News/International

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI expressed his concern for everyone affected by Hurricane Sandy and encouraged all those working to rebuild from the disaster.

"Conscious of the devastation caused by the hurricane which recently struck the East Coast of the United States of America, I offer my prayers for the victims and express my solidarity with all those engaged in the work of rebuilding," he said Oct. 31 at the end of his weekly general audience.

Nearly 1,000 miles wide, Sandy's strong gales reached as far west as Lake Michigan. As of Oct. 31, it caused at least 55 deaths in seven states and left more than 8.5 million homes and businesses without power from the Carolinas to Ohio.

In the Caribbean government officials put the death toll across the islands at 69, with more than 50 in Haiti, where widespread flooding devastated parts of the already impoverished country.

After reciting the Angelus Oct. 28, the Pope called for prayers and concrete help for the people of Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas, where, he said, the hurricane struck "with particular violence."

During his main audience talk Oct. 31, the Pope underlined the importance of the Church in preserving and passing on the faith across generations and throughout history. Some 10,000 people gathered under the rain in St. Peter's Square to hear the Pope's catechesis.

Though finding Christ is an intensely personal experience that transforms one's own heart, mind and individual existence, "faith is given in and through the community of the church," the Pope said.

The Creed and one's beliefs are not built upon a "private dialogue with Jesus," but are the result of a dialogue and a listening that shatter individualism and open one up to God's love and to others, he said.

"Faith comes to me given as a gift from God through a community of believers, which is the Church," he said.

People discover through baptism that they are not only united to Jesus, "but also to all those who walked and are walking the same path" toward holiness.

"Our faith is truly personal only if it is communal: It can be my faith only if it lives and moves in the 'we' of the Church, only if it is our faith, the common faith of the one church," the Pope said.

It is important to remember that faith is born in the Church and leads people to the Church, he said; "No one can have God as Father who does not have the Church as mother."

Tradition is "an uninterrupted chain of the life of the Church, the proclamation of the Word of God and the celebration of the sacraments that reaches us" from the past, he said.

Tradition is what "gives us the guarantee that that which we believe in is the original message of Christ, preached by the Apostles," he said.

This way, every man and woman from every generation and every continent can have access to the "immense resources" of sacred Scripture and the faith, and "enrich themselves from the treasures of grace" given to humanity by God, the Pope said.

In fact, the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, "Lumen Gentium," reminded people that God doesn't seek to make people "holy and save them merely as individuals, without bond or link between one another. Rather has it pleased him to bring men together as one people, a people which acknowledges him in truth and serves him in holiness."

By radiating the truth of the Church, each person becomes a point of reference for others by passing on the person of Jesus and his message, Pope Benedict said.

Only by "letting oneself be guided and molded by the faith of the Church," Christians, who despite their weakness, limits and difficulties, become "like an open window" that lets God's light shine on the world.

Keeping one's faith closed up inside oneself contradicts the very nature of faith, the Pope said.

"We need a Church in order to have confirmation of our faith and to experience the gifts of God: his word, the sacraments, the support of grace and the witness of love," he said.

In a world of rampant individualism which only weakens human relations, "faith calls us to be church, carriers of love and of the communion of God for all humanity," he said.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - As Hurricane Sandy bore down on the U.S. Oct. 29, church workers in Haiti and Cuba began cleaning up after one of the worst storms to hit the Caribbean in years.

Government officials raised the death toll across the islands to 65, the vast majority in Haiti, where widespread flooding devastated parts of the already impoverished country.

"The whole south is under water," Haiti Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told the Associated Press. In addition to 51 dead, 12 people were still reported missing in the country.

Crews from church agencies were working to assist some of the 17,800 people who were forced to flee to temporary shelters due to the storm.

In Cuba, Caritas officials estimated some 100,000 homes were affected, including roughly 20,000 that were destroyed. Eastern Cuba was hit hardest, officials said.

In Santiago de Cuba, the country's second-largest city, "there was not a block that did not suffer significant damage," Maritza Sanchez Abillud, director of Caritas Cuba, said in a written report.

The storm damaged schools, health clinics, government buildings and some "90 percent of the churches and chapels, including the National Shrine of Our Lady of Charity in the village of El Cobre," which the pope visited in March, Sanchez said.

Cuban government officials said it was the worst storm to hit the island since 2005 when Hurricane Dennis caused more than $2 billion in damage.

In Holguin, a province of slightly more than 1 million people in northeast Cuba, church workers said the damage was widespread.

"It ripped off roofs of houses. There's a lot of material damage, much more in the countryside than in the city" of Holguin, the provincial capital, said a church worker at the Holguin Diocese.

Santiago, Holguin and the province of Guantanamo, also in eastern Cuba, were worst hit, church workers said.

"Crops (were) ruined, roads swept away, thousands and thousands of people (found) their homes flooded up to their chests," Gustavo Andujar, cultural director of the church's Varela Cultural Center, told Catholic News Service in an email.

Sanchez said Caritas was planning to distribute food, water, building materials and other emergency materials to residents in eastern Cuba. But she said the "reality is overwhelming, so we are going to need financial support from elsewhere."

VATICAN CITY - Migrants usually are forced to leave their countries because of poverty, hunger or violence, but faith and hope help them face their hardships and seek a better life elsewhere, Pope Benedict XVI said.

The pope chose "Migrations: pilgrimage of faith and hope" as the theme for the 2013 celebration of the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, and issued a message that touched on many facets of what he called a "striking phenomenon" that raises "dramatic challenges."

The Vatican released the message Oct. 29, on the heels of the three weeklong Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization, which brought together church leaders from around the world to discuss efforts to strengthen the faith of Catholics and bring lapsed Catholics back.

"Faith and hope are inseparable in the hearts of many migrants, who deeply desire a better life and not infrequently try to leave behind the 'hopelessness' of an unpromising future," Pope Benedict wrote.

The pope's message was introduced in a news conference at the Vatican by Cardinal Antonio Maria Veglio and Bishop Joseph Kalathiparambil, respectively, president and secretary of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers.

Migration by its nature involves suffering the pain of uprooting and separation from family, country and possessions, the pope said, but faith and hope allow those who emigrate to face a difficult present if they can believe it will lead to a better future.

They are not just seeking to improve their financial, social or political condition, the pope said. People who leave their native countries are hoping to "encounter acceptance, solidarity and help" from those in their new country who can recognize the values and resources they have to offer, he said.

The Catholic Church, he said, is a witness to the "immense poverty and suffering entailed in migration" that often leads to "painful and tragic situations." The church is on the ground with its various agencies to assist migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in emergencies and in beginning their new lives.

Church agencies, he said, should not forget the religious dimension of the migrants' lives and "must devote special attention and care" to their spiritual needs.

Ecumenical dialogue is important for assisting other Christians, he said, and even with Catholic immigrants, it may mean accommodating the faithful of various rites.

Migrants and refugees who are guests have the right to expect solidarity, but they also have the responsibility to abide by the rules of the host country, he said.

The pope also spoke about the plague of human trafficking, and said that better immigration policies in the wealthier countries could help in combating the various forms of exploitation that illegal immigrants often face. Those policies, he said, should not, however, lead to "a hermetic sealing of borders" or simply adopting measures that discourage immigrants.

Cardinal Veglio emphasized the need to treat migrants and refugees with warmth and respect, and he said their integration must be accompanied by proper regulations, both international and domestic.

Bishop Kalathiparambil spoke of the extreme difficulties faced by refugees and those asking for political asylum, who often leave their countries "because of innumerable violations of their human rights and because of the cruelty of bloody conflicts."

He illustrated how refugees often are forced to put their lives in the hands of traffickers, who, once they have taken great sums money to bring them across the sea or to other destinations, continue to exploit them as forced laborers or sex workers.

Refugees must have the opportunity to become part of the new society to which they have escaped, where they have "great potential to bear witness and evangelize," the bishop said.

In most parts of the world, the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Migrants and Refugees Jan. 13, while the United Nations marks it on Dec. 18. In the United States, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops marks National Migration Week Jan. 6-12.

VATICAN CITY - "Patience, serenity, perseverance and trust are needed" as the Vatican continues talks aimed at full reconciliation with the traditionalist Society of St. Pius X, said a statement from the Vatican commission overseeing the discussions.

The Pontifical Commission "Ecclesia Dei," in a statement released Oct. 27, said the leadership of the SSPX had requested "additional time for reflection and study" before responding to Pope Benedict XVI's latest efforts to reintegrate them into the church.

"A culminating point along this difficult path" was reached June 13 when the commission gave the SSPX a final "doctrinal declaration together with a proposal for the canonical normalization of its status within the Catholic Church," the statement said.

The Vatican initially presented what it described as a "doctrinal preamble" to SSPX leaders in September 2011. While it never released the text, the Vatican had said it outlined "some doctrinal principles and criteria for the interpretation of Catholic doctrine necessary to guarantee fidelity" to the formal teaching of the church, including the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

The SSPX gave the Vatican its response in April. The Vatican, in turn, gave the SSPX the doctrinal declaration to sign in June and also presented a proposal to establish for SSPX members a "personal prelature," which is a church jurisdiction without geographical boundaries. Currently, the church's only personal prelature is Opus Dei.

The Vatican said that "after 30 years of separation, it is understandable that time is needed to absorb the significance of these recent developments."

The statement called the efforts a "dramatic manifestation" of the pope's ministry "to foster and preserve the unity of the church by realizing the long hoped-for reconciliation."

Just three days before the Vatican statement was published, the SSPX announced it had ousted British Bishop Richard Williamson, one of the four bishops ordained by SSPX founder Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre without papal approval in 1988.

Bishop Williamson opposed the reconciliation talks with the Vatican and had caused great embarrassment for the German-born Pope Benedict. On the same day in 2009 that the Vatican announced Pope Benedict had lifted the excommunication of Bishop Williamson and three other of the society's bishops, a Swedish television station aired an interview with Bishop Williamson in which he denied the extent of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews.

In a statement emailed to subscribers of his newsletter Oct. 27, Bishop Williamson said many people thought his presence in the SSPX was "the single biggest obstacle" to the SSPX's reconciliation with Rome.

While he said he didn't know if his expulsion was a condition set by the Vatican, "it certainly favors" the reconciliation talks.

"Archbishop Lefebvre founded the SSPX to resist the (Second Vatican) Council's destruction of the Catholic faith by its 16 documents, and of the practice of that faith by the new Mass above all," he wrote. "To undo a thing's nature is to undo the thing," he said, explaining why he opposed the talks with Rome.

VATICAN CITY - Winning converts to the church, ministering better to practicing Catholics and bringing lapsed members back into the fold are all parts of the multifaceted effort known as the "new evangelization," Pope Benedict XVI told a group of bishops and other church leaders from around the world.

The pope made his remarks Oct. 28 during his homily at a Mass marking the end of the world Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization. The three-week gathering, which brought more than 260 bishops and religious superiors to the Vatican, along with dozens of official observers and experts, discussed how the church can revive and spread the faith in increasingly secular societies.

Pope Benedict underscored "three pastoral themes" that he said had emerged from the talks.

"Ordinary pastoral ministry ... must be more animated by the fire of the Spirit, so as to inflame the hearts of the faithful," he said, stressing the importance of the sacrament of confession, and the necessity of "appropriate catechesis" in preparation for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.

The pope also called for a "new missionary dynamism" to "proclaim the message of salvation to those who do not yet know Jesus Christ."

"There are still many regions in Africa, Asia and Oceania whose inhabitants await with lively expectation, sometimes without being fully aware of it, the first proclamation of the Gospel," the pope said. And as a result of migration driven by globalization, he added, the "first proclamation is needed even in countries that were evangelized long ago."

Finally, the pope spoke of the need to persuade lapsed Catholics, "especially in the most secular countries," to "encounter Jesus Christ anew, rediscover the joy of faith and return to religious practice in the community of the faithful."

This effort, in particular, calls for "pastoral creativity" and use of a "new language attuned to the different world cultures," he said. As an example of such innovation, the pope mentioned the Vatican's "Courtyard of the Gentiles" project, which promotes dialogue between religious believers and agnostics.

Referring to the day's reading from the Gospel of St. Mark, the pope invoked Bartimaeus -- the blind man who miraculously received his sight back from Jesus and then joined him as one of the disciples -- as a model for Christians in countries "where the light of faith has grown dim."

"New evangelizers are like that," Pope Benedict said, "people who have had the experience of being healed by God, through Jesus Christ."

The day before the closing Mass, at the synod's last working session Oct. 27, Pope Benedict thanked the participants for their work, including the final propositions that will eventually serve as the basis for a document of the pope's own reflections on the new evangelization.

At that same meeting, the pope said that he had decided to make two administrative changes relevant to the new evangelization. Responsibility for seminaries will shift from the Vatican Congregation for Catholic Education to the Congregation for the Clergy, he said; and responsibility for catechesis will shift from the latter office to the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelization.

The pope also congratulated the six bishops, four of them members of the synod, whom he will induct into the College of Cardinals Nov. 24. He said he had named the new cardinals-designate, none of whom hails from Europe, as a sign of "the universality of the church, showing that the church is a church of all peoples, (and) speaks in all languages ... not a church of one continent, but a universal church."

One of the cardinals-designate, Philippine Archbishop Luis Tagle of Manila, was also one of 15 new members of the ordinary council of the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops announced Oct. 26.

The new council members, who will oversee the international gatherings of bishops periodically held at the Vatican, include two U.S. bishops: Cardinals Donald W. Wuerl of Washington and Timothy M. Dolan of New York. Others included Cardinals Christoph Schonborn of Vienna, Austria; Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace; and George Pell of Sydney.

VATICAN CITY - Members of the Synod of Bishops recommended the Vatican establish a commission to monitor religious freedom, develop guidelines for training evangelizers and ensure there is a church in every diocese where confession is always available.

At the end of the three-week world Synod of Bishops on new evangelization, members of the gathering approved 58 propositions to give to the pope; although synod rules say the proposals are secret, Pope Benedict authorized their publication Oct. 27.

The propositions were designed as recommendations for the pope to use in a post-synodal apostolic exhortation. Many of the propositions described current challenges and opportunities that the church faces in sharing the Gospel, strengthening the faith and reaching out to lapsed Catholics.

Other propositions asked Pope Benedict or individual bishops to consider undertaking concrete projects, including:

-- Establishing a Vatican commission to monitor religious freedom around the world, denounce attacks on religious freedom and promote a broader understanding of its importance as a basic human right.

The propositions said, "The proclamation of the good news in different contexts of the world -- marked by the process of globalization and secularism -- places different challenges before the church: at times in outright religious persecution, at other times in a widespread indifference, interference, restriction or harassment."

During the synod discussions, bishops in different parts of the world described different relationships with Muslim neighbors, ranging from situations in which Christian minorities experience serious discrimination to cases of Catholics and Muslims working together to address social problems.

The synod propositions encouraged Catholics "to persevere and to intensify their relations with Muslims" in accordance with the teaching of the Second Vatican Council.

-- Developing a "pastoral plan of initial proclamation" that would outline steps to help ensure that once people hear the Gospel, they are led to conversion and faith and are educated in church teaching. It also should describe the "qualities and guidelines for the formation of Catholic evangelizers today."

-- Asking that every diocese establish a parish or shrine dedicated "in a permanent way" to the administration of the sacrament of penance, ensuring "priests are always present, allowing God's mercy to be experienced by all the faithful."

"The sacrament of penance and reconciliation is the privileged place to receive God's mercy and forgiveness," it is a place of healing and strength, and it is the sacrament that can bring people back into full communion with the church, the synod members said.

As they did in the synod hall, synod members used several propositions to emphasize the importance of the family as the place where life and love are first given, where people are introduced to the faith and where they learn to live according to Gospel values.

The church's new evangelization efforts must help strengthen families and must try "to address significant pastoral problems around marriage: the case of divorced and remarried (Catholics), the situation of their children, the fate of abandoned spouses, the couples who live together without marriage and the trend in society to redefine marriage," synod members said.

Recognizing an increase in secularism around the world, synod members said that in many ways Christians are living "in a situation similar to that of the first Christians," who were small minorities in cultures indifferent or even hostile to Christianity.

Still, synod members said, "the world is God's creation and manifests his love." Even if Christians are just a little flock, they are called to "bear witness to the Gospel message of salvation" and "to be salt and light of a new world."

The propositions emphasized that while the primary task of the church is to bring people to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship lived and nourished in the church, part of reaching out to others and witnessing to the Gospel involves serving the poor and sick, working for justice and protecting the environment.

Synod members praised the members of religious orders, who have been on the frontlines of evangelization for centuries, as well as the activities of new movements and communities. But they stressed the importance of all members of a diocese coordinating their work with the local bishop, and they insisted on the key role of parishes as the places where most Catholics learn about and practice their faith.

The propositions included a suggestion that parish priests or other designated parish staff visit families in the parish as part of their outreach.

The propositions described the liturgy as "the primary and most powerful expression of the new evangelization" and a manifestation of God's love for humanity.

"Evangelization in the church calls for a liturgy that lifts the hearts of men and women to God," synod members said.

During synod discussions, several bishops spoke about the importance of the church learning the particular language and culture of social media and new technology to share the Gospel with people who increasingly spend their time online.

In the propositions, they said Catholics should be trained "to transmit faithfully the content of the faith and of Christian morality" through the media, but they insisted that no technical talent or online presence could take the place of "the testimony of life" lived in accordance with the Gospel.

Synod members described young Catholics not primarily as objects of evangelization, but as evangelizers, especially of their peers.

"As the media greatly influence the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being of the youth," they said, "the church through catechesis and youth ministry strives to enable and equip them to discern between good and evil, to choose Gospel values over worldly values, and to form firm faith convictions."

ROME - A new list of core principles defining the charism, or special gift, of the Regnum Christi movement requires a process of "clarification and, where needed, purification," not radical change from the past, said a spokesman for the Legionaries of Christ.

The three-page final draft of principles shows "the fundamental characteristic of our spirituality is Christ-centeredness," Legionaries Father Benjamin Clariond told Catholic News Service Oct. 26.

"The principles are not meant to introduce changes," he said in an email response to questions, but rather describe "elements which are essential to our service to the church and society."

The papal delegate overseeing the Vatican-led reform of the Legionaries and its lay movement, Regnum Christi, said a charism is not meant to be identified with the person of the founder, "especially not with his or her holiness or sin."

Pope Benedict XVI ordered the reform and reorganization of Regnum Christi and the Legionaries after revelations that their founder, the late Father Marcial Maciel Degollado, had fathered children and sexually abused seminarians.

Cardinal Velasio De Paolis, the papal delegate overseeing the groups' reforms, approved the text of the Regnum Christi principles, which were posted on the order's website Oct. 21.

In his letter to the order, the cardinal said the principles are meant to be "something like a 'general statute' or a 'fundamental norm,' or a 'rule' common to all the members of Regnum Christi, including the Legionaries."

Pope Benedict had said that the results of a 2010 visitation of the order's religious houses and most of its pastoral institutions "made clear" the urgent need for an "in-depth revision of the institute's charism."

The text of principles defining the movement's charism is not definitive and "does not propose any innovations," Cardinal De Paolis said in a letter dated Oct. 19, but it does attempt to clarify and reflect more deeply on Regnum Christi's nature and identity.

While a charism is a grace from God "given by means of the person called the founder," it "is not to be identified with the person of the founder, especially not with his or her holiness or sin," he wrote.

A charism is "an extraordinary gift from the Holy Spirit to the church," and it is the church that ultimately decides what forms part of the charism, he wrote.

"The Holy Father, while he recognizes this charism (of Regnum Christi), also requests that it be revised because of the historical circumstances in which it developed," the cardinal wrote.

"Any charism is by its very nature bound to history and its contingencies" and is called to "adapt to the different situations of history, without losing its nature or being dissolved," wrote the papal delegate.

The principles define Regnum Christi as "an ecclesial movement" that promotes "the powerful and personal experience of the love of Christ."

It invites its members "to foster, in a particular way, five supernatural loves: love for Jesus Christ, love for the church and the pope, love for the Blessed Virgin Mary, love for souls and love for Regnum Christi."

Its apostolic nature reflects its desire to evangelize with "initiative, zeal and passion," using "all the licit and good means available," the text says.

The most effective apostolic action depends on deep Christian formation and an organized outreach by "those groups of people who can have the greatest evangelizing influence in society," it says.

VATICAN CITY - Calling Kateri Tekakwitha the “protectress of Canada,” Pope Benedict XVI canonized her along with six others at an Oct. 21 ceremony in St. Peter’s Square.

The Catholic Church’s seven new saints are examples to the world of total dedication to Christ and tireless service to others, said Pope Benedict XVI.

An estimated 80,000 pilgrims filled St. Peter’s Square for the canonization of the holy women and men who ministered among their people. The pilgrims applauded the proclamation of the new saints — Kateri Tekakwitha, Mother Marianne Cope, Pedro Calungsod, Jacques Berthieu, Giovanni Battista Piamarta, Carmen Salles Barangueras and Anna Schaffer.

In his homily at Mass following the canonization, Pope Benedict prayed that the example of the new saints would “speak today to the whole Church” and that their intercession would strengthen the Church in its mission to proclaim the Gospel to the world.

The Pope also spoke about each new saint individually, giving a short biographical outline and highlighting a special characteristic of each for Catholics today.

Pope Benedict entrusted to St. Kateri “the renewal of the faith in the First Nations and in all of North America.” The daughter of a Mohawk father and Algonquin Christian mother, St. Kateri was “faithful to the traditions of her people,” but also faithful to the Christianity she embraced at age 20. She is the first North American aboriginal saint.

“May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are.”

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who is of American Indian descent, told Catholic News Service, “I think many young people today are embarrassed about embracing the Catholic faith because they live in a secular culture that’s hostile toward religious experience.” St. Kateri also “grew up in a place where there was great hostility toward Christianity,” Chaput said, but she resisted all efforts to turn her away from her faith, “so in some ways she would be a model of fidelity in the face of persecution on religious freedom grounds.”

Archbishop Gerald Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec told CNS that the canonization of the first aboriginal of North America is “huge for us.” St. Kateri, he said, is an excellent model for young people of “living a simple life, faithful to the Lord in the midst of hostility.” St. Kateri’s life and canonization show that “saints don’t have to do extraordinary things, they just have to love,” Lacroix said.

Francine Merasty, 32, a Cree who lives in Pelican Narrows, Sask., said, “Kateri inspires me because she’s an aboriginal woman. According to sociologists, aboriginal women are at the lowest (social) strata, and for the Church to raise up to the communion of saints an aboriginal woman is so awesome and wonderful.”

Phil Fontaine, former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada, told Canadian Church and government officials the canonization “makes it possible, very much possible, to bring our community — the First Nations — very much closer with the Catholic Church. There was a rupture for too long.”

After decades of resentment and horror over the abuse of indigenous children, the canonization of St. Kateri Tekakwitha marked a further step toward the reconciliation of the indigenous communities and the Catholic Church, he said.

Fontaine headed a 2009 Canadian aboriginal delegation to the Vatican, which received a formal apology from the Church for the treatment of native children in Canadian residential schools. An estimated 100,000 aboriginal children passed through the schools, which were abolished in the 1990s. They were established and paid for by the Canadian government, but were administered by various Church organizations, including Roman Catholic dioceses and religious orders. The schools became known for widespread physical and sexual abuse of children and have been blamed for contributing to the disappearance of native languages and cultures.

“If you link the two events” — the 2009 meeting and the canonization — “it is all about imparting reconciliation,” Fontaine said.

The canonization, he said, “is an opportunity for us to say, ‘We accept your apology, we forgive, and so now let us begin taking the important steps of healing and reconciliation.’ ”

VATICAN CITY - Paolo Gabriele, the pope's former butler who was found guilty of aggravated theft, was to be transferred from house arrest to a Vatican prison cell to begin his 18-month sentence.

Because the Vatican's prosecutor decided not to file an appeal, Gabriele would immediately begin serving his prison sentence by order of a Vatican court, said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

"The order will be carried out before the end of the day," he said Oct. 25.

Gabriele, who worked at Pope Benedict XVI's side as his assistant since 2006, will not be allowed to seek any employment at the Vatican in the future, the spokesman said.

Gabriele's violation of the trust of the pope and the privacy of so many people underlines his "incompatibility" with employment at the Vatican, he added.

While the Vatican has begun the necessary paperwork for terminating Gabriele's employment, the Vatican will proceed "with humanity and attention," Father Lombardi told Catholic News Service, saying it will take into consideration the fact that the 46-year-old Italian was supporting a family with three children in an apartment on Vatican property.

He will be detained in one of the recently refurbished prison cells inside the Vatican police barracks.

In a communique issued the same day, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vatican secretary of state, said Gabriele's crime caused great damage to the pope and to the universal church.

By stealing private correspondence to and from the pope, and other sensitive documents, and by leaking them to an Italian journalist, Gabriele committed "a personal offence against the Holy Father," the cardinal wrote.

His actions also "violated the right to privacy of many people; created prejudice against the Holy See and its different institutions; created an obstacle between the communications of the world's bishops and the Holy See; and caused scandal to the community of the faithful," he wrote.

The affair also "disrupted the serenity" of those who work at the Vatican, he added.

After a Vatican-led investigation, which started in May, and four days of courtroom proceedings attended by a pool of Vatican journalists, Gabriele was found guilty of aggravated theft and sentenced Oct. 6.

Cardinal Bertone said the whole process was carried out with "transparency, equanimity, and in full respect of the rights" of the accused.

The results of the investigation and trial also showed that Gabriele had spearheaded "his criminal project without instigation or prompting by others, but rather based on personal convictions that were in no way held by others," he wrote.

Therefore, the numerous "speculations about some plot or involvement" of other people is "unfounded," the cardinal said.

The secretary of state said it is still possible that Pope Benedict will pardon Gabriele, but such a move "rightly presupposes the reform of the offender and a sincere request for pardon from the Holy Father and all who were unjustly hurt" by his actions.

Gabriele's lawyer had told an Italian newspaper in July that Gabriele had written "a confidential letter to the pope," asking for his forgiveness and telling the pope he had acted alone.

Gabriele had told investigators that he had acted out of concern for the pope, who he believed was not being fully informed about the corruption and careerism in the Vatican.

ROME - Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto took possession of his titular church Oct. 23, celebrating an evening Mass at St. Patrick's Church in Rome.

"Now, after 40 years of ordination to the priesthood, I am, in a certain sense, becoming a parish priest," the cardinal said in his homily.

Cardinal Collins, who became a cardinal in February, was assigned to be honorary pastor of the Irish national church in Rome, which is entrusted to the Augustinian order. All cardinals are given honorary title to a church in Rome, as a reminder that the early popes were elected by the city's pastors.

"Although a cardinal relates to the universal church, he is also a parish priest, and that's something very, very beautiful," the cardinal told the congregation, which included pilgrims from Toronto and his former Archdiocese of Edmonton, Alberta, as well as Anne Leahy, Canada's ambassador to the Vatican.

"The church is universal and the church is always local, like concave and convex, the universal and local," he said. "Those two must go together."

The cardinal concelebrated with about 20 priests, including Archbishops Gerald Lacroix of Quebec, Gerard Pettipas of Grouard-McLennan, Alberta, and Richard Smith of Edmonton, president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Bishop Lionel Gendron of Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Quebec.

"As Christians, we need to be solid as a community of faith in building the temple of the Lord," the cardinal said. "But it's not enough to be stable, solid, joined together. If we were only to do that, we would miss the point of who we are."

"We need to have that fire, that zeal for evangelization," he said, pointing to the example of St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland. "We are called to spread that life, that light, that fire, and kindle fire in the hearts of others."