Knights Sponsor Prayer for Pope’s Turkey Visit

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — The Knights of Columbus will sponsor a “spiritual pilgrimage” with Pope Benedict XVI as he travels to Turkey Nov. 28 - Dec. 1. Knights, their families and all Catholics are being asked to pray daily for the Holy Father during the trip.

The Knights will pray for the Pope’s intentions beginning Nov. 26. In addition, the Knights of Columbus will print and distribute cards with a special prayer written by the order’s chaplain, Bishop William Lori of Bridgeport. Copies of the prayer are being sent to state deputies for distribution and to bishops and priest-members of the Knights for their use and promotion. The prayer is also available online at kofc.org.

Those joining the spiritual pilgrimage are asked to say the prayer each day during the Pope’s trip. The prayer asks that Pope Benedict’s visit will bring about “deeper ties of understanding, cooperation and peace among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and those who profess Islam.”

(CNS)

Texan to Become Youngest U.S. Bishop

WASHINGTON — Msgr. Daniel Flores, rector of Corpus Christi Cathedral in Corpus Christi, Texas, has been named an auxiliary bishop of Detroit by Pope Benedict XVI. Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced the appointment Oct. 28 in Washington.

Bishop-designate Flores, 45, is to be ordained a bishop Nov. 29 at Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Detroit. He will be the first Hispanic bishop to serve in the Detroit Archdiocese and the youngest bishop in the country. Previously, Bishop Alexander Sample of Marquette, Mich., was the youngest, but he turns 46 Nov. 7. The Texas priest’s appointment brings the total number of active Hispanic bishops in the United States to 25.

Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida indicated the new auxiliary’s ministry will include a special focus on Hispanic concerns.

(CNS)

Chaplains Working to Bring Peace to Soldiers

WASHINGTON — It may be a cliché, but there’s one thing on which Catholic chaplains serving in or recently returned from Iraq and Afghanistan would agree: War is hell.

Military chaplains share in that heart-pounding anxiety every soldier feels in a war zone — the constant fear of being killed on the ground by gunfire, mortar fire or a roadside bomb or in the air by anti-aircraft fire. But they also specialize in helping military personnel find the peace they need to risk their lives in battle.

“In war, you must be at peace with God,” said Father Joseph Orlandi, a U.S. Army colonel who recently returned to his post as pastor of St. Michael Parish in Paterson, N.J. “You don’t know if you are going to come back alive,” he told The Beacon, newspaper of the Paterson Diocese.

During the past year at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan and Camp Victory in Iraq, Father Orlandi found that the fears and stresses of battle — or just the threat of conflict — often gave way to a tremendous faith. In northern Afghanistan, the priest traveled far and wide to 15 remote “forward operation bases,” where he saw men and women in uniform hungry for the spiritual nourishment of Mass.

(CNS)