Cardinal Suggests Encyclical

For Pope Benedict to write. Cardinal Marc Ouellet, from the Vatican:

  On the subject of the ecclesial interpretation of the Word of God, the cardinal archbishop of Quebec posed the question whether “after several decades of concentration upon human meditations on the Scriptures, should we not find again the divine depth of the inspired text, without losing the precious acquisitions from new methodologies?

 

  “We cannot overemphasise this point because the crisis of exegesis and theological hermeneutics has a profound effect on the spiritual life of the People of God and their trust in the Scriptures. It also affects ecclesial communion, because of the climate of often unhealthy tension between university theology and ecclesial Magisterium. Faced with this delicate situation, and without getting into the debates on schools, the Synod must give a direction, to heal relationships and favour integration of acquired knowledge from biblical and hermeneutical sciences into the ecclesial interpretation of Holy Scriptures”.

 From The Boston Pilot:

Cardinal Ouellet said the synod members might want to ask Pope Benedict XVI to write an encyclical “on the interpretation of Scriptures in the church.”

Bishop Dedicates Lourdes Shrine

 

Bishop Baker dedicated a new altar on October 7, the Feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary, at a shrine dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes. The new shrine is located on the grounds of the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels, in Hanceville. It is a replica of the grotto at Lourdes, France where in 1858 the Blessed Virgin appeared to Saint Bernadette, one hundred and fifty years ago this year. The ceremony, took place outdoors in a variety of weather conditions, bright sunshine one moment, torrential downpour the next, but a beautiful gentle breeze throughout. The large crowd remained throughout.
In his homily to the congregation in attendance Bishop Baker reminded those gathered that he had declared October 7th as a Day of Prayer to be observed by all in the Diocese of Birmingham to pray for our nation and the world at a time of great uncertainty. He reiterated his desire that everyone pray the rosary daily throughout the month of October with the expressed desire:
“That we as a nation put God back into the center of our solutions for all our national and international problems.”
The bishop further shared some of his experiences during his recent trip with United States Conference of Catholic Bishops subcommittee on the Church in Latin America to Cuba, which happened to coincide with Hurricane Ike’s disastrous strike of the island nation. He stated that in atheistic nation of Cuba:
“Faith has been contained pretty much inside of churches and in homes, but nowhere else.”
In the United States, where atheism is not so much the problem as indifference to God, the situation isn’t much different, according to Bishop Baker—and it doesn’t stop with indifference to God, but to the way we live out our lives:
• “Indifference to the plight of the infant in the womb, averaging nearly a million a year, who die because our society is indifferent
• Indifference to the proper definition of marital relationships, saying ‘it’s none of my business; I shouldn’t interfere in other people’s lifestyles,
• Indifference to the demands on my by the plight of those who are starving, homeless, aged, or infirm, racially or ethnically different.”
The bishop pointed out that the recent problems in the financial areas of our country are another example of this indifference to God, saying: “Take God out of the picture, and this kind of situation in inevitable. Now is the time for American Culture to return to God.”
During the dedication of the new altar at the shrine, Bishop Baker deposited a reliquary containing First Class relics of thirty-three saints within the altar, including a relic of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, the visionary at Lourdes. He also blessed the images of Our Lady of Lourdes and Saint Bernadette at the conclusion of the Mass.
Bishop Baker thanked Mother Angelica, Sister Mary Catherine and the sisters at the Monastery of Our Lady of the Angels “for their vision in providing a special shrine dedicated to Mary for the thousands of visitors who will come to honor the Blessed Mother in prayer” at the spot.

Gators Have Few New Wrinkles for Tigers

Let’s hope so! From ESPN:

Everybody has a theory on why Florida’s offense has sort of been hit and miss this season, even though the Gators currently sit atop the SEC in scoring offense.

Redshirt freshman running back Chris Rainey doesn’t necessarily have a theory, but he does have a word of warning for anybody who thinks the Gators have played their best offensive football this season.

“You haven’t seen the whole thing, not even close,” Rainey said. “When you see the whole thing, then you’ll know that Florida’s offense is back. And it’s coming … real soon.”

Rainey is one of those speedy playmakers Florida coach Urban Meyer raved about in the preseason. He and other multipurpose guys like true freshman Jeff Demps could be key for the Gators on Saturday against No. 3-ranked LSU.

Tailback Emmanuel Moody is out with a sprained ankle. Percy Harvin has been nursing a sprained ankle all week (but plans to play), and defenses are ganging up on quarterback Tim Tebow like never before.

This offense needs more big plays, and Rainey and Demps — two of the fastest guys in the SEC — are both big plays waiting to happen. They each rushed for more than 100 yards last week against Arkansas in the 38-7 win, and both had long touchdown runs.

Rainey broke loose on a 75-yard scoring run, while Demps scored on runs of 48 and 36 yards. The Gators finished with 278 rushing yards, the most under Meyer in an SEC game.

But what he liked the most was seeing the quick strikes.

“We’ve not had the home-run guy at tailback,” Meyer said. “We have when we’ve lined up Percy Harvin at tailback. There were three or four games last year where he was tremendous. Any time you have a threat that can get you something other than a medium yardage play out of that position, you put fear in the defense.”

Rainey said the Gators have a few surprises for the Tigers, who come in with one of the most talented front sevens in college football. But they have given up a few big plays the last two games.

“We’ve got certain things in for the running backs,” said the 5-foot-9, 185-pound Rainey, who leads the Gators in rushing with 220 yards and is averaging 7.1 yards per carry. “We’ve all been waiting to see this. We’ve got a lot of plays coming for LSU, a lot of new ones, too.”

Demps is averaging 13.1 yards per carry, and Rainey said not to forget about return specialist Brandon James on offense.

“We’re going to use them all this game,” Rainey said. “That’s why we recruit so many playmakers at Florida. If they try to key on me, we’ve got other players who can do the same things I can do.

“We’ve just got to eliminate the penalties and all that stuff. If we do that, we’ll be awesome and everybody will love watching the Florida offense again.”