VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXIV - # 73   
   DATE 24-04-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA   
   - STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE   
   - BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY   
   - POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD   
   - POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED   
   - CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH   
   - AUDIENCES   
   - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
   - HOLY WEEK:   
   - CHRISM MASS: ANOINTED WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS   
   - MASS "IN CENA DOMINI" AT THE DON GNOCCHI CENTRE   
   - VIA CRUCIS: A GLORIOUS CROSS LIKE DAWN FOLLOWING A LONG NIGHT   
   - HOLY SATURDAY: RETURN TO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CALL   
   - EASTER SUNDAY: LOVE LETS HOPE FLOURISH IN THE DESERT   
   - EASTER MONDAY: MARIA, MOTHER OF HOPE   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA   
    Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic   
   Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the prime minister of the   
   Republic of Albania, Edi Rama, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of   
   State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary   
   for Relations with States.   
    During the cordial discussions, the Parties remarked upon the good relations   
   between the Holy See and the Republic of Albania, and focused on themes of   
   common interest regarding the relations between the ecclesial and civil   
   communities, including interreligious dialogue and the contribution of the   
   Church to the common good of Albanian society.   
    Attention then turned to the principal regional issues and Albania’s progress   
   towards full integration within the European Union.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE   
    Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning the director of the Holy See   
   Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., issued the following statement:   
    "Several telephone calls have taken place in the context of Pope Francis’   
   personal pastoral relationships. Since they do not in any way form part of the   
   Pope's public activities, no information is to be expected from the Holy See   
   Press Office. That which has been communicated in relation to this matter,   
   outside the scope of personal relationships, and the consequent media   
   amplification, cannot be confirmed as reliable, and is a source of   
   misunderstanding and confusion. Therefore, consequences relating to the   
   teaching of the Church are not to be inferred from these occurrences".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY   
    Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Fr. Miguel   
   Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., respectively president and secretary of the   
   Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, have signed the message that   
   this dicastery sends each year to followers of Buddhism on the festival of   
   Vesakh.   
    Vesakh is the principal Buddhist holy day that commemorates the birth,   
   enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the   
   historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during the   
   full moon of the month of May; therefore, the date on which Vesakh is   
   celebrated varies from year to year and from country to country. On those   
   days, Buddhists visit local temples to offer the monks food and to hear the   
   teachings of the Buddha, taking special care to meditate and to observe the   
   eight precepts of Buddhism.   
    This year's message is entitled: "Buddhists and Christians: Together   
   Fostering Fraternity". Extensive extracts from the text are published below:   
    "Our cordial greetings this year are inspired by Pope Francis’ Message for   
   the World Day of Peace 2014, entitled Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway   
   to Peace. There, Pope Francis observes that 'fraternity is an essential human   
   quality, for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness   
   helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother;   
   without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and   
   lasting peace.   
    Your religious tradition inspires the conviction that friendly relations,   
   dialogue, the sharing of gifts, and the respectful and harmonious exchange of   
   views lead to attitudes of kindness and love which in turn generate authentic   
   and fraternal relationships. You are also convinced that the root of all evil   
   is the ignorance and misunderstanding born of greed and hatred, which in turn   
   destroy the bonds of fraternity. Unfortunately, 'daily acts of selfishness,   
   which are at the root of so many wars and so much injustice', prevent us from   
   seeing others 'as beings made for reciprocity, for communion and self-giving'.   
    As Buddhists and Christians, we live in a world all too often torn apart by   
   oppression, selfishness, tribalism, ethnic rivalry, violence and religious   
   fundamentalism, a world where the 'other' is treated as an inferior, a   
   non-person, or someone to be feared and eliminated if possible. Yet, we are   
   called, in a spirit of cooperation with other pilgrims and with people of good   
   will, to respect and to defend our shared humanity in a variety of   
   socio-economic, political and religious contexts. Drawing upon our different   
   religious convictions, we are called especially to be outspoken in denouncing   
   all those social ills which damage fraternity; to be healers who enable others   
   to grow in selfless generosity, and to be reconcilers who break down the walls   
   of division and foster genuine brotherhood between individuals and groups in   
   society.   
    Our world today is witnessing a growing sense of our common humanity and a   
   global quest for a more just, peaceful and fraternal world. But the fulfilment   
   of these hopes depends on a recognition of universal values. We hope that   
   interreligious dialogue will contribute, in the recognition of the fundamental   
   principles of universal ethics, to fostering a renewed and deepened sense of   
   unity and fraternity among all the members of the human family. Indeed, 'each   
   one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by   
   extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue   
   and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet each other in   
   order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of   
   encounter!'.   
    To build a world of fraternity, it is vitally important that we join forces   
   to educate people, particularly the young, to seek fraternity, to live in   
   fraternity and to dare to build fraternity. We pray that your celebration of   
   Vesakh will be an occasion to rediscover and promote fraternity anew,   
   especially in our divided societies".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD   
    Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - "Why do you seek the living one among the   
   dead?". With this question Pope Francis began his first catechesis following   
   Holy Week, on the feast of St. George, the Holy Father's name day. He   
   continued, "How often we look for life among dead things, things that cannot   
   give life, that are here today and gone tomorrow!".   
    The Pope explained that these words help us "when we close ourselves within   
   any form of selfishness or complacency; when we allow ourselves to be seduced   
   by earthly powers and the things of this world, forgetting God and neighbour;   
   when we place our trust in worldly vanities, in money, in success", and he   
   commented that for us, as for Thomas and Mary Magdalene, "it is not easy to   
   open oneself to Jesus; it is not obvious to accept he life of the Risen Christ   
   and His presence among us".   
    "This question helps us resist the temptation to look back, to what was   
   yesterday, and pushes us forward into the future. ... Today this question is   
   also addressed to us. You, why are you looking among the dead for one who is   
   alive? You, who close in on yourself after a failure or who no longer have the   
   strength to pray? You who feel alone, abandoned by friends, and perhaps even   
   by God? You who have lost hope or you who feel imprisoned by your sins? You   
   who aspire to beauty, spiritual perfection, justice, peace?".   
    "We need to hear ourselves repeat and remind each other of the angel’s   
   admonition", concluded the Holy Father, "since it helps us to emerge from our   
   moments of sadness and opens up horizons of joy and hope. That hope that   
   removes stones from graves and encourages us to proclaim the Good News,   
   capable of generating new life for others. ... Let us not seek among those   
   many tombs that promise everything and give nothing!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED   
    Vatican City, 23 April 2014 (VIS) - Following today's general audience, the   
   Holy Father launched an appeal for the workers of the Lucchini steelworks in   
   Piombino, which closed down a few days ago causing mass layoffs. Pope Francis   
   urged them not to despair, remarking that "when human hopes are extinguished,   
   the divine hope that never disappoints always remains alive". He appealed to   
   those in positions of responsibility to use all their creativity and   
   generosity "to reignite hope in the hearts of our brothers and sisters and in   
   the hearts of all those who have been left jobless as a result of waste and   
   the economic crisis. Please, open your eyes and don’t stand there with your   
   arms crossed!"   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH   
    Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of   
   the Supreme Pontiff today announced that on Sunday, 27 April, at 6 p.m.,   
   Cardinal Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo, archbishop of Ouagadougou, Burkina   
   Faso, will take possession of the title of St. Mary the Consoler at Tiburtino   
   (Via de Casal Bertone, 80).   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    AUDIENCES   
    Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in   
   audience:   
    - Fourteen prelates of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference on   
   their "ad limina" visit:   
    - Archbishop Jabulani Adatus Nxumalo of Bloemfontaine;   
    - Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem;   
    - Bishop Edward Gabriele Risi of Keimoes-Upington;   
    - Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley;   
    - Bishop Peter John Holiday of Kroonstad;   
    - Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town;   
    - Bishop Michael Wusternberg of Aliwal;   
    - Bishop Adam Leszek Musialek of De Aar;   
    - Bishop Francisco Fortunato De Gouveia of Oudtshoorn;   
    - Bishop Vincent Mduduzi Zungu of Port Elizabeth;   
    - Bishop Dabula Anton Mpako of Queenstown;   
    - Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, with his auxiliary   
   Bishop Barry Alexander Anthony Wood;   
    - Bishop Thomas Graham Rose of Dundee.   
    - Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik of Daejeon, South Korea.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Meridian MS=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)