Pope is Blind in One Eye

Pope blesses thousands at Vatican as details of ailments emerge

By Tom Kington  LA Times

February 17, 2013, 10:18 a.m.

VATICAN CITY -- A week after Pope Benedict announced his resignation, more than 50,000 supporters jammed into St. Peter’s Square on Sunday for his next-to-last weekly blessing, as it emerged the aging pontiff may have gone blind in one eye.

Addressing the cheering crowd, which was larger than usual for the Sunday Angelus, Benedict appeared to criticize the infighting that has plagued the Vatican during his reign.

“The church, which is mother and teacher, calls on all its members to renew their spirit, turn back firmly toward God and ignore pride and egoism to live in love,” he said, before asking in Spanish for prayers to be said for the next pope.

PHOTOS: The cardinals who might be pope

Benedict, 85, shocked the Vatican and the world Feb. 11 by announcing that he would step down at the end of the month due to failing health, although Vatican insiders have also cited a toll taken on the pope by power struggles behind the Vatican walls.

New evidence is emerging of Benedict’s declining physical condition. Peter Seewald, a German journalist who has interviewed Benedict on numerous occasions, said that when he last saw the pope 10 weeks ago, his hearing had deteriorated and he appeared to have gone blind in his left eye.

“His body had become so thin that the tailors had difficulty in keeping up with newly fitted clothes. ... I'd never seen him so exhausted-looking, so worn down,” he told Focus, a German magazine, on Saturday.

Seewald quoted the pope as saying: “I'm an old man and the strength is ebbing. I think what I've done is enough.” Asked if he was considering retiring, Benedict replied, "That depends on how much my physical strength will force me to that."

PHOTOS: Throngs turn out for Benedict's blessing

Supporters turning out to hear Benedict speak Sunday said the pope had come to recognize he was no longer able to carry out his duties. “It’s a human decision and I am here to pay my respects and say goodbye,” said Michaela Priori, 35, a Rome office worker.

Benedict will hold his last blessing in St. Peter’s next Sunday. That will be followed by a final general audience in the piazza Feb. 27, a day before he is flown by helicopter from the Vatican to the papal summer residence outside Rome to start his retirement. Two months later he is due to move into a former monastery in the Vatican’s large gardens when it has been refurbished.

The conclave at which cardinals elect the next pope is due 15 to 20 days after a pope dies, and an article in the apostolic constitution governing conclaves says that interval is also required if the pope resigns.

However, officials are now studying whether the date can be brought forward since no time is required for a papal funeral and the 117 cardinals due at the conclave are already making plans to travel to Rome. A speedier conclave would allow the next pope to be named before Easter

 

A "sample" of Archbishop Sample: DRE's in a panic!

The new Archbishop has yet to be installed and he has asked for NO religious educational materials to be ordered for next year.  We know he is teacher at heart.

We have had our children subjected to a list of allowable materials that are so watered down no wonder they are leaving the Church in ignorance.  This will have a "bottoms up" effect helping those that changed their diapers(their parents) to strengthen their faith with a mature mind.  Let's pray that this order includes "safe environment" training we have now that has no spiritual component. 

Sadlier Publishing, for example, has had Mary Jo Tully's influence in having it as the oldest standby's.  She was a DRE in Chicago before she came to Oregon decades ago.  Sadlier has used her materials and music from the OCP formerly known as the Oregon Catholic Press, having left its Catholicity behind. 

NOW the axe will drop on the liberal music of Schutte, Haas and Haugen who are former Jesuits (which should have set off alarms) and sell their music to any denomination.  Our new Archbishop loves music that inspires.  Prayer that inspires.  As we pray so we believe. lex orandi lex credendi

However, I digress.  Bob Mizia, the Superintendent of Schools is responsible for the Earth Charter being taught in schools.  It is part of the United Nations attempt to take God out of the lives of our youth.  It is time that Mr. Mizia was called to account.

We now have an Archbishop that will have that as part of his agenda and we are thankful.

Pope Benedict XVI: Council of Faith and Council of Media

"[T]here was the Council of the Fathers – the true Council – but there was also the Council of the media. It was almost a Council in and of itself, and the world perceived the Council through them, through the media. So the Council that immediately, effectively, got thorough to the people was that of the media, not that of the Fathers. And meanwhile, the Council of the Fathers evolved within the faith, it was a Council of the faith that sought the intellect, that sought to understand and try to understand the signs of God at that moment, that tried to meet the challenge of God in this time to find the words for today and tomorrow. So while the whole council – as I said – moved within the faith, as fides quaerens intellectum, the Council of journalists did not, naturally, take place within the world of faith but within the categories of the media of today, that is outside of the faith, with different hermeneutics. It was a hermeneutic of politics.

The media saw the Council as a political struggle, a struggle for power between different currents within the Church. It was obvious that the media would take the side of whatever faction best suited their world. There were those who sought a decentralization of the Church, power for the bishops and then, through the Word for the “people of God”, the power of the people, the laity. There was this triple issue: the power of the Pope, then transferred to the power of the bishops and then the power of all … popular sovereignty. Naturally they saw this as the part to be approved, to promulgate, to help.

 

 

This was the case for the liturgy: there was no interest in the liturgy as an act of faith, but as a something to be made understandable, similar to a community activity, something profane. And we know that there was a trend, which was also historically based, that said: “Sacredness is a pagan thing, possibly even from the Old Testament. In the New Testament the only important thing is that Christ died outside: that is, outside the gates, that is, in the secular world”. Sacredness ended up as profanity even in worship: worship is not worship but an act that brings people together, communal participation and thus participation as activity. And these translations, trivializing the idea of ​​the Council, were virulent in the practice of implementing the liturgical reform, born in a vision of the Council outside of its own key vision of faith. And it was so, also in the matter of Scripture: Scripture is a book, historical, to treat historically and nothing else, and so on.

 

 

And we know that this Council of the media was accessible to all. So, dominant, more efficient, this Council created many calamities, so many problems, so much misery, in reality: seminaries closed, convents closed, the liturgy was trivialized … and the true Council has struggled to materialize, to be realized: the virtual Council was stronger than the real Council. But the real strength of the Council was present and slowly it has emerged and is becoming the real power which is also true reform, true renewal of the Church.

It seems to me that 50 years after the Council, we see how this Virtual Council is breaking down, getting lost and the true Council is emerging with all its spiritual strength. And it is our task, in this Year of Faith, starting from this Year of Faith, to work so that the true Council with the power of the Holy Spirit is realized and Church is really renewed. We hope that the Lord will help us.

I, retired in prayer, will always be with you, and together we will move ahead with the Lord in certainty. The Lord is victorious! Thank you."

Benedict XVI

Meeting with Roman Clergy

February 14, 2013

 

 

Archbishop Sample is taking this to heart in Oregon.  He has apparently already begun this change.

Cardinal Arinze Reacts to Pope's Resignation

Bishop Robert Vasa on the Holy Father's Resignation.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20130211/ARTICLES/130219944/1010/sports?Title=Santa-Rosa-Bishop-shares-his-thoughts-on-the-resignation-of-Pope-Benedict-XVI

Santa Rosa Bishop Robert Vasa looks to the future

In this photo provided by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI delivers his message during a meeting of Vatican cardinals, at the Vatican, Monday, Feb. 11, 2013. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano)

By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, February 11, 2013 at 3:22 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, February 11, 2013 at 3:22 p.m.

Bishop Robert Vasa said Monday he hopes the next person to lead the world's Catholics will follow the same path as Pope Benedict XVI, whose interpretation of church doctrine along strongly conservative lines earned the pontiff both praise and criticism.
 

Vasa, who leads the 165,000-member Santa Rosa Diocese, said Benedict often spoke of a "hermeneutic of continuity," or a desire for there to not be a major disruption stemming from a change in leadership.

"That certainly fits my hopes and expectations extremely well," Vasa said.

Asked about Benedict's legacy, Vasa referenced the 85-year-old pontiff's scholarly writings and his "great gentleness."

Benedict's papacy also was marked by clerical abuse scandals, the leaking of internal Vatican documents and disputes with other religious leaders and institutions. Vasa said he did not have "enough information to make any knowledgeable comments" about the abuse scandals.

Vasa said he was "very surprised" by Benedict's announcement to resign later this month, becoming the first pontiff in six centuries to do so.

Vasa predicted a muted reaction among the North Coast's Catholics. "I don't think there is any great grief or sadness. It's not like he is dying," Vasa said.

Worldwide, some Catholics have expressed shock that a pontiff is permitted under church law to resign what is billed as a lifetime post.

John Paul II, Benedict's beloved predecessor, continued to serve even as he coped with Parkinson's disease, in what some Catholics viewed as an uplifting testament to the religious tenet of suffering.
Vasa said Benedict "is of a different mind," and he said the pontiff decided he could serve the church as a "different type of witness."

"It has all the earmarks of a very prudent decision," Vasa said.