MEETING OF HEADS OF CATHOLIC CULTURAL CENTERS

VATICAN CITY, JUN 14, 2005 (VIS) - Today in Salta, Argentina, Cardinal Paul Poupard inaugurated the Second Meeting of Heads of Catholic Cultural Centers in the Southern Cone, delivering a talk entitled: "The Catholic Identity of Cultural Centers and Young People in Search of the Beauty that Captivates." The meeting is from June 14 to 16.

  The gathering, organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture on the theme, "The Catholic Identity of Cultural Centers and Young People in Public Life," will be presided over by Cardinal Poupard, council president, and by Archbishop Mario Cargnello of Salta. This meeting follows the one celebrated in Valparaiso, Chile in September 2003, which opened the way for the creation of a network of Catholic cultural centers in the area of the Southern Cone (southern Latin America: Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay).

  The program covers two principal themes: preferential concern for young people, threatened by the temptation to ever greater isolation from their commitment to public life; and the Catholic identity of the Church's cultural centers.

  For the occasion of the cardinal's visit to the city, the Catholic university of Salta will award him a doctorate "honoris causa," in an academic celebration due to be held on June 15.
CON-C/CATHOLIC CULTURAL CENTERS/POUPARD        VIS 20050614 (230)