VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 187   
   DATE 27-10-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Audience with the President of Uganda: peaceful co-existence between social   
   and religious groups   
   - Francis in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences emphasises the responsibility   
   of humanity in creation   
   - Angelus: love is the measure of faith   
   - Pope's message to participants in the congress "In precariousness, hope"   
   - Cardinal Parolin: the obstacles to development derive from a distorted   
   vision of the human being and economic activity   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audience with the President of Uganda: peaceful co-existence between social   
   and religious groups   
    Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father Francis received   
   in audience in the Vatican Apostolic Palace the president of the Republic of   
   Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary   
   of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti,   
   secretary for Relations with States.   
    During the cordial discussions, the Parties focused on certain aspects of   
   life in the country and the good relations existing between the Holy See and   
   the Republic of Uganda were highlighted, with particular reference to the   
   fundamental contribution of the Catholic Church and her collaboration with   
   institutions in the educational, social and healthcare sectors. Furthermore,   
   the importance of peaceful co-existence between the various social and   
   religious components of the country was underlined.   
    Finally, mention was made of various questions of an international nature,   
   with special attention to the conflicts affecting certain areas of Africa.   
      
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    Francis in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences emphasises the responsibility   
   of humanity in creation   
    Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father attended   
   the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences held in the Casina   
   Pio IV, during which he inaugurated a bust of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom   
   he described as "a great Pope. Great for the strength and penetration of his   
   intelligence, great for his important contribution to theology, great for his   
   love of the Church and of human beings, great for his virtue and religiosity".   
   He recalled that Benedict XVI was the first to invite a president of this   
   Academy to participate in the Synod on new evangelisation, "aware of the   
   importance of science in modern culture".   
    Pope Francis chose not to focus on the complex issue of the evolution of   
   nature, the theme the Academy will consider during this session, emphasising   
   however that "God and Christ walk with us and are also present in nature".   
   "When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a   
   magus, with a magic wand able to make everything. But it is not so. He created   
   beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that He gave   
   to each one, so that they were able to develop and to arrive and their   
   fullness of being. He gave autonomy to the beings of the Universe at the same   
   time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to   
   every reality. And so creation continued for centuries and centuries,   
   millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely   
   because God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being   
   to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes   
   its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates   
   out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the   
   world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it.   
   The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as   
   evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve".   
    He continued, "With regard to man, instead, there is a change and something   
   new. When, on the sixth day of the account in Genesis, man is created, God   
   gives the human being another autonomy, an autonomy that is different to that   
   of nature, which is freedom. And he tells man to name everything and to go   
   ahead through history. This makes him responsible for creation, so that he   
   might dominate it in order to develop it until the end of time. Therefore the   
   scientist, and above all the Christian scientist, must adopt the approach of   
   posing questions regarding the future of humanity and of the earth, and, of   
   being free and responsible, helping to prepare it and preserve it, to   
   eliminate risks to the environment of both a natural and human nature. But, at   
   the same time, the scientist must be motivated by the confidence that nature   
   hides, in her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities for intelligence and   
   freedom to discover and realise, to achieve the development that is in the   
   plan of the Creator. So, while limited, the action of humanity is part of   
   God's power and is able to build a world suited to his dual corporal and   
   spiritual life; to build a human world for all human beings and not for a   
   group or a class of privileged persons. This hope and trust in God, the   
   Creator of nature, and in the capacity of the human spirit can offer the   
   researcher a new energy and profound serenity. But it is also true that the   
   action of humanity - when freedom becomes autonomy - which is not freedom, but   
   autonomy - destroys creation and man takes the place of the Creator. And this   
   is the grave sin against God the Creator", he concluded.   
      
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    Angelus: love is the measure of faith   
    Vatican City, 26 October 2014 (VIS) - More than eighty thousand people prayed   
   the Angelus with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square this Sunday. Before the   
   Marian prayer the Holy Father commented on today's Gospel reading, in which he   
   reiterated that all of the divine Law may be summarised in love for God and   
   neighbour: two sides of the same coin.   
    Pope Francis explained that according to the evangelist Matthew, some   
   Pharisees agreed to put Jesus to the test by asking him which commandment was   
   the most important in the Law. Jesus, citing the book of Deuteronomy,   
   answered: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your   
   soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment". "He   
   could have stopped there", said the bishop of Rome. "Instead, Jesus adds   
   something else that was not asked by the expert of the Law. Indeed, he said:   
   'And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself'. Even this second   
   commandment is not invented by Jesus, but rather taken from the Book of   
   Leviticus. Its newness consists precisely in putting together these two   
   commandments - the love for God and love for one's neighbour - revealing that   
   they are inseparable and complementary, they are two sides of the same coin.   
   You cannot love God without loving your neighbour and you can't love your   
   neighbour without loving God".   
    Indeed, "the visible sign that a Christian can show to give witness to the   
   world ... of the love of God is the love of his brethren. The commandment of   
   love for God and one's neighbour is the first not because it is the first in   
   the list of commandment. Jesus does not place it at the top, but rather at the   
   centre since it is the heart from which everything must begin and to which   
   everything must return and refer to. ... In the light of Jesus' words, love is   
   the measure of faith, and faith is the soul of love. We can never separate   
   religious life from the service of the brothers and sisters, to those real   
   brethren we meet. We can never divide prayer, the encounter with God in the   
   Sacraments, from listening to others, from closeness to their lives and   
   especially to their wounds".   
    "In the midst of the dense forest of precepts and prescriptions - the   
   legalisms of yesterday and today - Jesus opens up a gap through which we can   
   glimpse two faces: the face of the Father and that of the brother. He does not   
   give us two rules or two precepts: he gives us two faces. Or rather, it is one   
   face: that of God that is reflected in the faces of so many, because in the   
   face of every brother and sister, especially the least, the fragile, the   
   helpless and the needy, the very image of God is present".   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)