VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 92   
   DATE 20-05-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - TO ITALIAN BISHOPS: ACCOMPANY YOUR PROCLAMATION WITH THE ELOQUENCE OF   
   GESTURES   
   - THE POPE PROFOUNDLY SADDENED BY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN FUNDACION, COLOMBIA   
   - CELEBRATE THE WORLD CUP 2014 FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR ALL   
   - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    TO ITALIAN BISHOPS: ACCOMPANY YOUR PROCLAMATION WITH THE ELOQUENCE OF GESTURES   
    Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis   
   inaugurated the 66th assembly of Italian bishops, in which they will discuss   
   proposals to amend the Statute and Regulation of the Italian Episcopal   
   Conference (CEI), as well as the "Guide to proclamation and catechesis in   
   Italy". They will also consider the theme "Christian education and   
   missionarity in the light of the Apostolic exhortation 'Evangelii gaudium'".   
   It is the first time that a pontiff has presided at an assembly of the CEI.   
    Francis structured his discourse in three points, directing it at pastors of   
   a Church that is the community of the Resurrected, that is the body of the   
   Lord, and that anticipates and promises the Kingdom. He began by telling the   
   bishops: "The people look to us. They look to us for help in grasping the   
   singularity of their daily lives in God's providential plan"; and emphasised   
   that "faith is the living memory of an encounter nurtured by the fire of the   
   Word that shapes the ministry and anoints the people. ... Without constant   
   prayer, the Pastor is exposed to the danger of being ashamed of the Gospel,   
   and ends up defusing the scandal of the Cross in worldly 'wisdom'".   
    "The temptations, which aim to obscure the primacy of God and His Christ, are   
   legion in the life of the Pastor: they range from lukewarmness, which leads to   
   mediocrity ... which dodges renunciation and sacrifice; then there is the   
   temptation to haste in pastoral ministry, along with that sloth that leads to   
   intolerance, almost as if everything were a burden. ... There is a temptation   
   to grow accustomed to sadness, cancelling out every expectation and   
   creativity, leaving us unsatisfied and therefore incapable of entering into   
   the lives of our people and understanding them in the light of Easter morning".   
    To combat these temptations, the Pope urges the Italian bishops never to   
   cease to seek the Lord, because "He is the principle and foundation that   
   envelops our weaknesses with mercy, transforming and renewing everything; we   
   are called to offer He Who is most precious to our people, so as not to leave   
   them at the mercy of a society of indifference, indeed desperation. ... If we   
   want to follow him, there is no other path. Following it with Him, we discover   
   that we are a people, to the point of recognising with wonder and gratitude   
   that all is grace, even the difficulties and contradictions of human life, if   
   these are lived with a heart open to the Lord".   
    Proceeding to speak of pastors of the Church as the body of the Lord, he   
   remarked that the Church is the "other grace for which we must feel profoundly   
   indebted. ... Unity is a gift and responsibility, and its sacrament shapes our   
   mission. ... The lack of communion is the greatest scandal", and "as Pastors,   
   we must seek refuge from temptations that otherwise disfigure us; ... the   
   hardness of he who judges without being involved, and the laxity of those who   
   acquiesce without taking responsibility for the other. ... the ambition that   
   generates 'currents', sectarianism ... and then, the tendency to seek the lost   
   security of the past, and the claims of those who wish to defend unity by   
   denying diversity, thus humiliating the gifts with which God continues to keep   
   His Church young and beautiful".   
    "In relation to these temptations, ecclesial experience is the most effective   
   antidote. It emanates from the sole Eucharist, whose cohesive strength   
   generates fraternity, the ability to accept, forgive and walk together". The   
   Holy Father urged the bishops to love people and communities with generous and   
   total dedication" and to trust that "the holy people of God has the pulse to   
   find the right roads. Accompany with breadth the growth of lay c   
   responsibility. ... With their insight and help, you will be able to avoid   
   remaining attached to a pastoral of conversation - indeed, generic, dispersed,   
   fragmented and of limited influence - and will instead adopt a form of   
   pastoral care that focuses on the essential".   
    In relation to the third point, "Pastors of a Church that anticipates and   
   promises the Kingdom", he commented that "serving the Kingdom means living a   
   life decentred from oneself, striving for the encounter that is the path for   
   truly rediscovering what we are: proclaimers of the truth of Christ and His   
   mercy. ... With this clarity, brothers, may your proclamation be cadenced by   
   the eloquence of gestures. ... And, among the 'places' in which your presence   
   seems to me to be most necessary and meaningful ... there is, first and   
   foremost, the family. Nowadays, the domestic community is strongly penalised   
   by a culture that privileges individual rights and transmits a logic of the   
   temporary. Promote the life of the unborn child as well as that of the   
   elderly. ... And do not forget to tend, with the compassion of the Samaritan,   
   to those who are emotionally wounded and whose plans for life are compromised".   
    Another space that the bishops must not desert is the "waiting room crowded   
   with the unemployed ... where the drama of those who do not know how to bring   
   bread home to the table encounters that of those who are not able to keep   
   their businesses afloat. It is an historic emergency, that appeals to the   
   social responsibility of all: as Church, let us not give in to catastrophism   
   and resignation, instead supporting with every form of creative solidarity the   
   efforts of those who, without work, feel deprived even of their dignity. ...   
   Finally, there is the welcoming embrace to migrants: they flee intolerance,   
   persecution, a bleak future. May no-one turn their gaze away! ... And, more   
   generally, in the difficult situations that so many of our contemporaries, may   
   they find you attentive and participatory, ready to re-examine the current   
   model of development that exploits creation, sacrifices people at the altar of   
   profit and creates new forms of marginalisation and exclusion".   
    "Reach out towards whoever asks to reason for the hope that is in you;   
   welcome their culture, offer them respectfully the memory of faith and the   
   company of the Church, the signs of brotherhood, gratitude and solidarity,   
   that anticipate in man's days the reflections of a Sunday without end".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE POPE PROFOUNDLY SADDENED BY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN FUNDACION, COLOMBIA   
    Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin   
   today sent a telegram on behalf of the Pope to Bishop Ugo Eugenio Puccini   
   Banfi of Santa Marta, Colombia, for the serious accident which occurred on   
   Sunday in Fundacion, in which 33 young children lost their lives, burned   
   inside a bus.   
    The Pope, "profoundly saddened, expresses his closeness and affection to all   
   those affected by this regrettable event", and "offers fervent prayers to God   
   for the eternal repose of the souls of the departed. United with those who   
   weep for this tragedy, he wishes to convey his heartfelt condolences to the   
   relatives of the deceased and his consolation to the survivors, along with his   
   hope that they make a swift and full recovery".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    CELEBRATE THE WORLD CUP 2014 FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR ALL   
    Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - This morning a press conference was held in   
   the Holy See Press Office to present the Talitha Kum International Network of   
   Consecrated Life against Human Trafficking campaign for the Brazil World Cup   
   2014: "Play for life, against trafficking". The speakers were Cardinal Joao   
   Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life   
   and Societies of Apostolic Life, Kenneth Francis Hackett, the United States'   
   ambassador to the Holy See, Sister Carmen Sammut, MSOLA, president of the   
   International Union of Superior Generals, Sister Estrella Castalone, F.M.A.,   
   coordinator of Talitha Kum, and Sister Gabriella Bottani, M.C.C.J.,   
   coordinator of the network Um Grito pela Vida, Brazil.   
    "This campaign shows the between consecrated life and the sentiments of our   
   Holy Father regarding this crime, that he himself has defined as a wound on   
   the body of contemporary humanity, a wound in Christ's flesh", said Cardinal   
   Braz de Aviz. Sister Carmen Sammut emphasised that unfortunately "this crime   
   is present everywhere, for the profits from it are enormous. Prevention of   
   this type of human trafficking entails reducing the demands for sexual   
   services. In order for this to happen, public opinion needs to be alerted".   
    Recalling the Holy Father's remark that it is impossible to remain   
   indifferent in the knowledge that there are human beings trafficked like   
   goods, Sister Gabriella Bottani pointed out that, according to official   
   statistics, this serious crime affects around 21 million people around the   
   world and that, with a better understanding of the phenomenon and its causes,   
   methods of encouraging it to be reported to the authorities can be found. "We   
   must forcefully combat the code of silence and fear surrounding this serious   
   violation of human dignity". The message of this campaign is a concrete and   
   positive proposal for life: "A dignified and free life for all". It is hoped   
   that the World Cup in Brazil may offer a positive space for the promotion of   
   the culture of rights and life, denouncing all forms of exploitation that   
   devalue and reduce it to the status of a commodity and raising awareness among   
   populations regarding the possible risks and how to intervene by reporting   
   transgressions to the authorities.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
    Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Ralph   
   Heskett, C.S.S.R., of Gibraltar, Great Britain, as bishop of Hallam (area   
   1,030, population 1,569,000, Catholics 60,188, priests 61, permanent deacons   
   14, religious 56), England. He succeeds Bishop John Anthony Rawsthorne, whose   
   resignation from the same diocese, upon reaching the age limit, was accepted   
   by the Holy Father.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)