IT IS TIME TO RECREATE THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHURCH AND ART

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Jubilee of Artists began this morning, the feast of Blessed Fra Angelico, with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, presided over by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's central Jubilee committee.

In his homily the cardinal told the artists that they "represent quite simply mankind, mankind in its integrity, which cannot be separated from the artistic dimension. God made man the creature also as creator. ... And what a prestigious artist was this God who made us one by one, each a unique being, each bearing His authentic signature!

"It is incumbent on each one of us to be, as He was, an artist, certainly not by profession but by birth. And your Jubilee pilgrimage happily reminds us of all the nobility of this birth which makes us ... 'creative' creatures. I like the witty remark by one philosopher: 'God created man as little as possible,' as a kind of rough draft of His image, entrusting to each one the task of refining His work."

Following Mass, the Pope arrived in the basilica and addressed those present, affirming that "it is time to recreate that fruitful alliance between the Church and artists that has amply marked Christianity's journey over two millennia. Dear faithful artists, this presupposes your ability to deeply live the reality of Christian faith, in order that it become a generator of culture and give the world new 'epiphanies' of divine beauty, reflected in creation."

"The Jubilee," he continued, "solicits us to welcome this grace of resurrection" that it may heal our lives "not just from sin, but also from the dregs that sin leaves within us, even after we are reconciled with God. ... The conversion of heart is, so to say, the work of art that the Spirit and our liberty create together."

"If artistic creation needs 'inspiration', the spiritual path has need of grace."

The Pope stated that "if we are capable of discerning, in the multiple manifestations of beauty, a ray of the supreme beauty, then art becomes a path towards God, and stimulates artists to marry their creative talent with a commitment to live ever more in conformity with divine law."

Today's Jubilee celebration, he said, "is an invitation to practice the stupendous 'art' of sanctity." During this process "grace sustains us, also by means of that ecclesiastical fellowship through which the Church renders herself mother to everyone. ... Is not this, perhaps, the meaning of the 'mater Ecclesia' which Bernini so magnificently evoked in the colonnade's solemn embrace? Those masterful arms are, nonetheless, maternal arms that open to all humanity. Within them, all members of the Church may feel cheered as they follow the pilgrim path, on the journey to the ultimate homeland."

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SERVICE TO COMMEMORATE ABRAHAM SET FOR VIGIL OF PAPAL TRIP

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - A Commemoration of Abraham, "our father in the faith," presided over by Pope John Paul II, will be held in the Paul VI Hall on Wednesday, February 23, 2000 at 10:15 a.m. it was announced today by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Heads of curial offices will join the Holy Father in this moment of prayer on the vigil of his pilgrimage to places linked with the history of salvation. The Pope leaves for Egypt on February 24 and will be at St. Catherine's on Mount Sinai, the principal focus of his first Jubilee Year pilgrimage, on February 26.

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PROGRAM FOR JUBILEE OF PERMANENT DEACONS

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - Today at 5 p.m. in St. Mary Major Basilica, Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy, will inaugurate the Jubilee of Permanent Deacons. Following his welcome speech, there will be the recitation of the rosary and Eucharistic adoration and benediction.

The program for Saturday, February 19, will take place in the Paul VI Hall, starting with Mass at 8:30 a.m., presided over by Archbishop Zenon Grocholewski, prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. This will be followed by a talk on St. Lawrence, Deacon, celebration of the Third Hour with Cardinal Pio Laghi and an audience with the Holy Father at noon.

Saturday afternoon the program continues with a meeting at 4 p.m. of permanent deacons and a speech to them by Archbishop Roberto Octavio Gonzalez of San Juan de Puerto Rico on "The permanent deacon: his identity, role and prospective." At this same hour the families of permanent deacons who are married will meet in Holy Spirit Church near the Vatican where Cardinal James Francis Stafford, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, will speak on "The Ideal Family of the Married Permanent Deacon."

At 6 p.m. all participants will meet at the obelisk in St. Peter's Square for a penitential procession through the Holy Door, the profession of faith and a renewal of commitments assumed on ordination day.

On Sunday, February 20 at 9 a.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos will ordain new deacons. This will be followed by the noon angelus with the Holy Father.

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GIORDANO BRUNO'S DEATH, A "SAD EPISODE" IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - Made public yesterday afternoon was a letter from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of state, to Fr. Adolfo Russo, dean of the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Southern Italy which has organized the February 17-18 meeting in Naples on the theme "Giordano Bruno: Beyond Myth and Contrasting Passions. An Historical-Theological Recognition." The letter was read at the afternoon session of the symposium.

The cardinal writes that "the Jubilee Year is for the Church a privileged occasion to revive and celebrate her faith in Christ. ... This does not, however, dispense her from recalling the many incoherences which have marked the behavior of her children, thus throwing shadows on the proclamation of the Gospel. It is for this reason that, among the signs of the Jubilee, the Supreme Pontiff has placed that of the purification of memory, asking of everyone an act of courage and humility in recognizing their own failings and those of all who bear or have borne the name of Christian."

"His Holiness," adds Cardinal Sodano, "has thus learned with great pleasure that, precisely with these sentiments, this theological faculty intends to recall Giordano Bruno who, on February 17, 1600, was executed in Rome at Campo dei Fiori, following a verdict of heresy pronounced by the Tribunal of the Roman Inquisition. This sad episode of modern Christian history has sometimes been taken up by several cultural currents as a point of departure for and emblem of a bitter criticism with regard to the Church." He said that we are invited "to re-read also this event with a spirit open to full historical truth."

The secretary of state then recalled that the philosopher Giordano Bruno was born and raised near Naples and it was there that he took his vows as a Dominican.

"In reality," says his letter, "even on the basis of up-to-date research done by scholars of diverse ideas, it seems an acquired (fact) that the path of his thought, undertaken in a context of a rather animated existence and on the background of an unfortunately divided Christianity, led him to intellectual choices which progressively revealed themselves, on several decisive points, to be incompatible with Christian doctrine. It will be up to a further and deeper study to evaluate the effective scope of his divarication of the faith."

Cardinal Sodano then observes that "the fact remains that the members of the Tribunal of the Inquisition tried him with methods of coercion which were common at the time" and which led to "an atrocious death. It is not up to us to express judgements on the conscience of those who were involved in this affair," though it seems they were "animated by the desire to serve the truth and the common good, doing everything possible to save his life."

He concludes: "Objectively, however, several aspects of that procedure and, in particular, the violent outcome by the hands of civil authorities, can only constitute today for the Church - in this as in other similar cases - a motive of profound regret."

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 18 FEB, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Luis Gabriel Cuara Mendez of Tuxpan, Mexico, as bishop of Veracruz (area 9,000, population 2,428,000, Catholics 2,240,000, priests 97, religious 249), Mexico. He succeeds Bishop Jose Guadalupe Padilla Lozano, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

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AUDIENCE

VATICAN CITY, FEB 18, 2000 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in audience Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Archbishop Tarcisio Bertone and Fr. Gianfranco Girotti, O.F.M.Conv., respectively prefect, secretary and under-secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and Fr. Georges Cottier, O.P., secretary general of the International Theological Commission.

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