Subject: VISnews 110506   
   Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 85   
   ENGLISH   
   FRIDAY, 6 MAY 2011   
      
   SUMMARY:   
      
   - Concert for Sixth Anniversary of Pontificate   
   - Swiss Guards: Witness to Faith through Coherent Conduct   
   - Church's Liturgy Goes Beyond Conciliar Reform   
   - Audiences   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   CONCERT FOR SIXTH ANNIVERSARY OF PONTIFICATE   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon in the Paul VI Hall,   
   the Pope attended a concert offered in his honor by the president of the   
   Italian Republic, Giorgio  Napolitano, on the occasion of the sixth   
   anniversary of his pontificate.   
      
     The orchestra and choir of the Opera Theatre of Rome, respectively   
   conducted by Maestro Jesus Lopez Cobos and Maestro Roberto Gabbiani,   
   performed Antonio Vivaldi's "Credo RV 591" and Gioachino Rossini's "Stabat   
   Mater".   
      
     Once finished, the Pope thanked President Napolitano for his "exquisite   
   courtesy" that "again this year wished to give us a moment of musical   
   elevation for the anniversary of the beginning of my pontificate".   
      
     Benedict XVI specifically thanked the directors, the soloists, the   
   Orchestra and the Choir for their "splendid execution of the two works of   
   art" by Vivaldi and Rossini, "two great musicians of whom Italy - which   
   celebrates 150 years of political unification - should feel proud".   
      
     "'I Believe' and 'Amen'", he said, "are the words that begin and end the   
   'Credo'. ... What does 'I believe' mean?", he asked. Credo "is a word that   
   takes on a much deeper meaning. It confidently affirms the true meaning of   
   the reality that sustains us, that sustains the world. It means embracing   
   this meaning as the solid ground upon which we can stand without fear. It   
   means knowing that the fundament of everything, of our very selves, cannot   
   be made by us but can only be received. And Christian faith doesn't say 'I   
   believe is something' but rather 'I believe in Someone', in God who has   
   revealed himself in Jesus; in Him I perceive the true meaning of the world   
   and this belief implies the entire person who is on a journey toward Him".   
      
     The Holy Father noted that the word "'Amen', which in Hebrew has the same   
   root as the word for 'faith', captures the same concept: confidently placing   
   oneself on a firm foundation, on God".   
      
     Commenting on Rossini's "Stabat Mater", the Pope recalled that "it is a   
   great meditation on the mystery of the death of Jesus and the profound   
   sorrow of Mary. ... Rossini's piety expresses a rich range of feelings in   
   the face of the mysteries of Christ with a very strong emotional tension".   
      
     Benedict XVI ended by expressing the desire that the interpretations of   
   Vivaldi and Rossini "nourish our faith" and asking that his "ministry in the   
   vineyard of the Lord" be kept in everyone's prayers.   
   BXVI-CONCERT                                            VIS 20110506 (400)   
      
   SWISS GUARDS: WITNESS TO FAITH THROUGH COHERENT CONDUCT   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2011 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father met with the   
   thirty-four recruits of the Pontifical Swiss Guard, accompanied by their   
   parents, who will be sworn in during a ceremony to take place this   
   afternoon.   
      
     Referring to the "infamous Sack of Rome, during which the Swiss Guards   
   valiantly defended the Pope, even giving their lives for him", the pope said   
   that "the memory of that earthly pillage makes us reflect that there exists   
   the threat of an even more dangerous pillage, one that can be called a   
   spiritual attack. In today's social context, many youth run the risk of   
   falling into an progressive impoverishment of the soul because they are   
   chasing after the ideals and perspectives of a superficial life that only   
   seeks to fulfill material needs and demands".   
      
     "Act so that your time in Rome", he continued, "be a propitious time for   
   you to make the most of the innumerable possibilities that this city offers   
   in order to give an ever more solid and profound meaning to your lives. ...   
   Take advantage of the opportunities offered you to widen your cultural,   
   linguistic, and above all spiritual horizons. The time that you will spend   
   in the 'Eternal City' will be an exceptional moment in your lives. Live it   
   with a spirit of sincere fraternity, mutually helping one another to live an   
   exemplary Christian life that corresponds to your faith and your unique   
   mission in the Church".   
      
     Benedict XVI noted that this encounter offered him the "possibility to   
   show the new recruits my profound gratitude for your decision to be, for a   
   period of time, at the disposition of Peter's Successor and to thus   
   contribute to guaranteeing the necessary order and security within Vatican   
   City".   
      
     "May your meaningful presence at the heart of Christianity, where crowds   
   of faithful are constantly arriving to meet Peter's Successor and to visit   
   the tombs of the Apostles", he concluded, "arouse more and more in each of   
   you, the purpose of intensifying the spiritual dimension of your lives, as   
   well as the intention of deepening your Christian faith, joyfully bearing   
   witness to it by the coherent conduct of your lives".   
   AC/                                                             VIS 20110506   
   (350)   
      
   CHURCH'S LITURGY GOES BEYOND CONCILIAR REFORM   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2011 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received participants   
   in the Ninth International Congress on the Liturgy sponsored by the   
   Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome's St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum,   
   on the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation.   
      
     The Pope recalled that "Blessed John XXIII, recognizing the requests of   
   the liturgical movement that sought to give new impetus and a new spirit to   
   the Church's prayer, shortly before Vatican Council II and during its   
   celebration, asked the faculty of Benedictines on the Aventine Hill to   
   establish a center for study and research to ensure a solid basis for   
   conciliar liturgical reform".   
      
     Referring to the title chosen for the congress: "The Pontifical Liturgical   
   Institute: Between Memory and Prophecy", the Pope said that the "'memory'   
   pertains to the very life of the Institute that has offered its contribution   
   to the Church dedicated to the reception of the Second Vatican Council over   
   fifty years of academic liturgical formation".   
      
     Benedict XVI highlighted that, "with the term 'prophecy', our gaze opens   
   to new horizons. The Liturgy of the Church goes beyond the 'conciliar   
   reform', the objective of which in fact was not mainly to change the rites   
   and texts but rather to renew the mentality and to put the celebration of   
   Christ's paschal mystery at the center of Christian life and pastoral work.   
   Unfortunately the liturgy has perhaps been seen - even by us, pastors and   
   experts - more as an object to reform than a subject capable of renewing   
   Christian life, seeing that "a very close and organic bond exists between   
   the renewal of the liturgy and the renewal of the whole life of the Church".   
      
     "The liturgy, ... lives a proper and constant relationship between sound   
   'traditio' and legitimate 'progressio', clearly seen by the conciliar   
   constitution Sancrosanctum Concilium at paragraph 23. ... Not infrequently   
   are tradition and progress in awkward opposition. Actually though, the two   
   concepts are interwoven: tradition is a living reality that, in itself,   
   includes the principle of development, of progress".   
      
     The Holy Father concluded, expressing the wish that the "Faculty of Sacred   
   Liturgy continue its service to the Church with renewed enthusiasm, in full   
   fidelity to the rich and valuable liturgical tradition and to the reform   
   desired by Vatican Council II, in accordance with the magisterial directives   
   of the Sancrosanctum Concilium and the pronouncements of the Magisterium".   
   AC/                                                             VIS 20110506   
   (380)   
      
   AUDIENCES   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 MAY 2011 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received   
   Archbishop Manuel Monteiro de Castro, secretary of the Congregation for   
   Bishops, in a private audience.   
   AP/                                                             VIS 20110506   
   (20)   
   _____________________________________________   
      
   For further information and research of documents visit:   
    www.visnews.org  and  www.vatican.va   
   VIS english (text format) sends its news service only to those who have   
   requested it. If you no longer wish to receive the service, visit the   
   following link and click on calcel. Don't forget to select language and text   
   format:   
   http://press.catholica.va/news_services/press/vis/englinde.php   
      
   COPYRIGHT: The news items contained in the Vatican Information Service   
   may be used, in part or in their entirety, by quoting the source:   
   V.I.S. -Vatican Information Service   
      
      
      
      
   --- NetMgr/2 1.0y+   
    * Origin: NetMgr+ @ Sursum Corda! BBS Meridian MS USA (1:396/45)