Sunday, June 3, 2007
ROME – President Arroyo was to arrive here last night to start her two-state swing to the the Vatican and Portugal. At the Vatican, she will attend the canonization of four Catholic saints along with three other heads of state and obtain what she called the “spiritual rearmament of the Filipino people.”
The presidential party was scheduled to arrive the Ciampino International Airport at 10:30 p.m. (4:30 a.m. Manila time) and was to be met by Italian foreign ministry officials and Ambassador to Rome Philippe Lhuillier.
They will proceed to the St. Regis Hotel where members of the official delegation are billeted. From Rome, Mrs. Arroyo will fly to Portugal for an official visit to meet with Portugese President Anibal Cavaco Silva and visit the Assembly of the Republic, a unicameral parliament of 230 deputies elected for four-year terms and headed by Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
Mrs. Arroyo left Manila at 2:30 p.m. flying from the Centennial Airport on a chartered Philippine Airlines (PAL) flight.
“I am embarking today for the Vatican and Portugal in a virtually uninterrupted voyage for trade, investment, peace security and spiritual rearmament for the Filipino people,” Mrs. Arroyo said in her departure statement. “I shall go to the Vatican to seek the Pope’s renewed blessing for our people, then to Portugal to reinvigorate century-old ties.”
She said: “God has given us a wellspring of blessings, as well as the fortitude and the armor to do and prosper.” The Philippines is the only predominantly Catholic nation in Asia.
With the country’s 6.9-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter, she said the Filipino people “rules the future” from both the economic and spiritual realms.
Mrs. Arroyo will be joining Ireland’s President Mary MacAleese, Malta’s President Edward Fenech Adami and Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski in attending the canonization rites at the Vatican led by Pope Benedict XVI at 10 a.m. today (4 p.m. Manila time).
To be declared saints are: Maria Eugenie de Jesus Milleret, Karel Van Sint Andres Houben, Szymon z Lipnicy and Greco Preca. Blessed Marie Eugenie is the founder of the Religious of the Assumption order, which has established Catholic schools all over the world including in the Philippines.
Malacañang said the President’s presence during the canonization rites of Mother Marie Eugenie is very significant to her personally and to the Filipino people because she is an alumna of the Assumption Convent school in Makati City, where studied from elementary to college.
Blessed Marie Eugenie was born in Metz, France in 1817 and founded the religious order in 1839. She died in 1898 and was beatified by Pope Paul VI in 1975.
Today, the Religious of the Assumption are present in 34 countries – eight in Europe, five in Asia, 10 in American and 11 in Africa. Almost 1,200 nuns form 170 Assumption communities worldwide.
At 1:30 p.m. of the same day, Mrs. Arroyo will attend a luncheon hosted by the Assumption Committee for the Canonization at the Hotel Michaelangelo. This will be followed by a meeting with the Filipino community here at 4 p.m. at the Fontifico Collegio Filipino.
At 6:30 p.m., the President and members of the official delegation will meet with the Filipino Assumption delegation at the Sao Paolo VI, Piazza Paolo VI at the Vatican. The meeting will include a musical presentation titled “The Youth Pays Homage to Marie Eugenie.”
On Monday, Mrs. Arroyo will have an audience with the Pope at the Sala del Trono at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican at 11 a.m. (5 p.m. Manila time), followed by a meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Cardinal Bertone.
From the Vatican, the presidential party will proceed to Ciampino Airport for departure to Lisbon, Portugal. – Paolo Romero, Pia Lee-Brago
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