VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 074   
   DATE 20-04-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Ad Limina visit of the bishops of Gabon: evangelise the customs and   
   socio-political realities of your country   
   - Pope Francis receives the Conference of European Rabbis   
   - The Holy Father remembers Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff   
   - Buddhists and Christians, together to counter modern slavery   
   - Regina Coeli: the content of Christian witness is not an ideology   
   - Men and women like us, seeking a better life   
   - State Visit of the President of the Italian Republic   
   - Italy and the Holy See: promoting and protecting religious freedom and human   
   dignity at bilateral and international levels   
   - To the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences: raise awareness of new forms of   
   slavery   
   - The Pope receives the A.C.I.S.J.F.: let young women know they are called to   
   happiness   
   - Telegram for the death of Cardinal Francis Eugene George   
   - The Pope to receive Catholic Charismatic Renewal in audience on 3 July   
   - Symposium on Friar Junipero Serra, to be canonised 23 September   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Ad Limina visit of the bishops of Gabon: evangelise the customs and   
   socio-political realities of your country   
    Vatican City, 18 April 2015 (VIS) - "In this jubilee year that commemorates   
   several events in the life of the Church in Gabon, including the 170th   
   anniversary of her foundation, I wish to greet and encourage your priests, men   
   and women religious and other pastoral agents who collaborate with you, as well   
   as the lay faithful of your dioceses, whom I join in prayer and thanksgiving",   
   writes the Holy Father in the discourse he handed this morning to the bishops   
   of   
   the Episcopal Conference of Gabon, at the end of their "ad Limina" visit.   
    "The courageous missionaries who preached the Gospel in your land, in heroic   
   conditions, and also the first Christians of Gabon, who welcomed the Good News   
   of salvation with a generous heart and bore witness to it, often facing great   
   adversity, are the pioneers of your local Church. Their memory, their zeal and   
   their evangelical witness must never cease to inspire you in your pastoral   
   action, and constitute for the Church of Gabon the source of a renewed   
   commitment to the announcement of the Gospel, as a message of peace, joy and   
   salvation that liberates man from the forces of evil to guide him to the   
   Kingdom   
   of God".   
    "To carry out the ministry that has been entrusted to you in each of your   
   dioceses requires you to live in authentic fraternity within your Episcopal   
   Conference", he continues. "Fraternal collaboration must make it possible to   
   respond better to needs such as the challenges of the Church and to assure,   
   with   
   a collegial spirit, service to the common good all society. In this regard, you   
   have recently taken the initiative of establishing a day of prayer for your   
   country. The Church thus shows that she shares in the concerns of all Gabonese   
   and that the Christian message, far from deterring humanity from building an   
   ever more just and fraternal world, makes doing so a duty. The Centre for   
   Studes   
   for Social Doctrine and Interreligious Dialogue, established in 2011 in   
   Libreville, also shows your concern for evangelising customs and the   
   socio-political realities of your country".   
    "The unity of the presbytery with the bishop is an example that gives the   
   faithful the sense of the Church as the family of God. This must be translated   
   in particular into great care to immunise them against the insidious danger of   
   tribal and ethnic discrimination, which are the very negation of the Gospel.   
   This spirit of communion is especially expressed in the fraternal care that you   
   dedicate to the life and the mission of your priests. ... The candidates to the   
   priesthood also need ... effective accompaniment in the indispensable and   
   complex   
   process of the discernment of vocations. This discernment and the formation of   
   seminarians must be anchored first to the Gospel, and then to the true cultural   
   values of their country, on the sense of honesty, responsibility and the given   
   word. ... Men and women religious, who since the founding of the Church in   
   Gabon   
   have displayed extraordinary apostolic zeal in the service of the Gospel, are   
   also entitled to privileged and affectionate attention from you ... that may be   
   manifested in constructive dialogue and permanent collaboration at all levels   
   with them, as well as in spiritual closeness and the promotion of different   
   charisms within your dioceses".   
    The bishop of Rome encourages the prelates to continue in their efforts to   
   "awaken in the laity the sense of their Christian vocation, and to urge them to   
   develop their charisms in order to put them to the service of the Church and of   
   society. The Church is missionary by nature. ... Therefore, the human and   
   Christian formation of the laity is an important way of contributing to the   
   work   
   of the evangelisation and development of the people, always endeavouring to   
   adopt an 'outbound' approach towards social peripheries. It is also necessary   
   to   
   present to the young the true face of Christ, their friend and guide, so that   
   they find in Him a solid anchorage to resist ideologies and sects as well as   
   the   
   illusions of a false modernity and the mirage of material wealth".   
    "In this regard, it is important to maintain the prestige of Catholic   
   educational institutions in your country, by way of a formation that is   
   increasingly inspired by the spirit of the Gospel. The 2001 Agreement between   
   the Holy See and the Gabonese Republic on the Status of Catholic Education   
   offers valuable support to the local Church, favouring the promotion of each   
   and   
   every person, with a preferential option for the poorest. I encourage you,   
   therefore, not to hesitate in raising your voice to defend the human person and   
   the sacred nature of life". The Holy Father concludes, "In this time of   
   preparation for the upcoming Synod of Bishops on the family, I invite you to   
   pray and to ask for prayer for a good outcome, to better serve all families".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope Francis receives the Conference of European Rabbis   
    Vatican City, 20 April 2015 (VIS) - For the first time a delegation of the   
   Conference of European Rabbis, presided by Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, has met   
   with the Successsor of Peter in the Vatican. Pope Francis, who received them   
   this morning, expressed his joy at this event, and at the same time offered his   
   condolences, which he extended to the Jewish community of Rome, for the death   
   yesterday of the ex Grand Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, a "man of peace and   
   dialogue", who received Pope John Paul II during his historical visit to the   
   Great Synagogue of Rome in April 1986. For this reason, the current Chief Rabbi   
   of Rome, Riccardo Di Segni, was not present at the meeting.   
    In his address to the delegation, the Pope emphasised that the dialogue   
   between   
   the Catholic Church and the Jewish communities continues to progress as it has   
   for half a century; 28 October will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the   
   conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate, which is still the reference point for   
   efforts in this regard. "With gratitude to the Lord, may we recall these years,   
   rejoicing in our progress and in the friendship which has grown between us", he   
   said.   
    "Today, in Europe, it is more important than ever to emphasise the spiritual   
   and religious dimension of human life", he continued. "In a society   
   increasingly   
   marked by secularism and threatened by atheism, we run the risk of living as if   
   God did not exist. People are often tempted to take the place of God, to   
   consider themselves the criterion of all things, to control them, to use   
   everything according to their own will. It is so important to remember,   
   however,   
   that our life is a gift from God, and that we must depend on him, confide in   
   him, and turn towards him always. Jews and Christians have the blessing but   
   also   
   the responsibility to help preserve the religious sense of the men and women of   
   today, and that of our society, by our witness to the sanctity of God and human   
   life. God is holy, and the life he has given is holy and inviolable".   
    Francis voiced his concerns regarding increasing anti-Semitism and acts of   
   hatred and violence in Europe, and affirmed that "every Christian must be firm   
   in deploring all forms of anti-Semitism, and in showing their solidarity with   
   the Jewish people". He also referred to the recent seventieth anniversary of   
   the   
   liberation of Auschwitz, the concentration camp which has come to be synonymous   
   with the great tragedy of the Shoah. The memory of what took place there, in   
   the   
   heart of Europe, is a warning to present and future generations. Acts of hatred   
   and violence against Christians and the faithful of other religions must   
   likewise be condemned everywhere".   
    "Dear friends", he concluded, "I heartily thank you for this very significant   
   visit. I extend my best wishes to your communities, with the assurance of my   
   closeness and prayers. And, please, do not forget to pray for me. Shalom   
   alechem!".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Holy Father remembers Chief Rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff   
    Vatican City, 20 April 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis has sent a letter of   
   condolences to the Chief Rabbi of the Jewish community of Rome, Riccardo Di   
   Segni, for the death yesterday of his predecessor in this role, Rabbi Elio   
   Toaff, at the age of 99. The following is the full text of the letter.   
    "I wish to express my heartfelt participation in the mourning of the family   
   and   
   the entire Jewish community of the capital following the departure of the Rabbi   
   Professor Elio Toaff, the long-time spiritual guide of the Jews of Rome.   
    A key figure in Italian Jewish and civil history during recent decades, he   
   knew   
   how to earn esteem and appreciation through his moral authority, linked to a   
   profound humanity.   
    I recall with gratitude his generous efforts and sincere willingness to   
   promote   
   dialogue and fraternal relations between Jews and Catholics, which experienced   
   a   
   significant moment in his memorable encounter with St. John Paul II at the   
   Synagogue of Rome.   
    I raise prayers that the Almighty, rich in love and faithfulness, welcome him   
   in His Kingdom of peace".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Buddhists and Christians, together to counter modern slavery   
    Vatican City, 20 April 2015 (VIS) - "Buddhists and Christians, together to   
   counter modern slavery" is the title of the message from the Pontifical Council   
   for Interreligious Dialogue to Buddhists, to celebrate the month of Vesakh, the   
   commemoration of the three most significant events in the life of Gautama   
   Buddha   
   - his birth, enlightenment and death. This occasion, according to the president   
   of the dicastery, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, also provides an opportunity "to   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)