POPE MEETS JEWISH LEADERS IN NY

THIS STORY I HAVE TO PUT ON YET. THE VATICAN AND ISRAEL WILL HAVE TALKS IN MAY ABOUT THE 1993 AGREEMENT THAT LETS THEM HAVE CONTROL OF THE HOLY SITES AND ACTION IN THE PEACE PROCESS JUST LIKE I SAID.

Israel, Vatican closer to diplomatic pact

Jerusalem, Apr. 18, 2008 (CWNews.com) - Israeli and Vatican negotiators moved closer to a long-awaited juridical agreement in cordial talks at the Israeli foreign ministry this week, the AsiaNews service reports. The next bargaining session is set for May 28 in Rome, with ranking officials from the Israeli foreign ministry and the Vatican Secretariat of State scheduled to take part. The two sides have agreed to accelerate the pace of discussions, hoping to complete the legal-economic accord that was promised as part of the fundamental agreement that opened the way for diplomatic relations in 1993. Among the issues under discussion are the tax status of Church institutions in Israel, the immigration rules affecting Catholic clergy and religious, and the control of some properties-- notably including the Cenacle, the site of the Last Supper-- to which the Church claims legitimate title.

04/17/2008 12:36 ISRAEL - HOLY SEE
Cordiality and signs of mutual trust between the Jewish state and the Vatican by Arieh Cohen

This is what is emerging from the meeting of the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission, which renews its commitment to accelerate the conclusion of an agreement. Among the objectives, the restitution of the Cenacle. The plenary meeting in Rome on May 28. Tel Aviv (AsiaNews) - With the joint communique released at the end of its work, yesterday, April 16, at the office of the Israeli foreign ministry, the Bilateral Permanent Working Commission of the Holy See and the state of Israel announced that it will hold its next plenary session on May 28, at the Vatican.

Plenary is the name given to the session presided over by the highest levels (just beneath the ministerial level) of the respective foreign dicasteries and also including other officials, in addition to those who take part in the working sessions that are held in the meantime, between one plenary session and the other. The plenary sessions have been resumed only since May 21, 2007, after a five year interval (since March 12, 2002 ), and it seems that the two parties intend to hold them every six months, as they have done since the first session of this new series. As on other occasions, the communique for the current working meeting says that it was characterised by an atmosphere of great cordiality (which a participant who spoke with AsiaNews fully confirmed) and that, in such an atmosphere, the delegations renewed their shared determination to speed up their work in order to conclude the Agreement as soon as possible. The desired Agreement, previously requested by the Fundamental Agreement of December 30, 1993, should above all reconfirm the historical tax exemptions for the Church, and effect the restitution to the Church of some ecclesiastical properties lost over the years, in particular, among others, the church-shrine of Caesarea Maritima (in addition to, naturally, the holy Cenacle).

The announcement of the date of the upcoming plenary session, says one expert on Church-state relations in Israel, interviewed by AsiaNews, would be a good sign of the seriousness of the negotiations, and could be seen as an indication that the delegations have developed relationships of mutual trust, and methods of straightforward collaboration aimed at reaching a common goal.

DAY 1 OF PASSOVER IS IN ISRAEL TODAY AT 6PM. HOW GOD USED MOSES TO FREE ISRAEL FROM EGYPT.

Saturday April 19, 09:35 AM
Pope gets warm welcome in NY synagogue

A New York synagogue gave Pope Benedict a warm welcome, with the chief rabbi hailing his work for inter-faith dialogue and congregants playing down recent tensions between Catholics and Jews.
A heartfelt shalom. Willkommen, said Arthur Schneier, chief rabbi of the Park East Synagogue, using the Hebrew word for peace and German word for welcome.The visit on the eve of Passover, the holy day marking the exodus from Egypt, was only the third by a pope to a Jewish house of worship. Benedict visited one in Cologne, Germany in 2005, and his predecessor Pope John Paul visited the Rome synagogue in 1986.It is with joy that I come here, just a few hours before the celebration of your Pesah, to express my respect and esteem for the Jewish community in New York City, the German-born pontiff said, using the Hebrew word for Passover.I encourage all of you to continue building bridges of friendship with all the many different ethnic and religious groups present in your neighbourhood.

Catholic-Jewish relations were strained in February when the Vatican published a new prayer, partly drafted by Benedict, for Good Friday services in the old Latin rite that called for the conversion of the Jews.Several Jewish leaders criticised the prayer and the Vatican issued a statement that the text in no way intends to indicate a change in the Catholic Church's regard for the Jews.

Schneier, a Holocaust survivor who came to the United States from Budapest in 1947, made no mention of the controversy and instead stressed their common past in wartime Europe.In our lifetime, we have both experienced the ravages of war, the Holocaust, man's inhumanity to man, and tasted the joy of freedom, he said in the synagogue, a New York City landmark built in 1890. I thank God that both of us have survived.He added: Our presence together is a message that inter-religious dialogue is viable and vital to the resolution of conflict. Your message of conciliation has already been heard around the globe.Catholic-Jewish relations had come a long way since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Schneier said, adding: Your presence here gives us hope and courage for the road we still have to travel together.Members of the modern Orthodox congregation also played down the recent exchange over the Good Friday prayer.He wants this trip to make a point and that point is that the religions should be talking and communicating and not isolating one from the other, said Harvey Feuerstein, 70, a Manhattan lawyer on the synagogue's board or trustees.Barry Zimmerman, 70, a retired Manhattan chemist, shrugged off the recent disagreements with the remark: Popes have made worse comments in the past.Ken Lipper, a Manhattan real estate executive, said after the short ceremony: He said that he was here to pay his respects to all of the Jews ... I was very impressed.In the synagogue, two youths gave Benedict unleavened matzo bread and a copy of the Passover Haggadah text. The pope told them he would eat the matzo on Saturday, according to the Jewish ritual.

Agence France-Presse Washington, April 18, 2008
Muslim leaders urge Pope to lead Catholic-Muslim dialogue

US Muslim leaders have said they urged Pope Benedict XVI at a meeting to help establish a permanent dialogue between the two faiths. I told the pope: I met you two yeas ago at the Vatican and asked you then to lead efforts to establish permanent dialogue with Muslims,Imam Hassan Al-Qzwini, the religious director of the Islamic Center of America said at an impromptu news conference after the pope met with representatives of five faiths. I repeated that call today. Muslims and Catholics form over 50 per cent of the world's population and we are in desperate need of dialogue, he said.

Muzammil Siddiqi, chairman of the Islamic Law Council of North America, said he had also called for more dialogue with the Church, and urged the Pope to use is influence to bring stability
to Lebanon.He said he would do his best, Siddiqi said. Benedict met with leaders of the Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, Jewish and Muslim faiths at an inter-religious meeting at the John Paul II Inter-cultural Center in Washington. Today in classrooms throughout the country, young Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and indeed children of all religions sit side by side, learning with and from one another, he told them. May others take heart from your experience, realising that a united society can indeed arise
from a plurality of peoples, provided that all recognize religious liberty as a basic civil right.Benedict began a six-day visit to the United States on Tuesday. On Wednesday he became the
first pope in 30 years to visit the White House, where he and President George W Bush discussed the plight of Christians in war-torn Iraq, among other issues. http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print.aspx?Id=0716ad1b-f72f-4... Posted from http://www.teranews.com

19/04/2008 1.26.14 Pope Benedict XVI's Address at Ecumenical Prayer Meeting

Pope Benedict XVI's Address at Ecumenical Prayer Meeting
18 April 2008 St. Joseph's Church, New York City

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,My heart abounds with gratitude to Almighty God – the Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph 4:6) – for this blessed opportunity to gather with you this evening in prayer. I thank Bishop Dennis Sullivan for his cordial welcome, and I warmly greet all those in attendance representing Christian communities throughout the United States. May the peace of our Lord and Savior be with you all!Through you, I express my sincere appreciation for the invaluable work of all those engaged in ecumenism: the National Council of Churches, Christian Churches Together, the Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and many others. The contribution of Christians in the United States to the ecumenical movement is felt throughout the world. I encourage all of you to persevere, always relying on the grace of the risen Christ whom we strive to serve by bringing about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name (Rom 1:5).

We have just listened to the scriptural passage in which Paul – a prisoner for the Lord – delivers his ardent appeal to the members of the Christian community at Ephesus. I beg you, he writes, to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called … eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Eph 4:1-3). Then, after his impassioned litany of unity, Paul reminds his hearers that Jesus, having ascended into heaven, has bestowed upon men and women all the gifts necessary for building up the Body of Christ (cf. Eph 4:11-13).Paul’s exhortation resounds with no less vigor today. His words instill in us the confidence that the Lord will never abandon us in our quest for unity. They also call us to live in a way that bears witness to the one heart and mind (Acts 4:32), which has always been the distinguishing trait of Christian koinonia (cf. Acts 2:42), and the force drawing others to join the community of believers so that they too might come to share in the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph 3:8; cf. Acts 2:47; 5:14).

Globalization has humanity poised between two poles. On the one hand, there is a growing sense of interconnectedness and interdependency between peoples even when – geographically and culturally speaking – they are far apart. This new situation offers the potential for enhancing a sense of global solidarity and shared responsibility for the well-being of mankind. On the other hand, we cannot deny that the rapid changes occurring in our world also present some disturbing signs of fragmentation and a retreat into individualism. The expanding use of electronic communications has in some cases paradoxically resulted in greater isolation. Many people – including the young – are seeking therefore more authentic forms of community. Also of grave concern is the spread of a secularist ideology that undermines or even rejects transcendent truth. The very possibility of divine revelation, and therefore of Christian faith, is often placed into question by cultural trends widely present in academia, the mass media and public debate. For these reasons, a faithful witness to the Gospel is as urgent as ever. Christians are challenged to give a clear account of the hope that they hold (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

Too often those who are not Christians, as they observe the splintering of Christian communities, are understandably confused about the Gospel message itself. Fundamental Christian beliefs and practices are sometimes changed within communities by so-called prophetic actions that are based on a hermeneutic not always consonant with the datum of Scripture and Tradition. Communities consequently give up the attempt to act as a unified body, choosing instead to function according to the idea of local options. Somewhere in this process the need for diachronic koinonia – communion with the Church in every age – is lost, just at the time when the world is losing its bearings and needs a persuasive common witness to the saving power of the Gospel (cf. Rom 1:18-23).
Faced with these difficulties, we must first recall that the unity of the Church flows from the perfect oneness of the Trinitarian God. In John’s Gospel, we are told that Jesus prayed to his Father that his disciples might be one, just as you are in me and I am in you (Jn 17:21). This passage reflects the unwavering conviction of the early Christian community that its unity was both caused by, and is reflective of, the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This, in turn, suggests that the internal cohesion of believers was based on the sound integrity of their doctrinal confession (cf. 1 Tim 1:3-11). Throughout the New Testament, we find that the Apostles were repeatedly called to give an account for their faith to both Gentiles (cf. Acts 17:16-34) and Jews (cf. Acts 4:5-22; 5:27-42). The core of their argument was always the historical fact of Jesus’s bodily resurrection from the tomb (Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30). The ultimate effectiveness of their preaching did not depend on lofty words or human wisdom (1 Cor 2:13), but rather on the work of the Spirit (Eph 3:5) who confirmed the authoritative witness of the Apostles (cf. 1 Cor 15:1-11). The nucleus of Paul’s preaching and that of the early Church was none other than Jesus Christ, and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). But this proclamation had to be guaranteed by the purity of normative doctrine expressed in creedal formulae – symbola – which articulated the essence of the Christian faith and constituted the foundation for the unity of the baptized (cf. 1 Cor 15:3-5; Gal 1:6-9; Unitatis Redintegratio, 2).

My dear friends, the power of the kerygma has lost none of its internal dynamism. Yet we must ask ourselves whether its full force has not been attenuated by a relativistic approach to Christian doctrine similar to that found in secular ideologies, which, in alleging that science alone is objective, relegate religion entirely to the subjective sphere of individual feeling. Scientific discoveries, and their application through human ingenuity, undoubtedly offer new possibilities for the betterment of humankind. This does not mean, however, that the knowable is limited to the empirically verifiable, nor religion restricted to the shifting realm of personal experience. For Christians to accept this faulty line of reasoning would lead to the notion that there is little need to emphasize objective truth in the presentation of the Christian faith, for one need but follow his or her own conscience and choose a community that best suits his or her individual tastes. The result is seen in the continual proliferation of communities which often eschew institutional structures and minimize the importance of doctrinal content for Christian living.

Even within the ecumenical movement, Christians may be reluctant to assert the role of doctrine for fear that it would only exacerbate rather than heal the wounds of division. Yet a clear, convincing testimony to the salvation wrought for us in Christ Jesus has to be based upon the notion of normative apostolic teaching: a teaching which indeed underlies the inspired word of God and sustains the sacramental life of Christians today.Only by holding fast to sound teaching (2 Thess 2:15; cf. Rev 2:12-29) will we be able to respond to the challenges that confront us in an evolving world. Only in this way will we give unambiguous testimony to the truth of the Gospel and its moral teaching. This is the message which the world is waiting to hear from us. Like the early Christians, we have a responsibility to give transparent witness to the reasons for our hope, so that the eyes of all men and women of goodwill may be opened to see that God has shown us his face (cf. 2 Cor 3:12-18) and granted us access to his divine life through Jesus Christ. He alone is our hope! God has revealed his love for all peoples through the mystery of his Son’s passion and death, and has called us to proclaim that he is indeed risen, has taken his place at the right hand of the Father, and will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead (Nicene Creed).

May the word of God we have heard this evening inflame our hearts with hope on the path to unity (cf. Lk 24:32). May this prayer service exemplify the centrality of prayer in the ecumenical movement (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, 8); for without it, ecumenical structures, institutions and programs would be deprived of their heart and soul. Let us give thanks to Almighty God for the progress that has been made through the work of his Spirit, as we acknowledge with gratitude the personal sacrifices made by so many present and by those who have gone before us. By following in their footsteps, and by placing our trust in God alone, I am confident that – to borrow the words of Father Paul Wattson – we will achieve the oneness of hope, oneness of faith, and oneness of love that alone will convince the world that Jesus Christ is the one sent by the Father for the salvation of all.I thank you all.