Italian state broadcaster RAI said on Thursday it has reached an agreement with cell phone operators TIM and Vodafone to broadcast the 84-year-old Pontiff's Midnight Mass from the Vatican on Dec. 24 as well as his Christmas Day message and blessing at 1100 GMT on Friday.
Particularly, the Pope expressed his deep love for the innocents who have suffered and sacrificed in the wars around the world. He lamented the millions of lives lost in his "beloved Africa"; the "torn fabric of mutual understanding" in Palestine; "terrorist violence that appears to be driving the whole world towards a future of fear and anguish"; and the situation in Iraq, "which has given rise to uncertainty and insecurity for all".
The Holy Father stressed that he "shares the deep pain which you and your people have experience in these last years," and urged the American bishops "to persevere joyfully in the ministry entrusted to you."
The scandal, John Paul II said, had given the Church in America "a providential call to conversion and deeper fidelity." The crisis, he added, gave the American bishops an opportunity for "to begin the new millennium by starting afresh from Christ."
The pope said that for Christians the full expression of thanksgiving comes in the Eucharist.
"In every Mass, we bless the Lord, God of the universe, presenting to Him the bread and wine as fruits of the earth and human labor. To these simple foods Christ has linked His own sacrificial gift," he said.
"You're crazy to make a film about me. What did I ever do?" he said.
The actor admitted to being lost for words when he met the pontiff. [...]
The film begins in Poland with the Pope as a 10-year-old boy, and culminates with his election in 1978.
Pope John Paul went on to say that he prays for "those beloved Iraqi people who are working so hard to rebuild the institutions of their own land," and urged all Christians to cooperate in the process of reconstruction.
The Pope's remarks on Iraq came after a short catechetical address in which he commented once again on Psalm 48, continuing his remarks from the last week's audience. He spoke once again about "the illusion created by the idolatry of riches."
In contrast to last year's gala celebrations of his quarter-century in office, which included a twilight Mass at the exact hour of John Paul's election, a consistory to create new cardinals and the beatification of Mother Teresa, the 26th anniversary is a low-key event.
The Red Army Chorus will give a concert in the pope's honor in the Paul VI Audience Hall on Friday night, but Saturday will be a regular working day.
John Paul has been promised at least one 26th anniversary present, however -- a 1:5 scale model of the fire-engine red Ferrari F2004 Formula 1 racer that is in line to win both the constructors' and drivers' championships again this year.
He was loudly applauded at Drogheda when he said, in a direct address to the consciences of both terrorists and politicians: "I appeal to you in language of passionate pleading.
"On my knees I beg you to turn away from the paths of violence and return to the ways of peace."
He continued: "To Catholics, to Protestants, my message is peace and love. May no Irish Protestant think the Pope is an enemy, a danger or a threat."
The Pope's talks with the Romanian leader will likely focus on the tense relations between Eastern-rite Romanian Catholics, who make up 5 percent of the population, and the Romanian Orthodox majority. The Roman Catholic Church, having suffered brutal persecution under the Communist regime, is still seeking to regain control of church properties that were confiscated and handed over to the Orthodox.
But this country's Catholic football players seem unlikely to hang up their boots on the sabbath on the basis of the papal scolding, as a spokesman for the Marist Rugby Federation indicated yesterday there was time for both prayer and sports.
Pope John Paul II told an eight-strong delegation of New Zealand Catholic leaders on a five-yearly visit to the Vatican that their supreme day of faith must not be unduly dominated by entertainment and sport.
When Sunday became subordinate to a popular concept of weekend, people remained trapped in a relentless and often meaningless pursuit of novelty, the 84-year-old pontiff and occasional rugby fan said in a partly-read address on Tuesday to Cardinal Tom Williams and his New Zealand bishops.
Speaking on the day Roman Catholics commemorate the birth of the Madonna, the Pope said it was outrageous that children had found hate and death within the walls of a school.
"Looking at the infant Mary, how can we not think of all the little innocents at Beslan, in Ossetia, victims of a barbarous kidnapping who were tragically cut down," he said, having some difficulty pronouncing his words at his general audience.
"They were in a school, a place where one learns values that give meaning to history, to culture and the civilisation of peoples: mutual respect, solidarity, justice and peace," he said in halting Italian.
The Baptist’s martyrdom, the Pope said, reminds us of the "martyrs of the faith" and the many Christians "who last century suffered religious hatred in various European countries."
Today, the Pope added, there are martyrs still, "believers subject to hardships in many parts of the world for following Christ and His Church."
To these Christians the Pope pledged "the solidarity of the entire Church community."
THE Pope hinted yesterday that he hoped the return to Russia of a revered Orthodox icon would enable him to pay a visit to Moscow, fulfilling one of his last remaining travel ambitions.
At an elaborate ceremony in the Vatican, to the sound of Byzantine chants used in the Russian Church, the Pope gave the icon of the Madonna of Kazan to a delegation who will take it to Russia today after public veneration in Rome.
The Pope hopes the gesture will start a thaw in icy Catholic-Orthodox relations and help heal the thousand-year schism in the church between East and West.
Pope John Paul on Sunday condemned human cloning as an arrogant attempt to improve on God's creation. "The sense of power that every technical progress inspires in man is well known," the pope said in a message sent from his summer residence in Castelgandolfo to a meeting of prominent Catholic cultural, political and business leaders in the Italian city of Rimini.
"The attempt by man to appropriate the source of life by experimenting with human cloning is example enough," he said in a message sent at the start of the week-long event.
The Vatican said John Paul would fly on Sept. 5 from his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, to Loreto, an Italian town near the Adriatic which is home to a shrine to the Virgin Mary. There the 84-year-old pope will celebrate a stamina-testing two-hour outdoor Mass.
...Vatican officials have raised the possibility the pope might make a pilgrimage to Istanbul, Turkey, taking up the invitation of a Christian Orthodox leader, in the coming months.
The Vatican confirmed that Pope John Paul II is ready to mediate between Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr and US-led occupation forces.
A spokesman for al-Sadr, whose forces are locked in an intense battle inside the city with US-led troops, has already welcomed the proposal.
But Vatican spokesman Ciro Benedettini told journalists on Tuesday the Pope was only willing to mediate if requested to do so by both sides in the conflict.
THE Pope may have been making his final farewell at Lourdes, a cardinal said yesterday.
Godfried Danneels said the pontiff was 'seriously weakened' during his weekend pilgrimage to the French shrine.
Danneels was with Pope John Paul II, who has Parkinson's disease.
...The 84-year-old pontiff, who also suffers crippling hip and knee problems, trembled as he celebrated Mass for an estimated 300,000 pilgrims at a shrine to the Virgin Mary.
The Vatican reiterated its firm opposition yesterday to human cloning after the British government gave a research team permission to use human cloning for medical research purposes.
"The Holy Father has always unequivocally condemned all forms of human cloning, even for therapeutic purposes," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said.
..."Science itself points to other forms of therapeutic intervention which would not involve cloning or the use of embryonic cells, but rather would make use of stem cells taken from adults," the head of the Roman Catholic Church told an international congress of transplant specialists in 2000.
"This is the direction that research must follow if it wishes to respect the dignity of each and every human being, even at an embryonic stage," the Pope said.
Pope John Paul II will once again thrust aside concerns over his failing health when he travels to the French Pyrenees town of Lourdes next weekend for the 104th foreign visit of his pontificate
...After his arrival on Saturday, the pope will say the Angelus at the grotto. Later in the day, he will recite the rosary there and preside over the recitation of the Stations of the Cross, ending at the basilica of Lourdes where he is to read a prayer to close the ceremony. In the evening he will preside over a torchlit procession from the grotto to the town’s huge basilica where the pontiff will read a prayer he himself has written.
The next day, the pope will go to the sacristy of the Church of Sainte Bernadette near the Sanctuary of Lourdes where he will celebrate mass and deliver a homily.
Pope John Paul II today demanded Marxist Colombian rebels immediately release a Roman Catholic bishop they are holding, denouncing the kidnapping as an unjustifiable "criminal action."
Bishop Misael Vacca Ramirez of Yopal was seized yesterday by members of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, the smaller of Colombia's two main rebel groups...
The Vatican said the pope was deeply concerned by what he described as a "criminal action, in no way justifiable," and called for the bishop's immediate release.
From Yahoo! News:
ROME - Pope John Paul (news - web sites) II ended a 12-day vacation in the Italian Alps on Saturday, taking up residence in the papal retreat in the Alban Hills outside Rome for the rest of the summer.
John Paul will stay at the papal palace in Castel Gandolfo through mid-September, except for a brief pilgrimage to Lourdes, France, in mid-August.
Pope John Paul II has accepted “in principle” an invitation to visit both parts of Ireland, although a trip this year appears unlikely, Catholic leaders announced Friday.
Catholic bishops last month invited the pope to come to Ireland to mark the 25th anniversary of his first visit to the country in 1979. Unlike that trip, this visit would include the British territory of Northern Ireland.
Pope John Paul II will give a revered icon that often hangs in his private chapel back to Russia next month in an effort to sweeten the sometimes sour relations between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Vatican said Saturday that on Aug. 28, a Roman Catholic delegation will give the Mother of God of Kazan icon to Patriarch Aleksy II, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The icon, which appeared in the Russian city of Kazan in 1579, disappeared to the West around the time of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution.
The Vatican reported a deficit for the third consecutive year Wednesday but an increase in donations provided a bright spot at a time of some dismal financial news for the Catholic Church because of settlements from the sex abuse scandal.
In its annual financial report, the Vatican listed a 2003 deficit of about $11.8 million, 30 percent lower than than the 2002 figure. It reduced the shortfall despite the costs for the Holy See's expanding diplomatic missions.
At the same time, it reported an increase in contributions to the pope, known as Peter's Pence, which it said were used for various humanitarian relief efforts around the world and for the Catholic Church in the Holy Land.
Pope John Paul II leaves the Vatican today for a two-week stay in northern Italy's Aosta Valley.
No public activities are planned, and no stream of visitors will be coming through the door of his wood-and-stone chalet...
At the end of two weeks, the Holy Father returns to his summer villa at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome until the end of September.
"No to war! War is not always inevitable. It is always a defeat for humanity."
"When war, as in these days in Iraq, threatens the fate of humanity, it is ever more urgent to proclaim, with a strong and decisive voice, that only peace is the road to follow to construct a more just and united society... Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men."
-Pope John Paul II, on the American attack on Iraq
The Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople has invited Pope John Paul II to visit him in November at his headquarters in the Turkish city of Istanbul.
"I have the impression that he will be able to come on November 30 for the feast of Saint Andrew," Patriarch Bartholomew I said Friday on the last day of his visit to the Vatican.
The patriarch's visit to Rome marks a "leap ahead in dialogue and the strengthening of fraternal relations" between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, the pope said Tuesday.
Pope John Paul II sent to a message to Iraq's interim president Wednesday, saying he was praying that the hopes of the Iraqi people for "peace, freedom and prosperity" will soon be fulfilled.
The message to Ghazi al-Yawer said the worldwide Catholic Church is offering its support as a "new chapter begins in the life of the nation."
"The Holy Father is confident that all religious groups within the country will be able to make their voices heard," the message said.
According to Jeannette Wall's Scoop, "the Vatican is holding a special summit with Catholic leaders from around the world, hammering out a way to deal with so-called 'New Age' religions and fads that pose a 'threat' to Christianity.
"The council, which met last week, singled out 'Kabbalah as espoused by Madonna' — as well as a number of other faddish religions, according to a report."
Madonna a threat to Christianity?
Vatican sources are no longer ruling out a visit to Ireland by Pope John Paul II...
Last week, Vatican sources dismissed the invitation, but reports this morning said they were no longer ruling out the possibility of a visit and were suggesting that Pope John Paul may decide to accept travel to Ireland in the autumn or next spring.
VATICAN CITY, JUN 22, 2004 (VIS) - This morning John Paul II received in audience Fra' Andrew Bertie, prince and grand master of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. The Pope told him that the Holy See "appreciates the numerous services that your institution offers to the service of evangelization and, in particular, the many positive initiatives that it constantly promotes for the needy."
"I assure you that I pray for you," he said, "so that God, through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, may bless every project of your institution, and I encourage you to continue generously along the path of fidelity to Christ and His Church."
John Paul pressed for a "common commitment of institutions and citizens to completely ban" what he called an "intolerable violation of human rights." He said acts of torture are "radically contrary to the dignity of man."
"As we prepare to welcome the Ecumenical Patriarch I invite all to pray for the complete unity of Christians. May the Virgin Mary intercede to this effect, and may the Holy Mother of God, to whom the Eastern Christians are so devoted, make the memory of the embrace between Paul VI and Atenagora I encourage a renewed commitment to communion of Catholics and Orthodox.”
The Catholic hierarchy in Ireland is reported to be considering inviting the Pope to the country later this year to mark the 25th anniversary of his 1979 visit.
Reports this morning said the decision to invite Pope John Paul II on an official visit was made in principle at a meeting of the Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth last week.
The reports said the Government would have to approve any such visit, which would also depend on the Pontiff’s health.
The research, presented at a news conference, grew out of a conference of historians and other scholars in 1998 at the Vatican as John Paul sought to objectively assess the Inquisition, which stretched from the 13th to the 19th centuries...
"Before seeking pardon, it is necessary to have a precise knowledge of the facts," John Paul wrote in a letter Tuesday in which he expressed his "strong appreciation" for the research, which is contained in a 783-page book. For the public, "the image of the Inquisition represents almost the symbol ... of scandal," the pope wrote.
The title 'Pope' is an informal one; the formal title of the Pope is 'Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province, Sovereign of the State of the Vatican City, Servant of the Servants of God', although this is rarely seen or used in full...
BERN, Switzerland -- Pope John Paul II paid tribute Sunday to former President Ronald Reagan, recalling his efforts to bring down communism that "changed the lives of millions of people," a Vatican spokesman said.
On the second-day of a 32-hour pilgrimage to Switzerland, John Paul learned of Reagan's death with "sadness" and immediately prayed for the "eternal rest of his soul," said papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
The pope and the Reagan White House worked closely in the 1980s in efforts to promote the Solidarity labor movement in the pope's native Poland and to end the Soviet grip on eastern Europe.
ROME, Vatican City, Jun. 13 (UPI) -- A Roman Catholic newspaper says President George W. Bush asked a Vatican official to help push American bishops on certain cultural issues.
Bush made the request during a June 4 meeting with Cardinal Angelo Sodano, after his meeting with the pope, the New York Times reported Sunday.
"Bush said, 'Not all the American bishops are with me' on the cultural issues, especially the battle against gay marriage,'" and asked for the Vatican's help in encouraging the U.S. bishops to be more outspoken," according to National Catholic Reporter."
