VATICAN INSIDER VISITS SOLIDARITY HEALTH SHARE (PART II)

The Lord and weather willing, I will be off tomorrow to New York for a few days with the highlight of my visit being the May 9^th Path to Peace Foundation dinner that is offered annually by the Holy See Mission to the United Nations.

The Foundation was instituted in 1991 by Archbishop (now Cardinal) Renato Martino who was the Vatican’s point man – the apostolic nuncio – to the U.N. for 16 years, I was honored to be a member of four Holy See delegations to international United Nations conferences when I worked at the Vatican: Cairo 1994, Copenhagen 1995, Beijing 1995 and Istanbul 1996, three of which were led by Abp. Martino. Mary Ann Glendon led the September 1995 delegation to Beijing for the U.N. conference on women and Abp. Martino was adjunct head of delegation.

Those were truly amazing times for me, personally and professionally.

The president of the foundation is always the apostolic nuncio and permanent observer to the United Nations. Currently that is Archbishop Gabriele Caccia. I’ve been blessed to know him for many years as well.

As the foundation website notes, at a special event held each year the Path to Peace Foundation honors an individual whose life and work have dramatically affected the world community for the better. The first Path to Peace Award was bestowed in 1993 upon H.E. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Secretary General of the United Nations. The honorees this year are King Abdullah of Jordan and his wife, and Queen Rania.

VATICAN INSIDER VISITS SOLIDARITY HEALTH SHARE (PART II)

Join me on Vatican Insider this weekend when my guest, Brad Hahn, CEO of Solidarity Health Share, returns in Part II to tell us more about this community that supports you and your family by lowering your medical bills, providing you with a team of care professionals to help you navigate the health care system, and giving you peace of mind knowing your health care dollars are used ethically. Learn of the challenges facing health care providers and how solidarity helps families in their own health challenges. Brad is a lawyer and has worked for decades in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  (photo taken after lunch at the marvelous Taverna Agape)

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.

VATICAN INSIDER VISITS SOLIDARITY HEALTH CARE – TODAY WE HONOR SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

VATICAN INSIDER VISITS SOLIDARITY HEALTH SHARE

My guest this week and next on Vatican Insider is Brad Hahn, CEO of Solidarity Health Share, who will tell us about this community, a ministry really, that supports you and your family by lowering your medical bills, providing you with a team of care professionals to help you navigate the health care system, and giving you peace of mind knowing your health care dollars are used ethically. Learn of the challenges facing health care providers and how solidarity helps families in their own health challenges. By the way, Brad is a lawyer and has worked for decades in the Phoenix, Arizona area. (photo taken after lunch at the marvellous Taverna Agape)

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.

TODAY WE HONOR SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA

(franciscanmedia.com) – The value Catherine makes central in her short life and which sounds clearly and consistently through her experience is complete surrender to Christ. What is most impressive about her is that she learns to view her surrender to her Lord as a goal to be reached through time.

She was the 23rd child of Jacopo and Lapa Benincasa and grew up as an intelligent, cheerful, and intensely religious person. Catherine disappointed her mother by cutting off her hair as a protest against being overly encouraged to improve her appearance in order to attract a husband. Her father ordered her to be left in peace, and she was given a room of her own for prayer and meditation.

She entered the Dominican Third Order at 18 and spent the next three years in seclusion, prayer, and austerity. Gradually, a group of followers gathered around her—men and women, priests and religious. An active public apostolate grew out of her contemplative life. Her letters, mostly for spiritual instruction and encouragement of her followers, began to take more and more note of public affairs. Opposition and slander resulted from her mixing fearlessly with the world and speaking with the candor and authority of one completely committed to Christ. She was cleared of all charges at the Dominican General Chapter of 1374.

Photos from a visit several years ago to St. Catherine’s home in Siena, a very large home given the size of the family. The room with all the paintings was the family dining room:

Her public influence reached great heights because of her evident holiness, her membership in the Dominican Third Order, and the deep impression she made on the pope. She worked tirelessly for the crusade against the Turks and for peace between Florence and the pope.

In 1378, the Great Schism began, splitting the allegiance of Christendom between two, then three, popes and putting even saints on opposing sides. Catherine spent the last two years of her life in Rome, in prayer and pleading on behalf of the cause of Pope Urban VI and the unity of the Church. She offered herself as a victim for the Church in its agony. She died surrounded by her “children” and was canonized in 1461.

Her body is under the main altar of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome. We could not take photos in the church in Siena with relic of her skull – this is from Atlas Obscura:

Catherine ranks high among the mystics and spiritual writers of the Church. In 1939, she and Francis of Assisi were declared co-patrons of Italy. Pope Paul VI named her and Teresa of Avila doctors of the Church in 1970. Her spiritual testament is found in The Dialogue.

REFLECTION

Though she lived her life in a faith experience and spirituality far different from that of our own time, Catherine of Siena stands as a companion with us on the Christian journey in her undivided effort to invite the Lord to take flesh in her own life. Events which might make us wince or chuckle or even yawn fill her biographies: a mystical experience at six, childhood betrothal to Christ, stories of harsh asceticism, her frequent ecstatic visions. Still, Catherine lived in an age which did not know the rapid change of 21st-century mobile America. The value of her life for us today lies in her recognition of holiness as a goal to be sought over the course of a lifetime.

SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA IS A PATRON SAINT OF: Europe, Fire Prevention, Italy