The Life of Padre Domenico of the Holy Face Was Celebrated at Manoppello on the 38th Anniversary of his Death

Text and Photos by Antonio Bini

Padre Domenico's fellow Capuchin friars were the ones most amazed by the participation of so many devotees and by the interest which has always been so strongly felt for the Servant of God, on the occasion of the 38th anniversary of the death of  Padre Domenico, in an event organized just a few days prior to September 17. As decided at the meeting of last January - which was attended by the general postulator, Fr.  Carlo Calloni,  the vice-postulator Fr. Eugene of Giamberardino, Msgr. Massimo D'Angelo,  Episcopal Chancellor of the diocese of Chieti-Vasto, the then Father Provincial of the Capuchins Fr. Carmine Ranieri, the rector of the Shrine  Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, Brother Vincenzo d'Elpidio -every year the anniversary of the death of Servant of God will be celebrated in what was "his" Shrine of the Holy Face.

In the pilgrim's hall on the ground floor of the shrine - which was unable to contain all of the people who participated in the commemoration -there  was a screening of the documentary of the German section of the television network EWTN titled "Padre Domenico, the long journey from Cese to Turin", introduced by the rector of the Shrine Fr. Carmine Cucinelli.

After the presentation an emotional applause greeted the author of the documentary Paul Badde, present in the room. The documentary, lasting 24 minutes, can be seen on You Tube edition https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sslrgj6e7s language.
  
 Fr.  Luciano Antonelli, who in 1978 was the superior of the Sanctuary, recalling how Padre Domenico had gone to Turin to learn about the Shroud's relationship with the Holy Face, said that "the presence of so many spiritual children and devotees - so many years after the death of Padre Domenico - is a sign of his holiness. "

The vice-postulator of the cause of beatification, Fr. Eugenio Di Giamberardino, recalling the existence of the association "Friends of Padre Domenico,"  announced that they are delivering to him testimonies that confirm the episodes of bi-location detailed in the documentary, following the special relationship between Padre Domenico and Padre Pio.  He then announced the publication of the most recent edition, in Portuguese, of his book on the life of Padre Domenico, published by the Brazilian company Ecclesiae, with the title "Padre Domenico de Cese. Apóstolo de Sagrada Face de Manoppello"

Invited by p. Carmine Cucinelli to speak, I thanked all those who have collaborated on the documentary providing photos, videos and testimonies. I also confirmed the growing interest abroad for the life of the Marsican Capuchin, for his prophetic vision about the nature of the Holy Face, his life accompanied by extraordinary events and parallel to that of Padre Pio. Recently we have been receiving interesting testimonies of his devotees in Austria and Germany, who came to see Padre Domenico in the nineteen sixties and seventies. Among them was found the presence of Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Holböck (1913-2002), a prominent Austrian theologian who frequented both Padre Pio and Father Dominic, and Ms Ida Loidl, who passed away recently, the author of books on religious themes and editor of the Catholic magazine Grüß Gott (Good morning), who had several meetings  with Padre Domenico.

At the end of my speech an elderly lady of Avezzano - Concetta Piccone - approached me to talk to me and give me an old photo of Padre Domenico, telling me that having been stored for years among other things, and that, being a little 'dirty and covered with dust, had proceeded to clean it. On the photo, slightly damaged in the lower left, there seemed evident the wounds on his hands (especially on the back of his right hand) that could indicate the stigmata once described by various people.

Brother Vincenzo d'Elpidio, who was a friend of Padre Domenico, warmly thanked those who came from various parts of Italy and from abroad.  Brother Vincenzo is the one who for years has maintained contact with many supporters of the Servant of God. A special thanks was addressed to all who came from Ruvo di Puglia and Andria, for the extraordinary devotion shown over the years to the Holy Face and the memory of Padre Domenico. For many years in the city of Puglia two different associations of the Holy Face have been working , formed according to the desire of Padre Domenico, after a young woman - Amalia Di Rella (1934-1998) - was cured of her illness after going on pilgrimage to Manoppello, and who afterwards decided  to become a nun. At the behest of Don Tonino Bello (1935-2003), at the time bishop of Molfetta, whose cause of beatification is underway, was set up the diocesan congregation of the "Disciples of the Holy Face", represented at today's commemoration of Padre Domenico by the presence of Sr. Maria Matera and Sr. Grazia Di Bari.


Finally, there must be pointed out the availability of a new prayer for the beatification of Padre Domenico, published in Italian, German, English and French, by Sr. Petra-Maria Steiner, published with an invitation to submit testimonials, photos and video on the life of the servant of God.  Testimonies in Italian may be sent to the vice- postulator at the Shrine of the Holy Face, while those expressed in other languages may be sent directly to the headquarters of the religious community "Communis Vita" - Ossveiler Weg 45, 71334 Waiblingen (Germany) that will subsequently be brought to the attention of the vice- postulator.

See the leaflet at http://holyfaceofmanoppello.blogspot.com/2016/10/prayer-leaflet-for-cause-of.html

To numerous requests for information on the timing of the beatification process Fr. Carmine Cucinelli said that the time is long and unpredictable, and that there is needed the properly documented verification of miracles or extraordinary events attributable to the Marsican Capuchin. Other people have expressed the desire that Padre Domenico be buried in what was his church, closer to his Holy Face that he made known and loved by so many people, so much so that even in life many called him Padre Domenico of the Holy Face.

Quite a number of other people have also traveled to the Basilica for the solemn Mass presided by the Archbishop of the Diocese of Lanciano-Ortona, Emidio Cipollone.  Among them was the father provincial of the Capuchins of Abruzzo, Fr. Nicola Galasso, the vice-postulator, Fr. Eugenio Di Gianberardino, Fr. Carmine Cucinelli,  Fr. Paolo Palombarini and  Capuchins coming from other convents.
At the side of the church a giant poster of Padre Domenico holding an image of the Holy Face, which thrilled those present who were able to see this in his beloved shrine.

The Archbishop, recalling that he was born in the same region as Padre Domenico and that he has the same first name, Emidio, then praised the figure of the Servant of God as a confessor always ready to listen to the suffering of the people and therefore for his love for the Holy Face. And among the many from Cese, the municipality of Avezzano, was also present Mrs. Angelina Cipollone, the mother of the archbishop,  also devoted to Padre Domenico. The Mass was animated by the choir of the Sister Servants of the Most Holy Blood from Manoppello.

Exhibit on the Holy Face of Manoppello in Dublin Ireland Oct. 15 and 16

The exhibition "The Rediscovered face of Christ" - previously on display in New York, Rimini, Lugano etc. -  will be replicated in Dublin on 15 and 16 October, as part of the activities organized for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. During the two days in which the exhibit will be in Dublin Sr. Petra-Maria Steiner, directly from Manoppello, will speak.  Present for the opening of the exhibit will be Most Rev. Raymond W. Field,  auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Dublin.

In this Extraordinary Jubilee Year - Our Lady Help of Christians Parish Centre, Navan Road, Dublin 7 is pleased to invite you to THE REDISCOVERED FACE OF CHRIST.  The exhibition traces the many testimonies relating to the Face of Christ, handed down from early centuries of Christians.  Slide & Video presentations (60 minutes)  will take place on Saturday 15th October at 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm, 15:00pm, 16:15pm, 19:30pm and Sunday 16th October at 10:15, 11:45, 15:00, 19:30 (please attend 1 session only).  Pre-booking essential contact Parish Office phone: 01 8380265 or Email:navanroadparish@eircom.net


http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/see-face-god-and-live%E2%80%A6

Paul Badde's Video on the January 2016 "Omnis Terra" Pilgrimage of the Holy Face from the Church of Santo Spirito to St. Peter's Basilica

Prayer Leaflet for the Cause of Beatification of Padre Domenico da Cese

Sr. Petra Maria Steiner, who has spent a number of years in Manoppello generously guiding pilgrims who have come to venerate the Holy Face, has prepared a prayer leaflet to promote the cause of beatification of 

Padre Domenico da Cese, O.F.M., Cap., the Rediscoverer of the Holy Face.

thanks to Antonio Bini for sending this information.

A Sacred Dream: The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom before the Holy Sudarium of Manoppello on September 18, 2016

photo by Daniel Ibañez (CNA)

originally published on September 22, 2016 at http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/column/a-sacred-dream-3618/

By Paul Badde

It was a single word that brought about the decisive split between the Eastern and Western churches which appeared in May 581, at the Council of Toledo, when the bishops of the Visigoth kingdom added the Latin word "filioque" to the – then 200 year old – Catholic creed of the Council of Nicea-Constantinople. In English, the word means: "and the Son". Ever since that day, Christians of the West pray in their creed: "We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son", whereas in the Eastern Churches to this day they pray: "We believe in the Holy spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father". This addition first attained the rank of dogma under Pope Benedict VIII, and then again in 1215, by which time alienation between East and West had substantially increased.

However, it was but this single word that became both a stumbling block and a milestone in the separation process between the Eastern and Western Church. Thousands upon thousands of highly erudite words only further deepened the rift and never could heal it.

And now, on Sept 18, under the radar of all news channels, a single image brought the Eastern and Western Church together in a way that arguably has never happened before. On this Sunday, in the small town of Manoppello in the Abruzzi mountains, 70 Orthodox bishops celebrated, together with two cardinals and many Roman Catholic bishops and clergymen, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom before the image of the "Holy Face". The holy veil had been hidden for more than 300 years in a side chapel of St Michael's Church, until, after the great earthquake of 1915, it was publicly displayed for thirst time again, in the year 1923, over the main altar of a newly constructed building, where it can be visited and adored every day. 

Now, ten years after the visit Pope Benedict XVI. on 1 September 2006, this visit of a mixed Orthodox synod, together with their Latin brothers, marked a most significant event in the process of re-discovery of this mysterious, original icon of Christ. It had long been worshiped in Constantinople as "Hagion Mandylion", and later in Rome as "Sanctissimum Sudarium", before it was also given the name of "Sancta Veronica Ierosolymitana".

Archbishop Forte, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (photo by Daniel Ibañez - CNA)

Now, there were metropolitans and bishops of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (from Finland, Estonia, Crete, Patmos, Malta, Great Britain, America, Australia, the Exarchate of the Philippines, from Europe and from Mount Athos) and patriarchs, metropolitans and archbishops of Alexandria, Antioch, Damascus, Jerusalem, the autonomous Church of Mount Sinai, and the Orthodox churches of Russia, Georgia, Serbia, Cyprus, Romania, Greece Poland, Albania, Czech Republic and Slovakia, which came before the Holy Face and celebrated the Eucharist. Only the Bulgarian Church had sent no representative. The antiphons of the wonderful liturgy were in Italian, Russian, Greek, English, Romanian and French.

 In his homily, given in English, Metropolitan Job Getcha of Telmessos, who headed the service as representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, praised the "image of Christ, not made by human hand" of Manoppello. He pointed out that – according to some scholars – the Image is identical with that of the Soudarion from the Gospel of the Resurrection according to John, while another tradition holds that a certain Veronica wiped the face of Jesus with this veil on his way to the Cross, though she is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels.

Metropolitan Job Getcha of Telmessos (photo by Daniel Ibañez -CNA)

Archbishop Bruno Forte from nearby Chieti knows that neither bloodstains nor any residue of  paint can be found in the veil. It had been his idea and initiative to bring the bishops before the face of Christ, which he likes to praise as the "North Star of Christendom". He invited the group to Manoppello and had given the visitors a scholarly introduction on the bus trip from his diocesan town of Chieti to Manoppello.

In Chieti, the pilgrims had all participated in the 14th General Assembly of a joint International Commission for Theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox. They had discussed a document entitled "Towards a common understanding of synodality and primacy in the service of the unity of the Church". It was a debate that began in the previous plenary meeting in the Jordanian capital Amman in 2014 and was continued in 2015 in Rome. The Commission is the official organ of the theological dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox, founded in 1979, which unites 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches, each represented by two theologians who are mostly bishops, together with Catholic representatives. And now the same group practically traced, as a synodal pilgrimage, that first spectacular step towards the face of Christ that Benedict XVI undertook ten years ago, against much resistance, the first pope to do so after more than 400 years.

His successor Pope Francis later - on Nov 30, 2014 flying from Istanbul back to Rome - told journalists travelling with him:  "Be careful: the Church does not have a light of its own. She needs to gaze upon Jesus Christ! On that path, we must move forward courageously." And following on this path, the Divine Liturgy before the Divine Face this Sunday became a milestone of reconciliation on the way to unity. Heavy rainfall had been announced. But only a few drops ended up falling.

photo by Paul Badde

"Pray for the Christians in the Middle East as you pray before the Holy Face. They are suffering unspeakably", an Oriental bishop said right after the final blessing to the German sister Petra-Maria Steiner, who introduces countless pilgrims to  the mystery of the light of this image in Manoppello. Earlier, at the conclusion of the celebration, Anatoliy Grytskiv, Protopresbyter of Chieti, had hailed the "miracle" of the encounter in a passionate summary in Italian.

Whereto from here? "We continue approaching the face of Christ," Cardinal Kurt Koch told CNA outside the main entrance of the Basilica after the celebration. "Probably only in view of the face of the Redeemer may unity come about. But surely it will be difficult. After all this is like a divorce, after you have grown apart – it is hard to get back together. In this case, however, a thousand years of separation are standing between us."

"Yes, but fortunately it is said in the Scriptures: A thousand years are like a day with the Lord", Sister Petra-Maria responded, with a smile, to the sober skepticism of the Cardinal. "Perhaps now the new day of unity arises. With God, nothing is impossible. Perhaps today we have seen the dawn of this new day. This new beginning is as thin and delicate as the Veil of the Volto Santo."

Were it so, the image of Christ would indeed have briefly bridged that abyss on this Sunday, an abyss carved out, like a primeval river, by the countless words between East and West, a Grand Canyon into the very foundation of Christianity.

At those very depths, the holy "sudarium" might yet intervene, in a healing fashion, in the ancient  Filioque controversy about that first word of separation. For if the veil, as John writes, was indeed lying in the grave of Christ, on the face of the Lord, it must also have absorbed the first breath of the Risen One - when the Spirit of God woke Jesus Christ from the dead - as that Spirit that is the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

Rome, September 19, 2016

(Translation from German into English: Anian Christoph Wimmer)

Homily by Archbishop Job of Telmessos at the Orthodox Divine Liturgy Celebrated at the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello

Homily at the Orthodox Divine Liturgy

During the 14^th Plenary Session of the Joint International Commission of Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches

Manoppello Sanctuary, September 18, 2016.

Eminences, Excellences, Reverend Fathers, Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

On this Sunday after the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, we heard the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ addressed to each one of us: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mk 8:34). By His sacrifice on the Cross, our Lord and Saviour has offered himself once for all for the salvation of all, as we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “having been offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hb 9:28).

The mystery of our salvation has been accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ on the Golgotha and through His Resurrection. This event became the foundation of our faith as well as the central event of our ecclesial life. Through baptism, which is our incorporation to Christ and our entrance into this ecclesial life, we have participated in mystery in the death of Christ and in His Resurrection, and we have “put on Christ” (Ga 3:27). Therefore, we can appropriate to ourselves the words of Saint Paul in today’s epistle: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Ga 2:20).

As Saint John Chrysostom has noted, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ does not oblige us, neither constrain us to be saved, but invites us, through our free-will, to participate in His heritage. “If anyone wishes to come after me…” He says! In order to follow Him, we need to renounce to three things: first to deny ourselves, secondly to take our cross, and thirdly to follow Him.

To deny ourselves means to leave out our individualism, our egoism, and our egocentrism, which according to His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Albania is the greatest problem and danger in the ecclesial life. To take our cross means to be ready to die for Christ, to be a martyr, that is to be a witness for Christ and for His Gospel. We must therefore be courageous in the testimony we bring about Christ in our contemporary society. To follow Christ means to practice and to incarnate in our life all the Christian virtues, so that we might say that is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us (Ga 2:20).

Thus, by choosing freely to follow Christ, putting aside our egoism and egocentrism, being ready to witness Christ by every little deed in our daily life and reflecting thus the image of Christ around us, we will progress with Him on the path towards His Kingdom.

Today, with the blessing and on the invitation of His Eminence Archbishop Bruno Forte, the local archpastor of the local Roman Catholic diocese, we, the Orthodox members of the Joint International Commission of Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches have the great blessing to celebrate this Divine Liturgy here, in this sanctuary of Manoppello, where the holy relic of the image of Christ not made by human hands is kept since the beginning of the XVI^th century.

According to some scholars, this veil corresponds to the soudarion, the cloth mentioned in the Gospel of John, that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head and that was lying separate from the linen in the empty tomb, after His Resurrection (Jn 20:7). According to another tradition, recorded in the Acta Pilati, this would be the holy face of Christ printed on a veil, the veil of Veronica. On the way to the Golgotha, Veronica encountered Christ and gave him a veil to wipe off the blood and sweat, and the image of His face was then imprinted on the cloth.

Venerating this holy relic of the Passion and of the Resurrection of Christ, which unites East and West, Jerusalem and Manopello, we are invited to encounter Christ by being His true disciples, by denying ourselves, taking our cross and following Him. We are called to receive Him in the Eucharist, and therefore, the sad situation that we, divided Christians, cannot share the same Chalice, as it is the case today at this Divine Liturgy, is a scandal and a wound in the Body of Christ that must be healed.

A very important and significant event in that perspective was the lifting up of the anathemas of 1054 between the Churches of Rome and Constantinople at the end of the Second Vatican Council on December 7, 1965. Since that significant event, our Churches are now standing in the situation they were before the imposition of the anathemas, that is a state of rupture of communion (akoinonesia), due to historical events and theological disputes. This state of rupture of communion has to be resolved through the theological dialogue our Churches have engaged into since 1980, which has precisely as a goal the restauration of the full communion between our sister Churches, through the resolution of theological disagreements.

As the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church has declared last June, “the Orthodox Church, which prays unceasingly for the union of all, has always cultivated dialogue with those estranged from her, (…) she has played a leading role in the contemporary search for ways and means to restore the unity of those who believe in Christ. (…) The contemporary bilateral theological dialogues of the Orthodox Church and her participation in the Ecumenical Movement rest on this self-consciousness of Orthodoxy and her ecumenical spirit, with the aim of seeking the unity of all Christians on the basis of the truth of faith and Tradition of the ancient Church of the seven Ecumenical Councils” (Relations, 4-5). This is why the Holy and Great Council has also underlined that “the Orthodox Church considers all efforts to break the unity of the Church, undertaken by individuals or groups under the pretext of maintaining or allegedly defending true Orthodoxy, as being worthy of condemnation” (Ibid., 22).

Eminences, Excellences, Reverend Fathers, Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is in this spirit that we, the Orthodox members of the Joint International Commission of Theological Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church have come together with our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters to Chieti, and are now working together towards a common understanding of synodality and primacy, one of the most delicate questions in the relationship between our two sister Churches.

May the Lord, whose image not made by human hands we venerate and who invites all of us to deny ourselves, take our cross and follow him, inspire our work for the unity and the glory of His Church, and for the salvation of His people. To Him, glory and adoration to the ages of ages. Amen.

— Archbishop Job of Telmessos

Orthodox Bishops Celebrate Divine Liturgy at Basilica of the Holy Face of Manoppello in Conjunction with the 14th Plenary Session of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches

text and photos provided by Antonio Bini


Today Sunday September 18 over 70 Orthodox and Catholic Bishops traveled to the Basilica of the Holy Face of Manoppello in conjunction with the 14th Plenary Session of the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches.   

 http://agensir.it/quotidiano/2016/9/15/ecumenism-plenary-of-joint-commission-between-orthodox-and-catholic-churches-on-primacy-and-synodality-begins/



 An Orthodox Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Basilica of the Holy Face by the Orthodox Bishops with Catholic Bishops in attendance.   During the liturgy prayers were offered in over ten languages, each representative of the 14 Orthodox churches expressed in their own language. The Our Father was recited in Italian.  At the side of the altar were Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for Oriental Churches, and Archbishop Bruno Forte, ordinary of the Archdiocese of Chieti-Vasto.

The altar of the basilica of the Holy Face was adapted to the Orthodox liturgical traditions.   The significance of the rite is implicit in the central icon of Christ at the base of the altar in close continuity with the Holy Face, the reference model for Russian-Byzantine iconography, confirming Christ at the head of  the one Church founded by Him.

It can be said that this day is the most important day for the Shrine of the Holy Face since the visit of Benedict XVI took place ten years ago. Father Anatoly Grytskiv, representative of the Orthodox Church in Abruzzo and Molise (of the ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople) not surprisingly spoke of a "miracle" to describe the day at the conclusion of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy.

The fraternity and the dialogue between Catholics and Orthodox continued outside the basilica. In the photo below the exit of Catholic and Orthodox bishops from the basilica is mixed with the entrance of a group of pilgrims from Poland (with handkerchiefs around their necks).  

We will follow with interest the conclusion of the XIV Plenary Session of the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue planned in Rome this coming September 22.

Archbishop Bruno Forte, Cardinal Kurt Koch, Cardinal Leonardo Sandri at the Divine Liturgy today

Before the gathering in Manoppello Archbishop Bruno Forte of the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto, declared: "We are discussing during these days the way we conceive of the future union of our churches that is not a way of uniformity that eliminates differences but one of synodality, that is, a unity that values the differences in the communion which recognizes the unique role of the bishop of Rome at the service of all the churches. "

It is hoped that the encounter with the Holy Face, described by Cardinal Koch as "guiding light of Christianity", is a help in this process.

Photo by Paul Badde

Pilgrimage Sponsored by Inside the Vatican Magazine Visits the Shrine of the Holy Face

text and photos by Antonio Bini

A number of pilgrimages, especially from abroad,  who were present in Rome for the canonization of Mother Teresa of Calcutta at St. Peter's  (Sunday, September 4) also took the opportunity to come to the Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello. On the day following the canonization the pilgrimage sponsored by the American Catholic magazine INSIDE THE VATICAN, together with its editor Robert Moynihan, visited Manoppello. Also present was Deborah B Tomlinson, director of the Urbi et Orbi Foundation.

The large group of pilgrims, including several Americans of Philippine ancestry, devoted an entire afternoon to visit, participating in the Mass celebrated by Fr. James O'Neal, priest of the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida.  

Fr. James O'Neal

The  editor of the magazine himself, who a number of times in the past has concerned himself with the Holy Face,  described the contents of the exhibit and the relationship of the Holy Face with the face of the Shroud arousing the interest of those present.

Robert Moynihan explaining the exhibit for the pilgrims

The group arrived in Manoppello in the early afternoon, just moments after another group of American pilgrims, led by Fr. Jamie O'Brien, from Lawton, Oklahoma had just left the shrine.  Many other pilgrimages from the United States and Toronto, Canada connected to the canonization of Mother Teresa are expected until September 8.   Always precious the collaboration of Sr. Petra Maria Steiner.

It was an opportunity to exchange views on the current relations  between the Catholic church and the Orthodox churches, including in regards to the event of September 18, 2016 which will see the presence in Manoppello of a number of Orthodox bishops along with members of the joint international committee. 

 

Robert Moynihan before leaving thanked 

Fr. Carmine Cucinelli for his availability and for the welcome  shown to him once again.

Celebration of the Life of the Servant of God Capuchin Father Domenico da Cese in Manoppello on September 17

Basilica of the Holy Face, Manoppello (PE)

Father Domenico da Cese

Servant of God

Apostle of the Holy Face

      

on the 38th Anniversary of his death

 Saturday

September 17, 2016

  

3:30pm  Reception and showing of the Italian language version of the film on the life of Father Domenico,

  produced by Paul Badde and EWTN

  (Eternal Word Television Network)

 5:30pm    Holy Mass presided by the Archbishop of the diocese of Lanciano-Ortona, His Excellency Most Reverend Emidio Cipollone

                  

All Praise and Thanks to the Most Blessed Trinity for the Gift of the Holy Face

Ten years ago on September 1, 2006, Pope Benedict XVI made the first papal visit to Manoppello to venerate the Holy Face.  Since that time millions around the world have come to know the Holy Face.  A new era of the knowledge of the Good News of Jesus Christ began on that day.   

Pope Benedict's visit, followed by his decision to raise the Shrine of the Holy Face to the status of a basilica,  made clear that the Holy Face is an important reality -- for the whole church -- that the highest levels of the Church as well as people from around the world are looking to.   In the past ten years so many blessings have been received through the Holy Face and we can confidently expect, in faith, even more in the years to come.

Videos on Holy Face of Manoppello and Padre Domenico da Cese Produced by Paul Badde Available on Youtube

photo by Paul Badde:  Feast of the Transfiguration 2016

Paul Badde has made several outstanding videos on the Holy Face of Manoppello, and Padre Domenico da Cese in the last two years for EWTN Germany.  These videos are available on Youtube also in English language versions:
The Human Face of God in the Holy Veil of Manoppello  and  The Long Road of Fr. Domenico from Cese to Turin

Without a doubt these videos deserve a wide audience, please watch them and share them all around.

Padre Domenico da Cese (1905-1978), Apostle of the Holy Face

Archbishop Bruno Forte Speaks with Paul Badde about the Pilgrimage of Pope Benedict on September 1, 2006 and the Significance and History of the Holy Face of Manoppello

 

Archbishop Bruno Forte (photo by Paul Badde/CNA)

from Catholic News Agency website article   An Encounter With the Manoppello Image of the Face of Christ  

Chieti, Italy, Aug 6, 2016 / 02:05 pm (CNA)  Ten years ago, Benedict XVI visited the Shrine of the Holy Face in Manoppello, which houses an image of the face of Christ which some believe to be the Veil of Veronica.

“Seeking the Face of Jesus must be the longing of all of us Christians; indeed, we are 'the generation' which seeks his Face in our day, the Face of the 'God of Jacob',” Benedict said during his Sept. 1, 2006 pilgrimage to the shrine. “If we persevere in our quest for the Face of the Lord, at the end of our earthly pilgrimage, he, Jesus, will be our eternal joy, our reward and glory for ever.”

During that pilgrimage Benedict was the first Pope in more than 400 years to kneel in veneration before the Manoppello Image which is kept in the shrine, located about 12 miles southwest of Chieti in Italy's Abruzzo region.

After his visit to Manoppello, the talk of the human face of God in Christ became a kind of trademark of Benedict's pontificate.

In commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the event, Paul Badde asked Archbishop Bruno Forte of Chieti-Vasto about his memories of the day.

 

Pope Benedict XVI before the Holy Face of Manoppello.  At his side is Fr. Carmine Cucinelli, OFM, Cap., Rector of the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello

Badde: Your Grace, ten years ago, Pope Benedict XVI visited the holy veil, which is called the “Volto Santo” in Manoppello and was long known as the “Veil of Veronica”, on your invitation as the first Pope in over 400 years to visit. You stood one meter away from the Holy Father on this historic encounter. What was going through your mind during those moments?

Archbishop Bruno Forte: In those moments, my eyes were going back and forth between the venerated image and the face of the Successor of Peter, who contemplated it intensely as if to be captured by the image and at the same time challenged to enter into that which this veil suggests – with that extraordinary mystical and inquiring intelligence that characterized the whole work of Joseph Ratzinger and Benedict XVI. It was like attending a dialogue in which silence was more eloquent than each word: a silence from the surplus, touching and being touched on the threshold of mystery from whose depths allows itself to be illuminated.

 Badde:  “The Pope was ‚begeistert’” (delighted)! as you said in German right after the Pope’s visit. Can you remember more today the immediate reaction of Benedict XVI on this “face-to- face” encounter?

Archbishop Forte:  Of course. The enthusiasm of the Pope seemed to me to be like what the Greek term “Enthousiasmós” means in the original sense of the word: “en theó ousía” – as an “act of being in God.”

Pope Benedict XVI in Manoppello September 1, 2006

Badde:  You said in 2006 that there is a “moral certitude” that the image of Manoppello is identical with which the Evangelist John mentioned as “soudarion” from Christ’s empty tomb in Jerusalem. What did you mean?

 Archbishop Forte:  John names it in verses 6 and 7 in the 20th chapter of his Gospel: “When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.” The burial cloths – in the original “tá othónia” – correspond in all likelihood with that unique witness that we have in the famous Shroud of Turin (or Santa Sindone in Italian). The “Soudárion,” on the other hand, allows me to say from my moral certainty that it corresponds with the veil from Manoppello. This certainty is supported by various data. First and foremost, the veil  was kept in Jerusalem as a precious remembrance of the Redeemer. Then it was taken to Camulia in Cappadocia where it was venerated for a long time. From there it was later taken under the threat of the so-called iconoclasts first to Constantinople and then in safety to Rome. Here it was displayed at the beginning of the 13th century for the public to view where it was treasured as an incomparable relic at St. Peter’s Basilica. When the new construction of the magnificent and current St. Peter’s began on April 18, 1506, the sacred Sudarium was still located in a vault from where the veil in all likelihood was brought to safety by Cardinal Giampietro Carafa, Archbishop of Chieti and later governor of the city (and future Pope Paul IV), in 1527 as German and Spanish soldiers ravaged Rome in the so-called “Sacco di Roma.” And which place was safer than a monastery on the other side of the Papal States’ borders – in his diocese of Chieti-Vasto? Manoppello was the first town behind the border, which is reached as soon as one comes out of Rome and therefore the holy veil arrived here at a Capuchin monastery after it was previously kept in sure hands in private homes. But when it was decided in 1640 to put the veil on display for public veneration, the threat that the Vatican’s  Chapter of Canons could demand to get the veil back was foiled and thwarted by a certain Fra’ Donato da Bomba with a chronicle in which he asserted that the holy veil had already reached Manoppello in 1506, when the new construction on St. Peter’s began. Therefore, it could not be possible to be the so-called Veil of Veronica as it was back then also called in Rome. It was thus a pious lie, but nevertheless a lie even if it was pronounced with good  intentions, which saved the whereabouts of this genuine divine proof of the passion and resurrection of Christ for the people of Abruzzi and for all of us…

Badde:  How do you then explain the opposition against the Volto Santo, even still today, especially in relation with the Shroud of Turin?

 Archbishop Forte:  The Shroud of Turin has been well known and honored for a long time throughout the world; however, the holy face of Manoppello seems for some still to be something unheard of and new that is not supported in the same way from the perception and tradition out of the faith of the people of God. But it is not so in reality as I have just called to mind. Between these two incomparable witnesses, there is not only no contradiction, but also they have even been proved for a long time to concur and correspond perfectly to one another. The Trappist sister Blandina Paschalis Schlömer has compellingly pointed out a variety of concurring points that show the extreme compatibility between the face on the Sindone (or Shroud) and the face on the Sudarium. It indicates that there is a relationship between both cloths, which were established in the holy tomb in Jerusalem. In any case, the Shroud of Turin and the Manoppello Image show the inexplicable and mysterious way the same person once dead and once alive. It is Jesus Christ, the Lord.

Badde:  And how do you answer the voices that claim the portrait of Christ on the veil of Manoppelo is just simply “painted” and indeed from a human hand, probably during the time of the Renaissance?

Archbishop Forte:  The Veil of Manoppello was tested under an electron microscope and even in extra enlargements, no traces of paint were found. The image was not painted; rather, it is a true image – and that makes it even more precious because it provides us with a kind of authentic image, which we have of the Redeemer of the world.

Badde:  In Germany – especially since Rudolf Bultmann - the supposition that Jesus was risen only “in Kerygma” meaning in the faith and in the speech and in the preaching of the apostles was frequent even among theologians. Christ could not possibly be raised from the dead. How do you as a theologian bring this modern line of thought within the Church together with the process of the rediscovery of the Holy Sudarium over the last 40 years in the Diocese of Chieti-Vasto?

Archbishop Forte:  The theses of Bultmann’s existentialist interpretation have been academically obsolete for a while thanks to the return and development of research on the historical Jesus. In the gap of time between the death of Jesus on the cross and the new beginning of Easter, something essential must have happened in order to transform the frightened and fleeing disciples on Good Friday into the bold heralds of the resurrection of Christ on Easter. This “something” was not a fruit of hysterical imagination of the events as, for example, Ernest Renan declared; rather, it approaches them externally as an unexpected gift that transformed their sorrow into joy and their fear into audacious courage and their escape from Jerusalem into a new life and worldwide mission. To conclude, there is almost complete unanimity in serious research since then on the historical Jesus.

 Badde:  Since Pope Benedict’s visit 10 years ago, the Volto Santo draws more pilgrims from the whole world to Manoppello including countless bishops from every continent. What other implications did Pope Benedict’s “private visit” have on your diocese and on your faith?

 Archbishop Forte:  Certainly Pope Benedict’s visit, which was accompanied by more than 300 media representatives and about 70 television channels from the whole world, raised the awareness of the holy face of Manoppello to a truly planetary level and drew waves of pilgrims here. What delights me even more as a believer and shepherd is this: that the visits of the “Volto Santo” are kind of bound all together with personal confession and participation in the sacramental Confession and the Eucharist and that is not an aesthetic phenomena, but a thoroughly deep and transformative encounter with the risen Christ. And that is truly a wonderful gift to us all.

Pope Benedict XVI Delivering an Address in the Basilica Shrine of the Holy Face of Manoppello September 1, 2006

 Badde:  On this coming September 17th, you will receive 70 catholic and orthodox bishops before the Holy Face in Manoppello. In 2005 you invited Pope Benedict to the Holy Veli. How did these bold and audacious initiatives come about?

 Archbishop Forte:  Here I must specify that Pope Benedict’s decision to come to the Volto Santo was made by he himself and totally alone. He shared that with me even before his election to be the Successor of Peter and after the election in the course of an audience, in which I participated as member of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. This initiative was a great gift from him. I was very happy about that and it filled me with great thankfulness towards him.

Badde:  What will you tell Pope Francis about the concrete “Misericordiae Vultus” (Face of Mercy) in Manoppello, if the opportunity should ever arise?

 Archbishop Forte:  I have already spoken enthusiastically with his Holiness about the Holy Face of Manoppello and also sent him a beautiful reproduction. For that reason, I leave it all now in his hands and in the hands of God. It lies there now and will continue on in the right manner.

 Translated from German to English by R. Andrew Krema