(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Friday met with the President of Georgia, Giorgi Margvelashvili, who subsequently met with Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, under-Secretary for Relations with States, at the Secretariat of State.
A statement issued by the Holy See Press Office called the discussions “cordial”, and said the two men expressed their appreciation of the development of bilateral relations, and spoke about various themes of mutual interest, with particular reference to the positive contribution of the local Catholic community in the fields of charitable activity and education.
Attention then turned to concerns regarding the tensions that affect the region and, with emphasis on the importance of full respect for international law, the hope was expressed that every solution may be sought through peaceful negotiation between the interested Parties.
Finally, mention was made of what has recently been achieved by Georgia regarding its own role in Europe.
(from Vatican Radio)…
Vatican City, 11 April 2015 (VIS) – At 5.30 p.m. today, Saturday 11 April, the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope will officially convoke the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy with the publication of the Bull of Indiction, “Misericordiae vultus”. The Jubilee Bull, aside from indicating the duration, opening and closing dates, and the main ways in which the Holy Year will unfold, constitutes the basic document for understanding the spirit in which it was convoked, as well as Pope Francis’ intentions and the fruit he hopes the Year will bear.
For the proclamation, the Holy Father, accompanied by the cardinals, will proceed to the entrance of the Vatican Basilica. At the side of the Holy Door the Bull of Indiction will be handed to the four cardinal archpriests of the papal basilicas of Rome: Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran; Cardinal James Michael Harvey, St. Paul Outside-the-Walls; and Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.
To express his wish that the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy will be celebrated in Rome and throughout the world, Pope Francis will consign a copy of the Bull, to present it symbolically to all bishops, to Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; to Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples; and to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. A copy will be received by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, born in Hong Kong and now secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, on behalf of all the East. The African continent will be represented by Archbishop Bartolome Adoukonou, from Benin and currently secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. For the Oriental Churches, the Holy Father will present the Bull to Msgr. Khaled Ayad Bishay of the Patriarchal Church of Alexandria of the Copts.
The Regent of the Papal Household, Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, as apostolic protonotary, will read various extracts from the official document convoking the extraordinary Holy Year. Finally, the Holy Father will preside at the celebration of First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday….
(Vatican Radio) On Saturday 11th of April Pope Francis will mark the Extraordinary Holy Year dedicated to Mercy by reading the so called ‘Bull of Indiction’ as the official document which relates to Jubilees is known. This Holy Year came as a surprise when he first called for it on the 13th of March during a Penitential service in Saint Peter’s Basilica. So on Saturday when Pope Francis goes back to the Basilica to read some passages from this ‘Bull’ he’s expected to highlight some of the major events connected to this year. As we know it begins on the 8th of December, Feast of the Immaculate Conception and its organisation is entrusted to the ‘Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation’. On this occasion however it seems he will not do this inside the Basilica but in the narthex just by the Holy Door. Veronica Scarisbrick looks at some of the rituals regarding Jubilee Years over the centuries and shares an eye witness account of the opening of the Holy Door for the Jubilee of 1950, an occasion during which frenzied crowds came along armed with scissors to snip at the cassock of Pius XII. Listen to a programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick :
Once upon a time the Holy Doors of the Major Basilicas here in Rome were not as magnificent to look at as they are today. Simplicity was the name of the game and rather than elaborate with bronze decorations they were in plain wood and bricked in on both sides. That’s to say from the years that go from 1500 to 1950. The knocking down of any such door, even after that date, was a worrisome affair as masons had to be make sure rubble did not reach anywhere near those standing by. Something not always avoided or anyway not at Saint Peter’s Basilica on Christmas eve 1964 when cement fragments fell near Blessed Paul VI. After these masons, or ‘San Pietrini’, as the Basilica’s masons are known, had accomplished their task, the Pope took a hammer and in a symbolic gesture tapped on the Holy Door and pushed it open. Hammers of which we have many an example this present day, precious objects made of gold, gilded silver or even ivory Point of fact silver and gold were also used for a couple of the bricks to be symbolically placed within the walls as reported in a Chronicle of the Jubilee Year of 1423: “ people show such devotion to the bricks and cement fragments that as soon as the door is uncovered they are carried away in a general frenzy”. And it seems at a later date during the opening of the Holy Door by Pope Pius XII to mark the Holy Year of 1949 this rather surprising frenzy astonished someone who attended this event. He’s the late Father John Charles– Roux who, somewhat horrified, recounts what he himself witnessed on this this occasion. His story begins with the practice of the exchanging of skull caps between the pope and the people: “In the last years of his reign he used to give his skull cap to people. Yes…you went to a special shop where they had the exact measurements for the circumference of his head and you bought one there…the direct result of what I saw happened at the opening of the Holy Door. The people especially Spaniards and South Americans used to come with scissors and when he passed by tried to cut something of his cassock. Of course they didn’t always get hold of his cassock so the pope used to come back bleeding”. That’s why, Father Charles- Roux says in this archive interview, in an effort to persuade people to put their scissors away a member of the ‘anticamera’ suggested fuelling the enthusiasm of those present by encouraging them to take away the pope’s skull cap instead. A practice already in vogue anyway during the pontificate of Pius X. Our Rosminian’s eye witness account also relates to Pius XII and his papal throne: “At the opening of the Holy Door his throne covered in white damask was quite decent during the first part of the ceremony but when we came out of Saint Peter’s hardly anything remained of the chair, wood- worms could not have done a better job. The chair had been destroyed”. Getting back to the Holy Doors, as you probably know there are four of them here in Rome, one at each of the Major Roman Basilicas, that’s to say of Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major, Saint Paul’s Outside- the-Walls and of course Saint Peter’s.. But in Saint Peter’s while the last wooden door was installed during the pontificate of Benedict XIV in 1748 the one we see today was placed there in 1949. It’s an elegant bronze door and I once went there to take a closer look. This is what I saw: “The panels represent scenes which have as theme that of every ‘Holy Year’. That’s to say reconciliation, reconciliation between God and man. For example there’s the representation of Our Lord telling the Apostle’s you must forgive your brother seventy times seven not just seven times. There is the representation of the Crucifixion, here another has the representation of the Resurrection. Pilgrims come here to cross the threshold of Saint Peter’s and are meant to repent while they do so they may gain access to grace and reconciliation. Like most of the doors to the Basilica this bronze one is relatively modern. It was designed during the pontificate of Pius XII who drew attention to the symbolic significance attached to the Holy Door from a biblical, theological, liturgical and pastoral point of view in terms of salvation history”. To note that the concept of the Holy Door was only introduced in the year 1500 by Alexander VI the Borgia pope. No doubt when Pope Francis taps on the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the beginning of this Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy, which ends on the Feast of Christ the King in 2016, he may add other elements to the traditional ritual for a Jubilee year, he called because he feels: “The whole Church – that has much need to receive mercy because we are sinners- will find in this jubilee the joy to rediscover and render fruitful the mercy of God , with which we are called to give consolation to every man and woman.” I’m Veronica Scarisbrick (from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) The Holy See’s Pavilion for the 56th International Exhibition of Art of the Biennale di Venezia 2015 was introduced on Thursday at the Holy See Press Office. The Pavilion will feature the work of three artists: Colombian-born Monika Bravo; the Macedonian Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva; and the Mozambique photographer Mário Macilau.
The theme of the Pavilion is “In the beginning…the Word became flesh”, and Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the words of the Gospel of John inspire the thematic spaces into which the Pavilion is divided.
“They find the creations of artists who have been selected in light of the consonance of their current research journey with the chosen theme, for the variety of the techniques used, and for their geographic and cultural provenance,” said Cardinal Ravasi.
The Curator of the exhibit, Micol Forti, has structured the Pavilion around two poles: The transcendent Word, which reveals the communicative nature of the God of Jesus Christ; and the Word made flesh, bringing the presence of God in humanity, especially when it appears injured and suffering.
“Their inseparable unity produces a dialectic dynamism, irregular, elliptical, abruptly accelerating, precipitously slowing down, to solicit in the artists as in the public, a reflection on a combination that lies at the root of humanity itself,” said Forti.
Forti said the three young artists chosen for the exhibit bring the influences from different backgrounds, with different experiences, vision, ethics and aesthetics.
The full introduction to the Pavilion, and interventions by Cardinal Ravasi and Micol Forti follow
In the Beginning … the Word became flesh
Pavilion of the Holy See
56th International Exhibition of Art of the Biennale di Venezia 2015
Arsenale di Venezia – Sale d’Armi nord
5-8 May 2015 Vernice
9 May – 22 November 2015
The Holy See participates this year for the second time at the Biennale d’Arte di Venezia, with a Pavilion inspired by the New Testament. In the Beginning … the Word became flesh is the theme chosen by the Commissioner Card. Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, at whose request the theme of the “Beginning” has been developed, passing from the 2013 edition’s reference to Genesis to that of the Prologue of the Gospel of John.
Curated by Micol Forti, the structure of the Pavilion is articulated around two essential poles: firstly, the transcendent Word, which is “in the beginning” and which reveals the dialogical and communicative nature of the God of Jesus Christ (v. 1-5); and then the Word made “flesh”, body, bringing the presence of God in humanity, especially where it appears injured and suffering (v. 14). The encounter of these “vertical-transcendent” and “horizontal-immanent” dimensions is the heart of the research. The two “tables” of the Prologue of John’s Gospel are the basic inspiration for the artistic creations of three artists, who have been chosen after a long selection, in light of some precise criteria: the consonance of their own journeys with the chosen theme, the variety of the techniques used, their internationality, diversity and geographic and cultural provenance, and above all the open and evolutionary nature of their work.
Monika Bravo (1964) was born and raised in Colombia, and today lives and works in New York; the Macedonian Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva (1971), currently lives and works in London; the photographer Mário Macilau (1984), was born and raised in Maputo, Mozambique, where he lives.
The catalogue of the Pavilion, edited by Micol Forti and Elisabetta Cristallini, (Italian and English – Gangemi Editore), together with an introductory essay by Gianfranco Ravasi focusing on the theme of the Pavilion, contains texts by Micol Forti, Elisabetta Cristallini, Ben Quash, Octavio Zaya and Alessandra Mauro.
Criteria of sobriety and economy have guided the project and installation of the Pavilion, realised by architect Roberto Pulitani, and the costs are entirely sustained by Sponsors who have made this important project possible.
The official inauguration of the Pavilion takes place in the presence of His Eminence Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi on Friday 8 May, at 4.30pm.
The intervention by Cardinal Ravasi follows:
In the Beginning … the Word became flesh
The desire to re-establish dialogue between art and faith continues after the experience of 2013, and there remains a great vivacity of interest in the international sphere concerning the relationship between the Church and contemporary art.
Following the first edition, the Pavilion of the Holy See at the 56th Biennale d’Arte di Venezia develops the theme of the “Beginning” with a movement from the Old to the New Testament, making the Logos and the Flesh the terms of a constantly living relationship.
With reference to Genesis, understood as Creation, Un-Creation, Re-Creation, which was the object of our reflection in 2013, we now have a new term of encounter in the Prologue of the Gospel of John. Two essential aspects of this meeting are highlighted: the transcendent Word is “in the beginning”, and at the same time reveals the dialogical and communicational nature of the God of Jesus Christ (v. 1-5), and the Word that becomes “flesh”, body, bringing the presence of God into the essence of humanity, especially where it seems injured and suffering (v. 14).
The descent to immanence is expressed in almost visual terms in the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is taken up in this context as a further thematic suggestion completely in perspective. The pages of the Gospel of Luke offer the image of a God present within a humanity oppressed in a human condition. God made flesh helps the injured man, who is marked by death and fragility.
The “vertical-transcendent” dimension of the Logos and the “horizontal-immanent” dimension of the “flesh” are axes of research in this sense. There is a need to refer to these as they cross over, to understand the single pieces of art, the dialogue that they create between each other within the exhibition space.
The terms of the Prologue of the Johannine Gospel inspire the thematic spaces into which the Pavilion is divided. They find the creations of artists who have been selected in light of the consonance of their current research journey with the chosen theme, for the variety of the techniques used, and for their geographic and cultural provenance.
The intervention by Micol Forti is below
A dialectic dynamism in three voices
There are two hubs around which the project for the Pavilion of the Vatican rotates and takes its form: the Logos and the flesh. The Logos establishes a relationship, a harmony, a mediation; the flesh imposes immanence, a track, a process of embodiment.
Their inseparable unity produces a dialectic dynamism, irregular, elliptical, abruptly accelerating, precipitously slowing down, to solicit in the artists as in the public, a reflection on a combination that lies at the root of humanity itself.
Three artists, all young, from different backgrounds, with different experiences, vision, ethics and aesthetics, brought together to give body to the In the Beginning … evoked by the Prologue of John’s Gospel.
Monika Bravo, a Colombian by birth, with international training but American by adoption, has skillfully come up and elaborated a narrative which can be assembled and reassembled on 6 screens and as many transparent panels, placed on strongly colored walls. Nature, the Word, written and spoken, and Artistic abstraction present themselves in every composition as active elements of a heuristic vision, open to a degree of uncertainty in the development of a new experimental perception of space and a sensory fullness, through the grace and the “manual” poetry with which the artist uses technological media.
The young Macedonian Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva’s research blends craftsmanship, scientific knowledge and a powerful aesthetic vision. She has designed a monumental architectural installation for the Pavilion, whose “fabric” is almost a skin, a mantle, which welcomes visitors both in a physical and symbolic dimension at the same time. Realized with organic waste materials in a way which leads from the ready-made to the re-made, the artist creates a cloth that is both an embroidery and surface skin, physical presence and transparency, an instrument of suggestion and surprise.
The flesh gains importance in the return to reality without falsification in the photographs of the thirty year old Mário Macilau. The series of nine photographs in black and white, taken in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, where the artist was born and works, are dedicated to the street children who still are living on the streets as means of survival. This is not a documentary, but a poetic work that transforms the relationship between the now and the past, the near and far, the visible and the invisible. The theme of the origin and the end of each artistic act is driven by the power of the photographic composition to confront the agony of the real.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis on Thursday received the President of the Slovak Republic, Andrej Kiska, who subsequently met with Msgr. Antoine Camilleri, Under-Secretary for Relations with States, in the Secretariat of State.
A Vatican Press Office statement called the discussion “cordial”, noting they took place shortly before the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the Holy See and the then Czech and Slovak Federative Republic, which took place on 19 April 1990 following St. John Paul II’s visit to the country.
The parties expressed satisfaction for the good bilateral relations sealed by the Agreements in force, and by the fruitful dialogue between the Church and the civil authorities.
The Parties then turned their attention to the current International context, with particular attention to the challenges affecting certain areas of the world, especially the Middle East, and the importance of the protection of the dignity of the human person.
(from Vatican Radio)…