After some badly timed computer issues, I’m back on the blog. Hopefully it won’t be indicative of the rest of the year!
Closing the year off on a high of 7,723 views in December (the highest number since June), here’s an overview of the ten best-viewed blog posts of that month:
This Christmas’ Urbi et Orbi message to city and world has a very fitting, if totally unplanned link with the overriding theme of this blog in the week leading up to Christmas. From the last O antiphon, Pope Benedict XVI takes the call Veni ad salvandum nos! to underline our innate need for help in overcoming the difficulties and dangers of our lives.
Heralding in the new year, as his Christmas message to the Roman Curia looked back on the year past, the Holy Father calls our attention to the Child of Bethlehem as our Saviour, the one who “was sent by God the Father to save us above all from the evil deeply rooted in man and in history: the evil of separation from God, the prideful presumption of being self-sufficient, of trying to compete with God and to take his place, to decide what is good and evil, to be the master of life and death (cf. Gen 3:1-7). This is the great evil, the great sin, from which we human beings cannot save ourselves unless we rely on God’s help, unless we cry out to him: “Veni ad salvandum nos! – Come to save us!””
From the pain of the Cross, a space of a few days brings us to the exultation of the Resurrection. Christ has risen!
“Easter morning brings us news that is ancient yet ever new: Christ is risen! The echo of this event, which issued forth from Jerusalem twenty centuries ago, continues to resound in the Church, deep in whose heart lives the vibrant faith of Mary, Mother of Jesus, the faith of Mary Magdalene and the other women who first discovered the empty tomb, and the faith of Peter and the other Apostles.”
Pope Benedict XVI, Urbi et Orbi message for Easter 2011
Both Anna Arco and Father John Boyle write that Church attendance seems to have been up this Easter. I can certainly say the same when I look back at the Easter Vigil here in Groningen. The number of baptisms and confirmations was at a steady nine this year (although Pentecost will see some more, especially confirmations), but the cathedral especially was well filled. Some people stayed at home because of the rain, but they made up for it by making Mass on the Sunday morning well-attended.
Of course, this year Easter has been overshadowed by the crisis the Church finds herself in, a fact not ignored in the various homilies I heard. I am happy to see, though, that the media does not always succeed in its attacks on the Church or the pope (at least those that try). The letter composed by Eric van den Berg and Frank Bosman has reached over 1,000 signatures now, local parishioners interviewed outside the cathedral remained supportive of the pope and the Church, a short article in a local newspaper echoed the same, and last night Fr. Antoine Bodar offered a well-spoken defence of the pope on television.
Of course, some media got in a huff about the fact that the pope did not mention or apologise for the abuse during his Urbi et Orbi speech. Apparently, some believe that the pope must make renewed apologies at every public appearance. But at the same time they refuse to acknowledge the apologies he and others already have made. It’s a no-win situation and one best not given too much attention.
It’s a crazy Easter, but one that is not even close to being overwhelmed. The resurrection of Christ, His defeat of death, continues to shine brightly in our lives even if, as my bishop said, the Cross of Good Friday is still firmly present in the Church and in our hearts.
Below are a few more impressions of the Easter Vigil at St. Joseph’s cathedral in Groningen.
Darkness in the cathedralA fire burns brightlyThe lights in the sanctuary slowly come on as Fr. Wagenaar incenses the paschal candleThe credence tableThe twelve consecration crosses are also illuminatedThe elevation of the Blood of Christ
This Christmas’ 
In Caelo et in Terra 