people, with grave effects for society as a whole. Unemployment takes a heavy   
   toll on people's sense of dignity and hope, and can only be partially   
   compensated for by welfare benefits, however necessary these may be, provided   
   to   
   the unemployed and their families. Special attention needs to be given to women   
   - who unfortunately still encounter discrimination in the workplace - and to   
   some categories of workers whose conditions are precarious or dangerous, and   
   whose pay is not commensurate to the importance of their social mission.   
    Finally, I express my hope that effective steps will be taken to improve the   
   living conditions of the sick by ensuring that all have access to medical   
   treatment and pharmaceuticals essential for life, as well as the possibility of   
   home care.   
    Looking beyond their own borders, national leaders are also called to renew   
   their relations with other peoples and to enable their real participation and   
   inclusion in the life of the international community, in order to ensure   
   fraternity within the family of nations as well.   
    With this in mind, I would like to make a threefold appeal to the leaders of   
   nations: to refrain from drawing other peoples into conflicts or wars which   
   destroy not only their material, cultural and social legacy, but also - and in   
   the long term - their moral and spiritual integrity; to forgive or manage in a   
   sustainable way the international debt of the poorer nations; and to adopt   
   policies of cooperation which, instead of bowing before the dictatorship of   
   certain ideologies, will respect the values of local populations and, in any   
   case, not prove detrimental to the fundamental and inalienable right to life of   
   the unborn.   
    I entrust these reflections, together with my best wishes for the New Year, to   
   the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, our Mother, who cares for the   
   needs   
   of our human family, that she may obtain from her Son Jesus, the Prince of   
   Peace, the granting of our prayers and the blessing of our daily efforts for a   
   fraternal and united world".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Presentation of the Message for World Day of Peace 2016   
    Vatican City, 15 December 2015 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father's Message   
   for the World Day of Peace1 2016 (1 January 2016), entitled "Overcome   
   indifference and win peace", was presented in the Holy See Press Office. The   
   panel was composed of Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, president of the   
   Pontifical Council "Justice and Peace", Flaminia Giovanelli and Vittorio V.   
   Alberti, respectively under-secretary and official of the same dicastery. The   
   conference was also attended by various refugees from Syria, Somalia, Kenya and   
   Cote d'Ivoire, assisted by the Centro Astalli in Rome. Archbishop Michele   
   Pennisi of Monreale, Italy and Fr. Luigi Ciotti, founder of the Abel Group and   
   the Association "Libera", also contributed to the presented with a written   
   account.   
    Cardinal Turkson began by explaining that in a period in which there is a   
   widespread attitude of indifference, the Pope considers in depth this   
   "globalisation of indifference" which, starting with indifference to God, is   
   extended to human beings and all creation. Human beings consider themselves   
   self-sufficient and believe they owe nothing to anyone other than themselves,   
   granting themselves rights without assuming duties.   
    "After showing that peace is threatened by indifference at all levels, the   
   Message offers a biblical and theological reflection, which enables us to   
   understand the need to overcome indifference to open up to compassion, mercy,   
   commitment and, therefore, to solidarity. This latter is defined as a moral   
   virtue and an attitude that those with responsibility in education and   
   formation, such as families, educators and trainers, and those who work in   
   relation to means of social communication, are required to cultivate".   
    The document reaffirms the confidence in the capacity of human beings to   
   conquer evil with good, and indicates the many praiseworthy forms of solidarity   
   present in society in favour of victims of armed conflicts and natural   
   disasters, the poor and migrants. It concludes with an appeal from the Holy   
   Father to every person, in the spirit of the Jubilee of Mercy, to assume a   
   concrete commitment to help improve the situation in which he or she lives: in   
   the family, the neighbourhood, or the workplace. ... Therefore, it is not only   
   indifference at the centre of the 2016 Message, but also man's capacity, with   
   the grace of God, to overcome evil and to combat resignation and indifference.   
   In this regard, the Pope mentions some key events in 2015, such as the COP 21   
   on   
   climate change, the Addis Abeba Summit for funding sustainable development   
   worldwide, the adoption of Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, and the   
   50th   
   anniversary of the publication of Nostra Aetate and Gaudium et Spes, two   
   Vatican   
   Council II documents that opened the door to dialogue with non-Christian   
   religions and all the human family.   
    The under-secretary Flaminia Giovanelli noted the continuity of Pope Francis'   
   teaching with that of his predecessors Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II. The   
   Pope emeritus, in Caritas in Veritate, identified in the anthropological   
   question the current social issue, emphasising the problem of nihilism. The   
   link   
   to the Magisterium of St. John Paul II is instead particularly visible in the   
   indication of the path of mercy as the way to combat indifference.   
    Vittorio V. Alberti commented that if peace demands a victory and a conquest,   
   it is because there is a conflict. "Indifference affects the public sphere -   
   politics and culture", he said, "and Francis writes once only a word that is a   
   major conflict: corruption. When he was a cardinal, he called it the tiredness   
   of transcendence - resignation, turning in on oneself. This is corruption. ...   
   There are many key words in the Message: man's capacity, apathy, lack of   
   commitment, concrete commitment to contributing to improve the situation. But   
   to   
   improve in the name of what?"   
    "If I do not believe that there is a future", he continued, "I do not believe   
   in the meaning of things. And if I do not believe, where can I find the trust -   
   and thus the strength of commitment - to combat corruption and to overcome   
   indifference? ... But is this a crime, nowadays? It is and it isn't. And this   
   is   
   perhaps the most dramatic terrain of this message: indifference that must be   
   treated with mercy. If I see Palmyra destroyed, or the spread of corruption, I   
   feel crushed by it because I do not believe that together we can change things.   
   This is nihilism".   
    "Mercy is not merely a moral fact, but also mental and intellectual: it is   
   freedom of thought and Francis is giving us the deepest keys to combating   
   indifference. He is providing the cultural base for combating corruption,   
   framing it in the broader context of the crisis of our times, which is a   
   cultural crisis. The lack of meaning is the greatest form of suffering because,   
   insisting upon a perennial present, it corrupts the past, the future and the   
   very present itself by exhausting its transcendence, debilitating the capacity   
   to go beyond, towards a dream or an ideal".   
    The archbishop of Monreale, in his text, recalls that it is decisive for the   
   credibility of the Church to live and bear witness to mercy in the first   
   person,   
   towards the frailest in society, including detainees, as the Pope emphasises.   
   He   
   writes, "I hope that the Church and civil society will take into consideration   
   Article 27 of the Italian Constitution, which affirms that 'punishment cannot   
   consist in treatment contrary to human dignity and must aim at rehabilitating   
   the offender'. Custodial sentences are meaningful if, as well as affirming the   
   needs of justice and deterrence, they serve also to rehabilitate the person,   
   offering those who have erred the possibility to reflect and change their life,   
   so as to be fully reintegrated in society. The Christian community is called   
   upon to educate, assist and rehabilitate every person, enabling them to feel   
   worthy of being loved and promoted in social life".   
    Don Luigi Ciotti writes that peace, from Pope Francis' perspective, is "the   
   opposite of quietism, of seeking to 'stay in peace'. True peace comes from a   
   spiritual reawakening that has immediate practical consequences, that asks to   
   be   
   incarnated in ... actions that involve our existence both as people and as   
   citizens. We are workers for peace when we are attentive to our neighbours,   
   when   
   we do not turn away from their needs and their fragility; when we promote the   
   common good. ... Inhabiting the 'peripheries' is the first step in constructing   
   peace, the basis for a more human civilisation and a society of closeness, in   
   which people are not instruments for profit, and the well-being of the few does   
   not mean poverty, exclusion, desperation and death for many others".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Decrees for the Causes of Saints   
    Vatican City, 15 December 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon the Holy Father   
   received in audience Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation   
   for the Causes of Saints. During the audience he authorised the promulgation of   
   decrees concerning the following causes:   
    MIRACLES   
    - Blessed Maria Elisabeth Hesselblad, Swedish foundress of the Bridgettine   
   Sisters (1870-1957);   
    - Servant of God Ladislaw Bukowinski, Ukrainian diocesan priest (1904-1974);   
    - Venerable Servant of God Maria Celeste of the Holy Redeemer (nee Giulia   
   Crostarosa), Italian foundress of the Redemptoristine Nuns (1696-1755);   
    - Venerable Servant of God Mary of Jesus (nee Carolina Santocanale), Italian   
   foundress of the Capuchin Sisters of the Immaculate of Lourdes (1852-1923);   
    - Venerable Servant of God Itala Mela, Italian Oblate of St. Benedict   
   (1904-1957);   
    HEROIC VIRTUES   
    - Servant of God Angelo Ramazzotti, Patriarch of Venice, Founder of the   
   Institute for Foreign Missions (1800-1861);   
    - Servant of God Joseph Vithayathil, Indian diocesan priest and co-founder of   
   the Congregation of the Holy Family (1865-1964);   
    - Servant of God Jose Maria Arizmendiarrieta, Spanish diocesan priest   
   (1915-1976);   
    - Servant of God Giuseppe Schiavo, Italian professed priest of the   
   Congregation   
   of St. Joseph (1903-1967);   
    - Servant of God Venanzio Maria Quadri, Italian professed religious of the   
   Order of Servants of Mary (1916-1937);   
    - Servant of God William Gagnon, American professed religious of the   
   Hospitallers of St. John of God (1905-1972);   
    - Servant of God Teresa Rosa Fernanda de Saldanha Oliveira Sousa, Portuguese   
   foundress of the Dominican Sisters of the Portuguese Congregation of St.   
   Catherine of Siena (1837-1916);   
    - Servant of God Maria Emilia Riquelme Zayas, Spanish foundress of the   
   Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate   
   (1847-1940);   
    - Servant of God Maria Esperanza de la Cruz (nee Salustiana Antonia Ayerbe   
   Castillo), Spanish co-foundress of the Augustinian Recollect Missionary Sisters   
   (1890-1967);   
    - Servant of God Emanuela Maria Magdalena (Chaje) Kalb, Polish professed   
   religious of the Canonesses of the Holy Spirit (1899-1986);   
    - Servant of God Niklaus Wolf, Swiss layman and father (1756-1832);   
    - Servant of God Teresio Olivelli, Italian layman (1916-1945).   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 15 December 2015 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon, 14 December, the   
   Holy Father received in audience Cardinal Walter Kasper, president emeritus of   
   the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 15 December 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Fr. James   
   Patrick Powers as bishop of Superior (area 40,701, population 464,000,   
   Catholics   
   77,200, priests 74, permanent deacons 68, religious 81), United States of   
   America. The bishop-elect was born in Baldwin, United States of America in 1953   
   and was ordained a priest in 1990. He has served in a number of pastoral roles,   
   including parish vicar, parish administrator, parish priest and adjunct   
   judicial   
   vicar. He is currently diocesan administrator of the diocese of Superior and   
   pastor of the St. Joseph Parish in Rice Lake.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
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