Mons. Negri prepares his diocese
to host Benedict XVI in June
ROME, JAN. 14, 2011 (Zenit.org).- The yearnings of the human heart find their answer in the witness given by Benedict XVI, according to an Italian prelate who will host the Pope for a June visit to his diocese.
Bishop Luigi Negri of San Marino-Montefeltro is making an appeal for a deepening in the faith in view of the pastoral visit that the Holy Father will make to San Marino next June 19.
The bishop announced that the definitive program of the visit will be published on the diocesan Web site in the coming days. It is a program, he said, "that certainly imposes sacrifices" on the Bishop of Rome.
Benedict XVI will arrive in San Marino early in the morning of June 19. After a visit to the institutions of the republic, he will concelebrate Mass in the Serravalle Stadium with all the bishops of Emilia-Romagna and with many others who, coming from Italian and foreign dioceses, have been invited to this event, and also with all the priests present.
The concelebration will end with the recitation of the Angelus. Both the Mass and the recitation of the Angelus will be broadcast live by the television of San Marino and by Italian Radio and Television (RAI).
In the afternoon, the Holy Father will go to diocesan headquarters at Pennabilli, and in the square in front of the cathedral he will meet with all the young people of the diocese.
"My spirit is overwhelmed with gratitude and a sense of great responsibility; let us prepare ourselves, my brothers, for this event of grace that Providence is offering us to enhance our faith," said Bishop Negri.
"We renew the fundamental experience of faith as communion with the Lord Jesus Christ in prayer; let us live ecclesial life with intensity and regularity, above all in the participation of the sacraments; let us live charity in encounters with our brothers, above all with those who are in need or actually in indigence," the 69-year-old bishop added.
The prelate called for a deepening in the "culture that is born of faith, above all in what concerns the ultimate mystery of the Church and in it the presence and function of the Holy Father."
"Above all, however," he encouraged, "let us live this event for which we are preparing as a proposal for all our brothers […] because
the Pope is the highest witness on earth of Christian life, which is a true, good and beautiful life, and therefore is the life that is full of answers to the fundamental needs of the heart of every man."
The last trip of a Pope to this land was that of John Paul II on Aug. 29, 1982, on the occasion of his visit to all the dioceses of the pastoral region of Emilia-Romagna, initiated in Bologna on April 18 of the same year.