MSGR. VERGEZ ALZAGA TO BE CONSECRATED THIS AFTERNOON; MORNING AUDIENCES CANCELLED

Vatican City, 15 November 2013 (VIS) – Pope Francis, suffering from a cold, has cancelled this morning's engagements, the director of the Holy Press Office Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. told journalists. Since the four audiences this morning were with heads of dicasteries of the Curia, who are resident in Rome and may therefore be received at any time, the Pope decided to postpone them.

However, Fr. Lombardi confirmed the Holy Father's presence this afternoon at St. Peter's Basilica for the episcopal consecration of Msgr. Fernando Vergez Alzaga, secretary general of the Governorate of Vatican City State.

COMMUNICATING FAITH IN THE POPE'S DIOCESE: FIRST FORUM OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES OF ROME

Vatican City, 15 November 2013 (VIS) – The Catholic and Pontifical Universities of the Pope's diocese are for the first time organising a forum for discussing the theme “Communicating faith in Rome”, which is scheduled to take place on 16 November in the Lateran Pontifical University. The congress has been organised by the Department for University Pastoral Care of the Vicariate of Rome as part of the Year of Faith initiatives.

Auxiliary Bishop Lorenzo Leuzzi, director of this department, explained that the aim of this meeting is on the one hand to confirm the special nature of the cultural contribution of the Catholic and Pontifical Universities to the Roman university system and, on the other, to present to the diocese of Rome their initiatives in relation to formation and encouraging the communication of faith. “The Forum also constitutes the conclusion of the path of collaboration between the Catholic and Pontifical universities, which began with the Synod, and opens a new phase of dialogue between the Church and the universities of the city of Rome”, added Bishop Leuzzi.

PAUL VI, FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF ST. PETER IN THE HOLY LAND

Vatican City, 15 November 2013 (VIS) - “4 to 5 January 1964. Paul VI's pilgrimage in the Holy Land: an historic event for the Catholic Church” is the title of the congress to be held today in the San Fedele Auditorium, Milan, in which the archdiocese and its archbishop, Cardinal Angelo Scola, pay homage to one of its most illustrious archbishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battisti Montini, on the fiftieth anniversary of his election to the See of St. Peter, in 1963.

The Congress will focus on Paul VI's journey in the Holy Lane, which made him the first pontiff to make this pilgrimage, following in the footsteps of St. Peter. This historic voyage is commemorated with a screening of the documentary “Return to the beginnings – Paul VI in the Holy Land”, produced in 1964 by the Guardian of the Holy Land and restored for the occasion, which shows the Holy Land prior the Six-Day War. The film's memorable images include the moving encounter between the Pope and the ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Atenagoras, in Jerusalem.