VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 069   
   DATE 13-04-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Ninth meeting of the Council of Cardinals   
   - Mass for the centenary of the Armenian Metz Yeghern: Jesus fills the abyss of   
   sin with the depth of His mercy   
   - Pope's message to the Armenians   
   - Regina Coeli: "Invited to contemplate Divine Mercy in the wounds of the Risen   
   Christ"   
   - Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy: path of forgiveness and mercy   
   - Summary of the "Misericordiae Vultus", Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary   
   Jubilee of Mercy   
   - The Pope "in harmony" with the theme of the Seventh Summit of the Americas:   
   "Prosperity with equity"   
   - To formators of consecrated persons: not only teachers, but also witnesses of   
   following Christ   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Ninth meeting of the Council of Cardinals   
    Vatican City, 13 April 2015 (VIS) - This morning the ninth meeting of the   
   Council of Cardinals, to be attended by the Holy Father, began in the Vatican.   
   The Council will continue its work until Wednesday, 15 April.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Mass for the centenary of the Armenian Metz Yeghern: Jesus fills the abyss of   
   sin with the depth of His mercy   
    Vatican City, 12 April 2015 (VIS) - On the second Sunday of Easter, or Divine   
   Mercy Sunday, Pope Francis celebrated Holy Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to   
   commemorate the centenary of the "martyrdom" (Metz Yeghern, or Great Evil) of   
   the Armenian People, and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church St. Gregory of Narek   
   (c. 951 - c. 1003), Armenian monk, theologian, poet and philosopher, whose   
   feast   
   day is celebrated on 27 February.   
    His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenian   
   Catholics concelebrated with the Holy Father, in the presence of His Holiness   
   Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and His Holiness   
   Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia. The president of the Republic   
   of Armenia, Serz Sargsyan, also attended the Mass.   
    In his homily, the Pope commented on the Gospel of St. John, who was in the   
   Upper Room with the other disciples on the evening of the first day after the   
   Sabbath, and who tells us that "Jesus came and stood among them, and said,   
   'Peace be with you!' and He showed them His hands and His side; He showed them   
   His wounds. And in this way they realised that it was not an apparition: it was   
   truly Him, the Lord, and they were filled with joy. On the eighth day Jesus   
   came   
   once again into the Upper Room and showed His wounds to Thomas, so that he   
   could   
   touch them as he had wished to, in order to believe and thus become himself a   
   witness to the Resurrection".   
    To us also, on this Sunday which Saint John Paul II wished to dedicate to   
   Divine Mercy, "the Lord shows us, through the Gospel, his wounds. They are   
   wounds of mercy. It is true: the wounds of Jesus are wounds of mercy. 'With His   
   stripes we are healed'. Jesus invites us to behold these wounds, to touch them   
   as Thomas did, to heal our lack of belief. Above all, He invites us to enter   
   into the mystery of these wounds, which is the mystery of His merciful love".   
    "Through these wounds, as in a light-filled opening, we can see the entire   
   mystery of Christ and of God", said Pope Francis: "His Passion, His earthly   
   life   
   - filled with compassion for the weak and the sick - His incarnation in the   
   womb   
   of Mary. And we can retrace the whole history of salvation: the prophecies -   
   especially about the Servant of the Lord, the Psalms, the Law and the Covenant;   
   to the liberation from Egypt, to the first Passover and to the blood of the   
   slaughtered lambs; and again from the Patriarchs to Abraham, and then all the   
   way back to Abel, whose blood cried out from the earth. All of this we can see   
   in the wounds of Jesus, crucified and risen; with Mary, in her Magnificat, we   
   can perceive that, 'His mercy extends from generation to generation'". He   
   continued, "Faced with the tragic events of human history we can feel crushed   
   at   
   times, asking ourselves, 'Why?'. Humanity's evil can appear in the world like   
   an   
   abyss, a great void: empty of love, empty of goodness, empty of life. And so we   
   ask: how can we fill this abyss? For us it is impossible; only God can fill   
   this   
   emptiness that evil brings to our hearts and to human history. It is Jesus, God   
   made man, Who died on the Cross and Who fills the abyss of sin with the depth   
   of   
   His mercy".   
    The saints teach us that "the world is changed beginning with the conversion   
   of   
   one's own heart, and that this happens through the mercy of God. And so,   
   whether   
   faced with my own sins or the great tragedies of the world, 'my conscience   
   would   
   be distressed, but it would not be in turmoil, for I would recall the wounds of   
   the Lord: "He was wounded for our iniquities". What sin is there so deadly that   
   it cannot be pardoned by the death of Christ?'".   
    "Keeping our gaze on the wounds of the Risen Jesus, we can sing with the   
   Church: 'His love endures forever'; eternal is his mercy. And with these words   
   impressed on our hearts, let us go forth along the paths of history, led by the   
   hand of our Lord and Saviour, our life and our hope", concluded the Pontiff.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope's message to the Armenians   
    Vatican City, 12 April 2015 (VIS) - At the end of the Holy Mass celebrated in   
   St. Peter's Basilica to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian "martyrdom"   
   (Metz Yeghern) and the proclamation of St. Gregory of Narek as Doctor of the   
   Church, the Pope met with His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and   
   Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House   
   of Cilicia, His Beatitude Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, Patriarch of Cilicia of   
   the Armenian Catholic Church, and the president of the Republic of Armenia,   
   Serz   
   Sargsyan. He handed to each of them a signed copy in Italian of his message he   
   read at the beginning of the celebration, with a translation in Armenian. The   
   following is the full text of his message.   
    "On a number of occasions I have spoken of our time as a time of war, a third   
   world war which is being fought piecemeal, one in which we daily witness savage   
   crimes, brutal massacres and senseless destruction. Sadly, today too we hear   
   the   
   muffled and forgotten cry of so many of our defenceless brothers and sisters   
   who, on account of their faith in Christ or their ethnic origin, are publicly   
   and ruthlessly put to death - decapitated, crucified, burned alive - or forced   
   to leave their homeland.   
    Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general and   
   collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who cries out: 'What   
   does it matter to me? Am I my brother's keeper?'.   
    In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and   
   unprecedented tragedies. The first, which is widely considered 'the first   
   genocide of the twentieth century' (John Paul II and Karekin II, Common   
   Declaration, Etchmiadzin, 27 September 2001), struck your own Armenian people,   
   the first Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians,   
   Assyrians,   
   Chaldeans and Greeks. Bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the   
   elderly   
   and even defenceless children and the infirm were murdered. The remaining two   
   were perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism. And more recently there have been   
   other mass killings, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia. It   
   seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent   
   blood. It seems that the enthusiasm generated at the end of the Second World   
   War   
   has dissipated and is now disappearing. It seems that the human family has   
   refused to learn from its mistakes caused by the law of terror, so that today   
   too there are those who attempt to eliminate others with the help of a few and   
   with the complicit silence of others who simply stand by. We have not yet   
   learned that 'war is madness', 'senseless slaughter'.   
    Dear Armenian Christians, today, with hearts filled with pain but at the same   
   time with great hope in the risen Lord, we recall the centenary of that tragic   
   event, that immense and senseless slaughter whose cruelty your forebears had to   
   endure. It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for   
   whenever   
   memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester. Concealing or denying   
   evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it!   
    I greet you with affection and I thank you for your witness. With gratitude   
   for   
   his presence, I greet Mr Serz Sargsyan, the President of the Republic of   
   Armenia. My cordial greeting goes also to my brother Patriarchs and Bishops:   
   His   
   Holiness Kerekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians; His   
   Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, His Beatitude Nerses   
   Bedros XIX, Patriarch of Cilicia of Armenian Catholics; and Catholicosates of   
   the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Patriarchate of the Armenian Catholic   
   Church.   
    In the certainty that evil never comes from God, Who is infinitely good, and   
   standing firm in faith, let us profess that cruelty may never be considered   
   God's work and, what is more, can find absolutely no justification in his Holy   
   Name. Let us continue this celebration by fixing our gaze on Jesus Christ,   
   risen   
   from the dead, victor over death and evil".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Regina Coeli: "Invited to contemplate Divine Mercy in the wounds of the Risen   
   Christ"   
    Vatican City, 13 April 2015 (VIS) - At midday on Divine Mercy Sunday,   
   following   
   the celebration of Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica for the faithful of   
   Armenian Rite, Pope Francis appeared at the window of his study to pray the   
   Regina Coeli with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square.   
   Before the Marian prayer, the Pontiff addressed those present.   
    "Today is the eighth day after Easter, and the Gospel of St. John tells of the   
   two appearances of the Resurrected Jesus to the apostles gathered in the Upper   
   Room. ... The first time, the Lord shows the disciples the wounds on His body.   
   ...   
   But Thomas was not present that evening, and he did not believe the account   
   given by the others. ... Eight days after - precisely like today - Jesus   
   returned   
   among them and turned immediately to Thomas, inviting him to touch the wounds   
   on   
   His hands and on His side. He reaches out to his incredulity so that, through   
   the signs of the Passion, he is able to reach the fullness of Paschal faith:   
   faith in the resurrection of Jesus".   
    "Thomas is a person who is not easily satisfied, a seeker who wishes to check   
   in person, to attain his own personal experience. After his initial resistance   
   and uneasiness, he too finally reaches the point of believing. ... Jesus awaits   
   him patiently and is attentive to the difficulties and insecurities of the last   
   man to arrive. ... [Thomas] was able to 'touch' the paschal Mystery that fully   
   demonstrates God's salvific love, rich in mercy. And like Thomas, we too, on   
   this second Sunday of Easter, are invited to contemplate, in the wounds of the   
   Risen Christ, the Divine Mercy that overcomes every human limit and shines   
   through the darkness of evil and sin".   
    Francis explained that the upcoming Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy will be an   
   intense and prolonged period for welcoming the immense wealth of God's merciful   
   love, and emphasised that the Face of Mercy is Jesus Christ. "Let us keep our   
   gaze upon Him, He Who always seeks us, awaits us, forgives us ... and may the   
   Virgin Mary help us to be merciful towards others, as Jesus is with us".   
    After the Marian prayer, the Pope greeted those present, especially pilgrims   
   attending the Holy Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, centre for   
   devotion to Divine Mercy. He mentioned the neocatechumenical communities of   
   Rome, which are beginning a special mission in the city's squares to pray and   
   offer witness of their faith, and congratulated the Oriental Churches which,   
   according to their calendar, celebrate Easter. Finally, he gave thanks for the   
   many Easter greetings that he has received from all over the world.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy: path of forgiveness and mercy   
    Vatican City, 12 April 2015 (VIS) - The Pope presided at the first vespers of   
   the second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday - in St. Peter's Basilica at   
   5.30 p.m. yesterday, Saturday 11 April. The celebration included the   
   consignment   
   and reading of the official Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of   
   Mercy, to begin on 8 December 2015 and to close on 16 November 2016.   
    The Holy Father, accompanied by the cardinals, transferred to the entrance of   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)