(Vatican Radio) Presenting the Vatican Council for Culture Plenary Assembly to press Monday, the President Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi spoke of the need to avoid rhetoric and clichés when exploring the theme of women, in society and the Church.
The Plenary will run from February 4-7 and explore the topic Women’s cultures: equality and difference.
Card. Ravasi told reporters the expression “women’s cultures” doesn’t imply division from men’s cultures, but awareness of women’s “perspective” on the world.
The Council has identified key areas it wants to explore during the Plenary’s four sessions: generativity, rights, poor and invisible women, women’s spirituality, equality and reciprocity, power and service, insights and vision, biology and women in the Church.
While these sessions are closed to the Council’s 31 members and 35 consulters, the Cardinal invited participation in a public session to be held in Rome’s Teatro Argentina on Wednesday February 4 th or on social media using the hastag #Lifeof Women from 15:30 pm Rome time.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Presenting the Vatican Council for Culture Plenary Assembly to press Monday, the President Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi spoke of the need to avoid rhetoric and clichés when exploring the theme of women, in society and the Church. The Plenary will run from February 4-7 and explore the topic Women’s cultures: equality and difference. Card. Ravasi…
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(Vatican Radio) Lithuania’s clergy have been “heroic” in defending the Church in times of persecution – that’s what Pope Francis told Bishops from the Baltic nation who are in Rome for their ad Limina visit. If Lithuania was for many years “oppressed by regimes founded on ideologies contrary to human dignity and freedom,” the former Soviet state is now faced with “other dangers such as secularism and relativism,” the Pope said in a written statement.
The last Soviet troops left Lithuania on 31 August 1993 and the country became a full member of the European Union in 2004. Lithuania adopted the euro as its official currency on 1 January 2015.
In his remarks to Lithuanian bishops meeting in the Vatican Monday, Pope Francis noted some of them had lived through the “sad times” of persecution and observed the Church’s pastors have historically accompanied the faithful spiritually, through material difficulties, and in the construction of society.
The Pope invited the prelates to “tirelessly announce the Gospel and Christian values” and to “ constructive dialogue with all, even those who do not belong to the Church or are far from the religious experience.”
The Holy Father called them to pray for “generous priests capable of sacrifice and dedication,” and for lay people capable of taking responsibility within the Church community and of giving valuable Christian witness in society, particularly in the civil, cultural, and socio-political spheres.
With its full membership in the European Union, Lithuania, the Pope warned, is exposed to an “influx of ideologies that would introduce elements of destabilization for families , fruit of a poorly understood sense of personal freedom.” He encouraged them to provide pastoral guidance and support to help strengthen families.
The Pope further urged the bishops to pay special attention to vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, saying that they need “adequate training” throughout their ministry. The poor, unemployed, the sick and young people, the Pope concluded, are also in need of the Lithuanian Church’s pastoral solicitude.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The expected arrival of Pope Francis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is expected to be welcomed by the country’s heavily Catholic Croat community at a time when the nation is preparing for a sad anniversary.
Listen to the report by regional correspondent Stefan Bos :
Pope Francis will visit Sarajevo while Bosnia-Herzegovina seeks unity to heal the wounds of the 1992-1995 Bosnian War, which claimed over 100,000 lives.
Some two decades after the U.S. sponsored Dayton peace accords ended that conflict, the country is still deeply divided, complicating attempts to solve corruption, high unemployment and political
polarization.
Tensions remain especially between mainly Orthodox Serbs with their Serb Republic – or Republika Srpska – and the Federation, the other autonomous region dominated by Bosnian Muslims and Catholic Croats.
Many still mourn over the thousands of people who were killed or taken to concentration camps during Serb efforts in the 1990s to drive out non-Serbs.
MASSACRE REMEMBERED
The pontiff is in Bosnia-Herzegovina at a time when the Balkan country prepares for the 20th anniversary of an atrocity on a scale not seen in Europe since the Holocaust.
On July 11, 1995, Bosnian Serb forces entered the town of Srebrenica, killing about 8,000 Muslim men and boys.
Last Friday, the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague upheld sentences of five men convicted over the Srebrenica massacre. Vujadin Popović and Ljubiša Beara were sentenced to life prisonment, while Drago Nikolić must serve 35 years’, Radivoje Miletić 18 years’ and Vinko Pandurević 13 years’ behind bars.
But for survivors the pain remains. “I was very much hurt by the fact that the word “genocide” was not mentioned at all in the reading of the convictions,” said Munira Subasic, president of the Mothers of Srebrenica group.
“The sentence of Miletic was even lowered, while he is responsible for killing children, killing and raping women and killing old people,” she added.
BROTHERHOOD, PEACE
Yet amid the suffering, Pope Francis has called for prayers. He wants this first papal trip to Sarajevo in 18 years to contribute to brotherhood and peace.
Bosnia’s small Catholic population is expected to answer his call to pray for the visit.
Despite difficulties, Croat Catholics often gather including in Medjugorje, a famous pilgrimage site at an altitude of 200 meters above sea level.
Catholic aid workers have said there are some 440,000 Catholics in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure.
That’s why prayers will reverberate throughout the mountains ahead of Pope Francis intention to personally encourage the country’s Catholics not to give up hope.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The expected arrival of Pope Francis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is expected to be welcomed by the country’s heavily Catholic Croat community at a time when the nation is preparing for a sad anniversary. Listen to the report by regional correspondent Stefan Bos: Pope Francis will visit Sarajevo while Bosnia-Herzegovina seeks unity to heal…
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