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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named Bishop Daniel Miehm as the new Bishop of Peterborough, Canada. Bishop Miehm has been serving as an auxiliary Bishop in the Diocese of Hamilton.

BIOGRAPHY

Bishop Daniel Miehm was born in 1960 in Kitchener, Ontario. After studies at St. Jerome's College, University of Waterloo and St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto, he was ordained to the Priesthood on May 6, 1989, at the Cathedral of Christ the King in Hamilton. He was ordained Bishop at the Cathedral on May 7, 2013.

Bishop Miehm holds a Master's degree in Divinity from St. Augustine’s Seminary and a Licentiate in Canon Law from the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum) in Rome.

Bishop Miehm has served as a Priest in the Diocese of Hamilton since his ordination in 1989. During his ministry, he served as Associate Pastor at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Stoney Creek and the Cathedral of Christ the King in Hamilton and as Pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Hamilton and St. Ann Parish in Ancaster. During this time, Bishop Miehm has also served as a member and representative on various Councils in the Diocese. From 1996 to 2012, he served as Judge and Defender of the Bond on the Toronto Regional Marriage Tribunal.

In June 2012, he was appointed Founding Pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Milton where he was serving at the time of his appointment as Auxiliary Bishop of Hamilton. Bishop Miehm is also Chaplain for the St. Thomas More Lawyers' Guild.

On 20 February 2013, he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Hamilton by Pope Benedict XVI.

In the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Ontario, Bishop Miehm serves on the Commission for Education; as well as Episcopal Liason for Canadian Catholic Campus Ministry.

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Vatican Weekend for March 11th, 2017 features the dramatic life story of a former refugee and now a doctor in Malawi who attended the Voices of Faith event in the Vatican, a Lenten reflection inspired by the biblical account of the Samaritan woman and her outcast status, a musical meditation that looks at the figures of two Popes by the name of John, plus a conversation all about Spiritual Exercises to coincide with Pope Francis’ annual Lenten Retreat. 

Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges: 

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(Vatican Radio) The Holy See Press Office has announced that Pope Francis has returned to the Vatican after having concluded the Spiritual Exercises.

On Friday morning, before leaving Arricia – where the retreat was taking place – the Holy Father celebrated Mass for Syria.

He also sent €100,000 to the poor of Aleppo, thanks to a contribution of the Roman Curia. The donation will be made by the Office of Papal Charities, the Elemosineria Apostolica (Apostolic Almoner).

On Friday evening, Pope Francis is set to travel to the Vicariate of Rome where he will meet with the prefects of the Diocese. The meeting, a normal part of the life of the local Church, will be strictly private. 

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Vatican Weekend for March 12th, 2017 features a report examining the highlights and the impact of Pope Francis’ papacy on the 4th anniversary of his election, plus our weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel reading, “There’s more in the Sunday Gospel than Meets the Eye.”

Listen to this program produced and presented by Susy Hodges: 

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(Vatican Radio) The preacher of the Pontifical Household, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa gave the first Lenten sermon on Friday for Pope Francis and other Vatican officials gathered in the town of Ariccia for their annual Lent retreat.

The Capuchin friar will be giving another four reflections for the Pope and members of the Pontifical Household on the Fridays leading up to Holy Week. This year the theme of these Lenten homilies is the work of the Holy Spirit, based on the biblical verse from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, verse 3:  ‘No-one can say “Jesus is Lord”, except by the Holy Spirit.’

In an interview with the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, Fr Cantalamessa explains the two reasons why he wanted to focus on the Holy Spirit for both Lent and for last year’s season of Advent.

Listen to Philippa Hitchen’s report: 

Firstly, Fr Cantalamessa says, he chose this subject because the real novelty of the post Vatican II period is a clearer understanding of the role of the Spirit in the life and theology of the Catholic Church. Secondly, he says 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, which has spread to include millions of people all over the globe. Pope Francis, he notes, will be celebrating the anniversary, with a particularly ecumenical focus, around the feast of Pentecost this year.

The first two sermons, Fr Cantalamessa continues, explore the question of who Christ is, not just as a historical figure, but who He is for me and for the world today. The mystery of Christ’s death and Resurrection, he says, is the most important question for Christians today and will be at the heart of these reflections in light of our rediscovery of the role of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit, Fr Cantalamessa insists, is not merely an abstraction or idea, but a living reality, represented in Scripture by the symbols of wind, fire, water, fragrance or a dove. In our technologically driven era, we try and teach a computer to think, yet no-one has conceived of a computer which is able to love. The Holy Spirit, he concludes, is the purest source of all love and is the only thing which can bring humanity’s parched soul back to life again.

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Rome, Italy, Mar 10, 2017 / 02:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Hundreds of musicians and pastors from around the world have signed a document urging parishes and publishers should take care to develop the Church’s rich musical traditions, not discard them.

They did so after outlining trends within the Church’s musical traditions in the past five decades that they deem harmful to the Church’s liturgical life and musical heritage.

The statement’s authors write that they “cannot avoid being concerned about the current situation of sacred music, which is nothing short of desperate, with abuses in the area of sacred music now almost the norm rather than the exception.”

The letter, entitled “Cantate Domino Canticum Novum”, or  “Sing a New Song Unto the Lord”, was signed by over 200 musicians, pastors, and musical scholars from around the globe, and published in six languages.

Its publication commemorates the 50th anniversary of the March 5, 1967 promulgation of Musicam sacram, a Vatican instruction on music in the liturgy. In their reflection on the “via dolorosa” of liturgical music in the past five decades, the musicians lay out the challenges facing liturgical music today – before offering some possible solutions.  

They highlight advice from Vatican II's constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which points to the Church’s musical tradition as a “treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art.”

“The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of inestimable value, greater even than that of any other art. The main reason for this pre-eminence is that, as sacred song united to the words, it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy,” the document continues, noting the link between a music’s holiness and its connection to the liturgy.

The document outlines several areas in which the preservation of the Church’s musical traditions has been ignored, or even, the authors state, opposed.

This break with the past makes any attempt to connect the Church to the future meaningless – because the context the tradition provides has been taken away. The letter’s authors liken this break to a “sort of spiritual Alzheimer’s,” that takes away not only musical and artistic memories, but theological and cultural ones, too.

In this regard, traditional elements of the liturgy such as the Mass propers and the Liturgy of the Hours have been overlooked. Meanwhile, secular music styles have had undue influence on the liturgy, and the commercial music industry has now reinforced these secular styles as the primary kind of music sold to parishes.

The letter warns that not only does the secularization damage the Church’s connection with the past and ability to grapple with the future, but it also “destabilizes the sense of adoration that is at the heart of the Christian faith” by effectively selling out to secular trends. By molding Church music to different secular trends, recent practices also endanger the Church’s ability to truly exalt and praise good cultural traditions, they note.  

“The secularism of popular musical styles has contributed to a desacralization of the liturgy, while the secularism of profit-based commercialism has reinforced the imposition of mediocre collections of music upon parishes,” the declaration states.

Instead of making culture, the “lack of commitment to tradition has put the Church and her liturgy on an uncertain and meandering path.”

The letter also pushed back against groups in the Church that have lobbied against repertoires that respect tradition and the guidelines set out by Vatican II, instead leaving “repertoires of new liturgical music of very low standards as regards both the text and the music.”

“If we desire that people look for Jesus, we need to prepare the house with the best that the Church can offer,” the letter said of this trend of deliberately sidelining chant and other traditional forms of liturgical music. “We will not invite people to our house, the Church, to give them a by-product of music and art, when they can find a much better pop music style outside the Church.”

Another contributing factor to the struggles facing liturgical music, they said, is clericalism, and some clerics' decisions to supersede the expert opinion of musicians and scholars of liturgical music in order to impose their own opinions.

Lastly, the authors of the letter pointed out that liturgical musicians and composers are undervalued, and often undercompensated for their efforts – which require education, expert skill, and years of training.  “If we pay florists and cooks who help at parishes, why does it seem so strange that those performing musical activities for the Church would have a right to fair compensation,” they ask.

The writers of the document point towards numerous ways of addressing these challenges. Their first suggestion is the reaffirmation of Vatican II’s support for Gregorian chant, other traditional chant forms, and modern sacred compositions that are inspired by the chant tradition, along with the reaffirmation of the pipe organ as the instrument of choice in the Church.

They also advocate for strong music education that focuses on traditional music for children, as well as for adult laity. They also ask that “the Church will continue to work against obvious and subtle forms of clericalism, so that laity can make their full contribution in areas where ordination is not a requirement.”

Lastly, they strongly encourage musical training of clergy and strong liturgical formation for liturgists. “Just as musicians need to understand the essentials of liturgical history and theology, so too must liturgists be educated in Gregorian chant, polyphony, and the entire musical tradition of the Church, so that they may discern between what is good and what is bad,” they write.

In addition, the authors encourage cathedrals and basilicas to hold at least one Mass a week in Latin in order to preserve the area’s link with the Church’s tradition, and for every parish to hold at least one fully-sung Mass a week.

Finally, the musical experts point out that many “Catholics think that what mainstream publishers offer is in line with the doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding liturgy and music, when it is frequently not so.”

They ask that publishers put aside profits and commercial incentives in order to emphasize and educate the Catholics in liturgical practices and doctrine.

Among the signers of the declaration are Bishop Rene Gracida, Emeritus Bishop of Corpus Christi; Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Auxiliary Bishop of Maria Santissima in Astana; Aurelio Porfiri, PhD cand., organist of Santa Maria dell'Orto in Rome; Abbot Philip Anderson of Clear Creek Abbey; and James MacMillan, composer.

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Vatican City, Mar 10, 2017 / 05:15 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After spending a week in Ariccia with members of the Curia for their annual Lenten spiritual exercises, Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Friday with words of gratitude and his own brief reflection.

Shortly before leaving the Casa Divin Maestro retreat house in Ariccia, the Pope voiced his gratitude to Franciscan priest Giulio Michelini, who led the meditations for the week, saying “I want to thank you for the good you have wished us to have and for the good you have done us.”

He thanked the friar first of all for his openness and for being “natural” during the preaching, sharing himself “without artifice.”

Francis also gave thanks for all of the work Michelini put into preparing the meditations. “It’s true, there is a mountain of things to meditate on,” he said, but noted that as St. Ignatius says in the Exercises, when one encounters feelings of consolation or desolation, you must “stop there” to meditate on it.

Surely everyone has found one or two things to deeply reflect on after hearing Fr. Michelini's meditations this week, the Pope continued, saying the rest “will serve for another time.”

“Sometimes, the simplest words are the ones that help us, or the more complicated ones: to everyone, the Lord gives the right word,” he said.

Concluding his remarks, the Pope voiced his hope and prayer Fr. Michelini can “continue to work for the Church, in the Church, in teaching, in so many things that the Church entrusts to you. But above all, I wish you to be a good friar.”

Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Friday with members of the Roman Curia at the conclusion of their March 5-10 Lenten spiritual exercises. He began the tradition of leaving the Vatican for the retreat after his election, choosing instead to spend it in Ariccia, just a short ways outside of Rome.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PopeFrancis?src=hash">#PopeFrancis</a> is back from Ariccia after a week of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/prayer?src=hash">#prayer</a> &amp; reflection for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/lent?src=hash">#lent</a> - welcome back <a href="https://twitter.com/Pontifex">@Pontifex</a>! <a href="https://t.co/L4kkuTkcIN">pic.twitter.com/L4kkuTkcIN</a></p>&mdash; Elise Harris (@eharris_it) <a href="https://twitter.com/eharris_it/status/840157590554255360">March 10, 2017</a></blockquote>
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According to a Vatican communique, after offering the final March 10 Mass for Syria, the Pope and members of the Curia left, arriving back at the Vatican just before 11:30a.m.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Pope Francis sent 100,000 euro to the poor in Aleppo, thanks to a contribution from the Roman Curia.

For this year's spiritual exercises, the Pope chose personally chose Fr. Michelini, a Franciscan of the Seraphic Province of the Friars Minor of Umbria, to do the preaching.

The meditations for each day were focused on the story of Christ's Passion as recounted in the Gospel of Matthew. Each day included two meditations, each on a different part of the story.

For example, reflecting on Jesus' silence in the face of his accusers, Fr. Michelini spoke about the different kinds of silence: the good kind, such as silence in prayer and the bad kind, which is remaining silent in the face of wrongdoing, because we are worried what others will think of us.

Reflecting on Christ’s passion, Fr. Michelini in one meditation said, “I wonder if I have the courage to go all the way to follow Jesus Christ, taking into account that this brings to bear the cross.” As Jesus said, “‘if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.’”

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