VATICAN CTY, JUL 30, 2004 (VIS) - Twice a year - at the end of July and the end of December - VIS presents highlights of the activities of Pope John Paul and the Holy See. Following is an overview of the first seven months of 2004:
JANUARY
Thursday, 1: 37th World Day of Peace, whose theme was: "An Ever-timely Commitment: Teaching Peace."
Tuesday, 6: Pope John Paul does not ordain new bishops in St. Peter's Basilica, as he customarily does on the feast of the Epiphany. The only other time he did not ordain bishops on January 6 occurred in 2001 when he closed the Holy Door at St. Peter's that day to end the Jubilee Year 2000.
Thursday, 8: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of State, celebrates Mass in St. Peter's Basilica for the repose of the soul of Archbishop Michael Courtney, apostolic nuncio in Burundi, who was assassinated on December 29 in that country. Pope receives Prime Minister Ivo Sanader of Croatia.
Friday, 9: Letters of Credence of Giuseppe Balboni Acqua of Italy.
Saturday, 10: Letters of Credence of Kouame Benjamin Konan of Ivory Coast, and of Bambang Prayitno of Indonesia.
Monday, 12: Annual papal address to Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See.
Friday, 16: Pope welcomes Jona Metzgher and Shlomo Amar, chief rabbis of Israel, and Oded Wiener, director of the Chief Rabbinate.
Thursday, 22: Audience for President Guido de Marco of Malta.
Friday, 23: Audience for Jose Maria Aznar, president of Spanish government.
Saturday, 24: Publication of Pope's Message for 38th World Communications Day. Theme: "The Media and the Family: A Risk and a Richness."
Tuesday, 27: Pope welcomes U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife.
Thursday, 29: Papal Message for Lent 2004. Theme: "Whoever Receives One Such Child in My Name Receives Me."
Friday, 30: Letters of Credence of Chou-seng Tou of the Republic of China.
FEBRUARY
Monday, 2: Eighth Day of Consecrated Life.
Saturday, 7: Audience for U.N. General Assembly President Julian Robert Hunte.
Monday, 9: Cardinal Opilio Rossi dies at 93.
Wednesday, 11: Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and 12th World Day of the Sick, celebrated in Lourdes on the theme: "The Immaculate Conception and Health in the Christian Roots of Europe"; 75th anniversary of Lateran Pacts that created Vatican City State.
Thursday, 12: Audiences for: President Alvaro Uribe Velez of Colombia, Ahmed Qurei, prime minister of the Palestinian National Authority, and Kamal Kharrazi, foreign minister of Islamic Republic of Iran.
Monday, 16: Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, starts visit to Moscow.
Friday, 20: Papal Message marks 10th anniversary of Pontifical Academy for Life.
Saturday, 21: Letters of Credence of Osman Durak of Turkey.
Tuesday, 24: Letters of Credence of Javier Moctezuma Barragan of Mexico.
Wednesday, 25: Pope presides at Ash Wednesday ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica, instead of the traditional procession to the basilica of Santa Sabina.
Friday, 27: Letters of Credence of Miroslav Palameta of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
MARCH
Monday, 1: Letters of Credence of Carlos Luis Custer of Argentina; Publication of Papal Message for 19th World Youth Day on the theme: "We want to see Jesus."
Saturday, 6: Audience for German President Johannes Rau.
Tuesday, 9: Publication by Congregation for Bishops of "Apostolorum Successores," A Directory for the Pastoral Ministry of Bishops. Pope appoints Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon as president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.
Thursday, 11: Telegram in Pope's name for terrorist attacks in Madrid. Pope receives Rafael Bielsa, minister of foreign affairs of Argentina.
Saturday, 13: Letters of Credence of Armando Luna Silva of Nicaragua. Death of Cardinal Franz Koenig at age 98.
Sunday, 14: John Paul's pontificate becomes third longest in history at 25 years, 5 months and 1 day: he follows St. Peter and Pope Pius IX.
Monday, 15: Giovanni Lonfernini I and Valeria Ciavatta I, captains regent of the Republic of San Marino.
Saturday, 20: Pope to Federation of Catholic Medical Associations meeting on clinical condition known as "vegetative state": "People in a 'vegetative state', waiting to recover or for a natural end, have the right to basic health care (nutrition, hydration, hygiene, warmth, etc)."
Thursday, 25: Charlemagne Prize from city of Aachen, Germany, bestowed on Holy Father.
Friday, 26: Cardinal Sodano celebrates Mass for victims of Madrid terrorist attack.
APRIL
Friday, 2: Letters of Credence of Naji Abi Assi of Lebanon.
Monday, 5: Audience for President Abel Pacheco de la Espriella of Costa Rica.
Saturday, 17: Pope welcomes President Joaquim Alberto Chissano of Mozambique.
Monday, 19: Letters of Credence of Leonida L. Vera of the Philippines.
Thursday, 22: Audience for Andreas Khol, president of Austrian Parliament.
Friday, 23: Presentation of "Redemptionis Sacramentum," the document on the liturgy produced by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments.
Friday, 30: Audience for Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office in Vienna on Drugs and Crime.
MAY
Monday, 3: Holy See delegation returns from six-day visit to Vietnam.
Friday, 7: Letters of Credence of Grygorii Fokovych Khoruzhyi of Ukraine.
Monday, 10: Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, departs on visit to Romania.
Tuesday, 11: Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, secretary for Relations with States, starts official visit to London.
Thursday, 13: Audience for President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal.
Friday, 14: Presentation of document by Pontifical Council for Pastoral Care of Migrants, "Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi" (The Love of Christ Towards Migrants).
Saturday, 15: Audiences for President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, and for Dora Bakoyiannis, mayor of Athens, Greece.
Monday, 17: Pope receives President Ricardo Maduro Joest of Honduras.
Tuesday, 18: John Paul II turns 84. Audiences for Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso of Portugal, and for President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland. Cardinal Hyacinthe Thiandoum, archbishop emeritus of Dakar, Senegal, dies at age 83.
Friday, 21: Prime Minister Helen Clark of New Zealand is received by Pope.
Sunday, 23: Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar for the diocese of Rome, reads papal Message to Riccardo Di Segni, chief rabbi of Rome, for the centenary of the synagogue during a commemorative service. Cardinal Walter Kasper leaves for five-day visit to Jerusalem.
Monday, 24: Audiences for President Branko Crvenkovski of the Republic of Macedonia, and for President of the Parliament of Bulgaria, Oghnjan Gerdjikov.
Thursday, 27: Letters of Credence of seven new ambassadors: Edgard Stephanus Ragoenath Amanh of Suriname; Sarala Manourie Fernando of Sri Lanka; Mohamed Salia Sokona of Mali; Yaha Ali Mohamed al-Abiad of Yemen; Anderson Kaseba Chibwa of Zambia; Kingsley Sunny Ebenyi of Nigeria and Afif Hendaoui of Tunisia. Pope also receives Igor Sergeevich Rimmer, president of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, Russian Federation.
Friday, 28: Audience for Prime Minister Anton Rop of Slovenia.
JUNE
Friday, 4: Pope welcomes U.S. President George W. Bush to Vatican for third time.
Saturday, 5 - Sunday, 6: Pope makes third apostolic trip to Switzerland. Diplomatic ties between Holy See and Switzerland are normalized, at levels of apostolic nuncio and ambassador plenipotentiary.
Tuesday, 8: Announcement that the Vatican Archives will publish "Inter Arma Caritas. The Information Office in the Vatican for Prisoners of War Instituted by Pius XII (1939-1947)."
Thursday, 10: During Eucharistic celebration at St. John Lateran Basilica for the solemnity of Corpus Christi, John Paul II announces a Eucharistic Year starting October 2004 and ending October 2005.
Tuesday, 15: Presentation in Holy See Press Office of "The Inquisition," a volume containing the acts of the international symposium that took place in the Vatican in October 1998, organized by the Historical-Theological Commission of the Committee for the Jubilee Year. Division of the archdiocese of Barcelona, Spain and creation of new dioceses.
Friday, 18: Letters of Credence of Jorge Dezcallar de Mazarredo of Spain.
Saturday, 19: Holy See expresses satisfaction at adoption of European Union constitution, but "distress over the opposition by some governments to explicit recognition of Christian roots of Europe." Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," leaves for Haiti and Dominican Republic.
Monday, 21: Audience for Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, president of the Spanish government.
Friday, 25: Audience for President Edward Fenech Adami of Malta.
Monday, 28: Pope welcomes Their Royal Highnesses, Felipe and Letizia de Borbon, Prince and Princess of Asturias. Papal telegram to His Excellency Sheikh Ghazi Ajeel Al-Yawar, president of Iraq, on the occasion of the transfer of power today to the Interim Government of the State of Iraq.
Tuesday, 29: Holy Father welcomes Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to the Vatican at 11 a.m.. At 6 p.m. in St. Peter's Square, Eucharistic celebration in the presence of the patriarch, during which Pope confers palliums on 44 metropolitan archbishops.
JULY
Thursday, 1: United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopts Resolution that upgrades Holy See role as permanent observer. Holy See does not need to ask permission to participate in debates, has right of reply, to circulate documents and to raise points of order.
Monday, 5: Pope arrives Les Combes, Valle d'Aosta, for vacation (until July 17).
Thursday, 15: Cardinal Angelo Sodano, secretary of State, and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of the Russian Federation meet.
Thursday, 22: Papal envoy, Archbishop Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," departs for Khartoum, Sudan to meet with Church leaders and to visit the Darfur region where there is a serious humanitarian and refugee crisis.
.../HIGHLIGHTS 2004/... VIS 20040730 (1560)
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