Gloria TV News on the Feast of Blessed John of Vercelli.

Pope Praising Wise Efforts of Patriarch

Vatican

Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message to the Greek-Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. He saluted him for “your wise efforts for the good of Orthodoxy and for the promotion of Christian values in many international contexts.” The Pope’s message to Bartholomew was hand-delivered on November 30 by Cardinal Kurt Koch, the president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. The Cardinal led a Vatican delegation joining the Patriarch for the celebration of the feast of St. Andrew, the patron of Constantinople.

It May Be Time to Think Again

Australia

Archbishop Coleridge of Canberra and Goulburn has commented on media reports of Pope Benedict's remarks on the use of condoms. The archbishop said that the Western world tended to think most problems could be solved with money and technology. "It may be that Africans have a surer sense of the Pope's wisdom and of what the Church in Africa proposes as both prevention and care” – Coleridge said: And it may therefore be that we can learn from those who know instinctively that money and technology will not resolve this grave human crisis. It may be time to think again."

The Course of the Second Vatican Council Must be Corrected

Vatican

The course of the Second Vatican Council must be corrected and the liturgical reform must itself be reformed if justice is to be done to the Council. This Cardinal Kurt Koch, the new head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, told the Austrian Catholic online news service kath.net. In the public domain, Vatican II had usually been presented as a break with Church tradition – the Cardinal continued. But this interpretation was only possible because the documents of the Council had been read selectively and were not taken as a whole.

Film About the Carmelite Nuns at a London Monastery

United Kingdom

Michael Whyte’s documentary “No Greater Love” - a film recording the life of Discalced Carmelite nuns at a London monastery - took the grand prize at the International Festival of Cinema and Religion in Italy. The film examines the cloistered nuns of the monastery of the Most Holy Trinity in Notting Hill. Though centered upon Holy Week, the film covers a year in the life of the monastery and its daily rhythms of Divine Office and work. The nuns live without television, radio or newspapers. They maintain silence throughout the day except for two periods of recreation. The International Jury of the International Festival of Cinema and Religion called the film “beautifully crafted” and “a powerful message for those of us who inhabit fast societies that militate against the possibility of wisdom.”