Subject: VISnews 111220   
   Organization: VIS   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 223   
   ENGLISH   
   TUESDAY, 20 DECEMBER 2011   
      
   SUMMARY:   
      
   - Cuba Will Greet the Pope with Affection and Respect   
   - Kateri Tekakwitha: First Native North American Saint   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   CUBA WILL GREET THE POPE WITH AFFECTION AND RESPECT   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 20 DEC 2011 (VIS) - Cuba is preparing to greet Benedict XVI   
   "with affection and respect", and President Raul Castro has welcomed "with   
   satisfaction" the official announcement of the Pope's visit to the country,   
   according to an official note released on Cuban media today. The visit is   
   due to take place at the end of March 2012.   
      
     On Sunday 18 December, the Cuban president met with a Holy See delegation   
   to discuss preparations for the forthcoming visit, which the Holy Father   
   himself announced during a Mass on 12 December for the Solemnity of Our Lady   
   of Guadalupe, patron of Latin America, and for the two hundredth anniversary   
   of the independence of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.   
   During the meeting "the excellent relations between Cuba and the Holy See   
   were highlighted, and certain details of the Pope's visit were examined".   
      
     Benedict XVI's visit, his second to Latin America following his trip to   
   Brazil in 2007, will coincide initiatives organised by the local episcopate   
   to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the image of   
   "Nuestra Senora de la Caridad del Cobre", patron of the island. One of these   
   initiatives is a Marian Jubilee Year, which will begin on 7 January 2012 and   
   end on 5 January 2013.   
   .../                                                                    VIS   
   20111220 (230)   
      
   KATERI TEKAKWITHA: FIRST NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN SAINT   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 20 DEC 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father yesterday signed decrees   
   acknowledging miracles attributed to the intervention of seven blesseds   
   (four women and three men) who will shortly be canonised. One of the new   
   blesseds is Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native North American to be raised   
   to the glory of the altars.   
      
     Kateri Tekakwitha was born in 1656 in Ossernenon (present-day Auriesville,   
   U.S.A.). Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother a Roman Catholic   
   Algonquian who had been educated by French missionaries. At the age of four   
   she lost her family in a smallpox epidemic which also left her disfigured   
   and with poor eyesight. Adopted by a relative, the chief of neighbouring   
   clan, she continued to nurture an interest in Christianity and was baptised   
   at the age of 20.   
      
     The members of her tribe did not understand her new religious affiliation   
   and she was marginalised, practising physical mortification as a path of   
   sanctity and praying for the conversion of her relatives. Having suffered   
   persecutions which put her life at risk, she was forced to flee to a native   
   American Christian community in Kahnawake, Quebec where she made a vow of   
   chastity and lived a life dedicated to prayer, penance, and care for the   
   sick and elderly. She died in 1680 at the age of 24. Her last words were:   
   "Jesus, I love you". According to tradition, Kateri's scars disappeared   
   after her death to reveal a woman of great beauty, and numerous sick people   
   who participated in her funeral were miraculously healed.   
      
     The process of canonisation began in 1884. She was declared venerable by   
   Pius XII in 1943 and beatified by John Paul II in 1980. As the first native   
   North American to be beatified she occupies a special place in the devotion   
   of her people. Her feast day falls on 14 July.   
   OP/                                                                     VIS   
   20111220 (320)   
   _____________________________________________   
      
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