The CatholiCity Message

Volume VIII, Number 5 – June 29, 2004

We're writing this on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, which is fitting for our second item.

1. THE GOOD NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
CatholiCity.com continues to climb in search engine placement in no small part because of our Catholic Newswire service. There are two secrets to this success, and one shall be a secret no more, as we shall reveal it to you:

News has to be new. We do everything fast and reliably here, and that includes posting stories and commentaries you won't likely read anywhere else, and posting them often and on-time. We post morning news stories, before-lunch stories, before work-gets-out news, breaking news, and new opinion and commentary pieces every day, all day long.

This is why more and more folks consider us the best Catholic homepage–you are assured that every time you log on or take a little break from your day, you'll find something worth reading on Catholic Newswire. Don't hesitate to give us a try as your homepage. If you use Windows, you can do so with one click here:

http://www.catholicity.com/support/

One thing, though. You need to make us your homepage for at least four months. Here's why:

We promise that you will regularly have excellent conversations–enjoyable, edifying, solid, wonderful conversations–with your friends and relatives or co-workers because of something you read on the CatholiCity homepage. At least one good conversation a week. You'll experience this. It's really cool. So that is a corollary to the first secret. Our news is new, yes, but Catholic Newswire is really about enriching your daily interactions with the people you live with in a natural, wonderful, and graceful way through the sharing of ideas.

The second secret will remain a secret. (We want our competitors to keep reading the CatholiCity Message, do we not?)

2. WHEN NOT IN ROME
With the passing of Ronald Reagan, who, whether you liked him or not, was a singularly effective leader (we happen to have loved him), we recall that George Washington was our greatest president, and by certain standards, our only great president. Others were effective, others were "great" in some or many ways, but Washington was great and remains singularly magnificent because he was the first. He set a standard that can only be matched and cannot be exceeded. Which brings us to the popes.

We recently had a chance to take in the unique "Saint Peter and the Vatican: Legacy of the Popes Exhibit," which we highly recommend for your whole family, children included.

The exhibit contains over 390 works of art and historically significant documents ranging the entire 2000 year history of the papacy, some never before seen in public. After stays in Houston, Fort Lauderdale, and Cincinnati, the exhibit is on its final stop at the San Diego Museum of Art until September 6, 2004. The price of a ticket includes an intelligently-planned 90-minute walking circuit of twelve galleries, opening and closing films, plus a dumbed-down for-non-Catholics but helpful and necessary audio tour.

Particularly moving was a scale reproduction of the first Saint Peter's Basilica built during the time of Constantine, early century frescos, and a bronze casting of John Paul II's hand at the end of the exhibit on which you can place your own hand.

We were particularly pleased to view a portrait (tragically ignored in the audio tour) of Pope Saint Pius V, who died in 1572. He is best known for urging Catholics to pray the Rosary to vouchsafe the underdog victory for the good Guys over the Muslims at the Battle of Lepanto (which we Commemorate on the Feast of the Holy Rosary on October 7th). For over three centuries this man was the only pope to be canonized until the Pope Saint Pius X (1903-1914).

Not that the Church hasn't had a good run, overall, of good or holy men in the Chair of Peter in recent Centuries. But we could not help but be thankful that the papacy has gotten out of the nation running business while viewing the exhibit which features many of the now-extinct trappings of Pope-as-Head-of-Secular-State. Because of the sheer length of his papacy and ubiquitousness of his media presence, our generation is as acclimated to Pope John Paul II as we are to UPS delivery trucks on every other corner during the day.

Pius V reminds us that greatness is not necessarily equated with the mystery of canonizable sanctity, and that most of these guys spend time in purgatory like the rest of us, and that maybe, just maybe, the Holy Spirit might surprise us once again with a Pius X or a Saint Sixtus I when the Pete-Seat next becomes empty.

Saints are always a surprise. It's as likely we know one in our lives right now as we would have one in Peter's Chair.

The job description of an early pope included a brutal death–martrydom–which is, shall we say, a more efficient route to canonization. Saint Peter really was "great." He really was a saint. Unlike other popes, his writings are in the Bible, are regularly read at Mass, and above him there is no other. Have you read Peter lately? He's right to the point, as you would imagine a good businessman might be (he did run his own company, after all, in the fishing industry).

Crucifixion is humbling enough. Peter requested his own upside down to add Tobasco sauce to the humiliation, setting the example for saints and successors Cletus, Linus, Sixtus, Evaristus, Septimus and other good men whose real blood soaked the dirt roads, back alleys, and hills of Rome on a regular basis.

A few centuries between Pius V to Pius X, eh? Peter cut the lagtime down to a few years, effectively challenging his successors with a brave and shrewd "Top this." And he did so by obeying Jesus' command to be the least.

A major benefit of the exhibit is that the actual stuff–the thrones, the vestments, the portraits, the documents, the holy objects (including the relatively simple crucifix venerated by Pope Pius VII when he was jailed by Napoleon Bonaparte) give us a firm sense that the Church is not merely a part of history and an institution in the world, but was always and will always be an active *player* in history. Sure, it must be possible to attend an exhibit on Stonehenge somewhere, but the Druids haven't been active on the world stage lately. Peter is.

For some of us, San Diego is closer than Rome, and may be close to your own home or accessible during a west coast trip or vacation. For more information, go here:

http://www.sdmart.com/exhibition-vatican.html

JOKE OF THE MONTH
How many popes does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Answer: One
(Get it? There can't be more than one pope. Ho ho.)

QUOTE OF THE MONTH
"Nothing was conferred on the apostles apart from Peter, but several things were conferred upon Peter apart from the apostles."
Pope Leo XIII, Satis Cognitum

Let's end with a prayer, all 60,000 of us together. Let us keep in mind the soul of Ronald Reagan, as we pray this prayer to Our Lady for the pope:

Upon this Rock He will build His Church.
And the jaws of death shall not prevail against her.
O Mother of the Redeemer
Living Tabernacle of the Eucharist,
and Luminous Rose of Heaven,
with humble confidence we ask you
to bestow upon the Holy Father
all the graces and blessings
reserved for him by the Holy Trinity
from all eternity. Help his friends.
Convert his enemies. Saint Joseph,
pray for us. Amen.

Thank you. An early Happy 4th of July to one and all!

With Our Lady,

Your Friends at CatholiCity