Recently, the Rector of Ta’ Pinu Sanctuary, Rev. Dr Gerard Buhagiar, together with Rev. Dr Emanuel Magro and Fr Samuel Grech, a student of Mariology in Rome, participated in the 23rd International Marian Mariological Congress, entitled Mariology since the Second Vatican Council: Reception, Results and Perspectives. 
This congress was held between Tuesday 4 September and Sunday 9 September 2012, at the main hall of the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. It was organised by PAMI (Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis), the International Pontifical Marian Academy, together with the Pontifical University Marianum.
More than 350 persons from various countries covering five continents participated in it. The speakers, internationally known theologians and professors in Mariology, expounded the teachings of the Second Vatican Council on the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Mary is a member of the Church and at the same time the ever best model of faith for the Christian. She is the first person endowed by the gift of the Holy Spirit, as well as the first disciple and the first person to be redeemed. She remains for the Christians their Mother and their sister in faith.”
The congress opened by the celebration of Vespers in Santa Maria Maggiore presided by Cardinal Angelo Amato, the pontifical delegate of the Pope. It closed by a Eucharistic celebration led by Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the Prefect of the Pontifical Council for Culture.
Pope Benedict XVI greeted the participants of the congress at a special audience held for them at Castel Gandolfo on Saturday 8 September, the feast day of the birth of the Virgin Mary.
In his address the Pope encouraged all scholars of Mariology to present Mary, especially during the coming Year of Faith, as the foremost model of how Christians are to grow in their faith strengthened and built on the Word of God.
Photographs – The 23rd International Marian Mariological Congress in Rome and Cardinal Angelo Amato with Rev. Dr Gerard Buhagiar.