VATICAN INSIDER: FR. BILL PETRIE, 25 YEARS WITH ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA – A PAPAL TELEGRAM AND A BOOK FOR SYNOD PARTICIPANTS

VATICAN INSIDER: FR. BILL PETRIE, 25 YEARS WITH ST. TERESA OF CALCUTTA

This week on Vatican Insider, the interview segment is a repeat but it features a compelling storyteller and fascinating guest, Fr. Bill Petrie. At the time of our conversation, Fr. Bill, a priest of the Order of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (SSCC), was pastor of St. Damien parish on the Hawaiian island of Molokai’i. We’ve been friends for a number of years and usually met at Kalaupapa on Molokai’i to talk about Sts. Damien, SSCC, and Marianne Cope and their work there with victims of leprosy.  This is Part II of our conversation. Part I aired last weekend.

From Fr. Bill’s FB page for St. Damien parish –

A Generations photo: Fr. Bill on Kalaupapa at grave site of St. Damien and also layman Joseph Dutton whose cause for canonization is underway in the diocese of Honolulu.

For this interview, we met at the home of some mutual friends in Honolulu on the island of Oahu to talk about his 25 years of work with St. Mother Teresa! 25 years! Tons of insight and remarkable stories about this holy woman, whose feast day we celebrated recently. I cannot find my photo of our Honolulu encounter but there was a rainbow over Fr. Bill’s head as we finished our talk!Fr. Bill now lives on Oahu.

I have been focussing on St. Teresa recently, as you know from my recent interview segment when my guests were the producer and stars of the film, “Mother Teresa and Me.” The film was released by Fathom Events in select U.S. theaters for one night only on Oct. 5.

IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. 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.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive –  write the name of the guest for whom you are searching in the SEARCH box. Below that, will appear “Vatican Insider” – click on that and the link to that particular episode will appear.

A PAPAL TELEGRAM AND A BOOK FOR SYNOD PARTICIPANTS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – In a telegram, the Holy Father expressed his condolences to the families of the 21 victims  who died in Mestre, near Venice when their bus went through a guardrail, crashing to the street below..

ALSO FRIDAY: Pope Francis attended both the morning and afternoon sessions of the synod. Participants were given a book written by the Holy Father titled “Holy, Not Worldly – God’s Grace Saves us from Interior Corruption.”

Available today in Rome bookstores for 5 euro, it was delivered in Italian (in paper format), and in Spanish and English (in digital format).

VATICAN INSIDER: INSIDE THE FILM “MOTHER TERESA AND ME” (PART II) – ROMAN NIGHTS, CHARITY IN THE CHURCH AND A PRINCELY VENUE

VATICAN INSIDER: INSIDE THE FILM “MOTHER TERESA AND ME” (PART II)

My guests in the interview segment this weekend are Swiss-Indian filmmaker and producer, Kamal Musale and co-producer and actress Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz who portrays Mother Teresa in the film “Mother Teresa And Me.”   This is Part II of our conversation in Rome (Part I aired last weekend).

As the film’s website says, “This is a story about love and compassion inspired by the life of Mother Teresa, a story about Teresa and Kavita: two women’s lives – passionate and uncompromising – woven over generations by two intertwined stories. Both women achieve their vocation in spite of serious personal doubts.”

It is truly a riveting story about life and death, dignity and deprivation.

The film was selected as this year’s winner in the Mirabile Dictu International Catholic Film Festival, founded in 2010 by producer and filmmaker Liana Marabini, to honor producers, filmmakers, documentaries, docu-fiction, TV series, short films and programs “that promote universal moral values and positive models.”

 MIRABILE DICTU is a Latin phrase meaning “wonderful to relate.”

IN THE UNITED STATES, you can listen to Vatican Insider (VI) on a Catholic radio station near you (stations listed at www.ewtn.com) or on channel 130 Sirius-XM satellite radio, or on http://www.ewtn.com. 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.” VI airs at 5am and 9pm ET on Saturdays and 6am ET on Sundays. On the GB-IE feed (which is on SKY in the UK and Ireland), VI airs at 5:30am, 12 noon and 10pm CET on Sundays. Both of these feeds are also available on the EWTN app and on www.ewtnradio.net ALWAYS CHECK YOUR OWN TIME ZONE! For VI archives: go to https://www.ewtn.com/radio/audio-archive and write the name of the guest for whom you are searching in the SEARCH box. Below that, will appear “Vatican Insider” – click on that and the link to that particular episode will appear.

ROMAN NIGHTS, CHARITY IN THE CHURCH AND A PRINCELY VENUE

EWTN’s “Roman Nights” consists of a series of periodic gatherings that brings together in Rome people of many backgrounds to discuss topics pertinent to our faith lives today. Each gathering features a specific topic for discussion and invited guests as speakers. The public is always invited to attend these Roman Nights that take place in different locations around the Eternal City.

Each edition is feature on EWTN at a later date, including editions of “Vaticano.”

The theme chosen for last night’s May gathering was “Charity Within the Church and Given by the Church,” a theme that sought to answer the big questions that the contemporary world poses to the Church in today’s often turbulent world.

Guest speakers included Ambassador Antonio Zanardi Landi of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Holy See, Dr. Alessandro Pernigo, member of the Board of Directors for the Bio Medico University Campus of Roma, and Fr. David Hulshof, director of Apostolic Formation and Formation Advisor at the Pontifical North American College. Moderator was EWTN Rome bureau chief Andreas Thonhauser.   It was a fascinating conversation!

And here’s where it all took place! Inside this historic palazzo  and yes, overlooking the ancient Roman Forum! We had refreshments on the stunning rooftop covered terrace, and continued conversations on charity, the talks we heard earlier, the Church, and life in Rome in general (like an evening overlooking history!)

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A little bit of history (House of the Knights of Rhodes and San Giovanni Battista Chapel Rome. (renatoprosciutto.com)

The House of the Knights of Rhodes is located in the Forum of Augustus in the Monti district of Rome. It houses the antiquarium of the Forum. The Giovanni Battista dei Cavalieri di Rodi Chapel is also located inside the building. It can only be visited with a guided tour.

The House of Rhodes used to be the seat of the Roman Priory of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem (Priorato romano dell’ordine dei Cavalieri di San Giovanni di Gerusalemme). It was also known as the House of the Knights of Rhodes and of Malta.

The Knights have been housed in the building, which stands on top of ancient Roman constructions, since the 12th century. In 1566, when the Knights moved to the Aventine Hill, the Sisters of the Santissima Annunziata took over the building.

The adjacent convent was destroyed in 1930 to allow for excavations in the Forum of Augustus.

Between 1930 and 1945 the house was owned by the city of Rome, but after the war it reverted to the hands of the Maltese Knights.

The central part of the house is covered by a barrel vault and was transformed into the Cappella di San Giovanni Battista (Chapel of John the Baptist) in 1946.

One of its doors opens onto the portico-lined atrium of the Forum of Augustus.