SUMMARY:
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The Pope to participants in the World Congress for the Pastoral Care
of Migrants: “Migration is an aspiration to hope”
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Video message to the participants in the 4th Festival of the Social
Doctrine of the Church
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Francis: a strong and widespread desire to walk together
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The Virgin Mary, protagonist of the 19th Public Session of the
Pontifical Academies
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Audiences
-
Other Pontifical Acts
-
Appointment of the deputy editor of “L'Osservatore Romano”
______________________________________
The
Pope to participants in the World Congress for the Pastoral Care of
Migrants: “Migration is an aspiration to hope”
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – “Migration is still an aspiration
to hope, notwithstanding new developments and the emergence of
situations which are at times painful and even tragic”, said the
Pope in his address to the participants in the Seventh World Congress
for the Pastoral Care of Migrants, affirming the powerful hope that
inspires many inhabitants of troubled areas throughout the world to
seek a better future for their families in other places, even at the
risk of disappointment and failure. This, he remarked, is caused in
great part by the economic crisis which, to differing degrees,
affects every country.
The
three-day Congress highlighted the dynamics of cooperation and
development in the pastoral care of migrants. “First and foremost
you have analysed the factors which cause migration, in particular:
inequality, poverty, overpopulation, the growing need for employment
in some sectors of the global job market, disasters caused by climate
change, wars and persecution, and the desire of younger people to
relocate as they seek new opportunities. Moreover, the link between
cooperation and development shows, on the one hand, the difference of
interests between states and migrants, and, on the other hand, the
opportunities which derive for both”.
“In
effect, receiving nations draw advantages from employing immigrants
for production needs and national prosperity, not infrequently
filling gaps created by the demographic crisis”, observed the Holy
Father. “In turn, the nations which migrants leave show a certain
reduction in unemployment and, above all, benefit from earnings which
are then sent back to meet the needs of families which remain in the
country. Emigrants, in the end, are able to fulfil the desire for a
better future for themselves and their families. Yet we know that
some problems also accompany these benefits. We find in the countries
of origin, among other things, an impoverishment due to the so-called
'brain drain', the effects on infants and young people who grow up
without one or both parents, and the risk of marriages failing due to
prolonged absences. In the receiving nations, we also see
difficulties associated with migrants settling in urban
neighbourhoods which are already problematic, as well as their
difficulties in integrating and learning to respect the social and
cultural conventions which they find. In this regard, pastoral
workers play an important role through initiating dialogue, welcoming
and assisting with legal issues, mediating with the local population.
In the countries of origin, on the other hand, the closeness of
pastoral workers to the families and children of migrant parents can
lessen the negative repercussions of the parents’ absence”.
However,
the Congress affirmed that the implications of the Church's pastoral
concern in the overall context of cooperation, development and
migration go much further, and “it is here that the Church has much
to say. The Christian community, in fact, is continuously engaged in
welcoming migrants and sharing with them God’s gifts, in particular
the gift of faith”. Furthermore, the Church “promotes pastoral
plans for the evangelisation and support of migrants throughout their
journey from their country of origin, through countries of transit,
to the receiving countries. She gives particular attention to meeting
the spiritual needs of migrants through catechesis, liturgy and the
celebration of the Sacraments”.
“Sadly”,
he added, “migrants often experience disappointment, distress,
loneliness and marginalisation. In effect, the migrant worker has to
deal with the problem both of being uprooted and needing to
integrate. Here the Church also seeks to be a source of hope: she
develops programs of education and orientation; she raises her voice
in defence of migrants’ rights; she offers assistance, including
material assistance to everyone, without exception, so that all may
be treated as children of God. When encountering migrants, it is
important to adopt an integrated perspective, capable of valuing
their potential rather than seeing them only as a problem to be
confronted and resolved. The authentic right to development regards
every person and all people, viewed integrally. This demands that all
people be guaranteed a minimal level of participation in the life of
the human community. How much more necessary must this be in the case
of the Christian community, where no one is a stranger and,
therefore, everyone is worthy of being welcomed and supported”.
“The
Church, beyond being a community of the faithful that sees the face
of Jesus Christ in its neighbour, is a Mother without limits and
without frontiers. She is the Mother of all and so she strives to
foster the culture of welcome and solidarity, where no one is
considered useless, out of place or disposable. … Migrants,
therefore, by virtue of their very humanity, even prior to their
cultural values, widen the sense of human fraternity. At the same
time, their presence is a reminder of the need to eradicate
inequality, injustice and abuses. In that way, migrants will be able
to become partners in constructing a richer identity for the
communities which provide them hospitality, as well as the people who
welcome them, prompting the development of a society which is
inclusive, creative and respectful of the dignity of all”.
The
Pope concluded by invoking upon the participants in the Congress “the
protection of Mary, Mother of God, and St. Joseph, who themselves
experienced the difficulty of exile in Egypt”.
Video
message to the participants in the 4th Festival of the Social
Doctrine of the Church
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – Pope Francis has sent a video
message to the participants in the fourth edition of the Festival of
the Social Doctrine of the Church, which this year focuses on the
theme, “Beyond places, in time”. The title, he says, suggests
various points for reflection, the first of which is the concept of
“going beyond”. “The current situation of social and economic
crisis can frighten us, disorientate us or seem so difficult that we
conclude there is nothing we can do. The great temptation is to stop
and tend to our own wounds, and find in that an excuse not to listen
to the cry of the poor and the suffering of those who have lost the
dignity of being able to put bread on the table because they have
lost their jobs. And those who seek only to cure their own wounds end
up preening themselves. This is a trap. The risk is that indifference
makes us blind, deaf and mute, present only to ourselves, before the
mirror, so that everything happens outside us. Men and women closed
up in themselves”. This narcissism, he says, is not the right
approach.
“We
are required to go beyond this and to respond to real needs”, he
continues. “To go overcome, it is necessary to take the initiative.
… Nowadays, even in the economic sphere it is urgent to take the
initiative, as the system tends to sanction everything and money
takes control. The system leads to this form of globalisation which
is not good and which sanctions everything. … Taking the initiative
in these spheres means having the courage not to let oneself be
imprisoned by money and short-term gains which enslave us. We need to
find a new way of seeing things!”
“The
real problem is not money though, but rather people: we cannot ask of
money that which only people can do or create. Money alone does not
lead to development: development requires people who have the courage
to take initiative. And taking the initiative means developing
activity capable of innovation, not only of a technological nature;
it is also necessary to renew working relations, experimenting with
new forms of participation and responsibility for workers, inventing
new ways of entering the world of work, creating a bond of solidarity
between business and territory. Taking initiative means overcoming
'assistentialism'”.
“Taking
initiative also means considering love as the true motor of change”,
he adds. “Freeing talents is the beginning of change; this action
allows envy, jealousy, rivalry, disagreement and prejudice, and
opening up to joy, to the joy of the new”. He emphasises that the
question of talent is of particular relevance to the young: “If we
want to go ahead, we must make decisive investments in them and trust
in them”.
“'Going
beyond places' is not the result of individual chance but of sharing
an aim: history is a path towards fulfilment. If we act as a
population, if we go ahead together, our existence will illustrate
this meaning and this fullness”.
Francis:
a strong and widespread desire to walk together
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – “This anniversary invites us to
give thanks to God for the many fruits harvested in this last
half-century. In particular, there has occurred what the Council
recommended: the appreciation of how much there is that is good and
true in the life of Christians in every community”. Thus Pope
Francis greeted the participants in the plenary assembly of the
Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the theme of which
is “The aim of ecumenism: principles, opportunities and challenges,
fifty years after Unitatis Redintegratio”.
The
Pontiff remarked that fifty years ago on 21 November, the dogmatic
Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, and the Decree on the
Oriental Catholic Churches, Orientalium Ecclesiarum, were also
published alongside Unitatis Redintegratio. These three profoundly
connected texts offer the ecclesiological vision of Vatican Council
II.
“Firstly,
we can rejoice in the fact that the teaching of the Council has been
widely received”, affirmed Francis. “In these years, on the basis
of theological reasons rooted in the Scripture and in the tradition
of the Church, the attitude of us as Catholics has changed in
relation to Christians of other Churches and ecclesial communities.
Hostility and indifference, which had dug trenches that it seemed
impossible to fill and had inflicted deep wounds, now belong to the
past, and a healing process has begun that enables us to accept
others as brothers or sisters, in the profound unity born of
Baptism”.
This
change in mentality has made it possible to “deepen our contact
with many Churches and ecclesial Communities, and to develop new
forms of collaboration. In this respect, the ecumenical traditions of
the Sacred Scripture have been very important. Christians of
different Churches and ecclesial Communities work together in the
service of suffering and needy humanity, for the defence of human
life and its inalienable dignity, for the protection of creation and
against the injustice that afflict many people and populations”.
He
continued, “while we give thanks, we must acknowledge that
Christians remain divided, and that divergence in relation to new
anthropological and ethical themes complicates our path towards
unity. However, we cannot give in to discouragement and resignation,
but must continue to trust in God who plants seeds of love and unity
in the hearts of Christians, so they can face today's ecumenical
challenges with renewed zeal; to cultivate spiritual ecumenism, to
recognise the value of ecumenism of blood, and to walk the path of
the Gospel together”.
Spiritual
ecumenism culminates in the Week of Prayer for Christian unity, “a
worldwide network of moments of prayer that, from parochial to
international level, infuse the body of the Church with the oxygen of
genuine ecumenical spirit; a network of gestures, that unite us in
working together charitably; and it is also the sharing of prayer,
thoughts and other texts that circulate on the web and may contribute
to increasing mutual knowledge, respect and esteem”.
With
regard to ecumenism of blood, Unitatis Redintegratio invites us to
recognise, “in the brothers and sisters of other Churches and
Christian Communities, the capacity, given by God, to bear witness to
Christ unto the sacrifice of their lives. These testimonies have not
been lacking in these fifty years, and continue to this day. ...
Those who persecute Christ in his faithful do not differentiate in
terms of confession: they persecute them simply because they are
Christians”.
The
Pope went on to remark that, in recent months, encountering many
non-Catholic Christians, and reading their letters, he has noted the
existence of a “widespread and strong desire to walk together, to
pray, to know and love the Lord, to collaborate in service and in
solidarity with the weak and suffering. I am convinced of this: on a
common path, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and learning from
each other, we can grow in the communion that already unites us”.
“Fifty
years on from Unitatis Redintegratio, the quest for full Christian
unity remains a priority for the Catholic Church, and it is therefore
one of my main daily concerns. Unity is, first and foremost, a gift
from God and it is the work of the Holy Spirit, but we are all called
to collaborate, always and in every circumstance”.
The
Virgin Mary, protagonist of the 19th Public Session of the Pontifical
Academies
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has sent a message
to Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Pontifical Council
for Culture and the Council for Coordination between the Pontifical
Academies, on the occasion of the 19th Public Session of the
Pontifical Academies, devoted to the theme “Mary, icon of the
infinite beauty of Dios Marialis cultus and the Marian teaching of
Blessed Paul VI”, organised by the Pontifical International Marian
Academy.
In
his message, the Pope spoke about Blessed Paul VI's great love for
the Virgin Mary, which he expressed on many occasions during his
papacy, as well as in several documents, including his two
encyclicals, Mense Maio and Christi Matri, dedicated to the Mother of
God and the worship of her as Mater Ecclesiae. He also devoted three
apostolic exhortations to Mary: Signum Magnum, Recurrens Mensis
October and, finally, Marialis Cultus, published forty years ago this
year.
“On
the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of the closure of Vatican Council
II, established by Paul VI – not by chance – on the Solemnity of
the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 1965, it is beautiful that you
wish to make his voice through the recording of the homily in which
he entrusts the fate of the Church, radically renewed through the
Council assize, to Mary. On that solemn and historical occasion, Paul
VI wished to commend the entire Church to Mary as the Mother of God
and our spiritual Mother”.
Similarly,
Francis recalled that in crucial and difficult moments for the Church
and for humanity, Paul VI always turned to Mary, exhorting the people
of God to pray for her intercession and protection, and invoking the
gift of peace. “In the wake of the Synod of Bishops on new
evangelisation, in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, I too
entrusted the way of the Church to Mary's maternal and caring
intercession, reminding all believers that there is a Marian style to
the evangelising activity of the Church, as every time we look to
Mary we believe again in the revolutionary power of tenderness and
affection. In her we see that humility and tenderness are not virtues
of the weak but rather of the strong, who do not need to mistreat
others to feel important”.
The
Holy Father continued, “Let us not tire of learning from Mary, of
admiring and contemplating her beauty, of letting ourselves be guided
by her, she who leads us always to the original source and fullness
of authenticity: infinite beauty, that of God, revealed to us in
Christ, Son of the Father and Son of Mary”. The Pontiff concluded
by awarding the Pontifical Academies Prize to the Italian
Interdisciplinary Mariological Association, above all for more than
twenty years of publishing the journal Theotokos, and the Pontifical
Medal to the “Centro mariano de difusion cultural” of the Order
of the Servants of Mary, in Mexico.
Audiences
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
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Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Muller, president of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith;
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Bishop Enrico Dal Covolo, Magnificent Rector of the Pontifical
Lateran University;
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Bishop Anthony Sablan Apuron of Agana, Guam.
Other
Pontifical Acts
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has:
-
appointed Rev. Fr. Ariel Lascarro Tapia as bishop of Magangue (area
20,165, population 838,000, Catholics 677,000, priests 70, religious
30), Colombia. The bishop-elect was born in Carmen de Bolivar,
Colombia in 1967 and was ordained a priest in 1994. He holds a
licentiate in theology from the University of Navarra, Spain, and has
served in a number of pastoral roles in the archdiocese of Cartagena,
including parish priest of “San Estanislao Kostka”, “Inmaculada
Concepcion”, “Maria, Madre de los pobres”, “Cristo Salvador”,
“Maria, Madre de la Iglesia” and “Santa Catalina de
Alejandria”; diocesan head of vocational pastoral ministry,
delegate for missionary childhood and archdiocesan delegate for the
biblical inspiration of pastoral care. He is currently archdiocesan
vicar for pastoral care and parish priest of “Nuestra Senora del
Perpetuo Socorro”, Bocagrande.
-
appointed Rev. Fr. Moises Carlos Atisha Contreras, Sch.P., as bishop
of San Marcos de Arica (area 16,512, population 198,400, Catholics
140,000, priests 37, deacons 29, religious 30), Chile. The
bishop-elect was born in Santiago de Cile, Chile in 1969 and gave his
religious vows and was ordained a priest in 1994. He has served as
spiritual director of the “Colegio Hispano-americano y Calasanz”
and as secretary of the National Commission for Youth Pastoral Care
in the Chilean Episcopal Conference, and is currently parish priest
of “La Ascension del Senor” in the archdiocese of Santiago.
-
appointed Rev. Fr. Jorge Martin Torres Carbonell as auxiliary of
Lomas de Zamora, Argentina. The bishop-elect was born in Buenos
Aires, Argentina in 1954 and was ordained a priest in 1983. He has
served as parish priest of “Santa Clara”, “Nino Jesus” and
“Nuestra Senora de la Esperanza” in the archdiocese of Buenos
Aires, as well as head of youth pastoral care in the archdiocese,
episcopal vicar for the “Villas de Emergencia”, and dean and
member of the presbyteral council. He is currently priest of the the
Shrine of San Cayetano of Buenos Aires.
-
accepted the resignation from the office of auxiliary of the
archdiocese of La Serena, Chile, presented by Bishop Luis Carlos
Gleisner Wobbe upon reaching the age limit.
Appointment
of the deputy editor of “L'Osservatore Romano”
Vatican
City, 21 November 2014 (VIS) – Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro
Parolin has appointed Giuseppe Fiorentino as deputy editor of
“L'Osservatore Romano”. The new deputy director was previously a
reporter for the same newspaper.
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