VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 186   
   DATE 23-10-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - The Pope announces the institution of a new dicastery   
   - Bishop Jan Vokal reminds the Synod of St. John Paul II's invitation to mercy   
      
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    The Pope announces the institution of a new dicastery   
    Vatican City, 23 October 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, at the beginning of   
   the afternoon Synod Congregation, the Holy Father made the following   
   announcement.   
    "I have decided to establish a new dicastery with competency for the Laity,   
   Family and Life, that will replace the Pontifical Council for the Laity and the   
   Pontifical Council for the Family. The Pontifical Academy for Life will be   
   joined to the new dicastery.   
    To this end, I have constituted a special commission that will prepare a text   
   delineating canonically the competences of the new dicastery. The text will be   
   presented for discussion by the Council of Cardinals at their next meeting in   
   December".   
      
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    Bishop Jan Vokal reminds the Synod of St. John Paul II's invitation to mercy   
    Vatican City, 23 October 2015 (VIS) - An appeal for mercy concluded the Czech   
   bishop Jan Vokal's brief reflection with which he opened the General   
   Congregation of the Synod of Bishops on the family this morning.   
    Bishop Vokal quoted the prophet Amos: "He who forms the mountains and creates   
   the wind, and declares to man what is His thought, Who makes the morning   
   darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth - the Lord, the God of hosts,   
   is His name".   
    "From time to time we need to pause, to raise our eyes to heaven, and to   
   remember that we are not the masters of the world and of life. We need to   
   contemplate the sky, the mountains, the sea; to feel the strength of the wind,   
   the voice of the great waters ... as St. John Paul II, whose liturgical memory   
   we   
   celebrated just yesterday, loved to do. We need to feel small - as indeed we   
   are   
   - in the great universe that God has created and continues to create and give   
   life to at every instant".   
    "Living increasingly among artificial things, made by ourselves, gradually   
   changes our perception of reality and of ourselves. Without realising, we   
   forget   
   where we are and who we are; we lose the sense of our true dimension. At times   
   we feel omnipotent, but we are not; at times we feel impotent, but we are not".   
    "As the prophet Amos reminds us, we are like a blade of grass, it is true, but   
   our heart is capable of the infinite. We are 'almost nothing', it is true, but   
   we can ask 'why?', and feel within ourselves a mysterious bond, at times   
   painful, with He Who created the world, the sun, the moon, the stars".   
    "Among all the creatures - who, in their way, are more humble and obedient to   
   the Creator than we are - we humans are the only ones who recognise, and at   
   times feel, that this omnipotence of God's, His incomprehensible greatness, is   
   love, and that it is a merciful, tender, compassionate love, like that of a   
   mother for her small and fragile children. We are the only ones to intuit that   
   all of creation moans and suffers as if in the pangs of childbirth".   
    St. John Paul II left us the legacy of his prophecy that this is the time of   
   mercy. He gave the Second Sunday of Easter the name of Divine Mercy, and passed   
   away precisely on the eve of this Sunday. May he continue to intercede for us,   
   so that we become ever more merciful, just as our heavenly Father is merciful".   
      
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