Spain: a feast for the family In a letter to the priests, to Church rectors, to the Communities of consecrated life, to apostolic movements and associations, to schools and to educational centres, the archbishop of Madrid, Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, calls to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family, focused on “The Family, Grace of God”, scheduled for December 28 in Madrid. The central moment of the Feast will be a solemn Eucharistic con-celebration for families across Spain. “The Feast of the Holy Family encourages all of us, on the occasion of Christmas, to give thanks to the Lord for having called his Son Jesus Christ to live in a family, thus representing the role model of family relations”, His Eminence wrote in the letter. For the Cardinal, celebrating the family as God’s grace is “one of the major joys of Christmas. The family is the grace of God since Christ sanctified it with his presence and turned it into the place where we are called to develop in age, wisdom and grace before God and mankind”. Thus, this event encourages Christians “to turn our families into the places where the grace of God dwells and where everyone, following the footsteps of Christ, live the path of sanctification and convey to the entire world the attractive testimony of life in Christ”. Thus the Cardinal calls upon “the entire diocesan community, families in particular, to participate in this festive celebration of faith”, attended by “families from different parts of Spain, along with their respective bishops”. The experience of the major event of December 30 2007, which was attended by over 200,000 people, has shown that events such as this entail a major effort. For this, the Cardinal recalled, “Communion demands leaving aside one’s interests and conveniences in order to affirm that we are a single People of God and Body of Christ”. Cardinal Rouco Varela called especially the “youth and the children to offer the testimony of their joy and youth in Christ”. Ireland: Cardinal Brady on the new evangelisation “In a time of economic recession, ruin and sadness, the good news is a treasure. And evangelization, with its Good News, is precisely this”, said a few days ago Cardinal Sean Brady, archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, during the launch of the publication of the Legion of Mary “The new evangelisation, priests and laity, the great challenge of the new millennium” in Dublin. Recalling the foundation of the Legion of Mary in 1921 by a “group of people who gathered in Dublin’s Saint Nicholas of Mira parish church”, that in just a few decades spread throughout the five continents, Cardinal Brady underlined “the great contribution to the world” especially in “helping individuals return to the Church”. “As you all know – the Cardinal continued – the Catholic Church in Ireland has proclaimed 2008 and half of 2009 ‘The Year of Vocation’, a theme that is inscribed in the broader challenge of this decade that is to listen once again to the Good News”. Hence the reference to John Paul II who often spoke of a “new evangelisation”, which did not mean “there was something new to say, rather, he meant that the message of the Gospel ought to be transmitted in a new manner to the new generations and with renewed vigour”. This is a theme that “has always marked the mission of the Legion of Mary”. Poland: The Day for Eastern Churches The second Sunday of the Advent (December 7), the Day of Prayer and material support for Eastern Churches, was celebrated in Poland. For the ninth time, the Eastern Churches support group at the Secretariat of Poland’s Bishops Conference organised a collection of offerings and donations in churches across the Country. The archbishop of Lviv, Msgr. Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki, said that this will enable the faithful to enjoy the rebuilding Cathedrals, will provide children with new catechesis rooms, and will support priests’ purchasing of canonicals. The auxiliary bishop of Warsaw, Msgr. Tadeusz Pikus said, “Despite much suffering, the Eastern Church is a sign of hope for the entire world”. Msgr. Marian Rojek from the archdiocese of Przemysl recalled that one of the most important gifts for Eastern Churches are the priests, the religious and the laity that reach the small Catholic communities scattered throughout an immense stretch of land. These “zealous testimonies of Christ” liven the faith of those who have experienced deportation or exile”. As declared by father Jozef Kubicki, in charge of the Eastern Churches support Group of the Bishop Episcopate, in East-European Countries and in central Asia there presently are 1300 Polish priests, religious and lay people. In response to the Day, the Bishops Conferences of Belarus, Russia, Kazakistan and Ukraine proclaimed the second Sunday of the Advent the Day of Gratitude.
