VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 192
DATE 30-10-2015
Summary:
- The Pope on Blessed Oscar Romero: his impact is still felt in our time
- To the Santa Marta Group: combating human trafficking is a moral imperative
for States
- The Pope's 60th anniversary message to the Latin American Episcopal Council:
love your people, open paths of greater equality, justice and peace
- Pope Francis' prayer intentions for November
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts
- Notice
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The Pope on Blessed Oscar Romero: his impact is still felt in our time
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - This morning five hundred pilgrims from
El Salvador, in Rome to give thanks for the beatification of the bishop Oscar
Arnulfo Romero, met with the Holy Father in the Paul VI Hall. The Pope defined
the Salvadoran bishop martyr as a "good pastor, full of love for God and close
to his brothers who, living the dynamism of the Beatitudes, gave his life in a
violent way while celebrating the Eucharist, the supreme sacrifice of love,
sealing with his own blood the Gospel that he announced".
"From the very beginning of the life of the Church, Christians have always
believed that the blood of martyrs is a seed for Christians, as Tertullian
said.
Today too, in a dramatic way, the blood of a great number of Christian martyrs
continues to be shed on the field of the world, with the certain hope that will
bear fruit in a rich harvest of holiness, justice, reconciliation and love of
God. But we must remember that one is not born a martyr. Archbishop Romero
remarked, 'We must be willing to die for our faith, even if the Lord does not
grant us this honour. ... Giving life does not only mean being assassinated;
giving life, having the spirit of martyrdom, means offering it in silence, in
prayer, in the honest fulfilment of one's duty; in this silence of everyday
life, giving life a little at a time'".
"Indeed, the martyr is not someone relegated to the past, a beautiful image
that adorns our churches and which we recall with a certain nostalgia. No, the
martyr is a brother, a sister, who continues to accompany us in the communion
of
saints and who, united with Christ, does not ignore our earthly pilgrimage, our
sufferings, our anxieties. In the recent history of this beloved country, the
witness of Msgr. Romero has joined that of the other brothers and sisters ...
who
are a treasure and well-founded hope for the Church and for Salvadoran society.
The impact of his commitment can still be felt in our times".
Just a few weeks before the beginning of the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy,
the example of Msgr. Romero constitutes, for his beloved nation, a "stimulus to
a renewed proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to announce it in a way
that all people can understand, so that the merciful love of the Divine Saviour
enters the heart and the history of this good people. The holy people of God in
pilgrimage in El Salvador have a series of difficult tasks ahead of them, which
require, as in the rest of the world, an evangelising announcement that allows
witness, in the communion of Christ's one Church, of authentic Christian life".
"On this occasion, I make my own the sentiments of the Blessed Msgr. Romero,
who with the well-founded hope longed to see the happy time when the terrible
suffering of many of our brothers, due to hate, violence and injustice, would
disappear. May the Lord, with a shower of mercy and goodness and a torrent of
grace convert all hearts, and may the beautiful homeland He has given you, that
bears the name of the Divine Saviour, be transform into a country where all are
redeemed and all are brothers, without differences, since we are all one in
Christ our Lord".
The Holy Father concluded with some unscripted remarks. "I wish to add
something we are forgetting", he said. "The martyrdom of Msgr. Romero was not
fulfilled at the moment of his death - it was a martyrdom of witness, of prior
suffering and prior persecution, up to his death. But even afterwards,
following
his death - I was a young priest and a witness to this - he was defamed,
slandered, his memory despoiled, and his martyrdom continued also for his
brethren in the priesthood and in the episcopate. This is not hearsay, but
rather things I have heard. Or perhaps it is best to see it thus: a man who
continues to be a martyr. After having given his life, he continues to give it
by allowing himself to be assailed by all this misunderstanding and slander.
This gives me strength. Only God knows the stories of those people who have
given their lives, who have died, and continue to be stoned with the hardest
stone that exists in the world: language".
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To the Santa Marta Group: combating human trafficking is a moral imperative
for
States
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis has sent a message to the
Santa Marta Group, an initiative launched by the Holy Father in the battle
against human trafficking, involving the security forces of various countries,
episcopates, social organisations and representatives of various religious
confessions. The group is currently gathered at the San Lorenzo del Escorial in
Spain, a meeting inaugurated this Friday by Queen Sofia and attended by
cardinals, bishops, social activists and around fifty heads of police from
around the world.
In the short time of its existence, writes Francis, this worthy group has made
significant achievements and is called upon to play a decisive role in the
eradication of human trafficking and modern slavery. He recalls that during the
last year there have been important institutional changes that have without
doubt supported its activity, starting with the meeting of mayors in Vatican
City on 21 July, in which key figures signed a declaration expressing their
commitment to eliminating the new forms of slavery that constitute a crime
against humanity.
He also mentions the recent approval of the Agenda 2030, with the new United
Nations Sustainable Development Goals, which include the adoption of immediate
and effective means for eradicating forced labour, putting an end to modern
forms of slavery and human trafficking and ensuring the prohibition and
elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including the recruitment and
deployment of child soldiers, with a view to putting an end to all forms of
child labour by 2025.
The Pope also refers to his address to the United Nations in New York on 25
September, in which he affirmed that the world demands of government leaders "a
will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate
measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting
an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic
exclusion, with its baneful consequences. ... Such is the magnitude of these
situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every
temptation
to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences".
"Today the 193 states of the United Nations have a new moral imperative to
combat human trafficking, a true crime against humanity. Collaboration between
bishops and the civil authorities, each in accordance with his own mission and
character and with the aim of discovering best practice for the fulfilment of
this delicate task, is a decisive step to ensuring that the will of governments
reaches the victims in a direct, immediate, constant, effective and concrete
way".
"For my part, I pray that God Almighty grant you the grace of carrying forward
the delicate, humanitarian and Christian mission of healing the open and
painful
wounds of humanity, which are also Christ's wounds. I assure you of all my
support and my prayer, and the support and prayer of the faithful of the
Catholic Church. With God's help, and your collaboration, the indispensable
service of the Santa Marta Group will be able to free the victims of new forms
of slavery, rehabilitate them, along with the imprisoned and the marginalised,
unmasking the traffickers and those who create this market, and provide
effective assistance to cities and nations; a service for the common good and
the promotion of human dignity, able to bring out the best in every person and
every citizen".
___________________________________________________________
The Pope's 60th anniversary message to the Latin American Episcopal Council:
love your people, open paths of greater equality, justice and peace
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - To commemorate 60 years of the Latin
American Episcopal Council (CELAM), the Pope has written a message to the
president Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez in which he expresses his gratitude for
all the good the Lord has gradually sown there, and that has borne fruit
through
the service of God's Church in Latin America.
"I hope that CELAM, making pastoral and missionary conversion its priority,
may
increasingly participate in, support and give momentum to this evangelising
movement towards all environments and all frontiers. It is important that our
communities are a 'home and school of communion', which attract by a surprising
fraternity based on the recognition of the common father, and help always to
keep alive in the Church in Latin America the passion for our peoples, the
bearing of our sufferings and the capacity for Christian discernment of the
vicissitudes of their recent history, to open up paths of greater equality,
peace and justice".
He also emphasises that the upcoming opening of the extraordinary Jubilee of
Mercy "will be an event of grace in which CELAM must provide a fundamental
service of inspiration, exchange and celebration".
Finally, the Pope imparts his apostolic blessing to all members of CELAM,
their
collaborators, and the episcopate of Latin America and the Caribbean, placing
all these intentions under the protection of the mantle of Our Lady of
Guadalupe, patron of America, so that by her intercession "Our Lord Jesus
Christ
may inspire new and holier missionary disciples in our Churches, and more
courageous builders of peace and justice in our nations".
___________________________________________________________
Pope Francis' prayer intentions for November
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father's universal prayer
intention for November is: "That we may be open to personal encounter and
dialogue with all, even those whose convictions differ from our own".
His intention for evangelisation is: "That pastors of the Church, with
profound
love for their flocks, may accompany them and enliven their hope".
___________________________________________________________
Audiences
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
- Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation
of Peoples;
- Cardinal Ruben Salazar Gomez, archbishop of Bogota, Colombia, president of
the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), with Bishop Carlos Maria Collazzi
Irazabal of Mercedes, Uruguay, first deputy president; Archbishop Jose
Belisario
da Silva of Sao Luis do Maranhao, Brazil, second deputy president; Bishop Juan
Espinoza Jimenez, auxiliary of Morelia, Mexico, secretary general; Cardinal
Jose
Luis Lacunza Maestrojuan, bishop of David, Panama, president for economic
affairs; and Fr. Leonidas Ortiz Losada, adjunct secretary general.
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Other Pontifical Acts
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed:
- Bishop Fidel Herraez Vegas, auxiliary of Madrid, Spain, as archbishop of
Burgos (area 13,850, population 374,970, Catholics 337,473, priests 519,
religious 1,377), Spain. He succeeds Archbishop Francisco Gil Hellin, whose
resignation from the pastoral care of the same archdiocese upon reaching the
age
limit was accepted by the Holy Father.
- Bishop Renauld de Dinechin, auxiliary of Paris, France, as bishop of
Soissons
(area 7,378, population 557,000, Catholics 403,000, priests 89, permanent
deacons 22, religious 97), France.
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Notice
Vatican City, 30 October 2015 (VIS) - We inform our readers that there will be
no Vatican Information Service bulletin on Monday, 2 November, a holiday in the
Vatican. Service will resume on Tuesday, 3 November.
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www.visnews.org and www.vatican.va
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