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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIII - N° 14
DATE 21-01-2013
Summary:
- PRESENTATION OF LAMBS FOR FEAST OF ST. AGNES
- MASS FOR WORLD DAY FOR CONSECRATED LIFE
- POPE PRAYS FOR PEACE AND HALT TO KILLING OF UNARMED CIVILIANS
- CHARITY, CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY, AND NEW GLOBAL ETHICS
- POPE CONGRATULATES NEW PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA OF THE COPTS
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
___________________________________________________________
PRESENTATION OF LAMBS FOR FEAST OF ST. AGNES
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) - This morning in the Urban VIII Chapel of
the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, the Pope was presented with two lambs that had
been blessed earlier in the morning for today's feast of St. Agnes. The
blessing took place in
the basilica on Rome's Via Nomentana which bears the saint's name and where
she is buried. The lamb's wool will be used to make the palliums that will be
bestowed on the new metropolitan archbishops on 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts.
Peter and Paul,
Apostles.
The pallium, a white woollen band embroidered with six black silk crosses, is
a sign of honour and liturgical jurisdiction that is worn by the Pope and by
metropolitan archbishops in their churches and those of their provinces. The
Trappist Fathers of
the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome raise the lambs, the symbolic animal
of St. Agnes who was martyred in Rome around the year 305. The sisters of St.
Cecilia will make the palliums from the newly-shorn wool of the lambs.
___________________________________________________________
MASS FOR WORLD DAY FOR CONSECRATED LIFE
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) – Next Saturday, 2 February, at
5:30pm in the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI will celebrate Holy Mass on the
feast of the Presentation of the Lord, marking the World Day for Consecrated
Life.
Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, will concelebrate with the
Holy Father, along with the sub-secretary of that dicastery and all those who
have been invited by the
Congregation. Members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of
apostolic life are especially invited to participate in the Mass.
___________________________________________________________
POPE PRAYS FOR PEACE AND HALT TO KILLING OF UNARMED CIVILIANS
Vatican City, 20 January 2013 (VIS) – Jesus' first miracle, turning
water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, was the Pope's subject of
reflection before praying the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St.
Peter's Square this afternoon.
The Holy Father recalled that, at a wedding that Jesus and Mary had been
invited to, there was not enough wine for the guests. Mary informed her son of
the situation but he answered her that his hour had not yet come. In the end,
however, he agrees to
his mother's request and, after making the servers fill six jars with water,
transformed it into the best wine of the banquet. "With this sign Jesus
publicly reveals his glory, inspiring the faith of his disciples … and
revealing himself as the
messianic Bridegroom, come to establish the new and everlasting covenant with
his people". In this story, "the wine is a symbol of joy and love, but it also
alludes to the blood that Jesus will shed in the end, to seal his nuptial pact
with humanity."
"The Church," Benedict XVI continued, "is the bride of Christ, made holy and
beautiful through his grace. Nevertheless, this bride, formed by human beings,
is always in need of purification. One of the most serious sins that disfigure
the face of the
Church is the one against her visible unity, particularly the historical
divisions that have separated Christians and that still have not been
overcome. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is taking place in these
days, a very welcome time for
believers and communities, which awakens the desire for and spiritual
commitment to achieving full communion."
The theme of this year's Week is "What does the Lord require of us?". It was
proposed by some Christian communities in India who "invite us to walk with
decision toward the visible union between all Christians and to overcome, as
brothers and sisters in
Christ, all kinds of unjust discrimination."
"To the prayer for unity among Christians," the pontiff concluded, "I would
like to add once more, a prayer for peace so that in, all the various ongoing
conflicts, the slaughter of unarmed civilians might stop, that there may be an
end to all violence,
and that the value of dialogue and negotiation may be found."
___________________________________________________________
CHARITY, CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY, AND NEW GLOBAL ETHICS
Vatican City, 19 January 2013 (VIS) – This morning Benedict XVI received
participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum
including the council's president, Cardinal Robert Sarah. The theme of this
year's meeting is
“Charity, Christian Anthropology, and Global Ethics". Following are
ample excerpts from the address given by the Holy Father.
"All of Christian ethics receives its meaning from faith as an 'encounter'
with Christ's love, which offers a new horizon and a decisive orientation to
life. … Trusting obedience to the Gospel gives charity its typically
Christian expression and
constitutes its principle of discernment. Christians, especially those who
work for charitable organizations, should be guided by the principles of the
faith in which we can abide by 'God's point of view', by His plan for us. This
new view of the world
and of humanity that faith offers provides the proper criteria for evaluating
charitable expressions in the current situation."
"In every age that humanity did not seek God's plan it became the victim of
cultural temptations that wound up enslaving it. In recent centuries, the
ideologies that celebrated a cult of nationality, of race, or of social class
have proven to be
idolatries. The same can be said of unbridled capitalism with its cult of
profit, which has resulted in crises, inequality, and poverty. More and more
today, we share a common feeling regarding the inalienable dignity of every
human being and the
reciprocal and interdependent responsibility toward one another and therefore
to the benefit of true civilization, a civilization of love."
"On the other hand, unfortunately, our time knows shadows that obscure God's
plan. I'm referring particularly to that tragic anthropological reduction that
reproposes an ancient hedonistic materialism, to which, however, is added a
'technological
Promethanism'. From the union between a materialistic view of humanity and the
great development in technology emerges an anthropology that is atheistic at
heart. It presupposes that human beings are reduced to autonomous functions:
the mind to the
brain, human history to a destiny of self-realization. All of this disregards
God, disregards our properly spiritual dimension and our more-than-earthly
horizon."
"From the perspective of a humanity deprived of its soul and therefore
deprived of a personal relationship with the Creator, what is technologically
possible becomes morally licit, every experiment is acceptable, every
population policy is permitted,
every manipulation is legitimized. The most dangerous pitfall of this line of
thought is, in fact, humanity's absolutization: human beings want to be
'ab-solutus', released from every tie and every natural constitution."
“Faith and healthy Christian discernment lead us, therefore, to pay
prophetic attention to this ethical problematic and to the mentality
underlying it. The proper collaboration with international bodies in the areas
of human development and
promotion shouldn’t close our eyes to these serious ideologies. The
pastors of the Church … have the duty of warning faithful Catholics, as
well as every person of good will and right reason, against these
tendencies.”
“It is, in fact, a negative tendency for humanity, even if disguised
with good intentions, as a teaching of alleged progress, or alleged rights, or
an alleged humanism. In the face of this anthropological reduction, what duty
falls to each
Christian, and particularly to you, who are engaged in charitable activity and
thus have a direct relationship with many other social actors? Certainly we
must exercise a critical vigilance and at times refuse funding and
collaborations that, directly
or indirectly, favour actions or projects that are at odds with Christian
anthropology.”
“Positively, however, the Church has always been committed to promoting
humanity according to God’s plan, in its full dignity, in respect of its
both vertical and horizontal dimension. This is also what ecclesial
organizations work to
develop. The Christian vision of humanity, in fact, is a great &
squo;yes’ to the dignity of the person, who is called to an intimate
communion with God, a filial, humble, and confident communion. The human being
is neither an isolated individual
nor an anonymous element of a collective but rather a singular and unique
person, intrinsically ordered to relationship and socialness. The Church,
therefore, reaffirms its great ‘yes’ to the dignity and beauty of
marriage as the expression
of faithful and fruitful covenant between a man and a woman, and its
‘no’ to philosophies such as gender philosophies is based on the
fact that the reciprocity between male and female is an expression of the
beauty of nature
willed
by the Creator.”
"Faced with these critical challenges, we know that the answer is the
encounter with Christ. In Him, human beings can fully realize their personal
good and the common good."
___________________________________________________________
POPE CONGRATULATES NEW PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA OF THE COPTS
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has written a
message to the new Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts, His Beatitude Ibrahim
Isaac Sidrak, in which he writes that his election to the patriarchal throne
is "an important event
for the entire Church". In the same letter he grants the "Ecclesiastica
Communio", "in conformity with the custom and the desire of the Catholic
Church".
"I am sure," continues the pontiff, "that, with the power of Christ, victor
over evil and death by His resurrection, and with the cooperation of the
fathers of your patriarchal synod, in communion with the college of bishops,
you will have the courage
to guide the Coptic Church. … May the Lord help you in your ministry as
'Father and Head', to proclaim the Word of God, so that it may be lived and
celebrated with piety according to the ancient spiritual and liturgical
traditions of the Coptic
Church and may all the faithful find comfort in the paternal care of their new
patriarch."
___________________________________________________________
AUDIENCES
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father received
in separate audiences:
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy and president of the
Italian Episcopal Conference, and
six prelates from the Calabria region of the Italian Episcopal Conference on
their "ad limina" visit:
- Archbishop Salvatore Nunnari of Cosenza-Bisignano,
- Archbishop Domenico Graziani of Crotone-Santa Severina,
- Archbishop Vincenzo Bertolone, S.d.P., of Catanzaro-Squillace,
- Bishop Luigi Antonio Cantafora of Lamezia Terme,
- Bishop Leonardo Antonio Paolo Bonanno of San Marco Argentano-Scalea, and
- Bishop Donato Oliverio of Lungro of the Italo-Albanians of continental Italy.
On Saturday, 19 January, the Holy Father received Cardinal Marc Ouellet,
P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops in audience.
___________________________________________________________
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 19 January 2013 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father:
- elevated the apostolic exarchate for Ukrainian faithful of the Byzantine
rite resident in France, to the rank of eparchy with the title "Saint
Wladimir-Le-Grand de Paris des Byzantins-Ukrainiens". He appointed Bishop
Borys Andrij Gudziak, previously
apostolic exarch of France (Ukrainian) and titular of Carcabia, as first
bishop of the new eparchy. Bishop Gudziak was born in 1960 in Syracuse, New
York, USA, was ordained to the priesthood in 1998, and received episcopal
ordination in 2012.
- appointed Msgr. Piotr Sawczuk as auxiliary bishop of the diocese of Siedlce
(area 11,440, population 736,800, Catholics 725,800, priests 666, religious
385), Poland. The bishop-elect was born in 1962 in Puczyce, Poland and was
ordained a priest in
1987. Bishop-elect Sawczuk, previously vicar general and chancellor of the
curia of that same diocese, was assigned the titular see of Ottana.
- appointed Bishop Mathieu Madega Lebouakehan as bishop of Mouila (area
59,035, population 124,000, Catholics 48,500, priests 16, religious 26),
Gabon. Bishop Madega Lebouakehan was born in 1960 in Mbigou, Gabon, was
ordained to the priesthood in 1991,
and received episcopal ordination in 2000. Previously bishop of Port-Gentil,
Gabon since 2003, Bishop Madega Lebouakehan was also named apostolic
administrator "sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis" of that diocese. He
succeeds Bishop Dominique
Bonnet, C.S.Sp., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese of
Moiula the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
___________________________________________________________
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VISnews130121
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXIII - N° 14DATE 21-01-2013
Summary: - PRESENTATION OF LAMBS FOR FEAST
OF ST. AGNES - MASS FOR
WORLD DAY FOR CONSECRATED LIFE - POPE PRAYS FOR PEACE AND HALT TO
KILLING OF UNARMED CIVILIANS - CHARITY, CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY, AND NEW
GLOBAL ETHICS - POPE CONGRATULATES NEW PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA OF THE
COPTS - AUDIENCES - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) - This morning in the Urban VIII Chapel
of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, the Pope was presented with two lambs that
had been blessed earlier in the morning for today's feast of St. Agnes. The
blessing took place
in the basilica on Rome's Via Nomentana which bears the saint's name and where
she is buried. The lamb's wool will be used to make the palliums that will be
bestowed on the new metropolitan archbishops on 29 June, the Solemnity of Sts.
Peter and Paul,
Apostles.
The pallium, a white woollen band embroidered with six black silk crosses,
is a sign of honour and liturgical jurisdiction that is worn by the Pope and
by metropolitan archbishops in their churches and those of their provinces.
The Trappist Fathers
of the Abbey of the Three Fountains in Rome raise the lambs, the symbolic
animal of St. Agnes who was martyred in Rome around the year 305. The sisters
of St. Cecilia will make the palliums from the newly-shorn wool of the
lambs.
Vatican City, 21 January 2013 (VIS) – Next Saturday, 2 February, at
5:30pm in the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI will celebrate Holy Mass on the
feast of the Presentation of the Lord, marking the World Day for Consecrated
Life.
Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, will concelebrate with the
Holy Father, along with the sub-secretary of that dicastery and all those who
have been invited by
the Congregation. Members of institutes of consecrated life and societies of
apostolic life are especially invited to participate in the Mass.
POPE PRAYS FOR PEACE AND HALT TO KILLING OF UNARMED CIVILIANS
Vatican City, 20 January 2013 (VIS) – Jesus' first miracle, turning
water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, was the Pope's subject of
reflection before praying the Angelus with the faithful gathered in St.
Peter's Square this
afternoon.
The Holy Father recalled that, at a wedding that Jesus and Mary had been
invited to, there was not enough wine for the guests. Mary informed her son of
the situation but he answered her that his hour had not yet come. In the end,
however, he agrees
to his mother's request and, after making the servers fill six jars with
water, transformed it into the best wine of the banquet. "With this sign Jesus
publicly reveals his glory, inspiring the faith of his disciples … and
revealing himself as
the messianic Bridegroom, come to establish the new and everlasting covenant
with his people". In this story, "the wine is a symbol of joy and love, but it
also alludes to the blood that Jesus will shed in the end, to seal his nuptial
pact with
humanity."
"The Church," Benedict XVI continued, "is the bride of Christ, made holy
and beautiful through his grace. Nevertheless, this bride, formed by human
beings, is always in need of purification. One of the most serious sins that
disfigure the face of the
Church is the one against her visible unity, particularly the historical
divisions that have separated Christians and that still have not been
overcome. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is taking place in these
days, a very welcome time for
believers and communities, which awakens the desire for and spiritual
commitment to achieving full communion."
The theme of this year's Week is "What does the Lord require of us?". It
was proposed by some Christian communities in India who "invite us to walk
with decision toward the visible union between all Christians and to overcome,
as brothers and sisters
in Christ, all kinds of unjust discrimination."
"To the prayer for unity among Christians," the pontiff concluded, "I would
like to add once more, a prayer for peace so that in, all the various ongoing
conflicts, the slaughter of unarmed civilians might stop, that there may be an
end to all
violence, and that the value of dialogue and negotiation may be found."
CHARITY, CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY, AND NEW GLOBAL ETHICS
Vatican City, 19 January 2013 (VIS) – This morning Benedict XVI
received participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Council Cor
Unum including the council's president, Cardinal Robert Sarah. The theme of
this year's meeting is
“Charity, Christian Anthropology, and Global Ethics". Following are
ample excerpts from the address given by the Holy Father.
"All of Christian ethics receives its meaning from faith as an 'encounter'
with Christ's love, which offers a new horizon and a decisive orientation to
life. … Trusting obedience to the Gospel gives charity its typically
Christian expression
and constitutes its principle of discernment. Christians, especially those who
work for charitable organizations, should be guided by the principles of the
faith in which we can abide by 'God's point of view', by His plan for us. This
new view of the
world and of humanity that faith offers provides the proper criteria for
evaluating charitable expressions in the current situation."
"In every age that humanity did not seek God's plan it became the victim of
cultural temptations that wound up enslaving it. In recent centuries, the
ideologies that celebrated a cult of nationality, of race, or of social class
have proven to be
idolatries. The same can be said of unbridled capitalism with its cult of
profit, which has resulted in crises, inequality, and poverty. More and more
today, we share a common feeling regarding the inalienable dignity of every
human being and the
reciprocal and interdependent responsibility toward one another and therefore
to the benefit of true civilization, a civilization of love."
"On the other hand, unfortunately, our time knows shadows that obscure
God's plan. I'm referring particularly to that tragic anthropological
reduction that reproposes an ancient hedonistic materialism, to which,
however, is added a 'technological
Promethanism'. From the union between a materialistic view of humanity and the
great development in technology emerges an anthropology that is atheistic at
heart. It presupposes that human beings are reduced to autonomous functions:
the mind to the
brain, human history to a destiny of self-realization. All of this disregards
God, disregards our properly spiritual dimension and our more-than-earthly
horizon."
"From the perspective of a humanity deprived of its soul and therefore
deprived of a personal relationship with the Creator, what is technologically
possible becomes morally licit, every experiment is acceptable, every
population policy is permitted,
every manipulation is legitimized. The most dangerous pitfall of this line of
thought is, in fact, humanity's absolutization: human beings want to be
'ab-solutus', released from every tie and every natural constitution."
“Faith and healthy Christian discernment lead us, therefore, to pay
prophetic attention to this ethical problematic and to the mentality
underlying it. The proper collaboration with international bodies in the areas
of human development and
promotion shouldn’t close our eyes to these serious ideologies. The
pastors of the Church … have the duty of warning faithful Catholics, as
well as every person of good will and right reason, against these
tendencies.”
“It is, in fact, a negative tendency for humanity, even if disguised
with good intentions, as a teaching of alleged progress, or alleged rights, or
an alleged humanism. In the face of this anthropological reduction, what duty
falls to each
Christian, and particularly to you, who are engaged in charitable activity and
thus have a direct relationship with many other social actors? Certainly we
must exercise a critical vigilance and at times refuse funding and
collaborations that, directly
or indirectly, favour actions or projects that are at odds with Christian
anthropology.”
“Positively, however, the Church has always been committed to
promoting humanity according to God’s plan, in its full dignity, in
respect of its both vertical and horizontal dimension. This is also what
ecclesial organizations work to
--- NetMgr/2 1.0y+
* Origin: NetMgr+ @ Sursum Corda! BBS Meridian MS USA (1:396/45)
