See preceding page for earlier entries today, 5/9/12, including the GA and the Holy Father's catechesis.
Benedict XVI in Arezzo:
His first visit as Pope to Tuscany
by ANDREA FAGIOLI
May 9, 2012
Peter is coming to to seek out Donatus. The Successor of Peter will be visiting a Catholic community whose history began with the ancient venerated bishop.
This is the image that has been the running thread in the preparations of the Diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro for Benedict XVI's fist visit to Tuscany as Pope.
Starting from the pastoral message of Archbishop Riccardo Fontana to the Churches of Arezzo, Cortona and Sansepolcro: "Peter is coming to Tuscany to meet with us, to give his contribution to our unity, to help us in that communion which is a true aggregation of the Church internally and of sister churches among themselves".
But what will Peter do to find Donatus? Mons. Fontana says, "Fifty years since the opening of the Second Vatican Council, it is the propitious occasion to verify, within our ecclesial community, how many fruits of the conciliar Pentecost have entered into our diocesan experience".
Donatus, patron saint of Arezzo, lived in the 4th century. It is said that he was raised in Rome by parents who came from Nicomedia (in what is now Turkey) and that he grew up with Julian who would later become the Roman emperor called the Apostate.
St. Pier Damiani said of Donatus and Julian, "Behold how two saplings grew in the field of the Lord, but while one became a cedar of Paradise, the other became coal for the eternal flames". When Julian started persecuting Christians, Donatus fled to Arezzo where he became a priest and preached under the bishop whom he eventually succeeded. Miraculous feats were attributed to him in his lifetime. Tradition says he was eventually beheaded in Arezzo in a new wave of persecution.
Benedict XVI will meet the entire diocese at the Mass to be held in the Prato, Arezzo's symbolic piazza in the shadow of the bell tower of the cathedral of St. Donatus, between the Fortress and the Cathedral.
The Duomo (Cathedral) of Arezzo andits massive marble altar. Below, from left, St. Damasus; miraculous image of the Madonna del Conforto; and the Madonna in her chapel, Arezzo's main Marian shrine.
After the recital of the Regina caeli, the Pope will enter the Cathedral to pay homage to the saInted bishop at his burial urn, and to the Madonna del Conforto. The Pope will lead a prayer he has composed for the occasion. This will be one of the most emotional moments for the Aretini who have venerated the small miraculous image for over two centuries in the chapel that has become the diocese's Marian shrine.
At lunch in the bishop's residence, he will be meeting with all the bishops of Tuscany. In the afternoon, the Pope will fly to La Verna, the Franciscan 'rock', to meet the various Franciscan communities and Poor Clares of Tuscany. He will say a prayer at the Chapel where St. Francis received the stigmata, as he will do later before the Holy Face in the co-cathedral of Sansepolcro before meeting with the townspeople in Piazza Torre di Berta.
The Volto Santo (Holy Face), found in the co-cathedrla of San Sepolcro (center) refers to a 9th-century wooden crucifix thought to be among the oldest such crucifixes in Europe.
An event which the city founded 1,000 years ago by the pilgrims Arcanus and Aegidius have been awaiting for centuries, since they were not visited by John Paul II. The two pilgrims returned from the Holy Land with a stone from the Holy Sepulchre, hence the name given to the city.
But Benedict XVI will be in Sansepolcro for the city's millennary celebration just as earlier, in Rome, at San Gregorio in Celio, he celebrated the millenary of the Camaldoli Benedictines with the monks who are the spiritual children of St, Romuald.
St. Donatus, St. Francis, and St. Romuald - the best representatives of a diocesan church that provides a collective identity for a vast differentiated territory.
The Pope will have three stops - Arezzo, La Verna and Sansepolcro - on a day which will go down in local history, even though it has had several times the gift of papal visits even in recent times.
He will be encountering the reality of a diocese which has put great emphasis on the education of its young people and the [rpductive use of social communications.
"Forming the formators" - besides being the title of a pastoral letter by Mons. Fontana - is "a process of conversion from the ephemeral to the necessary, from mere employment of disposable time to involvement in the person" for motivated and diligent pastoral work.
Moreover, Fontana says, "Service to the Church cannot be superficial - it requires daily competnet commitment".
"Forming the formators also means, for this diocese, reviving the oratories at the parish level, whereas at the academic level, the Istituto superiore di Science Religiose named for Blessed Gregory IX leads the way".
The Aretine diocese also has one of the only two diocesan information networks in Tuscany (the other is in Prato), under one editorial management for the diocesan weekly, local Catholic TV, a press office and various Internet site.
But the Pope's visit will also be an event for civilian society, not just for the diocesan Church. Benedict XVI has requested that donations be given to families most in need of economic assistance in the diocese and province of Arezzo.
"Like the early Christians," said Mons, Fontana, "we too would like to lay at the feet of the Apostles the treasures that we have. And these are the gifts we can give the Pope when he comes to our land: the appeal of our millenary identity, the rootedness of our faith which is manifested in the mission for 'forming the formators' so that whatever we have learned can be passed on to the next generations, the charity of Jesus's lament for Jerusalem that the city might turn back to God with a free and joyful heart".
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2012 02:11]