ROME: 5th June '04 -- Monday, 6th June, sees a number of confreres from the East Asia Australasia Region defending theses.  Fr. Joseph Do (VIE) is defending his doctoral thesis in Canon Law (CIN) at the UPS.  At least three others from the region, Fr. Joel Canaya (FIN), Fr. Jang Paul (KOR) and Fr. Shinjiro Urata (GIA) are defending Masters theses in philosophy, youth ministry and spirituality respectively.

 

Fr. Lanfranco Fedrigotti (CIN) will defend his doctoral thesis at the Biblicum (Pontificium Institutum Biblicum de Urbe), Rome, on 11th June.  His is an exegetical study of Matthew 9:14 and its nuptial imagery.  His fundamental question concerns the meaning of the imagery - is Jesus applying it to himself, or in some messianic sense to Jerusalem/Zion/Holy Land, or even in a further, transcendent sense as if it is Yahweh the bridegroom of Israel/Jersualem?  As abstruse as these considerations might initially seem, they have implications for the way we presently live (and celebrate) our Easter faith.

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