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ARCHBISHOP FISICHELLA PRESENTS TWO NEW EVENTS FOR YEAR OF FAITH
Vatican City, 24 April 2013 (VIS) – A press conference was held this
morning in the Holy See Press Office to presentat the next two events
scheduled for the Year of Faith: the Day of Confirmands (27-28 April) and the
Day of Confraternities and
Popular Piety (3-5 April). Participating in the press conference were
Archbishop Rino Fisichella and Bishop Jose
Subject: VISnews130424
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
Octavio Ruiz Arena, respectively president and secretary of the Pontifical
Council for Promoting New Evangelisation.
Archbishop Fisichella explained that the common denominator of the events,
which will take place in Rome with the Holy Father, will be “of
highlighting pilgrimage to the tomb of Peter. That is why, the day before, the
participants will take
part in a symbolic procession from the obelisk in St. Peter's Square to the
tomb of the Apostle where they will pray the Creed. Along the way there will
be a brief catechesis to recall the significance of the places that we find
ourselves at and their
historic meaning for the faith.”
The first event will take place this 27-28 April and will be dedicated to
all those who have or who will receive receive the Sacrament of Confirmation
this year. “Already more than 70,000 youth, accompanied by their
catechists and priests, have
signed up. This presence shows the enthusiasm with which they have joined in
the initiative and the great turn-out that we should expect.”
For the first time, Pope Francis will confer the Sacrament of Confirmation
on 44 youth from around the world, symbolically representing the entire
Church. “They are youth,” the archbishop said, “ who show
the face of the Church
there where people are living and suffering, to give all hope and certainty
for the future.” But there will not just be youth in attendance since
there is no uniformity on the age at which to receive the Sacrament and the
ages of the confirmands
who are coming stretches from 11 to 55.
The second important event, which over 50,000 persons have already signed
up for, will take place from 3 to 5 May and will be dedicated to popular
piety. The Confraternities, particularly from the countries where the
tradition is strongest, will give
witness to the different local traditions that have resulted from a
religiosity that has been expressed through the centuries with initiatives and
works of art that have lasted to this day. The event's culminating moment will
be Mass celebrated by the
Pope on Sunday at 10:00am in St. Peter's Square.
It will be “a moment of faith,” the prelate concluded,
“that finds, in the simplicity of the expressions of popular piety, its
most deep-rooted core in our people who live these signs uninterruptedly as a
reminder of the faith of
previous generations and as a tradition that should be witnessed to with
courage and enthusiasm.”
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POPE CELEBRATES HIS SAINT'S DAY WITH CARDINALS AND NOTES THAT THE CHURCH
ADVANCES BETWEEN CROSS AND RESURRECTION
Vatican City, 24 April 2013 (VIS) – In the Pauline Chapel of the
Vatican yesterday, the feast of St. George, the Holy Father presided at Mass
with the cardinals resident in Rome, thanking them for their presence:
“Thank you,” he
said, “because I feel very well welcomed. I feel good with you and that
pleases me.”
In the homily, Francis commented on the first reading of the day's liturgy
that narrates the story of the first Christians who escaped persecution in
Jerusalem, travelling to Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, where they began to
spread the Good News,
among the Greeks as well. “At that moment when persecution breaks
out,” the Pope said, “the Church's missionary activity breaks
out.”
But in Jerusalem, they didn't understand how it was possible to preach to
non-Jews. “A little nervous, they sent an Apostolic Visit, they sent
Barnabas. Perhaps, a bit humorously,” Pope Francis explained, “we
can say that this was
the theological beginning of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith,
this Apostolic Visit by Barnabas. He observed and he saw that things were
going well. The Church thus is more a Mother: a Mother of more children, of
many children. She becomes
… more and more a Mother: a Mother who gives us faith, a Mother who
gives us our identity. But our Christian identity is not an ID card. Christian
identity is a belonging to the Church because all of these belonged to the
Church, the Mother
Church, because finding Jesus outside of the Church is not possible. The great
Paul VI said: it is an absurd dichotomy to want to live with Jesus but outside
of the Church. And that Mother church who gives us Jesus gives us an
identity that is not merely a seal; it is a belonging. Identity means
belonging.”
The Pope then spoke of the three ideas that the story brought to his mind:
the first was of the beginning of the mission, the second the Church as
Mother, and the third the joy of the evangelizer that Barnabas feels when he
see the immense crowd
listening to the preaching. “Thus the Church advances … among the
world's persecutions and the Lord's consolation. … If we want to travel
the path or worldliness, negotiating with the world … we will never
have the Lord's
consolation. And, if we only seek his consolation, it will be a superficial
one, … a human consolation. The Church always goes between the Cross
and the Resurrection … This is the path. Whoever travels by this path
will not be
mistaken.”
“Let us think today of the Church's missionary activity: in those
disciples … who have the courage to proclaim Jesus to the Greeks,
something almost scandalous at that time. Let us think of the Mother church
who grows, grows with new
children to whom she fives the identity of faith because one cannot believe in
Jesus without the Church. … and let us think of the consolation that
Barnabas had, 'the sweet and consoling joy of evangelizing'. And let us ask
the Lord … for
this apostolic fervour, that urges us to go forward, as brothers and sisters,
all of us: forward!. Let us go forward bearing Jesus' name at the heart of the
Holy Mother Church.”
After the Eucharistic celebration, the Swiss Guard Musical Band offered the
Pope a short concert in the Saint Damasus Courtyard, to wish him a happy
saint's day.
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AUDIENCE
Vatican City, 24 April 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father received
Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the Pontifical Council for
Interreligious Dialogue.
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 24 April 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father
appointed:
- Bishop Liro Vendelino Meurer as bishop of Santo Angelo (area 19,293,
population 554,000, Catholics 404,000, priests 80, permanent deacons 1,
religious 265), Brazil. Bishop Meurer was previously auxiliary of Passo Fundo,
Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil,
and titular of Thucca in Numidia. He succeeds Bishop Jose Clemente Weber,
whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father
accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
- Bishop Moacir Silva as metropolitan archbishop of Ribeirao Preto (area
8,782, population 1,097,000, Catholics 769,000, priests 149, permanent deacons
14, religious 224), Brazil. Archbishop-elect Silva, previously bishop of Sao
Jose dos Campos, Sao
Paulo, Brazil, was born in 1954 in Sao Jose dos Campos, was ordained to the
priesthood in 1986, and received episcopal ordination in 2004. He currently
serves as a member of the National Bishops' Commission for Ecclesiastic
Tribunals of second instance
and as vice president of the Regional Bishops' Conference of the state of Sao
Paulo.
Yesterday, 23 April, the Holy Father extended the jurisdiction of Bishop
John Michael Botean, of the Eparchy of Saint George's in Canton of the
Romanians, over the Greek-Catholic Romanians present in the entire territory
of Canada.
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