Now, Cyprus too in 2010
Translated from
the Italian service of
Oct. 1 (RV) - The government of Cyprus announced today that Benedict XVI has accepted the invitation to visit Cyprus.
The invitation was extended to the Pope by the Church of Cyprus and the President of the Republic, Demetris Christofias, when he visited the Vatican on March 27.
The visit will take place in early June next year.
The Church of Cyprus, represented by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Mons. Fouad Twal, and the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus, Josef Souaef, along the Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, expressed their joy for the coming visit.
[Previously announced were papal visits to Malta, Fatima and possibly the United Kingdom in 2010.]
About Cyprus: Although the Republic of Cyprus has de jure sovereignty over the entire island (except for the UN zone and military bases) and territorial waters, it only has effective control of southwest Cyprus (57% of the territory). Northeastern Cyprus is effectively under Turkish control and calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
A few more details from SIR:
Cyprus trip likely
to be June 6-9
ROME, Oct. 1 (Translated from SIR) - Benedict XVI will be visiting Cyprus in June 2010.
The news announced today, Cyprus's Independence Day, by the government in Nicosia was also confirmed to SIR by the Patriarchal Vicariate in Nicosia.
"We do not have details yet about the visit," the source said, "but it would be in June 2010. And it is possible that one stop will be Paphos, where the Apostle Paul had spent some time to preach the Gospel".
The likely dates for the visit are June 4-6.
The Custodian of the Holy Land, Franciscan Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told SIR that "The dates still have to be confirmed, along with the possibility that Benedict XVI may use the occasion to hand over to the Patriarchs and bishops of the Middle East the Instrumentum Laboris for the Bishops' Synod special assembly for the Middle East to be held in the Vaitican in october 2010".
The Vicariate in Nicosia said that "The Christian community on the island has received the news with great enthusiasm and are now starting to prepare as best they can for such an event".
The papal visit would, in effect, return the visit to the Vatican of President Demetris Christofias last March 27 and of the earlier visit in June 2007 by the Aechbishop of New Justinian and all Cyprus, Chrysostomos II, head of the autocephalous Cyprus Orthodox Church.
The Vatican confirms
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY, Oct. 1 (AP) – Pope Benedict XVI will visit Cyprus next year, the Vatican said Thursday, bringing to four the number of foreign trips planned for the pontiff in 2010.
Cyprus has been mentioned as a possible venue for a long-sought meeting between Benedict and the Russian Orthodox patriarch. However, Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said he knew nothing about any such meeting.
The Cypriot government said Thursday the Pope would visit in June. Vatican Radio, in reporting on the Cypriot announcement, said the news of the trip had been received "with joy" by top Catholic officials in the region.
In addition to Cyprus, the 82-year-old Benedict's 2010 travel schedule includes possible trips to Malta; Fatima, Portugal; and Britain.
A top Vatican official, Cardinal Walter Kasper, said last month that relations between the Vatican and Russian church had vastly improved, paving the way for a possible meeting in a third country between Benedict and Russian Patriarch Kirill.
In 2007, a Cypriot Orthodox archbishop, Chrysostomos II, met with Vatican and Russian Orthodox officials and proposed Cyprus as the location.
Such an encounter eluded the late John Paul II in his long papacy because of Catholic-Orthodox tensions following the demise of Soviet communism.
Something related which I completely overlooked during the Czech visit:
UK trip, Newman beatification
in 2010 a 'good hypothesis'
PRAGUE. Sept. 27 - In a briefing with reporters in the Czech capital, Vatican spokesperson Fr. Federico Lombardi stopped short of official confirmation of a rumored papal trip to Great Britain for 2010, but suggested that it’s likely. He added that such a trip would be an "obvious occasion" to beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman.
Lombardi also said that outings in 2010 to both Malta and Portugal are in the works, but that preparations still have to be made.
The Malta trip, set for April, has already been announced by the Maltese bishops. It will commemorate the 1,950th anniversary of St. Paul’s famous shipwreck on the Mediterranean island. The Pontiff’s trip to Portugal has likewise been quasi-official for some time, set for the Feast of Our Lady of Fatima on May 13.
Lombardi said that the main organizer of papal travel, Alberto Gasparri, has not yet worked out the details of trips to either location.
News broke earlier this week of a possible outing to Great Britain and Ireland, which could include a beatification ceremony for Newman, the 19th century intellectual and convert to Catholicism who has long been slightly controversial for his ambivalence about the doctrine of papal infallibility.
Nonetheless, Pope Benedict XVI has frequently praised Newman’s life and work, seeing in him a kindred intellectual spirit.
Lombardi said this evening that a trip to the U.K. is a “good hypothesis,” that it would likely take place in September (rather than January as some news outlets had suggested), and that “it would be an obvious occasion” to beatify Newman.
When a reporter noted that Benedict XVI has previously expressed
a preference to allow beatifications to be carried out by the local Church rather than by the Pope*, Lombardi responded: “We have a year to figure that out.”
*I think the correct sense of Benedict XVI's policy is that beatifications are more properly performed in the particular Church where the new Blessed is venerated. In the normal course of things, this has meant the rite has been presided over by the local bishop with the attendance of a personal representative of the Pope. But obviously, if the Pope is going to be in the new Blessed's Church at the time of the beatification, why would he not do it? Especially in this particular case!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/10/2009 01:04]