PAULINE YEAR
PortugalAll dioceses in Portugal are actively working for the opening celebrations marking the Jubilee Year dedicated to Saint Paul (June 28 2008 – June 29 2009). A Note by Portugal’s Bishops Conference pointed out that the Year coincides with October’s celebration of the Bishops’ Synod on the Word of God. Thus, bishops expressed their hope that the Apostle of the Word “may guide us the rediscover at a deeper level the Word of God in the life and mission of the Church”. International News Agency Fides reported that Portugal’s prelates described Saint Paul as a role model enabling to expand the horizons of the Gospel’s proclamation and promote a new evangelisation, since today “as happened at the times of Saint Paul, today Jesus Christ’s proclamation by the Church risks being confined only to those who are in her fold, understand her language and know her laws. The Church experiences difficulties in proclaiming Jesus Christ in an ever-more secularized society.” The Pauline Year will also help organize targeted pastoral care to proclaim the Gospel also to those without religious faith or who relinquished Christian life. “Evangelizing – continues the note- is not a strategy: it’s a passion of love for Christ and for our brothers”. Hence the proposal of a series of pastoral tools, like “A Year following Saint Paul’s footsteps”, a catechetic itinerary retracing the major steps of Christian life for 52 weeks taking Paul as the guide, and granting special consideration to the texts of the Apostle, especially as relates to the homilies. The national Liturgy Commission prepared a series of tools for priests to this regard. During the Jubilee Year, the faculties of theology will offer study workshops on the life of the Saint. On January 25 2009, the festivity of his conversion, an important national celebration will take place in Fátima. The ‘Edizioni San Paolo’ (Saint Paul Publishing house) have organized an itinerating exhibition throughout Portugal’s dioceses called “Paul, the Apostle of Jesus Christ”. Belgium “The Church could not ignore this anniversary” since “Paul was, together with Peter, one of the major figures since the beginning of Christianity”. With reference to the opening of the Pauline Year, Msgr. Joseph De Kesel, auxiliary bishop of the vicarage of Brussels, admits that “a number of faithful view Paul as a difficult author”. “His figure is well-known, he remarked, but the same cannot be said for his letters. He did however play an important role in the primitive Church and addressed the major problems of his times suggesting different solutions”. Msgr. De Kesel considers these solutions “innovative at the time and still topical today”. One of these is “the idea of proposing Christianity to all nations. The Church of the origins mostly owes to him the discovery of universality. He was able to unite peoples with different horizons: this is an ever more topical message in this world which is undergoing increasing globalisation linked to increasing closures”. In facing the widespread “fear of the other”, claimed Msgr. De Kesel, we ought to recall that “Paul appealed to openness”. However, his was also the testimony of a “radical encounter”, the encounter “with Christ”. On the occasion of the Pauline Year, the prelate pointed out, “Beligium’s Bishops document, ‘Meeting God through His Word’, to be issued next September, will be dedicated to Saint Paul”. Among the initiatives planned in the Country, figures “the solemn celebration of the Apostle’s conversion next January 25, at the end of the week of prayer for Christian unity”. SlovakiaOn the occasion of the inauguration of the Pauline Year, Slovakia’s bishops published a pastoral letter. In the document, bishops recalled that Paul, “a Jew from the tribe of Benjamin”, was raised in a “profoundly Jewish environment”. Also Rome’s celebrations for the opening of the Pauline Year were attentively followed by Slovakia’s faithful. The reason is the consignment of the Pallium to the Country’s newly-appointed Metropolitan bishops, Msgr. Stanislav Zvolensky, archbishop of Bratislava and the Greek-Catholic archbishop of Presov Jan Babjak, whose jurisdiction extends throughout Slovakia’s territory. On the occasion of the event, some 500 faithful took part with the new bishops in a pilgrimage of the Catholic Church of the two rites, as a sign of gratitude for the new regulations on dioceses, introduced past March. During the Mass celebrated in the Santa Maria Maggiore Basilica in Rome, Msgr. Zvolensky referred to the Pauline Year and to the apostles Cyril and Metodius, whose festive day recurs July 5th. The event was also attended by Czech Cardinal, His Eminence Tomas Spidlik and by Slovakia’s ambassador to the Holy See Jozef Dravecky.
