In Brief
Charles de Foucauld will be beatified on November 13.
Last July 12, Msgr. Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Secretariat of State, announced in a letter addressed to Msgr. Maurice Bouvier, postulator of the cause, the beatification of Charles de Foucauld (1858-1916) set for Sunday, November 13, 2005.
The producers of mass wine are worried
A constant decline in the consumption of mass wine in Europe is affecting the wine producers. This was revealed in a recent communiqué of the profession, which mentioned that the quality of mass wines would suffer.
The search for a “personality of high caliber” for the post of Vatican ambassador
The British minister of Foreign Affairs placed announcements in the London dailies for the post of Vatican ambassador. The required profile: “proven political and strategic ability, diplomatic and human capacities, but also a good knowledge of the art of governing”; must speak French and Italian. This position offers a salary of between 42,640.00 and 60,405.00 pounds per year (between 61,475.00 and 87,090.00 euros), with lodging and an entertainment budget of 8,650.00 euros per year. The new ambassador will replace Kathryn Colvin, who will leave her post next September, after three years of service.
Theft at the Franciscan library of Paris
The Franciscan library of the Capuchins in Paris, situated in the 14th arrondissement, offers a collection of 90,000 works. A representative of the library, remarking the mention of a manuscript of the 15th century of the Rule of St. Claire at an auction was, after checking, able to confirm its disappearance to the police. In the month of July, it was established that 16 other manuscripts had disappeared, each worth about 10,000.00 euros. The theft must have taken place during repairs made to the library in 2003.
Harry Potter “disintegrates the spirit of Christianity”
On July 13, 2005, three days before the release of the 6th volume of Harry Potter Harry Potter and the Prince of Mixed Blood the internet site LifeSiteNews.com revealed two letters from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dated the 7th and 27th of March, 2003. The Italian daily Avvenire, the publication of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, published extracts. These were two letters sent to the German Catholic sociologist Gabriele Kuby, author of “Harry Potter, good or bad?” “I thank you for your instructive book”, he writes. “It is good that you shed light on Harry Potter, because these are seductions, which have a surreptitious effect and which thus deform Christianity in the souls of children even before they can develop correctly.” Cardinal Ratizinger suggested to Gabriele Kuby that she address her work to Father Peter Fleedwood. A member of the Pontifical Council on Culture, this English priest presented a document on the New Age in Rome, in April, 2003. He declared at the time that “fairies, magic and angels were not bad and did not serve as the standard for an anti-Christian ideology” and that J.K. Rowlings, the author of Harry Potter, had the intention “to help children to know the difference between good and evil”. The intervention of this ecclesiastic caused the Italian media to run the headline: “The Holy See approves Harry Potter”.
“Da Vinci Code” debated on the web
The British Catholic organization known as The Catholic Agency to Support Evangelization, on the website www.life4seekers.co.uk, shed light on “the infatuation with spiritual things” caused by Dan Brown’s book, The Da Vinci Code. In order to refute, among other things, the affirmation according to which Jesus married Mary Magdalene, Clare Ward, spokeswoman of the agency, said: “We do not wish to demolish the book, but to position ourselves in a constructive way vis-à-vis something that’s a success”. No comment. Elsewhere, in mid-August, Sister Mary Michael led a twelve-hour prayer vigil in front of the Anglican Cathedral of Lincoln, in eastern England, to protest the filming of Da Vinci Code. This 61 year-old Catholic religious has accused the dean of the Anglican Cathedral of simony for having accepted money for the use of the cathedral. The producers of the film are said to have paid 100,000.00 pounds sterling (147,000.00 euros) to the man in charge of the Lincoln cathedral, after the refusal of a similar offer by Westminster Abbey in London.
The “working vacation" of the pope
The vacation of Benedict XVI at Combes d’Introd, in the autonomous Italian region of Val d’Aoste, allowed him, besides long walks and playing the piano, to work toward the completion of a book begun three years ago, according to the spokesman of the Holy See, Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
A “Young Person’s Guide” offered free in Paris
Next September, the Archdiocese of Paris will offer free of charge a work of 52 pages to young people and their parents. The Young Person’s Guide, of which 200,000 copies will be printed, will present different youth movements associated with the Catholic Church and categorized by age group. It will be available in parishes, chapels and Parisian establishments of Catholic education. Msgr. André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, explained that “all the proposals that this guide offers are so many invitations to discover the living Church, and which, in the image of her God, is a Church ever-young”.
