VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 113   
   DATE 20-06-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - CORPUS DOMINI: LIVING THE EXPERIENCE OF FAITH MEANS BEING NOURISHED BY THE   
   LORD   
   - THE CHURCH DOES NOT ABANDON THOSE WHO FALL INTO THE VORTEX OF DRUG ABUSE   
   - RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, MORE WIDESPREAD TODAY THAN 1700 YEARS AGO   
   - POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT ROME'S GEMELLI HOSPITAL   
   - AUDIENCES   
   - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    CORPUS DOMINI: LIVING THE EXPERIENCE OF FAITH MEANS BEING NOURISHED BY THE   
   LORD   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, on the Solemnity of   
   Corpus Domini, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass in the square of St. John   
   Lateran, the cathedral basilica of Rome. He commented in his homily that human   
   beings not only suffer from physical hunger, but hunger also for life, love   
   and eternity, for the manna that God gave to the people of Israel in the   
   desert and which the Eucharist symbolises.   
    Referring to Moses' phrase: "The Lord your God ... fed you with manna which   
   you did not know", Francis spoke about the history of the chosen people, whom   
   God led out of Egypt and their condition of slaves to guide them to the   
   promised land. However, once established there, the Israelites enjoyed   
   prosperity and were in danger of forgetting their past of famine and despair.   
   Moses urged them to return to the essentials, to the experience of total   
   reliance on God, when their survival was entirely entrusted to His hands".   
    "As well as physical hunger, man also suffers from another form of hunger   
   that cannot be sated with ordinary food. It is a hunger for life, a hunger for   
   love, a hunger for eternity. Manna is the sign ... that prefigured the food   
   that satisfies this profound hunger present in man. Jesus gives us this   
   nourishment - or rather, He Himself is the living bread that gives life to the   
   world. His Body is the true food in the form of bread; His Blood is the true   
   sustenance in the form of wine. It is not a simple form of nourishment to sate   
   our bodies, like manna; the Body of Christ is the bread of the last times,   
   able to give life, eternal life, because the substance of this bread is Love".   
    The Eucharist communicates "God's love for us: a love so great that it   
   nourishes itself; it is a gratuitous love, always available to every person   
   who hungers or who is in need of regeneration. To live the experience of faith   
   means allowing oneself to be nourished by the Lord and to build our existence   
   not on material goods, but on a reality that does not perish: the gifts of   
   God, His Word and His Body".   
    "If we look around ourselves", continued the bishop of Rome, "we realise that   
   many forms of sustenance are offered to us, that do not come from the Lord and   
   seemingly offer more satisfaction. Some sate themselves with money, others   
   with success and vanity, others with power and pride. But the food that truly   
   nourishes and sates us is only that which comes from the Lord! The food that   
   the Lord offers us is different from the others, and it may perhaps be less   
   appetising than other delicacies the world offers us. We dream of other meals,   
   like the Hebrews in the desert, who missed the meat and onions they ate in   
   Egypt, but forgot that they ate those meals at the table of their slavery. In   
   that moment of temptation, they retained the memories of that food, but it was   
   a diseased memory, a selective memory".   
    "The Father says to us: 'I have fed you with manna which you did not know'.   
   Let us restore our memory and learn to recognise the false victuals that   
   delude and corrupt, because they are the fruit of selfishness, s   
   lf-sufficiency and sin: poisoned foods. Soon, in the procession, we will   
   follow Jesus, truly present in the Eucharist. The Host is our manna, through   
   which the Lord gives Himself to us. And we turn to Him with trust: Jesus,   
   defend us from the temptations of the worldly food that enslaves us; purify   
   our memory, so that we may not be imprisoned by selfish and worldly   
   selectivity, but become instead the living memory of Your presence throughout   
   the history of Your people, a memory that becomes a 'memorial' of your gesture   
   of redeeming love".   
    Following the Eucharistic celebration, the Holy Father led the procession   
   along Via Merulana up to the basilica of St. Mary Major, where he imparted his   
   solemn blessing with the Most Holy Sacrament.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    THE CHURCH DOES NOT ABANDON THOSE WHO FALL INTO THE VORTEX OF DRUG ABUSE   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received in audience   
   the participants in the 31st International Drug Enforcement Conference, which   
   took place in Rome from 17 to 19 June. He thanked them for their work "in   
   combating this most serious and complex problem of our time", expressing his   
   hope that they will accomplish their goals: a more effective coordination of   
   anti-narcotics policies, better sharing of relevant information and the   
   development of an operative strategy aimed at fighting the drug trade.   
    In his address, the Holy Father commented that "the scourge of drug use   
   continues to spread inexorably, fed by a deplorable commerce which transcends   
   national and continental borders. As a result, the lives of more and more   
   young people and adolescents are in danger. Faced with this reality, I can   
   only manifest my grief and concern".   
    "Let me state this in the clearest terms possible", he continued: "the   
   problem of drug use is not solved with drugs! Drug addiction is an evil, and   
   with evil there can be no yielding or compromise. To think that harm can be   
   reduced by permitting drug addicts to use narcotics in no way resolves the   
   problem. Attempts, however limited, to legalise so-called 'recreational   
   drugs', are not only highly questionable from a legislative standpoint, but   
   they fail to produce the desired effects. Substitute drugs are not an adequate   
   therapy but rather a veiled means of surrendering to the phenomenon. Here I   
   would reaffirm what I have stated on another occasion: No to every type of   
   drug use. It is as simple as that. No to any kind of drug use. But to say this   
   'no', one has to say 'yes' to life, 'yes' to love, 'yes' to others, 'yes' to   
   education, 'yes' to greater job opportunities. If we say 'yes' to all these   
   things, there will be no room for illicit drugs, for alcohol abuse, for other   
   forms of addiction".   
    "The Church, faithful to Jesus' command to go out to all those places where   
   people suffer, thirst, hunger and are imprisoned, does not abandon those who   
   have fallen into the trap of drug addiction, but goes out to meet them with   
   creative love. She takes them by the hand, thanks to the efforts of countless   
   workers and volunteers, and helps them to rediscover their dignity and to   
   revive those inner strengths, those personal talents, which drug use had   
   buried but can never obliterate, since every man and woman is created in the   
   image and likeness of God".   
    "The example of all those young people who are striving to overcome drug   
   dependency and to rebuild their lives can serve as a powerful incentive for   
   all of us to look with confidence to the future", Francis concluded,   
   encouraging the members of the Conference to carry on their work with   
   constantly renewed hope.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, MORE WIDESPREAD TODAY THAN 1700 YEARS AGO   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father received the   
   participants in the International Congress organised by the Department of Law   
   of the Maria SS. Assunta University of Rome (LUMSA) and the School of Law of   
   the St. John's University on the theme: "religious freedom according the   
   international law and the global conflict of values", held in Rome on 20 and   
   21 June. Francis remarked that the theme of religious freedom has recently   
   become the subject of intense debate between governments and the various   
   religious confessions, and added that the Catholic Church, in this field, has   
   a long history of supporting religious freedom, culminating in the Vatican   
   Council II Declaration "Dignitatis humanae".   
    "Every human is a 'seeker' of truth on his origins and destiny. In his mind   
   and in his 'heart', questions and thoughts arise that cannot be repressed or   
   stifled, since they emerge from the depths of the person and are a part of the   
   intimate essence of the person. They are religious questions, and religious   
   freedom is necessary for them to manifest themselves fully". Francis   
   emphasised that "reason recognises that religious freedom is a fundamental   
   right of man, reflecting his highest dignity, that of seeking the truth and   
   adhering to it, and recognising it as an indispensable condition for realising   
   all his potential. Religious freedom is not simply freedom of thought or   
   private worship. It is the freedom to live according to ethical principles,   
   both privately and publicly, consequent to the truth one has found". The Pope   
   described this situation as the "great challenge of the globalised world, a   
   sickness, in which weak thought even reduces the general ethical level, in the   
   name of a false concept of tolerance that ends up persecuting those who defend   
   the truth on humanity and its ethical consequences".   
    "Legal systems, at both national and international level, are therefore   
   required to recognise, guarantee and protect religious freedom, which is a   
   right intrinsically inherent in human nature, in man's dignity as a free   
   being, and is also an indicator of a healthy democracy and one of the main   
   sources of the legitimacy of the State". He added, "religious freedom ...   
   favours the development of relationships of mutual respect between the   
   different Confessions and their healthy collaboration with the State and   
   political society, without confusion of roles and without antagonism".   
    He underlined that it is incomprehensible and troubling that people continue   
   to suffer discrimination, restriction of their rights and even persecution for   
   professing their faith. "Nowadays, persecution of Christians is stronger than   
   it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian   
   martyrs than in that time. This is happening 1700 years after the edict of   
   Constantine, which granted Christians the freedom to publicly profess their   
   faith". Pope Francis concluded by expressing his hope that the Congress would   
   demonstrate in depth and with scientific rigour the reasons that oblige legal   
   systems to respect and defend religious freedom.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT ROME'S GEMELLI HOSPITAL   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2014 (VIS) - Next Friday, 27 June, on the feast day of   
   the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the 90th Catholic University Day, the Holy   
   Father will visit the Roman "Agostino Gemelli" Hospital, celebrating its 50th   
   anniversary, and the faculty of medicine and surgery of the Catholic   
   University.   
    He will arrive at 3.30 p.m. and, after visiting the hospital facilities, will   
   celebrate Mass in the square outside the faculty. He will be the fifth pontiff   
   to visit the Roman Athenaeum, thus maintaining a close friendship of fifty   
   years' standing.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    AUDIENCES   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in audience:   
    - Fra' Matthew Festing, Prince and Grand Master of the Sovereign Military   
   Order of Malta, and entourage.   
    - Archbishop Nicolas Henry Marie Denis Thevenin, apostolic nuncio in   
   Guatemala.   
    - Archbishop Savino Bernardo M. Cassaro Bertollo, emeritus of Puerto Montt,   
   Chile.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
    Vatican City, 19 June 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Bishop   
   Mitchell Thomas Rozanski, auxiliary of the archdiocese of Baltimore, U.S.A.,   
   as bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts (area 7,306, population 871,000,   
   Catholics 248,800, priests 181, permanent deacons 85, religious 362), U.S.A.   
   He succeeds Bishop Timothy Anthony McDonnell, whose resignation from the   
   pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the age limit was accepted by   
   the Holy Father.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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