RADIO VATICANA REPORT/IMAGE: Pope Benedict XVI has joined the ranks of the quarter of a million pilgrims to ring for renewal in the Church in Ireland on the International Eucharistic Congress Bell. Ahead of his weekly general audience the Holy Father met with a delegation from the IEC2012 organizing committee from Dublin, Ireland, led by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, aptly beneath the ‘Arch of the Bell’s’ to the left of the Vatican Basilica.
Fr Kevin Doran, Secretary General of IEC2012 said: "The Pope blessed the bell, rang it vigorously, and paused to admire the icons as Archbishop Martin explained their significance. He was presented with Shamrock by Colette Furlong and with the first copy of the Congress Commemorative Medal, by Sheena Darcy."
"To the surprise of its critics, the Eucharistic congress is taking shape as a genuine moment of renewal in the church," said Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, as he launched the “Ring for renewal” initiative earlier this week. Cathedrals, churches and chapels across Ireland are being asked to ring their bells for two minutes at 12 noon and 6 p.m this Saturday March 17th, St Patrick’s Day, as a symbol of renewal and a call to gather in preparation for the Congress. Archbishop Martin insists that the event "is being seen as a unique opportunity for renewal of the Christian life."
In fact when they were thinking about a symbol to represent the Dublin Congress, the organizers decided on the symbol of the bell. Why? Because apparently St Patrick, Patron Saint of the Irish, left a bell with each of the Christian communities he founded throughout the island in the 5th century. The idea being that these communities, on hearing the bell, would be called to conversion, to prayer, to and ultimately to communion.
For the past year, a bell taken from a convent on Ireland’s North Sea Coast, has been visiting all of the communities of Ireland’s 26 dioceses. Inner city parishes, fire stations, hospitals and hospices, schools, chapels, cloistered convents and ecumenical organizations.
Through winter cold, sleet and rain and under summer sun the spectacle of men and women young and old struggling beneath the weight of the bell as they carry it literally on their backs from village to village, up mountains and along motorways has puzzled many a motorist. The sound of the bell and hymns ringing along the main streets of towns has stopped many people in their tracks. The bell has become a vibrant sign for the Irish people of the coming Congress, an invitation to them to prepare and become involved, even those who have distanced themselves from the faith and the Church over the years.
The pastoral program that has accompanied the bell’s pilgrimage reflects this. It no longer takes the faith formation of Irish people as a given, offering introductory courses on scripture, liturgy and Church teaching.
“Our main aim is to try and bring as many people as possible to closer union with Christ” says Fina Golden. She is just one example of the new Church that is emerging in Ireland. A lay Catholic, she is on the board for pastoral preparation for the diocese of Elphin. “We also want to leave a lasting legacy in the diocese after Congress is finished, that people will remember, that hey will have deepened their faith and their communion with one another”.
In the past the Church in Ireland was often accused of clericalism. However the Church that is emerging in the lead up to Dublin 2012 while dramatically reduced in numbers, is vibrant, informed and above all centered on bringing forth the laity. They are literally everywhere, and they are not all Irish.
Meet the man behind the Bell, Hungarian Gellert Merza: “It was a fantastic opportunity to be out there and to see how people are attracted to the Church, to the Eucharist. And this little bell that we are carrying about in Ireland is a great opportunity for people to come and reflect again on what the Eucharist means for themselves. The bell is not the most important thing, it was just to start something, to ring in something and of course to call people to the Congress itself”.
To date more than a quarter of a million people- including Pope Benedict - have rung the Congress Bell in Ireland, in Lourdes, France and now also in Rome.
SOURCE: http://www.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=571137
VIS REPORTS: VENERATING THE MOTHER OF GOD MEANS LEARNING TO BECOME A COMMUNITY OF PRAYER
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - During his general audience this morning the Holy Father began a new cycle of catecheses, dedicated to the subject of prayer in the Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of St. Paul. The Pope focused his remarks today on the figure of Mary as she appears in the Acts, when with the Apostles she awaits the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Benedict XVI told the more than 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square that "it was with Mary that Jesus' earthly life began, and it was with her that the Church took its first steps. ... She discreetly followed her Son's journey during His public life, even unto the foot of the cross. Then, with silent prayer, she continued to follow the progress of the Church", he explained.
The stages of Mary's own journey from the house of Nazareth to the Upper Room of Jerusalem "were marked by her capacity to maintain an ongoing state of contemplation, meditating upon each event in the silence of her heart, before God. The Mother of God's presence with the Eleven after the Ascension ... has great significance because with them she shared the most precious of things: the living memory of Jesus in prayer".
After Jesus' Ascension to heaven, the Apostles met with Mary to await the gift of the Holy Spirit, without which it is not possible to bear witness to Christ. "She, who had already received the Spirit in order to generate the incarnate Word, shared the entire Church’s expectation of the same gift. ... If it is true that there could be no Church without Pentecost, it is also true that there could have been no Pentecost without the Mother of Jesus, because she had a unique knowledge of what the Church experiences every day by the action of the Holy Spirit".
The Pope went on to recall how the Vatican Council II Dogmatic Constitution "Lumen gentium" had emphasised this special relationship between the Virgin and the Church. "We see the Apostles before the day of Pentecost 'constantly devoting themselves to prayer, together with certain women including Mary the mother of Jesus'", he said. "Mary's place is in the Church, 'wherefore she is hailed as a pre-eminent and singular member, ... and as its type and excellent exemplar in faith and charity'.
"Venerating the Mother of Jesus in the Church means, then, learning from her how to become a community of prayer", the Holy Father added. "This is one of the essential aspects of the first description of the Christian community given in the Acts of the Apostles".
Our prayers "are often dictated by difficult situations, by personal problems which cause us to turn to the Lord in search of light, comfort and aid. But Mary invites us to open prayer to other dimensions, to address God not only in moments of need and not only for ourselves, but unanimously, perseveringly, faithfully and with 'one heart and soul'".
Benedict XVI also pointed out that Mary "was placed by the Lord at decisive moments of the history of salvation, and she always responded with complete readiness as a result of her profound bond with God matured through assiduous and intense prayer. ... Between the Ascension and Pentecost, she was 'with' and 'in' the Church, in prayer. Mother of God and Mother of the Church, Mary exercises her maternity until the end of history".
The Pope concluded by saying that "Mary teaches us the need for prayer and shows us how only through a constant, intimate and complete bond of love with her Son can we courageously leave our homes ... to announce the Lord Jesus, Saviour of the world".
BENEDICTINE TORCH IN ROME
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At the end of today's general audience, Benedict XVI greeted a delegation led by Archbishop Renato Boccardo of Norcia, Italy, and by the abbots of the Montecassino and Subiaco. They have recently returned from Malta where last Sunday the Benedictine torch "Pro Pace et Europa Una" was lit. The torch will return to the saint's home town of Norcia on 20 March.
The Benedictine torch has been carried around European capital cities since the year 1964 which Paul VI proclaimed St. Benedict as patron saint of Europe. The torch is intended to symbolise the fraternity and peace proclaimed in the Gospel, beyond all political, ideological and religious divides. In the past it has been lit in Berlin, Prague, Bucharest, Strasbourg, Budapest, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw, Brussels, Vienna, Moscow and Jerusalem. In 2001 it was taken to New York to bring a message of hope following the attacks of 11 September, while last year it was lit in London during the course of an ecumenical ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
POPE TO VISIT ROME'S SACRED HEART UNIVERSITY
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - At 11 a.m. on Thursday 3 May the Holy Father will visit the Roman campus of the Sacred Heart Catholic University, where he will pronounce an address to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the "Agostino Gemelli" Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, according to a communique released today by the Holy See Press Office.
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 14 March 2012 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Bishop Adalberto Martinez Flores of San Pedro, Paraguay, as military ordinary for Paraguay.
- Fr. Eduardo Jose Castillo Pino of the clergy of the archdiocese of Guayaquil, Ecuador, pastor and episcopal vicar of "Santa Elena", as auxiliary of Portoviejo (area 21,000, population 1,332,723, Catholics 1,298,917, priests 111, religious 311), Ecuador. The bishop-elect was born in Guayaquil in 1970 and ordained a priest in 1994. After studying for his doctorate in Rome, he worked in his home country as a professor in seminaries and schools. He collaborates with the Ecuadorian Episcopal Conference and is author of numerous historical and theological works.
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