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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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"The heart of all mankind ... thirsts for love," said the Holy Father in his homily. "Christians, even more so, cannot live without love. Indeed, if they do not find true love they cannot even call themselves fully Christian because, ... 'being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.'
"God's love for us," he added, "which began with the creation, became visible in the mystery of the Cross. ... A crucified love that does not stop at the outrage of Good Friday but culminates in the joy of the Resurrection ... and the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love by which, this evening too, sins will be remitted and forgiveness and peace granted."
This divine love "may be described with the term 'agape,' in other words 'the self-giving love of one who looks exclusively for the good of the other,' but also with the term 'eros'" because "it is also a love in which the heart of the Almighty awaits the 'yes' of His creatures." And "in the sacrifice of the Cross, God continues to present His love ... coming 'to beg' the love of His creatures."
"With Baptism you were born to new life by virtue of the grace of God. However, since this new life has not suppressed the weakness of human nature, ... you are given the opportunity to use the Sacrament of Confession. ... And thus you experience the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; the recovery, if lost, of the state of grace; ... peace and serenity of conscience and the consolation of the spirit; and an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian struggle."
Christ "hopes we will allow ourselves to be attracted by His love and feel all its greatness and beauty, but this is not enough. Christ attracts us to Him in order to unite Himself to each one of us, so that, in our turn, we learn to love our brothers and sisters with His same love."
"As you leave this celebration, with your hearts full of the experience of God's love, be prepared 'to dare' to love in your families, in your dealings with your friends and even with those who have offended you. Be prepared to bear a truly Christian witness" in all environments.
Benedict XVI called upon newly-engaged couples to experience the period of their engagement "in the true love which always involves mutual, chaste and responsible respect. And should the Lord call some of you, dear young people of Rome, to a life of special consecration, be ready to answer with a generous and uncompromising 'yes'."
"Dear young people, the world awaits your contribution for the building of the 'civilization of love.' ... Do not become discouraged and always have faith in Christ and in the Church."
Following the liturgy the Pope put on a purple stole and entered the confessional to administer the Sacrament of Penance to six young people. Fifty-five priests joined him in administering the Sacrament to others present in the Vatican Basilica.
HML/PENANCE/... VIS 070330 (600)
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WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Pro-Life Secretariat of the U.S. bishops' conference applauded Senators Sam Brownback and Mary Landrieu for reintroducing the Human Cloning Prohibition Act.
Shortly before the House of Representatives approved a similar bill in 2003, the bishops' Committee for Pro-Life Activities urged Congress to "ban this practice outright." It said at the time: "Cloning dehumanizes human procreation, treating new human life as a mere laboratory product made to specifications."
Today, Deirdre McQuade, a spokeswoman for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities, said: "The Human Cloning Prohibition Act has clear precedent domestically and overseas. Five states and over 20 countries have similar complete bans on cloning.
"The United Nations has urged its member nations to enact such bans to preserve human dignity and protect women's health."
McQuade added: "The cloning agenda poses a tremendous risk to women, as it would require exploiting countless women as egg factories. Women have died from the hormonal manipulation required for egg extraction. Others have become seriously ill or lost their natural fertility at a young age."
The bishops' aide stated: "We urge other senators to support and co-sponsor this vital legislation to protect women as well as embryonic humans from exploitation."
Code: ZE07032926
Date: 2007-03-29
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Westminster's Cardinal Focuses on Service to the Common Good
LONDON, MARCH 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor of Westminster signaled his concern about the kind of culture British society is producing as religion is pushed to the margins.
On the occasion of the 30th Thomas Corbishley Memorial Lecture on Wednesday at Westminster Cathedral Hall, the archbishop said there was a need for reasoned debate on the issue so that society could forge a meeting place for all.
A public space that is genuinely plural requires the presence of religion, the cardinal said in his address entitled "The Kingdom of God and this World: the Church in Public Life."
The 74-year-old prelate spoke of religious freedom as being more than the freedom to worship.
"It is the freedom to serve the common good according to the convictions of our faith," he said. He emphasized this point not just for Catholic belief, but for the sake of democracy and British culture as a whole.
"The freedom to put religion into practice is vital to the health of British democracy," Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor asserted. "True democracy offers a framework for a peaceful exchange of differences, because in the civilized interplay of opposed beliefs, truth and justice have a better chance of being discerned.
"A democracy is, essentially, an act of faith in human good will and reason. The faith that what we have in common is greater than what divides us, and therefore in the public sphere we must always seek to include rather than exclude what we disagree with.
"As a lawyer wittily concluded, we should not show 'liberal tolerance only to tolerant liberals.'"
Ethical hunger
The English cardinal continued: "If modern Britain faces a challenge today, it is to recover the language and the spirit of the age of democracy, to forge a meeting place for all citizens. The public sphere is the forum of collective reasoning, and it cannot be a space empty of tradition and particular belief.
"A tolerant society is not one without constitutive beliefs, since its tolerance flows from a very constitutive belief. There is an ethical hunger in our society and it would be tragic if religious convictions did not have a voice in meeting that hunger."
The archbishop of Westminster pointed out that the Catholic Church "claims only its legitimate part in the political process -- to assist the very reasoning which is fundamental to the pursuit of justice."
"The Church's task," he said, "is not to propose technical solutions to questions of governance or economic activity, but to help to form a social culture based on justice, solidarity and truth, for the common good. That is a culture that can form the kind of people who can develop those solutions against a transcendent moral horizon.
"The Church's task is of nurturing, to assist a public debate that is tolerant, reasoned and inclusive, but within a moral framework which seeks to defend and promote justice and human flourishing."
"We Catholics," concluded Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, "and here I am sure I speak, too, for other Christians and all people of faith -- do not demand special privileges, but we do claim our rights. We come not to impose, but to serve, according to our beliefs; and to be given the freedom and support to do so, as long as these do not undermine the rights and freedoms of others.
"I appeal to the good sense and fairness of the British people, and to the traditions which have shaped this great nation. I appeal to the need to keep faith with those traditions, lest we pass into a new intolerance which will over time shake the tree of our democracy free of its spiritual fruit."
Code: ZE07032923
Date: 2007-03-29
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Address Made at Council in Geneva
GENEVA, MARCH 29, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See has told the Human Rights Council in Geneva that "the first right of the child is to be born."
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Holy See's permanent observer to the U.N. offices and agencies in Geneva, made that point during a recent address to the watchdog council.
Speaking to the fourth session of the recently established council, the papal representative recalled that "The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child attributes to the child the fundamental rights of a person; it recognizes the child to have the same equality and dignity as any adult person."
"In many cases, due to lack of will and of resources, good legal provisions and public policies are not implemented, with grave consequences for children," the prelate affirmed, according to the Vatican Information Service. "They often become the first victims of famines and wars."
On the other hand, the nuncio added, "To many children the right to life is denied; prenatal selection eliminates both babies suspected of having disabilities and female children simply because of their sex, and thus denies the equal and intrinsic value of disabled persons and of girls for their families and for society."
Archbishop Tomasi last Friday underlined that "the first right of children is that of being born and educated in a welcoming and secure family environment where their physical, psychological and spiritual growth is guaranteed, their potential is developed, and where the awareness of personal dignity becomes the base for relating to others and for confronting the future."
The permanent observer recalled: "The Catholic Church's over 300,000 social, caring and educational institutions work daily to ensure both a peace-oriented and creative education for children, and the development of their talents, and to provide the reintegration of abused and neglected children into their families, if possible, and into society.
"To pursue the defense of their rights and the elimination of all forms of violence against them remains an institutional challenge for the international community.
"Success will be reached if priority is given to the natural role of the family and to the public culture that recognizes that children too are full human persons."
Code: ZE07032925
Date: 2007-03-29
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April 8, 2007
Holy Pascha
The Feast of Feasts
"Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death,
And to those in the tombs granting life."
(Troparion of the Feast of Pascha)
To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Christ is Risen!
On this most sacred of Feasts in our Church, we gather together in joy and in love, celebrating the presence of the Risen Lord in our midst, and singing with one voice the triumphant hymn "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and to those in the tombs granting life."
This day of the Resurrection marks the beginning of an explosion of joy that comes immediately after the spiritually intense period of Great Lent and Holy Week, and this beautiful hymn captures in three verses the fundamental message of the Feast of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a message of victory, of love, and of hope in life everlasting. On this day, and throughout the Paschal season over the next several weeks, we proclaim this message of victory, love, and hope together in song through this beautiful hymn at the beginning of each divine service in our Church. This hymn, simple in form yet deep in power, is worthy of studying as we seek to fully understand our celebration of Holy Pascha, the Feast of Feasts of our Orthodox Church.
The first verse of this hymn expresses the facticity and reality of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, "Christ is risen from the dead." The reality of the resurrection has been a distinguishing feature of Christianity from the earliest of times. St. Paul expresses this idea to the Corinthians by a paradoxical statement: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins" (I Corinthians 15:17). In the same context, St. Paul declares unequivocally that Christ has been raised from the dead, that He appeared after His resurrection to as many as five hundred people at one time, most of whom were still alive when St. Paul was writing. (I Corinthians 15:6). For us today, the assuring words of this Epistle continue to provide us with their intended effect, which is that our faith in Christ is not futile and that, because of the reality of His resurrection, we are no longer held captive to our sins.
The second verse of the Paschal hymn explains to us the extraordinary manner by which Christ conquered death’s dominion over us once and for all: "Trampling death by death." When Jesus was crucified, He took on the sins of all humanity and suffered a death the intensity of which remains truly incomprehensible to us as human beings. This demonstrates the unending love of our God, Who took on human flesh and Who died on a Cross for our salvation. By submitting Himself to death, Christ not only annihilated sin but also death. The final defeat of the archenemy death could not happen but only through death itself, not an ordinary death, however, but the death of God who became man.
The third and final verse of the beautiful hymn of Pascha reveals the very essence of the feast, for it encapsulates the full consequence of Christ’s resurrection from the dead: "And to those in the tombs granting life." To all of us on this day then, this is a day of promise and of hope for life everlasting with Him. This last verse reiterates the message that St. Paul was communicating to the Romans when he wrote that as Christians we are dead to sin but alive in Christ: "We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). This is the message of our Orthodox Christian faith which we celebrate on this day, and indeed every day of our earthly lives. It is a message that proclaims our ultimate victory and triumph over all forces of darkness that attempt to impede our progress on the road of salvation toward eternal life with Christ Jesus. This is our destiny as Orthodox Christians, for we have been saved by Christ Who offers us the opportunity to live eternally with Him in the kingdom of God 's joy.
It is in this spirit that our repeated chanting of this triumphant hymn will enable us to come closer and closer toward understanding the power of its saving message: Christ is Risen! Truly the Lord is Risen! May the joy and eternal peace of the Risen Christ abide with all of you, and may you walk "in the newness of life" in Christ forever.
With my warmest Paschal wishes
And love in the Risen Christ,
+ DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America
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Because of this new 24 hour, 7 day a week, ministry, OCN has more opportunities than ever to share the timeless beauty of Orthodoxy with so many. It also means we have more time to share the rich talents of our Orthodox clergy.
In the next few weeks OCN is thrilled to announce that the following Orthodox priests will start offering their thoughts and insight into life as an Orthodox Christian on a regular basis. It is a veritable list of “who’s who” among the men who serve the Orthodox Church here in the United States and a witness of OCN's commitment to a pan-Orthodox witness to America.
Fr. John Behr
Dean - St. Vladimir’s Seminary – Crestwood, NY
Fr. Bill Chiganos
Pastor – Holy Apostles Greek Orthodox Church, Westchester, IL
Fr. Stephen Freeman
Pastor – St. Anne Orthodox Church (OCA), Oak Ridge, TN
Fr. Antony Gabriel
Pastor – St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church, Montreal, Canada
Fr. Stanley Harakas
Pastor, St. Nicholas Chapel, Brooksville, FL
Fr. David Hester
Pastor – St. Mary’s Antiochian Orthodox Church, Wilkes-Barre, PA
Fr. Thomas Hopko
Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary – Crestwood, NY
Fr. Christopher P. Makiej
Pastor – SS. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, Andover, MA
Fr. Michel Najim
Dean – St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral, Los Angeles, CA
Rev. Dr. Christopher Metropulos, founder and Executive Director of OCN, said “These men are powerful teachers of the Orthodox faith and we at OCN are honored that they have agreed to share their insights on The Ark. This is the value of this new technology. We now have a powerful way to share the messages and ministry of these men with the whole country”
Visit our web site at www.receive.org and listen to The Ark to hear these new teaching program resources and podcasts. And keep watching our site for our second radio ministry – the Rudder – that will feature Orthodox liturgical music from all over the world.
OCN is a commissioned agency of SCOBA, the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, and our Orthodox hierarchs have directed OCN to find effective ways to use modern media to raise awareness of our Orthodox faith in the minds of the general population and to be an “assistant” to local parish priests in keeping our faithful attached to the Church between worship services.
For more information contact:
Chuck Powell, Development Director
877-273-2348