IN BRIEF

ON MONDAY NOVEMBER 21, BENEDICT XVI will visit the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is currently celebrating its plenary session on the theme: "The conceptualization of the human person in the social sciences." During the plenary session, the theme will be considered from various standpoints: from the point of view of the Church's Magisterium by Cardinal Angelo Scola, patriarch of Venice, Italy; in its philosophical aspects by Cardinal Georges Cottier O.P., and by Rocco Buttiglione and Enrico Berti, Italian university professors; and from a sociological and economic viewpoint by Serge-Christophe Kolm of the "Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales" of Paris, France. Also during the session, Mary Ann Glendon, president of the pontifical academy, and the scholar Hans Zacher will present the book: "Democracy in Debate: the Contribution of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences."

ARCHBISHOP JOHN P. FOLEY, PRESIDENT OF THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL for Social Communications, yesterday participated in the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society, which is being held in Tunis, Tunisia. In his address, the archbishop recalled how new technologies give us "the opportunity to connect and assist those living in the poorest and most isolated regions of the world and to offer a voice to those who in the past have often been unheard and forgotten." He continued: "The challenge of narrowing or even closing the so-called 'digital divide,' the current disparity in the access to digital communications between developed and developing countries, requires the joint effort of the entire international community."

"PILGRIMS AND SHRINES, GIFTS OF THE GOD-LOVE IN ASIA TODAY" is the theme of the second Asiatic congress on the pastoral care of pilgrimages and shrines, which is being promoted by the Pontifical Care for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and is due to be held in Seoul, Korea, on November 21 to 23. The meeting will be attended by 90 pilgrimage directors and rectors of shrines, who will have the opportunity to share their experiences in order to identify shared pastoral criteria. The work of the congress will be opened by Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao, president of the pontifical council, who will speak on the subject of shrines as "privileged places where God welcomes His people ... and where ecumenical and inter-religious dialogue is favored," especially in a continent such as Asia where shrines are frequented by pilgrims from various Churches and ecclesial communities, as well as by believers from other religious traditions.
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