Italy II

Verona – Contest To Help Students Get To Know St. Paul
To celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of the Apostle Paul, the FSPs of Verona in collaboration with the Verona Diocesan School Office recently held a contest that was warmly welcomed by students at all grade levels. The initiative, entitled, Paul: From the Sword to the Word, was presented to teachers as an opportunity to encourage their pupils to reflect and work together in groups in an interdisciplinary way.
 
Aimed at helping young people get to know the life, message and activities of St. Paul, the innovative contest was held from Dec. 2008–March 2009. More than 95 classes, with a total of more than 1800 students and their teachers, enthusiastically participated in the initiative, submitting numerous projects in the form of graphic designs, comic strips, picture galleries, videos, newspaper articles, poems, etc…. According to the rules of the contest, each project had to be accompanied by a written or multimedia explanation of it and the results were very interesting.
 
After intensive scrutiny on the part of a panel of judges, 18 primary, intermediate and secondary schools were awarded prizes for their projects. The judges based their decisions on the following criteria: how well the project corresponded to the theme of the contest, how clearly the project conveyed its message, and the technical-aesthetic value of the accompanying explanation.
 
Prizes were awarded to the winners of the contest during a ceremony held on 22 May at the bishop’s residence. Present for the event were His Excellency Bishop Giuseppe Zenti, representatives of the various groups that had promoted the contest, and representatives from the civil and religious spheres.
 
All the students of the winning classes received a memento of the occasion from the FSP and SSP Publishing Houses.
 
Mantua – St. Paul in the Elementary Schools
About 500 students in a number of elementary and intermediate schools of Mantua enthusiastically participated in a contest entitled, Paul: From Sword to Word, organized by the Daughters of St. Paul. The goal of the initiative was to make the Apostle of the Gentiles known to the children and their families.
 
The Pauline Year, now drawing to a close, and the award ceremony that took place during Social Communications Week ensured that the contest received good news coverage by the local media.
 
The song, poems, film clips and drawings prepared by the students formed the “centerpiece” of the award program held to conclude the contest and gave due recognition to the efforts of the many children who had poured great creativity into making St. Paul “live” today.
 
The award ceremony ended with the distribution of books and magazines for children published by Pauline Editions, together with colored hats as a souvenir of the event.
 
Milan – Cardinal Tettamanzi Closes the Pauline Year with the Pauline Family
On Sunday, 28 June, vigil of the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the diocese of Milan honored St. Paul by closing the Pauline Year with a special Eucharistic Liturgy in the Basilica of St. Ambrose.
 
Cardinal Diogenes Tettamanzi, Archbishop of Milan, and Auxiliary Bishop Erminio De Scalzi, abbot of the Basilica, concelebrated the Mass with a large group of Pauline priests. The Daughters of St. Paul, Pious Disciples and Pastorelle Sisters of the Lombard region, plus a group of Annunciationists, members of the Holy Family Institute and Pauline Cooperators Association and many parishioners, friends and acquaintances, also participated in the Liturgy.
 
In his homily, Cardinal Tettamanzi thanked the Lord for the Pauline Year and for the fruits it bore in helping people get to know and imitate the Apostle, his love for Christ and his missionary passion for the Gospel of salvation. He also thanked God “for the great contribution that you, the members of the Pauline Family, made to ensuring that this Jubilee Year would make an impact on the diocese of Milan.”
 
The Cardinal urged all Paulines and everyone of good will to continue to keep their gaze fixed on St. Paul so as to learn to value the Gospel as “a gift of God”–a gift the Apostle considered to be his “all in all.” “The Gospel of Christ was St. Paul’s life, passion, joy and hope,” the Cardinal stated emphatically.
 
It is this thought and desire that animates and sustains our Pauline missionary activity in every part of the world.

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