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THE DOMINICAN O.P. FAMILY GRAPEVINE -
"I am the vine, you are the branches, says the Lord."
"Laborers in the vineyard are few....pray for more laborers
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SEMPER FIDILES "IF TODAY YOU HEAR HIS VOICE HARDEN NOT YOUR HEART...."
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VATICAN DOSSIER
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POPE GIVES ICON OF KAZAN TO DELEGATION FOR ITS RETURN TO RUSSIA
Image of Mother of God Is Going Back to Orthodox
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II handed over the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan to a Vatican delegation that will take it to the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow this Saturday.
A Liturgy of the Word, presided over by the Pope in Paul VI Hall, marked a solemn farewell and act of veneration of the icon, which had been kept in the Papal Apartment. Today's event drew 7,000 people.
The icon, considered the most venerated by Russian Orthodox faithful, was taken out of their country in the 1920s.
After long stays in various places, the image was recovered by a Catholic group. The icon was kept in the Chapel of Fatima, in Portugal, until about 10 years ago, when a group gave it to John Paul II.
While the choir of the Pontifical Russian College in Rome sang the Marian litany, the icon, covered in a golden mantle, was carried in procession by a deacon through the central aisle of Paul VI Hall. As it passed by, the faithful were able to touch the venerated image of the Virgin.
John Paul II wore a red cape and looked well. In a clear voice, he asked Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, to return the icon "to our brother Patriarch Alexy II, and through him to the holy Russian Orthodox Church and all the Russian people."
The Pope composed a prayer to the Mother of God of Kazan, read in Russian, in which he implored the Virgin to "return in the midst of brothers and sisters of holy Russia as a messenger of communion and peace."
During the homily, delivered before taking leave of the icon, the Bishop of Rome said that "from the beginning, I have desired that this holy icon return to the soil of Russia."
For over 10 years, "it has been by my side and accompanied me with a maternal gaze in my daily service to the Church," he added.
"How many times, since that day, have I invoked the Mother of God of Kazan, asking her to protect and guide the Russian people who are devoted to her, and to hasten the time in which all the disciples of her Son, recognizing themselves brothers, will be able to restore in full the lost unity," the Pope concluded.
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TRIPLE MESSAGE LINKED TO RETURN OF ICON
Pope Hopes It Shows His Affection for Orthodox Church
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- When handing the icon of Kazan to a Moscow-bound Vatican delegation, John Paul II said he hopes it will convey three messages to Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II.
The first is that the Pope feels great affection for the patriarch and the Russian Orthodox Church.
The second is that he has great esteem for Russian spirituality. Third is his desire and intention is to continue on the path of unity between Catholics and Orthodox.
"May this ancient image of the Mother of the Lord express to His Holiness Alexy II and the venerated Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church the affection of the Successor of Peter for them and for all the faithful entrusted to them," the Pontiff said during a homily at the Liturgy of the Word celebrated in Paul VI Hall today.
"May it express his [the Pope's] esteem for the great spiritual tradition of which the holy Russian Church is custodian," he added.
"May it express the desire and firm intention of the Pope of Rome to progress together with them on the path of reciprocal knowledge and reconciliation, to hasten the day of that full unity of believers for which the Lord Jesus ardently prayed," the Holy Father said.
John Paul II also paid homage to the Christian witness that took place in Russia during the last millennium.
"Russia has been a Christian nation for so many centuries, it is Holy Rus," he said. "Even when adverse forces were ferociously against the Church and tried to remove from the life of men the holy name of God, that people remained profoundly Christian, witnessing in so many cases with blood their fidelity to the Gospel and to the values it inspires."
The Pope thanked Divine Providence "which allows me to send to the venerated patriarch of Moscow and All Russia the gift of this holy icon."
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JOHN PAUL II COMPOSES A FAREWELL PRAYER FOR ICON
Sees in It an Image of East-West Unity
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II composed a farewell prayer to the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, entrusting to the Blessed Virgin the recovery of the lost unity among Christians.
"Mother of the Orthodox people, the presence in Rome of your holy image of Kazan, speaks to us of a profound unity between East and West, which endures in time despite the historical divisions and the errors of men," the Pope said.
The Holy Father wrote this prayer especially for today's ceremony before 7,000 people in Paul VI Hall, where he entrusted the icon to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. The cardinal is responsible for delivering the icon to Russian Patriarch Alexy II this Saturday in Moscow.
The prayer was sung in Russian by the choir of the Pontifical Russian College of Rome, the Russicum. The faithful were able to read it in Russian and Italian, using a guide published by the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.
The "Bishop of Rome unites himself spiritually to his brother in the episcopal ministry, who presides as patriarch over the Russian Orthodox Church," the prayer said.
It asked Mary to intercede so as "to hasten the time of full unity between the East and West, of full communion among all Christians."
When greeting pilgrims in several languages, John Paul II said to the Poles that "this gift we make on the vigil of the solemnity of the Most Holy Virgin of Czestochowa has a special eloquence: It becomes a sign of the faith and piety that unite the traditions of East and West in love of the 'Theotokos,'" the Mother of God.
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VARIED PAPAL DELEGATION HEADED TO MOSCOW
Includes U.S. Cardinal McCarrick
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The members of the Vatican delegation that will take the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan to Moscow are from a variety of institutions and Church groups.
The delegation is headed by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
The members include Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington. According to the Italian newspaper Avvenire, his presence is due to the importance of the American Catholics of his archdiocese in recovering the sacred image from the auction market.
After purchasing the icon and keeping it in Fatima, Portugal, the Blue Army, a Marian group, gave it to the Pope more than a decade ago, so that he could return it to the Russian Orthodox Patriarchate.
Other members of the delegation include Bishops Brian Farrell and Renato Boccardo, secretaries, respectively, of the pontifical councils for Promoting Christian Unity and for Social Communications. The latter is also responsible for preparing papal trips. Joaqu�n Navarro Valls, director of the Vatican press office, is also in the delegation.
Other papal legates include Father Jozef Maj, a member of the Council for Promoting Christian Unity; Father Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Italian Monastery of Bose; and Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Community of Sant'Egidio.
Father Bianchi and Riccardi are taking an active part in promoting fraternal relations between Catholics and Russian Orthodox.
Upon the delegation's arrival in Moscow, it will be joined by Archbishop Antonio Mennini, the Holy See's representative before the Russian Federation, and Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, president of the Catholic bishops' conference of Russia.
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DOCUMENTS
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PAPAL HOMILY AT CELEBRATION OF THE WORD FOR ICON OF KAZAN
"To Hasten the Day of That Full Unity of Believers"
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is a translation of the homily John Paul II delivered today during the celebration of the Word, over which he presided in Paul VI Hall, when handing over the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan to the papal representative who will take it to Moscow.
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Dear Brothers and Sisters,
1. As I announced last Sunday, our traditional weekly meeting assumes today a particular form. We find ourselves, in fact, gathered in prayer around the venerated icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, which is about to undertake the return journey to Russia, which it left years ago.
After having journeyed through different countries and stayed a long time in the Shrine of Fatima, in Portugal, more than 10 years ago it arrived providentially in the Pope's residence. Since then, it has been by my side me and accompanied me with a maternal gaze in my daily service to the Church.
How many times, since that day, have I invoked the Mother of God of Kazan, asking her to protect and guide the Russian people who are devoted to her, and to hasten the time in which all the disciples of her Son, recognizing themselves brothers, will be able to restore in full the lost unity.
2. From the beginning, I have desired that this holy icon return to the soil of Russia, where -- according to reliable historical testimonies -- it was for very many years the object of profound veneration by whole generations of faithful. The history of that great people has developed around the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.
Russia has been a Christian nation for so many centuries, it is Holy Rus. Even when adverse forces were ferociously against the Church and tried to remove from the life of men the holy name of God, that people remained profoundly Christian, witnessing in so many cases with blood their fidelity to the Gospel and to the values that it inspires.
It is, therefore, with particular emotion that I give thanks with you to Divine Providence, which allows me to send to the venerated patriarch of Moscow and All Russia the gift of this holy icon.
3. May this ancient image of the Mother of the Lord express to His Holiness Alexy II and the venerated Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church the affection of the Successor of Peter for them and for all the faithful entrusted to them. May it express his esteem for the great spiritual tradition of which the Holy Russian Church is custodian. May it express the desire and firm intention of the Pope of Rome to progress together with them on the path of reciprocal knowledge and reconciliation, to hasten the day of that full unity of believers for which the Lord Jesus ardently prayed (see John 17:20-22).
Dear Brothers and Sisters, join me in invoking the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, while I hand over her icon to the delegation that, in my name, will take it to Moscow.
[Translation by ZENIT]
At the end of the celebration of the Word, the general audience took place, during which the Pope greeted pilgrims in various languages. In English, he said:
I am pleased to greet the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors present, especially those from England, Ireland, Japan and the United States. My special greetings and thanks go to the young altar servers from Malta and their families. Upon all of you I invoke God's blessings of joy and peace.
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JOHN PAUL II'S PRAYER BEFORE THE ICON OF KAZAN
"Along the Road That Takes You Back to Holy Russia"
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 25, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Here is the prayer John Paul II composed for the celebration of the Word, before the return this week of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan to the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow, Alexy II. The prayer was read in Russian.
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Glorious Mother of Jesus, who "go before the people of God on the paths of faith, love and union with Christ" (see "Lumen Gentium," 63), blessed be you! All generations call you blessed, "for he who is mighty has done great things in you, and holy is his name" (see Luke 1:48-49).
Be blessed and honored, O Mother, in your icon of Kazan, in which for centuries you have been surrounded by the veneration and love of the Orthodox faithful, having become the protectress and witness of the particular works of God in the history of the Russian people, very dear to us all.
Divine Providence, which has the strength to overcome evil and to draw good even from the evil works of men, has made your holy icon, disappeared in distant times, reappear in the Shrine of Fatima, in Portugal. Subsequently, by the will of persons devoted to you, it was kept in the house of the Successor of Peter.
Mother of the Orthodox people, the presence in Rome of your holy image of Kazan, speaks to us of a profound unity between East and West, which endures in time despite the historical divisions and the errors of men. We now raise our prayer to you with special intensity, O Virgin, while we take leave of this moving image. We will accompany you with our hearts along the road that takes you back to holy Russia.
Receive the praise and honor rendered to you by the people of God in Rome.
O blessed among all women, venerating your icon in this city marked by the blood of the Apostles Peter and Paul, the Bishop of Rome unites himself spiritually to his brother in the episcopal ministry, who presides as patriarch over the Russian Orthodox Church. And he asks you, Holy Mother, to intercede so as to hasten the time of full unity between the East and West, of full communion among all Christians.
O glorious Virgin, Our Lady, Advocate, and Consoler, reconcile us with your Son, commend us to your Son, present us to your Son! Amen.
[Translation by ZENIT]
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ICON TO BE VENERATED BEFORE LEAVING VATICAN
Celebrations Planned for Image of Virgin of Kazan
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 23, 2004 (Zenit.org).- The Holy See posted the times when the faithful may venerate the icon of the Virgin of Kazan, before John Paul II returns it to the Russian people this week.
In his Angelus address Sunday, the Pope announced the "happy" returning of this icon so loved by him.
The Holy Father also said that at the general audience this week, "we will recollect ourselves together with the faithful, to pray before this icon," one of the most venerated images by the Russian Orthodox.
At 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Pope will preside at the Celebration of the Word for the veneration and return of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan.
John Paul II will give the image to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, who will head the Holy See's delegation that will return the icon to Moscow.
By decision of the Pope, the icon will be given to Patriarch Alexy II and, through him, to the Russian Orthodox Church and all the Russian people, according to the Holy See's Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.
The celebrations also include the veneration of the icon by the faithful in St. Peter's Basilica on Thursday. At 9 a.m., Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, substitute of the Secretariat of State, will preside at lauds, while at 5 p.m. Cardinal Kasper will preside at a Mass.
Cardinal Kasper will return the icon to the Russian patriarch on Saturday, the day that the Orthodox Church celebrates the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.
The Holy Father "hopes that this Roman pilgrimage of the Virgin of Kazan might contribute to the desired unity between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches," Vatican spokesman Joaqu�n Navarro Valls explained on July 11.
Russian experts quoted by the Italian newspaper Avvenire said that the image that is returning to Moscow is likely the most significant copy among those in existence, after the destruction by thieves of the original in 1904.
The same experts believe it is the copy Czar Peter the Great commissioned in the 18th century for the cathedral in St. Petersburg. The icon was taken out of Russia in 1917.
It reappeared in the United States in the 1970s, where it was sold at international auctions. Eventually it was purchased by the Blue Army, a Catholic organization of devotion to the Virgin of Fatima, which gave the icon to the Pope in 1993.
Since then, John Paul II has kept the icon in the chapel of his apartment, waiting for the chance to meet with Patriarch Alexy II to return it to him because, as head of the Russian Orthodox Church, he considers him the legitimate owner.
ZE04082302
AN ICON THE POPE HOPED TO DELIVER PERSONALLY; A HOST OF PROBLEMS
Papal Farewell to an Image Bound for Russia
By Delia Gallagher
ROME, AUG. 26, 2004 (Zenit.org).- This was not the way it was supposed to happen. John Paul II had a different plan in mind for the return of the Icon of Kazan to Russia-he wanted to deliver it personally to Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II, as a sign of rapprochement between the two Churches divided since 1054.
Instead, on Wednesday the Pope said goodbye to the icon, at the Vatican, during an incense-filled Liturgy of the Word celebration in Paul VI Hall.
By handing the icon over to two emissaries, Cardinals Walter Kasper and Theodore McCarrick, who will take it to Russia, the Holy Father has once again shown the world an example of humility in accepting that the most cherished of man's plans are not always God's plans.
"How many times have I prayed to the Mother of God of Kazan," said John Paul II on Wednesday of the icon which has hung over his desk in the papal apartments for the past 10 years, "asking her to protect and guide the Russian people and to precipitate the moment in which all the disciples of her Son, recognizing themselves as brothers, will know how to reconstruct in fullness their compromised unity."
The icon of Kazan, a jewel-encrusted image of the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus, is considered the protectress of Russia and was the "carrot" in negotiations by the Vatican for a much-desired papal trip to that country.
Despite repeated Vatican efforts to arrange a meeting with Patriarch Alexy II, an invitation from the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Pope never came.
In 2003, Alexy II told President Vladimir Putin that the icon at the Vatican "is one of the numerous copies but not the miracle-making icon that disappeared in the early 20th century, so there is no need for the Pontiff to deliver it himself."
Though he will not deliver himself, the Pope's generous gesture may yet have a positive effect on Orthodox-Catholic relations.
"Doubtlessly the return of the Orthodox icon to fatherland is a fair good-will act of the Vatican," a spokesman for the Moscow Patriarchate, Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, told Russian news agency Itar-Tass.
The date and exact provenance of the icon at the Vatican has been disputed.
According to tradition, the original icon was found on July 8, 1579, by a young Russian girl who was told by the Virgin Mary in a dream that the icon was lying under the ashes of a burnt-out building.
Copies of this icon were made in the early 16th and 17th centuries, and in 2003, a joint Russian-Vatican commission established that the icon of Kazan held in the Vatican is a late 17th- or early 18th-century work.
Although it is not the "original," the value of this icon lies also in its mysterious history -- it has traveled the world, from Russia to England, to San Francisco, New York and Fatima before "providentially," as the Pope said, ending up in the Vatican.
In 1904, one of the most venerated copies of the icon was stolen from the cathedral of Kazan in St. Petersburg and, according to expert Marguerite Peeters, the Vatican's icon could well be this one.
How the Icon got out of Russia is unknown. But it appeared at an auction in Poland after World War I and again in the 1950s at an English castle. The Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Leonty, who was living in exile in Paris, traveled to England to see the icon and declared it the original Icon of Kazan.
The icon then made another mysterious trip to the United States, probably sold after the death of the Englishman, though to whom is unknown. It was exhibited at the World's Fair in New York in 1964-65, and in the 1970s an American organization, the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima, raised the money to buy the icon.
The Blue Army entrusted the icon to Fatima where John Paul II venerated it in the Byzantine Chapel there on his first visit, May 13, 1982, exactly one year after the attempt on his life.
In 1993, the Blue Army gave the icon to the Pope, to be kept in his papal apartments until it could be restored to the Russian people.
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RUSSIAN CATHOLICS ASK FOR OPPORTUNITY TO ADORE ICON OF KAZAN
ROME, AUG. 26, 2004 (Zenit.org).- A group of parishioners of Moscow's Immaculate Conception Catholic Cathedral asked Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz if they could pray before the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan, before it is returned to the Orthodox patriarch of Moscow.
"It would be a great joy for us to be able to pray before a gift of the Pope, even if for a short time," one of the faithful said to AsiaNews.
On Saturday, Aug. 28, a Vatican delegation led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will hand the icon to Patriarch Alexy II as a gift of John Paul II to the Orthodox Church.
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VATICAN DOSSIER
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CARDINAL KASPER COMMENDS UNITY OF CATHOLIC AND ORTHODOX TO VIRGIN OF KAZAN
Celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica before Taking Icon to Moscow
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 27, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, commended to the "powerful intercession of the Virgin of Kazan" the "important ecumenical event" represented by the return of the venerated icon to Patriarch Alexy II, as a gift of John Paul II to the Russian Orthodox Church.
Cardinal Kasper headed the delegation that left for Moscow on Friday. The image will be taken to the Kremlin's Church of the Dormition on Saturday, Aug. 28.
Over the last few years the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan has been kept in the papal apartment. Before the icon left the Vatican, the faithful were able to pray before it during a Mass on Thursday afternoon in the Vatican Basilica, at which Cardinal Kasper presided.
In the course of its journeying, which at the beginning of the last century took the icon to the other side of the Iron Curtain, the image of the Mother of God of Kazan has become a "point of reference for Orthodox and Catholics," the cardinal said during the homily.
"The Virgin has preceded us on the path of our ecumenical endeavor, has anticipated our path by gathering the two divided parts of Christianity in prayer," he added, as reported by Vatican Radio.
Inviting all the faithful to support the Vatican delegation's visit to Moscow with prayer, Cardinal Kasper said that "we ardently hope that this venerated icon, point of reference in the past for the Orthodox Church, will also be in the future a pivot of cohesion and unity for the Orthodox and Catholic faithful who petition for full unity in their prayers."
"I am convinced that, thanks to her powerful intercession, the Virgin of Kazan will be our support and our ally in our determination to surmount the reservations, difficulties, misunderstandings, and differences of faith that, sadly, still exist between us," the cardinal stressed.
"Thanks to her intercession before the throne of God, she will bring together perfectly the Catholic Church and the Russian Orthodox Church in the one Church of Christ," said the president of the dicastery, emphasizing that the return "of the icon to Patriarch Alexy II constitutes an important ecumenical event."
But for the cardinal, the icon "is also the symbol of the new Europe and of the process of the unification of the continent, to which Russia belongs culturally and religiously."
In fact, after the "two terrible wars" and "totalitarian and atheist" dictatorships of the 20th century, and "in face of the prevailing phenomenon of secularism, Europe is in need of a profound renewal in the faith," he explained.
In this connection, "the Virgin represents all the values that such a renewal implies: the dignity of the human person, the sacredness of life, the safeguarding of marriage and the family, the values of law and justice as pillars of peace. Life and the unity of the community of European peoples will be able to have stability only if they are founded on these values," he said.
In fact, the return of the icon "is a gesture that manifests the affection of the successor of Peter for the Patriarch and the synod of the Orthodox Church and the Russian people," said, Archbishop Leonardo Sandri, of the Vatican Secretariat of State when presiding on Thursday at lauds in honor of the Virgin Mary, before the image of the Mother of God of Kazan in the Vatican Basilica.
The gesture also expresses "the desire and firm intention of the Pope of Rome to advance together" with the Russian Orthodox "on the path of reciprocal knowledge and reconciliation so that the full unity of the disciples of Christ will be realized as soon as possible," added the prelate, whose words were reported on Friday by L'Osservatore Romano.
"Mary always exercises an amazing fascination and attracts to herself pilgrims and faithful from all over the world. To her the Christian people, in the East and West, take recourse in every circumstance, especially in the most difficult."
Thousands of pilgrims had the opportunity on Wednesday to take leave of the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan at a solemn ceremony of farewell and veneration during the Liturgy of the Word, presided over by John Paul II in the Vatican's Paul VI auditorium.
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<<<< + >>>>Mary's command, "Do whatever He tells you."(Jn2:5)
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* "GO OUT TO ALL THE WORLD, AND TELL THE GOOD NEWS." (Mk 16:15)
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Mrs. Gail A. Waterman, O.P., Editor
The Dominican Family G.E.M./Grapevine ** Mother
of God Chapter, West Springfield, MA 01089
** St. Joseph Province,U.S.A.
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*** To Praise *** + *** To Bless *** + *** To Preach ***
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THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, RESURRECTED FROM
THE DEAD AND REDEEMED HUMANITY!
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