Last week, I started a new feature in “God is in the Clouds“: “This Week in Church History.”
Here is a look at events which occurred this upcoming week in years past, as well as a glimpse at next week’s highlights:
Historic events that took place over dates in the upcoming week:
October 26, 2011:
Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport, Connecticut (the current Archbishop of Baltimore) called for the defense of “the American legacy of religious liberty” during a hearing before the Subcommittee on the Constitution of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee. The bishop was addressing Congress in his new role as head of the USCCB Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty.
Read an account of Bishop Lori’s day before Congress from the U.S. Bishops’ website:
The transcript of Bishop Lori’s full testimony before Congress can be read here.
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October 28 has great significance:
October 28, 1510:
The birth of St. Francis Borgia, SJ (1510-1572):
Francis Borgia was the fourth Duke of Gandía (Spain), a Spanish Jesuit priest, and the third Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He expanded the Jesuit order into the Americas and Asia.
Borgia was canonized on June 20, 1670 by Pope Clement X and his feast is celebrated on October 10.
He is the patron saint of Portugal, as well for protection against earthquakes.
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October 28, 1958: The election of Pope John XXIII:
On this date, Cardinal Angelo Guiseppe Roncalli (1881-1963), the Patriarch of Venice, was elected the 261st pope on the eleventh ballot of the 1958 conclave. The conclave that elected him took place from October 25 to 28, 1958, following the October 9 death of Pope Pius XII whose papacy lasted from 1939 to 1958.
On why he choose the name John:
“We choose John…a name sweet to Us because it is the name of Our father, dear to Us because it is the name of the humble parish church where We were baptized, the solemn name of numberless cathedrals scattered throughout the world, including Our own basilica…We love the name of John because it reminds Us of John the Baptist, precursor of our Lord…and the other John, the disciple and evangelist…Perhaps We can, taking the name of this first series of holy Popes, have something of his sanctity and strength of spirit, even—if God wills it—to the spilling of blood.”
–Excerpt from: Religion: “I Choose John…” from Time Magazine, November 10, 1958 edition.
Newly-elected Pope John XXIII extending his first papal blessing:
(Getty Image: Ullstein Bild)
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October 28, 1965:
2015 is the Golden Anniversary of “Nostra Aetate” (Latin for “In our time”):
This Vatican 2 document was promulgated on this date in 1965 by Pope Paul VI.
The document’s formal name is “DECLARATION ON THE RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO NON-CHRISTIAN RELIGIONS.” It was passed by a vote of of 2,221 to 88 by the assembled bishops at the Second Vatican Council and was one of the most influential documents issued by the Council Fathers, paving the way for much-improved relations between Jews and Catholics.
Read the full one-page document here.
50th Anniversary:
The Council of Centers for Jewish-Christian Relations has published “Resources for the 50th Anniversary of Nostra Aetate.”
(Photo: Courtesy of American Jewish Committee)
March 31, 1963: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (Polish-born American rabbi (1907-1972) meeting in New York with Cardinal Augustin Bea, SJ (1881-1968), who shepherded the process of Catholic reflection that led to Nostra Aetate. A leading biblical scholar and ecumenist, Cardinal Bea was the first president of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity from 1960 until his death in 1972.
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October 29, 1950:
65 years ago: Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Johannes Baptist Neuhäusler (1888-1973), the auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
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November 1:
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November 1, 1946:
Pope St. John Paul II was ordained to the priesthood by by Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha, the Archbishop of Kraków, just 12 days after becoming a deacon.
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Looking ahead:
November 2: The Solemnity of All Souls
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November 6, 1789:
Baltimore was made the first diocese in the United States on this date in 1789 with Fr. John Carroll, SJ as the first bishop.
Last year (2014) was the celebration of the 225th anniversary for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
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Do you have a special date that you would like me to include?
Be sure to email me: Pattimurphydohn@gmail.com.
God is good! All the time!