PRESIDENT NAPOLITANO TO OFFER A CONCERT FOR THE POPE

VATICAN CITY, 8 APR 2010 (VIS) - As he did last year, Giorgio Napolitano, president of the Italian Republic, will offer a concert to mark the Holy Father's birthday and the fifth anniversary of his pontificate.

  The concert is due to take place in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall at 5.30 p.m. on Thursday 29 April. The Italian Youth Orchestra of Fiesole conducted by Nicola Paszkowski will play Sammartini's Symphony in D Major, Mozart's Prague Symphony (K504), and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 8 APR 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Nicolas Baisi, rector of the seminary of the diocese of San Miguel, Argentina, as auxiliary of the archdiocese of La Plata (area 4,652, population 899,417, Catholics 809,475, priests 144, permanent deacons 3, religious 375), Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1964 and ordained a priest in 1993.
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HOLY THURSDAY: CHRISM MASS AND THE LORD'S SUPPER MASS

VATICAN CITY, 1 APR 2010 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 9.30 a.m. today, Holy Thursday, the Holy Father presided at the Chrism Mass, which is celebrated on this day in churches and cathedrals throughout the world. Cardinals, bishops and priests present in Rome concelebrated with the Pope. Following the homily, there was the renewal of priestly vows and the blessing of the oil used for catechumens, the sick and those being confirmed.

In his homily the Pope explained how in the Chrism Mass "the holy oils are at the centre of the liturgical action. They are consecrated in the bishop's cathedral for the whole year. Thus they serve also as an expression of the Church's unity, guaranteed by the episcopate, and they point to Christ. ... At the same time, they hold together the entire liturgical year, anchored in the mystery of Holy Thursday. Finally, they point to the Garden of Olives, the scene of Jesus' inner acceptance of His passion".

For priests, the oils "speak of Christ Whom God anointed King and Priest, of the One Who makes us share in His priesthood, in His 'anointing', through our own priestly ordination".

"A further aspect of the symbolism of oil is that it strengthens for battle. This does not contradict the theme of peace, but forms part of it. The battle of Christians consisted (and still consists) ... in the fact that they reject whatever within the legal system in force is not just but unjust".

"Today too it is important for Christians to follow what is right, which is the foundation of peace. Today too it is important for Christians not to accept a wrong enshrined in law, for example the killing of innocent unborn children. In this way we serve peace, in this way we find ourselves following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ".

Benedict XVI then recalled how, "in the early Church, the consecrated oil was considered a special sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit, Who communicates Himself to us as a gift from Christ. He is the oil of gladness. This gladness is different from entertainment and from the outward happiness that modern society seeks for itself. Entertainment, in its proper place, is certainly good and enjoyable. It is good to be able to laugh. But entertainment is not everything".

"The gladness that comes to us from Christ is different. It does indeed make us happy, but it can also perfectly well coexist with suffering. It gives us the capacity to suffer and, in suffering, to remain nevertheless profoundly glad. ... Anyone who loves is ready to suffer for the beloved and for the sake of his love, and in this way he experiences a deeper joy".

At 5.30 p.m. in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, Benedict XVI presided at the Mass of the Lord's Supper. During the celebration, imitating the gesture of the Lord towards the Apostles, the Pope washed the feet of twelve priests. At the presentation of the gifts, he was given alms collected for the reconstruction of the seminary in Port-au-Prince in Haiti.

In his homily, the Pope commented on Jesus' "priestly prayer" saying that "when Jesus speaks about eternal life, He is referring to real and true life, a life worthy of being lived. He is not simply speaking about life after death. He is talking about authentic life, a life fully alive and thus not subject to death, yet one which can already, and indeed must, begin in this world".

Referring to Jesus' words - "this is eternal life: that they may know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" - the Pope said: "Knowledge of God becomes eternal life. ... Knowledge, in the language of sacred Scripture, is an interior becoming one with the other. Knowing God, knowing Christ, always means loving Him; becoming, in a sense, one with Him by virtue of that knowledge and love. Our life becomes authentic and true life, and thus eternal life, when we know the One Who is the source of all being and all life".

The Holy Father highlighted the fact that, "in the course of the priestly prayer, Jesus twice speaks of revealing God's name. 'I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world'. ... The revelation of the divine name, then, means that the infinite and self-subsistent God enters into the network of human relationships; that He comes out of Himself, so to speak, and becomes one of us, present among us and for us".

"The mystery of the Eucharist, the presence of the Lord in the species of bread and wine, is the highest and most sublime way in which this new mode of God's being-with-us takes shape".

"The best-known petition of the priestly prayer is the petition for the unity of the disciples, now and yet to come", said the Pope, noting how the Lord first "prays for His disciples, present and future. ... Jesus thus prays that the preaching of the disciples will continue for all time, that it will gather together men and women who know God and the One He has sent, His Son Jesus Christ. He prays that men and women may be led to faith and, through faith, to love".

Pope Benedict concluded his homily: "At this hour the Lord is asking us: are you living, through faith, in fellowship with me and thus in fellowship with God? Or are you rather living for yourself, and thus separate from faith? And are you not thus guilty of the inconsistency which obscures my mission in the world and prevents men and women from encountering God's love? The fact that Jesus saw, and even now continues to see, all that threatens and destroys unity, was part of His historical passion, and remains part of His ongoing Passion throughout history".
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GOOD FRIDAY: LORD'S PASSION, WAY OF THE CROSS AT COLOSSEUM

VATICAN CITY, 2 APR 2010 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 5 p.m. today, Good Friday, the Pope presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion. Following the reading of the Passion, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap., preacher of the Pontifical Household, pronounced his traditional Good Friday homily. The ceremony continued with the universal prayer, veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion.

At 9 p.m. the Holy Father travelled to the Colosseum where he led the "Via Crucis" or Way of the Cross. The meditations this year were prepared by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general emeritus of His Holiness for the diocese of Rome.

Benedict XVI oversaw the ceremony from the Palatine Hill while Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, carried the cross over the first and last stations. Over the other stations it was carried by two Haitian faithful, two Iraqis, a woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a woman from Vietnam, two Franciscan friars from the Custody of the Holy Land, two volunteer healthcare workers, a person in a wheelchair, and a family from the diocese of Rome.

At the end of the ceremony, the Holy Father addressed some remarks to those present.

"The texts, the meditations and the prayers of the Way of the Cross have helped us to consider the mystery of the Passion in order to appreciate the great lesson of love which God gave on the Cross, that there might be born in us a renewed desire to change our hearts, living each day that love which is the only force able to change the world".

"Good Friday is the greatest day of hope, come to fruition upon the Cross. ... From the day on which Christ was raised upon it, the Cross, which had seemed to be a sign of desolation, of abandonment, and of failure, has become a new beginning: from the profundity of death is raised the promise of eternal life. The victorious splendour of the dawning day of Easter already shines upon the Cross.

"In the silence of this night", Pope Benedict added, "in the silence which envelopes Holy Saturday, touched by the limitless love of God, we live in the hope of the dawn of the third day, the dawn of the victory of God's love, the luminous daybreak which allows the eyes of our heart to see our life afresh, its difficulties, its suffering.

"Our failures, our disappointments, our bitterness, which seem to signal that all is lost, are instead illumined by hope. The act of love upon the Cross is confirmed by the Father and the dazzling light of the resurrection enfolds and transforms everything: friendship can be born from betrayal, forgiveness from denial, love from hate".

The Holy Father concluded by asking the Lord's help "to carry our cross with love, and to carry our daily crosses in the certainty that they have been enlightened by the dazzling light of Easter".
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EASTER SATURDAY: CHRIST IS THE CURE FOR DEATH

VATICAN CITY, 3 APR 2010 (VIS) - At 9 p.m. today in St. Peter's Basilica, the Pope presided at the solemn Easter vigil, which began in the atrium of the basilica where he blessed the new fire and lighted the Easter candle. This was followed by the procession towards the altar with the singing of the "Exultet". During the course of the Baptismal liturgy, the Holy Father administered the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation to six catechumens from various countries.

After the Gospel reading, the Pope pronounced his homily which he began with a reference to the apocryphal Jewish book "The Life of Adam and Eve", an account of Seth's journey to Paradise in search of the oil of mercy to heal his father Adam. This "legend lays bare the whole of humanity's anguish at the destiny of illness, pain and death that has been imposed upon us", said the Holy Father, referring also to "man's resistance to death. ... Somewhere - people have constantly thought - there must be some cure for death".

"Today too, the search for a source of healing continues. Modern medical science strives, if not exactly to exclude death, at least to eliminate as many as possible of its causes, to postpone it further and further, to prolong life more and more". Yet, the Pope asked, would it be good to postpone death indefinitely? If we did, "humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation.

"The true cure for death", he added, "must be different. It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity: it would need to transform us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness.

"What is new and exciting in the Christian message, in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, was and is what we have been told: that this cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist. It has been found. It is within our reach. In Baptism, this medicine is given to us. A new life begins in us, a life that matures in faith and is not extinguished by the death of the old life, but is only then fully revealed".

"What happens in Baptism is the beginning of a process that embraces the whole of our life - it makes us fit for eternity, in such a way that, robed in the garment of light of Jesus Christ, we can appear before the face of God and live with Him for ever. In the rite of Baptism there are two elements in which this event is expressed and made visible in a way that demands commitment for the rest of our lives. First is the rite of renunciation and the promises. ... We remove the 'old garments', which we cannot wear in God's presence. ... This renunciation is actually a promise in which we hold out our hand to Christ, that He may guide us and re-clothe us".

The Pope explained how St. Paul calls these old garments "works of the flesh" and designates them thus: "'fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing and the like'. These are the garments that we remove: the garments of death".

In the early Church, those being baptised turned towards the east, the symbol of light, because "it is God Who clothes us in the garment of light, the garment of life. Paul calls these new garments 'fruits of the spirit', and he describes them as follows: 'love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control'", said the Holy Father

Divested of his garments, the candidate for Baptism then "descended into the baptismal font and was immersed three times - a symbol of death that expresses all the radicality of this removal and change of garments. His former death-bound life the candidate consigns to death, with Christ, and lets himself be drawn up by and with Christ into the new life that transforms him for eternity".

"In the course of the centuries", Benedict XVI concluded, "the symbols were simplified, but the essential content of Baptism has remained the same. It is no mere cleansing, still less is it a somewhat complicated initiation into a new association. It is death and resurrection, rebirth to new life. Indeed, the cure for death does exist. Christ is the tree of life, once more within our reach. If we remain close to Him, then we have life".
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