VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 96   
   DATE 25-05-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - MASS IN MANGER SQUARE: GOD TELLS US TO SEEK THE CHILD IN A WORLD WHERE SO   
   MANY OF THEM LIVE IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS   
   - FRANCIS INVITES MAHMOUD ABBAS AND SHIMON PERES TO PRAY TOGETHER IN THE   
   VATICAN FOR PEACE   
   - REGINA COELI: FRANCIS COMMENDS THE HOLY LAND AND HER INHABITANTS TO MARY   
   - TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES: PEACE WILL BRING IMMEASURABLE BENEFITS TO   
   THE PEOPLE OF THIS REGION AND THE WORLD   
   - IN JORDAN: POPE RENEWS APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY FOR REFUGEES   
   FROM SYRIA AND IRAQ AND ASKS ARMS DEALERS TO CONVERT   
   - MESS IN AMMAN: MAY THE HOLY SPIRIT PREPARE US FOR ENCOUNTER DESPITE   
   DIFFERENT IDEAS, LANGUAGES, CULTURES OR RELIGIONS   
   - "VATICAN.VA" AVAILABLE IN ARABIC   
      
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    MASS IN MANGER SQUARE: GOD TELLS US TO SEEK THE CHILD IN A WORLD WHERE SO   
   MANY OF THEM LIVE IN INHUMAN CONDITIONS   
    Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father celebrated the   
   Eucharist in Bethlehem's Manger Square, at the confluence of Milk Grotto   
   Street (the site of a shrine situated in a grotto carved out of white tuff   
   rock, where according to tradition Mary fed the baby Jesus) and Paul VI   
   Street, named to commemorate Pope Montini's visit on 6 January 1964. During   
   his journey to the Presidential Palace of Bethlehem to Manger Square, the Pope   
   got out of the jeep and prayed before the wall dividing Bethlehem from Israel,   
   after which he rested his head on it for a moment.   
    The Mass was attended by the president of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, and   
   groups of faithful from the Gaza Strip and Galilee (State of Israel), as well   
   as many immigrant workers from Asia.   
    "What a great grace it is to celebrate the Eucharist in the place where Jesus   
   was born!" exclaimed the Pope. "I thank God and I thank all of you who have   
   welcomed me on my pilgrimage: President Mahmoud Abbas and the other civil   
   authorities; Patriarch Fouad Twal and the other bishops and ordinaries of the   
   Holy Land, the priests, the consecrated persons and all those who labour to   
   keep faith, hope and love alive in these lands; the faithful who have come   
   from Gaza and Galilee, and the immigrants from Asia and Africa. Thank you for   
   your welcome!"   
    "The Child Jesus, born in Bethlehem, is the sign given by God to those who   
   awaited salvation, and he remains forever the sign of God's tenderness and   
   presence in our world: 'This will be a sign for you: you will find a   
   child...'. Today too, children are a sign. They are a sign of hope, a sign of   
   life, but also a 'diagnostic' sign, a marker indicating the health of   
   families, society and the entire world. Wherever children are accepted, loved,   
   cared for and protected, the family is healthy, society is more healthy and   
   the world is more human. Here we can think of the work carried out by the   
   Ephpheta Paul VI institute for hearing and speech impaired Palestinian   
   children: it is a very real sign of God's goodness; it is a concrete sign of a   
   better society. To us, the men and women of the twenty-first century, God also   
   says: 'This will be a sign for you', look to the child... The Child of   
   Bethlehem is frail, like all newborn children. He cannot speak and yet he is   
   the Word made flesh who came to transform the hearts and lives of all men and   
   women. This Child, like every other child, is vulnerable; he needs to be   
   accepted and protected. Today too, children need to be welcomed and defended,   
   from the moment of their conception.   
    "Sadly, in this world of ours, with all its highly developed technology,   
   great numbers of children continue to live in inhuman situations, on the   
   fringes of society, in the peripheries of great cities and in the   
   countryside", he continued. "All too many children continue to exploited,   
   maltreated, enslaved, prey to violence and illicit trafficking. Still too many   
   children live in exile, as refugees, at times lost at sea, particularly in the   
   waters of the Mediterranean. Today, in acknowledging this, we feel shame   
   before God, before God who became a child. And we have to ask ourselves: Who   
   are we, as we stand before the Child Jesus? Who are we, standing as we stand   
   before today's children? Are we like Mary and Joseph, who welcomed Jesus and   
   care for him with the love of a father and a mother? Or are we like Herod, who   
   wanted to eliminate him? Are we like the shepherds, who went in haste to kneel   
   before him in worship and offer him their humble gifts? Or are we indifferent?   
   Are we perhaps people who use fine and pious words, yet exploit pictures of   
   poor children in order to make money? Are we ready to be there for children,   
   to 'waste time' with them? Are we ready to listen to them, to care for them,   
   to pray for them and with them? Or do we ignore them because we are too caught   
   up in our own affairs?".   
    "'This will be a sign for you: you will find a child...'. Perhaps that little   
   boy or girl is crying. He is crying because he is hungry, because she is cold,   
   because he or she wants to be picked up and held in our arms... Today too,   
   children are crying, they are crying a lot, and their crying challenges us. In   
   a world which daily discards tons of food and medicine there are children,   
   hungry and suffering from easily curable diseases, who cry out in vain. In an   
   age which insists on the protection of minors, there is a flourishing trade in   
   weapons which end up in the hands of child-soldiers, there is a ready market   
   for goods produced by the slave labour of small children. Their cry is   
   stifled: they must fight, they must work, they cannot cry! But their mothers   
   cry for them, as modern-day Rachels: they weep for their children, and they   
   refuse to be consoled".   
    "'This will be a sign for you'. The Child Jesus, born in Bethlehem, every   
   child who is born and grows up in every part of our world, is a diagnostic   
   sign indicating the state of health of our families, our communities, our   
   nation. Such a frank and honest diagnosis can lead us to a new kind of   
   lifestyle where our relationships are no longer marked by conflict, oppression   
   and consumerism, but fraternity, forgiveness and reconciliation, solidarity   
   and love".   
    The Pope concluded with a prayer to the Holy Virgin: "Mary, Mother of Jesus,   
   you who accepted, teach us how to accept; you who adored, teach us how to   
   adore; you who followed, teach us how to follow. Amen".   
      
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    FRANCIS INVITES MAHMOUD ABBAS AND SHIMON PERES TO PRAY TOGETHER IN THE   
   VATICAN FOR PEACE   
    Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - At the end of the Eucharistic celebration,   
   the Pope invited the president of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, and   
   the president of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, to meet in the Vatican to   
   pray together for peace.   
    "In this, the birthplace of the Prince of Peace, I wish to invite you,   
   President Mahmoud Abbas, together with President Shimon Peres, to join me in   
   heartfelt prayer to God for the gift of peace", said the Pope following the   
   Regina Coeli. "I offer my home in the Vatican as a place for this encounter of   
   prayer".   
    "All of us want peace. Many people build it day by day through small gestures   
   and acts; many of them are suffering, yet patiently persevere in their efforts   
   to be peacemakers. All of us - especially those placed at the service of their   
   respective peoples - have the duty to become instruments and artisans of   
   peace, especially by our prayers. Building peace is difficult, but living   
   without peace is a constant torment. The men and women of these lands, and of   
   the entire world, all of them, ask us to bring before God their fervent hopes   
   for peace".   
      
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    REGINA COELI: FRANCIS COMMENDS THE HOLY LAND AND HER INHABITANTS TO MARY   
    Vatican City, 25 May 2014 (VIS) - After proposing the Vatican as the the   
   location for a prayer meeting between the presidents of the State of Palestine   
   and the State of Israel, Pope Francis prayed the Regina Coeli, commenting that   
   it was precisely there in Bethlehem that Mary gave birth to her Son Jesus and   
   that the Virgin "is the one who, more than any other person, contemplated God   
   in the human face of Jesus. Assisted by Saint Joseph, she wrapped him in   
   swaddling clothes and laid him in the manger".   
    "To Mary we entrust this land and all who dwell here, that they may live in   
   justice, peace and fraternity", he said. "We entrust also the pilgrims who   
   come here to draw from the sources of the Christian faith - so many of them   
   are also present at this Holy Mass. Mary, watch over our families, our young   
   people and our elderly. Watch over those who have lost faith and hope. Comfort   
   the sick, the imprisoned and all who suffer. Watch over the Church's Pastors   
   and the entire community of believers; may they may be 'salt and light' in   
   this blessed land. Sustain all educational initiatives, particularly Bethlehem   
   University".   
    "Contemplating the Holy Family here in Bethlehem, my thoughts turn   
   spontaneously to Nazareth, which I hope to visit, God willing, on another   
   occasion. From this place I embrace with affection the Christian faithful   
   living in Galilee and I express my support for the building of the   
   International Centre for the Family in Nazareth. We entrust the future of our   
   human family to Mary Most Holy, that new horizons may open in our world, with   
   the promise of fraternity, solidarity and peace".   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)