day, February 5, with various celebrations and will conclude with Holy Mass at   
   14:00 presided by His Excellency Michele Castoro, the Archbishop of   
   Manfredonia-Vieste-San Giovanni Rotondo. At 16:00, a procession with the two   
   urns containing the relics will begin from San Salvatore in Lauro and then   
   proceed the entire length of Via della Conciliazione in order to arrive at the   
   parvis of St. Peter's Basilica. There, Cardinal Angelo Comastri, the Archpriest   
   of St. Peter's Basilica, will receive the relics and after a moment of prayer,   
   will then accompany the relics into the Basilica where they will be placed in   
   the central nave before the Altar of the Confession for people to venerate. The   
   relics will remain in St. Peter's for veneration until the morning of February   
   11 when, after the Holy Mass of thanksgiving at 7:30 am at the Altar of the   
   Chair, they will be returned to their original homes. It is opportune to note   
   that on February 10, Ash Wednesday, the Basilica will remain closed in the   
   morning for the General Audience and then, in the afternoon, Holy Mass will be   
   celebrated in the Basilica to mark the beginning of Lent. Thus, those who wish   
   to venerate the relics are kindly asked to choose to do so on one of the   
   previous days and to follow along the Jubilee reserved walkway in order to   
   enter   
   through t  he security check point as rapidly as possible".   
    The second event is the celebration that will take place on Ash Wednesday,   
   when   
   the Holy Father will give the mandate to the Missionaries of Mercy. "As   
   attested   
   to in the Bull of Indiction, Misericordiae vultus, the Missionaries are to be a   
   'sign of the Church's maternal solicitude for the People of God, enabling them   
   to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith.   
   There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those   
   sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as   
   confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the   
   Father's readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be   
   missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human   
   encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming   
   obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again. They will be led in   
   their   
   mission by the words of the Apostle: ‘For God has consigned all men to   
   disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all'".   
    "Thus, the Missionaries of Mercy are a select number of priests who have   
   received from the Pope the charge to be privileged witnesses in their   
   respective   
   Churches of the extraordinariness of this Jubilee event", explained the   
   archbishop. "It is only the Pope who nominates these Missionaries, not the   
   Bishops, and it is he who entrusts them with the mandate to announce the beauty   
   of the mercy of God while being humble and wise confessors who possess a great   
   capacity to forgive those who approach the confessional. The Missionaries, who   
   come from every continent, number over 1,000. I am delighted to announce that   
   there are Missionaries coming from many distant countries and, among these,   
   some   
   of which have a uniquely significant importance such as: Burma, Lebanon, China,   
   South Korea, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Burundi, Vietnam,   
   Zimbabwe,   
   Latvia, East Timor, Indonesia, Thailand, and Egypt. There will also be Oriental   
   Rite priests".   
    "We have received a great response for participation but must place a limit on   
   the large number of requests in order to ensure that the specific sign value,   
   one which expresses how truly special the initiative is, be maintained", he   
   remarked. "All of the Missionaries have received the permission of their   
   respective diocesan Bishops or Religious Superiors and will make themselves   
   available to those requesting their services throughout the entirety of the   
   Jubilee but, most especially, during the Lenten Season. There will be seven   
   hundred Missionaries arriving in Rome. Pope Francis will meet with them on   
   February 9 in order to express his feelings regarding this initiative which   
   will   
   certainly be one of the most touching and significant of the Jubilee of Mercy.   
   On the following day, only the Missionaries of Mercy will concelebrate with the   
   Holy Father, during which time they will receive the 'mandate', as well as the   
   faculty to absolve those sins reserved to the Holy See. An interesting story   
   may   
   help to capture the pastoral interest that this initiative has garnered around   
   the world. Father Richard from Australia will visit 27 communities in his rural   
   Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle where there is only one church and no priests in   
   residence. Traveling in a camper, he will journey from community to community   
   as   
   a 'Missionary of Mercy on Wheels'! This is but an example of the way in which   
   the Jubilee is meant to reach all, allowing everyone to touch the closeness and   
   the tenderness of God".   
    Finally, other Jubilee events are planned. The first Jubilee Audience will be   
   held in St. Peter's Square on Saturday, January 30. "Pope Francis has responded   
   generously to the many requests he has received from pilgrims who wish to meet   
   him. Consequently, one Saturday a month has been added to the official calendar   
   for a special audience, one which will be in addition to the regular Wednesday   
   Audiences. This first audience already has 20,000 people registered. Another   
   event of particular interest is the Jubilee for the Curia, the Governorate, and   
   Institutions connected to the Holy See to be held on 22 February. This   
   celebration will begin with a reflection given by Fr. Marco Rupnik at 8:30 am   
   in   
   the Paul VI Hall. After this meditation, there will be a procession through St.   
   Peter's Square which will pass through the Holy Door. Holy Mass will then be   
   celebrated by Pope Francis at 10 am".   
    "The Jubilee continues to follow its course and we are certain that, in accord   
   with the desires of Pope Francis, it will be an important opportunity to live   
   out in our daily lives the mercy which the Father constantly extends to all of   
   us", concluded the president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting New   
   Evangelisation.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    World Leprosy Day: combating disease and reintegrating survivors in society   
    Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - Archbishop Zygmunt Zimowski, president   
   of   
   the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, has written a message for the   
   63rd World Leprosy Day, the theme of which this year is "To live is to help to   
   live".   
    "This Day ... constitutes for everyone an opportunity to continue with the   
   fight   
   against this terrible infection, as well as to weaken the ostracism that often   
   burdens the people who carry its unmistakable signs", writes the prelate. "This   
   is a marginalisation that can be traced back to a natural sense of self-defence   
   in relation to a disease which at one time was incurable, and to an almost   
   ‘ancestral' fear which, however, today no longer has any reason to exist given   
   that leprosy can be defeated and those who have been cured of it can go back to   
   living".   
    "Making its own the commitment of the Church to caring for people with leprosy   
   and supporting those who have been cured of it, and in order to increase the   
   sensitivity of men and women of good will, our Pontifical Council for Health   
   Care Workers, cooperating, respectively, with the Sasakawa Foundation and the   
   Raoul Follereau Foundation, has organised two study days which will be held on   
   Friday 10 and Saturday 11 June 2016 in the Vatican. At that event, those taking   
   part will be able to be present at the celebration of the Eucharist presided   
   over by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square on Sunday 12 June, on the occasion   
   of   
   the Jubilee for the Sick and Disabled".   
    "We must feel ourselves committed to finding a new impetus against this   
   disease, broadening activities involving information and prevention, but above   
   all fostering, as a gesture of true ‘com-passion', the social and occupational   
   reintegration of those who have been cured of it and who - despite the fact   
   that   
   they carry the marks of this disease on their bodies - have maintained intact   
   their dignity as persons", concludes Msgr. Zimowski.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Audiences   
    Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - The Holy Father received in audience:   
    - Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony   
   of the Apostolic See (APSA);   
    - Cardinal Stanislaw Rylko, president of the Pontifical Council for the Laity;   
    - Archbishop Luciano Suriani, apostolic nuncio in Serbia.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Other Pontifical Acts   
    Vatican City, 29 January 2016 (VIS) - The Holy Father:   
    - appointed Msgr. Luigi Mansi as bishop of Andria (area 799, population   
   139,977, Catholics 138,000, priests 89, permanent deacons 7, religious 104),   
   Italy. The bishop-elect was born in Cerignola, Italy in 1952 and was ordained a   
   priest in 1975. He holds a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Lateran   
   University and a doctorate in theological anthropology from the Pugliese   
   Theological Faculty. He has served in a number of pastoral and academic roles   
   in   
   the diocese of Cerignola-Ascoli Satriano, including vice rector of the   
   episcopal   
   seminary, rector of the diocesan seminary, head of vocational pastoral   
   ministry,   
   director and lecturer in theology at the diocesan Institute of Religious   
   Sciences and the Higher Institute of Religious Sciences of the Pontifical   
   Lateran University, master of ceremonies, episcopal chancellor and parish   
   priest. He is currently episcopal vicar for pastoral ministry, and member of   
   the   
   episcopal council, the presbyteral council and the college of consultors. In   
   1991 he was named Chaplain of His Holiness. He succeeds Bishop Raffaele   
   Calabro,   
   whose resignation from the pastoral care of the same diocese upon reaching the   
   age limit was accepted by the Holy Father.   
    - elevated Fr. Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., secretary of the   
   Pontifical   
   Council for Interreligious Dialogue, to the dignity of bishop.   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   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.   
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