POPE LOGS OVER HALF MILLION TWITER FOLLOWERS ON DAY 1

Pope Benedict logged over half a million followers on day one of his new and official Twitter account @pontifex. He had close to 400,000 followers at that handle alone (English), and logged 85,640 followers in Spanish and 34,398 in Italian. To those numbers must be added French, German, Portuguese, Polish and Arabic. At 2:30 p.m. today, the Holy Father had 3,030 followers in Arabic!

The Pope’s first official tweet will be Wednesday, December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, when he will answer a question about faith.

At 7 p.m., the Pope had 404,747 followers in English, 38,853 in Italian, 95,719 in Spanish, and 3,468 in Arabic.

A LOOK BACK AT “ECCLESIA IN AMERICA”

The Vatican Tuesday presented the program for the "Ecclesia in America" International Congress that will take place in Vatican City from December 9 to 12. The Congress is promoted by the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and the Knights of Columbus in collaboration with the Institute for Guadalupan Studies.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, which is in his jurisdiction as prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, noted that the synod for American took place in 1997 on the theme, "The Encounter with the living Jesus Christ: The way to conversion, communion and solidarity in America." Congress participants will re-examine "the prophetic intuition of Blessed John Paul II and the basic content of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation 'Ecclesia in America',” and “intensify the communion and co-operation of the Churches in Canada and the United States with the Churches of Latin America in order to address common problems and challenges faced by the mission of the Church in the American continent."

The cardinal said, “The valuable heritage of Christian faith, which is at the origin of the American 'New World' and inspires the life of its people, is now subject to erosion caused by waves of secularization and the impact of a global culture increasingly distant from and hostile to the proliferation of 'sects', and needs to be revitalized, reformulated and brought up to date. The encounter between the strengths and experiences of the Churches of God from different latitudes of the continent will surely be fruitful and rewarding. Such an exchange already occurs within the providential 'laboratory' created by the increasingly important Hispanic presence in the United States and Canada".

Among the problems Cardinal Ouellet mentioned were immigration, drug trafficking, threats to the culture of life and families, urban violence, threats to religious liberty and situations of poverty and indigence.

Professor Guzman Carriquiry, commission secretary, said over 200 people, religious and lay, are expected to attend the conference. The Congress will open with Mass on December in St. Peter's Basilica, in which the Holy Father will greet the participants. A Mass in Santa Maria in Traspontina will end the Congress on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, said, “It is indeed an honor for the Knights of Columbus to have the opportunity to help organize this conference on Ecclesia in America – together with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America – under the patronage of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

He noted that, “as a lay organization that has been in the United States, Canada, Mexico – and other parts of Latin America – for more than a century, we are particularly aligned with the vision presented in Ecclesia in America, and are working with the Church in our hemisphere on the project of the New Evangelization.

He said three things in the papal document “stand out to me as particularly important to our discussion here and at the conference next week. First, Ecclesia in America makes clear that ‘America’ – broadly defined as the entire American continent from Alaska to Argentina – is a key area for the work of the New Evangelization. … Second, Ecclesia in America, reminds us that the laity has an indispensable role to play in that New Evangelization, without which "the renewal of the Church in America will not be possible. … Third, Our Lady of Guadalupe is described as key to our understanding of the New Evangelization in America. In the words of Ecclesia in America; "Holy Mary of Guadalupe is invoked as ‘Patroness of all America and Star of the first and new evangelization,’" and as "a perfectly inculturated evangelization." evangelization far beyond America’s shores.

SYNOD ON EVANGELIZATION: FINAL PROPOSITION 21

**Proposition 21 : MIGRANTS Just as many countries have greatly benefitted from the presence of people coming from other countries, so too the Church is nourished in a significant way with the witness and the evangelizing work of many of those engaged with the missionary mandate: “Go out into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to all creation” (Mk 16: 15). Given the risks and threats to the faith of the migrating peoples, it is important that the Church gives her support through a pastoral plan that includes them and their families, and reminds them of their important place as the living cell of society and the domestic Church. Parishes should help the migrants integrate themselves into society and the Christian community. The Church’s pastoral plan for migrants should not only welcome migrants and promote their human dignity, but should above all help them be integrated into the life of the Church, respecting their own ritual tradition; this plan should also help them avoid becoming lost to the Catholic Church. Immigrants are not only recipients, but also protagonists of the proclamation of the Gospel in the modern world. In the face of the great migratory movements, it is important to insist on the centrality and dignity of the person, in particular in light of the grave phenomena of a new slavery connected to the shameful trafficking of human beings, especially children, and the selling of organs. This awareness must increase when dealing with refugees, the displaced, those on the sea, nomads and people without a fixed home.

Write to Joan at:
joansrome@ewtn.com 

CLICK HERE FOR PRACTICAL INFORMATION ON VISITING THE VATICAN.

View Joan's videos at : www.youtube.com/joansrome