A meeting with the world of culture and the young. These will be the two distinctive traits of Benedict XVI’s apostolic journey to Paris. "As part of the Jubilee of the Apparitions of Lourdes states a release relayed today by the archdiocese of Paris with the calendar of the Pope’s visit in the French capital , the Pope will be a pilgrim amidst pilgrims". But "this journey will be also an apostolic visit to France". "The Pope comes to confirm the Catholics of France in their faith and in their missionary surge. The calendar will allow him to show the fecundity of the encounter between the Gospel and human culture". The Pope will arrive in Paris on Friday 12th September and, after greeting the state authorities, will go to the "Collège des Bernadins" where he will give a speech to the world of culture. In the seven and a half centuries since its foundation – states the release from the archdiocese , the College has become a "place of research" in the areas of plastic arts, music and cinema, and a place of "debate for the Church and society around the central question of man and his future". In the evening, the Pope will go the Cathedral of Notre-Dame to celebrate the Vespers, after which he will turn to the young and will open the vigil of prayer that will take place in the Cathedral and in the Churches of Paris during the night. (continued)
