(01 March 08-RV) Pope Benedict XVI presided on Saturday over a Marian prayer vigil in the Paul VI Hall.The vigil marks the Sixth European Day for Universities.
Shortly after 5pm Rome time Pope Benedict XVI entered the audience hall, filled with students drawn from Rome’s Universities as well as groups from across the European continent.
They were there to pray together with the Holy Father, but they were not alone.
In University chapels in the United States, Ecuador, and Cuba, Mexico, Romania and Belarus thousands of other young students, joined in the rosary prayer, thanks to global satellite link ups.
Giant screens installed in the Paul VI hall flashed pictures of these College students gathered in cities from Bucharest to Aparecida Brazil, as each decade of the Rosary was prayed, centred on the theme “Europe and the Americas together to build a civilisation of love”.
The Day is the brainchild of the Council of European Episcopal Conferences (CCEE) and the vicariate of Rome’s office for pastoral care in universities, but this years inclusion of Universities from the American continent underlines the popularity of the initiative and how it has grown in size and scope since it first began under the pontificate of John Paul II, as a means to unite the students in their faith.
After his address to all those participating via satellite and the hundreds more gathered in the ahll, Pope Benedict will distribute copies of his Encyclical “Spe salvi” to a number of student representatives.
The Vigil marks the end of a weeklong conference held at Rome’s Pontifical Gregorian University, looking at how “Europe and the Americas can work together towards integral solidarity and development”. The conference addressed the role of university formation in facing development challenges, as well as the brain drain problem: from developing American nations to the U.S.A. – and Europe.