VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 073   
   DATE 17-04-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Pope Francis praises the work of the "Papal Foundation"   
   - Declaration of the director of the Holy See Press Office on the Pope's   
   possible trip to Cuba   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope Francis praises the work of the "Papal Foundation"   
    Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) - Today at midday Pope Francis received in   
   audience, in the Sala Clementina, 225 members, administrators and collaborators   
   of the "Papal Foundation" during their annual visit to Rome. The "Papal   
   Foundation" is a Catholic association established in 1990 in Philadelphia,   
   U.S.A. by the late Cardinal John Krol, which provides funding for the needs of   
   the Church throughout the world.   
    In his address to the institution, the Pope emphasised the wide variety of   
   projects supported by the Foundation, which offer "witness to the ceaseless   
   efforts of the Church to promote the integral development of the human family,   
   conscious as she is of the immense and ongoing needs of so many of our brothers   
   and sisters". The Papal Foundation "devotes a sizeable percentage of its   
   resources to the education and formation of young priests, religious and lay   
   men   
   and women, hastening the day when their local Churches may be self-supportive,   
   and, indeed,pass on the fruits of such generosity to others".   
    Pope Francis thanked those present for the hard work and sacrifice that this   
   entails, and to assured them of his heartfelt prayers for them, their loved   
   ones, and all those whom they support.   
    "As the Church prepares for the coming Jubilee of Mercy, I ask our Lord Jesus   
   Christ, 'the face of the Father's mercy', to refresh and renew each one of you   
   through his mercy, the greatest of his many gifts", he concluded. "May each of   
   you experience the healing and freedom that come from the encounter of   
   forgiveness and gratuitous love offered in the sacraments of Reconciliation and   
   the Eucharist".   
      
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    Declaration of the director of the Holy See Press Office on the Pope's   
   possible   
   trip to Cuba   
    Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) - The director of the Holy See Press Office,   
   Fr. Federico Lombardi, S.J., in response to questions from journalists   
   regarding   
   the possibility of Pope Francis visiting Cuba, has affirmed that "the Holy   
   Father has taken into consideration the idea of making a stop in Cuba on the   
   occasion of his upcoming trip to the United States. However, contacts with the   
   Cuban authorities are still in too early a phase for it to be possible to   
   regard   
   this as a firm decision or an operative plan".   
      
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    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in   
   audience:   
    - Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for New   
   Evangelisation;   
    - Reiner Haseloff, minister president of Saxony-Anhalt, Federal Republic of   
   Germany, with his wife and entourage.   
      
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    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 17 April 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed:   
    - Rev. Fr. Juan de Dios Pena Rojas as bishop of El Vigia-San Carlos del Zulia   
   (area 8,233, population 432,000, Catholics 427,000, priests 32, religious 10),   
   Venezuela. The bishop-elect was born in Acequias, Venezuela in 1967 and was   
   ordained a priest in 1992. He holds a bachelor's degree in theology from the   
   Pontifical Xavierian University of Bogota, Colombia, a licentiate in theology   
   from the Santa Rosa de Lima University Institute, Caracas, Venezuela, and a   
   licentiate in history of the Church from the Pontifical Gregorian University,   
   Rome. He has served in a number of pastoral and academic roles in the   
   archdiocese of Merida, including formator in the major seminary, assessor for   
   youth pastoral ministry, administrative director of the archiepiscopal curia,   
   professor and president of the Scholastic Institute of the major seminary,   
   parish priest, member and secretary of the presbyteral council, and chaplain of   
   the Dominican Sisters of Santa Rosa de Lima. He is currently member of the   
   college of consultors and of the Metropolitan Chapter, and rector of the "San   
   Buenaventura" major seminary of Merida.   
    - Msgr. Francesco Viscome, Italy, substitute defender of the bond, as promoter   
   of justice at the Tribunal of the Roman Rota.   
    - Rev. Fr. Francesco Ibba, Italy, as substitute defender of the bond at the   
   Tribunal of the Roman Rota.   
      
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