IN BRIEF

POPE JOHN PAUL, in liturgical memory of the virgin-martyr St. Agnes, whose feast is today and for whom the traditional symbol is a lamb, blessed some baby lambs in the library of his apartment. The wool of these lambs will be used to make the palliums given every year to new metropolitan archbishops as signs of their office. The blessing of lambs, who are under one year of age, is traditionally celebrated on the January 21 feast of St. Agnes, who died about 350 and who is buried in the basilica named for her on Rome's Via Nomentana. The lambs are raised by Trappist Fathers of the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome and the palliums are made from the newly-shorn wool by the sisters of St. Cecilia.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN FOLEY, PRESIDENT of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications yesterday inaugurated the Cardinal Deskur Room located in the council offices in the Palazzo San Carlo in the Vatican. Cardinal Deskur is the president emeritus of the social communications council. Archbishop Foley noted that the newly restored room, which is the projection room of the Vatican Film Library, "has hosted many film premieres for a select audience and the Holy Father also has been a guest several times, showing his interest in the world of cinema." Three short films were projected yesterday: "Leo XIII" in the Vatican Gardens, from 1896, "The Inferno" and "The View of Michelangelo."
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