THE CONCHO PADRE POST

A Norwegian gunman disguised as a police officer shot his victims one by one, claiming at least 84 lives. The massacre at an island youth camp has horrified Norway.

The island tragedy Friday unfolded hours after a massive explosion ripped through a high-rise building housing the prime minister’s office in Oslo, killing seven people.

It is the biggest disaster to hit Norway since World War II. This is the assessment of Archbishop Paul Tscherrig, the Apostolic Nuncio to the country. He called the attack a “great catastrophe”, and emphasized Norway is a peaceful country, which is very democratic and free, and this violence is a gigantic blow to the entire population.

“It is madness,” Archbishop Tscherrig told Vatican Radio. “All these actions are irrational, and difficult to comprehend, whether they had personal or political reasons. In any case, it is always an unbelievable thing.”

He said Catholic Church is praying for the victims, and will remember the dead during their Sunday Mass.

Courtesy Vatican Information Service/Vatican Radio

Word has been received from the Apostolic Nunciature (Vatican Embassy) in Washington that our beloved Nuncio (Ambassador) Archbishop Pietro Sambi is critically ill at the Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore. He has apparently suffered complications from a surgery earlier this week. Reports say that the Nuncio is on a respirator while the medical team is trying to get his lungs to function. Let us pray for the Nuncio who has served both the Holy See and the Church in the United States so well for the past years.

The Concho Padre

The Church in the Holy Land faces the prospect of extinction, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem said at a conference in London.

“The Christian presence is threatened by virtual extinction, and the land of Jesus cannot become an equivalent of a spiritual Disneyland with beautiful buildings, historic sites and museums on display,” said Patriarch Fouad Twal.

“All people–Jews, Christians, and Muslims–suffer the consequences of the conflict,” he said. “Occupation is a terrible image for any democratic State, as it is horrible for the people of the occupied areas, where hatred and aversion are fostered and nurtured. We are aware of the persecution and suffering of our Christians in some Muslim countries in the region, but this is not an excuse to forget the dire reality of our situation in the Holy Land.”

Warning that “the possibilities for a just resolution are rapidly decreasing,” Patriarch Twal added that “the forces of extremism are growing and gaining followers and supporters.” He called upon Christians in the West to support the Christian institutions in the Holy Land. After all, these are the institutions that provide decent employment opportunities for our Christian youth, and these are the institutions that provide quality services in education, health and social services to the whole population, mostly a non-Christian population. This solidifies the presence of the living stones.

VATICAN CITY, 22 JUL 2011 (VIS) – Benedict XVI’s elder brother Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, who until 1994 was director of the famous cathedral choir of Regensburg, has completed a book entitled “Mein Bruder, der Papst” (My Brother the Pope), written in collaboration with the German journalist Michael Hesemann.

The 256-page volume, illustrated with forty photographs, contains the memories of the Holy Father’s brother, as recounted to Hesemann in Regensburg earlier this year. It has been published by the German publishing house Herbig and will go on sale in bookshops on 12 September, the eve of Benedict XVI’s visit to Germany.

The culminating moment of the narrative is the sixtieth anniversary of the priestly ordination of Georg and Joseph Ratzinger. The two brothers were ordained in Freising on 29 June 1951 and this year celebrated their anniversary together in St. Peter’s Basilica. The memories of Msgr. Ratzinger, the Holy Father’s closest relative, go back to the brothers’ childhood as he narrates, among other things, the flowering of Joseph’s priestly vocation in the bosom of the family and his subsequent years of service to the Church before being elected to the Papacy.

Courtesy Vatican Information Service

Well, the news is out!

PHILADELPHIA

This morning Pope Benedict XVI named Archbishop Charles Chaput, OFM, Cap., of Denver, to be the Archbishop of Philadelphia, succeeding Cardinal Justin Rigali, who submitted his resignation in April of 2010 having reached the mandatory resignation age of 75.

Archbishop Chaput, 66, becomes the 9th Archbishop of the City of Brotherly Love. He is known as a no-nonsense leader, a staunch defender of the faith, and a regular participant in the public forum in all types of media. More than likely, he will be given the red hat of a cardinal after his predecessor turns 80 some four years from now.

Archbishop Chaput enterred the Capuchin Franciscans in 1965 and was ordained a priest on August 29, 1970. He served in various assignments with the Capuchins, and was elected provincial in 1983. In 1988 he was named Bishop of Rapid City, and in February 1997 was named Archbishop of Denver.

SAVANNAH

Also this morning, the Holy Father named Conventual Franciscan Father Gregory John Hartmayer, currently serving in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, to be Bishop of Savannah, Georgia. The 59-year-old pastor succeeds Bishop John Kevin Boland, whose resignation was accepted due to his reaching the age of 75.

He was ordained a priest on May 5, 1979, and has served in many assignments for the Conventual Franciscans. During his assignments within the Atlanta Archdiocese he served as moderator of the Presbyteral Council, and represented religious priests on the same council. He was a member of the Archdiocesan College of Consultors, director of programs for new priests, and a member of the committee for the ongoing formation of priests since 2008.

Let us pray for these men as they begin these special ministries entrusted to them by our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

The Concho Padre