Grand Duke receives General...

Today the Grand Duke received Général Henri Bentégeat in audience at the Grand Ducal Palace. Général Henri Bentégeat is the President of the CMUE (Military Committee of the European Union). The CMUE is charged with conflict management, co-operation, prevention, et al...between the member states. 

More on the Papal Audience....plus vid

I typically get more updates the day after events due to my crafty use of news alerts. Tonight my inbox was overfilling with articles about the visit to the Pope. Most were the same articles that I have linked over the past few days but I add the video now.

I found this page to be particularly interesting because it included a video of Henri, Guillaume, their Aid-de-camp, and various religious dignitaries being greeted by The Pope. I am a native English speaker and even I found the women who narrates the video to be speaking very fast. If you can't understand what she's saying don't think that your English is poor. The video is also on the Vatican's youtube channel. Who knew the Vatican had a youtube channel? Not I. I shall search it momentarily for additional royal audience vidoes...have no fear.

Mad Monarchist linked the same video but I find his blog to be interesting and royal related so I'm linking it anyway. 

Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duke meet with Pope...

Henri and Guillaume meet with the Pope at Castle Gandolfo. The meeting was in connection with the Van Thuan award. Wort actually mentioned that whatever they discussed wasn't released to the press which I find odd. I wouldn't have expected the such details from a private visit.

Official Website...
Wort...
Belga picture
Belga picture
Belga picture

Prize Awarded....

The Grand Duke has received his Van Thuan Award. It was given yesterday evening at Palazzo Colonna. It was stated that the Grand Duke lives completely and firmly within Catholic principles especially those of the protection of life and freedom of religion.

I'm still waiting on the usual news/picture sources to update....when they update I'll bring you the links for photos and articles. Official website. 

It looks as if AFP has photos for the event. Palazzo Colonna is amazingly beautiful. Henri attended with Guillaume. The Grand Duchess is, as we know, still recovering from her recent surgery.

Visit the AFP gallery, select your language and enter Grand Duke Henri into the search bar for pictures.

The Grand Duke to receive Van Thuan prize today...

The Grand Duke is to receive the Van Thuan prize this evening in Rome at the beautiful Palazzo Colonna.

He will also be received by His Holiness The Pope at his summer residence, Castle Gandolfo, on Thursday.

At the press conference yesterday Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino (president of the San Matteo Foundation which gives the prize) praised the work of the Grand Duke with the Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria-Teresa Foundation, his commitment to catholic morals, his beautiful family and mentioned other steller qualities of The Grand Duke.

The Grand Ducal Family usually make a big deal out of their visits to The Pope so we should expect some good pictures of the whole family.

Some articles in English on the Grand Duke receiving the award Catholic Culture, Metro Catholic, Vatican Press Service and Loggia. Plus, RTL also has a small mention.

Grand Duke and Hereditary Grand Duke receive students

The Grand Duke and The Hereditary Grand Duke received graduating students at the Grand Ducal Palace.

There is a pic at that official website. The Grand Duke looks preternaturally young, as usual. Guillaume looked show stoppingly gorgeous sans beautiful beard.

Luxembourg leads in development aid.....

I know this isn't specifically related to the Grand Ducal Family but.....I heart the Grand Duchy not just the family...

Luxembourg is topped only by Sweden in making contributions to development aid. Last year Luxembourg donated 287.7 million Euros which amounts to around 0.95% of the gross national income.

I know that Luxembourg is one of the wealthiest places in the world per capita, but it is still small. It says a lot that this little land of only 486,006 people continue to dedicate so much of their resources to development of those who don't  have the luxury of being Luxembougers.

Honoring The Grand Duke

As I mentioned yesterday, The Grand Duke is set to receive an honor from the Vatican next Wednesday. There is an article on this in English on news352.

More of the 65 year celebrations.

Wort carried addtional photos of the events of yesterday and Wednesday today. The official website also has more photos and information than it did yesterday. Additionally, the government website is also updated.

65 years of freedom....plus busy week for The Grand Duke

Yesterday and today Luxembourg commemorated the 65th anniversary of their liberation by the American Army on September 10, 1944.

The Grand Duke together with Premierminister Jean-Claude Juncker and other minsters of the government were in Pétange. Pétange was the first city of Luxembourg to be liberated on September 9, 1944. There was a commemorative ceremony at the monument to the American soldiers.

Today The Grand Duke and members of his government attended non-denominational service at the Church of Saint Michel marking this event.

Later in the day The Grand Duke laid flowers at the national monument of Luxembourg Solidarity in the presence of Premierminster Jean-Claude Juncker, the Minister of Defense Jean-Marie Halsdorf, and the chief of staff of the Luxembourg Army General Gaston Reinig.

Grand Duke Jean together with the Minister of Defenese was at  musée national d’histoire militaire (Musuem of National Military History) to commemorate the event. The uniforms of Grand Duke Jean have been donated to the museum and are displayed with uniforms of various other Luxembourgers who severed with the allies during the war. Luxembourger volunteers were also honored.

There are photographs at the Official Website. Tageblatt has an article on the events. Wort also carries an article with a gallery of photos.

It has been a busy week for The Grand Duke although it hasn't received much attention. In addition to the celebration of Luxembourg's liberation The Grand Duke will be in Rome on Wednesday to recieve the Van-Thuan-Menschrechtspreis. Further information is expected on Tuesday.

He was also in Krakaw, Poland together with The Hereditary Grand Duke for the Interfaith Peace Conference which is part of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII. This lasted over the weekend until Tuesday.