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From Sandro Magister - As is done after every papal voyage, Benedict XVI dedicated his first public audience after his return to Rome to a reflection on his visit to the United States.

Pope Joseph Ratzinger reviewed his voyage moment by moment, renewing his strong expression of affection toward the country he had visited:

"... a great country which since its origin has been built upon the foundation of a happy marriage of religious, ethical, and political principles, and still today constitutes a valid example of healthy secularism, where the religious dimension, in the diversity of its expressions, is not only tolerated, but is valued as the 'soul' of the nation and the fundamental guarantor of the rights and duties of man."

But Benedict XVI's reflection was not the only end result of the visit. A loud and unexpected backlash erupted in the United States one week after the pope's return to Rome.

The cause was the reception of Eucharistic communion during the papal Masses by some important "pro-choice" Catholic politicians, supporters of the free right to abortion.

In Washington, at the Mass in Nationals Park, House speaker Nancy Pelosi and the senators John Kerry, Edward Kennedy, and Christopher Dodd received communion, while in New York, at the Mass in Saint Patrick's Cathedral, former city mayor Rudolph Giuliani received communion. Their actions were highlighted by the media in part because some of them had announced it beforehand.

For a few days, the reception of communion by the "pro-choice" Catholic politicians did not provoke any particular reactions. But the silence was broken with a commentary in the "Washington Post" on Monday, April 28, written by a combative conservative columnist, Robert Novak.
An American Dispute: Should Communion Be Given to Pro-abortion Catholic Politicians?

The Guardian - The Vatican has come to the aid of Rowan Williams, the head of the Anglican church, ahead of this year's Lambeth conference.

As the Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in Rome yesterday for a private meeting with the Pope, it was announced that Cardinal Ivan Dias, the Indian prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, would be among the speakers at this summer's event, which brings Anglican bishops together in London once every 10 years.

Rebel bishops, angry at Williams's acceptance of gay bishops, plan a breakaway conference in Jordan and Jerusalem, threatening the break-up of the Anglican Communion.

Dias has been touted as a possible future candidate for the papacy. Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, may also attend the Lambeth event.

"We expect someone from the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity to attend, as we have in the past," said a spokesman for the Anglican Communion office in London.

Rev Keith Pecklers, a professor of liturgy at the Gregorian University in Rome, who has worked with the Anglican Centre in Rome on relations between the two churches, said: "Cardinal Kasper might be expected to attend, given his role, but Cardinal Dias's presence is proof that the Vatican wants to be supportive of Williams.

Vatican lends hand to Williams in battle to shore up Anglican unity

Interfax - Vatican State Secretary Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone will visit Lviv (Ukraine) on May 23-24 to beatify Catholic nun Marta Vetskaya.

Cardinal Bertone will arrive in Lviv on the afternoon of May 23 and will meet with Lviv Catholic Archbishop Marian Jaworski and Archbishop of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Ihor Vozniak, Father Marian Skovyra, a representative of the organization committee of the visit, told a news conference on Wednesday.

The cardinal is expected to meet with the local authorities on May 24. Bertone will conduct a divine liturgy in the Lviv culture park at 11 a.m. local time. From 7,000 to 10,000 people from Ukraine, Belarus, and Poland are expected to attend the liturgy.

Don Mietek is now also in Lviv

Bertone to visit Ukraine

AFP - The leader of Hong Kong's Catholic Church said Monday that China was still not ready for a papal visit, as he denounced the Asian power's lack of religious and media freedoms, a news agency reported.

"The time has still not come for an official visit from the pope in China. His trip would be used, misunderstood, and it would do nothing to serve the faithful of the Church of Rome," said Cardinal Joseph Zen.

"The Chinese government, even in these pre-Olympic times, wants to control everything," he said, quoted by Italy's ANSA news agency.

Zen also made reference to a letter sent in May 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI to the authorities in Beijing in which he pressed China to respect religious freedom and the Vatican's right to appoint its own bishops.

"After this letter, nothing has changed," he said.

The Chinese government "has accepted to postpone, during the Olympic period, the new ordination of bishops but nothing makes us think that things will change."

Hong Kong cardinal says China not ready for pope visit: agency

Rcesq isn't this just a cheap publicity stunt? Can it really be taken seriously? I hope that the Pope's courageous approach to this issue while he was in the US has made a real difference. I suppose it will take some time to see if that is the case.

From Sandro Magister: Saint Pius X, a Backward Pope? No, an Unprecedented Cyclone of Reform A 1300-page study treatise written by a great scholar overturns judgments of the antimodernist pope. The new Code of Canon Law he created had tremendous effects. It reinforced more than ever the public role and freedom of the Church with respect to the world

Vatican Council II was not the only pivotal moment in the history of the Catholic Church in the 20th century. Another important transformation took place half a century earlier, with the pontificate of Saint Pius X. This is the conclusion of an imposing two-volume treatise just published in Italy, entitled "Chiesa romana e modernità giuridica [The Roman Church and juridical modernity]," written by an illustrious scholar of ecclesiastical law, Carlo Fantappiè, and dedicated to a grandiose undertaking of pope Giuseppe Sarto, the new Code of Canon Law.

Pius X is remembered for his tenacious battle against "modernist" Catholics. His current profile is that of a pope of reversion and of anathemas. Not so. New studies are reinterpreting this pontificate in a different light, much more forward-thinking and innovative. For example, his famous encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis," the centenary of which fell in 2007, was prophetic in its treatment of questions that are still relevant and central in the life of the Church.

And so was the new Code of Canon Law, promulgated by Benedict XV in 1917, but desired and conceived above all by Pius X. This did not represent the Church falling back on the defensive, but was an audacious work of modernization. It reinforced the public figure and freedom of the Church with respect to the world.

Pius X rejected the philosophical modernization proposed by modernist Catholics. He saw this as a surrender to the secular culture that was eroding the truths of the faith. But he was a decisive modernizer of the juridical and institutional form of the Church, taking from the liberal states of the time the structures that he believed were compatible with the theological nature of the Church itself.

Professor Fantappiè shows how the juridical reform ordered by Pius X was not an isolated case, but was connected to all of his other innovations: in the Roman curia, in the dioceses, in the seminaries, in the catechism, in the liturgy, in sacred music. From these various changes emerged the form of the Church that dominated until Vatican Council II, and to a great extent even after it. In his review of Fantappiè's two volumes for "L'Osservatore Romano," the historian Gianpaolo Romanato summarized the transformation as follows:

"What was still in the second half of the 18th century a federation of national Churches was transformed into a unified international organization, directed by the pope in discipline and theology."

Saint Pius X, a Backward Pope? No, an Unprecedented Cyclone of Reform

CNS - Cardinal Bernardin Gantin, a pioneering church figure for Africa and an influential voice at the Vatican for more than 30 years, died in Paris May 13 at the age of 86.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a telegram of condolences, praised the cardinal for his pastoral ministry and for his generous service in Rome, where he worked for several Vatican offices.

"This eminent son of Benin and of Africa was respected by all, animated by a deeply apostolic spirit and a superior sense of the church and its mission in the world," the pope said.

The cardinal's death leaves the College of Cardinals with 194 members. Of that number, 118 are under age 80 and therefore eligible to vote in a conclave.

Cardinal Gantin's body was being flown from Paris for burial in Benin, a poor West African country where the cardinal was born and had lived in recent years.

Cardinal Gantin became the first black African archbishop in 1960. Sixteen years later, he became the first African to head a major Vatican department when he was made president of the Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission. ...

In 1993, he became the first black African to be chosen as dean of the College of Cardinals. He stepped down from that post in 2002 and was replaced by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger -- a move that gave Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict, a leading role in the period leading up to the conclave that elected him in 2005.

While often seen as a Third World church leader who broke new ground in Rome, Cardinal Gantin was also a strong defender of the Roman Curia. At a 1991 synod, he criticized "certain ideas and anti-Roman attitudes, disseminated in the West through the teachings of theologians and masters of thought." ..

African Cardinal Gantin, former Vatican official, dies in Paris

Gantin Gone

Herald Tribune - Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin, a prominent churchman whose influence was felt in Europe and in West Africa, has died. He was 86. Gantin died Tuesday afternoon at the George Pompidou Hospital in Paris of complications caused by severe dehydration, said Jean-Yves Riocreux, the bishop of Pontoise, who was at the cardinal's bedside before his death.

Gantin was transferred to the Paris hospital from Benin when his health worsened following a funeral ceremony in Africa, Riocreux said, adding that the cardinal had suffered from dehydration.

Gantin, the son of a railway worker, was archbishop of Cotonou in Benin before going to Rome. He worked closely with Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.

One of the last cardinals to be named by Pope Paul VI, Gantin spent more than 30 years in the Roman Curia. He served as head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace Commission and head of the Congregation for Bishops. That office is responsible for the world's bishops and is one of the top Vatican positions.

Cardinal Bernardin Gantin of Benin, close to popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, dies

The Independent -

The Vatican's official newspaper has endorsed the possibility that the universe could contain intelligent life beyond Earth, while insisting that aliens would be "our brothers" and "children of God" as much as human beings are.

The Pope's astronomer, José Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit priest, told L'Osservatore Romano that there would be nothing surprising about the existence of intelligent extra-terrestrials.

"Just as there is a multiplicity of creatures on Earth, so there could be other beings created by God [beyond it]," he said. The interview suggests that the Church's hierarchy may be paving the way to showing that Pope Benedict XVI is more open to the ideas of modern science than he has previously seemed to be.

Pope Benedict has spoken in favour of "intelligent design" in the past and has damned evolutionary ideas that leave no room for God.

Pope's astronomer insists alien life 'would be part of God's creation'