VATICAN CITY, 11 OCT 2011 (VIS) - This week diocesan Caritas in Rome will celebrate a series of initiatives under the title of "Capitale solidale". The aim is "to analyse difficulties, discern changes, share experiences and create a network of relationships between people for the common good" in the diocese of which the Pope is bishop.
Over the course of the week a number of places symbolic of solidarity, such as Caritas canteens and shelters, will host lectures, roundtable discussions, book presentations, concerts, theatrical performances, exhibitions, etc. "A series of events addressed at different sectors of the public with the aim of spreading a culture of solidarity in which concern for those in greatest need is real and authentic", according to a communique from Msgr. Enrico Feroci, director of Caritas in Rome.
"The theme chosen this year is 'Faces and Narratives from a United City' and the participants will be the users of Caritas centres, volunteers, social workers and service providers. The intention is to make people aware of the daily efforts of solidarity made by thousands of people, efforts which often pass unobserved, precisely because they are 'ordinary' in their extraordinariness", Msgr. Feroci says.
Today at the Caritas centre of Villa Glori a discussion will be held on the "rights of refugees and of people under international protection", while tomorrow a photographic exhibition entitled "The Face and Gaze of the Poor" will be inaugurated at the Capitol, dedicated to Fr. Luigi Di Liegro, founder of Roman Caritas. A Mass for Fr. Di Liegro will be celebrated at 6 p.m. this evening in the Roman basilica of the Holy Apostles. On Thursday 13 October, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the Pope's vicar general for the diocese of Rome, will preside at a missionary vigil in the basilica of St. John Lateran.
On Friday 14 October, the headquarters of Rome's provincial administration will host a discussion entitled: "From Problems to People: encountering man in order to reanimate politics; possible routes to a shared society". Among the participants will be Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, and Claudio Cecchini, provincial councillor for social policies, the family and institutional relations. On the afternoon of Saturday 15 October, young people from the diocese of Rome will meet with the Pope in St. Peter's Square. The week will end on Sunday 16 October with a meeting to be held at the Caritas centre of Santa Giacinta, under the title: "Recount and Resist. This unknown territory, voices and narratives from a united city", followed by a performance entitled: "Voices and Music for an Evening of Solidarity".
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Tuesday, October 11, 2011
PUBLICATION OF 74TH EDITION OF THE MISSIONARY BIBLIOGRAPHY
VATICAN CITY, 11 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The Library of the Pontifical Urban University has published the seventy-fourth volume of its "Missionary Bibliography" for the year 2010. The work, which appears annually, is a compendium of information concerning the missions taken from 800 publications worldwide, The text is in English, while quotes from other works remain in their original language.
The latest edition contains 4,480 articles and essays on twenty-three subjects including the theology and history of missions, their current state and future prospects, missionary institutions, ecumenical dialogue and the mission, religions, missions and atheism, and the situation of the mission on various continents. It also includes reviews of forty-five books on missionary topics.
CEP/ VIS 20111011 (130)
The latest edition contains 4,480 articles and essays on twenty-three subjects including the theology and history of missions, their current state and future prospects, missionary institutions, ecumenical dialogue and the mission, religions, missions and atheism, and the situation of the mission on various continents. It also includes reviews of forty-five books on missionary topics.
CEP/ VIS 20111011 (130)
Monday, October 10, 2011
NEVER SURRENDER TO THE LURE OF PESSIMISM
VATICAN CITY, 9 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Benedict XVI today made a pastoral visit to Lamezia Terme and Serra San Bruno, located in the region of Calabria in southern Italy. He began the day by travelling by plane from Ciampino airport in Rome to Lamezia Terme where he celebrated Mass at an industrial area on the outskirts of the town.
"In this Sunday's liturgy we heard the parable narrating the wedding feast to which many guests were invited", said the Holy Father in his homily. "The image of a banquet is often used in Scripture to indicate joy in communion and in the abundance of the Lord's gifts. ... Many people were invited, but something unexpected happened: they refused to participate in the feast, they had other things to do". However this did not deter the king who was organising the feast. "He was not discouraged but sent his servants out to invite others. The refusal of the first invitees had the effect of extending the invitation to everyone, including the poor, the abandoned and the disinherited. ... However there was a condition to attending this wedding feast: guests had to wear the wedding robe. Entering the hall, the king realised that someone had chosen not to wear it and, for this reason, that guest was excluded from the feast".
To explain the significance of the "wedding robe", the Holy Father quoted from a commentary written by St. Gregory the Great. "In a certain sense, the guest who responded to God's invitation to participate in His banquet had faith, which opened the door of the hall to him, but he lacked something essential: the wedding robe, which is charity, love. ... In symbolic terms the robe is woven with two threads: ... love of God and love of neighbour. We are all invited to be guests of the Lord, to enter with faith into His banquet, but we must wear and preserve the wedding robe, which is charity, we must live with profound love for God and for neighbour".
"I have come to share with you the joys and hopes, the toils and commitments, the ideals and aspirations of this diocesan community", Benedict XVI told the faithful. "This beautiful region is seismic not only in a geological sense, but also in structural, behavioural and social terms. It is a land where problems are acute and destabilising, a land where unemployment is a great concern, where an often pitiless criminality damages the fabric of society, a land which seems to be in a perpetual state of emergency. To that emergency you people of Calabria have responded with surprising readiness, with an extraordinary capacity to adapt to difficulties. ... Never surrender to the lure of pessimism, never close in on yourselves. Draw on the resources of your faith and your human capacities; strive to increase collaboration, to look after one another and the public good; preserve the wedding robe of love".
The Pope then went on to recall that his visit coincided with the end of the five-year pastoral plan of the local Church. He praised the initiatives that had been completed during that time, including a school for the Social Doctrine of the Church, expressing the hope that "such initiatives will produce a new generation of men and women capable of promoting the common good more than private interests". He also had words of encouragement for clergy and lay people who work to prepare Christian couples for marriage and the family "providing a response that is both evangelical and effective to the many challenges facing the family and life today".
Finally, the Holy Father praised priests for the work they do, encouraging them "increasingly to root your own spiritual lives in the Gospel, ... detaching yourselves from the worldly consumer mentality which is such a recurring temptation in the times in which we live. ... Use discernment and ecclesiastical criteria to evaluate groups and movements", he said.
"Do not be afraid to live and bear witness to the faith in the various fields of society, in the multifarious situations of human life", he concluded, addressing the faithful. "Thanks to the light of faith and the force of charity, you have every reason to be strong, trusting and courageous".
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (720)
"In this Sunday's liturgy we heard the parable narrating the wedding feast to which many guests were invited", said the Holy Father in his homily. "The image of a banquet is often used in Scripture to indicate joy in communion and in the abundance of the Lord's gifts. ... Many people were invited, but something unexpected happened: they refused to participate in the feast, they had other things to do". However this did not deter the king who was organising the feast. "He was not discouraged but sent his servants out to invite others. The refusal of the first invitees had the effect of extending the invitation to everyone, including the poor, the abandoned and the disinherited. ... However there was a condition to attending this wedding feast: guests had to wear the wedding robe. Entering the hall, the king realised that someone had chosen not to wear it and, for this reason, that guest was excluded from the feast".
To explain the significance of the "wedding robe", the Holy Father quoted from a commentary written by St. Gregory the Great. "In a certain sense, the guest who responded to God's invitation to participate in His banquet had faith, which opened the door of the hall to him, but he lacked something essential: the wedding robe, which is charity, love. ... In symbolic terms the robe is woven with two threads: ... love of God and love of neighbour. We are all invited to be guests of the Lord, to enter with faith into His banquet, but we must wear and preserve the wedding robe, which is charity, we must live with profound love for God and for neighbour".
"I have come to share with you the joys and hopes, the toils and commitments, the ideals and aspirations of this diocesan community", Benedict XVI told the faithful. "This beautiful region is seismic not only in a geological sense, but also in structural, behavioural and social terms. It is a land where problems are acute and destabilising, a land where unemployment is a great concern, where an often pitiless criminality damages the fabric of society, a land which seems to be in a perpetual state of emergency. To that emergency you people of Calabria have responded with surprising readiness, with an extraordinary capacity to adapt to difficulties. ... Never surrender to the lure of pessimism, never close in on yourselves. Draw on the resources of your faith and your human capacities; strive to increase collaboration, to look after one another and the public good; preserve the wedding robe of love".
The Pope then went on to recall that his visit coincided with the end of the five-year pastoral plan of the local Church. He praised the initiatives that had been completed during that time, including a school for the Social Doctrine of the Church, expressing the hope that "such initiatives will produce a new generation of men and women capable of promoting the common good more than private interests". He also had words of encouragement for clergy and lay people who work to prepare Christian couples for marriage and the family "providing a response that is both evangelical and effective to the many challenges facing the family and life today".
Finally, the Holy Father praised priests for the work they do, encouraging them "increasingly to root your own spiritual lives in the Gospel, ... detaching yourselves from the worldly consumer mentality which is such a recurring temptation in the times in which we live. ... Use discernment and ecclesiastical criteria to evaluate groups and movements", he said.
"Do not be afraid to live and bear witness to the faith in the various fields of society, in the multifarious situations of human life", he concluded, addressing the faithful. "Thanks to the light of faith and the force of charity, you have every reason to be strong, trusting and courageous".
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (720)
LAY PEOPLE MUST CONTRIBUTE TO BUILDING THE COMMON GOOD
VATICAN CITY, 9 OCT 2011 (VIS) - "I know that there are various Marian shrines here in Calabria and that popular piety is very vibrant", said the Pope in his remarks preceding the Angelus this morning. He invited the faithful to continue to practice that piety "in the light of the teaching of Vatican Council II, of the Apostolic See and of your pastors".
The Holy Father went on: "Let us also invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin for the most serious social problems of this area and of all Calabria, especially those affecting the world of work, of the young and of people with disabilities. They require greater attention from everyone, particularly the institutions. In communion with your bishops I invite you, the lay faithful, not to fail to use your skills and responsibilities to contribute to the construction of the common good".
Following the celebration of the Eucharist and the Angelus, the Pope went to the episcopal residence of Lamezia Terme here he had lunch with local bishops. He also offered lunch to the poor at the local Caritas canteen who ate the same menu as the Pope and his entourage. At 4.45 p.m. he boarded a helicopter to travel to Serra San Bruno.
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (220)
The Holy Father went on: "Let us also invoke the intercession of the Blessed Virgin for the most serious social problems of this area and of all Calabria, especially those affecting the world of work, of the young and of people with disabilities. They require greater attention from everyone, particularly the institutions. In communion with your bishops I invite you, the lay faithful, not to fail to use your skills and responsibilities to contribute to the construction of the common good".
Following the celebration of the Eucharist and the Angelus, the Pope went to the episcopal residence of Lamezia Terme here he had lunch with local bishops. He also offered lunch to the poor at the local Caritas canteen who ate the same menu as the Pope and his entourage. At 4.45 p.m. he boarded a helicopter to travel to Serra San Bruno.
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (220)
MONASTERIES ARE INDISPENSABLE TO MODERN SOCIETY
VATICAN CITY, 9 OCT 2011 (VIS) - At 5.15 p.m. today, the Holy Father arrived by helicopter at Serra San Bruno, then continued his journey by car to the Carthusian monastery of Sts. Stephen and Bruno. He was greeted on the square in front of the monastery by Bruno Rosi, mayor of Serra San Bruno, then addressed some words to the many faithful from the local area who had gathered there to see him.
The Pope recalled the visit made to Serra San Bruno by John Paul II in 1984, noting that it is "a great privilege" to have a "'citadel' of the spirit" such as the Carthusian monastery on one's local territory. "Monasteries have an important, I would say indispensable, role", he said. "Their purpose today is to 'improve' the environment, in the sense that sometimes the air we breathe in our societies is unhealthy, it is polluted by a non-Christian mentality, at times even a non-human mentality, because it is dominated by economic interests, concerned only with worldly things and lacking a spiritual dimension.
"In such a climate not only God but also our fellow man is pushed to the margins, and we do not commit ourselves to the common good. Monasteries, however, are models of societies which have God and fraternal relations at their core. We have great need of them in our time".
Benedict XVI completed his remarks by exhorting the faithful of Serra San Bruno "to treasure the great spiritual tradition of this place, and seek to put it into practice in your daily lives".
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (270)
The Pope recalled the visit made to Serra San Bruno by John Paul II in 1984, noting that it is "a great privilege" to have a "'citadel' of the spirit" such as the Carthusian monastery on one's local territory. "Monasteries have an important, I would say indispensable, role", he said. "Their purpose today is to 'improve' the environment, in the sense that sometimes the air we breathe in our societies is unhealthy, it is polluted by a non-Christian mentality, at times even a non-human mentality, because it is dominated by economic interests, concerned only with worldly things and lacking a spiritual dimension.
"In such a climate not only God but also our fellow man is pushed to the margins, and we do not commit ourselves to the common good. Monasteries, however, are models of societies which have God and fraternal relations at their core. We have great need of them in our time".
Benedict XVI completed his remarks by exhorting the faithful of Serra San Bruno "to treasure the great spiritual tradition of this place, and seek to put it into practice in your daily lives".
PV-ITALY/ VIS 20111010 (270)
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