VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 192   
   DATE 03-11-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - The communion born of faith is not interrupted by death   
   - All Saints' Day: a multitude of unknown and suffering saints   
   - Commemoration of the departed faithful: pray for those the world has   
   forgotten   
   - The Pope celebrates Mass for the cardinals and bishops departed during the   
   last year   
   - The Holy See at the United Nations advocates a peaceful use of space   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The communion born of faith is not interrupted by death   
    Vatican City, 1 November 2014 (VIS) - "The first two days of November   
   represent for all of us an intense moment of faith, prayer and reflection on   
   the 'last things' in our lives. Indeed, celebrating all the Saints and   
   commemorating all the departed faithful, the earthly pilgrim Church lives and   
   expresses in the liturgy the spiritual bond that unites her with the heavenly   
   Church", explained the Holy Father to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's   
   Square to pray the Angelus.   
    "Today's Solemnity thus helps us to consider a fundamental truth of the   
   Christian faith that we profess in the 'Creed': the communion of saints. It is   
   the communion that comes from faith and unites all those who belong to Christ   
   by Baptism. It is a spiritual union that is not broken by death, but continues   
   in the next life. In fact there is an unbreakable bond between us living in   
   this world and those who have crossed the threshold of death. We here on   
   earth, along with those who have entered into eternity, form one great family.   
   This beautiful communion between heaven and earth achieves its highest and   
   most intense manifestation in the Liturgy, and especially in the celebration   
   of the Eucharist, which expresses and fulfils the deepest union between the   
   members of the Church. In the Eucharist, we encounter the living Jesus and His   
   strength, and through Him we enter into communion with our brothers and   
   sisters in the faith, those who live with us here on earth and those who have   
   gone before us into the next life, life without end. This reality of communion   
   fills us with joy: it is good to have so many brothers and sisters in the   
   faith who walk alongside us, supporting us with their help and together we   
   travel the same road toward heaven. And it is comforting to know that we have   
   other brothers and sisters who have already reached heaven ahead of us and who   
   pray for us, so that together in eternity we can contemplate the glorious and   
   merciful face of the Father".   
    Finally, the Pope emphasised that in the great assembly of the saints, "God   
   has reserved the first place for the Mother of Jesus. Mary is at the centre of   
   the communion of saints, as a unique custodian of the bond between the   
   universal Church and Christ, the bond of th family. ... For those who want to   
   follow Jesus on the path of the Gospel, she is a safe guide because she is the   
   first disciple, an attentive and caring Mother, to whom we can entrust every   
   desire and difficulty".   
    After the Angelus prayer, Francis commented that this Sunday's liturgy refers   
   to the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, and invited the faithful to pray that   
   the "The Holy City, dear to Jews, Christians and Muslims, that in these days   
   bears witness to different tensions, may increasingly be the sign and   
   harbinger of the peace that God wishes for all the human family".   
    He also recalled that today in Vitoria, Spain, the martyr Pedro Asúa Mendía   
   is beatified. "A humble and austere priest, he preached the Gospel with the   
   sanctity of his life, catechesis and devotion to the poor and needy. Arrested,   
   tortured and killed for having expressed his desire to remain faithful to the   
   Lord and to the Church, he is a wonderful example of strength in the faith and   
   witness of charity for us".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    All Saints' Day: a multitude of unknown and suffering saints   
    Vatican City, 2 November 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday, 1 November, Pope Francis   
   presided at the mass for the Solemnity of All Saints at the ceremony of   
   Verano, attended by numerous Roman faithful. During the celebration the relics   
   of Saints John XXIII and John Paul II, the two recently canonised popes, were   
   displayed for veneration, and at the end of the ceremony the Holy Father   
   blessed the tombs.   
    Commenting on the reading from the Book of Revelation, Francis spoke in his   
   homily on the devastation of creation by humanity and the many suffering   
   peoples whose only hope is placed in God. "Do not harm the land or the sea or   
   the trees", cried the Angel to the four Angels who were to devastate the earth   
   and the sea and to destroy everything, and the Pope affirmed that "We are   
   capable of devastating the Earth more fully than the Angels. And this is what   
   we are doing. We devastate Creation ... we devastate life, we devastate   
   culture, we devastate values, we ravage hope. And how we are in need of the   
   Lord's strength, to seal us with his love and his strength, to stop this mad   
   race of destruction! The destruction of what He gave us, of the most beautiful   
   things that He made for us, for us to nurture, to make them grow and bear   
   fruit. Man has appropriated everything, believing himself to be God, believing   
   himself to be king. And wars: wars continue, and as a system it is not exactly   
   helping to sow the seeds of life, but is instead destroying it. It is an   
   industry of destruction. And it is also a system in which that which cannot be   
   fixed is discarded; children are discarded, the elderly are discarded, the   
   young unemployed are discarded ... entire populations are discarded".   
    In the same passage St. John speaks about an immense and uncountable crowd,   
   including every nation, tribe, people and language, an uncountable multitude   
   that the Pope associated with the poor who, "to save their lives, have to flee   
   their homes ... and live in tents, suffering the cold, without medicine,   
   hungry, because the 'god-man' has appropriated Creation, all that is good that   
   God made for us. ... And this is not ancient history - it is happening today.   
   ... It is as if these people, these hungry and sick children, did not count;   
   as if they were of another species, as if they were not human. And this   
   multitude stands before God and begs: 'Salvation, please! Peace, please!   
   Bread, please! Work, please! ... And among these persecuted people, there are   
   also those who are persecuted for their faith".   
    The Pope compared this multitude to the crowd dressed in white who washing   
   their robes in the blood of the Lamb, as narrated in the Book of Revelation,   
   and affirmed: "Today, on All Saints' Day, I would like us to think of all of   
   them, all of these unknown saints, ... all these people who suffer great   
   tribulation. Most of the world experiences this tribulation. And the Lord   
   sanctifies these people, sinners like us, but sanctifies them with   
   tribulation".   
    The third image the Pope evoked was that of God, or rather, hope. "And this   
   is the Lord's blessing, that we still have: hope. The hope that He will take   
   pity on His people, that he will take pity on those in their great   
   tribulation, that He will take pity on the destroyers, so that they convert.   
   ... What must our attitude be, if we want to become part of this people who   
   walk the path towards the Father, in this world of devastation, in this world   
   of wars, in this world of tribulation? Our attitude, we have heard in the   
   Gospel, is that of the Beatitudes. Only that path can lead us to the encounter   
   with God. Only that path can save us from destruction, from the devastation of   
   the land, of Creation, of morals, of history, of the family, of everything.   
   Only that road: but it will not be easy. It will bring problems and   
   persecution. But it is the only route that will take us forward".   
    "May the Lord help us and give us the grace of this hope, but also the grace   
   of the courage to leave behind all that is destruction, devastation,   
   relativism of life, exclusion of others, exclusion of values, exclusion of all   
   that the Lord has given us: the exclusion of peace. May He free us from this   
   and give us the grace to walk with the hope of finding ourselves face-to-face   
   with Him one day. And this hope, brothers and sisters, does not disappoint".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Commemoration of the departed faithful: pray for those the world has forgotten   
    Vatican City, 2 November 2014 (VIS) - The Solemnity of All Saints and the   
   commemoration of all the Faithful Departed, are "intimately linked to each   
   other, just as joy and tears find a synthesis in Jesus Christ, Who is the   
   foundation of our faith and our hope", said Pope Francis to the faithful   
   gathered to pray the Angelus in St. Peter's Square today.   
    On the one hand, in fact, the Church, a pilgrim in history, rejoices through   
   the intercession of the saints and blessed who support her in the mission of   
   proclaiming the Gospel; on the other, she, like Jesus, shares the tears of   
   those who suffer the separation from loved ones, and like Him and through Him   
   echoes thanks to the Father who has delivered us from the dominion of sin and   
   death.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)