VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 048   
   DATE 09-03-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Audience with King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians   
   - Centenary of the Argentine Catholic University   
   - The Pope meets the parishioners of Tor Bella Monaca; discrimination and   
   injustice test the goodness of the people   
   - Angelus: let us build a temple to God with our lives   
   - Francis' greetings on International Women's Day: "women give us to the   
   ability to see the world with different eyes"   
   - Behaviour contrary to justice, honesty and charity cannot be covered up with   
   worship   
   - The Pope on the sixtieth anniversary of Communion and Liberation: "Keep   
   alive the call of the first encounter with Christ, and be free"   
   - The Holy Father to preside at Confession in St. Peter's Basilica on 13 March   
   - Oath-taking Ceremony of the Cardinal Camerlengo   
   - Cardinal Orlando B. Quevedo, Pope's special envoy to Nagasaki   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audience with King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians   
    Vatican City, 7 March 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic   
   Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience His Majesty Philippe King   
   of the Belgians, and Queen Mathilde, who subsequently met with Cardinal   
   Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Paul Richard   
   Gallagher, secretary for Relations with States.   
    During the cordial discussions, the good bilateral relations between Belgium   
   and the Holy See were confirmed. Attention was then paid to matters of mutual   
   interest, such as social cohesion, the education of the young, the phenomenon   
   of migration and the importance of intercultural and interreligious dialogue.   
    Mention was then made of various problems of an international nature, with   
   special reference to the future prospects of the European continent.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Centenary of the Argentine Catholic University   
    Vatican City, 9 March 2015 (VIS) - On occasion of the one hundredth   
   university of Faculty of Theology of the Universidad Catolica Argentina   
   (U.C.A.), Pope Francis has sent a letter to Cardinal Mario Aurelio Poli,   
   archbishop of Buenos Aires, Grand Chancellor of the faculty. "Teaching and   
   studying theology means living on a frontier", writes the Pope. "We must We   
   must guard against a theology that spends itself in academic dispute or   
   watches humanity from a glass castle. You learn to live: theology and holiness   
   are inseparable". Francis adds that the theology that is developed is   
   therefore rooted and based on Revelation, on tradition, but also accompanies   
   the cultural and social processes" and "must also take on board conflicts: not   
   only those that we experience within the Church, but those that concern the   
   whole world".   
    The Pope urges all the members of the Faculty not to satisfy themselves with   
   a theoretical "desktop theology" and not to give in to the temptation to   
   "gloss over it, to perfume it, to adjust it a little and domesticate it".   
   Instead, he writes, good theologians "must, like good pastors, have the odour   
   of the people and the street, and through their reflection, pour oil and wine   
   on the wounds of men". Similarly, he encourages them to study how the various   
   disciplines ... may reflect the centrality of mercy", since "without mercy our   
   theology, our law, our pastoral ministry run the risk of collapsing in petty   
   bureaucracy or ideology". He concludes by remarking that the U.C.A. does not   
   form "museum theologians who accumulate data" or "spectators of history", but   
   rather people capable of building up humanity around them, "of transmitting   
   the divine Christian truth in a truly human dimension".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope meets the parishioners of Tor Bella Monaca; discrimination and   
   injustice test the goodness of the people   
    Vatican City, 9 March 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis visited   
   the Roman parish of Santa Maria Madre del Redentore in the peripheral suburb   
   of Tor Bella Monaca, where he was welcomed by more than a thousand young   
   people. Before entering the Church, the Holy Father visited the Caritas Centre   
   to greet sick and disabled assisted by the Missionaries of Charity. "Jesus   
   never abandons us", he said, "because on the Cross he experienced pain,   
   sadness, solitude and many other things. ... Never lose your trust in Him".   
    Later, in the church, he met with a group of children and young people, and   
   answered their questions. The first was: if God forgives everything, why does   
   Hell exist? The Pope replied that Hell is the desire to distance oneself from   
   God and to reject God's love. But", he added, "if you were a terrible sinner,   
   who had committed all the sins in the world, all of them, condemned to death,   
   and even when you are there, you were to blaspheme, insults... and at the   
   moment of death, when you were about to die, you were to look to Heaven and   
   say, 'Lord ...!', where do you go, to Heaven or to Hell? To Heaven! Only those   
   who say, I have no need of You, I can get along by myself, as the devil did,   
   are in Hell - and he is the only one we are certain is there".   
    The second question regarded how to live Christian morality. Francis   
   answered, "Christian morality is a grace, a response to the love that He gives   
   you first. ... It is Jesus Who helps you to go ahead, and if you fall it is He   
   Who lifts you up again and Who lets you carry on. But if you think and we   
   think that moral life is just about 'doing this' and 'not doing that', this is   
   not Christian. It is a moral philosophy, but no, it is not Christian.   
   Christian is the love of Jesus, Who is the first to love us. ... Christian   
   morality is this: you fall? Get up again and keep going. And life is this. But   
   always with Jesus".   
    Finally, before celebrating Mass, Francis spoke with the parish pastoral   
   council and their collaborators who described to him the situation in the   
   area, in which many marginalised families live, and where there are many   
   problems linked to drug abuse and crime. "The people of Tor Bella Monaca are   
   good people", emphasised Francis. "They had the same flaw that Jesus, Mary and   
   Joseph had: they are poor. With the difference that Joseph had a job, Jesus   
   had a job, and many people here do not, but they still need to feed their   
   children. And how does one get by? You know how. Goodness is sorely tested by   
   injustice; the injustice of unemployment and discrimination. And this is a   
   sin, it is a grave sin. Many people are compelled to do things they do not   
   want to do, because they cannot find another way. ... And very often people,   
   when they feel they are accompanied, wanted, do not fall into that web of the   
   wicked, who exploit the poor. Mafiosi exploit the poor too, to make them do   
   their dirty work, and then when the police discover them, they find those poor   
   people and not the mafiosi who are safe, and also pay for their safety.   
   Therefore, it is necessary to help the people. ... The first pastoral   
   commandment is closeness: to be close to them. ... We cannot go to a house   
   where there are sick or hungry children and say 'you must do this, you must do   
   that'. No. It is necessary to go to them with closeness, with that caress that   
   Jesus has taught us. ... This is my main pastoral advice to you".   
    In the homily he pronounced at the church of Santa Maria del Redentore, the   
   Bishop of Rome commented on the passage from the Gospel according to St. John   
   that narrates the expulsion of the money changers from the temple, remarking   
   that two aspects of the text are particularly notable: an image, and a word.   
   "The image is that of Jesus with the whip who chases away all those who use   
   the temple to trade. The temple was sacred, and this, which was unclean, was   
   sent out. ... Jesus took the whip and cleansed the temple".   
    "And the phrase, the word", he continued, "is where it says that many people   
   believed in Him, a terrible phrase: 'But Jesus on his part did not entrust   
   himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness   
   about man, for he himself knew what was in man'. We cannot deceive Jesus. He   
   knows us in depth. Before Him we cannot pretend to be saints and close our   
   eyes, and then lead a life that is not what He wants. ... And we all know that   
   name that Jesus gave to those with two faces: hypocrites".   
    "It will do us good, today, to enter into our hearts and look at Jesus. To   
   say to him, 'Lord, look, there are good things, but there are also things that   
   are not good. Jesus, do You trust in me? I am a sinner'. ... Jesus is not   
   afraid of this. ... However, he who drifts away, who has a dual face; who lets   
   himself be seen to be good to cover the hidden sin... When we enter into our   
   heart, we find many things that are not good, just as Jesus found in the   
   temple the dirty affairs of trade. ... We can continue our dialogue with   
   Jesus: 'Jesus, do you trust in me? ... So, I will open the door to You, and   
   You can cleanse my soul".   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)