Subject: VISnews130116
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VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIII - N° 11
DATE 16-01-2013
Summary:
- SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD
- THAT CHRISTIANS MIGHT PROFESS TOGETHER THAT JESUS IS SAVIOUR
- ARCHBISHOP MAMBERTI: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
___________________________________________________________
SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) -Salvation history, that is, the account
of God's saving interaction with humanity, was the theme of the Holy Father's
catechesis during this Wednesday's general audience.
The Old Testament narrates how, after creation, God, in spite of original sin,
again offers human beings the possibility of His friendship "through the
covenant with Abraham and the path of a small people, of Israel, whom He
chooses not according to the
criteria of earthly power but simply out of love. … For this task He
used mediators, like Moses and the prophets and judges, to communicate His
will to the people. They recalled the necessity of faithfulness to the
covenant and kept alive the
hope of the full and definitive realization of His divine promises."
God's revelation reaches its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth. In Him, "God
visits His people, He visits humanity in a way that goes beyond all
expectations. He sends His Only Begotten Son; God himself becomes man. Jesus
does not tell us something about
God's nearness, doesn't simply speak of the Father: ... He reveals the face of
God to us." Within Jesus' statement, "'Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father' ... the newness of the New Testament is contained. … God could
be seen, God has
revealed His face, He is visible in Jesus Christ."
Benedict XVI recalled the importance of the search for the face of God
throughout the Old Testament, that is, for "a 'You' who can enter into
relationship, who is not locked away in His heaven, looking down on humanity
from on high. Certainly, God is
above all things, but He turns toward us and listens to us: He sees us,
speaks, extends covenants, and is capable of loving. Salvation history is the
story of God with humanity. It is the story of this relationship of God who
progressively reveals
Himself to mankind."
"Something completely new occurs, however, with the Incarnation. The search
for the face of God is unimaginably changed because this face can now be seen.
It is that of Jesus, of the Son of God who is made man. In Him God's path of
revelation, which
began with the call of Abraham, is fulfilled. He is the fullness of this
revelation because He is the Son of God as well as 'the mediator and the
fullness of all revelation'. In Him coincide the content of Revelation and the
One who reveals …
Jesus, true God and true man, is not simply one of the mediators between God
and humankind, but is 'the mediator' of the new and eternal covenant. …
In Him we see and encounter the Father. In Him we can call God by the name of
'Abba, Father'. In
Him we are given salvation."
"The desire to truly know God, that is, to see the face of God, is inherent to
every human being, including atheists. Perhaps we also, unconsciously, have
this desire to simply see who He is. … But this desire is fulfilled in
following Christ
thus … we finally see God as a friend. What is important is that we
follow Christ not only when we need Him or when we find a minute of time among
our thousands of daily tasks. … Our entire existence must be directed
toward meeting Jesus
Christ, toward love for Him. In such an existence, love for our neighbour must
take a central position; that love that, in light of the Crucifix, allows us
to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, and in those who are
suffering."
___________________________________________________________
THAT CHRISTIANS MIGHT PROFESS TOGETHER THAT JESUS IS SAVIOUR
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) – After his Wednesday catechesis,
Benedict XVI noted that the day after tomorrow, Friday 18 January, will begin
the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year its theme is "What does God
require of us?",
inspired by a passage from the prophet Micah. The Pope invited all "to pray,
asking insistently of God, for the great gift of unity between all of the
Lord's disciples. May the Holy Spirit's limitless strength arouse us to the
sincere commitment to seek
unity, so that we might all profess together that Jesus is the saviour of the
world."
___________________________________________________________
ARCHBISHOP MAMBERTI: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) - Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary
for the Holy See's Relations with States, was interviewed by Vatican Radio on
the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in several cases relating
to freedom of
conscience and religion.
"On 15 January, the European Court of Human Rights published its judgements on
four cases relating to the freedom of conscience and religion of employees in
the United Kingdom. Two of these cases concern employees’ freedom to
wear a small cross
around their neck in the workplace, while the other two concern the freedom to
object in conscience to the celebration of a civil union between persons of
the same sex and to conjugal counselling for couples of the same sex."
Some time ago, the Holy See’s Mission to the Council of Europe published
a Note on the Church’s freedom and institutional autonomy. The
archbishop explained the context of the Note as "the issue of the
Church’s freedom in her relations
with civil authorities," which "is at present being examined by the European
Court of Human Rights in two cases involving the Orthodox Church of Romania
and the Catholic Church. These are the Sindacatul 'Pastorul cel Bun' v.
Romania and Fernandez
Martinez v. Spain cases. On this occasion, the Permanent Representation of the
Holy See to the Council of Europe drew up a synthetic note explaining the
Magisterium [official Church teaching] on the freedom and institutional
autonomy of the Catholic
Church."
"In these cases," the archbishop said, "the European Court must decide whether
the civil power respected the European Convention on Human Rights in refusing
to recognize a trade union of priests [in the Romanian case] and in refusing
to appoint a
teacher of religion who publicly professes positions contrary to the teaching
of the Church [in the Spanish case]. In both cases, the rights to freedom of
association and freedom of expression were invoked in order to constrain
religious communities to
act in a manner contrary to their canonical status and the Magisterium. Thus,
these cases call into question the Church’s freedom to function
according to her own rules and not to be subject to civil rules other than
those necessary to ensure that
the common good and just public order are respected. The Church has always had
to defend herself in order to preserve her autonomy with regard to the civil
power and ideologies. Today, an important issue in Western countries is to
deter
mine
how the dominant culture, strongly marked by materialist individualism and
relativism, can understand and respect the nature of the Church, which is a
community founded on faith and reason."
Faced with this situation, "the Church is aware of the difficulty of
determining the relations between the civil authorities and the different
religious communities in a pluralist society with regard to the requirements
of social cohesion and the common
good. In this context, the Holy See draws attention to the necessity of
maintaining religious freedom in its collective and social dimension. This
dimension corresponds to the essentially social nature both of the person and
of the religious fact in
general. The Church does not ask that religious communities be lawless zones
but that they be recognized as spaces for freedom, by virtue of the right to
religious freedom, while respecting just public order. This teaching is not
reserved to the
Catholic Church; the criteria derived from it are founded in justice and are
therefore of general application."
"Furthermore, the juridical principle of the institutional autonomy of
religious communities is widely recognized by States that respect religious
freedom, as well as by international law. The European Court of Human Rights
itself has regularly stated
this principle in several important judgements. Other institutions have also
affirmed this principle. This is notably the case with the OSCE [Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and also with the United Nations
Committee for Human
Rights in, respectively, the 'Final Document' of the Vienna Conference of 19
January 1989 and 'General Observation no. 22 on the Right to Freedom of
Thought, Conscience and Religion' of 30 July 1993. It is nevertheless useful
to recall and defend this
principle of the autonomy of the Church and the civil power.
___________________________________________________________
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father appointed
Archbishop Joseph Salvador Marino as apostolic nuncio to Malaysia and to East
Timor and as apostolic delegate to Brunei. Archbishop Marino, titular of
Natchitoches, was
previously apostolic nuncio to Bangladesh.
___________________________________________________________
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va
Il servizio del VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta
elettronica che ne hanno fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo
non si desidera continuare a riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina
dinizio:
http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vis/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
--Boundary_(ID_RGsqmU4BexFQg2WZDHaFJQ)
Content-type: text/html; CHARSETUS-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
VISnews130116
VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE YEAR XXIII - N° 11DATE 16-01-2013
Summary: - SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD -
THAT CHRISTIANS MIGHT PROFESS
TOGETHER THAT JESUS IS SAVIOUR - ARCHBISHOP MAMBERTI: FREEDOM OF
CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION - OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
SEEKING THE FACE OF GOD
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) -Salvation history, that is, the
account of God's saving interaction with humanity, was the theme of the Holy
Father's catechesis during this Wednesday's general audience.
The Old Testament narrates how, after creation, God, in spite of original
sin, again offers human beings the possibility of His friendship "through the
covenant with Abraham and the path of a small people, of Israel, whom He
chooses not according to
the criteria of earthly power but simply out of love. … For this task
He used mediators, like Moses and the prophets and judges, to communicate His
will to the people. They recalled the necessity of faithfulness to the
covenant and kept alive the
hope of the full and definitive realization of His divine promises."
God's revelation reaches its fullness in Jesus of Nazareth. In Him, "God
visits His people, He visits humanity in a way that goes beyond all
expectations. He sends His Only Begotten Son; God himself becomes man. Jesus
does not tell us something about
God's nearness, doesn't simply speak of the Father: ... He reveals the face of
God to us." Within Jesus' statement, "'Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father' ... the newness of the New Testament is contained. … God could
be seen, God has
revealed His face, He is visible in Jesus Christ."
Benedict XVI recalled the importance of the search for the face of God
throughout the Old Testament, that is, for "a 'You' who can enter into
relationship, who is not locked away in His heaven, looking down on humanity
from on high. Certainly, God is
above all things, but He turns toward us and listens to us: He sees us,
speaks, extends covenants, and is capable of loving. Salvation history is the
story of God with humanity. It is the story of this relationship of God who
progressively reveals
Himself to mankind."
"Something completely new occurs, however, with the Incarnation. The search
for the face of God is unimaginably changed because this face can now be seen.
It is that of Jesus, of the Son of God who is made man. In Him God's path of
revelation, which
began with the call of Abraham, is fulfilled. He is the fullness of this
revelation because He is the Son of God as well as 'the mediator and the
fullness of all revelation'. In Him coincide the content of Revelation and the
One who reveals …
Jesus, true God and true man, is not simply one of the mediators between God
and humankind, but is 'the mediator' of the new and eternal covenant. …
In Him we see and encounter the Father. In Him we can call God by the name of
'Abba, Father'. In
Him we are given salvation."
"The desire to truly know God, that is, to see the face of God, is inherent
to every human being, including atheists. Perhaps we also, unconsciously, have
this desire to simply see who He is. … But this desire is fulfilled in
following Christ
thus … we finally see God as a friend. What is important is that we
follow Christ not only when we need Him or when we find a minute of time among
our thousands of daily tasks. … Our entire existence must be directed
toward meeting Jesus
Christ, toward love for Him. In such an existence, love for our neighbour must
take a central position; that love that, in light of the Crucifix, allows us
to recognize the face of Jesus in the poor, the weak, and in those who are
suffering."
THAT CHRISTIANS MIGHT PROFESS TOGETHER THAT JESUS IS SAVIOUR
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) – After his Wednesday catechesis,
Benedict XVI noted that the day after tomorrow, Friday 18 January, will begin
the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This year its theme is "What does God
require of us?",
inspired by a passage from the prophet Micah. The Pope invited all "to pray,
asking insistently of God, for the great gift of unity between all of the
Lord's disciples. May the Holy Spirit's limitless strength arouse us to the
sincere commitment to seek
unity, so that we might all profess together that Jesus is the saviour of the
world."
ARCHBISHOP MAMBERTI: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND RELIGION
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) - Archbishop Dominique Mamberti,
secretary for the Holy See's Relations with States, was interviewed by Vatican
Radio on the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in several cases
relating to freedom of
conscience and religion.
"On 15 January, the European Court of Human Rights published its judgements
on four cases relating to the freedom of conscience and religion of employees
in the United Kingdom. Two of these cases concern employees’ freedom to
wear a small cross
around their neck in the workplace, while the other two concern the freedom to
object in conscience to the celebration of a civil union between persons of
the same sex and to conjugal counselling for couples of the same sex."
Some time ago, the Holy See’s Mission to the Council of Europe
published a Note on the Church’s freedom and institutional autonomy. The
archbishop explained the context of the Note as "the issue of the
Church’s freedom in her
relations with civil authorities," which "is at present being examined by the
European Court of Human Rights in two cases involving the Orthodox Church of
Romania and the Catholic Church. These are the Sindacatul 'Pastorul cel Bun'
v. Romania and
Fernandez Martinez v. Spain cases. On this occasion, the Permanent
Representation of the Holy See to the Council of Europe drew up a synthetic
note explaining the Magisterium [official Church teaching] on the freedom and
institutional autonomy of the
Catholic Church."
"In these cases," the archbishop said, "the European Court must decide
whether the civil power respected the European Convention on Human Rights in
refusing to recognize a trade union of priests [in the Romanian case] and in
refusing to appoint a
teacher of religion who publicly professes positions contrary to the teaching
of the Church [in the Spanish case]. In both cases, the rights to freedom of
association and freedom of expression were invoked in order to constrain
religious communities to
act in a manner contrary to their canonical status and the Magisterium. Thus,
these cases call into question the Church’s freedom to function
according to her own rules and not to be subject to civil rules other than
those necessary to ensure that
the common good and just public order are respected. The Church has always had
to defend herself in order to preserve her autonomy with regard to the civil
power and ideologies. Today, an important issue in Western
countries is to determine how the dominant culture, strongly marked by
materialist individualism and relativism, can understand and respect the
nature of the Church, which is a community founded on faith and reason."
Faced with this situation, "the Church is aware of the difficulty of
determining the relations between the civil authorities and the different
religious communities in a pluralist society with regard to the requirements
of social cohesion and the
common good. In this context, the Holy See draws attention to the necessity of
maintaining religious freedom in its collective and social dimension. This
dimension corresponds to the essentially social nature both of the person and
of the religious fact
in general. The Church does not ask that religious communities be lawless
zones but that they be recognized as spaces for freedom, by virtue of the
right to religious freedom, while respecting just public order. This teaching
is not reserved to the
Catholic Church; the criteria derived from it are founded in justice and are
therefore of general application."
"Furthermore, the juridical principle of the institutional autonomy of
religious communities is widely recognized by States that respect religious
freedom, as well as by international law. The European Court of Human Rights
itself has regularly
stated this principle in several important judgements. Other institutions have
also affirmed this principle. This is notably the case with the OSCE
[Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe] and also with the United
Nations Committee for
Human Rights in, respectively, the 'Final Document' of the Vienna Conference
of 19 January 1989 and 'General Observation no. 22 on the Right to Freedom of
Thought, Conscience and Religion' of 30 July 1993. It is nevertheless useful
to recall and defend
this principle of the autonomy of the Church and the civil power.
Vatican City, 16 January 2013 (VIS) – Today the Holy Father appointed
Archbishop Joseph Salvador Marino as apostolic nuncio to Malaysia and to East
Timor and as apostolic delegate to Brunei. Archbishop Marino, titular of
Natchitoches, was
previously apostolic nuncio to Bangladesh.
Per ulteriori informazioni e per la ricerca di documenti consultare il
sito: www.wisnews.org e www.vatican.va Il servizio del
VIS viene inviato soltanto agli indirizzi di posta elettronica che ne
hanno
fatto richiesta. Se per qualunque motivo non si desidera continuare a
riceverlo, si prega di visitare nostra pagina dinizio: http://212.77.1.245/news_services/press/vi
/italinde.php
Copyright (VIS): Le notizie contenute nei servizi del Vatican
Information Service possono essere riprodotte parzialmente o totalmente
citando la fonte: V.I.S. - Vatican Information Service.
--Boundary_(ID_RGsqmU4BexFQg2WZDHaFJQ)--
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