VATICAN INSIDER AND FR. REGGIE, A PAPAL LATINIST FOR 40 YEARS – NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS TO VIE FOR CLERICUS CUP TROPHY

VATICAN INSIDER AND FR. REGGIE, A PAPAL LATINIST FOR 40 YEARS

Tune in to “Vatican Insider” this weekend for Part II of my conversation with a man who made some history at the Vatican – Discalced Carmelite Fr. Reginald Foster, the papal Latinist for 40 years! Considered a living legend, he likes to be called Fr. Reggie – or even by his name in Latin, Reginaldus! He worked for 40 years at the Vatican in the Secretariat of State office for Latin translations – from 1969 to 2009 – and for 30 plus years taught Latin at the Jesuit-run Gregorian University in Rome. A prodigious producer and translator of documents for Popes, Father Reggie was known as the Papal Latinist.

By the way, he designed this: https://twitter.com/pontifex_ln?lang=en

So, if you want to learn Latin, go to the papal twitter site in your language, read the last tweet posted and then go to the Latin twitter site for the translation.

Fr. Reggie comes from generations of family plumbers and, now in retirement and even in Rome on occasion, he was always more comfortable wearing the “family uniform” – as you see in the photo!

Now semi-retired, Fr. Reggie lives in his native Milwaukee but still teaches Latin several days a week, and students come from around the world for his summer courses! He converses as easily in Latin as you and I do in our native tongue. Listen carefully for my concluding remarks in Latin during our meeting!

In the United States, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (there is a list of U.S. stations at http://www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio. Outside the U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” Vatican Insider airs Saturday mornings at 9:00am (ET). On the SKY satellite feed to the UK and parts of Europe, VI airs on audio channel 0147 at 11:30 am CET on Saturdays, and 5:30am and 10pm CET on Sundays. It’s also available on demand on the EWTN app and on the website. CHECK YOUR TIME ZONE. Here’s a link to download VI to your iTunes library: http://www.ewtn.com/se/pg/DatService.svc/feed/~LE.xml For VI archives: http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=7096&pgnu=

NORTH AMERICAN MARTYRS TO VIE FOR CLERICUS CUP TROPHY

The North American Martyrs, the soccer team of the Pontifical North American College, plays the Pontificio Collegio Urbano for the Clericus Cup soccer trophy on Saturday, May 26 at 10:30 in the morning.

This is the 12th annual edition of the Clericus Cup, started in 2007 by CSI, the Italian Sporting Center. The cup was based on an idea by then Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a huge soccer fan who, when archbishop of Genoa, actually announced matches for local radio.

Seminarians and priests studying in Rome at their national seminaries compete each year in the Clericus Cup.

The Clericus Cup group was greeted by Pope Francis at last Wednesday’s general audience.

Previous wins for the North American Martyrs took place in 2012 against the Gregorian University and 2013 against Mater Ecclesiae. They came in second in 2009 and 2010 and placed 4th in 2008 and 2011.

The Collegio Urbano, which trains missionaries for Africa and Asia, has won 3 of the last 4 trophies.

Here’s the North American Martyrs FB page:
https://www.facebook.com/North-American-College-Martyrs-305014799526/

CLERICUS CUP SOCCER TOURNEY KICKS OFF FEBRUARY 24

I will keep you posted as the games progress – there are a lot of  fun and interesting statistics involved with this international edition of Clericus Cup. The final, by the way, will be played on Saturday, May 26.

The images shown below are from past matches.

CLERICUS CUP SOCCER TOURNEY KICKS OFF FEBRUARY 24

The Italian acronym CSI has nothing to do with crime scenes and forensics experts and everything to do with sports, in particular football – or, as it is called in the States, soccer. CSI stands for Centro Sportivo Italiano – Italian Sports Center – whose initiative, the Clericus Cup, kicks off this Saturday in Rome.

Under the sponsorship of the Italian Episcopal Conference and its pastoral ministry for Sports and Leisure, CSI is promoting Clericus Cup 2018, a soccer tournament open to seminarians and priests from colleges, universities, convents and pontifical seminaries in the city and province of Rome. The first games are scheduled for February 24 in the elimination phase.

The North American College, the U.S. national seminary in Rome, has played every year in this tourney and the team, the North American Martyrs, have won several championships.

The idea for this Cup might have come from remarks made years ago by then Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, an avid soccer fan who has, even as cardinal, had announced soccer matches on Italian radio for his beloved Turin team, Juventus.

He once jokingly told Italian reporters, “I do not rule out that in the future the Vatican could form a top soccer team of the level of Inter or Roma,” – other top notch Italian teams. He added that the Holy See, for example, could form “a magnificent team” by drawing on the hundreds of Brazilian students at its pontifical universities around the world.

The Clericus Cup Rules and Regulations are posted on the CSI web site, and include information on uniforms and game dates. There is no cost but players must enrol in CSI and there may be from 14 to 20 players on a team. Each team can field 11 players. Matches will be played on Saturdays, say the Rules, and will last one hour instead of the 90 minutes for professional soccer.

In American football, there is what is known as the “Hail Mary pass,” a forward pass thrown in a moment of desperation whose chances of being caught usually range from little to nil. Will players in the Clericus Cup have a Hail Mary kick?

Let the Games begin!

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