DELEGATION FROM ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE TO VISIT ROME

Vatican City, 27 June 2013 (VIS) – The Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity issued a press release today with the information that a delegation sent by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I will visit Rome from 27 to 29 June 2013 as part of the traditional exchange of delegations for their feasts of patron saints—29 June in Rome for the celebration of the Apostles Peter and Paul and 30 November in Istanbul for the celebration of St. Andrew the Apostle.

His Eminence Metropolitan Ioannis (Zizioulas) of Pergamo, co-president of the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, will head the delegation and will be accompanied by His Eminence Athenagoras (Yves Peckstadt), bishop of Sinope and auxiliary of the metropolitan of Belgium, and Archimandrite Fr. Prodromos Xenakis, vice secretary of the Holy Eparchial Synod of the Church of Crete.

On Friday, 28 June, the Patriarchate's delegation will be received by the Holy Father Francis and then will talk with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. On Saturday, 29 June, the delegation's members will attend a Eucharistic celebration presided by the Holy Father.

TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS AT VATICAN TELEVISION

Vatican City, 27 June 2013 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press Office, there was a presentation of the agreement between Vatican Television and Canal 21 (the television channel of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, Argentina) as well as of the new Master Control Room that will make digital archiving possible. Speaking at the press conference were: Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications; Msgr. Dario Edoardo Vigano, director of Vatican Television; Julio Rimoldi, director of Canal 21; and Stefano D'Agostini of Vatican Television.

Vatican Television is in the process of completely digitizing its television signals. The project, already begun with the acquisition of a high def mobile unit, is continuing with the building, in collaboration with Sony, of a new Master Control Room on the top floor of the Vatican Television building, which will be the hub of the signals.

The new, technologically advanced structure will allow the transformation into and usage of the signals as “files”, with clear advantages for their exchange and storage.

The entire process, from shooting, to editing, to archiving, will become “tapeless”, that is, without the use of the magnetic tapes that are still the weak point in the creation and maintenance of valuable archives such as Vatican Television's, which holds 30 years of images from the pontificates of John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis.

The agreement with Canal 21, which allows Vatican Television to acquire and distribute the Argentinian channel's large archives covering the activities of Cardinal Bergoglio up to 13 March 2013, the day of his election to the throne of Peter, is also part of this initiative.

AUDIENCES

Vatican City, 27 June 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father received:

  - Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, and

  - Ms. Ertharin Cousin, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFO).