Pope Speaks About Eucharist Encyclical

Pope Speaks About Eucharist Encyclical



From Zenit News:



I wished to dedicate, precisely to the subject of the Eucharist, the encyclical that, God willing, next Holy Thursday, I will sign during the Mass of the Lord's Supper. I will hand it symbolically to the priests instead of the Letter that I usually address to them and, through them, to all the People of God on that occasion.



From this moment I entrust to Mary this important document, which is centered on the intrinsic value and importance for the Church of the sacrament that Jesus left us as a living memorial of his death and resurrection.



We also turn to Mary, to pray for the victims of the conflicts that are taking place. With afflicted and trusting insistence, we invoke her intercession for peace in Iraq and in every region of the world.

Pope Continues to Call for Peace



From Ananova:



Saying that God's love reaches every person, John Paul said that "human beings, aware of such a great love, cannot not open themselves up to an attitude of fraternal welcome" toward others.



Praying to the Virgin Mary for the victims of conflict, he said: "Let's invoke with grief-stricken and confident insistence her intercession for peace in Iraq and in every other region of the world."

The Unpleasant Life of an American Soldier in Iraq



Lest we glorify the life of a soldier too much, Ron Martz paints a stark picture of what its like in the Atlanta Journal Constitution:



[this] was not nearly as dramatic or dangerous as the situation in which Sgt. 1st Class Brett Waterhouse, 37, of Gainesville, Fla., found himself that morning.



Waterhouse was using one of the fighting positions around the intersection as a toilet when a man approached and began screaming at him in Arabic. Waterhouse tried, with his limited Arabic, to tell the man to go away, but the intruder continued to scream and throw rocks.



Waterhouse was hastily completing his business when the man launched one final, sizable rock that was going straight for his head. Waterhouse fended off the rock with one hand, cutting a finger.



"That could have killed me if it had hit me in the head," Waterhouse groused.



When the man continued to approach, Waterhouse and several other soldiers pulled their weapons and shot the man.

Pope Says War Must Not Become "Religious Catastrophe"



From UK News Yahoo:



"Let us not permit a human tragedy to become a religious catastrophe," he said on Saturday.



The Pope is against the war in Iraq and led the Vatican in a diplomatic campaign to try to avert it.



The Iraq conflict has put the Vatican on a collision course with Washington because the Pope has refused to bless the conflict as a "just war".



The Vatican is very concerned that the war could lead to worsening situations for Christians living in predominantly Muslim countries, such as Iraq and Indonesia.

Supporters Hopeful of Sheen's Canonization



I plan on supporting his cause in all that I do.



From Pantagraph.com - News:



Catholic investigators are looking into reported miracles attributed to Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, and supporters hope those will lead to Sheen's canonization within a few years.



The El Paso-based Archbishop Fulton John Sheen Foundation is receiving hundreds of letters attesting to the famous television evangelist's virtues and even crediting him with miraculous intervention in people's lives.



The Diocese of Peoria, where Sheen was ordained, opened the case for Sheen's sainthood last fall, and investigators need to prove two miracles before the pope will canonize the El Paso native.

Suicide Bomber Kills Five US Soldiers at Checkpoint



Sad, sad news. Everytime deaths are announced I think of my fellow coworkers who have sons serving in Iraq. This war has brought the tragedy of 9/11 to the heartland. We may not have been in New York, Washington, or Pennsylvania on September 11th but now the tragedies of that day are being felt personally by the rest of us throughout the country.



From the Washington Post:



Capt. Andrew Wallace said slain Army soldiers were part of the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, manning a checkpoint on a highway north of Najaf. A taxi stopped near the checkpoint, the driver waved for help, and the car exploded as five soldiers approached, Wallace told Associated Press Television News.



At U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar, officers confirmed the incident, but said they had no details.

Is the Pope a Pacifist?



A good reflection on the Pope and the Vatican's position on the Iraq war and war in general.



From William McGurn in the Wall Street Journal:



In short, what we have lost here is a tremendous teaching opportunity. And if the Vatican's problem is, as Archbishop Martino suggests and the pope's own words at times imply, not simply Iraq but a larger discomfort with just war in a modern world, it raises even more questions. Namely, how President Bush can be held in breach of moral criteria that (a) are in the process of being radically revised and (b) really can't be met anyhow.



In another remark on Vatican Radio made on the eve of war, Archbishop Martino characterized the American response to Iraq as replying with "bombs to a people that has been asking for bread for the last 12 years." The Vatican role, by contrast, would be to play the "the Good Samaritan who kneels to tend the wounds of an injured, weak nation."



Which begs a question: If the biblical Good Samaritan had arrived on the scene a little earlier and stumbled on the robbers instead of their victim, what would have been his obligation?



Given the current situation it is really more a case of the latter. In this case if the fallen towers of the World Trade Center and the innocents who died there are in fact the "man fallen by robbers."



At this point in the war wouldn't it be a great idea to ignore Baghdag as a target and set up the rest of the country as an American run regime where food, clothing and a better life are a part of the lives of the inhabitants. Wouldn't this lead to the fall of Baghdag?