"We know that after the Second Vatican Council some people were convinced that everything was new, that there was a new church, that the pre-conciliar church was finished and that we would have a completely different church," the pope said during his general audience March 10.

Their vision would have led to "a utopian anarchy," he said, but the wise guidance of Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II "defended the new things brought by the council, while affirming the oneness and continuity of the church."

The pope's made his remarks about reactions to the Second Vatican Council during an audience talk focused on St. Bonaventure's attempts in the mid-1200s to balance enthusiasm for the new form of religious life introduced by St. Francis of Assisi with continued fidelity to the hierarchal church.

St. Bonaventure taught the early Franciscans and continues to teach Catholics today that living the faith requires "discernment, sober realism and openness to new gifts" given to the church by the Holy Spirit, the pope said.

St. Bonaventure was superior of the Franciscans at a time when a large group of friars embraced the teaching of Joachim of Fiore, who taught that history followed a "Trinitarian rhythm," in which the Old Testament age was the time of God the father, a time of severity; the New Testament and the first millennium of the church was the time of Jesus Christ and the "relative freedom" that came from no longer being bound to many of the Jewish laws; and the age of the Holy Spirit was to be a time "of complete freedom," the pope said.

The group of Franciscans who saw St. Francis as initiating the age of the Holy Spirit believed it would be a time when "the hierarchical church was left behind in order to give birth to the new church of the Holy Spirit, no longer tied to the old structures," the pope said.

"There was, therefore, a risk of a very serious misunderstanding of St. Francis' message and of his humble fidelity to the Gospel and to the church," the pope said.

After studying Joachim of Fiore in depth, St. Bonaventure presented his own theology of history, affirming that history is a progressive movement, but that it is directed by God, who is one and who has fully revealed himself to humanity in Jesus Christ, the pope said.

The Gospel is God's final revelation to humanity and the church is where God wants people to live their faith, the pope said.

"This does not mean that the church is immobile, fixed in the past and that there can never be anything new in it," the pope said, because as St. Bonaventure taught, "the works of Christ do not go backward, but progress."

Greeting English speakers at the audience, Pope Benedict spoke of the "promising sign of hope" coming from the Northern Ireland Assembly's vote March 9 to move oversight of the police and of the courts from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, furthering the process toward full local governance.

The pope said he prayed the move would "help consolidate the future of peace desired by all."

And, at the end of the audience, the pope also expressed his condolences to the people of eastern Turkey where an earthquake March 8 left more than 50 people dead and left thousands homeless.

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Editor's Note: The text of the pope's audience remarks in English will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100310_en.html.

The text of the pope's audience remarks in Spanish will be posted online at: www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2010/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20100310_sp.html.

Another group of faculty and students from Lourdes College traveled to New Orleans to conduct professional development activities with teachers and students in the Archdiocese of New Orleans school system.

Notre Dame Sister Marya Czech, assistant professor of biology and health sciences; Jennifer Fong, director of the center for professional studies; Notre Dame Sister Jaculin Manders, instructor of mathematics; Kerri Riggs, instructor of psychology and several Lourdes students are to give presentations and workshops focusing on subjects including curriculum mapping, digital literacy, genetics and evolution and kinesthetic learning of science processes.     

“This is our second year working with these schools,” says Sr. Czech. “After Hurricane Katrina hit, the schools received a number of new technologies during the rebuilding process. Our professional development activities focus on helping the teachers learn how best to utilize these technologies and apply them in their classrooms.”  

The group is keeping an online blog during the trip at http://www.lourdes.edu/professionalstudies.

A third team of students led by Dr. Martha Gallagher, an instructor of nursing at Lourdes College, set out on a mission trip to Lima, Peru, to provide health care to area residents. Dr. Gallagher is keeping an online blog documenting the trip at http://www.lourdes.edu/peru.

Meeting in Orlando, the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church in America voted to seek entry into the Catholic Church under the guidelines established in Pope Benedict XVI's apostolic constitution "Anglicanorum Coetibus" ("Groups of Anglicans"), said a March 3 statement.

The Anglican Church in America is part of the Traditional Anglican Communion, a group of churches which separated from the worldwide Anglican Communion in 1991. The Traditional Anglican Communion claims 400,000 members worldwide.

The request means the 100 Anglican Church in America parishes will ask for group reception into the Catholic Church in a "personal ordinariate," a structure similar to dioceses for former Anglicans who become Catholic.

Churches under the personal ordinariate can retain their Anglican character and much of their liturgy and practices — including married priests — while being in communion with the Catholic Church.

Archbishop John Hepworth of Australia, primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and Father Christopher Phillips of Our Lady of the Atonement Parish, an Anglican-use Catholic church in San Antonio, attended the meeting, according to the statement.

The Anglican Church in America is the third group of Anglican churches to respond positively to the Vatican's invitation.

The first was the United Kingdom branch of the Traditional Anglican Communion, which comprises about 20 small parishes and which in October began the process of joining the Catholic Church under the apostolic constitution.

The second was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group which is in communion with mainstream Anglican churches. In February Forward in Faith directed its governing council to take the steps needed for 16 parishes to join the Catholic Church.

The United Kingdom branch of Forward in Faith also is considering making a request for an ordinariate. A final decision is not expected before July.

Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst estimated that about 200 Anglican parishes will seek to join the Catholic Church if Forward in Faith decides to ask for an ordinariate.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have established a commission to prepare for the group reception of Anglican parishes. Headed by four bishops working with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the commission is examining issues such as church ownership, the advantages and disadvantages of church sharing and long-term leases of some Anglican parishes.

Celebrating Mass March 7 at the Rome parish of St. John of the Cross and reciting the Angelus at the Vatican afterward, the pope focused on the day's Gospel story in which Jesus tells his followers they must convert or they will perish.

At the parish, which was founded in 1989, the pope said Lent is "an invitation to the conversion of our lives and to doing appropriate acts of penitence."

The crowd Jesus was addressing in the day's Gospel story thought that people who met a sudden and violent death were sinners, while the fact that members of Jesus' audience were still alive meant they had nothing to worry about, the pope said.

But Jesus warned them that by not recognizing their own sins and not setting out on the path to conversion, they would not be saved, he said.

"During Lent, each one of us is called by God to make a change, thinking and living according to the Gospel, correcting things in our way of praying, acting, working and relating to others," he said.

"Jesus makes this appeal to us not with an aim of severity, but because he is concerned for our welfare, our happiness and our salvation," the pope said.

Reciting the Angelus later with visitors in St. Peter's Square, the pope said the Gospel story teaches Christians not to look for fault among the victims of disasters, but to recognize how much they need God in their own lives and to ask for the strength to convert.

"In the face of sin, God reveals himself to be full of mercy and does not hesitate to call sinners to avoid evil, to grow in his love and to concretely help their neighbors in need so they can live in the joy of grace and not face eternal death," the pope said.