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Pope Encourages Prayers for Beatification Friday May 26, 2006 9:16 PM By VICTOR L. SIMPSON Associated Press Writer KRAKOW, Poland (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI encouraged prayers Friday for the beatification of his predecessor, Pope John Paul II - an eagerly awaited remark during his visit to Poland on a cause close to the hearts of many Poles. Benedict has referred to the Polish-born John Paul as a great pope, ``my beloved predecessor'' and quoted from him extensively, but Poles were awaiting word on the beatification. Some even hoped that Benedict would announce it during his four-day visit. The pope...

Benedict to Honor John Paul II in Poland Pope Benedict XVI to Visit Polish Homeland of His Predecessor, John Paul II, in 4-Day Trip By VICTOR L. SIMPSON VATICAN CITY May 24, 2006 (AP)— Pope Benedict XVI will be a man on a mission when he begins a visit to the Polish homeland of his predecessor Thursday, paying tribute to a pontiff so loved by his countrymen while pressing to keep the goals of his long papacy alive. With stops at Pope John Paul II's birthplace and his Krakow Archdiocese where millions always turned out to greet Poland's favorite son,...

SAME ROAD? China will be watching pope in Poland By Stacy Meichtry When Pope Benedict XVI travels to Poland next week, millions of Polish faithful will be watching his every move, measuring how intensely he pays homage to their national hero, the late Pope John Paul II. A continent away, however, Benedict will have another, smaller audience - China's communist leaders, who do not admire Benedict's faithfulness to his predecessor. John Paul is celebrated in Poland for sparking the country's historic challenge to Soviet communism, but his legacy haunts the government corridors of Beijing. By evoking John Paul's stand against...

New York, NY(PRWEB) May 16, 2006 -- Pave the Way Foundation, a worldwide non-Sectarian organization dedicated to promoting world peace through historic gestures of good will, has been invited by Cardinal Stanislaus Dziwisz, the Archbishop Of Krakow, to lead a delegation of Jewish leaders to Wadowice, Poland to join Pope Benedict XVI when he dedicates on May27th the town square in memory of Pope John Paul II in his native Wadowice.The Pave the Way delegation will recognize the late Pope’s efforts to reconcile relations with all religions of the world. During the ceremony in front of thousands of spectators, the...

Archbishop Raymond Burke, who previously consecrated his former Diocese of La Crosse, Wis., to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is known as one of very few bishops in the United States who has sincerely been "wide and generous" (Ecclesia Dei Adflicta, by Pope John Paul II, June 1988) in allowing all of the Classical Roman rite sacraments in his diocese. He has begun to show his benevolence toward the Classical Roman liturgy and sacraments also in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, as will be shown later in this interview. Bishop Fernando Rifan, the only traditionalist bishop in full communion with...

Saint Joseph the WorkerMemorialMay 1stSaint JosephWhat we know about the life of Saint Joseph is contained in the gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke. He has become known as the "Just man".The name foster-father of Our Lord appears in local martyrologies of the ninth and tenth centuries. The first church dedicated in his honor was in 1129 in Bologna. Pope Sixtus IV(1471-84) added the feast of Saint Joseph to the Roman Calendar. Pope Pius IX placed the whole Church under the Patronage of Saint Joseph in 1870.In 1989, Pope John Paul II reflected deeply on the life and witness...

Message of Pope John Paul II for World Migration Day, 1995-1996 "UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS" Dear Brothers and Sisters, 1. The phenomenon of migration with its complex problems challenges the international community and individual States today more than ever. The latter generally tend to intervene by tightening migration laws and reinforcing border control systems. Thus migration loses that dimension of economic, social and cultural development which it had in the past. In fact, there is less and less talk of the situation of "emigrants" in their countries of origin, and more and more of "immigrants", with respect to the problems they create...

The question of immigrants 65. In its history, America has experienced many immigrations, as waves of men and women came to its various regions in the hope of a better future. The phenomenon continues even today, especially with many people and families from Latin American countries who have moved to the northern parts of the continent, to the point where in some cases they constitute a substantial part of the population. They often bring with them a cultural and religious heritage which is rich in Christian elements. The Church is well aware of the problems created by this situation and...

THERE ARE OVER 50 MILES of secret police files at the Institute of National Remembrance (Instytut Pamieci Narodowej) in Warsaw and its branches throughout post-Communist Poland. Among other things, one can find there U.S. Army counterintelligence manuals, accounts of American leftists cozying up to the Communists, surveillance records of U.S. diplomats and visitors, including compromising pornographic material, files of CIA spies captured by the Communists, and numerous reports on "The Main Enemy": the United States of America. Most of the files, however, concern Poland and the Poles. They show how, for half a century, the Communist secret police (SB) endeavored...

What can a celibate priest really teach us about love, sexuality, and relationships between men and women? That’s the question a Polish priest, Fr. Karol Wojtyla, addressed in the introduction to his revolutionary book, Love and Responsibility. Published in 1960, this book on sexual ethics was the fruit of Fr. Wojtyla’s extensive pastoral work with young people and his philosophical reflections on this topic while serving as a priest and university professor in Krakow — long before the world would come to know him as Pope John Paul II. In Love and Responsibility, Fr. Wojtyla argues that while a...

Remembering John Paul the Great By George Weigel A year ago, the world stopped, quite literally, to honor a Polish priest and bishop who had touched hearts, minds, and souls unlike anyone else of his era. Millions poured into Rome to pay homage to Pope John Paul II. Two billion people participated in his funeral by television. In the year since his triple-casket of cypress, zinc, and walnut was buried in the crypt of St. Peter’s basilica, millions more have come to pay their respects, to leave flowers, and to pray. Why? What did John Paul II do, such that...

Ecumenical Meeting Held in Moscow Cathedral MOSCOW, APRIL 3, 2006 (Zenit.org).- An ecumenical gathering in a land he never visited remembered Pope John Paul II on the first anniversary of his death. At a Eucharistic celebration attended by members of other faiths and confessions, the Russian Catholic community on Sunday joined in the worldwide remembrance of the Polish Pontiff. The Catholic cathedral of Moscow welcomed hundreds of faithful for the event. On hand were representatives of various confessions and religions, Catholic priests of the Eastern rite, and diplomats from several countries. Images of the life of John Paul II adorned...

The JP II generation? The commemorations of the death of John Paul II re-ignited some of the atmosphere of social solidarity that Poles experienced this time last year. But is there anything deeper to these manifestations of religious fervor? Report by Michal Kubicki 03.04.06 As millions of Catholics around the world commemorated the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death, in his native Poland the nation paused for a weekend of religious services, prayers and concerts in tribute to one of the greatest figures in Polish history. The atmosphere of unity was very much reminiscent of what we witnessed...

VATICAN CITY — Tens of thousands of people clutching candles filled St. Peter's Square on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death with a prayer vigil that culminated with a blessing by the current pontiff. Polish flags fluttered in the cool evening breeze, the candles twinkled and a choir sang hymns during the vigil, which ended with the blessing by Benedict XVI at 9:37 p.m. — the moment the Polish pope died a year ago. The scene resembled that before John Paul passing, when pilgrims from around the world prayed beneath his studio apartment windows....

John Paul Home to Honor Holocaust Victims By VANESSA GERA Associated Press Writer © 2006 The Associated Press WARSAW, Poland — The home where Pope John Paul II was born and raised will soon include a memorial to Jewish Holocaust victims, the site's previous owner said Saturday. Ron Balamuth, an American who inherited the property from his Jewish grandparents, who were killed in a Nazi death camp, sold the home Wednesday to a Polish businessman. Balamuth sold the 19th-century house in Wadowice to the foundation of Ryszard Krauze on the condition that it establish a memorial to Jews killed by...

Amazing life ... thank God for John Paul II. Santo Subito!

His final illness and passing, one year ago today, shook the world. Hundreds of thousands people were compelled to go to Rome to pray for him .. to be near him .. as his illness finally extinguished the flame of his human body. He was so loving, so humble and so beloved, and is still sorely missed today. And, yet we know how blessed we were that he walked this earth in our time. His viewing and funeral were epic events. So many from all walks of life were touched by his life and grieved his passing, and were drawn...

ATLANTA, Ga. (Catholic Online) – A CNN two-hour documentary takes viewers inside the Vatican to reveal some of the untold stories of the last days of Pope John Paul II.CNN faith and values correspondent Delia Gallagher obtained access to both the Vatican and to some of those who were closest to the pope at the end of his life. Gallagher guides viewers through that life well-lived in the two-hour documentary, “CNN Presents: The Last Days of Pope John Paul II,” which will premiere Saturday, April 1, at 7 p.m. (ET) and replay at 10 p.m. that day and April 2...

POPE Benedict XVI today read what he described as a message of love and hope that Pope John Paul II had intended to deliver the day after he died. "In the divine plan it was written that he should leave us right on the vigil," Benedict said during a visit to the God Our Merciful Father Church on the outskirts of Rome. "The pope had written thus: 'To humanity, which sometimes appears lost and dominated by the power of evil and selfishness and fear, the Lord resurrected offers the gift of his love that forgives, reconciles and opens the soul...

ROME (Reuters) - Last year, Monsignor Slawomir Oder opened one of the many letters he receives from people who think Pope John Paul should be declared a saint. He felt a strange sensation. This letter was different. In it, a French nun said she had been suffering from a precocious form of Parkinson's disease but that the symptoms disappeared after she prayed to John Paul for nine days. "The letter was very simple and delicate, not triumphal," Oder recalled in his cluttered office in the Basilica of St. John Lateran as the Vatican prepares to commemorate the first anniversary of...

THE Vatican has begun moves to rehabilitate the Crusaders by sponsoring a conference at the weekend that portrays the Crusades as wars fought with the “noble aim” of regaining the Holy Land for Christianity. The Crusades are seen by many Muslims as acts of violence that have underpinned Western aggression towards the Arab world ever since. Followers of Osama bin Laden claim to be taking part in a latter-day “jihad against the Jews and Crusaders”. The late Pope John Paul II sought to achieve Muslim- Christian reconciliation by asking “pardon” for the Crusades during the 2000 Millennium celebrations. But John...

The eminently readable Peggy Noonan, best known as a columnist and contributing editor at The Wall Street Journal has penned an in-depth and fascinating biographical sketch of the late great Pope John Paul II, all in 256 pages. Noonan, the New York Times bestselling author of ‘When Character Was King’, has produced a faithful snapshot of the life and times of the last Pope of the 20th century in a format accessible to the common man who lacks the time to pour over the tens of thousands of pages in tomes detailing John Paul’s heroic story. In ‘John Paul the...

ROME (Reuters) - Pope John Paul II often played down his ailments and was reluctant to receive medical treatment, according to a book by some of his closest aides, including his personal physician. Excerpts of the book, published by Italian newspapers on Wednesday, also show the Vatican knew the late Pope had the symptoms of Parkinson's disease since 1991, but kept quiet about it for five years. The book, whose title "Let Me Go" is drawn from the pontiff's last words before dying last April 2, includes a detailed account of the Pope's medical history by his longtime doctor, Renato...

OME -- The sudden recovery of a young French nun suffering from Parkinson's disease is at the heart of the sainthood case for Pope John Paul II, the Polish priest who heads the inquiry said Monday. The Vatican needs to confirm a miracle after John Paul's death for the pontiff to be beatified, the first step toward his possible canonization. Monsignor Slawomir Oder told The Associated Press in an interview that an official inquiry into the nun's inexplicable recovery was beginning this week.

EVER since Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turkish gunman, shot the late Pope John Paul II on May 13, 1981 in St Peter’s Square in Rome, investigators have tried to solve one of the 20th century’s greatest mysteries: did Agca act alone or was he obeying communist orders? This week an Italian parliamentary commission will officially conclude that Agca was part of a huge conspiracy masterminded by the GRU, the Soviet military secret service, on the orders of the politburo and Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Communist party. The findings are already being considered by a Rome prosecutor who may...

Soviet leadership ordered John Paul II hit: Italian commission MOSCOW : Leaders of the former Soviet Union ordered the assassination bid on Pope John Paul II in 1981, the head of an Italian parliamentary commission announced. But the post-Soviet intelligence service of President Vladimir Putin immediately dismissed the allegation as an absurdity. Italian Senator Paolo Guzzanti said the findings of the commission showed "beyond all reasonable doubt" that Moscow's military secret service, the GRU, was responsible for the shooting as the late pope greeted pilgrims in St Peter's Square. The assertion, for years a favourite of conspiracy theorists in Italy,...

RUSSIA'S top-secret military intelligence service dismissed today as "absolutely absurd" accusations made by Italian politicians that Soviet agents were involved in a bid to kill Pope John Paul II. "All affirmations about any involvement of Soviet intelligence services, including the military secret service, in the attempted assassination of the pope are absolutely absurd and have nothing to do with reality," a spokesman for the service was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying. The head of an Italian parliamentary commission said earlier today that leaders of the former Soviet Union ordered the pope's assassination, leading to a foiled attempt on...

John Paul II hits Polish movie screens 02.03.2006 ‘John Paul the Second’, the American-Italian-Polish film co-production directed by John Kent Harrison is having its Polish premiere tonight in Krakow and Wadowice, the hometown of the late Pope. The first screening of the Polish version is being attended by top state, Church and political figures. Among the guests of honor are the film’s director John Kent Harrison and actor Jon Voigt who plays the title role of the Polish born Pope. Contrary to the American and Italian version, which put greater stress on John Paul as a political leader, the Polish...

Polish Pope’s closest aid to become cardinal Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, of Kraków, has been named cardinal by Pope Benedict. While the appointment is seen as a victory for the Church’s more open wing in Poland, it comes at a time when the darker aspects of the Church is coming under more and more scrutiny. Report by Michal Kubicki The Krakow archbishop is one of 15 new cardinals from five continents whose names were announced by Pope Benedict XVI. In the city of Krakow, which has traditionally had a cardinal as head of archdiocese, the nomination did not come as a...

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- Pope John Paul II contemplated the possibility of resigning but decided against it for fear of creating a "dangerous precedent for his successors." So revealed his longtime private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, to Cardinal Julián Herranz, president of the Pontifical Council for the Interpretation of Legislative Texts, on Dec. 17, 2004. Cardinal Herranz has now revealed the contents of that conversation in a book entitled "Nei Dintorni de Gerico. Ricordi degli Anni con San Josemaria & con Giovanni Paolo II" (In the Surroundings of Jericho: Memories of the Years with Saint Josemaría and John...

The Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 has been rearrested after a court ruled he should return to prison, eight days after being freed. Turkey's highest appeals court overturned the decision which allowed Mehmet Ali Agca to be released early. The ruling follows an appeal against his release by the Turkish government. Agca was jailed for bank robbery and murder committed before the attempt on the Pope's life, for which he served nearly 20 years in Italy. Agca, now 48, shot the Pope in St Peter's Square in 1981, but has never explained why. The pontiff...

ANKARA, Turkey — The man convicted of trying to assassinate Pope John Paul II and released from prison this week failed to report to police Saturday, Turkish media reported Saturday, but his lawyer insisted he was "a free person" who did not have to check in. Mehmet Ali Agca has not been seen in public since his release Thursday, and failed to show up at a police station both Friday and Saturday despite a warning that a warrant could be issued for his arrest, Turkish television networks said. Agca was released from an Istanbul prison after serving some 25 years...

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, deputy speaker of the Russian State Duma and leader of the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party has suggested that the Soviet Union and its surrogate states would have been justified to kill Pope John Paul II who, he claims, was planted in the Vatican by the CIA to wrest Poland from its pro-Soviet rulers. In an interview with a Russian radio statio, on the day the Pope's would-be assassin, Ali Agca, was released from an Istanbul jail, Zhirinovsky was asked whether the KGB, had commissioned the attack. "There is no direct evidence necessarily of a Russian connection here, but...

The release from prison of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who narrowly failed in his attempt to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, has understandably revived interest in one of the great unsolved whodunnits of the 20th century. At the time of the shooting, which took place as the Pope rode around the piazza in front of St Peter's Basilica in his Popemobile, it was initially thought that Agca had acted as a lone fanatic. He had, after all, previously written to the Pope informing him of his murderous intentions - hardly the modus operandi of the professional assassin....

MEHMET Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to kill pope John Paul II in 1981, was freed yesterday after almost 25 years behind bars, but may soon return to jail amid legal confusion over his early release. Less than six hours after Agca walked out of the high-security Kartal prison on Istanbul's Asian shore, Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said he would order a review of the case as a debate raged among jurists over whether his release was legally sound. Mr Cicek hinted that the 48-year-old Agca, who served 19 years in Italy for shooting and seriously wounding the pope...

Pope 'praying from heaven' 09/01/2006 18:41 - (SA) Warsaw - Former pope John Paul II is "praying from heaven" for Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to kill the pontiff in 1981 and who is expected to be released from jail this week, said the pope's former private secretary on Monday. Spokesperson Robert Necek said Stanslaw Dziwisz, who held the wounded pope in his arms after he had been shot, said he accepted the Turkish court's decision to release Agca. Necek said Dziwisz, who was now the archbishop of Krakow in southern Poland, "is praying for Ali Agca and...

Pope Benedict XVI may try to "save eros," in the first encyclical of his papacy, Chicago's Cardinal Francis George told the Chicago Sun-Times. George expects the new pope will try to explain that erotic love, eros, and unconditional love, agape, are both inherently good in God's eyes in his encyclical titled "Deus, Caritas Est," Latin for "God is Love." An encyclical is a pope's most authoritative document, a pastoral letter circulated to the universal church. Letter talks about Christ The cardinal has not yet seen Benedict XVI's encyclical, which is expected to be released by the Vatican within days, but...

POPE Benedict XVI bid farewell to 2005 with Vespers and a Te Deum in St Peter's Basilica, where he thanked God, "master of time and history", and said his thoughts were with "the well loved pope John Paul II" who died on April 2. Benedict succeeded John Paul as head of the Roman Catholic Church on April 19. "My thoughts go back 12 months to when, for the last time, the well loved Pope John Paul II spoke for God's people to thank the Lord for the many benefits given to the Church and humanity" during the previous year, the...

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict gave 2005 a bitter-sweet farewell on Saturday as he looked back at the year that saw him elected to lead the Catholic Church after the death in April of John Paul II. At his first "Te Deum" service of year-end thanksgiving, Benedict praised deepening dialogue with those of other faiths but he restated his concern that the traditional Christian family was in crisis. The 78-year-old German-born Pope recalled a June 6 speech in which he condemned same-sex unions as fake and expressions of "anarchic freedom" that threatened the future of the family. He had...

This is my big year-end wrap up column where I discuss what I believe were the most important people and stories of 2005. Men of the Year: Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI John Paul's historic 27 year reign at the Holy See came to an end with his death earlier this year. We were reminded of his greatness and his passion for freedom and the sanctity of life. In his younger days, the Pope showed us how to live: with vigor and courage. In his final days, he showed how a Christian should die. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger...

Code read, novel crisis looms anew 19dec05 THE Vatican, having weathered author Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code, will now be battening down the blockbuster hatches against a new novel claiming that Pope John Paul I was assassinated. John Paul I died of an apparent heart attack just 33 days after becoming Pope in 1978. But Portuguese author Luis Miguel Rocha, 29, dubbed the "new Dan Brown", says he was murdered because he was aware of money laundering involving the Vatican Bank and planned to liberalise church doctrine. Rocha says his The Last Pope is based on documents...

After eight months on the job, Pope Benedict XVI has created a charisma all his own Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 The man who would become pope benedict XVI began the year behind a desk. Granted, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger was no ordinary shuffler of Vatican papers; indeed, he had long been celebrated by Church conservatives as the architect of Pope John Paul II's doctrinal policy and vilified by progressives as the panzerkardinal who defended Catholic orthodoxy with the impenetrability of a tank. Yet Ratzinger's quotidian reality was essentially that of an exalted Catholic Church bureaucrat. Working the day shift at Church...

John Paul's sainthood opposed John Hooper in Rome Thursday December 8, 2005 The Guardian A group of prominent Roman Catholic theologians and writers has revealed it is trying to stop the late pope John Paul II being declared a saint. In a document being circulated in Rome, they say the Vatican should take account of decisions reached by the Polish pontiff "that ought to be an obstacle to [his] beatification". Following emotional scenes at the late pope's funeral, his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, set him on a fast track to beatification - the first step towards sainthood - last June....

John Paul childhood home for sale From correspondents in Warsaw December 09, 2005 THE house in southern Poland where the late pope John Paul II was born has been put on the market for $US1 million ($1.34 million) by its American Jewish owner, a press report said today. According to the Gazeta Wyborcza, the episcopate of Krakow is interested in buying the house in the nearby town of Wadowice, but finds the asking price prohibitive. "Talks are underway. There is a lot of goodwill on the part of all involved parties, including the Jewish community," Father Robert Necek of the...

I managed to arrange my schedule over the last week to watch three adults and I forget how many kids play John Paul II on the dueling docudramas from ABC and CBS.//Having read Weigel's biography, I can see how it would really take a year-long miniseries to truly capture all the drama and importance of this great man's life and teachings, but for the time allotted I must give CBS applause for an outstanding and faithful effort. *************** Unfortunately, due to the football-delayed Sunday schedule I was forced to endure what is truly one of the most grueling hours on...

The Liberalism of John Paul II Richard John Neuhaus Copyright (c) 1997 First Things 73 (May 1997): 16-21.It is no secret that when Centesimus Annus appeared in 1991 some of us viewed it not only as an important teaching moment but also as a vindication of our understanding of Catholic social doctrine. There was a great temptation to declare triumphantly, "I told you so." That temptation was not always resisted as it should have been. This contributed to a degree of polarization over the encyclical. Liberals who paid any attention at all to the document were not convinced of the...

The Pope John Paul II TV MovieDecember 1, 2005The eventful life and times of the late POPE JOHN PAUL II are coming to the small screen in an all-new, four-hour miniseries on CBS -- and ET's MARY HART goes one-on-one with star JON VOIGHT when he drops by the ET set."He had great charisma and he had great love for people in general, and a great regard for young people," Voight tells ET. "He had real faith and real fervor, and he was a man of God. He did some great things, some controversial things."Shooting in authentic locations, including the...

The inexplicable healing of a French nun could be the miracle that paves the way for beatification of Pope John Paul II. The Roman news agency I Media has learned that a French nun who was dying of cancer experienced a sudden and complete cure in October, after the members of her community prayed for the intercession of the late Pope John Paul. In accordance with Vatican rules, the identity of the nun is not being revealed, as doctors conduct a thorough study of her case. If a miracle is confirmed, it would speed the cause for the Polish Pontiff's...

A betrayal of John Paul II By George Weigel Pope John Paul II had a keen intuition about the dynamics of history in his native part of the world. In mid-1981, John Paul smelled trouble coming. When a young Polish intellectual named Krzysztof Michalski (in league with the Pope’s old friend and fellow-philosopher, Father Jozef Tischner) proposed creating an institute in Vienna that would provide a meeting place for scholars from both sides of the Iron Curtain, John Paul heartily endorsed the idea, wanting Polish intellectuals to have a lifeline to the West when the storm he sensed brewing finally...

It was early morning in the Vatican, July 2, 2003, a brilliant morning in the middle of the worst Roman heat wave in a century. The city was quiet, the streets soft with the heat. It was the summer of the dress code battle between the tourists and the guards at St. Peter's Basilica. The tourists wanted to wear shorts and halter tops; this was in violation of the Vatican dress code (slacks, shirts with sleeves), and the guards wouldn't let them in. There were arguments at the entrance, and angry words. Soon a Roman compromise was achieved: No one...