As I rode the overnight train to Kazan, I remembered that St. Basil’s Cathedral, on the edge of Red Square, the last thing I saw as I was leaving Moscow, was built to commemorate the victory of Ivan the Terrible over the Tartars of Kazan in the mid-1500s — more or less the symbolic moment when Russia became a significant power in the world.

It takes 12 and a half hours by train from Moscow to Kazan, about 600 miles almost due east — halfway to the Ural mountains.

So, if we take the Ural mountains to be the eastern border of Europe, Kazan is hundreds of miles inside Europe.

But Kazan, on the Volga River, is also the gateway to Asia, and to the Middle East.

As we hurtled through the night, the forests of white birches passing by my window in a blur, illuminated by a light carpet of November snow , I thought about the special character of Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan.

Here begin the "-stan" countries — beyond Tartarstan is Kazahkstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan… countries which are part of the Muslim world. And Kazan reflects that, as half of its population is Tartar Muslim.

Here also was imperial Russia’s launching point for the conquest of Asiatic Russia, all of Siberia beyond the Urals — a conquest that made Russia the largest country in the world, more than twice the size of the United States.

And the city of Kazan reflects this dual character. Orthodox Russians make up half the population, and Kazan’s Kremlin, or fortress, contains the beautiful Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption, but just next to the Kremlin, using money from Saudi Arabia, as I was told, the Muslim community has built a splendid mosque, even larger than the cathedral.

This is the first glimpse of Kazan I catch at dawn as the train pulls into the city: the mosque, with its minarets, and the domes of the cathedral, side by side.

But the fascinating thing about Kazan is that it is known throughout the world as a city of tolerant coexistence. There is no evident tension whatsoever between the Muslims and the Christians in this city.

And this, I think, is part of the mystery of the icon of Kazan…

A Miraculous Icon of Our Lady

I have been here before, most recently in the spring of 2008 with the saintly Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman, Marquese Immacolata Solaro del Borgo , famous for helping organize medical assistance for the children of Chernobyl, Ukraine, made ill by radiation exposure after a nuclear power plant meltdown in 1986.

Immacolata, whose family has inherited a number of saints’ relics, brought a tiny piece of the robe of Mary from Italy to Kazan, in witness of her love of the Russian people and the Russian Orthodox Church.

There is a tiny Catholic community in Kazan of about 300 souls, led by Father Diogenes , 42, a native of Argentina. He meets us at the train station and takes us for breakfast to Giuseppe’s, an Italian restaurant and cafe in the heart of the city.

"I’m so happy you could come to Kazan," Father Diogenes says. "There’s a lot happening here." He has been here since 1995.

The Catholic parish is flourishing, he tells us. Most of the Catholics are foreigners working in Kazan, or students from Africa and Asia studying at the University of Kazan. Relations with the city government, which is in Muslim hands, are good, he said. "They built out new church for us," he said. "I don’t know the cost, but it was said to be about 3 million euros." Relations with the Russian Orthodox are also ery good," he said. "We will go visit with Bishop Anastasi this afternoon.

At 11 am, we go to Mass. About 100 people are in attendance. It is in Russian. Father Diogenes preaches on the last things, and tells the faithful they should concentrate less on fears about the chastisements which will accompany the end of the world, and more on the coming of the Lord. "Maranatha ," he tells us. "Come, Lord Jesus."

One of the young nuns in the parish — Father Diogenes comes from a new 200-member Argentine-based missionary order called the Order of the Incarnate Word, which also has an order of sisters — seems to radiate joy.

"What is your name, and who are you?" I ask.

My name is Sister Joy of God," she tells me (photo, with Daniel Scmidt ). "I am a Russian from Kazan."

"And you were not Russian Orthodox?" I ask.

"No," she said. "I was nothing… My parents were atheists."

I remember the icon I saw the first night, at midnight, in Archbishop Hilarion Alefeyev’s church — the icon of Our Lady, Joy of All Who Sorrow.

This nun seems like a living incarnation of the message of that icon.

"Let’s go to see the icon," says Father Diogenes. "Dmitri and Maxim are waiting for us there…"

The icon we are going to see is the icon of Our Lady of Kazan.

It is the icon which was kept by Pope John Paul II in his own apartment for 11 years, from 1993 to 2004. I personally saw it there, when don Stanislaw Dziwisz , the Pope’s personal secretary, now Cardinal Dziwisz of Cracow, invited me once up to the papal apartment to see it.

It’s a serious question, just as serious as saying what do we mean by other words, like rain, or snow, or sunsets, or matter, or energy, or money, or life itself…

For a Christian, for a Catholic, the word “holy” has a central importance; that we know, even if we are at pains to give it a meaning.

The word “holy” is connected with God, with the nature of God, this we know — in the “Our Father,” which was the prayer Jesus himself taught us, the third phrase is “hallowed be the name” or “thy name be made holy” or perhaps even “your name is ‘HOLY’.”

Someone may contradict me, but it seems to me that this is near to the truth: that God’s “name” is to be regarded as holy, and, in fact, is “holy.”

So holiness is a quality of divinity, or the essence of divinity, or the nature of divinity. Which is a way of saying that holiness is something important, something truly real, not a dream, or a vision, but a reality connected to the eternal, and not just a word we use in this passing, temporal world.

====================

The odd thing about Padre Pio is that we find it almost redundant to call him “St. Padre Pio.”

“Padre Pio” by itself seems sufficient… By this I mean that the fame of sanctity of Padre Pio, who died in 1968 and was canonized on May 2, 1999 — 10 years ago — was so great, that his reputation for being close to God was so great, that to say “Padre Pio” was already to say “St. Padre Pio.”

Yesterday, on the turning point between spring and summer, Pope Benedict XVI went from Rome across Italy to the little town of San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre Pio, St. Padre Pio, lived, died and is buried.

What was the essence of Benedict’s message?

That St. Padre Pio’s devotion to the Church’s sacraments, thos mysteries of holiness we call the Eucharist and Confession, made him a model for all priests.

The Pope, who has just inaugurated the “Year of the Priest,” urged priests around the world to look to St. Padre Pio during this Year for Priests.

Confession, which has become much less common in recent years, whould be renewed in our time, Benedict added (Padre Pio spent many hours each day in hearing confession).

“The sacrament of penance must be valued more highly and priests must never resign themselves to seeing their confessionals deserted, nor limit themselves to noting the faithful’s lack of appreciation for this source of serenity and peace,” the Pope said.

Benedict also noted that Padre Pio fought continually against sin, evil, Satan. His wasn’t a life of just sweetness and light.

“As it was for Jesus, the true battle, the radical combat Padre Pio had to sustain was not against earthly enemies, but against the spirit of evil,” Pope Benedict said. “The greatest storms that threatened him were the assaults of the devil, which he defended himself against with the armor of God, the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

When the Director of the Vatican newspaper, Gian Maria Vian, declared a few weeks ago that “Obama is not a pro-abortion president,” a comment that came after an editorial which on balance spoke positively of the US President’s first 100 days, ire was raised across the Atlantic.

Many US Vatican commentators roundly reviled him as a lone, liberal voice, un-representative of “real” Vatican thinking, ignorant of US politics, in charge of a paper that is not taken seriously at the Vatican. He was even called a traitor and pro-abortion.

US commentators may take umbrage with what he says, but they are wrong to discredit him. American Catholics who wish to understand the sometimes vastly different Vatican view of things would do well to know more about Vian and why he said what he did.

Gian Maria Vian is firmly ensconced in the Vatican inner-circle: he was personally tapped by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State, and the Pope’s trusted right-hand man, for the job as Editor-in-Chief. He has known and worked with Bertone for 25 years.

His family have been close collaborators with Popes for over a century: Pope Benedict XVI called the Vian family “illustrious…with a great tradition of faithful service to the Holy See.”

Vian’s grandfather, Agostino, wrote for L’Osservatore Romano and was married in 1903 by Pius X, then Patriarch of Venice. His father, Nello, also a contributor to the paper, was chief Vatican librarian and close friend of Paul VI; Gian Maria was baptized by Paul VI in St. Peter’s Basilica.

He has not dropped in from left-field.

Since taking the helm of L’Osservatore Romano in October 2007, he has been widely praised in Italy for renewing the paper, transforming it from an un-read chronicle to a sure place for eye-catching and original articles: ask any Vatican journalist and they will tell you that they now read the paper to get their stories.

Just last Wednesday, I attended the book launch of Vian’s new volume, In Defense of Pius XII, (not yet published in English) where the former editor of Italy’s conservative daily, Corriere della Sera, lauded L’Osservatore Romano under Gian Maria’s leadership. Sitting next to Vian, in the front row, was Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.

All this is not to say that Vian’s views are those of the Secretary of State or the Pope. His statement is an “unofficial” view; and sometimes for an organization with diplomatic responsibilities, an unofficial view is convenient. Diplomats in Rome read L’Osservatore precisely because they know it reflects Vatican thinking at the highest levels.

In my analysis, Vian’s statement and the L’Osservatore Romano’s appraisal of the Obama presidency so far, may be the Vatican’s unofficial way of “raising the bar” for the new American president who is expected to visit the Pope in July. What better way to receive the man who will have great power over important issues than in a climate of confident expectation, rather than condemnation? Even if “they” did not say it, they may not mind that it has been said.

Interview with Giovanni Maria Vian
Editor-in-Chief, L’Osservatore Romano
June 13, 2009

“I don’t think one can ask for a condemnation or a benediction a priori”

You were quoted as saying, “It is my clear conviction:  Obama is not a pro-abortion president.” On what basis do you hold this conviction?
Gian Maria Vian: I made that statement in an interview to an Italian journalist of “Il Riformista” who called me on the day the President was at Notre Dame for the controversial ceremony of the conferring of the law degree honoris causa. I was in Barcelona; I gave the interview over the phone and based my observation primarily on the speech President Obama gave on that occasion. A speech which demonstrated openness. In this sense, I said that he didn’t seem a pro-abortion president.

What do you mean?
Vian: He considered abortion, at least in his speech at Notre Dame, as something to prevent and above all, he said, we must proceed in the attempt to widen the consensus as much as possible because he realizes that it is a very delicate issue.
Of course, Senator Obama made decisions that certainly cannot be defined as pro-life, to use the American term. He was rather pro-choice. Yet I believe that the Senator’s activity prior to his presidential election is one thing, and the political line he is following as President of the United States is another.
We have noticed that his entire program prior to his election was more radical than it is revealing itself to be now that he is president. So this is what I meant when I said he didn’t sound like a pro-abortion president. Besides, he stated that the Freedom of Choice Act is no longer a top priority of the Administration.
Naturally, it is also a sort of wishful thinking. Let’s hope that my conviction is confirmed by the political actions of the administration. This is basically the same attitude of watching, waiting and hope of the Catholic bishops of the United States.

Did you hear from the Pope or the Secretary of State about your comment that Obama is not a pro-abortion president?
Vian: No. It was an interview on the fly. As usual, I didn’t ask permission from either the Secretariat of State or the Pope.  It was an impression that I communicated based on the speech he had just given. President Obama said we should try to confront this question without too much division, that it is a tragedy, a frightening drama, let’s look for common ground – I think his words should be appreciated.

Some would say they are only words and it is his voting record and actions which speak more loudly.

I admit that it is legitimate to be diffident in the face of the words of a President who previously has demonstrated a pro-choice line, but I hope that he changes. I hope that he understands that a politics of pro-life is good politics, not because it is religious, not because it is Catholic, but because it is human. This is what the Church repeatedly says, and in particular Pope Benedict XVI. The appeal to natural law is important because it is not based on religious principles, it is based on human principles which can be agreed on by all.

So you were fully aware of the record of the Senator, the criticisms of the US bishops and the political situation in the US?
Vian: When we published the infamous article on the first 100 days, we wrote that the moderation that President Obama had so far demonstrated compared to what was expected in no way eliminated the reasons for criticism that the US Bishops Conference expressed many times.
So mine was not an ingenuous statement. I must say that it was an interview which mirrored my personal point of view and that what is more important is what is published in L’Osservatore Romano. The editorial line of the paper is above all reflected by what is published in the paper, but the two things aren’t that far apart.
I realize that Obama is much more pro-choice than McCain, who was his adversary, but Obama won and let’s hope that that his actions on these themes are less radical than they have been before the elections. At least that is the case so far.

On the article judging President Obama’s first 100 days did you hear any reaction from the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Bertone?
Vian: No. Naturally we spoke about it because it created a lot of noise but he did not say that it was an article that wasn’t right or should not have been printed.
The article on the first 100 days was written by the head of international news, Dr. Giuseppe Fiorentino. I reviewed it and added some things on the ethical questions saying, again, that this greater moderation shown by the President compared to the propaganda of then-Senator Obama does not mitigate criticism, especially in the field of bio-engineering, the use of embryonic stem cells and in general with respect to ethical questions. That he is more moderate than expected does not mean that there is approval, obviously, on the part of the Holy See, or of its newspaper.
On the ethical question, Michael Novak accused me in the Italian paper, Liberal, of actually being pro-abortion. Given the fact that Novak has come to visit us at the paper and was very kind and said he would be happy to write for us and is besides a gentleman, I responded to his article in a very cordial manner saying that such an accusation towards the newspaper of the Pope, that it is a pro-abortion paper, makes me smile, so as not to say in a more crude manner that it is ridiculous.

Should a reader interpret the editorial line of the newspaper to be also that of the Pope and the Secretariat of State?
Vian: Well, we need to distinguish something here. The paper is not official: it is not the expression, in every single part, of the point of view of the Vatican, that is, of the Secretariat of State. But it is obvious that it is an authoritative point of view of the Holy See, because ours is the only newspaper of the Holy See and has a century and a half of history. We were started during the American Civil War. That finished in 1865 and we were started in 1861. It’s a paper with a very long history and it has always been rightly interpreted as the expression of the thought of the Holy See, without a doubt, but that is not to say that every word that comes out in the paper is exactly the thought of the Pope or the Secretary of State.

But the average reader would assume that he will find in the Vatican’s newspaper an editorial line that is in agreement with the Pope…
Vian: Let’s say that L’Osservatore Romano expresses a line generally in agreement with the Holy See. This is obvious because the paper is owned by the Holy See. My editor, in the Italian sense of the owner of the paper, is the Pope, via the Secretariat of State. I could not possibly create a paper in disagreement with the owner, just like no newspaper director could create a paper in dissension with the owner. If I ran the newspaper like that, I would have already been fired.

Do you receive regular feedback from Cardinal Bertone or the Pope on articles that you publish?

Vian: I am here since the fall of 2007 and I have never had a problem. The Pope and the Secretary of State have so far given me and the newspaper their full confidence.
I know the paper very well: my grandfather wrote for this  paper, my father wrote for this paper, my brother wrote for this paper and I wrote for this paper from 1977 until 1987 and then 20 years later I’ve come back as director. I knew the paper very well, it was the newspaper that arrived at home every day when I was a child.
I did not imagine I would find the autonomy that I have found here. Sure, we have made mistakes. But I jokingly say that it’s my editor, the owner, who is infallible, not me, not us.
We make mistakes, but so far not the Pope, the Secretary of State or anyone in the Secretariat of State has ever said, ‘You’ve made a serious error.’
They are happy that we do our job and we our happy that they do their jobs.
We work in autonomy except in a few areas of particular interest on international questions and then we work in close collaboration with the Secretariat of State.

What are those areas?
Vian: Nuclear themes, disarmament, Iran for example, Korea, but especially Iran. In general, near and middle East is a sensitive area. Then there is China. On these international themes we are in constant contact with the Secretariat of State.

Does that mean they review your articles, make suggestions?

Vian: We send them the articles, but only on those international themes. And I must say that it’s very rare that they tell us no, you can’t publish this because although I’m new, my journalists know their work very well. Apart from that, they send us the texts of the Pope and there is really nothing else, to tell the truth.
I decide the editorial line of the paper which I evaluate together with the heads of the paper’s departments: Vatican, international, cultural and religious information news.

So the Pope does not intervene directly?

Vian: The first request of the Pope was: more room for international news, more attention to the Eastern Christians, Catholics such as  the Maronites and the Melchites, but also the Orthodox Churches, and more space for women.

What did the Pope mean by “more space for women”?

Vian: The Pope wishes to highlight as much as possible the role of women in the Church and in the Roman Curia, some even said that he had wanted a woman as director of L’Osservatore Romano, which has always been directed by lay people.
I interpreted his request of more space for women as indicating both a desire to increase the number of women working at the paper, about a quarter of our staff are women, and I hired the first full-time woman journalist in the history of the paper, as well as giving more space to stories and issues about women. On bioethical issues, particularly abortion, I prefer that we have a woman write the story.
Our interview with Mary Ann Glendon, then US Ambassador to the Holy See, was conducted by a woman, Prof. Lucetta Scaraffia, and published on the front page of the paper with a full color photo of the two.

Mary Ann Glendon declined to receive an award and speak at Notre Dame, to protest the Obama invitation and support the bishops…
Vian: It was a brave choice and I have the greatest respect for it and for Mary Ann Glendon. She is a well-respected intellectual and a courageous woman who was a very good American ambassador to the Holy See.

Do you think your editorial line could be seen as undercutting the US Bishops?

Vian: No. In our international religious news we systematically support the position of the US bishops. I said very clearly that to consider L’Osservatore Romano as distant or not supportive of the US bishops’ conference is false, it is a game played by those who want only to use our paper to paint a picture of divided Catholics.
Unfortunately, L’Osservatore Romano is mis-used by everyone for their own agenda: the theo-cons, the neo-cons use it for their purposes, liberals try to use it to say the Vatican is distancing itself from the bishops. This is unacceptable; it has never happened and I deny that accusation most fervently. L’Osservatore Romano has never distanced itself from the bishops. In fact, after the comments which appeared primarily on the Internet from the US, we re-iterated that the paper is absolutely at the side of the American bishops and that their position cannot be considered a political stance.

What do you mean by a political stance?

Vian: Well they say that the conference, or at least the presidency of the US bishops’ conference has a conservative Republican line – no. On questions such as the defense of life the bishops speak in the same way to Republicans as they do to Democrats.

But you have said that Obama is not a pro-abortion president which is not the position of many US bishops…
Vian: I don’t know the opinion of all of the American bishops but we have collaborators in the US and I am in contact with the English section of the Secretariat of State and also have personal contact with some American bishops.

Have you heard from any of the bishops on this topic?

Vian: Recently and directly, no. I learned indirectly of the reactions of cardinals and bishops in the United States and their opinions are very varied. Besides, in politics, there are no dogmas; there are no dogmas of faith.

What do you mean by no dogmas in politics?

Vian: A Catholic can vote Republican or Democrat. In fact, there were Catholics who voted Democratic.

But if a Catholic in good conscience should not vote for a candidate who supports abortion, often they can only choose the Republican…
Vian: In fact, the paper has never taken political positions, not in Italy, Spain nor in the US, also because the Holy See has diplomatic relations with countries and therefore institutional relationships with different states outside of particular administrations so it would be absurd if the Holy See were to support Republicans rather than Democrats.

Some US Catholics feel that the Vatican, predominately European, does not understand their particular situation. That there is a more liberal, leftist, socialist European culture here which influences the way you see the US...
Vian: I respect this point of view. Naturally any American who is versed in politics will be more prepared than I am on the topic. I am European, Italian and have a cultural formation obviously different from an American but this does not equal a liberal point of view, in the American meaning of liberal. Or a socialist point of view. I don’t recognize myself in this description.
There is a problem between Europe and America, this is true. Pope Benedict says that the US has much to teach Europe because they give  public space to religion that is not invasive but democratic, respectful of all opinions. On his pastoral visit to the US, the Pope cited a beautiful distinction of the United States. He said that the United States is a secular country for love of religion. I second that sentiment entirely. I, too, believe Europeans must learn from the US how to be more open to a serious consideration of religion and its public consequences.
At the same time, Americans should not assume that everything that comes from Europe is leftist and should be ignored.
I have always had great respect and admiration for America, perhaps also because my father studied, in the early 30s, Library Science at Ann Arbor University, Michigan, sent by the Vatican Library, and always had great memories of his time there. I have always enjoyed American Catholics because they offer a new point of view, younger and very useful sometimes for the whole Church.

How much do you think your thinking about President Obama represents the thinking at the Vatican?
Vian: I don’t think Obama has yet defined a precise line on certain questions. Of course his decisions on international help for reproductive health are dangerous because they could signify supporting the campaign in favor of abortion, which is unacceptable. Were this to be confirmed, it would be unacceptable. But I don’t think one can ask for a condemnation or a benediction a priori. We need to see day by day what happens. At L’Osservatore Romano we are doing that;  waiting and seeing and we hope that the wishes of the bishops find confirmation and we hope that Obama does not follow pro-choice politics not because we want him to follow Catholic politics but because we hope and want Obama to guide politics at the service of the weakest and the weakest are the unborn, the embryos.

And the fact that he has not done so as Senator…
Vian: I thought that – and Dr. Fiorentino too – McCain would win. I was impressed by McCain’s fair-play attitude in conceding the election, when he said: Obama is also my President. I met former President Bush when I came with the Pope to the White House and I thought he was very likeable. I think Bush was very courageous in his politics from many points of view, of course with errors that he has admitted, but I believe history will re-evaluate him. But Obama is now President of the United States. He is President of the United States! Let’s hope his politics are good and if not, we will criticize him.
It is not the job of the director of L’Osservatore Romano to conduct the foreign affairs of the Holy See. I just do the newspaper and try to do it as best I can, in a balanced way. I try to correctly inform my readers on the present administration, as I did with the previous one. If the present administration makes morally inadmissable choices, we will report it as such by reporting the criticism of the administration that the US bishops make.

Some say the newspaper isn’t taken very seriously at the Vatican…

Vian: L’Osservatore Romano counts here and I hope that it will continue to count and become even more important.
I have said that there has been a misunderstanding because people don’t read the L’Osservatore Romano, which I understand because it’s in Italian. Unfortunately we don’t have the money to translate every single article into English.
I think that if American Catholics could read the L’Osservatore Romano every day, and did not trust wire reports, although some of the agency writers are very good, but getting information from bloggers is like going to the bar where every one has their own opinion. But debate is good. I’m happy that the L’Osservatore Romano is being talked about.

Pope Benedict XVI one year ago ago called an American, Archbishop Raymond Burke , to head the Apostolic Signatura, the office which oversees the correct administration of justice in the Church. Here, after one year at his post, Burke discusses his work in Rome, but also the controversial shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe he established in Wisconsin, and President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.

Editor’s note: Archbishop Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, recently invited Andrew Rabel, Australian ITV correspondent, to a friendly lunch nearby his offices at the Palazzo della Cancelleria. Never to be outdone, Andrew always carries his dictaphone with him. So the former archbishop of St Louis, with his typical graciousness, consented to an interview, despite the noise in the crowded restaurant. It is the second interview ITV has conducted with His Excellency in less than a year.

Interview

"It is through our union with the heart of Mary, that she brings us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." —Archbishop Raymond Burke

Pope Benedict is continuing the tradition of his predecessors, John Paul II and Paul VI, in being a pilgrim Pope, as shown by his recent trip to the Holy Land.  Do you feel he is reaching the people just like John Paul did?
Archbishop Raymond Burke : Very much so. Surely Pope Benedict is of a different personality. He is a more reserved person than John Paul II, who seemed to thrive on contact with many people. But Pope Benedict reaches people in a similar way. I would like to cite two examples.
On his visit to the United States in April of 2008, which the media had predicted would be a disaster, he won the hearts of the American people, even the critical media personnel. Some were overcome with emotion because they could not fail to perceive his holiness, the beautiful paternity of the Pope for the whole world.
My second example is the Wednesday audiences. Many people thought that, with the death of Pope John Paul II, the numbers attending them would drop. But the fact of the matter is that they have only increased. People are uplifted attending them, not because he is teaching anything that is innovative, but he is so good at being a teacher of the faith.

Since taking over the helm of the Apostolic Signatura last year, can you explain what your work in this dicastery has been like?
Burke : The Apostolic Signatura has several areas of responsibility which I will describe.
(1) It treats certain matters regarding the Roman Rota, for example, a complaint of nullity against a definitive decision of the Roman Rota, or a recourse against the denied new examination of a case, or an exception of suspicion against a Rotal judge. In this area, the Apostolic Signatura also handles conflicts of competence between tribunals which are not subject to the same tribunal of appeal. The amount of activity in this area of responsibility is somewhat limited.
(2) As the Church’s only administrative tribunal, the Apostolic Signatura handles recourses against individual administrative acts taken by the offices of the Roman Curia or approved by them. Normally, the recourses are against an administrative act of a Bishop or other administrative authority in the Church, which an office of the Roman Curia has approved. The administrative recourse before the Apostolic Signatura must contend that the Church’s law was violated either in the deciding of the act or in the procedure by which the act was made. For example, the Apostolic Signatura has handled recourses involving the suppression of a parish or the dismissal of a religious from his or her institute, or the alienation of temporal goods of a diocese or institute of consecrated life. There is a large volume of activity in this area of responsibility.
(3) The Apostolic Signatura also serves as a kind of department of justice for the Church, in the sense that it has the responsibility of overseeing the correct administration of justice in the Church. The supervision of the tribunals of the universal Church clearly constitutes a great deal of work. There is always more that could be done. Apart from responding to questions regarding officials or advocates of the tribunals, it also responds to petitions of a dispensation from the academic title required for various tribunal offices or of the extension of the competence of a tribunal.
(4) Finally, the Apostolic Signatura fulfills certain responsibilities given to it through concordats between the Holy See and certain nations, for example, the examination of declarations of nullity of marriage for which effects in civil law are sought. There is a steady amount of activity in this area.

In August 2008, you dedicated the church of the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at La Crosse, Wisconsin, where you were bishop for several years, before being transferred to St. Louis, and then Rome. Did your decision as bishop of La Crosse to erect a shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe have any connection to the unapproved Marian cult at Necedah, also in Wisconsin?
Burke : Interestingly, the town of Necedah is in the same diocese, that of La Crosse, and when I was made the bishop there, I saw that as late as 1995, pilgrims were still going there, long after the death of the alleged seer, Mrs. Mary Ann Van Hoof.
I judged that one of the reasons why unapproved seers like Mrs. Van Hoof gained so much power was the failure to promote fully authentic Marian devotion. I was inspired to found the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe, first of all, as a means of fostering genuine Marian devotion in the Church. In that way, I wanted also provide a place of true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Diocese of La Crosse.  The devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has a long history and belongs especially to the continent of America, but it is not as well known in North America as it is in Central and South America. The devotion speaks especially to the apostolate of the respect for human life. Our Lady of Guadalupe is, therefore, more recently and rightly known as the Mother of the Unborn. Her intercession on behalf of all human life was a particular inspiration to me in founding her shrine at La Crosse.
One of the things which struck me as a newly ordained priest and has continued to strike me throughout my entire life as a priest and a bishop is simply the radical decline of the devotional life in general. We know that our faith in the Sacraments needs to have ways to express itself in our everyday living, and at times when we are not, for instance, participating in the Holy Mass or praying before the Most Blessed Sacrament.
Devotions provide precisely very concrete ways to express our love of Christ, of the Blessed Mother and of the saints in our homes and places of work, throughout the day. When I was named a Bishop, I understood that I needed to do something to renew the devotional life. Being Bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse, in which there was a false shrine to the Blessed Mother, it seemed particularly fitting to establish a Marian shrine.
I thought that Our Lord wanted very much an authentic devotional life, and seemingly He has blessed the work of the Shrine.

It has not been easy to establish and develop the Shrine, and there is still more to do. There has been, for example, a fair amount of negative reaction from people who erroneously think that the Second Vatican Council wanted to do away with all devotions and who were of a mind that devotional life was not important.

Then there have been others who objected to it because they said that the money which has been used for the Shrine should instead haven been given to the poor.

These have been the objections which have been raised, but through it all Our Lord has sustained the work.

Now that President Obama has completed the visit to Notre Dame, and delivered his address, what lessons can be learnt from the event?
Burke : We all have witnessed the compromise and, indeed, betrayal of the Catholic identity of Notre Dame University. Thoughtful Catholics cannot help but reflect upon the great danger for a Catholic institution in pursuing a kind of prestige in the secular world, which leads to a betrayal of the sacred aspect of its work, namely the fidelity to Christ and His teaching.
So I think everybody now realizes the gravity of the situation. Also I believe that the whole situation has sensitized more people with regard to the gravity of the practice of procured abortion in our nation, that is, they realize even more how far we have gone away from God’s will for human life. That the premiere Catholic university in the United States would give an honorary doctorate of law to one of the most aggressive pro-abortion politicians in our history is profoundly shocking.
Now, we cannot forget what has happened at Notre Dame. We need to take the measures that are necessary so that this is not repeated in other places. If it could happen at Notre Dame, where else could it happen?
We have to give witness to the Gospel of Life in a way that people can receive it. Bishop John D’Arcy of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, the diocese in which Notre Dame University is located, has given a very powerful witness. He knows the good things that are happening at Notre Dame, for example, a very strong participation in sacramental life among the students, daily Mass, regular confession and so forth.  As a Bishop, he wants to save these good things, while at the same time correcting what is gravely wrong.
I have friends who are professors or students at the university who tell me that there are a great number of the students are very devout in their practice of the Catholic faith, and strive in every way to live their faith and grow in it. We certainly want to save that and promote it.

Why did you take umbrage at the conduct of Mr. Randall Terry of Operation Rescue in playing at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, an interview he videotaped of you on a visit to Rome?

Burke : The only thing I would say is what I said it in a public statement which I made after I became aware of how Mr. Terry used the video. I think it bears repeating that I consented to the video as a means of encouragement of people who are involved in prolife work.

I thought that Mr. Terry was making the little home video to show it to his prolife workers at one of their meetings. But in no way did I understand that it was it to be used to criticize my brother bishops. That is the part I consider reprehensible. I stand by everything I said in the video, but when you put the two things together, that is, his public criticism of two bishops at a press conference during which he also played the video, one could not help but think I was joining him in criticizing these bishops. That was gravely wrong.

Recently you participated in an ordination to the priesthood of some Franciscans of the Immaculate at Tarquinia, north of Rome, according to the extraordinary form of the Roman Rite (the old rite). It is not very often that one sees a senior Churchman celebrating so solemn a ceremony according to the extraordinary form. What was your reason for doing this?

Burke : First of all, I have celebrated a number of priesthood ordinations according to the extraordinary form. One very beautiful one took place in Saint Louis in June of 2007, on the feast of the Sacred Heart.  When the Friars of the Immaculate requested that I celebrate the ordinations according to the extraordinary form, I was happy to accept because I have known them for a long time, and they staff the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe at La Crosse.
To put it another way, I have never tried to downplay or hide in any way my strong support of what Pope Benedict XVI has asked the Church to do in Summorum Pontificum , and what his predecessor, the servant of God John Paul II asked us to do in Ecclesia Dei adflicta , but rather to accept their liturgical direction fully and wholeheartedly.

In responding to a request like this from the Franciscans of the Immaculate, do you have any sympathy with the Kolbean Marian theology which is their charism, and its current manifestation, in pushing for a final Marian dogma of Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix?
Burke : I certainly am very sympathetic to the Kolbean theology by which I have been enriched for many years. The first papal ceremony that I ever attended, as a first-year seminarian at the Pontifical North American College, was the beatification of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and I have had the blessing over the years to get to know his writings and to visit the sacred places of his heroic life and death in Poland. I am certainly very steeped in the whole spirituality of the Immaculate Heart of Mary as the way to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is through our union of heart with Mary, and our striving to imitate her, that is, our making our hearts like hers, that she brings us to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
With regard to the fifth Marian dogma as it is often called, for my part, I believe it to be part of the ordinary teaching of the Church. Although I have no special competence in the area, I certainly am supportive of such a declaration. The teaching is part of my faith.

Some devotees of Our Lady of America, are rather critical of the letter you wrote when you were Archbishop of St. Louis, claiming that the devotion had now been approved.  They say that because Sister Mary Ephrem Neuzil (the seer who initiated and encouraged this devotion until her death in the year 2000) came from Ohio, it was not within your authority to write the letter?
Burke : I was simply asked to give a canonical opinion as to whether the devotion had ever been properly recognized. It was perfectly proper to ask me to write the letter because I have a certain knowledge of canon law and was provided all of the necessary documentation to reach a conclusion about the question of the approval of the devotion. After studying the documentation, I was able to write the letter. The letter was sent to my brother Bishops in the United States; it was not written to a wide audience. Before sending the letter, I sent a draft of it to the Archbishop of Cincinnati and the Bishop of Toledo, in whose jurisdiction Sister Mary Ephrem lived a good part of her religious life.
So what the letter simply says is that, yes, Archbishop Paul Leibold [a previous archbishop of Cincinnati] knew of this devotion from its beginning, when he was a priest, and eventually approved it.
I am sad there are these divisions in regard to the devotion, because I think it is a very beautiful devotion and especially fitting for our time. Our Lady’s message on the living of the Holy Trinity within us, and its manifestation in the purity of the young is so much needed in our culture, today.
I was not in a position to approve anything. You can criticize me for many things, but what I did in writing the letter was correct.

Well because of the position you have now in Rome, can you expedite Mary’s request to have the statue of Our Lady of America enshrined at the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Washington DC?
Burke : No, there is nothing I can do here. That decision entirely rests with the competent bishops in the United States.

Editor’s note: From time to time, Inside the Vatican publishes interviews with key figures in Rome, both in and out of the Roman Curia.

Some of these figures are in the large diplomatic community in Rome, for the "Eternal City" remains a great world "listening post," so much so that many countries have decided it makes sense to send an experienced and senior public figure to Rome to represent the views of the country’s government to the Holy See, but also to the other members of the world’s diplomatic community in the city.

This month, we publish a brief interview with a man who represents this reality quite well: Ambassador Tim Fischer, former deputy Prime Minister of Australia, now Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See. The interview was conducted by Andrew Rabel, himself an Australian, who writes on Australian affairs, and other important matters, for Inside the Vatican.

Mr Tim Fischer , former head of Australia’s National Party and Deputy Prime Minister in the Howard Government from 1996 to 1999, is the first resident Australian Ambassador to the Holy See ever .

Australia has had diplomatic ties with the Vatican since 1973, and is now one of 177 sovereign states which has formal relations with the Holy See.

But, until Fischer’s appointment last year, the Australian ambassador to the Holy See (not to be confused wth the Australian ambassador to Italy ), was the ambassador to Ireland, who also cared for the Vatican post (career diplomat Anne Plunkett last carried out that double function).

Fischer was appointed by Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd to represent Australia in Rome on July 21, 2008 — the last day of Pope Benedict XVI ‘s visit to Australia for World Youth Day.

Austrialia’s Foreign minister, Stephen Smith , when Fischer’s appointment was announced, said that it was "the right time" to appoint a resident ambassador to the Vatican.

"The Prime Minister and I came to the conclusion in the run-up to World Youth Day that having established diplomatic relations (with the Vatican) in 1973, that given there are another 69 countries that have another ambassador in residence … that it was appropriate that we become the 70th," Smith told reporters.

"The Vatican do not accept the ambassador to Italy as an ambassador to the Vatican — they are separate states.

"Our ambassador in Rome has plenty to do with our Italian relations. We came to the conclusion that it was appropriate at this point in the cycle to have a fully fledged ambassador in residence.

"(The Vatican) has significant interests and significant influence, and size is not often the best qualitative judge of the influence that a particular state… or interest might bring to bear.”

Fischer, 63, is married. He and his wife Judy have two sons, Harrison and Dominic.

Fischer is well known for his love of trains, and his love for the Himalayan nation of Bhutan, having been once chairman of the Australian-Bhutan association.

Now, in his first extensive interview since taking the post on February 13 in the presence of the Holy Father (on which occasion the Holy Father showed great compassion for Australians suffering from the terrible bushfires in those days), Mr Fischer talks about his mission — and the effect working in Rome has had on him spiritually.

Fischer spoke with Australian Inside the Vatican correspondent Andrew Rabel , who met with Fischer at the end of May in the Australian Embassy to the Holy See on Via Paola in Rome.

=======================

How have you found being the Australian Ambassador of the Holy See, since you assumed the post in February? One remembers in late April, the incident with The Chasers (an Australian comedy group) who sent a balloon over the Vatican violating its airspace, which led to your criticism of them. ..
Australian Ambassador to the Holy See Mr Tim Fischer : It’s a tremendous privilege to be the first resident-in-Rome Australian ambasssdor to the Holy See. I find the Holy See, as a nation-city-state and as a member of the United Nations [it has observer status] a vibrant vehicle of "information power," or knowledge power — of "soft power." It is good for Australia to "plug into" this "soft power" on key issues, such as inter-faith dialogue, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and so forth, but also on issues like poverty, people-smuggling, piracy, and food security… As for the balloon over the Vatican, it’s an incident which is still ticking slowly through various statges of the Italian legal process…

How does having a diplomatic post like this differ from when you were the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the National Party?
Fischer : Well, I’m in one spot. I’m here in Rome, in and out of the Vatican again this morning for meetings, so it’s different because you’re not traveling so much and you have one job, not several company boards or several aspects of a complex portfolio, as Federal Minister for Trade and Deputy Prime Minister.
So to that extent, it is busy, it is stimulating, and a fraction easier for being all on the one, broad canvas of activity, a great variety of activities, and a great privilege to be the Australian Ambassador to the Holy See.

Do you think the success of World Youth Day in Australia last year — when on the last day of the Pope’s visit Mr Kevin Rudd, the Prime Minister  announced your appointment as the first residential Australian Ambassador to the Vatican — has deepened the relationship between Australia and the Holy See?
Fischer : Yes. And that Youth Day visit certainly set up a platform for a great and warm welcome for everyone from the Holy Father on down, a better understanding and a higher profile for Australia and for Sydney here in Rome, and in many other parts of the world. It was a great success, and the Cross was handed over on Palm Sunday during the Mass to the Madrid cardinal, and so the event established by John Paul II goes on. I think it did a lot of good within Australia, and it continues to help me in my work.
The event has been significant in that it seems a lot of pilgrims have met each other at different World Youth Days, and have actually married.

What similarities do you see in regard to the vision Australia and the Holy See have or share in regard to international affairs?
Fischer : I have just completed a course with some Asian diplomats on the international policy of the Holy See. I helped get Dr Sayakane Sisouvong to come to that course — he’s the Director General of the ASEAN group of nations, and of course our links with Asia remain in focus as well.

I think there is agreement with the Vatican historically on a range of issues. Take one: cluster bombs. The effort to ban cluster bombs was an initiative of the Vatican ambassador to Geneva, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, which led to some countries going to Norway, including Australia, represented by Foreign Minister Mr Stephen Smith, and signing off on the cluster bombs initiative. Australia has worked closely with the Holy See on issues like cluster bombs, like nuclear disarmament, like food security, and will continue to do so.

However, Pope Benedict said when you had your audience with him to take up your post, "How ironic it is, however when some groups, through aid programs, promote abortion as a form of maternal health care, taking a life, purportedly to improve the quality of life".  Recently my state of Victoria passed legislation decriminalizing abortion, to the point of not even allowing the right of conscientious objection in regard to health professionals.  Does this somehow sour the relationship between the two countries?

Fischer : Events in national legislatures like those of the USA and Australia are watched closely by the papal nuncios in those countries, and they report back to Rome. I have as my starting off point of instruction, the broad policies of the Australian government. I am not a conduit between the Catholic Church of Australia, and its headquarters. I am a conduit between the Australian government and its policies, and the nation and city state of the Holy See.

There is an obvious difference.

So I don’t feel myself in any way a prosecutor or an activist, because I’m an ambassador.

Nevertheless, I report on and respond to those matters I’m instructed to by Minister Stephen Smith, to work for the good husbandry of the relationship, and obviously we have a wide-ranging set of discussions, with a wide-range of interlocutors on difficult subjects, as well as easy subjects. I lam no longer a member of the Australian parliament, I am an ambassador, so I don’t feel it is appropriate for me to prosecute domestic issues from here. We’ll agree to disagree from time to time with the Holy See on some areas, but on the vast majority of issues the positions of the Australian government are in harmony with those of the Holy See.

Could you tell me a little bit about Domus Australia, and what the purpose behind its construction is?

Fischer : It is located within five minutes of Stazione Termini .  It is going to end up with about 70 bedrooms and quite large shower cubicles because there is not so many decent sized ones in Rome.  It is complete with a chapel which is a magnificent chapel and we hope we’ll have Anzac Day Masses at that chapel, amongst other things, because it is easy to get into and from. Now it was a purchase made by the Sydney Archdiocese and Cardinal Pell.  It is being managed by Dr Danny Casey. Art work has been commissioned and a two-year refit of the building.

You are a Catholic yourself. How important is this fact in regard to how you do your job?

Fischer : Many of the ambassadors here are not Catholic.  For example, the German ambassador is a Lutheran, and this is in no way a barrier to his professional work as an ambassador. It happens, yes, I’m a Catholic, less than perfect practicing Catholic. I try, but that is not really a must, it’s not really a requirement of the job, over the years the Vatican and the Curia have made that quite clear.
In respect of the nomination of my name, the Curia turned it around in two days, which was an incredible effort, because normally it takes a couple of weeks for the nomination to be granted approval by the Vatican, and that allowed the Prime Minister to make the announcement in the presence of the Pope at Mascot [Sydney airport] and that was pretty exciting.

I heard that you participated in the Easter ceremonies at the Vatican, and may have experienced a deeper conversion. Is there any truth to this?
Fischer : I attended the Easter Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. It was certainly a great honor to be present at those, and they were very motivating. The Easter Saturday night one, from 9 pm to 1 am, was an interesting service, the Vigil Mass. Let me just say the progress with my faith is a matter between my Maker and myself, and I’m happy to be quoted as saying that, and clearly it was a great joy to be close to the action, for the first time ever to attend Easter in Rome, and the standouts were definitely the magnificent Easter Thursday Mass at St John Lateran. It was truly uplifting, and I’m very happy to say that. On a lighter note, I am very happy to welcome various school groups and other groups to Rome from Australia, as part of their test of knowledge. I say I will rendezvous with them at the fountain in St Peter’s Square, nearest to Australia.  [The left hand or southern fountain in St. Peter's Square, is closer to Australia than the right hand one.]

Now, after nearly 100 days in office, Vatican observers are sensing that Patriarch Kirill and Pope Benedict may meet again — and that such a meeting will be a major step on the way to the long-hoped-for reunion of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches, which have been divided for nearly 1,000 years, since 1054. But where and when could such a meeting be held?

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>Kirill is an imposing figure, with a grey-flecked beard and sonorous voice. And he has important friends. When he was enthroned Alexi’s successor in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, the church was filled with celebrities and political leaders, and the first person to receive communion from him was… President Dmitry Medvedev’s wife, Svetlana.

(Photo: The new Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, center, puts on his vestments during the enthronement service in Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral, Russia, Sunday, February 1, 2009. Patriarch Kirill took charge of the Russian Orthodox Church, becoming the first leader of the world’s largest Orthodox church to take office after the fall of the Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)

In the Soviet era, the officially atheist Communist government treated the devout like moral lepers, imprisoning tens of thousands of clerics of all creeds. Now the Orthodox Church “has become a serious power in society,” former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev told The Associated Press in March.

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>

But great obstacles still remain to a closer collaboration between the two Churches, not to speak of full reunion.

Indeed, Metropolitan Kirill’s December 2007 meeting with the Pope came just four days after Russia’s Interfax news agency quoted him as saying that the four Roman Catholic dioceses John Paul II established in Russia in 2002 should be downgraded again to their prior status of “apostolic administrations.”

“We shall never recognize them and will always dispute the presence of ordinary Catholic dioceses in the territory of Russia and consider it a challenge to our common idea” of Church organization, Interfax quoted Kirill as saying.

Kirill said then that when the Orthodox or the Catholics have communities outside their traditional homelands, a bishop should be in charge of their pastoral care, but that bishop should be an administrator, not the head of a normal diocese erected on a territory already assigned to another bishop. (Russia’s Catholic community numbers an estimated  600,000 people in a country of 144 million where about 80% of the people identify themselves as Orthodox.)

Still, Kirill added that regular contact between Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials was “essential” for promoting the growing understanding of the other needed to resolve the tensions and the theological differences that keep Catholics and Orthodox apart.

And there has been regular contact since Benedict’s election as Pope in April, 2005, and especially since Kirill’s election as Patriarch in January, as representatives of the Holy See and representatives of the Russian and other Orthodox Churches have met many times in many different venues.

Another milestone also occurred in 2007, on June 16, when Pope Benedict XVI told a visiting Greek Orthodox leader, Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Cyprus, that he hoped  the Catholic and Orthodox Churches could be united, despite centuries of painful division, and discussed how Catholics and Orthodox could work together on social, moral and bioethical issues, including opposition to same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research.

Chrysostomos had offered to play the role of mediator to try to arrange a groundbreaking meeting between the Pope and the then-Patriarch of Moscow, Alexi II.

<!–[endif]–>In a speech to the archbishop after their private session, Benedict said he held “firm hope” of uniting the two Churches. Despite “centuries-old divisions, diverging roads and despite the hard work of closing painful wounds, the Lord has never ceased to guide our steps on the path toward unity and reconciliation,” Benedict told Chrysostomos.

Chrysostomos then told reporters that the chief problem was a “lack of communication” between the Pope and the Patriarch. He said he would pursue his offer to help organize a possible meeting when he met with Alexi in Moscow in mid-2007.

Now, four years into Benedicts’s pontificate and nearly 100 days into Kirill’s patriarchate, nearly all Vatican observers agree that, as Pope John Paul II was driven by the desire to end the scourge of atheist Communism, so Pope Benedict XVI still hopes passionately to see the restoration of a unified Church.

And the path toward achieving that vision passes by way of Kirill.

Benedict’s hopes for reunion stem from his religious conviction that Christians should present a united witness to the world, but also from his pragmatic judgment that the increasingly relativistic and “anti-life” West needs the spiritual and moral support of the Orthodox world to overcome a secular mindset which has begun to penetrate into the western Church herself.

This explains why Benedict has, since the moment Kirill was elected, made numerous gestures toward him of welcome and appreciation.

Benedict XVI publicly expressed his joy at Kirill’s January 27 election at a general audience the next day in Rome, saying, “I invoke upon him the light of the Holy Spirit for a generous service to the Russian Orthodox Church, entrusting him to the special protection of the Mother of God.”

In a telegram sent to the newly-elected Patriarch, the Pope wrote: “May the Almighty bless your efforts to maintain communion among the Orthodox Churches and to seek that fullness of communion which is the goal of Catholic-Orthodox collaboration and dialogue. I assure Your Holiness of my spiritual closeness and of the Catholic Church’s commitment to co-operate with the Russian Orthodox Church for an ever clearer witness of the truth of the Christian message and to the values which alone can sustain today’s world along the way of peace, justice and loving care of the marginalised.”

The Catholic Archbishop in Moscow, Paolo Pezzi, called the election “very positive news” and said that it promised “continuity and recognition of the work of the former patriarch, Alexi II.”

The Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity noted that Kirill was “a Patriarch with whom we have maintained fraternal relations for many years, and who met the Holy Father immediately following his election in April 2005, and again in the months of May 2006 and December 2007.”

The Council statement continued: “We trust we will be able to continue together down the path of mutual understanding we have already begun. We do not, of course, wish to lose sight of the difficulties that still remain, but we are ready and willing to co-operate in the social and cultural fields in order to bear witness to Christian values while, nonetheless, not forgetting that the ultimate aim of dialogue is the realisation of the testament of Jesus Christ our Lord: the full communion of all His disciples.”

Kirill the “John Paul II” of the Russian Church?

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>Who is Patriarch Kirill?

He is relatively young — at age 62, he is 20 years younger than Pope Benedict is, and nearly the same age, 58, as Pope John Paul II was when he was elected Pope in 1978.

And Kirill is energetic. For years he has hosted his own weekly television program “Words of a Pastor.” He has traveled widely around the world. and he is willing to take risks to preach the Gospel (he recently agreed to speak to Russian young people in a sports stadium, something previous Patriarchs would have found unthinkable).

He is also open to new ways of doing things. This winter, while he was acting Patriarch, he went to a rock concert in Kiev and delivered a homily to tens of thousands of young people.

“Today Church and society are in fact one and the same thing,” a spokesman for Kirill later explained. “Our Church believers go to discos and rock-concerts, and if there’s a chance to give some Church tinge to such youth meetings, if young people are glad to hear a few words from a priest, why doesn’t he go there and say these few words? The example of the Patriarch will surely inspire bishops, priests and laymen. When we speak about mission, we mean that we will go and preach, not that people will come to us. We mean that priests should come out from their churches, officials of Church departments should step out of their organizations. We should go and meet people, even at the so-called youth hangouts, even if it’s not usual to see a man in cassock there,” the Russian Church official said.

And Kirill is evidently a capable administrator. He has gathered around himself a “team” of well-trained and capable younger clerics and laymen to help him implement his vision for the Russian Church and nation, including the man he has chosen to take the post he himself held as head of the External Relations Department of the Patriarchate, Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev (now promoted to archbishop).

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>(Photo: Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev, right, with the late Patriarch Alexi II, center, and the present Patriarch Kirill, left)

On March 31, the news agency Interfax reported that the Holy Synod, the group of seven leading Russian Orthodox archbishops who form the highest ruling council of the Russian Orthodox Church, had named Bishop Hilarion as External Church Relations chief “unanimously.”

The agency reported that several other young clerics who are close to Kirill were promoted:

(1) Archpriest Nikolay Balashov was named Patriarchate Secretary for relations with other Orthodox Churches;

(2) Priest Georgy Ryabyh was named acting secretary for liaison between the Church and public, and both were appointed deputy chairmen of the Department for External Church Relations;

(3) Bishop Mark of Yegoryevsk, a former deputy chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, was appointed Patriarchate Secretary for the Church’s institutions abroad;

(4) Priest Antony Ilyin was put in charge of the Church’s relations with European international organizations; and

(5) Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a 41-year-old, gravel-voiced cleric close to Kirill, was appointed to be the first head of a new Department for Relations between the Church and Society  set up within the Church’s administrative structure.

On April 22, a further promotion was announced:

(6) Fr. Igor Vyzhanov, 38, secretary for Inter-Christian relations in the Department for External Church Relations, the Patriarchate official responsible for relations with non-Orthodox confessions, was ordained an Archpriest by Patriarch Kirill personally during a Divine Liturgy in Moscow.

The promotions of Hilarion, Mark and Chaplin, all relatively young men in their early 40s, are perhaps the most significant of these first appointments during Kirill’s first 100 days.

What has happened to these three “rising stars” is not without precedent. At the beginning of his own clerical career, Patriarch Kirill was the personal secretary to Metropolitan Nikodim (1929-1978) of Leningrad and Novgorod.  Metropolitan Nikodim had encouraged Kirill to become a priest and was a very important figure in Kirill’s early life. Nikodim was himself a very rapidly rising star. He had become the head of the Church’s Department of External Relations at the very young age of 30.

Nikodim, who many consider a saint, persuaded the Soviet government to allow the Russian Orthodox Church at have contacts with the world churches.

From this, the Soviet government was able to create an appearance of freedom of religion in the USSR, while the Church in turn received a little breathing room in which to exist.

Nikodim was also allowed to mentor and advance within the Church certain very bright and talented young men. These young men, such as Kirill, Juvelany, and Alexi, later became the leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Tragically, on September 5, 1978, Metropolitan Nikodim died of a heart attack at the age of 48 in the presence of Pope John Paul I.

A decade later, on November 13, 1989, Kirill was appointed to be head of the External Relations Department and a permanent member of the Holy Synod.  Kirill was 42 at the time — the same age as Hilarion today.

Like his mentor Nikodim, Kirill created in his department a small group of very talented and bright young men — the best of the best. These men advanced to key positions within the External Relations Department. They are now Bishop Hilarion, Bishop Mark, and Father Vsevolod. They are all extremely talented, hard-working, and articulate.

Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that in the first session of the Holy Synod since the enthronement of Patriarch Kirill, these three have been given key positions in the Moscow Patriarchate.

In this regard, it appears that the former functions of the External Relations Department may have been divided in three parts. The part relating to the interface with the Russian government and civil society has been given to Father Vsevolod, the supervision of foreign parishes to Bishop Mark, and the general functions of the department and the key permanent seat in the Holy Synod to Bishop Hilarion.

Among Catholic observers of the Russian Orthodox Church, all of these appointments are regarded as “good news” because of the deep faith, learning and openness of these men.

Bishop Hilarion was the first person to propose an alliance between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches — an idea that has been subsequently echoed by many in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.

He is also active in the culture field, as an accomplished pianist and composer of sacred music. Bishop Hilarion’s monumental Passion According to St. Matthew, first performed in Moscow and Rome in March 2007, was recently performed (on April by the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir in St. Stephen’s Basilica, the most famous Catholic church in Budapest. A capacity crowd of more than 2,000 attended and the basilica was not able to accommodate all that came. The concert was broadcast live by “Radio Maria.” Among the guests of honor were Cardinal Peter Erdo of Budapest, the apostolic nuncio to Hungary (Archbishop Juliusz Janusz), Archabbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma (Asztrik Varszegi), and the prior of the Benedictine Abbey of Tihany (Dr. Korzensky Richard).

Before the concert, Cardinal Erdo welcomed the crowd. He stated, “Today’s event is not just another musical event but a sign of genuine and long-awaited collaboration between our Churches. I wholeheartedly congratulate Bishop Hilarion on his appointment to the high and responsible post of Chairman of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate. I sincerely hope that our cooperation, rooted in his tenure as head of the Hungarian diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, will continue in his new capacity.” <!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>(Photo: Bishop Hilarion with Cardinal Erdo.)

Father Vsevolod, though the living embodiment of “toughness,” has been a very positive influence in the dialogue between the Russian Orthdoox and the Catholic Church in the Russian Federation. Father Vsevolod was also one of the very few non-Catholic Church officials to come to the defense of the Pope in the recent worldwide “condom controversy” which erupted during the Pope’s March trip to Africa.

Bishop Mark, a deeply spiritual man, who has lived and worked in Jerusalem, has traveled several times to Italy and to the Vatican, and is also a very positive influence.

That a Catholic can appreciate these men does not mean that the three will not be zealous defenders of Orthodoxy, but it does mean that they are reasonable men open to dialogue. And for this reason, they can count on our prayers in the great responsibilities that they are assuming.

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(Photo: Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev with Roman Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn in Vienna, where Alfeyev was in charge of the Church of St. Nicholas for the Russian Orthodox community on the Austrian capital.)

Arguably, today Kirill is one of the 10 or 20 most influential men in Russia, one of the key countries in the world, and his relative youth means that he will likely be an important factor in national decisions for  years to come.

Kirill now heads of a Church with more than 100 million adherents — larger than the Anglican Church — including millions of Russian Orthodox living abroad, which gives the Russian Orthodox Church a “global” aspect.

Statistically, the Russian Orthodox Church is the second most numerous Christian Church after the Roman Catholic Church itself.

But statistics are less important here than suffering and faith. The Russian Orthodox Church is a Church that suffered greatly under Soviet rule. Now it has “re-emerged from the catacombs” following the dissolution 18 years ago of the USSR (1991) to take on an ever-greater role in post-Soviet Russia.

Russia’s powerful Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, and its President, Dmitry Medvedev, both attend church on feast days. Other Slavic leaders, like Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko, do so as well.

So it a time of hope for Russian Orthodoxy — despite the enormous challenges the faith confronts in Russia, which has become highly secularized. Kirill evidently hopes it will be a “Orthodox Moment” for his country, and his Church.

Collaboration with Catholics

Following the new Patriarch’s enthronement on February 1, Benedict sent a second message, reiterating the importance of collaboration in seeking Christian unity.

The Pope recalled his meetings with the new Patriarch in Kirill’s previous role as the president of the Department of External Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Pope characterized these encounters as full of “good will” and recalled Kirill’s role in “forging a new relationship between our Churches, a relationship based on friendship, mutual acceptance and sincere dialogue in facing the difficulties of our common journey.”

On March 8 in Moscow, Kirill showed the type of spirit he is bringing to his pastoral task.

“When we meet a man who claims to be fighting for the purity of Orthodoxy, but in his eyes is lit the fire of anger, someone ready to shake the foundations of Church life to defend orthodoxy, if we do not find love and find anger, this is the first sign of that we have a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” the Patriarch said in his Sunday sermon at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. “In the eyes of these people you will not find love; they shine with the fire of pride. The most important criterion for evaluating any Church leader — from a Patriarch to a simple layman — is ‘love’ because ‘where there is love, there is Christ.’”

On April 8, Kirill wrote to Benedict, expressing his condolences over the loss of life in an earthquake in Italy’s Abruzzo region and said he was praying for the peace of the victims’ souls.
“I am conveying my most profound condolences over the loss of hundreds of lives in the earthquake in Abruzzo,”Kirill wrote to Benedict. “Sharing the grief of the families and relatives of those who have fallen victim to the natural disaster, we remember the Gospel saying: ‘God is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.’” The message was published on the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate. (According to reports, 207 people were killed in the earthquake, 15 remain unaccounted for, and 178 people were injured, of whom 100 seriously.)

Then the authoritarian leader of Belarussia came onto the stage. Just a few days ago, on April 26, Belarussian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, joining the “club” of Gordon Brown, Angela Merkel, Tony Blair and other heads of state who have recently paid a visit to Pope Benedict XVI, came to the Vatican.

<!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–><!–[endif]–>(Photo: Pope Benedict XVI is handed a children’s book by Nikolai, son of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko (left), during their meeting at the Vatican April 27, 2009; from Reuters)

Before the meeting, the Belarusian president said he was going to present the Pope with a number of questions from the Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, Kirill.

Talking to the Pope, he also expressed hope that Benedict XVI would come to Belarus. The Belarusian leader seems to want to play a role in organizing the meeting of the Pope of Rome and the Patriarch of Moscow (the “third Rome”).

If Lukashenko’s proposal is accepted, Belarus will play an important role as a conciliator and a peacemaker. In this sense, Lukashenko is improving Belarus’ image on an international level and doing a favor for Kirill who seems interested in meeting the Pope yet a fourth time — this time, as Patriarch.

And today comes the news from Moscow that the consecration of a Russian Orthodox church of Great Martyr Saint Catherine being built in Rome on the hillside above St. Peter’s Basilica, under the direction of a committee headed by Kirill,  has been set for three weeks from now: May 24.

It is not clear whether Kirill himself will come to Rome for the consecration.

I am here late in the evening in the office of Inside the Vatican in Rome, and I have just learnt this fabulous news— that the former US Ambassador to the Holy See, the Catholic professor of law at Harvard, Mary Ann Glendon, has declined Notre Dame University’s invitation to attend its commencement in May and receive an award.

Let me tell you, I am no gymnast, but I have been doing cartwheels over the wooden floor.

But to be serious, this is one of the most extraordinary actions taken by a Catholic for a long time, due to the outrage she and many of us fellow Catholics feel at the decision to invite President Barack Obama to Notre Dame University to give the commencement address there next month, despite the fact that he is the most pro-abortion president the US has ever had.
I have just been on the phone to Mary Ann’s daughter, Elizabeth Lev, who works as an art historian and occasional columnist here in the Eternal City, and she is as delighted as I am.

Mary Ann was being used by the likes of Fr Jenkins (Notre Dame’s president) and company, to give the event some respectability.

After a succession of less than traditional Catholic American women in recent years, like Geraldine Ferraro, Nancy Pelosi, and Kathleen Sebelius, here is one American woman who shines with her love for Jesus Christ and His Church and who abhors this terrible destruction of lives in the womb.

Hopefully the spirit of St Thomas More will come back to more Catholics in public life, at this time.

Mary Ann, we are so proud of you. It can’t be a coincidence that you have the names of the mother and grandmother of Our Lord in your name. God bless.

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Here is the complete text of Mary Ann Glendon’s historic letter. —The Editor

April 27, 2009

The Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C.

President

University of Notre Dame

Dear Father Jenkins,

When you informed me in December 2008 that I had been selected to receive Notre Dame’s Laetare Medal, I was profoundly moved. I treasure the memory of receiving an honorary degree from Notre Dame in 1996, and I have always felt honored that the commencement speech I gave that year was included in the anthology of Notre Dame’s most memorable commencement speeches. So I immediately began working on an acceptance speech that I hoped would be worthy of the occasion, of the honor of the medal, and of your students and faculty.

Last month, when you called to tell me that the commencement speech was to be given by President Obama, I mentioned to you that I would have to rewrite my speech. Over the ensuing weeks, the task that once seemed so delightful has been complicated by a number of factors.

First, as a longtime consultant to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, I could not help but be dismayed by the news that Notre Dame also planned to award the president an honorary degree. This, as you must know, was in disregard of the U.S. bishops’ express request of 2004 that Catholic institutions “should not honor those who act in defiance of our fundamental moral principles” and that such persons “should not be given awards, honors or platforms which would suggest support for their actions.” That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution’s freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it.

Then I learned that “talking points” issued by Notre Dame in response to widespread criticism of its decision included two statements implying that my acceptance speech would somehow balance the event:

• “President Obama won’t be doing all the talking. Mary Ann Glendon, the former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, will be speaking as the recipient of the Laetare Medal.”
• “We think having the president come to Notre Dame, see our graduates, meet our leaders, and hear a talk from Mary Ann Glendon is a good thing for the president and for the causes we care about.”

A commencement, however, is supposed to be a joyous day for the graduates and their families. It is not the right place, nor is a brief acceptance speech the right vehicle, for engagement with the very serious problems raised by Notre Dame’s decision—in disregard of the settled position of the U.S. bishops—to honor a prominent and uncompromising opponent of the Church’s position on issues involving fundamental principles of justice.

Finally, with recent news reports that other Catholic schools are similarly choosing to disregard the bishops’ guidelines, I am concerned that Notre Dame’s example could have an unfortunate ripple effect.

It is with great sadness, therefore, that I have concluded that I cannot accept the Laetare Medal or participate in the May 17 graduation ceremony.

In order to avoid the inevitable speculation about the reasons for my decision, I will release this letter to the press, but I do not plan to make any further comment on the matter at this time.

Yours Very Truly,

Mary Ann Glendon

Mary Ann Glendon is Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Vatican from 2007 to 2009.

Father Stanley Ladislas Jaki, OSB (1924-2009), Distinguished Professor of Physics at Seton Hall University, New Jersey, since 1975 and one of the world’s leading historians of science and its relationship with religion, died in Madrid on April 7, 2009, reportedly of a heart attack, at the age of 84 (the photo shows him just a few days before his death, in Rome in March of this year ). He will be buried on Wednesday in his native Hungary.

Jaki was a prolific writer, authoring dozens of books, articles and essays covering everything from the metaphysics of the Eucharist, to the primacy of the Apostle Peter, to exactly where and how Charles Darwin went woefully wrong. In short, Father Jaki was one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century and his contributions to Catholic thought and culture will be difficult to quantify.
One of the central questions he dealt with was this: How is it that science became a self-sustaining enterprise only in the Christian West? Jaki believed the answer lay in the Christian faith, in belief in the Incarnation, and his life work was to show why this was so. The American writer Walker Percy, a convert to Catholicism, formulated the position Jaki came to espouse this way in his novel Lost in the Cosmos : "

As Whitehead pointed out, it is no coincidence that science sprang, not from Ionian metaphysics, not from the Brahmin-Buddhist-Taoist East, not from the Egyptian-Mayan astrological South, but from the heart of the Christian West, that although Galileo fell out with the Church, he would hardly have taken so much trouble studying Jupiter and dropping objects from towers if the reality and value and order of things had not first been conferred by belief in the Incarnation."

Jaki affirmed that Christianity prevented a slide into pantheism because the doctrine of the creation was bolstered by faith in the Incarnation. Pantheism is invariably present when the eternal and cyclic view of the cosmos prevails. The uniqueness of the Incarnation and Redemption, Jaki held, dashed to pieces any possibility of the eternal and cyclic view; for if the world were cyclic, the once-and-for-all coming of Christ would be undermined. The uniqueness of Christ secures a linear view of history and makes Christianity more than just one among many historical factors influencing the world, Jaki argued. The dogmas of the Creation and Incarnation mean "an absolute and most revolutionary break with a past steeped in paganism,” and the enunciation of these dogmas and their historical impact is "an uphill fight never to be completed," he said.

A relentless scholar, Jaki studied the religious thinking of G. K. Chesterton, the works of the French physicist and historian of science Pierre Duhem, and the life of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the 19th-century theologian who famously converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism. Jaki is probably best known, however, for works like The Relevance of Physics (1966) and Science and Creation (1974), in which he argued that the scientific enterprise did not become viable and self-sustaining until its incarnation in Christian medieval Europe, and that the advancement of science was indebted to the Christian understanding of creation.

Father Jaki was a beloved and much-sought after "Chestertonian," and a true follower of the Rule of St. Benedict in every way imaginable — he was always teaching. He only had to be invited to speak once to the annual American Chesterton Society Conference….after that he would simply call Dale Ahlquist in advance and announce his topic! Such graceful moxie is very rare these days and those of us who have known him, learned from him, and loved him, have all been blessed and bettered by his initiative; it will be a palpable loss not to have this spiritual and intellectual giant in our midst any longer.

Born in Gyor, Hungary, Father Jaki attended the school run by Benedictines in his native town from 1934-42. There, he fed his deep desire to read and learn with an extensive amount of mathematics as well as multiple languages. He says that his drive for education was "for a higher purpose: to understand, propagate, and defend my Roman Catholic religion."

His tutelage with the Benedictines greatly influenced his call to the priesthood, which he felt from an early age. He joined the Benedictine order in 1942 and was ordained in 1948.

During the war years, Father Jaki stayed in the Archabbey of Pannonhalma. (Photo below: an aerial view of the abbey, one of the oldest historical monuments in Hungary. Saint Martin of Tours is believed to have been born at the foot of this hill, hence its former name, Mount of Saint Martin ( Márton-hegy in Hungarian), from which the monastery occasionally took the alternative name of Márton-hegyi Apátság. This is the second largest territorial abbey in the world, after the one in Monte Cassino. )

This proved to be a trying time, having several close calls with Soviet soldiers. In his typical scholarly fashion, he spent his free time memorizing the letters of Saint Paul, and much of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

He came to the U.S. in 1950 and began teaching systematic theology at the seminary attached to the St. Vincent Archabbey in Pennsylvania.

In 1953, following several health complications associated with a tonsillectomy, Jaki was deprived of the full use of his voice for the next ten years. No longer able to continue his lifestyle of teaching and monastic life that demanded a constant use of his voice, he enrolled in Fordham University’s graduate program in physics. He studied  under Nobel laureate Victor F. Hess, the discoverer of cosmic rays. He received a doctorate in 1957. Of Jaki’s doctrinal dissertation on theology, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger once stated that he kept a copy in a "place of honor" in his library. (Years later, in 1990, Father Jaki was made an honorary member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.)

From 1960-1965, he stayed at Aquinas Institute, the Catholic chaplaincy of Princeton. The idea for his book The Relevance of Physics came to him while on the steps at Princeton’s post office. At the age of 42, the University of Chicago Press bought his book The Relevance of Physics . Walter Heitler in the March 1967 issue of "American Scientist" suggested that it become compulsory reading for all physicists.

After this time, he was invited to lecture at Seton Hall — a seminar a week — which worked well with his vocal injury and afforded him the opportunity to continue writing many major publications. During this time he received the Lecomte du Nouy Prize for Brain, Mind and Computers from Rockefeller University. In 1973, the University of Edinburgh invited him to deliver the Gifford lectures. He was the Gifford Lecturer at Edinburgh University in 1974-75 and 1975-76.

The Gifford Lectures were established under the will of Lord Gifford and provided for lectureships in natural theology at four Scottish universities. A few of the many eminent thinkers who have given the Gifford Lectures include: Alfred Ayers, Karl Barth, Henri Bergson, Neils Bohr, Herbert Butterfield, Frederick Copleston, John Dewey, Etienne Gilson, Werner Heisenberg, William James, Gabriel Marcel, Reinhold Niebuhr and many others. Father Jaki, on this subject, wrote the book Lord Gifford and His Lectures (1995, Scottish Academic Press).

In 1987, he received the Templeton Prize, and rejected a possible position with Harvard, so he could continue his writing.

The Templeton Prize brought him world recognition. Established by the late Sir John Templeton, the prize is given annually to a person chosen for his or her affirmation of the spiritual dimensions of life either through discoveries or in other ways. The Templeton Prize award is traditionally larger than that given for the Nobel Prize. In 1987, the award to Father Jaki was $330,000; now the Templeton Prize winner is awarded more than $1 million. Father Jaki gave the monies awarded him to the Vatican for the benefit of Hungarian Benedictines who left Hungary after Stalinist suppression of religious activities in that nation in the late 1940s. He said, "I hope it will be used as a trust fund in times of need."

Father Jaki was a world traveler. In 1971, during a routine trip to Hungary to visit his mother, he picked up some of his old books. One such book contained a note with cross-word type scribbling. This caught the attention of the Communist border-guard as possible coded messages, which was compounded by the fact that he carried a half dozen undeveloped film rolls from his library research. While searching through Jaki’s personal belongings the guards found an article of Jaki featured in a prominent publication. Fearing bad press, they released him.

Father Jaki lived through many interesting world events and never failed to give commentary — the rise and fall of Communism as well as the changes in the Catholic Church following Vatican II.

He recognized the philosophical underpinnings in every activity from a game of cricket to the social interaction of a luncheon.  In his book, A Mind’s Matter: An Intellectual Autobiography , Father Jaki gives an insight into himself, "Whether I uttered some truths moderately well, or whether I fought wisely, should seem less important than the fact that I did not shy away from fighting."

Father Jaki died on April 7, 2009, at about 1:15 PM (MET) in Madrid (Spain) following a heart attack. He was in Spain to visit friends on his way back to the USA, after delivering some lectures in Rome, for the Master in Faith and Science of the Pontificio Ateneo Regina Apostolorum.

He will be buried at the Archabbey of Pannonhalma, which was established in the 10th century, after a funeral Mass on Wednesday, April 29, at 2:30 pm local time. (The Benedictines seemed at first intent on cremating Fr. Jaki prior to transporting him back to Hungary until Father Jaki’s brothers and friends made clear that they believed it would have been Father Jaki’s wish to be buried bodily at the monastery, and that any expenses involved would not have to be paid by the order.)

Jaki is survived by two brothers, both priests, Rev. Zeno Janki and Rev Theodore Jaki, both of whom live at the Archabbey of Pannonhalma.

=======================

I became acquainted with Father Stanley Jaki because my nephew, a Columbia University graduate, did graduate work at Princeton University, and while there became a part-time assistant to Father Jaki, who was based in Princeton. Father Jaki was clearing out some of his vast library, and gave some books to my nephew, who in turn set up a library for some  of these books in my office about 45 miles from Princeton. I thus — by coincidence — have some books by Father Jaki which may not be on all of the  lists of books by Father Jaki that one might find on internet websites.

I also had a chance to hear Father Jaki at some of his lectures in the New York area. At one lecture — to the usual overflow crowd — he discussed Lourdes. He had slides to show on a screen at some of these presentations. He was not only very informative; he was highly entertaining at these lectures, particularly in question and answer sessions.

I invited Father Jaki and my nephew to dinner in Princeton once and had a chance to talk at length with him. He was very polite. He had strong opinions. He was very informative. He was very entertaining. He gave me an autographed book which was very gracious on his part.

One of his books, which may not be on most lists on the web sites, is The Only Chaos and Other Essays , (1990, University Press of America). In Chapter 10, entitled "Evicting the Creator," he critically discusses the very well known Professor Stephen W. Hawking, and his book A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes (1988, Bantam Books). Professor Hawking is or has been a member of The Pontifical Academy of Sciences.

One of my friends, William Doino, also a contributor to Inside the Vatican , knew Jaki, and sent me this note: "Father Jaki had a profound sense of the supernatural, and never hesitated to take on its opponents, backed with profound scholarship. He was fearless, and didn’t suffer fools gladly. I once asked him a couple of innocent questions about modern science, and the challenge it presented to Christianity, and he said to me, sternly, ‘You have things backward. The challenge is to the atheists. Never let your opponents set the rules or the playing ground.’ He sent me a list of 10 or 12 books to read. ‘Looks good, but I don’t know if I have time to read them all, Father,’ I replied, with typical youthful insouciance. ‘No!!’ he exploded. ‘You must read them — you cannot be uninformed! We have too many uninformed Christians. Ignorance of the faith is forbidden, young man — it is forbidden — it is a sin, a sin!’"

An internet blogger wrote recently: "I have no idea what arrangements will be made for his funeral Mass, but I know what the ‘responsorial Psalm’ verse ought to be: God ‘disposed everything according to measure and number and weight’ (Wis 11:20). Nearly every one of his books quotes this line. It may sound unbelievable to hear, but there was a certain line of Chesterton’s which I first read in one of Jaki’s books (the one on Chesterton, of course!) because at that time I did not own the Chesterton book. It ought to be carved in his tombstone: ‘The rebuilding of this bridge between science and human nature is one of the greatest needs of mankind.’ (G.K. Chesterton, The Defendant , 75). I believe Father Jaki was the pre-eminent builder of that bridge…"

May Father Jaki’s soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

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Father Jaki helped establish Real View Books as his publishing arm. The Real View titles include publications such as: The Bible and Science; Shakespeare and the Old Faith; The True Story of the Vatican Council (this is Vatican Council I, by H. E. Manning).

Here is an abridged list of his books:

1966. The Relevance of Physics . University of Chicago Press.
1969. Brain, Mind and Computers . Herder & Herder.
1969. The Paradox of Olbers’ Paradox . Herder & Herder.
1973. The Milky Way: an Elusive Road for Science . New York: Science History Publications.
1974. Science and Creation: From Eternal Cycles to an Oscillating Universe . Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
1978. Planets and Planetarians. A History of Theories of the Origin of Planetary Systems . John Wiley & Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
1978. The Road of Science and the Ways to God . Univ. of Chicago Press, and Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press. ISBN 0-226-39145-0
1978. The Origin of Science and the Science of its Origins . Scottish Academic Press.
1980. Cosmos and Creator . Scottish Academic Press. ISBN 0-7073-0285-4
1983. Angels, Apes and Men . La Salle IL: Sherwood, Sugden & Co. ISBN 0-89385-017-9
1984. Uneasy Genius. The Life and Work of Pierre Duhem . The Hague: Nyhoff.
1986. Chesterton, a Seer of Science . University of Illinois Press.
1986. Lord Gifford and His Lectures. A Centenary Retrospective . Edinburgh: Scottish Academis Press, and Macon, GA.: Mercer University Press.
1986. Chance or Reality and Other Essays . Lanham, MD: University Press of America & Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
1988. The Absolute Beneath the Relative and Other Essays . Lanham, MD: University Press of America & Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
2000 (1988). The Savior of Science . W. B. Eerdmans. ISBN 0-8028-4772-2
1989. Miracles and Physics . Front Royal. VA.: Christendom Press. ISBN 0-931888-70-0
1989. God and the Cosmologists . Regnery Gateway Inc.; Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
The Purpose of it All (alternate title for God and the Cosmologists)
1990. The Only Chaos and Other Essays . Lanham MD: University Press of America & Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
1991. Scientist and Catholic, An Essay on Pierre Duhem . Front Royal VA: Christendom Press.
1998 (1992) Genesis 1 Through the Ages . Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press.
1996. Bible And Science . Front Royal, VA: Christendom Press. ISBN 0-931888-63-8
2000. The Limits of a Limitless Science and Other Essays . Intercollegiate Studies Institute. ISBN 1-882926-46-3
2008. Hail Mary, full of grace: A Commentary . New Hope, KY: Real View Books. ISBN 978-1-892539-06-9

To order any of Jaki’s books, visit www.realviewbooks.com or call, in the US, the toll-free number: (888) 808-2882. The mail address for orders is: P.O. Box 10, New Hope, KY 40052.

Here’s a link to the home page: http://realviewbooks.com/index.html

Jaki’s intellectual autobiography, A Mind’s Matter , is available.

On April 26 in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict XVI will canonize a Portuguese national hero who toward the end of his life became a Carmelite monk and served the poor, Nuno de Santa Maria Àlvares Pereira , O. Carm. (1360-1431), the Condestável (“Constable,” meaning General) known in Portugal as “the Father of the Nation.” (Photo: The only known portrait of Nuno done during his lifetime and showing him in his Carmelite habit .)

In the April issue of Inside the Vatican , now in the mail, the Portuguese woman whose blind eye was healed after praying to Blessed Nuno, speaks for the first time on her tragic accident and the moment of her healing. (This and other interviews have been given to the journal because of the writer’s friendship with her family.)

Almost a century ago, Pope Benedict XV beatified Nuno (January 23, 1918), and proposed him as a model for the Catholic soldiers then engaged in combat during World War 1. So one Pope Benedict, the 15th, beatified Nuno, and a second, Benedict XVI, will canonize him.

Nuno is considered the founder of the Bragança Royal Family Dynasty of Portugal which ruled from 1640 until 1910. (Nuno’s daughter, Beatriz, married Alfonso, son of John I, whom he helped bring to power, starting the Aviz Dynasty.) The majority of Catholic royal families in Europe and Brazil claim lineage from him, including the recently beatified Charles of Austria, the last Hapsburg Emperor. Queen Isabella of Spain was one of Nuno’s granddaughters.

Nuno even had descendants in the British royal family: Isabella’s daughter (his great-granddaughter) was Catherine of Aragon, the first wife of Henry VIII, and her daughter (his great-great-granddaughter) was Queen Mary Tudor. Catherine of Aragon had many miscarriages, a still-born daughter and three short-lived sons before giving birth to Mary. King Henry VIII, desirous of a male hair, sought permission from Pope Clement VII (1523-1534) to annul his marriage to Catherine, but Clement refused, leading Henry to divorce her and break with Rome, beginning the Anglican Church.

Another descendant was Catherine of Bragança, wife of King Charles II (all his children were illegitimate to mistresses) who conversely became a Catholic on his deathbed in 1685.

Blessed Nuno is most highly regarded in his country for masterminding the Battle of Aljubarrota in 1385. There, Portugal, in concert with England, stopped an invasion by Castile. Both allied nations were then in obedience to Pope Urban VI in Rome, whilst Castile and France followed the Antipope of Avignon, Clement VII (1378-1394).

Nuno fought and won many other battles between 1383 and 1411, and, after peace was established with Castile, Nuno participated in the expedition in 1415 to Ceuta in North Africa, an action that was considered the first European missionary effort. (Photo: Painting of Nuno praying before going into battle. )

Equine monuments to him are scattered throughout Portugal and in many former Portuguese overseas colonies. Long before the introduction of the Euro, his effigy was on Portugal’s currency.

He was made the 3rd Count of Ourém in 1383, and his main feudal castle was in Ourém, the county where Fátima is located. He believed prayer, penance and commitment to the poor and needy, to be the true calling of nobility and, following the death of his wife, Nuno entered a Carmelite monastery he had established, taking the religious name Friar Nuno of Saint Mary .

He was renowned for his devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and is considered the Founder of the Secular Order because the secular Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, better known as the Confraternity of the Holy Constable, which he founded in Lisbon to support his work with the poor with contributions from its noble members, eventually evolved into the present Carmelite Third Order. This original Confraternity was re-established last year on November 6 (Nuno’s Feast Day) and hopes to be an active branch of the Secular Order providing funds for work with the poor and homeless of Lisbon in remembrance of Dom Nuno.

When fighting the Castilians, he was renowned for his fairness to his enemies, and three times crossed the border to feed the peoples in the neighboring kingdom during famines, and to provide for the widows and orphans of the war.

Pope Pius XII was on the verge of canonizing him by decree in 1940, but was dissuaded by Salazar (the leader of Portugal at the time). Blessed Nuno’s cause then remained at a stalemate.

The rediscovery of his original grave site in 1996 in Lisbon by archaeologists proved that he had received a burial suitable for the last great knight of medieval Christendom.

John Haffert, co-founder of the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, regarded Nuno as the peacemaker who went to war and the precursor of Fátima, and Haffert promoted devotion to Nuno right up until Haffert’s death in 2001.

In the USA, the Blessed Nuno Society (www.blessednuno.org ) founded in Ourém Castle by Timothy Heinan and Blue Army Protector Bishop Constantino Luna, OFM, was later headquartered in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota (USA) as a Private Association of the Faithful, continuing to promote devotion to Nuno and, by engaging in works of charity on behalf of orphans and the homeless, being faithful to his example. The association administers orphanage projects in Portugal, Mexico and the Carib bean.

The miracle of canonization took place in the Jubilee Year 2000, when a devotee of Blessed Nuno and volunteer at Ourém Castle, Guilhermina de Jesus , was blinded in her left eye as a result of boiling oil splashing on it, when she was frying some fish and chips.

After all medical treatment proved unsuccessful, Guilhermina and her family prayed several novenas to Blessed Nuno, and  her sight returned in that blinded eye inexplicably. (She tells the dramatic story of her healing in a world exclusive interview in the current issue of Inside the Vatican .)

On July 3, 2008, alongside a decree of heroic virtue, the Holy Father approved this healing as a miracle obtained through Blessed Nuno’s intercession.

This will be the first canonization of a Portuguese saint since that of St John de Brito, SJ, Jesuit missionary and martyr, in 1947. As a member of the Carmelites of the Ancient Observance, it will be the first canonization in this branch of the family since that of St Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi in 1669.

The significance of two Popes named Benedict elevating Nuno to the last two stages of sainthood cannot be overstated. St Benedict of Nursia, the founder of Christian monasticism, from time immemorial has been considered the Father of Christian Europe, and so often Pope Benedict has lamented the continent departing from its Christian roots. The canonization of Nuno is a call to the whole of Europe (not just Portugal) to rediscover its soul, by imitating a man whose Catholic faith shone in both his public and private life. (Photo: Statue of Nuno in a military museum which also contains his sword .)

Nuno’s feast day is obligatory among Carmelites of the Ancient Observance on November 6 (now to be extended to the Universal Church) and optional among the Discalced Carmelites on April 1, who have also a Portuguese cause impending, that of Fatima seer, Sister Lucia dos Santos, whose family had a great devotion to the Condestável .

Having been a Prior of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John (Order of Malta) and Commander of the Minor Religious Military Orders under the observance of the Cistercians of Alcobaça’s rule, such as Saint Benedict of Aviz and Saint Michael of the Wing, Dom Nuno will also be venerated as a Saint or Protector of these Orders.

His official name will be Saint Friar Dom Nuno de Santa Maria Àlvares Pereira , O.Carm, but for the Portuguese he will always be fondly regarded as the Holy Constable or Beato Nuno.

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"I Pray St. Nuno Blesses the World”

An interview with Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins ( photo ) , former Prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints in Rome, who was born in Portugal and who was a close friend of Sister Lucy of Fatima. He recently stepped down from his post as the Vatican’s "saint-maker" due to age, as he turned 77 in January

What does Blessed Nuno’s canonization say to Portugal?
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins : The recent Pastoral Note issued by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference on the occasion of the Canonization of Nuno Àlvares Pereira, gives us his heroic example in a time of crisis and tells us: “We need figures like Nuno Àlvares Pereira, who have integrity, coherence, holiness or in other words, are friends of God and his creatures, and above all the most fragile. Persons like these awaken the confidence and the dynamism of society that help endure and conquer crises.”

The history of the cause was somewhat controversial. So now that the Holy Father has decided to canonize Nuno, what does this say to the Church? What is the advantage of canonizing a man who lived more than 600 years ago?
Cardinal Saraiva Martins : The saints are timeless and are always an inspiration to Catholics to a greater perfection with the end goal being Heaven. The Church teaches that many of the lessons of their times may prove inspirational today in our own lives.

So, what then does he say to the world?
Cardinal Saraiva Martins : To follow his example of a life of devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and Our Lady, guided by the Gospel, fighting for the superior moral interests of a nation and in dedicated service to the less fortunate and the poor.

As a fellow Portuguese, what does Nuno mean to you personally now that you have completed your term of office at the helm of the Congregation for Saints? Was it bittersweet that the very last time you presented decrees on saints’ causes to the Holy Father, he approved Nuno considering your devotion to him?
Cardinal Saraiva Martins : It was an honor to have worked in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and to have helped the Church confirm the Sanctity of various Blesseds and Saints. Being Portuguese of course, I was especially blessed and honored to have worked on the beatification of the Portuguese Frei Bartolomeu dos Martires, Fátima Seers Blessed Jacinta and Francisco Marto, and also Alexandrina da Costa. I was especially fortunate to have brought the concluded process for the Canonization of Saint Nuno to the Holy Father as one of my last acts as Prefect. I pray that Saint Nuno blesses the Church, Portugal and the World.

(More information will be available in the April issue of ITV .)

Andrew Rabel writes from Australia .