Belarus: awaiting the PopeBelorussian bishops will officially invite Pope Benedict XVI to visit their country next year. They will do it on the occasion of their ad limina visit to Rome on 10 December. The news was released by Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, Metropolitan of Minsk, in an interview with “catholic.by”. “Benedict XVI – said the archbishop – has already received two invitations to visit Belarus from President Alexander Lukashenko. The first was last year, when the president invited the Pontiff through his Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. The second was this year on the occasion of his visit to Rome in April”. According to the archbishop, the most likely time for the Pope to visit would be spring or summer 2010. Besides visiting the capital of Belarus, the Pope will also have the chance to visit the national Shrine of the Mother of God in Budslau. Answering a question about a possible meeting between Benedict XVI and the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill, Metropolitan Kondrusiewicz said that such an eventuality “has become quite possible today” and that this meeting could take place in Minsk. “In any case – observed the archbishop -, a great deal was spoken about a meeting between the Pope and the Patriarch during the visit to the Vatican by the head of the Department for Foreign Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Archbishop Hilarion”. “The climate of relations between our Churches – concluded Kondrusiewicz – is really very favourable to such a meeting, and to this end Belarus is really a good place for Benedict XVI to meet Patriarch Kirill. Obviously everything depends on the will of our Lord and on the parties interested in such a meeting”.Portugal: the Pope, “pilgrim to Fatima”Permanent Council of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference -official note on the 2010 visit to Portugal by Benedict XVI: the bishops present the Pope as “a pilgrim of Fatima”, and declare state of alert with respect to the “challenges of secularism and ethical and doctrinal relativism”. The journey of Benedict XVI, exactly during the pilgrimage on 12 and 13 May 2010, which will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the blessing of Fatima shepherds Francisco and Jacinta, is “a much longed-for and much expected desire coming true”. “His visit has a remarkable pastoral, doctrinal and spiritual meaning, because no-one knows the truth and the importance of the Message of Fatima better than the Holy Father; and the Holy Father interpreted it through a Theological Commentary on the Third Secret, when he was Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”. The visit is also meant “to encourage the constant and generous commitment of the evangelization work, intending to foster transition from a traditional religiousness to a more adult and planned faith, capable of offering its brave token during both public and private events, in order to oppose the social challenges of secularism as well as ethical and doctrinal relativism, which are typical of our times”.France: “life has inestimable value”Twenty-four suicides in 18 months: all them within the same context of work: France Telecom. The last in this spate of suicides took place on Monday 28 September: a 51-year-old employee of France Telecom jumped to this death from a viaduct. France heard the news with shock and disbelief. The French Bishops’ Conference, through its spokesman, Father Bernard Podvin, has also expressed its dismay in a statement: “even one suicide would be too much and would have upset us! What is this drive for economy at all costs that pressures a person so much as to leave him no other way out but to take his own life?”. The spokesman pointed out that the globalization of markets has increased “the stress on workers, uncertainty about the future, individualism, and transfers from one position to another”. And he added: “It’s a matter of urgency that those concerned by this grave social question act together to allay people’s despair to which no one can resign himself. Some management practices need to be reviewed. Life is a gift and has an inestimable value. A society that no longer gives people work, or that imposes unacceptable conditions on them, is not worthy of the name”.
