Vatican City, May 29, 2010 / 08:33 am
Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi has explained the reasons for Pope Benedict XVI's coming visit to the island of Cyprus on Saturday morning. The trip, which he said follows in a line with the Holy Father's journey to Malta earlier this year, also invites prayer for the Middle East.
“Why Cyprus?” was the topic of this week’s installment of the spokesman’s editorial Octava Dies, offered through the Vatican's Television Center, in response to the question many people have posed as to what could be behind the decision to meet with Middle Eastern bishops in Cyprus to help prepare them for their Synod in October. The answer to this question, said Lombardi, is not a difficult one.
"We have only to read the Acts of the Apostles, the account of the first steps of the proclamation the Gospel to the world after the Resurrection of Jesus," he said.
The island makes six appearances in the Bible, he explained. In addition to being the Apostle Barnabas' homeland to which he would return and evangelize, it was the site that first welcomed Paul, Mark and Barnabas on their first "missionary journey." Paul made it back several times, recalled Fr. Lombardi.
The last time he set foot on the island was as a prisoner on his way to Rome, the same trip during which he found himself shipwrecked on Malta. Pope Benedict XVI celebrated the 1,950th anniversary of this event with the Maltese during his trip to the country from April 17-18 of this year.