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   VATICAN      News direct from the Vatican Information      2,032 messages   

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   Message 570 of 2,032   
   Vatican Information Service - Eng - to All   
   VISnews 111017   
   17 Oct 11 08:17:52   
   
   Subject: VISnews 111017   
   Organization: VIS - Ufficio Stampa della Santa Sede   
   From: Vatican Information Service - Eng - txt    
      
   VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
      
   TWENTY FIRST YEAR - N. 178   
   ENGLISH   
   MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2011   
      
   SUMMARY: 15 - 17 OCTOBER   
      
   - The Economic Crisis and the Social Doctrine of the Church   
   - Holy Father to Use Mobile Platform at Mass in St. Peter's   
   - Benedict XVI Announces the "Year of Faith"   
   - Dual Task: the Mission Ad Gentes and New Evangelisation   
   - Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio Data", "Porta Fidei"   
   - Mongolia: Cooperation between Church and State   
   - In Brief   
   - Audiences   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
   THE ECONOMIC CRISIS AND THE SOCIAL DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 15 OCT 2011 (VIS) - "Over the last 120 years, during which the   
   social doctrine of the Church has developed, many great changes have taken   
   place which were not even imaginable at the time of Leo XIII's historic   
   Encyclical 'Rerum novarum'. Nonetheless, the alteration in external   
   circumstances has not changed the inner richness of the social Magisterium,   
   which always promotes human beings and the family in their life context,   
   including that of business".   
      
     These words were addressed by the Pope this morning to participants in the   
   annual congress of the "Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice" foundation, who are   
   focusing their reflections on the relationship between families and   
   business. The 2011 congress coincides with the twentieth anniversary of John   
   Paul II's Encyclical "Centesimus annus" (published 100 years after "Rerum   
   novarum"), and with the thirtieth anniversary of the Apostolic Exhortation   
   "Familiaris consortio".   
      
     "Vatican Council II spoke of families as a 'domestic Church', an   
   inviolable sanctuary", said the Pope, "and economic laws must always take   
   account of the interests and the protection of this fundamental cell of   
   society". He then went on to recall how John Paul II, in his "Familiaris   
   consortio", identified four tasks for the family: forming a community of   
   persons; serving life; participating in the development of society, and   
   sharing in the life and mission of the Church. "All four of these functions   
   are founded on love, which is the goal of all education and formation in the   
   family. ... It is first and foremost in the family that we learn that, in   
   order to live well in society (including the world of work, economy and   
   business), we must be guided by 'caritas', following a logic of   
   gratuitousness, solidarity and mutual responsibility".   
      
     "In our own difficult times we are unfortunately witnessing a crisis in   
   work and the economy which is associated with a crisis in families. ... What   
   we need, therefore, is a new and harmonious relationship between family and   
   work, to which the social doctrine of the Church can make an important   
   contribution". In this context, the Pope referred to his own Encyclical   
   "Caritas in veritate" saying that :"Commutative justice - 'giving in order   
   to acquire' - and distributive justice - 'giving through duty' - are not   
   sufficient in the life of society. In order for true justice to exist, it is   
   necessary to add gratuitousness and solidarity. 'Solidarity is first and   
   foremost a sense of responsibility on the part of everyone with regard to   
   everyone, and it cannot therefore be merely delegated to the State'".   
      
     "Charity in truth, in this case, requires that shape and structure be   
   given to those types of economic initiative which, without rejecting profit,   
   aim at a higher goal than the mere logic of the exchange of equivalents, of   
   profit as an end in itself", said Benedict XVI.   
      
     "It is not the task of the Church to find ways to face the current   
   crisis", he concluded. "Nonetheless, Christians have the duty to denounce   
   evils, and to foment and bear witness to the values upon which the dignity   
   of the person is founded, promoting forms of solidarity which favour the   
   common good, so that humankind may increasingly become the family of God".   
   AC/                                                                     VIS   
   20111017 (540)   
      
   HOLY FATHER TO USE MOBILE PLATFORM AT MASS IN ST. PETER'S   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 15 OCT 2011 (VIS) - "During the entrance procession from the   
   sacristy to the main altar at tomorrow's Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, the   
   Holy Father will use the mobile platform previously adopted by John Paul   
   II", said Holy See Press Office Director Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. today.   
      
     "The purpose is exclusively to alleviate the efforts of the Holy Father,   
   as already happens with his use of the Popemobile during entrance   
   processions in outdoor ceremonies and in St. Peter's Square".   
   OP/                                                                     VIS   
   20111017 (100)   
      
   BENEDICT XVI ANNOUNCES THE "YEAR OF FAITH"   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2011 (VIS) - During Mass this morning in the Vatican   
   Basilica, celebrated to mark the end of an international meeting on new   
   evangelisation organised by the Pontifical Council for Promoting New   
   Evangelisation, Benedict XVI announced that he was calling a forthcoming   
   "Year of Faith".   
      
     The Year will begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the   
   opening of Vatican Council II, and will come to an end on 24 November 2013,   
   Feast of Christ the King. Its aim "is to give renewed energy to the Church's   
   mission to lead men and women out of the desert in which they so often find   
   themselves, and towards the place of life, towards friendship with Christ   
   Who gives us life in all its fullness". The Year will likewise be an   
   opportunity "to strengthen our faith in Christ and joyfully to announce Him   
   to the men and women of our time", the Pope said.   
      
     Commenting on this Sunday's readings, the Holy Father explained that the   
   mission of the Church must be considered in the light of "the theological   
   meaning of history. Epoch-making events, the rise and fall of great powers,   
   all lie under the supreme dominion of God. No earthly power can take His   
   place. The theology of history is an essential aspect of the new   
   evangelisation, because the men and women of our time, following the tragic   
   period of the totalitarian empires of the twentieth century, need to   
   rediscover a global vision of the world and history. They need a truly free   
   and peaceful vision, the vision which Vatican Council II transmitted in its   
   documents and which my predecessors, Servant of God Paul VI and Blessed John   
   Paul II, illustrated with their Magisterium".   
      
     "In order to be effective evangelisation needs the strength of the Spirit,   
   which enlivens the message and infuses the person who bears it with the   
   'full conviction' of which St. Paul speaks. ... New evangelisers are called   
   to be the first to walk along the Path which is Christ, in order to lead   
   others to the beauty of the life-giving Gospel. On this Path we are never   
   alone, but always in company; it is an experience of communion and   
   fraternity which is offered to everyone we meet, bringing them to share in   
   our experience of Christ and His Church. Thus, witness associated with   
   announcement can open the hearts of those who seek the truth, helping them   
   discover the meaning of their own lives".   
      
     Finally the Holy Father turned his attention to the Gospel episode of the   
   tribute to be paid to the emperor. Jesus command to "give to Caesar the   
   things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's", he said,   
   "is rich in anthropological significance and cannot be reduced only to the   
   political sphere. The Church, then, does not limit herself to reminding men   
   and women of the just distinction between the authority of Caesar and that   
   of God, between the political and religious spheres. The mission of the   
   Church, like that of Christ, is essentially that of speaking about God,   
   evoking His sovereignty, calling everyone - and especially Christians who   
   have lost their identity - of God's rights over that which belongs to Him:   
   our lives".   
   HML/                                                                    VIS   
   20111017 (550)   
      
   DUAL TASK: THE MISSION AD GENTES AND NEW EVANGELISATION   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 16 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Following this morning's Mass for the   
   closure of an international meeting on the new evangelisation, Benedict XVI   
   prayed the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square. In his   
   remarks he recalled how Blessed John Paul II had been "both a strong   
   supporter of the mission 'ad gentes' (that is, the mission to peoples and   
   lands where the Gospel has not yet put down firm roots), and a herald of the   
   new evangelisation. These are both aspects of the one mission of the Church   
   and it is important to consider them together during this month of October,   
   characterised by the celebration of World Mission Day which falls next   
   Sunday".   
      
     The Holy Father then went on to speak of the "Year of Faith" he had   
   announced during his homily this morning, the motivations, goals and guiding   
   principles of which are to be announced in a forthcoming Apostolic Letter.   
   "Paul VI also called a 'Year of Faith'", he said, "to mark the nineteenth   
   centenary of the martyrdom of the Apostles Peter and Paul in 1967, a period   
   of great cultural upheaval. Half a century after the opening of Vatican   
   Council II, associated with the happy memory of Blessed John XXIII, I feel   
   it is appropriate to recall the beauty and importance of the faith, and the   
   need to strengthen and intensify in individuals and communities; and to do   
   this not so much in a perspective of celebration as of mission, in the   
   perspective of the mission 'ad gentes' and of the new evangelisation".   
   ANG/                                                                    VIS   
   20111017 (270)   
      
   APOSTOLIC LETTER "MOTU PROPRIO DATA", "PORTA FIDEI"   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 17 OCT 2011 (VIS) - Made public today was "Porta fidei", the   
   Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" with which Benedict XVI proclaims a   
   "Year of Faith", to begin on 11 October 2012, fiftieth anniversary of the   
   opening of Vatican Council II, and due to end on 24 November 2013, Feast of   
   Christ the King. Extracts from the English-language version of the Letter   
   are given below:   
      
     "The 'door of faith' is always open for us, ushering us into the life of   
   communion with God and offering entry into His Church. It is possible to   
   cross that threshold when the word of God is proclaimed and the heart allows   
   itself to be shaped by transforming grace".   
      
     "Ever since the start of my ministry as Successor of Peter, I have spoken   
   of the need to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer   
   light on the joy and renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ. ...   
   Whereas in the past it was possible to recognise a unitary cultural matrix,   
   broadly accepted in its appeal to the content of the faith and the values   
   inspired by it, today this no longer seems to be the case in large swathes   
   of society, because of a profound crisis of faith that has affected many   
   people".   
      
     "In the light of all this, I have decided to announce a Year of Faith. It   
   will begin on 11 October 2012, the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of   
   Vatican Council II, and it will end on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus   
   Christ, Universal King, on 24 November 2013. The starting date of 11 October   
   2012 also marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of the   
   Catechism of the Catholic Church, a text promulgated by my Predecessor,   
   Blessed John Paul II, with a view to illustrating for all the faithful the   
   power and beauty of the faith".   
      
     "Moreover, the theme of the General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops that   
   I have convoked for October 2012 is 'The New Evangelisation for the   
   Transmission of the Christian Faith'. This will be a good opportunity to   
   usher the whole Church into a time of particular reflection and rediscovery   
   of the faith. It is not the first time that the Church has been called to   
   celebrate a Year of Faith. My venerable Predecessor the Servant of God Paul   
   VI announced one in 1967. ... It concluded with the Credo of the People of   
   God, intended to show how much the essential content that for centuries has   
   formed the heritage of all believers needs to be confirmed, understood and   
   explored ever anew, so as to bear consistent witness in historical   
   circumstances very different from those of the past".   
      
     "It seemed to me that timing the launch of the Year of Faith to coincide   
   with the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Vatican Council II would   
   provide a good opportunity to help people understand that the texts   
   bequeathed by the Council Fathers. ... I would also like to emphasise   
   strongly what I had occasion to say concerning the Council a few months   
   after my election as Successor of Peter: 'if we interpret and implement it   
   guided by a right hermeneutic, it can be and can become increasingly   
   powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the Church'.   
      
     "The renewal of the Church is also achieved through the witness offered by   
   the lives of believers: by their very existence in the world, Christians are   
   called to radiate the word of truth that the Lord Jesus has left us. The   
   Council itself, in the Dogmatic Constitution 'Lumen Gentium', said this: ...   
   the Church ... clasping sinners to her bosom, is at once holy and always in   
   need of purification".   
      
     The Year of Faith, from this perspective, is a summons to an authentic and   
   renewed conversion to the Lord, the one Saviour of the world. In the mystery   
   of His death and resurrection, God has revealed in its fullness the Love   
   that saves and calls us to conversion of life through the forgiveness of   
   sins. For St. Paul, this Love ushers us into a new life. ... Through faith,   
   this new life shapes the whole of human existence according to the radical   
   new reality of the resurrection. ... 'Faith working through love' becomes a   
   new criterion of understanding and action that changes the whole of man's   
   life".   
      
     "Through His love, Jesus Christ attracts to Himself the people of every   
   generation: in every age He convokes the Church, entrusting her with the   
   proclamation of the Gospel by a mandate that is ever new. Today too, there   
   is a need for stronger ecclesial commitment to new evangelisation in order   
   to rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the   
   faith. In rediscovering His love day by day, the missionary commitment of   
   believers attains force and vigour that can never fade away. Faith grows   
   when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is   
   communicated as an experience of grace and joy".   
      
     "Only through believing, then, does faith grow and become stronger; there   
   is no other possibility for possessing certitude with regard to one's life   
   apart from self-abandonment, in a continuous crescendo, into the hands of a   
   love that seems to grow constantly because it has its origin in God".   
      
     "We want to celebrate this Year in a worthy and fruitful manner.   
   Reflection on the faith will have to be intensified, so as to help all   
   believers in Christ to acquire a more conscious and vigorous adherence to   
   the Gospel, especially at a time of profound change such as humanity is   
   currently experiencing. We will have the opportunity to profess our faith in   
   the Risen Lord in our cathedrals and in the churches of the whole world; in   
   our homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a strong need to   
   know better and to transmit to future generations the faith of all times.   
   Religious communities as well as parish communities, and all ecclesial   
   bodies old and new, are to find a way, during this Year, to make a public   
   profession of the Credo.   
      
     "We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess   
   the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope.   
   It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith   
   in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is 'the summit towards   
   which the activity of the Church is directed; ... and also the source from   
   which all its power flows.' At the same time, we make it our prayer that   
   believers' witness of life may grow in credibility. To rediscover the   
   content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed, and to   
   reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his   
   own, especially in the course of this Year".   
      
     "A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing   
   to stand with the Lord so as to live with Him. This 'standing with Him'   
   points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing. Faith,   
   precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for   
   what one believes. ... Profession of faith is an act both personal and   
   communitarian. It is the Church that is the primary subject of faith. In the   
   faith of the Christian community, each individual receives Baptism, an   
   effective sign of entry into the people of believers in order to obtain   
   salvation".   
      
     "Evidently, knowledge of the content of faith is essential for giving   
   one's own assent, that is to say for adhering fully with intellect and will   
   to what the Church proposes. Knowledge of faith opens a door into the   
   fullness of the saving mystery revealed by God. The giving of assent implies   
   that, when we believe, we freely accept the whole mystery of faith, because   
   the guarantor of its truth is God who reveals Himself and allows us to know   
   His mystery of love.   
      
     "On the other hand, we must not forget that in our cultural context, very   
   many people, while not claiming to have the gift of faith, are nevertheless   
   sincerely searching for the ultimate meaning and definitive truth of their   
   lives and of the world. This search is an authentic 'preamble' to the faith,   
   because it guides people onto the path that leads to the mystery of God.   
   Human reason, in fact, bears within itself a demand for 'what is perennially   
   valid and lasting'.  This demand constitutes a permanent summons, indelibly   
   written into the human heart, to set out to find the One Whom we would not   
   be seeking had He not already set out to meet us.  To this encounter, faith   
   invites us and it opens us in fullness.   
      
     "In order to arrive at a systematic knowledge of the content of the faith,   
   all can find in the Catechism of the Catholic Church a precious and   
   indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of Vatican   
   Council II. ... It is in this sense that that the Year of Faith will have to   
   see a concerted effort to rediscover and study the fundamental content of   
   the faith that receives its systematic and organic synthesis in the   
   Catechism of the Catholic Church. ... The Catechism provides a permanent   
   record of the many ways in which the Church has meditated on the faith and   
   made progress in doctrine so as to offer certitude to believers in their   
   lives of faith".   
      
     "In this Year, then, the Catechism of the Catholic Church will serve as a   
   tool providing real support for the faith, especially for those concerned   
   with the formation of Christians, so crucial in our cultural context. To   
   this end, I have invited the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by   
   agreement with the competent Dicasteries of the Holy See, to draw up a note,   
   providing the Church and individual believers with some guidelines on how to   
   live this Year of Faith in the most effective and appropriate ways, at the   
   service of belief and evangelisation.   
      
     "To a greater extent than in the past, faith is now being subjected to a   
   series of questions arising from a changed mentality which, especially   
   today, limits the field of rational certainties to that of scientific and   
   technological discoveries. Nevertheless, the Church has never been afraid of   
   demonstrating that there cannot be any conflict between faith and genuine   
   science, because both, albeit via different routes, tend towards the truth.   
      
     "One thing that will be of decisive importance in this Year is retracing   
   the history of our faith, marked as it is by the unfathomable mystery of the   
   interweaving of holiness and sin. While the former highlights the great   
   contribution that men and women have made to the growth and development of   
   the community through the witness of their lives, the latter must provoke in   
   each person a sincere and continuing work of conversion in order to   
   experience the mercy of the Father which is held out to everyone".   
      
     "The Year of Faith will also be a good opportunity to intensify the   
   witness of charity. ... Faith and charity each require the other, in such a   
   way that each allows the other to set out along its respective path. Indeed,   
   many Christians dedicate their lives with love to those who are lonely,   
   marginalised or excluded, as to those who are the first with a claim on our   
   attention and the most important for us to support, because it is in them   
   that the reflection of Christ's own face is seen. Through faith, we can   
   recognise the face of the risen Lord in those who ask for our love".   
      
     "Having reached the end of his life, St. Paul asks his disciple Timothy to   
   'aim at faith' with the same constancy as when he was a boy. We hear this   
   invitation directed to each of us, that none of us grow lazy in the faith.   
   It is the lifelong companion that makes it possible to perceive, ever anew,   
   the marvels that God works for us. Intent on gathering the signs of the   
   times in the present of history, faith commits every one of us to become a   
   living sign of the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. What the world   
   is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened   
   in mind and heart by the word of the Lord, and capable of opening the hearts   
   and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without   
   end".   
   LIT/                                                                    VIS   
   20111017 (2100)   
      
   MONGOLIA: COOPERATION BETWEEN CHURCH AND STATE   
      
   VATICAN CITY, 17 OCT 2011 (VIS) - The Holy See Press Office released the   
   following communique at midday today:   
      
     "This morning the Holy Father Benedict XVI received in audience   
   Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, president of Mongolia. The president subsequently   
   went on to meet with Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone S.D.B. who   
   was accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations   
   with States.   
      
     "The cordial discussions provided an opportunity to reflect upon the good   
   relations that exist between Mongolia and the Holy See, as well as the   
   understanding and co-operation between Church and State in the fields of   
   education and social care.   
      
     "Attention also turned to the political situation in Asia, with particular   
   reference to the importance of inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue   
   for the promotion of peace and justice".   
   OP/                                                                     VIS   
   20111017 (140)   
      
   IN BRIEF   
      
   THE HOLY FATHER has sent a message to Jacques Diouf, director general of the   
   United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, for the occasion of World   
   Food Day 2011. In the text Benedict XVI makes particular mention of the   
   dramatic situation in the Horn on Africa, affirming that "immediate aid is   
   essential, but it is also necessary to prepare medium- and long-term   
   projects so that international activity is not reduced merely to responding   
   to emergencies. ... Feelings of compassion and humanity towards others,   
   accompanied by the duty to show solidarity and ensure justice, must be   
   reinstated as the foundation for all activities, including those of the   
   international community".   
      
   MEMBERS OF THE PERMANENT SYNOD OF THE SYRO-MALABAR CHURCH, led by His   
   Beatitude George Alencherry, major archbishop of Ernakulam-Angamaly of the   
   Syro-Malabars, India, were received in audience by the Pope on Monday 17   
   October. The Holy Father noted that "the Syro-Malabar Church in Kerala   
   continues to enjoy the respect of the local community for its work in   
   education and for its social and charitable institutions at the service of   
   the whole community. I know that life for Christians has been complicated by   
   sectarian mistrust and even violence, but I would urge you to continue to   
   work with people of good will of all religions in the area, in order to   
   maintain the peace and harmony of the region, for the good of the Church and   
   that of all citizens".   
      
   THE PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR PROMOTING NEW EVANGELISATION has held a meeting   
   on the theme: "The Word of God grows and spreads". On the evening of   
   Saturday 15 October participants were received in audience by the Pope who   
   told them that "the world today needs people who announce and bear witness   
   to the fact that it is Christ Who teaches us the art of living, Who shows us   
   the path to true happiness, because He Himself is the path of life. It needs   
   --- NetMgr/2 1.0y+   
    * Origin: NetMgr+ @ Sursum Corda! BBS Meridian MS USA (1:396/45)   

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