Roma (Fides Service) - "Listening to Catherine for a Christian Europe" is the theme of a Symposium on Saint Catherine of Sienna organised by the Dominicans in Europe to be held 26 e 27 April in Rome, at the Pontifical St Thomas Aquinas University (Angelicum). At the symposium the family of Dominicans, friars, nuns, sisters and lay men and women will reflect on the importance of Catherine's message "for all those who today are working to build a new Europe".
"Saint Catherine today - as in her own time -, with her human, civil and Christian riches, puts herself at our service through her strong yet gentle personality, the clarity of her doctrine, and through the holiness of her life and her Dominican passion for truth". Hence "a profound knowledge of this young lay Dominican from Siena will help us to understand how we can build a better society, in a new Europe" said Sr. Margaret Ormond, International Co-ordinator Dominican Sisters International (DSI). The conferences will be given by four Dominican experts on Saint Catherine: "I Catherine write to you: foundations for an anthropology of hope" (Sr. M. Elena Ascoli O.P.); "Theology lived by Saint Catherine of Siena" (Sr. Mary O'Driscoll O.P.); "Catherine Siena: faith at the heart of the world. Liberating, bringing peace, reforming (Sr. Lucia Caram O.P.); "Catherine of Siena: female incarnation of Dominic's project "(Chantal Van Der Planche).
As well as representatives of the academic world, there will also be 100 delegates from, Germany, Austria, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Poland, Hungary Czech Republic and Slovakia, who are preparing for the meeting with reflections on St Catherine. The Symposium will be enhanced with a talk by the Master General of the Dominicans, Fr Carlos Azpiroz Costa. Il 29 April, feast of Saint Catherine Siena il Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will preside a solemn Mass at the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, where the body of St Catherine is preserved. (For more information: dsi@curia.op.org or telephone. 06/57940658) (R.Z.) (Agenzia Fides 23/4/2003 - Righe:26; Parole 337)