VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE
YEAR XXII - # 187
DATE 27-10-2014

Summary:
- Audience with the President of Uganda: peaceful co-existence between social
and religious groups
- Francis in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences emphasises the responsibility
of humanity in creation
- Angelus: love is the measure of faith
- Pope's message to participants in the congress "In precariousness, hope"
- Cardinal Parolin: the obstacles to development derive from a distorted
vision of the human being and economic activity
- Audiences
- Other Pontifical Acts

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 Audience with the President of Uganda: peaceful co-existence between social
and religious groups
 Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) - Today the Holy Father Francis received
in audience in the Vatican Apostolic Palace the president of the Republic of
Uganda, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, 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 focused on certain aspects of
life in the country and the good relations existing between the Holy See and
the Republic of Uganda were highlighted, with particular reference to the
fundamental contribution of the Catholic Church and her collaboration with
institutions in the educational, social and healthcare sectors. Furthermore,
the importance of peaceful co-existence between the various social and
religious components of the country was underlined.
 Finally, mention was made of various questions of an international nature,
with special attention to the conflicts affecting certain areas of Africa.

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 Francis in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences emphasises the responsibility
of humanity in creation
 Vatican City, 27 October 2014 (VIS) - This morning the Holy Father attended
the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences held in the Casina
Pio IV, during which he inaugurated a bust of Pope emeritus Benedict XVI, whom
he described as "a great Pope. Great for the strength and penetration of his
intelligence, great for his important contribution to theology, great for his
love of the Church and of human beings, great for his virtue and religiosity".
He recalled that Benedict XVI was the first to invite a president of this
Academy to participate in the Synod on new evangelisation, "aware of the
importance of science in modern culture".
 Pope Francis chose not to focus on the complex issue of the evolution of
nature, the theme the Academy will consider during this session, emphasising
however that "God and Christ walk with us and are also present in nature".
"When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining God as a
magus, with a magic wand able to make everything. But it is not so. He created
beings and allowed them to develop according to the internal laws that He gave
to each one, so that they were able to develop and to arrive and their
fullness of being. He gave autonomy to the beings of the Universe at the same
time at which he assured them of his continuous presence, giving being to
every reality. And so creation continued for centuries and centuries,
millennia and millennia, until it became which we know today, precisely
because God is not a demiurge or a conjurer, but the Creator who gives being
to all things. The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes
its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates
out of love. The Big Bang, which nowadays is posited as the origin of the
world, does not contradict the divine act of creating, but rather requires it.
The evolution of nature does not contrast with the notion of Creation, as
evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve".
 He continued, "With regard to man, instead, there is a change and something
new. When, on the sixth day of the account in Genesis, man is created, God
gives the human being another autonomy, an autonomy that is different to that
of nature, which is freedom. And he tells man to name everything and to go
ahead through history. This makes him responsible for creation, so that he
might dominate it in order to develop it until the end of time. Therefore the
scientist, and above all the Christian scientist, must adopt the approach of
posing questions regarding the future of humanity and of the earth, and, of
being free and responsible, helping to prepare it and preserve it, to
eliminate risks to the environment of both a natural and human nature. But, at
the same time, the scientist must be motivated by the confidence that nature
hides, in her evolutionary mechanisms, potentialities for intelligence and
freedom to discover and realise, to achieve the development that is in the
plan of the Creator. So, while limited, the action of humanity is part of
God's power and is able to build a world suited to his dual corporal and
spiritual life; to build a human world for all human beings and not for a
group or a class of privileged persons. This hope and trust in God, the
Creator of nature, and in the capacity of the human spirit can offer the
researcher a new energy and profound serenity. But it is also true that the
action of humanity - when freedom becomes autonomy - which is not freedom, but
autonomy - destroys creation and man takes the place of the Creator. And this
is the grave sin against God the Creator", he concluded.

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 Angelus: love is the measure of faith
 Vatican City, 26 October 2014 (VIS) - More than eighty thousand people prayed
the Angelus with Pope Francis in St. Peter's Square this Sunday. Before the
Marian prayer the Holy Father commented on today's Gospel reading, in which he
reiterated that all of the divine Law may be summarised in love for God and
neighbour: two sides of the same coin.
 Pope Francis explained that according to the evangelist Matthew, some
Pharisees agreed to put Jesus to the test by asking him which commandment was
the most important in the Law. Jesus, citing the book of Deuteronomy,
answered: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your
soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment". "He
could have stopped there", said the bishop of Rome. "Instead, Jesus adds
something else that was not asked by the expert of the Law. Indeed, he said:
'And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself'. Even this second
commandment is not invented by Jesus, but rather taken from the Book of
Leviticus. Its newness consists precisely in putting together these two
commandments - the love for God and love for one's neighbour - revealing that
they are inseparable and complementary, they are two sides of the same coin.
You cannot love God without loving your neighbour and you can't love your
neighbour without loving God".
 Indeed, "the visible sign that a Christian can show to give witness to the
world ... of the love of God is the love of his brethren. The commandment of
love for God and one's neighbour is the first not because it is the first in
the list of commandment. Jesus does not place it at the top, but rather at the
centre since it is the heart from which everything must begin and to which
everything must return and refer to. ... In the light of Jesus' words, love is
the measure of faith, and faith is the soul of love. We can never separate
religious life from the service of the brothers and sisters, to those real
brethren we meet. We can never divide prayer, the encounter with God in the
Sacraments, from listening to others, from closeness to their lives and
especially to their wounds".
 "In the midst of the dense forest of precepts and prescriptions - the
legalisms of yesterday and today - Jesus opens up a gap through which we can
glimpse two faces: the face of the Father and that of the brother. He does not
give us two rules or two precepts: he gives us two faces. Or rather, it is one
face: that of God that is reflected in the faces of so many, because in the
face of every brother and sister, especially the least, the fragile, the
helpless and the needy, the very image of God is present".

--- MPost/386 v1.21
 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)