TUESDAY

November 18, 1997   vol 8, no.33     SECTION TWO

To print out SECTION ONE, Click here.

Fantasia!

     That phenomenal landmark Disney film of 1939 which was half a century ahead of its time has nothing on the all-time producer - God, and the wonderful special effects of miracles which Father John Hampsch, C.M.F. spins in his column KEYS TO LIVING GOD'S WILL with his account today of a personal healing experience that is truly amazing. His true story in the fourteenth installment of "Faith: Key to the Heart of God" will touch you deeply. Click on High Octane Healing: part three.

Faith: Key to the Heart of God

Fourteenth installment: High Octane Healing part three

     Once in awhile something will get publicized, as happened in the National Enquirer. In Blue Cloud, Minnesotat, some Indians were prayed over for their rotting teeth to be healed. God healed everyone of them by giving them miraculously filled teeth - every cavity filled with gold. That hit the headlines. The Enquirer paid to send dental experts out there to examine those Indians (I heard one fo the Indian girls give a description of this on tape). One of the representatives from the American Dental Association remarked that those were the best fillings he'd ever seen!

     Some friends of mine - husband and wife - showed me their own miraculously filled teeth. Most of these happenings never reach the mass media. Because there's doubt, God seems to suppress publicity about them. You'll find people who wonder why they never see any miracles. They may hear about some of these things, yet never witness them themselves. If they've never seen a miracle, it is because they have never exercised the gift of faith. Only those who have faith are the ones who are privy to the miraculous. The others just say they don't believe miracles happen because they never see them happen. They probably never will.

     You, too, can have access to the miraculous. God tells you how in Scriptures. But if you are the type of person that demands proof - like doubting Thomas - you probably will never witness a miracle.

     One time, when I was at a retreat for priests, I hurried down to the dining room to get a quick cup of coffee. I put some powdered coffee into a styrofoam cup, went over to the big urn marked "hot water" and filled the cup. I gulped it down fast and immediately recognized that it wasn't hot water at all, but a hot acid-like substance used to clean the inside of the urn. My throat felt on fire as I staggered to the kitchen in agony and saw the container that read "poison - fatal if swallowed."

     It was torture waiting while they called poison control center. The doctor told them to read over the phone the ingredients on the container. His reply was that I probably would not survive, but if I did, I would possibly never be able to speak. They would try to save my life, but doubted they could save my voice.

     The doctor said I was too far from town for an ambulance to get there and back in time so someone at the retreat should rush me to the hospital where the emergency team would be waiting. In agonizing pain I waited for someone to bring the car around to take me to ER. Then it was as if the Lord spoke to me interiorly, telling me to believe in His Word. When you're dying, it's easier to have great faith! So I told the Lord I believed in His Word, specifically Mark 16: 18: "Those who believe in Me, even though they drink poison, it will do them no harm."

     I claimed that biblical promise, and in less than one minute I was perfectly normal! I guess they're still waiting for me in that emergency room!

Next week: Becoming Faith-Fit

Sleeping Beauties!

  &bnsp;  The above title is a stretch but it best describes not the sprawling commercialism of Disneyland and Disneyworld, but rather the everlasting spirituality of the Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul whose Dedication we celebrate today, for they are both magnificent structures of beauty in Rome and they house many sleeping saints. The story of these two edifices of edification is found in today's liturgy along with a vignette on Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne with the readings of the day and the readings for tomorrow's Holy Mass. Click on LITURGY OF THE DAY

TUESDAY, November 18, 1997

November 18: Thirty-third Tuesday in Ordinary Time and


Feast of the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Saint Paul and
Feast of Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin, Religious and Missionary

      Like St. John Lateran Basilica, the dedication of the Basilica of St. Peter's and the Basilica of St. Paul's dates back to the time of the Emperor Constantine. He had begun the construction of this Basilica after building the Lateran Basilica. After Constantine's death his son's completed the work as well as the work of St. Paul's Basilica which is today Saint Paul Outside the Walls St. Peter's was built over a pagan cemetery which had become a burial place for Christians including Saint Peter himself which was confirmed in 1950 by Pope Pius XII when he announced they had discovered the tomb of St. Peter. This had been surmised since the year 200 when Caius a priest had related in documents that Peter's relics were on Vatican Hill and the remains of Saint Paul could be found buried along the Ostian Way. Today the Tomb of St. Peter lies in a glass-encased vault deep below the main altar of St. Peter's Basilica and can be viewed by visitors. It is a symbol of the oneness, universality, and apostolic succession of the Church. The present basilica was begun by Pope Nicholas V forty years before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. The initial plan of the great basilica was a Greek cross, projected by master architect Donato Bramante but was finished in the configuration of a Latin cross by the great Italian artist Raphael Santi around the turn of the 16th Century. In 1568 Pope Saint Pius V decreed the dedication of both these basilicas be celebrated on November 9th throughout the universal Church. In the late 1580's Pope Sixtus V completed the magnificent dome of St. Peter's Basilica designed by the master of masters Michelangelo and installed in St. Peter's Square the Egyptian obelisk, originally brought to Rome from Africa by the Emperor Caligula.

     The Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls was consecrated in the year 390 by Pope Saint Siricus, the same pontiff who instituted the title "Pope" or "Papa" in Greek meaning "Father" which is also an anagram of the words "Petri Apostoli Potestatem Accipiens". Constantine had originally laid out the plans for the Basilica of St. Paul with a five-aisle scheme. St. Paul's fell into disrepair but was restored by Pope Saint Leo the Great around 450, resembling Constantine's basilica on Vatican Hill. The Benedictines were placed in charge of the Basilica in the 700's and have been there ever since. Over the years many frescoes, mosaics and marble masterpieces were added. In 1823 a violent fire damaged much of St. Paul's but it was restored by Pope Pius IX and reconsecrated in 1854, the same year he proclaimed the infallible dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Today the arcade consists of 146 white granite columns. The golden mosaics high on the exterior are by the Italian artist Vespignani and depict Christ giving His blessing flanked by St. Peter and St. Paul. Below that is the Lamb of God on the hill between Jerusalem and Bethlehem where four rivers pour forth and represent the Apostles, quenching the thirst of the flock which symbolizes mankind. Below that are the four standing figures of the Apostles. Like St. Peter's Basilica, the layout is configured to a Latin Cross with five aisles supported by 80 tall columns. Above the aisles are large mozaic portraits on medallions representing all 264 pontiffs from Peter to John Paul II.

November 18: SAINT ROSE PHILIPPINE DUCHESNE, VIRGIN and RELIGIOUS

This saint, Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne was canonized in 1988 by Pope John Paul II. She was born on August 29, 1769 in Grenoble, France to a family whose father was a wealthy merchant. Educated by the Visitation nuns of Sainte Marie d'en Haut, a vocation was fostered to that order despite the protests of her parents who wanted her to marry. Rose had always had a desire to be a missionary, on fire with zeal for Jesus and wanting to share it with everyone. When the French Revolution broke out the Vistation nuns were forced to disperse and Rose was left alone. Her prayers to be reunited with a community of Visitation nuns were not answered, rather God chose a new order for Rose in 1804 - the Religious of the Sacred Heart which had been founded in 1800 by Mother Madeleine Sophie Barat. This was a missionary order of nuns which, through God's Providence, brought Sr. Rose to New Orleans in the southern United States in 1818. There, with four other nuns, Rose was sent up the Mississippi River by the bishop of New Orleans to St. Charles, Missouri where she founded the first American Sacred Heart house and began the first free school west of the Mississippi in a log cabin in Florissant just outside St. Louis. By 1828 there were six houses along the mighty Mississippi. It was here that she intervened with the Indians who had objected to the Jesuits and through her efforts and good will, preserved the Jesuit mission. At the age of 72, St. Rose resigned as head of the American branch of her Order to answer Jesuit missionary Father De Smet's call for her to pursue missionary work. With a handful of other hand-picked nuns she traveled farther west to Kansas where she opened a girls' school for the Cherokees and other Indian tribes in Sugar Creek, Kansas. Though she could not learn the Indians' dialect, she was able to communicate through her prayers and devout example. The Indians loved and admired this woman they called "The Woman Who Prays Always" that many conversions were manifested even though St. Rose was in Sugar Creek for only one year because ill health mandated that she return to the mother house in St. Charles where Rose died on October 18th, 1852. Her remains were enshrined at the mother house and her name is the first one listed on the Pioneer Roll of Fame in St. Louis' famed Jefferson Memorial Building. She played a major role in bringing the faith to the heartland of America where, in the gateway to the west, it has remained strong to this day. She was beatified in 1940 by Pope Pius XII before being canonized 48 years later.

WEDNESDAY, November 19, 1997

Wednesday, November 19: Thirty-third Wednesday in Ordinary Time

PRAYER & DEVOTION

     The prayer today is taken from the Opening Prayer of the Mass today:

Lord, give Your Church the protection of the Apostles. From them it first received the faith of Christ. May they help Your Church to grow in Your grace until the end of time.

Suggested Prayer: The Apostles' Creed

NEWS & VIEWS

with a Catholic slant

HEADLINES:

SYNOD'S GOALS: COLLABORATION AND EVANGELIZATION

     VATICAN (CWN) --The Pope emphasized two different goals for the synod: to invigorate the "new evangelization," and to stimulate greater collaboration between the local churches of North and South American, thus promoting social justice and solidarity in the New World. The Pope repeatedly stressed that all of the Americas-- from Alaska and Canada to Chile and Argentina-- should be viewed as a unity, drawn together in faith since the region was first evangelized 500 years ago.

       "It would be opportune," the Pope said, "to investigate the profound reasons for that unitary vision, calling upon common religious and Christian traditions." At the same time, he noted the marked inequalities that separate the north from the south-- inequalities in terms of both economic status and the development of democratic institutions. He asked the bishops to discuss the causes of that inequality, in the hope of finding ways to eliminate them.

       However, the synod should not focus exclusively on the past, the Pontiff hastened to add. The primary goal of the session should be to prepare for the future, and especially for the Jubilee Year 2000. He asked all Catholics to redouble their missionary work, working across geographical boundaries to spread the Gospel message.

       Speaking to pilgrims who had gathered in St. Peter's Square for the weekly Angelus audience, the Pope explained that the objective of the synod was "to spread the Gospel message ever more widely, so that Christ is known and welcomed everywhere as the true Redeemer of man."

       In their first working sessions, the bishops gathered in Rome for a special Synod for the Americas spoke of the need to develop a "new vision" of the Church in the Western Hemisphere, marked by "personal conversion" and by "greater north- south collaboration."

       This special synod, scheduled to continue through December 12, marks the first time that the bishops of all the American countries, North and South, have been gathered together for a discussion of their common concerns. Now that the hemisphere accounts for roughly one-half of the world's Catholic population, the 24 episcopal conferences of the America have been drawn together in Rome to set strategies for a new evangelization.

       At a press conference on Monday, November 17, Cardinals Roger Mahony of Los Angeles and Juan Sandoval Iniguez of Guadalajara spoke to journalists about the goals of the synod. "We are no longer speaking of 'the Americas' but of 'America,'" said Cardinal Mahony, saying that the Church has not yet realized the enormous potential benefits that could flow from such a unitary approach. "We have a great deal to learn from each other," he added.

       Cardinal Sandoval pointed out that while collaboration between the northern and southern countries would certainly involve greater attention to the economic needs of the Latin countries, that would not be the sole-- or even the primary-- reason for collaboration. Rather, he said, "the basic problem is not merely the social question, or the question of poverty, but that of evangelization."

       As journalists repeatedly raised questions about the issue of international debt burdens, Archbishop Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras-- the president of the Latin American bishops' conference CELAM-- confirmed that the issue would figure prominently in the synod discussions. The Holy See has often urged the wealthier nations to lift the burdens of debt which are inhibiting economic development in the poorer nations. But he added that while the northern countries should address that problem by making appeals to bankers, the Latin countries must deal with the problem of corruption in government and financial circles, which also inhibits development.

       The first phase of the synod process, a ten-day period, will allow time for each bishop to deliver a short address to the general assembly. The next stage will begin the process of synthesizing a general public message, which will then be conveyed to the Pope to form the basis for an apostolic exhortation.

Can Castro be Converted?

CASTRO TO ATTEND PAPAL MASS IN JANUARY

     VATICAN CITY (CWN) - Cuban Communist leader Fidel Castro will attend the official papal Mass in Havana during Pope John Paul's visit in January, according to Vatican television on Friday.

       The Caribbean island is the last Latin American nation which the Holy Father has not yet visited. The full schedule for the trip is expected to be published this week, but the Vatican Television Center gave the details in a statement outlining its plans for coverage. The Pontiff will arrive in Havana on January 21 and will celebrate Mass in the city of Santa Clara and meet with Castro the next day. He will then say Mass in Camaguey on January 23 and in Santiago de Cuba on January 24. The trips ends on Sunday, January 25 with a Mass in Havana which Castro will attend.

       Communist-Catholic relations have been strained since Castro's 1959 revolution, shortly after which the island was declared a socialist state, some 350 Catholic schools were nationalized, more than 100 priests expelled, and freedom of worship and religious instruction limited. Religious freedoms have expanded since Castro met with the Holy Father at a World Food Summit in Rome last year.

Motor City archdiocese strongly refutes Dr. Death's claims

DETROIT ARCHDIOCESE DENIES KERVORKIAN CLAIMS

     DETROIT (CWN) - The Archdiocese of Detroit strongly condemned assisted suicide activist Jack Kevorkian's claims that he helped a woman kill herself in a Catholic church last week.

       Confronted by claims by Geoffrey Fieger, Kevorkian's attorney, that the suicide took place with the approval of "a sympathetic priest," archdiocesan spokesman Ned McGrath said: "At this time, the only source for this bizarre story is the attorney/publicity agent for Jack Kevorkian. Unless and until some credible information is brought forward, there appears to be no reason why the Archdiocese of Detroit, and, for that matter, any religious institution, should dignify or investigate such claims."

       Nadia Foldes, 74, of New York inhaled carbon monoxide Thursday at a Detroit-area church, but Fieger did not identify the church or the priest involved. Fieger insisted Friday that the death did take place in a church. "Churches have traditionally been looked upon as places of sanctuary and refuge and to think that a church would not be an appropriate place to go into the next world is nonsense," he said.

Acknowledgment:

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PROVERB OF THE DAY

"When the tempest passes, the wicked man is no more; but the just man is established forever."

Proverbs 10: 25

Medjugorje Monthly Message

October 25th Message

For all other standard features, articles and columns, click on Archives

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November 18, 1997 volume 8, no. 33         DAILY CATHOLIC


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