Potpourri of Popery --Feast of the Archangels Edition

Call me nuts, but the Vatican's press release about Cardinal Lajolo's intervention at the UN yesterday seems like tough talk to me.

"the Holy See regards the promotion of human rights as one of the United Nations' primary forms of service to the world". In this context, he recalled the three most important fundamental rights: the right to life, the right to religious freedom and the right to freedom of thought and expression, "including freedom to hold opinions without interference and to exchange ideas and information and the consequent freedom of the press".
"We must acknowledge, however, that not all fundamental rights - and in particular the three which I have mentioned - are adequately protected in every nation, and, in not a few, they are openly denied, even among States sitting on the Human Rights Council", he continued.

Here's the entire text. It bears further study. In a certain sense it's a challenge to everyone's politics. I don't think you can read this, for example,

none of the outcomes that some governments put forward as a reason for the continuation of hostilities in Lebanon has in fact been achieved

as anything other than a rebuke to The U.S. On the other hand, I don't recall ever seeing a Vatican political document that spent so little time on the question of disparity between wealthy and poor nations and so much time on the causes of the disparity --on the part of the governments of poor nations, including members of the Human Rights Council. The thrust of the remarks is a response to terrorism. . . . Read it in tandem with Archbishop Tomasi's address on the role of the media (also given at the UN).

Here's the text of Wednesday's audience --B-16 returns to the apostles, with St. Thomas up (find the full text at Zenit). Everyone always remembers "doubting" Thomas, and the Holy Father addresses that, but I like the fact he also remembers Thomas as the one who said let's follow Christ to Jerusalem to die with him.

Christopher Hitchens' head must be spinning: his two favorite people met yesterday.

And you should read Card. Pell's address to the National Catholic Education Conference in Sydney. The press has carried it as a lament of how little the young 'uns know, but it is so much richer than that. (The link's not working all of a sudden; hope they'll fix it. UPDATE: They did.)

Finally: the Archangels. "El" meaning "God" in Hebrew, and thus: Michael --God's strength; Gabriel --God's voice; and Raphael --God's healing. I'm going to assume everyone knows the text of the Hail, Mary, which is Gabriel's greeting, and you probably even know "St. Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle..." Lesser known, but a favorite of mine, and said to be good for those looking for spouses, is the prayer to Raphael:

O Raphael, lead us towards those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us. Raphael, Angel of Happy Meetings, lead us by the hand towards those we are looking for.

May all our movements, all their movements, be guided by your Light and transfigured by your joy.

Angel guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of Him on whose unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired, crushed by the separations and sorrows of earth, we feel the need of calling to you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, that we may not be as strangers in the Province of Joy, all ignorant ofthe concerns of our country.

Remember the weak, you who are strong--you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder, in a land that is always peaceful, always serene, and bright with the resplendent glory of God.Amen.