During the cordial discussions, the Parties focused on various aspects of the   
   life of the country including numerous recent reforms, in particular the   
   constitutional amendments regarding religious freedom. Attention then turned   
   to other matters of common interest, such as migration, the struggle against   
   poverty and unemployment, and initiatives for combating violence and drug   
   trafficking.   
    Finally, there was an exchange of opinions on themes relating to current   
   regional and international affairs.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE CHURCH PROPOSES A SYSTEM OF JUSTICE THAT AIMS TO FULL REHABILITATE   
   WRONGDOERS   
    Vatican City, 7 June 2014 (VIS) - On 30 May Pope Francis sent a message to   
   the participants in the 19th Congress of the International Criminal Law   
   Association and the 3rd Congress of the Latin American Association for Penal   
   Law and Criminology, held last week in Buenos Aires, in which he shares with   
   them some ideas which "form part of the Scriptures and the millennial   
   experience of the People of God" and, in which "in spite of historical   
   changes, three elements have been constant: the satisfaction or reparation of   
   damage caused; confession, by which a man expresses his inner conversion; and   
   contrition, to lead to the encounter with God's merciful and healing love".   
    With reference to the first, satisfaction, Francis observes that "the Lord   
   has gradually taught his people that there is a necessary asymmetry between   
   crime and punishment, that an eye or a broken tooth cannot be restored by   
   taking or breaking another. It is a matter of bringing justice to the victim,   
   not punishing the aggressor", and "in our societies we tend to think that   
   crimes are solved when we capture and sentence the criminal, largely avoiding   
   the damage caused or without paying sufficient attention to the situation in   
   which the victims find themselves. However, it would be a mistake to identify   
   reparation solely with punishment, to confuse justice and vengeance, which can   
   only contribute to increasing violence, even if this latter is i   
   stitutionalised. Experience teaches us that the increase and hardening of   
   penalties often neither solves social problems, nor reduces crime rates. And,   
   furthermore, this may give rise to serious social problems, such as   
   overcrowding of prisons or prisoners detained without trial".   
    "In this regard", he continues, "means of communication ... play a very   
   important role and hold great responsibility: we depend on them to give   
   accurate information and not to contribute to creating alarm or social panic   
   when they provide news of criminal activities. The life and dignity of people   
   is at stake, and these must be turned into media events, subject to attention   
   often of an unhealthy nature, condemning the suspects to social disparagement   
   before being judged or forcing victims, for sensationalist purposes, to   
   publicly relive their suffering".   
    The second aspect, confession, is "the attitude of those who recognise and   
   admit their guilt. If the criminal is not sufficiently helped, he or she is   
   not offered the chance to be able to convert, and ends up as a victim of the   
   system. ... It is necessary to move forward and to do everything possible to   
   correct, improve and educate the person so that he is able tomature in   
   respects, so he is not discouraged and faces the damage caused, rethinking his   
   life without being crushed by the weight of his miseries. ... And we must ask   
   ourselves why some fall and others do not, in spite of being in the same   
   condition. Not infrequently criminality is rooted in economic and social   
   inequality, in networks of corruption and organised crime, that seek   
   accomplices among the poorest and victims among the most vulnerable. To   
   prevent this scourge, it is not enough to have just laws: it is necessary to   
   construct responsible people able to put them into practice. A society that is   
   governed solely by market laws and creates false expectations and superfluous   
   necessities, discards those who are not at the top and prevents the slow, the   
   weak or the less gifted from taking an open road in life".   
    Finally, contrition is "the gateway to repentance, the privileged path to the   
   heart of God, Who welcomes us and always offers us another chance if we open   
   ourselves up to the truth of penance and allow ourselves to be transformed by   
   His mercy. ... The attitude of God, Who goes before the sinner to offer him   
   His forgiveness, is shown in this way to be a higher justice, both equanimous   
   and compassionate, with no contradiction between these two aspects.   
   Forgiveness, in effect, neither eliminates nor diminishes the need for   
   rectification required by justice, nor does it ignore the need for personal   
   conversion, but instead goes beyond this, seeking to restore relationships and   
   to reintegrate people into society".   
    "I think that here is the great challenge that we must all face", concludes   
   the Pope, "so that the measures taken against evil are not limited to   
   suppressing, discouraging and isolating those who cause it, but instead help   
   them to rehabilitate, to re-embark upon the path of good, to be authentic   
   people who move on from their miseries to become merciful themselves.   
   Therefore, the Church proposes a form of justice that is humanising, genuinely   
   reconciliatory, a justice that leads the wrongdoer, through an educative path   
   of encouraged penance, to rehabilitation and total reinsertion in the   
   community. How important and good it would be to take on this challenge, so as   
   not to let it fall into oblivion. How good it would be to take the necessary   
   steps to ensure that forgiveness does nto remain exclusively in the private   
   sphere, but instead attains a real political and institutional dimension to   
   create harmonious relations of coexistence.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    STUDY DAY DEDICATED TO ST. PIUS X   
    Vatican City, 9 June 2014 (VIS) - The Pontifical Committee for Historical   
   Sciences has organised a study day dedicated to St. Pius X (1914-2014) to be   
   held on 12 June , the centenary of his death. The theme of the day is "St.   
   Pius X, a reforming pope facing the challenges of the new century", and it was   
   presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office by Fr. Bernard Ardura O.   
   Praem., president of the aforementioned Committee and by Professor Alejandro   
   Mario Dieguez of the Vatican Secret Archive.   
    "During this day", said Fr. Ardura, "we intend to highlight the principles   
   and pastoral directions of St. Pius X who, throughout all his ministry, was   
   essentially a pastor of souls. ... All his efforts in the ecclesial and social   
   fields were dictated by a pastoral realism, oriented towards the renewal of   
   the Christian life of people and communities".   
    Diguez commented that the event "will offer an overview of new historical   
   information on this intense and crucial pontificate. ... This has been   
   possible thanks to the publication of archive sources (with four volumes   
   edited by the Vatican Archive), of profound and systematic research (not only   
   on modernism but also on apostolic visits, codification and the reform of the   
   curia), and study conferences (six over the last twenty-five years). It has   
   therefore been possible to recover the historical Pius X and not that of myth,   
   the Pius X of ecclesiastical governance and reform, and not that of popular   
   piety, recomposing the complex and fascinating personality of this pontiff".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE AIF FURTHER STRENGTHENS INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION   
    Vatican City, 7 June 2014 (VIS) - The Autorit  Informazione Finanziaria   
   (AIF), the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Holy See and Vatican City State,   
   has formalised its bilateral cooperation with the U.K., France and four other   
   countries with Memoranda of Understanding signed during the plenary meeting of   
   the Egmont Group held in Peru.   
    The Memoranda were signed with the Financial Intelligence Units of the U.K.,   
   France, Malta, Romania, Poland and Peru by the Director of the AIF, Rene   
   Bruelhart.   
    A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is standard practice and formalises the   
   cooperation and exchange of financial information to fight money laundering   
   and combat terrorist financing across borders between the competent   
   authorities of both countries. It is based on the model Memorandum of   
   Understanding prepared by the Egmont Group, the global organisation of   
   national Financial Intelligence Units, and contains clauses on reciprocity,   
   permitted uses of information and confidentiality.   
    "Becoming a member of the Egmont Group last year was a major step toward   
   strengthening the international cooperation of the Holy See and supporting the   
   global efforts to fight Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism", said   
   Bruelhart. "The signing of these latest MOUs shows that we are continuously   
   expanding our network of cooperation, and will further facilitate our joint   
   efforts".   
    AIF became a member of the Egmont Group in July of 2013, and has already   
   signed MOUs with the Financial Intelligence Units of Australia, Belgium,   
   Cyprus, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and the United States.   
    AIF is the competent authority of the Holy See/Vatican City State to fight   
   money laundering and the financing of terrorism. It was established in 2010.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    CARDINAL FILONI SPECIAL ENVOY TO FUNCHAL   
    Vatican City, 7 June 2014 (VIS) - Today a letter was published, written in   
   Latin and dated 28 May, by which the Holy Father appoints Cardinal Ferdinand   
   Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as his   
   special envoy to the celebrations for the 500th anniversary of the foundation   
   of the diocese of Funchal (Madeira, Portugal), which will take place from 13   
   to 16 June. The pontifical mission accompanying the cardinal will be composed   
   of Msgr. Jose Fiel de Sousa, vicar general, and the Rev. Canon Joao Duarte   
   Pita de Andrade, president of the cathedral chapter.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    AUDIENCES   
    Vatican City, 9 June 2014 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father received in audience:   
    - Cardinal George Pell, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.   
    - Francis Gurry, director general of the World Intellectual Property   
   Organisation (WIPO).   
    -Br. Enzo Bianchi, prior of the Monastery of Bose.   
    - Reinhard Schweppe, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, on his   
   farewell visit.   
    - Alicia Castro, ambassador of the Republic of Argentina to the United   
   Kingdom.   
    On Saturday, 7 June, the Holy Father received in audience:   
    - Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, prefect of the Congregation for Divine   
   Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.   
    - Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops.   
    - Cardinal Agostino Vallini, vicar general of His Holiness for the diocese of   
   Rome.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
    Vatican City, 9 June 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has:   
    - erected the new diocese of Izcalli (area 533, population 966,836, Catholics   
   821,351, priests 64, religious 64), Mexico, with territory taken from the   
   diocese of Cuautitlan, making it a suffragan of the metropolitan church of   
   Tlalnepantla. He appointed Msgr. Francisco Gonzalez Ramos as first bishop of   
   the new diocese. The bishop-elect was born in Pueblo Nuevo, Mexico in 1958 and   
   was ordained a priest in 1982. He holds a degree in philosophy from the   
   Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, and has held a number of pastoral and   
   educative roles, including prefect of discipline in the minor seminary of   
   Leon, and professor in the major seminary of Leon, and priest of the parish of   
   "Espiritu Santo".   
    - appointed the following members of the Congregation for the Clergy:   
   Cardinal Giuseppe Betori, archbishop of Florence, Italy; Cardinal Rainer Maria   
   Woelki, archbishop of Berlin, Germany; and Archbishop Gintaras Grusas of   
   Vilnius, Lithuania.   
    - confirmed the following as members of the Congregation for the Clergy:   
   Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera,   
   Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Cardinal Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, Cardinal Marc   
   Ouellet, Cardinal Jorge Liberato Urosa Savino, Cardinal Angelo Scola, Cardinal   
   Sean Patrick O'Malley, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, Cardinal Odilo Pedro   
   Scherer, Cardinal John Njue, Cardinal Donald William Wuerl, Cardinal Kazimierz   
   Nycz, Cardinal Willem Jacobus Eijk, Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz, Archbishop   
   Tomash Bernard Peta, Bishop Fernando Antonio Figueiredo O.F.M., Bishop Klaus   
   Kung, and Bishop Heinrich Mussinghoff.   
    On Saturday, 7 June, the Holy Father:   
    - appointed Archbishop Hubertus Matheus Maria van Megen, apostolic nuncio in   
   Sudan, as apostolic nuncio in Eritrea.   
    - appointed Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for   
   the Evangelisation of Peoples, as special envoy to the celebration of the 25th   
   anniversary of the restoration of the freedom of the Greek Catholic eparchy of   
   Mukachevo, to take place at the major seminary of Uzhhorod, Ukraine on 28 June   
   2014.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:   
   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
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   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
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    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)