BLESSING OF THE LAMBS FOR THE FEAST OF ST. AGNES

VATICAN CITY, 21 JAN 2010 (VIS) - This morning, in keeping with the tradition for today's feast of St. Agnes, the Pope blessed a number of lambs in the Urban VIII Chapel of the Vatican Apostolic Palace.

  The wool of the lambs is used to make the palliums bestowed on new metropolitan archbishops on June 29, Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles.

  The lambs are raised by the 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.
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MASS FOR 25TH ANNIVERSARY PONTIFICAL HEALTHCARE COUNCIL

VATICAN CITY, 21 JAN 2010 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 10.30 a.m. on Thursday 11 February, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, the Pope will preside at the celebration of Mass for the sick, marking the World Day of the Sick and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the foundation of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care.
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FIRST FEMALE UNDER SECRETARY OF JUSTICE AND PEACE COUNCIL

VATICAN CITY, 21 JAN 2010 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has released a communique concerning today's appointment of Flaminia Giovanelli as its new under secretary. The communique is signed by Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson and Bishop Mario Toso S.D.B., respectively president and secretary of the same dicastery.

  The new under secretary is a graduate in political science from the University of Rome and holds diplomas in library science and religious studies. She began working in the then Pontifical Justice and Peace Commission in 1974 where she has since followed matters relating to development, poverty and work in the context of Church social doctrine. She is an expert in the development and labour policies of the International Labour Organisation, the Council of Europe, the European Union, ECOSOC and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

  Flaminia Giovanelli, says the communique, "is the first woman to hold the position of under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. Before her the Australian lay woman Rosemary Goldie held the same post in the Pontifical Council for the Laity from 1966 to 1976, while a religious, Sr. Enrica Rosanna F.M.A., is currently under secretary of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

  "The appointment of Ms Giovanelli", the text adds, "confirms the great trust the Church and the Holy Father Benedict XVI place in women. In his time, Venerable Pope John Paul II also underlined the need for a 'fuller and meaningful participation of women in the development of society'".
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 21 JAN 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Cardinal Ivan Dias, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples.

 - Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, and president of the Italian Episcopal Conference.

 - Bishop Javier Echevarria Rodriguez, prelate of the personal prelature of Opus Dei.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 21 JAN 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:

 - Flaminia Giovanelli, official of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, as under secretary of the same pontifical council.

 - As members of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity: Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, archbishop of Bordeaux, France, and Bishop Johan Jozef Bonny of Antwerp, Belgium.

 - Archbishop Cyril Vasil S.J., secretary of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.
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