VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 006   
   DATE 12-01-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope addresses the Diplomatic Corps: peace must guide the destiny of   
   peoples   
   - The Pope baptises thirty-three infants in the Sistine Chapel   
   - Angelus: deafness to the voice of the Holy Spirit leads to muteness in   
   evangelisation   
   - Rebuilding the country means rebuilding the person: the Pope at the   
   conference on Haiti   
   - Meeting of the presidents of the European Episcopal Conferences   
   - Note on security in the Vatican   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
   - In Memoriam   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope addresses the Diplomatic Corps: peace must guide the destiny of   
   peoples   
    Vatican City, 12 January 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall the   
   Holy Father addressed members of the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy   
   See for the exchange of greetings that traditionally takes place at the   
   beginning of the new year. Francis thanked the dean of the ambassadors,   
   Jean-Claude Michel of Monaco, for the efforts made by the Corps in fostering,   
   in a spirit of mutual collaboration, the relations between the states and   
   international organisations they represent and the Holy See, and added that   
   during the past year "these relations were consolidated by an increase in the   
   presence of ambassadors resident in Rome and by the signing of new bilateral   
   Accords, both general, like the one concluded last January with Cameroon, and   
   specific, like those signed with Malta and Serbia".   
    During his address to the diplomats, Pope Francis examined the international   
   situation from the dual perspective of hope and peace and the aspect of   
   rejection, both personal and social, "leading to the breakdown of society and   
   spawning violence and death". The Pope mentioned a number of dramatic events,   
   such as the massacre of over one hundred children in Pakistan, the   
   confrontation in Ukraine, the continuing tension in the Middle East, the   
   recent attacks in Paris, the violence against the population in Nigeria, and   
   the civil conflicts in Libya, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, and   
   the Democratic Republic of the Congo; he also emphasised the fact that wars   
   often involve the widespread incidence of the horrendous crime of rape of   
   women and girls. He also made reference to those afflicted by the Ebola virus,   
   the problems faced by immigrants and refugees, and the lack of assistance for   
   families. The Holy Father remarked that the overview should not however be   
   dominated by pessimism, and he cited positive elements such as the resurgence   
   of Albania, the results of ecumenical dialogue in Turkey, the expectations for   
   Jordan and Lebanon, the decision of the U.S.A. and Cuba to break their mutual   
   silence, the transformations in Burkina Faso, the efforts towards achieving   
   stable peace in Colombia and Venezuela and the decision of the U.S.A. to close   
   the Guantanamo Bay detention centre. He concluded by expressing his hope for   
   the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals and the drafting of a new   
   Climate Change Agreement over the coming year.   
    "I thank you for your presence at this traditional meeting, which allows me   
   at the beginning of each new year to offer to you, your families, and the   
   peoples you represent, my cordial greetings and best wishes. I am especially   
   grateful to your Dean, Ambassador Jean-Claude Michel, for the kind words which   
   he addressed to me in the name of all, and I thank each of you for your   
   constant dedication and efforts to foster, in a spirit of mutual cooperation,   
   relations between the countries and international organisations which you   
   represent and the Holy See. In the course of the past year too, these   
   relations were consolidated by an increase in the presence of ambassadors   
   resident in Rome and by the signing of new bilateral Accords, both general,   
   like that concluded last January with Cameroon, and specific, like those   
   signed with Malta and Serbia.   
    "Today I wish to repeat a word quite dear to us: peace! It comes to us from   
   the angelic hosts who proclaimed it on Christmas night as a precious gift of   
   God, while at the same time as a personal and social responsibility which   
   calls for our commitment and concern. But together with peace, the image of   
   the Christmas creche speaks to us another tragic reality: that of rejection.   
   In some iconographic representations, both in the West and in the East - I   
   think for example of the splendid Nativity icon of Andrej Rublev - the Child   
   Jesus is shown not lying in a manger, but in a tomb. The image, which is meant   
   to connect the two principal Christian feasts of Christmas and Easter, shows   
   that the joyful acceptance of this new birth is inseparable from the entire   
   drama of Jesus' life, his humiliation and rejection, even to death on the   
   cross.   
    "The Christmas stories themselves show us the hardened heart of a humanity   
   which finds it difficult to accept the Child. From the very start, he is cast   
   aside, left out in the cold, forced to be born in a stable since there was no   
   room in the inn. If this is how the Son of God was treated, how much more so   
   is it the case with so many of our brothers and sisters! Rejection is an   
   attitude we all share; it makes us see our neighbour not as a brother or   
   sister to be accepted, but as unworthy of our attention, a rival, or someone   
   to be bent to our will. This is the mindset which fosters that 'throwaway   
   culture' which spares nothing and no one: nature, human beings, even God   
   himself. It gives rise to a humanity filled with pain and constantly torn by   
   tensions and conflicts of every sort.   
    "Emblematic of this, in the Gospel infancy narratives, is King Herod. Feeling   
   his authority threatened by the Child Jesus, he orders all the children of   
   Bethlehem to be killed. We think immediately of Pakistan, where a month ago,   
   more than a hundred children were slaughtered with unspeakable brutality. To   
   their families I wish to renew my personal condolences and the assurance of my   
   continued prayers for the many innocents who lost their lives.   
    "The personal dimension of rejection is inevitably accompanied by a social   
   dimension, a culture of rejection which severs the deepest and most authentic   
   human bonds, leading to the breakdown of society and spawning violence and   
   death. We see painful evidence of this in the events reported daily in the   
   news, not least the tragic slayings which took place in Paris a few days ago.   
   Other people 'are no longer regarded as beings of equal dignity, as brothers   
   or sisters sharing a common humanity, but rather as objects'. Losing their   
   freedom, people become enslaved, whether to the latest fads, or to power,   
   money, or even deviant forms of religion. These are dangers which I pointed   
   out in my recent Message for the World Day of Peace, which dealt with the   
   issue of today's multiple forms of enslavement. All of them are born of a   
   corrupt heart, a heart incapable of recognising and doing good, of pursuing   
   peace.   
    "It saddens us to see the tragic consequences of this mentality of rejection   
   and this 'culture of enslavement' in the never-ending spread of conflicts.   
   Like a true world war fought piecemeal, they affect, albeit in different forms   
   and degrees of intensity, a number of areas in our world, beginning with   
   nearby Ukraine, which has become a dramatic theatre of combat. It is my hope   
   that through dialogue the efforts presently being made to end the hostilities   
   will be consolidated, and that the parties involved will embark as quickly as   
   possible, in a renewed spirit of respect for international law, upon the path   
   of mutual trust and fraternal reconciliation, with the aim of bringing an end   
   to the present crisis.   
    "My thoughts turn above all to the Middle East, beginning with the beloved   
   land of Jesus which I had the joy of visiting last May, and for whose peace we   
   constantly pray. We did this with extraordinary intensity, together with the   
   then president of Israel, Shimon Peres, and the president of Palestine,   
   Mahmoud Abbas, inspired by a confident hope that negotiations between the two   
   parties will once more resume, for the sake of ending violence and reaching a   
   solution which can enable Palestinians and Israelis alike to live at last in   
   peace within clearly established and internationally recognised borders, thus   
   implementing the 'two state solution'.   
    "The Middle East is tragically embroiled in other conflicts which have lasted   
   far too long, with chilling repercussions, due also to the spread of   
   fundamentalist terrorism in Syria and in Iraq. This phenomenon is a   
   consequence of the throwaway culture being applied to God. Religious   
   fundamentalism, even before it eliminates human beings by perpetrating   
   horrendous killings, eliminates God himself, turning him into a mere   
   ideological pretext. In the face of such unjust aggression, which also strikes   
   Christians and other ethnic and religious groups in the region - the Yezidis   
   for example - a unanimous response is needed, one which, within the framework   
   of international law, can end the spread of acts of violence, restore harmony   
   and heal the deep wounds which the ongoing conflicts have caused. Here, in   
   your presence, I appeal to the entire international community, as I do to the   
   respective governments involved, to take concrete steps to bring about peace   
   and to protect all those who are victims of war and persecution, driven from   
   their homes and their homeland. In a letter written shortly before Christmas,   
   I sought to express my personal closeness and the promise of my prayers to all   
   the Christian communities of the Middle East. Theirs is a precious testimony   
   of faith and courage, for they play a fundamental role as artisans of peace,   
   reconciliation and development in the civil societies of which they are a   
   part. A Middle East without Christians would be a marred and mutilated Middle   
   East! In urging the international community not to remain indifferent in the   
   face of this situation, I express my hope that religious, political and   
   intellectual leaders, especially those of the Muslim community, will condemn   
   all fundamentalist and extremist interpretations of religion which attempt to   
   justify such acts of violence.   
    "Sadly, comparable acts of brutality, which not infrequently reap victims   
   from among the poor and the most vulnerable, are found in other parts of the   
   world as well. I think in particular of Nigeria where acts of violence   
   continue to strike indiscriminately and there is a constant increase in the   
   tragic phenomenon of kidnappings, often of young girls carried off to be made   
   objects of trafficking. This is an abominable trade which must not continue!   
   It is a scourge which needs to be eradicated, since it strikes all of us, from   
   individual families to the entire international community.   
    "I also look with concern to the many civil conflicts taking place in other   
   parts of Africa, beginning with Libya, ravaged by a drawn-out internecine war   
   which has caused unspeakable suffering among its people, with grave   
   repercussions for the delicate balances in the region. I think of the dramatic   
   situation in the Central African Republic, in which, sad to say, the good will   
   inspiring the efforts of those seeking to build a future of peace, security   
   and prosperity, has encountered resistance and selfish partisan interests.   
   These risk frustrating the hopes of a people which has endured so much and   
   which now longs to shape its future in freedom. Of particular concern, too, is   
   the situation in South Sudan and in some areas of Sudan, the Horn of Africa   
   and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where civilian casualties are on the   
   rise and thousands of persons, including many women and children, are being   
   forced to flee and to endure conditions of extreme distress. I voice my hope   
   for a common commitment on the part of individual governments and the   
   international community to end every form of fighting, hatred and violence,   
   and to pursue reconciliation, peace and the defence of the transcendent   
   dignity of the person.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)