be denied." Today, many people despise martyrdom. Why is that? Among other factors: loss of strong belief in the next life; loss of belief in the evil of apostasy, leading to the notion that pragmatically it is better to compromise even on essentials; lack of the virtue of fortitude, sapped by easy living; the belief that nothing is worth dying for.

The same moralist writes: "If a man is requested to deny God or to act against the divine will, e.g., to kill an innocent person, he must rather sacrifice his own life than contradict the supreme claims of God upon him. Martyrdom, by which a man lays down his life for Christ and his brothers, as Christ did for us (1 Jn 3:16), is the highest proof of love. 'Though few are presented with such an opportunity, nevertheless all must be prepared to confess Christ before men, and to follow Him along the way of the cross through the persecutions which the Church will never fail to suffer' (LG 42)."

The truth for which you suffer is crucial! One can admire mistaken people who suffer for their beliefs — but one cannot imitate them or commend them. If the truth of the cause, or the goodness of the virtue, were in question, or mistaken, there would be no reason to suffer for them: it would be the height of absurdity!

But true martyrdom is a triumph. So the early Christians rejoiced when one of their number was faithful unto death. Similarly, during the persecutions of the 16-17th century, seminarians at the English College, Rome, used to gather at the foot of the chapel's painting of the Holy Trinity to sing a Te Deum whenever news arrived that a former student had been put to death for the Faith. It is a victory over the world, the flesh and the devil — everything that opposes your Christian life. It is the greatest way to die; it is the highest form of Christian death. See the section on martyrdom in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2471-4.

This post is based on an article on the website of Catholic Culture.org. The full article may be seen at:
http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=8633