Three names to watch: Re, Scola, Baldelli

From left to right:

Giovanni Battista Cardinal Re  Currently: Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (since 2000).  Watch for: A possible move outside of Rome, possibly to Genoa.  His star soared under Cardinal Sodano's patronage:  They arrived at the Secretariat of State around the same time, and Re served as Sostituto for General Affairs under Sodano in the 1990s. But Cardinal Sodano's stock fell hard when Pope Benedict XVI was elected, and though he's fighting hard to keep his job, Cardinal Re might yet become a casualty as well.

Angelo Cardinal Scola  Currently: 64-year-old Patriarch of Venice.  Cardinal Scola is one of the Church's bright stars, but Venice hasn't been the best match for his talents.  He's incredibly smart, but he often talks over the heads of the faithful. And his every-minute-of-the-day work ethic has caused him a great deal of stress in his current pastoral role.  Watch for: Two possibilities:  (1) A new job as Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, in which case Cardinal Grocholewski could move to replace 76-year-old Cardinal Glemp in Warsaw.  Cardinal Scola has a strong academic background and was previously Rector of the Lateran Pontifical University, so he is considered a good candidate to supervise seminaries, universities and the like.  The second possibility is (2) an assignment to replace Cardinal Re (see above) at the Congregation for Bishops.   

Archbishop Fortunato Baldelli  Currently: 70-year-old Apostolic Nuncio to France.  Watch for:  A greater role in the Secretariat of State, possibly even replacing Archbishop Lajolo as the Holy See's Foreign Minister.  This would be interesting, because Archbishop Baldelli has been described by observers as highly capable and "manifestly holy", which is always nice to have (and often too hard to find) in ecclesiastical appointments.

A new litmus test for Medjugorje

For 25 years, most Catholics have been left wondering about the possible Marian apparitions in Medjugorje, looking for something that might confirm or deny the authenticity of the visions there.

There have been good fruits in Medjugorje, such as possible healings, an apparent increase in conversions and renewed attention to prayer and the sacraments.  But there have also been numerous bad fruits -- including the following situation, described last weekend by the local ordinary, Bishop Ratko Peric:

[I]n this local Church of Mostar-Duvno, there exists something similar to a schism. A number of priests that have been expelled from the Franciscan OFM Order by the Generalate of the Order, due to their disobedience to the Holy Father, for years now have been forcefully keeping a few parish churches and rectories along with church inventory. They have not only been illegally active in these parishes, but they have also administered the sacraments profanely, while others invalidly, such as Confession and Confirmation, or they have assisted at invalid marriages.

This type of anti-ecclesial behaviour is shocking to all of us. At the same time, this scandal of sacrilegiously administering the sacraments, especially of the Most Holy Body of Christ, must shock all the faithful as well who invalidly confess their sins to these priests and participate in sacrilegious liturgies. We pray to the Lord that this scandal and schism be uprooted as soon as possible from our midst.

Fortunately, Bishop Peric has just given us all a way to judge for ourselves:

Therefore I responsibly call upon those who claim themselves to be "seers", as well as those persons behind the "messages", to demonstrate ecclesiastical obedience and to cease with these public manifestations and messages in this parish. In this fashion they shall show their necessary adherence to the Church, by neither placing private "apparitions" nor private sayings before the official position of the Church.

It's a simple litmus test in the Church, confirmed by centuries of practical experience:  if the apparitions are true, they'll stop now.

(Hat tip to Jimmy Akin.  The full text of Bishop Peric's homily can be found at http://te-deum.blogspot.com/2006/07/homily-of-bishop-ratko-peric-of.html.)

Feast of St. Maria Goretti

Today (July 6) is the Optional Memorial of St. Maria Goretti, who was murdered 104 years ago.

Her attacker was Alessandro Serenelli, a nineteen-year-old friend of the family.  Serenelli had become a regular user of pornography.  As it always does, the pornography had secretly poisoned his perception of every female he met -- including eleven-year-old Maria.  She tried to avoid his harrassment for several weeks, until July 5, 1902, when Serenelli finally got her alone.

Serenelli was big, but Maria was fierce, and she refused to stop screaming.  He tried desperately to gag her, but she kept saying, Do not touch me.  This is a sin. You will go to hell.  Furious at her refusal and panicked by her screams, Serenelli pulled out a nine-inch blade and stabbed her repeatedly before fleeing.

Maria lived long enough to receive Viaticum.  Before she did, she announced that "for the love of Jesus, I forgive Alessandro.  I want him to be with me in Paradise."

Serenelli was sentenced to thirty years in prison.  As a prisoner, he was worse than ever.  But in 1910, Maria appeared to him in a dream, offering him a gift of white lilies.  With the dream came the grace of conversion.  He served the remaining 22 years of his sentence as a model penitent, and upon his release, he went immediately to Maria's mother to beg her forgiveness and receive Holy Communion at her side.

Maria was canonized in 1950.  Her own mother was present at the canonization -- the only time in history that this has happened.  Also witnessing the event, as a testimony to God's mercy, was a humble old man named Alessandro Serenelli.