I get to hear Archbishop Cordes speak tonight

As I mentioned early this week, Archbishop Cordes (the head of the pontifical council Cor Unum) will be in Detroit tonight at Sacred Heart Major Seminary speaking about Deus Caritas Est.

CWNews has more:

Sep. 18 (CWNews.com) - Archbishop Joseph Cordes, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, is in the US this week for a series of presentations on the papal encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

As head of Cor Unum, the charitable arm of the papacy, Archbishop Cordes was one of the leading Vatican prelates who introduced Deus Caritas Est to the press when the encylical was first unveiled on January 25. Now he is traveling to America, making the US his first stop in a campaign to encourage concrete applications of the encyclical. The archbishop will speak in Madison, Wisconsin; Detroit, and Washington, DC.

"Catholic Americans were touched by the appeal" of the encyclical, Cor Unum said in announcing the archbishop's trip. Noting the many Catholic charities located in the country, the announcement said that Archbishop Cordes would try to help his American audiences connect the themes of the Pope's encyclical to their practical work in relief efforts.

Luckily enough, I was able to reserve a seat (I'm not sure if they are still accepting reservations, though you might try the phone number listed here).

Here is the official description of the event: "Roman Catholic Archbishop Paul Cordes, the president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, will be giving a public presentation on September 21, 2006, at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. His topic will be the relationship between Pope Benedict XVI's first encyclical God Is Love (Deus Caritas Est) and the New Evangelization, a movement of spiritual and cultural renewal initiated by Pope Benedict's predecessor, Pope John Paul II."

Should be fun. :-)

Update: It was a good talk, no big fireworks and he basically rehighlighted the central themes of Deus Caritas Est. He did take some questions afterwards and answered them beautifully. I'm happy knowing he's in charge of the Church's charitable efforts around the world.