HOLY SEE AND STATE OF PALESTINE: DRAFT AGREEMENT PLAN EXAMINED

Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – Following the bilateral negotiations held in past years with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), an official meeting took place in Ramallah, Palestine on 30 January 2013, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine.

The talks were headed by Dr. Riad Al-Malki, minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Palestine, and Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, under-secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States.

The Parties exchanged views regarding the draft Agreement under discussion, especially the Preamble and Chapter I of the mentioned Agreement. The talks were held in an open and cordial atmosphere, the expression of the existing good relations between the Holy See and the State of Palestine. The Delegations expressed the wish that negotiations be accelerated and brought to a speedy conclusion. It was thus agreed that a joint technical group will meet to follow-up.

Gratitude was expressed for the Holy See’s contribution of 100.000 euro towards the restoration of the roof of the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

EMERGING YOUTH CULTURES: THEME OF ANNUAL PLENARY OF PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR CULTURE

Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – The annual Plenary Assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture was presented in a conference this morning in the Press Office of the Holy See. This year's plenary will be dedicated to the theme "Emerging Youth Cultures" and will take place from 6 to 9 February. Participating in the conference were Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi and Bishop Carlos Alberto de Pinho Moreira Azevedo, respectively president and delegate of that dicastery, along with Fr. Enzo Fortunato, O.F.M. Conv., director of the Sacred Convent of Saint Francis Press Office in Assisi and two youth representatives: Alessio Antonielli of Italy and Farasoa Mihaja Bemahazaka of Madagascar.

In an address presenting the event that was given a few days ago at the Convent of St. Francis in Assisi, Cardinal Ravasi said that its main area of interest would be "youth culture". "Walking down the streets with their ears blocked up with earphones, listening to their music, gives a sign that they are 'disconnected' from the unbearable social, political, and religious complexities that we adults have created. In a certain sense, they drop their gaze so as to exclude themselves because we have excluded them with our corruption and inconsistency, with uncertainty, unemployment, and marginalization. We parents, teachers, and priests, the ruling class, we must examine our conscience. The 'diversity' of youth, which in fact is not only negative, contains surprising seeds of fruitfulness and authenticity. We need only think of the choice to volunteer made by many young persons or their passion for music, sports, and friendship, which is their ways of telling us that man does not live by bread alone. We need only think of their spirituality, which is so original in its sincerity, or their freedom, which is hidden under a blanket of seeming indifference."

"For these and for many other reasons," concluded the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, "I am interested in the youth, who are the present (not only the future) of humanity. Of the five billion people living in developing countries, more than half are under the age of 25 (representing 85% of all the youth in the world). That is why, leaving aside the ever-necessary objective socio-psychological analysis of faith on the young, that is, the meaning of religious presence to them, we would rather focus on their faith, that is, trusting in their possibilities, even if they are buried underneath those differences that, at first glance, cause such an striking impression."

Bishop Avezedo, during his address at the press conference, laid out the plenary's program, clarifying that its objective is "to objectively enquire into the new, complex, and fragmented phenomenon of youth cultures with the help of experts and listening to the thoughts of the members and consultors of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Only the opening ceremony will be open to the public. It will be held in the Aula Magna of the LUMSA University and will have the novelty of a short rock concert preceding the first conference. The work document sent to all participants clarifies our perspective of cultural analysis of the transformations in adolescents and young adults who are questioning the practices of evangelisation."

"A few days ago," he commented, "the International Labour Organization said that 73.8 million young persons in the world are seeking employment and that there will be half a million more by 2014. This information raises a series of questions: Is there a distrust of government? Is there a fear of the future? Will the youth take to the streets in protest? Does the myth of eternal youth reveal a lack of value of adults?" In this context, and after the assembly takes an overall look at the situation, the program will focus on some of the most salient and wide-reaching cultural features such as how the "digital culture revolutionizes the model and the grammar of communications". The structures and rituals of this language, just like the importance of music, meeting places, etc. … All those questions that "require discernment on the part of the Church and a profound change in language and the creation of codes in which the Christian vision might be meaningful." Other topics for discussion will be the "emotional alphabet" of the youth, the value of the body, friendship networks, and the delay in attaining self-sufficiency.

The following day, three young adults from different continents will reflect on the reasons for having confidence in the youth. Despite the fear of the future and the worsening of economic conditions, there are "potentials, an incredible creativity, a spirit of volunteering that is full of altruism, … and answers to the questions of meaning and hope."

The next topic to be dealt with will be that of "generating the faith, which we have called the 'cultural battle'. Effectively," Bishop Avezedo said, "that means that creating conditions that make meeting Christ possible have to have a cultural as well as a pastoral and theological focus. The fatigue, and at times failure, of ecclesial practices that widen the gap between young persons and the Church needs to be understood. Also, the rates of being born into the faith are low. Adult generations either do not know how or do not have time to deal with their own faith or to generate the faith in their children."

"The audience with the Holy Father at the beginning of the plenary meeting will be a major incentive for the assembly. For 2,000 years, the Church hasn't had a predetermined artistic style or a predefined language. She looks to the person and the message of Jesus to communicate in these totally 'multi-verse' times. Emerging youth cultures reveal the vulnerability, the insecurity, and the fragility of repetitive formulas. The Pontifical Council for Culture's promising assembly frees us from superficiality and apathy and is unafraid of confronting the truth of cultural situations."

AUDIENCES

Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received in audience:

Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, and

ten prelates from the Campania region of the Italian Episcopal Conference on their "ad limina" visit:

   - Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, archbishop of Naples, along with auxiliaries

   - Bishop Antonio Di Donna, titular of Castellum in Numidia, and

   - Bishop Lucio Lemmo, titular of Turres Ammeniae,

   - Archbishop Beniamino Depalma, C.M., of Nola,

   - Archbishop Francesco Alfano of Sorrento-Castellammare di Stabia,

   - Bishop Gennaro Pascarella of Pozzuoli,

   - Bishop Salvatore Giovanni Rinaldi of Acerra,

   - Bishop Angelo Spinillo of Aversa,

   - Bishop Valentino Di Cerbo of Alife-Caiazzo, and

   - Msgr. Giuseppe Regine, diocesan administrator of Ischia.

OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

Vatican City, 31 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:

- appointed Bishop Ignatius Menezes as apostolic administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of the diocese of Allahabad (area 46,774, population 32,199,000, Catholics 13,263, priests 90, religious 370), India. Bishop Menezes, emeritus of Ajmer, India, succeeds Bishop Isidore Fernandes, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Allahabad the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

- appointed Fr. Laurent Birfuore Dabire as bishop of Dori (area 34,766, population 950,000, Catholics 10,000, priests 19, religious 20), Burkina Faso. Bishop-elect Dabire was born in Dissin, Burkina Faso in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 1995. Previously judicial vicar and chancellor of the Diocese of Diebougou, Burkina Faso from 2005, the bishop-elect holds a doctorate in canon law and comparative law from Rome's Pontifical Lateran University and teaches law at the Unite Universitaire of Bamako, Mali.

- appointed Fr. Jonas Dembele as bishop of Kayes (area 160,000, population 1,432,000, Catholics 8,000, priests 18, religious 18), Mali. Bishop-elect Dembele, of the clergy of San, Mali was born in Sokoura, Mali in 1963, and was ordained a priest in 1992. Along with having served as pastor to several parishes in Mali since 1992, the bishop-elect was general secretary of the Diocesan Union of the Clergy of San and the National Union of the Clergy of Mali between 2002 and 2008.

- appointed Bishop Stanislas Lalanne as bishop of Pontoise (area 1,246, population 1,160,719, Catholics 844,000, priests 175, permanent deacons 28, religious 216), France. Bishop Lalanne, previously of Coutances, France, was born in Metz, France in 1948, was ordained to the priesthood in 1975, and received episcopal ordination in 2007. On the national episcopal conference her serves on the "Etudes et projets" committee and is also a consultor of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications and an advisor to the Catholic International Cooperation for Development and Solidarity (CIDSE).

- appointed Bishop Lucio Andrice Muandula of Xai-Xai, Mozambique as a member of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples. Bishop Muandula is president of the Mozambique Bishops' Conference. His Holiness also appointed Dr. Marco Impagliazzo as a consultor of that same pontifical council. Dr. Impagliazzo, who teaches Contemporary History at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy, is president of the Community of Sant'Egidio.

The Holy Father has appointed these cardinals, created in the consistory of 24 November 2012, as members of the following dicasteries and organs of the Roman Curia:

1) to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria;

2) to the Congregation for the Oriental Churches: Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon and Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India;

3) to the the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia;

4) to the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome, Italy.

5) to the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon;

6) to the presidency committee of the Pontifical Council for the Family: Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria and Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines;

7) to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia;

8) to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples: Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon and Cardinal Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle, archbishop of Manila, Philippines;

9) to the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, Cardinal Baselios Cleemis Thottunkal, major archbishop of Trivandrum of the Syro-Malankars, India;

10) to the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, O.M.M., Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites, Lebanon;

11) to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA), Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside-the-Walls, Rome, Italy.