PAPAL & VATICAN NEWS HIGHLIGHTS
SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER 2009
VATICAN CITY, 30 DEC 2009 (VIS) - Following are highlights of the activities of Pope Benedict XVI and the Holy See for the months of September through December 2009.
SEPTEMBER
5: Publication of the Holy Father's Message for the 83rd World Mission Day, to be celebrated on Sunday 18 October on the theme: "The nations will walk in its light".
6: Pastoral visit of the Holy Father to the Italian towns of Viterbo and Bagnoregio.
7: Benedict XVI receives a group of prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (West 1-2) at the end of their "ad limina" visit.
11: Holy Father receives in audience Ricardo Martinelli Berrocal, president of the Republic of Panama.
11: Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue publishes its annual Message to Muslims for the end of the month of Ramadan. The Message, signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council, has as its theme: "Christians and Muslims: Together in overcoming poverty".
15-20: Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, president of the Department for External Church Affairs of the Patriarchate of Moscow, visits Rome at the invitation of Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
16: Holy Father receives in audience Emil Boc, prime minister of Romania.
17: Benedict XVI receives a group of prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Northeast 2) at the end of their "ad limina" visit.
19: Benedict XVI receives Catholic patriarchs and major archbishops from the Oriental Churches.
26-28: Apostolic trip to the Czech Republic.
OCTOBER
4: In the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI presides at a Eucharistic concelebration with Synod Fathers for the opening of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
4: Beatification of Servant of God Eustachio Kugler (ne Joseph), German professed religious of the Hospitaller Order of St. John of God, in the cathedral of Regensburg, Germany.
11: In St. Peter's Square, Holy Father canonises Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski, Francesc Coll y Guitart, Jozef Damian de Veuster, Rafael Arnaiz Baron, and Mary of the Cross Jugan (nee Jeanne).
18: Beatification of Servant of God Ciriaco Maria Sancha y Hervas, Spanish cardinal and archbishop, founder of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity, in the cathedral of Toledo, Spain.
25: Beatification of Servant of God Carlo Gnocchi, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the "Pro Juventute" Foundation, in the Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Italy.
25: In the Vatican Basilica, the Pope presides at a Eucharistic concelebration with Synod Fathers to mark the closure of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops.
31: Beatification of Servant of God Zoltan Lajos Meszlenyi, Hungarian bishop and martyr, in the cathedral of Esztergom, Hungary.
NOVEMBER
8: Pastoral visit of the Holy Father to the Italian city of Brescia.
9: Pope receives participants in the World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees, being held in the Vatican from 9 to 12 November on the theme: "A pastoral response to the phenomenon of migration in the era of globalisation".
9: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith publishes the Apostolic Constitution "Anglicanorum coetibus", which provides for personal ordinariates for Anglicans entering into full communion with the Catholic Church, and some Complementary Norms for the same Apostolic Constitution.
12: Holy Father receives in audience Stjepan Mesic, president of the Republic of Croatia.
12: Benedict XVI receives 7000 professors and students of Rome's LUMSA University (Libera Universita Maria Santissma Assunta) for the seventieth anniversary of its foundation by Servant of God Luigia Tincani.
13: Holy Father receives in audience Gordon Bajnai, prime minister of the Republic of Hungary.
14: Holy Father receives in audience Boris Tadic, president of the Republic of Serbia.
14: Holy Father receives in audience Jan Fischer, prime minister of the Czech Republic.
17: Publication of a letter from Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. to priests of the Catholic Church in the People's Republic of China, for the occasion of the Year for Priests called to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Mary Vianney, the saintly "Cure of Ars".
17: Holy Father receives in audience Pierre Nkurunziza, president of the Republic of Burundi.
18: Holy Father receives in audience Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of the People's Republic of Bangladesh.
21: Benedict XVI meets with artists in the Sistine Chapel.
22: Beatification of Servant of God Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas (nee Soultaneh Maria), co-foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary of Jerusalem, in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth, Israel.
27: Publication of the Holy Father's Message for the ninety-sixth World Day of Migrants and Refugees. The theme of this year's Message is "Underage migrants and refugees" and the Day is due to be celebrated on 17 January 2010.
28: Benedict XVI receives in separate audiences Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, president of Argentina, and Michelle Bachelet, president of Chile, to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the two States.
30: Holy Father receives in audience Alan Garcia Perez, president of the Republic of Peru.
30: Holy Father receives in audience His Royal Imperial Highness Otto von Hapsburg, archduke of Austria.
DECEMBER
3: Publication of the Pope's Message for the eighteenth World Day of the Sick, which is due to be celebrated in the Vatican Basilica on 11 February 2010, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes.
3: Holy Father receives in audience Dimitri Medvedev, president of the Russian Federation. Re-establishment of full diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the Russian Federation.
4: Holy Father receives in audience His Beatitude Anastas, archbishop of Tirana, Durres and All Albania, who was accompanied by other representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania.
5: Benedict XVI receives a group of prelates from the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Region South 3 and 4) at the end of their "ad limina" visit.
5: Holy Father receives in audience Horst Kohler, president of Germany.
10: Holy Father receives in audience Ali Bongo Ondimba, president of the Republic of Gabon.
11: Holy Father receives in audience Nguyen Minh Triet, president of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
12: Holy Father receives in audience Sali Berisha, prime minister of the Republic of Albania.
14: Holy Father receives in audience Milo Djukanovic, prime minister of Montenegro.
15: Publication of Pope's Message for the forty-third World Day of Peace, due to be celebrated on 1 January 2010, on the theme: "If You Want To Cultivate Peace, Protect Creation".
15: Publication of Benedict XVI's Motu Proprio, "Omnium in mentem", dated 26 October, containing two variations to the Code of Canon Law.
17: Holy Father receives Letters of Credence of eight new ambassadors to the Holy See: Hans Klingenberg of Denmark; Francis K. Butagira of Uganda; Suleiman Mohamad Mustafa of Sudan; Elkanah Odembo of Kenya; Mukhtar B. Tileuberdi of Kazakhstan; Abdul Hannan of Bangladesh; Alpo Rusi of Finland, and Einars Semanis of Latvia.
17: Benedict XVI receives prelates from he Conference of Catholic Bishops of Belarus, at the end of their "ad limina" visit.
19: Publication of decrees concerning the martyrdom, miracles and heroic virtues of twenty-one Blesseds and Servants of God, among them Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II.
21: In his traditional pre-Christmas meeting with the Roman Curia, the Pope recalls that 2009 was a year "passed under the sign of Africa".
This is a convenient reference and a commendable service from VIS. I became aware of it only in the preceding quarter. I wonder if they have something comparable that goes all the way back to April 19, 2005.... I've always meant to go back over all the daily Vatican bulletins since then, and do something similar because now that we are going into the sixth year of Benedict XVI's Pontificate, it's getting more difficult to rely on my faulty memory when I need cross-referencing about events in the Pontificate. But obviously, I've been unable to find the time.
Everytning I do on the Forum is on the run, unfortunately, time stolen from other things I need to do - so I don't have the time to think back or think forward, to plan anything in advance, beyond the snap decisions I have to make, the moment I see an item that I need to post, and determine whether I already have a thematic banner for it, or if I need to cobble together a new thematic banner, assuming I know where to get the elements for it and can do it all in a few minutes. The same snap decisions I have to make on how to post photographs, how they should be resized and sorted in a logical way that is also 'aesthetic'.
All this, like I had to do in the days when I had an hourly deadline to put a TV newscast on the air or to put together the front page of a newspaper in time for the press run. In the ame way, I interpose my comments when necessary under the same pressure-cooker constraints I had when churning out a daily editorial or column in the midst of other editorial duties (such as giving and checking news assignments and editing reporters' copy, which was always the most laborious and time-consuming).
The one standard I try to keep at all times since I started being a contributor at PRF - and as long as I have access to the Internet - is to post all the important and interesting items I can find about Benedict XVI (avoiding unnecessary duplication of content), including prompt translations of all papal texts, and accompany them with as many photographs of him that are immediately available (though I did not arrive until relatively late at the logical SOP that the best place for photographs is to accompany the news items they illustrate).
Everything else is secondary.
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 02/01/2010 23:10]