Augustus Pugin: Contrasts and a Parallel

Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore 1812-1852
Frontispieces (illustrations)
Contrasts or A Parallel Between the Architecture of the 15th and 19th Centuries 1836
Engraving (printing process)
Private Collection

Contrasted Crosses

Contrasts

Contrasts, episcopal residences

Altar screens from the 15th and 19th centuries

Brighton Chapel Royal, Windsor St George Chapel

Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (1 March 1812 – 14 September 1852) is now best remembered for his work on churches and on the Houses of Parliament. He was a leader of the Gothic revival movement in architecture.

He attacked the influence of "pagan" Classical architecture in his book Contrasts or A Parallel Between the Architecture of the 15th and 19th Centuries , in which he set up medieval society as an ideal, in contrast to modern secular culture.

His Contrasts (1836) placed him at once ahead of the pioneers of the day.

Of his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1834, Pugin said that the study of ancient ecclesiastical architecture was the primary cause of the change in his sentiments, by inducing him to pursue a course of study, terminating in complete conversion.

The Vatican in 1909

Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo

Monastery of San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo, begun 1476, exterior, by Juan Guas (French, 1430–1496).

Interior view of the nave

Interior view of vaulted ceiling

Interior view of the nave wall

Interior view of the nave wall

Juan Guas (1430–1496), Isabella's court architect, championed the Hispano-Flemish style in structures such as the monastery of San Juan de los Reyes in Toledo.

The Hispano-Flemish style of architecture and decoration flourished during the reign of Isabella of Castile. It combines intricate Gothic motifs characteristic of the North with elements of the Islamic-inspired Mudejar style.

The monastery of San Juan de los Reyes was built by the Catholic King and Queen (the Catholic Monarchs), Isabel (Elizabeth) and Fernando (Ferdinand), to commemorate their victory at the Battle of Toro (1476)

The church is dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist, patron saint of King Juan II.

San Juan de los Reyes was restored after the damage caused during Napoleon's invasion and after its abandonment in 1835; since 1954 it has been entrusted again to the Franciscans.



For more see The Official Website of San Juan de los Reyes

Carceri d’ Invenzione

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778)
Carceri d’ Invenzione, Plate VII
Untitled (The Drawbridge)
etching
ca. 1780 (Third Edition)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778)
Carceri, Plate VII
Untitled (The Drawbridge)
etching
1749 (First Edition)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778)
The Round Tower: Plate 3 of Carceri, ca. 1749–60
Etching, engraving, sulphur tint or open bite, burnishing; 21 7/8 x 16 7/16 in. (55.6 x 41.8 cm)

The Carceri d'Invenzione or "Imaginary Prisons," which Piranesi engraved in 1745 are among the most potent dream images ever evoked. They are described on their title page as "capricious inventions."

They derive from stage prisons rather than real ones

Hallucinogenic, obsessional and surreal are adjectives which do not quite convey the power of these images.

Galleries have no exit; unending ramps, staircases and stone voids; scribbled and echoing crypts; vaults and huge iron grilles; swinging cables. All coalesce into a dream and sometimes nightmarish vision of limitless dread, and of imprisonment by infinite space. The Carceri often present pure architectural spaces far from all nature, complex interior halls that seem to be partly ruins, partly unfinished buildings.Horace Walpole noted of Piranesi: “He has imagined scenes that would startle geometry.”

It is perhaps not surprising that Coleridge, Baudelaire, and Thomas de Quincey had a great interest in these works.

The Carceri reveal the scope of his architectural ambitions with a grandiosity that could not have been attained by any of the designs that he actually meant to be built, hampered as they were by reality.

Various reworkings of the Carceri spanned most of Piranesi’s working life. In their second, significantly darker version, the Carceri show close affinities with his etchings of antique ruins. Piranesi reworked these plates and added two new ones to the series. Thereworked plates are darker and more complex, with added details and inscriptions. While it is hard to find meaning in the first state of the series, the second state includes explicit references to the justice system under the Roman Republic and to the cruelty for which certain emperors were known.

Were these an oblique critique of the system of justice which operated in Rome and the Papal States at the time ?

Francesco Piranesi, (1756–1810)

Francesco Piranesi, (Italian, 1756–1810) was the eldest son and heir of the famous Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Instructed in both engraving and architecture by his father, he was both engraving his own works of art and assisting his father's work by 1775.

Upon the death of Giovanni Piranesi, three years later, he acquired his father's publishing house and was responsible for printing most of the later editions of his prints.

In the following years, Francesco Piranesi built his reputation primarily upon his engravings of antique statuary.

In 1798, the revolution drove him to Paris. He was later employed by Napoleon's government to engrave the antique vases and statues in collections in France and within French occupied Italy.

He collaborated with the French artist Louis-Jean Desprez on a series of views of Naples, Rome, and Pompeii, advertised in 1783 as “dessins coloriés” and sold at Piranesi’s shop in Rome. Although the 1783 advertisement promised forty-eight views, the series was not completed before Desprez left Rome to enter the employ of the Swedish king, Gustav III.

Piranesi, Francesco (1758-1810).
The Eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 1779

Piranesi, Francesco (1758-1810).
View of Vesuvius by Day

Francesco Piranesi (Italian, 1756–1810) and Louis-Jean Desprez (French, 1743–died Stockholm 1804)
The Fireworks Above Castel Sant’Angelo
Etching with watercolor and gouache, 1781 or 1783
New York Public Library

Francesco Piranesi (Italian, 1756–1810) and Louis-Jean Desprez (French, 1743–died Stockholm 1804)
The Girandola at the Castel Sant'Angelo, ca. 1783
Etching with colored washes; 27 5/8 x 19 in. (70.2 x 48.3 cm) (sheet)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Beginning in 1471, the papacy sponsored a spectacular fireworks display, called the Girandola, at the Castel Sant'Angelo. Re-created whenever a new pope was elected or crowned as well as on Easter and June 28, the eve of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the Girandola was popular with local audiences and tourists alike.

Toward the end of the 18th century, such pyrotechnic extravaganzas also were an expression of the sublime, where terror mixed with pleasure. Erupting volcanoes stirred up similar emotions, and in art and in literature at this time there was a close connection between nature’s fireworks, specifically volcanoes, and the manmade equivalent.

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720–1778)

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778)
Various Roman Ionic capitals compared with Greek examples, from Julien-David Le Roy's Les ruines des plus beaux monuments de la Grèce (1758): Plate 20 of Della magnificenza ed architettura de' romani, 1761
Engraving; 15 3/8 x 23 1/4 in. (39 x 59 cm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giovanni Battista Piranesi (Italian, 1720–1778)
An Analysis of the Structure of the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella: From Antichità Romane, 1756
Etching, plate 49 of Antichità Romane, vol. 3, first edition
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Antichita Romanae.Volume I Fig.I et II (tab.XV) : View of the pronaos or porch of the Panthéon in Rome. Interior view of the Panthéon.

Volume 1. Antichita Romanae. Pl. XLI : Plan of Nero`s Palace

Volume II. Le Antichita Romane. Pl.II double : imaginary composition of long street with old remains and statues

Volume II. Le Antichita Romane. Pl.IX double : interior view of the tomb of the family L. Arrunzio on the via Appia
Inscription: VEDUTA dell'Ingresso della CAMERA SEPOLCRALE di L. ARRUNZIO e della sua Famiglia. L'Anno 1736 nello scassare una vigna situata a mano sinistra prima d'uscire da Porta maggiore furono scoperte da Fran.co Belardi Affittuale molte Camere sepolcrali le quali sono state demolite a riserva della presente, e d'un'altra a questa vicina conservate ad istanza dell'Antiquario Ficoroni In questa per tanto contigui alle parieti, le quali sono d'opera reticolata, veggonsi inalzati molti Sepolcri di varia grandezza e costruttura, per la quale, come ancora per la forma alterata de'Caratteri delle Iscrizioni apposte a cadaun de'medesimi danno a divedere d'essere stati fabbricati in secoli diversi. Ogni Sepolcro secondo la sua capacitàcontiene due quattro o più Olle nelle quali furono riposte le ossa e le ceneri de'corpi abbruciati. Negli Angoli poi e quàe làsparsi furono trovati de'Sarcofaghi con dentro gli scheletri, dell'Vrne di marmi preziosi, de'Cinerarii, de'Cippi, Are funebri, Vasi lacrimatorii, Teschj coperti di tavoloni di cotto, e molti altri sepolcrali monumenti. Nell'esterno della Camera era situata la qui interposta Iscrizione, la quale in oggi esiste sulla nuova entrata, per cui si discende nella stessa Camera.

Volume II. Le Antichita Romane. Pl.X double : interior view of the tomb of the family L. Arrunzio on the via Appia

Volume II. Le Antichita Romane. Pl.XVI double : interior view of the tomb of the family L. Arrunzio on the via Appia

Volume III. Le Antichita Romane. Pl.XIX double : sarcophagus of the mausoleum of St Helen, mother of Constantine, on the via Lavicana.

Volume IV Le Antichita Romane. View of Castel Sant Angelo and the Mausoleum of Hadrian and Bridge
Inscription: VEDUTA del Ponte, e del Mausoleo, fabbricati da Elio Adriano Imp.re A Speroni, o Contraforti semicircolari del Ponte nella parte dietro al corso dell'acqua. B Pile quadrate. C Avanzi di Murelli di Mattoni fatti da moderni per riparo. D Arena portata dal Fiume in tempo dell'escrescenze, della quale sono quasi riempiti li due Archi E. F Arco moderno fabbricato sopra l'Arco antico. G Speroni contra la corrente. H Cloaca antica del Mausoleo, la quale scaricavasi nel Fiume. I In questa parte il Piano del Ponte sopra degli ultimi due Archi è stato alzato per renderlo pari al Piano moderno della Città. K Corpo di Guardia reale, per cui entrasi nel Castello. L Una delle quattordici Pietre, le quali segnano i Confini delle moderne Regioni. M Recinti di Mura, e Baloardi, fabbricati da sommi Pontefici in diversi tempi. N Masso antico, oggi chiamato il Maschio. O Copertura di mattoni sopra il Masso antico. P Arme di Alessandro VI. Q Parte dell'Abitazione del Castellano. R Angelo di metallo posto in centro del Maschio. S Palizzate per condurre l'acuqa di Mulini. T Rovine antiche. V Il Pelo più basso dell'Acqua per ordinario nel Mese d'Agosto d'ogni Anno.

One of the greatest printmakers of the eighteenth century, Piranesi always considered himself an architect.

The son of a stonemason and master builder, he received practical training in structural and hydraulic engineering from a maternal uncle who was employed by the Venetian waterworks, while his brother, a Carthusian monk, fired the aspiring architect with enthusiasm for the history and achievements of the ancient Romans.

After his arrival in Rome in 1740, he apprenticed himself briefly to Giuseppe Vasi, the foremost producer of the etched views of Rome that supplied pilgrims, scholars, artists, and tourists with a lasting souvenir of their visit. Quickly mastering the medium of etching, Piranesi found in it an outlet for all his interests, from designing fantastic complexes of buildings.

By 1747, Piranesi had begun the work for which he is best known, the Vedute di Roma (Views of Rome), and he continued to produce plates for the series until the year of his death in 1778.

His reproductions of real and recreated Roman ruins were a strong influence on Neoclassicism.

Cattainin (Caterina) Campodonico

Orengo, Lorenzo 1838-1909
Monument to Cattainin (Caterina) Campodonico 1881
Campo Santo di Staglieno, Genova, Liguria, Italy

Caterina Campodonico sold nuts and sweetmeats in the city of Genova. She wears her produce as decorative garlands

The purpose was to raise money for the purpose of raising a funeral monument.

Each chestnut and bread roll is lovingly carved, as is her lace-trimmed apron, her earrings and fringed shawl. She has become a dignified proletarian.

It was not by chance that Campodonico chose Orengo as the sculptor of her monument. He was the favourite sculptor of the other monuments of the deceased middle class who rest in the cemetery.

It is a statue of the age of realism; an affirmation of the individual. The deceased--no longer portrayed on a medallion but in full relief--is studied in an anecdotally realistic manner.

Allegory of Mortality

Punt, Jan 1711-1779
Allegory of Mortality
Chalk (black and red), watercolour (grey) on paper
Height: 16.8 cm; Width: 13.5 cm
Courtauld Art Gallery, London

Smoking Popes and Holy Smokes

Fr Ray Blake and Mac McLernon have reminded us smokers of the great debt we owe Pope Benedict XIII of blessed memory.

In 1624, on the logic that tobacco use prompts sneezing, which too closely resembles sexual ecstasy, Pope Urban VIII issued a worldwide smoking ban and threatened excommunication for those who smoked or took snuff in holy places. (Yes, the first cigarette in the morning is the best !)

Pope Innocent X issued another anti-smoking bull in 1650.

But in 1725 Good Pope Benedict XIII annulled all such edicts “in order to avoid the scandalous spectacle of dignitaries of the church hastening out in order to take a few clandestine whiffs in some corner away from spying eyes.” He himself liked to take snuff.

By the 18th Century, tobacco had earned a measure of respectability. Catholic priest Abbé Lattaignant wrote a popular song, "J'ai du bon tabac", ("I have good tobacco") which French schoolchildren still sing today.

By 1779, scenting a business opportunity, the Vatican opened its own tobacco factory in Garibaldi road in Rome (the name at that time is unknown).

By the first half of the nineteenth century,the production of tobacco was divided in three different manufactures:the snuff was produced in the S. Margherita Convent, the strong cigars were produced in the S. Michele home, and the light cigars were produced in S. Maria dell'Orto.

The fact that the tobacco plant has not been demonised at the Vatican may owe something to Pope Pius IX, who decided to leave the world a better place for smokers.

In 1863, he built a tobacco factory for cigar rolling in Rome's Trastevere neighborhood.

The buildings Latin inscription, recently restored, proudly states that the pope "built here from the ground up a factory for processing nicotine leaves." The big Tobacco factory was just ready in 1863.

This event is reminded on the inscription "PIUS IX OFFICINAM NICOTIANIS FOLIIS ELABORANDIS A SOLO EXTRUXIT. ANNO MDCCCLXIII" that is present on the building façade in Mastai's Square.

Now the beautiful building is the seat of the General Direction of the Autonomous Administration of the State Monopoly.

And on May. 19, 1930, Time Magazine reported that "The supreme Pontiff made known at the Vatican that in the Papal State the privilege of dealing in tobacco will shortly be constituted a government monopoly as in Italy."

Times may have changed but 100 years ago, smoking was definitely not a sin.

References:

British American Tobacco

Tuscan Cigars

The Atlantic

Mother Jeronima de la Asuncion

VELAZQUEZ, Diego Rodriguez de Silva y
(b. 1599, Sevilla, d. 1660, Madrid)
Abbess Jerónima de la Fuente 1620
Oil on canvas, 162 x 107,5 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Mother Jeronima de la Asuncion or Jeronima de la Fuente (May 9, 1555 - October 22, 1630) was the foundress of the first Catholic monastery in Manila and the Far East.

De la Asuncion's journey began in April 1620 from Toledo, Spain, with the initial group of six Poor Clare nuns. De la Asuncion was already 66 years old. The group set foot in the Philippines through the port of Bolinao on July 24, 1621. They reached Intramuros, the centre of Manila at the time, on August 5, 1621. Their trip from Toledo to Intramuros lasted one year, three months and nine days.

De la Asuncion's monastery became known as the Monastery of Santa Clara in Spanish Intramuros, Philippines. The Philippine monastery would be the first of its kind to be established both in Manila and in the Far East

For De la Asuncion's efforts as the first founding missionary woman in the Philippines, the Vatican had issued an apostolic decree for her beatification in 1734.

De la Asuncion's monastery in Intramuros was also immortalized in the novel, Noli Me Tangere, written by Jose Rizal, the national hero of the Philippines

The portrait was composed during De la Asuncion's stop-over in Seville, Spain, in 1620.

The painting is meant to convey the then sixty-six year old nun's "devoutness and strength of character through her stern expression and rugged countenance; her direct, outward gaze at the beholder; and her expressive accoutrements".

De la Asuncion was then wearing a dark, sober habit while holding a tome and a crucifix.

The elderly nun's gaze is keen and slightly melancholic, as if prepared for any sacrifice.

There are inscriptions on the painting.

The text across the top of the canvas read "It is good to await the salvation of God in silence", while the ribbon that flows from De la Asuncion's mouth stated "I shall be satisfied as long as He is glorified".

Mother Jerónima de la Asunción was called to the spiritual life at a young age, after reading a biography of Saint Clare. In 1569, she met Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), the renowned reformer of the Carmelite Order, who was establishing a Carmelite monastery in Toledo at the time. In 1570, she entered the Franciscan convent of Santa Isabel at the age of 15 and stayed until 1620.

The World

TURNER, Joseph Mallord William
(b. 1775, London, d. 1851, Chelsea)
War, the Exile and the Rock Limpet
1842
Oil on canvas, 79,5 x 79,5 cm
Tate Gallery, London

The World

Love built a stately house, where Fortune came,
And spinning fancies, she was heard to say,
That her fine cobwebs did support the frame,
Whereas they were supported by the same:
But Wisdom quickly swept them all away.

Then Pleasure came, who liking not the fashion,
Began to make Balconies, Terraces,
Till she had weakened all by alteration:
But rev'rend laws, and many a proclamation
Reformed all at length with menaces.

Then enter'd Sin, and with that Sycomore,
Whose leaves first sheltered man from drought and dew,
Working and winding slily evermore,
The inward walls and Sommers cleft and tore:
But Grace shor'd these, and cut that as it grew.

Then Sin combin'd with Death in a firm band
To raze the building to the very floor:
Which they effected, none could them withstand.
But Love and Grace took Glory by the hand,
And built a braver Palace than before.

George Herbert

The Parting of the Red Sea

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
The Parting of the Red Sea, 1966,
Private collection in New York

Pope John Paul II

Blessed John XXIII: the last photo ?

Psalm 52

Psalm 52
Psalter. Autun, ca. 1470.
Signatuur 76 E 8. Fol. 21r
Nationale bibliotheek van Nederland
The Hague

The Steadfast Love of God Endures

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of David, when Doeg, the Edomite, came and told Saul, “David has come to the house of Ahimelech.”

52:1 Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
2 Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
3 You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right. Selah
4 You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.

5 But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah
6 The righteous shall see and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
7 “See the man who would not make
God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!”

8 But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God
forever and ever.
9 I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.

A New Caravaggio

Caravaggio
I bari
1594-1595
Oil on canvas; 94,15 x 131,25cm
Fort Worth (Texas), Kimbell Art Museum

I Bari or The Cardsharps is a well known painting of Caravaggio presently housed at The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

Recently Sir Denis Mahon discovered another version of the painting. At first it was thought that it was merely a copy of the work in Fort Worth. On further investigation it has turned out to be a version done by Caravaggio himself. The authentication has been carried out by Professor Mina Gregori. The new painting is probably an earlier version of the subject executed about 1594 or 1595.

The differences are visible: the standpoint of the artist or viewer of the scene; the eyes and gazes of the sharps.

Both versions at one time were probably in the ownership of Cardinal Del Monte, the patron of Caravaggio.

The "new" Caravaggio: I Bari
Presently on exhibition in The Italian Institute of Culture, London

A Small Step in the Process Toward Reunion ?

The Times today under the banner Vatican joins historic talks to end 950-year rift with Orthodox church has a story on the Ravenna Declaration.


"The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches took tentative steps towards healing their 950-year rift yesterday by drafting a joint document that acknowledges the primacy of the Pope.

The 46-paragraph “Ravenna Document”, written by a special commission of Catholic and Orthodox officials, envisages a reunified church in which the Pope could be the most senior patriarch among the various Orthodox churches.

Just as Pope John Paul II was driven by the desire to bring down Communism, so Pope Benedict XVI hopes passionately to see the restoration of a unified Church. Although he is understood to favour closer relations with traditional Anglicans, the Anglican Communion is unlikely to be party to the discussions because of its ordination of women and other liberal practices."

"Pope Benedict has called a meeting of cardinals from all over the world in Rome on November 23, when the document will be the main topic of discussion. The Ravenna “road map” concedes that “elements of the true Church are present outside the Catholic communion”.

It suggests that means “be sought out” to set up a new ecumenical council, similar to those of the early Church which drew up the Nicene and other creeds, and to which Catholic and Orthodox bishops would be invited. Such a council would attempt formally to end the schism of 1054 between East and West.

If the proposals move forward, the Pope would be acknowledged as the universal Primate, as he was before the schism. Although it is not stated outright, he would be expected by the Orthodox churches to relinquish the doctrine of infallibility. The proposals could also allow married priests in the Catholic Church, as already happens in the Orthodox.

However, continuing disputes within the Orthodox Church between Constantinople and Moscow mean that there is unlikely to be agreement among the entire Orthodox community about reconciliation with Rome.

The document, The Ecclesiological and Canonical Consequences of the Sacramental Nature of the Church, has been produced by a commission of Orthodox and Catholic bishops and theologians that met in Ravenna in western Italy last month. The Russian delegate walked out of the meeting, an indication of the enduring disputes within the Orthodox Church. "

One wonders if the politics of the situation will be an insurmountable obstacle towards religious reunion ?

The Madonna with the Christ child

Jean Fouquet (1420 - 1481)
The Madonna with the Christ child
Book of Hours of Simon de Varie
Paris, 1455; Tours, c. 1455.
Vellum, 99 leaves, 116 x 85 mm. - 74 G 37a, fol. 1v-2r
Koninklijke Bibliotheek , National Library of the Netherlands,
The Hague

Pilgrimage at Sunset (Sunrise)

FRIEDRICH, Caspar David
(b. 1774, Greifswald, d. 1840, Dresden)
Pilgrimage at Sunset (Sunrise)1805
Sepia, 405 x 620 mm
Kunstsammlungen, Weimar

The Church from an Asian perspective: too Westernised and too intellectual ?

In The Times there is an interesting obituary of the late Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, former Bishop of Yokohama and former president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers who died on November 8, 2007.

"The Japanese Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, a former president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers, thought the Vatican “excessively Westernised”. The Church's focus on Europe, he thought, meant that the Roman Curia struggled to understand the mentality of Asia's Christians.

Recent papal exhortations for priests to use more Latin merely reflected, said Hamao, the Vatican's inability to comphrehend the culture of the Far East. Using Latin, said the Cardinal, was “impossible for Asians”, “European- centred” and “too much”, although years earlier Hamao had instructed the Emperor of Japan in the language while he was still a crown prince.

Likewise, while Jesus and the Gospel appealed to the Japanese, Hamao judged the Church's westernised theology “over-intellectualised” and too alien to touch the Japanese heart. To counter this Eurocentric focus, Hamao urged Pope Benedict XVI to appoint more Asians to the Roman Curia. Three weeks later the Pope appointed an Indian, Cardinal Ivan Dias of Bombay, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

Stephen Fumio Hamao was born in Tokyo in 1930, the third son of Viscount Hamao Shiro. His family, like many Japanese, kept both a Shinto and a Buddhist temple at home, until in 1942 when his widowed mother became a Catholic. Hamao was baptised four years later, along with his brother, a future chamberlain to Emperor Akihito of Japan.

After attending the state university in Tokyo, he entered the seminary, a decision for which his mother was criiticised vociferously by her family. In December 1957, after studies in Rome, Hamao was ordained a priest, later becoming auxiliary bishop of Tokyo and in 1979 was appointed Bishop of Yokohama, Japan's second most populous city. While there, Hamao became head of the AsiaOceania branch of the charity Caritas and was noted for his concern for the poor, refugees and immigrants. In 1995 he was elected president of the Japanese Episcopal Conference; three years later John Paul II named him president of the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travellers.

Made a cardinal in 2003, Hamao resigned from the council in March 2006. A month earlier he helped to persuade the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints to beatify 188 17th-century Japanese martyrs. The beatification — the last step before sainthood — will be the first to take place in Japan, and will occur in Nagasaki next November. The beatifications, Hamao declared, would benefit all Japanese, not just Christians, as the right to religious belief was “a fundamental human right”. While Japan upholds freedom on religious belief, Hamao said many there view religion as a matter of family tradition, rather than personal conviction. The Christian faith, he added, while respected in Japan, is often perceived, because Christians attend Church every Sunday, as compared to the once-yearly obligatory temple visit for Buddhists — as exceptionally strict."

He was responsible for the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People`s Document: People on the Move N° 97, April 2005- The Instruction Erga migrantes caritas Christi: a Response of the Church to the Migration Phenomenon Today which is on the Vatican website. and other important documents on migration listed here.

The Missionary Congregation of St Gemma Galgani.

The Italian journal Adista reports on an unfortunate and disturbing dispute between Bishop Marcello Semeraro, Bishop of Albano and the Missionary Congregation of St Gemma Galgani.

According to Adista, the nuns' job was teaching Christian doctrine to the children of the Parish. They have been sacked by the Bishop of Albano, from Laziale, near Rome, because they refused to accept a clause in their contract which required that they be home helps of the Parish Priest and the Vice-Parish Priest of the Parish of Saints Peter and Paul in the town of Aprília .

The Bishop’s demand was considered 'unacceptable' by the Superior of the Mother House in Lucca, Tuscany, about 10 miles north-east of Pisa.

As a result the Bishop has dismissed the three sisters in spite of a petition signed by 1500 parishioners supporting them.

Bishop Semeraro did not even take into account the fact that the priests in question have stated that they 'had not asked for the services of the sisters in view of the fact that they prefer their present condition and their independence.'

On October 21 the three sisters had to leave the parish.

The Sisters of St Gemma are one of about 15 small religious congregrations that are associated in varying degrees to the Passionist order.

They were founded by Mother Gemma Giannini (1884-1971) who knew St. Gemma Galgani in 1899 and lived in close friendship with her.

When the monastery of the Passionist Nuns at Lucca was opened, she entered in 1906 and remained a Passionist nun until 1938.

Because she had not recovered her health, despite repeated exits for cures, she left definitively with the idea of gathering a group of women who would live in the spirit of St. Gemma outside the cloister.

With two other companions, she began the Institute on June 8, 1939 at Villa Guerra (Camigliano, Lucca), because "it seemed to her that the Lord would want the places sanctified by St. Gemma to be in the care of persons living according to her spirit."

They are committed "to loving and making Jesus known through the teaching of catechism to little ones, through meditation on the Passion, as rural catechists, especially in rural areas".

The sisters take the Special vow of the Passionists. The first approbation was from the Ordinary of La Spezia in 1946.

As a Diocescan congregation, they are in theory at the beck and call of the Bishop.

One does wonder if the Bishop had taken leave of his senses. Good on the Mother Superior for not allowing her sisters to be unpaid household druges.

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.

Today Benedict XVI expressed his joy at being able to pray before the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, which are in Rome accompanied by pilgrims and the bishop from the saint's home diocese.

At the end of today's general audience, the Pope greeted the faithful from the French Diocese of Bayeux and Lisieux, and Bishop Pierre Auguste Pican, who are in Rome on pilgrimage, with the relics of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face.

The Holy Father recalled how "120 years ago, Thérèse of Lisieux came to Rome to ask permission of Pope Leo XIII to enter the Carmelite order, despite her youth. Eighty years ago, Pope Pius XI proclaimed her patron saint of missions, and in 1997, Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the Church."

"In this audience," he continued, "I will have the joy of praying before her relics, as will many faithful over the course of this week in various churches in Rome."

"St. Thérèse would have liked to learn the languages of the Bible in order to better understand sacred Scripture," he said. "Following her example and that of St. Jerome, dedicate time to frequent reading of the Bible. By familiarizing yourselves with the Word of God, you will discover Christ and remain in intimate contact with him."