is diversity and at times clashes. Unfortunately, brothers have not and   
   continue   
   not to accept their differences, and end up fighting against each other.   
   Reflecting on the history of our relationship, we cannot but feel sad faced   
   with   
   the conflicts and violence committed in the name of our faith, and I ask the   
   Lord to grant us the grace of acknowledging ourselves as sinners and of   
   forgiving each other. It is God's initiative, that never resigns to man's sin,   
   that opens up new forms of living this fraternity, and from this we cannot   
   escape. I ask forgiveness on behalf of the Catholic Church for unchristian,   
   even   
   inhuman gestures and behaviour towards you. In the name of Jesus Christ,   
   forgive   
   us".   
    The Pope expressed his profound joy at noting that the relations between   
   Catholics and Waldensians are now increasingly based on mutual respect and   
   fraternal charity, and that there have been and are many opportunities to   
   strengthen them, for example "collaboration for the publication in Italian of   
   an   
   interconfessional translation of the Bible, pastoral agreements for the   
   celebration of marriage and, more recently, the draft of a joint appeal   
   opposing   
   violence towards women". Likewise, this year at Easter the Waldensian Church in   
   the Italian city of Pinerolo offered the Catholic Church the wine for the   
   celebration of Holy Saturday, and the Catholic Church responded by offering the   
   Waldensians the bread for the Holy Supper on Easter Sunday. "It is a gesture   
   between the two Churches that goes far beyond the pure and simple courtesy",   
   noted Francis. "It is a gesture that anticipates, in some way, the unity of the   
   Eucharistic Mass that we all hope for".   
    "Inspired by these steps, we are called to continue to walk together",   
   emphasised the Pope at the end of his discourse. "One area that offers ample   
   opportunities for collaboration between Waldensians and Catholics is   
   evangelisation. Aware that the Lord has gone before us and precedes us in love,   
   let us go together towards the men and women of today, who at times seem so   
   distracted and indifferent, to transmit to them the heart of the Gospel, or   
   rather 'the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ Who   
   died and rose from the dead'. Another sector in which we can work increasingly   
   united is that of the service to suffering humanity: to the poor, the sick,   
   migrants. ... The differences that continue to exist between Catholics and   
   Waldensians on important anthropological and ethical questions do not prevent   
   us   
   from finding forms of cooperation in these and other fields. If we walk   
   together, the Lord will help us to live this communion that precedes any   
   disagreement".   
    The meeting at the Waldensian Temple ended with the Lord's Prayer, recited   
   together. The Pope then returned to the archbishop's residence to meet with a   
   number of his relatives - six direct relatives with their families, a total of   
   thirty people for whom he celebrated Holy Mass and with whom he lunched.   
    Before his return to Rome at 5.30 p.m., the Pope greeted the members of the   
   Committee for the Exposition of the Shroud and the organisers of his visit to   
   Turin, his home town, which Cardinal Bergoglio used to visit every time he   
   travelled to Italy.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope to the Knights of the Order of Merit for Labour: the economy   
   contributes to development when rooted in justice   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Clementine Hall Pope   
   Francis received in audience four hundred members of the National Federation of   
   the Knights of the Order of Merit for Labour, which has for a hundred years   
   been   
   awarded to those who have distinguished themselves in the fields of business   
   and   
   economy for their contribution to the creation of work and the promotion of   
   Italian products throughout the world.   
    "This work is more valuable than ever in an age like ours, in which the   
   economic and financial crisis has been followed by severe stagnation and also a   
   true recession, in a social context already marked by inequalities and   
   unemployment, especially regarding young people. This latter constitutes a true   
   social scourge, inasmuch as it deprives the young of an essential element for   
   their realisation, and deprives the economy of the contribution of their vital   
   strengths. The world of work should be awaiting young people, well-prepared and   
   keen to make efforts and to emerge. Instead, the message that has often been   
   received in these years is that there is no need for them. And this is the   
   symptom of serious dysfunction, that cannot be attributed solely to causes at a   
   global and international level".   
    "The common good, which is the ultimate objective of living together, cannot   
   be   
   reached through a mere increase in earnings or production, but has as an   
   indispensable precondition the active involvement of all the members of the   
   social body. The social teaching of the Church continually recalls this   
   fundamental criterion: that the human being is at the centre of development,   
   and   
   while men and women remain passive or at the margins, the common good cannot be   
   considered to have been fully achieved. ... Here is the social scope of work:   
   the   
   capacity for involved people and entrusting responsibility, so as to stimulate   
   enterprise, creativity and effort. This has positive effects on the new   
   generations and ensures that society begins to look ahead again, offering   
   prospects and opportunities, and therefore hopes for the future".   
    The Holy Father emphasised that this National Foundation has the commendable   
   purpose of ensuring that its members highlight not only the social role of work   
   but also its ethical scope. "Indeed, the economy contributes to the authentic   
   development that does not marginalise peoples and individuals only when it is   
   rooted in justice and respect for the law, when it keeps away from corruption   
   and crime, and when it does not neglect to care for the environment. The   
   practice of justice, as the Biblical texts wisely tell us, is not limited to   
   abstention from iniquity or the observance of the laws (although this is   
   already   
   important!), but instead goes much further. The truly just, as well as   
   respecting the rules, act with conscience and interest in the good of all, and   
   not only for themselves. The just take to heart the fate of the less advantaged   
   and the poorest, never tire of working, and are always ready to take new paths.   
   We hope for the practice of justice in this full sense for every economic   
   worker   
   and all citizens".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To the Catholic Biblical Federation: the Word of God is a sacramental   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2015 (VIS) - The members of the Catholic Biblical   
   Federation were received last Friday by the Holy Father, on the occasion of   
   their tenth plenary session to reflect on the Sacred Scripture as a source of   
   evangelisation, and on the fiftieth anniversary of the promulgation of the   
   dogmatic Constitution on the Divine Revelation, Dei Verbum. The Pope handed   
   those present a written discourse, published by the VIS on the same day, and   
   gave a brief improvised address, a summary of which is offered below.   
    "The surprises of God, that help us to realise that all our plans all our   
   thoughts and many things, before the living Word of God, collapse and crumble.   
   When a Church closes up in herself and forgets that she has been sent to   
   announce the Gospel, that is, the Good News, to move hearts with the kerygma,   
   then she ages and weakens. And, I would add, she sickens and dies".   
    "I have heard it said many times that the diocese in northern Africa at the   
   time of St. Augustine were dead Churches. No! There are two ways of dying:   
   dying   
   closed in oneself or dying by giving life as witness. And a Church that has the   
   courage - the parrhesia - to carry forward the Word of God without shame is on   
   the road to martyrdom".   
    "In the first reading of today's Mass we have heard that Paul tell of the   
   things he suffered, to 'boast'. 'But whatever anyone else dares to boast of - I   
   am speaking as a fool - I also dare to boast of that'. The outline is this. But   
   if St. Paul had stayed there, in one of the churches, like that of Corinth, and   
   only there, he would not have suffered all that he says. Why? Because he was an   
   outgoing man - when he saw that things were going well, he handed over to   
   another and went on. He is a model".   
    "At the end he says this beautiful phrase: after 'boasting' of his many   
   journeys, the many times he was whipped, the time he was stoned, all of that,   
   'if I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness'. In another   
   passage - you Biblical scholars must know it - he says, 'I will boast all the   
   more gladly of my weaknesses'. Paul's third boast is not vanity: 'But far be it   
   from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'. This is his   
   strength. And this is an outgoing Church, a martyrial Church. She is a Church   
   who takes to the street, who walks. But I prefer a Church wounded in an   
   accident   
   rather than a Church that sickens from being closed up in herself. With this   
   parrhesia and this hypomone; that patience that is shouldering situations, but   
   also the tenderness of carrying the injured faithful on one's shoulders, that   
   have been given to her. A pastoral Church. Only the Word of God and, alongside   
   the Word, the Eucharist. The brothers who gather to praise the Lord with the   
   weakness of bread and wine, the Body of the Lord, the Blood of the Lord".   
    "The Word of God is not something that makes life easy. No, no. It always   
   places us in difficulty! If someone bears it with sincerity, it places him in   
   difficulty, it embarrasses him many times. But it is necessary to tell the   
   truth, with tenderness, with that shouldering of situations and of people. It   
   can be understood as a fraternal respect that knows how to 'caress'".   
    "One of the things that worry me is the functional proclamation of the Word of   
   God in homilies. Please, do everything to help your brothers - deacons, priests   
   and bishops - to give the Word of God in their homilies, so that it reaches the   
   heart. A thought, an image, a sentiment can also reach... but the Word of God   
   must arrive. There are many who are capable, but they make the mistake of   
   offering a beautiful theological dissertation. ... The Word of God is a   
   sacramental! For Luther it is a sacrament, that acts also ex opere operato   
   (effective in and of itself, Ed.). Then the tendency was more towards the   
   Tridentine view, that of ex opere operantis (receiving its efficacy through the   
   mediator, Ed.). Theologians then found the Word of God to be somewhere between;   
   part ex opere operato, part ex opere operantis. It is a sacramental. Discourses   
   are not sacramental, they are discourses done well. But in the homilies may   
   there be the Word of God, as it touches the heart".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 20 June 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in   
   audience:   
    - Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops;   
    - Joaquin Mbana Nchama, ambassador of Equatorial Guinea, presenting his   
   credential letters;   
    - Bishop Jorge Pedro Carrion Pavlich of Puno, Peru;   
    - Dr. Giuseppe Guzzetti, president of the Associazione di Fondazioni e di   
   Casse   
   di Risparmio (ACRI) (Association of Foundations and Savings Banks), and   
   entourage.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 22 June 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Archbishop   
   Luis Mariano Montemayor, apostolic nuncio in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Cabo   
   Verde and apostolic delegate to Mauritania, as apostolic nuncio in the   
   Democratic Republic of the Congo.   
    On Saturday 20 June, the Holy Father:   
    - appointed Bishop Salvador Rangel Mendoza, O.F.M., of Huejutla, Mexico, as   
   bishop of Chilpancingo-Chilapa (area 19,860, population 989,000, Catholics   
   904,000, priests 147, religious 179), Mexico. He succeeds Bishop Alejo Zavala   
   Castro, whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese was   
   accepted in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.   
    - given his assent to the canonical election by the Synod of Bishops of the   
   Maronite Patriarchal Church of Fr. Abata Hanna Rahme, O.L.M., as eparchal   
   bishop   
   of Baalbek - Deir El-Ahmar (Catholics 66,050, priests 19, permanent deacons 1,   
   religious 39), Lebanon. The bishop-elect was born in Aynata, Lebanon in 1960,   
   gave his solemn vows in 1989 and was ordained a priest in 1990. He holds a   
   bachelor's degree in philosophy and theology from the Sorbonne University,   
   Paris, where he was also conferred a doctorate in history of religions and   
   religious anthropology. Within the Lebanese Maronite Order he has also served   
   as   
   superior of the St. Charbel Convent in Bekaa-Kafra, director of schools of the   
   Order, member of the secretariat general of the Catholic Schools of Lebanon,   
   and   
   professor at the "St. Esprit" University of Kaslik. He is currently   
   protosyncellus of the eparchy of Baalbek - Deir El-Ahmar.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   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)