POPE JOHN PAUL WROTE A LETTER TO CARDINAL ENNIO ANTONELLI, archbishop of Florence, Italy, on the occasion of the upcoming celebrations for the centenary of the birth of Giorgio La Pira, former mayor of Florence and "an exemplary Christian lay person." In the November 1 Letter he wrote that "La Pira was gifted with great intellectual and moral strength," and noted "the spiritual legacy that he left the Church of Florence and the entire ecclesial community. His spirituality was, so to speak, 'immanent' to daily activity; from Eucharistic communion to meditation, to his cultural commitment, to social and political action, there was continuity in all he did. .... Faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, ... he understood public office as serving the common good. ... Let us pray that his example will stimulate and encourage all those who make an effort to witness, with their lives, to the Gospel in modern society and who work for the common good."
IN A LETTER DATED OCTOBER 18, AND PUBLISHED TODAY, to Cardinal Salvatore De Giorgi, archbishop of Palermo, Italy and president of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference, the Holy Father expressed his "spiritual presence" at the October 24 Eucharistic celebration in Palermo that concluded a week of prayer and reflection preparatory to celebrations in Sicily to mark the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The Pope noted that, in the 17th century, the city of Palermo officially asked the Holy See to proclaim this dogma, adding that "the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed the principal patroness of all Sicily, with the faithful committed to professing and defending this truth, to the point of dying for it. ... In 1850 the Sicilian episcopacy, answering a query by Pope Pius IX, unanimously expressed their hope that this dogma would be proclaimed, affirming that the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary was an integral and undeniable part of the patrimony of faith and piety of the Christian people of the island."
.../IN BRIEF/... VIS 20041108 (340)
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