Where Is America's Collective Soul?

THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE, May 29 — Americans are hypnotized by materialism and on the brink of a “soulless vision of the world,” Pope John Paul II told U.S. bishops meeting in Rome for their once-every-five-year ad limina visits May 28.

America is “forgetting its spiritual roots,” the Pope said, and the road there was paved by “a widespread spirit of agnosticism and relativism,” the Chicago Tribune quoted the Holy Father as saying.

Bishop Edwin Conway, vicar general for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said he often wonders about America's collective soul. “Where is it?” he asked. “It's kind of dormant.”

Many agree with John Paul's assessment, according to the newspaper, including the Illinois poet laureate, an author of “unorthodox spirituality,” a Bob Jones University spokesman and a Jewish rabbi.

Such remarks on “Americanism” by a Church leader are nothing new, the Tribune noted. In 1899, Pope Leo XIII said some in America think the Church should “shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity.”

Vatican to Beatify Nun Whose Work Inspired The Passion

REUTERS, May 30 — Sister Anne Catherine Emmerich, a 19thcentur y German nun, is set to be beatified by Pope John Paul II on Oct. 3.

Bishop Reinhard Lettmann of Muenster, Germany, announced the beatification date in late May in his diocese, where Sister Emmerich lived.

The bishop noted how the nun had strengthened others in their faith despite her own frailty, a theme close to the 84-year-old Pope, Reuters reported.

The nun will be honored for her virtuous life, not for her book that recounted the visions that inspired Mel Gibson in his film The Passion of the Christ, according to the wire ser vice. The book, The Dolorus Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, recounted Jesus’ passion and death in details not found in the Gospels.

The Vatican halted an attempt to beatify Sister Emmerich in 1928 out of concern a German poet who wrote down her visions had exaggerated her account.

However, the case was reopened in 1973 and approved last July.

Torture Is Against Human Dignity, Pope Says

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, May 27 — Torture is an intolerable affront to human dignity, according to Pope John Paul II, who also expressed his grief on May 27 that reports of abuses “constantly arrive from all continents.”

The Holy Father was speaking to seven new ambassadors to the Holy See and did not mention any specific cases in any specific countries, the Associated Press reported. The ambassadors were from Suriname, Sir Lanka, Mali, Yemen, Zambia, Nigeria and Tunisia.

News comes in all the time “concerning the human-rights situation, showing how men, women and children are tortured and how their dignity is profoundly offended, contrar y to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” John Paul noted. “In this way, all humanity suffers injur y and contempt.”

“As all human beings are our brothers,” the Pope said, “we cannot remain quiet in the face of these intolerable abuses.”