Subject: VISnews 111122
Organization: VIS
From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 204
ENGLISH
TUESDAY, 22 NOVEMBER 2011
SUMMARY:
- Human Life and Dignity Must Always Be Defended
- Sixteenth Public Session of Pontifical Academies
- Other Pontifical Acts
___________________________________________________________
HUMAN LIFE AND DIGNITY MUST ALWAYS BE DEFENDED
VATICAN CITY, 22 NOV 2011 (VIS) - This morning in the Holy See Press Office
the presentation took place of the twenty-sixth international conference
organised by the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care. The conference
will have as its theme: "Health Pastoral Care, Serving Life in the Light of
the Magisterium of Blessed John Paul II", and is due to be held in the
Vatican from 24 to 26 November.
During this morning's presentation, Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president
of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, noted that the
conference aims to ensure that "Blessed John Paul II's teaching on the
Gospel of Life, and the translation of that teaching into pastoral activity
by the Church, call pastoral care operatives, healthcare workers and all men
and women of good will to love and serve life, especially when it is weak
and suffering". He also expressed the hope that the conference would
"celebrate the sacredness of life and the dignity of the person, which must
be defended in all circumstances".
The theme chosen for this twenty-sixth international conference is
inspired by "the profound veneration" which healthcare workers feel for John
Paul II, Archbishop Zimowski explained, He also highlighted the late
Pontiff's lifelong concern for the sick, expressed in both words and
actions. Indeed, it was John Paul II who established the Pontifical Council
for Health Pastoral Care, as well as the World Day of the Sick and the Good
Samaritan Foundation.
The conference will include "lectures, testimonies and
theological-pastoral experiences inspired by John Paul II's teachings on the
Christian value of suffering and the Gospel of Life. These will be examined
from an interdisciplinary perspective", the archbishop said. On the first
day a ceremony will be held in honour of John Paul II, with contributions
from Cardinal Fiorenzo Angelini and Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, respectively
president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care and
former secretary to John Paul II.
The conference will be attended by many groups of faithful active in the
field of healthcare, and by representatives from other Churches and
religious confessions including Rev. Stavros Kofinas of the Ecumenical
Patriarchate and Rev. Alfred Krauth of the Lutheran Church. Six ambassadors
to the Holy See and forty-two prelates will also be present. In all there
will be 685 participants from seventy countries.
The international conference, which will be preceded by a meeting of
bishops with responsibility for health pastoral care, will also include a
concert entitled "The Cross, Mercy and Glory" organised in honour of
Benedict XVI and focusing on the figure of Blessed John Paul II, to be held
in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall on 25 November.
For his part Fr. Augusto Chendi M.I., under secretary of the Pontifical
Council for Health Pastoral Care, explained how the council contributes to
health training through its Charter for Healthcare Workers, "which contains
a summary of Church doctrine on matters regarding the primary and
fundamental value of the life of each human being throughout its trajectory;
that is, from conception until natural end". The Charter, which dates from
1995, is currently being updated to include John Paul II's subsequent
Magisterium and that of Benedict XVI, as well as the ethical questions that
have arisen with the progress of medicine and biology. The new Charter is
almost ready and will soon be available in various languages.
Also participating in today's press conference were Bishop Valentin Pozaic
S.J., auxiliary of Zagreb, Croatia; Msgr. Jean-Marie Mate Musivi
Mupendawatu, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care;
Msgr. Jacques Suaudeau, consultor of the council, and Sr. Myriam Castelli
F.S.P., a journalist with RAI International.
CON-AVA/ VIS
20111122 (610)
SIXTEENTH PUBLIC SESSION OF PONTIFICAL ACADEMIES
VATICAN CITY, 22 NOV 2011 (VIS) - At 4.30 p.m. on Wednesday 30 November the
Pontifical Academies are due to hold their sixteenth public session in the
great hall of the Palazzo of St. Pius X on Rome's Via della Conciliazione.
The event has been organised by the Pontifical Council for Culture and by
the academies themselves, which are coordinated by that pontifical council.
A communique made public today explains that the meeting will also include
the presentation of the Pontifical Academy Prize, awarded by the Pope to
institutions or to young researchers or artists who have distinguished
themselves in promoting Christian humanism. This year's public session,
which has been organised by the Pontifical Roman Archaeological Academy and
by the Pontifical Academy "Cultorum Martyrum", will have as its theme:
"Witness and Witnesses. The 'Martyria' and the Champions of the Faith".
The meeting will be chaired by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of
the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Co-ordinating Council of the
Pontifical Academies. Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B.
will read a message from the Holy Father and confer the Pontifical Academy
Prize, after which a lecture will be delivered by Fabrizio Bisconti,
archaeological superintendent for Christian catacombs.
OP/ VIS
20111122 (210)
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 22 NOV 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed Fr. Donald
Lippert O.F.M. Cap., councillor of the vice province of Papua New Guinea of
the Friars Minor Capuchin, as bishop of Mendi (area 23,800, population
600,000, Catholics 114,000, priests 36, religious 70), Papua New Guinea. The
bishop-elect was born in Pittsburgh, U.S.A. in 1957 and ordained a priest in
1985. Until the year 2007, when he was sent as a missionary to Papua New
Guinea, he was active in the U.S.A. as, among other things, parochial vicar,
programme coordinator for Hispanic candidates, professor of theology and
provincial vicar and administrative secretary. He also spent periods of
study in the U.S.A. and in Belgium.
NER/ VIS
20111122 (120)
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