VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 198   
   DATE 11-11-2014   
      
   Summary:   
   - Pontifical Letter to G-20: "Responsibility for the poor and marginalised   
   must be an essential element of any political decision"   
   - The Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to "clerical" or   
   "functionary" priests   
   - Special College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process for   
   serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis   
   Tutela   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pontifical Letter to G-20: "Responsibility for the poor and marginalised must   
   be an essential element of any political decision"   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has sent a message to   
   Tony Abbott, prime minister of Australia, who will chair the Summit of Heads   
   of State and Government of the 20 Countries (G-20) scheduled to take place on   
   15 and 16 November in Brisbane. The agenda of the meeting will focus on   
   efforts to relaunch sustained and sustainable growth of the world economy and   
   the fundamental imperative, which emerged from the preparatory work, of   
   creating dignified and stable employment for all. Extensive extracts from the   
   text are published below:   
    "I would ask the G20 Heads of State and Government not to forget that many   
   lives are at stake behind these political and technical discussions, and it   
   would indeed be regrettable if such discussions were to remain purely on the   
   level of declarations of principle. Throughout the world, the G20 countries   
   included, there are far too many women and men suffering from severe   
   malnutrition, a rise in the number of the unemployed, an extremely high   
   percentage of young people without work and an increase in social exclusion   
   which can lead to criminal activity and even the recruitment of terrorists. In   
   addition, there are constant assaults on the natural environment, the result   
   of unbridled consumerism, and this will have serious consequences for the   
   world economy.   
    It is my hope that a substantial and productive consensus can be achieved   
   regarding the agenda items. I likewise hope that the assessment of the results   
   of this consensus will not be restricted to global indices but will take into   
   account as well real improvements in the living conditions of poorer families   
   and the reduction of all forms of unacceptable inequality. I express these   
   hopes in light of the post-2015 Development Agenda to be approved by the   
   current session of the United Nations Assembly, which ought to include the   
   vital issues of decent work for all and climate change.   
    The G20 Summits, which began with the financial crisis of 2008, have taken   
   place against the terrible backdrop of military conflicts, and this has   
   resulted in disagreements between the Group's members. It is a reason for   
   gratitude that those disagreements have not prevented genuine dialogue within   
   the G20, with regard both to the specific agenda items and to global security   
   and peace. But more is required. These conflicts leave deep scars and result   
   in unbearable humanitarian situations around the world. I take this   
   opportunity to ask the G20 Member States to be examples of generosity and   
   solidarity in meeting the many needs of the victims of these conflicts, and   
   especially of refugees.   
    The situation in the Middle East has revived debate about the responsibility   
   of the international community to protect individuals and peoples from extreme   
   attacks on human rights and a total disregard for humanitarian law. The   
   international community, and in particular the G20 Member States, should also   
   give thought to the need to protect citizens of all countries from forms of   
   aggression that are less evident but equally real and serious. I am referring   
   specifically to abuses in the financial system such as those transactions that   
   led to the 2008 crisis, and more generally, to speculation lacking political   
   or juridical constraints and the mentality that maximisation of profits is the   
   final criterion of all economic activity. A mindset in which individuals are   
   ultimately discarded will never achieve peace or justice. Responsibility for   
   the poor and the marginalised must therefore be an essential element of any   
   political decision, whether on the national or the international level".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope to the Italian Episcopal Conference: no to "clerical" or   
   "functionary" priests   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, Cardinal Angelo   
   Bagnasco, archbishop of Genoa, Italy, read the message sent by Pope Francis to   
   the participants in the 67th General Assembly of the Italian Episcopal   
   Conference, of which Cardinal Bagnasco is president. The meeting, which will   
   finish next Thursday, is being held at the Domus Pacis of St. Mary of the   
   Angels in Assisi, and is dedicated to the life and formation of priests.   
    In his message, the Holy Father writes that convening in Assisi recalls "the   
   great love and veneration that St. Francis nurtured for the hierarchical Holy   
   Mother Church, and in particular for priests ... through whom the maternity of   
   the Church reaches the entire People of God. How many of them we have known!"   
   he exclaims. "We have seen them spending their lives amongst the people of our   
   parishes, educating the young, accompanying families, visiting the sick at   
   home and in hospital, and taking care of the poor", in the knowledge that the   
   gravest error is to separate oneself from others.   
    "Holy priests are sinners who have been forgiven, and instruments of   
   forgiveness. Their existence speaks the language of patience and perseverance;   
   they are not tourists of the spirit, eternally undecided and unsatisfied, as   
   they know that they are in the hands of He Who never fails in His promises,   
   and whose Providence ensures that nothing can ever separate them from their   
   belonging. ... Yes, it is still the time for priests of this substance,   
   'bridges' enabling the encounter between God and the world".   
    "Priests like this cannot be improvised: they are forged through the valuable   
   formative work of the Seminary, and Ordination consecrates them forever as men   
   of God and servants of His people". However, "the identity of the presbyter,   
   precisely as it comes from above, demands he follow a daily itinerary of   
   reappropriation, starting from that which made of him a minister of Jesus   
   Christ. ... The formation of which we speak .... is without end, as priests   
   never cease to be disciples of Jesus and to follow Him. Therefore, formation   
   as discipleship accompanies the ordained minister throughout his life", writes   
   the Holy Father. "Initial and continuing formation are two parts of a single   
   entity: the path of the presbyter disciple, enamoured of his Lord and   
   constantly following him". "You are aware that there is no need for clerical   
   priests whose behaviour risks distancing people from the Lord, or functionary   
   priests who, while they fulfil their role, seek their consolation far from   
   Him. Only those who keep a steady gaze on what is truly essential may renew   
   their acceptance of the gift they have received. ... Only those who allow   
   themselves to conform to the Good Shepherd find unity, peace and strength in   
   the obedience of service; only those who take their breath in presbyteral   
   fraternity leave behind the falsehood of a conscience that claims to be the   
   epicentre of everything, the sole measure of their feelings and actions".   
    The Pontiff concluded by expressing his hope that the participants in the   
   Assembly would experience "days of listening and comparison, leading to the   
   definition of itineraries of permanent formation, able to link spiritual and   
   cultural, communicative and pastoral dimensions: these are the pillars of life   
   formed according to the Gospel, preserved in daily discipline, in prayer, in   
   the guardianship of the senses, in care for oneself, in humble and prophetic   
   witness; lives that restore to the Church the trust that she first placed in   
   them".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Special College of cardinals and bishops to study the appeals process for   
   serious offences established in the Motu Proprio Sacramentorum Sanctitatis   
   Tutela   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - St. John Paul II's Motu Proprio   
   Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela (SST), published on 30 April 2001 and   
   implemented on 21 May 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI, defines the offences reserved   
   to the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Art.   
   1-6), in accordance with Art. 52 of the Apostolic Constitution Pastor Bonus.   
    The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judges these offences by penal   
   or administrative procedures (cf. Art. 21 paras 1 and 2, No. 1 SST), taking   
   into account the possibility of submitting the decision directly to the   
   Supreme Pontiff in the most serious cases (see Art. 21 para. 2, No. 2 SST).   
   Crimes against faith remain, in the first instance, within the sphere of   
   competence of the Ordinary or the Hierarch (cf. Art. 2 para. 2 SST).   
    Due to the number of appeals and the need to guarantee that they are examined   
   more rapidly and following detailed reflection, in the Audience granted to   
   Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin on 3 November 2014, the Holy Father   
   Francis decreed the following:   
    1. A special college is to be instituted within the Congregation for the   
   Doctrine of the Faith, composed of seven cardinals or bishops, who may either   
   be members of the Dicastery or external to it;   
    2. The President and the members of the aforementioned College are to be   
   appointed by the Pope;   
    3. The College is a provision made by the Ordinary Session of the   
   Congregation to enable greater efficiency in processing appeals in accordance   
   with Art. 27 SST, without substantive modification to its competences as   
   established in the same Art. 27 SST;   
    4. Should the offender be of episcopal dignity, his appeal shall be examined   
   by the Ordinary Session, which will also be able to decide specific cases   
   according to the Pope's judgement. Other cases to be decided by the College   
   may also be deferred to the Ordinary Session;   
    5. The College shall periodically report its decisions to the Ordinary   
   Session;   
    6. Specific internal regulations shall determine the working methods of the   
   College.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in audience   
   Emma Madigan, new ambassador of Ireland to the Holy See, presenting her   
   letters of credence.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 11 November 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Rev.   
   Prosper Balthazar Lyimo as auxiliary of the archdiocese of Arusha (area   
   67,340, population 2,364,000, Catholics 512,073, priests 128, religious 639),   
   Tanzania. The bishop-elect was born in Kyou-Kilema, Tanzania in 1964 and was   
   ordained a priest in 1997. He studied canon law at the Pontifical Urbanian   
   University, Rome, and subsequently obtained a doctorate in canon law from St.   
   Paul's University, Ottowa, Canada, and is currently chancellor and judicial   
   vicar of the archdiocese of Arusha, Tanzania.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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