(20/10/15) The Fifth International Congress organized by the Joseph Ratzinger – Benedict XVI Vatican Foundation “La oración, fuerza que cambia el mundo” (The prayer and the power to change the world) will be held on 27^th October, at 7 p.m., at the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid with the Mass leaded by the archbishop of Madrid Msgr. Carlos Osoro Sierra and a mystic concert, and on 28^th-29^th October at the Francisco de Vitoria University, with the support of the Foundation Fifth Centenary of the Birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus. The topic of the Congress is linked to the Theresian spirituality and had a great importance in the thoughts and the teachings of the theologian Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI.

On the 28^th October – after the greetings of the cardinal Ricardo Blázquez Pérez, archbishop of Valladolid and president of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the apostolic nuncio in Spain Msgr. Renzo Fratini, the President of the Ratzinger Foundation Msgr. Giuseppe Antonio Scotti, the rector of the Francisco de Vitoria University Daniel Sada Castaño and the Carmelite father Miguel Márquez, president of the Foundation Fifth Centenary of the Birth of Saint Teresa of Jesus – the Congress will open with the speech of Msgr. Carlos Osoro Sierra on the main topic (The prayer and the power to change the world).

Participants in the Congress will be, among others: the Jesuit Gabino Uribarri Bilbao, full Professor of Theology and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and member of the International Theology Commission, who will report on “Jesus’s prayer according to Joseph Ratzinger, theologian and Pope”, father Bernardo Estrada, full Professor of New Testament at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome, who will report on “Saint Teresa of Jesus: the prayer no pensar mucho sino amar mucho”, the Carmelite father Emilio Martínez, who will report on “How to communicate the joy we have received. The love for Christ, as a symbol of evangelization in Saint Teresa of Jesus and the teachings of Benedict XVI”, the archbishop Luis Francisco Ladaria, secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who will talk about Orationis formas, the letter about some aspects of Christian meditation, that was sent on 15^th October 1989 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the bishops of the Catholic Church.

One of the two round-tables will be leaded by the Professors Pablo Blanco, from the University of Navarra (The prayer and the power to change the mankind), Ángel Barahona Plaza, dean of the Faculty of Human Sciences of the Francisco de Vitoria University, (The prayer and the power to change the family), María del Rosario Sáez Yuguero, rector of the Catholic University of Avila (The prayer and the power to change the University). Professors Mariusz Kucinski, dean of the Ratzinger Study Centre of Bydgoszcz, Poland (New relationships and social networks), María del Carmen de la Calle, Professor of Social Sciences at the Francisco de Vitoria University, (The heart of a young man) and Javier Menéndez Ros, director of “Ayuda a la Iglesia Necesitada” in Spain (The Church and the commitment towards Christian persecution) will participate in the second round-table.

Msgr. Giuseppe Antonio Scotti will make the final speech of the Congress.

On 30^th October participants will be invited to visit Avila, the birthplace of Saint Teresa, in the context of the fifth centenary of her birth.

The previous Congresses of the Foundation were in Bydgoszcz (Poland, 2011), Río de Janeiro (Brazil, 2012), Rome (Italy 2013) and Medellin (Colombia, 2014).