VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 028   
   DATE 09-02-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Pope's eighth meeting with the Council of Cardinals   
   - Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: make the   
   Church a "safe place" for children   
   - Angelus: the sick are Christ's flesh   
   - The Pope denounces the shameful scourge of human trafficking   
   - In the parish of St. Michael Archangel: maintain daily contact with the   
   Gospel and let Jesus heal our wounds   
   - To the representatives of EXPO 2015: the root of all ills is inequality   
   - The Pope: the participation of women in the social and ecclesial spheres is   
   a challenge that cannot be deferred   
   - God lives in the city   
   - Francis to the SECAM: Invest in education in Africa to defend the young from   
   fundamentalism and abuse of religion   
      
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    Pope's eighth meeting with the Council of Cardinals   
    Vatican City, 9 February 2015 (VIS) - The eighth meeting of the Council of   
   Cardinals began this morning. To be attended by the Holy Father, the meeting   
   will continue until 11 February. On the following days, Thursday 12 and Friday   
   13 February, the Consistory of the College of Cardinals is to be held in the   
   Synod Hall.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Assembly of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors: make the   
   Church a "safe place" for children   
    Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - The members of the Pontifical   
   Commission for the Protection of Minors gathered in Plenary Assembly from 6 to   
   8 February in Rome.   
    The members who took part in the Assembly are: Cardinal Sean O'Malley, O.F.M.   
   Cap., U.S.A., president; Msgr. Robert Oliver, U.S.A., secretary; Rev. Luis   
   Manuel Ali Herrera, Colombia; Catherine Bonnet, France; Marie Collins,   
   Ireland; Gabriel Dy-Liacco, Philippines; Sheila Hollins, England; Bill   
   Kilgallon, New Zealand; Sister Kayula Lesa, M.S.C., Zambia; Sister Hermenegild   
   Makoro, C.P.S., Zimbabwe; Kathleen McCormack, Australia; Claudio Papale,   
   Italy; Peter Saunders, England; Hanna Suchocka, Poland; Krysten Winter-Green,   
   U.S.A.; Rev. Humberto Miguel Yanez, S.J., Argentina and Rev. Hans Zollner,   
   S.J., Germany.   
    The Pontifical Council subsequently issued the following communique, the full   
   text of which is published below:   
    "This year's meeting was the first opportunity for all seventeen members of   
   the recently expanded Commission to come together and share their progress in   
   the task entrusted them by the Holy Father, namely to advise Pope Francis in   
   the safeguarding and protection of minors in the Church.   
    During the meetings, members presented reports from their Working Groups of   
   experts, developed over the past year. The Commission then completed their   
   recommendations regarding the formal structure of the Commission and agreed   
   upon several proposals to submit to the Holy Father for consideration.   
    The Working Groups are an integral part of the Commission's working   
   structure. Between Plenary Sessions, these groups bring forward research and   
   projects in areas that are central to the mission of making the Church ‘a safe   
   home' for children, adolescents, and vulnerable adults. These include:   
   pastoral care for survivors and their families, education, guidelines in best   
   practice, formation to the priesthood and religious life, ecclesial and civil   
   norms governing allegations of abuse, and the accountability of people in   
   positions of responsibility within the Church when dealing with allegations of   
   abuse.   
    The Commission is keenly aware that the issue of accountability is of major   
   importance. In its Assembly,members agreed on an initial proposal to submit to   
   Pope Francis for consideration. Moreover, the Commission is developing   
   processes to ensure accountability for everyone in the Church - clergy,   
   religious, and laity - who work with minors.   
    Part of ensuring accountability is raising awareness and understanding at all   
   levels of the Church regarding the seriousness and urgency in implementing   
   correct safeguarding procedures. To this end, the Commission also agreed to   
   develop seminars to educate Church leadership in the area of the protection of   
   minors.   
    Following on from the Holy Father's Letter to Presidents of the Episcopal   
   Conferences and to Superiors of Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies   
   of Apostolic Life,dated February 2, the Commission looks forward to   
   collaborating with churches on a local level in making its expertise available   
   to ensure best practices in guidelines for the protection of minors.   
    The Commission is also preparing materials for a Day of Prayer for all those   
   who have been harmed by sexual abuse. This will underscore our responsibility   
   to work for spiritual healing and also help raise awareness among the Catholic   
   community about the scourge of the abuse of minors.   
    Pope Francis writes, in his letter to Church leaders, 'families need to know   
   that the Church is making every effort to protect their children'. Conscious   
   of the gravity of our task to advise the Holy Father in this effort, we ask   
   you to support our work with prayer".   
      
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    Angelus: the sick are Christ's flesh   
    Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - World Day of the Sick will be held on   
   11 February, liturgical memory of the Virgin of Lourdes, and the Pope,   
   blessing the preparatory initiatives for the day, and in particular the Vigil   
   to take place in Rome on 10 February, dedicated his meditation prior to this   
   Sunday's Angelus prayer to the meaning and value of illness, recalling that   
   Jesus' main activities in his public life were preaching and healing.   
    "Through preaching He announces the Kingdom of God and through healing He   
   shows that it is close, that the Kingdom of God is in our midst", said Pope   
   Francis to the faithful gathered at midday in St. Peter's Square, commenting   
   on the Gospel of St. Mark that narrates the healing of Peter's mother-in-law.   
   After the Sabbath was over and the people could leave and bring Him the sick,   
   He healed a multitude of people afflicted by every kind of malady: physical,   
   mental, spiritual.   
    "Having come to earth to announce and fulfil the salvation of every person   
   and of all mankind, Jesus shows a particular predilection for those who are   
   wounded in body and spirit: the poor, sinners, the possessed, the sick, the   
   marginalised. He thus reveals Himself has a physician of both body and soul,   
   the good Samaritan of humanity. Jesus' healing of the sick invites us to   
   reflect on the meaning and value of sickness".   
    The salvific work of Christ "does not come to an end with His person and the   
   arc of His earthly life; it continues through the Church, sacrament of love   
   and of the tenderness of God for mankind. Sending his disciples on their   
   mission, Jesus confers upon them a dual mandate: to announce the Gospel of   
   salvation and to heal the sick. Faithful to this teaching, the Church has   
   always considered the care of the sick to be an integral part of her mission".   
    The Pope emphasised Jesus' warning from the Gospel of St. Matthew - "The poor   
   and the suffering you will always have with you" - and affirmed that "the   
   Church continually finds them on her path, considering the sick as a   
   privileged way to encounter Christ, to welcome and serve Him. To care for a   
   sick person, to welcome him and serve him is to serve Christ. The sick are   
   Christ's flesh".   
    In our times, too, despite the many advances in science, "the inner and   
   physical suffering of people raises serious questions on the meaning of   
   sickness, pain and on the reasons for death. These are existential questions,   
   to which the pastoral action of the Church should respond in the light of   
   faith, keeping before our eyes the Cross, in which there appears the entire   
   salvific mystery of God the Father, who out of love for mankind did not spare   
   his only Son. Therefore, each one of us is called to bring the light of the   
   Gospel and the strength of grace to those who suffer and to those who assist   
   them - family members, doctors, nurses - so that service to the sick may be   
   carried out with ever increasing humanity, generous dedication, evangelical   
   love, and tenderness. The Mother Church, through our hands, caresses us in our   
   sufferings, heals our wounds, and does so with a mother's tenderness".   
      
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    The Pope denounces the shameful scourge of human trafficking   
    Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - Following today's Angelus prayer, Pope   
   Francis commented that today, 8 February, we celebrate the liturgical memory   
   of St. Josephine Bakhita, the Sudanese nun who as a child suffered the   
   dramatic experience of enslavement. The Union of Superior Generals of   
   religious institutes has established a Day of prayer and reflection against   
   trafficking in persons, to be held on that date.   
    "I encourage those who are committed to helping men, women and children who   
   are enslaved, exploited and abused as instruments of work or pleasure and   
   often tortured and mutilated. I hope that those who hold positions of   
   responsibility in governance will act decisively to eliminate the causes of   
   this shameful scourge, a scourge unworthy of a civilised society. May each one   
   of us strive to be a voice for these our brothers and sisters, whose dignity   
   is humiliated. Let us pray together to Our Lady, for them and for their   
   families".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    In the parish of St. Michael Archangel: maintain daily contact with the   
   Gospel and let Jesus heal our wounds   
    Vatican City, 8 February 2015 (VIS) - At 4 p.m. today the Holy Father visited   
   the Roman parish of St. Michael Archangel in the Pietralata quarter, in the   
   north of the city. Upon arrival, he made an impromptu change to the itinerary,   
   paying a surprise visit to a settlement near the parish church, known as the   
   "Rainbow Camp", the home of many displaced persons from Africa, Latin America,   
   Ukraine and Russia. At the end of his visit, the inhabitants recited the   
   Lord's Prayer with him in Spanish. He then met with members of the parish   
   community: the sick, families with children baptised during the past year,   
   young catechumens, scouts and a number of homeless people cared for by the   
   Sant'Egidio Community.   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)