Subject: VISnews140307   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
      
    VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 46   
   DATE 07-03-2014   
      
   Summary:   
    - THE POPE TO THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: TAKE THE PATH TO FULL COMMUNION   
   WITHOUT FEAR   
    - THE POPE AND THE ROMAN CURIA BEGIN THEIR SPIRITUAL EXERCISES   
    - GOOD FRIDAY: COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY LAND   
    - AUDIENCES   
    - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   THE POPE TO THE WORLD COUNCIL OF CHURCHES: TAKE THE PATH TO FULL COMMUNION   
   WITHOUT FEAR   
   Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) -; This morning the Holy Father met with   
   Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, secretary general of the World Council for Churches,   
   accompanied by a delegation. The Pope remarked that this encounter   
   "marks an important chapter in the long and fruitful relationship   
   between the Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches", and   
   acknowledged "the service it performs in the cause of unity between   
   believers in Christ".   
   "Since its creation, the World Council of Churches has offered a great   
   contribution to forming the sensibility of all Christians with regard to the   
   fact that our divisions represent a major obstacle to our witness to the   
   Gospel in the world. These divisions must not be accepted with resignation, as   
   if they were simply an inevitable component of the historic experience of the   
   Church. If Christians ignore the Lord's call to unity, they risk ignoring the   
   Lord Himself and the salvation He offers through His Body, the Church: 'there   
   is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name ... by which we   
   must be saved.'"   
   "The way to full and visible communion is a path which still proves   
   today to be arduous and uphill. The Spirit, however, urges us not to be   
   afraid, to go ahead with trust, and not to content ourselves with the progress   
   that we have been able to experience in these decades. Prayer is fundamental   
   on this path. Only in a spirit of humble and persistent prayer can we attain   
   the necessary farsightedness, discernment and motivations for offering our   
   service to the human family, in all its weakness and with all its needs, both   
   spiritual and material".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   THE POPE AND THE ROMAN CURIA BEGIN THEIR SPIRITUAL EXERCISES   
   Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) -; On 9 March, the first Sunday of Lent,   
   the Pope and the Roman Curia will begin their spiritual exercises. The   
   meditations will be led by Fr. Angelo De Donatis, parish of San Marco   
   Evangelista in Campidoglio.   
   This year's spiritual exercises will be based on the theme "the   
   purification of the heart" and will take place in the Pauline residence,   
   "Casa del Divin Maestro" in Ariccia, a few kilometres outside   
   Rome.   
   The retreat will continue until 14 March and during this period all pontifical   
   audiences will be suspended, including the general audience of Wednesday 12   
   March.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   GOOD FRIDAY: COLLECTION FOR THE HOLY LAND   
   Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) -; Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of   
   the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, has addressed a letter to all   
   bishops worldwide in view of the collection for the Holy Land, which   
   traditionally takes place on Good Friday. The letter is also signed by   
   Archbishop Cyril Vasil, S.J., secretary of the same dicastery.   
   "Every day, Christians in various regions of the Middle East ask   
   themselves whether to stay there or to emigrate: they live in conditions of   
   insecurity or suffer violence, at times for the mere fact of professing their,   
   and our, faith", he says. "Every day there are brothers and   
   sisters who resist, choosing to remain there where God fulfilled in Christ His   
   plan for universal reconciliation. From that land there departed those who,   
   upon Christ's Word, brought the Gospel to the four corners of the world. It is   
   there that the Church always rediscovers, with her roots, the 'great hope'   
   that bears Jesus' name, but the current situation is truly delicate: it is   
   enough to think of the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the evolution   
   that Egypt is undergoing, and the tragedy in Syria".   
   Cardinal Sandri continues, "On Good Friday we wish to raise to the   
   Crucified the cry for peace for Jerusalem so that the world, starting from the   
   land of Jesus, might become the City of Peace".   
   A document prepared by the Custodian of the Holy Land details the works   
   carried out as a result of the 2012-2013 collection.   
   In addition to providing scholarships to students from different dioceses, the   
   collection has enabled restoration work to be carried out in various places,   
   including the Mensa Christi Church, the Cafarnao archaeological site and the   
   Shrine of Nain. Funds have also been distributed to support parishes,   
   families, schools, universities and cultural works, through the Custodian of   
   the Holy Land, such as the Faculty of Biblical Sciences and Archaeology of the   
   Studium Biblicum Francescanum in Jerusalem, and the Franciscan Media Centre.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   AUDIENCES   
   Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) -; Today, the Holy Father received in   
   audience:   
   - Archbishop Andres Carrascosa Coso, apostolic nuncio in Panama.   
   - Archbishop Jean-Abdo Arbach B.C. of Homs of the Greek Melkites, Syria.   
   - Twelve prelates of the Spanish Episcopal Conference on their "ad   
   limina" visit:   
   - Cardinal Lluis Martinez Sistach, archbishop of Barcelona, with his   
   auxiliary, Bishop Sebastia Taltavull Anglada;   
   - Bishop Agustin Cortes Soriano of Sant Feliu de Llobregat;   
   - Bishop Josep Angel Saiz Meneses of Terrassa, with his auxiliary, Bishop   
   Salvador Christian Coll;   
   - Archbishop Jaume Pujol Balcells of Tarragona;   
   - Bishop Francesc Pardo Artigas of Gerona;   
   - Bishop Joan Piris Frigola of Lleida;   
   - Bishop Xavier Novell Goma of Solsona;   
   - Bishop Enrique Benavent Vidal of Tortosa;   
   - Archbishop Joan Enric Vives Sicilia, bishop of Urgell;   
   - Bishop Roman Casanova Casanova of Vic.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
      
   OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
   Vatican City, 7 March 2014 (VIS) -; The Holy Father has appointed Bishop   
   Cristian Contreras Villarroel, auxiliary of the diocese of Santiago de Chile,   
   Chile, as bishop of Melipilla (area 6,217, population 523,700, Catholics   
   418,700, priests 66, permanent deacons 65, religious 138), Chile. He succeeds   
   Bishop Enrique Troncoso Troncoso, whose resignation upon reaching the age   
   limit was accepted by the Holy Father.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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