WASHINGTON (CNS) — Masses at well-known basilicas in Baltimore and Washington will open and close the “fortnight for freedom,” a special period of prayer, study, catechesis and public action proclaimed by the U.S. bishops for June 21 to July 4.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore will celebrate the opening Mass at Baltimore’s historic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at 7 p.m. June 21 to kick off the Catholic Church’s national education campaign on religious liberty.

The closing liturgy will be at 12:10 p.m. July 4 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington. Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington will celebrate the Mass, and Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia will be the homilist.

The Eternal Word Television Network will carry the shrine Mass live.

Both national and local efforts will comprise the campaign that has been launched by the bishops’ Ad Hoc Committee on Religious Liberty.

In addition to the Baltimore and Washington liturgies, national efforts include establishment of a website at www.fortnight4freedom.org. The site features resources such as frequently asked questions about religious liberty, including quotes from the Founding Fathers, the Second Vatican Council and Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Also available is a study guide on “Dignitatis Humanae,” the Second Vatican Council’s document on religious liberty. In addition, the site provides several one-page sheets outlining current threats to religious freedom both in the United States and abroad.

The website also lists a sample of activities already planned in particular dioceses, as well as resources and recommendations for other local efforts, such as special liturgies and prayer services. Bell ringing is planned for noon on July 4 to remind citizens nationwide of the primary place of religious freedom in the history, law and culture of the United States.

LOS ANGELES — As she shut off the garden hose and set it next to her recently planted flowers, Maria Meza greeted a visitor.

“Yes, come in, everything’s all wet, clean,” she said with a smile.

The 92-year-old said she likes to exchange good-natured banter, but all smiles vanish when Meza begins narrating her family’s ordeal back when she was 7 years old and living in her native Michoacan, Mexico.

“Las balas tronaban (The bullets whistled),” said the survivor of the Cristero War of the 1920s, in which Catholics took up arms to contest the Mexican government’s systematic repression of religion. It is depicted in the movie “For Greater Glory,” opening in U.S. theaters June 1.

In an interview with The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese, Meza said welcomes the idea about the movie and would like to see it if it was shown in Spanish. She taught herself to read and write but found it very difficult to learn English, although she attended several classes after arriving in the U.S. in the 1970s with her husband and 10 children.

Her father, Jose Meza Galvez, was a strong Cristero who hid many priests in his house to help them avoid getting killed by the government that persecuted all Catholics during the three-year civil war. More than 90,000 people died, mostly men and numerous priests, including her uncle, St. Rafael Guizar Valencia. A bishop, he was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995 and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

For three days, Maria Meza, her four sisters and their mother, Maria Ayala, hid in a cave while all the men in town fought against the government’s army.

With sadness, she recalled when the war ended. A few days after the war was over a group of military burst into her home and killed her father.

“One shot was enough,” she said. He was about 40 years old.

The rest of the family survived because the army went after the men, Meza said.

“But he died bravely, shouting, ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ ‘Vivan los Cristeros!'” she said proudly.

After that sad day, her mother made sure that the family’s Catholic heritage stayed alive among her children. Two of the girls entered the religious community Sagrada Familia (Sacred Family); the other three married and passed their strong faith on to their children, along with the Cristero War story.

“I’ve heard this story many times in my life since I was a small boy,” said her son Manuel, 62, the fourth of her 14 children. Four died at a young age.

Although the story has been passed through generations of survivors, it did not make it in the annals of Mexican history. Many analysts presume it is because the Mexican president at that time, Plutarco Elias Calles, who led the war, was one of the founders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled the country for the next seven decades.

Even for Manuel, it is hard to believe that the dead were hanged from poles on the roads under the fearful watch of survivors. Others were buried in mass graves.

“Thank God that war finally ended,” Meza said. “They were three long years. They (the soldiers) put houses on fire, raped many women and tried to destroy all religious images.”

That is why she tries to preserve her Catholic beliefs, she confides.

“I don’t want my family to change to another religion,” Meza said. “I respect other people’s beliefs, but we went through so much and I think it was worth it.”

Purposefully, 12 years ago she and her husband bought a house across the street from Resurrection Church in East Los Angeles.

Unless she is sick, which rarely happens, she gets up at 5 o’clock every morning and by 6:45 she is sitting at one of the pews.

“Every single day,” Meza said, except on Sundays, when she attends the 10:30 a.m. Mass together with other family members. She has 60 grandchildren and 40 great-grandchildren.

“I am preparing myself to receive my glory,” she said. She receives Communion every day and prays the rosary every night before going to bed at 9 p.m. sharp.

“When I stand in front of the Judge, I think I will be prepared,” she said proudly. “I think I have a solid faith. Although I don’t know him, I do believe in him. And I don’t lack anything; even in hard times he has provided.

“That shot to my father’s head was not in vain. The seed that my parents planted in me doesn’t wither that easily.”

— By Doris Benavides, Catholic News Service 

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The Italian television journalist who set off the “VatiLeaks” controversy by releasing private letters to Pope Benedict XVI and between Vatican officials has published a large collection of leaked documents in a new book called “Your Holiness.”

In a statement May 19, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, called the publication of the letters for commercial gain a “criminal act” and said the Vatican would take legal action.

“The latest publication of documents of the Holy See and private documents of the Holy Father can no longer be considered a questionable — and objectively defamatory — journalistic initiative, but clearly assumes the character of a criminal act,” Father Lombardi said.

The spokesman said the publication of the letters violates the right to privacy and the “freedom of correspondence” of Pope Benedict, the letter writers and some of the pope’s closest collaborators.

In the letters, which include accusations of corruption and financial mismanagement in the Vatican, and focus heavily on internal Italian church matters or Vatican-Italian relations, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, is particularly presented in an unfavorable light.

In late April, Pope Benedict appointed three retired cardinals to a commission to investigate the leaking of the letters.

Father Lombardi said, “The Holy See will continue to explore the different implications of these acts of violation of the privacy and dignity of the Holy Father — as a person and as the supreme authority of the church and Vatican City State — and will take appropriate steps so that the authors of the theft, those who received stolen property and those who disclosed confidential information, using illegally obtained private documents for commercial use, answer for their acts before the law.”

Nuzzi’s book was published May 17 and immediately went to the No. 1 spot on the Italian best-selling books lists.

Facsimiles of dozens of letters and notes are printed in the back of the book. But more than 100 others are quoted — in part or entirely — within the book’s chapters focusing on “corruption” in the Vatican, making donations in exchange for a personal meeting with the pope, Vatican-Italian relations, the thirst for power among curia officials, the influence of new religious orders and movements and the way church officials handle a variety of scandals around the globe.

The reproductions include a note from an Italian television host to the pope’s personal secretary and a copy of a check for 10,000 euro (about $12,650) with a handwritten postscript saying, “When can we have a meeting to greet the Holy Father?”

The book includes what Nuzzi says is the Vatican’s decryption of a message from the Vatican nunciature in Washington passing on a request from Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George that the Secretariat of State intervene to prevent the Rome-based Community of Sant’Egidio from giving an award to Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. Sant’Egidio, a lay movement involved in a variety of social issues, apparently planned to honor Quinn for abolishing the death penalty in Illinois.

The nunciature said that while Quinn is Catholic, the cardinal felt the honor was “inopportune” because of the governor’s support for gay marriage and legalized abortion and because Illinois refused to renew foster care and adoption contracts with Catholic Charities in four dioceses.

— By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Benedict XVI called on Chinese Catholics to be faithful to the pope, asked that mass media worldwide promote mutual respect and dialogue, and prayed for those hit by a deadly earthquake near Bologna and a school bombing in Brindisi.

After reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square May 20, the pope denounced a May 19 bombing of a high school in southern Italy, calling it “a vile attack.”

A bomb was detonated outside the Brindisi school gates early in the morning as teenagers were arriving for classes. One girl was killed and 10 others injured — one seriously. Police said they suspected the attack was the work of a lone individual unrelated to the Mafia and the city’s organized crime ring.

The pope prayed for the victims and lamented the death of the girl, saying she was an “innocent victim of brutal violence.”

The pope also prayed for those hit by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck near Bologna in the pre-dawn hours of May 20. At least four people were killed as a result of the quake and its aftershocks.

“I am spiritually close to those hit by this calamity,” the pope said.

Pope Benedict also recalled the church’s May 24 celebration of the feast of Our Lady, Help of Christians, which he established as a world day of prayer for the church in China.

Mentioning Chinese Catholics’ devotion to Mary at the Sheshan Marian shrine in Shanghai, he asked that all Catholics in China proclaim Christ “with humility and joy, be faithful to their church and to the successor of Peter, and live their lives in accordance with the faith they profess.”

He prayed for Mary to help China’s Catholics and to help members of the universal church grow in their love and concern for the church in China.

The pope also highlighted “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization,” the theme of World Communications Day, marked in most dioceses May 20.

“Silence is an integral part of communication; it is a privileged place for encountering the Word of God and our brothers and sisters,” the pope said.

The pope asked that all forms of communication work to establish between people authentic dialogue, “founded on mutual respect, listening and sharing.”

The pope also greeted thousands of members of Italy’s Pro-Life Movement. He encouraged them to continue to defend human life, noted their work in protecting the dignity and rights of every person starting from the moment of conception and asked them to give witness to and build a culture of life.

—By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The documents of the Second Vatican Council possess different levels of authority and thus command different levels of acceptance by Catholics, including those who hope to restore their unity with the church, said two retired Vatican officials.

German Cardinal Walter Brandmuller and Italian Archbishop Agostino Marchetto spoke to reporters May 21 after presenting a book they wrote with Father Nicola Bux, “Pope Benedict XVI’s Keys for Interpreting Vatican II.”

The three scholars have written extensively on how the Second Vatican Council must be read in continuity with earlier church teaching and have often criticized theologians, priests and other Catholics for reading too much novelty into the council.

At the book presentation, Cardinal Brandmuller and Archbishop Marchetto responded to reporters’ questions about the Vatican’s ongoing discussions with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, which has a history of criticizing the Second Vatican Council and rejecting some of its teachings.

In the book, Cardinal Brandmuller said the SSPX and the Old Catholics who rejected the papal infallibility teaching of the First Vatican Council “have in common a rejection of the legitimate developments of the doctrine and life of the church.”

While the cardinal described the Old Catholics as having an “insignificant role” in global Christianity today, he said the vitality of the SSPX forces the church “to demonstrate that their protests are unjustified. One can only hope this will happen.”

Asked about the passage in the book, Cardinal Brandmuller told reporters, “We hope that the Holy Father’s attempt to reunify the church succeeds.”

One thing that must be kept in mind is the differing degree of acceptance and obedience Catholics owe to different types of church teaching, which range from absolutely embracing the teaching in the creed to accepting the principles of Catholic social teaching and trying to put them into practice in a variety of social and political situations, said the cardinal, who is the former president of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.

“There is a huge difference between a great constitution,” like the Vatican II constitutions on the church, the liturgy and divine revelation, “and simple declarations,” like the Vatican II declarations on Christian education and the mass media.

“Strangely enough, the two most controversial documents” for the SSPX — those on religious freedom and on relations with non-Christians — “do not have a binding doctrinal content, so one can dialogue about them,” the cardinal said.

“So I don’t understand why our friends in the Society of St. Pius X concentrate almost exclusively on these two texts. And I’m sorry that they do so, because these are the two that are most easy to accept if we consider their canonical nature” as non-binding, he said.

Of course, the cardinal said, all the council’s documents, including the two declarations, “must be taken seriously as expressions of the living magisterium,” the official teaching of the church, which has developed even further under the pontificates of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI.

Archbishop Marchetto, who retired in 2010 as secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers so that he could dedicate himself full time to studying and writing about Vatican II, said all Catholics owe all the council documents “at least an adhesion of intellect and will.”

The archbishop is not part of the Vatican’s dialogue with the SSPX, but, he said, “from what I have learned, there must be an acceptance of the council by those who want to be reunited with the church.”

“I don’t think the SSPX can say, ‘Well, we’ll set this or that document aside,'” Archbishop Marchetto said.
— By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

By Ed Wilkinson Catholic News Service
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) — In what appears to be a contradiction in terms, silence as a means of communication was the theme of the Brooklyn Diocese’s 21st annual World Communications Day conference and luncheon May 18.

The topic came from the theme of Pope Benedict XVI’s message for World Communications Day, “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization.”

Msgr. Kieran Harrington, Brooklyn’s vicar for communications, opened the program by saying, “There is a lot of noise in today’s world. The pope challenges us to be still so that we can have a personal encounter with God.”

Keynote speaker Kathryn Jean Lopez, editor-at-large of National Review Online, said she felt that “silence was disappearing” in the world. She called Pope Benedict’s message about silence” a great gift from a great teacher.”

“No one looks at one another anymore,” she said. “Everyone is tweeting and texting. We need to get over ourselves and to ask God to help us get outside ourselves.”

She pointed out that the pope says silence is necessary because it allows time for contemplation and time to listen to one another, without which no real dialogue or conversation can take place. She recommended that everyone commit to an hour of silence a day to listen to God and to one another.

“Silence is not an escape; it’s meant to be an integral part of our lives,” she said.

She used Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen as an example of a great communicator who took time out of every day to make a holy hour before the Blessed Sacrament.

“We’re living in this new media world and we’re trying to be good Catholics,” she said. “If we seek to be well integrated, God will use the opportunities to communicate with us.”

A second keynoter, Kellianne Conway, a national pollster and frequent TV commentator, explained that “we are living in a time when Catholics are under attack in the media. It’s open season on Catholics. Anti-Catholic rhetoric is part of the expected routine.”

But “people still agree with doctrinal precepts,” she said. “Even if they don’t admit it at times.”

For instance, she maintained that most Americans are opposed to abortion. Those who support keeping abortion legal use the argument of protecting the life of the mother but she explained that only 1 percent of abortions in the United States are performed to save the life of the mother.

She also said most abortion supporters do not want the general public to know that 3 percent of the abortions occur because of gender selection, which is usually anti-feminine.

She added that the nation is increasingly becoming pro-life because science and medicine have stepped up with information and images that are shifting the focus away from the woman and more toward the child in the womb.

“Catholic are seen as out of touch on social issues but facts and figures are on our side,” she said.

Conway, a Catholic and the mother of four, also urged the Catholic Church to embrace immigrants because the newly arrived Asians and Hispanics are “propping up our church, even in the suburbs.”

As a national pollster, she claimed that there is no monolithic Catholic vote because it usually breaks down between churchgoing and fallen-away Catholics.

“The behavior of churchgoing Catholics is much more based on faith,” she said. “If religion is central to you, your faith influences the rest of your life, including the way you vote.”

The Catholic Church, she said, needs to get back to basics and to use facts to communicate shock to the consciences of others.

Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio presented a St. Francis de Sales medal to Christopher Ruddy, founder and CEO of NewsMax, a multimedia publications company that publishes one of the country’s most popular news online services.

Ruddy, a graduate of Chaminade High School in Uniondale on Long Island and St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y., said he got into the media business because the country was suffering from a lack of diversity in news and that journalism was becoming one-sided.

He also echoed other speakers that “religious freedom is in the crosshairs” of an increasingly secular society.

Bishop DiMarzio also presented a St. Clare Award to Joe Campo, CEO and founding partner of Grassroots Film Co., a Brooklyn-based video production company.

Grassroots has been commissioned by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and also has produced national TV spots. Its recent feature film “The Human Experience” has been shown at 30 international film festivals.

In keeping with the theme of the conference, Campo pointed out that one of his poignant pro-life ads for CatholicVote.com was seen on national TV and didn’t have a word in it.

Bishop DiMarzio closed the session by saying that “we cannot pray in the midst of noise. Silence is necessary if we want to communicate with one another. There’s a lot of noise in our lives but God often speaks through silence.”

He used silence as part of his closing prayer. Msgr. Harrington called for a minute of silence during the program.

– – –

By Ed Wilkinson, editor of The Tablet in Brooklyn.