President Joe Biden is facing criticism after his first presidential visit to the U.S. border with Mexico.
He met with local officials and border patrol agents in El Paso, Texas. Biden also toured a migrant center, but didn’t see or meet with any migrants.
By Jessica Easthope
JAMAICA — Vandals struck twice at St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church on the night of Jan. 5, ransacking the creche.
The criminal mischief was discovered the night before the Feast of Epiphany after two people smashed through plexiglass and tore down the decorations on a nativity outside the church in Jamaica. They returned later and desecrated statues.
On Sunday, hundreds filled the pews for Mass at St. Nicholas Of Tolentine Church for an Epiphany celebration to present gifts to Jesus, closing out the Christmas season.
Parishioners walked out of Mass and past what they say was a shocking scene.
“I’m horrified, it’s blasphemy, it’s a shame that anyone would think to make damage,” one parishioner said. “I’m horrified. I really am, it’s sad.”
“It’s vicious people are so ready to destroy what is blessed and holy, as a Catholic to see this destroyed,” another said. “I had no idea people felt this against Catholics.”
Father Thomas Joseph, associate pastor of St Nicholas of Tolentine, was still in disbelief days after the incident. “We don’t know why these people are losing their faith and doing this kind of action against our church,” he said.
The church’s surveillance system captured the crime. Thursday night, just before 8 p.m., two men can be seen approaching the nativity on a scooter.
One person tears down the lights and kicks the plexiglass door. They ride off and return two hours late for more.
They tear down the rest of the lights and go into the nativity, breaking the wooden statues of Mary and Jesus off their bases.
In Mass, parishioners prayed for the suspects, saying forgiveness is not a question because it’s what Jesus would have done.
“They need to maybe have more faith, come to the church and learn more about Jesus and love and forgiveness,” said parishioner Rafael Rodriguez.
“We have to clear our hearts and our minds, and we have to forgive and move on. You know, God forgives everyone,” added fellow parishioner Lisette Wolf.
Father Joseph said the nativity scene is planned to come down this week. It will now have to be completely rebuilt before next Christmas.
The church informed the NYPD of the vandalism and is cooperating with the investigation. So far, no arrests have been made.
Pilgrims can now pray at Pope emeritus Benedict XVI’s tomb.
On Sunday, the Vatican opened the Crypt of the Popes for pilgrims to visit.
To access the Crypt, pilgrims enter St. Peter’s Basilica and go to the central point—the Altar of Confession, which covers the remains of St. Peter. This altar is covered by Bernini’s majestic “baldacchino.”
Then, pilgrims head down a flight of stairs to reach the Crypt of the Popes, where the Pope emeritus and several of his predecessors are buried.
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Telling parents and godparents to teach their little ones to pray from the time they are small, Pope Francis baptized 13 babies in the Sistine Chapel as their older brothers and sisters looked on — or got away and ran around.
With his knee apparently improving, Pope Francis walked with a cane from his seat to a lectern to give his homily standing — something he has not done at a public Mass for months — and rolled up his sleeves and stood at the font as he poured water over the heads of the infants, children of Vatican employees.
The annual baptism Mass in the Sistine Chapel is celebrated on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which the Vatican and Italy celebrated Jan. 8 this year.
Pope Francis began his homily by thanking the parents for deciding to have their children baptized and asking them to remind the children throughout their lives of the date of their baptism since “it is like a birthday because baptism is a rebirth to the Christian life.”
“May they remember and thank God for this grace of having become Christians,” he said.
Baptism is the beginning of a journey, he said, and it is up to parents and godparents to support the children as they take their steps along the way.
The first task, he said, is to teach the children to pray from the time they are very small, starting with showing them how to make the sign of the cross and how hold their hands in prayer.
“Prayer will be what gives them strength throughout their lives — in good times to thank God and in the difficult times to find strength,” the pope said. “It’s the first thing you must teach: how to pray.”
They also should teach children to pray to Mary, who “is the mother, our mother,” the pope said. “They say that when someone is mad at the Lord or has distanced himself from him, Mary is always nearby to show the path to return.”
As he does every year, Pope Francis also reassured the parents, telling them not to worry if the babies cry during Mass or need to be fed or fuss because they are too hot or too cold. “Make them comfortable; everyone should be comfortable,” he said.
Later, reciting the Angelus at midday with visitors in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis focused on the meaning of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, and he quoted the late Pope Benedict XVI in doing so.
In his homily on the feast day in 2008, Pope Francis said, “Benedict XVI affirmed that ‘God desired to save us by going to the bottom of this abyss himself so that every person, even those who have fallen so low that they can no longer perceive heaven, may find God’s hand to cling to and rise from the darkness to see again the light for which he or she was made.'”
Pope Francis told the crowd in the square, “The Lord is always there, not ready to punish us, but with his hand outstretched to help us rise up.”
Too often, the pope said, people think that God administers justice like human beings do: “those who do wrong pay, and in this way compensate for the wrong they have done.”
But, he said, “God’s justice, as the Scripture teaches, is much greater: it does not have as its end the condemnation of the guilty, but their salvation and rebirth, making them righteous.”
God’s justice, he said, “comes from love, from the depths of compassion and mercy that are the very heart of God, the father who is moved when we are oppressed by evil and fall under the weight of sins and fragility.”
Jesus came into the world “to take on his own shoulders the sin of the world and to descend into the waters of the abyss, death, so as to rescue us from drowning,” the pope said.
Remembering Pope Benedict XVI – a look back at the solemn funeral in St Peter’s Square.
A memorial Mass was offered for Benedict in the Diocese of Brooklyn yesterday.
The abortion pill can now be found at your local pharmacy.
Video of an analyst on ESPN praying on the air is making the rounds on social media.
There is no doubt that Pope Benedict will be remembered as a Pope that changed the church. He was also a professor.
The pontiff dedicated his life to learning and teaching and some of those lessons even reached and changed the lives of those in Brooklyn.
The Vatican’s Epiphany Mass began with this entrance procession accompanied by the hymn Adeste Fideles.
Groups from around the world dressed in traditional attire were also present for the Mass.
At the beginning of the celebration, Pope Francis invited Christians to follow the example of the Magi who went to adore the baby Jesus.
The Diocese of Brooklyn celebrated a Mass in honor of the late Pope Benedict XVI, on Thursday, January 5, 2023, at the Cathedral Basilica of St. James.
Auxiliary Bishop Neil Tiedemann was the main celebrant of the Mass, which was concelebrated by about 20 priests of the diocese.
Five deacons were also on hand, along with students from nearly all of the Catholic high schools in the diocese.
“Today, we believe that the promise that Jesus makes to us, the souls of the just, are in his hands. Benedict is with Him. We are told that we are children of God, but what we shall be we don’t know. But we will see God as He is, and we will become like Him. You and I will become like Him, but we pray this morning our brother Benedict, our shepherd, sees God as He is,” preached Bishop Tiedemann.
Currents News presents special coverage of the Funeral Mass of Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday, January 5. Anchor Christine Persichette is joined by Father Frank Tumino, Editor Emeritus of The Tablet Ed Wilkinson, and correspondents from the Vatican.
By Elise Ann Allen
ROME (Crux) — With the passing of Pope Benedict XVI, the question has been raised anew as to whether Pope Francis will now issue new protocols for a pope who steps down from office, as many have speculated.
The anomaly of the whole idea of an “emeritus pope” has been clear for the past decade, and even the details of Pope Benedict’s death and funeral arrangements are providing fresh reminders.
For one thing, there was no symbolic smashing of the “fisherman’s ring,” as Pope Benedict’s was already destroyed when he became the first pope to resign from the papacy in 600 years in 2013. No death bells tolled at his passing, and no formal announcement was made by a Vatican official, although the Vatican’s regular bells, which usually toll every quarter of an hour, have been silent since Pope Benedict’s passing at 9:34 a.m. on New Year’s Eve.
Only around 60,000 people are expected to attend Pope Benedict’s funeral, compared to the 300,000 that attended the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005, though an estimated 65,000 people paid their respects to Pope Benedict on Monday, his first day of lying in state in St. Peter’s Basilica, with Italian President Sergio Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni among the first to enter.
Pope Benedict will lay in state for just three days, rather than the traditional four to six for a reigning pope, and only Germany and Italy have been invited to send official delegations for his Jan. 5 funeral, which will be presided over by Pope Francis.
Leaders of other countries have been advised that they are free to attend if they wish but in a private, rather than official, capacity. So far, several have confirmed their informal attendance or announced plans to attend, including Queen Sofia and minister Félix Bolaños of Spain; King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium; Polish President Andrzej Duda; Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda; Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa; Bavarian Governor Markus Soder; and Hungarian President Katalin Novak.
Since Pope Benedict’s historic resignation in 2013, some experts have argued that clearer rules are needed for a retired pope to prevent any confusion about who is actually in charge and to ensure there is no chance that the pope emeritus can interfere with the reign of his successor.
For instance, some canonists and experts have argued that the title he chose, “pope emeritus,” was confusing, as was his choice to continue wearing the white cassock associated with the papacy and to be addressed as “His Holiness.”
Pope Benedict XVI’s longtime personal secretary, German Archbishop Georg Gänswein, said in a recent interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica that Pope Benedict himself chose to be called “pope emeritus” because he was “faced with a decision so exceptional, to return to cardinal would not have been natural.”
Gänswein insisted, however, that Pope Benedict was always aware that “there was always only one pope, and he is called Pope Francis.”
His writings and public comments in retirement on issues such as clerical sexual abuse and priestly celibacy, as well as the Second Vatican Council, have frequently been spun as opposition to his predecessor or attempts to influence Pope Francis’ decision-making. Veteran Italian journalist Luigi Accattoli recently cataloged at least 30 such instances when Pope Benedict departed from his vow to remain “hidden from the world,” often at Pope Francis’ request.
Many so-called Catholic “traditionalists” have continued to make Pope Benedict XVI their papal point of reference, refusing to recognize Pope Francis’ authority. A common toast among traditionally-leaning clergy in Rome after Pope Francis’ election, for example, was to “Benedict our pope, and Francis our bishop.”
While Pope Francis in the past has said that he believes additional protocols for the office of a retired pope are necessary and that the status quo between him and his predecessor worked because Pope Benedict was both “saintly and discreet,” in a more recent interview he said he had no plans to issue such protocols himself.
Speaking to ABC Español in mid-December, Pope Francis was also asked whether he had any plans to issue a decree outlining the role of a pope emeritus.
In his response, Pope Francis said no, stating, “I didn’t change a thing, I didn’t even think about doing it,” adding that, “Perhaps the Holy Spirit has no interest in me worrying about those things.”
Now that Pope Benedict XVI has passed, the question is whether or not Pope Francis will reconsider that position or whether he plans to leave that to his own successor, as any issuance of new norms could be interpreted as critical of Pope Benedict’s actions.
Beyond Pope Francis’ own intentions, there’s also an active debate among canonists about whether it’s even possible for one pope to issue rules that would limit the choices of another. While Pope Francis could issue rules now to govern his own situation, should he elect at some future point to retire, experts say the binding force of those measures would expire with his papacy.