CARDINALS TO TAKE POSSESSION OF TITULAR CHURCHES

VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2004 (VIS) - Cardinal Peter Erdo, metropolitan archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, Hungary, will take possession of the title of St. Balbina on Piazza Santa Balbina in Rome at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 9, it was announced today by the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

Cardinal Rudolfo Quezada Toruno, metropolitan archbishop of Guatemala, Guatemala, will take possession of the title of St. Saturninus on Via Avigliana 3 at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 13.
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EXECUTIVES, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND GLOBALIZATION

VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2004 (VIS) - A two-day meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Christian Union of Business Executives (UNIAPAC) on the theme "The Business Executive: Social Responsibility and Globalization" opens tomorrow in the Vatican. Cardinal Renato Martino, council president, will give the welcome address at this international conference.

According to a communique released today by the pontifical council, some of the topics that will be discussed include corruption in business and politics, the ethical and social purpose of corporate profits, the social impact of marketing and advertising policies, and social responsibility in direct investments in developing countries. Seventy businessmen, experts and university teachers from 27 countries on all continents are expected to attend.

This conference is taking place, says the communique, "just before the publication of the previously announced and much-awaited compendium prepared by the council on the basic principles of the social doctrine of the Church, comparing them openly with the current problems of the business world in the era of globalization."
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2004 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Adolfo Armando Uriona, of the Little Work of Divine Providence, formerly provincial director of the same congregation in Argentina, as bishop of Anatuya (area 68,000, population 138,372, Catholics 120,210, priests 39, religious 152), Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Mar de Plata, Argentina in 1955 and was ordained a priest in 1980.
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CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE CHALLENGE OF RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE

VATICAN CITY, MAR 4, 2004 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Culture will celebrate its plenary assembly from March 11 to 13 in Rome on the theme "The Christian Faith at the dawn of the new millennium and the challenge of unbelief and religious indifference."

The dicastery was instituted by John Paul II on May 20, 1982. With the Apostolic Letter in the form of a Motu Proprio "Inde a Pontificatus" of 1993, the Pope joined the Pontifical Council for Culture to the Pontifical Council for Dialogue with Non-believers, created by Paul VI in 1965 and formerly called the Secretariat for Non-believers.

It is structured in two sections, Faith and Culture, and Dialogue with Cultures, and its purpose is "to promote meeting points between the saving message of the Gospel and the cultures of our time, often marked by non-belief and by religious indifference, so that they may open themselves more and more to the Christian faith."

The plenary assembly takes place at least once every three years with the mission of evaluating and planning the department's programs, and exchanging experiences and reflections on the variety of cultural situations in contemporary societies. This is done in the context of evangelization and the Church's dialogue with cultures. Those who are invited are the members of the council, cardinals and bishops appointed by the Holy Father for five-year terms. At present there are 21 cardinals and 12 archbishops and bishops from various parts of the world.

The council also relies on consultors, appointed by the Holy Father for five-year terms, for the study of particularly important questions. They are experts in the field of culture or in dialogue with non-believers and come from all over the world. They collaborate with the council through their research and by providing information.

After the opening of the plenary, which will be conduced by Cardinal Paul Poupard, council president, and a report on the dicastery's activities, there will be a presentation of the "Instrumentum Laboris" that has been prepared for the plenary.

The meeting is divided into seven sessions: "The Challenge of the Culture of Unbelief and Indifference Today"; "The Proclamation of the Gospel and Dialogue with Non-believers"; "A Public Presence of the Church in Societies marked by Religious Indifference"; "Evangelizing the World of Culture and Cultural Environments"; "Handing on the Faith in the Culture of Unbelief"; "Church and Family, Places to Initiate Non-believers into the Faith"; and "Reason and Feeling: a Renewed Anthropology to Reach the Non-believers and Indifferent."

Cardinals and bishops who were recently appointed as members of the dicastery will participate for the first time in the plenary. Among the speakers are Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, archbishop of Westminster, Great Britain who will talk on "Personal Dialogue with Non-believers"; Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity who will speak on "The Christian Churches facing the Challenge of Unbelief"; Cardinal Jose da Cruz Policarpo, patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal, who will speak on "New City Missions in Europe"; Cardinal Francis E. George, archbishop of Chicago, U.S.A., who will speak on "Educational Institutes: Schools and Universities"; Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, archbishop of Dar-es-Salaam, Sudan, who will speak on "The Catechumenate for Youth and Adults"; Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruno who will speak on "Between Religiosity and Non-belief: New Age, New Religious Movements and Sects"; Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, archbishop of Madrid, Spain on "Unbelief and Secularization among the Youth: the Response of the World Youth Days; and Cardinal Ivan Dias, archbishop of Bombay, India on "The Way of Love."

On March 13, the closing session with take place with a Eucharistic concelebration in the Basilica of St. Mary in Trastevere, presided over by Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico. The next plenary assembly will take place in 2006.
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PONTIFICAL COUNCIL TO CELEBRATE 40TH ANNIVERSARY

VATICAN CITY, MAR 3, 2004 (VIS) - The Pontifical Council for Social Communications, which this year marks its 40th anniversary, will celebrate its annual plenary assembly in the Vatican from March 8 to 12 on the theme "'Inter Mirifica': Forty Years Later." Cardinal Eugenio Araujo Sales, archbishop emeritus of Rio de Janeiro, an original member of this council, will preside at the opening Mass on Monday in the chapel of the Teutonic College. A celebratory dinner will follow.

According to council president, Archbishop John P. Foley, "each member and each consultor of the pontifical council has been asked to make a presentation of the most significant event or events in communications in the last forty years and to express a 'dream' for the next decade in communications. These reflections may be published later and may also be used as a source document to mark the 40th anniversary of "'Inter Mirifica' and of this council. There will also be discussion of a proposed document on 'Spirituality and Cinema'."

"Inter Mirifica: Decree on the Media of Social Communications," a Vatican Council II document, was promulgated by Pope Paul VI on December 4, 1963. The title "Inter Mirifica" comes from the first two words of the document in Latin which mean "among the wonderful." The first paragraph of this Decree states, in fact:

"Among the wonderful technological discoveries which men of talent, especially in the present era, have made with God's help, the Church welcomes and promotes with special interest those which have a most direct relation to men's minds and which have uncovered new avenues of communicating most readily news, views and teachings of every sort. The most important of these inventions are those media which, such as the press, movies, radio, television and the like, can, of their very nature, reach and influence, not only individuals, but the very masses and the whole of human society, and thus can rightly be called the media of social communication."

The current Pontifical Council for Social Communications has had a number of precursors over the decades. The first such office set up within the Vatican was the Pontifical Commission for the Study and Ecclesiastical Evaluation of Films on Religious and Moral Subjects, which was established on January 30, 1948. Several months later this office, which was staffed by a president and four members and housed in a single room, was renamed the Pontifical Commission for Educational and Religious Films. Its task was to examine educational and pastoral problems of the nascent audio-visual era.

The commission was replaced by the Pontifical Commission for Cinema and its statutes approved by Pope Pius XII in January 1952. Its staff was increased and office space enlarged. A further name change took place in 1954 when it became the Pontifical Commission for the Cinema, Radio and Television, following which it took a more active role in preparing, implementing and participating in international Catholic congresses.

On February 22, 1959, Pope John XXIII, in his Motu Proprio "Boni pastoris" linked this office to the Secretariat of State. In June 1960 the Preparatory Secretariat for the Press and the Entertainment World was set up within the pontifical commission as one of the 12 preparatory organs for Vatican Council II. "Inter Mirifica" was the result of the work and studies of this office.

Pope Paul VI, in his April 2, 1964 Motu proprio "In fructibus multis," transformed the commission into the Pontifical Commission for Social
Communications, entrusting it with the responsibility of delving into and studying problems in the worlds of the cinema, radio, and television. Pope Paul personally attended the first plenary of this new commission on September 28, 1964.

With the Apostolic Constitution "Pastor Bonus" promulgated by John Paul II on June 28, 1988, this commission was renamed and on March 1, 1989, it officially became the Pontifical Council for Social Communications. Archbishop Foley was appointed president on April 9, 1984.

Documents produced by the pontifical council over the last forty years include: The Church and Internet (2002); Ethics in Internet (2002); Ethics in Communications (2000); Ethics in advertising (1997); 100 Years of Cinema (1995-1996); Aetatis Novae (1992); Criteria for ecumenical and inter-religious cooperation in communications (1989); Pornography and violence in the communications media: a pastoral response (1989); Guide to the training of future priests concerning the instruments of social communications (1986); An appeal to all contemplative Religious (1973); Communio et Progressio (1971); Regulations for the audio-visual representation of ceremonies and of locations directly dependent on the Holy See (1965).
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