Friday, June 26, 2009

METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS WHO WILL RECEIVE THE PALLIUM


VATICAN CITY, 26 JUN 2009 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. Monday 29 June, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles, Benedict XVI will preside at a Eucharistic concelebration with the following 34 metropolitan archbishops upon whom he will impose the pallium:

 - Archbishop Ghaleb Moussa Abdalla Bader of Algiers, Algeria.

 - Archbishop Domingo Diaz Martinez of Tulancingo, Mexico.

 - Archbishop Pierre-Andre Fournier of Rimouski, Canada.

 - Archbishop Sergio da Rocha, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Giuseppe Bertori of Florence, Italy.

 - Archbishop Salvatore Pappalardo of Siracusa, Italy.

 - Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki of Lviv of the Latins, Ukraine.

 - Archbishop Mauricio Grotto de Camargo of Botucatu, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Joseph Ake Yapo of Gagnoa, Ivory Coast.

 - Archbishop Paul Mandla Khumalo C.M.M. of Pretoria, South Africa.

 - Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo.

 - Archbishop Manuel Felipe Diaz Sanchez of Calabozo, Venezuela.

 - Archbishop Jose Luis Escobar Alas of San Salvador, El Salvador.

 - Archbishop J. Michael Miller, C.S.B. of Vancouver, Canada.

 - Archbishop Allen Henry Vigneron of Detroit, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Carlos Osoro Sierra of Valencia, Spain.

 - Archbishop Gil Antonio Moreira of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Victor Sanchez Espinosa of Puebla de los Angeles, Mexico.

 - Archbishop Carlos Aguiar Retes of Tlalnepantla, Mexico.

 - Archbishop Anicetus Bongsu Antonius Sinaga O.F.M. Cap. of Bedan, Indonesia.

 - Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale, Ghana.

 - Archbishop Ismael Rueda Sierra of Bucaramanga, Colombia.

 - Archbishop Andrzej Dziega of Szczecin-Kamien, Poland.

 - Archbishop Timothy Michael Dolan of New York, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta O. Cist. of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

 - Archbishop Vincent Gerard Nichols of Westminster, England.

 - Archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio of Lecce, Italy.

 - Archbishop Braulio Rodriguez Plata of Toledo, Spain.

 - Archbishop Robert James Carlson of Saint Louis, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Philippe Ouedraogo of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

 - Archbishop Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovithavanij of Bangkok, Thailand.

 - Archbishop George Joseph Lucas of Omaha, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Gregory Michael Aymond of New Orleans, U.S.A.

 - Archbishop Albert Malcolm Ranjith Patabendige Don of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
OCL/PALLIUM/METROPOLITAN ARCHBISHOPS            VIS 20090626 (360)

CARDINAL MONTEZEMOLO ASSESSES THE PAULINE YEAR


VATICAN CITY, 26 JUN 2009 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office this morning Cardinal Andrea Cordero Lanza di Montezemolo, archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls in Rome, and Pier Carlo Visconti, delegate for the administration of the same basilica, held a briefing on the closure of the Pauline Year.

  The cardinal recalled how the Year came into being as a "thematic year" with two fundamental objectives: "To increase people's knowledge of, and invite them to meditate upon, the valuable message left to us by the Apostle of the Gentiles in his writings, which are often difficult and little known or poorly interpreted", and "to create various programmes in the ecumenical dimension, which means working to an ever greater degree with non-Catholic Christian communities on various initiatives of prayer, study and culture".

  During the course of the Pauline Year, inaugurated by the Pope on 28 June 2008, the basilica welcomed tens of thousands of pilgrims. "On 1 May 2009 alone more than eighteen thousand pilgrims came to the basilica", explained the cardinal, "and over recent weeks we have certainly seen more than ten thousand a day".

  Among the ecclesial events of the Pauline Year, the cardinal mentioned "the opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Word of God, which the Pope wished should be inaugurated in the basilica of St. Paul in October 2008, ... the 'Sinaxis' celebrated by all the patriarchs of the Orthodox Churches in Constantinople, followed by a congress focusing on specifically Pauline issues", and "visits to Rome by patriarchs accompanied by large delegations from the Oriental Churches, both Catholic and non-Catholic".

  "In the Church of Rome, but also and above all in the various local Churches, ... the celebration of the second millennium of the birth of the Apostle of the Gentiles was perceived and experienced as a fresh stimulus, a further reason to work towards evangelisation. This was also felt in the Orthodox Churches and in many other Christian communities, and has become a shared commitment on the path to recreating unity among Christians".

  As for the papal basilica itself, during the Pauline Year "an opening was made in the ancient fifth century brickwork surrounding Paul's tomb under the main altar, so that pilgrims could see one side of the great marble sarcophagus, which has never been opened and which has held the mortal remains of the Apostle for the last twenty centuries". The basilica was also used for concerts of religious music and for other cultural initiatives.

  "The Pauline Year is coming to an end", said Cardinal Montezemolo, "but the great ferment of pastoral initiatives, catechesis, and cultural events is destined to continue and to find a large following at both the local and the continental level. The Pauline Door ... will remain open, and the Pauline flame lit by the Holy Father at the beginning of this year will continue to burn in the quadriporticus, ... reminding all the pilgrims who continue to arrive from every corner of the globe of the richness and profundity of the Word of God transmitted to us by the Apostle of the Gentiles".

  Finally the archpriest of the papal basilica of St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls announced that "over this very period, to mark the closure of the Pauline Year, the Holy Father is sending seven pontifical delegations, each led by a cardinal, to seven places associated with the Apostle Paul: the Holy Land, Damascus, Tarsus, Cyprus, Athens, Malta and Lebanon".
OP/PAULINE YEAR/MONTEZEMOLO                    VIS 20090626 (590)

AUDIENCES


VATICAN CITY, 26 JUN 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences six prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Vietnam, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Bishop Joseph Vu Van Thien of Hai Phong.

    - Bishop Antoine Vu Huy Chuong of Hung Hoa.

    - Bishop Joseph Dang Duc Ngan of Lang Son et Cao Bang.

    - Bishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Sang of Thai Binh.

    - Bishop Joseph Nguyen Chi Linh of Thanh Hoa.

    - Bishop Paul-Marie Cao Dinh Thuyen of Vinh.

  This evening he is scheduled to receive in audience Cardinal William Joseph Levada, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
AL:AP/.../...                                VIS 20090626 (110)