BIDEN TO RECEIVE CARDINAL ZUPPI AT WHITE HOUSE TODAY – POPE FRANCIS TO WELCOME NEW PERSONAL SECRETARY – POPE FRANCIS CONFIRMS EPISCOPAL NOMINATION MADE BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES

BIDEN TO RECEIVE CARDINAL ZUPPI AT WHITE HOUSE TODAY

President Biden will welcome Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, to the White House on July 18. Cardinal Zuppi is travelling to Washington at the request of Pope Francis. President Biden and Cardinal Zuppi will discuss the widespread suffering caused by Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine. They will also discuss efforts by the United States and Holy See to provide humanitarian aid to those affected, and the Papal See’s focus on repatriating Ukrainian children forcibly deported by Russian officials.  https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/07/17/statement-from-white-house-press-secretary-karine-jean-pierre-on-the-visit-of-cardinal-zuppi/

The Vatican published this yesterday: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2023-07/pope-francis-sends-cardinal-zuppi-usa-peace-mission-ukraine.html

POPE FRANCIS TO WELCOME NEW PERSONAL SECRETARY

This morning, Msgr. Jorge García Cuerva, the new Archbishop of Buenos Aires, announced that Fr. Daniel Pellizon, a priest of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, has been summoned by Pope Francis to be his personal secretary.

“I share with joy that Father Daniel Pellizon, priest of this Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, has been summoned by Pope Francis to be his personal secretary, replacing Father Gonzalo Aemilius. At the beginning of August he will travel to Rome to begin the task entrusted to him. We pray for him in this new mission entrusted to the service of the Church.

Father Daniel Pellizon was born in this City of Buenos Aires on January 24, 1983. In 2011 and 2012 he collaborated with the then archbishop in the organization of his personal archive. He was ordained a priest on November 3, 2018. He developed his ministerial life first as a deacon and then as parochial vicar for five years accompanying pilgrims at the San Cayetano de Liniers Shrine. Last March he was assigned as vicar to the Parish of Our Lady of Mercy to date.

Pbro. Daniel Pellizon nuevo secretario personal del Papa Francisco

POPE FRANCIS CONFIRMS EPISCOPAL NOMINATION MADE BY CHINESE AUTHORITIES

The weekend here was a scorcher in several ways, one being the extremely high temperatures in Italy, triple-digit, historically high temps in some areas that are supposed to remain throughout the week.

The other was the hot-off-the-press Vatican announcement that Pope Francis, once again, made a stunning appointment on what should have been a quiet July weekend of his staycation at the Vatican. In fact, he approved the appointment of Bishop Joseph Shen Bin of Shanghai who, 3 months ago, was installed by Chinese communist authorities without the Vatican’s approval.

Many saw this as the Holy Father giving in to Chinese authorities.

What’s at stake here is the Provisional Agreement signed in September 2018 by the Holy See and China –  ratified in 2020 and 2022 – that regulates appointments and transfers of bishops in country.

That Agreement has never been made public. In fact, it has been routinely criticized over the years for, among other things, its lopsided character that so far has seemed to favor the Chinese.

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, in a highly unusual explanatory note in Vatican media Saturday, said Pope Francis wanted to “remedy the canonical irregularity created in Shanghai, in view of the greater good of the diocese and the fruitful exercise of the bishop’s pastoral ministry….(His) “intention is fundamentally pastoral” and will allow the bishop to “work with greater serenity to promote evangelization and foster ecclesial communion.”

Bishop Shen’s installation in April by the CCP was in direct violation of the Holy See’s provisional agreement with Beijing on the appointment of bishops and the second such unauthorized appointment in the past year.

However, Cardinal Parolin did chide China when he said, it is “indispensable,” then, “that all episcopal appointments in China, including transfers, be made by consensus, as agreed, and to keep alive the spirit of dialogue between the Parties. Together we must prevent disharmonious situations that create disagreements and misunderstandings.”

The Catholic Herald had a headline that very neatly expresses the misgivings over the Holy See-China Provisional Agreement: “Just how much faith should Rome place in a deal which China routinely flouts?”

 

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT….

A LITTLE BIT OF THIS, A LITTLE BIT OF THAT….

THE FEAST OF ST. BLAISE

Have you had your throat blessed today?

THE SURF ‘n TURF SUPER BOWL BET

It looks like Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph Missouri will soon be dining royally on Dungeness crabs thanks to Arcbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco. The two bishops made a bet before the Super Bowl. If the San Francisco 49ers lost the championship game, the Fisherman’s Wharf treat would go to Missouri. Had the Chiefs lost, Bishop Johnston would have sent steaks from the Kansas City Steak Company to San Francisco. Buon appetito, Bishop Johnston!

ST PETER’S DOME TO UNDERGO CLEANING

I took this photo last Friday from, the steps of the Governorate building in Vatican City. You can only see a bit of the scaffolding on the left side (would be to your right if you are in St. Peter’s Square). I do not yet know if they will cover only part of the dome at a time or if soon we will see the while dome encased in scaffolding. The smaller domes have all been cleaned and they were entirely covered in scaffolding. Both the Fabbrica of St. Peter’s and the Vatican’s technical services will be behind the cleaning and, where needed, restoration of the dome. I believe only the drum part of the dome (the part you see with windows and columns) will be in scaffolding for this work but will try to get details. (have tried but cannot enlarge photo)

I did not know this about the dome: (Designed by Michelangelo, who died before its completion,), Giacomo della Porta and Domenico Fontana brought the dome to completion in 1590, the last year of the reign of Sixtus V. His successor, Gregory XIV, saw Fontana complete the lantern and had an inscription to the honour of Sixtus V placed around its inner opening. The next pope, Clement VIII, had the cross raised into place, an event which took all day, and was accompanied by the ringing of the bells of all the city’s churches. In the arms of the cross are set two lead caskets, one containing a fragment of the True Cross and a relic of St. Andrew and the other containing medallions of the Holy Lamb. In the mid-18th century, cracks appeared in the dome, so four iron chains were installed between the two shells to bind it, like the rings that keep a barrel from bursting. As many as ten chains have been installed at various times, the earliest possibly planned by Michelangelo himself as a precaution, as Brunelleschi did at Florence Cathedral. (wikipedia)

“WHEN THE NEXT ASTEROID STRIKES”

Most of what was a grassy area filled with flower beds in the center of Rome’s Piazza Venezia is now filled with earth movers and other large equipment as the city continues work on the third metro line (metropolitana is Italian for subway). Linea C work started in 2007, although most Romans feel it has been going on since Romulus and Remus and the Caesars! As we rounded Pza. Venezia yesterday, I asked a taxi driver when he thought the subway might finally be finished. His answer: “when the next asteroid strikes the earth!”

POPE FRANCIS’ NEW PERSONAL SECRETARY

The Pope and Fr. Gonzalo Aemilius met in 2006 when then Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Archbishop of Buenos Aires, made contact with him because he had heard of his work with street kids. Gonzalo Aemilius, a Doctor of Theology, replaces Father Fabian Pedacchio, the Argentine priest who worked alongside the Pope from 2013 to 2019, and who returned last December to his post at the Congregation of Bishops. Father Aemilius was born in Montevideo on September 18, 1979 and was ordained a priest on 6 May 2006.

His face may be familiar to many because he is the priest whom the Pope greeted and summoned as part of the crowd gathered outside a Vatican Gate to welcome Pope Francis at the beginning of his pontificate on the morning of March 7, 2013 when he said Mass in the Vatican’s St. Anne’s church. After Mass, Pope Francis introduced Father Aemilius to all those present, asking them to pray for him and for his work with street children. Interviewed by L’Osservatore Romano, Fr. Aemilius said Bergoglio’s ability to integrate different values and channel them in a single direction had struck him deeply: “Experiencing this ability of his was decisive in my life. He taught me to take the best that is in each individual, however different he or she may be from others, and to put it to good use for the good of all.” Fr. Aemilius will accompany Francis’ current personal secretary, Fr. Yoannis Lahzi Gaid. (source: Vatican news)