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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIII - N° 4
DATE 07-01-2013
Summary:
- BENEDICT XVI: DO NOT BE RESIGNED TO "SPREAD" IN SOCIAL WELL-BEING WHILE
FIGHTING ONE IN FINANCIAL SECTOR
- POPE PAYS HOMAGE TO THE MARTYR CHURCH OF CAMBODIA
- THE THREE WISE MEN WERE SEEKERS AFTER GOD
- ANGELUS: MAY CHRIST'S LIGHT SHINE THROUGHOUT THE WORLD
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
___________________________________________________________
BENEDICT XVI: DO NOT BE RESIGNED TO "SPREAD" IN SOCIAL WELL-BEING WHILE
FIGHTING ONE IN FINANCIAL SECTOR
Vatican City, 7 January 2013 (VIS) - This morning in the Sala Regia of the
Vatican Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict pronounced his traditional annual
address to members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See. Before
making his remarks, the
Pope was greeted by Ambassador Alejandro Emilio Valladares Lanza of Honduras,
dean of the diplomatic corps, then received the greetings of the ambassadors
as a whole formulated in a speech delivered by Ambassador Jean-Claude Michel
of the Principality
of Monaco, vice dean.
The Holy See currently maintains full diplomatic relations with 179 States, as
well as the European Union and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. It also
has relations of a special nature with the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
Furthermore, the Holy See has observer-State status at the United Nations, as
well as being a member of seven organisations and agencies of the UN system,
observer in eight others, and member or observer in five regional
organisations.
Ample extracts of the Holy Father's address follow below:
... "Civil and political authorities before all others have a grave
responsibility to work for peace. They are the first called to resolve the
numerous conflicts causing bloodshed in our human family, beginning with that
privileged region in God’s
plan, the Middle East. I think first and foremost of Syria, torn apart by
endless slaughter and the scene of dreadful suffering among its civilian
population. I renew my appeal for a ceasefire and the inauguration as quickly
as possible of a
constructive dialogue aimed at putting an end to a conflict which will know no
victors but only vanquished if it continues, leaving behind it nothing but a
field of ruins. Your Excellencies, allow me to ask you to continue to make
your Governments aware
of this, so that essential aid will urgently be made available to face this
grave humanitarian situation. I now turn with deep concern towards the Holy
Land. Following Palestine’s recognition as a Non-Member Observer State
of the Unit
ed
Nations, I again express the hope that, with the support of the international
community, Israelis and Palestinians will commit themselves to peaceful
coexistence within the framework of two sovereign states, where respect for
justice and the legitimate
aspirations of the two peoples will be preserved and guaranteed. Jerusalem,
become what your name signifies! A city of peace and not of division; a
prophecy of the Kingdom of God and not a byword for instability and
opposition!".
"As I turn my thoughts towards the beloved Iraqi people, I express my hope
that they will pursue the path of reconciliation in order to arrive at the
stability for which they long".
"In Lebanon, where last September I met the various groups which make up
society, may the many religious traditions there be cultivated by all as a
true treasure for the country and for the whole region, and may Christians
offer an effective witness for
the building of a future of peace, together with all men and women of good
will!".
"In North Africa too, cooperation between all the members of society is of
primary concern, and each must be guaranteed full citizenship, the liberty
publicly to profess their religion and the ability to contribute to the common
good. I assure all
Egyptians of my closeness and my prayers at this time when new institutions
are being set in place".
"Turning to sub-Saharan Africa, I encourage the efforts being made to build
peace, especially in those places where the wounds of war remain open and
where their grave humanitarian consequences are being felt. I think
particularly of the Horn of Africa,
and the East of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where new of acts of
violence have erupted, forcing many people to abandon their homes, families
and surroundings. Nor can I fail to mention other threats looming on the
horizon. Nigeria is regularly
the scene of terrorist attacks which reap victims above all among the
Christian faithful gathered in prayer, as if hatred intended to turn temples
of prayer and peace into places of fear and division. I was deeply saddened to
learn that, even in the
days when we celebrated Christmas, some Christians were barbarously put to
death. Mali is also torn by violence and marked by a profound institutional
and social crisis, one which calls for the effective attention of the
internation
al
community. In the Central African Republic, I hope that the talks announced as
taking place shortly will restore stability and spare the people from reliving
the throes of civil war".
"The building of peace always comes about by the protection of human beings
and their fundamental rights. This task, even if carried out in many ways and
with varying degrees of intensity, challenges all countries and must
constantly be inspired by the
transcendent dignity of the human person and the principles inscribed in human
nature. Foremost among these is respect for human life at every stage. In this
regard, I was gratified that a resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of
Europe, in January of last year, called for the prohibition of euthanasia,
understood as the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human
being. At the same time, I must note with dismay that, in various countries,
even those of Christian
tradition, efforts are being made to introduce or expand legislation which
decriminalizes abortion. Direct abortion, that is to say willed as an end or
as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. In affirming this, the
Catholic C
hurch
is not lacking in understanding and mercy, also towards the mother involved.
Rather, it is a question of being vigilant lest the law unjustly alter the
balance between the right to life of the mother and that of the unborn child,
a right belonging
equally to both. In this area, the recent decision of the Inter-American Court
of Human Rights regarding in vitro fertilization, which arbitrarily redefines
the moment of conception and weakens the defence of unborn life, is also a
source of concern".
... "The European Union also requires far-sighted representatives capable of
making the difficult choices necessary to rectify its economy and to lay solid
foundations for growth. Alone, certain countries may perhaps advance more
quickly, but together,
all will certainly go further! If the differential index between financial
taxes represents a source of concern, the increasing differences between those
few who grow ever richer and the many who grow hopelessly poorer, should be a
cause for dismay. In
a word, it is a question of refusing to be resigned to a 'spread' in social
well-being, while at the same time fighting one in the financial sector".
"Investment in education in the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin
America means helping them to overcome poverty and disease, and to create
legal systems which are equitable and respectful of human dignity. Certainly,
if justice is to be
achieved, good economic models, however necessary, are not sufficient. Justice
is achieved only when people are just! Consequently, building peace means
training individuals to fight corruption, criminal activity, the production
and trade in narcotics,
as well as abstaining from divisions and tensions which threaten to exhaust
society, hindering development and peaceful coexistence".
"Continuing our meeting today, I would like to add that peace in society is
also put at risk by certain threats to religious liberty: it is a question
sometimes of the marginalization of religion in social life; sometimes of
intolerance or even of
violence towards individuals, symbols of religious identity and religious
institutions. It even happens that believers, and Christians in particular,
are prevented from contributing to the common good by their educational and
charitable institutions. In
order effectively to safeguard the exercise of religious liberty it is
essential to respect the right of conscientious objection. This 'frontier' of
liberty touches upon principles of great importance of an ethical and
religious character, rooted in the
very dignity of the human person. They are, as it were, the 'bearing walls' of
any society that wishes to be truly free and democratic. Thus, outlawing
individual and institutional conscientious objection in the name of liberty and
pluralism paradoxically opens by contrast the door to intolerance and forced
uniformity".
"Moreover, in an ever more open world, building peace through dialogue is no
longer a choice but a necessity! From this perspective, the joint declaration
between the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Poland and the
Patriarch of Moscow,
signed last August, is a strong signal given by believers for the improvement
of relations between the Russian and Polish peoples. I would also like to
mention the peace accord concluded recently in the Philippines and I would
like to underline the role
of dialogue between religions for a peaceful coexistence in the region of
Mindanao".
Benedict XVI concluded by affirming that "peace remains 'an empty word' if it
is not nourished and completed by charity" and that charity "is at the heart
of the diplomatic activity of the Holy See and, above all, of the concern of
the Successor of
Peter and of the whole Catholic Church. Charity cannot take the place of
justice that has been denied; nor can justice, on the other hand, replace
charity that has been refused. The Church daily practises charity in works of
social assistance such as
hospitals and clinics, her educational institutions such as orphanages,
schools, colleges and universities, and through help given to peoples in
distress, especially during and after conflicts. In the name of charity, the
Church wishes also to be near
all those who suffer due to natural disasters. I am thinking of the flood
victims in Southeast Asia and of those of the hurricane which struck the East
coast of the United States. I am also thinking of those who experienced the
earthquake
that
devastated some regions of Northern Italy. As you know, I wanted to go there
personally and see for myself the earnest desire to rebuild what had been
destroyed. In this moment of its history, I hope that such a spirit of
tenacity and shared commitment
will move the entire beloved Italian nation".
"To conclude our encounter, I would like to recall that, at the end of the
Second Vatican Council – which started fifty years ago - the Servant of
God, Pope Paul VI, sent out messages which remain relevant, including one
addressed to world
leaders. He encouraged them in this way: 'Your task is to be in the world the
promoters of order and peace among men. But never forget this: It is God
[…] who is the great artisan of order and peace on earth'. Today, as I
make those sentiments my
own, I convey to you, the Ambassadors and other distinguished Members of the
Diplomatic Corps, as well as to your families and colleagues, my very best
wishes for the New Year. Thank you!".
___________________________________________________________
POPE PAYS HOMAGE TO THE MARTYR CHURCH OF CAMBODIA
Vatican City, 7 January 2013 (VIS) - For the national Congress on the Church
in Cambodia the Holy Father addressed a message recalling "the faith, courage,
and perseverance of your pastors and of your Christian brothers and sisters"
during the years of
the Khmer Rouge when many Christians were assassinated. The congress, which is
taking place in Phnom Penh from 5 to 7 January, has the theme of "Vatican
Council II and the Church".
Following is the complete text of Benedict XVI's message:
"Dear Brothers and Sisters in Cambodia,"
"It is with great pleasure that I join you in prayer these days and through
the heart, send you warm greetings while you gather around your pastors to
celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican
Council and the twentieth
anniversary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I hope that the Cambodian
language translation of the conciliar documents and the Catechism that you
will receive on this occasion will allow you to better understand the teaching
of the Church and
grow in faith".
"In this Year of Faith, I invite you to keep your eyes fixed on the person of
Jesus Christ who is the origin and end of our faith and to reiterate the Good
News to the world today. In Him, the examples of faith that have marked our
history, find their
full light. Also, remembering the period of troubles that precipitated your
country in the darkness, I would like to emphasize the faith, courage and
perseverance of your pastors and of your Christian brothers and sisters, those
so many who have died,
is a noble testimony to the truth of the Gospel. And this testimony has become
a priceless spiritual strength to rebuild the church community in your
country. Today, many catechumens and adult baptisms show your dynamism and is
a happy sign of the
active presence of God in you".
"Dear brothers and sisters, after the Apostle Paul, I urge you to 'keep the
unity of the Spirit by the bond of peace'. Be assured of the prayers of your
brothers and sisters whose blood flowed in the rice field! Be a leaven in the
dough of your society,
witnessing to the love of Christ for all, building bonds of brotherhood with
members of other religious traditions, and walking on the paths of justice and
mercy".
"Dear young people, my friends who have been baptised in these recent years,
do not forget that the Church is your family; she is counting on you to
witness the life and the love that you have found in Jesus. I pray for you and
I invite you to be
generous disciples of Christ".
"Cambodian seminarians, priests and religious, you are a sign of the seeds of
the Church that is building up herself. You have offered your life and your
prayers are a source of hope. May they be also an invitation to other young
people to give their
lives as priests and religious in the heart of God".
"Missionaries, religious, consecrated laity from five continents, be the
beautiful sign of ecclesial communion around your pastors so that your
brotherhood in the diversity of your charismas may lead many people you serve
and love with zeal to meet
Jesus Christ".
"And all of you, who seek God, persevere and be sure that Christ loves you and
offers you His peace!".
"Beloved brothers and sisters, pastors and faithful of Cambodia, may the
Virgin Mary, Our Lady of the Mekong, in her humility and fidelity to the will
of the Lord, enlighten you throughout this Year of Faith. Be sure that I keep
you in my prayers and
from the bottom of my heart I convey upon you all an affectionate Apostolic
Blessing!".
___________________________________________________________
THE THREE WISE MEN WERE SEEKERS AFTER GOD
Vatican City, 6 January 2013 (VIS) - Today, Sunday the Solemnity of the Lord's
Epiphany, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Holy Mass in the Vatican Basilica and
conferred episcopal ordination on Angelo Vincenzo Zani, elected titular
archbishop of Volturno
and named secretary of the Congregation for Catholic Education; Fortunato
Nwachukwu, elected titular archbishop of Acquaviva and named apostolic nuncio
to Nicaragua; Georg Ganswein, private secretary to Benedict XVI, named titular
archbishop of
Urbisaglia and prefect of the pontifical household; and Nicolas Henry Marie
Denis Thevenin, elected titular archbishop of Eclano and named apostolic
nuncio to Guatemala. Concelebrating with the Holy Father were Cardinal
Tarcisio Bertone, SDB, Cardinal
Zenon Grocholewski, and the four archbishops-elect. The rite of ordination
took place after the proclamation of the Gospel and the announcement of the
date of Easter, which will be celebrated on 31 March this year.
During the homily the Holy Father spoke of the Three Wise Men, referring to
them as "seekers after God", for whom "the truth meant more than the taunts of
the world". Speaking about what it means to be a bishop the Pope affirmed that
he "must be
courageous" and have "the courage to contradict the prevailing mindset".
Below you will find the complete text of Benedict XVI's words:
"For the Church which believes and prays, the Wise Men from the East who,
guided by the star, made their way to the manger of Bethlehem, are only the
beginning of a great procession which winds throughout history. Thus the
liturgy reads the Gospel which
relates the journey of the Wise Men, together with the magnificent prophetic
visions of the sixtieth chapter of the Book of Isaiah and Psalm 71, which
depict in bold imagery the pilgrimage of the peoples to Jerusalem. Like the
shepherds, who as the
first visitors to the newborn Child in the manger, embodied the poor of Israel
and more generally those humble souls who live in deep interior closeness to
Jesus, so the men from the East embody the world of the peoples, the Church of
the Gentiles
– the men and women who in every age set out on the way which leads to
the Child of Bethlehem, to offer him homage as the Son of God and to bow down
before him. The Church calls this feast “Epiphany” – the
appearanc
e of
the Godhead. If we consider the fact that from the very beginning men and
women of every place, of every continent, of all the different cultures,
mentalities and lifestyles, have been on the way to Christ, then we can truly
say that this pilgrimage and
this encounter with God in the form of a Child is an epiphany of God’s
goodness and loving kindness for humanity (cf. Tit 3:4).
Following a tradition begun by Pope John Paul II, we celebrate the feast of
the Epiphany of the Lord also as the day when episcopal ordination will be
conferred on four priests who will now cooperate in different ways in the
ministry of the Pope for the
unity of the one Church of Jesus Christ in the multiplicity of the Particular
Churches. The connection between this episcopal ordination and the theme of
the pilgrimage of the peoples to Jesus Christ is evident. It is the task of
the Bishop in this
pilgrimage not merely to walk beside the others, but to go before them,
showing the way. But in this liturgy I would like to reflect with you on a
more concrete question. Based on the account of Matthew, we can gain a certain
idea of what sort of men
these were, who followed the sign of the star and set off to find that King
who would establish not only for Israel but for all mankind a new kind of
kingship. What kind of men were they? And we can also ask whether, despite the
differe
nce of
times and tasks, we can glimpse in them something of what a Bishop is and how
he is to carry out his task.
These men who set out towards the unknown were, in any event, men with a
restless heart. Men driven by a restless quest for God and the salvation of
the world. They were filled with expectation, not satisfied with their secure
income and their
respectable place in society. They were looking for something greater. They
were no doubt learned men, quite knowledgeable about the heavens and probably
possessed of a fine philosophical formation. But they desired more than simply
knowledge about
things. They wanted above all else to know what is essential. They wanted to
know how we succeed in being human. And therefore they wanted to know if God
exists, and where and how he exists. Whether he is concerned about us and how
we can encounter him.
Nor did they want just to know. They wanted to understand the truth about
ourselves and about God and the world. Their outward pilgrimage was an
expression of their inward journey, the inner pilgrimage of their hearts. They
were men who sought
God
and were ultimately on the way towards him. They were seekers after God.
Here we come to the question: What sort of man must he be, upon whom hands are
laid in episcopal ordination in the Church of Jesus Christ? We can say that he
must above all be a man concerned for God, for only then will he also be truly
concerned about
men. Inversely, we could also say that a Bishop must be a man concerned for
others, one who is concerned about what happens to them. He must be a man for
others. But he can only truly be so if he is a man seized by God, if concern
for God has also
become for him concern for God’s creature who is man. Like the Wise Men
from the East, a Bishop must not be someone who merely does his job and is
content with that. No, he must be gripped by God’s concern for men and
women. He must in some
way think and feel with God. Human beings have an innate restlessness for God,
but this restlessness is a participation in God’s own restlessness for
us. Since God is concerned about us, he follows us even to the crib, even to
the
Cross. “Thou with weary steps hast sought me, crucified hast dearly
bought me, may thy pains not be in vain”, the Church prays in the Dies
Irae. The restlessness of men for God and hence the restlessness of God for
men must unsettle the
Bishop. This is what we mean when we say that, above all else, the Bishop must
be a man of faith. For faith is nothing less than being interiorly seized by
God, something which guides us along the pathways of life. Faith draws us into
a state of being
seized by the restlessness of God and it makes us pilgrims who are on an inner
journey towards the true King of the world and his promise of justice, truth
and love. On this pilgrimage the Bishop must go ahead, he must be the guide
pointing out to men
and women the way to faith, hope and love.
Faith’s inner pilgrimage towards God occurs above all in prayer. Saint
Augustine once said that prayer is ultimately nothing more than the
realization and radicalization of our yearning for God. Instead of
“yearning”, we could also
translate the word as “restlessness” and say that prayer would
detach us from our false security, from our being enclosed within material and
visible realities, and would give us a restlessness for God and thus an
openness to and concern for
one another. The Bishop, as a pilgrim of God, must be above all a man of
prayer. He must live be in constant inner contact with God; his soul must be
open wide to God. He must bring before God his own needs and the needs of
others, as well as his joys
and the joys of others, and thus in his own way establish contact between God
and the world in communion with Christ, so that Christ’s light can shine
in the world.
Let us return to the Wise Men from the East. These were also, and above all,
men of courage, the courage and humility born of faith. Courage was needed to
grasp the meaning of the star as a sign to set out, to go forth –
towards the unknown, the
uncertain, on paths filled with hidden dangers. We can imagine that their
decision was met with derision: the scorn of those realists who could only
mock the reveries of such men. Anyone who took off on the basis of such
uncertain promises, risking
everything, could only appear ridiculous. But for these men, inwardly seized
by God, the way which he pointed out was more important than what other people
thought. For them, seeking the truth meant more than the taunts of the world,
so apparently
clever.
How can we not think, in this context, of the task of a Bishop in our own
time? The humility of faith, of sharing the faith of the Church of every age,
will constantly be in conflict with the prevailing wisdom of those who cling
to what seems certain.
--- NetMgr/2 1.0y+
* Origin: NetMgr+ @ Sursum Corda! BBS Meridian MS USA (1:396/45)
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