VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXIV - # 77   
   DATE 28-04-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - THE POPE RECEIVES KING JUAN CARLOS AND QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN   
   - THE POPE: DO NOT BE AFRAID, THINK OF THE YOUNG APOSTLES   
   - FOURTH MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF CARDINALS   
   - COMMUNIQUE OF THE COMMISSION OF CARDINALS ON THE INSTITUTE FOR THE WORKS OF   
   RELIGION (IOR)   
   - MASS OF THANKSGIVING FOR THE CANONISATION OF JOHN PAUL II   
   - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE POPE RECEIVES KING JUAN CARLOS AND QUEEN SOFIA OF SPAIN   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning, in the study adjacent to   
   Paul VI Hall, Pope Francis received King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain,   
   who then went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin,   
   accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with   
   States.   
    During the cordial discussions the Parties remarked on the good relations   
   between the Holy See and Spain, which have been increasingly consolidated in   
   the spirit of the 1979 Agreements. In this context, mention was made of some   
   current issues regarding the Church's mission in society and the situation of   
   the country.   
    This was followed by an exchange of views on matters of an international   
   nature, with special reference to various situations of crisis.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE POPE: DO NOT BE AFRAID, THINK OF THE YOUNG APOSTLES   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father Francis has sent a video   
   message to the young of Buenos Aires for National Youth Day. The message, in   
   which the Pope speaks off the cuff, had been requested in advance by Cardinal   
   Mario Aurelio Poli, archbishop of Buenos Aires, and was rebroadcast on   
   Saturday afternoon.   
    "While making this recording I was thinking of what they would say", says the   
   Pope in the video. "'What are you going?', I have already said. 'That they   
   must not be afraid': I have already told them'. 'That they are free': I have   
   already said so. Then some of the young people in the Gospel came to mind. The   
   young people who came across Jesus, or those he spoke about. ... I thought   
   about the young apostles, the young rich man, the prodigal son who seeks a new   
   life with his father's inheritance, the widow's son, dead; ... how they were   
   moved by Jesus, filled with enthusiasm, with that wonder that comes from the   
   encounter with Jesus. .. And some of the apostles faltered, some did not   
   behave so well. ... There is the struggle to be faithful to this encounter,   
   the encounter with Jesus. ... God is very good", he continues. "God takes   
   advantage of our failures to speak to our hearts. God doesn't say, 'You're a   
   failure, look what you have done'. He reasons with us".   
    Pope Francis lists a number of examples of young men in the Gospel, and   
   remarked that young women might complain, "'Father, you are unjust ... your   
   examples are all men. What about us?' ... You aspire in your lives to   
   consolidate tenderness and fidelity. You are on the path of the women who   
   followed Jesus, through thick and thin. Women have the great gift of being   
   able to give life, of being able to give tenderness, of being able to give   
   peace and joy. There is one model for you, Mary: the woman of fidelity, who   
   did not understand what was happening to her but obeyed nonetheless; who, as   
   soon as she knew her cousin needed her, ran to her, the Virgin of Readiness.   
   Mary, who helped to raise her Son and to accompany Him, and followed Him when   
   he began to preach; who suffered through all that happened to the boy as he   
   grew. She who stayed by His side and told Him of problems: 'Look, they have no   
   wine'. She who, at the moment of the Cross, stayed next to Him. ... You are   
   women of the Church ... who is female, like Mary. This is your place. Being   
   Church, forming the Church, being with Jesus, with tenderness, to accompany   
   the Church and help her grow".   
    Pope Francis joked with the young women, with a cheerful tone and Argentine   
   accent, "So don't be angry, you got a better deal than the men!", and he   
   commended them to "Mary, Lady of the Caress, Lady of Tenderness, Lady of the   
   Readiness to Serve", who shows them the way. Addressing all the young people,   
   he concluded, "May each one of you encounter Jesus, the Risen Jesus. And I say   
   one thing to you: do not be afraid! Look at Jesus, look at Mary, and go   
   forward!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    FOURTH MEETING OF THE COUNCIL OF CARDINALS   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - The fourth meeting of the Council of   
   Cardinals with the Holy Father began this morning, and will continue during   
   the 29 and 30 April. The Council of Cardinals was instituted by Pope Francis   
   to help him in the governance of the universal Church and to draw up a project   
   for the revision of the apostolic constitution "Pastor Bonus" on the Roman   
   Curia.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    COMMUNIQUE OF THE COMMISSION OF CARDINALS ON THE INSTITUTE FOR THE WORKS OF   
   RELIGION (IOR)   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - Today at 9 a.m., at the premises of the   
   Institute for the Works of Religion, the Supervisory Commission of Cardinals   
   met in order to draw up guidelines for their action. Furthermore, it was   
   decided that the Supervisory Commission will initially meet thrice yearly,   
   notwithstanding special circumstances necessitating other meetings.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    MASS OF THANKSGIVING FOR THE CANONISATION OF JOHN PAUL II   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - At 10 a.m. today in St. Peter's Square   
   Cardinal Angelo Comastri, vicar general of His Holiness for Vatican City and   
   archpriest of the Vatican Basilica, presided at a Mass of thanksgiving for the   
   canonisation of John Paul II.   
    The Eucharist was preceded by a greeting from Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz,   
   archbishop of Krakow, Poland, who was the new saint's secretary. "Yesterday",   
   he said, addressing the thousands of faithful who filled the Square, "two   
   Blessed Popes were inscribed among the Saints: the first, John XXIII, a son of   
   the land of Italy, who merited the title of the 'Good Pope'. It was he who   
   announced Vatican Council II, more than half a century ago. The second of the   
   new Saints, John Paul II, son of Poland, the Pope of Divine Mercy,   
   consequently gave life to the decision of the Council and led the Church into   
   the third millennium of Christian faith".   
    "We thank God for this dual gift. We offer thanks for the extraordinarily   
   transparent witness of love and service of both these pastors. ... For this   
   dual gift we offer our most heartfelt thanks to the Holy Father Francesco. Let   
   us thank him because already in the first year of his pontificate he took the   
   decision to canonise his Predecessors, setting the date for Divine Mercy   
   Sunday", added the cardinal archbishop, who concluded his address by offering   
   thanks on behalf of his compatriots "to Italy and all of her inhabitants for   
   having welcomed Karol Wojtyla many years ago, as bishop and pope, as he   
   arrived in Rome 'from a far away country'". Italy became a second homeland to   
   him. Today John Paul II will surely bless her from on high, just as he surely   
   blesses Poland and the entire world. There was a place in his heart for all   
   nations, cultures and languages".   
    Cardinal Comastri recalled John Paul II's words: "The saints do not ask us to   
   applaud them; they ask that we imitate them", and urged the pilgrims to   
   imitate the new saint who had "the courage to openly defend faith in Jesus in   
   an age of 'silent apostasy on the part of people who have all that they need   
   and who live as if God does not exist' ... to defend the family, to defend   
   human life, to defend peace while the grim winds of war blew ... to encounter   
   the young to free them from the culture of emptiness and the ephemeral and to   
   invite them to welcome Christ, the sole light of life and the only one able to   
   bring the fullness of joy to the human heart".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
    Vatican City, 28 April 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has accepted the   
   resignation from the office of auxiliary of the archdiocese of Dhaka,   
   Bangladesh, presented by Bishop Theotonius Gomes C.S.C., upon reaching the age   
   limit.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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