IN MEMORIAM

VATICAN CITY, SEP 18, 2007 (VIS) - The following prelates died in recent weeks:

 - Bishop Miguel Angel Araujo Iglesias, emeritus of Mondonedo-Ferrol, Spain, on July 22 at the age of 87.

- Bishop Alejo Benedicto Gilligan, emeritus of Nueve de Julio, Argentina, on 17 July at the age of 91.

- Bishop Endre Kovacs O. Cist., former auxiliary of Eger, Hungary, on July 29 at the age of 79.

- Bishop Enrique Pelach y Feliu, emeritus of Abancay, Peru, on July 19 at the age of 89.

- Bishop Felix Pepen y Soliman, former auxiliary of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on July 21 at the age of 87.

- Bishop Hubert Patrick O'Connor O.M.I., emeritus of Prince George, Canada, on July 24 at the age of 79.

- Archbishop Joao Resende Costa S.D.B., emeritus of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on July 21 at the age of 96.

- Archbishop Lawrence Khai Saen-Phon-On, emeritus of Thare and Nonseng, Thailand, on July 24 at the age of 78.

- Bishop Quirino Adolfo Schmitz O.F.M., emeritus of Teofilo Otoni, Brazil, on July 20 at the age of 88.

- Cardinal Edouard Gagnon P.S.S., president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for the Family and of the Pontifical Committee for International Eucharistic Congresses, on August 25 at the age of 89.

- Cardinal Jean Lustinger, archbishop emeritus of Paris, France, on August 5 at the age of 80.

- Bishop Maximo Andre Biennes T.O.R., emeritus of Sao Luiz de Caceres, Brazil, on August 10 at the age of 86.

- Archbishop Domenico Caloyera O.P., emeritus of Izmir, Turkey, on August 7 at the age of 92.

- Bishop Franco Dalla Valle S.D.B. of Juina, Brazil, on August 2 at the age of 62.

- Bishop Gerard Louis Frey, emeritus of Lafayette, U.S.A., August 16 at the age of 93.

- Bishop Augustine Harris, emeritus of Middlesborough, Great Britain, August 30 at the age of 89.

- Bishop Peter Saburo Hirata P.S.S., emeritus of Fukuoka, Japan, on August 5 at the age of 93.

- Bishop Jose Ramon Santos Iztueta Mendizabal C.P., prelate emeritus of Moyobamba, Peru, on August 27 at the age of 78.

- Bishop Vicente C. Manuel S.V.D., former apostolic vicar of San Jose in Mindoro, Philippines, on August 18 at the age of 68.

- Bishop Lino Vomboemmel O.F.M., emeritus of Santarem, Brazil, on August 6 at the age of 73.

- Archbishop Vicente Angelo Jose Marchetti Zioni, emeritus of Botucatu, Brazil, on August 9 at the age of 95.
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EUROPEAN MEETING ON PASTORAL CARE IN UNIVERSITIES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 18, 2007 (VIS) - The annual meeting of university pastoral care workers, promoted by the Catechesis-School-University Commission of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE), is due to take place in Zagreb, Croatia, from September 21 to 23.

  According to a communique made public today by the office for pastoral care in universities of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), participants in the meeting "intend to reflect on the prospects for university pastoral care in Europe, with a view to the Bologna Process which will conclude in 2010.

  "The work of the meeting will be opened by Bishop Marek Jedraszewski, vice-president of the CCEE Catechesis-School-University Commission. The work will be coordinated by Msgr. Lorenzo Leuzzi and will examine such questions as: the path of university professors, the European Meeting of University Students 2009, and the formation of university chaplains."

  The focus of the meeting will be a verification of the 'Lineamenta' for university pastoral care guided by Fr. Augustin del Agua, head of pastoral care in universities for the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The meeting will be closed by Cardinal Josip Bozanic, archbishop of Zagreb and vice-president of the CCEE.
.../PASTORAL CARE UNIVERSITIES/ZAGREB:CCEE        VIS 20070918 (200)

AUDIENCES

VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father today received in separate audiences:

 - Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.

 - Four prelates from the Episcopal Conference of Benin, on their "ad limina" visit:

    - Archbishop Marcel Honorat Leon Agboton of Cotonou.

    - Bishop Antoine Ganye of Dassa-Zoume.

    - Bishop Victor Agbanou of Lokossa,

    - Bishop Rene-Marie Ehuzu C.I.M. of Porto Novo.

  On Saturday, September 15, he received in separate audiences:

 - Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of Terni-Narni-Amelia, Italy, accompanied by Andrea Riccardi, founder of the Sant'Egidio Community.

 - Youm Bosco Seong, ambassador of Korea, on his farewell visit.
AP/.../...                                VIS 20070917 (110)

INTER-CHRISTIAN SYMPOSIUM AMONG CATHOLICS AND ORTHODOX

VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 2007 (VIS) - The Holy Father has written a Message to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, for the Tenth Inter-Christian Symposium between Catholics and Orthodox, which is being held from September 16 to 19 on the Greek island of Tinos.

  The symposium, organized every two years by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality at Rome's Antonianum Pontifical Athenaeum, and by the faculty of theology at the Aristotle University of Thessalonica, Greece, aims to study Catholics' and Orthodox' shared patrimony of faith and tradition. The current meeting - which has as its theme "St. John Chrysostom, a bridge between East and West" - coincides with the 1,600th anniversary of the death of that saint, considered as a Father of the Church in both East and West.

  In his Message, the Pope expresses his happiness at the fact that the gathering is being held on Tinos "where Orthodox and Catholics coexist fraternally," and he recalls how "ecumenical cooperation in the academic field contributes to maintaining an impetus towards the longed-for communion among all Christians.

  On the subject of ecumenical cooperation, the Pope points out how "Vatican Council II recognized in this field an opportunity to involve the entire People of God in the search for full unity."

  The Holy Father then goes on to refer to St. John Chrysostom as "a valiant, illuminated and faithful preacher of the Word of God, ... such an extraordinary hermeneutist and speaker that, from the fifth century, he was given the title of Chrysostom, which means golden-mouthed. A man whose contribution to the formation of the Byzantine liturgy is known to everyone," and whose mortal remains "after complex historical events have, since 1626, rested in St. Peter's Basilica."

 
"In 2004," Pope Benedict writes, "my venerated predecessor John Paul II donated part of the relics to His Holiness Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch, so that the great Father of the Church could be venerated both in the Vatican Basilica and in the church of St. George in Fanar."

  The symposium will consider St. John Chrysostom and communion with the Church of the West, studying a number of current problems. This, writes the Pope "will contribute to upholding and corroborating the real - though imperfect - communion that exists between Catholics and Orthodox, so that we may reach that fullness which will one day enable us to concelebrate the one Eucharist.

  "And it is to that blessed day," the Holy Father adds in conclusion, "that we look with hope, organizing practical initiatives such as this one."
MESS/SYMPOSIUM:JOHN CHRYSOSTOM/KASPER        VIS 20070917 (440)

OPENING OF CAUSE OF BEATIFICATION OF CARDINAL VAN THUAN

VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 2007 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received officials and members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace for the fifth anniversary of the death of the Vietnamese Cardinal Francois-Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, whose beatification cause has recently been opened. Also present at the audience were members of the St. Matthew Foundation and of the Cardinal Van Thuan International Observatory for the dissemination of the Church's social doctrine.

  The Pope recalled the fact that Cardinal Van Thuan had been president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and that he had launched the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, published in October 2004. He also recalled the late cardinal's "cordiality, ... his capacity for dialogue and for being close to everyone, ... his fervent commitment to spreading the Church's social doctrine among the world's poor, his longing for evangelization in his own continent of Asia, and his skill in coordinating activities of charity and human promotion which he initiated and supported in the most out-of-the-way places on earth."

  Cardinal Van Thuan, said Benedict XVI, "was a man of hope, he lived on hope and he spread it to everyone he met. It was thanks to this spiritual energy that he resisted all physical and moral difficulties. Hope sustained him as a bishop isolated for 13 years from his diocesan community; hope helped him to see, in the absurdity of the events that befell him (he was never put on trial during his long imprisonment), a providential plan of God."

  "Cardinal Van Thuan loved to repeat that Christians are people of the here and now, of the present moment which must be welcomed and experienced with the love of Christ. And his capacity to live for the present demonstrated his intimate abandonment in the hands of God and the evangelical simplicity which we all admired in him."

  The Holy Father concluded by expressing his joy at the news that the process of beatification of "this singular prophet of Christian hope" had begun.
AC/VAN THUAN/...                            VIS 20070917 (350)