Cardinal Scola confirms second known
pastoral visit for Benedict XVI in 2011
VENICE, Oct. 6 (Translated from ASCA) - With great joy and emotion, the Patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Angela Scola, announced today that the Holy Father has accepted an invitation to make a pastoral visit to Aquileia and Venice on May 7-8, 2011.
Cardinal Scola made the announcement at St. Mark's Cathedral during the traditional encounter between the Patriarch and the Venetian clergy at the start of the canonical year.
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Aquileia, about 100 kms northeast of Venice, is an ancient Roman city founded about 180 B.C. and is one of northern Italy's most important archaeological site and a UNESCO World Heritage site.]
"This gift from the Holy Father to the Patriarchate of Venice coincides with the end of our own pastoral visits throughout the Patriarchate that have been underway since 2004," Scola said.
"By preparing ourselves with care and experiencing this extraordinary event together, we will better understand the valuable signs that the Holy Spirit disseminates among us at this time of grace and open up our hopes for the future.
"As the Holy Father has reminded us in his recent visits to the United Kingdom and to Palermo, faith, nourished by liturgical and personal prayer, by charity, and the Word of Christ, reveals its extraordinary 'convenience' and relevance for men and women in our time.
"The Holy Father's visit among us also responds to another circumstance that has emerged during our own pastoral visits in the Patriarchate: the usefulness that Christians serve for all residents and visitors to Venice, 'city of humanity', in the exercise of Christian living that is also for the good of society.
"Also significant is that the Holy Father has accepted to inaugurate a year of inter-diocesan preparations for the Second Congress of Aquileia, where representatives from the dioceses of northeast Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria will be in attendance to meet the Holy Father.
"In the name of all the bishops of the dioceses concerned, let me now invite all the ecclesial organizations, parishes, movements and associations, as well as civilian society and the various institutions to mobilize together to welcome
Benedict XVI, who will be visiting Venice 26 years after John Paul II visited here, and almost 40 years since Paul VI's visit, while honoring at the same time Pius X, John XXII, and John Paul I, the three Patriarchs of Venice who became Popes in the last century."
[Last week, the Bishop of San Marino-Montefeltro announced that the Pope will be visiting his diocese, which comprises the Republic of San Marino and the adjoining Italian zone of Montefeltro in east central Italy, on June 19, 2011.]
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 07/10/2010 16:25]