2 Bishops Named for Vietnam

HANOI, Vietnam, OCT. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI named two auxiliary bishops for Vietnam, one each for the archdioceses of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Father Laurent Chu Van Minh, until now the rector of the major seminary of Hanoi, was named an auxiliary for that archdiocese. He will assist Archbishop Joseph Ngo Quang Kiet.

Laurent Chu Van Minh, 64, was born in 1943 and ordained a priest at age 50, in 1994.

The Archdiocese of Hanoi has some 329,000 Catholics in a total population of over 5 million. The Catholic community is served by 69 priests and 278 religious.

Father Pierre Nguyen Van Kham, the executive secretary of the Vietnamese episcopal conference, was named an auxiliary of the Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City. He will assist Cardinal Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man.

Pierre Nguyen Van Kham, 56, was born in 1952 and ordained a priest in 1980.

The Archdiocese of Ho Chi Minh City has some 640,000 Catholics in a total population of more than 6 million. The Catholics are served by 751 priests and 5,442 religious.

John Paul II's Cause Following Normal Route

Postulator Says He's Keeping Benedict XVI's Advice

ROME, OCT. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).-The cause of canonization for Pope John Paul II is proceeding meticulously, according to the traditional process stipulated by canon law, says the postulator.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder spoke about the process Monday at the presentation of the book, "Giovanni Paolo II, parroco di Roma" (John Paul II, pastor of Rome), published by the Lateran University Press.

"As we know," the Polish prelate said, "on April 2, 2007, the process of the Congregation for Saints' Causes began. In this moment, we are in the phase of preparing the 'positio super virtutibus.'"

Last March, Monsignor Oder turned in a semi-definitive version of the "positio," which has close to 2,000 pages.

"In my work," he said Monday, "I have always kept in mind the words I heard personally from Benedict XVI, who many times publicly demonstrated his lively interest in the cause: 'Work quickly, but well, in an irreproachable way.'"

"The words of the Pope are in force in this moment of the procedure and affect all the people involved," the postulator said.

"This fact," the monsignor continued, "on one hand keeps me very serene because I am aware that the work done till now has been carried out in fidelity to the words of the Pope; on the other hand, it gives me a confident and patient anticipation, so that the current phase, as well, develops with the seriousness and the rigor proper to this type of canonical process."

He has never committed himself to giving a possible date of beatification.

Benedict XVI did dispense with the five-year wait period that normally must follow the death of the would-be saint before the canonization cause can open.

On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice

I Am Pleasing To Him

† I do not know how to live without God, but I also feel that God, absolutely self-sufficient though He is, cannot be happy without me ... (Diary, 1120).

There is no greater happiness than when God gives me to know interiorly that every beat of my heart is pleasing to Him, and when He shows me that He loves me in a special way (Diary, 1121).

What happiness it is to have the consciousness of God in one's heart and to live in close intimacy with Him (Diary, 1135).

St. Paul's Teaching on the Church

"We Are the Temple of God in the World"

VATICAN CITY, OCT. 15, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the address Benedict XVI delivered during today's general audience in St. Peter's Square.

The Holy Father continued today the cycle of catecheses dedicated to the figure and thought of St. Paul.

* * *

Dear brothers and sisters:

In last Wednesday's catechesis, I spoke of Paul's relationship with the pre-Easter Jesus in his earthly life. The question was: "What did Paul know of the life of Jesus, his words, his passion?"

Today, I would like to speak of the teaching of St. Paul on the Church. We should begin by noting that this word -- "iglesia" in Spanish, like "église" in French or "chiesa" in Italian -- is taken from the Greek "ekklēsía." It comes from the Old Testament and means the assembly of the people of Israel, gathered by God, and particularly the model assembly at the foot of Sinai.

Now this word alludes to the new community of believers in Christ who know themselves to be the assembly of God, the new gathering of all peoples by God and before him. The term "ekklēsía" only appears in the writings of Paul, who is the first author of a Christian writing. This happens in the "incipit" of the first Letter to the Thessalonians, where Paul addresses himself textually to "the Church of the Thessalonians" (cf. later as well the [address to the] "Church of the Laodiceans in Colossians 4:16).

In other letters he speaks of the Church of God that is at Corinth (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:2 and 2 Corinthians 1:1), that is at Galatia (Galatians 1:2, etc). -- particular Churches, therefore -- but he recounts also having persecuted "the Church of God," not one particular local community, but the "Church of God." Thus we see that this word "Church" has a multifaceted meaning: It indicates on one hand the assemblies of God in particular places (a city, a country, a house), but it also means all of the Church taken together. And thus we see that "the Church of God" is not just the sum of the particular local Churches, but that these are at the same time the actualization of the one Church of God. All together they are the "Church of God," which precedes each local Church and which is expressed and actualized in them.

It is important to observe that nearly always the word "Church" appears with the added descriptor "of God": It is not a human association, born from ideas or common interests, but a gathering of God. He has gathered it together and because of this it is one in all of its actualizations. The unity of God creates the unity of the Church in all of the places where it is found. Later, in the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul abundantly elaborates the concept of the unity of the Church, in continuation with the concept of the people of God, Israel, considered by the prophets as the "spouse of God," called to live a spousal relationship with him. Paul presents the only Church of God as "spouse of Christ" in love, one spirit with Christ himself.

It is known that the young Paul had been an ardent adversary of the new movement constituted by the Church of Christ. He had been its adversary, because he had seen threatened in this new movement the fidelity to the tradition of the people of God, animated by faith in the one God. This fidelity was expressed above all in circumcision, in the observance of the norms of cultural purity, in abstaining from certain foods, in respect for the Sabbath.

The Israelites paid for this fidelity with their blood during the time of the Maccabees, when the Greek regime wanted to force all peoples to take on a sole Greek culture. Many of the Israelites had defended with their blood the vocation proper to Israel. The martyrs had paid with their lives for the identity of their people, expressed through these elements.

After his encounter with the risen Christ, Paul understood that the Christians weren't traitors; on the contrary, in the new situation, the God of Israel, through Christ, had extended his call to all people, becoming the God of all peoples. In this way, fidelity to the only God was fulfilled; the distinctive signs made up of particular norms and observances were no longer necessary, because all were called, in their differences, to form part of the one people of God in the "Church of God," in Christ.

One thing was immediately clear to Paul in the new situation: the fundamental and foundational value of Christ and the "word" he proclaimed. Paul knew that not only is one not a Christian by coercion, but that rather in the internal configuration of the new community, the institutionally component was inevitably linked to the "living word," the proclamation of the living Christ in which God opens himself to all peoples and unites them in the one people of God. It is significant that Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, uses many times, even because of Paul, the phrase "proclaim the word" (Acts 4:29,31; 8:25; 11:19; 13:46; 14:25; 16:6,32), with the evident intention of showing to the maximum the decisive reach of the "word" of the proclamation.

Concretely, this word is made up of the cross and resurrection of Christ, in which the Scriptures have been fulfilled. The paschal mystery, announced in the word, is fulfilled in the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist, and materializes in Christian charity. The evangelizing work of Paul does not have any other goal than to firmly establish the community of the believers in Christ. This idea is within the same etymology of the term "ekklēsía," which Paul, and with him all of Christianity, prefers to the other term "synagogue," not only because originally the first is more "lay" -- deriving from the Greek praxis of the political assembly and not properly religious -- but also because it directly implies the more theological idea of a call "ab extra," not only a simple meeting. The believers are called by God, who gathers them in a community, his Church.

Along this line, we can also understand the original concept, exclusively Pauline, of the Church as "Body of Christ." In this respect, it is fitting to keep in mind the two dimension of this concept. One is of a sociological character, according to which the body is formed by its components and wouldn't exist without them. This interpretation appears in the Letter to the Romans and the First Letter to the Corinthians, where Paul takes up an image that already existed in Roman sociology. He says that a people is like a body with distinct members, each one of which has its function, but all, even the smallest and apparently insignificant, are necessary so the body can live and perform its functions. Opportunely, the Apostle observes that in the Church there are many vocations: prophets, apostles, teachers, simple peoples, all called to live charity each day, all necessary for constructing the living unity of this spiritual organism.

The other interpretation makes reference to the very Body of Christ. Paul sustains that the Church is not just an organism, but rather becomes truly the Body of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist, where all receive his Body and truly become his Body. Thus is fulfilled the spousal mystery, that all are one body and one spirit in Christ. Hence the reality goes much beyond the sociological imagination, expressing its true, profound essence, that is, the unity of all the baptized in Christ, considered by the Apostle, "one" in Christ, conformed to the sacrament of his Body.

Saying this, Paul shows he knows well and he brings us to understand that the Church is not his and is not ours: the Church is the body of Christ, it is "Church of God, " "field of God," construction of God … "temple of God" (1 Corinthians 3:9,16). This last designation is particularly interesting, because it attributes to an interweaving of interpersonal relationships a term that was commonly used to indicate a physical place, considered sacred. The relationship between Church and temple assumes therefore two complementary dimensions: On one hand, the characteristic of separation and purity, which the sacred building had, is applied to the ecclesial community; on the other hand, the concept of a material space is surpassed, to transfer this value to the reality of a living community of faith. If before, temples were considered places of the presence of God, now it is known and seen that God does not dwell in buildings made of stone, but that the place of the presence of God is in the world of the living community of the believers.

One separate discourse would merit the qualification of "people of God," which in Paul is applied substantially to the people of the Old Testament and afterward to the pagans, that were "no people" and that have become also the people of God thanks to their insertion in Christ through the word and the sacrament.

And a last sketch: In the Letter to Timothy, Paul qualifies the Church as "house of God" (1 Timothy 3:15); and this is a truly original definition, because it refers to the Church as a community structure in which warm interpersonal relationships of a familial character are lived. The Apostle helps us to understand ever better the mystery of the Church in its distinct dimensions of assembly of God in the world.

This is the greatness of the Church and the greatness of our call: We are the temple of God in the world, the place where God truly dwells, and we are, at the same time, community, family of God, who is love. As family and house of God we should carry out in the world the charity of God and thus be, with the strength that comes from faith, the place and sign of his presence. Let us pray to the Lord so that he grants us to be ever more his Church, his Body, the place of the presence of his charity in this our world and in our history.

2 Bishops Named for Vietnam

John Paul II's Cause Following Normal Route

Dairy from St. Faustina

On Happiness, Joy, Delight, Rejoice

St. Paul's Teaching on the Church