PRESENTATION OF THE MISSIONARY MUSEUM OF PROPAGANDA FIDE

VATICAN CITY, 9 DEC 2010 (VIS) - This morning at the Rome headquarters of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, a press conference was held to present the new Missionary Museum of Propaganda Fide.

  The conference was presented by Fr. Massimo Cenci P.I.M.E., under secretary of the congregation; Francesco Buranelli, co-ordinator of the missionary museum's academic committee, and Ludovico Ortona, president of the Italian "Societa per lo sviluppo dell'arte, della cultura e dello spettacolo" (ARCUS).

  Fr. Cenci explained how the new institution, located in the Roman palazzo which has been the headquarters of the congregation for nearly four centuries, "is a complete museum, which not only has artistic value but which was conceived and created also and above all with a view to its specifically pastoral function".

  Francesco Buranelli recalled the fact that "it was Pope Gregory XV (Alessandro Ludovisi 1621-1623) who, with his 'Inscrutabili Divinae', founded the Holy Congregation 'de Propaganda Fide' ... to promote and co-ordinate all evangelising activity in non-Christian lands".

  Buranelli then reviewed the contents of the museum, referring first to the Chapel of the Magi, originally an elliptical construction by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. "It was Cardinal Antonio Barberini who chose to dedicate the church to the Baby Jesus, adored by the Magi", he said. "The Magi symbolically represent the kings of the pagan peoples who, guided by the star, were the first to go out to meet Christ and thus to gain the faith. The theme of the Epiphany is, then, extremely appropriate for a chapel intended to welcome the students of Propaganda Fide, who were destined to go out and transmit the good news". With the advent of Pope Innocent X (Giovanni Battista Pamphilj) the work was entrusted to Borromini under whose direction Bernini's church was demolished and the Chapel of the Magi rebuilt between 1662 and 1664.

  The co-ordinator of the academic committee explained how the first hall of the museum contains a video presentation on the congregation's origins, history and missionary activity. This is followed by a multimedia room in which visitors can consult the "Agenzia Fides" archive of more than ten thousand photographs, showing voyages in mission lands since the beginning of the twentieth century.

  The museum route also comprehends the Barberini Library "which has been completely restored for the occasion". The structure has a coffered wooden ceiling and a gallery with "portraits of certain illustrious students of the College".

  Finally, "there is the Newman Chapel", Buranelli explained. Following his conversion to Catholicism, Blessed Cardinal John Henry Newman "lived and studied in the College of Propaganda Fide, and there celebrated his first Mass".

  For his part, Ludovico Ortona noted that this new project "gives the public a chance to see works which up to now were not available to them. Thus it enables not only the conservation, recovery and restoration of our artistic and cultural heritage, but also opens the way to new possibilities, making available all the hidden masterpieces ... which are a measure of the greatness of Italian cultural and artistic history".
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 7 DEC 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Bishop Gerardo de Jesus Rojas Lopez of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Mexico, as bishop of Tabasco (area 25,267, population 2,007,000, Catholics 1,470,000, priests 141, religious 197), Mexico.
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NOTICE

VATICAN CITY, 7 DEC 2010 (VIS) - As previously advised, there will be no VIS bulletin tomorrow Wednesday 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a holy day and a holiday in the Vatican. Service will resume on Thursday 9 December.

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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 4 DEC 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

 - Appointed Bishop Jozef Guzdek, auxiliary of Krakow, Poland, as military ordinary of Poland.

 - Accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of Hildesheim, Germany, presented by Bishop Hans-Georg Koitz, upon having reached the age limit.

 - Appointed Fr. Heinz-Gunter Bongartz of the clergy of Hildesheim, Germany, director of the "pastoral personnel" department of the diocesan curia and canon of the cathedral chapter of Hildesheim, as auxiliary of that diocese (area 30,000, population 5,700,000, Catholics 634,365, priests 420, permanent deacons 99, religious 424). The bishop-elect was born in Gutersloh, Germany in 1955 and ordained a priest in 1982.

 - Appointed as counsellors of the Apostolic Penitentiary Fr. Enrique Colom Costa, professor of moral theology at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, and Fr. Paolo Carlotti S.D.B., professor of fundamental moral theology at Rome's Pontifical Salesian University.
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FAITH STRENGTHENED WHEN ILLUMINATED BY THE DIVINE WORD

VATICAN CITY, 5 DEC 2010 (VIS) - At noon today, the second Sunday of Advent, the Holy Father stood at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with the faithful present in St. Peter's Square.

  "This Sunday's Gospel," the Pope said, "presents St. John the Baptist who, following a noted prophecy by Isaiah, went into the Judean desert and with his preaching called the people to conversion in order to prepare for the imminent arrival of the Messiah [...] The precursor of Christ, situated between the Old and New Covenants, is like a star who precedes the rising of the Sun, of Christ".

    During the Advent season "we are also called to listen to the voice of God crying out in the wilderness of the world through Sacred Scripture, especially when it is preached with the strength of the Holy Spirit. In fact, faith is fortified when it is most illuminated by the divine Word", the pontiff added.

    "The Virgin Mary is the model of listening ", Benedict XVI concluded, citing the Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini: "As we contemplate in the Mother of God a life totally shaped by the word, we realize that we too are called to enter into the mystery of faith, whereby Christ comes to dwell in our lives".
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