(Vatican Radio) Bishop Miguel Guixot, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Interreligiuos Dialogue, will meet senior officials of Egypt’s prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo Wednesday, 13 July. The visit comes at the express wish of Pope Francis following his historic meeting with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Prof. Ahmad Al-Tayyib in the Vatican 23 May 2016.
In a note, the Council for Interreligious Dialogue said Bishop Guixot will take part in a preliminary meeting together with the Holy See’s Apostolic Nuncio in Egypt, Archbishop Bruno Musarò and Dr. Mahmoud Hamdi Zakzouk, member of the Council of Senior Scholars of Al-Azhar University and the university’s Director of the Center for Dialogue, to explore avenues for the resumption of dialogue between Al-Azhar and the Pontifical Council.
In May, the Grand Imam of al-Azhar, Professor Ahmad Al-Tayyib, granted an exclusive interview to the Vatican media following his meeting with Pope Francis.
A note from the Vatican Press Office reported that in the interview, the Imam affirmed that his visit, the first paid to the Vatican by the highest representative of Al-Alzhar, was the result of an Al-Azhar initiative and an agreement between Al-Azhar and the Vatican to continue the holy mission of religions, which consists of “making human beings joyful everywhere”. He added that Al-Azhar has a commission for interreligious dialogue with the Vatican, which was suspended in specific circumstances, but now those circumstances no longer exist, the path of dialogue has resumed in the hope that it will be better than before.
“I am happy to be the first Sheikh of Al-Azhar to visit the Vatican and to sit alongside the Pope in an encounter of discussion and understanding”, emphasised Professor Ahmad Al-Tayyib, revealing that his first impression of the Holy Father was that “he is a man of peace, a man who follows the teaching of Christianity, which is a religion of love and peace, and following His Holiness we have seen that he is a man who respects other religions and shows consideration for their followers; he is man who also consecrates his life to serve the poor and the destitute, and who takes responsibility for people in general; he is an ascetic man, who has renounced the ephemeral pleasures of worldly life. All these are qualities that we share with him, and therefore we wish to encounter this man in order to work together for humanity in this vast field we have in common.”
With reference to the duties of the great religious authorities and religious leaders in today’s world, he affirmed that these responsibilities are heavy and grave at the same time, “because we are aware, as we said also to His Holiness, that all the philosophies and modern social ideologies that have taken the lead of humanity, far from religion and far from heaven, have failed to make man happy or to take him far from wars and bloodshed.” He remarked that the moment has arrived for the representatives of the divine religions to participate strongly and in a concrete way to give humanity a new direction, towards mercy and peace, so that humanity can avoid the great crisis we are suffering now. “Man without religion constitutes a danger to his fellow man, and I believe that people now, in the twenty-first century, have started to look around and to seek out wise guides to lead them in the right direction. All this has led us to this meeting and this discussion, and to the agreement to begin to take a step in the right direction.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) At the Angelus on Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan.
This parable, the Pope said, in a simple, yet stimulating way, “indicates a style of life, in which the centre of gravity is not ourselves, but others.” Like the doctor of the law in the day’s Gospel, we might ask ourselves, “Who is my neighbour? Is it my friends, my parents, my fellow countrymen, my co-religionists?”
Jesus does not answer the question directly, but instead tells of the Good Samaritan, a man who did not observe the true religion, but who nonetheless helped the poor, abandoned victim of robbers – in contrast to the priest and the Levite who simply passed him by. This story, the Pope said, completely reverses our perspective. It is not up to us, he said, to try to categorize people, to see if they count as our neighbours. Rather, the decision to be, or not be a neighbour, depends on us. “It depends on me,” Pope Francis said, “it depends on me to be or not be a neighbour to the person I meet who has need of my help, even if he is a stranger, or even hostile.”
In the Gospel, Jesus tells the doctor of the law – and he tells us, too – to do as the Good Samaritan had done. We must have the attitude of the Good Samaritan to demonstrate our faith. The Pope quoted from the Apostle St James, reminding us that “faith without works is dead.” We should ask ourselves, the Pope said, if our faith is fruitful, if it produces good works, or if, on the other hand, it is sterile, “and so more dead than alive.”
We should ask ourselves this question often, Pope Francis continued, because it is precisely on this question that we will be judged at the end of our lives. The Lord, he said, will ask us, “Do you remember that time on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho? That man, who was half-dead, was me. Do you remember? That hungry child was me. Do you remember? That migrant who so many people wanted to chase away was me. Those grandparents, abandoned in rest homes, were me. Those sick people in the hospital, who no one went to find, were me.”
With that challenging reflection, Pope Francis concluded his remarks, calling on the Blessed Virgin “to help us to walk along the paths of generous love towards others, the path of the Good Samaritan.”
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has expressed his sadness following the death of Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli, Archbishop of Florence between 1983 and 2001.
In a telegramme to the current Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, the Pope says he shares in the grief of the Cardinal’s family and in that of the entire diocesan community.
Cardinal Piovanelli, aged 92, passed away following a long illness which he had tackled “with serenity and trustful abandonment in the will of the Lord”.
In the telegramme the Pope remembers “his dear brother who served the Gospel with joy and knowledge, loving the Church tenaciously”.
The Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, also expressed his condolences for the death of Cardinal Piovanelli describing him as a “point of reference for the faith and the life of the city of Florence”.
Born in Tuscany in Ronta of Mugello on February 21, 1924, already by age 11 Piovanelli was attending the Florence Seminary. He was ordained on July 13, 1947, and worked for 12 years as Vice-Rector of the Minor Seminary. In 1960, Piovanelli became the parish priest of Castelfiorentino, an area known for its anticlerical and atheist sentiments. He has been credited with considerable success in healing the fractures in the community. In 1979 Cardinal Benelli called Piovanelli to the Curia in Florence, initially as Pro-Vicar, and then as Vicar General. On May 28, 1982, Piovanelli was appointed Bishop of Tubune of Mauritania by Paul VI. The same year, after the death of Benelli, Piovanelli became Archbishop of Florence. John Paul II made him a cardinal during the Consistory of May 25, 1985.
Following the death of Cardinal Piovanelli, the College of Cardinals decreases in number to 212 of whom 112 are Cardinal Electors and 100 are Cardinal Non Electors.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Bulletin for 7/10/2016
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has approved a new ‘ Motu Proprio ’ which defines the relationship between the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and the Secretariat for the Economy.
The ‘ Motu Proprio ’ that regards competencies in economic and financial matters spells out the clear and unequivocal distinction between control and vigilance, on the one hand, and administration of goods, on the other.
Please find below the official translation of the press release regarding the ‘Motu Proprio’ :
On 4 July 2016, the Holy Father approved a motu proprio that implements reform of the organisms engaged in control and vigilance as well as the administration of Holy See goods. The new legislative document is intended to continue on the path begun with the Motu Proprio “Fidelis dispensator et prudens” dated 24 February 2014, by which Pope Francis created three new organisms: the Council for the Economy, the Secretariat for the Economy and the Office of the Auditor General. As well known, the respective competencies of these organisms were subsequently specified in the Statutes of 22 February 2015. The Statutes in question were approved ad experimentum with the knowledge that the new system was to be built through subsequent verifications.
The document published today responds to the need to define further the relationship between the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and the Secretariat for the Economy. The fundamental principle at the base of the reforms in this area, and in particular at the base of this Motu Proprio, is that of ensuring the clear and unequivocal distinction between control and vigilance, on the one hand, and administration of goods, on the other. Therefore, the Motu Proprio specifies the competencies pertaining to the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See and better delineates the Secretariat for the Economy’s fundamental role of control and vigilance.
The ‘Motu Proprio’ can be found here.
(from Vatican Radio)…