Irish Episcopal Conference at the Synod of Bishops currently taking place in Rome.

The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference (also known as the Irish Episcopal Conference) is the assembly of the Bishops of Ireland exercising together certain pastoral offices for Christ’s faithful on the whole island of Ireland. The article below is taken from the website of the ICBC:

http://www.catholicbishops.ie/2012/10/19/synod-bishops/

SYNODUS EPISCOPORUM BULLETIN

XIII ORDINARY GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SYNOD OF BISHOPS 7-28 OCTOBER 2012

The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith

This Bulletin is only a working instrument for the press. Translations are not official.

English Edition

-   H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Kieran O'REILLY, S.M.A., Bishop of Killaloe (IRELAND)

The momentum created by the recently held International Eucharistic Congress in Ireland has been further enhanced by the publication of a New National Directory for Catechesis in Ireland titled: Share the Good News. This document from the Bishops Conference is a blueprint for the Church throughout Ireland.

Share the Good News points to the complete statement of faith, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, searching out sure ways of making the treasures to be found in the Catechism more readily available to people in Ireland today. It is also a call to action with the aim of seeking to help members of the Church speak confidently of the Gospel message which each generation of believers must assimilate anew. It is a programme with a ten-year horizon: the first two years are given over to a period of implementation and making the Directory known, followed by full implementation throughout the dioceses of Ireland.

Hand in hand with Share the Good News must go a more profound knowledge and understanding of the Good News as preached and lived in the New Testament. Quoting Verbum Domini #: 51 ... “the church is a community that hears and proclaims the word of God. The Church draws life not from herself but from the Gospel, and from the Gospel she discovers ever anew the directio n for her journey” This calls for a fuller and significant biblical apostolate The Irish Church has lived, and continues to live, the recent crises in a dramatic way. At the same time, we are faced with the same effects of secularisation as many other countries, particularly in Europe. As a result, the church must now speak with a voice which is hopeful yet humble, confident yet compassionate, with a claim to authority that must be more evidently rooted in the Gospel and the love of Christ. This is the context in which the new evangelization will take place.

I hope this Synod will send words of encouragement to all the agents of the New Evangelization, in particular, to the many women who play a significant role in the life of our Church, expressing our gratitude to them for their generous activity in spreading the Gospel in the various settings of daily life where they are centrally present - at work, in schools, in the family and in healthcare. These, and other committed members of our faith communities, expect and await a message of hope and encouragement from this Synod, as we invite them to engage with evangelical courage the new evangelization in the different Aeropagii of our time.

-   H. Exc. Rev. Mons. Diarmuid MARTIN, Archbishop of Dublin (IRELAND)

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The challenge of language is especially felt in those countries where English dominates, characterized by linguistic philosophies with known epistemological challenges. There is however a further challenge of the day-to-day language, not just of the media, but of a culture of the manipulation of language and the management of information where the meaning of words is changed and manipulated for commercial, ideological or political motives.

The concern I wish to particularly address is the challenge that this manipulation of language represents for young people in their search for the message of Jesus Christ. Young people live in a culture of relativism and indeed banalization of the truth often without even being aware of it. It is a culture which they did not create. They may not know any other culture, yet they must find Christ in the midst of this culture while they have little familiarity with the language of faith.

I am not thinking here of the large groups of young people who have found strength and support in events such as World Youth Day, but of the many young men and women who, at what is a complex and difficult time in their lives, in their search for meaning find themselves very much alone among their classmates and fellow students and indeed may experience hostility and incomprehension as they try to find or maintain their faith in Jesus Christ.

Where are we present among the large student population, especially for those whose basic Christian education may well have been all but superficial in either family or school? The challenge of the New Evangelization must be marked by a robust confrontation of ideas, not in terms of ideological aggression, but in helping young people in the discernment of ideas. The culture of individualism can be counteracted by the creation of a variety of new ecclesial communities, not just those of the ecclesial movements, but around our parishes, which will be the building blocks of the Eucharistic communities of the future.

Feast of St Maria Bertilla Boscardin (born Annetta, 1888 - 1922)

Dear Friends, 

20th October, is the Feast of St Maria Bertilla Boscardin (born Annetta, 1888 - 1922).
Considered a spiritual sister of Therese of Lisieux and Bernadette of Lourdes she is an example of humility and courage, a very interesting saint for our times.

Still very young she wanted to become a num. Her parish priest did not find her suitable: “But you are not able to do anything!” He exclaimed. “The nuns would not know what to do with you!”

“That is true, master,” Annetta answered quite candidly, and accepted his advice that she remain at home, working in the fields.

However, upon reflection in front of the Blessed Sacrament later that evening, the same priest realized that Annetta was called to serve God. He called her back to him, asking “Are you still decided on entering a convent? Tell me something: do you know how to peel potatoes at least?”

“Oh yes, Father, I am able to do that at least."

With keen insight, he agreed, saying “Alright, you need to know nothing else.”

He also presented her with a small copy of the Catechism, which she carried with her every day of her life, and was discovered in the pocket of her habit upon her death at age 33.

Annetta took the name of Maria Bertilla and said to her novice mistress of the Sisters of St. Dorothy:  "I can't do anything. I'm a poor thing, a goose. Teach me. I want to be a saint."

She is also known for what could be called her motto in life: For God the glory, for those around me the joys and for me the crosses.

She took care of the sick children and the wounded soldiers during World War I with such a dedication that she became the most well know sister in town touching and converting atheistic doctors and patients. Some of them were even present at her canonization in 1961.

A memorial plaque described the saint as "a chosen soul of heroic goodness . . . an angelic alleviator of human suffering…"

Deacon Arthur  - Heralds of the Gospel

PS Br. Michael is today in Fatima with some friends form London who went to attend the Annual gathering in Fatima organized by the Heralds of the Gospel from Portugal. He asked me to tell you that he will pray for all of you.

International Symposium on Mary Commences in Rome

Experts Explore Cultural, Historical, Theological Significance of the Blessed Mother

By Ann Schneible

From Zenit.org

ROME, OCTOBER 4, 2012 (Zenit.org).- An international symposium, dedicated to the study of Mary and her cultural and theological significance throughout history, commenced today at the Centro Russia in Rome.

The objective of the two-day event, entitled "Mary, Sign of Faith (and Only Hope)", is to explore the cult of Mary in order to explore her role in leading Christians towards greater devotion to Christ. Participants today had the opportunity to hear from a wide variety of experts, such as author Leonie Caldecott on the history of Marian images beginning with pre-Reformation England, as well as from historian Michael Hesemann on the historical person of Mary.

Edmund Mazza, history professor at Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, California, is the primary organizer for this symposium event. He told ZENIT that the conference was conceived in response to Pope Benedict XVI's all for Marian conferences, a call which came through the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. It was of particular importance within the context of the forthcoming Year of Faith.

"It is important to look at Mary as a model, as a sign of faith," he said. "We're on our way to God, we don't see the beatific vision yet, so we need symbols, we need signs to take us on the road. And it's very important that we turn to Mary because as Louis de Montfort, the great doctor of the Church once said, it's through Mary that Jesus came into the world, and it's through Mary that Jesus will reign in the world. She had a role to play at the beginning when He first came, and she has a role to play now as we approach the end times."

Another reason for the conference was its coincidence with the 95th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima's miracle of the sun in October 1917, which is followed one month later by the Russian revolution. "We know from the Papal approved apparitions of Fatima that the conversion of Russia has been entrusted to Mary… And that's also why we chose Centro Russia Ecomenica, because again Mary has a providential role to play in the conversion of Russia."

This conference also comes just days before the opening of the bishops' synod on New Evangelization. Due to her unique role within salvation history, Mary is seen as central to evangelization. "Of course," Mazza continued, "any attempt at evangelization has to start with Mary because Mary was the first evangelizer. She held up little Baby Jesus and showed the Wise Men, and he was the light to the Gentiles. She helped Jesus work His first miracle when he began his public ministry."

Mary's role as evangelist, moreover, extends beyond the Gospels and to foreign continents. Our Lady of Guadalupe, for instance, was "the catalyst that helped to convert 9 million Aztecs over the course of 15 years, whereas before her apparition in Mexico City they had maybe a few hundred, or a few thousand converts."

In addition to the synod, the 50th anniversary of the Vatican II Council approaches this month, and it is recalled that for some time there was a decline with regard to Mary and devotion to her. "It is ironic," Mazza pointed out, "that after the Vatican II Council, especially for the first ten, fifteen, maybe twenty years there was a decline in Marian devotion. I say it's ironic, because when Pope John XXIII opened the Council exactly 50 years ago next week, he did it on the feast day of the Maternity of Mary, which actually has subsequently changed."

With regard to renewing Marian devotion in modern society: "Pope Paul VI actually tried to do it in the heat of the crisis. It was in 1972 when he complained that the smoke of Satan had somehow entered into the Church. He issued an encyclical on Mary, and tried to bring about greater devotion to her, and then of course Blessed John Paul II took on the title 'Totus Tuus' as his motto: 'I am all yours.'"

Blessed John Paul II also held a devotion to our Lady of Fatima. "She saved his life on the day he was shot in St Peter's square. He was shot on May 13th, which was the day she first appeared to the children in 1917."

"There are promising signs that we can renew our faith in Jesus and get closer to Him by knowing Mary. I like to say: No Mary, no Jesus; know Mary, know Jesus."

Prof. Mazza concluded that, with regard to spreading the importance of Marian devotion, "there's a certain urgency of the moment; we see a rise in a world without God."

"Our Holy Father has talked about the dictatorship of relativism, about the errors of socialism, and during this time of world-wide economic crisis there is a temptation to think only in terms of those things. When our Lady came to Lourdes, and when our Lady came to Fatima in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, she offered another plan. She said we have to make reparation to her Immaculate Heart. We have to pray the Rosary every day. We have to promote the five first Saturdays. The Pope has to consecrate Russia, together with all the bishops."

"I think if we want to solve he worldwide crisis," Mazza said, "we have to actually start with Mary, because when God wanted to solve the worldwide crisis, He sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, and that is how the New Testament begins. Whenever God wants to renew the world, He does it through Mary."