VATICAN CITY, OCT. 21, 2005 ( HREF=»http://www.zenit.org»>ZENIT.org).- Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary-general of the Synod of Bishops, presented Benedict XVI the first copy, bound in white, of the first volume of the Enchiridion of the Synod of Bishops.
The work is a compilation of documents that have to do with the Synod of Bishops. The synod was instituted 40 years ago to help provide continuity to the collegiality of bishops after the Second Vatican Council.
The General Secretariat of the synod said that the manual is «of great interest not only to the members of the episcopal college, but also to researchers, historians and theologians, to whom it furnishes a documentation of primary importance for the life and mission of the Church after the Second Vatican Council.»
The Holy Father, who received the volume this week, gave a copy to each participant in the Synod on the Eucharist.
Ring bearer
The General Secretariat of the synod reported that Benedict XVI also gave another gift to each bishop who participated in the assembly: a ring with the image of a pelican engraved on it.
«This bird, which lives along the shores of lakes and rivers in the warm regions, feeds its little ones with food taken with the beak from the sac of skin on its chest,» said the secretariat. «From this, ancient legends have imagined that the pelican, in cases of extreme needs, nourishes their little ones with its own flesh.
«Because of this, Christian tradition, from the Middle Ages, began using the pelican as a Eucharistic symbol, seeing in its enlivening blood the redeeming blood of Christ.»
