Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Pinole, CA - Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Pinole

• Sun 5 February

  Mass Readings 6 Feb 2012 | 12:00 am

  5th Sunday of the year

  These readings are from the Jerusalem Bible. For copyright reasons we cannot show the New American Bible translations in our Web pages, but the Universalis downloads do contain them.

  First reading

  Job 7:1-4,6-7

  Job began to speak:
  Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service,
   his time no better than hired drudgery?
  Like the slave, sighing for the shade,
   or the workman with no thought but his wages,
  months of delusion I have assigned to me,
   nothing for my own but nights of grief.
  Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’
   Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’
   Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.
  Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed,
   and vanished, leaving no hope behind.
  Remember that my life is but a breath,
   and that my eyes will never again see joy.

  Psalm or canticle

  Psalm 146:1-6

  Praise the Lord for he is good;
   sing to our God for he is loving:
   to him our praise is due.
  
  The Lord builds up Jerusalem
   and brings back Israel’s exiles,
  he heals the broken-hearted,
   he binds up all their wounds.
  He fixes the number of the stars;
   he calls each one by its name.
  
  Our Lord is great and almighty;
   his wisdom can never be measured.
  The Lord raises the lowly;
   he humbles the wicked to the dust.
  *Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.
  or
  Alleluia!

  Second reading

  1 Corinthians 9:16-19,22-23

  I do not boast of preaching the gospel, since it is a duty which has been laid on me; I should be punished if I did not preach it! If I had chosen this work myself, I might have been paid for it, but as I have not, it is a responsibility which has been put into my hands. Do you know what my reward is? It is this in my preaching, to be able to offer the Good News free, and not insist on the rights which the gospel gives me.
  So though I am not a slave of any man I have made myself the slave of everyone so as to win as many as I could. For the weak I made myself weak. I made myself all things to all men in order to save some at any cost; and I still do this, for the sake of the gospel, to have a share in its blessings.

  Gospel

  Mark 1:29-39

  On leaving the synagogue, Jesus went with James and John straight to the house of Simon and Andrew. Now Simon’s mother-in-law had gone to bed with fever, and they told him about her straightaway. He went to her, took her by the hand and helped her up. And the fever left her and she began to wait on them.
  That evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils. The whole town came crowding round the door, and he cured many who were suffering from diseases of one kind or another; he also cast out many devils, but he would not allow them to speak, because they knew who he was.
  In the morning, long before dawn, he got up and left the house, and went off to a lonely place and prayed there. Simon and his companions set out in search of him, and when they found him they said, ‘Everybody is looking for you.’ He answered, ‘Let us go elsewhere, to the neighbouring country towns, so that I can preach there too, because that is why I came.’ And he went all through Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out devils.

  ---

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  Scripture readings taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright © 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. For on-line information about other Random House, Inc. books and authors, see the Internet web site at http://www.randomhouse.com.

Today's Readings provided courtesy of Universalis.com.

• High school students show solidarity with needy in hometown and the world

  CNA Daily News 5 Feb 2012 | 6:08 pm

  Denville, N.J., Feb 5, 2012 / 01:08 pm (CNA).- Reaching from Dover in Morris County, N.J. to Malawi in Africa, students at Morris Catholic High School in Morris County, N.J. have partnered together to show their solidarity with those in need.
  
  Recently, students hosted an Empty Bowls dinner to bring solidarity and awareness to those living in poverty in the African nation of Malawi and to also bring support to Hope House in Dover, N.J., an agency of diocesan Catholic Charities that serves the needy in Morris County. The Empty Bowls Project is a grassroots effort to fight hunger created by the Image Render Group.
  
  For several weeks, students in Lauren Caruso's art class made clay bowls. The colorful and creative hand crafted clay bowls were then sold at the dinner fundraiser. For the dinner, members of the school's campus ministry volunteered to serve patrons a simple meal of soup and bread while Key Club members hosted a fair trade sale, featuring hand-made goods from artisans in developing nations. Proceeds helped both the Empty Bowls Project and Hope House in Paterson, N.J. in their service to the poor.
  
  The purpose of the bowls, according to Jeanne Gradone, director of student services at Morris Catholic High School, was "for families to bring the bowls home and place the empty bowls on their dinner table. The empty bowls symbolize the many people around the world who don't have a meal that day. It is to bring awareness that the majority of people around the world have empty bowls. We don't want people to feel guilty about what they have, but we want them to consciously make a commitment to live in solidarity with the poor and have a constant reminder to pray for them."
  
  During the process of making the bowls, students focused on those in Malawi, while having an awareness of their place in the world family and at the same time concentrate on its local family.
  
  "We also wanted to support Hope House and help the local residents they serve. The agency supports many of our neighbors in Morris County and also the many people who were affected by the floods last August in the area," said Gradone.
  
  For the past two years, the school has been immersed in a Global Solidarity school initiative, sponsored by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. This year, the school is remembering orphans and vulnerable children around the world with Malawi as a focus. Last year, the school was centered on the theme of peace building and looked to examples from the Holy Land.
  
  "The mission of CRS," said Gradone, "is to allow people to become self sufficient. The people in many of these nations know what they need; they just need the resources to succeed."
  
  During Lent, which begins this year on Feb. 22, Ash Wednesday, the school will continue to support Catholic Relief Services through the agency's well-known Operation Rice Bowl program. The students will learn more about the countries featured in the program and learn to be an advocate for those around the world.
  
  Gradone said, "We want the students at Morris Catholic to know their place in the world and make connections with people. We want them to say about others, 'I value the gift that you are.'"
  
  Posted with permission from the Diocese of Paterson, N.J.
  
  

• God's love overcomes the misery of illness, Pope teaches

  CNA Daily News 5 Feb 2012 | 5:05 pm

  Vatican City, Feb 5, 2012 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Faith in the love of Jesus Christ can overcome the suffering of long-term illness, Pope Benedict XVI said in his Sunday Angelus address Feb. 5.
  
  Just as Jesus faced the devil “with the power of love that was from the Father,” the Pope explained, so also a sick person can “overcome and defeat the test of disease with a heart immersed in the love of God.”
  
  Indeed, he noted, “we all know people who have endured terrible suffering because God gave them a deep serenity.”
  
  Pope Benedict addressed his remarks to thousands of pilgrims braving the cold and snow in St. Peter’s Square. From the window of the papal apartments, he reflected on the day's Gospel in which Jesus “healed many who were sick with various diseases,” and “cast out many demons.”
  
  He observed how the four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – all describe “freedom from disease and illness of any kind, together with preaching, as the main activities of Jesus in his public life.”
  
  While disease is “a sign of the evil in the world and in man,” Christ’s healings show that “the Kingdom of God is near,” and they serve as “a foretaste of his victory obtained by his death and resurrection.”
  
  The Pope recognized that if healing does not arrive swiftly and suffering is prolonged, those who are sick “can remain crushed, isolated,” and even “depressed and dehumanized.”
  
  Appropriate medical treatment is in order and, as the Pope pointed out, “medicine in recent decades has made great strides.”
  
  But he also noted that the “Word of God” teaches “a decisive attitude” toward illness, an attitude which is “that of the faith.”
  
  Even in the face of death, “faith can make possible what is humanly impossible.”
  
  “But faith in what?” the Pope asked, answering that faith in God's love “is the true answer, which radically defeats evil.”
  
  As an example of how to bear illness through the love of God, Pope Benedict highlighted the life and death of Blessed Chiara Badano, an Italian teenager who died in 1990 from an aggressive and painful bone cancer.
  
  Although she was struck “in the bloom of youth,” those who visited her during her illness saw that she manifested “light and trust” through her love for Christ.
  
  The Pope concluded by noting that next Saturday, Feb. 11, is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and also the World Day of the Sick.
  
  On that day, he suggested, believers should imitate people of Jesus' time and “spiritually present to him all the sick people, confident that he wants to and can heal,” while also invoking the intercession of the Virgin Mary “especially in situations of immense suffering and abandonment.”
  
  “Mary, Health of the Sick,” he declared, “pray for us!”

• Church celebrates 16th century Martyrs of Nagasaki on Feb. 6

  CNA Daily News 5 Feb 2012 | 1:03 pm

  Denver, Colo., Feb 5, 2012 / 08:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- On Feb. 6, the Catholic Church honors the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki, a group of native Japanese Catholics and foreign missionaries who suffered death for their faith in the year 1597.
  
  During the 16th century, the Catholic faith reached Japan by the efforts of the Jesuit missionary Saint Francis Xavier (1506-1552). Jesuit outreach to the Japanese continued after his death, and around 200,000 Japanese had entered the Church by 1587.
  
  Religious tensions led to a period of persecution during that year, during which many churches were destroyed and missionaries forced to work in secret. But few episodes of martyrdom took place during this time, and within a decade 100,000 more Japanese became Catholic despite the restrictions.
  
  During 1593, Franciscan missionaries came to Japan from the Philippines by order of Spain's King Philip II. These new arrivals gave themselves zealously to the work of charity and evangelism, but their presence disturbed a delicate situation between the Church and Japanese authorities.
  
  Suspicion against Catholic missionaries grew when a Spanish ship was seized off the Japanese coast and found to be carrying artillery. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, an powerful imperial minister, responded by sentencing 26 Catholics to death.
  
  The group was comprised of three native Jesuits, six foreign Franciscans, and several lay Catholics including some children. Sentenced to die by crucifixion and lancing, they were first marched 600 miles to the city of Nagasaki.
  
  During the journey they underwent public torture meant to terrorize other Japanese believers in Christ. But all of the 26 held out courageously, even singing the hymn of praise “Te Deum” when they arrived at the hill where they would be crucified.
  
  Three of the best-known martyrs of Nagaki are Saints Paul Miki, John of Goto, and James Kisai. Though none were priests, all were associated with the Jesuits: Miki was training for the priesthood, while Kisai was a lay brother and John of Goto was a catechist preparing to enter the order.
  
  Paul Miki offered an especially strong witness to his faith during the group's month-long march to Nagasaki, as he joined one of the captive Franciscan priests in preaching to the crowds who came to mock the prisoners.
  
  The son of a wealthy military leader, Miki was born in 1562 and entered the Church along with the rest of his family. He joined the Jesuits as a young man and helped many Buddhists to embrace Christianity. His last act of evangelism took place as he hung on his cross, preaching to the crowds.
  
  “The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ,” he announced. “I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die.”
  
  “After Christ's example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”
  
  St. Paul Miki and his 25 companions were stabbed to death with lances on Feb. 5, 1597, at the site that became known as “Martyrs' Hill.” Pope Pius IX canonized the Martyrs of Nagasaki in 1862.
  
  

• Detroit's blogging bishop documents Roman pilgrimage

  CNA Daily News 4 Feb 2012 | 11:39 pm

  Rome, Italy, Feb 4, 2012 / 06:39 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Currently on an “ad limina” visit to the Vatican, Detroit Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda is taking the Michigan faithful along with him by means of his blog.
  “My blog is for all of my people in the Archdiocese of Detroit who can actually follow every single movement that I do,” Bishop Arturo Cepeda told CNA Feb. 3. “I call it a ‘virtual pilgrimage.’”
  “So I’m blogging every single day, every meeting I go to. I take pictures and send them to my blog. I’m able to text and tell them what my feelings are and what’s going on.”
  Ordained in May 2011 as an auxiliary bishop for Detroit, 42-year-old Bishop Cepeda is making the pilgrimage required of all dioceses every five years to meet with the Pope.  
  The current visit allows the bishops of Detroit and Cincinnati to update the Pope and the Vatican on the health of the Church in their regions of the U.S.
  For Bishop Cepeda, the “updating” goes two ways.
  “For example, when I go to meetings with the different Vatican congregations, I give those reading the blog some idea of the issues we’ve just discussed,” he explained.
  The auxiliary bishop's relative youth places him in a generation more at ease with the world of new media like Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.
  “I’m a product of the 70s, and that was when that particular technological revolution began,” he said, “so I’ve always been on top of all the technological gadgets that are out there and I feel very comfortable with it all – and I believe that our future generations of Catholics feel very comfortable with it too.”
  As the Church approaches Pope Benedict XVI’s “Year of Faith” which begins in October 2012, Bishop Cepeda also believes that such technologies can aid in the “New Evangelization” of the traditionally Christian West.
  “I do believe in the new media and I do believe in communication. It’s a gift not only for society but it’s also a gift for our Church.”
  “We want to communicate our feelings, we want to communicate our thoughts. We want to communicate faith, and truth, and how the truth can change our culture.”
  Recent blog entries by the bishop have covered his Feb. 3 audience with Pope Benedict, as well as the unusually heavy snow covering Rome.
  “Let me tell you, I lived here in Rome for five years and never saw snow fall once. So this is the first time I’ve seen snow in my life here in Rome and it is coming down pretty heavy.”
  Detroit Catholics, of course, got an update about it at http://aodonline.wordpress.com/.
  “I have already taken pictures and sent them to my blog,” Bishop Cepeda said, clutching his smartphone. “I told them: ‘Guess what! Right after our meeting with the Holy Father it began to snow – so it seems that Detroit is following me all the way to Rome!’”
  

• Vatican astronomer says Big Bang theory in tune with creation history

  CNA Daily News 4 Feb 2012 | 11:09 pm

  Vatican City, Feb 4, 2012 / 06:09 pm (CNA).- The director of the Vatican Observatory said that the Church is open to the scientific theory that the world began from a cosmic explosion billions of years ago.
  
  “The Big Bang is not in contradiction with the faith, ” Father Jose Gabriel Funes said during a Feb. 2 announcement of a Vatican exhibit that will feature photos, research tools and minerals from the Moon and Mars.
  
  The exhibit titled “Stories from another world: The Universe within us and outside us,” will be on display March 10 - July 1 in Pisa, the birthplace of Galileo, the father of modern astronomy. 
  
  Fr. Funes told CNA at the event that the Big Bang explanation “is the best theory we have right now about the creation of the universe.”
  
  The theory holds that creation began some 14 billion years ago with a colossal explosion in which space, time, energy and matter were created, and galaxies, stars and planets – which are in continual expansion – came to be.
  
  “We know that God is the creator,” he added, “that He is a good Father who has a providential plan for us, that we are his children, and that we everything we can learn by reason about the origin of the universe is not in contradiction with the religious message of the Bible.”
  
  Fr. Funes said that as an astronomer and a Catholic, he is open to this explanation of the creation of the universe, despite “some yet unanswered questions.”
  
  He noted, for example, that while there is no proof of other intelligent life in the universe, “we cannot rule it out,” since studies show that there are nearly 700 planets orbiting other stars.
  
  “If in the future it was established that life, and intelligent life, exists, which I think would be very difficult, I don’t think this contradicts the religious message of creation because they would also be creatures of God,” he said.
  
  Ultimately, Catholics “should see the cosmos as a gift of God” and should “admire the beauty that exists in the universe.”
  
  “This beauty we see in some way leads us to the beauty of the creator,” he said.
  
   “And also, because God has granted us intelligence and reason, we can find the logos, that rational explanation that exists in the universe that allows us to engage in science as well.”
  
  The Church’s official interest in astronomy dates back to the 16th century. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII decided to officially create the Vatican Observatory to show that the Church is not against scientific development, but rather promotes it.
  
  Since then, the Vatican Observatory has operated out of Castel Gandolfo and uses a telescope located in Tuscon, Arizona, for research.
  
  

• Chicago Catholic schools continue to grow

  CNA Daily News 4 Feb 2012 | 6:05 pm

  Chicago, Ill., Feb 4, 2012 / 01:05 pm (CNA).- Catholic schools in the city of Chicago are celebrating the news that for two years in a row, enrollment has gone up.
  
  That’s the first time that has happened since 1965.
  
  It might be too early to say Catholic schools have turned a corner, but Catholic schools superintendent Sister Mary Paul McCaughey of the Archdiocese of Chicago is optimistic that efforts to promote the schools while keeping them on a sound financial footing will pay off.
  
  “We think we can do it,” she said. “We think we can turn it around. It would be so much fun to see that across the system. Large Catholic school systems haven’t seen that since ’65. But we’re a good city to have this happen to.”
  
  The efforts to spread the good news about Catholic schools, combined with changing demographics in Chicago, are leading to full classrooms, she said.
  
  “We’re really growing in those places where young families are staying in the city, and they’ve grown to love it and they don’t want to leave,” Sister Paul said. “And with the focused scholarship efforts, we’re holding the line in the poorer areas.”
  
  Across the entire archdiocese of Chicago, enrollment is stabilizing, with a drop of less than 1 percent this year. But with 86,502 elementary school students this year, Catholic schools have fewer than half the students they did in 1979-80, when enrollment was 189,611.
  
  Reviewing themselves
  
  The Office for Catholic Schools of Chicago has asked each of its schools to review where they are in terms of maintaining academic excellence and Catholic identity, financial status and their efforts to attract and keep new students. Each school also will be asked to come up with a plan to move forward in the next year, although many are already doing quite well.
  
  “The schools that are doing it have a strong Catholic culture and excellent academics,” she said. “They are engaging parents and refocusing on getting the ‘good whispers’ out there.”
  
  One school that has seen such efforts pay off is St. Therese Chinese Catholic School in Chinatown, which principal Phyllis Cavallone-Jurek said was on the brink of closure when she came seven and a half years ago. Then, the school opened with 180 students. Now, with ongoing efforts to strengthen an already rigorous curriculum and work spreading the word about the school across the city, it has waiting lists at all the lower grades.
  
  There are 286 students, and Cavallone-Jurek has started to consider the possibility of adding space, although that would be difficult in its neighborhood.
  
  The school will likely become even more popular in the next couple of years, as it proudly flies its national Blue Ribbon Award flag for all to see. It’s the first Blue Ribbon in 20 years for a school supported by the Big Shoulders Fund — a local nonprofit that offers scholarships and other financial help to schools where a significant percentage of the students are low-income.
  
  At St. Therese, all students are expected to be two years ahead of grade level in math by the time they graduate, and all students study Mandarin Chinese and Spanish throughout elementary school. Because of the unique curriculum, Cavallone-Jurek said, she has to be careful when admitting transfer students to the upper grades.
  
  Getting the word out
  
  The school’s enrollment grew as Cavallone-Jurek worked with staff and parents to get the word out about the school’s strengths — its academics and its focus on Chinese culture. A student dance group performed whenever and wherever it could, including on morning TV news shows and at neighborhood festivals.
  
  “Schools have to look at what their strengths are,” she said. “What are the non-negotiables that make us really special and unique?”
  
  At St. Hyacinth School in Logan Square, enrollment jumped from 119 students last June to 187 students this year. Principal Annmarie Mahay said that what helped most in terms of marketing was really everything.
  
  “No one thing works,” she said. “Everything we did brought in a few more kids.”
  
  Perhaps the biggest single change the school made was opening a second preschool classroom, so that there are now 40 preschoolers instead of 25. Parents realize that full-day preschool costs less than daycare, and that their children get more out of it, Mahay said.
  
  That follows the pattern for the archdiocese, where preschool enrollment is up 15 percent.
  
  Families who have transferred older children into the school are generally coming from three area public schools, all of which are crowded, Mahay said, so they appreciate the small classes at St. Hyacinth. They also were able to get to know the school through a series of “family fun nights,” when they could mingle with existing St. Hyacinth families and teachers while doing activities in the school’s classrooms.
  
  “It gives them the opportunity to take a look at us,” Mahay said.
  
  The biggest obstacle to families choosing the school is nearly always the cost of Catholic education, Mahay said, although breaking it down into 10 monthly payments helps.
  
  Sister Paul said Catholics should continue to push for more public funding of Catholic schools, whether in the form of vouchers or tax credits, because that would make it easier for families to choose Catholic education, which would be good for the state as well, she said.
  
  “It saves the state money in the long run,” she said. “They just don’t see it.”
  
  Posted with permission from Catholic New World, newspaper for the Diocese of Chicago.
  
  

• US free speech faces Islamic blasphemy law pressure, analyst says

  CNA Daily News 4 Feb 2012 | 12:05 pm

  Washington D.C., Feb 4, 2012 / 07:05 am (CNA).- Paul Marshall, a religious liberty expert, says that attempts to “export” Islamic anti-blasphemy laws to the West could pose a threat to freedom of speech in the U.S.
  
  Marshall, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, said that many governments deliberately manipulate alleged instances of blasphemy by provoking popular outrage, enabling them to advance “particular policy goals.”
  
  Marshall made his remarks Feb. 3 at Hillsdale College’s Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C.
  
  He argued that blasphemy codes in the Muslim world are used to stifle religious minorities, as well as Muslim reformers who support religious liberty, freedom of speech and democracy.
  
  In the U.S., Marshall observed, courts generally uphold the First Amendment’s free speech protections. But he said that America is still threatened by blasphemy laws, and cited efforts by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to promote international laws that ban insults to Islam, through the United Nations.
  
  Marshall also cautioned against a growing tendency towards “extra-legal intimidation,” which involves private individuals pre-emptively censoring themselves -- often under the guise of religious sensitivity -- because they realize that it is “too dangerous” to insult Islam.
  
  To illustrate the effectiveness of this intimidation, he gave multiple examples of books, newspapers and television shows that refused to publish content that could be deemed offensive to Islam, although they chose to carry similar material that mocked Christianity and other religions.
  
  He also recounted the 2010 story of Molly Norris, a Seattle cartoonist, who called for an “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” in response to such self-censorship. She received death threats for the suggestion and, under the advice of the FBI, changed her name and went into hiding.
  
  Marshall also warned of the potential for government policies that seek to restrict speech. He observed that the Obama administration has vocalized a commitment to fighting “negative stereotypes of Islam,” although it has not done the same for other religions.
  
  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, he noted, invited the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to a meeting in Washington, D.C. to discuss how the U.S. could carry out this commitment.
  
  According to Marshall, the December 2011 meeting featured presentations on how
  America should fix its treatment of Muslims. It was also suggested that the U.S. should learn from countries in the organization, which use the death penalty to fight blasphemy within their borders, he said.
  
  Although Clinton claimed to be simply pursuing tolerance, Marshall said it was concerning that she was partnering with an organization that has been aggressively lobbying to restrict free speech through legal controls. 
  
  He urged the Obama administration to end this partnership and instead promote the idea that “in open, boisterous, free societies” all religions will likely be subject to criticism. 
  
  The American founders considered freedom of speech to be critical, Marshall concluded, adding that “their example is always needed, but never more so than in a time such as this.”
  
  

• Being Catholic means 'paying a price,' says Detroit archbishop

  CNA Daily News 4 Feb 2012 | 1:03 am

  Vatican City, Feb 3, 2012 / 08:03 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Being Catholic in 2012 involves “paying a price” for loving Jesus Christ and his Church, says Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.
  
  “If we are not willing to pay a price for the grace of the revelation then it is a sign that we don’t really treasure it,” the archbishop told CNA Feb. 3.
  
  “And maybe that is what God is asking us to do – to re-appropriate our own conviction about how precious the knowledge of Jesus is to us.”
  
  Archbishop Vigneron is currently in Rome with 16 other bishops from the Provinces of Detroit and Cincinnati to update the Vatican and Pope Benedict on the health of their dioceses. As part of their “ad limina” visit, the group has also made pilgrimages to the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul.
  
  “When I see those tombs,” said Archbishop Vigneron, “I immediately think of Our Lord’s big recruitment speech to the apostles when he said ‘I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves’ and I imagine them looking around at one another and saying ‘Is he talking to us?’”
  
  And yet, Christ's prediction that “if they rejected me they’ll reject you,” is present for Catholics “in every age” even if “it differs in how it takes its shape,” he said.
  
  He believes that one clear manifestation of this is the Obama administration’s decision to force all health insurance to cover sterilization and contraception services, including abortifacient drugs. The “price to be paid,” he said, could be in terms of religious freedom and also financially.
  
  “If I think about these fines that it seems the government will impose upon us, well that is money I could use in my Catholics schools, it’s money I could use for feeding the hungry, providing services to people with addiction. I expect we’ll have to pay a price like that.”
  
  The one price that Archbishop Vigneron said he will refuse to pay is any violation of Catholic moral teaching. As Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan of New York recently said, “they’ve given us a year to figure out how we can violate our principles – it’s not going to happen.”
  
  On Friday morning, Archbishop Vigneron led the bishops of the Detroit Province as they met with Pope Benedict XVI in a private audience. During the seminar-style discussion, the Pope was asked about how to authentically interpret the Church’s mind as regards the liturgy.
  
  “The Pope’s way of talking about it was to say that the liturgy is the experience of the Church and what should happen is that people experience at the Mass the existence of the Church as it is true through all time. I thought that was a very good way to talk about it,” said Archbishop Vegneron
  
  He added that he has “heard the Pope make this point before. The liturgy isn’t something we do. It’s something we inherit and enter into.”
  
  Archbishop Vigneron said the meeting with the Pope also “confirmed” the bishop’s own intuition “that we really have to focus ourselves on the new evangelization,” which involves giving “intentionally focused energy on bringing the Gospel to people who think they’ve already heard.”
  
  That doesn’t involve “some sort of miracle program,” he contended, but does involve “helping people who are strong in their faith to share their faith.”
  
  The archbishop said he took inspiration from the 19th century English cleric, Cardinal John Henry Newman, who saw faith as growing “from being passed from one heart to another heart.”
  
  In modern society, there is immense opportunity to evangelize those “parts of our culture that look upon the Gospel and Gospel way of life as a burden which they seem to think they are fortunate to have escaped,” he noted.
  
  “What we bring is not an onerous burden – we bring a liberation,” he said, “and people may not know they do want this good news from Jesus but it really is what they’re looking for.”
  
  Archbishop Vigneron and the other bishops conclude their “ad limina” visit on Monday Feb 6. He said they return home full of “new encouragement” after a week that has helped them to “take stock of our lives and to find some new breath to go back to reapply ourselves to our task.”
  
  

• Mexican artist thrilled to craft papal throne for Pope's trip

  CNA Daily News 3 Feb 2012 | 11:03 pm

  Mexico City, Mexico, Feb 3, 2012 / 06:03 pm (CNA).- A Mexican artist designing the papal throne Pope Benedict will use during his visit to the Cathedral of Leon on March 25 said he was honored to be appointed to the task.
  
  “This is not a special job, it’s beyond special,” Jose Cruz Gonzalez Martinez told the Efe news agency. “The mere fact that it is for the Pope is amazing.”
  
  Gonzalez said for thirteen days he did not tell his family he had been given this assignment, until he could no longer contain his emotions. 
  
  “The truth is I cried. I couldn’t hold it in,” he said, recalling the phone call he received from Father Jose Salome Lemus, the rector of the Cathedral of Leon, who asked him to design the papal throne.
  
  The chair is being built with Mexican mahogany and will be decorated with engravings. The arms of the throne will feature two lions, representing the city of Leon (“Lion” in Spanish), where the Pope will be from March 23-26.
  
  Seven carpenters involved in the project work 12 hours a day including the weekends, in order to have the throne ready by Feb. 20. After the papal visit, the throne will be sent to the Museum of Sacred Art located at the Cathedral of Leon.
  
  On March 25, the Pope will use the throne during vespers with the Bishops of Mexico and Latin America at the Cathedral.
  
  

• Komen reversal on Planned Parenthood funding fails to surprise some

  CNA Daily News 3 Feb 2012 | 9:37 pm

  Dallas, Texas, Feb 3, 2012 / 04:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced on the morning of Feb. 3 that it is amending its funding guidelines so that only those organizations under criminal investigation will be excluded, a move that could allow Planned Parenthood funding to be restored.
  
  “I am surprised that it happened so fast, but not that it happened,” nationally syndicated EWTN radio host Teresa Tomeo told CNA.
  
  Tomeo received much criticism for holding back her full support of the organization this week but said she is not surprised that breast cancer charity changed their initial decision.
  
  On Feb. 3, Founder and CEO of Komen for the Cure, Nancy Brinker, apologized to “the American public” for the original decision to pull funding from any organization undergoing investigation and said she did not want her charity “marred or affected by politics.”
  
  The new funding guidelines now specify that “disqualifying investigations must be criminal and conclusive in nature and not political.”
  
  Brinker said that her organization was “distressed at the presumption that the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize Planned Parenthood. They were not.”
  
  The day before the organization decided to adjust its rules, 26 U.S. senators sent Brinker a letter urging her to reconsider her decision to cut funding to abortion provider Planned Parenthood.
  
  “We earnestly hope that you will put women's health before partisan politics,” the letter signed by 26 Senate Democrats said.
  
  For her part, Tomeo explained that her hesitation to lend full support came partially from Komen's long history with Planned Parenthood as well as the group not recognizing the link between abortion, oral contraception and breast cancer, a position that many medical professionals claim to be one of the most avoidable risks for breast cancer.
  
  Tomeo thinks organizations such as the Breast Cancer Prevention Institute and Abortion/Breast Cancer should have gotten support from those opposed to abortion, before Susan G. Komen. She was disappointed that so many anti-abortion advocates “drank the pink kool-aid” by lending their support to Komen so quickly.
  
  Americans United for Life founder and CEO Chamaine Yoest released a statement in support of Komen's original decision. She said the criticism they received was just a part of Planned Parenthood's “highly partisan” and “scorched-earth strategy” to force their “pro-abortion agenda.”
  
  Americans United for Life's report on Planned Parenthood employees involved in covering up prostitution and human trafficking helped spur the ongoing congressional investigation being led by Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.) into the nation’s largest abortion provider.
  
  

Click on the following link to listen to a homily based upon today's readings.

• Homily of the day - Mk 1,29-39

  5 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am

  Homily of the day - February 05, 2012

Homily of the Day provided courtesy of CatholicNewsAgency.com.