HOLY FATHER RECALLS HIS FIRST DAYS AT SCHOOL

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Yesterday evening in the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, Benedict XVI received a group of pupils, parents and teachers from the local Paul VI Pontifical School, which is run by the "Maestre Pie Filippini".

  "Dear children", said the Pope in his remarks, "you go to school and you learn naturally, and I am recalling that seventy-seven years have now passed since I began school. I lived in a small village of three hundred inhabitants, ... yet we learned the essential things. Most importantly, we learned to read and write. I think it is a great thing to be able to read and write, because in this way we can know other people's ideas, read newspapers and books. We can also know what was written two thousand or more years ago; we can know the spiritual continents of the world and communicate with one another. Above all there is one extraordinary thing: God wrote a book, He spoke to us human beings, finding people to write the book containing the Word of God. Reading that book, we can read what God says to us".

  The Holy Father went on: "At school you learn everything you need for life. You also learn to know God, to know Jesus and thus you learn how to live well. At school you make a lot of friends and this is a beautiful thing because in this way you form one big family, but among our best friends, the first we meet and know should be Jesus Who is a friend to everyone and truly shows us the path of life".
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PROGRAMME OF TRIP TO SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, BARCELONA

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - Given below is the programme of Benedict XVI's forthcoming apostolic trip to Spain, which is due to take him to the cities of Santiago de Compostela and Barcelona from 6 to 7 November.

  The Pope will depart from Rome's Fiumicino airport at 8.30 a.m. on Saturday 6 November, arriving in Santiago de Compostela at 11.30 a.m. where he will pronounce an address and meet the Prince and Princess of Asturias.

  At 1 p.m. he will visit the cathedral of Santiago and greet the faithful there. At 1.40 p.m. he is due to have lunch in the archbishopric with Spanish cardinals and members of the executive committee of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. At 4.30 p.m. he will celebrate Mass and pronounce a homily for the Compostela Holy Year in the city's Plaza de Obradoiro.

  The Holy Father will depart by plane from Santiago de Compostela at 9.15 p.m. and fly to Barcelona.

  At 9.30 a.m. on Sunday 7 November, Pope Benedict will have a private meeting with the King and Queen of Spain in the Museum Hall of Barcelona's church of the "Sagrada Familia".

  At 10 a.m. the Holy Father will preside at Mass, during which he will consecrate the church of the "Sagrada Familia" and the altar. Following the Eucharistic celebration he will exit the church into the adjoining square of the same name to pray the Angelus and pronounce some words to faithful gathered there.

  Following lunch with cardinals and bishops in the archbishopric of Barcelona, at 5.15 p.m. the Pope will visit the "Obra Benefico-Social Nen Deu", then travel directly to Barcelona airport where the departure ceremony will take place.

  The Pope's flight is due to take off at 7.15 p.m. and is scheduled to land at Ciampino airport in Rome at 8.55 p.m.

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LETTER OF THE POPE FOR THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES 2012

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - At midday today in the Holy See Press Office Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, presented Benedict XVI's Letter for the Seventh World Meeting of Families, which is due to be held in the Italian city of Milan from 30 May to 2 June 2012, on the theme: "The Family: Work and Rest".

  Also participating in today's press conference were Bishop Jean Lafitte, Msgr. Carlos Simon Vazquez and Fr. Gianfranco Grieco O.F.M. Conv., respectively secretary, under secretary and bureau chief of the pontifical council; Bishop Erminio De Scalzi, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Milan and the archbishop's delegate for the organisation of the meeting, and Fr. Davide Milani, head of social communications for the archdiocese of Milan.

  "Work and rest", writes the Pope in his Letter, "are intimately associated with the life of families. They influence the choices the family makes, the relationship between the spouses and among parents and children, and they affect the dealings the family has with society and with the Church".

  The Holy Father further highlights how "In our own time, unfortunately, the organisation of work, which is planned and implemented as a function of market competition and maximising profit, and the concept of rest as a time for evasion and consumption, contribute to the break-up of families and communities, and to the spread of an individualistic lifestyle. It is therefore necessary to reflect and commit ourselves to reconciling the demands and requirements of work with those of the family, and to recover the true significance of rest, especially on Sundays, the weekly Easter, the day of the Lord and the day of man, the day of the family, of the community and of solidarity.

  "The forthcoming World Meeting of Families", he adds, "is a propitious occasion to re-examine work and rest in the perspective of families that are united and open to life, well inserted into society and the Church, attentive to the quality of their relationships as well as to the economy of the family nucleus itself".

  The Pope goes on to express the hope that "during the course of 2011 - thirtieth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation 'Familiaris consortio', the 'Magna Charta' of family pastoral care - valid initiatives may begin at the parish, diocesan and national level with the aim of identifying experiences of work and rest in their most authentic and positive aspects, with particular reference to their influence on the real lives of families".

  At the end of his Letter the Holy Father explains how the Seventh World Meeting of Families, "like earlier such meetings, will last five days culminating on Saturday evening with a 'Feast of Witness' and on Sunday morning with solemn Mass. During these two celebrations, at which I shall preside, we will come together as 'a family of families'".

  Commenting on the theme of the letter, Cardinal Antonelli mentioned the problems affecting the family which, he said, "is becoming privatised and reduced to a place of individual affections and gratification. It does not receive adequate cultural, juridical, economic or political support and suffers the negative conditioning of complex centrifugal dynamics, among which by no means the least important are the organisation of work and the degeneration of rest into 'free time'". In this context, the cardinal highlighted how the theme of the Milan meeting "could become an important contribution to the defence and promotion of authentic human values in today's world, beginning with a new style of family life".

  "Within the family, it is important to encourage the redistribution of domestic tasks, and a lifestyle inspired by sobriety, concern for personal relationships, openness towards the ecclesial community and the needs of others. Finally", Cardinal Antonelli concluded, "feast days must be celebrated in such a way as to illuminate the significance of life and of work itself, strengthening the cohesion of the family and its insertion into the wider community, reviving the relationship with Christ, Lord and Saviour Who accompanies us on our daily journey".

  For his part, Bishop Erminio De Scalzi observed that "it would be significant if we were able to welcome poor families from the South of the world to Milan. I am thinking," he said, "of people who live in counties where it is difficult to make their voice heard. It is important that the representatives of these families should have the chance to bring their testimony of life, and tell us how they understand work and rest as regards the family nucleus".

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PERMANENT WORKING COMMISSION HOLY SEE - ISRAEL

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - The Bilateral Permanent Working Commission between the Holy See and the State of Israel met on 21 September to continue its work on an Agreement pursuant to article 10 para. 2 of the 1993 Fundamental Agreement between the two Parties.

  According to a joint communique, "the talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and produced progress towards the desired agreement".
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Ten prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta O. Cist. of Sao Sebastiao do Rio de Janeiro, accompanied by Auxiliary Bishops Assis Lopes, Antonio Augusto Dias Duarte, Edson de Castro Homem and Dimas Lara Barbosa, and by Bishop Karl Josef Romer.

    - Bishop Joao Maria Messi O.S.M. of Barra do Pirai - Volta Redonda.

    - Bishop Jose Francisco Rezende Dias of Duque de Caixas.

    - Bishop Jose Ubiratan Lopes O.F.M. Cap. of Itaguai.

    - Bishop Luciano Bergamin C.R.L. of Nova Iguacu.

 - Ivan Guillermo Rincon Urdaneta, ambassador of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, on his farewell visit.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 24 SEP 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Daniel Fernandez Torres, auxiliary of San Juan de Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, as bishop of Arecibo (area 2,157, population 615.600, Catholics 379,000, priests 87, permanent deacons 2, religious 213), Puerto Rico. He succeeds Bishop Inaki Mallona Txertudi C.P., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Bishop Douglas Crosby O.M.I. of Corner Brook and Labrador, Canada, as bishop of Hamilton (area 16,824, population 1,982,908, Catholics 562,000, priests 224, permanent deacons 24, religious 371), Canada. He succeeds Bishop Anthony F. Tonnos, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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