Philippines cardinal taps Facebook, TV and serenades on rapid rise toward …

IMUS, Philippines –  Asia’s most prominent Roman Catholic leader knows how to reach the masses: He sings on stage, preaches on TV, brings churchgoers to laughter and tears with his homilies. And he’s on Facebook.

But Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’s best response against the tide of secularism, clergy sex abuse scandals and rival-faith competition could be his reputation for humility. His compassion for the poor and unassuming ways have impressed followers in his homeland, Asia’s largest Catholic nation, and church leaders in the Vatican.

Tagle’s rising star has opened a previously unimaginable possibility: An Asian pope.

The Filipino prelate’s chances are considered remote, as many believe that Latin America or Africa — with their faster growing Catholic flocks — would be more logical choices if the papal electors look beyond Europe. But even the hint of papal consideration has electrified many in the heavily Catholic Philippines, where past pontiffs had been welcomed by millions with rock-star intensity.

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EDITOR’S NOTE: As the Roman Catholic Church prepares to elect a successor to Pope Benedict XVI, The Associated Press is profiling key cardinals seen as “papabili” — contenders to the throne. In the secretive world of the Vatican, there is no way to know who is in the running, and history has yielded plenty of surprises. But these are the names that have come up time and again in speculation. Today: Luis Antonio Tagle.

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“It’ll bring such immense glory to us and our country,” said Leo Matias, one of several waiters at a Chinese restaurant in Manila’s suburban Quezon city who served dinner to Pope John Paul II when he visited in 1995.

The restaurant has displayed the set of spoon, fork, table napkin, water goblet and knives — still unwashed after the pope’s meal of grilled fish and fried shrimp.

The talks surrounding Tagle have been fueled by prominent Vatican experts, who see in the boyish-looking cardinal the religious zest, stamina, charisma and communications skills that could energize the church facing crises on many fronts.

John Thavis, a Vatican analyst and author of “The Vatican Diaries,” said the 1979 selection of Polish-born John Paul II in 1979 shows the “unthinkable” can occur once the cardinals are closed off in the conclave.

“There are people, even Vatican officials here, who have whispered to me, ‘Tagle, he’s the man,’” Thavis told AP Television News.

When ask about the papal buzz, Tagle demurred: “Only a speculation.”

“He’s an effective communicator and missionary at a time when Catholicism’s highest internal priority is a new evangelization,” John Allen, a Rome-based analyst, wrote for the National Catholic Reporter.

“Tagle incarnates the dramatic growth of Catholicism outside the West, putting a face on the dynamic and relatively angst-free form of Catholicism percolating in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. “He would certainly be a symbol of the church in the emerging world, but given his intellectual and personal qualities, hardly a hollow one.”

Still, Tagle’s relative youth — at 55, he’s the second youngest among the cardinals — could be a liability. Cardinals could be reluctant to risk giving the reins of the Vatican to someone who could reign for decades.

The churchman who last caught the deep adoration of many Filipino Catholics was Cardinal Jaime Sin, who died in 2005. A beloved spiritual leader and moral compass, Sin helped rally multitudes in the massive “people power” revolts that ousted two presidents, including dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986.

Sin’s death left a vacuum in the church saddled with the task of shepherding Catholics in a country plagued by poverty, divisions, crimes and long-raging Muslim and Marxist insurgencies. Unlike Sin, Tagle was not propelled by any extraordinary events. But people who know him say that Tagle slowly carved a reputation for simple, day-to-day acts that defined him as a man of deep faith and intellect.

The younger of two children of a pious Catholic couple who worked in a bank, Tagle dreamed of becoming a doctor. But he was redirected by a Jesuit friend to the priesthood at a seminary in the upscale Ateneo de Manila University, where he graduated summa cum laude, according to his theology professor, the Rev. Catalino Arevalo.

He’s gifted with great communications skills: A wonderful storyteller with a bent for music, Tagle speaks Italian, French, English, Tagalog and Latin. But he prefers to stay in the background.

“He’s not somebody who sort of wants to, by personality, put himself at the center of the stage,” Arevalo said. “Now, if he’s called to be in front, he has all the capability of doing it.”

Tagle took clear positions on church and social issues but was never confrontational or “super militant,” Arevalo said. For instance, he encouraged dialogue when he helped lead an unsuccessful church campaign against the government-endorsed health plan that promotes contraceptives.

Tagle was ordained in 1982 and became bishop in 2001 at an old cathedral, about a block from his family’s home in Imus just south of Manila.

Aside from his church work, he taught theology in a hilltop seminary, where he lived for about two decades, staying in a room that had no television or air-conditioning, according to seminary staffers.

Even as a bishop, Tagle did not own a car. He took the bus or “jeepney,” the popular working-class minibus, to church and elsewhere. He ate with workers and sang for a church charity, impressing many with his baritone voice.

Tagle stood out for his powerful homilies. A few years ago, he started hosting a Sunday gospel show on TV, where he preached and answered questions. Staffers then opened a Facebook page for him, which has jumped to more than 120,000 followers.

Tagle’s path at some point crossed with the future pope, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who introduced him to John Paul II and reportedly assured the pontiff in jest that the Filipino with a youthful face has received his first communion.

Ratzinger appointed Tagle as a member of the Vatican’s International Theological Commission, or ITC, and was impressed with his research work and papers. “I am sure that it was because of what he saw in him at the ITC that Pope Benedict chose him for Manila and then for the red hat” of a cardinal, said the Rev. Joseph Komonchak, one of Tagle’s instructors at Catholic University of America.

In October 2011, Benedict declared Tagle the new archbishop of Manila, then just a year later, elevated him to cardinal. Tagle tearfully acknowledged in a recent homily in Imus that he was overwhelmed by his rapid rise. “It’s unnerving,” he said.

Larger audiences have turned up to listen to his talks and homilies, where he often raised the need for the Catholic Church to reconnect with people. Almost always, Tagle is mobbed like a movie star by fans jostling to get his picture.

“I think many of the cardinals will say, ‘It’s too much, too soon,’” the professor Arevalo said of Tagle’s chances in the conclave. But he added: “We don’t know what God wants. If God wants it, God will make up for it.”

Pope Benedict XVI in final hours of papacy

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI, the German pope who some feared would spend his pontificate scourging liberal Roman Catholics, focused on preaching about God’s love.

But it’s how he ended his papacy, as the first pope in 600 years to resign, that is guaranteed to make the history books.

“In one fell swoop, he brought the papacy into the modern world. It was a very courageous act that has probably been needed for a long time,” said John Thavis, the former Vatican bureau chief of Catholic News Service and author of “The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church,” which will be published this week.

“A very tradition-minded pope made a very untraditional decision.”

He is an introvert who followed the 26-year reign of an extrovert who had redefined the papacy. Elected at 78, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who had presided over the Vatican’s doctrinal office for 24 years, didn’t expect a long papacy. He set out to build on the call of Pope John Paul II for a “new evangelization” that would appeal to secularized Westerners who were abandoning the faith. But his intended messages often were overshadowed by world-shaking gaffes, such as an unvetted speech on faith and reason in 2006 that triggered rioting in parts of the Muslim world.

He did far more than his predecessor to root out priests who had molested minors, but he is blamed for not forcing out bishops who had protected predators. He surprised many people, however, by looking beyond ecclesiastical matters to become an outspoken advocate of justice for the poor.

Born nearly 86 years ago in Germany, he is the son of a police officer whose anti-Nazi views caused difficulties for the family. Forced by authorities to join the Hitler Youth, the future pope dodged meetings and at age 12 entered a minor seminary. In 2006, he said he chose priesthood to confront an “anti-human culture” that had rejected God.

Ordained in 1951, he became a theology professor who advised bishops at the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. Pope Paul VI made him archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1977 and elevated him to cardinal. In 1981, Pope John Paul II made him head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. He was in charge of quashing heresy until his election on April 19, 2005.

At his inaugural Mass, he proclaimed what had become clear at Pope John Paul’s funeral, when millions of young Catholics poured into Rome.

“The church is alive!” he told the cheering crowd of 350,000 people. “And the church is young!”

He set out to keep it that way.

His first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” or “God is Love,” drew high praise from even the most liberal wing of the church.

“One of his greatest legacies is his first encyclical, on love. It’s one of the few encyclicals I can actually quote in Sunday homilies, and people understand it,” said the Rev. Louis Vallone, pastor of two parishes in Pittsburgh.

Benedict “refined Pope John Paul’s and the (Second Vatican) Council’s desire to put Christ and the foundational doctrines of the church back at the center of Christian life,” said Michael Sean Winters, a journalist at the liberal National Catholic Reporter.

During his pontificate, the Vatican required national churches worldwide to adopt new liturgies based on a strict translation from the Latin, which were widely criticized for sounding awkward or arcane. One of the harshest critics was retired Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie, a former two-time chairman of the U.S. bishops’ committee on liturgy, but he insists that Benedict only inherited the project from Pope John Paul.

The single change that every practicing Catholic in America experienced during his tenure were changes to the Mass to make it a more literal translation from the Latin. The response “and also with you” became “and with your spirit.” The translation project was under way before he became pope, but he made no move to stop it.

Helen Hull Hitchcock, an activist who lobbied for the revisions, said the Latinesque language is precisely what the pope wanted.

“Some people misunderstand and think he was dragging the church back into the 18th century,” she said. “His point was to recover a sense of sacredness.”

His most enduring contribution may be his trilogy of books on the life of Jesus, said Scott Hahn, a professor of theology at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.

“He is a singular genius, not only in his scholarship, but in his ability to present the ideas he has researched in total clarity with real pastoral impact,” he said.

“Never in the history of Christianity has a world-renowned theologian and biblical scholar of his stature occupied the See of Peter … Yet he has never claimed these books as authoritative teaching of the church. He invites you to disagree with him. He tells you this is not infallible teaching. He is seeking the faith of Christ and the word of God.”

He launched a “new evangelization” that Pope John Paul had called for, attempting to reach secularized people in historically Christian nations. He created an office for it at the Vatican. Last year, he called bishops to a synod on the topic and opened a Holy Year of Faith intended to jump start grass-roots evangelization.

“He has spent the greater part of his ministry as pope calling on the Catholic Church to refocus on its evangelizing mission,” said Cardinal Donald Wuerl, of Washington, D.C. “The church and all the faithful have to re-propose to this modern world Christ as the answer to the enduring questions of the human heart.”

He also sought to convince secular leaders that shunting the voice of faith from public life would stunt society.

“He is constantly calling for the recognition in this very secular world that reason and faith are compatible. We are rational human beings and therefore have to use our intellect, but God’s word speaks to the same intellect,” Wuerl said.

In 2006, the first of his four major lectures on faith and reason, delivered at his former university in Regensburg, Germany, was derailed by his quotation of a medieval emperor who had said Islam’s only innovation was to spread faith by violence. Journalists reported the quotation as if it reflected the pope’s view, which he insisted it did not.

There were riots in some Muslim nations. A nun was murdered in Somalia. None of the pope’s staff had vetted the speech, a warning of failures to follow.

“He thought he was in a safe, academic environment and spoke as a university professor. But the world was listening and suddenly it blew up,” Thavis said. “It was a terrible moment for the pope. But he acted rather quickly and invited Muslim leaders to meet with him.”

With the resulting dialogue, “I think the damage of the Regensburg speech was more than repaired,” Thavis said.

The most visible repair work took place two months later in Turkey, where the pope meditated or prayed alongside a Muslim cleric in a mosque.

Regarding other faiths, he had warm words for Protestants — highlighting their common commitment to Jesus — but his deeds get mixed reviews. Lutheran Bishop Donald McCoid, a former bishop of Pittsburgh who represents the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the Vatican, has met with him as both cardinal and pope.

“Cardinal Ratzinger was a scholar who had a very focused view defending the Catholic faith. Pope Benedict shared a warmth and kindness that was very obvious. His words were encouraging for ecumenical relationships,” McCoid said.

His creation of an “ordinariate” that allowed whole parishes of conservative Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church with married priests and their own liturgy was denounced by some as sheep-stealing. Defenders responded that groups of Anglo-Catholics had spent years begging for such an arrangement, so it wasn’t an effort to lure them.

Benedict’s relationship with the Jewish community had volatile ups and downs. His first speech reaffirmed Pope John Paul’s assurance that the Jewish covenant with God remains intact. Later, a few of his actions antagonized Jews, but he responded to their concerns and backpedaled. After authorizing wider use of the 1962 Latin Mass, he belatedly revised Good Friday prayers to remove pejorative references to Jews.

One of the worst fiascoes of his pontificate came in January 2009, when he lifted the excommunication of four traditionalist schismatics from Society of St. Pius X without knowing that one, Richard Williamson, was an outspoken anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. No one on his staff had even Googled their names for a background check.

He then wrote an unprecedented public letter to all bishops, apologizing and explaining what had happened. He thanked Jewish leaders for their willingness to “restore the atmosphere of friendship.”

Rabbi Alvin Berkun of Pittsburgh, a longtime representative of Conservative Judaism in dialogues with the Vatican, never doubted Pope Benedict’s desire for a good relationship.

Despite some missteps, “he has cemented the legacy of John Paul. He reaffirmed that anti-Semitism is a sin against the church,” he said. “Whenever he took a position that made the Jewish community uncomfortable, he listened to our protests and then sometimes changed his position — which is not something an infallible pope does easily.”

On two defining issues of his papacy — the sex abuse crisis and response to doctrinal dissent — views are sharply divided.

Both liberal and conservative Catholics had expected him to devote his papacy to cracking down on dissent. Early on, he shocked both camps by inviting renegade liberal theologian Hans Kung — an old colleague long banned from teaching Catholic theology — to lunch.

“The biggest surprise was that he didn’t turn out to be the doctrinal bully that everyone imagined him to be,” Thavis said.

But liberal Catholics complain that theologians and clergy were disciplined for dissent without due process. High-profile cases included a Vatican takeover of an umbrella group for Catholic sisters and the forced retirement of an Australian bishop who had asked for discussion of women’s ordination.

Early in Benedict’s pontificate, the Rev. Thomas Reese was forced to resign as editor of the Jesuit magazine America for allowing articles that questioned aspects of church teaching.

Although the pope has a duty to uphold doctrine, Reese said, “The difficulty with his approach is it kills creativity in the church. The greatest challenge the church faces is how to preach the Gospel in a way that is understandable and attractive to people in the 21st century, and we aren’t doing that. …We need to let some people try new ideas, even if they make mistakes, so we can discover new ways of preaching the Gospel.”

Benedict’s strongest critics on sex abuse acknowledge that he did far more than his predecessor to apologize to victims and remove abusive priests. But his greatest supporters admit that he failed to remove bishops who had kept perpetrators in ministry.

“I think he did more than anyone else among the cardinals in 2001 in trying to tackle the abuse crisis,” said Jason Berry, the New Orleans journalist who first exposed the abuse scandal in 1985 and whose book “Render Unto Rome” documents related financial corruption. “But in the end he got swallowed by a system he could not change, and that was the culture of the hierarchy itself.”

He ordered every diocese to adopt policies for responding to complaints of sexual abuse and submit them to the Vatican for approval.

“As pope, he’s been very good. When he had final authority, he acted quickly to address problems,” said Nicholas Cafardi, a canon and civil lawyer who is dean emeritus of the Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh and a former chairman of the board that oversees the American bishop’s response to abuse.

“But while the church is acting quickly with the actual perpetrators … they have yet to address the question of the bishops who enabled those people.”

When it came to basic sexual morality, Benedict also sent some mixed signals.

During a news conference on a 2009 flight to Africa, he ignited an international furor by saying that relying solely on condoms, without a commitment to moral behavior, would increase the spread of AIDS.

Yet he already had authorized a Vatican study of whether using condoms to prevent AIDS was morally acceptable in some circumstances. That study was never released. But in an interview for the 2010 book “Light of the World,” he named a case in which he said use of a condom might be more moral than not using one.

Benedict “threw open the door for discussion,” Thavis said. “There is no doctrine on such condom use and “I think he wanted to signal it to the world.”

But he hardened the church’s line against homosexuality, deciding that even celibate men with “deep-seated homosexual tendencies” should not be ordained.

He never questioned the ban on female priests but passed up opportunities to declare that women could never become deacons, said Phyllis Zagano, senior research associate in religion at Hofstra University. Her efforts to promote women deacons include a 1988 discussion with Cardinal Ratzinger.

As pope, “he has clearly left the door open,” she said.

Although he never had his predecessor’s reputation as a statesman or social advocate, he spoke constantly to world events and the scourges of poverty and war.

In his 2009 encyclical “Charity in Truth,” he expounded on economics, insisting that all financial decisions are moral decisions and endorsed “the possibility of large-scale redistribution of wealth on a worldwide scale.”

“It would give the Tea Party heart attacks,” Reese said.

That encyclical inspired interdisciplinary conferences “about how the Christian faith can better inform the way we act as business people,” Senander said.

His lowest marks are for management in Rome. Many cardinals who elected him hoped he would address abuse of power in the curia. He enacted reforms to make Vatican finances more transparent. But a series of curial fiascoes culminated in the last year’s “Vatileaks” scandal, when the pope’s butler was found to have given the media secret Vatican documents, including reports of internal corruption.

Still, he changed the structure of meetings of bishops and cardinals in ways that may affect the choice of his successor. At synods of bishops, he made time for more open, spontaneous talk than had been allowed previously. He had the College of Cardinals share meals in language groups.

“In the past, the only people who knew all of the cardinals were the curial cardinals. Now these guys all know each other,” Vallone said, speculating that it could produce surprises in the conclave.

Hahn, the Franciscan University professor, converted to Catholicism after reading one of Cardinal Ratzinger’s books. For him, the legacy is personal.

“Here is a man who is a father figure to us all, and not just in a symbolic way,” he said. “But there comes a time, when a father becomes too old and infirm, that one of the most profound gestures of love might be to hand things over to the next one in line.”

(Contact reporter Ann Rodgers at arodgers@post-gazette.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)

Copyright 2013 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Paving the way for the future

February 28, 2013 at 8pm. This is no Mayan prediction; it reflects the Teutonic precision of one of a handful of popes in the history of the Catholic Church who voluntarily gave up the seat of St Peter.

When, eight years ago, Joseph Ratzinger was chosen to succeed Pope John Paul II, he was 78 years old. Pope Benedict XVI was the oldest prelate to be given the job since 1730 and many saw his papacy as an interim one.

In an article carried in The Times just after his appointment, I had written that the key mission that Benedict set for his pontificate was to return Europe to Christianity; to combat secularism and relativism, which he saw as the main enemies of Catholicism.

The German Shepherd’s decision shocked the Catholic world as his mission remains largely unaccomplished.

A liberal reformer turned arch-conservative, he was instrumental in quashing ‘liberation theology’. And, yet, during his tenure, Pope Benedict XVI showed great intellectual flexibility. His social policies offered a critique of the excesses of ‘capitalist’ globalisation, the frivolity of consumerism and the evils of social inequality. In his encyclical Deus Caritas Est he exalted love in all its human forms.

In his wisdom, Benedict possibly realised how right Greek historian Polybius was in stating that “a good general not only sees the way to victory; he also knows when victory is impossible”. A University professor who shunned the limelight, Benedict was not renowned for his leadership skills. Still, his resignation is a lesson that leadership is above all acting in the best interests of followers rather than a glorified ego trip.

The way is now paved for the election of a younger Pope fit to run a global institution with over one billion followers. Who knows, perhaps the decision of ‘God’s Rottweiler’ will mark the start of a new trend whereby popes stay on only until they deem themselves fit, to fulfil their mission. This is in sharp contrast to Pope John Paul II’s choice to remain in office, despite his fragility caused by Parkinson’s disease and other maladies.

It was Benedict’s predecessor himself who had decreed that members of the episcopate retire at 75 and that cardinals do not join a conclave past 80. What is good for the goose, has to be good for the gander. There is nothing but tradition which stops the Bishop of Rome from retiring. Church law specifies only that such a resignation has to be “freely made and properly manifested”.

Marco Ventura, professor of law and religion at Siena University, wrote in his blog: “The theologian who held relativism as the worst foe of the Church will be the Pope who relativised the papacy.”

Pope Benedict XVI chose the World Day of the Sick to announce his abdication. He read a short note in Latin indicating ill-health and the lack of strength in “body and mind” to carry out his mission.

The only other Pontiff who resigned because of ill-health was Celestine V. A former hermit, in 1294, Celestine left after having been in office for just a few months. Other popes have stepped down for a variety of reasons in the papacy’s coloured mediaeval history.

Pope Benedict’s resignation triggered a tsunami of speculation as to what made him take such a drastic step. Was it just that the ailing Benedict was afraid of ending up like his predecessor? Many observers believe that the real reasons are to be found in the controversies and conflicts that have surfaced during his papacy.

La Repubblica speaks about a report that links the resignation to the discovery of a network of gay prelates in the Vatican, some of whom could have been subject to blackmail. Others blame the persistent infighting at the Vatican as manifested during the Vatileaks scandal.

Although no newcomer to the Vatican, Benedict XVI was probably unaware of all the intrigue and, feeling impotent to impose the necessary reforms and, just like the Pope in the 2011 film Habemus Papam, he decided to call it a day.

Other commentators have pointed to the sexual abuse scandals in many parts of the world that continue to undermine the Church’s moral authority and to mar Benedict’s rule.

The departing Pope repeatedly apologised about these abuses but was himself criticised that, when Archbishop of Munich, he allowed a known molester to return to pastoral duties to protect the Church’s reputation.

As the eminent theologian retires into the seclusion of a monastery within the Vatican, it is hard to judge the legacy he leaves behind.

His conservatism, sticking to obsolete positions on homosexuality, celibacy, abortion and contraception, did not serve to bring the Church closer to its followers.

Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, who passed away last August, accused the Church’s leadership for its being “left behind for 200 years”. Pope Benedict XVI perhaps realised that the time is ripe for a radical change in the Church, which he could never deliver himself. The bets are, once again, on a Pope from a Third World country.

The wisdom of Pope Benedict’s decision to resign will be largely gauged by who is chosen to succeed him.

fms18@onvol.net

Teaching Science and Faith in Harmony

Contrary to what the secular media and pop culture say, a competition or even a conflict between modern science and the Catholic faith doesn’t exist.

“In our culture, there is a great deal of misunderstanding about the relationship between faith and science,” said Chris Baglow, professor at Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans. “The Church has excellent guidance to give us on how to appreciate the harmony between them. She doesn’t replace one with the other. Instead, she brings them into dialogue.”

To demonstrate the harmony of the two disciplines to Catholic high-school science and religion faculty, Baglow developed the Steno Learning Program in Faith and Science.

Sponsored by the Pope Benedict XVI Institute for Faith, Ethics and Science of McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile, Ala., and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the program’s mission statement states that the program seeks to “educate science and religion teachers from Catholic high schools throughout the U.S. regarding the relationship that exists between the Catholic faith and scientific inquiry/discovery from historical, philosophical and theological perspectives.”

The seminar has been offered the past few summers. The program takes place this year June 16-22 at St. Joseph Seminary College in Covington, La. (Interested teachers can apply online; the deadline is March 1. For more information, visit the website.)

Blessed Example

The program is named for Blessed Nicholas Steno (also known as Niels Stensen), who was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1988 (his feast day is Dec. 5).

Modern science is indebted to Blessed Steno, who lived in the 1600s, for his significant contribution to four branches of science: anatomy, paleontology, geology and crystallography. He is known for his work on heart and muscle structure, brain anatomy and embryology. Four parts of the body are named after him, including Stensen’s duct, Stensen’s gland, Stensen’s vein and Stensen’s foramina. In addition, he was the first person to hypothesize seriously that the history of the world could be recovered from the layers of the earth, making him the founder of the science called stratigraphy.

Blessed Steno converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism after witnessing a Corpus Christi procession in Italy. He became a priest, and then, shortly afterwards, he was elevated to bishop.

In his life and career, he embodied the relationship between faith and science.

“He ended his last public lecture as a scientist with the following aphorism: ‘Beautiful is what we see; more beautiful is what we comprehend; most beautiful of all is what we do not comprehend’ — namely, the absolute mystery of God,” said Baglow.

The chaplain for this year’s program is Father Peter Stravinskas, executive director of the Catholic Education Foundation and the editor of The Catholic Response Magazine.

“As a lifelong teacher, I have always been concerned that our students realize that there is no conflict between science and theology,” said Father Stravinskas. “As a matter of fact, one serves the other. For example, the Church’s position on abortion is bolstered on the findings of modern science. If practitioners of both disciplines are seeking the truth, then they’re going to come to the same conclusions.”

What About Galileo?

One of the main goals of the program is to set the record straight on the Galileo affair. Included in the reading requirements is the book The Essential Galileo,  which includes original writing from Galileo as well as the notes from his trials before the Inquisition.

“There is an amazing moment when I have one of the science teachers read Galileo’s condemnation out loud and then ask the group to respond to what they’ve heard,” said Baglow. “Then the same teacher reads out loud the words of John Paul II, who said, ‘Galileo, a sincere believer, showed himself to be more perceptive in this regard than the theologians who opposed him.’  It becomes clear that Galileo is the exception and not the rule in the relationship between faith and science.”

Seminar participants also read and discuss Modern Physics and Ancient Faith by Stephen Barr, Supernatural Selection: How Religion Evolved by Matt Rossano and the writings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, among other works.

Positive Recommendations

Now in its third year, the program has gained enthusiastic praise.

Jeremy Reuther, director of campus ministry at Jesuit High School in New Orleans, attended the program in 2011. He said the program helped him to better address the nuances in the relationship between faith and science, particularly in regards to creation, biological evolution and interpreting Scripture.

“It made me more competent at putting together a lesson plan that speaks to the questions students have,” Reuther explained.

Brother John Bayer, a theology teacher at Cistercian Preparatory School in Irving, Texas, attended the seminar last year, which he found to be “a stimulating, inspirational and informative seminar about one of the most important catechetical issues of our time … to help … colleagues and students tap into the rich and fruitful ‘dialogue’ between science and theology that is taking place right now in the Catholic Church.”

He added, “Personally, I profited immensely both as a teacher and as a Catholic, and I know from the conversations taking place amongst my colleagues that my school has profited as well.”

Benedict XVI’s Perspective

Pope Benedict XVI has discussed faith and science during his pontificate. In his Nov. 21, 2012, general audience, he noted: “Faith and reason are meant to work together in opening the human mind to God’s truth. By its nature, faith seeks understanding, while the mind’s search for truth finds inspiration, guidance and fulfillment in the encounter with God’s revealed word.

“Far from being in conflict, faith and science go hand in hand in the service of man’s moral advancement and his wise stewardship of creation. The Gospel message of our salvation in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, offers us a true humanism, a ‘grammar’ by which we come to understand the mystery of man and the universe. In this Year of Faith, may we open our minds more fully to the light of God’s truth, which reveals the grandeur of our human dignity and vocation.”

Said Baglow, “This kind of harmony and the ability of science to stimulate theological reflection, as well as the ability of faith to keep science from becoming closed in upon itself and to avoid trying to answer all of the great questions about life and the universe — this is what the SLP is all about.”

Lori Chaplin writes from Idaho.

Scene Around

By Glorida Yousha 

Scene Around

February 22, 2013 | Year 37, No. 23

Time is running out?…

This information comes to us from the World Jewish Congress Digest with an aside by me:

“German authorities are investigating the background of an 87-year-old Philadelphia man who could face charges for murder as an Auschwitz guard.

“JOHANN BREYER, a retired German immigrant who gained U.S. citizenship, admits to being a guard at the death camp but claims he was posted outside the encampment and had nothing to do with the wholesale slaughter that claimed some 1.5 million lives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.

“The special German officer that investigates Nazi war crimes is not so sure, believing that the suspect played an active role in the deaths of more than 300,000 Jews. If prosecutors act on the recommendation to prosecute and charge Breyer with accessory to murder, extradition proceedings would ensue.”

(Is there a time limit on such actions?)

Speaking of Nazis…

Recently the movie “Casablanca” appeared on Turner Classic Movies channel. What memories. As you recall (if you recall) the movie takes place during World War II and features probably the most memorable song ever written in America, “As Time Goes By.”

It was not written by a famous composer like George Gershwin, Irving Berlin or Jerome Kern. (They were all Jewish, by the way.)

It was written by a songwriter who wrote very few published pieces… but if you can only have one hit, this is the hit you want to have! His name was Herman Hupfeld. (No surprise, he was also Jewish.)

Papal Abdication…

OK… you want to know why the Pope makes it into this column. Well, I’ll tell you. The surprise “retirement” of Pope Benedict XVI is just my lead-in, giving me an excuse to remember the wonderful deceased Pope John Paul II who was admired by many Jews throughout the world, including me. (I especially loved the poetry he wrote as a young priest named Karol Jozef Wojtyla in Poland.) Jewish relations between Catholicism and Judaism improved dramatically during his reign.

In 1979, John Paul II became the first pope to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where many of his compatriots (mostly Polish Jews) perished during the Nazi occupation. In 1998 he issued “We Remember: A Reflection on the Shoah,” which outlined his thinking on the Holocaust. He became the first pope known to have made an official papal visit to a synagogue, when he visited the Great Synagogue of Rome in 1986.

In 1994, John Paul II established formal diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the State of Israel, acknowledging its centrality in Jewish life and faith. On April 7, 1994, Pope John Paul II hosted “The Papal Concert to Commemorate the Holocaust.” It was the first-ever Vatican event dedicated to the memory of the six million Jews murdered in World War II.

In March 2000, John Paul II visited Yad Vashem, the national Holocaust memorial in Israel, and later made history by touching one of the holiest sites in Judaism, the Western Wall in Jerusalem, placing a letter inside it (in which he prayed for forgiveness for the actions against Jews). In part of his address he said: “I assure the Jewish people the Catholic Church is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of anti-Semitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place”, he added that there were “no words strong enough to deplore the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the Covenant.”

In October 2003, the ADL issued a statement congratulating John Paul II on entering the 25th year of his papacy. In January 2005, John Paul II became the first Pope in history known to receive a priestly blessing from a rabbi.  Immediately after John Paul II’s death, the ADL issued a statement that Pope John Paul II had revolutionized Catholic-Jewish relations, saying that, “more change for the better took place in his 27-year Papacy than in the nearly 2,000 years before.”

In another statement issued by the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, director Dr. Colin Rubenstein said, “The Pope will be remembered for his inspiring spiritual leadership in the cause of freedom and humanity. He achieved far more in terms of transforming relations with both the Jewish people and the State of Israel than any other figure in the history of the Catholic Church.” (A few years ago, Irv and I visited the Vatican in Rome and met Pope Benedict XVI, who became Papal leader when Pope John Paul died. That was a pleasant visit… but I will never forget the wonderful accomplishments of Pope John Paul and how much he loved the Jewish people.)

Hadassah and Moldau save the day…

They are also responsible for saving a life!

At the January meeting of The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah, DAVID LEVANDUSKY, Life Support Education Coordinator for Orlando Health and an EMT, appeared before the assembled group to demonstrate life saving techniques. Using easy to remember terms, he taught the group the new CPR and the use of the Heimlich Maneuver to relieve an obstruction from the esophagus of a choking person.

Levandusky was so precise and clear in his presentation, that two days later, Hadassah member, HARRET MOLDAU, was able to put what she had learned into practice and save a man’s life. Upon entering an Arby’s Restaurant, Harriet and her husband, DAVID, noticed a man choking. His wife was hitting him on the back, in an effort to dislodge the offending object. David, realizing she had just learned the maneuver, urged Harriet to assist the choking man. Without giving it a second thought, she stepped in to help. Harriet first asked the wife to stop pounding her husband on the back, explaining that this would only make the situation worse. She then followed the instructions that Levandusky had given to the Hadassah group.

She asked the victim to stand, she then positioned herself behind him, and put into practice the thrusting procedure she had learned only days before. After two quick thrusts, the man expelled the obstruction and began breathing deeply. Needless to say the couple was grateful and thanked Moldau profusely. She, in turn, was thankful that she had taken the time to learn the maneuver and was able to step in and save a life. (Why doesn’t this true story surprise me?  Well… Hadassah has always been known for its good works. And Harriet and David Moldau, who not too long ago moved to Central Florida from up north, were close friends with my sister-in-law, Victoria, who is deceased. Vicki was a wonderful woman and her close friends would be nothing less than wonderful as well!)

Harriet Moldau

Great Jazz is coming…

The flying Horse Organ Trio, with special guest, JEFF RUPERT, will perform at the Altamonte Chapel on Semoran Boulevard, from noon-2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24. Our own ALAN ROCK is emcee. Plan to attend for some great jazz!

One for the road…

Did you hear about the comedian who told the same jokes three nights running? (He didn’t dare tell them standing still!)

One more for the road…

Two entrepreneurs at a networking event tried to make small talk. “Hey, do you believe in survival of the fittest?” one asked.

“I don’t believe in the survival of anybody,” the other replied. “I’m an undertaker.”

Papabile of the Day: The Men Who Could Be Pope

Dr. Greg Popcak at Patheos, “Faith on the Couch”!

If you listen to Ave Maria radio, you already know Dr. Greg Popcak from the “More 2 Life” radio podcasts he hosts with his wife, Lisa, in which they apply Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to the practical challenges of everyday life.

But if you’re not so familiar with “Dr. Greg” Popcak you very soon will be, because he seems to have a lot of energy, and while we’re “officially introducing him to you today, he’s already posting rather prolifically at his new Patheos blog, which he calls “Faith on the Couch”, and he is already courting controversy!

Dr. Greg teaches at Franciscan University (where our own Bad Catholic, Marc Barnes, and Summaboy, Ryan Adams study), and — from his bio — he is

. . .Executive Director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute, an organization dedicated to helping Catholics find faith-filled solutions to tough marriage, family, and personal problems. The author of over a dozen popular books integrating solid Catholic theology and counseling psychology, Dr. Popcak is an expert on the practical applications of the Theology of the Body. Through the Pastoral Solutions Institute, he directs a group pastoral tele-counseling practice that provides ongoing pastoral psychotherapy services to Catholic couples, individuals and families around the world.

Read the rest of Dr. Greg’s bio and you see one busy guy. We’re glad he’s bringing some of that upbeat energy to Patheos! You’ll want him in your bookmarks, and your radio dial!

Gomez, Mahony are a study in contrasts

In more than two decades leading the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Cardinal Roger Mahony headlined immigration rallies, marched for worker rights and made national news by announcing he would defy a congressional bill he regarded as anti-immigrant.

But the man who replaced him in 2011 — Archbishop Jose Gomez — has shied away from such attention-getting actions. Instead, he plans to take 60 conservative Catholic business leaders on a spiritual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City this fall in hopes of winning them over on immigration reform.

It’s a distinctly different style from that of Mahony, whom Pope John Paul II nicknamed “Hollywood” for his frequent media appearances.

“Cardinal Mahony was pretty much everywhere,” said parishioner Carlos De Leon as he departed from Ash Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels last week. “Archbishop Gomez seems much more behind the scenes. It’s a different management style.”

Yet Gomez has begun quietly making his mark on the archdiocese, the nation’s largest with 4.5 million Roman Catholics in 120 Southern California cities.

He has elevated issues such as opposition to abortion and euthanasia. He has promoted evangelization and religious education and embraced more conservative voices.

At the same time, he has not led an ideological purge of the archdiocese as some liberals had feared might happen under a cleric associated with the orthodox Opus Dei organization. Gomez has not, for instance, shut down a program Mahony developed that has trained lay leaders, particularly women, for powerful church roles, said Claire Henning, a pastoral associate at St. Paul the Apostle Church in Westwood.

“I was one of the first to say, ‘Oh my God, Opus Dei,’” Henning said. “But I’ve been very impressed. I had a lot of presuppositions about him which were wrong.”

One of Gomez’s most ambitious initiatives has largely gone unnoticed in English-speaking Los Angeles: active outreach to Latinos, who comprise 70% of archdiocese members and 60% of Catholics under the age of 35 nationwide.

The archbishop has launched a weekly Spanish-language radio and TV show to teach the faith, covering such topics as marriage and respect for life, that reaches an audience of more than 2 million.

The 61-year-old Mexico native has also attended popular Spanish-language gatherings — Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrations at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum and a Divine Mercy conference at the L.A. Convention Center, for instance.

For Frances Guerrero, the archbishop’s outreach has had a powerful effect on her family.

The parishioner at St. John the Baptist church in Baldwin Park said she has brought her family to see the archbishop celebrate Mass, preside over a cultural festival and speak at a Guadalupe event sponsored by Univision, the Spanish-language television network. Each encounter has deepened her family’s connection with Gomez, she said, drawing her husband back to church.

“We feel very connected to the archbishop,” she said. “He makes you feel welcome, at home and important.”

Gomez believes Catholics must first know their faith to understand the theological reasons for taking stands on social issues, said Father Virgilio Elizondo, a longtime friend in San Antonio, where Gomez previously served as archbishop.

In his first pastoral letter last October, he announced a push for a “new evangelization” to combat society’s increasing secularism and said his first priority would be to increase teaching about Catholic beliefs and how to apply them in parishioners’ daily lives and the world. The Spanish-language broadcasts are part of that push.

“He’s concerned about social justice but feels if you’re not well-grounded in the basics, then it can be seen as just activism and not … evangelization of the Gospel,” Elizondo said.

Gomez, for instance, has proclaimed that respect for life is the “true foundation” of justice and peace. As a result, he has expanded the mission of the archdiocese’s peace and justice office to includeissues such as abortion, contraception and euthanasia and renamed it the Office of Life, Justice and Peace. The department that had handled those issues had been eliminated under budget cuts several years ago.

Some conservatives say he hasn’t gone far enough.

It irks some of them that he has not yet rid the archdiocese’s annual Religious Education Congress — the world’s largest gathering of Catholic workshops and exhibits, scheduled for this week — of speakers who promote such causes as gay rights and other causes they consider anti-Catholic.

“’The church is alive,’ he said, and he set out to keep it that way…”

Pope Benedict XVI, the German pope who some feared would spend his pontificate scourging liberal Roman Catholics, focused on preaching about God’s love.
“His greatest legacy is his spiritual hunger and thirst to bring people closer to God,” said Bishop David Zubik of Pittsburgh.

But it’s how he ended his papacy, as the first pope in 600 years to resign, that is guaranteed to make the history books.

“In one fell swoop, he brought the papacy into the modern world. It was a very courageous act that has probably been needed for a long time,” said John Thavis, the former Vatican bureau chief of Catholic News Service and author of “The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church,” which will be published this week.

“A very tradition-minded pope made a very untraditional decision.”

He is an introvert who followed the 26-year reign of an extrovert who had redefined the papacy. Elected at 78, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who had presided over the Vatican’s doctrinal office for 24 years, didn’t expect a long papacy. He set out to build on the call of Pope John Paul II for a “new evangelization” that would appeal to secularized Westerners who were abandoning the faith. But his intended messages often were overshadowed by world-shaking gaffes, such as an unvetted speech on faith and reason in 2006 that triggered rioting in parts of the Muslim world.

He did far more than his predecessor to root out priests who had molested minors, but he is blamed for not forcing out bishops who had protected predators. He surprised many people, however, by looking beyond ecclesiastical matters to become an outspoken advocate of justice for the poor.

Born nearly 86 years ago in Germany, he is the son of a police officer whose anti-Nazi views caused difficulties for the family. Forced by authorities to join the Hitler Youth, the future pope dodged meetings and at age 12 entered a minor seminary. In 2006, he said he chose priesthood to confront an “anti-human culture” that had rejected God…

…At his inaugural Mass, he proclaimed what had become clear at Pope John Paul’s funeral, when millions of young Catholics poured into Rome.

“The church is alive!” he told the cheering crowd of 350,000 people. “And the church is young!”

He set out to keep it that way.

His first encyclical, “Deus Caritas Est” or “God is Love,” drew high praise from even the most liberal wing of the church.

“One of his greatest legacies is his first encyclical, on love. It’s one of the few encyclicals I can actually quote in Sunday homilies, and people understand it,” said the Rev. Louis Vallone, pastor of two parishes in the McKees Rocks area.

Pope Benedict “refined Pope John Paul’s and the [Second Vatican] Council’s desire to put Christ and the foundational doctrines of the church back at the center of Christian life,” said Michael Sean Winters, a journalist at the liberal National Catholic Reporter.

Letter: Doctrines will stand

Kelli Williams, Memphis

The resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has brought out many would-be theologians who do not seem to have a firm grasp on Catholic theology or its world view.

First, the new pope will not be a “winner” of any contest. Catholics believe he will be chosen as a successor to St. Peter through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit working through the College of Cardinals.

Second, contrary to Ruth Marcus’ desire, the new pope will not begin ordaining women (Feb. 13 Viewpoint column, “Religions’ struggle with women”). The pope is the guardian of truth already handed down. He doesn’t change the course of what has been taught to be true for 2,000 years.

Theologically, Catholics believe the priest stands in the place of Jesus in the administering of the sacraments and most important, in the sacrifice of the Holy Mass. The church is the bride of Christ. The groom cannot be a woman. It’s not just semantics; it is a covenant.

Pope John Paul II wrote extensively about the excellence of women. Denying ordination of women does not negate the inherent dignity of women. It recognizes that men and women can be equal in dignity and have different roles in the life of the church.

Lastly I must disagree with E.J. Dionne (Feb. 13 Viewpoint column, “Benedict’s inspired choice”). Pope Benedict’s proclamation regarding the dignity of the human person and speaking against gay marriage is not a paradox. It is constancy.

The Catholic teaching about the dignity of our bodies is consistent from conception to natural death and all times in between. Catholic theology teaches that marriage between a man and a woman mirrors the love between Christ and His bride — the church. It follows the natural order.

A new pope will not have the authority to change these important doctrines.