VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 182   
   DATE 19-10-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope canonises four new saints and appeals for peace in the Holy Land   
   - The Synod: walking together   
   - Programme of the Holy Father's trip to Kenya, Uganda and the Central African   
   Republic   
   - Cardinal Maung Bo to take possession of his titular church   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Pope canonises four new saints and appeals for peace in the Holy Land   
    Vatican City, 18 October 2015 (VIS) - This Sunday in St. Peter's Square the   
   Pope celebrated Holy Mass for the canonisation of Blesseds Vincenzo Grossi   
   (1845-1917), diocesan priest and founder of the Institute of the Daughters of   
   the Oratory; Maria Isabel Salvat Romero (Mary of the Immaculate Conception),   
   (1926-1998), superior general of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Company   
   of the Cross; and the spouses Louis Martin (1823-1894) and Zelie Guerin   
   (1831-1877).   
    In his homily, Pope Francis emphasised that "service is the way for authority   
   to be exercised in the Christian community. Those who serve others and lack   
   real   
   prestige exercise genuine authority in the Church. Jesus calls us to see things   
   differently, to pass from the thirst for power to the joy of quiet service, to   
   suppress our instinctive desire to exercise power over others, and instead to   
   exercise the virtue of humility. ... By imitating the Master, the community   
   gains   
   a new outlook on life: 'The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and   
   to give his life as a ransom for many'".   
    "In the biblical tradition, the Son of Man is the one Who receives from God   
   'dominion, glory and kingship'", the Holy Father affirmed. Jesus fills this   
   image with new meaning. He shows us that He enjoys dominion because He is a   
   servant, glory because He is capable of abasement, kingship because He is fully   
   prepared to lay down His life. By His passion and death, He takes the lowest   
   place, attains the heights of grandeur in service, and bestows this upon His   
   Church. There can be no compatibility between a worldly understanding of power   
   and the humble service which must characterise authority according to Jesus'   
   teaching and example. Ambition and careerism are incompatible with Christian   
   discipleship; honour, success, fame and worldly triumphs are incompatible with   
   the logic of Christ crucified".   
    Instead, he continued, "compatibility exists between Jesus, 'the man of   
   sorrows', and our suffering. ... Jesus knows our difficulties at first hand, He   
   knows from within our human condition; the fact that He is without sin does not   
   prevent Him from understanding sinners. His glory is not that born of ambition   
   or the thirst for power; it is the glory of one Who loves men and women, Who   
   accepts them and shares in their weakness, Who offers them the grace which   
   heals   
   and restores, and accompanies them with infinite tenderness amid their   
   tribulations".   
    "The men and women canonised today unfailingly served their brothers and   
   sisters with outstanding humility and charity, in imitation of the divine   
   Master. ... The radiant witness of these new saints inspires us to persevere in   
   joyful service to our brothers and sisters, trusting in the help of God and the   
   maternal protection of Mary. From heaven may they now watch over us and sustain   
   us by their powerful intercession".   
    Following Mass and before the Sunday Angelus prayer, the Pope spoke about the   
   situation of tension and violence that continues to afflict the Holy Land. "At   
   this time, there is a need for great courage and fortitude to reject hatred and   
   revenge and to make gestures of peace"; he remarked. "We pray that God may   
   reinforce in all, governors and citizens alike, the courage to oppose the   
   violence and to take concrete steps towards pacification. In the current   
   context   
   of the Middle East, it is crucial, more than ever, that there be peace in the   
   Holy Land: God and the good of humanity demand this of us".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    The Synod: walking together   
    Vatican City, 19 October 2015 (VIS) - On the occasion of the fiftieth   
   anniversary of the institution of the Synod of Bishops, the Holy Father   
   addressed the Synod Fathers in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall. An introduction was   
   given by Cardinal Lorenzo Baldisseri, and the president of the Episcopal   
   Conference of Austria and cardinal archbishop of Vienna Christoph Schonborn   
   pronounced a commemorative discourse.   
    Below are extensive extracts from the Holy Father's discourse, in which he   
   reiterated that the very name "Synod" - "walking together" - indicates what the   
   Lord asks of us.   
    "From Vatican Council II to the current Synod Assembly on the family, we have   
   experienced in an increasingly intense way the beauty of 'walking together'.   
   ...   
   We must continue on this road. The world in which we live, and which we are   
   called upon to love and serve even in its contradictions, demands of the Church   
   a strengthening of synergies in all areas of her mission. The path of   
   synodality   
   is the path that God expects from the Church in the third millennium. ... In   
   the   
   Apostolic Exhortation 'Evangelii Gaudium' I underlined how 'the People of God   
   is   
   holy thanks to this anointing, which makes it infallible in credendo', adding   
   that 'all the baptised, whatever their position in the Church or their level of   
   instruction in the faith, are agents of evangelisation, and it would be   
   insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelisation to be carried out by   
   professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive   
   recipients'. ... It was this conviction that guided me in my wish that the   
   People   
   of God be consulted in the preparation of the dual Synod on the family. ... How   
   would it be possible to speak of the family without speaking with families,   
   listening to their joys and hopes, their sorrows and their troubles?".   
    "A Synodal Church is a Church who listens, aware that listening is more than   
   hearing. It is a process of mutual listening in which each person has something   
   to learn. The faithful, the Episcopal College, the bishop of Rome: each one   
   listening to the others, and all listening to the Holy Spirit, the 'Spirit of   
   truth'. ... Synodality, as a constitutive dimension of the Church, offers us   
   the   
   best interpretative framework for understanding her hierarchical ministry ...   
   in   
   which no-one may be 'higher' than the others. On the contrary, within the   
   Church   
   it is necessary to stoop to put oneself in service to one's brothers along the   
   way. Jesus constituted the Church, placing at the summit the apostolic College,   
   in which the apostle Peter is the 'rock', he who must 'confirm' his brothers in   
   the faith. But in this Church, as in an upturned pyramid, the summit is below   
   the base. Therefore, those who exercise authority are called 'ministers':   
   because in accordance with the original meaning of the word, they are the least   
   of all".   
    "In an synodal Church, the Synod of Bishops is only the most evident   
   manifestation of a dynamism of communion that inspires all ecclesial   
   dimensions.   
   The first level of the exercise of synodality occurs in the particular   
   Churches.   
   ... The Code of Canon Law reserves ample space to those who are usually   
   referred   
   to as the 'organs of communion' of the particular Church: the presbyteral   
   Council, the College of Consultors, the Chapter of Canons and the pastoral   
   Council. These instruments, that at times proceed wearily, must be accorded   
   their due value as offering opportunities for listening and sharing. ... The   
   second level is that of the Ecclesiastical Provinces or Regions, the Particular   
   Councils and, in special way, the Episcopal Conferences. ... In a synodal   
   Church,   
   as I have already stated, 'it is not advisable for the Pope to take the place   
   of   
   local bishops in the discernment of every issue which arises in their   
   territory.   
   In this sense, I am conscious of the need to promote a sound decentralisation'.   
   ... The final level is that of the universal Church. Here the Synod of Bishops,   
   representing the entire Catholic episcopate, becomes an expression of episcopal   
   collegiality within an entirely synodal Church".   
    "I am convinced that, in a synodal Church, more light could also be cast on   
   the   
   exercise of the Petrine primacy. The Pope is not alone and above the Church,   
   but   
   rather within her, baptised among the baptised, and within the episcopal   
   College   
   as a bishop among bishops, called upon at the same time, as the Successor of   
   the   
   apostle Peter, to guide the Church of Rome who presides in love among all the   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)