Pope Paul VI died 33 years ago today (August 6, 1978). He was Pope from the time I was seven years old, up until I was 22. He presided over some of the most difficult years the Church has gone through in modern times. All the same, I have surprisingly few memories of him from TV appearances. There wasn’t the 24-hr cable TV coverage we have now, and the nightly news broadcasts never had time for more than a few fleeting seconds of papal coverage here and there.
Things were a bit different when he visited New York in 1965, two years after his election, to speak to the U.N. and to celebrate a Mass for peace in Yankee Stadium. He was the first Pope to visit the U.S. while in office. There was very extensive coverage then, though since I was only nine years old then, I don’t remember much of it at all.
Nonetheless, this is very moving footage. I wish there were something better out there, but this will have to do. Rest in peace, Holy Father.
Update: After a little more snooping, I discovered that ABC news archives has this bit from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, with the Pope speaking in English to boot:
Here is the latest newsletter that went out a few days ago. Only there are a couple of changes /additions: One is that my brother tells me his part of the score is done except for the mixing! The other is that the premiere in Arizona will have to be put off until Jan/February since the Franciscan Renewal Center won’t have room for us in their schedule until then. Still working on the New York premiere.
Hi everyone,
A brief notice this time to say that I have finally opened up the Tau Cross Books website for pre-orders of the DVD! The cost is $18.50 U.S. plus shipping. I expect to be able to ship the DVD around the beginning of September. (It was precisely in September four years ago that I started
shipping copies of my book on St. Elizabeth). Also, you can check out the cool cover art! I have made other improvements to the site, including a description of the film in different languages.
www.taucrossbooks.com
I have added methods to pay using British pounds and Euros on the site, and will monitor them to see how they work. If it goes okay, I can add more currencies. However, I believe that in most cases if you pay with a credit or debit card through Paypal choosing U.S. currency as your option
they can convert to U.S. dollars as you pay, with a small fee charged to you, while the fee is charged to me if you pay in foreign currency and it’s converted on my end. However, I’m not sure about that, so if anyone really knows exactly how this works, please let me know. (Paypal is not very forthcoming about this kind of detail).
As for ordering large quantities (more than 5-6) for a fraternity or region, please contact me by e-mail or phone at (646) 938-0432 with details about your order, so I can get you the best shipping deal. For foreign distribution, remember there are customs costs involved if the contents are worth over a certain amount.
I have also started the Amazon page for the DVD, and I think they are taking pre-orders, but I prefer people to pre-order from my site – I get more of the total paid, and too many orders might trigger an order for DVDS from them before I am ready.
I still need funds to cover expenses on the film and to have people pre-ordering will be a great help.
I am also happy to announce that we are working on a “gala” premiere of the film in . . . Scottsdale Arizona, at the Franciscan Renewal Center. This is close to where the composer, Peter Vamos, lives, and he plans to come and play some of his score on the piano. He will also be selling his compositions for the film on CD. I will be speaking as well. No news yet on whether there will be a red carpet! The showing will probably take place in November, around St. Elizabeth’s feast day. I am still looking for a place for the New York premiere. A premiere in LA would be nice too! If anyone knows of suitable venues for these, please contact me.
I am still trying to finish the final editing details, but am having a difficult time since the screen on the laptop I use for video editing got cracked and spins all sorts of crazy colors (and nothing else) when I try to use it. I can use my external monitor, no big problem, but trouble with my legs means I can only work at a desk for short periods of time. I hope this does not slow things down too much. I can certainly use your prayers.
Keep watching the documentary website for further details.
www.stelizabethdocumentary.com
If you don’t want to keep receiving these updates, please send me an e-mail and say so. If you know anyone who would like to know more about the film or receive updates, forward this e-mail to them. They can e-mail me and be put on the list.
I have thought the same thing myself. Papa Luciani’s words on the day of his death “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God…. he is the king of the new world; he is the secret of history; he is the key to our destiny” is a true foreunner to the papacy of John Paul II, who took up the challenge in his magnificent homily on the day of his papal inauguration: “Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ. To his saving power open the boundaries of States, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, civilization and development. Do not be afraid. Christ knows “what is in man”. He alone knows it.”
But this isn’t the only reason for thinking that Papa Luciani was a proponent of the new evangelization before the word even existed. He often had occasion to lament, both as a priest and as bishop in the 1960’s that the traditional faith of the people the Veneto often lacked serious roots. Only too often it was mere convention, not based on a living and life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ.
This conviction has very deep roots in his life. In May 1946, right at the end of WWII, he wrote this in the diocesan newspaper, L’Amico del Popolo:
. . . for how many people these days does Christ hold out his arms in vain?
Directly , over this world persuaded by hatred and discord, he preaches love. Over the ruins, over the destruction of what once was, he cries, “I, I alone am the Resurrection and the Life. Come!”
But how many will come? How many will reconcile themselves with him, making a firm pact of friendship? The Easter pact? How many, on the other hand, will pass by him without recognizing him? They will look for reconstruction in a political party, in a man, in a program, in everything except in Him.
This is the tremendous drama that is experienced especially at Easter: People who live in the midst of Christianity, but without living Christianity and without knowing it!
Because of this conviction, Luciani stressed evangelization all during his time as a bishop. In Vittorio Veneto, not long after he arrived, he told the priests that the level of understanding of the Gospel was so low that they would have to give up other subjects for their homilies and concentrate on the basics, because most adults didn’t understand their faith.
Luciani once told a Capuchin friar in Venice that he had been criticized before the Council for his insistence on the Word of God as well as the sacraments: “Some people had judged me an innovator (perhaps a dangerous one), but the Council, with Dei Verbum, showed that I was right”. He explained that it is the word of God, when heard and assimilated, that generates and strengthens faith; this faith, in turn, makes reception of the sacrament effective and fruitful. How much more will people obey the precept of the Church to attend Mass when they understand what the Mass is and love it! They can’t be made to do so just by repeating that it is a sin to disobey a precet of the Church (Humilitas Italian ed., April 1997).
Unfortunately, the traditional faith in Venice was often not able to stand the gale force winds of secularization and relativism, but was all too often uprooted, to Luciani’’s distress.
Obviously as Pope he was planning to hold the banner of evangelization high! When he fell, his successor took it up, and as deacon Bob says, carried on the battle, which is yet to be won.
Let’s all pray for Pope Benedict XVI and the success of the new Evangelization!
Sounds like a job for infrared technology! They could at least map the site without disturbing the present occupant. And it would be a serious boon to biblical scholars to find the remains of the Temple of Jesus’ time.
By the way, if you want some serious scripture study and theology along with your biblical history and archaeology, check out this blog: The Sacred Page.
Here is the latest news about my documentary on St. Elizabeth, which went out by e-mail a few days ago.
May 31, 2011
Dear Friends of St. Elizabeth,
Just a quick word, because I am anxious to give you the latest news on the progress of the documentary. I know you must be anxious to hear it.
I am still waiting for part of the score and subtitles to be done but the film is otherwise ready. This gives me a little time to work on other aspects, including DVD extras, the web site and publicity.
There will be at least one “extra” on the DVD in addition to the trailers. That is the meditation on St. Elizabeth and the Beatitudes by Anne Mulqueen, which you can see on the long trailer. I thought it was
wonderful, but it is quite long and holds up the film, even when abbreviated. So I have made it into an extra, so I can have the whole thing with some new, wonderful music and expanded images. It should give viewers many ideas for imitating St. Elizabeth.
Because of the great expense required for reproduction, I have decided that the promised study guide, instead of being a printed booklet, will be in a pdf file format to save printing costs. I believe this will actually make it easier for fraternities and formation directors to use, since printouts of any size and number can be easily made from it. I expect to be able to include the file on the DVD; but I will also put it up for download on the film’s web site. In fact, this will allow room for expanding the study materials as necessary. If anyone out there comes up with some good supplementary formation material on their own, I will be glad to put it up as well.
I will also be expanding the documentary’s website to include more extras that wouldn’t fit on the DVD; I hope to put up some greatly expanded footage of the two beautiful Masses for the centenary of 2007 in Assisi and 2008 in Esztergom. We shot a large part of each Mass, but could use only a tiny but of them in the film. I also hope to put up expanded versions of some of the interviews we did; unfortunately time prevented us from using all of those as well. There is also some behind-the-scenes footage I can put up.
The item I most need to do right now is the listing of the DVD for purchase on the Tau Cross Books website and Amazon. I hope to be able to do that shortly, along with announcing the publication date and list price.
I am happy to say that Peter Vamos, our Hungarian composer, has a new director of marketing, Dan Bickel, who is going to be working at promoting A Woman for Our Time, and of course, Peter’s music. He may have some ideas for helping to arrange showings of the film.
You can find out more here:
www.stelizabethdocumentary.com
As always, be sure and spread the word! Forward this e-mail to your friends, and if they are interested, they can contact me to be put on the mailing list.
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The conviction that there is a Creator God is what gave rise to the idea of human rights, the idea of the equality of all people before the law, the recognition of the inviolability of human dignity in every single person and the awareness of people’s responsibility for their actions. Our cultural memory is shaped by these rational insights. To ignore it or dismiss it as a thing of the past would be to dismember our culture totally and to rob it of its completeness. The culture of Europe arose from the encounter between Jerusalem, Athens and Rome – from the encounter between Israel’s monotheism, the philosophical reason of the Greeks and Roman law. This three-way encounter has shaped the inner identity of Europe. In the awareness of man’s responsibility before God and in the acknowledgment of the inviolable dignity of every single human person, it has established criteria of law: it is these criteria that we are called to defend at this moment in our history."
Pope Benedict XVI to the German Parliament, Sept 22, 2011.
