SIXTEENTH PUBLIC SESSION OF PONTIFICAL ACADEMIES

VATICAN CITY, 22 NOV 2011 (VIS) - At 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday 30 November the Pontifical Academies are due to hold their sixteenth public session in the great hall of the Palazzo of St. Pius X on Rome's Via della Conciliazione. The event has been organised by the Pontifical Council for Culture and by the academies themselves, which are coordinated by that pontifical council.

  A communique made public today explains that the meeting will also include the presentation of the Pontifical Academy Prize, awarded by the Pope to institutions or to young researchers or artists who have distinguished themselves in promoting Christian humanism. This year's public session, which has been organised by the Pontifical Roman Archaeological Academy and by the Pontifical Academy "Cultorum Martyrum", will have as its theme: "Witness and Witnesses. The 'Martyria' and the Champions of the Faith".

  The meeting will be chaired by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Co-ordinating Council of the Pontifical Academies. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. will read a message from the Holy Father and confer the Pontifical Academy Prize, after which a lecture will be delivered by Fabrizio Bisconti, archaeological superintendent for Christian catacombs.
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