VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXIV - # 184
DATE 23-10-2014

Summary:
- Audience with Prime Minister of Grenada: Catholic Churh's Crontribution in
Responding to Challenges Facing the Country
- Pope to Association of Penal Law: Corruption is Greater Evil than Sin
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Audience with Prime Minister of Grenada: Catholic Churh's Crontribution in
Responding to Challenges Facing the Country
Vatican City, 23 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning in the Vatican Apostolic
Palace, the Holy Father received the Prime Minister of Grenada, Keith
Mitchell, who subsequently met with Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro
Parolin, accompanied by Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations
with States.
In the course of the cordial conversations, the parties focused on the good
relations existing between the Holy See and Grenada, as well as the important
contribution made by the Catholic Church in the educational, social, and
charitable spheres, to meet the challenges of the country, especially with
regard to youth. In this regard, the need for cooperation between all of the
social services, in order to promote the common good and the development of
the country, was affirmed.

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 Pope to Association of Penal Law: Corruption is Greater Evil than Sin
Vatican City, 23 October 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received
delegates from the International Association of Penal Law (AIDP), addressing
them with a speech focusing on the issues in their subject area that have
recourse to the Church in her mission of evangelization and the promotion of
the human person.
The Pope began by recalling the need for legal and political methods that are
not characterized by the mythological ?scapegoat? logic, that is, of an
individual unjustly accused of the misfortunes that befall a community and
then chosen to be sacrificed. It is also necessary to refute the belief that
legal sanctions carry benefit, which requires the implementation of inclusive
economic and social policies. He reiterated the primacy of the life and
dignity of the human person, reaffirming the absolute condemnation of the
death penalty, the use of which isrejected by Christians. In this context he
also talked about the so-called extrajudicial executions, that is, the
deliberated killing of individuals by some states or their agents that are
presented as the unintended consequence of the reasonable, necessary, and
proportionate use of force to implement the law. He emphasized that the death
penalty is used in totalitarian regimes as ?an instrument of suppression of
political dissent or of persecution of religious or cultural minorities?.
He then spoke of the conditions of prisoners, including prisoners who have not
been convicted and those convicted without a trial, stating that pretrial
detention, when used improperly, is another modern form of unlawful punishment
that is hidden behind legality. He also referred to the deplorable prison
condition in much of the world, sometimes due to lack of infrastructure while
other instances are the result of ?the arbitrary exercise of ruthless power
over detainees?.Pope Francis also spoke about torture and other inhuman and
degrading treatment, stating that, in the world today, torture is used not
only as a means to achieve a particular purpose, such as a confession or an
accusation?practices that are characteristic of a doctrine of national
security?but also adds to the evil of detention. Criminal code itself bears
responsibility for having allowed, in certain cases, the legitimacy of torture
under certain conditions, opening the way for further abuse.
The Pope did not forget the application of criminal sanctions against children
and the elderly, condemning its use in both cases. He also recalled some forms
of crime that seriously damage the dignity of the human person as well as the
common good, including human trafficking, slavery?recognized as a crime
against humanity as well as a war crime in both international law and under
many nations? laws?the abject poverty in which more than a billion people
live, andcorruption. ?The scandalous accumulation of global wealth is possible
because of the connivance of those with strong powers who are responsible for
public affairs. Corruption is a process of death ? more evil than sin. An evil
that, instead of being forgiven, must be cured.?
?Caution in the application of penal codes,? he concluded, ?must be the
overarching principle of legal systems ? and respect for human dignity must
not only act to limit the arbitrariness and excesses of government agents but
as the guiding criterion for prosecuting and punishing behaviors that
represent the most serious attacks on the dignity and integrity of the human
person.?

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 Audiences
Vatican City, 23 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning, the Holy Father received
in separate audiences:
- Archbishop Luigi Ventura, apostolic nuncio to France,
- Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation
of Peoples,
- Bishop Nunzio Galantino, secretary general of the Italian Episcopal
Conference.

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 Other Pontifical Acts
Vatican City, 23 October 2014 (VIS) - Today, the Holy Father appointed Abbot
Donato Ogliari, O.S.B., as abbot of the territorial abbey of Montecassino,
Italy. He formerly served as abbot of the Santa Maria della Scala Monastery in
Noci, Italy. The Holy Father has, at the same time, applied the Motu Proprio
?Ecclesia Catholica? to the Abbey of Montecassino with a subsequent reduction
of its territory, providing that: the territory on which stand the Abbey
Church and Monastery belongs to the new territorial configuration of the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction ?Territorial Abbey of Montecassino?, effective
immediately. The 53 parishes with their faithful, secular and religious
clergy, religious communities, and semiarians pass to the pastoral care of the
Diocese of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, which will now be named Sora-
assino-Aquino-Pontecorvo.

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