Vatican Radio: State funeral for Catholic nun, Pakistan's Mother Teresa

Pakistani soldiers carrying the coffin of Catholic nun Sr. Ruth Pfau during her state funeral, in Karachi, Pakistan, 19 August 2017. - EPA

(Vatican Radio) Pakistan on Saturday laid to rest its famous angel of mercy, German-born Catholic nun Ruth Pfau, credited with eradicating leprosy or Hansen’s disease from Pakistan. The Daughter of the Heart of Mary Sister was accorded full state honours, including a 19-gun salute, for her priceless service. State-run television broadcast live footage of her flag-draped coffin being solemnly carried by Pakistani soldiers in the southern city of Karachi.

Mourners paid their last respects on Aug. 19 as her body was carried to the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre that she founded before being taken on to St. Patrick's Cathedral for her final rites. The body was then taken to Karachi's Christian cemetery Gora Qabaristan, where she was laid to rest.

The burial ceremony was attended by many state dignitaries including President Mamnoon Hussain, the chief minister and governor of Sindh province as well as several top officials of Pakistan’s armed forces. Vice Admiral Zafar Mahmood Abbasi, who laid floral wreaths on her grave.

Widely known as Pakistan's Mother Teresa, Sr. Pfau died on Aug. 10 at age 87, after being admitted to Karachi’s Aga Khan Hospital a few days earlier suffering from old age complications.

Mission to serve

Born on Sept. 9, 1929 in Leipzig, Sr. Ruth Pfau studied medicine in the1950s at the universities of Mainz and Marburg in then West Germany. After her graduation she joined the religious order of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, which sent her on mission to India. On her way she stopped in Karachi on March 8, 1960, because of some visa problems. It was here that she became involved with working with people affected by leprosy or Hansen’s Disease.

In 1961 she went to Vellore, South India to acquire training in the management of Leprosy. She then returned to Karachi to organize and expand the Leprosy Control Programme. Her Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in Karachi, Pakistan's first hospital dedicated to treating the disease, today has 157 branches across the country.

Recognition

Sr. Pfau has won numerous honours and prizes in Pakistan and abroad for her humanitarian services. Germany awarded her the Order of Merit in 1969. In 1979, the Pakistani government appointed her Federal Advisor on Leprosy to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. Pakistani government honoured her with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz in 1979 and the Hilal-e-Pakistan in 1989. She was granted Pakistani citizenship in 1988. In 2002 she won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as Asia’s Nobel prize.

Today is World Mission Sunday

Pope's Message for World Mission Sunday 2011

"As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You"

VATICAN CITY, JAN. 25, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of Benedict XVI's message for World Mission Sunday, which will be observed Oct. 23. The message, titled "As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You" (John 20:21), was published today by the Vatican press office.

* * *

"As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You" (John 20:21). On the occasion of the Jubilee of 2000, the Venerable John Paul II, at the beginning of a new millennium of the Christian era, reaffirmed forcefully the need to renew the commitment to take to all the proclamation of the Gospel with "the same enthusiasm of the Christians of the early times" ("Novo Millennio Ineunte," No. 58). It is the most precious service that the Church can give to humanity and to each person who seeks the profound reasons to live his existence fully. Because of this, this same invitation resounds every year in the celebration of World Mission Sunday. In fact, the incessant proclamation of the Gospel also vivifies the Church, her fervor, her apostolic spirit, it renews her pastoral methods so that they are increasingly appropriate to the new situations -- also those that require a new evangelization -- and animated by the missionary drive: "the mission renews the Church, reinforces the faith and Christian identity, gives new enthusiasm and new motivations. The faith is strengthened by giving it! The new evangelization of Christian peoples will find inspiration and support in the commitment to the universal mission" (John Paul II, "Redemptoris Missio," No. 2).

The Hindu: Mother Teresa Converted non-Christians to be better followers of their own religion

Nuns from Missionaries of Charity paying tribute to
Mother Teresa during mother's birth centenary celebrations in Bhopal on Tuesday.
Photo Source: The Hindu

On The HINDU newspaper

"She [Mother Teresa of Calcutta] was criticised for conversion. Yet in all the 23 years I knew her she never once whispered a suggestion regarding conversion. However, I asked her if she did convert. Without a moment's hesitation, she said, “I convert. I convert you to be a better Hindu, a better Muslim, a better Protestant, and a better Sikh. Once you have found God, it is up to you to do with him as you wish.” While she never deviated an inch from her path and was a religious, not a social worker, she was quick to realise that in India, Catholicism was practised by a small segment, and the 19th century proselytising approach could not be sustained."

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta: 26 August 1910 - 26 August 2010

What It Means To Be Blessed

For many, even in the Church, the Catholic practice of beatifying and canonizing is an enigma. Why does the Church do it? How does the Church do it? What are the implications of being canonized, or in the case of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, beatified?

General History.

First it should be noted that according to the testimony of Sacred Scripture every Christian is a saint. The Greek New Testament speaks in many places of the hagios (Acts 9:32; Rom 15:25, 31; Eph 1:1; Col. 1:2; Jude 1:3 and others). The Latin Vulgate speaks of the sancti, which is rendered in some English translations as the saints and in others as the holy ones. As St. Peter tells Christians, "you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may announce the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." The saints are set apart by God through baptism, filled with His divine life (the Kingdom of God within), and called to announce that Kingdom's presence in the world to the whole human race. Thus it is that in the Scriptural usage all of those baptized into Christ and in the state of grace can rightly be called saints.

In another sense, stricter and more technical, the saints are those in whom Christ's victory over sin, the devil and death has not just begun, as it has in us, but has been completed. This is the case when the wayfaring state of earthy life is concluded and the holiness of life attained in the pilgrim's state is realized perfectly in heaven. Even while saying that no one is truly good but God (Mt 19:17), Christ called us to the perfection of goodness, of holiness, "be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect" (Mt 5:48, Mt 19:21; Col. 4:12, James 1:4), since nothing imperfect will enter into heaven (Rev 21:27)...

Read More at EWTN on Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Non-Christians Venerate Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Tibetan leader: “The Dalai Lama tells Buddhists to follow the path of Mother Teresa".

by Nirmala Carvalho

Samdhong Rinpoche reveals the importance of the Blessed of Calcutta for Tibetan Buddhism. "For us, the Mother is the incarnation of Maha Karuna (immeasurable compassion). For her, no one was unreachable. The Dalai Lama had the deepest admiration and respect for Mother. "

New Delhi (AsiaNews) – Continuing our review of testimonies on Mother Teresa of Calcutta promoted by AsiaNews, a few days from the centenary of the birth of the Blessed. On August 26 the anniversary of the Missionary of Charity will be celebrated.

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Photo Source: AsiaNews

Samdhong Rinpoche, 71, has lived in exile in India since 1959, when he fled from Tibet due to Chinese government repression. On July 29, 2001, he was elected prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile by civilians who had fled from Tibet. Below his interview with AsiaNews:

How was Mother Teresa viewed by Tibetan Buddhists?

She represents love without distinction and compassion for all humanity. For Tibetan Buddhism, the Mother is the incarnation of Maha Karuna (immeasurable compassion). Everyday love has a reason: we love our family, friends ... But the love of Mother Teresa is the divine love for all human beings. And Mother's love was expressed through humble service.

Mother Teresa served the people, she transfigured the face of suffering humanity through her love and compassion. For her, no one was unreachable, she touched the poorest of the poor with her soul and gave them a reason to live and dignity.

What kind of relationship was there between Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama?

The Dalai Lama admired Mother Teresa and had the deepest respect for her. After meeting her, he said she was an example of a compassionate person. Often he told Buddhist monks and nuns to follow the example of Mother Teresa and serve the poorest of the poor in an imitation of her spirit, her compassion and her dedication.

The Dalai Lama also said that the spirit, compassion and dedication of Mother Teresa would continue to lead the human community.

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Catholics Venerate the Saints and Angels as oppose to those anti-Catholics and cults who accuse Catholics of "worshipping" them.

Pope approves new archbishop for beleaguered Archdiocese of Mosul

(Article Source: Catholic News Agency) VATICAN CITY - Catholics in the war-torn Archdiocese of Mosul, Iraq received good news on Friday when Pope Benedict approved Fr. Emil Shimoun Nona as the new Archbishop of Mosul. The archbishop-elect will replace Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, who was kidnapped by militants last February and found dead two weeks later.

The Vatican's press office announced today that the Holy Father “gave his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the Chaldean Church of Fr. Emil Shimoun Nona.”

Archbishop-elect Nona, 42, was born in Alqosh, Iraq on November 1, 1967. He entered the Chaldean Patriarchal Seminary in 1985 and was ordained priest on January 11, 1991 in Baghdad.

His pastoral experience includes serving as the parochial vicar at Alqosh from 1993 to 1997 and then as pastor until 2000.

After his seven years in the parish, Archbishop-elect Nona was sent to study at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he earned a doctorate in theology. At present he is an official for the Archdiocese of Alqosh and a professor of Anthropology at Babel College. He is also speaks Arabic, Italian, Chaldean and English.

Archbishop-elect Nona will be serving 18,200 lay Catholics, 16 priests, 1 permanent deacon and 10 religious.

Be Partners in Evanglism (Word Among Us Ministry)

[Source: Prayer Partner ]

Lord, bless the men and
women of our military as
they answer the call to
serve our nation and defend
our freedom.
Protect them, particularly
those in harm’s way. Most of
all let them know your love:
that you are with them, and
that you will never forsake
or abandon them. I ask this
in the precious name of
Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
Amen.

Visit Word Among Us

Remembering Mother Teresa and Her Missionaries of Charity

Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Pray for Us.

(Photo Source: DailyLife)
(Photo Source: DailyLife)
(Photo Source: Wikipedia)

Photo Source: AsiaNews.it)

Visit also these sites and donate.

Mother Teresa Beatification at EWTN
Missionaries of Charity
Missionaries of Charity - Priests
Missionaries of Charity -Brothers

Webvangelizing

Gone are the days when our Catholic missionaries have to travel through on foot crossing steep mountains and hot deserts preaching the Words of God relying only to their conviction that God has sent them to meet Christ in foreign lands through preaching and example. Our saints are the very witness of the harshness of such a missionary demands of Christ "preaching to all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. (see Mt. 28).

According to our Catholic Catechism, all baptized Christians are missionaries. Not necessarily traveling to foreign lands. A Catholic can be a missionary to his own family example. He can be a missionary to his friends in school and in sports. He can be missionary to his business partners, to his subordinates, and to everyone he may meet everyday.

As witnesses to Christ and his mission, we need not to hitch in every bus with a Bible and a "donation envelop" asking "love offerings" to passengers, nor we shout on top of our lungs in market places. Our being missionaries is right there when we are doing very ordinary things we use to do everyday.

Today, the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI is asking every Christian Catholic to be missionaries right inside our own rooms. With the latest digital technologies we so love to have, we can spread the Good News to those we may encounter in the web. Just as what I love to do, I use my blog to convey the good message of Jesus, leading men and women to his truth through his One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church which he established in Jerusalem to St. Peter.

To some, they use the internet to destroy others and to spread lies but we, as Catholics can beat the Devil by doing the opposite. Let's sow love and forgiveness and show them the difference between our loving concern for others through examples.

We can always be assured by the Holy Father that God has willed it that in our day, we are provided with these technology to build his Kingdom for his praise, glory and honor.

Here is the Holy Father's message for this years' 43rd World Day of Communication Pontifical Council for Social Communications, with a theme of "New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a Culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship." Thanks to Catholic Online for providing us the text of the Holy Father's message.

May 24, 2009, Dear Brothers and Sisters!

In anticipation of the forthcoming World Communications Day, I would like to address to you some reflections on the theme chosen for this year - New Technologies, New Relationships: Promoting a culture of Respect, Dialogue and Friendship. The new digital technologies are, indeed, bringing about fundamental shifts in patterns of communication and human relationships. These changes are particularly evident among those young people who have grown up with the new technologies and are at home in a digital world that often seems quite foreign to those of us who, as adults, have had to learn to understand and appreciate the opportunities it has to offer for communications.

In this year’s message, I am conscious of those who constitute the so-called digital generation and I would like to share with them, in particular, some ideas concerning the extraordinary potential of the new technologies, if they are used to promote human understanding and solidarity. These technologies are truly a gift to humanity and we must endeavor to ensure that the benefits they offer are put at the service of all human individuals and communities, especially those who are most disadvantaged and vulnerable.

The accessibility of mobile telephones and computers, combined with the global reach and penetration of the internet, has opened up a range of means of communication that permit the almost instantaneous communication of words and images across enormous distances and to some of the most isolated corners of the world; something that would have been unthinkable for previous generations.

Young people, in particular, have grasped the enormous capacity of the new media to foster connectedness, communication and understanding between individuals and communities, and they are turning to them as means of communicating with existing friends, of meeting new friends, of forming communities and networks, of seeking information and news, and of sharing their ideas and opinions.

Many benefits flow from this new culture of communication: families are able to maintain contact across great distances; students and researchers have more immediate and easier access to documents, sources and scientific discoveries, hence they can work collaboratively from different locations; moreover, the interactive nature of many of the new media facilitates more dynamic forms of learning and communication, thereby contributing to social progress.

While the speed with which the new technologies have evolved in terms of their efficiency and reliability is rightly a source of wonder, their popularity with users should not surprise us, as they respond to a fundamental desire of people to communicate and to relate to each other. This desire for communication and friendship is rooted in our very nature as human beings and cannot be adequately understood as a response to technical innovations.

In the light of the biblical message, it should be seen primarily as a reflection of our participation in the communicative and unifying Love of God, who desires to make of all humanity one family. When we find ourselves drawn towards other people, when we want to know more about them and make ourselves known to them, we are responding to God’s call - a call that is imprinted in our nature as beings created in the image and likeness of God, the God of communication and communion.

The desire for connectedness and the instinct for communication that are so obvious in contemporary culture are best understood as modern manifestations of the basic and enduring propensity of humans to reach beyond themselves and to seek communion with others. In reality, when we open ourselves to others, we are fulfilling our deepest need and becoming more fully human. Loving is, in fact, what we are designed for by our Creator. Naturally, I am not talking about fleeting, shallow relationships, I am talking about the real love that is at the very heart of Jesus’ moral teaching: "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength" and "You must love your neighbor as yourself" (cf. Mk 12:30-31).

In this light, reflecting on the significance of the new technologies, it is important to focus not just on their undoubted capacity to foster contact between people, but on the quality of the content that is put into circulation using these means. I would encourage all people of good will who are active in the emerging environment of digital communication to commit themselves to promoting a culture of respect, dialogue and friendship.

Those who are active in the production and dissemination of new media content, therefore, should strive to respect the dignity and worth of the human person. If the new technologies are to serve the good of individuals and of society, all users will avoid the sharing of words and images that are degrading of human beings, that promote hatred and intolerance, that debase the goodness and intimacy of human sexuality or that exploit the weak and vulnerable.

The new technologies have also opened the way for dialogue between people from different countries, cultures and religions. The new digital arena, the so-called cyberspace, allows them to encounter and to know each other’s traditions and values. Such encounters, if they are to be fruitful, require honest and appropriate forms of expression together with attentive and respectful listening.

The dialogue must be rooted in a genuine and mutual searching for truth if it is to realize its potential to promote growth in understanding and tolerance. Life is not just a succession of events or experiences: it is a search for the true, the good and the beautiful. It is to this end that we make our choices; it is for this that we exercise our freedom; it is in this - in truth, in goodness, and in beauty - that we find happiness and joy. We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by those who see us merely as consumers in a market of undifferentiated possibilities, where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty, and subjective experience displaces truth.

The concept of friendship has enjoyed a renewed prominence in the vocabulary of the new digital social networks that have emerged in the last few years. The concept is one of the noblest achievements of human culture. It is in and through our friendships that we grow and develop as humans. For this reason, true friendship has always been seen as one of the greatest goods any human person can experience. We should be careful, therefore, never to trivialize the concept or the experience of friendship. It would be sad if our desire to sustain and develop on-line friendships were to be at the cost of our availability to engage with our families, our neighbours and those we meet in the daily reality of our places of work, education and recreation. If the desire for virtual connectedness becomes obsessive, it may in fact function to isolate individuals from real social interaction while also disrupting the patterns of rest, silence and reflection that are necessary for healthy human development.

Friendship is a great human good, but it would be emptied of its ultimate value if it were to be understood as an end in itself. Friends should support and encourage each other in developing their gifts and talents and in putting them at the service of the human community. In this context, it is gratifying to note the emergence of new digital networks that seek to promote human solidarity, peace and justice, human rights and respect for human life and the good of creation. These networks can facilitate forms of co-operation between people from different geographical and cultural contexts that enable them to deepen their common humanity and their sense of shared responsibility for the good of all.

We must, therefore, strive to ensure that the digital world, where such networks can be established, is a world that is truly open to all. It would be a tragedy for the future of humanity if the new instruments of communication, which permit the sharing of knowledge and information in a more rapid and effective manner, were not made accessible to those who are already economically and socially marginalized, or if it should contribute only to increasing the gap separating the poor from the new networks that are developing at the service of human socialization and information.

I would like to conclude this message by addressing myself, in particular, to young Catholic believers: to encourage them to bring the witness of their faith to the digital world. Dear Brothers and Sisters, I ask you to introduce into the culture of this new environment of communications and information technology the values on which you have built your lives. In the early life of the Church, the great Apostles and their disciples brought the Good News of Jesus to the Greek and Roman world.

Just as, at that time, a fruitful evangelization required that careful attention be given to understanding the culture and customs of those pagan peoples so that the truth of the gospel would touch their hearts and minds, so also today, the proclamation of Christ in the world of new technologies requires a profound knowledge of this world if the technologies are to serve our mission adequately. It falls, in particular, to young people, who have an almost spontaneous affinity for the new means of communication, to take on the responsibility for the evangelization of this "digital continent".

Be sure to announce the Gospel to your contemporaries with enthusiasm. You know their fears and their hopes, their aspirations and their disappointments: the greatest gift you can give to them is to share with them the "Good News" of a God who became man, who suffered, died and rose again to save all people. Human hearts are yearning for a world where love endures, where gifts are shared, where unity is built, where freedom finds meaning in truth, and where identity is found in respectful communion. Our faith can respond to these expectations: may you become its heralds! The Pope accompanies you with his prayers and his blessing.

Pope's Past Mandatory "Hitler's Army" Clouded His Message of Peace and Love

The enemies of peace and the disciples of division are trying to project a "bad Pope" by bringing up the Holy Father's past membership in the army of Hitler which was a mandatory obligation for every legal aged German during those times. The power of Hitler was great that no one could oppose that command from Hitler himself. And if they can't understand that, they need to scan pages of history and confirm if it's true that all German youths at a right age should be members of Hitler's army.

And I detest all these besmirch allegations against a man whose noble intention is to bridge people to peace and reconciliation. May God bless the Pope and those who persecute him and the Chruch.

JERUSALEM, MAY 12, 2009 (Zenit.org).- A Vatican spokesman is clarifying that young Joseph Ratzinger's mandatory enrollment with Hitler's youth organization "had no role in his life."

Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, responded to a flurry of criticism that arose in the Israeli press after the Pope's visit Monday to the Yad Vashem.

Among the issues dredged up was Joseph Ratzinger's relationship with the Nazis. Even an Israeli government official was quoted as making much of the Holy Father's nationality: "The Pope [at Yad Vashem] spoke like a historian, as somebody observing from the sidelines, about things that shouldn't happen. But what can you do? He was part of them," said Parliament speaker Reuven Rivlin.

Others took issue with the Pope having used the word "killed" instead of "murdered," and other similar points.

This led Father Lombardi to say at a press conference today in Jerusalem, "I have read something that is not true. The Pope never, never formed part of the Hitlerjugend, which was a corps of fanatic and ideological volunteers."

The spokesman later clarified his own statement because the Pope's enrollment in the Hitler Youth was explained by Joseph Ratzinger himself in "Salt of the Earth." There he says he was automatically enrolled in the organization, though he did not participate in it.

In the book, Cardinal Ratzinger explains: "Q: Were you in the Hitler Youth?
"A: At first we weren't, but when the compulsory Hitler Youth was introduced in 1941, my brother was obliged to join. I was still too young, but later, as a seminarian, I was registered in the HY.

"As soon as I was out of the seminary, I never went back. And that was difficult, because of the tuition reduction, which I really needed, was tied to proof of attendance at the HY.

(Read more at Zenit.org!)

Saint On the Making in Cuba

International Herald Tribune
The Associated Press
Published: November 29, 2008

Today, the Church has added to its long lists of virtuous men and women who offered their lives to Christ by selflessly giving what they have in the service of the poor.

In Camaguey, Cuba, the only tough standing communist country in South America, Friar Jose Olallo Valdes, a member of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God was beatified, the first outside Vatican City. The rite was very unusual since Cuba is a communist country and in communism, they give little room for religious tolerance just like Vietnam, North Korea and the equally notorious Chinese government.

Read additional info at Zenit.com or have a view of the beatification at
YouTube