VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 200   
   DATE 12-11-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - To Slovak bishops: the Church is called to proclaim and bear witness to the   
   welcome of migrants   
   - Francis greets the members of the Don Guanella family: the worst famine is   
   the   
   lack of charity   
   - Pope's video message to the National Eucharistic Congress of India   
   - Message to Cardinal Rylko: the conciliar basis of the vocation and mission of   
   the laity   
   - Declaration by Fr. Federico Lombardi on current investigations in the Vatican   
   - Communique from the Holy See Press Office on the activity of APSA   
   - Communique by the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples on ownership   
   of real estate   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    To Slovak bishops: the Church is called to proclaim and bear witness to the   
   welcome of migrants   
    Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) - This morning the Pope received the   
   bishops of the Episcopal Conference of Slovakia at the end of their five-yearly   
   "ad Limina" visit. In the discourse he handed to them at the end of the   
   audience   
   he encouraged them to consider the phenomenon of migration as an opportunity   
   for   
   encounter, also recalling that the Church is called upon to proclaim and bear   
   witness to the welcome of migrants in the context of observance of the law.   
    Francis begins his discourse by referring to the pastoral work of bishops and   
   a   
   situation characterised by rapid changes in many sectors of human life,   
   affected   
   also by the phenomenon of globalisation. A situation, he writes, in which "at   
   times we perceive threats to less populous nations, but at the same time   
   elements that can offer new opportunities. One opportunity, which has become a   
   sign of the times, is the phenomenon of migration, which demands to be   
   understood and confronted with sensitivity and a sense of justice. The Church   
   is   
   required to proclaim and bear witness to the welcome of the migrant in a spirit   
   of charity and respect for the dignity of the human person, in the context of   
   the necessary observance of the law".   
    "Faced with the prospect of an increasingly extensive multicultural   
   environment, it is necessary to assume attitudes of mutual respect to promote   
   encounter. It is to be hoped that the Slovak people will maintain their   
   cultural   
   identity and heritage of ethical and spiritual values, strongly linked to the   
   Catholic tradition. In this way they will be able to open up without fear to   
   exchange on the broadest continental and global horizon, contributing to a   
   sincere and fruitful dialogue, also on themes of vital importance such as the   
   dignity of human life and the essential function of the family. Today, more   
   than   
   ever, it is necessary to enlighten the path of peoples with Christian   
   principles, seizing the opportunities that the current situation offers to   
   develop an evangelisation that, using a new language, makes Christ's message   
   easier to understand. For this reason it important for the Church to give hope,   
   so that all the present changes may be transformed into a renewed encounter   
   with   
   Christ, that guides the people towards authentic progress".   
    The Pope expresses his appreciation for the prelates' work with families,   
   which   
   face many difficulties, and reiterates the importance of integral family   
   pastoral ministry at diocesan and national levels, including "adequate   
   accompaniment for all families, including those where members are not present,   
   especially if there are children". In this regard it is essential to pay   
   special   
   attention to the young, "the hope of the Church and of society".   
    The paternal care of bishops for the priests, their main collaborators in   
   pastoral ministry, is another of the themes considered by Francis, who insists   
   on the need for "well-structured programmes of continuing formation in the   
   fields of theology, spirituality, pastoral ministry and social doctrine of the   
   Church, enabling them to become competent evangelisers". He adds, "Indeed, for   
   the majority of the People of God, they are the principal channel through which   
   the Gospel passes, and also offer the most immediate image through which the   
   mystery of the Church is encountered".   
    The Church, "sign and tool of the unity of men with God and with each other,   
   is   
   called upon to be the house and school of communion, in which one learns to   
   appreciate and welcome positive qualities in others", remarks the Holy Father   
   at   
   the end of his discourse, emphasising that this attitude is also very useful   
   with reference to the good contact it is necessary to re-establish in Slovakia   
   between pastors and consecrated persons, better appreciating the valid   
   contribution of all men and women religious to pastoral ministry. "At the same   
   time", he noted, "the Church in your country must carry forth the pastoral care   
   of the Rom, through extensive evangelisation that seeks to reach all these   
   people who, unfortunately, continue to live in some ways separated from the   
   rest   
   of society".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis greets the members of the Don Guanella family: the worst famine is the   
   lack of charity   
    Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican's Paul VI   
   Hall the Pope greeted five hundred members of the Family of St. Luigi Guanella,   
   known simply as Don Guanella (1842-1915), the Italian priest who founded the   
   Congregation of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence and the Order of the   
   Servants of Charity. He was beatified in 1964 and canonised in 2011.   
    The Don Guanella Family's pilgrimage to Rome coincides with the first   
   centenary   
   of the saint's death and, in his address to the pilgrims, the Holy Father   
   imagined what Don Guanella might have said to his followers to confirm them in   
   faith, hope and charity, using three verbs: to trust, to look, and to make   
   haste.   
    The first verb is to trust. "The life of Don Guanella had as its centre the   
   certainty that God is the merciful and provident Father. This was for him the   
   heart of faith: knowing himself to be an always beloved son, for whom the   
   Father   
   cared, and therefore a brother to all, called upon to inspire trust. ... I   
   think   
   that it displeases the heavenly Father greatly to see that His children do not   
   fully trust in Him; they perhaps believe in a distant God, rather than in a   
   merciful Father. In many people there arises the doubt that God, while being   
   Father, may also be a master. ... But this is a great deception; the ancient   
   deception of the enemy of God and man, which conceals reality and disguises   
   good   
   as evil. It is the first temptation: to distance oneself from God, intimidated   
   by the suspicion that His paternity is not truly provident and good. God is   
   instead love alone, pure provident love. He loves us more than we love   
   ourselves, and knows what is truly good for us. He therefore hopes that in the   
   course of life we become what we are at the moment of our Baptism: beloved   
   children, able to vanquish fear and not ceding to lamentation, because the   
   Father takes care of us".   
    The second verb is to look. "The Father, the Creator, also inspires creativity   
   in those who live like His children. They then learn to look at the world   
   through new eyes, made more luminous by love and hope. They are eyes that   
   enable   
   us to look within with truth, and to see far in charity. ... In the world   
   there is   
   never any lack of problems, and in our time there are unfortunately new forms   
   of   
   poverty and many injustices. But the greatest famine of all is that of charity:   
   we need, most of all, people with eyes renewed by love and a gaze that inspires   
   hope".   
    "At times, our spiritual point of view is short-sighted, as we are not able to   
   see beyond our own ego. At other times we are long-sighted: we like to help   
   those who are far away but are not able to stoop to those who live next to us.   
   Sometimes, indeed, we prefer to close our eyes, as we are tired and overcome by   
   pessimism. Don Guanella, who recommended that we look at Jesus starting from   
   His   
   heart, invites us to have the same gaze as the Lord: a gaze that inspires hope   
   and joy, able at the same time to feel a 'profound sentiment of compassion'   
   towards those who suffer".   
    Finally, to make haste: "The poor are the favoured sons" of the Father, St.   
   Luigi said, and he liked to repeat that 'those who give to the poor, lend to   
   God'. Just as the Father is delicate and concrete with regard to his smallest   
   and weakest children, so we too cannot expect our brothers and sisters in   
   difficulty to wait as, again in the words of Don Guanella, 'misery cannot wait.   
   And we cannot stop as long as there are poor people to tend to'".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Pope's video message to the National Eucharistic Congress of India   
    Vatican City, 12 November 2015 (VIS) - "Nourished by the Eucharist to nourish   
   others" is the theme of the National Eucharistic Congress of India, inaugurated   
   today in Mumbai and attended by 700 delegates from all over the country. The   
   Congress will also provide the opportunity to commemorate the presence for the   
   same event fifty years ago of Blessed Paul VI, during his trip to India in   
   1964.   
   The opening of the Congress, which will conclude on 15 November, included a   
   screening of the Pope's video message to the participants in which he expresses   
   his hope that it will be a "herald of joy and happiness" for the whole Indian   
   population. The following are extensive extracts from his message, transmitted   
   in English:   
    "The Eucharistic Congress is God's gift not just for the Christians of the   
   India but for the entire population of a country culturally so diverse yet   
   spiritually so rich. Over thousands of years India has been permeated by the   
   desire for truth, the search for the divine, the effort at goodness and   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)