VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXV - # 055   
   DATE 18-03-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - General Audience: Children, Gift to Humanity, Remind Us that We Need Help,   
   Love, and Forgiveness   
   - Promulgation of Decrees by Congregation for Causes of Saints   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
   - Notice   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    General Audience: Children, Gift to Humanity, Remind Us that We Need Help,   
   Love, and Forgiveness   
   Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) ? Having examined the various members of   
   family life?mothers, fathers, children, siblings, grandparents?the Pope   
   concluded this first section of catechesis on the family by talking about   
   children. Today he focused on what a great gift children are for humanity, and   
   next week he will speak about wounds that damage childhood.   
   Interrupted by the applause of the faithful gathered in St. Peter?s Square when   
   he affirmed that ?children are a gift to humanity?, Pope Francis thanked them   
   and exclaimed: ?but they are also a greatly excluded one because they are even   
   not allowed to be born?a society can be judged, not only morally but also   
   sociologically, on how it treats its children, if it is a free society or a   
   slave society of international interests.?   
   Then, continuing with hiscatechesis he explained that ?firstly, children remind   
   us that we all, in the first years of life, are totally dependent on the care   
   and kindness of others. The Son of God,? he emphasized, ?was not spared this   
   step. This is the mystery that we contemplate every year at Christmastime. The   
   manger scene is the icon that communicates this reality in the most simple and   
   direct way.?   
   ?God,? he continued, ?has no difficulty in being understood by children and   
   children have no trouble in understanding God. It isn?t by chance that in the   
   Gospels Jesus speaks beautiful and strong words about the ?little ones?. This   
   term indicates all persons who depend on the help of others, particularly   
   children. ?Children, therefore, are a treasure for humanity and also for the   
   Church because they constantly remind us of the necessary condition for   
   entering   
   into the Kingdom of God: that we must not consider ourselves self-sufficient,   
   but in need of help, of love, andof forgiveness.?   
   Children also remind us that we are always children even when we become adults   
   or if we become parents; beneath it all we keep our identity as a child. ?And   
   this always leads us back to the fact that we are not given life, but that we   
   have received it,? the Pope reminded. ?The great gift of life is the first gift   
   we have received. Sometimes we risk forgetting about this, as if we were the   
   masters of our existence while instead we are radically dependent. In fact, it   
   is a source of great joy to hear that at every age in life, in every situation,   
   in every social condition, we are and remain sons and daughters. This is the   
   main message that children give us with their presence: with just their   
   presence   
   they remind us that each and every one of us is a child.?   
   Listing some of the other gifts that children bring to humanity the Pope   
   highlighted their way of seeing reality, ?with a confident and pure gaze.   
   Children have aspontaneous trust in mom and dad and they have a spontaneous   
   trust in God, in Jesus, and in the Madonna. At the same time, their inner gaze   
   is pure, not yet tainted by malice, duplicity, and the ?incrustation? of life   
   that harden one?s heart. We know that even children have original sin, that   
   they   
   can be selfish, but they retain a purity and an inner simplicity. Children are   
   not diplomats: they say what they feel, they say what they see, directly. And   
   many times they make parents uncomfortable, saying in front of other people: ?I   
   don?t like this because it?s ugly.? But children say what they see. They aren?t   
   split persons; they still haven?t learned that science of duplicity that we   
   adults have unfortunately learned.?   
   Children also bring with them ability to receive and to give affection.   
   ?Tenderness is having a heart ?of flesh? and not ?of stone?, as the Bible   
   says,?   
   Pope Francis noted. ?Tenderness is also poetry. It is?feeling? things and   
   events, not treating them as mere objects only to use them because they they?re   
   useful.?   
   The ability to smile and to cry is another gift that children bring, one which   
   ?we grown-ups often ?block out?? Many times our smile becomes a cardboard one,   
   something lifeless and cold or even an artificial, clown?s smile. Children   
   smile   
   and cry spontaneously. It always comes from the heart, and often our hearts are   
   closed and we lose this ability to smile and to cry. Children, then, can teach   
   us how to smile and how to cry again. ? This is why Jesus invites his disciples   
   to ?become like children? because ?the kingdom of God belongs to such as   
   these?.?   
   ?Children bring life, joy, hope, even troubles. But life is like that. They   
   certainly also bring worries and, at times, many problems. But a society with   
   these worries and problems is a better one than a society that is sad and gray   
   because it is childless!And when we see a society with a birthrate of just 1%,?   
   he concluded, ?we can say that that is a sad and gray society because it is   
   without children.?   
   On greeting pilgrims from English-speaking countries, the Pope was warmly   
   hailed   
   by students from The Catholic University of America and Loyola University   
   Maryland who are studying in Rome for the semester   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Promulgation of Decrees by Congregation for Causes of Saints   
   Vatican City, 18 March 2015 (VIS) ? This morning the Holy Father received in   
   audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the   
   Causes of Saints, and authorized the promulgation of decrees concerning the   
   following causes:   
   - a MIRACLE, attributable to the intercession of the married couple Louis   
   Martin, layman and father, born 22 August, 1823 in Bordeaux, France, died 29   
   July 1894 in Arnieres-sur-Iton, France and Marie-Azelie Guérin Martin, laywoman   
   and mother, born 23 December 1831 in Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, France, died 28   
   August 1877 in Alencon, France.   
   HEROIC VIRTUES   
   - Servant of God Francesco Gattola, diocesan priest and founder of the   
   Daughters   
   of the Most Holy Immaculate Virgin of Lourdes, born 19 September 1822 in   
   Naples,   
   Italy, died there 20 January 1899;   
   - Servant of God Petar Barbaric,Jesuit novice, born 19 May 1874 in Klobuk,   
   Bosnia and Herzegovina, died 15 April 1897 Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina;   
   - Servant of God Mary Aikenhead, founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity of   
   Ireland, born 19 January 1787 in Cork, Ireland, died 22 July 1858 in Dublin,   
   Ireland;   
   - Servant of God Elisa Baldo Foresti, widow, founder of the Holy Home of St.   
   Joseph in Gavardo, and cofounder of the Humble Servants of the Lord, born 29   
   October 1862 in Gavardo, Italy, died 5 July in Brescia, Italy;   
   - Servant of God Vincenta of the Passion of the Lord (nee Jadwiga Jaroszewska),   
   founder of the Benedictine Samaritan Sisters of the Cross of Christ, born 7   
   March 1900 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, Poland, died 10 November in Warsaw,   
   Poland).   
   - Servant of God Juana of the Cross (nee Juana Vazquez Gutierrez) professed   
   religious of the Franciscan Nuns of the Third Order Regular and Abbess of the   
   Santa Maria de la Cruz conventin Cubas, born 3 May 1481 in Villa de Azana   
   (today?s Numancia de la Sagra), Spain, died 3 May 1534 in Cubas de la Sagra,   
   Spain;   
   - Servant of God Maria Orsola Bussone, young layperson of the Focolare   
   Movement,   
   born 2 October 1954 in Vallo Torinese, Italy, died 10 July 1970 in Ca' Savio,   
   Italy.   
      
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    Other Pontifical Acts   
   Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) ? Today the Holy Father:   
   - appointed Archbishop Esmeraldo Barreto de Farias as auxiliary of the   
   Archdiocese of Sao Luis do Maranhao (area 13,112, population 1,378,000,   
   Catholics 992,000, priests 75, religious 307), Brazil. He previously served as   
   archbishop of Porto Velho, Brazil.   
   - accepted the resignation of Dom Joseph Roduit, C.R., from the office of   
   ordinary abbot of the territorial abbey of Saint-Maurice,Switzerland.   
      
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    Notice   
   Vatican City, 18 March, 2015 (VIS) - We wish to inform our readers that   
   tomorrow, Thursday 19 March, on the occasion of the Solemnity of St. Joseph,   
   the   
   Vatican Information Service bulletin will not be transmitted. The service will   
   resume on Friday, 20 March. There will also be a newsletter transmitted this   
   Saturday, 21 March, on the occasion of Pope Francis?s visit to Naples and   
   Pompeii.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
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