Subject: VISnews 110406   
   Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 66   
   ENGLISH   
   WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL 2011   
      
   SUMMARY:   
      
   - St. Therese of Lisieux and the Little Way   
   - Appeals for Peace and Dialogue in Ivory Coast and Libya   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX AND THE LITTLE WAY   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 APR 2011 (VIS) - In his general audience in St. Peter's   
   Square today, attended by more than 10,000 people, Benedict XVI dedicated   
   his catechesis to St. Therese of Lisieux, or St. Therese of the Child Jesus   
   and the Holy Face, "who lived in this world for only twenty-four years at   
   the end of the nineteenth century, leading a very simple and hidden life,   
   but who, after her death and the publication of her writings, became one of   
   the best-known and loved saints".   
      
     "Little Therese", the Pope continued, "never failed to help the most   
   simple souls, the little ones, the poor and the suffering who prayed to her,   
   but also illuminated all the Church with her profound spiritual doctrine, to   
   the point that the Venerable John Paul II, in 1997, granted her the title of   
   Doctor of the Church ... and described her as an 'expert in scientia   
   amoris'. Therese expressed this science, in which all the truth of the faith   
   is revealed in love, in her autobiography 'The Story of a Soul', published a   
   year after her death".   
      
     Therese was born in 1873 in Alencon, France. She was the youngest of the   
   nine children of Louis and Zelie Martin, and was beatified in 2008. Her   
   mother died when she was four years old, and Therese later suffered from a   
   serious nervous disorder from which she recovered in 1886 thanks to what she   
   later described as "the smile of the Virgin". In 1887 she made a pilgrimage   
   to Rome with her father and sister, where she asked Leo XIII for permission   
   to enter Carmel of Lisieux, at just fifteen years of age. Her wish was   
   granted a year later; however, at the same time her father began to suffer   
   from a serious mental illness, which led Therese to the contemplation of the   
   Holy Face of Christ in his Passion. In 1890 she took her vows. 1896 marked   
   the beginning of a period of great physical and spiritual suffering, which   
   accompanied her until her death.   
      
     In those moments, "she lived the faith at its most heroic, as the light in   
   the shadows that invade the soul" the Pope said. In this context of   
   suffering, living the greatest love in the littlest things of daily life,   
   the Saint realised her vocation of becoming the love at the heart of the   
   Church".   
      
     She died in the afternoon of 30 September, 1897, uttering the simple   
   words, "My Lord, I love You!". "These last words are the key to all her   
   doctrine, to her interpretation of the Gospel", the Pope emphasised. "The   
   act of love, expressed in her final breath, was like the continued breathing   
   of the soul ... The words 'Jesus, I love You' are at the centre of all her   
   writings".   
      
     St. Therese is "one of the 'little ones' of the Gospel who allow   
   themselves to be guided by God, in the depth of His mystery. A guide for   
   all, especially for... theologians. With humility and faith, Therese   
   continually entered the heart of the Scriptures which contain the Mystery of   
   Christ. This reading of the Bible, enriched by the science of love, does not   
   oppose academic science. The 'science of the saints', to which she refers on   
   the final page of 'The Story of a Soul', is the highest form of science".   
      
     "In the Gospel, Therese discovers above all the Mercy of Jesus ... and   
   'Trust and Love' are therefore the end point of her account of her life, two   
   words that, like beacons, illuminated her saintly path, in order to guide   
   others along the same 'little way of trust and love', of spiritual   
   childhood. Her trust is like that of a child, entrusting herself to the   
   hands of God, and inseparable from her strong, radical commitment to the   
   true love that is the full giving of oneself", the Holy Father concluded.   
   AG/                                     VIS 20110406 (650)   
      
   APPEALS FOR PEACE AND DIALOGUE IN IVORY COAST AND LIBYA   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 APR 2011 (VIS) - Following today's general audience the Pope   
   said that he continued to "follow with great apprehension the dramatic   
   events that the populations of the Ivory Coast and Libya are experiencing in   
   these days. Furthermore, I hope that Cardinal Turkson, whom I have   
   commissioned to visit the Ivory Coast to demonstrate my solidarity, may soon   
   be able to enter the country. I pray for the victims and express my   
   closeness to all those who are suffering at this time. Violence and hate are   
   always defeat! I therefore make a renewed and heartfelt appeal to all   
   parties to the cause to initiate a process of peacemaking and dialogue, and   
   to avoid further bloodshed".   
   AG/                                     VIS 20110406 (130)   
      
   OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 6 APR 2011 (VIS) - The Holy Father:   
      
    - Appointed Antonio Marino, auxiliary bishop of La Plata, Argentina as   
   Bishop of Mar del Plata (area 22,850, population 869,000, Catholics 695,000,   
   priests 87, permanent deacons 5, religious 165), Argentina.   
      
    - Appointed Moses Costa, C.S.C., bishop of Dinajpur, Bangladesh, as Bishop   
   of Chittagong (area 39,247, population 33,852,000, Catholics 37,804, priests   
   40, religious 126), Bangladesh.   
      
    - Appointed Fr. Rolando Santos, C.M. provincial superior of the Lazarist   
   Fathers, Philippines, as Bishop of Alotau-Sideia (area 20,000, population   
   245,000, Catholics 41,137, priests 23, religious 43), Papua New Guinea. The   
   bishop-elect was born in Rizal, Philippines, in 1949 and ordained a priest   
   in 1974.   
      
    - Appointed Msgr. Joseph R. Binzer, vicar general and chancellor of   
   Cincinnati, as Auxiliary Bishop of Cincinnati (area 22,118, population   
   3,023,332, Catholics 468,204, priests 501, permanent deacons 176, religious   
   1,190), USA. The bishop-elect was born in Cincinnati in 1955 and ordained a   
   priest in 1994.   
      
    - Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops,   
   as member of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts.   
   NER:NEA:NA/                                                     VIS 20110406   
   (170)   
   _____________________________________________   
      
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