SUMMARY:
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POPE FRANCIS TO POLISH BISHOPS: THE CHURCH IN POLAND MUST REACH OUT
TO THE PERIPHERIES
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SATISFACTORY PROGRESS IN THE PREPARATION OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
HOLY SEE AND PALESTINE
-
AUDIENCES
______________________________________
POPE
FRANCIS TO POLISH BISHOPS: THE CHURCH IN POLAND MUST REACH OUT TO THE
PERIPHERIES
Vatican
City, 7 February 2014 (VIS) – As the canonisation of Blessed John
Paul II approaches, Pope Francis today received in audience the
bishops of the Polish Episcopal Conference at the end of their
five-yearly “ad limina” visit. He referred to the future saint as
“a great Pastor who … guides us from Heaven, and reminds us of
the importance of spiritual and pastoral communion between bishops”,
and invited the former Pope's compatriots to ensure that nothing and
no-one may bring divisions between them, as they are “called to
build communion and peace, rooted in fraternal love, and to offer an
encouraging example to all”, bringing “the strength of hope” to
the Polish people.
The
conversations that the Bishop of Rome has held in these days with the
Polish prelates have confirmed that the Church in Poland “has great
potential for faith, prayer, charity and Christian practice”, and
that this “favours the Christian formation of the people, motivated
and convinced practice, and the availability of laypeople and
religious to collaborate actively in ecclesial and social
structures”. However, there has been a certain decline in various
aspects of Christian life, and this requires “discernment, and a
search for underlying reasons and methods for facing new challenges,
such as, for example, the idea of freedom without limits, hostile
tolerance or indeed distrust of the truth, or resistance to the
Church's legitimate opposition to dominant relativism”.
The
family, “the place where one learns to live in difference and to
belong to others, and where parents transmit faith to their
children”, should occupy a central position in the ordinary
pastoral care of bishops, also because “nowadays marriage tends to
be viewed as a form of mere emotional satisfaction that can be
constructed in any way or modified at will. Unfortunately this vision
also influences the mentality of Christians, promoting a tendency
towards divorce or separation. Pastors are called upon to ask
themselves how they can help those who experience this situation, so
that they are not excluded from God's mercy, from the fraternal love
of other Christians and the care of the Church for their salvation;
on how to help them not to abandon their faith and to enable them to
raise their children in the fullness of Christian experience”. In
this respect, he commented on the need for bishops to consider how to
improve the preparation of young people for marriage, so that they
are able to “discover the beauty of this union, based on love and
responsibility”, and how to “help families to live and appreciate
not only moments of joy, but also those of pain and weakness”.
In
view of the next World Youth Day, which will be held in Krakow in
2016, the Pope turned his thoughts to the young “who, along with
the elderly, are the hope of the Church” and to whom today's
technological world “offers new possibilities for communication,
but at the same time reduces interpersonal relationships based on
direct contact, on the exchange of values and shared experiences.
However, in the hearts of the young there is the yearning for
something deeper, which allows their personalities to bloom fully. We
must work towards meeting this wish”. A good opportunity, is
offered by catechesis, which reaches the majority of Polish
schoolchildren, who reach a good level of understanding of the truth
of faith. “The Christian religion, however, is not an abstract
science, but rather the essential knowledge of Christ, a personal
relationship with God Who is love”.
The
third theme of the Pope's address was the vocation to the priesthood
and to consecrated life. After commenting that there are many Polish
priests who exercise their ministry in the local Churches and also
abroad and in missions, he praised the universities and faculties of
theology throughout the country which “provide good intellectual
and pastoral preparation” which must always be accompanied by
“human and spiritual formation”.
In
priestly ministry, “the light of witness can be obscured or hidden
under a bushel if there is a lack of missionary spirit, of the wish
to go out to the peripheries, with an ever-renewed missionary
conversion to seek or encounter those who await Christ's Good News.
This apostolic style also demands a spirit of poverty, of
abandonment, to allow freedom of proclamation and sincere witness to
charity”. With regard to vocations to consecrated life, especially
in woman, “it is worrying to see a decline in numbers of those
joining religious congregations, even in Poland: a complex
phenomenon, with multiple causes. I hope that female religious
Institutes may continue to be, in a way suited to our times,
privileged spaces for the affirmation and human and spiritual growth
of women. May religious women be ready to face tasks and missions,
even those which are difficult and demanding, which bring to the fore
their intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacities, their
personal talents and charisms”.
The
Pope concluded by encouraging care for the poor as, “in Poland too,
despite current economic development in the country, there are many
who are in need, unemployed, homeless, sick, and marginalised, and
also many families – especially larger family units – who do not
have sufficient means to live and to educate their children. Be close
to them! I know how much the Church does in Poland in this field,
demonstrating great generosity not only at a national level but also
in other countries throughout the world. I thank you and your
communities for your work. Continue to encourage your priests,
religious and all faithful to have the 'imagination of charity', and
to practice it at all times. And do not forget those who for various
reasons leave the country in search of a better life elsewhere. Their
growing numbers and their needs perhaps require greater attention on
the part of the Episcopal Conference. Accompany them with the
suitable pastoral care, so that they may conserve the faith and
religious traditions of the Polish people”.
SATISFACTORY
PROGRESS IN THE PREPARATION OF THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE HOLY SEE AND
PALESTINE
Vatican
City, 7 February 2014 (VIS) – On 6 February 2014, the Bilateral
Commission of the Holy See and the State of Palestine, which is
responsible for finalising the text of a Global Agreement following
on the Basic Agreement, signed on 15 February 2000, held a Plenary
Session in Ramallah at the PLO Headquarters to review and approve the
work done at the level of the joint technical group following the
last Plenary Meeting held in the Vatican on 26 September 2013.
The
talks were chaired by Hanna Amireh, member of Executive Committee of
the PLO and head of the Presidential Higher Committee for Church
Affairs of the State of Palestine, and by Archbishop Antoine
Camilleri, under-secretary for Relations with States of the Holy See.
The
discussions took place in a cordial and constructive atmosphere.
Taking up the issues already examined at the technical level, the
Commission noted with great satisfaction the progress achieved in
drawing up the final draft of the text of the Agreement, which deals
with essential aspects of the life and activity of the Catholic
Church in Palestine. Both sides agreed to continue in the efforts to
complete the constitutional and internal procedures in view of the
signature of the Agreement.
The
Palestinian side expressed its warm welcome to Pope Francis in view
of his upcoming visit to the Holy Land.
AUDIENCES
Vatican
City, 7 February 2014 (VIS) – Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
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Archbishop Ricardo Ezzati Andrello, S.D.B., of Santiago de Chile,
Chile, president of the Permanent Committee for the Episcopal
Conference of Chile, accompanied by Bishop Alejandro Goic Karmelic of
Rancagua, vice president; Archbishop Cristian Caro Cordero of Puerto
Montt, member; Archbishop Fernando Natalio Chomali Garib of
Concepcion, member; and Bishop Ignacio Francisco Ducasse Medina of
Valdivia, secretary general.
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Gjoko Gjorgjevski, ambassador of the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia to the Holy See, on his farewell visit.
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Fifteen prelates from the Polish Episcopal Conference on their “ad
limina” visit:
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Archbishop Jozef Piotr Kupny of Wroclaw, Breslavia, with his
auxiliary, Bishop Andrzej Siemieniewski;
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Bishop Stefan Cichy of Legnica, with his auxiliary, Bishop Marek
Mendyk;
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Bishop Ignacy Dec of Swidnica, with his auxiliary Bishop Adam
Balabuch;
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Archbishop Wiktor Pawel Skworc of Katowice;
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Bishop Jan Kopiec of Gliwice, with his auxiliary, Bishop Gerard
Alfons Kusz;
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Bishop Andrzej Czaja of Opole, with his auxiliary, Bishop Pawel
Stobrawa;
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Archbishop Waclaw Depo of Czestochowa;
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Bishop Henryk Marian Tomasik of Radom, with his auxiliary Bishop Adam
Odzimek;
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Bishop Grzegorz Kaszak of Sosnowiec.
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