Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
During the General Audiences this month, The Holy Father Benedict XVI concluded the cycle of catechesis on St Paul to mark the Year of St Paul and on 11 February he started a presentation of the great Writers of the Church of the East and the West. Also on the 11 , Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and 17th World Day for the Sick, at the end of a special Mass in St Peter's Basilica, the Holy Father met some sick people.
Friday 20, eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Trust, Benedict XVI visited the Major Seminary of Rome where he gave a lectio divina for seminarians on St Paul's Letter di San Paolo to the Galatians. On 25th Ash Wednesday the Holy Father went to the Aventine Hill where, after a brief prayer at the church of St Anselmo he went in procession to the Basilica of Santa Sabina, to preside Mass with the blessing and imposition of ashes.
Among the audiences granted by the Holy Father this month we mention: February 12, members of a delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organization; February 14, participant at a study meeting to mark the 80th anniversary of the foundation of Vatican City State; February 19, the community of the Pio Latino Americano College in Rome; February 21, participants at an international Scientific Congress organised for the general assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life; February 27, members of the associations Pro Petri Sede and Etrennes Pontificales. The Holy Father also received for their respective ad limina visits the Catholics Bishops of Turkey and Nigeria.
Moreover the Holy Father issued special messages for the 17th World Day of the Sick and for the Season of Lent 2009 on the theme “ "He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was hungry" (Mt 4, 2). He also sent, on 2 February, a message to His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russian on this occasion of his enthronement, and on 25 February a Message to Brazilian Catholics for the Fraternity Campaign 2009
The Holy Father made two special appeals this month: at the end of the General Audience on 4 February for the situation in Sri Lanka, where civil conflict is ever more serious and after the Angelus on the 8th , for Madagascar, where political tension is high.
