SUMMARY:
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Pontifical Letter to G-20: “Responsibility for the poor and
marginalised must be an essential element of any political decision”
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The Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to “clerical” or
“functionary” priests
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Special College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process
for serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum
Sanctitatis Tutela
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Audiences
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Other Pontifical Acts
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Pontifical
Letter to G-20: “Responsibility for the poor and marginalised must
be an essential element of any political decision”
Vatican
City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has sent a message
to Tony Abbott, prime minister of Australia, who will chair the
Summit of Heads of State and Government of the 20 Countries (G-20)
scheduled to take place on 15 and 16 November in Brisbane. The agenda
of the meeting will focus on efforts to relaunch sustained and
sustainable growth of the world economy and the fundamental
imperative, which emerged from the preparatory work, of creating
dignified and stable employment for all. Extensive extracts from the
text are published below:
“I
would ask the G20 Heads of State and Government not to forget that
many lives are at stake behind these political and technical
discussions, and it would indeed be regrettable if such discussions
were to remain purely on the level of declarations of principle.
Throughout the world, the G20 countries included, there are far too
many women and men suffering from severe malnutrition, a rise in the
number of the unemployed, an extremely high percentage of young
people without work and an increase in social exclusion which can
lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists. In
addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the
result of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious
consequences for the world economy.
It
is my hope that a substantial and productive consensus can be
achieved regarding the agenda items. I likewise hope that the
assessment of the results of this consensus will not be restricted to
global indices but will take into account as well real improvements
in the living conditions of poorer families and the reduction of all
forms of unacceptable inequality. I express these hopes in light of
the post-2015 Development Agenda to be approved by the current
session of the United Nations Assembly, which ought to include the
vital issues of decent work for all and climate change.
The
G20 Summits, which began with the financial crisis of 2008, have
taken place against the terrible backdrop of military conflicts, and
this has resulted in disagreements between the Group’s members. It
is a reason for gratitude that those disagreements have not prevented
genuine dialogue within the G20, with regard both to the specific
agenda items and to global security and peace. But more is required.
These conflicts leave deep scars and result in unbearable
humanitarian situations around the world. I take this opportunity to
ask the G20 Member States to be examples of generosity and solidarity
in meeting the many needs of the victims of these conflicts, and
especially of refugees.
The
situation in the Middle East has revived debate about the
responsibility of the international community to protect individuals
and peoples from extreme attacks on human rights and a total
disregard for humanitarian law. The international community, and in
particular the G20 Member States, should also give thought to the
need to protect citizens of all countries from forms of aggression
that are less evident but equally real and serious. I am referring
specifically to abuses in the financial system such as those
transactions that led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to
speculation lacking political or juridical constraints and the
mentality that maximisation of profits is the final criterion of all
economic activity. A mindset in which individuals are ultimately
discarded will never achieve peace or justice. Responsibility for the
poor and the marginalised must therefore be an essential element of
any political decision, whether on the national or the international
level”.
The
Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to “clerical” or
“functionary” priests
Vatican
City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) – Yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Angelo
Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, read the message sent by Pope
Francis to the participants in the 67th General Assembly of the
Italian Episcopal Conference, of which Cardinal Bagnasco is
president. The meeting, which will finish next Thursday, is being
held at the Domus Pacis of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, and is
dedicated to the life and formation of priests.
In
his message, the Holy Father writes that convening in Assisi recalls
“the great love and veneration that St. Francis nurtured for the
hierarchical Holy Mother Church, and in particular for priests …
through whom the maternity of the Church reaches the entire People of
God. How many of them we have known!” he exclaims. “We have seen
them spending their lives amongst the people of our parishes,
educating the young, accompanying families, visiting the sick at home
and in hospital, and taking care of the poor”, in the knowledge
that the gravest error is to separate oneself from others.
“Holy
priests are sinners who have been forgiven, and instruments of
forgiveness. Their existence speaks the language of patience and
perseverance; they are not tourists of the spirit, eternally
undecided and unsatisfied, as they know that they are in the hands of
He Who never fails in His promises, and whose Providence ensures that
nothing can ever separate them from their belonging. … Yes, it is
still the time for priests of this substance, 'bridges' enabling the
encounter between God and the world”.
“Priests
like this cannot be improvised: they are forged through the valuable
formative work of the Seminary, and Ordination consecrates them
forever as men of God and servants of His people”. However, “the
identity of the presbyter, precisely as it comes from above, demands
he follow a daily itinerary of reappropriation, starting from that
which made of him a minister of Jesus Christ. … The formation of
which we speak …. is without end, as priests never cease to be
disciples of Jesus and to follow Him. Therefore, formation as
discipleship accompanies the ordained minister throughout his life”,
writes the Holy Father. “Initial and continuing formation are two
parts of a single entity: the path of the presbyter disciple,
enamoured of his Lord and constantly following him”.
“You
are aware that there is no need for clerical priests whose behaviour
risks distancing people from the Lord, or functionary priests who,
while they fulfil their role, seek their consolation far from Him.
Only those who keep a steady gaze on what is truly essential may
renew their acceptance of the gift they have received. … Only those
who allow themselves to conform to the Good Shepherd find unity,
peace and strength in the obedience of service; only those who take
their breath in presbyteral fraternity leave behind the falsehood of
a conscience that claims to be the epicentre of everything, the sole
measure of their feelings and actions”.
The
Pontiff concluded by expressing his hope that the participants in the
Assembly would experience “days of listening and comparison,
leading to the definition of itineraries of permanent formation, able
to link spiritual and cultural, communicative and pastoral
dimensions: these are the pillars of life formed according to the
Gospel, preserved in daily discipline, in prayer, in the guardianship
of the senses, in care for oneself, in humble and prophetic witness;
lives that restore to the Church the trust that she first placed in
them”.
Special
College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process for
serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum
Sanctitatis Tutela
Vatican
City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) – St. John Paul II's Motu Proprio
Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (SST), published on 30 April 2001
and implemented on 21 May 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, defines the
offences reserved to the competence of the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Art. 1-6), in accordance with Art. 52 of
the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.
The
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges these offences by
penal or administrative procedures (cf. Art. 21 paras 1 and 2, No. 1
SST), taking into account the possibility of submitting the decision
directly to the Supreme Pontiff in the most serious cases (see Art.
21 para. 2, No. 2 SST). Crimes against faith remain, in the first
instance, within the sphere of competence of the Ordinary or the
Hierarch (cf. Art. 2 para. 2 SST).
Due
to the number of appeals and the need to guarantee that they are
examined more rapidly and following detailed reflection, in the
Audience granted to Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on 3
November 2014, the Holy Father Francis decreed the following:
1.
A special college is to be instituted within the Congregation for the
Doctrine of the Faith, composed of seven cardinals or bishops, who
may either be members of the Dicastery or external to it;
2.
The President and the members of the aforementioned College are to be
appointed by the Pope;
3.
The College is a provision made by the Ordinary Session of the
Congregation to enable greater efficiency in processing appeals in
accordance with Art. 27 SST, without substantive modification to its
competences as established in the same Art. 27 SST;
4.
Should the offender be of episcopal dignity, his appeal shall be
examined by the Ordinary Session, which will also be able to decide
specific cases according to the Pope's judgement. Other cases to be
decided by the College may also be deferred to the Ordinary Session;
5.
The College shall periodically report its decisions to the Ordinary
Session;
6.
Specific internal regulations shall determine the working methods of
the College.
Audiences
Vatican
City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father received in audience
Emma Madigan, new ambassador of Ireland to the Holy See, presenting
her letters of credence.
Other
Pontifical Acts
Vatican
City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Rev.
Prosper Balthazar Lyimo as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Arusha
(area 67,340, population 2,364,000, Catholics 512,073, priests 128,
religious 639), Tanzania. The bishop-elect was born in Kyou-Kilema,
Tanzania in 1964 and was ordained a priest in 1997. He studied canon
law at the Pontifical Urbanian University, Rome, and subsequently
obtained a doctorate in canon law from St. Paul's University, Ottowa,
Canada, and is currently chancellor and judicial vicar of the
archdiocese of Arusha, Tanzania.
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