he was awaited by more than sixty thousand people to participate in the Holy   
   Mass. The readings were dedicated to peace and justice, and the ceremony took   
   place in the Croatian language. In his homily (which he pronounced in Italian,   
   with translations in Croatian), the Holy Father emphasised that peace is God's   
   plan for humanity, and again denounced those who seek confrontation between   
   cultures and civilizations; citing the prophet Isaiah, he reiterated that if   
   the   
   work of justice is peace, then that peace is built by hand, day by day. The   
   following is the full text of his homily.   
    "The word peace echoes several times through the Scripture readings which we   
   have just heard. It is a powerful, prophetic word! Peace is God's dream, his   
   plan for humanity, for history, for all creation. And it is a plan which always   
   meets opposition from men and from the evil one. Even in our time, the desire   
   for peace and the commitment to build peace collide with the reality of many   
   armed conflicts presently affecting our world. They are a kind of third world   
   war being fought piecemeal and, in the context of global communications, we   
   sense an atmosphere of war.   
    "Some wish to incite and foment this atmosphere deliberately, mainly those who   
   want conflict between different cultures and societies, and those who speculate   
   on wars for the purpose of selling arms. But war means children, women and the   
   elderly in refugee camps; it means forced displacement of peoples; it means   
   destroyed houses, streets and factories; it means, above all, countless   
   shattered lives. You know this well, having experienced it here: how much   
   suffering, how much destruction, how much pain! Today, dear brothers and   
   sisters, the cry of God's people goes up once again from this city, the cry of   
   all men and women of good will: no more war!   
    "Within this atmosphere of war, like a ray of sunshine piercing the clouds,   
   resound the words of Jesus in the Gospel: 'Blessed are the peacemakers'. This   
   appeal is always applicable, in every generation. He does not say: 'Blessed are   
   the preachers of peace', since all are capable of proclaiming peace, even in a   
   hypocritical, or indeed duplicitous, manner. No. He says: 'Blessed are the   
   peacemakers', that is, those who make peace. Crafting peace is a skilled work:   
   it requires passion, patience, experience and tenacity. Blessed are those who   
   sow peace by their daily actions, their attitudes and acts of kindness, of   
   fraternity, of dialogue, of mercy... These, indeed, 'shall be called children   
   of   
   God', for God sows peace, always, everywhere; in the fullness of time, he sowed   
   in the world his Son, that we might have peace! Peacemaking is a work to be   
   carried forward each day, step by step, without ever growing tired.   
    "So how does one do this, how do we build peace? The prophet Isaiah reminds us   
   succinctly: 'The effect of righteousness will be peace'. Opus justitiae pax   
   ('the work of justice is peace'), from the Vulgate version of Scripture, has   
   become a famous motto, even adopted prophetically by Pope Pius XII. Peace is a   
   work of justice. Here too: not a justice proclaimed, imagined, planned ... but   
   rather a justice put into practice, lived out. The Gospel teaches us that the   
   ultimate fulfilment of justice is love: 'You shall love your neighbour as   
   yourself'. When, by the grace of God, we truly follow this commandment, how   
   things change! Because we ourselves change! Those whom I looked upon as my   
   enemy   
   really have the same face as I do, the same heart, the same soul. We have the   
   same Father in heaven. True justice, then, is doing to others what I would want   
   them to do to me, to my people.   
    "St. Paul, in the second reading, shows us the attitude needed to make peace:   
   'Put on then ... compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness and patience,   
   forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving   
   each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive'. These are   
   the attitudes necessary to become artisans of peace precisely where we live out   
   our daily lives. But we should not fool ourselves into thinking that this all   
   depends on us! We would fall into an illusive moralising. Peace is a gift from   
   God, not in the magical sense, but because with his Spirit he can imprint these   
   attitudes in our hearts and in our flesh, and can make us true instruments of   
   his peace. And, going further, the Apostle says that peace is a gift of God   
   because it is the fruit of his reconciliation with us. Only if we allow   
   ourselves to be reconciled with God can human beings become artisans of peace.   
    "Dear Brothers and Sisters, today we ask the Lord together, through the   
   intercession of the Virgin Mary, for the grace to have a simple heart, the   
   grace   
   of patience, the grace to struggle and work for justice, to be merciful, to   
   work   
   for peace, to sow peace and not war and discord. This is the way which brings   
   happiness, which leads to blessedness".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Decrees for the Causes of Saints   
    Vatican City, 6 June 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father Francis   
   received in private audience Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the   
   Congregation for the Causes of Saints, during which he authorised the   
   Congregation to promulgate the following decrees:   
    MIRACLES   
    - attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Francesco de   
   Paola Victor, Brazilian diocesan priest (1827-1905);   
    - attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God Klara Ludwika   
   Szcz?sna, Polish co-founder of the Congregation of the Handmaids of the Most   
   Sacred Heart of Jesus (1863-1916).   
    MARTYRDOM   
    - Servant of God Frederic de Berga (né Martí Tarrés Puigpelat) and 25   
   companions, Spanish priests and lay brothers of the Order of Friars Minor   
   Capuchin, killed in hatred of the faith in 1936;   
    - Servant of God Joseph Thao Tiên, diocesan priest, and ten companions,   
   professed priests of the Society of the Paris Foreign Missions and the Oblates   
   of Mary Immaculate, and four lay companions, killed in hatred of the faith in   
   Laos between 1954 and 1970.   
    HEROIC VIRTUES   
    - Servant of God Antonino Celona, Italian diocesan priest and founder of the   
   Handmaids of Reparation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1873-1952);   
    - Servant of God Ottorino Zanon, Italian priest and founder of the   
   Congregation   
   of the Pious Society of St. Cajetan (1915-1972);   
    - Servant of God Marcello Labor, Italian diocesan priest (1890-1954);   
    - Servant of God Maria Antonia of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (née Rachele   
   Lalia), Italian founder of the Dominican Sisters of St. Sisto Vecchio   
   (1839-1914).   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 6 June 2015 (VIS) - In the afternoon of Friday 5 June the Holy   
   Father received in separate audiences:   
    - Cardinal Angelo Amato, S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of   
   Saints;   
    - Bishop Jorge Eduardo Lozano of Gualeguaychu, Argentina;   
    - Bishop Vicente Bokalic Iglic of Santiago del Estero, Argentina.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 6 June 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Fr. Jose   
   Alberto Gonzalez Juarez as bishop of Tuxtepec (area 6,000, population 781,000,   
   Catholics 738,000, priests 50, permanent deacons 10, religious 34), Mexico. The   
   bishop-elect was born in El Parral, Mexico in 1967 and was ordained a priest in   
   1995. He holds a licentiate in philosophy from the Pontifical University in   
   Mexico, and has served in a number of pastoral roles in the archdiocese of   
   Tuxtla Gutierrez, including parish vicar, parish priest, superior of the   
   preparatory course and teacher in philosophy, and rector of the seminary. He is   
   currently parish of the Church of the Immaculate Conception and episcopal vicar   
   for consecrated life.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   For more information and to search for documents refer to the site:   
   www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va   
      
   Copyright (VIS):  the news contained in the services of the Vatican   
   Information Service may be reproduced wholly or partially by quoting   
   the source:  V. I. S. - Vatican Information Service.   
   http://www.vatican.va/news_services/press/vis/vis_en.html   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)