SUMMARY:
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POPE TO COLLEGE OF CARDINALS: “I WILL BE NEAR TO YOU”
-
TELEGRAM ON THE DEATH OF CARDINAL HONORE
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BENEDICT XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR MARCH
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
______________________________________
POPE
TO COLLEGE OF CARDINALS: “I WILL BE NEAR TO YOU”
Vatican
City, 28 February 2013 (VIS) – At 11:00am in the Clementine Hall,
Benedict XVI greeted the College of Cardinals, whose dean, Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, addressed a short farewell to the Pope on behalf of
all those present.
“It
is with great emotion,” he said, “that the Cardinal Fathers
present in Rome gather around you today, to once again express to you
their deep affection and heartfelt gratitude for your selfless
witness of apostolic service, for the good of Christ's Church and of
all humanity.”
The
cardinal recalled the words that, last Saturday at the end of the
Lenten Retreat, the Pope addressed to his collaborators in the Roman
Curia: “I would like to thank all of you and not only for this
week, but for these past eight years that you have borne with me—with
great skill, affection, love, and faith—the weight of the Petrine
ministry.”
“Beloved
and revered Successor of Peter,” the cardinal exclaimed, “we are
the ones who must thank you for the example you have given us in
these eight years of your Pontificate. On 19 April, 2005, you joined
the long line of successors of the Apostle Peter and today, 28
February, 2013, you are about to leave us, awaiting that the helm of
Peter's Barque be transferred to other hands. Thus the apostolic
succession, which the Lord promised to His Holy Church, will continue
until the voice of the Angel of the Apocalypse is heard on earth,
proclaiming 'Tempus non erit amplius ... consummabitur mysterium Dei'
'There shall be no more delay. ... The mysterious plan of God shall
be fulfilled!' Thus will end the history of the Church, together with
the history of the world, with the coming of a new heaven and a new
earth.”
The
dean of the College of Cardinals emphasized the “deep love” with
which the cardinals have tried to accompany the Pope in his journey,
and how the journey was a “reliving of the experience of the
disciples of Emmaus who, after walking with Jesus for a good stretch
of road, said to one another: 'Were not our hearts burning [within
us] while he spoke to us on the way?'”
“Yes,
Holy Father, know that our hearts were also burning when we were
walking with you in these past eight years. Today we want to once
again express to you our gratitude. We repeat together a typical
expression of your dear native land: 'Vergelt's Gott', may God reward
you!”
For
his part, the Holy Father addressed the cardinals, returning to the
reference of the disciples' experience on the way to Emmaus, saying:
“For me as well, it has been a joy walking with you these past
eight years in the light of the Risen Lord's presence. As I said
yesterday, in front of the thousands of faithful who filled St.
Peter's Square, your nearness and your advice have been a great help
to me in my ministry. In these eight years we have faithfully lived
beautiful moments of radiant light along the Church's journey along
with times when clouds gathered in the skies. We have tried to serve
Christ and His Church with a deep and total love, which is the soul
of our ministry. We have given the hope that comes to us from Christ
and that alone can light the way. Together we can thank the Lord, who
has made us to grow in communion. Together we can ask Him to help you
grow more in this deep unity, so that the College of Cardinals might
be like an orchestra, where diversity, the expression of the
universal Church, always contributes to greater and concordant
harmony.”
He
added: “I would like to leave you with a simple thought that is
close to my heart: a thought regarding the Church and her mystery,
which constitutes for all us, we can say, the reason and the passion
of life. I will rely for help on an expression by Romano Guardini,
written in the same year when the Fathers of the Second Vatican
Council approved the Constitution 'Lumen Gentium'. It is from his
final book, which he also personally dedicated for me. The words of
this book, therefore, are particularly dear to me. Guardini says:
'The Church is not an institution devised and built by human beings
... but a living reality. ... It lives still throughout the course of
time. Like all living realities it develops, it changes ... and yet
in the very depths of its being it remains the same: its inmost
nucleus is Christ.'“
“Our
experience yesterday in the square thus seemed to me: seeing that the
Church is a living body, animated by the Holy Spirit and truly alive
by the power of God. It is in the world but not of the world: it is
of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit. We saw this yesterday. This is
why Guardini's other famous expression is true and eloquent: 'The
Church is awakening within souls.' The Church lives, grows, and
awakens in souls that—like the Virgin Mary—embrace the Word of
God and conceive of it as the work of the Holy Spirit. The offer God
their very flesh and, precisely in their poverty and humility, become
capable of generating Christ today in the world. Through the Church,
the Mystery of the Incarnation remains present forever. Christ
continues to walk through all ages and places.”
“Let
us remain united in this mystery, dear brothers; in prayer and
especially in daily Eucharist, so that we might thus serve the Church
and all of humanity. This is our joy, which no one can take from us.”
“Before
greeting you personally I would like to tell you all that I will
continue to be near to you in prayer, especially in the coming days,
so that you may be fully docile to the Holy Spirit's action in
electing the new Pope. May the Lord show you what He wills. Among
you, among the College of Cardinals, is also the future Pope, to whom
I already today promise my unconditioned reverence and obedience.”
On
finishing his address, Benedict XVI greeted all the 144 cardinals and
the other members of the Roman Curia present personally.
TELEGRAM
ON THE DEATH OF CARDINAL HONORE
Vatican
City, 28 February 2013 (VIS) – The Holy Father has sent a telegram
to Archbishop Bernard-Nicolas Aubertin, O. Cist., of Tours, France,
on receiving news of the death today of Cardinal Jean Marcel Honore,
archbishop emeritus of that archdiocese. The cardinal was 92 years
old. The Pope asked the Lord to “welcome this pastor who has served
the Church with devotion in Catholic education and catechesis into
His peace and His true light.” The cardinal was also “a skilled
and passionate crafter in editing the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, who always had the desire to proclaim the Gospel to the
entire world of today.”
BENEDICT
XVI'S PRAYER INTENTIONS FOR MARCH
Vatican
City, 28 February 2013 (VIS) – Pope Benedict's general prayer
intention for March is: "That respect for nature may grow with
the awareness that all creation is God's work entrusted to human
responsibility."
His
mission intention is: "That bishops, priests, and deacons may be
tireless messengers of the Gospel to the ends of the earth."
OTHER
PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican
City, 28 February 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father:
-
appointed Fr. Samuel Jofre as bishop of Villa Maria (area 28,000,
population 386,000, Catholics 308,000, priests 69, religious 32),
Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Cordoba, Spain in 1957 and
was ordained a priest in 1983. Since ordination, he has served in
several pastoral and judicial roles, most recently as judge on the
inter-diocesanal tribunal of Cordoba and pastor of Santo Cristo
Parish. He succeeds Bishop Jose Angel Roval, whose resignation from
the pastoral care of the Diocese of Villa Maria the Holy Father
accepted, upon having reached the age limit.
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appointed Msgr. Joseph Dinh Duc Dao as auxiliary bishop of the
Diocese of Xuan Loc (area 5,955, population 2,458,000, Catholics
873,440, priests 405, religious 2314), Vietnam. The bishop-elect was
born in Thuc Hoa, Nam Dinh, Vietnam, in 1945 and was ordained a
priest in 1971. Since ordination, he has served in several pastoral,
academic, and administrative roles, most recently as consultor of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue and rector of the
Major Seminary of Xuan Loc. The Holy Father has assigned him the
Titular See of Gadiaufala.
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