Poste Vaticane

Dear SMM- Do you have any idea if the Vatican Office for Sin and Forgiveness (OK, the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary) has its own letterhead or business cards? Just wondering. Slightly more seriously, is there a listing of the different offices of the Vatican anywhere on the Web? It would be interesting to see. Thank you for all the information you give us Sister. 

Are you collecting Vatican letterheads and business cards? I'm sure each office must have it's own letterhead and people who work in these offices have business cards. 

I wonder if they have MOO cards.  These are the new rage.  You can have dozens of pictures in your box of cards.  They could have their own picture, the papal seal, a lovely shot of the Vatican, their favorite saint, a picture of them kissing the Pope's ring, what they had for dinner....the possibilities are endless. 

In any case, it's easy to write to the Vatican and if you get a response, you'll have your collector's item. I'm not sure how you wangle a business card.  Since it's my job to make your connection to the Catholic Church easier and not more difficult, here is a list of all of the Offices of the Vatican.

So to write to anyone, or any office you can use this address:
Name of the Cardinal or Archbishop or Bishop or Priest in charge
Name of the Office
Piazza Pio XII 10
00193 Rome, VATICAN CITY

Don't put "Italy" on the envelope. Vatican City is its own country. The country of Vatican City is in the country of Italy. It's a country called in a city in a city in a country. Don't think about that too much. It's not a "Sacred Mystery" but it's almost as baffling.

It's okay if you don't know who is in charge of the office, just address it to the office. Maybe if you write to the office and ask who is in charge, they'll send you a letter with the business card of that person!

And as long as you're at it, you might want to suggest Moo cards to them as the new rage, since the Pope is tweeting indulgences and whatnot.  

A Little Bird Told Me

The headline reads: Pope Offers Indulgences Through Twitter.

Well, why not?  The Vatican Office on Sin and Forgiveness is all for it.

Did you know the Vatican had an office just for sin and forgiveness? Probably not. It's not called that, but it's actual name is even less well known (if that's even possible). The Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary.  Not to be confused with prison. It's not a Sacred Apostolic jail.

The whole issue of indulgences makes the separated brethren's heads spin, because it's pretty much why we have separated brethren. (Unless we're talking about the Anglican and Episcopal church, that was all about the messy divorce of Henry VII. Very messy, what with all those severed heads.)

I really hate to have to explain it all again. Here goes.

Indulgence: time off of your punishment (purgatory) for sins that have already been forgiven.
Already hard to understand since purgatory is outside of time. There is no time in purgatory but you get time off from the time you would have spent there. Calm down and remember this is what we call a "Sacred Mystery".  "Sacred Mystery" is "Catholic" for "just let it go". And by that I mean, there are things you will never be able to understand because God made it that way and that's okay.

Away back when, you had to climb up steps on your knees or go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land or fight in the Crusades to earn an indulgence. And then someone rightly pointed out that it wasn't fair that only able bodied wealthy people (because such things are long and arduous and take capital) could earn indulgences, so the Church found other things to indulge. Certain prayers, walking the Stations of the Cross (invented by St. Francis of Assisi for just this purpose), that sort of thing. There are still steps you can climb, not necessarily on your knees.

Which brings us to the tweeting Pope. Attending World Youth Day earns an indulgence. But like going on a Crusade, not everyone can get there. So the Pope offered the indulgence to people who follow what's going on at World Youth Day on social media, which includes Twitter. And now we have some silly headlines.

I'll leave it to smarter people to explain it all better if your hair is still on fire.

Saint Pope and Saint Pope

We are besides ourselves with glee for the upcoming canonization of both Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII. 

If you don't watch the news endlessly crawling across the bottom of the TV screen you may have missed the second miracle for John Paul II coming through.  You may have not even heard about the first miracle.

Let's review. I'll give you a moment to familiarize yourself with the rule book.

Okay...so the the first miracle was a nun with Parkinsons. Her order prayed for the Pope's intercession after he died and Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre was cured of the debilitating disease. I love her name, by the way. Sister Mary Simon Peter in English, so to speak.

Since then we've been waiting for the second miracle. Some saints wait a long time. Some are still waiting. And then last week, here we go!

The actual miracle happened a while back, but it takes time to prove that it actually was a miracle: instantaneous and unexplained.  The doctors have to sign off on it and then the theologians have to examine it.

Our second miracle is a woman from Costa Rica who was cured of a brain aneurysm. It's does involve a talking magazine, but we'll overlook that part.  It wasn't really a talking magazine.  

Florabeth Mora Diaz had just gotten back from her doctor visit with the bad news that her brain aneurysm was incurable and inoperable.  She was feeling pretty low and went in her room to pray. She prayed for the intercession of Pope John Paul II and she head him say, "Rise, don't be afraid."

Here comes the magazine part. She said that she had returned from the doctor's and watched the beatification ceremony of John Paul II on TV. I suppose that's what gave her the idea to ask him for his intercessory prayers. She heard him talking to her from the cover of a magazine.

" I was surprised. I kept looking at the magazine.  I said, "Yes, Lord", and I got up, " she said.

Her husband was surprised to see her emerge from the bedroom rather chipper.  She told him, "I feel better."  There was a good reason for that. The aneurysm was gone.  Her neurosurgeon, Dr. Vargas said, "What we found remarkable, unbelievable really, was that by November there was absolutely no trace in her brain that she ever had an aneurysm. I had never seen this in my career."

So talking magazine notwithstanding, we do have a miracle here.

Isn't this exciting!  And how wonderful that the person that beatified Pope John XXIII will be canonized along with him. Double bonus.

What will his patronage be? I have always pegged him for the patron saint of people who are looking for one of those really long term jobs, which used to be at the post office. I'm not sure those jobs still exist. 

But obviously he will be the patron saint for Parkinson's sufferers, as he suffered from it himself AND had the miracle nun cure.

We have questions in the queue but today we just want to sit back and enjoy the intercession!