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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Interview With Bishop of Las Cruces, New Mexico

APARECIDA, Brazil, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Bishop Ricardo Ramírez says the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean is an opportunity to learn many things for the direction of the Church in the United States.

Bishop Ramírez of Las Cruces, New Mexico, spoke to ZENIT about the North American bishops' participation in the conference, taking place in Aparecida until May 31.

Q: How did the invitation to North American bishops to participate in the Aparecida conference come about?

Bishop Ramírez: I believe the idea to invite them came from Pope John Paul II who took the initiative to unite the entire hemisphere in the American synod, and then in the document "Ecclesia in America" he completed an attempt to unify all the dioceses of the Americas, not only Latin America, but also North America.

For this reason bishops from Canada and the United States are included in this conference. There are four of us from the United States: the president of the bishops' conference, the president of the Commission for Hispanic Affairs, the president of the Church for Latin America and a person who has worked on the central committee for the general conference.

Q: What is the role of the North American bishops in this conference?

Bishop Ramírez: We are here as observers, to see in what way we can serve, because we cannot impose ourselves.

We are a very large country, very powerful, with a lot of influence, but we must be careful about the way we act at this conference. Without imposing, we would like to offer our experience and knowledge of a country that has a lot of influence worldwide, and certainly in Latin America.

Many good things, as well as bad things, come from the United States. And that is why we are here.

Q: What concerns do you bring with you to this conference?

Bishop Ramírez: Problems of evangelization, pastoral problems, we want to discover norms for the new evangelization which John Paul II spoke of.

I believe that we can learn many things for the direction of our country, even if we are not part of Latin America. The Medellin conference had a great impact on the United States, as did [the one in] Puebla.

I hope that Aparecida has an influence on our pastoral practices in the United States, above all with the Hispanics living there; it can enrich the entire continent.

Q: What is the state of affairs with Hispanics in the United States at the moment?

Bishop Ramírez: The most worrisome aspect is the situation of the illegal immigrants, who live in the shadow of society because they cannot lead normal lives.

Sometimes, for example, they are afraid to go to church for fear of being captured by the border police. They are afraid to be ministers.

When they have the chance to sign up to be catechists, they refuse because they are afraid that the government will find out and they will have to leave. Many are there with their children who were born in the United States: The children are legal citizens but the parents are not. If the parents are exported, what will happen to the children?

Q: Are these Hispanics a powerful presence in the Catholic Church of the United States?

Bishop Ramírez: More and more! In two or three decades the largest group of Catholics in the United States will be made up of Hispanics -- more than 50%.

Q: What can Catholic Hispanics, who live in the United States, expect from this conference?

Bishop Ramírez: They can expect support from the bishops of Latin America who will encourage them to stay Catholics, to keep their families united, to maintain the traditions and values which they have received from here, from Latin America.

I believe that words of encouragement from the Latin American bishops for the immigrants would be a very good thing.

Code: ZE07052121

Date: 2007-05-21

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

ROME, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- An underground priest of the Catholic Church in China, Father Shao Zhoumin, was released from prison due to illness.

Father Shao, the vicar general of the Wenzhou Diocese, is suffering from an illness that has left him deaf, likely contracted during his detention, www.AsiaNews.it reported.

Father Shao was accused of having falsified his passport and was arrested last August after returning from a pilgrimage to Rome.

The 43-year-old priest, now in the hospital, thanked all those who facilitated his early release on Wednesday, one month before the end of his sentence.

He already served a prison sentence in 1999, which was also shortened due to ill health.

Father Jiang Sunian, the chancellor of the Wenzhou Diocese, was arrested at the same time as Father Shao.

Father Jiang, who also has a respiratory illness, was given an 11-month sentence and should be freed at the end of August.

Code: ZE07052115

Date: 2007-05-21

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

80-Year Schism Comes to an End

MOSCOW, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The unity of the Russian church has been restored after an 80-year schism, announced Moscow Patriarch Alexy II during a Mass celebrating the end of the divide.

The Associated Press is reporting that leaders of the Russian Orthodox faith signed a pact Thursday, healing the decades-old rift between the Russian Orthodox Church and an offshoot, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, organized after the Bolshevik Revolution.

Patriarch Alexy II, the leader of the main Russian Orthodox Church, led the ceremony at the Christ the Savior Cathedral, thanking President Vladimir Putin, who attended the celebration, for his help to end the split through meetings with church leaders.

The reunion agreement, called the Canonical Communion Act, was later signed by Alexy II along with Metropolitan Laurus, head of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

The reunion act will not be a merger, as both entities will maintain administrative control over their parishes. The clergy, however, will be able to preside over Masses in both churches with parishioners being able to share Communion.

The Russian Church Abroad, based in New York, has about 480,000 members while the Moscow Patriarchate, has 90 million members, not including millions of believers in other countries of the former Soviet Union.

Code: ZE07152116

Date: 2007-05-21

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Says Benedict XVI Wants to Offer This "Treasure" to All

APARECIDA, Brazil, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" has confirmed that Benedict XVI hopes to increase the availability of the Latin Mass.

Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos said this Wednesday when he addressed the 5th General Conference of the Episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, meeting in Brazil through the end of May.

The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei" was formed by Pope John Paul II in 1988 following the schismatic gesture of the illegal episcopal ordinations carried out by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

The cardinal first explained that the commission was established when "a notable group of priests, religious and faithful who had shown their discontent with the conciliar liturgical reform and had congregated around the leadership of the French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, separated themselves from him because they were not in agreement with the schismatic act of the ordination of bishops without due pontifical mandate."

"Today," Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos continued, "the commission is not limited to the service of those faithful who wished to stay in full communion on that occasion, nor to the efforts aiming to end the painful schismatic situation and achieve the return to full communion of these brothers from the Society of St. Pius X."

He said: "It is the Holy Father's wish that this dicastery additionally offers its services to satisfy the just aspirations of those who, due to a particular sensitivity -- without being linked to either of the two groups I've mentioned -- desire to keep alive the former Latin liturgy in the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments."

Ending schism

However, the cardinal confirmed that "without a doubt, the most important task, which concerns the entire Church, is looking to put an end to the schismatic act and reconstruct, without ambiguousness, full communion."

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos recalled that before being elected Pope, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger served on the commission.

"[The Holy Father] wishes that the commission become an organization of the Holy See with the particular and distinct aim of conserving and maintaining the value of the traditional Latin liturgy," Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos said. "But it should be clearly affirmed that this does not mean a going back, a return to the times before the reform of 1970.

"Instead, it means a generous offer of the Vicar of Christ, who, as an expression of his pastoral will, wants to put the treasures of the Latin liturgy that nourished the spiritual life of so many generation of faithful Catholics for so many centuries at the disposal of the entire Church.

"The recovery of this richness is united to the not-less-precious current liturgy of the Church."

Cardinal Castrillón Hoyos explained that the Pope intends to extend to the entire Church the possibility of celebrating Mass and the sacraments according to the liturgical books promulgated by Pope John XXIII in 1962.

He thus seemed to confirm rumors from earlier in the year that Benedict XVI intended to make the Latin Mass more available.

Coexistence

The 77-year-old cardinal mentioned the "good experiences had by communities of religious and apostolic life" that celebrate "this liturgy in peace and serenity." And he recalled that in Brazil, the Diocese of Campos, formerly followers of Lefebvre "and now, after five years, showing good fruits" after their return to full communion.

"The project of the Holy Father has already been partially tested in de Campos where the peaceful cohabitation of the two forms of the only Roman rite in the Church is a beautiful reality," he said. "We have the hopes that this model will produce good fruits, also in other places in the Church where faithful Catholics with distinct liturgical sensitivities live together."

Cardinal Hoyos said that "Ecclesia Dei" oversees some 300 priests and 200 seminarians as well as hundreds of thousands of faithful. He said the Society of St. Pius X has four bishops, ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, 500 priests and about 600,000 faithful.

He asked "that we pray to the Lord so that the Holy Father's project can soon become a reality for the unity of the Church."

Code: ZE07052111

Date: 2007-05-21

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

Key Themes Raised During Visit

By Father John Flynn

ROME, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Brazil, Benedict XVI announced upon arriving in São Paulo on May 9, has a very special place in his heart. The Pope explained that this is due to it being the country with the largest number of Catholics and because of its potential that gives joy and hope for the Church.

During his first trip to the Americas, the Pontiff addressed many important themes in his discourses and homilies. Some of them were directed more toward Brazil, but many of the points raised had implications for the Church as a whole.

Evangelization an urgent task

The need for the Church to be imbued by a missionary attitude was repeatedly mentioned by Benedict XVI. In his brief address upon arriving in Brazil, the Pope commented that the Church has a "deep commitment to the mission of evangelization at the service of the cause of peace and justice" (No. 3).

The Holy Father returned to this theme in his address to some 400 bishops, gathered on May 11 to pray vespers in the Cathedral of São Paulo. God desires all to be saved and to know the truth, he observed. "This, and nothing else, is the purpose of the Church: the salvation of individual souls" (No. 2).

Therefore, there is an urgent need to instruct people in the faith and to celebrate the sacraments. In fact, in explaining why so many have left the Church Benedict XVI argued that: "It seems clear that the principal cause of this problem is to be found in the lack of an evangelization completely centered on Christ and his Church" (No. 3).

In general, he noted, those who are most vulnerable to the activity of the sects or to falling victim to the temptation of secularism and relativism, have been insufficiently evangelized.

The Pope urged the bishops to put into practice a pastoral plan to seek out and welcome back those Catholics who have left the Church, or who know little about Christ.

What must we do to have eternal life?

During his encounter with youth, held at the Pacaembu stadium May 10 in São Paulo, the Pope reflected on the implications of the question the young man made to Jesus when he asked what he should do to have eternal life (cf. Matthew 19:16-22).

We can also understand this interrogatory as meaning: "What must I do so that my life has meaning?" noted the Pontiff (No. 3). "Jesus alone can give us the answer, because he alone can guarantee us eternal life," he added.

Part of the answer, he continued, is to be open to goodness, and to see God in all that is around us and in all that happens. We also need to keep the commandments, but not just by knowing them, we must keep them and give witness in our own lives to them. This is much more than just obeying external rules, Benedict XVI commented. At the heart of the commandments we find both grace and nature, and by following them we fulfill our potential. We only have one life to live and it is important not to squander this opportunity, he urged.

The Pope also encouraged young people to evangelize, and to invite their friends and those around them to encounter Jesus, so they too can experience his love. He invited youth to demonstrate their faith in their commitment to marriage and the family, and to build a more just society.

In all of this it is important to remain close to Jesus through giving sufficient attention to the interior life: "The life of faith and prayer will lead you along the paths of intimacy with God, helping you to understand the greatness of his plans for every person" (No. 5).

The role of bishops

During his address on May 11 to bishops in the Cathedral of São Paulo, the Pope gave some advice on what he saw as the priorities for those chosen to be pastors of the Church. "Fidelity to the primacy of God and of his will, known and lived in communion with Jesus Christ, is the essential gift that we bishops and priests must offer to our people" (No. 2).

Bishops must also ensure that the work of catechesis is carried out properly. The catechist's task, the Holy Father explained, is not to merely communicate "faith experiences," but to be "an authentic herald of revealed truths" (No. 4). This means a faith that is characterized by conversion and discipleship.

Part of this catechesis, he continued, also consists in ensuring the correct implementation of liturgical principles. "For bishops, who are the 'moderators of the Church's liturgical life,' the rediscovery and appreciation of obedience to liturgical norms is a form of witness to the one, universal Church that presides in charity" (No. 4).

Bishops should also avoid any reductive vision of the mission they have been entrusted with, the Pope advised. "It is not enough to look at reality solely from the viewpoint of personal faith; we must work with the Gospel in our hands and anchor ourselves in the authentic heritage of the apostolic Tradition, free from any interpretations motivated by rationalistic ideologies" (No. 5).

The Pope also recommended that the bishops apply the social teaching of the Church in dealing with the economic and social problems of Brazil, and consider issues from the viewpoint of human dignity, which is a vision that rises above the mere interaction of economic forces.

Christ the Savior

On May 13, Benedict XVI gave the inaugural address for the 5th General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean, held near the shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida. In his opening his remarks the Pope commented that the continent can count on a rich Christian culture, five centuries after the initial evangelization, but at the same time faces some serious challenges.

One interesting point raised by the Pontiff dealt with the arrival of the Christian faith in the region. This event meant the arrival of Christ, which the people living in those nations had been seeking, but without realizing it, in their local religious traditions. "Christ is the Savior for whom they were silently longing," the Pope stated (No. 1).

Seen in this perspective, "the proclamation of Jesus and of his Gospel did not at any point involve an alienation of the pre-Columbian cultures, nor was it the imposition of a foreign culture," he argued.

Turning to the challenges to be considered by the bishops, the Holy Father mentioned globalization. This brings with it benefits, he noted, but at the same time the risk of economic priorities dominating society. Globalization, like other activities, must be guided by ethics, the Pope exhorted.

He also spoke of progress made towards democracy in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. There are, however, still some regimes that follow ideologies that do not correspond to the Christian vision of man and society.

We must, the Pontiff enjoined, avoid the error of considering material goods as the only reality in our lives. This is the mistake made in the last century by both the Marxist and capitalist systems. "Only those who recognize God know reality and are able to respond to it adequately and in a truly human manner," he commented (No. 3).

Part of his address laid out what the Pope saw as priorities for the renewal of the Church. In this respect he mentioned the family, the role of priests and religious, and the mission entrusted to the laity.

In his words Benedict XVI observed that the region has been referred to as the continent of hope. He also augured that it could become the continent of love. An aspiration no doubt seconded by many.

Code: ZE07052129

Date: 2007-05-21

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Last Updated: 19 February 2013

VATICAN CITY, MAY 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- After five years without an official meeting, the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission formed by representatives of the Holy See and Israel say they made important progress.

Today's meeting, originally scheduled for March but postponed after the Israeli delegates cancelled at the last minute, aimed to advance the negotiations on the 1993 Fundamental Agreement, signed by the Holy See and Israel.

The eight-member delegation of the Holy See was led by Monsignor Pietro Parolin, undersecretary for relations with states of the Vatican Secretariat of State.

Aaron Abramovich, director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led Israel's nine-member delegation.

According to a Vatican statement: "The talks took place in an atmosphere of great cordiality, mutual understanding and good will, and produced important progress and hope for yet further advances in the coming months.

"The next meeting of the plenary will take place in the first half of December this year, in Israel, and in the meantime the commission will continue upon its task at the 'working level.'"

Code: ZE07052119

Date: 2007-05-21