http://www.croatia.org/crown en-us http://www.croatia.org/crown N/A nenad@nenadbach.com Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:27:50 -0700 20 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9567/1/Maxo-Vanka-a-famous-Croatian-painter.html Maxo Vanka (Zagreb 1889 - Mexico 1963) created spectacular murals in the Croatian Catholic church of St. Nicholas in Pittsburgh, USA, in 1937. On each side of the altar are Croatian people, on the left from the Old World, and on the right from the New. Shooting of a feature film about Maxo Vanka is planned by Mladen Juran, Zagreb. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9562/1/Azra-Ljumanoviae-little-known-Croatian-sprituality.html Azra Kristina Ljumanoviæ (1958-1998) is one of the symbols of Croatian spirituality. Working as a school-teacher, she left deep and indelible traces on her pupils and contemporaries with her beautiful songs, poetry and inspiring Christian messages. mario.essert@inet.hr (Prof. Dr. Mario Essert) Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9511/1/Sretan-Uskrs-Happy-Easter-Felices-Pascuas.html Wishing you a Happy Easter, we present you beautiful Croatian and Ukrainian hand-painted eggs by Annette Czupylo, a Ukrainian living in the USA. Photographs were taken by Vladimir Novak, Zagreb. Easter eggs are called pisanice in Croatian, and pysanky in Ukrainian. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9503/1/Mother-Teresa-and-Croatians.html The Croatian Jesuits had a great role in spiritual development of Mother Teresa in her youth. Her spiritual father was Fr. Franjo Jambrekoviæ. The first monument in the world honouring this famous Albanian woman was carved in Croatia, in Supetar on the island of Brac (2002), by Petar Jak¹iæ. It was unveiled by Martin Sheen. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9497/1/Ivan-Dragicevic-Brings-Our-Lady-of-Medjugorje-to-Australia.html  For the fifth time, Ivan Dragicevic (left) came back to Australia in his mission to share the love and messages he has been receiving from Our Lady. The First of his talks in Australia was in Melbourne, Victoria followed by six other places in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. The last of these talks was held on 26 February at The Sacred Heart in Pymble. Violi Calvert (left) reports. violicalvert@optusnet.com.au (Violi Calvert) Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9409/1/Merry-Christmas-Happy-New-Year-Happy-Holidays-2008.html Sretan Bo¾iæ, Nova Godina 2008. Happy Hanukkah, Bajram Mubarek, Happy Kwanzaa letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9408/1/Nopoki-University-for-Peruvian-Indians-founded-by-Msgr-Gerardo-erdin.html Msgr. Gerardo ®erdin, Croatian bishop and missionary in Peru in the region of the Amazon river, founded the Nopoki Center for Investigation and Intercultural Formation. The aim is to educate future school teachers for work within their native communities, in order to preserve their roots, language and customs, and ensure material and cultural prosperity. See also 32 Krekoviæ's paintings. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Sun, 23 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9406/1/Abortion-in-Croatia-is-Down-90-Since-1989.html Croatia has experienced a very dramatic drop in the abortion rate from 1989 when the nation's 51,289 abortions were nearly equal to the number of live births. The latest statistics, from 2005, indicate there were 4,563 abortions - a drop of nearly 90% since 1989.  Significantly the law on abortion has not changed. letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9317/1/Catholic-confraternity-in-Philippines-promoting-Blessed-Ivan-Merz.html The Confraternity of Catholic Saints, Philippines, is a Roman Catholic organization of young people dedicated in promoting Holiness through the lives and works of the Saints.  It is affiliated to the Offical Promoter of Blessed Ivan Merz. kruno.poljak@gmail.com (Kruno Poljak, dipl.ing.) Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9226/1/Spirituality-and-mission-of-the-Christian-teachers-in-Europe-today.html   The European Fedaration of Christian Teachers (SIESC) organized its 53rd Annual Meeting in July 2007 in Croatia. The host of the conference was Hrvatsko katolièko dru¹tvo prosvjetnih djelatnika (HKDPD), Zagreb. darko_zubrinic@yahoo.com (Prof.Dr. Darko Zubrinic) Wed, 22 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9219/1/A-river-of-the-faithful-visits-Our-Lady-of-Sinj-from-all-directions.html Mnogi vjernici iz Hrvatske i svijeta hodocastili su Cudotvornoj Gospi Sinjskoj moleci se ponajvise za zdravlje.  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9213/1/Muhamed-Sacirbey-Civilization-where-religion-is-no-longer-denigrated.html   Defending the rights and access of the faithful, as well as the institutions of faith and spiritualism, is the obligation of all Bosnians and Herzegovinians, indeed the shared responsibility of civilization where religion is no longer denigrated, whether it is yours or your neighbors. aconvenientgenocide@mac.com (Ambassador Muhamed Sacirbey) Tue, 14 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/9016/1/Sretan-Uskrs---Happy-Easter---Veliki-Tjedan---Procesija-na-Hvaru.html Linguistically It all started with the word cult (=service to God) and culture (=creation, preserving manhood's spiritual and material creation). Commonly In ancient civilizations - both were created with service to God and around the actual service, although as history progressed circumstances continued in a more emphasized way, occasionally in a closer interaction, then separating, eventually distancing from one another. In pascal singing in Vrbanj on the island of Hvar - throughout the whole island and along our coastline - a specific service to God and spiritual culture has developed since the Middle Ages.   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8983/1/Ljudi-previe-naglaska-stavljaju-na-pokoru-a-manje-na-duh-korizme.html     prostorduha@isusovci.hr (Marijana Kolednjak) Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8943/1/No-quotHand-of-Godquot-Goals-in-Priests-European-Cup.html A hundred Roman Catholic priests from all over Europe swapped their cassocks for football strips in Sarajevo this week to compete in an indoor soccer championship organised by the church.  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8882/1/Merry-Christmas-Happy-New-Year-2007---Blagoslovljen-Boiae-Sretna-2007-Happy-Holidays.html Traditional - Modern   letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8879/1/Taize-Pilgrimage-Stops-in-Zagreb-from-Dec-28-Jan-1-2007.html     letters@croatia.org (Nenad N. Bach) Sun, 24 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8874/1/Croatian-Christmas-Traditions-by-James-Monti-published-in-The-Magnificat-Advent-2006.html And it is in the night that the Church has placed the principal liturgical act of Christmas, midnight Mass. This focus upon Christmas night is particularly evident in the tradition of Croatia   jrlunney@yahoo.com (RADM Robert J. Lunney) Thu, 21 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8852/1/Magnificent-Christmas-Concert-in-Astoria-New-York-on-December-18th-2006.html     rzubovic@aol.com (Don Robert Zubovic) Tue, 05 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8815/1/America8217s-Oldest-Croatian-Church-Could-Be-Sold-To-Italians.html   Despite efforts of Pittsburgh Croatians to buy the closed church and convert it into a shrine. St. Nicholas Croatian Catholic Church, built in 1901 and worshipped in until it was closed in 2004, could soon be bought by the Follieri Group. vmiocic@croatianchronicle.com (Visnja Mioèiæ) Tue, 14 Nov 2006 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8614/1/David-Parkes-Gospa-mi-je-spasila-ivot-i-brak.html   PREOBRAÆENJE OZDRAVLJENJE Samo mi je bilo va¾no blje¹tavilo, novac i presti¾. Sve prièe o Meðugorju su mi i¹le na ¾ivce. David Parkes, nogometni idol, ikona, èudo od djeteta, brz, sna¾an, jak, a najvi¹e ¾eljan slave, bio je jedan od najmlaðih koji je zaigrao za reprezentaciju Irske c.mateo@verizon.net (Martin Cvjetkoviæ) Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8494/1/E-Medjugorje-25-years-later-Apparitions-and-contested-authenticity.html (E) Medjugorje 25 years later: Apparitions and contested authenticityBy John ThavisCatholic News ServiceROME (CNS) -- Twenty-five years after six children in Medjugorje, a village in what is now Bosnia-Herzegovina, began reporting apparitions of Mary, pilgrims are still flocking to the site and church officials are still cautious about the authenticity of the events. Marian experts continue to debate the significance of Medjugorje, and several have published books -- ranging from enthusiastically supportive to skeptical -- to coincide with the anniversary. In Medjugorje, Franciscan pastors are preparing for overflow crowds on June 24-25, the dates on which the alleged apparitions and messages began in 1981. They insist, however, that no special commemorations are planned. "Everything's been booked solid for more than a year, and we're expecting thousands of pilgrims. But we're not putting on any spectacle or festival -- just the usual program of prayer," Franciscan Father Ivan Sesar, pastor of St. James Parish in Medjugorje, said in a telephone interview. Of the six children who originally reported visions from Mary, sometimes daily, one says she still receives messages from Mary on the 25th of each month. They are published online, eagerly awaited by a large network of Christians dedicated to Medjugorje. According to Bishop Ratko Peric of Mostar-Duvno, whose diocese includes Medjugorje, the messages now number more than 30,000, a fact that only increases his own skepticism about the authenticity of the apparitions. Bishop Peric discussed Medjugorje with Pope Benedict XVI earlier this year during a visit to the Vatican. In a summary of the discussion published in his diocesan newspaper, Bishop Peric said he had reviewed the history of the apparitions with the pope, who already was aware of the main facts from his time as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "The Holy Father told me: We at the congregation always asked ourselves how can any believer accept as authentic apparitions that occur every day and for so many years?" Bishop Peric said. Bishop Peric noted that Yugoslavian bishops in 1991 issued a statement that "it cannot be confirmed that supernatural apparitions or revelations are occurring" at Medjugorje. Bishop Peric said he told the pope that his own opinion was even stronger -- not only that a supernatural element cannot be proven, but that "it is certain that these events do not concern supernatural apparitions." Other priests and bishops have spoken favorably about the apparitions, saying there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of the visionaries or the spiritual effects among pilgrims. At Medjugorje, the debate over authenticity has been largely set aside by the Franciscan friars who minister to pilgrims and keep in contact with the visionaries. "We are not here to give a judgment about whether the apparitions are true or not. We're here to follow the people who come, to hear their confessions, to give them pastoral care," said Father Sesar, the 39-year-old pastor. Father Sesar said that, while early pilgrims to Medjugorje may have been drawn there by curiosity or a thirst for supernatural signs like rosaries turning different colors, that is less true today. Much more significant are the long lines for confession that form every day, he said. "The biggest things in Medjugorje today are prayer and the sacraments. It's no longer a place where people come to see miracles. They are coming for spiritual growth," he said. Considerable attention, however, is still given to the apparitions and messages which one of the visionaries, Marija Pavlovic-Lunetti, says she continues to receive. She now lives with her husband and children in Italy. The message from May 2006 strikes a pious tone typical of most of the thousands of alleged communications over the last 25 years: "Decide for holiness, little children, and think of heaven. Only in this way will you have peace in your heart that no one will be able to destroy. Peace is a gift, which God gives you in prayer." At the Vatican, officials said they are still monitoring events at Medjugorje, but emphasized that it was not necessarily the Vatican's role to issue an official judgment on the alleged apparitions there. More than once in recent years, the Vatican has said that dioceses or parishes should not organize official pilgrimages to Medjugorje. That reflects the policy of the bishops. But the Vatican has also said Catholics are free to travel to the site, and that if they do the church should provide them with pastoral services. That has left a margin of ambiguity among Catholics. Adding to the confusion have been claims that the late Pope John Paul II strongly supported Medjugorje in various private statements; the Vatican has never confirmed those statements. After Pope Benedict was elected, it was rumored that as a cardinal he had once traveled incognito to Medjugorje, and that as pope he could be expected to officially approve the site as a Marian shrine. In his February visit to the Vatican, Bishop Peric said he spoke to the pope about these rumors, and that the pontiff only laughed in surprise. Pope Benedict, who headed the doctrinal congregation for 24 years, once said the multiplication of Marian apparitions was a "sign of the times" and should not be discounted. But he has also counseled prudence, even when it comes to apparitions officially recognized by the church, like those at Fatima, Portugal; Guadalupe, Mexico; and Lourdes, France. Behind the Vatican's careful approach is a basic church teaching: that public revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, and that no private revelation, however interesting, will add anything essential to the faith. Yet some, like Msgr. Arthur Calkins, a Vatican official and a member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, believe that while apparitions do not furnish new truths of faith, they can help Catholics understand them better. Private revelations recognized by the authority of the church "may serve to bring home to the faithful truths which are already known, but not fully appreciated," Msgr. Calkins said in an interview. "The apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima, for example, brought home to the faithful the need for prayer, penance, conversion of heart, reparation for sins. All of this expands on the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ," he said. Like several other experts at the Vatican, Msgr. Calkins declined to offer any opinion about Medjugorje. Marian expert Donal Foley, in his new book, "Understanding Medjugorje," reviews the public evidence, particularly from the early days of the reported visions, and says that, "sadly, the only rational conclusion about Medjugorje is that it has turned out to be a vast, if captivating, religious illusion." In a phone interview, Foley listed several factors that make him dubious: contradictions over how long the apparitions would continue, the excess number of messages, their questionable and sometimes "silly" content, excess focus on inexplicable "signs," and the credulous local culture in Medjugorje. Foley said it was obvious that some Medjugorje pilgrims have experienced spiritual awakening. But he said part of this could be attributed to a "charismatic element that grabs people's emotions." Another factor, he said, is that Medjugorje may appeal to Catholics confused by changes after the Second Vatican Council. "It's a sad reality that some people have had to go to Medjugorje to get priests who were enthusiastic about confession, and to get the things they used to be able to get in the church in the West," he said. Other writers have used the 25th anniversary as an occasion to celebrate Medjugorje. Elizabeth Ficocelli's "The Fruits of Medjugorje" offers more than 200 pages of what she says are "stories of true and lasting conversion." In a special anniversary edition of "Medjugorje, The Message," Wayne Weible says that more than 30 million people have made the trip to Medjugorje, where what is "arguably the greatest apparition in recorded Marian history" is still going on. Source:http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0603480.htm c.mateo@verizon.net (Martin Cvjetkoviæ) Sat, 17 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/8566/1/H-Devetnica-Srcu-Isusovu-online.html Devetnica Srcu Isusovu onlinewww.isusovci.hr/prostorduha Ove godine svetkovinu Presvetoga Srca Isusova Crkva slavi 23. lipnja. Uoci te svetkovine, molitvena internet stranica Prostor Duha tom prilikom ponudila je na svojim stranicama mogucnost obavljanja devetnice na cast Srcu Isusovu.Devetnica se sastoji od misli koje mogu pomoci pri razmatranju i molitvi, Bozje rijeci koja je posebno izabrana za svaki dan i, na kraju, od kratke molitve.Poboznost Spasiteljevu Srcu bila je i jest jedna od najrasirenijih i najomiljenijih izricaja crkvene poboznosti. Srce Isusovo je Krist, utjelovljena i spasiteljska Rijec koja je u Duhu protegnuta prema Ocu i prema ljudima. Srce Isusovo sjediste je milosrdja, mjesto za susret s Bogom, izvor beskrajne Gospodinove ljubavi, vrelo iz kojega izviru darovi i plodovi Duha. U Presvetom Srcu vjernik je pozvan na susret sa simbolom i zivom slikom neizmjerne Kristove ljubavi, koja ga potice na ljubav prema bliznjemu. Svaki krscanin, gledajuci u Srce Krista, Gospodara vremena i povijesti, Njemu se posvecuje i biva pozvan nastaviti, produbljivati i promicati stovanje Presvetog Srca Isusova.Marijana Kolednjakprostorduha@isusovci.hr nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 13 Jun 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7581/1/H-Kardinal-Puljic-posvetio-misiju-u-Astoriji-New-Yorku-blazenim-Ivanom-Merzom.html  Tijekom velike proslave 35. godiÅ¡njice Hrvatske katoličke misijeKARDINAL PULJIĆ MISIJU U ASTORIJI POSVETIOBLAŽENIKU IVANU MERZUPremda jedna od mlađih po nastanku, Hrvatska  katolička misija u Astoriji, pokazala se i tijekom svečane proslave svoje 35. godisnjice postojanja,  kao jedna od najaktivnijih i najorganiziranijih  hrvatskih zajednica na sjevernoameričkom kontinentu.SrediÅ¡nja proslava ove značajne obljetnice odrzana je posljednjeg dana mjeseca travnja,u prisustvu  visokog gosta kardinala Vrhbosanske nadbiskupije, uzoritog Vinka Puljića, te cijelog niza specijalnih gostiju iz cijele zemlje kao i iz domovine. Ali najviÅ¡e o samoj Misiji i njenom radu govori veliki odaziv njenih članova i Hrvata s cijelog područja New Yorka, kojih se gotovo tisuću okupilo na ovoj proslavi. Proslava 35. godina postojanja Hrvatske katoličke misije, koja se okuplja u Crkvi Most Precious Blood u Astoriji, započela je memorijalnim koncertom Ivana Merza. Pred gotovo tisuću vjernika koji su se okupili na svečanoj svetoj Misi, koncert pod ravnanjem maestra Drage Bubala odrzali su članovi Američke vojne akademije West Point St. Raphael Wind Cappella,  koji su izveli djela Joachima Raffa, te hrvatskog kompozitora Borisa Papandopula, čija se stota obljetnica rođenja slavi ove godine. Svečanu svetu Misu u čast hrvatskog blaženika  Ivana Merza,  čije će ime ova misija ubuduće nositi, predvodio je kardinal Puljić u zajedniÅ¡tvu sa sadaÅ¡njim svećenikom vlč. Robertom Zubovićem, te svećenicima koji su u proÅ¡losti pastoralno djelovali u Astoriji: fra Petar Runje, vlč. Anton Zec i vlč. Anton Bozanić. Služenju misnog slavlja pridružili su se i ostali hrvatski svećenici sa područja New Yorka i New Jerseya â€" fra Ivica Majstorović, župnik hrvatske Crkve s. Ćirila i Metoda na Manhattanu te vlč. Giordano Belanich, voditelj hrvatske katoličke misije u Fairview, New Jersey.  Na početku Mise Kardinala je u ime Zajednice pozdravila Mirjam Busanić, članica Misije od njenih prvih dana, a kardinal je zatim pozdravio sve prisutne, a posebice svećenike koji su gradili ovu Zajednicu. 'Blagoslovit ćemo lik Bl. Ivana Merza, neka bude primjer ovoj Zajednici te vas u tom duhu pozivam da se ujedinimo u molitvi.' Uslijedio je obred blagoslivljanja slike Ivana Merza. Kardinal Vinko Puljić u homiliji je rekao da i njegov svećenički poziv traje otprilike koliko i Hrvatska katolička misija u Astoriji. 'Svećenici su ovdje euharistiju slavili, da bi njome izgrađivali vjeru. Srce luta krajevima odakle smo dosli, ovamo ste donijeli dusu i korijenje, ono po čemu smo prepoznatljivi. I na Isusovom krizu pise: Isus Nazarećanin. Tako ste i vi prenijeli identitet svoga kraja, te ovoj novoj domovini donijeli bogatstvo vjere i kulture' â€" rekao je Kardinal te je prizvao Bozji blagoslov na sve one koji su sijali riječ Bozju i svima onima koji su im u tome pomagali. Na kraju je dodao: 'Raduje me vidjeti vas u ovolikom broju, ali neću lagati, draze bi mi bilo vidjeti vas doma'.  Tijekom svečane Sv. Mise pjevala se poznata Hrvatska Misa don Å me Marovića, kapelnika Splitske Katedrale. Misa je skladana za soliste, mučki ansambl, mjesoviti zbor, orgulje i orkestar, te je praizvedena tijekom posjete Sv. Oca Ivana Pavla II Splitu 1998. godine. Nastupili su Hrvatski Zbor u New Yorku (novi pjevački sastav od 50-tak članova kojeg je okupio zupnik don Robert Zubović), Klapa Astoria, Radoslav Kostan i don Robert Zubović kao solisti, a uz pratnju puhačkog orkestra "St. Raphael Cappella". Nastupio je i Zbor mladih pod ravnanjem Viviane Knapić, a kojeg je uvjezbavao i Ivo Gasparović iz Hrvatske.Nakon svete Mise brojni odrzan je domjenak u satoru postavljenom u dvoristu crkve Most Precious Blood. Bila je to prigoda za prisjećanje brojnih dogodovstina iz bogate povijesti hrvatske zajednice. Svečanost je nastavljena kulturno-umjetničkim programom u dvorani skole Most Precious Blood. Nastupile su folklorne skupine koje djeluju pri HKM Bl. Ivana Merza: Hrvatska Ruza, Hrvatski plamen i Jadranski valovi kao i gosti iz zupe sv. Ćrila i Metoda i sv. Rafaela na Manhattnu -  foklorna skupina Kardinal Stepinac te članovi foklorne skupine Rudar kluba. Nastupila je i Klapa Astoria, a svoj su talent iskazali i brojni drugi članovi Misije. Prisutne su pozdravili i ugledni gosti; generalni konzul RH u New Yorku Petar Ljubičić, zatim vijećnik Grada New Yorka Tony Avella, demokrat 19. distrikta â€" Queens, kao i Mathew Cordon iz ureda gradonačelnika Bloomberga, te Wanda Radetti, kulturni atase grada Rijeke. Prisutne je pozdravio i don Giordano Belanich, voditelj HKM u New Jerseyu i poznati humanitarni djelatnik. U kraćem razgovoru za Croatian Chronicle prijasnji voditelji HKM u Astoriji fra Runje poručio je vjernicima Hrvatima u HKM Bl. Ivana Merza da budu ujedinjeni i nastave dobar rad: 'Trudili smo se sačuvati svoj identitet i vjeru, ova proslava je dokaz da smo uspjeli, ali posao treba nastaviti'. Don Anton Zec prisjetio se lijepih vremena koje je u Astoriji proveo kao voditelj HKM te poručio: 'Neka nas nas grb nosi kao Hrvatski narod prema Kristu'. Don Bozanić također svećenik u ovoj Misiji, i brat kardinala Josipa Bozanića,  rekao je da broj okupljenih na proslavi dokaz čvrstine ove Zajednice te poručio vjernicima da i dalje ulazu svoje vrijeme, pamet i zelju u ovu opstojnost HKM. Velečasnog Roberta Zubovića upitali smo kako je tekla priprema ove grandiozne proslave. 'Logistika je nevjerovatna; 1800 tanjura trebalo je očistiti, 5 kamiona punih stvari trebalo je utovariti i istovariti. To je pravi dokaz koliko su članovi ove Zajednice spremni raditi i dati sve od sebe da neÅ¡to uspije.' Velika je zasluga u razvoju ove zajednice svakako i ona  i vlč. Roberta Zubovića, koji je tijekom osam godina svog sluzbovanja u HKM u Astoriji ozivio brojne aktivnosti i potaknuo brojne nove, te će svakako i njegov rad ispisati mnoge stranice povijesti ove Zajednice.  Kardinal Vinko Puljić u razgovoru za Croatian Chronicle:O problemu Hrvata u BiH'Moj je najvazniji zadatak u ovom trenutku drzati moj narod ujedinjen, da drze do svojih korijena i vjere u Boga i sebe. Hrvatska mora podrzati Hrvate u BIH zbog brojnih razloga, posebice zbog ekonomskih i kulturne povezanosti koje oduvijek postoje. Jedan od četiri Hrvata u Hrvatskoj potječu iz BiH. Od pomoći koja stize iz Amerike za BiH samo 2 posto dobivaju Hrvati. Tko će se boriti za nasa prava ako ne  mi sami'.  O blaženiku  Ivanu Merzu'Blaženik Ivana Merz je izabran za zastitnika ove Zajednice zbog njegovog velikog srca punog dobrote. Zbog toga su ljudi vjerovali u njega. On je bio čovjek koji se borio za istinu, za svoja uvjerenja i za vjeru. Nastojat ćemo slijediti njegov put. ivot nas uči mnoge lekcije i ja uvijek nastojim nesto novo naučiti. U zivotu svi nosimo svoj kriz i svoju vjeru'. Sanja & Josip Bogović nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Thu, 18 May 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/1/1/H-35-obljetnica-Hrvatske-Katolicke-Misije-u-New-Yorku.html Submitted by: fr. Robert Zubovic Date: Apr 28, 06 Category: Religion35. obljetnica Hrvatske Katolicke Misije u New Yorku   KONCERT: Povodom proslave 35. obljetnice Hrvatske Katolicke Misije u New Yorku na prigodan nacin bit ce obiljezena i 100-ta obljetnica rodjenja velikog hrvatskog skladatelja Borisa Papondopula. Na koncertu prije svecane mise njujorski ansambl "St. Raphael Cappella" izvest ce Papandopulovu skladbu Impresije za puhace. Bit ce izvedena i cuvena Sinfonietta op. 10 Lisztova ucenika i romanticnog skladatelja Joachima Raffa, jedno od monumentalnih djela za puhace. St. Raphael Cappella sastoji se od vrhunskih profesionalnih glazbenika Vojne Akademije SAD-a West Point kao i od povremenih clanova iz Julliard School of Music u New Yorku. Glazbeni ravnatelj i dirigent sastava je prof. Drago Bubalo, koji je od 1999. - 2003. djelovao u RH kao dirigent Orkestra Hrvatske vojske. MISA. Tijekom Svecane Sv. Mise pjevat ce se poznata Hrvatska Misa don Sime Marovica, kapelnika Splitske Katedrale. Misa je skladana za soliste, muski ansambl, mjesoviti zbor, orgulje i orkestar, te je praizvedena tijekom posjete Sv. Oca Ivana Pavla II Splitu 1998. godine. Nastupa Hrvatski Zbor u New Yorku (novi pjevacki sastav od 50-tak clanova kojeg je okupio zupnik don Robert Zubovic), Klapa Astoria, Rade .... i don Robert Zubovic kao solisti, a uz pratnju puhackog orkestra "St. Raphael Cappella" pod ravnanjem Drage Bubala. Formatted for CROWN by Nenad Bach   Distributed by CroatianWorld.net. This message is intended for Croatian Associations/Institutions and their Friends in Croatia and in the World. The opinions/articles expressed on this list do not reflect personal opinions of the moderator. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, please delete or destroy all copies of this communication and please, let us know! Ivobach2@aol.com (Ivo Bach) Sat, 29 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7583/1/E-35th-Anniversary-of-Croatian-language-ministry-in-the-Diocese-of-Brooklyn.html  35th Anniversary of Croatian language ministry in the Diocese of Brooklyn2006 marks the 35th Anniversary of Croatian language ministry in the Diocese of Brooklyn.  It is an event worthy of recognition because it set the foundation for the development of today’s Croatian Apostolate, a vibrant and active community of faith in the diocese.    This anniversary is a celebration of all Croats who are drawn to the apostolate by virtue of their faith and cultural heritage, as well as to the Diocese of Brooklyn itself, which truly is the diocese of immigrants.  The pastoral care of immigrants has always been well demonstrated in the Diocese of Brooklyn by bishops of the past, as well as our current bishop, Nicholas Di Marzio.  From its inception, the Diocese of Brooklyn reflected the great diversity of the Catholic Church, thus making the church in Brooklyn and Queens truly universal.  Today in the diocese, Mass is said every Sunday in twenty-six different languages.  The Catholic Migration Office, headed by Msgr. Ronald Marino, has been responsive to the spiritual needs of immigrants in the diocese for over thirty-five years.  Many ethnic groups, like the Croats, are organized into apostolates which are ministered by priests of the same native group, enabling immigrants to worship in their native languages.  As we commemorate this anniversary, our hearts fill with gratitude for the motherly concern and solicitude expressed by the Diocese of Brooklyn in welcoming the newcomers in her midst, in the past, as well as today. Croats started arriving in large numbers in the area of Brooklyn and Queens in the 1960’s. The Croatian cultural heritage, deeply rooted in the Catholic faith, is a valuable treasure they brought with them to their new homeland.   At Most Precious Blood Church, in the Diocese of Brooklyn, Croats found a spiritual home where they could share this faith and culture.  Over the years, many Croats have found solace within this community; they found a part of their homeland, a place where they can continue to nurture and strengthen their faith. Many would witness that this community of faith is the backbone of their spiritual existence.   This legacy of a deep faith, steeped in Croatian culture, is their contribution to the larger multi-cultural society in which they live. Today, it is lovingly being passed on to the next generation of Croatian-Americans.  As we commemorate this 35th anniversary, our hearts fill with pride and gratitude for the wisdom and vision of the Catholic Church in Croatia for sending pastoral leaders to minister to Croatian immigrants living in New York City.  With the presence of a Croatian priest, Croatian immigrants were able to fully participate in the sacramental life of the church; it strengthened their faith and established a living community of believers.  The Croatian Apostate today is indebted to all the priests who have ministered to this community over the last thirty-five years, in particular to Father Andrea Niccoli whose ministry to the Croats of Most Precious Blood Church spanned forty years.  Many celebrating this anniversary personally remember the countless baptisms and marriages Father Niccoli celebrated in this parish. His dedication to his people has left an indelible impression upon the hearts of all those who knew him.  Father Runje, OFM, who arrived in Most Precious Blood in 1971, was the first priest to be officially appointed by the Diocese of Brooklyn to minister to the Croatian people.  His pastoral work with Croats, who were arriving in large numbers at that time, set up a solid foundation for today’s Croatian Apostolate.  The priests that ministered to the community after him, Father Anton Zec, Father Anton Bozanic and Father Robert Zubovic, have all been from the Diocese of Krk in Croatia.  The Diocese of Krk, together with Bishop Zupan, and the bishops of the past, has been at the forefront in fostering the spiritual growth of the community by continuing to send priests to serve the Croatian Apostolate. Each of these priests has made a unique contribution to the spiritual well being of the community. Over the years, the support of the pastors of Most Precious Blood Parish has been invaluable for the spiritual development of the Croatian Apostolate.  Last year, the community was deeply saddened by the death of Msgr. Stafford who, as the shepherd of this great church, was compassionate and understanding towards the needs of the Croatian community.  We are thankful for his life of service and for God’s divine providence in sending Father Marcelo Latona to lead the faithful of Most Precious Blood.   He has shown kindness, strength, and courage and, like his predecessors, is committed to the community’s spiritual growth. For this, we are very grateful.   Today we commemorate an ongoing journey of a community that has found strength in its beliefs as it continues to seek God.  It is a celebration of the faith and dedication   to God and Church that has been manifested over the last thirty-five years by countless individuals; may their example serve as an inspiration for all of us to continue our own personal walk with the Lord.  In this way, the spirit of tonight’s celebration will persevere long after the event is over. nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7582/1/H-35-obljetnica-Hrvatske-Katolicke-Misije-u-New-Yorku.html  35. obljetnica Hrvatske Katolicke Misije u New Yorku KONCERT: Povodom proslave 35. obljetnice Hrvatske Katolicke Misije u New Yorku na prigodan nacin bit ce obiljezena i 100-ta obljetnica rodjenja velikog hrvatskog skladatelja Borisa Papondopula. Na koncertu prije svecane mise njujorski ansambl "St. Raphael Cappella" izvest ce Papandopulovu skladbu Impresije za puhace. Bit ce izvedena i cuvena Sinfonietta op. 10 Lisztova ucenika i romanticnog skladatelja Joachima Raffa, jedno od monumentalnih djela za puhace. St. Raphael Cappella sastoji se od vrhunskih profesionalnih glazbenika Vojne Akademije SAD-a West Point kao i od povremenih clanova iz Julliard School of Music u New Yorku. Glazbeni ravnatelj i dirigent sastava je prof. Drago Bubalo, koji je od 1999. - 2003. djelovao u RH kao dirigent Orkestra Hrvatske vojske. MISA. Tijekom Svecane Sv. Mise pjevat ce se poznata Hrvatska Misa don Sime Marovica, kapelnika Splitske Katedrale. Misa je skladana za soliste, muski ansambl, mjesoviti zbor, orgulje i orkestar, te je praizvedena tijekom posjete Sv. Oca Ivana Pavla II Splitu 1998. godine. Nastupa Hrvatski Zbor u New Yorku (novi pjevacki sastav od 50-tak clanova kojeg je okupio zupnik don Robert Zubovic), Klapa Astoria, Rade .... i don Robert Zubovic kao solisti, a uz pratnju puhackog orkestra "St. Raphael Cappella" pod ravnanjem Drage Bubala.  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 28 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7584/1/E-Zadars-Ecclesiastical-Isolation-from-the-Church-in-Croatia-Must-End.html  ZADAR'S ECCLESIASTICAL ISOLATION FROM THE CHURCH IN CROATIA MUST ENDThe Catholic Church in Zadar is still outside of the Croatian ecclesiastical framework. Since the way has been cleared for Croatia’s entry into the EU, a discussion has taken place in Split about the “irregular situation of the Zadar Archdiocese” on the occasion of the 31st Plenary Session of the Croatian Bishops Conference. In an appeal to Pope Benedict XVI, Mons. Ivan Prenda, Zadar’s Archbishop, stressed that progress towards the spiritual wellbeing of Croatian people in Zadar is directly linked to the reintegration of their church into Croatian society and ecclesiastical territory. Also, Mons. Prenda noted that pressures from outside Croatia are intensifying regarding Zadar, as full EU membership approaches, and that full integration within the Croatian Church’s framework would eliminate such dangers. Mons. Prenda stated that the justification for the establishment of a new ecclesiastical territory in Zadar, is as strong as the support for a new see in Dakovo. In an interview published by Glas koncila (Glas Koncila, broj 44, 30 Oct 2005) Mons. Prenda correctly referred to the Croatian peoples’ spiritual, historical, cultural, and geographical right to be integrated within one ecclesiastical framework: “U prilog tome govore crkveni razlozi, pastoralni razlozi, povijesno-kulturalni i geografski razlozi te potreba crkvene integracije u okvirima nove hrvatske drzave. Mi smo jedan narod i jedna Crkva te sve govori da se i na crkvenom polju treba dovrsiti integracija. … Ovakav status Zadarske nadbiskupije zbog mnogih razloga trazi svoje pravo rjesenje.” In the modern era, within the context of human rights, the ecclesiastical integration of Zadar with the rest of Croatia is long overdue. Mons. Prenda has given new hope to Croatian people through his discussions. The ‘dangers’ spoken of above include the belief of some in Italy that Zadar should be reoccupied--but Zadar’s history, like Britain’s, pre-dates Roman occupation. Would it be reasonable for Italians to now re-occupy the military zone of  Hadrian’s Wall in Britain, with a cohort of ‘Dalmatians’ or others from the Roman empire as in the 2nd century AD? The same standards should apply in Croatia, as in the rest of the EU. In addition, anti-clericalism in Zadar is the direct result of occupation by Venetians, by Italian administrators under the Hapsburgs, by Italian occupation after Versailles, and by Mussolini’s fascists. The legacy of those occupations is that the Catholic Church in Zadar has been isolated from the rest of the church in Croatia since 1917, under the direct administration of the Holy See. In conclusion, the rights of Croatian people must be honoured. Croatian people have a right to expect the ecclesiastical unity of the Catholic Church in Croatia, and they have a right to experience spiritual advancement together as a nation. Therefore, the ecclesiastical unity of the Catholic Church in Croatia is one of many issues that must be resolved before Croatia enters the European Union.Jean Lunt MarinovicOctober 2005www.croatianviewpoint.com   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7585/1/H-BILLY-GRAHAM-u-New-Yorku.html  BILLY GRAHAM u New YorkuDragi moji vjernici!Ovih se dana u New Yorku dogadja veliki javni navjestaj Krista - Spasitelja!Na prostoru gdje se susrecu ljudi koji govore 130 stranih jezika Sveto ce Evandjelje propovijedati evangelicki propovjednik BILLY GRAHAM. Na poticaj biskupa biskupije Brooklyn Nicholasa DiMarzio, poticem i Vas, da nadjete vremena i ne propustite ovaj milosni trenutak u nasemu gradu.Prostor: USTA, Flushing Meadow Corona Park, NY (24, 25 i 26. lipnja)Info.www.billyhraham.org Don Robert Zubovic  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 25 Jun 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7587/1/E-Dateline-NBC-To-Air-A-Piece-On-Medjugorje-May-18-2005.html   Dateline NBC To Air A Piece On Medjugorje on Wednesday, May 18  Dateline NBC will air a segment about Miracles on Wednesday, May 18 (John Paul II birthday!), at 8 p.m. (EST). This segment will include a one-hour piece on Medjugorje, with interviews of Ivan, his wife (Laureen), and Artie Boyle (Boston man, father of 13, healed of cancer in Medjugorje). For program times in your area, check Dateline NBC's web page or your local TV guide. Please click here to return to Medjugorje USA's Home Page http://www.medjugorjeusa.org/If you would like to write Medjugorje USA, I welcome your comments:info@Medjugorje USA http://www.medjugorjeusa.org/datelinemedjugorje.htmAbout Medjugorje USAEstablished October 30, 1997, Medjugorje USA is a website dedicated to spreading the messages of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary. See the page titled, "Gospa's Messages. Gospa's Messages Since June of 1981, six children (now grownup) have made claim to visitations of the Blessed Mother. The visionaries are receiving hundreds of messages, which are shared with the world. See the page titled, "Story of Medjugorje." Story of Medjugorje The visionaries have undergone much testing through the years, yet no teams of experts have been able to disprove their claims of visitations. See the page titled, "Visionaries Medical Research." Visionary Medical Research Some miraculous events are witnessed by thousands of pilgrims visiting this growing hamlet in Bosnia, while other pilgrims experience a personal interior conversion or deepening of faith. Some pilgrims take pictures which when developed are quite unusual. See the page titled, "Unusual Photos." Unusual Photos Medjugorje USA first started out as Miracles and Wonder of Medjugorje, as the size of the website increased beyond the bandwidth of its free 5K limit, it was decided to create a virtual domain address and hire a web hosting company. Hence, Medjugorje USA was born. Information has been added at such a rate that today Medjugorje USA is one of the largest Medjugorje website on the Internet with about 50K of Catholic information. We not only have information on Medjugorje but carry info on other Marian apparitions as well. We also carry traditional devotional pages, and other mixed Catholic information. See the page titled, "Website Map."Medjugorje USA's Website Map Medjugorje USA is listed with all the major search engines and some search engines say that Medjugorje USA is an "Extensive web site about the apparitions in Medjugorje. Also deals briefly with other well-known and recent Marian apparitions." I don't believe my humble website is the best but Medjugorje USA is greatly motivated to provide its visitors with a host of useful Catholic information.At Medjugorje USA we receive thousands of email from all around the world. We do our very best to answer everyone who writes us and will continue answering questions or thoughts our visitors may have. We will continue the unending quest of adding new Catholic information on the website, in hopes that each and every visitor may be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the glory of God. This we will do in all humility. Medjugorje USA is owned and operated by Michael Kenneth Jones.   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 10 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7586/1/E-From-Nazareth-to-Trsat-Monument-to-the-Holy-Father.html   From Nazareth to Trsat Monument to the Holy Father     by Darko Belovictranslation by Hilda FoleyMay 10, 2005. A monument to the great Pope John Paul II was solemnly unveiled in the park facing the entrance to the Trsat sanctuary. Franciscans are the guardians and servants of the Blessed Mother of Trsat sanctuary. According to tradition, the history of this sanctuary, which was only recorded by the 15th century, began with the transport of the little house of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Nazareth to Trsat on May 10, 1291. According to the same tradition, the little house was transported on Dec. 10, 1294 to Loretto. Prince Nikola Krcki-Frankopan had a chapel erected on Trsat which quickly became a place of pilgrimage. In this chapel since 1367, the miraculous picture of the Mother of God is honored, which, again according to tradition, was presented to the Loretto pilgrims from the Croatian Primorje by Pope Urban V upon the request from Ivan and Stjepan Frankopan.The bronze monument "Trsat Pilgrim", the work of Ante Jurkic, was unveiled by the Zagreb Archbishop and President of the Croatian Bishops' Conference Cardinal Josip Bozanic. The monument weighs a little less than one ton and its height is, including the base, 2.8 meters. After the unveiling of the monument, Cardinal Bozanic led a Eucharistic celebration.The imposing monument in bronze portrays John Paul II at the moment of prayer in front of the miraculous picture of the Blessed Mother of Trsat (Gospa Trsatska) during his visit to this sanctuary on May 8, 2003, on his third pastoral visit to Croatia when he stayed five days in Rijeka.Rijeka's best loved visitor Pope John Paul II came to the Trsat sanctuary to render homage the Blessed Mother. The Holy Father expressed the request that all people visiting this sanctuary pray for him during his life on earth and after his death.                           Photos by Darko Belovic  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Tue, 10 May 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7589/1/E-Applause-chanting-complements-farewell-Mass-for-Pope.html  Applause, chanting complements farewell Mass for Pope 08/04/2005 - 12:08:47Presidents, prime ministers and kings joined pilgrims and prelates in St Peter’s Square today to bid farewell to Pope John Paul at a funeral service that drew millions to Rome for one of the largest religious gatherings in the West of modern times.Applause rang out in the wind-whipped square as John Paul’s simple wooden coffin adorned with a cross and the M for Mary was brought out from the basilica and placed on the ground in front of the altar. The book of the Gospel was placed on the coffin.A choir sang the Gregorian chant Grant him Eternal rest O Lord, and the service got underway. Cardinals wearing white mitres walked onto the square, the wind rippling their red vestments and the pages of the Gospel.Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, dean of the College of Cardinals, a close confidant of John Paul and a possible successor, referred to him as our “late beloved Popeâ€? in a homily that traced his life from his days as a factory worker in Nazi-occupied Poland to the last days of his life as the head of the world’s one billion Catholics.Interrupted by applause at least 10 times, the usually unflappable German-born Ratzinger choked with emotion as he recalled one of John Paul’s last public appearances â€" when he blessed the faithful from his studio window on Easter Sunday.He was interrupted again toward the end of the Mass by several minutes of cheers and shouts of Saint John Paul, from the crowd, seeking immediate sainthood for the late Pope.“We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing today at the window of the father’s house, that he sees us and blesses us,â€? he said to applause, even among the prelates, as he pointed up to the third-floor window above the square.“Today we bury his remains in the earth as a seed of immortality â€" our hearts are full of sadness, yet at the same time of joyful hope and profound gratitude,â€? said Ratzinger in heavily-accented Italian.He said John Paul was a “priest to the lastâ€? and said he had offered his life for God and his flock “especially amid the sufferings of his final monthsâ€?.Groggy pilgrims who had camped out on the cobblestones awoke in their sleeping bags to hordes of the faithful stepping over them as they tried to secure a good spot to view the Mass. The square and the boulevard leading to it were a sea of red and white flags waved by pilgrims from John Paul's beloved Poland, many in traditional dress shouting “Polska! Polska!â€?“We just wanted to say goodbye to our father for the last time,â€? said Joanna Zmijewsla, 24, who travelled for 30 hours with her brother Szymon from a town near Kielce, Poland, and arrived at St. Peter’s at 1am today.Before the Mass began, American Archbishop James Harvey, head of papal protocol, greeted black-clad dignitaries and religious leaders as they emerged from St Peter’s onto the steps. Many of the officials shook Harvey’s hand and offered condolences before mingling and taking their appointed seats.Turbans, fezzes, yarmulkes and black lace veils, or mantillas, joined the zucchettos or skull caps of Catholic prelates on the steps of St Peter’s in an extraordinary mix of religious and government leaders from around the world.“I’m here because I’m a believer but also to live a moment in history,â€? said Stephan Aubert, wearing a French flag draped over his shoulders.Bells tolled as the the last of the leaders took their places on red-cushioned wooden seats. Ten minutes before the scheduled start of the funeral, the US delegation arrived, headed by President George Bush and including his father, former President George Bush, and former President Bill Clinton.President Bush and his wife, Laura, sat next to French President Jacques Chirac and his wife.Rome itself was at a standstill. A ban on vehicle traffic took effect in the city centre. Air space was closed and anti-aircraft batteries outside the city were on alert. Warships patrolled both the Mediterranean coast and the Tiber River near Vatican City, the tiny sovereign city-state encompassed by the Italian capital.Italian authorities took extraordinary precautions to protect the royalty and heads of state or government attending the funeral. Dignitaries from more than 80 countries, including the presidents of Syria and Iran, as well as Jewish and Muslim leaders, also were attending.The Pope’s death on Saturday has evinced a remarkable outpouring of affection around the world and brought an estimated four million people to Rome to see the funeral from up close.At least 300,000 people filled the square and Via della Conciliazione straight to the Tiber River, waving flags from the US, Croatia, Lebanon and elsewhere, many of them adorned with black ribbons of mourning. Banners read Sainthood Immediately.Several million more watched on giant video screens set up across Rome in piazzas and at the enormous Circus Maximus, where a group of youngsters wearing t-shirts that read The Boys of Pope John Paul The Great sold a commemorative booklet about the Pontiff.The funeral was preceded by an intimate ceremony attended only by high-ranking prelates, who placed a pouch of silver and bronze medals and a scrolled account of the Pope’s life in his coffin.John Paul’s long-time private secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, and the master of the liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Piero Marini, placed a white silk veil over the Pope’s face before the coffin was closed.Dziwisz was seen weeping on several occasions during the service.After a series of hymns, readings and the homily, Ratzinger called all to prayer.“Dear brothers and sisters let us entrust to the most gentle mercy of God, the soul of our Pope John Paul II. … May the Blessed Virgin Mary … intercede with God so that he might show the face of his blessed Son to our pope, and console the church with the light of the Resurrection.â€?The Mass ended with all standing and together singing: â€?May the angels accompany you into heaven, may the martyrs welcome you when you arrive, and lead you to Holy Jerusalem.â€?After that, the body will be carried deep under St. Peter’s Basilica, where it was to join the remains of popes from centuries past near the traditional tomb of the apostle Peter, the first Pope.On the eve of the funeral, the Vatican released John Paul’s last will and testament, written in Polish over 22 years beginning five months after his election in October 1978.In it, John Paul said he wanted to be buried “in the bare Earthâ€? and have prayers and Masses celebrated after his death.He instructed his private secretary to burn his personal notes. He also suggested he considered resigning in 2000, when his infirmities were already apparent. Revising his will just three days before a historic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, John Paul prayed that God would “help me to recognise up to what point I must continue this service.â€?Rome groaned under the weight of visitors. Side streets were clogged in a permanent pedestrian rush hour, mostly by children with backpacks. Tent camps sprang up at the Circus Maximus and elsewhere around the city to take the spillover from hotels. Hawkers jacked up prices of everything from bottled water to papal trinkets.http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=139231672&p=y39z3z378  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7588/1/E-OUR-BELOVED-FATHER-WENT-HOME.html  OUR BELOVED FATHER WENT HOME Dear Friend, I want to share with you the experience and the role this great man, Pope John Paul II, had to play with the Croatian Nation. I met him on two occasions, once in Rome and the second time in Denver and was present at the National Shrine of Maria Bistica in Croatia when He proclaimed Cardinal Stepinace Blessed. It was also my joy to have been a TV commentator on EWTN for his last visit to Croatia and two weeks later to Bosnia. The first visit to Croatia was on September 10-11, 1994. He was the first one to recognize the independence of Croatia and called his first visit "A Pilgrimage of Peace and Unity"While in Croatia , the Pope called for unity, forgiveness and the promotion of a culture of peace, "inspired by tolerance and common solidarity" which "does not deny wholesome patriotic sentiment but will never be tempted by the nationalistic aberrations that promote one group at the expense of another."Pope John Paul II visited Croatia in September 1994 as a "pilgrim of reconciliation." The Pope came, as he said, on "an apostolic pilgrimage of the communion of the Church with the goal of reinforcing the bonds between Peter's Cathedra and Catholicism in Croatia." The Holy Father had previously expressed his heartfelt desire to visit Croatia in encounters with Croatian bishops and pilgrims. The opportunity arrived when the Zagreb Archdiocese celebrated its 900th anniversary. At the time of the Pope's first visit to Croatia, the wounds of war were still fresh. One third of Croatia's territory was still occupied. Croatia was faced with the problem of the return of displaced persons and refugees to their homes and the rebuilding of devastated cities, communities and even entire regions. On this pilgrimage of "peace and unity," the Pope, issued a fervent appeal for reconciliation and peace: "I have come to Croatia as a bare-handed pilgrim of the gospel which announces love, harmony and peace," said the Pope upon his arrival to Croatia, in an address delivered during the welcoming ceremonies at the Zagreb Airport.On this occasion, the Pope pointed out that it is imperative to promote a culture of peace "inspired by tolerance and common solidarity. The culture of peace does not deny wholesome patriotic sentiment but it will never be tempted by the nationalistic aberrations that promote one group at the expense of another. The culture of peace can cultivate great and noble souls, people who know that wounds made by hatred will never heal by harboring vindictive feelings but only through the cure of patience and with the balm of forgiveness: forgiveness must be sought and given, with humble and selfless magnanimity," said the Pope at the airport. "If we fail to create a culture of peace," continued the Pope, "war will always lurk in the shadows and glow in the embers of fragile truces. With Christian hope, in this solemn moment, I wish to cry out in pain: may the guns at last fall silent and may our hearts be open to the noble task of creating peace! It is with these wishes that I address all the responsible public officials of this honorable nation, that with support from the international community you may always follow the way of peace in seeking answers to difficult, sensitive and as yet unresolved matters, such as the issue of the establishment of sovereignty over the whole national territory, the return of refugee and displaced populations, and the reconstruction of all that has been destroyed in the war." In the light of the Great Jubilee 2000, the Pope urged everyone to prepare for this great event by "building a more just society on the eternal values of the Gospel, so that you may live in harmony and solidarity."While addressing the highest Government and Church dignitaries, the Pope expressed special compassion for the many displaced persons and refugees, with the hope that they would be able to return to their homes as soon as possible. The Pope also called to mind the many centuries during which "there has never been a decline in the relations between the Catholic Church in Croatia and the Holy See." The Holy Father spoke of "generations of the faithful" who "dedicated their lives to the providence of spiritual guidance, relief from poverty and work toward the overall progress of man in the fields of education, medical care and charitable work," making specific mention of the Croatian saints Nikola Tavelich and Leopold Bogdan Mandich, the Blessed Augustin Kazotic the priest and martyr the Blessed Marko Krizevcanin (later canonized), and "the honorable and reverend person of Alojzije Cardinal Stepinac, Servant of God, the fortress of the Church in Croatia." In addition to these, during an address to priests, religious and seminarians, he also mentioned the auxiliary bishop of Zagreb, Josip Lang, the Franciscan Ante Antic, Vendelin Vosnjak and the layman Ivan Merz.Referring to the conditions endured by Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina during the war, the Pope said that the Holy See, which was the first to recognize the independence and sovereignty of the democratic Republic of Croatia on January 13, 1992, continued "by all means available, to plead for the control of tensions and the establishment of justice and peace in the Balkans. Peace requires effort and hard work but it is the sacred duty of every religious person. Peace is possible wherever peace is sought in earnest. To achieve a peace which would be based upon justice and truth, we must first pray to our Lord for peace," said the Supreme Pontiff.In the Pope's address during the celebration of the Eucharist at the Zagreb Hippodrome on September 11, 1994, he spoke further on this subject to an assembly of over one million. "The tragic divisions of today and the ensuing tensions," said the Holy Father, "should never become a reason to forget that the peoples who are at war with one another today have always had so much in common. It is therefore an essential and urgent task to gather all that brings them together — and common things are not scarce — and to use that communality as a basis to create a future solidarity of brothers. Peace in the Balkans — I want to emphasize that now, in the midst of all this suffering — it is no Utopia! On the contrary, peace is a historically realistic perspective!" emphasized the Holy Father. "For centuries the peoples of this region have accepted each other and made many exchanges in art, language, script and cultural heritage. Is this not shared wealth for the benefit of all, this tradition of religious tolerance which has been going strong for almost a millennium, which has survived even some of the darkest chapters of history? No, this phenomenon of nationalistic intolerance that rages in the region today cannot be ascribed to religion! This is true not only of the Christians of various denominations — and God calls upon them today to work especially hard for harmony — but also of the people of other faiths, and particularly Muslims, whose presence has been so important in the Balkans. All are called to find a way to live with each other in a civilized manner and to respect each other," said the Pope.The Pope further stressed that faith must once again "become the force which unites and yields fruit," using the image of the Sava and the Danube, which flow through Croatia and its neighbors, linking the countries in this region with the rest of Europe. "These two rivers meet, much in the same way that the peoples who live on their shores are called upon to meet. The two Christian churches, the Eastern and the Western Christian Churches, must lead that effort because in these parts, they have always lived together. The metaphor of the two rivers makes rather transparent the path God wants you to take in this troubled moment of your history," said the Pope. "It is the path of unity and peace and no one should avoid it. . . . Once co-operation and solidarity are restored, the peoples living on the Balkan Peninsula will be able to face their many problems and solve them. The progress and well-being of all peoples in the Balkans has one name only, and that name is Peace!" said the Holy Father.Speaking about the design for society implied by the Lord's Prayer, the Pope said, "Such a society can be seen as an extended family in which individuals and groups feel respected and loved by others unconditionally. . . . This splendid design of a society is unfortunately vulnerable to human error. That is why the Lord's Prayer shows us the right path, upon which we must retrace our steps every time we slip from it: the way of forgiveness: ‘Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.' . . . To ask forgiveness and forgive — that in essence is everyone's duty if we wish to lay a good foundation for a true and lasting peace," said the Pope.At the farewell ceremony at the Zagreb Airport on September 11, 1994, the Pope had a message for the Croatian people: "Fortified by experiences........... through a past not always marked by joyful events, today you are called upon to build a better future, to participate actively in public life and make your irreplaceable contribution to strengthening the democratic system, institutions and perfecting a legal state. Never forget that faith shows its fruits when it is in a position to bolster initiatives of goodness, tolerance and forgiveness. Let your history truly be a ‘teacher' for the present. Your roots extend back to the tradition of thirteen centuries of fidelity to the values of the Gospels. They have brought your ancestors the fruits of tolerance and understanding expressed in respect and cooperation with neighboring nations, even when it was necessary to fight for your nation to regain independence." In this message, the Holy Father reassured the people that they had "the courage to forgive and accept" their neighbors but also provided clarification: "Obviously, forgiveness does not mean relinquishing the legal means of a legal state, whose duty it is to conduct investigations against the perpetrators of crimes. To forgive means to free the heart of emotions of revenge, which are not conducive to building a culture of love in which every person of good will participates with his/her own contribution. Peace implies that in the foundations of every initiative, there should always be the sincere desire for dialogue, respect for the rights of each individual, including national minorities, and attempts at mutual tolerance. Be firmly convinced that the good of peace has its ultimate foundation in the heart of God Himself. You have directly experienced the error into which a society can fall when it builds its foundations on the rejection of God and contempt for Divine Law. When this occurs, a person is no longer the primary good of the state but becomes an object and means for achieving goals that are against humanity. The past and contemporary history teach us that true faith in Christ provides the firmest support for the preservation and advancement of human dignity," said the Holy Father."At this moment, as I am returning to the Vatican," said the Pope, "I am taking with me as a memento your faces, your eyes in which I have read the ardent desire to repair the present and for the future to flourish. All of you, especially young people, I tell you once again: Be brave!" Our beloved Holy Father has crossed the threshold of hope. For those under the age of forty, John Paul II was the only pope they ever really knew. For a surprisingly large number of us, he was the only pope we ever met or saw in person. For virtually all of us, he was the singular face of the Catholic Church during our adult lives. We measured our lives with him by decades. He was the pope of our lives. He loved us. We loved him. We heard the sound of his voice often, and even now, in the silence, we cannot forget it. May his words, "Be not afraid! Come to Christ!" echo in our ears when our breathing, too, becomes thin and our flesh fails us.John Paul II uniquely humanized the papacy via his relentless penchant for travel, his embrace of modern media, and the force of his personality. We came to love this man the way most of us experienced our own fathers-- from the vigor of their prime to the growing fragility of physical decline.In recent centuries, perhaps because his predecessors, for whatever practical or prudential reasons, chose to not wear the leather off their shoes so publicly, it was understandable for Catholics to perceive the papacy primarily through the lens of the Chair of Peter, that is, with an emphasis on the magisterial authority of the office these men occupied. Pius XII infallibly defined the Assumption of Mary. Pope John XXIII initiated Vatican II. Pope Paul VI was the Humanae Vitae pope. If we came to know previous popes through their works, then we came to love John Paul II through his quirks. We will never forget that he was the one who skied. Our earliest popes worked, dined, ruled, and were usually slaughtered alongside the handfuls of Christians they shepherded in early Rome. As with those early popes, John Paul was the first modern pope to actively expose us so openly to his very self. He ensouled his own proclamation of Christ's teaching on the dignity and uniqueness of the individual human person.As from the upside-down martyrdom of Saint Peter, with the singularly unequivocal writ of this particular man's death, the Holy Spirit has willed for His Catholic Church a new life through a new particular man--a man already walking this earth (a man even now unlikely to be certain of his approaching destiny, if the testimony of other about-to-be-elected popes is our guide). Let us join our prayers and mourning for the soul of John Paul II to our enthusiastic anticipation and gratitude for his successor, the next Peter with the power to bind and loose on earth and heaven. We know John Paul II loved Mary, and we are sure that She welcomed him with Her Divine Son Jesus to the Eternal Home which awaits us all. God bless you and through the example of John Paul II, the saintly servant of Jesus, may we continue our journey on earth doing the things God gave us to do. May God's peace be upon you as we together wait for the day when we will meet him again in the arms of Jesus.                                                         Sincerely Yours in Christ,                                                                                                Fr. Giordano M. Belanich  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Fri, 08 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7593/1/E-Strict-Protocol-Will-be-Followed-to-Elect-New-Pope.html  Strict Protocol Will be Followed to Elect New Pope  By VOA News 02 April 2005Pope John Paul II Following the death of a pope, the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church meet in a session known as a conclave to elect a successor.The conclave, derived from a Latin word meaning locked together, must begin between 15 and 20 days following a pope's death. The tradition of isolating the cardinals developed following a nearly three-year deadlock over a papal election in the 13th century. Church members, tired of waiting, locked the cardinals in a palace and removed the roof, forcing a quick election.During the conclave, the 117 eligible cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to vote four times a day, twice each in the morning and evening. Every time there is no winner, an official burns the ballots with a special chemical to produce black smoke that rises from a chimney above the chapel.When the cardinals succeed, only the ballots are burned, sending white smoke rising from the chimney and signaling to the world that the 1.1 billion-member Roman Catholic Church has a new pontiff.A senior cardinal then steps out onto the central balcony in front of Saint Peter's Basilica and announces in Latin to thousands of the faithful assembled in the square below - "habemus papam," or we have a pope. The new pontiff then steps out in his papal robes and gives the city and the world his first blessing. http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-04-02-voa35.cfm  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7592/1/E-Karol-Jozef-Wojtyla-Jr-Pope-John-Paul-II-1920---2005.html  Pope John Paul II, spiritual leader of Roman Catholic Church, diesBY DAVID O'REILLYPosted on Sat, Apr. 02, 2005 Knight Ridder Newspapers(KRT) - Pope John Paul II, 84, spiritual leader of the world's one billion Roman Catholics for a quarter of a century, died Saturday.Firmly conservative in matters of morality and theology, yet passionately progressive on behalf of the poor, immigrants and world peace, John Paul was an uncompromising moral voice and a giant on the world stage.Even as ill health visibly overtook him, he carried his message around the world - slowed, but never stopped, by bullets, a tumor, a broken hip, arthritis, Parkinson's disease and advancing age.As he took on such controversial topics as abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, communist oppression and capitalist greed, John Paul found himself allied with differing factions of the secular world. But it was the issues that varied, not his stance: All his positions were grounded in his unwavering belief in the worth and dignity of every human life.The pontiff's failing health had become an acute public concern in recent years as he grew visibly weaker and struggled at times to walk and speak.Yet images of John Paul in his prime, stepping off airplanes, kissing the ground of each new nation he visited, or stretching his arms out to cheering crowds in cities as diverse as Manila, Dublin, Sao Paolo and Philadelphia are an indelible part of his legacy.In 103 pontifical journeys around the globe, including four official visits to the United States, John Paul earned a reputation as the most evangelical pope in the 2,000-year history of Christianity.He also declared a record 476 people to be saints of the Catholic Church, including Philadelphia's St. Katharine Drexel, foundress of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, in 2000.The intense national pride John Paul's 1979 visit aroused in his native Poland is credited with hastening the collapse of communism there and across Eastern Europe. He reached out to other faiths: He paid the first papal visit to a synagogue, concelebrated the first papal Mass with an Orthodox patriarch, and promoted reconciliation between the Roman Catholic Church and major Protestant and Orthodox denominations.At the same time, however, he challenged trends of the secular world. From the very start of his papacy he warned that a pleasure-seeking, materialistic "culture of death" was eroding Western European and North American cultures, as evidenced by their embracing of extramarital sex, birth control, drugs, abortion, euthanasia and divorce.He also suppressed liberal dissent within the church, once dismissed Buddhism as an "atheistic" religion, irked the Orthodox Church by seeking a larger Catholic presence in postcommunist Russia, steadfastly opposed the ordination of women, and proposed in a 1995 encyclical that all denominations recognize the pope as supreme bishop of Christianity.In the final stage of John Paul's pontificate, the church in the United States was rocked by scandal involving sexual abuse by priests and complaints that the Vatican had done too little to address the problem. In June 2002, the Holy See approved an unprecedented set of rules spelling out how American bishops should respond to cases of clergy sex abuse.Many Catholics in Western Europe and North America chose to disregard his strict moral teachings, especially on matters of sexuality.Because of his firm stances, John Paul II leaves behind a Roman Catholic Church far more assertive on faith and morals than the institution he inherited. His clarity "strengthened the foundations" of the church for the next century, according to Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, Philadelphia's retired archbishop.Agree with him or disagree, John Paul was impossible to ignore."When you do the reckoning of the 20th century, his will be one of the top five or 10 names, along with the likes of Gandhi and Roosevelt and Churchill," said Martin Marty, a prominent Protestant lecturer and historian of Christianity.Whether the church continues along the path that John Paul pointed it, or embarks in new directions depends on the 135 elector cardinals now preparing to converge on Rome.Their first order of business will be papal funeral. Then, in about two weeks, the cardinals will gather under Michelangelo's great ceiling mural in the Sistine Chapel, where they will begin casting ballots for John Paul's successor in a manner little changed in nearly 1,000 years.And they will announce the result just as John Paul's was announced 25 years ago.On Oct. 16, 1978, at 6:18 p.m., puffs of white smoke erupted from a chimney atop the Sistine Chapel.Far below, in St. Peter's Square, 200,000 people cheered as Cardinal Pericle Felici of the College of Cardinals, appeared at a balcony. "Habemus Papam!" he declared in Latin - "We have a pope!"The crowd roared once more.Then Felici announced the new pope's identity: "Cardinale Karolum Wojtyla."The roaring paused."Voy-teeya?" That wasn't Italian. The crowd stood dumbfounded until someone recognized the name. "Il Polacco!" a voice cried. "The Pole!"The words zigzagged through the crowd like lightning, and then turned into a cacophony as all grasped their stunning implication: The archbishop of Krakow had been named the first non-Italian pope in 455 years."As the crowd cheered, the 58-year-old Pope stepped to the balcony."I was afraid to receive this nomination," he said, "but I did it in the spirit of obedience to Our Lord and in the total confidence in His mother, the most holy Madonna."In the square and around the world, millions listened and wondered: Who IS this Cardinal Karol Wojtyla?Journalists scrambled for details: The new pope was 5-foot-10 and weighed 175 pounds. He did not smoke. He drank wine with meals and liked to ski, kayak and climb mountains.He was fluent in French, English, Spanish, Greek, Italian, Latin and German, and wrote his own speeches longhand.During World War II he had done factory labor, and he had dated before entering the priesthood. There was even talk (never confirmed) that he had once been engaged. He was a playwright, a poet, a philosopher and an accomplished actor.What these charming details failed to convey, however, was the iron that Karol Wojtyla was made of - iron forged by his experiences as a seminarian, priest, bishop, archbishop and cardinal in occupied Poland.Persecuted first by the Nazis during World War II and by a communist government afterward, the Polish church had responded with toughness. Demanding rigorous obedience from its members, the Catholic hierarchy renounced the material atheism of communism and distanced itself from the Kremlin-backed government for its repressions, executions and abuse.Within that confrontational context no one within the Polish church - clergy or laity - dared to challenge the authority of the prelates.And this model of the Polish church as an unyielding bulwark against secular materialism would serve as Karol Wojtyla's model for the worldwide Catholic Church.About 15 years before he became pope, for example, he led the opposition when the reform-minded Second Vatican Council considered adopting a new vision of the church as a "community of equals" in which laity, clergy and hierarchy seek consensus. The archbishop of Krakow dismissed the "community of equals" model, arguing persuasively that in "a perfect society" the laity take direction from the clergy, the clergy from the prelates, and the prelates from the pope.That vision of the church as a hierarchically disciplined moral voice would become the hallmark of his papacy.It was not a universally popular position. French theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu, one of the architects of Vatican II, grumbled that John Paul harked back to the "prototype of the church as an absolute monarchy."And Chicago sociologist William McReady described John Paul as a "peasant intellectual" who "understands the life of a peasant, but he doesn't understand urbanized, pluralistic societies."George Weigel, John Paul's official biographer, scoffs at such glib characterizations."To read the pontificate of Pope John Paul through the political lens of `liberalism' and `conservatism' is to miss the radical character of the Pope's approach to the papacy," Weigel wrote in 1995.The pontiff's "distinctively contemporary enunciation of Christian dogma, and his bold departures in papal diplomacy ... will reshape Catholicism's world role well into the third millennium of Christian history.""Strip away the caricatures," Weigel declared, and history will judge John Paul II a "Christian radical" deserving of the title "Pope John Paul the Great."Karol Jozef Wojtyla Jr. was born on May 18, 1920, in Wadowice, Poland, 30 miles outside Krakow.His family's modest home was religious, even by the devoutly Catholic standards of rural Poland. Biographer Tad Szulc wrote that the apartment had a font of holy water at the front door and a small altar in the parlor; Karol Wojtyla Sr. and his wife, Emilia Kaczorowska Wojtyla, read to their two sons from the Bible in the evenings.Emilia Wojtyla was sickly, and began suffering an undiagnosed paralysis when Karol - nicknamed "Lolek" - was about 5. She died when he was 8. His older brother, Edmund, a physician, died in a scarlet-fever epidemic when Karol was 12.That left Karol alone with his father, a reserved and devout man who was a lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army. After Edmund's death, his father quit the army and lived on a meager pension, close to poverty.Despite its modest size and rural setting, Wadowice was an intellectual center boasting three public libraries, two theaters, and well-regarded secondary schools. About a fourth of Wadowice's 7,000 residents were Jewish.Young Karol excelled at the local boys' school, where, starting at age 10, he took eight years of Latin and five years of Greek, and participated in dramatics and athletics. He sometimes played goalie for the Jewish soccer team - an unusual gesture in those days.During adolescence he professed no interest in joining the priesthood, but he was something of a straight arrow, according to Szulc, who reports that his school chums avoided using coarse language in his presence. At age 16, he organized a youth group that pledged to go a year without using tobacco or alcohol.He graduated first in his class of 44, and in 1938 enrolled on full scholarship in Jagiellonian University, a Catholic college in Krakow. There he studied literature, acted in student dramas, and participated in poetry readings.And he might have become an actor or playwright except that his life - and all life in Poland - turned upside down when Hitler's army invaded the nation in September 1939."The nobility, priesthood, and Jews must be liquidated," declared Reinhard Heydrich, who had been appointed Nazi governor of the region. The cathedral and seminary were closed at the end of October. A month later, Jagiellonian University was closed; 186 professors were deported to concentration camps.Wojtyla was sent to do hard labor in a stone quarry. Later, he was assigned to a chemical factory.It was during these turbulent times that Wojtyla encountered the ardently spiritual Jan Tyranowski, a gruff, self-educated Krakow tailor who lectured passionately about mysticism and spoke of his own experiences of divine presence. The two became close friends, and Wojtyla would later credit Tyranowski for helping to turn him to religious life.That move began in earnest after his father's sudden death from a heart attack in February 1941. Karol was 21. "I never felt so alone," he said years later.Tyranowski's company and fervent spirituality filled that void, and in the months that followed "I gradually became aware of my true path," he told a group of seminarians two decades later."My priestly vocation took shape ... like an inner fact of unquestionable and absolute clarity. The following year, in the autumn, I knew that I was called."He presented himself to a Carmelite monastery in November 1942, only to be turned away. The monastery was not accepting candidates during the war, the Rev. Josef Prus told him.There is a legend that Prus declined with the prophetic words "Ad majora natus es" - "You are born for higher things." But Szulc, who interviewed the pontiff in 1994, reported that Prus simply encouraged him to reapply "after the war."Wojtyla did not wait, instead presenting himself to Krakow's archbishop, Adam Stefan Sapieha, for seminary training. Soon he began to study for the priesthood in secret locations around the city.After the great Warsaw uprising of Aug. 1, 1944, the Nazis rounded up 8,000 young men in Krakow but failed to discover Wojtyla, who was kneeling at prayer in the basement of his boarding house. Afterward, Archbishop Sapieha concealed Wojtyla and six other seminarians in his residence. In November of that year, Wojtyla took tonsure, the symbolic haircutting that marked his formal entry into religious life.By the time Soviet troops liberated Poland from the Germans in January 1945, the Nazis had exterminated - along with three million Polish Jews and three million other Poles - 2,000 members of the country's Catholic clergy.The Soviet occupiers proved slightly more tolerant of religion than the Nazis had been. The cathedral reopened and Archbishop Sapieha ordained Father Wojtyla on Nov. 1, 1946. Eager to rebuild the church intellectually, the archbishop sent this promising young priest to the Pontifical Atheneum of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum, in Rome.That the archbishop's young protege was "destined for higher things" today is self-evident.In 1946, however, neither the old archbishop nor the 26-year-old priest could have imagined just how high or fast he would soar. Father Wojtyla would become bishop at 38, archbishop at 44, cardinal at 47, and supreme pontiff of the world's largest religious denomination at 58 - the youngest pope in 132 years.Like most Christian denominations, the Roman Catholic Church in the 1940s was untroubled by today's fractious debates over sexual morality or the authority of the hierarchy. Most Catholics - and virtually all in the Catholic clergy - shared the 19th-century English Cardinal John Henry Newman's view of the Roman church as "God's oracle." While in Rome, Father Wojtyla studied under the eminent French Dominican Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, an uncompromising traditionalist - he is said to have disdained telephones as too modern - who reinforced the young priest's conservatism.For his doctoral dissertation, Father Wojtyla chose to study the 16th-century Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross, a favorite of his old friend Tyranowski's. Although enchanted by John's luminous advice for those seeking union with the divine (it was John who coined the phrase "dark night of the soul"), Father Wojtyla's dissertation faulted John for failing to posit an objective basis for morality.Father Wojtyla's critique offers an early example of the future pope's lifelong insistence that certain acts are morally wrong for all humans, regardless of culture or tradition.Upon his return to Poland, he was assigned to a parish but continued his academic career. In 1951, Sapieha - by now a cardinal - urged him to earn a second doctorate so that he could become a university teacher.This time his thesis was on the 20th-century German philosopher Max Scheler, who believed that just as the mind can intuitively recognize certain mathematical truths, it can intuitively recognize certain moral truths, such as the categorical evil of murder.Such a view appealed to Father Wojtyla, who, as a professor of ethics, later as a prelate, and ultimately in the role of moral arbiter for one-sixth of the world's population, would decry moral relativism, insisting there were knowable moral truths binding on all human beings.In 1957, Father Wojtyla was named a professor of ethics at the Catholic University of Lublin. In 1958, he was consecrated auxiliary bishop of Krakow. After Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak's death in 1962, he was named vicar capitular in charge of the archdiocese - a post he held until becoming archbishop two years later.The year 1962 also marked the start of Vatican II. During the three years of that council, the young prelate began to shape one of the most controversial church teachings of this century: that the use of artificial contraception is a grave sin.In a series of lectures in Krakow, he argued that contraception closes sexual intercourse to the divine creation of life, and degrades women by turning them into sex objects.His views profoundly influenced Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical, "Humanae Vitae," which declared artificial birth control a mortal sin.Paul had presented Archbishop Wojtyla with the red cap of a cardinal on May 29, 1967.Also elevated that day was Wojtyla's good friend John Krol, archbishop of Philadelphia, who in later years took special pride that his gold, cross-shaped cardinal's ring matched that of the Pope.Cardinal Wojtyla made two trips to the United States. The first, in 1969, included his first helicopter trip - a flight with Cardinal Krol from Philadelphia to Doylestown's Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. He returned in 1976 for the International Eucharistic Congress at the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul on Logan Circle.By then he was an intimate of Pope Paul, who had assigned him to direct three of the Holy See's most prestigious congregations, approximately equivalent to cabinet-level departments.His growing reputation as a "papabile" - a contender in the discreet competition to be the next pontiff - was enhanced in 1976 when he was invited to the Vatican to deliver a series of Lenten lectures before Pope Paul and the papal household.Paul even encouraged him to deliver the lectures in Italian, not Latin, to show the other cardinals how well he fit in."We are in a lively battle for the dignity of man," Cardinal Wojtyla declared. Secular society was promoting self-indulgence, he said, and pressuring the church's hierarchy to relax its traditional moral norms.But the church and pope are called upon to contradict such trends, Cardinal Wojtyla insisted: "It is the task of the church, of the Holy See, of all pastors to fight on the side of man - often against men themselves!"His words may have been an exhortation to the aged and ailing Paul. Intellectual, progressive, and anxious to implement the reforms of Vatican II, Paul provided hesitant and uncertain leadership for the church at a time when the West was going through a cultural revolution.European and American students were in the vanguard of change. Many laughed at taboos against premarital sex, experimented with drugs, demonstrated against their governments. Some urged armed revolt. In Latin America, priests and nuns preached "liberation theology" and made public stands against totalitarian regimes.Cardinal Wojtyla was clearly prepared to take on the unruly forces of the era - and the Lenten lectures might have been a way of informing other cardinals what kind of pope he could be if elected.When Paul VI died on Aug. 6, 1978, the cardinals chose the progressive, intellectual Cardinal Albino Luciani of Venice, Italy, who took the name John Paul I. Only 33 days into his papacy, the church was stunned by John Paul I's death of apparent heart failure. The College of Cardinals had to convene once again.This time, on the eighth ballot, the cardinals elected Karol Wojtyla.As the first Slavic pontiff in church history, he briefly considered taking the papal name Stanislas, after the patron saint of Poland. Instead, however, he chose to honor the 45 Italian popes who came before him, specifically his three immediate predecessors: John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul. He became John Paul II.He declined coronation, opting instead for the less formal ceremony of installation at a pontifical Mass. He was installed as the 263rd Bishop of Rome in ceremonies in St. Peter's Square on Oct. 22, 1978.The new pontiff would not be content to play chief bureaucrat of Vatican City, as so many of his predecessors had.Instead, he would be pope to the world: an evangelist who traveled the globe proclaiming the "indelible truth" of the church's teachings."The church needed direction" in the late 1970s, according to retired Archbishop Rembert Weakland of Milwaukee, a leading church liberal, and the cardinals were looking for "somebody energetic, somebody who could make decisions, somebody who would bring a little more discipline in the ranks." They found that commanding leader in John Paul II.From the first, he called on bishops to adhere to church teachings and discipline. He admonished clergy members not to get involved in politics, reminded them of their obligations of chastity, and insisted they wear their habits in public "to remind you of your commitment, which sharply contrasts with the spirit of the world."On his first papal trip outside Rome, to Assisi on Nov. 5, he told the cheering crowds that the church "speaks with my voice."Then, when Cardinal Jean Villot, the Vatican's secretary of state, asked the new pontiff if he might allow the national bishops' conferences to elect a permanent synod to serve as a papal cabinet, John Paul declined. "The Pope will remain supreme and sole legislator," he replied.He wasted no time in staking out his position. In his first year as pope, he revitalized the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - the Vatican's watchdog panel on dogma - which began cracking down on Catholic theologians who deviated too far from church teachings.In the most celebrated case, the Congregation in 1979 barred the Rev. Hans Kung - a liberal Dutch professor who had challenged the notion of papal infallibility - from teaching at pontifical Catholic universities."The present Pope suppresses problems instead of solving them," Kung complained, and he instantly became a martyr in the eyes of liberal Catholic intellectuals. But theologians who valued their jobs took it as a warning to toe the Vatican line, at least in public.John Paul used his first papal trip abroad, to Central America in January 1979, to make it plain he disapproved of "liberation theology," the belief that the church had a moral obligation to engage politically in the struggle for economic and political justice for the poor. The Marxist-tinged dogma had particular appeal among clergy opposed to the right-wing (and at least nominally Catholic) dictatorships of Latin America.John Paul was unambiguously opposed. "The church cannot approve of this idea of Christ as a political figure, a revolutionary," he declared.Yet only months later, the Pope himself would help launch a revolution.On June 2, 1979, over the strenuous objections of the Kremlin and the communist leadership in Poland, Karol Wojtyla returned to his homeland as pontiff.It was the eve of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit. A million Poles greeted him in Warsaw's Victory Square, where a giant cross had been erected. He celebrated Mass and, at the close of his homily, spoke words that lit a fire in the hearts of his countrymen:"Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of thy faithful, and renew the face of the Earth," he said, adding with a sweeping gesture, "of THIS Earth." He used the Polish word "ziemen," meaning "land" or "country - and told them again and again, "Be not afraid!"What might sound like a trifling difference in emphasis to English-speakers was a cry of defiance that every Pole recognized. "He was beseeching the Holy Spirit to liberate Poland," observed British journalist Peter Hebblethwaite.The communist government was not amused. The cross in Victory Square was dismantled before nightfall, but the Polish people seemed never again to be so cowed. Within a year, thousands of workers defied the government by staging massive strikes and creating a trade union, Solidarity.As the Solidarity movement grew in strength, it had strong backing within the Vatican and the U.S. government. The support was probably not unconnected. In their 1996 biography, "His Holiness, journalists Carl Bernstein and Marco Politi wrote that "the Reagan administration maintained an intelligence shuttle at the highest level between the White House and the Pope," with Cardinal Krol of Philadelphia serving as "intermediary between the White House, Poland, and the Vatican."When, in 1989, Poles broke the communist monopoly on power by electing a Solidarity Party government, John Paul II was given significant credit for hastening the triumph."The tree was rotten," he would say. "All I did was shake it."This former actor and playwright knew the power of theater. His celebrated foreign visits became dramatically staged affairs designed to thrill the faithful and affirm papal primacy.Upon his arrival at an airport, he would kiss the ground of each new nation he visited. Government leaders - often visibly awed - would greet him. Local cardinals, archbishops and bishops, in chasubles and miters, would follow him in entourage as he visited shrines, cathedrals and seminaries, and concelebrate Mass with him. It became customary for the diocesan bishop to publicly proclaim at length his devotion and obedience.In October 1979, he made his first papal visit to the United States.Of the six cities he visited, one was Philadelphia, the archdiocese of his old friend Cardinal Krol. It was a spectacular event. Thousands of people lined his route from the airport. As sun broke through a day of clouds, a crowd that police estimated at one million saw him celebrate Mass outdoors, before a shining white altar in Logan Circle.The homily he delivered that day - after an introduction that honored Philadelphia as the birthplace of U.S. independence and a cradle of liberty and freedom - highlighted themes he was rapidly defining as hallmarks of his papacy:"Human-Christian values," he said, "are strengthened when power and authority are exercised in full respect for all the fundamental rights of the human person, whose dignity is the dignity of one created in the image and likeness of God. ..."Freedom can ... never be construed without relation to the truth as revealed by Jesus Christ and proposed by His church, nor can it be seen as a pretext for moral anarchy. ..."Divine law is the sole standard of human liberty."He spoke in English, as he spoke in the local language to so many foreign audiences. The spectacle was exhilarating. The Pope, not yet 60, was commanding; the crowds were rapt.The U.S. visit, which included an address to the United Nations, was just one trip in a jam-packed schedule of work, travel - and, indeed, exuberant fun. The athleticism and vigor of this young pontiff were unlike anything modern Vatican-watchers had seen. "How many popes since St. Peter have skied?" he would ask with a grin, and then glide down the slopes in his parka as photographers scampered to keep up.The answer? One.The Polish toast "Stolat" "_ "May you live 100 years" - sometimes seemed in his case a prediction.But on May 13, 1981, a Turk, Mehmet Ali Agca, shot John Paul twice in St. Peter's Square, nearly ending his vibrant papacy in its 31st month. One of the bullets struck his hand. The other went through his torso, barely missing his heart, and ripped into his intestine. Doctors feared fatal peritonitis, but his recovery was swift.There was dark talk that Agca had been in the pay of the Bulgarian secret police and that the assassination plot had been masterminded by the Soviet KGB, though no convincing evidence has ever emerged.Although he never knew for sure who wanted him dead, the Pope never doubted who saved his life: He forever gave credit to the "special protection" of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "One hand fired," he said later, "and another hand guided the bullet."He eventually had the bullet removed from his body set into the crown of Mary at the Portuguese shrine of Our Lady of Fatima, and donated the bloodied sash to the Polish shrine of Our Lady of Jasna Gora.He wore a bulletproof vest after the shooting, and henceforth toured the crowds in a bulletproof "Popemobile." But he often left its window open - evidence, perhaps, of his surrender to divine will.Who could have blamed John Paul if he afterward had shuttered himself within the Vatican's garden walls, as his predecessors had done for a century?Instead, after the assassination attempt, he seemed to loom larger than ever. With breathtaking vigor, he resumed his evangelism, his assertion of papal authority, and his clarification of moral teaching. The 1980s became his decade.Within the church, he continued to dominate the hierarchy, appointing like-minded conservatives to important offices and quelling liberal dissent. Inside and outside the Vatican walls he continued to fight communism, a battle that culminated in the collapse of Kremlin rule in Eastern Europe in 1989.As years went by, he was perhaps most famous in the secular Western world for his uncompromising stance on issues of marriage, sex and sexuality. He never deviated from the church's traditional teachings on sex and marriage - but he repeated them with an emphasis that had not been heard since before the days of Vatican II.He believed it was contrary to God's law for anyone - Catholic or otherwise - to engage in birth control, abortion, homosexuality, in-vitro fertilization, masturbation, artificial insemination or sterilization. Intercourse between married partners, with no barrier to pregnancy and childbirth, was the only permissible sexual act in his eyes."I don't think there was any uncertainty regarding what the teaching of the church was before the election of John Paul II," said Archbishop John Patrick Foley, a prelate of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia who heads the Vatican's communications office."I think there was uncertainty on the part of many in "perceiving what the teachings of the Church was. ... I think the Holy Father has made it clear where the limits are."His teachings earned him a reputation as a stern moralizer, especially in North America and Western Europe. But those close to him understood that his moral certitude emanated from a deep spirituality: Since his early friendship with Jan Tyranowski, a powerful vein of mysticism had run through his faith.Aides told of finding him lying on the marble floor of his chapel, his arms stretched in the shape of a cross, groaning at prayer. Sometimes, in the middle of a meeting, he would suddenly close his eyes in silent prayer - not as if he chose to pray, but as if prayer somehow took possession of him.Armed by this inner religiosity, he stood firmly behind the church's traditional bans on remarriage after divorce. He rejected all talk of allowing priests to marry. And he adamantly opposed the ordination of women.In his sixth encyclical, the 1987 "Redemptoris Mater (Mother of the Redeemer)", he wrote at length of Mary's special status in the church. His assertion that only the male apostles, not Mary, were instructed to spread the faith - and that women are, therefore, excluded from the priesthood - stirred one of the principal controversies of his pontificate.He affirmed the ban again in a 1994 pastoral letter, "Sacerdotalis Ordinatio," in which he declared: "Christ chose only men as his Apostles, and the Church has imitated Christ in its constant practice of choosing only men."I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that all the faithful are definitively bound by this judgment."That assertion, and the Vatican's attempt to thwart a U.N. initiative on population control in Cairo, Egypt, in 1994, provoked so much outcry that he took pains to explain that he indeed endorsed education and careers for women."Women have a full right to become actively involved in all areas of public life," he declared in a 1995 letter to the United Nations. But, he noted, "equality of dignity does not mean `sameness with men.'"It is necessary to counter the misconception that the role of motherhood is oppressive to women, that a commitment to her family, particularly to her children, prevents a woman from reaching personal fulfillment. ..."Some observers have speculated that his devotion to motherhood, and to Christ's mother, sprang from the death of his own mother when he was 8. Still, his views of women were received coolly by most feminists."John Paul always sees women in their biological dimension; either as mothers or as virgins who must follow the model of the Madonna," complained Ida Magli, an Italian anthropologist."It's always the way they relate to their body: Either they make children or they abstain from sexual intercourse. Wojtyla never sees women as persons in the same way he sees a male as a person. I think that deep in his heart he fears the rebellion of women."John Paul's dealings with other religions also stirred public emotions. In 1986, he became the first pontiff ever to visit a Jewish synagogue, the ancient Synagogue of Rome. In 1994, he ignored his own secretary of state and established full diplomatic relations between the Vatican and the government of Israel. In January 2002, the Vatican published a document that said Christians should respect the Jewish belief that the Messiah has not yet come.But there were many areas of strong disagreement with Jewish leaders. In 1987 and 1988, he received former U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim, then the president of Austria, despite widely credited allegations that Waldheim had ordered the roundup of Jews in his native Austria during World War II. In 1994 John Paul quietly conferred on Waldheim a papal knighthood, though by that time the Austrian was something of an international pariah. The Pope never explained his reasons publicly.Jews also complained about his handling of a decade-long controversy over the presence of a cross and convent outside the site of the former Auschwitz concentration camp. Eventually, the Pope ordered the convent to move.And in 1989, he angered Jews when he remarked that "the history of the Old Testament shows many instances of Israel's infidelity to God," who sent prophets to "call them to conversion, to warn them of their hardness of heart, and to foretell a new covenant still to come."Although he never addressed the alleged failure of Pope Pius XII to publicly denounce - and possibly thwart - the Nazi Holocaust, the pontiff apologized in a special Year 2000 Mass of Forgiveness "for the sins committed ... against the people of the Covenant" and later prayed at the Holocaust Memorial and the Western Wall in Jerusalem.In 1994, he offended Buddhists in his popular book, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," in which he called Buddhism an "atheistic system" - in other words, not a religion. When Buddhist leaders around the world protested, and those in Sri Lanka threatened to boycott the pontiff's forthcoming visit, the Vatican issued an apology.No one ever accused him of failing to speak his mind. The complexity of his teachings made it impossible to categorize him simply as a conservative or a liberal.He was a lifelong opponent of communism, for example, which did not stop him from finding fault with its opposite. He cautioned repeatedly against the materialism, hedonism and exploitation that are the dark side of capitalism. In 1991, two years after the Berlin Wall fell, he issued an encyclical warning against a "radical capitalistic ideology" and calling for a capitalism that cared less about profits and consumer goods and more about its responsibilities to the poor."Western countries ... run the risk of seeing this collapse as a one-sided victory of their own economic system, and thereby failing to make necessary corrections in that system," the Pope wrote in "Centesimus Annus."These were themes he echoed in his visit to the United States in 1995. In his homilies and speeches, he reminded audiences that the power and wealth that many Americans enjoy carry with them "heavy responsibilities.""Use it well, America!" he exhorted a crowd of 50,000 in Baltimore. "Be an example of justice and civic virtue, freedom fulfilled in goodness, at home and abroad! ... Every generation of Americans needs to know that freedom consists not in doing what we like but in having the right to do what we ought."His voice was strong, but the extraordinary energy he had expended throughout his pontificate and the physical assaults he had suffered seemed to have taken their toll. After undergoing surgery to remove a benign intestinal tumor in 1992, and breaking his thigh in 1994, he slowed what had been a superhuman pace.A persistent hand tremor and slurred speech raised questions about whether he was suffering a neurological disorder such as Parkinson's disease.Steely beneath his infirmities, John Paul continued to travel and hold public audiences. Though more and more public tasks were delegated to his assistants, he was determined to carry on rather than resign.© 2003, The Philadelphia Inquirer.http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/11296214.htm   nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7591/1/E-Pope-John-Paul-II-died-peacefully-today.html  John Paul II died peacefully todayPope John Paul II: 1920-2005A look at the life and legacy of the pope By TONY KARON Saturday, Apr. 02, 2005John Paul II died peacefully today, after a protracted illness that had sapped his physical strength but never quenched the evangelical fire within him that burned as brightly in his final days as when he first assumed the papacy almost 27 years ago. In his quarter-century in the Vatican, John Paul II made himself synonymous with the papacy in the minds of many of the faithful— dramatically redefining the role with his relentless evangelizing energy and reinvigorating the Catholic Church. He also played a critical role as moral arbiter in the wider world events of his time. While most of his predecessors rarely ventured beyond the walls of the Holy See, John Paul II took the Catholic Church out on the road, ministering every year to millions of the faithful ecstatic at his presence. Those travels, more than anything, may have helped him energize and grow the Church in Africa, Latin America and Asia even as it struggled to retain its flock in the industrialized West. The former Archbishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla was elevated to the papacy in 1978, at a time when the Church was engaged in an internal debate over how to interpret the doctrinal changes adopted the previous decade in the process known as Vatican II. He steadfastly held the line against those in the European and North American clergy and laity who saw in Vatican II an opening to democratize the Church and emphasize the primacy of individual conscience — or at least help them to reconcile their opposition to Church edicts on issues such as birth control and divorce. Under John Paul II, even discussion over the ordination of women priests was impermissible, and liberal critics charged that under his watch the Church failed to rise adequately to the challenge of AIDS. But to most of the Catholic faithful worldwide, John Paul II was venerated not simply for his evangelism and his interventions in the political world, but as a contemporary Catholic philosopher without peer, capable, at times, of immense forgiveness (such as the forgiveness of his would-be assassin) and driven by an evangelical passion recalling the great wanderings of the Apostle Paul. In his witness they see the latter-day equivalent of an Old Testament prophet, standing as a bulwark and beacon against those aspects of Western culture deemed both ungodly and death-oriented. In the world outside the Catholic Church, John Paul II is best remembered for his epic role in helping bring down Polish communism at the same time as ensuring a soft landing for the society it had scoured. His epic “Fear not!” injunction to Polish Catholics symbolized the importance of the Church in providing the moral center that emboldened them to peacefully and yet forcefully challenge the reign of the regime imposed by Moscow — and in the process it established the model for the civil society revolutions across Eastern Europe that dismantled most of the Soviet empire with scarcely a shot being fired. But inside the Church his own rule will be remembered as nothing if not authoritarian. John Paul II reasserted, and even amplified the doctrine of "Papal infallibility," and beatified its author, Pope Pius IX. Under the rubric of "collegiality" — and its assumption of a diversity of views — John Paul II quickly made clear that he was less interested in hearing from his bishops than in overseeing their enforcement of Church (and papal) doctrine. The world's Catholic bishops are traditionally called to Rome for consultations every five years, and while those sessions had, certainly since Vatican II, involved a measure of give-and-take, under John Paul II they were more concerned with disseminating a line and quizzing the bishops on instances in which they may have been deemed insufficiently aggressive in defending Church doctrine. But if his insistence on theological conformity inside the church was absolute, his warmth and generosity in reaching out to Christians outside the Catholic communion and to other faiths was without precedent. The tension between those two qualities occasionally prompted his own theological enforcer, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, to issue pastoral letters clarifying the limits of the Vatican's embrace of the protestants or the Orthodox. But John Paul II has offered eloquent and heartfelt apologies to many of those he believes have been wronged by the Church — or more precisely, in his view, by its adherents. He expressed remorse to the Orthodox over the sacking of Constantinople, and to Muslims and the Jews for the violence committed against them during the Inquisition and the Crusades. His unparalleled campaign to repair the Church's relationship with the Jewish people made him the first Pope of the modern era to enter a synagogue; the Vatican recognized the State of Israel in the course of his tenure and he went to Jerusalem to deliver a heartfelt apology for the history of Catholics' mistreatment of Jews. Although they were not satisfied by what they saw as his failure to acknowledge the corporate responsibility of the Church — as distinct from individual members — for such maltreatment, and also his failure to criticize the wartime pontiff Pius XII for his silence in the face of the Holocaust, Jewish leaders today freely acknowledge John Paul II as a great and true friend to the Jewish people and the first pontiff to truly live the conciliatory language on Jews of Vatican II. Nor was his outreach confined to followers of other faiths. Perhaps his greatest disappointment has been the failure of his efforts to heal the rift with the Orthodox churches, particularly of Russia, which has remained opposed to any rapprochement and inclined to see Catholic overtures in Russia as an attempt to poach for souls. There again, however, some of the theologians around the pope may be inclined to see his outreach to the Orthodox as somewhat naïve, given the theological chasm that divides the two churches on such basic issues as the papacy itself. There was an internal logic to the pontiff's philosophy of "the dignity of the human person." That inner consistency may also account for the fact that measured by the yardstick of the politics of his age, Pope John Paul II looks over the map. His views on the sanctity of life may have made him an opponent of abortion and contraception, but equally so of capital punishment and war — most recently, the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And his fierce bearing of witness against communism may have made him a favorite of Western conservatives, yet he has been equally disdainful of the "soulless materialism" that has accompanied the emergence of free market capitalism in Eastern Europe. Cold War concerns may have prompted him to drive the leftist bishops of Latin America out of the Church, and yet he has found himself also at odds with some of their successors who critics have accused of mimicking Pentecostalism's "theology of prosperity." On visits to Latin America during the 1990s, John Paul II was moved to emphasize — like the leftists he had silenced a decade earlier — that the Church's priority and natural constituency is the poor. And that, of course, is also where its great growth potential lies today. John Paul II was also extraordinary in his embrace of a mystic spirituality centered on the cult of the Virgin Mary. He was known to have prostrated himself for hours at a time before statues of the Virgin, and believed she interceded to save him from an assassin's bullet fired on the anniversary of the appearance of Mary in apparition at Fatima. Once recovered from his wound, he made a pilgrimage to Fatima to give thanks, and the assassin's bullet is now welded into the crown of the statue of the Virgin at Fatima. His devotion to the Cult of the Virgin may not necessarily move the elites of the post-modern West, but they strike a deep chord in the Church's primary growth zones in the developing world. John Paul II's longevity allowed him to appoint all but three of the 117 cardinals that will choose his successor. And that, as much as his theological and evangelical legacy, means he leaves behind a Catholic Church remade in his image. Still, it is unlikely that any of his potential successors will be even remotely like him. The combination of gifts, passions and experiences that Karol Wojtyla brought to the Holy See made him a truly unique personification of the role of "God's Vicar," whose afterglow will inspire and illuminate the Catholic faithful for years after his passing. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1044120,00.html  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7590/1/E-Pope-John-Paul-II-1920-2005.html  Karol Jozef Wojtyla Jr. - Pope John Paul II 1920 - 2005 Pope John Paul II looks at white doves that were freed at the end of the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's square, at the Vatican City in this Jan 30 photo. (AP/Plinio Lepri)  nenad@nenadbach.com (Nenad N. Bach) Sat, 02 Apr 2005 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.croatia.org/crown/articles/7594/1/E-Pascal-singing-in-Vrbanj.html  Pascal singing in Vrbanj   Linguistically It all started with the word cult (=service to God) and culture (=creation, preserving manhood’s spiritual and material creation). Commonly In ancient civilizations - both were created with service to God and around the actual service, although as history progressed circumstances continued in a more emphasized way, occasionally in a closer interaction, then separating, eventually distancing from one another. In pascal singing in Vrbanj on the island of Hvar - throughout the whole island and along our coastline - a specific service to God and spiritual culture has developed since the Middle Ages. This is emphasized through the Christian pascal heritage, which is common in the Mediterranean circles, which throughout the whole of Europe tells us of the beauty of interaction. It was created from believers and material sacral signs and symbols, in a touching way in a vocal form celebrates liturgical texts in the Great week. Near Hvar, Stari grad, Vrboska, Jelsa and Vrbanj, both the cult and culture are extended. Vrbanj itself is an agricultural area, while the other mentioned towns are more urban. Because of this we can conclude that the pascal singing in Vrbanj is more authentic. For centuries the local population has loved and admired such texture -because Catholics on Hvar have preserved and nurtured this pascal texture. Ethnologists and musicians have paid special attention to this spiritual singing, starting from the collectors of customs from the 19th century, A. I. Caric, musician B. Sokol between the two world wars, all up to the living musician Ljubo StipiÅ¡ic. Miki Bratanic not only nurtures Vrbanj's pascal heritage but also records it. M. Bratanic has decided to present just one source of pascal service in the final three days in the Great week in Vrbanj. This version is full length and contains melodies, which have not been released to date, which is why this version is so treasured. These melodies are no longer even sung in mass ceremonies. Due to the norms of the Second Vatican Council a large proportion of the texts have been changed and when this was combined with the heads of church choirs which did not appreciate the essence of pascal singing, then the true richness was lost. Even though not everything that is old is necessarily worth while, we can definitely say that when pascal heritage is in question that 'older the better' is the case (Luke 5, 39). In M. Bratantc's records of 26 melodies, which are on this CD, the first collection of pascal melodies is from one Hvar parish. Vrbanj's parish priest and himself an excellent singer father Branimir Marinovic has always seen the need to maintain this form of cultural heritage.This CD not only contains the evangelical passages which during the Great week are c