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 ‘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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