Sunday, May 14, 2000

Dear 'kiwicatholics',

A very happy day and all God's blessings to all mothers.

Mike Leon
'kiwicatholic' list manager
************************

CATHOLIC PRESS - WEL-COM
http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/cathcom/press/welcom/front.html

From this weekend's issue of the monthly diocesan newspaper for Wellington and Palmerston North we have a report of the Archdiocesan 150th Jubilee celebrations and Cardinal William's homily (which he didn't actually deliver, as he had the flu), plus lots of fine photos of the event. A video of the highlights; is already on sale.

The third item from Wel-com is 'Dangers for children surfing in cyberspace -and how to protect them', by Kate Mahoney, a freelance journalist and member of the Archdiocesan Family Commission. Photo of Kate, links to a number of 'safe surfing' Web sites.

NEWS OF THE GREAT JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2000 http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/cathcom/jubilee/news.html

At the top of the News page is a full set of links to reports and background material on last weekend's Day of Martyrs and Witnesses. In a unique ceremony, representative of the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant churches assembled in the Colosseum in Rome to honoured their 20th-Century martyrs and witnesses to the faith in all parts of the world, including medical missionaries and victims of communism, nazism and fascism.

WORLD CATHOLIC NEWS
http://www.catholic.org/newzealand/cathcom/news/frnews.html

One of the frustrations of trying to keep up with world Catholic news is that the main Catholic news sources close down over the weekend. For instance, over the historic first Easter of the new millennium, all Catholic news agencies went silent for four days, which in New Zealand means from Saturday to Tuesday. The secular press carried a certain amount of coverage but finding it can be a labour.

To help overcome this problem I have added another link to the already quite extensive set of links on the bishops' News page. 'NewsNow' is a free world news Internet service in the form of links to the Web sites of (mainly, but not exclusively) UK and US newspapers and the BBC. It is updated every five minutes, so if the secular media finds anything they deem worthy of reporting - and Pope John Paul is constantly in the headlines these days -you'll find a link to the latest reports via NewsNow's 'news of religion' section.

For example there are up-to-the-minute reports of Pope John Paul's visit to Fatima, taking place as I type, including the preliminary publication of "The Third Secret of Fatima", which (not to keep you in suspense) I've summarised below. The direct link is: http://www.newsnow.co.uk/cgi/NewsNow/NewsFeed.htm?Section=NewsLink&Theme=Rel igion

*****************
FATIMA, Portugal (Reuters) - The Vatican has said the "Third Secret of Fatima" included prophecies of the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul and persecution of Christians in the 20th century by communist regimes.

The Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said the third part of the secret -- the first two are already well known -- involved a vision of martyrdom and suffering, including a "bishop clothed in white" who "makes his way with great effort towards the Cross amid the corpses of those who were martyred. He too falls to the ground, apparently dead, under a burst of gunfire."

In order for the faithful to better receive the message of the Madonna, the Pope had ordered the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to "(make) public the third part of the secret, after the preparation of an appropriate commentary." Since the secret contained a "prophetic vision" similar to those in the Gospel and condensed events spread over time, it "must be interpreted in a symbolic key". There was no indication when the text and the commentary would be published.