A digest of items from the bulletins of the Vatican Information Service issued in March 2008, focusing on items of general interest and issues on which the Church takes a stand.
Pope Benedict's general prayer intention for March is: That the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation between persons and people may be understood and that the Church, through her testimony, may spread Christ's love, the source of new humanity. His mission intention is: That Christians, who are persecuted in many parts of the world and in various manners because of the Gospel, may continue, sustained by the strength of the Holy Spirit, to bear witness courageously and openly to the Word of God.
1st – The Holy Father appealed for the immediate release of the kidnapped Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans, Iraq.
The Pope declared that four Blesseds will be canonised on Sunday 12 October. They include Alfonsa of the Immaculate Conception (nee: Anna Muttathupandathu).
5th – A Catholic-Muslim Forum will be established and will hold its first seminar in Rome on 4 to 6 November this year on the theme ‘Love of God, Love of Neighbour’. This is the result of the open letter ‘A Common Word’, signed by 138 Muslim scholars and Benedict XVI’s response.
Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi CS, Holy See permanent observer to the UN at Geneva, participated in the seventh ordinary session of the Human Rights Council.
6th – This morning in the Vatican, the Pope received the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. This is the third meeting between them.
7th – Benedict XVI received members of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences.
8th - The Holy Father today received participants in the plenary session of the Pontifical Council for Culture who have been meeting to study the question of "the Church and the challenge of secularisation".
9th - During a Mass in Rome for young people, the Pope spoke in his homily about real life as opposed to biological life."It is easy to imagine what would happen if man's biological life were endless.We would find ourselves in a world full of old people that would leave no space for the young.” Benedict XVI then explained that in the Eucharist "we enter into communion with the body [of Christ] which is animated by immortal life".
After praying the Angelus, the Pope again launched an appeal for peace in the Middle East.
11th - Archbishop Silvano M. TomasiCS, Holy See permanent observer to the UN at Geneva, spoke again at a session of the Human Rights Council. He turned his attention to the question of "special healthcare assistance to the weakest: unborn children and the seriously ill.”
13th – Benedict XVI sent a telegram to Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans, Iraq, following the death of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans, Iraq, who was kidnapped on 29 February.
The Holy See Press Office announced that the Commission established by Pope Benedict XVI to study the most important questions concerning the life of the Church in China met in the Vatican from 10 to 12 March.
14th – In the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI presided at a penitential liturgy with young people from Rome in preparation for the 23rd World Youth Day, due to be held in Sydney, Australia from 15 to 20 July on the theme: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses".
15th – The Holy Father authorised the promulgation of decrees of heroic virtue for three members of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins: Servant of God Mariano Roasendada Torino, Italian professed priest (1906-1972); Servant of God Leopoldo Sanchez Marquez de Alpandeire, Spanish professed layman (1864-1956); and Servant of God Serafino Riminuccida Pietrarubbia, Italian professed layman (1875-1960).
Palm Sunday - In St. Peter's Square at 9.30 a.m. today, the Holy Father presided at a solemn liturgical celebration for Palm Sunday and the Passion of the Lord. The Pope blessed the palms and the olives, then walked in procession with cardinals, bishops and 270 young people from the obelisk in the square to the altar where he celebrated the Eucharist. Some 50,000 pilgrims, most of them young people, attended the Eucharistic liturgy.
In his homily, the Holy Father commented on today's Gospel reading concerning Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem and His arrival at the Temple to find it full of traders, animals and money changers "who occupied the place of prayer with their stalls. … This must also make us, as Christians, think today: "Is our faith open and pure enough?... Does an awareness that greed is idolatry penetrate to our hearts and our way of life? Are we ready to let ourselves be purified anew by the Lord, allowing Him to remove from us and from the Church everything that is contrary to Him. In the place of cruel sacrifices and offers of food, comes the body of Christ. He Himself comes to replace them. Only 'endless love', only the love which, for man, gives itself totally to God, is true worship and true sacrifice".
The Holy Father made a heartfelt plea for peace in Iraq after praying the Angelus with the faithful. He recalled Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mossul of the Chaldeans, who was killed after being kidnapped. He said: “His beautiful witness of faithfulness to Christ, to the Church, and to his people whom he chose never to abandon despite numerous threats, compel me to raise a strong and heartfelt cry: Stop the massacres! Stop the violence! Stop the hatred in Iraq!”
17th - The Holy See Press Office today published the programme of Benedict XVI's forthcoming apostolic trip to Washington and New York, from 15 to 21 April. It includes visits to The White House, UN headquarters and Ground Zero.
Holy Thursday – The Holy Fatherconcelebrated the Chrism Mass with the renewal of priestly vows and blessing of the oil of chrism and later the Mass of the Lord’s Supper when he washed the feet of 12 priests. In his homily, he spoke graphically of the need for interior purification: "Day after day, we are, as it were, covered with dirt, with empty words, with prejudices, with watered-down and adulterated wisdom; multiple forms of semi-falsity or open falseness continually infiltrate our inner being. This clouds and contaminates our soul, it threatens us with an incapacity for truth and goodness. If we accept the words of Jesus with an attentive heart, they wash and purify the soul."
Good Friday – In the Vatican Basilica, the Pope presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion. Following the reading of the Passion, the ceremony continued with the universal prayer, veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion. Later this evening, the Holy Father travelled to the Colosseum where he led the Way of the Cross. The central theme of the meditations was the persecutionsuffered by the Catholic Church in various parts of the world.
Easter Saturday – Christ’s departure is a new return. The Pope presided at the solemn Easter vigil during which he baptized and confirmed seven adults from various countries, includingMagdiAllam, a well-known journalist of Egyptian origin, from the Italian newspaper Corrieredella Sera.
In his homily, the Pope recalled the words with which Jesus announced to the disciples His forthcoming death and resurrection: “I go away, and I will come to you”. He said: “Dying is a 'going away'", but in Jesus' case, there is something utterly new, which changes the world. ... It is by going away that He comes. His going ushers in a completely new and greater way of being present.”
Easter Sunday – The Resurrection is an event of Love. Benedict XVI celebrated the Easter Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord in St Peter's Square and, at midday he pronounced his Easter Message, and imparted his Urbi et Orbi blessing. The Pope said: “The death and resurrection of the Word of God incarnate is an event of invincible love.… Dear Christian brothers and sisters in every part of the world, dear men and women whose spirit is sincerely open to the truth, let no heart be closed to the omnipotence of this redeeming love!”
Divine Mercy Sunday – Pope prayed the Regina Coeli with thousands of pilgrims gathered at Castelgandolfo. Where Benedict XVI had gone for a few days’ rest. The faithful in St. Peter's Square were able to follow the event through a television link-up. In opening remarks, the Holy Father recalled how Servant of God John Paul II ordained that the Sunday after Easter should be called Divine Mercy Sunday. "Mercy", the Pope added, "is the central nucleus of the evangelical message, summed up by John Paul II himself when he inaugurated the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakov: 'Apart from God's mercy there is no other source of hope for human beings'.
