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    VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXIII - N° 39   
   DATE 23-02-2013   
      
   Summary:   
    - POPE CONCLUDES LENTEN RETREAT   
    - POPE MEETS WITH PRESIDENT NAPOLITANO   
    - POPE'S LETTER TO CARDINAL GIANFRANCO RAVASI   
    - SECRETARIAT OF STATE COMMUNIQUE   
    - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   POPE CONCLUDES LENTEN RETREAT   
   Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – At the conclusion of this year's   
   spiritual exercises, Benedict XVI thanked the members of the Curia who had   
   accompanied him in these days and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravisi, who led the   
   retreat. The Pope referred   
   to his preaching, the theme of which was “The Art of Believing, the Art   
   of Praying” as “'beautiful' walks through the universe of faith,   
   and the universe of the Psalms.”   
   “I was reminded of the fact,” Benedict XVI said, “that the   
   medieval theologians have translated the word 'logos' not only as 'verbum',   
   but also as 'ars'. 'Verbum' and 'ars' are interchangeable. Only in the two   
   together does the entire   
   meaning of the word 'logos' appear for medieval theologians. The 'Logos' is   
   not simply a mathematical reasoning, the 'Logos' has a heart. The 'Logos' is   
   also love. Truth is beautiful. Truth and beauty go together. Beauty is the   
   seal of truth.”   
   “And yet you, starting from the Psalms and from our everyday experience,   
   have also strongly emphasized that the 'very beautiful' of the sixth   
   day—expressed by the creator—is always challenged in this world by   
   evil, suffering, and   
   corruption. It almost seems that evil wants to permanently mar creation, to   
   contradict God and to make His truth and His beauty unrecognisable. In a world   
   that is also so marked by evil, the 'Logos', eternal beauty and eternal 'ars',   
   should appear as   
   the 'caput cruentatum'. The incarnate Son, the incarnate 'Logos' is crowned   
   with a crown of thorns and, nevertheless, just that way, in this suffering   
   figure of the Son of God, we begin to see the most profound beauty of our   
   Creator and Redeemer. In the   
   silence of the 'dark night' we can still hear the Word. Believing is nothing   
   other than, in the darkness of the world, touching the hand of God and thus,   
   in silence, listening to the Word, seeing Love.”   
   Benedict XVI again thanked Cardinal Ravasi, expressing his wish to “take   
   other 'walks' in this mysterious universe of the faith and to always be more   
   capable of praying, proclaiming, and being witnesses to the truth, which is   
   beauty and which is   
   love.”   
   “In conclusion, dear friends,” he finished, “I would like to   
   thank all of you and not only for this week, but for these past eight years   
   that you have carried with me—with great skill, affection, love and   
   faith—the weight   
   of the Petrine ministry. This gratitude remains with me and, even if this   
   'exterior', 'visible' communion—as Cardinal Ravasi said—is now   
   ending, our spiritual closeness remains, the deep communion in prayer. We go   
   forward with this   
   certainty, certain of God's victory, certain of the truth of beauty and   
   love.”   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   POPE MEETS WITH PRESIDENT NAPOLITANO   
   Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – This morning at 11:30am, the Holy   
   Father received the president of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano   
   accompanied by his wife, in a farewell audience. The meeting was particularly   
   warm and cordial,   
   given the mutual respect and familiarity of the two eminent men.   
   President Napolitano expressed, not only the gratitude of the Italian people   
   for his closeness in so many crucial moments and for his elevated religious   
   and moral teaching, but also their affection, which will continue to accompany   
   him in the coming   
   years.   
   The Pope, for his part, again expressed his gratitude to the president and his   
   wife for their friendship and best wishes for the good of Italy, particularly   
   in these days and at this moment of demanding decisions.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   POPE'S LETTER TO CARDINAL GIANFRANCO RAVASI   
   Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – Benedict XVI, in an apostolic   
   letter, thanked Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical   
   Council for Culture, for his preaching during the Lenten retreat.   
   “You have offered us,” the Holy Father writes, “a   
   fascinating journey through the Psalms, following a double path: ascending and   
   descending. The Psalms, in fact, are fundamentally oriented toward the face of   
   God, toward the mystery in   
   which the human mind gets lost, but the very Word of God allows us to see   
   according to the different profiles in which God reveals himself. At the same   
   time, in the light that shine from the face of God, praying the Psalms allows   
   us to see the face of   
   humanity, to recognize the truth of human joy and sorrow, human anguish and   
   hope.”   
   “In this way, … the Word of God, mediated by the ancient and   
   ever-new 'ars orandi' of the Jewish people and the Church, has allowed us to   
   renew the 'ars credendi': a need that is highlighted by the Year of Faith and   
   is even more necessary   
   in this particular moment that I, personally, and the Apostolic See are   
   living. Peter's successor and his collaborators are called to give the Church   
   and the world a clear testimony of faith, and this is only possible thanks to   
   a deep and abiding   
   immersion in dialogue with God. Many today are asking: Who will show us what   
   is good? We can answer, those who reflect God's light and face with their   
   lives.”   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   SECRETARIAT OF STATE COMMUNIQUE   
   Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – The freedom of the College of   
   Cardinals, which, by law, is responsible for providing for the election of the   
   Roman Pontiff, has always been strongly defended by the Holy See as the   
   guarantee of a choice based   
   solely on deliberations directed toward the good of the Church.   
   Over the course of the centuries, Cardinals have had to face many forms of   
   pressures, exerted upon individual electors or upon the College of Cardinals   
   itself, that sought to influence their decisions, following a political or   
   worldly logic.   
   If in the past the so-called powers, i.e., States, sought to influence the   
   election of the Pope, today there is an attempt to do this through public   
   opinion, which is often based on judgements that do not capture the typically   
   spiritual aspect of this   
   moment that the Church is living.   
   It is deplorable that, as we draw closer to the moment that the Conclave will   
   begin and the Cardinal electors will be held—in conscience and before   
   God—to freely express their choice, there is a widespread distribution   
   of often unverified,   
   unverifiable, or even completely false news stories that cause serious damage   
   to persons and institutions.   
   Never before as at this moment are Catholics focusing on what is essential:   
   praying for Pope Benedict, praying that the Holy Spirit might enlighten the   
   College of Cardinals, and praying for the future Pope, confident that the   
   future of the barque of   
   Peter is in God's hands.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
   Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:   
   - appointed Fr. Pietro Lagnese as bishop of Ischia (area 46, population   
   58,800, Catholics 55,400, priests 42, permanent deacons 10, religious 46),   
   Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Vitulazio, Campania, Italy in 1961 and was   
   ordained a priest in 1986.   
   Since ordination he has served in several pastoral and administrative roles,   
   most recently as pastor of Santa Maria dell’Agnena in Vitulazio, Italy.   
   - appointed Bishop Dagoberto Sosa Arriaga as bishop of Tlapa (area 6,990,   
   population 506,000, Catholics 473,000, priests 50, religious 77), Mexico.   
   Bishop Dagoberto, titular of Gummi in Byzacena, was previously auxiliary of   
   Puebla de los Angeles,   
   Puebla, Mexico.   
   - appointed Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., archbishop of Buenos Aires,   
   Argentina, and Archbishop Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzaran, of Yucatan,   
   Mexico, as members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.   
   - appointed as members of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters of   
   the Virtuosi al Pantheon: in the class of architects: Dr. Mario Botta, Dr.   
   Maria Antonietta Crippa, and Dr. Lorenzo Bartolini Salimbeni; in the class of   
   painters and   
   filmmakers: Pedro Cano; in the class of sculptors: Giuseppe Ducrot, Mimmo   
   Paladino, and Ugo Riva; and in the class of writers and poets: Laura Bosio,   
   Luca Doninelli, and Vincenzo Cerami.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il   
    sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va   
    Il servizio del VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta   
    elettronica che ne hanno fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo   
    non si desidera continuare a riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina   
    dinizio:   
    http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/italinde.php   
      
    Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican   
    Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente   
    citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.   
      
      
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   VISnews130223   
      
   
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXIII - N° 39 DATE 23-02-2013
Summary: - POPE CONCLUDES LENTEN RETREAT - POPE MEETS WITH   
   PRESIDENT NAPOLITANO - POPE'S LETTER TO CARDINAL GIANFRANCO RAVASI - SECRETARIAT OF STATE COMMUNIQUE - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – At the conclusion of this   
   year's spiritual exercises, Benedict XVI thanked the members of the Curia who   
   had accompanied him in these days and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravisi, who led the   
   retreat. The Pope   
   referred to his preaching, the theme of which was “The Art of Believing,   
   the Art of Praying” as “'beautiful' walks through the universe of   
   faith, and the universe of the Psalms.”
   
   
“I was reminded of the fact,” Benedict XVI said, “that   
   the medieval theologians have translated the word 'logos' not only as   
   'verbum', but also as 'ars'. 'Verbum' and 'ars' are interchangeable. Only in   
   the two together does the   
   entire meaning of the word 'logos' appear for medieval theologians. The   
   'Logos' is not simply a mathematical reasoning, the 'Logos' has a heart. The   
   'Logos' is also love. Truth is beautiful. Truth and beauty go together. Beauty   
   is the seal of   
   truth.”
   
   
“And yet you, starting from the Psalms and from our everyday   
   experience, have also strongly emphasized that the 'very beautiful' of the   
   sixth day—expressed by the creator—is always challenged in this   
   world by evil, suffering, and   
   corruption. It almost seems that evil wants to permanently mar creation, to   
   contradict God and to make His truth and His beauty unrecognisable. In a world   
   that is also so marked by evil, the 'Logos', eternal beauty and eternal 'ars',   
   should appear as   
   the 'caput cruentatum'. The incarnate Son, the incarnate 'Logos' is crowned   
   with a crown of thorns and, nevertheless, just that way, in this suffering   
   figure of the Son of God, we begin to see the most profound beauty of our   
   Creator and Redeemer. In the   
   silence of the 'dark night' we can still hear the Word. Believing is nothing   
   other than, in the darkness of the world, touching the hand of God and thus,   
   in silence,   
   listening to the Word, seeing Love.”
   
   
Benedict XVI again thanked Cardinal Ravasi, expressing his wish to   
   “take other 'walks' in this mysterious universe of the faith and to   
   always be more capable of praying, proclaiming, and being witnesses to the   
   truth, which is beauty and which   
   is love.”
   
   
“In conclusion, dear friends,” he finished, “I would like   
   to thank all of you and not only for this week, but for these past eight years   
   that you have carried with me—with great skill, affection, love and   
   faith—the   
   weight of the Petrine ministry. This gratitude remains with me and, even if   
   this 'exterior', 'visible' communion—as Cardinal Ravasi said—is   
   now ending, our spiritual closeness remains, the deep communion in prayer. We   
   go forward with this   
   certainty, certain of God's victory, certain of the truth of beauty and   
   love.”
Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – This morning at 11:30am, the   
   Holy Father received the president of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano   
   accompanied by his wife, in a farewell audience. The meeting was particularly   
   warm and cordial,   
   given the mutual respect and familiarity of the two eminent men.
   
   
President Napolitano expressed, not only the gratitude of the Italian   
   people for his closeness in so many crucial moments and for his elevated   
   religious and moral teaching, but also their affection, which will continue to   
   accompany him in the coming   
   years.
   
   
The Pope, for his part, again expressed his gratitude to the president and   
   his wife for their friendship and best wishes for the good of Italy,   
   particularly in these days and at this moment of demanding decisions.
Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – Benedict XVI, in an apostolic   
   letter, thanked Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical   
   Council for Culture, for his preaching during the Lenten retreat.
   
   
“You have offered us,” the Holy Father writes, “a   
   fascinating journey through the Psalms, following a double path: ascending and   
   descending. The Psalms, in fact, are fundamentally oriented toward the face of   
   God, toward the mystery   
   in which the human mind gets lost, but the very Word of God allows us to see   
   according to the different profiles in which God reveals himself. At the same   
   time, in the light that shine from the face of God, praying the Psalms allows   
   us to see the face   
   of humanity, to recognize the truth of human joy and sorrow, human anguish and   
   hope.”
   
   
“In this way, … the Word of God, mediated by the ancient and   
   ever-new 'ars orandi' of the Jewish people and the Church, has allowed us to   
   renew the 'ars credendi': a need that is highlighted by the Year of Faith and   
   is even more   
   necessary in this particular moment that I, personally, and the Apostolic See   
   are living. Peter's successor and his collaborators are called to give the   
   Church and the world a clear testimony of faith, and this is only possible   
   thanks to a deep and   
   abiding immersion in dialogue with God. Many today are asking: Who will show   
   us what is good? We can answer, those who reflect God's light and face with   
   their lives.”
Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – The freedom of the College of   
   Cardinals, which, by law, is responsible for providing for the election of the   
   Roman Pontiff, has always been strongly defended by the Holy See as the   
   guarantee of a choice   
   based solely on deliberations directed toward the good of the Church.
   
   
Over the course of the centuries, Cardinals have had to face many forms of   
   pressures, exerted upon individual electors or upon the College of Cardinals   
   itself, that sought to influence their decisions, following a political or   
   worldly logic.
   
   
If in the past the so-called powers, i.e., States, sought to influence the   
   election of the Pope, today there is an attempt to do this through public   
   opinion, which is often based on judgements that do not capture the typically   
   spiritual aspect of   
   this moment that the Church is living.
   
   
It is deplorable that, as we draw closer to the moment that the Conclave   
   will begin and the Cardinal electors will be held—in conscience and   
   before God—to freely express their choice, there is a widespread   
   distribution of often   
   unverified, unverifiable, or even completely false news stories that cause   
   serious damage to persons and institutions.
   
   
Never before as at this moment are Catholics focusing on what is essential:   
   praying for Pope Benedict, praying that the Holy Spirit might enlighten the   
   College of Cardinals, and praying for the future Pope, confident that the   
   future of the barque of   
   Peter is in God's hands.
Vatican City, 23 February 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:
   
   
- appointed Fr. Pietro Lagnese as bishop of Ischia (area 46, population   
   58,800, Catholics 55,400, priests 42, permanent deacons 10, religious 46),   
   Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Vitulazio, Campania, Italy in 1961 and was   
   ordained a priest in   
   1986. Since ordination he has served in several pastoral and administrative   
   roles, most recently as pastor of Santa Maria dell’Agnena in Vitulazio,   
   Italy.
   
   
- appointed Bishop Dagoberto Sosa Arriaga as bishop of Tlapa (area 6,990,   
   population 506,000, Catholics 473,000, priests 50, religious 77), Mexico.   
   Bishop Dagoberto, titular of Gummi in Byzacena, was previously auxiliary of   
   Puebla de los Angeles,   
   Puebla, Mexico.
   
   
- appointed Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, S.J., archbishop of Buenos   
   Aires, Argentina, and Archbishop Emilio Carlos Berlie Belaunzaran, of Yucatan,   
   Mexico, as members of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
   
   
- appointed as members of the Pontifical Academy of Fine Arts and Letters   
   of the Virtuosi al Pantheon: in the class of architects: Dr. Mario Botta, Dr.   
   Maria Antonietta Crippa, and Dr. Lorenzo Bartolini Salimbeni; in the class of   
   painters and   
   filmmakers: Pedro Cano; in the class of sculptors: Giuseppe Ducrot, Mimmo   
   Paladino, and Ugo Riva; and in the class of writers and poets: Laura Bosio,   
   Luca Doninelli, and Vincenzo Cerami.
   
   Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il    
   sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va Il servizio del   
   VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta elettronica che ne   
   hanno   
   fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo non si desidera continuare a   
   riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina dinizio: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vi   
   /italinde.php    
    Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican    
   Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente    
   citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
   
   
   
      
      
      
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