News Notes - Michaelmas 2010

New WFF Board Members

We are pleased to welcome two new members of the Women for Faith & Family Board of Directors, Cynthia Haehnel and Tory Welling.

Both these highly talented and dedicated women have worked with the present staff on many projects in the past (including our Days of Recollection for the past three years); and both have also been very actively involved in pro-life and other work for the Church in the St. Louis area for many years. We are very happy that they have agreed to add to their list of worthy labors by accepting this task! (See New Board Members' bios and photos.)

New Missal Translation Approved: Preparation Begins

The long-awaited English translation of the Roman Missal is now approved for use. Cardinal Francis George, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), announced August 20 that the full text of the new English translation of the Roman Missal has been approved and will come into use on November 27, 2011, the first Sunday of Advent.

The translation has been in progress since the new version of the Missal was released by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Bishop Arthur Serratelli of Paterson, New Jersey, Chair of the Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, voiced gratitude for the approval. “I am happy that after years of preparation, we now have a text that, when introduced late next year, will enable the ongoing renewal of the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in our parishes”, he said.

A full-scale catechesis about the Liturgy and the new Roman Missal has begun. The USCCB has posted the texts for the Order of Mass and other resources for preparation on its web site: www.usccb.org/romanmissal.

(See the Adoremus web site for more information and updates: www.adoremus.org).

Pro-Life Prayer Congress

“The Light Shines in the Darkness” is the theme of the Fifth World Prayer Congress for Life to be held in Rome October 5-10. The event, organized by eight pro-life groups from several countries, will feature prominent Vatican officials and leaders of pro-life organizations. Organizers say the conference “wants to be a clear sign of the times, in that it will clearly identify the threats of the anti-culture of death, in order to show more decisively the path of healing and salvation. Concretely praying and sacrificing, we make our way along this path to promoting the Culture of Life.”

Three Vatican cardinals will address the event: Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family; Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments; and Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica. Other Vatican officials addressing the group will be Archbishop Raymond Burke, prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, and Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers.

Among the 31 scheduled speakers at the prayer congress are Terrance McKeegan, vice-president of C-FAM (Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute), and Vicky Thorn, founder of Project Rachel.

For more information and registration go to: www.hli.at/rom_neu_2010/english/engl_frameset.htm.

Cardinal Rigali: Theology of the Body Congress

Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia addressed the first National Theology of the Body Congress held near Philadelphia July 28-30. “This Congress … must become a campaign of human and catechetical formation … so that the next generation can continue to access and comprehend” this teaching, he said.

Cardinal Rigali is chairman of the Episcopal board of the Theology of the Body Institute.

Among the speakers at the Congress were Father Brian Bransfield, executive director of the US Bishops’ Secretariat for Evangelization and Catechesis; Michael Waldstein, translator of Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body; Helen Alvaré of George Mason University, former pro-life spokesman for the US bishops’ conference; and Janet Smith, professor of moral theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit.

For more information on the National Theology of the Body Congress or the Theology of the Body Institute visit the web site: http://tobcongress.com/.

Omaha Pope Paul VI Institute Celebrates 25th Anniversary

The Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, which opened its doors in 1985, held a 25th- anniversary celebration and conference September 2-5 in Omaha.

The event, titled “Celebration of Love & Life”, featured a day-long conference on the pastoral directives of Pope Paul VI’s 1968 encyclical on human life, Humanae Vitae, and a family celebration day (complete with a carnival and clowns).

Masses were celebrated by Cardinal Justin Rigali and Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski. Cardinal Rigali is a past chairman of the US bishops’ Pro-Life Committee; Archbishop Zimowski is president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers. Raymond Arroyo of EWTN was the guest speaker at a banquet on Saturday evening.

The institute’s founder, Thomas Hilgers, MD, who has developed a means of monitoring and maintaining women’s fertility called NaPro (Natural Procre-ative Technology), has recently published The NaPro Technology Revolution: Unleashing the Power in a Woman’s Cycle.

For more information about the Institute and its activities, visit www.popepaulvi.com