PURIFICATION AND CONFIGURATION WITH CHRIST VATICAN CITY, 3 NOV 2010 (VIS REPORT) - In today's general audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope dedicated his attention to Margaret d'Oingt, who was born in 1240 "to a powerful family of old Lyonese nobility". From her writings, said the Pope, "we learn that she entered the Carthusian convent of Poleteins in response to the Lord's call, abandoning everything and accepting the severe Carthusian rule in order to be completely and always with the Lord". "We know that in 1288 she became the fourth prioress, a position she held until her death on 11 February 1310. Her writings reveal no particular details of her spiritual itinerary. She conceived of life as a journey of purification leading to full configuration with Christ. He is the book that must be written and inscribed into one's heart and life every day, especially His salvific passion". "Through her writings, Margaret offers us some glimpses of her spirituality, enabling us to comprehend certain traits of her personality and her gifts of leadership. ... She lived a life rich in mystical experiences which she described with simplicity, hinting at the ineffable mystery of God while underlining the limits of the mind to understand it and of the human tongue to express it". "In the dynamism of her mystical life, Margaret particularly appreciated the experience of the natural affections, purified by grace, as a privileged means for a deeper understanding and a more ready acceptance of divine action. ... The Triune God, the God love which is revealed in Christ, fascinated her, and Margaret experienced a relationship of profound love towards the Lord. By contrast, she was also aware of human ingratitude and baseness, even unto the paradox of the cross". Benedict XVI concluded by encouraging people to follow Margaret of Oingt's invitation "to meditate daily on Jesus' life of pain and love, and that of His Mother, Mary. This is where our hope, the meaning of our existence, lies. From the contemplation of Christ's love for us arise the strength and the joy to respond with the same love, placing our lives at the service of God and of others".AG/ VIS 20101103 (370) POPE
IMAGE SOURCE; http://www.daylife.com/photo/0end54vced5Gh?q=VaticanASKS FOR PRAYERS FOR HIS FORTHCOMING TRIP TO SPAIN VATICAN CITY, 3 NOV 2010 (VIS) - "I invite you to accompany me with your fervent prayers this weekend as I make a pastoral visit to Santiago de Compostela, joining the pilgrims who are coming to the feet of the Apostle in this Holy Year", said the Pope in remarks to Spanish-speaking pilgrims at the end of today's general audience. "I will also go to Barcelona", he went on, "where I will have the joy of dedicating the magnificent church of the 'Sagrada Familia', work of the great architect Antoni Gaudi. I am going as a witness of the Risen Christ, with the desire of bringing His Word to everyone, that they may find light to live with dignity and hope to build a better world".AG/ VIS 20101103 (140) THE
CULTURE OF COMMUNICATION AND NEW LANGUAGES VATICAN CITY, 3 NOV 2010 (VIS) - In the Holy See Press Office at midday today a preference was held to present the plenary assembly of the Pontifical Council for Culture, which is due to be held from 10 to 13 November on the theme: "The Culture of Communication and New Languages". Participating in today's press conference were Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, Msgr. Pasquale Iacobone and Richard Rouse, respectively president, head of the "Art and Faith" department, and head of the "Communication and Languages" department of the Pontifical Council for Culture, and Bishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller of Regensburg, Germany, who is a member of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Msgr. Iacobone explained how the plenary will examine "the use of language and communication to study the current situation and suggest guidelines for action in the evangelising mission of the Church". The participants in the plenary will discuss "the new languages, in particular cinema, music, figurative and plastic arts, the internet and multimedia platforms, in order to discover the words, colours, sounds and images capable of presenting Christian life as a valid experience for everyone today. "In order to favour inter-personal communication there will be no written texts to read or follow but conversations with experts such as Ennio Morricone, Dario Vigano, Robert Barron and the managing director of Microsoft Italia". Msgr. Iacobone explained. The plenary will also serve to examine "the characteristics of interactivity and participation, of clarity and simplicity - while avoiding simplification - and to study figurative and narrative languages in order to transmit to our fellows what we have received". Bishop Muller then presented the twelfth German-language volume of Joseph Ratzinger's "Opera Omina", entitled "Kunder des Wortes und Diener eurer Freude - Theologie und Spiritualitat des Weihesakramentes" (Announcers of the Word and Servants of your Joy. Theology and Spirituality of the Sacrament of Holy Orders). Bishop Muller, who is overseeing the publication of the complete works of Joseph Ratzinger, explained how the contents of this latest volume cover nearly half a century, beginning with a number of texts which predate by some years the opening of Vatican Council II. "That fundamental event in recent ecclesiastical history is usually associated, depending on the point of view, with the beginning of a transformation in keeping with the spirit of the times, or with a profound crisis in the Church and particularly in the priesthood", he said. In section "A" of the book, entitled "Theology of the Sacrament of Holy Orders", Joseph Ratzinger analyses the causes of this crisis and "illustrates the biblical foundation and coherent historical-dogmatic development of the Sacrament of Holy Orders". In section "B", entitled "Servants of your Joy", readers will find "a collection of meditations on spirituality already published as an individual book with the same title". Section "C" contains "various homilies delivered on the occasion of consecrations of priests and deacons, first Masses and jubilees". "In order to rediscover priestly identity in the relationship with Christ we must be ready to consider ourselves as servants of the Word and witnesses of God in the succession of Christ, and to live in communion with Him. To this end, the priest must have a good theological formation and a permanent reference in academic theology". With the writings in this book Joseph Ratzinger "indicates the way out of the crisis into which the Catholic priesthood has fallen as a result of inadequate theological and sociological approaches, and of declarations that tend to arouse in many priests who began their journey with love and zeal, a sense of insecurity and discomfort concerning their role within the Church". This volume, Bishop Muller concluded, "achieves the desire of its author to dedicate an entire book of his complete works to the theology of the Sacrament of Holy Orders".OP/ VIS 20101103 (640)
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS VATICAN CITY, 3 NOV 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father: - Appointed Msgr. Xavier Novell Goma, bursar of Solsona, Spain, as bishop of the same diocese (area 3,536, population 138,911, Catholics 127,798, priests 115, permanent deacons 1, religious 242). The bishop-elect was born in Lleida, Spain in 1969 and ordained a priest in 1997. He succeeds Bishop Jaume Traserra Cunillera, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, upon having reached the age limit. - Confirmed Bishop Domenico Sigalini of Palestrina, Italy as general ecclesiastical assistant of Italian Catholic Action. - Appointed as consultors of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments: Msgr. Jose Aparecido Goncalves de Almeida, under secretary of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts; Fr. Dieter Bohler S.J., professor at the Sankt-Gerogen Theological Faculty in Frankfurt, Germany; Fr. Nicola Bux, of the clergy of the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto, Italy, professor at the St. Nicholas Institute of Greek Byzantine Ecumenical-Patristic Theology; Fr. Joseph Carola S.J., professor at the Pontifical Gregorian University; Fr. Jose Manuel Garcia Cordeiro, rector of the Pontifical Portuguese College and professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome's St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum; Fr. Renato De Zan, professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome's St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum; Fr. Cassian Folsom O.S.B., prior of Noricia, Italy, and associate professor at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Rome's St. Anselm Pontifical Athenaeum; Fr. Marco Gagliardi, professor at Rome's "Regina Apostolorum" Pontifical Athenaeum; Fr. Aurelio Garcia Macias of the clergy of that archdiocese of Valladolid, Spain, president of the Spanish Association of Professors of Liturgy; Msgr. Angelo Lameri of the clergy of the diocese of Crema, Italy, professor at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University; Fr. Dennis McManus of the clergy of the archdiocese of Mobiile, U.S.A., professor at the Catholic University of America; Fr. Juan Jose Silvestre, professor at Rome's Pontifical University of the Holy Cross; Fr. Michael John Zielinski O.S.B. Oliv., vice president of the Pontifical Commission for the Cultural Patrimony of the Church and of the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, and Msgr. Markus Walser, vicar general of the archdiocese of Vaduz, Lichtenstein. - Appointed Bishop Franz-Josef Overbeck of Essen, Germany, president of "Adveniat" Episcopal Action, as a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. On Saturday 30 October it was made public that he: - Appointed Msgr. Blaise Nzeyimana, vicar general of the archdiocese of Gitega, Burundi, as bishop of Ruyigi (area 4,303, population 524,549, Catholics 368,928, priests 48, religious 111), Burundi. The bishop-elect was born in Butare, Rwanda in 1954 and ordained a priest in 1981. He succeeds Bishop Joseph Nduhirubusa, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese the Holy Father accepted, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law. - Accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the apostolic vicariate of San Miguel de Sucumbios, Ecuador, presented by Bishop Gonzalo Lopez Maranon O.C.D., upon having reached the age limit. - Appointed Msgr. Jan Sobilo, vicar general of the diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhia of the Latins, Ukraine, as auxiliary of the same diocese (area 196,300, population 19,013,600, Catholics 62,405, priests 55, religious 96). The bishop-elect was born in Nisko, Poland in 1962 and ordained a priest in 1986.
Comments