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FULL TEXTS , PHOTOS AND REPORTS FROM THE BEATIFICATION OF POPE JOHN PAUL II

JJOOHHNN PPAAUULL IIII TTHHEE PPOOPPEE WWHHOO EMMBBRACED THE WORLD

BY THE PRELATE OF OPUS DEI, P8

No. 6504

CatholicHerald.co.uk

April 29 2011 £1.50 (Republic of Ireland €1.80)

Pope: Resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope

BY ANNA ARCO

POPE BENEDICT XVI has said that the Resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope in his Easter message.

During his annual Easter Urbi et Orbi address, the Pope explained that, although Christ’s death and Resurrection transcended history, the events also marked a real change in the course of history.

He said: “The light which dazzled the guards keeping watch over Jesus’s tomb has traversed time and space. It is a different kind of light, a divine light, that has rent asunder the darkness of death and has brought to the world the splendour of God, the splendour of truth and goodness.

“Just as the sun’s rays in springtime cause the buds on the branches of the trees to sprout and open up, so the radiance that streams forth from Christ’s Resurrection gives strength and meaning to every human hope, to every expectation, wish and plan. Hence the entire cosmos is rejoicing today, caught up in the springtime of humanity, which gives voice to creation’s silent hymn of praise.

“The Easter Alleluia, resounding in the Church as she makes her pilgrim way through the world, expresses the silent exultation of the universe and above all the longing of every human soul that is sincerely open to God, giving thanks to him for his infinite goodness, beauty and truth.”

Over 100,000 pilgrims flocked to a sunlit St Peter’s Square to receive the Pope’s blessing after the Easter Mass. Before delivering the traditional Easter greetings in over 60 languages, Pope Benedict said that the joy of the Easter message contrasted with the pain and suffering caused by deprivation, hunger, disease, war and violence.

He said: “Yet it was for this that

Pope Benedict XVI greets pilgrims assembled in St Peter’s Square, Rome, to hear his Urbi et Orbi message on Easter morning AP/L’Osservatore Romano

Christ died and rose again! He died on account of sin, including ours today, he rose for the redemption of history, including our own. So my message today is intended for everyone, and, as a prophetic proclamation, it is intended especially for peoples and communities who are undergoing a time of suffering, that the Risen Christ may open up for them the path of freedom, justice and peace.”

Amid conflict in Africa and the Middle East, the Pope called for help for refugees “who have been obliged to leave all that is dear to them; may people of good will open their hearts to welcome them,

so that the pressing needs of so many brothers and sisters will be met with a concerted response in a spirit of solidarity”.

Pope Benedict also spoke of the need for restoring peace to the Ivory Coast which has been rocked by civil war since last November. He also said he hoped that Japan and other countries which had been struck by natural disasters might “find consolation and hope as it faces the dramatic consequences of the recent earthquake”.

Finally, he prayed for Christians suffering from persecution for their faith. According to the charity Aid to the Church in Need, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Pakistan and India has been increasing since 2008.

During the Easter Vigil, Pope Benedict baptised catechumens from Switzerland, Albania, Russia, Peru, Singapore and China in front of thousands taking part in the Mass in St Peter’s Basilica.

In his homily at the Easter Vigil, the Pope said a belief in creation separated Christianity and atheism.

He said: “The creation account tells us, then, that the world is a product of creative reason. Hence it tells us that, far from there being an absence of reason and freedom at the origin of all things, the source of everything is creative reason, love, and freedom.

“Here we are faced with the ultimate alternative that is at stake in the dispute between faith and unbelief: are irrationality, lack of freedom and pure chance the origin of everything, or are reason, freedom and love at the origin of being? Does the primacy belong to unreason or to reason? This is what everything hinges upon in the final analysis.”

He added: “As believers we answer, with the creation account and with John, that in the beginning is reason. In the beginning is freedom. Hence it is good to be a human person.

“It is not the case that in the expanding universe, at a late stage, in some tiny corner of the cosmos, there evolved randomly some species of living being capable of reasoning and of trying to find rationality within creation, or to bring rationality into it.

“If man were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then his life would make no sense or might even be a chance of nature.”

The encounter with the Risen Christ, the Pope said, “had something unsettling about it. The world had changed. This man who had died was now living with a life that was no longer threatened by any death. A new form of life had been inaugurated, a new dimension of creation.” Editorial comment: Page 13

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Catholic leaders from Britain and Ireland attend the royal wedding BY ED WEST

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY is expected to make history by attending the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton today.

The Primate of All Ireland will join Cardinal Keith O’Brien in Westminster Abbey marking the first time that Irish-born cardinals have attended a British royal wedding since the Reformation. A Church spokesman in Ireland described the invitation to Cardinal Brady as “unprecedented”.

Also present at the Abbey, the site of a Catholic church from the seventh until the 16th century, when the current, 13th-century building was turned over to the Church in England, will be Archbishop Vincent Nichols of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and the Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Archbishop Antonio Mennini.

The Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Alan Harper will also attend, as will several Church of England bishops.

Cardinal Brady said he was “pleasurably surprised” to be invited and wished the couple “happiness, good health and long life”.

In 1981 only the late Cardinal Basil Hume represented the Catholic Church at the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer at St Paul’s Cathedral, saying a prayer as part of an ecumenical group of Christian leaders. Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich, known for his Irish Republican sympathies, was not invited.

Cardinal Brady’s invitation has been attributed to his work in healing British and Irish relations. He was the first Catholic primate to attend a Church of Ireland synod and the installation of a Presbyterian moderator, and to meet Orange Order officials, Ian Paisley and Loyalist paramilitaries.

Next month the Queen will visit the Irish Republic.

Rome police seize John Paul II watches

BY ED WEST

POLICE IN ROME have seized thousands of unauthorised John Paul II watches and novelty items in a crackdown on false merchandise ahead of the late pope’s beatification on Sunday.

The counterfeit papal souvenirs were found hidden away in several warehouses on the outskirts of the city and were destined to hit market stalls around the Vatican as the week of celebrations began, an official with the Italian police said in a statement.

A total of 5.5 million items were seized, including fake Rolex, Omega and Cartier watches as well as fake Mont Blanc pens, with a total market value of around €15 million (£13 million). Three Chinese men have been questioned.

Pope to speak to astronauts in space

BY DAVID V BARRETT

POPE BENEDICT XVI will speak to astronauts on the International Space Station in a satellite link-up on Wednesday next week, to mark the final voyage of the American space shuttle Endeavour.

One of the Endeavour’s astronauts, the European Space Agency’s Colonel Roberto Vittori, will carry a gift from the Pope to the crew of the space station: a silver medallion.

In 2009 Pope Benedict met five NASA astronauts who presented him with a Vatican flag they had carried to the Hubble Space Telescope.

The mid-18th century Benedict XIV beatified the levitating Franciscan St Joseph Cupertino, the patron saint of astronauts.

INSIDE

Bishop Crispian Hollis Why I have loved serving my flock PAGE 7

Will Heaven The royal wedding is a joy for the nation PAGE 12

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