OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 3, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Monsignor Marcelo Raul Martorell Bishop of Puerto Iguazu (area 17,000, population 304,000, Catholics 213,000, priests 43, religious 96, permanent deacons 23), Argentina. The bishop elect was born in 1945 in Salta, Argentina and was ordained in 1970. He was, till today, the parish priest of the Sacred Eucharistic Heart of Jesus in Cordoba. He succeeds Bishop Joaquin Pina Battlevell, S.J., who resigned from the pastoral care of the diocese upon having reached the age limit.

- Appointed Bishop Angel Jose Rovai, auxiliary of Cordoba, Argentina, as Bishop of Villa Maria (area 28,000, population 379,000, Catholics 312,000, priests 79, religious 44), Argentina.
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PETROS ENI: EXPOSITION DEDICATED TO SAINT PETER'S BASILICA

VATICAN CITY, OCT 3, 2006 (VIS) - "Petros Eni" (Peter is here) is the title of the vast exposition that the Fabric of St. Peter's, from October 12 2006 to March 8 2007, dedicates to the Patriarchal Basilica, for the 500th anniversary of its foundation and to the Apostle Peter to whom the Basilica is dedicated.

  The exposition includes over 100 masterpieces from the most famous museums of the world and is divided up into six sections. The first section recalls the historical event of the foundation and the artists and architects that defined the profile of the new basilica; the second part shows the most demonstrative moments of the complex process of the architectonic project in the realization of the monument, which started from an idea of Bramante. The third section is dedicated to the ancient basilica of Constantine, with special attention drawn to the architectonic project and the historical moment of its foundation; the fourth area is dedicated to the "Ager Vaticanus": from the foundations of the Ancient Basilica to the Vatican Necropolis. The fifth section will confront the personalities and works of the Apostles, Peter and Paul. The sixth and last section is based on two main themes: the primacy of Peter and Petrine devotion, through the testimonial of pilgrimages to the Apostolic Memory by Saints and Blesseds, well-known in the Church's history, as well as literary and artistic personalities of today's times, and today's visitors.

  The exposition gathers together many very important architectonic plans and studies, as well as masterpieces of painting and numerous documents, some unpublished, by the main architects and artists who worked on the construction of the Basilica of Saint Peter: Bramante (the design on parchment is considered one of the most beautiful ever done in the Renaissance), Antonio di Sangallo (present with the virtual reconstruction of the wooden mockup from 1539) and works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, El Greco, Caravaggio, Bernini, Borromini and Rembrandt, coming from, among other galleries and museums, The Metropolitan Musem of Art, the Albertine Museum, the Louvre, Graphische Sammlung, the Uffizi, Capodimonte, the Vatican Museums, etc...

  Even the Fabric of Saint Peter will show one of its most precious treasures: the famous wood mockup, made according to a drawing by Michelangelo Buonarroti; as well as other findings, never shown before, from the hypogaeum of the Vatican Necropolis, including a graffiti on a piece of a wall with the writing "Petros eni", as witness of the Petrine devotion in this place and giving the name to the exposition. To testify to the pilgrimages by the Saints and Blesseds to this sacred place, some extraordinary relics will be shown, such as the tunic of Saint Francis of Assisi and Blessed Mother Theresa of Calcutta's sandals.

 Today's Basilica of Saint Peter, in fact, rises over the "ager vaticanus", where Peter was buried. The Emperor Constantine built the first basilica here, which Saint Francis of Assisi saw on his trip to Rome. Constantine's architects literally covered a large Roman necropolis to be able to construct this main important basilica. This necropolis has been brought back to light thanks to the archeological excavations, beginning in 1939, following Pius XII wishes.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, OCT 2, 2006 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of Coutances, France, presented by Bishop Jacques Fihey, upon having reached the age limit.

On Saturday, September 30, the Holy Father:

- Accepted the resignation presented by Bishop Salvador Flores Huerta for the pastoral government of the diocese of Ciudad Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico, in conformity to canon 401 paragraph 2 of the CIC.

- Appointed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, as a member of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, the Congregation for Bishops and the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.

- Appointed Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Secretary of State Emeritus and Dean of the College of Cardinals, as Pontifical Legate to the celebrations for Hungarian freedom, in response to the invitation from President of the Hungarian Republic and the Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Cardinal Peter Erdo. These celebrations will take place in Budapest, Hungary on the 22 and 23 of October 2006.
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AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, OCT 2, 2006 (VIS) - The Holy Father received today in separate audiences:

- James Alix Michel, President of the Republic of Seychelles, and following.

- Five prelates from the Assembly of Western Catholic Bishops, Canada, on their "ad limina" visit:

  - Bishop Gerald William Wiesner, O.M.I., of Prince George.

  - Bishop Richard Joseph Gagnon, of Victoria.

  - Bishop Gary Gordon, of Whitehorse.

   - Bishop Denis Croteau, O.M.I., of MacKenzie-Fort Smith

  - Bishop Eugene Jerome Cooney, of Nelson.

  This evening, the Pope will receive Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.

On Saturday, September 30, he received in separate audiences:

- His Beatitude Emmanuel III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans. Iraq.

- Jose Pablo Moran Val, Peruvian ambassador, on his farewell visit.
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HUMANIZING SOCIETY THROUGH INTERCULTURAL UNDERSTANDING

VATICAN CITY, OCT 2, 2006 (VIS) - Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, intervened today in Naples, Italy during the World Habitat Day, organized by the United Nations, its theme this year being "The City, Magnet of Hope". The Archbishop's speech was dedicated to the theme: "The City, Crossroads of Cultures and Multicultural Project".

  The Archbishop said: "The presence of persons from different cultures that live in the same territories is evermore frequent, due above all to the acceleration of the migratory phenomenon", as well as the industrial areas and the metropolis and "in general each nationality represents a culture so we find ourselves facing a cultural and religious pluralism never so fully experienced as today".

  The Prelate asked himself: "How is it possible then, in the city as crossroads of cultures, to develop an intercultural project, tightly connected with the humanization of society? (...) 'Individuals must seek the proper balance between respect for their own identity and recognition of that of others' (...) appreciating each one's values and recognizing that 'every culture, as a typically human and historically conditioned reality, necessarily has its limitations'".

   "At times, cultural relativism, provoked by the phenomenon of globalization, has often been the cause of (...) conflicts, creating fundamentalisms of all types. However, cultures, by their very nature, are not rigid, being the expression of the way a people acts in certain circumstances, capable therefore if interacting through mutual knowledge, confrontation, coexistence and the sharing of common values"  he said.

  "This is why interculturality is obligatory in today's society, to keep the human dimension safe in an evermore globalized world" and "is the privileged educational form. (...) Civil coexistence demands that each individual may easily have access to the cultural system of others, in the practice of 'negotiation' which does not mean renouncing one's own culture, but the search for points of convergence and encounter with respect for the legitimacy of each one".

  The second aspect taken into consideration by the Archbishop was that of the homeless, a problem his dicastery also deals with in the Pastoral Care of the Street.

  He said: "To live in the streets, contrary to what one may think, is not necessarily a choice. (...) The homeless live in conditions of great vulnerability" and this situation "becomes the beginning  of a progressive loss of rights. This makes it more difficult to get aid, almost impossible to find work, including the loss of having identifying papers".

  "The poor people (among which we find emigrants, retired persons, jobless and infirm) become a multitude without name and without a voice, often incapable of defending themselves and of finding resources to better their future. These are persons, living conditions of need and discomfort, whose dignity must always be considered, with all the relative consequences. (...) Therefore also the interventions for them must try to be innovative, breaking the circle of answering the need and (...) starting from the person's abilities and not deficiencies".
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