CELEBRATIONS IN HONOR OF ST. BRIGID OF SWEDEN

VATICAN CITY, SEP 10, 2002 (VIS) - On October 4 and 5, on the occasion of the seventh centennial of the birth of St. Brigid of Sweden, a symposium will take place in Rome on the theme, "For a more just and dignified world: The Way of Beauty." An ecumenical celebration presided by the Pope will also take place.

On the morning of Friday October 4, after the general abbess of the Order of the Holy Savior of St. Brigid, Mother M. Tekla Famiglietti, inaugurates the workshops, several conferences are scheduled to take place. For example: "Femininity and Beauty: a resource for Europe"; "Brigid of Sweden: a woman for unity"; "Catherine of Siena: the teachings of a woman"; "Edith Stein: a woman in the silence of the Cross." At 6 p.m., John Paul II will preside at St. Peter's Basilica in an ecumenical celebration with Vespers.

On Saturday October 5, workshops will continue, focussing on two main themes: "A new soul for the old continent" and "New Music for the Third Millennium." Cardinals Alfonso Lopez Trujillo and Crescenzio Sepe, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, will speak respectively about St. Brigid and the Gospel of the family, and St. Brigid and the Gospel of the poor. Bishop Anders Arborelius of Stockholm will speak about the Gospel of peace. At 5:30p.m. in the Basilica of St. Lorenzo in Damaso, Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, will celebrate mass and later there will be a concert of sacred classical and modern music.

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