VATICAN - Saturday, October 10, Marian Vigil of university students with the Pope and Synod Fathers “for Africa and with Africa,” with satellite connections to 8 African countries

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – On the occasion of the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, on October 10, at 5pm in the Paul VI Audience Hall, there will be a Marian Vigil for university students from Rome with the Pope. Over 10,000 students are expected to participate in the event. The event, promoted by the General Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops and organized by the Office for Campus Ministry of the Vicariate of Rome, will have the theme: “The Church in Africa at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice, and Peace,” with reference to the Gospel passage of St. Matthew: “You are the salt of the earth...You are the light of the world” (Mt 5:13-14). The university students from Rome will be joined by other university students via satellite from: Cairo (Egypt), Nairobi (Kenya), Khartoum (Sudan), Johannesburg (South Africa), Onitsha (Nigeria), Kinshasa (Dem. Rep. of Congo), Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Maputo (Mozambique). They will be accompanied in their prayer by Cardinal Polycarp Pengo, President of the Symposium of the Bishops' Conferences of Africa and Madagascar. At 6pm, the Holy Father Benedict XVI will lead the recitation of the Rosary and then present the university students with a copy of his most recent encyclical “Caritas in veritate.” At the end of the Rosary, there will be a pilgrimage of the Cross to the “Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 9/10/2009)