Pilgrimage prayers promised, requested

By Mary DeTurris Poust

I leave tomorrow for Rome, flying out of New York City at about the same time Hurricane Earl is expected to arrive. I just want all of our OSV Daily Take readers to know that I will pray for you when I am at St. Peter's. If you have any special intentions, please leave them in the comment section or connect with me through Facebook by clicking HERE or Twitter by clicking HERE. I'll be checking and remembering prayer requests throughout my ten-day pilgrimage.

If you'd like to follow my Rome journal, head over to my personal blog at Not Strictly Spiritual.

And, if I could ask a small favor: Will you say a quick prayer for my safe travel? Grazie.

Can we forgive and forget in the digital age?

By Mary DeTurris Poust

We've all read the horror stories about people who've uploaded Facebook photos or blog posts that come back to haunt them when it's time for a job interview or political campaign. But what does that have to do with faith and forgiveness? Find out in my latest OSV story, which is up online with open access for all readers. I'll get you started here:

Is 'forgive and forget' possible in the digital age?

It’s a good thing Facebook wasn’t around when St. Augustine and St. Francis were young and carefree.

Known for their wayward youthful tendencies, these two might never have reached sainthood had they been “tagged” in an online photo album chronicling their hedonistic escapades (in the case of Augustine) or lavish feasts and bouts of drinking (in the case of Francis).

When Augustine and Francis turned their lives over to God, they were able to wipe the slate clean, rebuild their lives and reputations from the ground up. But, had they been alive today, we might be looking at a very different outcome.

Imagine Francis trying to start up his ministry to the poor and focus his life on prayer while the naysayers searched the Internet for proof that he couldn’t possibly change so dramatically. Or Augustine writing his “Confessions,” only to have throngs of angry online commenters parading out every mistake he’d every made and wagging their virtual fingers at him. Continue reading...

Pope meets with former students at Castel Gandolfo

By Mary DeTurris Poust

Pope Benedict XVI and about three dozen former students who did their doctoral dissertations under his direction when he was a professor will gather at Castel Gandolfo this week to discuss teachings of the Second Vatican Council and "the balance it tried to strike between reform and maintaining tradition," according to a story on the CNS blog.

Known as the “Ratzinger Schulerkreis” (Ratzinger Student Circle), the group has met annually since the late 1970s.

Two years ago I interviewed Jesuit Father Joseph Fessio, long-time friend and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, who talked about the annual meeting with great fondness and appreciation. He told me that the pope "believes very strongly" in keeping up close friendships with professors and former students.

"In fact, after he was made archbishop in 1977, he was no longer a professor and so his students, present and former, decided to form the Schulerkreis, the circle of students, an alumni group. There were about 50 of us all told. We spoke with him and we agreed that we would meet every year and we’d pick a theme and bring some speakers in and have Mass together and meals and recreation, and we did that. I wasn’t there every time, but we did that every year from around 1977-78 on. When he was elected pope in 2005, we were, of course, very excited, but we figured that’s the end of our Schulerkreis meetings. But he said no, he wanted to continue," Father Fessio told OSV.

He said the former students arrive on Thursday afternoon, have an internal meeting on Friday morning and then meet with the pope on Friday afternoon.

"Then Saturday morning we have Mass with him and another meeting and he has a beautiful lunch for us in the gardens at Castel Gandolfo. Then we have another meeting in the afternoon. Between lunch and the afternoon meeting, he will make time for those of his former students who have a specific issue they want to talk to him about personally or in a small group. On Sunday morning, we celebrate Mass with him again and after Mass he has his audience," he explained.

According to the CNS blog, Archbishop Kurt Koch, the former bishop of Basel, Switzerland, will be this year's speaker, focusing on “The Second Vatican Council Between Tradition and Innovation,” and another lecture on the council’s document on the liturgy and on the liturgical reforms it launched.

Read the CNS post HERE.

When in Rome...

By Mary De Turris Poust

A week from now I'll be boarding a plane to Rome for a week-long program called "The Church Up Close: Covering Catholicism in the Age of Benedict XVI," which is sponsored in part by Our Sunday Visitor. (Thanks, OSV, for the partial scholarship.) The program for foreign journalists covering the Catholic Church will include lectures and meetings with high-ranking Vatican officials, as well as visits to the can't-miss sights of any Roman pilgrimage -- St. Peter's, the Sistine Chapel, a papal audience, and even a visit to the Scavi, the difficult-to-get-into excavation site under St. Peter's.

Throughout my trip, I'll be keeping a Rome journal over at my personal blog, Not Strictly Spiritual. You'll find photos and observations there about matters of faith, food and fun, all part of any Roman holiday, as far as I'm concerned. I've already started some preview blogging today with a post on Roman food, which you can find HERE. Up tomorrow on NSS: churches on my "must see" list. Please check in daily. Right after you read OSV Daily Take, of course.

Watch. This. Now.

Take a few minutes to watch this video. Then share it with your kids. Then look at yourself in the mirror and be thankful for what you see, for who you are.