Tirana, Albania, Sep 21, 2014 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis opened his trip to Albania praising the “coexistence” between members of different faiths in the country, while condemning those who “consider themselves to be the 'armour' of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression.” “May no one use religion,” the Pope said, “as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all, the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom!” Such trends lead to “conflict and violence, rather than being an occasion for open and respectful dialogue, and for a collective reflection on what it means to believe in God and to follow his laws.” Addressing the scores of people gathered outside the presidential palace, where he was welcomed by Albania's leaders and diplomatic corps, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for the invitation to Albania, an nation he described as “a land of heroes” and “of martyrs.” Acknowledging the efforts made over the past quarter century on a path towards “rediscovered freedom,” he stressed that “respect for human rights,” especially religious freedom and freedom of expression, “is the preliminary condition for a country’s social and economic development.” “When the dignity of the human person is respected and his or her rights recognized and guaranteed,” the Pope said, “creativity and interdependence thrive, and the potential of the human personality is unleashed through actions that further the common good.” The Holy Father praised the “peaceful coexistence and collaboration that exists among followers of different religions” as a “beautiful characteristic” of the country, adding that it is “an inestimable benefit to peace and to harmonious human advancement.” Such coexistence, he said, must be “protected and nourished” through “education which respects differences and particular identities, so that dialogue and cooperation for the good of all may be promoted and strengthened by mutual understanding and esteem.” Pope Francis lauded the “mutual trust between Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims” which exists as “a precious gift” to Albania, adding that that this trust is especially important at a time in which “authentic religious spirit is being perverted and where religious differences are being distorted and instrumentalized.” He then added that this coexistence is “a gift” for which we need to pray. “May Albania always continue to walk this path, offering to other countries an inspiring example,” he said Addressing Albania's president, Bujar Nishani, the Pope acknowledged that “a winter of isolation and persecution” had ended in the country, and “the springtime of freedom has finally come.” Through “free elections and new institutional structures,” he said, “a democratic pluralism has been consolidated which is now favouring economic activity.” Moreover, the “efforts and sacrifices” of the Albanian people “have improved the life of the nation in general,” he said. Pope Francis went on to laud the re-establishing of the Catholic Church's hierarchy in the country, thereby continuing its long-standing tradition. “Places of worship have been built or rebuilt,” he said, including the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Good Counsel at Scutari, as well as schools and healthcare centers. “The presence of the Church and its activities are therefore rightly seen as a service, not only to the Catholic community, but rather to the whole nation.” Pope Francis added that Blessed Mother Teresa, as well the martyrs of the country, are “most certainly are rejoicing in heaven” due to the work done towards “the flourishing of civil society and the Church in Albania.” Turning to the challenges which stem from “economic and cultural globalization,” the Pope continued, “every effort must be made to ensure that growth and development are put at the service of all and not just limited parts of the population.” He added that such development “will only be authentic” so long as it keeps in mind “the rights of the poor and respect for the environment.” The Holy Father emphasized the need for a “greater respect for creation,” and for the rights of those who serve as a “bridge between the individual and the state,” stressing that family is “the first and foremost of such institutions.” “Today Albania is able to face these challenges in an atmosphere of freedom and stability, two realities which must be strengthened and which form the basis of hope for the future,” he said. Pope Francis concluded his address by recalling Saint John Paul II's 1993 visit, invoking as he did the protection of Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, and “entrusting to her the hopes of the entire Albanian people.” “May God abundantly pour out his grace and blessing upon Albania.” Read more

Tirana, Albania, Sep 21, 2014 / 03:45 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During Mass at Mother Teresa square as part of his one-day trip to Albania, Pope Francis recalled the country's vicious history of anti-religious persecution, saying it is now ready for the Gospel to flourish. “Recalling the decades of atrocious suffering and harsh persecutions against Catholics, Orthodox and Muslims, we can say that Albania was a land of martyrs: many bishops, priests, men and women religious, and laity paid for their fidelity with their lives,” he said Sept. 21. “Demonstrations of great courage and constancy in the profession of the faith are not lacking. How many Christians did not succumb when threatened, but persevered without wavering on the path they had undertaken!” The Pope's comments reference the latter part of the 20th century when Albania was part of the Eastern bloc – atheism was promoted, and religious persons of all confessions persecuted. The activities of Church were hindered, school and seminaries closed, and bishops and priests were killed or arrested. When Albania was officially proclaimed an atheist state in 1967, more than 2,100 churches and mosques were closed. Out of seven bishops and 200 hundred priests and nuns active in Albania in 1945, just one bishop and 30 priests and nuns were alive when the communist regime collapsed in 1991. During his homily Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the day's Gospel reading from Luke chapter 10, where Christ commissions the 72 disciples to go out as missionaries and evangelize. “Through the ages, the message of peace brought by Jesus' messengers has not always been accepted; at times, the doors have been closed to them,” he said. “In the recent past, the doors of your country were also closed, locked by the chains of prohibitions and prescriptions of a system which denied God and impeded religious freedom.” “Today, the doors of Albania have been reopened and a season of new missionary vitality is growing for all of the members of the people of God: each baptized person has his or her role to fulfill in the Church and in society.” Pope Francis is the second pontiff to visit the nation. Pope St. John Paul II visited in 1993, as the country was ousting the last of the Communist party. He ordained four bishops while he was visiting, and since his visit, the Albanian Church has seen the beginnings of a revival. “Today, I have come to encourage you to cultivate hope among yourselves and within your hearts; to involve the young generations; to nourish yourselves assiduously on the Word of God, opening your hearts to Christ: his Gospel will show you the way!” he said. “In the spirit of communion among bishops, priests, consecrated persons and laity, I encourage you to bring vitality to your pastoral activities and to continuously seek new ways of making the Church present in society: do not be afraid to respond generously to Christ who invites you to follow him.” “Being here with you today, dear brothers and sisters of Albania, in this Square dedicated to a humble and great daughter of this land, Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, I wish to repeat to you this greeting: May peace be in your homes! May peace reign in your hearts! Peace in your country!” The Pope met earlier in the day with Albania’s president, Bujar Nishani as well as representatives of the local civil authorities. After Mass and the Angelus at Mother Teresa square and then lunch with the bishops of Albania at the Apostolic Nunciature. He will then celebrate vespers that evening in the Cathedral of St. Paul with priests, religious brothers and sisters, seminarians and members of different lay movements from the diocese. Afterward, he will meet with children from the “Centro Betania,” or “Bethany Center,” and representatives from other charitable institutions as a final event to his busy day. The Pope will then participate in a farewell ceremony before departing Tirana’s international “Mother Teresa” airport and returning to Rome. Read more

Tirana, Albania, Sep 20, 2014 / 05:28 pm (CNA).- A little girl’s Christmas letter asking Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha to pray for peace, not knowing of his repressive and murderous atheistic rule, has been preserved in an Albanian museum exhibit... Read more

Tirana, Albania, Sep 20, 2014 / 01:34 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Franciscan involved in the preparations for Pope Francis’ trip to Albania said that he hopes for a surprise from a Pope who has made a habit of breaking his routine to visit the sick. ... Read more

Rome, Italy, Sep 20, 2014 / 07:53 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Foreign weapons and a lack of funding are among the serious challenges facing humanitarian response efforts in the Middle East, said participants at a recent conference in Rome. Leaders of the C... Read more

Rome, Italy, Sep 19, 2014 / 08:18 pm (CNA).- The newly published memoirs of Fr. Louis Bouyer, who was intimately involved in the reform of the Roman liturgy following Vatican II, reveal some of the relevant committee's doings, a prominent vaticanista has noted. “Being called to serve on one of the preparatory commissions for Vatican II, Bouyer immediately realized from his own experience its greatness and its wretchedness, and soon pulled back from it,” wrote Sandro Magister Sept. 16 at his Settimo Cielo blog for the Italian publication l'Espresso. The text of Magister's post was translated into English by Gregory DiPippo, managing editor of New Liturgical Movement. The occasion of the post was the publication, earlier this year and in French, of Fr. Bouyer's “Memoires” by Les Editions du Cerf. Fr. Bouyer was born in 1913 in Paris to a Lutheran family, and became a minister of that confession. Through his study of the Church fathers, he converted to the Church in 1939, “drawn to it above all by its liturgy, of which he quickly distinguished himself as a gifted enthusiast with his masterful study on the rites of Holy Week, 'The Paschal Mystery',” Magister wrote. The Frenchman joined the Congregation of the Oratory, and in time was appointed a peritus at Vatican II. Magister wrote that Fr. Bouyer's experience led him to find “the cheap ecumenism of that crazy era unbearable, like 'something from Alice in Wonderland.'” Fr. Bouyer's memoirs hold high praise for Joseph Ratzinger, Magister noted, and Fr. Bouyer in turn was highly regarded by Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, who in 1963 was elected Bishop of Rome and took the name Paul VI. “Montini wanted Bouyer on the committee for the reform of the liturgy,” Magister wrote, “presided over 'in theory' by Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro, 'a generous man' but 'incapable of resisting the maneuvers of the criminal and unctuous' Annibale Bugnini, secretary and factotum of that same body, a man 'as devoid of learning as he was of honesty'.” Fr. Bugnini, who was later consecrated a bishop, was secretary of the Consilium, the committee which produced the revised order of the Mass following Vatican II; Fr. Bouyer, in turn, was a member of the Consilium. According to Fr. Bouyer's memoirs, Fr. Bugnini, whom he called “contemptible”, would dismiss other committee member's concerns about certain changes by saying, “The Pope wants it so.” Following the reform, Fr. Bouyer wrote, he was discussing one of the particular reforms with Paul VI “which the Pope had found himself approving without being in any way more content with it than I was.” When Fr. Bouyer told Paul VI that he had been involved in the reform because he was told the Pope himself desired it, Montini responded in turn, “but is it possible? He told me that you were unanimous in approving it …”. Archbishop Bugnini served as secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship from 1969, when the new order of Mass was published, until in 1976 he was apostolic nuncio to Iran, a post in which he died in 1982. Archbishop Bugnini's personal secretary, Piero Marini, was papal master of ceremonies from 1987 to 2007, and according to Magister “is now even spoken of as a possible prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.” The congregation's prefecture has been vacant since Aug. 28, when Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera was transferred to become Archbishop of Valencia. Among the incidents recalled by Fr. Bouyer in his memoirs is the composition of Eucharistic Prayer II. “It was Bouyer who had to fix in extremis a horrible formula of the new Second Eucharistic Prayer, from which Bugnini wished to expunge even the 'Sanctus',” Magister wrote. “And one evening, on the table of a trattoria in Trastevere, he had to rewrite the next of the new canon which is read today at Mass, together with the Benedictine liturgist Bernard Botte, with the added worry of having to deliver the whole thing by the following morning.” The priest's memoirs also reveal that Paul VI had wanted to make him a cardinal, though he was deterred from doing so by the opposition of the French bishops. Among Fr. Bouyer's other works are Liturgical Piety, The Decomposition of Catholicism, and Eucharist: Theology and Spirituality of the Eucharistic Prayer. He died in 2004. His “Memoires” in French, filling 327 pages, are available for Euro 29 ($37).   Read more