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@Pontifex Trajectory

Connect With Me-Updated

Just in case anyone wants to connect with me on other, divergent social media platforms, here is a run down all my corresponding sites and profiles:
 
Facebook
Twitter
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You Tube
America Trek Blog
Euro Trek Blog
Caput Mundi Blog
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Papa Ratzinger Launches Twitter Milestone

Via NBC News:

Pope Benedict XVI is on Twitter, and he tweets from an iPad.

His Holiness sent out an initial tweet, announcing the launch of a Vatican news portal. Vatican officials said the Pope personally sent out the social networking missive.

"Dear Friends, I just launched News.va Praised be our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI," read the tweet.

The tweet was sent using Twitter's iPad app, meaning the head of the Catholic Church has an iPad. The message went out a day before the 60the anniversary of Benedict's ordination as a priest.

The news portal aggregates information from the Vatican's various media platforms. The portal was launched for the feast day of St. Peter and Paul, which falls on June 29 but officially begins with a vesper service June 28.

Pictures courtesy of Daylife

Related Links:

Vatican News Portal

Facebook-Vatican Portal

Twitter-Vatican News (English)

You Tube-Vatican

Vacation Time-August 2010

Caput Mundi blog is officially announcing that I am hereby on a vacation and a hiatus from this particular blog, from August 1, 2010 thru September 6, 2010...

For those of you who find me simply irresistible and cannot obviate the need to remain in contact with my me, I refer you, below, to the following options:

1) Friend me on Facebook here

2) Follow me on Twitter here

3) Email me directly @ cemiami@gmail.com

4) Add me on MSN messenger via, cemiami@live.com

5) If you directly desire Papal/Catholic related news, click on the links on the side bar. (Vatican You Tube, Rome Reports, VIS Blogs, EWTN, etc.)


No, I will not be vacationing on the Maldives Islands (spectacularly pictured above) but I do hope to be in Rome, God willing, next year!!!

Best Regards to all my faithful readers and I humbly thank you for gracing my virtual presence.

Caput Mundi Facebook

Caput Mundi can now be found on Facebook here.

My Twitter updates can be found here.

My You Tube profile can be found here.

Pope Prepares For Easter Weekend, UPDATED Holy Thursday Pics, Links

Related Links:

Chrism Mass Homily

The Vatican website pope2you is offering live video and audio streaming of all the events, with each of the ceremonies being broadcast in English as well as Italian, Spanish, French and German

Benedict XVI finds solace in Haydn

Papal immunity as Head of State

Papal Homily at Last Supper Mass

Russian defense of Pope Benedict XVI via Pravda

Lutheran Defense of Pope Benedict XVI by theologian

Wednesday Papal Events:


St. Peter's Basilica is reflected in the sunglasses of a girl attending Pope Benedict XVI's weekly general audience, in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican, Wednesday, March 31, 2010. (Daylife-AP)




Photos courtesy of Daylife



VATICAN CITY, 31 MAR 2010 (VIS) - The Easter Triduum was the central theme of Benedict XVI 's catechesis during his general audience, held this morning in St. Peter's Square.

"We are", the Pope began, "living through the holy days that invite us to meditate upon the central events of our Redemption, the essential nucleus of our faith". In this context, he encouraged everyone "to experience this period intensely, that it may decisively guide everyone's life to a generous and strong adherence to Christ, Who died and rose again for us".

At the Chrism Mass of Holy Thursday, apart from the blessing of the oil used for catechumens, the sick and those being confirmed, priests will renew their vows. "This year the gesture has particular significance because it takes place in the context of the Year for Priests, which I called to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of the holy 'Cure of Ars'. To all priests I would like to reiterate the hope I expressed at the end of my Letter inaugurating the Year: 'In the footsteps of the Cure of Ars, let yourselves be enthralled by Christ. In this way you too will be, for the world in our time, heralds of hope, reconciliation and peace!'".

On the evening of Holy Thursday "we will celebrate the moment of the institution of the Eucharist" when Christ, "in the species of the bread and the wine, makes Himself truly present with the Body He gave and the Blood He split as a sacrifice of the New Covenant. At the same time He made the Apostles and their successors ministers of this Sacrament, which He consigned to His Church as the supreme proof of His love".

On Good Friday, in memory of the passion and death of the Lord, we will recall how "Jesus offered His life as a sacrifice for the remission of the sins of humankind, choosing the most cruel and humiliating death: crucifixion. There exists an indissoluble link between the Last Supper and the death of Jesus", said Pope Benedict , explaining how in the Upper Room "Jesus offered His Body and Blood (that is, his earthly existence, Himself), anticipating His own death and transforming it into an act of love. And so death, which by its nature is the end, the destruction of all relations, is made by Him an act of communication of Self, an instrument of salvation and a proclamation of the victory of love".

Easter Saturday "is characterised by a great silence. ... At this time of expectation and hope, believers are invited to prayer, reflection and conversion, also through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that, intimately renewed, they may participate in the celebration of Easter", said the Holy Father.

On the night of Easter Saturday, "that silence will be broken by the cry of Alleluia, which announces the resurrection of Christ and proclaims he victory of light over darkness, of life over death. The Church will joy in the meeting with her Lord, entering the day of Easter which the Lord inaugurated by rising from the dead", the Pope concluded.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI asked Catholics to offer special prayers during Holy Week that their priests would be holy messengers of hope, reconciliation and peace.

During his weekly general audience March 31, the pope said the priests' annual renewal of their vows was particularly significant during the Year for Priests, which ends in June.

In his remarks in Italian, French, English, German, Spanish and Portuguese, the pope highlighted the importance of the Holy Week chrism Mass, during which priests gather with their bishop to bless the oils used in the sacraments and to renew their priestly promises.

Most dioceses celebrate the chrism Mass Thursday morning during Holy Week. The pope, speaking in Spanish, invited people to keep the priests in their prayers.

"We pray that by growing each day in fidelity and love for Christ, they will be messengers of hope, reconciliation and peace in the midst of their brothers and sisters," he said.

The pope did not mention the attention and concern caused by new revelations about clerical sex abuses cases in Europe and North America.

Speaking to an estimated 11,000 visitors gathered in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict discussed each of the Holy Week liturgies. Among the visitors were 4,000 university students from around the world participating in a conference sponsored by Opus Dei.

The students gave the pope a letter, which they later distributed to reporters, offering him their support at a time when "many have taken advantage of some episodes that are painful for the church and for the pope" in order "to spread doubts and suspicion."

In his main audience talk, the pope said the Holy Thursday Mass of the Lord's Supper marks the institution of the Eucharist and Christ giving the Twelve Apostles and their successors the authority to be ministers of the sacrament.

The rite of washing feet during the Mass, repeating Jesus' gesture, "is the representation of Jesus' whole life and reveals how he loved to the end with a love that was infinite and could bring men and women into communion with God and make them free," he said.

The practice of placing the Eucharist on a special altar of repose at the end of Mass is meant to remind people of Jesus' agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said. "Before the Eucharist, the faithful contemplate Jesus in his hour of solitude and pray that all the loneliness in the world would cease," he said.

The Good Friday liturgy, he said, is a powerful reminder that Jesus willingly accepted "the cruelest and most humiliating form of death" -- crucifixion -- in order to save all men and women.

Holy Saturday is a day of silence and a time of waiting and hope, the pope said. It also should be a time for making a firm commitment to conversion and would be an appropriate time to go to confession, he said.

Saturday night, during the Easter Vigil, the silence that followed Jesus' death is "broken by singing 'Alleluia,' which announces the resurrection of Christ and proclaims the victory of light over darkness and of life over death," he said.

Related Links:

April prayer intentions

Prayers for Moscow terrorist attack

The International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC) issued a statement this week expressing its rejection of the media’s “fury” in attacking Pope Benedict XVI

In a statement released on the Vatican website, Cardinal William J. Levada charged that the recent media attacks on the Holy Father by the New York Times concerning sex abuse within the Church are “deficient by any reasonable standards of fairness”

"We are living the holy days that invite us to meditate on the central events of our Redemption, the essential nucleus of our faith," said Pope Benedict at Wednesday's General Audience

The Latin word triduum refers to a period of three days and has long been used to describe various three-day observances that prepared for a feast day through liturgy, prayer, and fasting. But it is most often used to describe the three days prior to the great feast of Easter: Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday and the Easter Vigil

Maundy Thursday

“How much filth there is in the Church, and even among those who, in the priesthood, ought to belong entirely to him! How much pride, how much self-complacency!”

Essentially, Ratzinger’s 2001 directive made it easier to act against sex abusers. The secrecy that’s mentioned is hardly different from the secrecy that obtains in all sorts of sensitive hearings and investigations in the secular world such as those of the Family Court. What happened in 2001, actually, reflects to the Pope’s credit. That year saw Ratzinger’s moment of “conversion” as it has been termed

During a frustrating argument with a Roman Catholic cardinal, Napoleon Bonaparte supposedly burst out: “Your eminence, are you not aware that I have the power to destroy the Catholic Church?” The cardinal, the anecdote goes, responded ruefully: “Your majesty, we, the Catholic clergy, have done our best to destroy the church for the last 1,800 years. We have not succeeded, and neither will you.”

Why did the Washington Post choose Palm Sunday to publish an ignorant and malicious piece by Sinead O’Connor on abuse in the Catholic Church?

Special Hands & Eyes:



WYD Event in Roma:



B16 Dons Hat:



Pope 2 You:



Vatican Use of Twitter:



Holy Thursday:

Presiding this morning in Rome the Mass of Chrism, Pope Benedict XVI reminded that Christians, like Christ, do not “conquer” through the sword, but through the Cross.

The full text of the Holy Father’s homily follows:

At the center of the Church’s worship is the notion of "sacrament". This means that it is not primarily we who act, but God comes first to meet us through his action, he looks upon us and he leads us to himself. Another striking feature is this: God touches us through material things, through gifts of creation that he takes up into his service, making them instruments of the encounter between us and himself.

There are four elements in creation on which the world of sacraments is built: water, bread, wine and olive oil. Water, as the basic element and fundamental condition of all life, is the essential sign of the act in which, through baptism, we become Christians and are born to new life. While water is the vital element everywhere, and thus represents the shared access of all people to rebirth as Christians, the other three elements belong to the culture of the Mediterranean region. In other words, they point towards the concrete historical environment in which Christianity emerged.

God acted in a clearly defined place on the earth, he truly made history with men. On the one hand, these three elements are gifts of creation, and on the other, they also indicate the locality of the history of God with us. They are a synthesis between creation and history: gifts of God that always connect us to those parts of the world where God chose to act with us in historical time, where he chose to become one of us.

Within these three elements there is a further gradation. Bread has to do with everyday life. It is the fundamental gift of life day by day. Wine has to do with feasting, with the fine things of creation, in which, at the same time, the joy of the redeemed finds particular expression. Olive oil has a wide range of meaning. It is nourishment, it is medicine, it gives beauty, it prepares us for battle and it gives strength.

Kings and priests are anointed with oil, which is thus a sign of dignity and responsibility, and likewise of the strength that comes from God. Even the name that we bear as "Christians" contains the mystery of the oil. The word "Christians", in fact, by which Christ’s disciples were known in the earliest days of Gentile Christianity, is derived from the word "Christ" (Acts 11:20-21) – the Greek translation of the word "Messiah", which means "anointed one".

To be a Christian is to come from Christ, to belong to Christ, to the anointed one of God, to whom God granted kingship and priesthood. It means belonging to him whom God himself anointed – not with material oil, but with the One whom the oil represents: with his Holy Spirit. Olive oil is thus in a very particular way a symbol of the total com-penetration of the man Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

In the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, the holy oils are at the center of the liturgical action. They are consecrated in the bishop’s cathedral for the whole year. They thus serve also as an expression of the Church’s unity, guaranteed by the episcopate, and they point to Christ, the true "shepherd and guardian" of our souls, as Saint Peter calls him (1 Pet 2:25).

At the same time, they hold together the entire liturgical year, anchored in the mystery of Holy Thursday. Finally, they point to the Garden of Olives, the scene of Jesus’ inner acceptance of his Passion. Yet the Garden of Olives is also the place from which he ascended to the Father, and is therefore the place of redemption: God did not leave Jesus in death. Jesus lives for ever with the Father.

B16 Angelus, Holy Week, Irish Letter Videos & New Holy See Twitter

Papal Holy Week Schedule:

VATICAN CITY, 22 MAR 2010 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff today published the calendar of ceremonies to be presided by Benedict XVI during Holy Week.

- Sunday 28 March: Palm Sunday and Our Lord's Passion; 25th World Youth Day on the theme: "Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?". At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's Square, blessing of palms, procession and Mass.

- Thursday 1 April: Holy Thursday. At 9.30 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, Chrism Mass. At 5.30 p.m. in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, beginning of Easter Triduum of the Lord's Passion and Resurrection with the Mass of Our Lord's Last Supper. Collection to be donated for the reconstruction of the seminary in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

- Friday 2 April: Good Friday. At 5 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, celebration of the Passion of Our Lord. Way of the Cross at the Colosseum at 9.15 p.m.

- Saturday 3 April: Easter Saturday. At 9 p.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, beginning of Easter Vigil.

- Sunday 4 April: Easter Sunday. At 10.15 a.m., Mass in St. Peter's Square. At midday, "Urbi et Orbi" blessing from the central loggia of the Vatican Basilica.



Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi reads a passage from the pastoral letter of Pope Benedict XVI to Irish Catholics, at the Vatican, Saturday, March 20, 2010. Pope Benedict XVI rebuked Irish bishops Saturday for "grave errors of judgment'' in handling clerical sex abuse and ordered a Vatican investigation into the Irish church to wipe out the scourge. (Daylife-AP)

Pictures courtesy of Daylife

To Victims of Irish Abuse:

Angelus Summary:

Father Lombardi:

Irish Bishops Rebuked:


Related Links:

New Vatican Radio internet service feature

New Vatican resources web page

Official Vatican Twitter site

Official Vatican Twitter Site-Italian

Social Media launches by Vatican

Holy Sepulchre Virtual Tour

Vatican China related meeting

Papal Angelus

Wiegel commentary regarding B16's abuse efforts

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to Chile

Angelus Synopsis:

Vatican City, Mar 21, 2010 / 11:05 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Holy Father prayed the Angelus with the faithful in St. Peter’s Square today, their numbers increased by pilgrims taking advantage of a long weekend due to the Solemnity of St. Joseph. On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, he offered a perspective on the day’s liturgy in which Jesus condemns the sin and saves the sinner.

Sunday’s Liturgy offers the story of Jesus defending the adulterous woman from the scribes and Pharisees. Wanting to condemn her to death by stoning, they present the case to Jesus’ judgment, wishing also to put him to the test.

“The scene is loaded with drama,” said the Pope at the Angelus, “the life of that person depends on the words of Jesus, but his life does too.”

When the “hypocritical accusers” entrust the case to the judgment of Jesus, “in reality it is actually him that they want to accuse and judge.”

“Jesus, though, is ‘full of grace and truth,’” pointed out the Pope. “He knows the heart of every man, he wants to condemn sin, but save the sinner and unmask hypocrisy.”

Benedict XVI cited the observation of St. Augustine on the Biblical account. Augustine examined the meaning of Jesus’ bending down to write on the earth with his finger while under the insistent interrogation of the accusers.

“This gesture shows Christ as a divine legislator,” he said, alluding also to God’s action of writing the law with his finger on the stone tablets.

“Therefore, Jesus is the Legislator, he is Justice in person.”

Jesus’ words that call for the man without sin to cast the first stone are “full of the disarming force of the truth, that topples the wall of hypocrisy and opens the consciences to a greater justice, that of love, in which consists the full fulfillment of every precept.”

He added, “It is justice that saved also Saul of Tarsus, transforming him into St. Paul.”

As the accusers leave the scene Jesus absolves the woman of her sin, said the Holy Father, therefore giving her “a new life oriented to the good.”

This is the same grace, pointed out the Pope, that later influenced the Apostle’s words to the Philippians, “Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God's upward calling, in Christ Jesus.”

“God desires for us only the good and life,” summarized Pope Benedict. “He provides the health for our soul by way of his ministry, freeing us from evil with the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that no one is lost, but all have a way of repenting.”

He continued with an exhortation to all priests to follow the model of St. Jean Vianney, patron of priests, in the ministry of Sacramental forgiveness, “so that the faithful rediscover the meaning and the beauty, and may be healed by the merciful love of God…”

The Pope concluded by calling for us to learn from Jesus’ example “to not judge and to not condemn our neighbor” and “to be intransigent with sin – starting with our own! – and indulgent with people.

“May the holy Mother of God who, exempt from every fault, is mediatrix of grace for every repentant sinner, help us,” he prayed.

After the Angelus, Pope Benedict recalled the celebration of the 25th anniversary of World Youth Day on Palm Sunday. He said he expects numerous youth at St. Peter’s Square on Thursday to celebrate the milestone in a special encounter.

Western Wall Prayers Via Twitter

Source: Tweet Your Prayers

http://twitter.com/TheKotel

Tweet 4 Shalit

Support IDF soldier Gilad Shalit:

On August 28th, 2009, kidnapped Israeli Defense Force soldier Gilad Shalit will celebrate his 23rd birthday.

But for the fourth year in a row, it appears he will most likely celebrate this important milestone far away from his home in Israel.

Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas in the summer of 2006 and has remained in captivity since.

Negotiations for his release are ongoing.

‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a virtual grassroots movement inspired by the struggle Gilad Shalit must endure daily as a prisoner of war and as a victim of Islamic extremism.

‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a 24 hour Twitter event in which thousands of supporters will sign onto Twitter to tweet the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’ with the goal of making Gilad a top ten Twitter

‘Trending Topic’ two days before his birth (recognizing that his actual birthday occurs on Shabbos).

‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a single-issue campaign only to raise awareness and is not a political action group.

Social networking is a way to inspire change and raise awareness and we plan to do just that. We invite everyone, everywhere to spread the word about ‘Tweet4Shalit’ and join us on Twitter, all day (and all night) on August 26th, 2009, using the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’

Thanks to the Jewish Internet Defense Force for organizing and planning this event

For more information, please visit the Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=137996562951&ref=mf

and the Facebook event for this campaign:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=245983090453

The following individuals and organizationsare working in support of this project:

The Gilad Shalit Army of Friends
http://www.gilad.org/

Dr. Hagit HadarThe Gilad Shalit Committee in America
http://www.habanim.org/en/index_en.html

Soutien Francais à Guilad Shalit(French support for Gilad Shalit)
http://www.soutienfrancais-a-guiladshalit.com/

David Saranga and the Israeli Consulate in New York
http://www.israelfm.org/

Jewish Internet Defense Force
http://www.thejidf.org/

Radical Commentary
http://radicalcommentary.blogspot.com/

Chabad
http://www.chabad.org/

Chabad-Lubavitch World Headquarters
http://www.lubavitch.com/

AISH
http://www.aish.com/

Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland
https://zionist.org.uk/

HonestReporting
http://www.honestreporting.com/

Zionism on the Web
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/

Israpundit
http://www.israpundit.com/

Z-Street
http://ziostreet.wordpress.com/

Tweet Your Prayers
http://www.tweetyourprayers.info/

Yuri Foreman
http://www.yuriforeman.com/

Jewlicious
http://www.jewlicious.com/

WeJew
http://www.wejew.com/

Anti-Terrorism Coalition
http://www.atcoalition.com/

Schtik!
http://www.schtik.com/

International Civil Liberties Alliance
http://www.libertiesalliance.org/

Source: Infidels are Cool