NOTICE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2006 (VIS) - As previously advised, there will be no VIS service tomorrow Friday, December 8, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day and a holiday in the Vatican. The service will resume on Monday, December 11.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Doraboina Moses Prakasam of Cuddapah. India, as bishop of Nellore (area 30,800, population 6,665,490, Catholics 82,740, priests 137, religious 251), India. He succeeds Bishop Pudhota Chinniah Balaswamy, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese, the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences seven prelates from the Italian Episcopal Conference, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Bishop Salvatore Boccaccio of Frosinone-Veroli-Ferentino.

    - Bishop Vincenzo Apicella of Velletri-Segni.

    - Bishop Lorenzo Loppa of Anagni-Alatri.

    - Bishop Divo Zadi of Civita Castellana.

    - Bishop Girolamo Grillo of Civitavecchia-Tarquinia.

    - Bishop Giuseppe Petrocchi of Latina-Terracina-Sezze-Priverno.

    - Fr. Dom Mauro Meacci, O.S.B., abbot of the territorial abbey of Subiaco.

  This evening, he is scheduled to receive Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
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PUBLIC SESSION OF PONTIFICAL ACADEMIES: MARY IMMACULATE

VATICAN CITY, DEC 7, 2006 (VIS) - This morning, the eleventh public session of the pontifical academies was held in the Vatican's New Synod Hall. This year's event was organized by the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate and the Pontifical International Marian Academy on the theme: "Mary Immaculate, Mother of all men, icon of beauty and of divine charity."

  An opening address by Cardinal Paul Poupard was followed by contributions from Archbishop Angelo Amato S.D.B., secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and member of the Pontifical International Marian Academy, and from Bishop Stanislaw Nowak of Czestochowa, Poland, vice president of the Pontifical Academy of the Immaculate.

  At the end of the session, Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. read out a Message, in the Pope's name, and bestowed the pontifical academies' annual prize.

  The Holy Father, said Cardinal Bertone, takes this opportunity "to encourage all students of Mariology to ever greater commitment and more intense activity, both in study centers and in the field of academic publications, taking care to ensure that their methodology respects a fruitful interaction between the 'via veritatis' and the 'via pulchritudinis,' which come together in the 'via caritatis.'

  "Welcoming the proposal of the pontifical academies' coordinating council," the cardinal added, "the Pope is pleased to award ... the pontifical academies' prize to the 'Section Africaine pour les Congres Mariologiques,' which is affiliated to the Pontifical International Marian Academy, and is made up of young students and teachers of Mariology from various African countries."

  The cardinal secretary of State also remarked how the Pope had awarded a pontificate medal to Fr. Fidel Stockl O.R.C. of the Philippines for his work: "Mary, Model and Mother of consecrated life. A Marian synthesis of theology of consecrated life based on the teachings of John Paul II."
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