Be the first to comment!Bishops on ‘ad Limina’ visit at the Vatican next week
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Archbishop Paul Cremona and Bishop Mario Grech will be at the Vatican next week on a ‘ad Limina’ visit on the dioceses of Malta and Gozo.
The ‘ad Limina’ visit is made regularly, usually every five years, to enable the Bishops to account for the diocese that they are responsible for.
The visit will include a number of meetings with dicasteries of the Roman Curia, such as the Secretariat of State, Congregations, Tribunals, Councils and the Pontifical Offices.
The meetings include an audience with Pope Benedict XVI, which will take place on Monday morning. Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Mercieca wil also be present for this audience,
The ‘Ad Limina’ visit of the Maltese Bishops is spread over five days. They are expected to arrive back in Malta on Friday 1 June.
In the history of the Catholic Church, ‘ad Limina’ visits were referred to formally for the first time in the sixteenth century, in 1585 Pope Sixtus V issued the Constitution “Romanus PONTIFEX. Three hundred years later, in 1909, Pope Pius X issued a decree stating that the Bishops are to report to the Pope an account of the state of their dioceses every five years. Currently, the requirements for ad Limina visit are also mentioned in the Code of Canon Law in 1983.
