SUMMARY:
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General audience: new series of catechesis on the family
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Presentation of the Message for the 48th World Day of Peace
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Slaves no more, but brothers and sisters: the Pope's Message for
World Day of Peace
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“Love is our mission: the family, fully alive”: theme of the 7th
World Meeting of Families
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Other Pontifical Acts
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General
audience: new series of catechesis on the family
Vatican
City, 10 December 2014 (VIS) – Having concluded his catechesis on
the Church, in today's general audience Pope Francis began a new
series dedicated to the family, “a new cycle in this intermediate
period between two Synod Assemblies dedicated to this important
reality”. Before considering the different aspects of family life,
Francis began by speaking about the Synod held last October on the
theme “Pastoral challenges to the family in the context of new
evangelisation”.
The
Pontiff first praised the work of the Holy See Press Office during
the Synod, and the good work accomplished by the media responsible
for covering the assembly. He went on to mention the events and
results of the assembly, and emphasised that at no point was there
any form of censorship and that the Synod Fathers were entirely free
to speak frankly. “The only think I asked of them was that they
speak with sincerity and courage, and listen with humility”.
He
explained that the Instrumentum laboris always remained the basis of
all the interventions that took place, and that this document was the
result of a previous consultation involving all of the Church. He
remarked that “no intervention challenged the fundamental truths of
the Sacrament of Marriage: indissolubility, unity, fidelity and
openness to life”. All these interventions, in a second phase, were
gathered together and gave rise to the Relatio post disceptationem or
the post-discussion report, which was divided into three sections:
listening to the context and the challenges to the family; looking
steadily at Christ and the Gospel of the family, and comparison with
pastoral perspectives. The third phase, the group discussions,
followed this first approach at a summary. Finally, at the end of its
work, each group presented a report and all the group reports were
published immediately, “with transparency, so that what was
happening was made known”.
Finally,
a commission examined all the suggestions that emerged from the
groups and the a Final Report was produced, maintaining the same
structure as before – listening, looking to the Gospel and pastoral
ministry – which was then sent to all the Episcopal Conferences
worldwide to enable discussion prior to the Ordinary Assembly,
scheduled for October 2015. As always, a Final Message from the Synod
was approved, more concise and informative compared to the Report.
The Holy Father remarked that the Synod Fathers “did not argue, but
there were animated discussions. This is the freedom of the Church”,
and added that there are three official Synod documents: the Final
Message, the Final Report, and the Pope's concluding discourse.
The
Bishop of Rome emphasised that the Synod is not a parliament but
rather a protected space that allows the Holy Spirit to intervene,
and that now the work of prayer, reflection and fraternal discussion
must continue in the particular Churches in preparation for the
upcoming Assembly. “Let us commend it to the protection of the
Virgin Mother, so that she may help us to follow God's will in making
pastoral decisions that offer greater and better help to families”,
he concluded.
Presentation
of the Message for the 48th World Day of Peace
Vatican
City, 10 December 2014 (VIS) – This morning in the Holy See Press
Office a press conference was held to present the Holy Father’s
Message for the 48th World Day of Peace, to be held on 1 January 2015
on the theme “Slaves no more, but brothers and sisters”. The
speakers were Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the
Pontifical Council “Justice and Peace”; Bishop Mario Toso,
S.D.B., secretary of the same dicastery; Vittorio V. Alberti,
official of “Justice and Peace”; and Sister Gabriella Bottani,
Combonian missionary representing the International Network of
Consecrated Life Against Human Trafficking (of the International
Union of Superior Generals) and head of Talitha Kum.
The
theme chosen by the Pope, explained Cardinal Turkson, “regards not
only the foundation of peace but also its concrete achievement in
interpersonal relations. Therefore, it must be an invitation to
transform social relations from a relationship of dependence-slavery,
and the negation of the humanity of the other, to a relationship of
fraternity lived between brothers and sisters who share the same
Father. An itinerary of conversion for believers that leads to
recognition of the other not as an enemy to combat or an inferior
being to exploit, but rather a brother or sister to love and for this
reason to free from all the chains of slavery”.
“Starting
from the Epistle of Paul to Philemon and other passages from the
Bible, “the Holy Father shows that God's plan for humanity does not
have any place for the enslavement of others, since God calls to all
of his sons and daughters to renew their interpersonal relationships,
respecting in each person the image and semblance of God along with
the intangible dignity of every person, confident in the Good News of
Jesus Christ, who is capable of renewing the heart of man, where sin
is most abundant”.
“However,
despite the great efforts of many people, modern slavery continues to
be an atrocious scourge that is present on a large scale throughout
the world, even as tourism. This 'crime of injured humanity' is
masked by apparently accepted habits, but in reality it creates
victims in prostitution, human trafficking, forced labour, slave
labour, mutilation, the sale of organs, drug abuse and child labour.
They are concealed behind closed doors, in special places, on the
streets, in cars, in factories, in the country, in fishing boats and
in many other places. And this happens in both cities and villages,
in the reception centres of the richest and poorest countries in the
world. And the worst thing is that this situation unfortunately
worsens every day”.
With
regard to the joint effort against human trafficking and other forms
of slavery, the Cardinal emphasised a number of points. First, there
is the fact that slavery, “fruit and sign of the rupture of
fraternity and the denial of communion, once accepted by civil law as
the right to ownership of another person, is now a 'crime of injured
humanity' that, as previously mentioned, assumes various faces in the
context of globalisation, creating new needs, new forms of poverty
and slavery”. In this year dedicated to the family, he reiterated
that it is unacceptable for the institution of the family, “a place
of acceptance and promotion of life”, to be “transformed into the
place in which life is betrayed, treated with disdain, denied,
manipulated and sold”. Finally, to defeat the wound of modern
slavery, there needs to be a mobilisation on a scale comparable to
that of the phenomenon itself, both locally – families, schools,
parishes – and at the global levels of state institutions and civil
society.
“The
Church of Jesus Christ, that announces the Good News of liberation
from sin and from every form of enslavement, must continue her
mission of announcing the Word on every occasion, convenient or
otherwise, denouncing every form of slavery and violation of the
dignity of the human person, offering at the same time, also through
daily gestures of welcome and closeness, the witness of a free life,
renewed and open to Transcendence”.
“Following
the example of St. Josephine Bakhita, the former slave who later
became a free daughter of God, we look with hope to Jesus Christ Who
has defeated evil and Who is the maker and icon of the liberation of
humanity and the freedom of the sons and daughters of God”,
concluded Cardinal Turkson. “We must work together and never tire
until there no longer remains any person reduced to slavery in this
world, because no-one can be freed without regard for others, for
humanity and for the creation that, as St. Paul says in his Letter to
the Romans, 'is waiting with eagerness for the children of God to be
revealed … with the intention that the whole creation itself might
be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same
glorious freedom as the children of God'”.
Slaves
no more, but brothers and sisters: the Pope's Message for World Day
of Peace
Vatican
City, 10 December 2014 (VIS) – Below is the full text of the Holy
Father's Message for the 48th World Day of Peace, to be held on 1
January 2015 on the theme “Slaves no more, but brothers and
sisters'':
“At
the beginning of this New Year, which we welcome as God’s gracious
gift to all humanity, I offer heartfelt wishes of peace to every man
and woman, to all the world’s peoples and nations, to heads of
state and government, and to religious leaders. In doing so, I pray
for an end to wars, conflicts and the great suffering caused by human
agency, by epidemics past and present, and by the devastation wrought
by natural disasters. I pray especially that, on the basis of our
common calling to cooperate with God and all people of good will for
the advancement of harmony and peace in the world, we may resist the
temptation to act in a manner unworthy of our humanity.
In
my Message for Peace last year, I spoke of 'the desire for a full
life … which includes a longing for fraternity which draws us to
fellowship with others and enables us to see them not as enemies or
rivals, but as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced'.
Since we are by nature relational beings, meant to find fulfilment
through interpersonal relationships inspired by justice and love, it
is fundamental for our human development that our dignity, freedom
and autonomy be acknowledged and respected. Tragically, the growing
scourge of man’s exploitation by man gravely damages the life of
communion and our calling to forge interpersonal relations marked by
respect, justice and love. This abominable phenomenon, which leads to
contempt for the fundamental rights of others and to the suppression
of their freedom and dignity, takes many forms. I would like briefly
to consider these, so that, in the light of God’s word, we can
consider all men and women 'no longer slaves, but brothers and
sisters'.
Listening
to God’s plan for humanity
2.
The theme I have chosen for this year’s message is drawn from Saint
Paul’s letter to Philemon, in which the Apostle asks his co-worker
to welcome Onesimus, formerly Philemon’s slave, now a Christian
and, therefore, according to Paul, worthy of being considered a
brother. The Apostle of the Gentiles writes: 'Perhaps this is why he
was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back for
ever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved
brother'. Onesimus became Philemon’s brother when he became a
Christian. Conversion to Christ, the beginning of a life lived
Christian discipleship, thus constitutes a new birth which generates
fraternity as the fundamental bond of family life and the basis of
life in society.
In
the Book of Genesis, we read that God made man male and female, and
blessed them so that they could increase and multiply. He made Adam
and Eve parents who, in response to God’s command to be fruitful
and multiply, brought about the first fraternity, that of Cain and
Abel. Cain and Abel were brothers because they came forth from the
same womb. Consequently they had the same origin, nature and dignity
as their parents, who were created in the image and likeness of God.
But
fraternity also embraces variety and differences between brothers and
sisters, even though they are linked by birth and are of the same
nature and dignity. As brothers and sisters, therefore, all people
are in relation with others, from whom they differ, but with whom
they share the same origin, nature and dignity. In this way,
fraternity constitutes the network of relations essential for the
building of the human family created by God.
Tragically,
between the first creation recounted in the Book of Genesis and the
new birth in Christ whereby believers become brothers and sisters of
the 'first-born among many brethren', there is the negative reality
of sin, which often disrupts human fraternity and constantly
disfigures the beauty and nobility of our being brothers and sisters
in the one human family. It was not only that Cain could not stand
Abel; he killed him out of envy and, in so doing, committed the first
fratricide. 'Cain’s murder of Abel bears tragic witness to his
radical rejection of their vocation to be brothers. Their story
brings out the difficult task to which all men and women are called,
to live as one, each taking care of the other'.
This
was also the case with Noah and his children. Ham’s disrespect for
his father Noah drove Noah to curse his insolent son and to bless the
others, those who honoured him. This created an inequality between
brothers born of the same womb.
In
the account of the origins of the human family, the sin of
estrangement from God, from the father figure and from the brother,
becomes an expression of the refusal of communion. It gives rise to a
culture of enslavement, with all its consequences extending from
generation to generation: rejection of others, their mistreatment,
violations of their dignity and fundamental rights, and
institutionalised inequality. Hence, the need for constant conversion
to the Covenant, fulfilled by Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, in the
confidence that 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more…
through Jesus Christ'. Christ, the beloved Son, came to reveal the
Father’s love for humanity. Whoever hears the Gospel and responds
to the call to conversion becomes Jesus’ 'brother, sister and
mother', and thus an adopted son of his Father.
One
does not become a Christian, a child of the Father and a brother or
sister in Christ, as the result of an authoritative divine decree,
without the exercise of personal freedom: in a word, without being
freely converted to Christ. Becoming a child of God is necessarily
linked to conversion: 'Repent, and be baptised, every one of you, in
the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit'. All those who responded
in faith and with their lives to Peter’s preaching entered into the
fraternity of the first Christian community: Jews and Greeks, slaves
and free. Differing origins and social status did not diminish
anyone’s dignity or exclude anyone from belonging to the People of
God. The Christian community is thus a place of communion lived in
the love shared among brothers and sisters.
All
of this shows how the Good News of Jesus Christ, in whom God makes
'all things new', is also capable of redeeming human relationships,
including those between slaves and masters, by shedding light on what
both have in common: adoptive sonship and the bond of brotherhood in
Christ. Jesus himself said to his disciples: 'No longer do I call you
servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but
I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I
have made known to you'.
The
many faces of slavery yesterday and today
From
time immemorial, different societies have known the phenomenon of
man’s subjugation by man. There have been periods of human history
in which the institution of slavery was generally accepted and
regulated by law. This legislation dictated who was born free and who
was born into slavery, as well as the conditions whereby a freeborn
person could lose his or her freedom or regain it. In other words,
the law itself admitted that some people were able or required to be
considered the property of other people, at their free disposition. A
slave could be bought and sold, given away or acquired, as if he or
she were a commercial product.
Today,
as the result of a growth in our awareness, slavery, seen as a crime
against humanity, has been formally abolished throughout the world.
The right of each person not to be kept in a state of slavery or
servitude has been recognised in international law as inviolable.
Yet,
even though the international community has adopted numerous
agreements aimed at ending slavery in all its forms, and has launched
various strategies to combat this phenomenon, millions of people
today – children, women and men of all ages – are deprived of
freedom and are forced to live in conditions akin to slavery.
I
think of the many men and women labourers, including minors,
subjugated in different sectors, whether formally or informally, in
domestic or agricultural workplaces, or in the manufacturing or
mining industry; whether in countries where labour regulations fail
to comply with international norms and minimum standards, or, equally
illegally, in countries which lack legal protection for workers’
rights.
I
think also of the living conditions of many migrants who, in their
dramatic odyssey, experience hunger, are deprived of freedom, robbed
of their possessions, or undergo physical and sexual abuse. In a
particular way, I think of those among them who, upon arriving at
their destination after a gruelling journey marked by fear and
insecurity, are detained in at times inhumane conditions. I think of
those among them, who for different social, political and economic
reasons, are forced to live clandestinely. My thoughts also turn to
those who, in order to remain within the law, agree to disgraceful
living and working conditions, especially in those cases where the
laws of a nation create or permit a structural dependency of migrant
workers on their employers, as, for example, when the legality of
their residency is made dependent on their labour contract. Yes, I am
thinking of 'slave labour'.
I
think also of persons forced into prostitution, many of whom are
minors, as well as male and female sex slaves. I think of women
forced into marriage, those sold for arranged marriages and those
bequeathed to relatives of their deceased husbands, without any right
to give or withhold their consent.
Nor
can I fail to think of all those persons, minors and adults alike,
who are made objects of trafficking for the sale of organs, for
recruitment as soldiers, for begging, for illegal activities such as
the production and sale of narcotics, or for disguised forms of
cross-border adoption.
Finally,
I think of all those kidnapped and held captive by terrorist groups,
subjected to their purposes as combatants, or, above all in the case
of young girls and women, to be used as sex slaves. Many of these
disappear, while others are sold several times over, tortured,
mutilated or killed.
Some
deeper causes of slavery
4.
Today, as in the past, slavery is rooted in a notion of the human
person which allows him or her to be treated as an object. Whenever
sin corrupts the human heart and distances us from our Creator and
our neighbours, the latter are no longer regarded as beings of equal
dignity, as brothers or sisters sharing a common humanity, but rather
as objects. Whether by coercion or deception, or by physical or
psychological duress, human persons created in the image and likeness
of God are deprived of their freedom, sold and reduced to being the
property of others. They are treated as means to an end.
Alongside
this deeper cause – the rejection of another person’s humanity –
there are other causes which help to explain contemporary forms of
slavery. Among these, I think in the first place of poverty,
underdevelopment and exclusion, especially when combined with a lack
of access to education or scarce, even non-existent, employment
opportunities. Not infrequently, the victims of human trafficking and
slavery are people who look for a way out of a situation of extreme
poverty; taken in by false promises of employment, they often end up
in the hands of criminal networks which organise human trafficking.
These networks are skilled in using modern means of communication as
a way of luring young men and women in various parts of the world.
Another
cause of slavery is corruption on the part of people willing to do
anything for financial gain. Slave labour and human trafficking often
require the complicity of intermediaries, be they law enforcement
personnel, state officials, or civil and military institutions. 'This
occurs when money, and not the human person, is at the centre of an
economic system. Yes, the person, made in the image of God and
charged with dominion over all creation, must be at the centre of
every social or economic system. When the person is replaced by
mammon, a subversion of values occurs'.
Further
causes of slavery include armed conflicts, violence, criminal
activity and terrorism. Many people are kidnapped in order to be
sold, enlisted as combatants, or sexually exploited, while others are
forced to emigrate, leaving everything behind: their country, home,
property, and even members of their family. They are driven to seek
an alternative to these terrible conditions even at the risk of their
personal dignity and their very lives; they risk being drawn into
that vicious circle which makes them prey to misery, corruption and
their baneful consequences.
A
shared commitment to ending slavery
5.
Often, when considering the reality of human trafficking, illegal
trafficking of migrants and other acknowledged or unacknowledged
forms of slavery, one has the impression that they occur within a
context of general indifference.
Sadly,
this is largely true. Yet I would like to mention the enormous and
often silent efforts which have been made for many years by religious
congregations, especially women’s congregations, to provide support
to victims. These institutes work in very difficult situations,
dominated at times by violence, as they work to break the invisible
chains binding victims to traffickers and exploiters. Those chains
are made up of a series of links, each composed of clever
psychological ploys which make the victims dependent on their
exploiters. This is accomplished by blackmail and threats made
against them and their loved ones, but also by concrete acts such as
the confiscation of their identity documents and physical violence.
The activity of religious congregations is carried out in three main
areas: in offering assistance to victims, in working for their
psychological and educational rehabilitation, and in efforts to
reintegrate them into the society where they live or from which they
have come.
This
immense task, which calls for courage, patience and perseverance,
deserves the appreciation of the whole Church and society. Yet, of
itself, it is not sufficient to end the scourge of the exploitation
of human persons. There is also need for a threefold commitment on
the institutional level: to prevention, to victim protection and to
the legal prosecution of perpetrators. Moreover, since criminal
organisations employ global networks to achieve their goals, efforts
to eliminate this phenomenon also demand a common and, indeed, a
global effort on the part of various sectors of society.
States
must ensure that their own legislation truly respects the dignity of
the human person in the areas of migration, employment, adoption, the
movement of businesses offshore and the sale of items produced by
slave labour. There is a need for just laws which are centred on the
human person, uphold fundamental rights and restore those rights when
they have been violated. Such laws should also provide for the
rehabilitation of victims, ensure their personal safety, and include
effective means of enforcement which leave no room for corruption or
impunity. The role of women in society must also be recognised, not
least through initiatives in the sectors of culture and social
communications.
Intergovernmental
organisations, in keeping with the principle of subsidiarity, are
called to coordinate initiatives for combating the transnational
networks of organised crime which oversee the trafficking of persons
and the illegal trafficking of migrants. Cooperation is clearly
needed at a number of levels, involving national and international
institutions, agencies of civil society and the world of finance.
Businesses
have a duty to ensure dignified working conditions and adequate
salaries for their employees, but they must also be vigilant that
forms of subjugation or human trafficking do not find their way into
the distribution chain. Together with the social responsibility of
businesses, there is also the social responsibility of consumers.
Every person ought to have the awareness that 'purchasing is always a
moral – and not simply an economic – act'.
Organisations
in civil society, for their part, have the task of awakening
consciences and promoting whatever steps are necessary for combating
and uprooting the culture of enslavement.
In
recent years, the Holy See, attentive to the pain of the victims of
trafficking and the voice of the religious congregations which assist
them on their path to freedom, has increased its appeals to the
international community for cooperation and collaboration between
different agencies in putting an end to this scourge. Meetings have
also been organised to draw attention to the phenomenon of human
trafficking and to facilitate cooperation between various agencies,
including experts from the universities and international
organisations, police forces from migrants’ countries of origin,
transit, or destination, and representatives of ecclesial groups
which work with victims. It is my hope that these efforts will
continue to expand in years to come.
Globalising
fraternity, not slavery or indifference
6.
In her 'proclamation of the truth of Christ’s love in society', the
Church constantly engages in charitable activities inspired by the
truth of the human person. She is charged with showing to all the
path to conversion, which enables us to change the way we see our
neighbours, to recognise in every other person a brother or sister in
our human family, and to acknowledge his or her intrinsic dignity in
truth and freedom. This can be clearly seen from the story of
Josephine Bakhita, the saint originally from the Darfur region in
Sudan who was kidnapped by slave-traffickers and sold to brutal
masters when she was nine years old. Subsequently – as a result of
painful experiences – she became a 'free daughter of God' thanks to
her faith, lived in religious consecration and in service to others,
especially the most lowly and helpless. This saint, who lived at the
turn of the twentieth century, is even today an exemplary witness of
hope for the many victims of slavery; she can support the efforts of
all those committed to fighting against this 'open wound on the body
of contemporary society, a scourge upon the body of Christ'.
In
the light of all this, I invite everyone, in accordance with his or
her specific role and responsibilities, to practice acts of
fraternity towards those kept in a state of enslavement. Let us ask
ourselves, as individuals and as communities, whether we feel
challenged when, in our daily lives, we meet or deal with persons who
could be victims of human trafficking, or when we are tempted to
select items which may well have been produced by exploiting others.
Some of us, out of indifference, or financial reasons, or because we
are caught up in our daily concerns, close our eyes to this. Others,
however, decide to do something about it, to join civic associations
or to practice small, everyday gestures – which have so much merit!
– such as offering a kind word, a greeting or a smile. These cost
us nothing but they can offer hope, open doors, and change the life
of another person who lives clandestinely; they can also change our
own lives with respect to this reality.
We
ought to recognise that we are facing a global phenomenon which
exceeds the competence of any one community or country. In order to
eliminate it, we need a mobilisation comparable in size to that of
the phenomenon itself. For this reason I urgently appeal to all men
and women of good will, and all those near or far, including the
highest levels of civil institutions, who witness the scourge of
contemporary slavery, not to become accomplices to this evil, not to
turn away from the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, our fellow
human beings, who are deprived of their freedom and dignity. Instead,
may we have the courage to touch the suffering flesh of Christ,
revealed in the faces of those countless persons whom he calls 'the
least of these my brethren'.
We
know that God will ask each of us: What did you do for your brother?
The globalisation of indifference, which today burdens the lives of
so many of our brothers and sisters, requires all of us to forge a
new worldwide solidarity and fraternity capable of giving them new
hope and helping them to advance with courage amid the problems of
our time and the new horizons which they disclose and which God
places in our hands”.
“Love
is our mission: the family, fully alive”: theme of the 7th World
Meeting of Families
Vatican
City, 10 December 2014 (VIS) – The 7th World Meeting of Families
will take place from 22 to 27 September 2015 in Philadelphia, U.S.A.,
and its theme will be “Love is our mission: the family fully
alive”, as announced by Pope Francis in a letter addressed to
Bishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Council for the
Family, in which he also confirms his attendance at the event.
“The
mission of the Christian family, today as in the past, is that of
announcing God's love to the world, with the strength of the nuptial
Sacrament. From this same announcement a living family is born and is
constructed, that places love at the centre of all its human and
spiritual dynamism. If, as St. Irenaeus said, 'Gloria Dei vivens
homo', also a family that lives fully its vocation and mission, with
the Lord's grace, renders glory to Him”.
Francis
remarked that during the recent Synod on the family the most urgent
issues affecting the family in our society were identified, and he
underlined that “we cannot qualify a family with ideological
concepts, we cannot speak about a conservative family or a
progressive family. The family is the family! The values and virtues
of the family, its essential truths, are the strong points on which
the family nucleus rests, and they cannot be called into question”.
We are required, instead, to “review our style of life, that is
always open to the risk of being 'contaminated' by a worldly
mentality – individualist, consumerist, hedonistic – and to
rediscover the high road, to live and to propose the greatness and
beauty of marriage and the joy and being and forming a family”.
Both
the indications given in the Final Report of the Synod and those that
guide the path to the October 2015 Ordinary Assembly “invite us to
continue in our efforts in announcing the Gospel of marriage and the
family, and of experiencing the pastoral proposals in the social and
cultural context in which we live. The challenges of this context
stimulate us to broaden our capacity for faithful love open to life,
to communion, to mercy, to sharing and to solidarity”, concluded
Pope Francis, exhorting married couples, priests, and associations to
let themselves “be guided by the Word of God, on which there rest
the foundations of the holy edifice of the family, domestic Church
and family of God”.
Other
Pontifical Acts
Vatican
City, 10 December 2014 (VIS) – The Holy Father has appointed Rev.
Fr. Eduardo Vieira dos Santos and Rev. Fr. Devair Araujo da Fonseca
as auxiliaries of the archdiocese of Sao Paulo (area 655, population
6,633,912, Catholics 4,776,416, priests 995, permanent deacons 72,
religious 2,316), Brazil.
The
bishop-elect Eduardo Vieira dos Santos was born in Bom Sucesso,
Brazil in 1965 and was ordained a priest in 2000. He holds a
licentiate in canon law and has served in a number of pastoral roles,
including: pastoral assistant, parish priest of the “Sao Joao
Gualberto” parish, chaplain of the Parque Gethsemani cemetery,
coordinator of extraordinary ministry of the Communion for the
archdiocese of Sao Paulo and vice rector of the Sao Paulo seminary of
theology. He is currently archdiocesan chanceller of parish priest of
the Cathedral of Sao Paulo.
The
bishop-elect Devair Araujo da Fonseca was born in Franca, Brazil in
1968 and was ordained a priest in 1998. He holds a licentiate in
dogmatic theology and has served in a number of pastoral roles,
including: parish vicar, parish priest in the “Sao Crispim”
parish, rector of the “Nossa Senhora do Carmo” diocesan seminary,
chaplain of Carmelo de Santa Teresa, professor at the Joao XXIII
Institute of Theology, secretary and president of the OSIB
(Organisation of Seminaries and Institutes of Brazil). He is
currently parish priest of the “Sao Jose” parish in Orlandia and
diocesan coordinator for pastoral ministry.
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