VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIV - # 73
DATE 24-04-2014

Summary:
- THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA
- STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
- BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY
- POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD
- POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
- CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH
- AUDIENCES
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
- HOLY WEEK:
- CHRISM MASS: ANOINTED WITH THE OIL OF GLADNESS
- MASS "IN CENA DOMINI" AT THE DON GNOCCHI CENTRE
- VIA CRUCIS: A GLORIOUS CROSS LIKE DAWN FOLLOWING A LONG NIGHT
- HOLY SATURDAY: RETURN TO THE PLACE OF THE FIRST CALL
- EASTER SUNDAY: LOVE LETS HOPE FLOURISH IN THE DESERT
- EASTER MONDAY: MARIA, MOTHER OF HOPE

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 THE POPE RECEIVES THE PRIME MINISTER OF ALBANIA
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace the Holy Father Francis received in audience the prime minister of the
Republic of Albania, Edi Rama, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of
State Pietro Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary
for Relations with States.
 During the cordial discussions, the Parties remarked upon the good relations
between the Holy See and the Republic of Albania, and focused on themes of
common interest regarding the relations between the ecclesial and civil
communities, including interreligious dialogue and the contribution of the
Church to the common good of Albanian society.
 Attention then turned to the principal regional issues and Albania’s progress
towards full integration within the European Union.

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 STATEMENT OF THE HOLY SEE PRESS OFFICE
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - This morning the director of the Holy See
Press Office, Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J., issued the following statement:
 "Several telephone calls have taken place in the context of Pope Francis’
personal pastoral relationships. Since they do not in any way form part of the
Pope's public activities, no information is to be expected from the Holy See
Press Office. That which has been communicated in relation to this matter,
outside the scope of personal relationships, and the consequent media
amplification, cannot be confirmed as reliable, and is a source of
misunderstanding and confusion. Therefore, consequences relating to the
teaching of the Church are not to be inferred from these occurrences".

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 BUDDHISTS AND CHRISTIANS: TOGETHER FOSTERING FRATERNITY
 Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Fr. Miguel
Angel Ayuso Guixot, M.C.C.J., respectively president and secretary of the
Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, have signed the message that
this dicastery sends each year to followers of Buddhism on the festival of
Vesakh.
 Vesakh is the principal Buddhist holy day that commemorates the birth,
enlightenment, and death of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the
historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during the
full moon of the month of May; therefore, the date on which Vesakh is
celebrated varies from year to year and from country to country. On those
days, Buddhists visit local temples to offer the monks food and to hear the
teachings of the Buddha, taking special care to meditate and to observe the
eight precepts of Buddhism.
 This year's message is entitled: "Buddhists and Christians: Together
Fostering Fraternity". Extensive extracts from the text are published below:
 "Our cordial greetings this year are inspired by Pope Francis’ Message for
the World Day of Peace 2014, entitled Fraternity, the Foundation and Pathway
to Peace. There, Pope Francis observes that 'fraternity is an essential human
quality, for we are relational beings. A lively awareness of our relatedness
helps us to look upon and to treat each person as a true sister or brother;
without fraternity it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and
lasting peace.
 Your religious tradition inspires the conviction that friendly relations,
dialogue, the sharing of gifts, and the respectful and harmonious exchange of
views lead to attitudes of kindness and love which in turn generate authentic
and fraternal relationships. You are also convinced that the root of all evil
is the ignorance and misunderstanding born of greed and hatred, which in turn
destroy the bonds of fraternity. Unfortunately, 'daily acts of selfishness,
which are at the root of so many wars and so much injustice', prevent us from
seeing others 'as beings made for reciprocity, for communion and self-giving'.
 As Buddhists and Christians, we live in a world all too often torn apart by
oppression, selfishness, tribalism, ethnic rivalry, violence and religious
fundamentalism, a world where the 'other' is treated as an inferior, a
non-person, or someone to be feared and eliminated if possible. Yet, we are
called, in a spirit of cooperation with other pilgrims and with people of good
will, to respect and to defend our shared humanity in a variety of
socio-economic, political and religious contexts. Drawing upon our different
religious convictions, we are called especially to be outspoken in denouncing
all those social ills which damage fraternity; to be healers who enable others
to grow in selfless generosity, and to be reconcilers who break down the walls
of division and foster genuine brotherhood between individuals and groups in
society.
 Our world today is witnessing a growing sense of our common humanity and a
global quest for a more just, peaceful and fraternal world. But the fulfilment
of these hopes depends on a recognition of universal values. We hope that
interreligious dialogue will contribute, in the recognition of the fundamental
principles of universal ethics, to fostering a renewed and deepened sense of
unity and fraternity among all the members of the human family. Indeed, 'each
one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by
extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths to dialogue
and not by constructing new walls! Let us dialogue and meet each other in
order to establish a culture of dialogue in the world, a culture of
encounter!'.
 To build a world of fraternity, it is vitally important that we join forces
to educate people, particularly the young, to seek fraternity, to live in
fraternity and to dare to build fraternity. We pray that your celebration of
Vesakh will be an occasion to rediscover and promote fraternity anew,
especially in our divided societies".

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 POPE FRANCIS: DO NOT SEEK THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD
 Vatican City, April 2014 (VIS) - "Why do you seek the living one among the
dead?". With this question Pope Francis began his first catechesis following
Holy Week, on the feast of St. George, the Holy Father's name day. He
continued, "How often we look for life among dead things, things that cannot
give life, that are here today and gone tomorrow!".
 The Pope explained that these words help us "when we close ourselves within
any form of selfishness or complacency; when we allow ourselves to be seduced
by earthly powers and the things of this world, forgetting God and neighbour;
when we place our trust in worldly vanities, in money, in success", and he
commented that for us, as for Thomas and Mary Magdalene, "it is not easy to
open oneself to Jesus; it is not obvious to accept he life of the Risen Christ
and His presence among us".
 "This question helps us resist the temptation to look back, to what was
yesterday, and pushes us forward into the future. ... Today this question is
also addressed to us. You, why are you looking among the dead for one who is
alive? You, who close in on yourself after a failure or who no longer have the
strength to pray? You who feel alone, abandoned by friends, and perhaps even
by God? You who have lost hope or you who feel imprisoned by your sins? You
who aspire to beauty, spiritual perfection, justice, peace?".
 "We need to hear ourselves repeat and remind each other of the angel’s
admonition", concluded the Holy Father, "since it helps us to emerge from our
moments of sadness and opens up horizons of joy and hope. That hope that
removes stones from graves and encourages us to proclaim the Good News,
capable of generating new life for others. ... Let us not seek among those
many tombs that promise everything and give nothing!".

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 POPE FRANCIS EXPRESSES CONCERN FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
 Vatican City, 23 April 2014 (VIS) - Following today's general audience, the
Holy Father launched an appeal for the workers of the Lucchini steelworks in
Piombino, which closed down a few days ago causing mass layoffs. Pope Francis
urged them not to despair, remarking that "when human hopes are extinguished,
the divine hope that never disappoints always remains alive". He appealed to
those in positions of responsibility to use all their creativity and
generosity "to reignite hope in the hearts of our brothers and sisters and in
the hearts of all those who have been left jobless as a result of waste and
the economic crisis. Please, open your eyes and don’t stand there with your
arms crossed!"

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 CARDINAL OUEDRAOGO TAKES POSSESSION OF HIS TITULAR CHURCH
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of
the Supreme Pontiff today announced that on Sunday, 27 April, at 6 p.m.,
Cardinal Philippe Nakellentuba Ouedraogo, archbishop of Ouagadougou, Burkina
Faso, will take possession of the title of St. Mary the Consoler at Tiburtino
(Via de Casal Bertone, 80).

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 AUDIENCES
 Vatican City, 24 April 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received in
audience:
 - Fourteen prelates of the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference on
their "ad limina" visit:
 - Archbishop Jabulani Adatus Nxumalo of Bloemfontaine;
 - Bishop Jan de Groef of Bethlehem;
 - Bishop Edward Gabriele Risi of Keimoes-Upington;
 - Bishop Abel Gabuza of Kimberley;
 - Bishop Peter John Holiday of Kroonstad;
 - Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town;
 - Bishop Michael Wusternberg of Aliwal;
 - Bishop Adam Leszek Musialek of De Aar;
 - Bishop Francisco Fortunato De Gouveia of Oudtshoorn;
 - Bishop Vincent Mduduzi Zungu of Port Elizabeth;
 - Bishop Dabula Anton Mpako of Queenstown;
 - Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, archbishop of Durban, with his auxiliary
Bishop Barry Alexander Anthony Wood;
 - Bishop Thomas Graham Rose of Dundee.
 - Bishop Lazzaro You Heung-sik of Daejeon, South Korea.

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