Catholic World News
March 7 2005
Cardinal Ratzinger to prepare Good Friday meditations
Vatican, Mar. 07 (CWNews.com) – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (bio –
news), the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
will prepare the meditations to be read during the Way of the Cross
in Rome’s Coliseum this year.
As the text for his meditations, Cardinal Ratzinger has chosen a
passage from the Gospel of St. John (12:24): “unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone~E”
Since 1985, Pope John Paul II (bio – news) has called upon various
leading religious figures to prepare meditations for the annual
event, or used text from famous Catholic thinkers. The Pope’s choices
have been widely varied. In 2001 he used meditations by Cardinal John
Henry Newman, the famous English convert. In 1999, he called upon the
Italian poet Mario Luzi. In 1986, it was the French journalist Andre
Frossard, and in 1989 the Polish writer Marek Skwarnicki. In 2002, in
a surprise gesture, he assigned the task to reporters accredited to
the Vatican press office.
Sometimes the Pope’s selections have conveyed an ecumenical message.
In 1994, the meditations were prepared by the Ecumenical Patriarch,
Bartholomew I of Constantinople. In 1994 he chose a Swiss Protestant
nun, Sister Minke de Vries. In 1997 it was the leader of the Armenian
Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin I. In 1998 he tapped the French
Orthodox theologian Olivier Clement. And in 2004 he chose the Belgian
Trappist Andre Louf.
Other selections have been Catholic leaders from regions torn by war:
Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo of Nicaragua in 1987; Jerusalem’s
Patriarch Michel Sabbah in 1990; Sarajevo’s Cardinal Vinko Puljic in
1996.
__________________________________
Celebrate Yahoo!’s 10th Birthday!
Yahoo! Netrospective: 100 Moments of the Web