VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 92
DATE 20-05-2014

Summary:
- TO ITALIAN BISHOPS: ACCOMPANY YOUR PROCLAMATION WITH THE ELOQUENCE OF
GESTURES
- THE POPE PROFOUNDLY SADDENED BY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN FUNDACION, COLOMBIA
- CELEBRATE THE WORLD CUP 2014 FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR ALL
- OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

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 TO ITALIAN BISHOPS: ACCOMPANY YOUR PROCLAMATION WITH THE ELOQUENCE OF GESTURES
 Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - Yesterday afternoon Pope Francis
inaugurated the 66th assembly of Italian bishops, in which they will discuss
proposals to amend the Statute and Regulation of the Italian Episcopal
Conference (CEI), as well as the "Guide to proclamation and catechesis in
Italy". They will also consider the theme "Christian education and
missionarity in the light of the Apostolic exhortation 'Evangelii gaudium'".
It is the first time that a pontiff has presided at an assembly of the CEI.
 Francis structured his discourse in three points, directing it at pastors of
a Church that is the community of the Resurrected, that is the body of the
Lord, and that anticipates and promises the Kingdom. He began by telling the
bishops: "The people look to us. They look to us for help in grasping the
singularity of their daily lives in God's providential plan"; and emphasised
that "faith is the living memory of an encounter nurtured by the fire of the
Word that shapes the ministry and anoints the people. ... Without constant
prayer, the Pastor is exposed to the danger of being ashamed of the Gospel,
and ends up defusing the scandal of the Cross in worldly 'wisdom'".
 "The temptations, which aim to obscure the primacy of God and His Christ, are
legion in the life of the Pastor: they range from lukewarmness, which leads to
mediocrity ... which dodges renunciation and sacrifice; then there is the
temptation to haste in pastoral ministry, along with that sloth that leads to
intolerance, almost as if everything were a burden. ... There is a temptation
to grow accustomed to sadness, cancelling out every expectation and
creativity, leaving us unsatisfied and therefore incapable of entering into
the lives of our people and understanding them in the light of Easter morning".
 To combat these temptations, the Pope urges the Italian bishops never to
cease to seek the Lord, because "He is the principle and foundation that
envelops our weaknesses with mercy, transforming and renewing everything; we
are called to offer He Who is most precious to our people, so as not to leave
them at the mercy of a society of indifference, indeed desperation. ... If we
want to follow him, there is no other path. Following it with Him, we discover
that we are a people, to the point of recognising with wonder and gratitude
that all is grace, even the difficulties and contradictions of human life, if
these are lived with a heart open to the Lord".
 Proceeding to speak of pastors of the Church as the body of the Lord, he
remarked that the Church is the "other grace for which we must feel profoundly
indebted. ... Unity is a gift and responsibility, and its sacrament shapes our
mission. ... The lack of communion is the greatest scandal", and "as Pastors,
we must seek refuge from temptations that otherwise disfigure us; ... the
hardness of he who judges without being involved, and the laxity of those who
acquiesce without taking responsibility for the other. ... the ambition that
generates 'currents', sectarianism ... and then, the tendency to seek the lost
security of the past, and the claims of those who wish to defend unity by
denying diversity, thus humiliating the gifts with which God continues to keep
His Church young and beautiful".
 "In relation to these temptations, ecclesial experience is the most effective
antidote. It emanates from the sole Eucharist, whose cohesive strength
generates fraternity, the ability to accept, forgive and walk together". The
Holy Father urged the bishops to love people and communities with generous and
total dedication" and to trust that "the holy people of God has the pulse to
find the right roads. Accompany with breadth the growth of lay c
responsibility. ... With their insight and help, you will be able to avoid
remaining attached to a pastoral of conversation - indeed, generic, dispersed,
fragmented and of limited influence - and will instead adopt a form of
pastoral care that focuses on the essential".
 In relation to the third point, "Pastors of a Church that anticipates and
promises the Kingdom", he commented that "serving the Kingdom means living a
life decentred from oneself, striving for the encounter that is the path for
truly rediscovering what we are: proclaimers of the truth of Christ and His
mercy. ... With this clarity, brothers, may your proclamation be cadenced by
the eloquence of gestures. ... And, among the 'places' in which your presence
seems to me to be most necessary and meaningful ... there is, first and
foremost, the family. Nowadays, the domestic community is strongly penalised
by a culture that privileges individual rights and transmits a logic of the
temporary. Promote the life of the unborn child as well as that of the
elderly. ... And do not forget to tend, with the compassion of the Samaritan,
to those who are emotionally wounded and whose plans for life are compromised".
 Another space that the bishops must not desert is the "waiting room crowded
with the unemployed ... where the drama of those who do not know how to bring
bread home to the table encounters that of those who are not able to keep
their businesses afloat. It is an historic emergency, that appeals to the
social responsibility of all: as Church, let us not give in to catastrophism
and resignation, instead supporting with every form of creative solidarity the
efforts of those who, without work, feel deprived even of their dignity. ...
Finally, there is the welcoming embrace to migrants: they flee intolerance,
persecution, a bleak future. May no-one turn their gaze away! ... And, more
generally, in the difficult situations that so many of our contemporaries, may
they find you attentive and participatory, ready to re-examine the current
model of development that exploits creation, sacrifices people at the altar of
profit and creates new forms of marginalisation and exclusion".
 "Reach out towards whoever asks to reason for the hope that is in you;
welcome their culture, offer them respectfully the memory of faith and the
company of the Church, the signs of brotherhood, gratitude and solidarity,
that anticipate in man's days the reflections of a Sunday without end".

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 THE POPE PROFOUNDLY SADDENED BY TRAFFIC ACCIDENT IN FUNDACION, COLOMBIA
 Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin
today sent a telegram on behalf of the Pope to Bishop Ugo Eugenio Puccini
Banfi of Santa Marta, Colombia, for the serious accident which occurred on
Sunday in Fundacion, in which 33 young children lost their lives, burned
inside a bus.
 The Pope, "profoundly saddened, expresses his closeness and affection to all
those affected by this regrettable event", and "offers fervent prayers to God
for the eternal repose of the souls of the departed. United with those who
weep for this tragedy, he wishes to convey his heartfelt condolences to the
relatives of the deceased and his consolation to the survivors, along with his
hope that they make a swift and full recovery".

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 CELEBRATE THE WORLD CUP 2014 FOR A DIGNIFIED LIFE FOR ALL
 Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - This morning a press conference was held in
the Holy See Press Office to present the Talitha Kum International Network of
Consecrated Life against Human Trafficking campaign for the Brazil World Cup
2014: "Play for life, against trafficking". The speakers were Cardinal Joao
Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life
and Societies of Apostolic Life, Kenneth Francis Hackett, the United States'
ambassador to the Holy See, Sister Carmen Sammut, MSOLA, president of the
International Union of Superior Generals, Sister Estrella Castalone, F.M.A.,
coordinator of Talitha Kum, and Sister Gabriella Bottani, M.C.C.J.,
coordinator of the network Um Grito pela Vida, Brazil.
 "This campaign shows the between consecrated life and the sentiments of our
Holy Father regarding this crime, that he himself has defined as a wound on
the body of contemporary humanity, a wound in Christ's flesh", said Cardinal
Braz de Aviz. Sister Carmen Sammut emphasised that unfortunately "this crime
is present everywhere, for the profits from it are enormous. Prevention of
this type of human trafficking entails reducing the demands for sexual
services. In order for this to happen, public opinion needs to be alerted".
 Recalling the Holy Father's remark that it is impossible to remain
indifferent in the knowledge that there are human beings trafficked like
goods, Sister Gabriella Bottani pointed out that, according to official
statistics, this serious crime affects around 21 million people around the
world and that, with a better understanding of the phenomenon and its causes,
methods of encouraging it to be reported to the authorities can be found. "We
must forcefully combat the code of silence and fear surrounding this serious
violation of human dignity". The message of this campaign is a concrete and
positive proposal for life: "A dignified and free life for all". It is hoped
that the World Cup in Brazil may offer a positive space for the promotion of
the culture of rights and life, denouncing all forms of exploitation that
devalue and reduce it to the status of a commodity and raising awareness among
populations regarding the possible risks and how to intervene by reporting
transgressions to the authorities.

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 OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
 Vatican City, 20 May 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Ralph
Heskett, C.S.S.R., of Gibraltar, Great Britain, as bishop of Hallam (area
1,030, population 1,569,000, Catholics 60,188, priests 61, permanent deacons
14, religious 56), England. He succeeds Bishop John Anthony Rawsthorne, whose
resignation from the same diocese, upon reaching the age limit, was accepted
by the Holy Father.

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