(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis and the prefects and presidents of pontifical congregations and councils held a three hour meeting Monday morning in the Vatican to discuss proposals for reform of the Roman Curia. The director of the Vatican Press Office , Father Federico Lombardi, reminded journalists that these meetings are routinely held about every six…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) When the Church is humble and poor, then “it is faithful” to Christ, giving all it has for the Lord and others, leaving nothing for itself said Pope Francis at morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta Monday. Listen: Pope Francis based his reflections on the Gospel of the Day which recounts the episode…
Read more
(Vatican Radio) The Holy Father has named an Auxiliary Bishop of Milwaukee, Donald J. Hying as the new Bishop of Gary, USA. He succeeds Bishop Dale J. Melczek, whose resignation Pope Francis accepted upon having the age limit.
On Monday the Holy Father also named Fr Victor Hlolo Phalana, currently Vicar General of the Archdiocese of the Archdiocese of Pretoria, as the Bishop of Klerksdorp, South Africa.
Biography of Bishop Daniel Hying
Bishop Hying is a native of West Allis, Wisconsin. Born to Albert and Catherine Hying (both deceased) on August 18, 1963, he is the youngest of six sons. After attending St. Aloysius and Immaculate Heart of Mary grade schools, he graduated from Brookfield Central High School and Marquette University. He earned his Masters of Divinity from Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry degree from the University of St. Mary of the Lake/Mundelein Seminary.
He was ordained to the priesthood for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee on May 20,1989.
His first priestly assignment was as associate pastor for St. Anthony Parish, Menomonee Falls from 1989 to 1994. From 1994 to 1997, he was a team member for La Sagrada Familia Parroquia, in the Dominican Republic. Bishop Hyling was temporary administrator at St. Peter Parish, East Troy, 1998, and later served as pastor at Our Lady of Good Hope Parish, Milwaukee from 1999 to 2005 and St. Anthony Parish, Milwaukee from 1998 to 1999. He served as temporary administrator at St. Augustine Parish, Milwaukee in 2006, then as dean of Formation at Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, from 2005 to 2007.
In 2007 Bishop Hyling was named as rector of Saint Francis de Sales Seminary by then-Archbishop Timothy Dolan, a position he held from 2007 to 2011.
On July 20, 2011, he was ordained the seventh auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.
Biography of Bishop Phalana
Father Victor Hlolo Phalana was born on 3 April 1961 in Erasmus, Odi, in the North West Province, in the Archdiocese of Pretoria. He studied philosophy and theology at the Major Seminar of St John Vianney in Pretoria. He obtained a License in Spirituality from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome in 1995, and in 1999 undertook studies in African Culture at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. He was ordained to the priesthood on 14 May 1988, incardinated in the Archdiocese of Pretoria.
Following his ordination, Father Phalana served as parochial vicar of St. Camillus in Hammanskraal (1988-1989 and later as Pastor of Christ the King, Mabopane (1989-1992). From 1992-1993 he was Professor at the Propaedeutic Seminar of Hammanskraal and Cape Town.
After his studies at the Gregorian University, he was Spiritual Director at the philosophical Seminary of St. Peter and taught at the Major Seminary of St. John Vianney (1995-1999). From 1994-2004 he taught at the Lumko Pastoral Institute.
Bishop-elect Phalana served as pastor of Good Shepherd and St. Peter in Winterveldt from 2004-2008. Since 2007 he has been administrator of the Cathedral of Pretoria, and since 2011 Vicar General of the Archdiocese.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) When the Church is humble and poor, then “it is faithful” to Christ, giving all it has for the Lord and others, leaving nothing for itself said Pope Francis at morning Mass in Casa Santa Marta Monday.
Listen:
Pope Francis based his reflections on the Gospel of the Day which recounts the episode of the poor widow who gives all that she has – two small coins or mites – to the Temple treasury, while the rich made offerings from their surplus wealth under the gaze of Jesus. Pope Francis said the Gospel captures two tendencies always present in the history of the Church. The Church tempted by vanity and the “poor Church”, which – he says – “must have no other riches than her Spouse”, like the humble widow:
” I like to see the Church in this figure, the Church which is, in a sense, a widow, because she waiting for her Bridegroom who will return … But she has her Bridegroom in the Eucharist, in the Word of God, in the poor, yes: but she is still waiting for his return. This is the attitude of the Church… This widow was not important, the widow’s name did not appear in the newspapers. No one knew her. She had no university degrees… nothing. Nothing. She didn’t shine of her own light. This is what makes me see the Church in the figure of this woman. The Church must not shine on her own light, but the light that comes from her Bridegroom. That comes right from her Bridegroom. And over the centuries, when the Church wanted to have her own light, she was wrong”.
“It’s true,” continued Pope Francis, “that sometimes the Lord can ask His Church to have, to shine some its own light” but this means that if the Church’s mission is to illuminate humanity, the light that she gifts must be the one she has received from Christ in an attitude of humility:
” Everything we do in the Church is to help us in this, to help us receive that light. Service without this light is no good: it makes the Church rich, or powerful, or makes the Church seek power, or take the wrong road, as has happened many times in history, as happens in our lives, when we want to have another light, which is not exactly that of the Lord: a light of our own “.
When the Church “is faithful to hope and to her Bridegroom,” repeated Papa Francis, “it is a joy to receive the light from Him, to be in this sense ‘widow’ ‘, waiting, like the moon, for the “sun that will return”:
” When the Church is humble, when the Church is poor, even when the Church confesses her wretchedness – we all experience this – then the Church is faithful. The Church says: ‘I am dark, but my light comes from there!’ This does us all good. Let us pray to this widow who is certainly in Heaven, to teach us to be the Church like this, giving everything we have in life: leaving nothing for us. Everything for the Lord and for others. Humble. Without boasting of having our own light, always seeking the light that comes from the Lord”.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) On Sunday, 23 November 2014, the Holy Father named Cardinal Robert Sarah as Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. Cardinal Sarah has been serving as President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum.
Cardinal Robert Sarah, President of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”, Archbishop emeritus of Conakry (Guinea), was born on 15 June 1945 in Ourous, Guinea. After middle school, he was obliged to leave home in order to continue his studies at the minor seminary in Bingerville, Ivory Coast. Following Guinea’s independence in 1958, he returned home and completed his studies.
He was ordained priest on 20 July 1969 in Conakry.
After his ordination, he earned a licentiate in theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a licentiate in Scripture at the “Studium Biblicum Franciscanum” in Jerusalem.
Upon completion of his studies, he was nominated rector of the minor seminary of Kindia, and served as parish priest in Bokè, Katace, Koundara and Ourous.
On 13 August 1979, he was appointed Archbishop of Conakry at the age of 34, making him the youngest bishop in the world and called “the baby bishop” by John Paul II. He was consecrated on 8 December 1979.
On 1 October 2001, he was appointed secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
On 7 October 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum”.
Created and proclaimed Cardinal by Benedict XVI in the consistory of 20 November 2010, of the Deaconry of San Giovanni Bosco in Via Tuscolana (Saint John Bosco in Via Tuscolana).
(from Vatican Radio)…