The Papal Academies have a "precise objective": "promoting, both in the Church and the profane world, a culture worth of human existence, fertilized by faith, capable of proposing the beauty of Christian life and to adequately respond to the more and more numerous challenges in the present-day cultural and religious context". It was written by Pope Benedict XVI in a message meant for the president of the Papal Council of culture, Msgr. Gianfranco Ravasi, during the XII Public Session of the Papal Academies, which is taking place in the Auditorium of the Synod, at the Vatican, this morning. The protagonists of the session are two Academies: the Roman Papal Academy of Archaeology and the Papal Academy Cultorum Martyrum. This year, as subject of this morning’s meeting, they chose "Witnesses of His love. The love of God manifested by martyrs and by the works of the Church". (continued)
