"Your witness, as athletes", he exclaimed, "is a great sign of hope. It is
the proof that in every person there is potential that at times we do not
imagine, and that may develop with trust and solidarity. God the Father is the
first to know this! He knows us better than any other, and He looks upon us
with trust, He loves us as we are, but he enables us to grow according to what
we are able to become. In this way, in your efforts for sport without
barriers, for a world without exclusion, you are never alone" God our Father
is with you!".
 "May sport therefore be for you a place where you are able to train every
day, in relation to yourselves and others, a gymnasium that offers you the
chance to get to know new people and environments and that helps you to be an
active part of society".

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 Christians in the Middle East: the Church cannot remain silent before the
persecution of her children
 Vatican City, 4 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Pauline Chapel
Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin celebrated Holy Mass for the papal
representatives in the Middle East at the end of the meeting convoked at the
behest of the Holy Father, dedicated to the situation faced by Christians in
the region. Extensive extracts from his homily are published below:
 "Today we celebrate this Holy Eucharist with concern for what is happening in
various countries in the Middle East. We are profoundly troubled to see the
growing threats to peace and disturbed by the conditions in which Christian
communities live in the territories from Syria to Iraq, controlled by an
entity that disregards rights and adopts terrorist methods to increase its
power".
 "Such communities, which inhabit these lands since apostolic times, therefore
find themselves facing situations of grave danger and open persecution, and
are frequently forced to abandon everything and flee from their homes and
their country. It is sad to note how persistent and active the forces of evil
are, and how in some corrupt minds the conviction has taken hold that violence
and terror are methods that can be used to impose one's will for power over
others, under the pretext of affirming a specific religious concept. It is
clearly a perversion of authentic religious meaning, with dramatic results and
to which it is necessary to respond. The Church cannot remain silent before
the persecution of her sons and daughters, and the international community
cannot remain neutral between victims and the aggressor".
 "'Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge'. Thus the psalmist prays. He,
who was no stranger to difficulty and violent adversaries, confidently turns
to the Lord. The wicked and their machinations do not frighten him, because
his life is in the Lord's hands. He knows that his true strength and safety is
the Lord Who gives him peace and joy and Who prepares a definitive and joyful
future. ... It is the joy of every faithful Christian who knows that History
is led by Providence and that the forces of evil shall not prevail".
 "This certainty that we rejoice in, far from leaving us as idle or inert
spectators, encourages us as individuals and as a Christian community, as
Church, in constant and trusting prayer and urges us to put into effect all
those concrete initiatives that help influence governments and public opinion.
Nothing must be neglected that it may be possible to do to alleviate the
suffering of our brethren in need and to stop the aggressors. Providence
wishes also to make use of us, of our freedom and our industriousness, our
initiative and our daily efforts".
 "Persecuted Christians and all those who suffer unjustly must be able to
recognise that the Church is the institution that defends them, that prays and
acts for them, that is not afraid of stating the truth, becoming the word for
those without a voice, defence and support for those who are abandoned, who
seek refuge, who are discriminated against. Indeed, everything depends on God
and His Grace, but it is necessary to act as if it all depended on us, on our
prayer and our solidarity".

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 In brief
 Vatican City, 4 October 2014 (VIS) - THE HOLY FATHER HAS SENT A VIDEO MESSAGE
to the International Centre of the Focolare Movement in Loppiano, Italy, on
the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation by Chiara Lubich. The Pope remarked
that Loppiano "inspired by the Gospel of fraternity ... lives in the service
of the Church and the world", and offers a "living and effective witness of
communion among persons of different nations, cultures and vocations" and
maintaining, above all, mutual and continual charity in everyday life.
 NO MORE WAR OR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, affirm the papal representatives in
the Middle East at the end of their meeting in the Vatican from 2 to 4
October, during which they discussed the situation faced by Christians in the
region. They expressed their serious concerns regarding the actions of various
extremist groups, in particular the "Islamic State", before whose violence and
abuses it is impossible to remain indifferent. The international community
cannot remain inert, they remarked, when faced with massacres carried out on
the pretext of religious belief or ethnic origin or the exodus of thousands of
people and the destruction of their places of worship. The participants in the
meeting emphasised that it is acceptable to stop an unjust aggressor, always
with respect for international law. However, the problem cannot be entrusted
solely to the usual military response, but must be faced in more depth,
starting from the root causes that are exploited by fundamentalist ideology.
An important role can be played by religious leaders, Christian and Muslim,
collaborating to promote dialogue and education in mutual understanding, and
clearly denouncing the abuse of religion to justify violence. Faced with the
crisis of so many people forced to leave their homes in a brutal fashion, the
participants highlighted the need to recognise the rights of Christians and
other ethnic and religious groups to be able to remain in their homelands and,
should it be necessary for them to leave, to return in suitable conditions of
safety, with the possibility of living and working in freedom and with
prospects for the future. In the current circumstances this requires
commitment on the part of the governments involved and the international
community as a whole. Finally, they stressed that we cannot resign ourselves
to imagining a Middle East without Christians, who for two thousand years have
confessed the name of Jesus Christ there.

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 Audiences
 Vatican City, 4 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father received
the following in separate audiences:
 - Cardinal Marc Ouellet, P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops;
 - Archbishop Joseph Edward Kurtz of Louisville, U.S.A., president of the
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, with Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo,
archbishop of Galveston-Houston, deputy president, Msgr. Ronny E. Jenkins,
secretary general and J. Brian Bransfield, adjunct secretary general;
 - Archbishop Wojciech Zaluski, apostolic nuncio in Burundi;
 - Msgr. Paolo Rudelli, special envoy and Holy See Permanent Observer at the
Council of Europe in Strasbourg.

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 Other Pontifical Acts
 Vatican City, 6 October 2014 (VIS) - The Holy Father has:
 On Saturday, 4 October the Holy Father: - accepted the resignation from the
pastoral care of the diocese of Arundel and Brighton, England, presented by
Bishop Kieran Conry, in accordance with canon 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon
Law.
 - appointed Fr. Stane Zore, O.F.M., as metropolitan archbishop of Ljubljana
(area 6,134, population 776,336, Catholics 554,417, priests 428, permanent
deacons 221, religious 546), Slovenia. The bishop-elect was born in Sel Pri
Kamniku, Slovenia in 1958, gave his solemn vows in 1984, and was ordained a
priest in 1985. He has served in a number of roles, including parish priest,
rector of the national Shrines of Brezje and Sveta Gora, guardian in various
fraternities, master of novices, and provincial minister of the province of
the Holy Cross in Slovenia. He is currently provincial minister of his order
and president of the Conference of Men and Women Religious in Slovenia (KORUS).

___________________________________________________________

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